Monthly Archives: November 2013

Google Glass – The Future of Mobility

Posted on November 29, 2013

google glass future of mobilityThe new Google Glass has opened up a world of infinite possibilities. With a Google Glass you can achieve the impossible by just saying a few words. You can take a picture, record a video, share what you see, get directions, send a message, translate a voice or ask whatever is on your mind. The best part of using the strong, light and modularly designed Glass is that you can achieve all of the above tasks hands-free!

Popular apps on Google Glass include Strava, which helps you track your rides and visualize your progress. Word Lens which lets you translate printed words from one language to another, in real time. GolfSight which gives you accurate pin distance, course data, and scoring information and Soundscape which is a great app for budding music artists.

Notable Glass apps such as Pristine Eyesight, from Pristine in Austin is a boon for surgeons to stream videos to remote experts, who might be in a different room or even across the world. This way, doctors or nurses can quickly consults with their peers. Pro Populi has come out with an innovative People+ application that enables you to follow companies or people on the go. When you are about to walk up to someone you haven’t seen in a while or don’t know too well, People+ will allow you to quickly review a profile right from your Google Glass.

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How to Edit Your Real Estate Video Tour for Length

Posted on November 29, 2013

One thing that people struggle with as they begin using real estate video tours is keeping it within the appropriate length. Keeping the intro as concise as possible, and that’s good advice, because Internet users infamously have very short attention spans. Even on real estate websites that have a much longer average visit than the norm, people can quickly lose focus and give up on a video if it doesn’t jump right into what they are looking for, which is a video tour of the home.

As a result, you should limit an introduction to about 10 to 15 seconds at the most. Ideally, the introduction will be done with the agent on camera and in front of or in the home. This makes it less likely that the viewer will be lost, as they will be getting a look at the home even in the introduction. From there, it’s still important to keep the video brief. Think about how rarely you watch an Internet video that is more than a couple of minutes long.

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How to Beat Virtual Tours with a Real Estate Video Tour

Posted on November 27, 2013

Sometimes real estate agents and real estate professionals notice that their competition is using virtual tours, while they’re still only using pictures. The good news is, you can actually leap frog the competition by jumping right up to real estate video tours. The newest trend in online listings of real estate involves video tours, which have a lot of built in advantages over virtual tours.

Making the Comparison in the Real World
In some ways it is difficult to compare real estate video tours in general, because there is such a wide variety of quality in video tours. This is why it is important to work with someone who has the experience, equipment and ability to make high quality real estate video tours. There are a lot of factors to consider, such as lighting, camera stability, camera quality and editing. In addition, you want to work with someone who has the desire and ability to plan the video well, tapping into skills such as production and directing.

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Forget the Real Estate Video Tour Walk and Talk

Posted on November 25, 2013

The most common form of a real estate video tour isn’t the best one, as it turns out. Too many people fall back on something too simple, which is a walk and talk tour of the home. While that works in person, there are a number of issues with it in video form, some of which are addressed below:

Camera Stability
In person, your mind naturally stabilizes your view as you walk and take uneven steps. When you’re sitting stationary watching a video, this same effect is not at play. As a result, video shot with a moving, shaking camera can be very unsettling to watch. It can make some users feel like their head is spinning, or even make them feel sick to the stomach. Obviously you want to avoid this.

While a professional cameraperson who is used to shooting video on the move may be able to hold the camera steady, it’s not easy to do for a newcomer, especially with a hand held camera. As a result, it’s a good idea to avoid using the walk and talk in a real estate video tour.

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Five Real Estate Image Enhancement Tips to Spruce Up a Listing

Posted on November 22, 2013

Once you get a potential buyer onto the page with a real estate listing, the most important element will be the images. While buyers may read a description, they’re going to pay a lot of attention to the images. It’s up to the photographer, the real estate agent and the editor to make sure that those images put the home in its best light and make it look attractive to potential buyers. That’s why real estate image processing is so important. The right techniques of image enhancement can make rooms look larger and brighter. Below mentioned real estate image enhancement tips can help you spruce up your real estate listing:

  1. Balance the Brightness and Darkness in the Photo – The first step is to use Photoshop’s Shadow/Highlight feature in order to adjust the darkest and brightest parts of the picture. You can adjust the sliders in order to make the brightest parts a little darker and the darkest parts a little brighter. This will naturally make the picture look a bit better, eliminating the extremes.
  2. Take Advantage of Automatic Features – You can use Photoshop’s features such as Auto Contrast and Auto Color in order to utilize the power of the software to detect what can be improved in the image. This is the easiest step of real estate image enhancement.
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Android Leads in the Mobile OS War with 81% of the World Smartphone Market!

Posted on November 22, 2013

Android leads in the mobile OS warThe Android operating system, owned by Google achieved a new milestone by accounting for 81.0% of all Smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2013 ((3Q13).  The IDCs (International Data Corporation) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker revealed that this was the first time that Android topped 81% of the Smartphone market, closely followed by Microsoft’s Windows Phone, which grew an amazing 156.0% in the last year. Even in spite of high saturation rates in a number of mature markets, the overall Smartphone space has grown by a whopping 39.9% in the third quarter of 2013.

The IDC study, released on 12th November revealed that a total of 261.1 million Smartphones were shipped during the third quarter of 2013, with 81% running on Google’s Android operating system. Among the leading Smartphone manufacturers that run Android on their mobile devices, Samsung achieved the highest market share, with their Galaxy S4 ruling 39% of all Android shipments made in the third quarter of this year.

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Don’t Over Crop Real Estate Images

Posted on November 20, 2013

One of the biggest mistakes that people make in real estate image editing is that they do too much cropping of some photos and not enough of others. People tend to cut down interior shots too much, making them too narrowly focused, giving it the wrong feel all together. On the other hand, exterior shots may not be cropped enough. This can have a very bad impact of making the home look smaller than it actually is. Some of the photos and techniques laid out by the realestatephotopro.com demonstrate what good real estate image editing can do for a listing.

Proper Interior Cropping
It is important for interior shots that your real estate image editing process does not involve cropping the photos too much. You want to show the entire room from a corner-to-corner angle, as this will make it appear bigger. That, of course, is one of the main goals of real estate photography. Sometimes people crop a photo down to only show the key elements of a room, such as the furniture. Sometimes they crop it down to cut out part of another room or a doorway, but in reality it is usually better to leave these elements in as they will make the room appear larger.

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Beat the Competition with Real Estate Image Editing

Posted on November 18, 2013

Earlier, all it took to beat other real estate listings was to use a few images in your listings. Back when most online real estate listings did not even use pictures, getting to the top of the heap was easy. For a period of time, listings only used a few pictures and just adding a bunch of pictures could get you more attention from perspective buyers. Unfortunately, those times are gone and it is now important that you use real estate image editing to beat the competition. In fact, in many cases you’ll only be keeping up with the competition by using real estate image editing.

According to photographyforrealestate.net, most potential buyers look at listings on major syndicated websites such as Realtor, Trulia and Zillow. These sites tend to allow a lot more photos than other listing services, plus they give potential homebuyers the option to sort the listings by the number of photos included. This puts that much more attention on the real estate images that you are using, which means that good real estate image editing is basically a necessity.

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10 Guidelines on How to Outsource your App Development

10 Guidelines on How to Outsource your App Development

Posted on November 15, 2013

Do you want a custom app for your business, but don’t have access to the right skills to pull it off in-house? Though there is no lack of app developers out there to help you, choosing the right developers can be a nerve-wrecking process, not to mention that getting work done from outside is not an easy task. Read on to find out more about what you can do to get the best possible output from your app development service provider.

  1. If you are on the lookout for a developer, don’t worry, there are a lot of options. You can take your pick from specialized outsourcing firms, freelancers and online app building services. You can post your requirement on Elance and even Google the term “software developer “along with your zip code and the name of your area. Remember to be specific when you are describing your requirement.
  2. Choose an app developer who is a skilled technician and knowledgeable about software engineering. An ideal developer should be able to understand the need of your business and guide you through the scoping out phase. He or she should then be able to clearly communicate about the project throughout the entire development process. Continue reading

Top 5 Outsourcing Destinations to Look Out For

Posted on November 8, 2013

It is a known fact that India tops the list of world’s favourite outsourcing destinations. Ample number of skilled resources, use of latest technology, time zone advantages and cost-effective services are just a few of the reasons for India’s popularity. But are other outsourcing locations far behind or are they catching up with India? Let’s look at the top five emerging outsourcing destinations and weigh their pros and cons:

1. Argentina

Argentina is seen by many companies as an ideal location for outsourcing. This nation has a large labor pool of English-speaking programmers and professionals who are highly educated and tech-savvy. Argentina also has a robust telecom network, diversified industrial base and ample office-space. The country’s cultural similarities with the West make it an attractive outsourcing location. The government of Argentina has not done much for the outsourcing sector in the last decade. The country has also suffered economic problems related to external debt, capital flight, inflation and budget deficits.

2. Bulgaria

Bulgaria is now becoming a competitive outsourcing provider, by rising above other outsourcing locations like the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland Russia, Hungary and the Ukraine. The country’s relatively low cost, strong education system, good production quality and cultural affinity with the West have made it a favorable location. Bulagarian developers are much sought after, as they are well-versed with C++, Java and open source. However, the cost of outsourcing to Bulgaria can be more costly when compared to outsourcing to Africa or the Middle East.

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