Let me just get this out there, mobile versions of websites frustrate me.

As someone who regularly views websites on either his iPhone or iPad, I’m used to browsing the web on the go. And I really like it, I like the ability to have the internet in my pocket. But I find it frustrating when I come across this.

Mobile Version of ProBlogger.net

6.4% of all internet usage is now on a mobile device (via Net Market Share), which may not seem like a lot at the moment. But some people are predicting that by 2015, mobile web usage will outweigh computer web usage (via Mashable).

A lot of websites are taking this to mean that they should care about mobile websites, which I whole-heartedly agree with. What I don’t agree with is their method of doing so.

Most websites think that the best way to appeal to mobile web users is to create a separate look for their website, just for mobile users, such as the above skin that many WordPress based blogs sport.

However mobile devices these days come with large touch-screen displays, that have the ability to display full webpages. When I’m browsing, I want to see the whole website, not some cut down version. For example, look at all that I’m missing out on from ProBlogger.net.

I would much prefer for this whole site to come up when I view it on my iPhone.

So I’ve disagreed with the current method of making a mobile “skin” for your website, a cut down version for mobile browsers. But what do I think the solution is?

Solution

Create the website from the ground up with mobile in mind.

I think that people need to stop thinking about creating a mobile friendly cover for their websites, they need to think about creating mobile friendly websites.

Mobile devices are very capable, and technologies (such as HTML5) exist that allow mobile friendly sites to have most of the features available to regular sites.

With mobile web expanding as it is, people should no longer think of mobile web as an addition, they should think of mobile as the web.

That’s just my 2 cents on mobile websites. For the time being any website that I create will be mobile friendly (to the best of my ability), and I’ll keep reading websites that I like even if they have a mobile skin that I have to turn off.

What do you think about mobile skins for websites, do you like them or dislike them?

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I’ve been interested in writing an eBook for a while, but I’ve never known the right tools to use. I’ve thought about using Keynote, and exporting as a PDF, and I’ve thought about using Pages, and exporting as an epub file. But neither of those seemed to allow for easy integration of interactive features. Then came iBooks Author.

iBooks Author is a free program for Mac (available on the Mac App Store) that allows for easy creation of interactive books for iPad. The program is really easy to use, especially if you’ve had experience with Apple’s iWork suite of apps. The program is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor and not only allows for easy manipulation of text and graphics, but videos and animations too! Watch this video to find out more.

The downside to iBooks Author is that it’s creations can only be viewed on an iPad, and if you want to sell your creation, then you must go through the iBookstore. Now for an Australian this is an absolute pain. If I wanted to sell something myself (i.e. not through an aggregator or publisher), then I would need to get a US tax ID. To get a US tax ID I would need to physically mail paperwork to the US and work out quite complex international taxation laws. I would also need an ISBN for every book that I sold. Quite complicated compared to the simple process of selling something from my own website.

In the end, instead of creating something that I would sell, I decided to make something I would give away for free. This way I could still put it on the iBookstore, without having to worry about all the complicated stuff.

The final creation is the iBook pictured above, “The How and Why of Video Countdowns”. It’s a compilation of rewritten blog posts combined with some original videos and animations. It’s written to help people think through why they are using video countdowns, and how they can best use them. At the end, there is also a tutorial to help someone create their own video countdown.

If you would like to download the iBook, search for it on the iBookstore or click here. You can also learn more about it via the link below (Also click the link below if you don’t have an iPad and would like to download a PDF version).

~The How and Why of Video Countdowns~

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I wanted to share this with you all incase you wanted something similar to share with kids trying to understand how to read the Bible. I know that if I didn’t understand what those numbers meant, it would be pretty confusing.

Please feel free to use this as you want, and share it with anyone who might find it helpful.

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. “What’s In The Bible?” Answers Tricky Questions
2. 9 Dramatic Youth Group Games To Enhance Bible Teaching
3. Reading the Bible Out Loud is Hard

Vistaprint [affiliate link] recently had a deal for $75 worth of stuff for $15. I’ve always thought that printing some business cards would be kinda fun, so I latched onto the deal. I didn’t know who I would give business cards out to, but I thought that it would at least be a bit of fun.

When I went to their website to figure out what I’d get, I also noticed that they had tons of other cool stuff like custom stamps! So my mind changed from business cards to custom stamps (for when I’m a teacher). So I got my creative juices flowing and started designing a stamp. I was happy with my finalised design, and I had more of my $75 dollars left than I had expected, so I designed some business cards as well (When I placed my order, Vistaprint had a sale. So in addition to using the voucher, I also had a number of other discounts applied to my such as free uploaded designs. This meant I got tons of stuff for my $15!).

A very exciting end to this story is that I received the shipment today (11 days early) and I really wanted to show off the cool stuff that I got. To begin with, here is the stamp that I created.

I was so happy with my first order that when Vistaprint did the same promotion last week, I spent another $15 to get $75 dollars worth of stuff. But I’m waiting for that order to arrive.

If you’re a teacher then I’d definitely recommend them to make a custom stamp for you (you need to design the stamp, they just print it)! And if you’re not a teacher, well, I guess you can have a stamp too if you want. Or you could get any number of different things from them. Below the break I’ve put a few pictures of the other things that I ordered as well as some brief explanations about them.

These are the business cards that I had made (I’ve blacked out personal details that I don’t want online). The back is a QR code which people can scan and automatically download my contact details onto their phone.

This is another stamp that I had made. It’s was actually free (apart from postage), I customised the text but the star was a stock image that they had on the site.

I also had some cards made for FreeHDCountdowns.com (another website I run). Again, I’m not sure what I’ll do with these cards, but they were a bit of fun to design. The QR code sends you to the website.

This is a desk business card holder.

Vistaprint also offers to make free business cards. I already had business cards so just decided to make some time out cards. They look pretty cool and I got 250 of them for free, but they do have a little bit of Vistaprint advertising on the back.

More than anything it was a whole heap of fun. I really enjoyed designing everything, and in itself the stamps are worth $15, so everything is a bonus really! If you’re ever in the market for business cards or custom stamps, definitely check out Vistaprint [affiliate link].

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. Connect Card Animation

The project was based on a survey of 31 people. All the participants remained anonymous and gave permission for their answers to be used. The 31 people may or may not be Christian, but I would assume that most of them are as the majority of participants were people in my circle of friends or friends of friends. You can view a selection of the responses in the project itself, but for interests sake I thought I would publish all of the answers given.

These are the answers to the fourth and final question, What is one word you would use to describe Church?

• Christ
• Jesus
• God
• fellowship
• hope
• Heavenly.
• Jesus
• Jesus
• God
• relationship-centred

Continue reading below the break for the rest of the responses.

• Community
• Grace
• Love
• Spirit-ual
• Bride.
• Family.
• Redeemed
• community
• Christ
• Sustaining
• Fellowship
• Family
• Love
• Living
• Family
• peaceful
• Fellowship
• Family
• Family

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. “Church Is” Survey Results Q2: What do you like about Church?
2. “Church Is” Survey Results Q1: What is Church?
3. “Church Is” Survey Results Q3: What don’t you like about Church?

On the website you are able to watch any of the videos for free, and view resources that can be used to plan lessons around the videos. There are 24 stories available which add to a total of 3.5 hours of videos! And these are quality stories, including The Rainbow Fish, Stellaluna and The Polar Express. All read by (somewhat) well know actors including Elijah Wood, Hector Elizondo and Hayley Duff.

All of the stories are read expressively and clearly, and accompanied not only by animated pictures from the books, but also by text so that you can read along as you watch them.

As a teacher, I can say that this website has been a great way to constantly and easily expose my students to the quality reading of quality literature. And I’m sure that it would be great for parents, as it is yet another source of educational entertainment.

Definitely worth checking out.

Below is an example of one of the videos. Hope you find the site to be a helpful resource!

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. AMAZING Video Resource for Sunday School
2. Public vs Private #7 | Other Teachers
3. Another Video Resource for Sunday School

You can read more about the three weeks of serving advertising here.

This video was shown during Public Meetings

These videos were embedded on the EU’s Facebook Page for people to watch if they wanted to find out more about how the 3 people interviewed served.

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. How Will God Use You? At Your Church
2. How Will God Use You? In Your Holidays
3. EU Advertising: How Will God Use You?

You can read more about the three weeks of serving advertising here.

This video was shown during Public Meetings

These videos were embedded on the EU’s Facebook Page for people to watch if they wanted to find out more about how the 3 people interviewed served.

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. How Will God Use You? In The EU
2. How Will God Use You? In Your Holidays
3. EU Advertising: How Will God Use You?

Incase you haven’t noticed, I really like video countdowns and I reckon they’re great. But far too often I’ve seen people use them badly. Number 1 mistake, having a video countdown that leads into someone speaking. This just doesn’t live up to the anticipation. Anyway, here are the 4 tips I gave.

1. Make sure the stage is clear
2. Use music
3. Start with a bang
4. Embed in the presentation

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. Guest Posts At ChurchMag About Video Countdowns
2. Gary’s Social Media Counter
3. Lessons From An Amazing Social Media Campaign

You can read more about the three weeks of serving advertising here.

This video was shown during Public Meetings

These videos were embedded on the EU’s Facebook Page for people to watch if they wanted to find out more about how the 3 people interviewed served.

Related posts from calumhenderson.com:

1. How Will God Use You? At Your Church
2. How Will God Use You? In The EU
3. EU Advertising: How Will God Use You?