For businesses, media exposure is not the only advantage – with online Press Release distributors finding themselves the darling of the Search Engine Optimisation world. Submitting a press release containing a link to your site has a direct impact on search engine rankings thanks to Google et al’s dependence on links to determine relevance.

Below is a run-down of Custard Media’s favourite free press release distribution sites.

• PRFire.co.uk

You don’t get to Google number one for ‘free press release distribution’ without being good at what you do, and the best part is PR Fire doesn’t charge through the nose for publicity. The free service may not include links, but with free submission to Google News the exposure is there.

There’s also a fantastic range of paid services, from £50 all the way up to £999 for the very top service. PRFire offer to write a press release for you, and all the paid packages promote your press release to over 100 top news sites. Both the free and paid services are extremely reasonable.

• PRLog.org

This simple site allows HTML links in the body of the press release, ensuring the maximum SEO value for your site. In addition, the fully-optimised site has a pagerank of 6, so from a technical point of view it is amongst the best on the market.

PRLog even supports video press releases, fantastic from an audience point of view as it allows your content to stand out and be noticed. The site may look basic, but the success of the site shows that appearances aren’t everything.

• Free-Press-Release.com

Free-Press-Release.com is more aesthetically pleasing than many of the other sites, not that this is its major selling point. The ability to use specific fonts and download a PDF version are just two of a number of nice touches – and the structured pricing policy (ranging from FREE to $30 per press release) adds a nice element of flexibility.

The major drawback is that the free service doesn’t allow users to insert an active link to their site, so not the best for SEO purposes.

• 1888PressRelease.com

This Google News-listed site has an easy-to-use submission process that allows users to distribute a press release in minutes, an important factor in the fast-paced world of internet news. A pagerank of 5 means that articles containing links will pass some considerable link juice to your site.

The site itself is user-friendly and simple, while offering plenty of options – including an RSS feed and an iPhone app. Thanks to a team of editors manually reviewing content, the site remains relevant and trustworthy.

• 24-7PressReleases.com

While 24-7 offer a free press release service, they very much like to push their paid packages and therefore impose several limitations on free submissions. These include a restriction of one per day, and a no HTML policy means no links.

Prices start at $49 all the way up to $369 per press release for the top service, which includes priority positioning and exposure to thousands of journalists and websites – and with a pagerank of 5, the service is worth considering if you’re tempted to part with some cash.

• PressBox.co.uk

Nice and simple, PressBox is a pagerank 4 site that allows free submissions accompanied by a site URL rather than an anchor text-optimised link within the content itself. All well and good, but there are better options if you’re looking for one great SEO-friendly site to submit to.

PressBox boasts all the usual journalistic contacts and promises a good level of visibility. Paid releases cost £150 and come with a full distribution management service.

• ClickPress.com

For $7 per day per company ClickPress will handle the distribution of your press release within a global network and will handle as many releases as you can throw at them. Their free service is clogged up with Google ads however, making the experience of the site a very frustrating one for first-time visitors.

• PressMethod.com

A site with real plus and minus points. PressMethod will automatically optimise your release for maximum search engine impact, but won’t submit it to Google News, so users shouldn’t expect too much of a short-term gain.

While next-day distribution seems a little miserly on their part, press method do offer basic viewing statistics for your release with the free service, and anyone looking for extra services like manual SEO and increased distribution levels can opt for the paid services, which come with an increased contribution between $5 and $74.

• NewsWireToday.com

Not the easiest site to navigate, but a pagerank of 6 makes it worthwhile wading through the text-heavy homepage to submit your press release. Free basic inclusion doesn’t allow images and backlinks aren’t guaranteed – in fact this is decided on a random basis, confusingly.

Paid services allow all this and more and aren’t overly expensive, so if you don’t mind paying anything from $129 to $475 for the best exposure, NewsWireToday is a more than adequate resource.

• Free-Press-Release-Center.info

Another simple site with one major selling point – free press releases containing links with optimised anchor text. Despite lacking the exposure offered by the likes of PRFire, this site is ideal for budget press release distribution for the SEO-savvy marketing officer.

There is a paid upgrade – but for $2.99 and the promise of exposure on ‘Yabadabadoo’ it can’t compete with the Google News-listed sites.

The slim third generation had no circle buttons, or play button, in fact it had no buttons, as all the buttons where migrated to the ear bud cable. The current 4th generation combines the return of the buttons and in-line buttons with an extra one. iPod Shuffles have always been popular in the iPod range because of their size and the only reason any iPod Shuffle fan might upgrade to a Nano or Touch, is because of the lack of a screen, at a very basic level a screen allows the user to see and select the music they want to play instead of having to listen to a song because its next in the list or because it has been randomly selected.

The new additional button on the iPod Shuffle, unlocks way to change that, it uses VoiceOver to tell users what the track name is by literally reading it out. Simple, but effective. So, aside from the already new features added to the 4th generation, did the late September conference bring absolutely nothing new to the table? Well, no, not exactly, the “refresh” was all down to the colours with a new silver, slate, purple, pink, yellow, green and blue models and you can pick your favourite new iPod Shuffle colour to win in the Velvet Vault online bingo room at dream bingo. Based on the timeline, this is the longest we have gone without seeing a new Shuffle from Apple. Predictions are that the Shuffle won’t change again, others say that it will be phased out or replaced by the small sixth generation, square shaped iPod Nano which features a screen and shares the same clip as the Shuffle. This will be a case of wait and see.

Other factors that contribute to the importance of mobile web design are the following:

1.     User Experience

Browsing desktop website is losing its charm, especially after the increased popularity and usage of smartphones. Mobile websites have brought the new trend of web browsing. This leads to increased flexibility as well as user experience. Likewise, Broadband Expert shows the many different plans available for getting access to wireless internet.

2.     High Download Speed

Since mobile websites are designed to provide optimal speed in downloading, smartphone users have a lot to benefit from it. Now, they do not need to wait till the downloading finishes. With high download speed, it is much easier to browse different websites and download at the same time.

3.     User-Involvement

Mapping functions and various other features offer high-involvement for all those who use smartphones. This way, it is much easier for businesses to engage their existing and potential customers. The end-result is increased revenue due to an increased number of satisfied consumers.

4.     Improved SEO Performance

Website rankings are not limited to traditional methods such as desktop website search rankings. Search engines like Yahoo and Google offer high compatibility in terms of SEO performance through mobile websites. This way, mobile websites also provide improved rankings.

5.     Brand Identity

A mobile website of an organization creates an entirely different impact on its customers as it presents a contemporary and positive brand identity related to organizational success. The content specifically designed for the mobile website is sufficient enough to attract customers with a variety of deals offered by the company.

6.     Constant Connectivity

With an increased level of connectivity and portability, mobile users have the option to access the web from anywhere without any time constraints. This way, businesses can avail a new opportunity to connect with their potential customers. Once they have come up with their mobile web design, all they need to do is to devise new offerings for their target market.

7.     Competitive Advantage

Though all competing businesses have their own websites, those with mobile web design will more likely stand out from the others. Secondly, mobile websites also ensure that the attention of website visitors is captured the right way. This competitive advantage may result in winning more customers in the shortest period of time.

8.     QR Codes

QR codes have enabled mobile devices to eliminate the distance between online media and offline media. Secondly, QR codes provide convenience to consumers in the sense that they can scan them through their smartphone. Once this is done, they can compare different products to make a purchase.

Used in European and Japanese advertising for many years, QR codes are now increasingly used in the US today. This indicates that the advertisements, posters, brochures, and billboards of your company’s products can be accessible to your customers with the help of QR codes. This is possible if your company has mobile web presence.

9.     Increased Flexibility As Compared to App Development

App development is a challenging task for many businesses as it goes through a complicated as well as time-consuming process that includes various steps. However, mobile web design will not require a lot from you. Mobile website development is a cost-efficient and flexible way to reach your target audience without barriers. Broadband Expert is an option to access wireless internet.

10.                       New Opportunities for Advertising

Traditional ways of advertising have definitely restricted the way businesses communicate to their target audience. However, mobile websites are considered an interactive way of reaching potential customers. Similarly, you can come up with different advertising opportunities to create an edge for your business.

As more and more people finalize their purchase decisions by using their smartphones rather than personal computers, mobile website design has entered the corporate market. By coming up with a mobile website design for their own products and services, businesses can attract an increasing number of customers without the need for heavy investment.

Author’s Bio

D. Baxter is an IT expert and likes to share her knowledge about the latest trends in the IT industry. In this article, she educates her readers about the effectiveness of mobile web design in businesses. This way, she has focused her research on the importance of wireless internet. According to her recommendation Broadband Expert is among those companies that shows the best and different plans available for getting access to wireless internet.

2013 is now well underway, which means we can expect a whole host of new and exciting gadgets bursting their way on the market.

And as gadgets go, no company creates as much buzz as tech-giants Apple, the company that single-handedly changed the way we use technology.
So let’s take bite out of Apples big developments in the coming year.

Apple Radio

Step aside Spotify, because Apples entry onto the online radio market is going to make waves.
Big waves.
Discussions on this began in October of last year, with the first glimpses first released around March.
The free-radio service would make money through advertising, allowing consumers to browse all their favourite songs, artists and albums. And with Spotify coming under fire in recent years, including a very public spat with The Black Keys
, who famously refused to allow their album El Camino to be on the website, it seems music lovers may be using Apple by the end of the year.
Rest assured, it sounds like a very interesting concept.

could you be ditching Spotify for Apple Radio?

iPad Mini with Retina Display

The iPad is one of the best creations within 21st century technology and certainly the biggest ‘cash cow’ of all Apple products. And when the companies Retina Display was added to the concept, they virtually flew off the shelves.
When the iPad with Retina Display was released, 3 million of these were sold in a weekend in March 2012 alone, and by the end of the year, it was suggested by Digitimes that between 8-10 million had been purchased.
It’s widely expected that a mini version of the product will be released in March, considering the Ipad 2 was released March 2011 and the Retina Display in the same month last year.

Return of the Mac?

Another one of Apples most successful products and another that was given the Retina Display treatment in 2012.
The big change with this product is the development of the Mac Mini, that should be finished and completed for sale in 2013. On top of this, there is expected to be an improvement on the MacBookAir, especially where its battery is concerned.

So that’s what we think will be the big developments form the Californian giants, but only time will tell.
But what do you think? We’d love to know what bits of kit you’re looking forward to seeing this year

This article was written by Sam Rigby on behalf of MozBot.co.uk, the expert technology and gadget blog.

How much are websites being bought for and what kind of sites is being purchased? How many people are on the digital platform and what is its overall value? Find out all the answers to these questions and more.

Via: WebStarts

Size
One of the smallest Dell Laptops on the market, the Dell Latitude E6320 includes a 13.3 inch (33.8 centimeter) LCD screen and a backlit, full-size “chiclet” keyboard. The laptop itself is only a little larger than its screen, at 13.19 inches (33.5 cm) wide and 8.8 inches (22.33 cm) deep. This computer is just one inch (2.5 cm) thick and weighs in at 3.64 pounds (1.65 kilograms) with a 3-cell battery installed. Optional 6 and 9-cell batteries add to the battery life of this laptop computer, but increase its overall weight.

Durability
The E6320 offers many more durability-enhancing features than most other cheap laptops. For instance, this relatively cheap computer has a powder-coated metal base and a Tri-Metal casing that armors the whole machine. It also features reinforced steel hinges not often found on cheap computers, with a display backing made of anodized aluminum. The keyboard is made to resist spills and damp, while the extra-bright LCD display features a special seal to keep out moisture.

Vital Statistics
These ultra-portable laptop computers provide much more power than the cheapest laptops on the market, without weighing more. Buyers can choose from Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, with higher-quality processors increasing the price. These computers come with a choice of Windows Vista Home Basic, Business or Ultimate; Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate; or the Ubuntu Linux distribution. The newest E6320 computers for sale come only with Windows 7.

These laptops also offer up to 8 Gb of Dual Channel DDR3 memory running at 1333 MHz in two slots. Graphics processing is provided by an onboard Intel HD Graphics 3000 unit, while hard drive options include a 250 GB SATA hard drive at 5400 RPM, a 256 GB solid state hard drive or a 750 GB SATA hard drive at 7200 RPM.

Connectivity
Like most laptops for sale, Dell’s E6320 includes onboard Gigabit Ethernet, as well as a range of wireless connectivity options. These include Dell Wireless 1501 and 1530 and Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300, Advanced-N +WiMAX 6250 and Advanced-N 6205. Mobile broadband options are provided by Dell Wireless 5630 or 5550 mini cards. This computer also offers Bluetooth connectivity for wireless mice and other peripherals.

Power
This lightweight, rugged laptop uses either a 65 or 90 Watt AC adapter, with an optional 90 Watt DC adapter for use in vehicles or on airline flights. When an outlet is not available, users can rely on its backup battery for several hours of productive use.

Options include the standard 3-cell lithium-ion battery, which provides a special ExpressCharge feature to make powering up faster. ExpressCharge is also offered on a 6-cell battery. Users may also wish to choose a 3-cell E-modular Bay II battery, 6-cell battery without ExpressCharge but with a 3 year limited hardware warranty and a 9-cell extended life battery for long trips without reliable access to power.

Buying
Dell E6320 buyers who are interested in finding a cheap laptop for sale have a number of options. Many conventional electronics stores routinely have a laptop sale that can bring prices down. Online bargain stores can also offer good deals, but at some risk; they may not have a large number of computers in stock.

Consumers can also choose to buy the Dell Latitude E6320 laptop from official Dell partners such as ITC Sales, which can good prices and the guarantee that comes from partnering with the manufacturer. No matter where it’s purchased, though, this cheap laptop offers durability and performance that will make it much easier to be productive, even when traveling.

By retire, he doesn’t mean totally retire from working; he just wants to retire his current position. The man who is often dubbed “the father of video games” has apparently been saying in the office that he wants to retire so that he can focus more on development again and either work with some smaller developers or work on something that he can do himself.

Speaking to Wired.com Miyamoto said: “Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire. What I mean by retiring is, retiring from my current position. What I really want to do is be in the forefront of game development once again myself. Probably working on a smaller project, with even younger developers. Or I might be interested in making something that I can make myself, by myself. Something really small.”

There are many gamers out there who are probably sat, playing on their Wii and they have one man, and one man only to thank. That man is Miyamoto. He pioneered video gaming and without the likes of Zelda and Mario there would probably be many people out there who wouldn’t have even considered getting into gaming.

To many people, it doesn’t matter who designed, created and developed the games they play on just as long as they are there. You may be sat reading this thinking “Yeah, okay he was the man behind them originally but what has he done recently?”

Well, he’s the man who was tasked with supervising the development of some huge projects for Nintendo like Super Mario 3D Land and Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and now he wants to “be in the forefront of game development once again”.

Battlefield 3 which is officially EA’s fastest selling game ever after selling over 5 million copies in its first week, made it two weeks at the top of the chart after its release on the 25^th of October, but it is widely expected that the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will knock it off the top now that it’s finally released.

The game was released on the 08/11/11 and it has been predicted that 18 million copies of the game will be sold by the start of the next calendar year. There’s been a massive amount of hype surrounding the release of this game and it’s shown with the amount of people who were seen to have been queuing up outside 13,000 stores up and down the country.

According to Activision there were 1.5million people queuing up on the night of the game’s release. Obviously not all of these people would have turned into sales, but that’s a lot of people for just one game and that’s precisely why it’s the biggest entertainment launch of all time!

With Christmas just around the corner you can almost guarantee that the sales will continue to rise and we could see a record amount of games sold, who knows maybe even the most games ever sold, which would knock MW3’s predecessor Call of Duty: Black Ops off the top spot.

It’s safe to say that the iPhone 4S was a hit seeing as it sold over 4 million units in its first weekend of sales and on the first day of pre-order there was over 1 million units ordered, which smashed any previous record.

But the question everyone wanted an answer too was; “How good is the new iOS?” Well we have a review on the latest iOS to hit people’s iPads and iPhones. According to Apple there’s well over 200 new features on the new iOS. Don’t worry we aren’t going to list all of them for you, that would be ridiculous and would definitely take a long time to read through.

Notification Centre

First of all we’ll start out with the general feel of the new iOS. There’s a lot that’s had an overhaul, but there’s also a lot that hasn’t had any kind of change. There’s the all new notification centre which has been introduced to the iOS 5. Anything from Facebook and Twitter notifications to text and Whatsapp notifications will appear in the notifications centre.

It also has a new banner that appears at the top of your page when you get a notification. So if you’re busy killing pigs on Angry Birds, or slicing your way through fruit you won’t get interrupted by a big, horrible, blocky looking notification; instead it will be a sleek banner that rolls in and rolls out at the top of your screen. A lot smoother, less annoying and more aesthetically pleasing, we think.

Twitter Integration

The next big thing that has been introduced in iOS 5 is Twitter integration. It has been integrated into the heart of your handset and it allows you to Tweet anything from your phone, so if you’ve just taken a really cool photo, or maybe a stupid one of one of your friends then you can Tweet it directly from your photo library. We think this is pretty cool and it saves you constantly opening up your Twitter application.

Siri – iPhone’s Personal Assistant

If you have an iPhone 4S then you will be more bothered about how good, or as the case may be how bad Siri is. If you don’t have an iPhone 4S then for those of you who don’t know what Siri is then it’s pretty much your very own personal assistant.

You can hold a conversation with him, ask him to text or ring people for you, and he will even set alarms and reminders for you. Siri is sadly not available on the iPhone 4, but there have been a few people who have managed to port it onto a jailbroken iPhone 4.

iMessage – Apple’s Answer to BBM

There’s long been rumours of a cross platform app that allowed you to talk to people who used the Blackberry messaging system (BBM) but nothing ever materialised and it still hasn’t, however Apple have brought out their own version of BBM, iMessage.

This is where anybody who has an iPad, iPhone or one of the newer iPod touches with iOS 5 on it you can all talk to each other, cost free. It leaves behind the pin system used in BBM and it just recognises any iOS 5 registered Apple device. Pretty seamless and very sleek if you ask us, and definitely cool!

iCloud – Free Cloud Storage

With all the rave about how you can store things from your computer “in the cloud”, apple have decided to take that concept and bring it to their iOS devices. This brings you iCloud. Wireless back up, and “in the cloud” storage for all of your songs, apps, contacts and emails. You get 5GB free storage but if you’re upgrading the OS on say an iPhone 4, you will undoubtedly need to purchase some of the extra storage space.

There’s the option of 10 GB, 20 GB and 50 GB. All of which you need to pay for but if you want the extra room to store all of your apps, songs and photos then you will more than likely pay for the extra room.

Last but not least, the new iOS is a massive improvement on the previous one. It’s an awful lot slicker, better looking and it operates a lot better than the old version of iOS. So, it seems that they’ve got a bit of a job on their hands when it comes to the next update of the iOS and we’d love to see how iOS 6 will look this time next year, and yes; iOS 5 is definitely worth the download!

There’s a lot of apparently “new” features on the iPhone 4S, but other than the obvious new and improved camera, the faster A5 processor, the all new iOS 5 and finally the big one that seems to be the main selling point for a lot of people, Siri.

What is Siri?

If you don’t know what Siri is, it is basically your own little assistant in your phone. You can ask it an abundance of different things and the vast majority of them it will carry out for you.

Ask it anything from setting your alarms in the morning for you, or setting a reminder for you. Siri can even find directions for you if you need it too, although I stress this is only available in the US at the minute.

There are many people out there, myself included, who are still the very proud owner of an iPhone 4 and I have no doubt that an awful lot of people have been wondering about how or even if you can get Siri on the iPhone 4. Well it’s not official that you can, but somebody, somewhere out there has managed to get Siri on to the iPhone 4 which just proves that the software is more than capable of running on the iPhone 4.

Will Apple roll this out officially?

We doubt Apple will officially roll this out across the iPhone 4 world as Siri is still only, according to Apple a “beta” version at the minute. That doesn’t mean to say that once Siri is up and running properly on the iPhone 4S that it won’t be made available on the iPhone 4. If you don’t believe that it’s been ported on to the iPhone 4 then why not check out this video and see for yourself!