Email Isn’t Working. How to Use Computers to Support Customers

Email has been around since Ray Tomlinson chose the @ symbol in 1972. Almost half a century on and email has never really been fit for purpose as a tool to service customers efficiently or effectively. For that, there are better solutions.

Whether you’re a freelancer, a one-person company or a small business with a number of employees, you should be handling customer enquiries more efficiently.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how you can save time and money and improve customer satisfaction by implementing a help desk ticketing system to help customers promptly and to never miss another enquiry.

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Email Isn’t Working, How to Use Computers for Efficient Team Communication

In this tutorial, I’ll show you why email is not working for you and give you a solution to collaborating with others in teams to work more efficiently and effectively.

The growth of the Internet, over the last 25 years, has opened up new ways of working, new industries and new opportunities in a way that few could’ve imagined back in the early-1990s.

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Wunderlist 2: Get Things Done

This article first appeared on iPhone.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing iPhone apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

It seems almost impossible to believe that just three years ago we didn’t synchronise much data between devices. Until recently, most people used just one computer to do everything. Ok, maybe two: home and work, but the fact remains that syncing data normally involved a physical device such as a USB drive.

Of course, Apple users had MobileMe to synchronise contacts and calendars between their Mac and iPhone, but this was before Apple’s Reminders app existed. Despite a whole App Store packed with countless task managers, none allowed the wireless syncing of data until 6Wunderkinder shook things up with Wunderlist and its cloud syncing across different devices. Now they’re back with Wunderlist 2 on the iPhone, but the landscape has changed, so how does it stack up?

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Does Wunderlist 2 Satisfy Our Wanderlust for New GTD Apps?

This article first appeared on Mac.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing Mac apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

In our modern interconnected world we are growing used to the idea of information in the cloud and access to our stuff from any device, be it a smartphone, a desktop, laptop or tablet. Though it is easy to forget that this is a relatively recent development, a whole industry of “Getting Things Done”, or GTD, has emerged.

An innovative company, 6Wunderkinder, produced what was perhaps the first OS X to-do list app that allowed you to synchronise information wirelessly between your Mac, iPhone and the then newly-launched iPad. That was Wunderlist. Now they’re back with Wunderlist 2 but the landscape has changed. How has Wunderlist faired?

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Improve Your Communications With Wavedeck Voice Messenger

This article first appeared on iPhone.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing iPhone apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

With the advent of smartphones, and largely driven by the market-defining success of the iPhone, the way in which we employ these devices has changed. The telephone and the mobile phone were designed so that we could speak to each other with distance being no object. Nowadays, we increasingly email, text, iMessage, twitter, facebook or google. We are using mobile phones to talk increasingly less. Despite this, an app called Wavedeck Voice Messenger PTT makes it easier to communicate than, say, texting.

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Letterpress: Perfecting the Perfect Word Game

This article first appeared on iPad.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing iPad apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

It’s only been out since 24th October 2012, but Letterpress (the new iOS app from Loren Brichter of Tweetie fame) has taken iOS gaming by storm. The crashing of Game Centre — the weekend following the launch of Letterpress app — has been attributed to its huge success. So what is the appeal of Letterpress, is it really the perfect word game? Following it’s update to version 1.1, on 17th November, is there really any room for improvement?

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The Future for Apple Human Interface Design

This article first appeared on Mac.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing Mac apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

In recent iterations of iOS — Apple’s mobile operating system for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad — and in recent versions of OS X on the desktop, you will undoubtedly have noticed a move towards visual elements that mimic real-life objects. The ruled, yellow notepaper for the Notes app, the torn-paper effect at the top of the stitched, leather-bound Calendar app, and more are examples of this.

These software design elements mimicking real world objects have introduced a new word into our vocabularies: skeuomorphism. Such effects have, however, divided opinion, and it is just possible that we will see Apple shift away from these elements in future.

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