The Armadillo Studios Blog

The yyc iPhone Developer Camp | Oct 18, 08:44 PM

This past weekend the Armadillo Team descended on the University of Calgary for the first yyc iPhone Developer Camp. Put on by Michael Sikorsky and his company Robots & Pencils, the iPhone Dev Camp was a 2 day crash summit for the local Calgary iPhone development community. With everyone sharing ideas, information and talent.

Based on the unconference Bar Camp format that was made popular in San Fransisco, the camp was a loose introduction to the growing iPhone Development community in Calgary. During the weekend established companies from within the city revealed some of their tips and tricks in developing their apps through a series of morning segments. From presentations on viral marketing, Cocos2D development, and even some intresting rough app demos; the community really came together to showcase and connect with one another. While the afternoons were dedicated to a less formal format, where attendees broke into two groups. The first group organized a series of round tables to discuss various elements of the iPhone development process, while the second group focused on the development of a quick and dirty app for a local organization. (Which or may not be used in the near future)

I could go on and on and on about what was learned this weekend, but essentially it was an incredibly informative weekend.

More importantly, it was one which introduced us to the great development community in this city. A big thank you goes out to Michael and all the companies that shared their expertise and stories throughout the weekend. If you have a moment, please check out some of the companies that were featured this weekend (and even give them a bit of support, buy downloading their apps).

Tap Forms Inc.
Broken Kings Inc.
We’re Not Rocket Scientists
Pho3nix Media Inc.
Happy App Co.
iKingdom Corp.

… And if you’re wondering why a web design studio would be at a iPhone Development Camp, just stay tuned …

Topic: iphone-development || New-Services

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The Cookingwithfire.com Redesign & Recipe E-Books | Aug 4, 01:31 PM

The average lifespan for a web site design is roughly 1.5 to 2 years. Due to which, we have seen a bit of an influx of returning clients looking for touch-ups to their site. One such client was Linda Matthie of
of Cookingwithfire.com.

As one of the original roster of web sites launched during Armadillo’s inaugural year, the first cookingwithfire web site was built as a fairly straight-forward promotional site designed to showcase the company’s line of Mexican inspired cookbooks. It was one of our first web sites built with an integrated corporate newsletter and it was the first e-commerce site we built to use the e-junkie commerce engine.

Now, queue the redesign.

The new Cookingwith Fire Redesign has shifted the focus of away from a promotional site complimented by a small online market place, into a fully functional e-commerce web site.

By shifting the navigation from the left-hand side of the site to the top, key navigational information is now located in a more intuitive area. In addition, we have removed some of the unnecessary sidebar content and populated it with direct links to the site’s popular newsletter articles, the existing hardcover product line and the new E-Book Recipe line-up.

The second aspect of the redesign was to improve the e-commerce interface to coincide with the release of 11 new Recipe E-Books. Using the upgraded E-junkie platform we were able to enhance the overal shopping experience, keeping users contained within the cookingwithfire environment and the removing the hassle of additional windows. We have also created easy to find View Cart buttons on each page and simple links to the iniduval product desctiptions.

We have been honoured to work with Linda and her popular Cookingwithfire brand for the second time in our short history. We’re currently working on implementing a new newsletter service for the next round of e-book recipes, in the hopes of enhancing the web sites reach and awareness.

Topic: Client-Releases || New-Services

Hootsuite: A Twitter Campaign's Best Friend | Jul 14, 08:13 AM

With hundreds of Twitter applications available at the moment, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of promises. As with any technological movement, many apps are popping up to take advantage of businesses and users trying to promote themselves using Twitter. Unfortunately, a majority of these apps are probably useless for most businesses looking to start a twitter campaign, but a few seem to be invaluable. In our opinion, the one Twitter application that every business needs is Hootsuite.

Built by Vancouver’s own Invoke Media, Hootsuite is widely regarded as an indispensable tool for Twitter Power users. After toying with the application for our own Armadillo Studios Twitter campaigns and for our first two private campaigns, we have to agree with that judgment.

Why Use HootSuite?

Hootsuite is an online tool that leverages information from your Twitter stream into a similar, yet powerful interface. Hootsuite’s interface is like flying first class to Twitter’s economy class web interface.

While an upgraded interface really doesn’t justify Hootsuite’s power, the real benefit comes from the application’s ability to add multiple admins to a single account, the integrated tiny-url creator (Ow.ly), to schedule tweets to post on a time delay and to view the metrics on links that you send out. All the bells and whistles that can really enhance any sized Twitter campaign. Whether it is for a large company, non-profit or for a small-medium sized business.

But in our opinion the two aspects of the Hootsuite application that make it worthwhile are the Time Delay Posts and the ability to view metrics on links.

Time Delay Posts

The beauty of Twitter is it’s simplicity. You post short snippets throughout the day and your followers (or potential customers) read your tweets. Unfortunately, there are a couple of occasions where the ability to schedule tweets can be a real benefit. Either for maximizing your potential readership or when you know you won’t be online for a certain time period.

For example, say you religiously post a #FollowFriday recommendation every Friday at 10:00am, but you’ve got a morning meeting this Friday. Hootsuite’s scheduling app allows you to create the tweet on Monday and schedule it to post later that week. Simple as pie.

Now the previous example was a very simple run down of the benefits, but you scheduling of tweet to coincide with a product or site launch can help to focus you on the important tasks rather than worrying about tweeting at the proper time.

Viewing Link Metrics

Embedded in the Hootsuite application is the tiny-url creator ow.ly. Like all tiny-url creators it allows you to take a long link and shorten it to a 10 to character link. The ow.ly service embedded straight into the posting interface on it’s own, is a fantastic addition to Hootsuite.

But it gets better.

For all links which use the ow.ly tiny-url, Hootsuite will track the metrics of that link. It will track the amount of followers opening the link over a variety of time periods; providing you with some key information, which can determine what the optimal time to make a post is or what subjects are producing the most interest. Two critical bits of information for any campaign.

Your Campaign’s Best Friend

Without question, Hootsuite is a great addition to any business driven Twitter campaign (or for personal users interested in their own metrics). Rumor around town is that Invoke is launching a 2.0 version, which includes multiple columns and other bells and whistles. But in the meantime give Hootsuite a try. We promise you won’t be disappointed.

Topic: twitter-for-businesses || New-Services

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Armadillo Goes Paypal | Jan 26, 09:08 AM

Armadillo Studios is excited to announce we have now adopted Paypal as a new form of payment for all of our client transactions.

Not that this is a relatively new concept, but in effort to improve our clients bottom line and our own; we are excited to give our clients this avenue of payment. While, we will still accept the tradition methods or payment; here are some of the benefits to our clients by using Paypal.

1. Convenience and Speed – Instead of mailing or arranging a time for a drop off, you can now pay the remainder of your invoice online through any major bank account or credit card.
2. Take Advantage of your Credit Card – We understand that finances with small businesses or start-ups can be a rocky road, but with Paypal you can now clear your invoice instantly through your Credit Card. Even better you can use this transaction to gain some valuable Business Reward points for Travel or other expenditures.
3. Paperless Transaction – In this green age, sometime it’s nice to do all that we can for the environment. While this won’t dramatically change the world, this is something we can do to limit the amount of Paper used in a transaction. Because Paypal is an online transaction, you will receive an email detailing the entire transaction.

1. Security – Paypal is an industry leader and an internationally renowned client for secure transactions.

Starting February 1st, Armadillo Studios will be implementing Paypal as a new method of payment. If you would like to move forward with this form of payment for all transaction, please contact us.

Topic: New-Services || Trends-in-The-Industry

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Oh my! Free Armadillo WallPaper! | Jun 18, 12:18 PM

So it’s been a while since we had a little fun on the old Armadillo Corporate Blog. So we thought we’d whip up a little treat for our clients and regular readers.

That’s right we’ve created a our first official Armadillo Studios Inc. Wallpaper featuring our own little mascot Millo.

That’s right our first official wallpaper! And if things go right we’ll whip up a few more over the next few weeks.

So if you want our good friend Millo on your desktop just download him below.

Download: 1920 × 1200 version
Download: 1600 × 1200
Download Both in a Zip File

Topic: Fun-Downloads || New-Services