Ten Best Smart Watches for 2014

With the holidays fast approaching here's a small but expensive gift for a special someone. A smart watch is designed to work with your phone using Bluetooth technology so that you never miss a call again. Your smart watch will notify you of a call and if set up for it, also who is calling. No need to drag you phone out of your pocket or the bottom of your purse. You can discretely check your watch.

Not all smart phones are created equal. Before you buy, here's some things to check:

• compatibility with your type of phone
• strength of battery and how often it needs charging
• what functions you want. Some include: notification from social media as well as calls, stop watch and calendar, voice alert and water-proof or shock-proof.
• design - do you want something sleek and modern or are you a geek who wants a big watch with every function possible?
• ease of use - Does it easily fit your wrist? Do you need something shock-proof? Can you read the dial easily? Remember that this machine should make your life easier, not more difficult.

Here are the ten best smart watches as reviewed by toptenreviews.com: MetaWatch Strata, MetaWatch Frame, Pebble, Cookoo, i'm Watch, Samsung Galaxy Gear, Martian G2G, Martian Passport, Martian Victory, and Sony LiveView. I'm going to pick three of these to review in detail. Please read the original article to explore the rest.

Ten Best Smart Watches for 2014

MetaWatch Strata - This is a very sturdy watch that can take some knocking around. The band is flexible plastic and easily washable. There is a scratch-resistant face and it is waterproof. The battery can run for a week on one charge. There are several sporty colors for the band- electric blue, pink, orange and lime green as well as the standard grey. There are many more functions and apps that can be added to this phone compatible with iPhones. At $145 this is one of the cheaper smart watches.

Samsung Galaxy Gear - Here is a sleek, steamline watch just made for a woman who likes jewelry. No Samsung S3 or S4 is complete without one of these smart watches. One unique feature involves security of your phone. When you move more than 5 feet away from your phone, the Gear secures and locks your phone, then releases it once you return. The display face is very clear and the battery here lasts for 2-3 days between charges. The voice feature lets you dictate messages, set reminders and even place calls. This one is $337 retail.

Sony LiveView - Here's one that suited to someone on a fixed budget as it weighs in at only $25.86. It can easily be attached to a purse strap but wrist straps are available. For something so small it is amazingly functional with Facebook and Twitter updates as well as the standard functions. You can play and upload music from your phone, and get gmail updates. However, there is not Bluetooth capacity in the watch itself. Once the reception is gone, it renders this phone unusable as it gets its signal from the phone. One really useful function is the "Find Phone" feature. If you cannot find your phone, the Sony LiveView will let you find it by calling it for you.

As you can see, these phones a quite different from each other and from other devices and accessories. Since these watches are so new, it's a good idea to try them out before you purchase. At least try them on and see if all the buttons work. As the author of "Smart Watch Review" in toptenreviews.com states, "If you consider all of the factors above, you will surely find a smartwatch that is a perfect fit for you. Then, you can stop missing important calls or messages while simultaneously checking your phone less frequently."

What will 2015 bring for new Smart Watch technology? Already smart watches have started appearing that do not need phones connections in order to work - essentially a cell phone watch. Move over, Dick Tracy.

Mobile Marketing Strategies

With the recent Google Hummingbird algorithm update mobile traffic access and strategies have been in the forefront of advanced business planning. How is mobile marketing different from regular SEO and traffic generation methods? Here's a look at the new mobile-friendly content marketing.

In the past the main approach was to make some content and format for the big computer screen and then scale it down somehow for the mobile screen. However, more than half the searches are now done from mobile devices, so the new direction in content is to think mobile first.

Just breaking paragraphs into smaller sentence numbers is only the beginning. Now it is more likely to see single sentences instead of paragraphs (my high school English teacher would not be pleased). There is more than one image and spread out through the article or post, usually Thumbnail size. As you can see the changes are in both content and format. Understandably the post must be shorter. No one except Kindle book readers scroll through long passages these days. The challenge is to shorten the length but to include as much quality content - sort of like writing a clear, understandable poem.

Here are some more observations by Jason DeMers, CEO of AudienceBloom in a recent article published on LinkedIn. He points out that the exception to the short content rule might be a post that is so gripping and interesting that the reader can't put it down throughout the whole ride on the train to work (would it be that everyone has the luxury of train rides instead of boring car commutes). He also points out that it's important to focus on catchy headlines (always important, no matter what the audience) and the first few sentences as well as the summary paragraph if it exists.

Understand your audience’s mobile habits 

It’s amazing how many conversations about mobile strategies and content marketing in general happen in the absence of audience data. Can you answer the following questions about your customers and prospects?

• What percentage of your audience accesses your site on mobile devices?
• Are they using tablets or smartphones?
• What activities are they doing on your site, independently and as compared with your overall traffic?
• What content are they accessing – by topic and by format?
• How much time do they spend on your site? An audience with an average of 10 minutes is different than an audience with an average of 90 seconds. It’s all about attention span.
• Do they consume visual content?
• What other sites, social media platforms, and activities are they doing on mobile?

The greater the depth in terms of your understanding of your audience’s mobile habits, the more compelling your content will be. But specifically, understanding the makeup of their mobile universe will help you create content that feels native – rather than retroactively shoehorned to fit in.

To read more, click on this link.

Being mindful of mobile viewers, this post needs to end now. Want to know more about Mr. DeMers' ideas? You can find his book with this link: The Definitive Guide to Marketing Your Business Online.

Emerging Mobile Phone Technology

Mobile phones have become indispensable and now play a big part in everyone's lives. With the current technology that has made people and nations closer, mobile and handheld devices can truly be considered great inventions and innovations. Gone are the days when one had to go home first before he could use the telephone or go to a public phone booth to place an all-important call to a loved one or business contact. With the presence of mobile phones, everyone has now gone wireless. Communication has, indeed, turned very easy for all.

Mobile phone, as the name suggests, provides mobility. It is portable a communication device. It is made possible by satellites that transmit signals for the phone to send and receive. It is very convenient as one can use it anywhere irregardless of time and region.

People everywhere have seen the evolution of communication technology,from a phone that used wires to one that no longer requires any,from the analog to the wireless. In some places, wireless phones were provided with signals by the network company. In other places, a simulated card in inserted in the phone to grab and receive signals and send as well. These phones used the concept of signal transmission and radio wave theories that enabled a two-way communication with real time and provided clearer conversation.

From the analog mobile phones that only allowed calling and voice conversation evolved the mobile phones that have text messaging features. A person may send a text message that will be received by another party. This message is sent through a signal passing to a gateway which transmits it to the receiving party.

At the turn of the 21st century, mobile phones became more of a trend and companies started to make them appear more sophisticated. Mobile phones started with big sizes which transformed to smaller ones and then became bigger again. They have developed much like computers. Mobile phones now have been created with different functions and usage which are beyond plain communication usage.

Mobile phones also serve as mp3 players and/or audio, video file storage units where users may save audio files and listen to music. Mobile phones now are also equipped with cameras that come in different pixels allowing people to take pictures anywhere and anytime. Almost all mobile phones today are designed with games, calculator, organizer, alarm clock, dictionary and many more. Some updated mobile phones may now take video clips and still photographs which may be transferred to a computer for different purposes. Many mobile phones are also designed with touch screen features where a person doesn't need to touch the keypad anymore. The screen of the phone is designed to recognize commands as the finger tip touches the screen.

Moreover, mobile phones are now used as computers. With the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), surfing the internet is now made possible. GPRS is used to transmit IP packets which enable users to use the internet wherever they go. People also use their mobile phones in banking transactions where they can send and receive money through phone.

Several high technology features are continuously being researched and applied to mobile phones. Not long ago the 3G system was developed. It enabled users of the same networks to call each other using real time cameras. Through this system, one could actually see the person he was calling while talking to him. Many companies are now researching a higher system which is the fourth generation or 4G system. Researchers project the new system as faster with a connection speed reaching 100 Mb per second. This is seen to provide a better quality of call.

Mobile phones are not only for personal use like it was in the past. With mobile phones, reporters and journalists may now take and film news reports. Security systems and surveillance are also possible.

It is seen in the near future that mobile phones are most likely to replace laptops. With the new mobile phones coming out on the market, viewing and working on documents only found on computers is now possible. They are likely to replace entertainment devices as well with all the entertainment features new mobile phones have.

Mobile phones do not only play a big part in technology. Mobile phones also show fashion and style. Thus, to make these phones more appealing and attractive, manufacturers produce these phones in different colors, size, shape, and style.

Mobile phones are indeed one of the greatest contributions of technology. They have gone far beyond what anyone could imagine ten years ago. Now, with the emergence of mobile technology, everyone just can't live without one.