The past couple weeks I have been concentrating on the conversion of one of our virtual learning environment tools to an iPad App. The tool is built using Flash and the idea of converting it to an App came in the concluding stages of the tool development. Luckily, Apple recently granted permission for Adobe’s Flash platform to convert to iOS App. But unfortunately, there are a number of limitations concerning the capabilities of a Flash generated App. Embedded video performance isn’t great, animations need to be fairly simple and a number of the iOS APIs are not accessible. However, I am pretty pleased with the conversion so far and hope that our client and Apple will agree. We have a couple more eLearning and medical simulation tools lined up for App conversion and deployment and I have a feeling I’ll be getting pretty acquainted with Apple’s Online iOS Dev Center, and that’s a good thing!

At my recent stint in New York for a wedding, I found myself at the end of the night ready to drive home, but not having enough money for the tolls that I incurred on the way up. That, plus I went through New Jersey and we all know they don’t charge you to enter New Jersey from Philadelphia, but they certainly charge you to get back in.  So I was expecting to need even more money. I followed my GPS instructions to various vague “shopping center” locations so that I could buy something cheap and ask for cash back, but being as it was after midnight none of the places I went to had anything open. I was growing tired and knew there was a long trip ahead so I went for the nearest bank next to get it over with. Of course it didn’t end up being my bank, so I was inevitably charged an ATM fee. This one happened to be $3! I’ve never actually been charged an ATM fee before and it really annoyed me. The more annoying thing ended up being that a few days later, my own bank threw in their own $2 fee. Ugh! Being charged to get my own money is horrible. I feel violated and that’s five dollars that seemingly went to waste and I’ll never get them back. I guess convenience can cost you.

This is a time where for once I was wondering if a smart phone could have saved me. Maybe there would have been an app of some sort for my bank that would have helped me find the nearest branch. At least I may have been able to use the
Internet to look up a branch address to enter into the GPS. Would the cost of the phone be worth it for the $5 I wasted? Well no, not at this point seeing as a smart phone’s yearly cost is a couple thousand dollars, but maybe as more and more incidences like this occur and I find other ways that a smart phone may save me more time or money, I would at least consider it. I’m pretty frugal though so the odds are still against it.

DDA has begun venturing into the world of apps and mobile device friendly websites. We started a website called AppleSavvy to target those who may want their own app or those who want to make sure their websites show up properly on iPads. Our custom web design combined with custom programming allows us to make website for any device. We can also help with converting any flash animations to Apple friendly formats so your visitors can see something instead of a missing content icon. Give us a call or visit and see what we can do for you.

My boyfriend is very much into the stock market. It’s something of a hobby for him and for a while he was committed to learning more by joining forums and chat groups, watching tutorials, and studying charts for hours at a time. However, whenever we’re in a group setting, he never confesses to his knowledge. He’ll just nod when someone mentions the stock market and will maybe add a bit of input but will never discuss his own experience. He claims it’s because his own portfolio is “in the toilet” right now and doesn’t feel he should be offering anyone any advice. Personally, I think it’s silly to hide such experience, especially since there are so many people who don’t even think twice about adding their two cents on a topic, even when they know little about it.

At DDA, we encounter a lot of people who fit the latter description to a T. Search engine marketing (SEM) firms, website design and development, video production houses, and more tout incredibly innovative, highly effective services, yet rarely deliver. At DDA, from the beginning we’re upfront  in what we can deliver and understand all of the issues involved in medical and corporate marketing, driving in targeted web traffic, and creating interactive, high quality marketing and advertising tools that work.

We don’t run around obnoxiously screaming about our abilities to anyone who will listen, but we certainly aren’t shy about educating the many potential clients who come to us. We’ll be quick to explain the advantages of a virtual medical simulation in eLearning platform development, why well-written content is important, and how to reach your entire target audience through iPad, iPhone, and Smartphone compatible development and Flash conversion services.

So stop listening to all of those so-called experts and turn to someone who has the real inside knowledge.