Laughzilla the Third (2012)
The Third Volume in the Funny Stuff Cartoon Book Collection Available Now. |
Themes Memes and Laser Beams - The Second Volume in the Funny Stuff Cartoon Book Collection. Click Here to get the book in Paperback While Available on Amazon |
Funny Stuff : The First Cartoon Book from The Daily Dose. Available on Lulu. |
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown says he has a plan to end a Medicare policy that’s caused seniors across the country to be unexpectedly hit with large bills and costs after receiving needed care. Brown visited the Maple Knoll Village retirement community in Springdale on Wednesday to share details about the plans and meet with residents who’ve been impacted […]
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown says he has a plan to end a Medicare policy that’s caused seniors across the country to be unexpectedly hit with large bills and costs after receiving needed care. Brown visited the Maple Knoll Village retirement community in Springdale on Wednesday to share details about the plans and meet with residents who’ve been impacted […]
Rahul Varshneya is the co-founder of Arkenea Technologies and a mobile strategy advisor. He can be contacted via Twitter @rahulvarshneya.
Aspiring entrepreneurs often don’t even start up. The reasons are aplenty, but if you can get over these five, you have got a chance to start your first venture.
You have it in you to start your own venture… or so you think. Starting a venture requires much more than an idea.
The truth is that there are hundreds and thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs who think they have a winning idea, but never manage to put it into action.
Here are five reasons that are stopping them, or YOU from starting up.
Are you the kind of person who has always dreamt of starting your venture, but never managed to find an idea that’s great enough to push you into one? If that’s you, then you’re not alone.
Many aspiring entrepreneurs fall short of starting up just because they obsess about finding the right idea.
You don’t really need an ‘idea’ to start up. What you need is to identify a problem and just solve it better than the how most are currently doing.
Once you think you have got it (an idea), but are still not sure, just go for it. Launch the damn thing. Build it into a product prototype if you must and put it out into the hands of the people, the customers.
No amount of market research will help you unless you actually develop a Beta or a prototype of your product. Let the actual customers sample it. Let them give you first hand feedback. And then you build from thereon. This works just about every time!
Don’t worry about something you don’t have. Because most often, what you already have gives you enough to worry about!
I co-founded Arkenea Technologies with zero capital. Yes, zero! All you need to do is to challenge the conventional paradigm. Keep thinking how you can work your way around.
If you want to start a product company, bootstrap. Pool in your resources from savings or borrow from friends or family. There are many more ways of raising money to build your product – just be careful not to sever relationships by setting actionable goals.
But importantly, get a proof of concept done (outsource if you must) and take it to investors. Or take it to your first set of customers. There is no trick, but to get started.
If you plan to start a services business, then get your first client, and then hire a team to work on it if you have the time or simply outsource. Deliver a fantastic product and then work your way into setting up your own team.
There is a reason why they say, ‘Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.’ Most often, you will see your best ideas executed in just awesome ways simply because you sat on it for far too long.
The first step of starting a venture is to start one. If you want to start your business, shut up and start up.
If you don’t act on your idea today, someone else is bound to stumble up on it and take it to market before you can. Trust me, no idea is unique until it is executed.
If you are going to start up, you are bound to fail. For in failures are life’s little secrets. Failure is where you will discover the secret to your next successful venture.
“Angry Birds” was the 52nd attempt that finally made it for Rovio. PayPal was Max Levchin’s fifth attempt at entrepreneurship that finally won him the things he deserved.
So embrace failure. You cannot learn to ride a bike by reading how to ride one – you’ve got to hop onto one, fall a few times, but then you get up and hop on again. And only then will you gain the confidence and the balance to ride free. Let a hundred potholes or bumps then come your way, you know how to ride!
If your goal is to make money, let me tell you this, your venture is doomed before it even takes off. You may surely end up making some, but that will be in the short term.
You need commitment and conviction. And how does that come?
By setting inspiring goals. Goals that are beyond money and number of customers. Set goals that talk about creating value and real benefits to your customers.
Such goals drive passion to create a difference. This passion creates positivity. This positivity creates excitement and energy. And if you’ve got this, so will your customers. They will sense it and open their wallets for you. Money will follow.
So here you go. These are the five key reasons why you will never end up starting your venture. If you feel you need help in overcoming any of these or simply to validate your ideas, let’s have a chat and see how I can help.
I love podcasts. When I’m stuck on a train, cooking in the kitchen or running around my local park, they offer a wonderful escape and explore many of my favorite hobbies, interests and pastimes. There are an overwhelming number of podcasts to choose from – it’s never been easier to produce a show and share it with the world – so keeping up with them all can feel like a full-time job.
If you want to manage them all through your iPhone or iPad, there are a number of podcast apps to consider. We tackled the problem back in 2011, but a lot has changed in the last three years – so here’s our updated shortlist.
If you’re delving into podcasts for the first time, Apple’s own offering is a decent place to start. The Podcasts app is a free download on the App Store, but it usually come pre-installed on every new iPhone or iPad anyway.
The design is in keeping with Apple’s flat iOS 7 aesthetic, opting for a sparse, white background with the odd splash of purple for buttons, toggles and menu tabs. You can search the Podcasts Store for a specific show or hit the Top Charts and Featured sections if you’re looking for something new.
You can subscribe to as many as you like and individually set whether you want new episodes to be downloaded automatically, how many episodes should be stored offline, and the ordering of episodes both for browsing and playback. It’s all fairly straightforward and the audio player also supports different playback speeds and a sleep timer. Did I mention that it’s free?
Instacast 4 feels like a spiritual successor to Apple’s Podcasts app, or a premium version that was designed with long-time podcast listeners in mind. The app follows the iOS 7 philosophy with a minimalist look, but it also offers some fresh design ideas and advanced features that surpass Apple’s creation.
You can swipe in from the edge of the screen to access a slick sidebar with shortcuts for a number of different menus and listening modes. This includes Unplayed – a list of episodes that you haven’t listened to just yet – anything you’ve imported and a play queue for episodes that you want to listen to next. That last feature is particularly useful as it means that if you’re out running or have your hands full, you can set Instacast 4 to play new episodes from your subscriptions automatically.
The app lets you add custom bookmarks so you can easily return to specific points in an episode, and offers granular control over when new episodes are downloaded, deleted and other general playback settings. These can be configured for individual subscriptions too, so if you find one podcast difficult to follow, you can slow down the default playback speed or configure longer skip intervals without affecting your other shows.
➤ Instacast 4 | App Store
If that sounds a little overwhelming, Downcast is a lightweight alternative. The general interface and horizontal menu bar is similar in design to Apple’s Podcasts app, but you’ll quickly notice that the tabs and general user experience is pretty different. For starters, all of the app’s discovery options are covered under the ‘Add’ option, including search, manual imports and top charts.
Episodes are then accessed from the Podcasts tab (no surprises there) but what’s unique is that Downcast uses sub-headers to show whether each of them have any new or unplayed episodes to listen to. The app also gives prominence to your download queue, which is valuable when you’re wondering how long it’ll take before you can dig into another episode.
Downcast uses a dark theme for its audio player, prioritzing show notes over the creator’s artwork. It’s not the most beautiful design, but it means I always read the show notes – an area of podcast apps I usually never engage with. It’s also worth highlighting the four skip buttons at the top of the player, which let you move 15 or 30 seconds back and 30 seconds or 2 minutes forwards.
If you gazed at Pocket Casts from afar, you would be forgiven for thinking this is a glossy news reader app similar to Flipboard. That’s because this sublime piece of software cares about podcast artwork, offering up a vibrant mosaic both in the directory and your personal library. It’s striking and sharp, making it one of my favorite podcast apps to explore.
The top menu is similar to the sidebar in Instacast 4, giving you quick access to your subscriptions, unplayed episodes and download queue. It’s a simple, intuitive interface that makes it easy to bounce between menus at breakneck speed. For each subscription you can note whether you want new episodes to be downloaded automatically and also whether you want to start them partway through – a joyous feature if you hate a particular podcast intro.
A small knock against Pocket Casts is the audio player. While you can customize the length of time for skipping forwards and backwards in the app’s settings, these are mapped to the standard fast-forward and rewind buttons. A quick tap triggers a skip – which makes sense – but when I’m running or in a busy environment it’s easy to select it by mistake. Finally, be sure to check out the Episode Filter option, which gives you the ability to create automated playlists (with customizable designs) based on pre-defined parameters.
Castro is an exercise in minimalism. When you first launch the app on your iPhone or iPad, you’ll appreciate the sparse design almost immediately. A single button presents itself for adding new podcasts and you’ll be given just two further options – search, or add a supported URL from your clipboard. The lack of categories and top charts is disappointing, but the gorgeous aesthetics and smooth animations give Castro a slick feel.
The main interface is split into just two tabs – podcasts and episodes – with notifications for new subscriptions and finished downloads dropping down from the top of the screen. Castro is restrained in its approach, offering only a few options for configuring playback speed and automatic downloads for each show. Nevertheless, this is a promising app for podcast addicts that are truly passionate about design.
Next: Pod Wrangler, iCatcher! and more…
Google is finally bringing its redesigned Google Maps desktop experience to the masses.
After unveiling it as a ‘preview’ during its annual I/O conference last year, Google will now make it the default for users everywhere. It’s worth noting that this version has been available for anyone to access by heading to maps.google.com/preview since last July, however.
It’s a radical overhaul that focuses on full-screen maps and smart discovery features that take into account nearby businesses and where you’re headed. Whe asking for directions, It’s also possible to compare different forms of transportation and instantly switch to Earth View – which has been brought in from Google Earth for the first time.
For a full re-cap, it’s worth revisiting this Google promo video from last May:
Google says it’ll be rolling out the updated Google Maps over the coming weeks. “With any product redesign, there may be bumps along the road,” Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps said. “We’re hoping that you’re as excited as we are to navigate uncharted territory in pursuit of the perfect map.”
➤ Thank you, and welcome to the new Google Maps (Blog Post)
Image Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
