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09/30/10--21:00: Improving Emergency Room Doctor Scheduling By 70% (chan 1623618)

EMA Logo Emergency Medical Associates (EMA.net), a really long time client of ours, has released a press statement stating that their Emergency Department scheduling software has helped them increase scheduling efficiencies by 70%.

Dennis Cochrane MD, FACEP, noted researcher, technology innovator and EMA partner, said "The development of our ED-specific web-based scheduling system has been the culmination of many years working with EMA physicians and technology specialists to design a niche scheduling system which meets the unique demands of both academic and non-academic emergency departments."

Those "technology specialists" are the folks here at RustyBrick. We have been working with the EMA physicians and staff over the past several years, developing easy to use but sophisticated web based scheduling software and mobile based ED scheduling software for their physicians, assistants and office staff.

Doctor Cochrane says it best:

Our system is entirely browser-based and enables all of our ED physicians and providers to make requests, swap shifts, adjust their hours-worked and do schedule-making from anywhere in the world. Physicians can also use their mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry or Droid) to adjust their hours, directly view current schedules and to directly contact other physicians with a few clicks.

One of the Emergency Rooms EMA operates was asked how much of an impact this software has on the doctors. Michael Bessette, MD, FACEP, Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine, Jersey City Medical Center, Jersey City, NJ said, "The EMA scheduling program has reduced our scheduling time by 70% and my physicians love the ease of making their own switches either on their computers or mobile devices."

Seeing numbers like that enables us at RustyBrick to see beyond just making cool, useful, easy and fast software. It shows us the impact our lines and lines of code and pixels and pixels of design make in the lives of those helping to keep America happy and healthy.

For the full release, see the EMA web site.

Source: Improving Emergency Room Doctor Scheduling By 70% at RustyBrick.

10/13/10--21:00: Bringing The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders To The iPhone (chan 1623618)

We are delighted to have helped MTV bring the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Making The Team iPhone App to the App Store. The iPhone apps brings many of your favorite cheerleaders from the Dallas Cowboys to the palm of your hand. Learn about the cheerleaders in the cheerleaders section by reading their bios and checking out their pictures. You can view summaries of upcoming shows, set push alerts to be reminded before the show airs, and much more.

You can watch excepts of shows from seasons 4 and 5 or download full episodes in iTunes. Plus, you can learn fun and successful exercise tips from the squad. In addition, you can view memorable photos from the current and past seasons in a coverflow-like user interface or arrange the pictures in a collage and save them to your photo album. You can share any of the videos and pictures with your friends on Twitter, Facebook or via email.

Don't forget to check out the wonderful games such as designing your own virtual pompom, placing your face on a cheerleader's body or chatting with Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. You can also access the @DCCheerleaders Twitter feed or follow the #DCC hashtag on Twitter.

Check out the CMT's Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team 5 from MTV Networks on iTunes by clicking here or searching for "Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders" in the App Store. To read the full release, see cmtpress.com.

Here are some screens of the app:

Source: Bringing The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders To The iPhone at RustyBrick.

11/16/10--21:00: Daniel Tosh Now On The iPhone: Tosh.0 (chan 1623618)

Your iPhone app collection is now complete! The Tosh.0 iPhone app is now available for download!

We are proud to have worked with Comedy Central to help create the app for Tosh.0. If you do not know who Daniel Tosh is, he runs a show on Comedy Central that provides funny commentary on online video clips, society, celebrities, and more. The iPhone app helps supplement the show and how Daniel Tosh connects with his audience.

Features include:

Read, comment and share on the Tosh.0 Blog
Watch, commend and share videos from the season
Participate in the latest Caption Challenge
Submit funny clips and stories to Tosh
View Tosh.0 airtime schedule
Set push reminder alerts for shows
Sharing works on Facebook and Twitter
Follow, reply and retweet Tosh on twitter

Here are some pictures of the app:

Source: Daniel Tosh Now On The iPhone: Tosh.0 at RustyBrick.

11/17/10--21:00: Happy Chanukah Android Users: Android Menorah (chan 1623618)

Chanukah is just around the corner and we thought it would be a fun treat to build a smart Menorah for Android users. So we released the Android Menorah today.

The Android Menorah is a lot like our iPhone Menorah but with some differences unique to the Android mobile platform.

The App provides:

Visual Aid for How to Light Each Night
Brachot and Traditional Songs in Hebrew, English and Transliterated
Brachot and Traditional Songs in Audio form
Indicator when the first night of Chanukah is (when not currently Chanukah)
Widget For Home Screen

The Widget is likely the only unique part of this app from the iPhone. You should also know that Hebrew won't render on Android OS version 2.1 or lower. Plus, Nikud with Hebrew is not supported yet also. But between the standard Hebrew, Transliteration and the audio - this should help any Jew light candles this Chanukah.

It is available as a free download in the Android App Market, for more information see our Android Menorah and to be alerted for more upcoming RustyBrick Android apps, sign up on our Android Apps page.

Screen Shots:

Widget:

App Screen:

Source: Happy Chanukah Android Users: Android Menorah at RustyBrick.

11/28/10--21:00: Kosher Restaurants iPhone App Gains Maps & Augmented Reality View (chan 1623618)

It has been almost about two years since we released a major update for our iPhone Kosher App. Yes, we have released small updates recently, but this update is major.

We have added two main features and improved many of the already great existing features. The two new features include:

(1) Map View: You can now see on a map how close or far the various kosher restaurants are based on your currently location.

(2) Scope View (Augmented Reality): Pretend you are walking down the street and you want to know if a specific restaurant is before or after the tree in front of you. Well, with this augmented reality scope view, you can look through the lens of the iPhone and it will automatically plot the restaurants in front of you and around you.

I'll show screen shots of each of these features below. But let me explain some of the minor updates to this app. We improved the search feature to enable you to find restaurants in an expanded area around your search. You might not notice any change with that, but trust me, it comes in handy. We pre-loaded fresher database and made the data loading feature more stable.

Screen Shots:

Map View: Now plots dairy restaurants with blue pins and meat restaurants with red pins around your current location.

Scope View: Shows you restaurant data overlaid on top of what you see via the iPhone camera. This picture will explain it:

For more information and to download this app, please the Kosher iPhone App produced by RustyBrick and data provided and updated by Shamash.org

Source: Kosher Restaurants iPhone App Gains Maps & Augmented Reality View at RustyBrick.

12/01/10--21:00: Complete Revamp Of Search News & Tips Site (chan 1623618)

The Search Engine Roundtable is a site operated by Barry Schwartz, the President of RustyBrick. He has run the site for over seven years now and has finally decided to revamp the site from the bottom up.

The Search Engine Roundtable's new look breaks itself away from the standard blog look and now looks more like an official news or magazine web site. It includes an improved design for navigation and browsing older stories. It shows a quick snap shot of the top stories for the day. The new improved interface for commenting and sharing stories makes it easier for readers to interact on the site. The video content and picture content is quicker to interact with. Finally, the design supports a very cool and fun theme system that lets us set different holiday themes to give the design a fresh look on special days.

On the development front, we moved off a standard blog content management system (CMS) and are now utilizing a custom RustyBrick CMS. The core reason for moving is flexibility and security. In the past, there were limitations on what features can be added to the site, now there are no restrictions. We've added tons of features and many more are to come, both on the front end user interface and on the backend CMS components. These include:

Better category system, authors sections and date archives
Weekly video now automatically pulled from YouTube without manual intervention
Daily photo of the day manager
Holiday theme scheduler system
Improved commenting controls
Advanced RSS & XML Sitemap management for stories
and more...

So check out the site now at the Search Engine Roundtable, heck, maybe you'll learn an SEO tip or two during your visit.

Source: Complete Revamp Of Search News & Tips Site at RustyBrick.

12/08/10--21:00: Now Free: Kosher Restaurants iPhone App (chan 1623618)

I am happy to announce that we have released, in conjunction with Shamash.org, a free version of the Kosher iPhone app. The free version has all of the same features of the paid version but is supported by ads.

If you would like to find kosher resturants in your area and not have to pay for the app, then you got it. You can download it for free by clicking here.

If you want to remove the ads, then simply buy the paid version for a one time fee. To buy the paid version click here and buy it on iTunes.

Kosher Free for iPhone Includes:

Kosher Restaurants Database
Kosher Symbols Database
Finds restaurants by distance or keyword
Filter restaurants by metro area, price, style and more
Map View with meat and dairy markers
Score View for Augmented Reality view
Add/Edit/Delete Restaurants
Add Reviews
Sort kosher restaurants by nearest, name, rating and price
Add kosher restaurants to your "favorites" list
Get benching and other food related prayers within the app
Oh, and ads...

We hope you like the app and feel free to give us feedback!

Source: Now Free: Kosher Restaurants iPhone App at RustyBrick.

12/15/10--21:00: Hebrew Translation For Android (chan 1623618)

As you may know, we are high gear into Android development. We have released several Android apps for clients and now 3 RustyBrick Android apps.

Our latest is Hebrew English Translator for Android. It is very simple, it uses Google Translate to translate Hebrew to English or English to Hebrew.

You can download it for free on Android via this link or scan the code on this page.

Here are some pictures:

Hebrew Translation For Android

Source: Hebrew Translation For Android at RustyBrick.

03/02/11--21:00: Megillas Esther iPhone App Now Works On iPad (chan 1623618)

We have updated our popular Megillas Esther iPhone App to enable it to work as a "universal" app, meaning, it works natively on an iPad and takes full advantage of the large screen.

The Megillas Esther iPhone App has the full content of the Megillah of Esther, including before and after blessings. It has five noise making sounds with the option to add more sounds at a fee. It includes Trup aka Cantoral Marks and now works just as well on an iPad.

Besides for the iPad support, we added a couple new things include:

Haman Highlighter (Check Settings App)
Added Extra Blessings Said After the Megilla
Quick App Switching Support
Better iOS4 Support

So check it out over here and download it for free on iTunes.

Screen Shots:

Source: Megillas Esther iPhone App Now Works On iPad at RustyBrick.

04/06/11--21:00: Get Rid Of Your Chametz Before Passover With An iPhone App (chan 1623618)

RustyBrick No Chametz iPhone App Suffern, New York - RustyBrick, Inc. today announced a new iPhone app designed to help Jewish iPhone users remove and dispose of Chametz, leavened products that are forbidden to be consumed on the Jewish holiday of Passover, before the Passover holiday. This iPhone App is available for iOS download on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad and is named No Chametz.

The app contains three primary functions:

Selling of Chametz
Searching for Chametz
Destroying Chametz

Each section of the app gives you the traditional orthodox Jewish blessings made during the selling, searching and destroying processes. They also contain applicable times based on your GPS location for when you can search for the Chametz, stop eating the Chametz and burning the Chametz. The app contain Jewish laws related to these actives, by Rabbi Elozor Barclay & Rabbi Yirzchok Jaeger.

The app helps you search for Chametz, the bedikat chametz, by giving you the halakhah, brachas zmanim, a checklist builder and a flash light. It also helps you destroy the chametz with the Bittul and Bi'ur with halakhah, brachas and zmanim for that process. Finally, it helps you sell, Mechirah, the chametz with zmnaim, halacha and a link to sell it to an organization.

Feature Summary:

Sell Your Chametz: Selling Halachos, Zmanim, & Transaction
Search For Chametz: Searching Halachos, Zmanim, Checklist, Bracha, & Light
Destroy Your Chametz: Destroying Halachos, Zmanim, Bracha & Transaction
Flash Light for iPhone 4
English Translations for Brachas
Zmanim Based on GPS
Halachot from Rabbi Elozor Barclay & Rabbi Yirzchok Jaeger

The app is free for download for all iOS devices.

For more information on this app, including a download link, pictures and features, see rustybrick.com/iphone/chametz.

About RustyBrick, Inc.
RustyBrick is a New York Web service firm specializing in customized online technology that helps companies decrease costs and increase sales. RustyBrick's Web services include; Web page design, Web development, logo design, e-commerce, mobile Web development, iPhone development, search engine optimization and more. Since 1994, RustyBrick has been creating Web software for businesses and organizations of all kinds.

RustyBrick designs premier iPhone & mobile applications for the Jewish market. They also work with clients such as MTV, Harper HarperCollins, Comedy Central, Harvard University and many more. RustyBrick also designed the most popular Siddur for the iPhone at http://rustybrick.com/siddur and has some of the most popular Jewish apps at http://rustybrick.com/iphone.

Source: Get Rid Of Your Chametz Before Passover With An iPhone App at RustyBrick.

04/12/11--21:00: Free Nuclear Power Plant Detector iPhone & iPad App (chan 1623618)

RustyBrick Nuclear Power Plant iPad & iPhone App Suffern, New York - RustyBrick, Inc. is happy to announce Apple has approved our Nuclear Power Plant Proximity detector app today.

The app is designed to show you how close you are to an active nuclear power plant. The app will first attempt to locate your current position and then inform the user how far the closest power plant is to that location.

The app also overlays historical earthquake data, which is highlighted in different colors of yellows, orange and red based on the severity and age of those earthquakes. It also contains fault line data within the United States and plots that on the map as well.

"The app idea came to me when my wife was asking me how close the Indian Point nuclear power plant station is to us," Barry Schwartz, the CEO of RustyBrick, said. " We turned out to be within 10 miles of the facility and it struck me that an app to determine your distance to nearby power plants would be a useful and educational tool," Barry added.

With additional features such as Wikipedia data on each power plant, real time alerts from the International Atomic Energy Agency and helpful tips on what to do in case of an emergency - that app can become a useful tool for those who are concerned of a distaster occurring.

Feature List:

Locates Nuclear Power Plants Near You
Plots Nuclear Power Plants Globally
Displays Historical Earthquake Data On Map
Displays Fault Lines within The United States
Contains Wikipedia Data on Each Nuclear Power Plant
Alerts from the International Atomic Energy Agency
Information and shopping information in case of emergencies

The app is free for download in the Apple App Store and works universally on all iOS devices running 4.0 or later. Supported devices include iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch hardware devices.

For more information on this app, including a download link, video demonstration, pictures and features, see rustybrick.com/iphone/nuclear-plants.

Source: Free Nuclear Power Plant Detector iPhone & iPad App at RustyBrick.

04/22/11--21:00: New Bar Mitzvah Learning Tool: Your iPad or iPhone (chan 1623618)

RustyBrick Tikkun iPad & iPhone App Suffern, New York - RustyBrick, Inc. is proud to announce today a revolutionary new Bar Mitzvah training application designed to work on iOS devices. The application is an interactive Tikkun, study guide used when preparing to chant the Torah reading from the Torah in a Jewish synagogue. The Tikkun is designed to work on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.

The iOS Tikkun works very much like a paper Tikkun where the right side of each page is written with the cantillation marks and vowel points, while the left is written in unpointed Hebrew, as it is written in the actual scroll. But when you flip the device from landscape orientation to portrait orientation, it will only show you either the cantillation marks and vowel points mode or the actual scroll mode. You can quickly toggle between both modes with the tap of a finger.

Other interactive features include the ability to bookmark sections of the Torah, record audio to send to your bar mitzvah teacher via email or listen to later, Ta'amim chart with professional audio recording of a bar mitzvah teacher, zoom capability and much more.

The typesetter for this Tikun is by Divrei Emes and the audio laining is done by Ira Slotnick.

Features Summary:

Interactive Digital Tikun
Landscape / Portait Modes for both iPhone & iPad
Record Audio & Email Recordings
Bookmark Sections
Parsha Slider & Quick Finds
Ta'amim Chart with Professional Audio
Great Bar Mitzvah Teaching Aid
Clear & Crisp Text With Zoom Capability
Shvah Nah Notation
Alternate Opinion Notation

The app can be downloaded today via the iTunes App Store for a fee.

For more information on this app, including a download link, video demonstration, pictures and features, see rustybrick.com/iphone/tikkun.

Source: New Bar Mitzvah Learning Tool: Your iPad or iPhone at RustyBrick.

06/01/11--21:00: ShulCloud: Revolutionizing Synagogues With Web Technologies (chan 1623618)

Suffern, New York - RustyBrick, Inc. is proud to announce new online software to help you manage the day to day activities of your Shul. The software gives you a Shul web site, automated calendar building, advanced email communication and membership database and billing. We are calling this software, ShulCloud.

ShulCloud revolutionizes how shuls operate on a day to day basis by helping shuls collect donations and membership from members and streamlining the tasks a synagogue performs daily. The results we have from the web site in our beta have been outstanding, leading to incredible growth in membership billing collections and tremendous efficiency improvements for the staff and volunteers. The features include, but are not limited to:

Elegant Design:
Simple to use Content Management System with beautiful designed Templates ready to go.

Scheduling Tools You Need:
Automate your Shul's Calendar with our customizable rule-based Schedule system and daily Zmanim software.

Membership and Donation Tracking:
Collect & Track membership and donations with ease using the advanced accounting system enabling members to pay online, view statements and much more.

Photo Galleries:
The Interactive Photo Gallery allows you to spread the word on your Shul's activities and events.

Easy, Smart Newsletters:
Send Smart Emails to your members with ease for announcements, billing, general communications, polls and schedule emails.

Early Results:

We have been beta testing this for several months now and the results have been outstanding. Here are some results the Synagogues shared with us:

Check out the options, pricing and features today at ShulCloud.com.

Source: ShulCloud: Revolutionizing Synagogues With Web Technologies at RustyBrick.

06/06/11--06:41: Torah Cafe Features RustyBrick Jewish Apps In Shavout Webcast (chan 1623618)

Torah Cafe Logo The Jewish holiday of Shavout is coming up Tuesday night and TorahCafe.com, a Jewish video site, interviewed us for their Shavout Webcast.

The interview is named From Sinai to Cyberspace and at 19 minutes and 15 seconds in, Ronnie Schwartz is interviewed about our various apps. Please do check it out and if you do not have our Jewish iPhone Apps, maybe take a look and get some.

Here is the video:

Here is a highlight of Ronnie in the interview:

Ronnie on Torah Cafe

Source: Torah Cafe Features RustyBrick Jewish Apps In Shavout Webcast at RustyBrick.

06/06/11--12:26: Rabbi Ari Sytner On How RustyBrick Apps Changed How Jews Observe Torah (chan 1623618)

Rabbi Ari Sytner, the Rabbi of BSBI Synagogue in Charleston, South Carolina, emailed us a video of a presentation he gave to his congregation recently.

The presentation is named "Judaism In The 21st Century: How The iPhone Is Changing The Way We Observe The Torah":

The video is in 3 segments but it felt like it went by very fast. Great presentation - I could not have sold our apps any better than Rabbi Sytner and he isn't even on the payroll!

Source: Rabbi Ari Sytner On How RustyBrick Apps Changed How Jews Observe Torah at RustyBrick.

06/08/11--21:00: Audios For Bar Mitzvah Parshas Now Available In Tikun (chan 1623618)

RustyBrick Tikkun iPad & iPhone App Suffern, New York - We are proud to bring you a new feature that was highly request for the Tikun iPhone/iPad app. The feature allows you to download audio recordings of a professional Bar Mitzvah teacher reading from the Torah.

By listening to the reading of the Bar Mitzvah teacher, you can train yourself by ear to learn the torah yourself. This makes for an excellent supplement for your Bar Mitzvah training or for a refresher on reading new parshas or old ones.

Note: The available recording are currently in Ashkenaz format and not available for all Parshas as of yet but we will be adding more as we go. They can be purchased book (parsha) by book for $4.99 each.

The Ashkenaz reading is provided by Ira Slotnick, who is available for hire as a Bar Mitzvah teacher.

How Do You Purchase Audio?:

(1) Click on the left top index icon to bring up the Parsha list:

Then click on the top right price tag icon:

(2) Then price tag icons will show on the right of each Parsha that audio is available for download. Note, we will continue to add more and they do not require new app updates to show up in this list. We also will add more Nusachs.

(3) Clicking the price tag will trigger a confirmation that you want to download the audio for the app:

(4) Specify the audio quality: Low quality downloads faster and takes up less room on your device, while high quality sounds better but takes longer to download and takes up more space on your device:

(5) A download progress bar will appear after you select the quality:

(6) When the download is complete, you will be notified with this alert:

(7) Then the downloaded Parsha will be broken down into seven chapters (perakim), so you can listen to each chapter individually.

Source: Audios For Bar Mitzvah Parshas Now Available In Tikun at RustyBrick.

06/15/11--16:48: HTML5 Video on TravelShark for a Better Experience (chan 1623618)

At RustyBrick I recently had the pleasure of working with TravelShark (formerly Swiftrank) to launch a new website for their featured hotel program. They won't hesitate to let you know about their network of 12,000+ region targeted hotel booking websites for cities all over the globe, which you can learn all about by visiting their site. Here I'd like to talk about two technical features of the site.

Interactive Home Page Hover Map

This jQuery (JavaScript) powered widget consists of an HTML <map> with polygonal <area>s -- a callback to the old days of the web but enhanced and made cross-browser compatible with jQuery. On hovering over the different parts, the background map image changes to highlight a section.

Interactive world map

HTML5 Video Elements

For a faster load time and (ironically) higher compatibility across devices I went with VideoJS to load in the appropriate video content depending on the client's browser. I say "ironically" because one would think HTML5 video would result in fewer compatible devices but in fact HTML5 video, if done correctly, plays on iOS (i.e. Apple iPhone) and Android devices. Flash-based video does not play at all on iOS and may be clunky and battery draining on Android. Of course all modern desktop browsers, including IE9, play the HTML5 video tag without a problem. Any unsupported browser falls back to a Flash based player and, failing that, a download link is displayed.

HTML5 Video in a pop up modal dialog box.

The downside to using HTML5 video is that the browser companies cannot decide on which video format to support! As of June 2011:

Firefox supports Ogg Theora (since 3.5+) and WebM (since 4.0+)
Google Chrome supports Ogg Theora, WebM, and H.264 (but will be removing H.264 "soon")
Safari/IE 9.0 only support H.264!

<rant>Of course Microsoft kicks the open source video codecs to the side, but c'mon, Apple?</rant> I now realize you can cover all browsers with Ogg Theora and H.264 but I also converted into WebM anyway just in case. Using ffmpeg and MP4Box free (GPL) utilities, the TravelShark Tour video was converted into the three formats and plugged in to the VideoJS code.

To see it in use, click the WATCH TOUR VIDEO button on the TravelShark home page. Go ahead, try it on your smartphone or magicpad! **Spoiler alert!** It just works.

Postscript

TravelShark also posted some funny YouTube videos about their name change. Check them out.

Source: HTML5 Video on TravelShark for a Better Experience at RustyBrick.

06/17/11--10:23: Crazy Bird Pecking At My Office Window (chan 1623618)

This crazy bird was pecking at my window for an hour. It was pretty annoying but also interesting.

I just had to video tape it! Check it out.

Source: Crazy Bird Pecking At My Office Window at RustyBrick.

06/20/11--08:32: My Talk At La Red Innova Madrid 2011 (chan 1623618)

redinnova Last Wednesday, while I was in Spain I was honored to have the priviliage to give a talk at the Red Innova conference on the latest trends in search.

Today, I spotted a tweet from @ivarrekve with a full version video of my talk at the event. The talk is about 20 minutes, add in an introduction and a Q&A portion and the video lasts just about 30 minutes.

Like I said, it was a great experience and I met a lot of great people. Luis Ferrandiz of ADN Marketing aka @LFMAG, was absolutely awesome. He was instrumental in me coming to Spain, organizing everything and making sure I was happy and taken care of. As you will see in the video below, Nacho de Pinedo of ISDI introduced me. Here is the video from agoranews:

As you can see, I had some clicker difficultly but like I said, it was awesome to give this presentation in front of such a smart crowd.

Here are some pictures from T20.es and others from @YorokobuMag, @luciariasglez, @trykita and @elobato:

There are some additional videos, one of just the Q&A portion and the other of an interview after the fact:

I think a bug flew into my mouth in that video while I was talking. :)

More stories coming out of Spain related to the talk:

The night before this talk, I gave a 3 hour workshop of SEO topics, mostly related to the Panda update at ISDI. Here is a picture from @esther_checa from after the workshop at the local bar:

Source: My Talk At La Red Innova Madrid 2011 at RustyBrick.

06/29/11--12:58: Siddur iPhone App Top 100 Grossing Reference Apps (chan 1623618)

One of our most detailed and useful iPhone apps is the Siddur iPhone App designed for the Jewish community.

So when we noticed that it ranks number 65 in the top grossing apps within the iPhone App reference category, I was a bit shocked and happy.

Siddur Ranking in App Store

I believe we are in the top 10 within the Israel iPhone App store for reference apps. But in USA we are #65.

Source: Siddur iPhone App Top 100 Grossing Reference Apps at RustyBrick.

07/01/11--11:36: JavaScript Hover Effects to Speed Up Page Load Time (chan 1623618)

If you have a big home page with a lot of articles that have third party elements, such as Facebook Like buttons, or other JavaScript powered share buttons, you can greatly speed up the loading of your page by not loading the extras until the user's mouse cursor travels over them. An example of this is TechCrunch's home page. At first you'll see Facebook Like, Tweet, +1, and inShare buttons on each post, but it is actually just a fake image representing the actual buttons. When you hover your mouse over it, the JavaScripts will load in and process, making the buttons come to life.

Example:

Before mouse over:

After mouse over:

The same style effect can be used to delay image loading, such as avatar images in comments or bulletin boards. While you're at it, use Google Page Speed Tool to find more speed tips.

Source: JavaScript Hover Effects to Speed Up Page Load Time at RustyBrick.

07/06/11--13:24: Google Maps Android Update Enables Public Transit Navigation (chan 1623618)

Users have already become accustomed to the vector based maps, the turn-by-turn car navigation, and maybe even the public transit directions available to the Android version of Google Maps/Navigation. However, a Maps update available now to all Android phones provides some handy features such as turn-by-turn (or rather, stop-by-stop updating as you go) public transit navigation, improved search suggest, and what I like to call "multi-gesture" interaction.

Public Transit Navigation

Much like Navigation tells you when to turn, when to expect the next turn or road, and how long until you reach your destination, Transit Navigation will track you as you are traveling on bus and/or train (or walking) and tell you which stop to get on/off at and approximately when. It is a huge help to also have the public schedules integrated into the system, all pulling from live data -- and of course will pre-download future directions and vector data in case the internet connection is lost. Public Transit Navigation is available in over 400 cities around the world.

Multi-gesture Interaction

Maps has always had the familiar multi-touch gestures such as pinch to zoom in/out, drag to pan, rotate in a circle to rotate map, or slide fingers parallel up/down to change perspective. Now it seems you can combine some of these multi-touch actions to do more than one thing at once, instead of one-after-the-other. It's kind of hard to explain, but to put it simply, you can pan/rotate/zoom the map very quickly without taking your fingers off the screen.

Pre-download any 10 by 10 mile square

Accessible from the "Labs" menu of the app, you can enable the ability to pre-download a 10x10 mile portion of the map, anywhere in the country. Because it is vector data that means you get the 10x10 mile square at all zoom levels. This can be helpful if traveling to a relative or friend's town and you want to save battery or internet usage around town while you're there.

Google Navigation assisted my friends and I
while driving around Southern California in a rental car.

Plus some additional features:

Measuring tape - calculate distance by touching points on the map
Improved battery optimization
Integrated photo viewer for places on the map

Source: Official Google Blog

Source: Google Maps Android Update Enables Public Transit Navigation at RustyBrick.

08/04/11--06:41: Happy Birthday iPhone Siddur: 50% Discount Today Only (chan 1623618)

iPhone Siddur icon Today is the third birthday of our iPhone Siddur and to celebrate, for the first time in 3 years, we have changed the price!

Today - August 4th, and only today, we are giving a 50% discount on the iPhone Siddur and Siddur HD for iPad. Again, we have never made a price change before and we probably won't again (at least until next birthday).

The iPhone Siddur was approved in the Apple App Store on August 4, 2008. It didn't show up in the Apple App store until August 6, 2008 but technically it was approved August 4th.

To get the discount, just go to the App Store and download it. We lowered the price only for today. At midnight, the price goes back up to it's original price for both apps.

Thank you so much for all your feedback and help in making this app the best digital siddur in the world.

Source: Happy Birthday iPhone Siddur: 50% Discount Today Only at RustyBrick.

08/09/11--13:43: Facebook Launches Mobile Messenger App (chan 1623618)

In the wake of Google+, first Facebook partners with Skype to offer video chat to its 750 million+ users. Today, they have an answer to both Huddle and Google Latitude: Messenger.

The normal Facebook app for iPhone and Android does have chat, but it looks like they wanted to optimize the mobile chatting experience and add additional features. And to be able to push it out faster to compete in time with Google+, I bet they created a separate development team so as not to affect the regular Facebook experience. What does Messenger do?

Group Chat

Similar to Huddle on the Google+ mobile app, you can now send messages to multiple friends, and it appears just like a chatroom. However, it doesn't seem like you are able to participate in group-based chats, meaning chats for a specific Facebook group (i.e. "New York City Biking"). Of course, this works with friends that are both using the app or the web browser.

Cross platform facebook chatting app works on iPhone and Android. Can also communicate with web users.

Location

In a 1-on-1 chat or a group chat, you can choose to share your location with members of the chat (and no one else). Everyone who shares their location can be seen on the Map tab of the chat, which looks a lot like Google Latitude but with chat overlays. This will be pretty cool if you are trying to meet up with a group of friends from miles away.

See where everyone is in the chat (if you decide to share your location)

Instant Photo Share

Chatting with friends need not be only text, you can also instantly take a photo and put it right within the chat. This will no doubt assist loved ones while traveling.

In my opinion the map location feature puts Facebook one step ahead of Huddle/Latitude essentially by combining chat with location in the social space. Because Google+ only recently started they still have yet to integrate many of their services with Plus (Latitude, Calendar, Documents, Gmail). The social network battle is really heating up and no doubt Google will be close at Facebook's tail.

Get Facebook Messenger for iPhone

Get Facebook Messenger for Android

Source: Facebook Launches Mobile Messenger App at RustyBrick.

08/09/11--21:00: Free Mac Bencher App (chan 1623618)

I am excited to announce the release of our first ever Mac App named the Bencher for Mac.

Wouldn't it be great to pull out a quick Jewish prayer book that had typical Jewish prayers you might say by your computer? Well, that is exactly what this does. Birkat Hamazon, Al Hamichya, Borei Nefashot, Asher Yatzar and more with this app.

Best of all, it is currently free!

It is even smart siddur enabled, showing you the proper prayers specific to that day. Note, this version is based on the English day, not the Hebrew day, keep that in mind.

Here is a picture, click to enlarge:

To learn more or for a download link, go here.

Source: Free Mac Bencher App at RustyBrick.

08/16/11--10:09: RustyBrick Indoor 2011 BBQ (chan 1623618)

We had the annual RustyBrick BBQ this Sunday. No, it wasn't the best day to host a BBQ, being that it rained all day but we had it anyway!

RustyBrick BBQ 2011

While Ronnie cooked the food on his grill under the awning outside, the rest of us enjoyed the tasty burgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, salads, desserts and drinks.

Why didn't we postpone? Well, it was a rare day that 95% of us could make it. So we just had it anyway.

As we get larger, it becomes harder to schedule these events. We actually used a tool named Doodle to see who can come when and the day that had the most votes won (well, kind of).

Here is looking forward to a dry BBQ for next year!

Source: RustyBrick Indoor 2011 BBQ at RustyBrick.

08/24/11--06:41: Google Chrome Preloading in Action (chan 1623618)

I'm currently on Google Chrome 13 and just noticed the web page preloading in a real life scenario. You can reproduce the effect and try it yourself by following these steps:

Go to Google.com
You must be using Chrome 13
Type "USA Today" in the box
Press Enter
Press the down arrow on your keyboard one time to move the arrow next to the first non-sponsored search result, which should point to usatoday.com
Wait about 4-5 seconds and then press enter or click the link with your mouse - get your eyes ready to watch how fast the page appears
In a fraction of a second, the web page appears with everything already loaded, as if you were already there!

To prove that it is pre-loading you can go back to google.com and clear your browser's cache and then repeat the steps. You can compare results by performing the same steps in Mozilla Firefox and all elements on the page will not be loaded until you visit the page.

This does not seem to work on all websites, and may depend on the site's popularity or the webmaster's setting to prevent preloading. Some webmasters may want to prevent Chrome from preloading their site, especially if it means using up bandwidth when the user might not even visit. However if it is enabled and the user does visit your site, even the ads will appear faster!

It seems to be just another chapter in Google's goal of making the web faster for users.

Source: Google Chrome Preloading in Action at RustyBrick.

08/25/11--18:21: Michael Mozart of JeepersMedia Interviews Barry Schwartz (chan 1623618)

Michael Mozart Interviews Barry Schwartz Image Michael Mozart of JeepersMedia, who is best known for his "Fail Toy Reviews" videos on his incredibly popular YouTube channel with 400,000 subscribers and over 100 million video views, interviewed me earlier this afternoon.

The cool part is that he is one of twelve people with access to the YouTube Live feature, which I really really want access to, and even better is that he used Google + Hangouts to interview me, bring in select guests to ask additional questions, stream it live on YouTube Live and then publish the final video on YouTube for later viewing.

What did we talk about for almost an hour?

My background
How I got into search and SEO
Google + and +1 buttons as it related to SEO
Reverse SEO, harming competitors in search
Some past Google updates
Social media and how it helps with rankings
And much much more...

Here is that video:

It is also on his live channel or viewable via my Google + profile.

It was really fun to do. Thanks Michael Mozart!

Source: Michael Mozart of JeepersMedia Interviews Barry Schwartz at RustyBrick.

09/12/11--21:00: Ambit Electronics Brings Dead Stock Alive With New Web Site (chan 1623618)

Ambit Electronics hired RustyBrick to overhaul the web site in order to convey the true essence and culture of the 30 plus year old company.

The new design features high-end graphics, easy to understand navigation and much more. We worked closely with Ambit's team to bring out the company's personality in the new design.

From their new logo and web site design to a custom built content management system and lead capture forms - the site has been completely revamped.

Don't get me wrong, Ambit is still the same great company helping large companies with "dead stock" and surplus electronics, sell off those assets for a pretty good penny. But the web site now helps convey the greatness of the company to the public.

About Ambit:
Since 1979, Ambit Electronics has helped OEM's, CEM's, component manufacturers and distributors discreetly sell their surplus components. Ambit also assists companies seeking to purchase quality components.

For more information on Ambit Electronics, see their web site at www.ambitelectronics.com.

Source: Ambit Electronics Brings Dead Stock Alive With New Web Site at RustyBrick.

10/04/11--21:00: Learn The Alef Bet On Your iPhone, iPod Or iPad (chan 1623618)

RustyBrick Alef Bet iPad & iPhone App Suffern, New York - RustyBrick, Inc. has designed our first iPhone app designed specifically for Jewish children to learn the Alef Bet, the Hebrew alphabet. The application is an interactive and fun, study guide to be used by young children to learn the ABCs of the Hebrew language. The Alef Bet app is designed to work on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices.

The iOS Alef Bet uses pictures, sound, animation, and interactivity to teach children the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter of the Alef Bet is accompanied by the hebrew pronunciation of the letter, a picture of a word associated with the letter and how it is pronounced in Hebrew and the English translation. In addition, you can play with the image, moving it, dipping cookies in milk, watching a train drive by and much more.

RustyBrick produced the design, coding, audio and animation all in-house.

So instead of your kids playing with those English learning games, why not have them try this new Hebrew learning game?

Features Summary:

Aleph Bet / ×××£ ×××ª Training
Colorful Letter Cards
Letters Spoken In Hebrew
Images Representing Word Association To Letters
Word Spoken In Hebrew
Word Translated Into English
Animation Within Each Letter
Interactivity Within Each Letter
Fun Sounds & Illustrations
Quick and Fun To Learn

The app can be downloaded today via the iTunes App Store for a fee.

For more information on this app, including a download link, pictures and features, see www.rustybrick.com/iphone/alefbet.

Source: Learn The Alef Bet On Your iPhone, iPod Or iPad at RustyBrick.

10/05/11--16:52: Steve Jobs Has Died On October 5, 2011 (chan 1623618)

Steve Jobs Dead On Apple.com, Apple announced Steve Jobs has passed away. There is a tribute post at apple.com/stevejobs.

This is indeed a very sad day for Apple and virtually all people the Apple brand has touched. May he rest in peace.

Source: Steve Jobs Has Died On October 5, 2011 at RustyBrick.

11/03/11--21:00: NSCAA Revamps Web Site & Features: Learn. Participate. Belong. (chan 1623618)

NSCAA logo NSCAA has announced their new web site - a new home that focuses on members by providing information and resources to their membership.

The new site's focus and brand messaging, which RustyBrick helped create, is around "Learn. Participate. Belong."

Learn. NSCAA.com is your link to coaching education courses, information on how to host your own course and other educational resources.
Participate. NSCAA.com is your destination for information on the Convention, symposiums, showcase tournaments, tours and new events being developed on the soccer calendar.
Belong. NSCAA.com is your site for information, resources and the many benefits and services offered to you as a member. Your exclusive online member access begins with...

The features are almost endless, starting with a custom design and branding build out on the frontend of the site to a custom content management system and complete integration into their membership database.

Some of the features include but (trust me) are not limited to:

Pay your annual dues, register for the Convention or a coaching course and more.
Nominate and vote for awards to honor your team, players or coaching peers.
Share ideas with 30,000 members and build your online community.
Access to many other benefits such as the online version of Soccer Journal.

Check out the NSCAA web site at www.nscaa.com.

About NSCAA:
Based in Kansas City, Kan., the NSCAA is the largest soccer coaches' organization in the world.

Since its founding in 1941, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America has grown to include more than 30,000 members who coach both genders at all levels of the sport. In addition to a national rankings program for colleges and high schools, NSCAA offers an extensive recognition program that presents nearly 10,000 individual awards every year. The NSCAA fulfills its mission of coaching education through a nationwide program of clinics and week-long courses, teaching more than 6,000 soccer coaches each year.

Source: NSCAA Revamps Web Site & Features: Learn. Participate. Belong. at RustyBrick.

11/15/11--21:00: Sharky Awards : For The Sharkiest People, Places & Things (chan 1623618)

Sharky Awards logo Today, we helped launch the Sharky Awards for the world's largest online travel network, Travel Shark.

As the press release states, the awards are "designed to recognize the freshest, most unique travel experiences across the globe." They are awarded for people, places and things:

People

Places: Sharky places are bold, funky, and more than a little off-beat. Sure, you can recommend these spots to your mother if your mother' writes avant-garde haiku and teaches hula dancing in her spare time. The Sharky Awards drop a pin on the must-see destinations that turn a trip into an odyssey. If you know what we mean.
Things: If you whip out your camera phone while on vacation--and you're not taking a picture of your kids or your third-degree sunburn you may have spotted a Shark! Sharky things make travelers stop in their tracks, pinch themselves, and possibly cry tiny tears of joy. Sharky Awards give a shout-out to the little things that turn an ordinary trip into a life-changing revelation. Or at least a pretty good story for your next Toastmasters meeting.

Feel free to nominate a person, thing or place for the award and see the winners over here.

About TravelShark:
TravelShark is the world's largest online travel network, with more than 12,000 location-based travel websites for destinations around the globe. TravelShark's optimized websites facilitate transactions from more than 100 countries, generating profitable revenue for travel companies by driving direct bookings to hotels, resorts, spas, and more through its Featured Hotel Program. The TravelShark network includes major-market, content-rich sites like www.LasVegasHotels.com, www.SingaporeHotels.com and www.HotelLondon.com. TravelShark is headquartered in Singapore, with a U.S. office in Boulder, Colorado. To learn more about how TravelShark can work for your property or travel company, please visit www.travelshark.com, call toll-free 866-308-7265 or +1-720-239-1285.

Source: Sharky Awards : For The Sharkiest People, Places & Things at RustyBrick.

11/21/11--10:09: Our ShulCloud Booth at Kinus Fair & URJ Biennial (chan 1623618)

ShulCloud Logo Are you headed to one of the upcoming synagogue conferences? ShulCloud by RustyBrick will be at the International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Shluchim at the Resource Fair and the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial exhibits. We will also be giving away handouts at some of the other conventions.

Kinus Annual Resource Fair (Chabad):

Meet us at the International Conference of Chabad Lubavitch Shluchim Annual Resource Fair this Sunday, November 27, 2011 from 10:30am to 3:30pm, at Oholei Menachem, 667 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213 [Map]. We will be demoing our software, Shul Cloud, synagogue software, between those hours. I currently do not know the location of our booth, but keep an eye out for our signs as displayed below.

URJ Biennial:

Then on December 14th through 18th we will be in Washington, D.C. for the URJ Biennial. We are in booth 610, so make sure to stop by. The exhibit hours are Wed, Dec 14th 5:00 - 8:00pm, Thurs, Dec 15th 11:00am - 8:00pm, Fri, Dec 16th 10:00am - 4:00pm, Sat, Dec 17th 6:00pm - 11:00pm and Sun, Dec 18th 9:00am - 2:30pm. The address is Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center, 201 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD 20745 [Map]. For more information, see here.

ShulCloud Signs

We've never exhibited before - so please be kind.

Source: Our ShulCloud Booth at Kinus Fair & URJ Biennial at RustyBrick.

11/27/11--16:54: Cyber Monday Sale - Huge iPhone App Savings Across The Board (chan 1623618)

We started writing mobile apps over 5 years ago and this Monday, we will be offering our first - across the board - Cyber Monday Sale!

The savings are really great. You can save up to $4 per app! Apps that have never been on sale, are now on sale. This is a once in a lifetime deal. Grab it now!

Alef Bet $5 -> $2
Expecting $5 -> $1
Guide to the Old City of Jerusalem $3 -> $1
Jewish Radio $3 -> $1
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch $15 -> $12
Kosher $5 -> $4
Mikvah $8 -> $6
Mishneh Torah - Rambam $10 -> $8
Mizrach Compass $1 -> FREE!
My Little Black Book $4 -> $1
Parking Meter $2 -> $1
Selichos $3 -> $2
Siddur $10 -> $8
Siddur HD $20 -> $16
Tanach $15 -> $12
Tefilla Pack $3 -> $1
Tehilim $2 -> $1
Tikun Korim $20 -> $16
Torah for iPad $8 -> $6

Download Now!

Source: Cyber Monday Sale - Huge iPhone App Savings Across The Board at RustyBrick.

11/29/11--10:43: Cyber Monday Results: 712% Jump In iPhone App Sales (chan 1623618)

App Sales Ronnie posted our Cyber Monday deals for our iPhone apps and I wanted to share the outstanding results from the sale.

712.5% Increase in Paid App Sales
500% Increase in Revenue from App Sales
175% Increase in All App Sales (combining free and paid)
Some Apps Had 4,000%+ Increase In Downloads

So this sale worked pretty well and I am glad we were able to give many of you a discount on your app purchases!

Hope you all had a successful shopping on Cyber Monday!

Image credit to ShutterStock : apps icon and sales icon.

Source: Cyber Monday Results: 712% Jump In iPhone App Sales at RustyBrick.

12/04/11--21:00: A Geekier Way To Manage Playdates (chan 1623618)

Have kids? Then you know how managing your children's playdates can become a true hassle. Between figuring out which of your children's friends your kids want to play with, the location, the timing, risks (such as pools, allergies, etc) and then multiply it by the number of children you have - it can become stressful.

Then you set up several playdates and you have to remember which kids go where, when! It can be a full time job.

There is an easier way, a more efficient way - a "geekier" way as we at RustyBrick like to call it. It is the Playdate Planet way!

We designed and developed this site for parents by parents to help them manage the day to day hassle of playdate scheduling.

We made it social, integrated and easy to use. All you need to do is go online and invite your child's friend(s) to attend a playdate of your design. The system will do the rest, from reminders, friend invite notifications, and even manage the risks of allergies, animals, pools, and so on.

Read the truly inspiring story behind the conception of the Playdate Planet idea and sign up today at playdateplanet.com.

Source: A Geekier Way To Manage Playdates at RustyBrick.

12/20/11--09:40: Testing 50 X-mini II Capsule Speakers (chan 1623618)

X Mini Speaker This year's RustyBrick holiday gift for select clients are X-Mini II Capsule Speakers (aff link). They are small speakers that can be plugged into your computer or any audio jack, such as your iPhone or Android device. You can play music out of these little small balls and the sound quality is pretty darn good.

Since we never like to ship anything out of our office that is not tested, including code - we decided to test them out. We actually found a bad one, out of the fifty.

We tested them by daisy chaining them all together and plugging them into my iPad while listening to Weapon Of Choice - Fatboy Slim on YouTube. Check it out:

Happy Holidays All!

Source: Testing 50 X-mini II Capsule Speakers at RustyBrick.

12/21/11--14:28: Miracle Lights By Shazak On iBooks (chan 1623618)

Miracle Lights By Shazak We have published our first iBook on Apple iTunes for one of Shazak's books named Miracle Lights.

This is just in time for Chanukah - yes, as you can tell from the name and imagery of the book, this is a Jewish book for children on the holiday of Chanukah.

You can buy it on iTunes for $9.99. I can't promise the price won't change in the future, so get it while it is hot. Here are book excerpts.

The book is beautifully designed and illustrated and having it on your iPad is a no brainer.

About The Book:

Join Benny and his Zaidy (grandfather) for the thrilling adventure of the CHANUKAH STORY!

Laugh, thrill and cheer as the action-packed adventure of Chanukah unfolds in this incredible illustrated book!

Get it today on iTunes.

Source: Miracle Lights By Shazak On iBooks at RustyBrick.

01/04/12--17:07: Chairing SMX Israel 2012 On January 15th (chan 1623618)

SMX Israel 2012

The end of next week I travel to Israel to 'chair' SMX Israel 2012.

SMX Israel, formerly known as SphinnCon Israel, a conference I've been running since 2008, is now officially known as an Search Marketing Expo, aka SMX, event. We have grown so much in the years, moving from a free, but very nice, college to a conference hotel to make more room. And now I am worried that the conference hotel that we are in will be sold out as well.

The conference is a week from Wednesday, on January 15th - a Sunday. Earlier this week, we sold more tickets than last year's record and we still have our busiest ticket sales week to go - that is the week prior to the conference. So I expect to sell out.

We have about 50 speakers from both in Israel and around the world. We have official Google representatives. We have awesome marketers, we have outstanding experts and even some spammers joining us.

We even have more sponsors than ever before, which means a lot to me. It shows the SEO/SEM industry in Israel is being taken very seriously. I have to shout out to the sponsors, which include Majestic SEO, Analytics Ninja, Universal McCann Search, Mad Mimi, Go Internet Marketing, Rapid Fire, Responder.co.il, SEO Genie, Sorezki, SEFO, iSEO and Viruous Online.

If you are planning on coming, make sure to check out the agenda and register now - I really think we will sell out.

Hope to see you in the holy land!

Source: Chairing SMX Israel 2012 On January 15th at RustyBrick.