David Behan's Web Design Ireland Blog

BarCamp Cork

BarCamp is coming to Cork for the second time and it’s being held in the Webworks building on Eglinton Street, on November 1st. If you haven’t been to a BarCamp before, they are really good for learning new things, getting advice and meeting people in the industry. I’ve been to a couple so far and it’s always a good event. It’s definitely a great networking event and from the talk I’ve seen on twitter and around a number of the blogs and forums, it looks like there should be a really good turnout. Oh, there’s no cost to attend the event.

I Might Be Giving a Talk

Yes, I’ve put my name down to give a talk on how to sell websites (well, sell anything really). Basically, I’m just going to share my experience and give advice on drumming up business, sales calls, sales meetings (incl. body language basics), proposals, contracts, closing the deal, etc. It’s my first talk on such a subject but I’m looking forward to it. Now that we’ve moved into a recession, it looks like most industries will need to get back to basics when it comes to selling. I hope to see a good turnout of new and familiar faces.

Pre BarCamp Dinner & Drinks

A number of us have been talking about the possiblity of dinner and drinks the night before the event and it looks like it’s going ahead. Pat Phelan is organising a dinner the night before, so if you’re interested in coming, get your name down quick. The guys from the Irish Webmaster Forum are also meeting up for drinks so we’ll all probably end up together the night before.

Accommodation

We did some research on the hotels in the area and here’s a couple of links with pricing. I’ll probably be staying in Jury’s Inn as it close to the venue:

• Jury’s Inn – €129
• Jury’s Cork Hotel – €129
• Clarion Hotel – €140
• Cork Int’l Airport – €150

Carpooling

If anyone is interested in a lift down on the Friday afternoon from Dublin, I’ll probably be heading down with Michele and I’ll be driving back on the Sunday. I’ve space for 2 more so let me know if you want to join us.

Well, that’s it. Hope to see you at the event. If you see me wandering around, don’t hesitate to stop me for a chat.

It’s no secret that we’re now in a recession and most industries across the country and the world are feeling the effects. In talking to a number of other web professionals and from my own experiences, I believe that the Interent is good for consumers and businesses alike, thus being good for our industry. Let me explain a bit more and maybe make more sense.

The Internet for Consumers in the Recession

With everyone needing to become a lot more conscious of their spending habits and how much they are spending, more and more people with be researching and even making their purchases online, looking for better deals. Hence, I believe that although we are in a recession, there may be a shift of spending from traditional sales channels over to the online sales channel. During the boom times in Ireland, we didn’t really care what we were spending on items because there was always more cash coming our way (I’m generalising here but not always the case). I’m constantly reminded that I don’t know what it is like to live in Ireland during a recession and it’s a different mind set. The last recession in Ireland was in the 80’s and I was too young then to notice. With the Internet available to all in this ecomonic cycle, I wonder how much it will influence people in their buying habits. Spending figures may go down but I think the percentage of spending online will go up.

The Internet for Businesses in the Recession

So, it’s no longer the spending frenzy that as it has been in years gone by and I’ve found that a lot of businesses that previously didn’t need to do much marketing for the business to sustain their size and also grow, are now looking at new ways of bringing in the business. A recession pushes businesses to get back to basics and focus on sales and marketing to keep their businesses alive. This is where the Internet comes in to play. Utilising a business website to help market your business and generate sales leads or indeed direct sales can be a cost effective approach compared to traditional sales and marketing methods. Take a one day full page ad in one of the national papers that can easily cost upwards of €10,000 but it only lasts a day. By putting €10,000 towards your website, you’re looking at a sales and marketing tool that can last at least 2 years. Any subsequent traditional advertising can be directed to your website to pick up where they leave off, and generate those must needed sales leads. If you haven’t embraced a website for your business or your current site is looking a bit dated, now is definitely the time to look at how a strong web presence can benefit your business in these difficult times.

The Effect on the Industry

Both of the above lead to one thing for our industry, we are definitely getting busier. I’ve talked to a number of other professionals in the industry and nobody seems to be feeling the effects of the recession just yet. Everyone is saying the same thing – they are busier than ever. Will this last? I’m not sure but if businesses all come to realise the strengths a good website can have for their business during a recession, our industry will continue to grow. We’re working with lots of new clients on their new approach to online business as well as upgrading existing clients with new techniques to improve their presence. We would definitely recommend companies that need a new sales and marketing strategy in this unsure time to look into this further and contact one of the many companies out there that can provide a good service. Finding the right company can be difficult though so in addition to ourselves, I’d like to recommend a few web companies and individuals off the top of my head, that I know in the industry and believe they can do a great job:

• Ken Stanley – Standards guru with a good team around him for some exceptional work
• Contrast – They mainly build web apps but also design some very unique websites
• Sabrina Dent – Designs some great looking websites that have also achieved some great success
• Spoilt Child – Probably one of the best design companies in the country with an excellent portfolio
• Click Stream – Have a wide array of clients and producing some very good work
• Red Fly Marketing – For when you need to market your website in the online world

Do you need some advice?

We love talking to businesses and offering any advice we possibly can. Feel free to call me directly on 046 – 9072998 for a chat or email me at info [at] davidbehan.com.

I finally did it. Earlier this week, I got a new iPhone. I was badly in need of a new phone for the past month as my old n95, drowned in a pint on a Saturday night out in Dublin. I temporarily tried using my old n73 and another entry level phone from Vodafone but just needed something with more power, features, email, mobile web, car kit compatible, etc. Vodafone couldn’t help me out with an upgrade because I’ve another 9 months left in my contract so I decided to look at my options [I should mention that they did give me 2 months free line rental because they felt sorry for me or something - about €160]. After using an iPod Touch since earlier this year, I really thought it was time to get an iPhone but how?

My Options

• Transfer my number to o2 (as they exclusively sell the iphone in Ireland) but I had 9 months left in my contract so that was out.
• Get a new number with o2 and have 2 phones – 1 for business and 1 for personal. Problem with this was that any time I called into either an o2 Store or Carphone Warehouse, they were never in stock and didn’t know when/if they would be.
• Get it from the US but when I had a couple of my friends check it out for me on their travels, all those phones were locked down to the network.
• Get a hacked iPhone on eBay that used iJailBreak or simable or another form of hack but the problem with this is that you can’t do firmware updates without the risk of apple locking the phone when re-activating it.

The Solution

After doing a bit of searching on eBay, I found out that certain countries were selling iPhones unlocked (or simfree) from their network. I did some searching around and it appeared to be true. A number of countries have laws in place that don’t allow Apple to lock the phones to a particular network, one of which is Italy. I did some more searching on eBay and I found a seller in Ireland that had some iPhones from Italy for sale. We agreed a price and I dropped down to Dublin to try before buying.

After unwrapping the packaging, I popped in my Vodafone sim, started up the iPhone and connected it to my MacBook’s iTunes. Apple did its thing and activated the phone. Later that night, I did a full firmware update and the phone re-activated with Apple – no hacks, no worries, no problems. OK, maybe a little bit of worrying while I was waiting those few seconds for it to activate but all was fine.

Setting Up iPhone for Vodafone Ireland

There wasn’t much to do to get the iPhone working with Vodafone Ireland. It picks up the cell information anyway so the phone works perfect. I just needed to get the right settings in for the 3G part. Under Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network I’m using the following information:

• APN: isp.vodafone.ie
• Username: vodafone
• Password: vodafone

I also rang Vodafone to see if my data add-on package would cover requests going through this APN. It didn’t but they have a package for 1GB for €10 extra per month. I’ve added that on and it should be through on the next bill date.

Screenshots (click for larger image)

Here’s some screenshots that I took of the phone on Vodafone Ireland. Oh, to take a screenshot, hold down the power button on the top of the iPhone and press the home button once. The screen will flash and add the screenshot to your camera roll. I had to look this up online as the instructions that came with my iPhone are in Italian. That’s the only draw back but I can live with it.

Conclusion

If you don’t want to go to o2 to get your iPhone, have a look on eBay for iPhones that are “legally unlocked” from Apple. They range from €550 to €750. The official price on Vodafone Italia is €569, as far as I remember. I paid €700 for mine, but sure I’m mad like this when it comes to gadgets. Still, I’m with Vodafone with all my free calls and stuff, I’ve got an iPhone and I’m NOT stuck in an 18 month contract with o2 on a worse price plan. I couldn’t be happier! I’m sure this process would work fine for getting an iPhone on Meteor Ireland or Three (3) Ireland. You’d just need to get the correct settings for those networks.

Hopefully this will help someone looking to get an iPhone that are not with o2 Ireland. I believe there is a market of around 2-3 million people in Ireland that are not with o2 and could want one. If anyone has any questions, don’t be afraid to ask.