Anyway, If you have a Galaxy Tab and notice that things looks a little different than mine, its because your’s is probably running Samsung’s TouchWiz Interface, an OTA upgrade that was pushed out in early August, 2011.

So, without further ado, I invite you to watch my hands on video, where I go over some of the good (and not-so-good) features of the stock Android’s 3.1 Honeycomb OS.

I love me some Home Screens

The widgetized home screens are the main identifying features of Honeycomb, distinguishing it from Apple’s IOS.  The five home screens- two on either side of the main screen- are accessed with a quick swipe, accompanied by a sharp 3D-ish perspective motion.

Adding widgets and shortcuts to the home screens is simple. A “long press” on any open space brings up the launchpad, where you can see all five of your home screens and library of available widgets.

Some Widgets, like Mail and Bookmarks are resizable by long pressing and dragging out the handles that appear.

Apps-olutely

Let’s face it, Honeycomb needs more apps. A lot more. I was disappointed to discover that most of the big players are either missing or your forced to use an enlarged version of the Android phone app.

Here’s a breakdown of those bad apps

• Facebook (No app available)
• Twitter (phone app)
• Skype (phone app, no video)
• Hoot Suite (Doesn’t work)
• Even Google+ doesn’t have an app available specifically for Honeycomb.

On a positive note, some of the better tablet optimized apps are:

• Gmail
• Google Maps (with extra gestures, 3D and birds eye view)
• Evernote
• You Tube (awesome browsing interface)
• Sketchbook
• Amazon Kindle

Bookywook(s)

I wasn’t surprised to see an new “Books” tab in the Android Honeycomb market. However, downloading a book from the market will only open in the Android E-reader, a feature-less step child of the Amazon Kindle app. If you’re a serious book reader, then I’d stick with the Amazon Kindle app and market. I should note that you can’t open books from the Android market in the Kindle app.

Interwebing & Flash

The web browser is almost perfect. Not sure is this is a bug, but the top toolbar scrolls vertically with the page. Annoying on longer pages, requiring you to scroll all the back up top to hit the back button.

Adobe Flash works darn good on this dual-processor device. Interactive Flash elements on some websites may be less responsive, as most were designed for mouse interaction, not touch.

Dueling Cameras

Yes! Front-facing cameras are finally here. (I’m being sarcastic). The resolution on both front and rear cameras is nothing to brag about. And pretty useless since the Skype app doesn’t support video at all [yet]. C’mon Honeycomb! Why Skype video is available on some android hand sets, yet not on the “worlds thinnest, fasted tablet” is mind boggling.

You can, however, use those nifty cameras with Google Talk. The app does have some kinks, but it’s worth checking out. I hope Samsung get’s the video chat features straightened out soon with their TouchWiz upgrade. And taking photos, as you can imagine can be quite cumbersome on a tablet.

Overall, I really like the stock Honeycomb UI on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. It has a sharp, crisp, high-tech theme and smooth transition effects. And yes, we could use more tablet-friendly apps. Will Honeycomb user-experience be hindered by Samsung’s TouchWiz UI? We’ll find out. Stay posted for my the follow up.

I’d love to hear your feedback. Please leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!

First Look: My Official Unboxing video

With the market being flooded right now with Android tablets of all shapes and sizes, the choice was actually an easy one. Allow me to break down a few reasons why I went for the Galaxy tab.

Size Matters

The 10.1 inch screen on the new Galaxy Tab is perfect for watching full HD video. Besides screen size, it’s all about weight for me (while still pulling it’s weight). I wanted a tablet that’s as light as possible to hold in one hand. Most other tablets couldn’t grasp that concept. The Motorola Xoom is too heavy. Asus eTransformer is too mis-shapen, and the iPad2 was, well, an iPad.   Plus the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is incredibly thin, about 1mm thinner than the iPad2.

Flash Flash and more Flash

I’m a web designer, so Flash is very important to me. Mainly because many of my websites contain embeded non-youtube flash video. Android Honeycomb 3.0 on the Galaxy tab 10.1 runs flash perfectly. Flash content displays in the browser just like it does on your computer. So far, I havent seen a single instance of the dreaded “Cannot load content” icon.

Picture Quality

Of all the tablets out right now, including other Androids and iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has the sharpest, brightest, most vibrant screen I’ve seen. This is coming from a guy who’s spent hours at Best Buy and Fry’s demoing every tablet known to man. Graphics and videos just POP on this thing. iPad2 comes in at a close second, while no other Android tablet even comes close to the quality of the Tab 10.1.

Speed

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a perfect tablet to show off the beauty of Android’s stock Honeycomb OS. I only wish there were more apps available for it. Most apps I’m familiar with for Android phones are available on the tablet. But, they look funny on a large screen. I’ve only found a few useful Honeycomb-specific apps on the Android market.

Evernote is my top pick, with the Pulse news reader and Alias SketchBookX right up there. I do hope Skype, Twitter and Facebook join the Honeycomb revolution. And it should be noted, that [most] websites will come up in their full desktop versiona instead of their mobile counterparts- I’m looking at you HootSuite!

Check out Part 2, where I demo the Galaxy Tab and the stock Honeycomb OS.

There’s also rumored to be an over-the-air update any day now for the Samsung TouchWiz UI (new post?). I’m not a huge fan of TouchWiz on the Galaxy S phone, so I’m anxious to see how the tablet version differs. My main concern is that it doesn’t trump the power and ease of the stock Honeycomb UI.

That’s it for now. If you found this post useful, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your feedback. Thanks for reading!

Well, here it is folks. QR codes have made their way into mainstream marketing campaigns on the West Coast. I snapped this photo at the Food Court of the Fashion Valley Mall in Mission Valley (San Diego), California. Every table-top, dozens, were adorned with a Kaiser Permanente ad, each with a QR code to scan for more info.  Taking a cue from Japanese marketing trends, QR Codes are the next mobile phenomena to hit the US.

I have to hand it to the creative mind behind this Kaiser campaign. The mystery factor of what’s behind that QR code really does work. Within seconds of sitting down to eat, I found myself dying to scan the code with my Droid. And that’s where the mystery ended. I was disapointed that the code took me to a desktop-formatted website. Why go through all that trouble of creating this beautiful marketing campaign if you’re not taking full advantage of mobile phones? The web page linked from the QR code should’ve been a mobile-formatted, mobile friendly landing page.

What’s a mobile website?

A mobile-friendly website is formatted to fit into the phone’s display without requiring the user to zoom and pan page, just like an App. It’s almost a contradiction for a QR code to link to a non-mobile web page. QR itself stands for Quick Response. This idea of “quick response” should also extend into the design of the web page.

So, How affective was that Kaiser web page? I wouldn’t know because I didn’t feel like zooming in to read it.  I lost interest. The instant that a mobile-phone user loads up this non-mobile page puts the campaign at risk.  The last thing any marketer wants is for their message to be lost. But, that can easily happen if the site has the user panning all over the page to find the call to action, let alone understand the message.

Mobile landing pages are quick and concise. They present the most relevant information to the viewer, along with a clear call to action.  I give Kaiser an A for Effort.  The one thing this campaign was missing is a mobile landing page. If they add that to the mix, Kaiser is sure to see mush higher conversions from this outdoor campaign.

P.S. For a (decent) example of a mobile-friendly website, just view this web page on a smart phone. Better yet, scan the QR code below!

This Page

I recently returned from a visit to Japan, where QR codes are commonplace. [Skip to photos] Appearing in nearly every marketing medium – outdoor, print, packaging, web, television – the codes have been widely used for at least the past three years in Japanese markets.

So what are they exactly?

Simply explained, QR codes (Quick Response) are an easy, interactive and fun way to deliver online content in the offline world. Scanning a code with your smartphone’s QR app will either launch a webpage or display a bit of text or phone number on your handset. Hopefully that’s enough explaining to get your imagination going about the marketing potential. If not, you can learn more about QR Codes here.

Why is the US far behind Japan with the QRaze?

Beside the fact that they invented the technology, QR codes have been used in Japanese marketing campaigns shortly after the advent of camera phones.  And now that smart phones and apps are becoming the norm in the United States (still emerging in Japan, oddly enough), QR code marketing is quickly on its way. You can already see the codes in use at your local Best Buy and Home Depot stores, offering customers more information on products. And if you’re a business owner, signing up with a Google Places account will give you a free QR code poster for your window front.

With the rate of smart phone adoption in the US, I predict that QR codes will rapidly start popping up in outdoor and printed advertising, with complete saturation in major US markets within the next 12 to 18 months.

If you’re still puzzled by all this, check out these photos of what’s going on in Japan right now!

Checkout the instructions to the right on how to use the QR code.

Even Facebook is on the QR code bandwagon

Anyway, It’s rare these days that I get an opportunity to work on my own projects. So, in the spirit of keeping things simple, I whipped a new one-page portfolio called Greenwald.me

Following the trend of one-page portfolio sites out there, the point is to quickly showcase who I am and the web design & marketing work I’ve done, period. The site’s already gotten some good feedback, and even helped me attract some new clients.

It was nice working outside of a CMS for a change, and getting back to my hand coding roots. The page consists of my signature XHTML & CSS2 techniques with some cool JQuery effects thrown in.  And, I’ve been waiting for a chance to put my new .me domain name to good use.

So stop reading this and check out my new portfolio at Greenwald.ME

Weeks later, while doing SEO on this site, I ran a link scan in my SEO tool Website Auditor and discovered some 2000 plus urls for pages on an illegal file download site. The urls had my domain as the root! They looked something like this:

http://mydomain.com/components/com_acymailing/path-to-illegal-download.html

ACY Mailing is a popular Joomla component, but I’ve never installed it on this site, nor was there any reference to it in the Joomla admin. Aha! this must’ve been the work of those hackers a few weeks back, right? They installed a fake-directory, and disguised it by giving it a name of a common Joomla component in the hopes it would go un-noticed by the webmaster. I simply deleted this malicious directory, and the few php and javascript files inside it, and whoa-la! The 2000 + strange links vanished.

How could the hackers have gotten into my FTP to create this directory? After hours of reviewing log files and battling with my hosting company over security issues, we discovered a faulty extension, one that I did install, was to blame. The Joomla extension “Ninja RSS Syndicator” was used as a back door to gain access into my site.

Removing that extension and changing admin passwords solved the problem, right? Not quite. 2 months went by hacker-free. Then, once again, a scan of my returned 2000 new urls stemming from “../components/com_phocadownload/… I quickly recognized Phoca Download as a popular Joomla component, and, one that was not installed on this site. For the second time, I removed the malicious folder and its files. Now, how could this have happened twice after getting rid of that crappy rss extension that was used as a back door?

I had my host, Host Gator, who is great by the way, run a deep scan of my site for malicious files. They uncovered two php files that seem to be the root for all this malicious activity. The files were hidden in the images/stories folder.  I deleted the files and have been hacker-free since.

Moral of the story: Know your Joomla extensions and be careful what you install on your site. Joomla is great and I love it as a cms. But, being an open-source platform, third-party extensions are often developed with a lack of quality control that you’d expect, providing holes that hackers can use to exploit your site. Do your research before installing extensions, especially those not listed in Joomla’s official extension directory. Try searching Google for the extension’s name + hack, sucks, faulty, etc, to uncover any negative reviews. And if you do suspect that you’ve been hacked, be sure to remove ALL the malicious files from your server and also check your SQL tables for any lingering data associated with the hacking attempt. Lastly, make sure your version of Joomla is up-to-date. Most of the updates that are released include better security counter-measures.

What caught my eye most were these mysterious murals I stumbled across while visiting friends in the city of Valencia. This is true modern art. The artists, meaning and movement unknown, it was exciting to experience these modern masterpieces canvassing the walls of buildings dating back to the middle ages and earlier. The haunting, morbid themes left me puzzled at what the true meanings could be, but hey, that’s art.

This last one is more funny than artistic. Translation: “I don’t enjoy parties in your village”

I passed the IQ exam from Google’s Conversion University~ woo-hoo!  What does this mean? Well, simply put,  it means that I’m experienced enough in using Google’s website analytics tools that I was able to pass a 70 question exam in under 90 minutes.

Believe me, this exam was no cake walk. If you’re seriously considering spending $50 to attempt this, here’s a few things you should be aware of first:

1. Google Analytics. If you’ve never used it before, then start now. Install it on your website and start using it. Most of the features are pretty self explanatory, but it’s the more advanced stuff that you’ll be tested on. Get familiar with using Goals, Filters and Funnels to customize your reporting.

2. Google AdWords. About a third of the exam questions are about e-commere and using your AdWords account in conjuction with Analytics. I was a bit surprised there was so much emphasis on ppc, but it does make sense when you consider that AdWords is the main source of revenue for the Google corporation. Many may see this as marketing ploy, but all things considered, knowing this stuff can only benefit you as a professional internet marketer in the long run.

3. Google’s Conversion University has free video lessons specifically for the Analytics IQ exam. I strongly recommend investing some time going over these videos before taking the exam. A lot of it may be boreville if you’re a self-proclaimed Analytics pro, but I guarantee there are a few that you’ve never touched before. The videos are short and go by pretty fast. The lessons on Regular Expressions and e-commerce were really helpful to me.

I’ve been using Google Analytics for well over five years, on dozens of websites as my reporting tool of choice. This was the first Google exam I’ve taken. In my overall exam-taking experience, I’d rate the difficulty of this one a solid 8 out of 10. If you take the time to use and understand Google Analytics, and review the video lessons, then passing the exam is well worth the small fee. Plus, you get a cool certificate to show off to all your friends.

- Scott

What should you expect to see here?

First and foremost, I’m a web designer. I’m going to share some useful tips on graphic design, front-end development, and specifically some of the HTML, CSS & AJAX techniques I’ve learned and put into use on large-scale websites.

Second, I’m an internet marketer. But don’t expect me to give away all my secrets here. I’ve learned valuable organic SEO techniques that I feel every modern web designer should put into practice.  I’m not only talking about on-site seo and best coding practices, but more importantly, some of the valuable off-site techniques for link building and cultivating a lasting online presence.

And Third, I use open source platforms like Joomla, WordPress, and Magento. Make sure to to follow me for tips & tricks, plugin reviews, and some other tidbits I use to master the world of open-source web development.

Who is this guy anyway?

I probably should mention my name – Scott Greenwald. I run a freelance design business called greendezine. Take a look at my main site for a little more info on who I am and the type of web design I do.

So that’ll do it for now. I promised myself I wouldn’t ramble on in these posts.  Check back frequently as my goal is to write a couple posts per week. And feel free to share some ideas if there’s anything you’d like me to discuss here.