We use WordPress every day and know its ins and outs. Needless to say, we’re quite smitten with it. Here are the top 5 reasons why:

1. It’s friendly and smart. WordPress is friendly with users in just about every way – even if lots of people are making updates at the same time. You see only what you need to see on the back end (and we can make it clear where each word, picture or link needs to go so there’s no need to play guessing games).

Plus, it’s dynamic: if one change needs to be made in several places on the site, WordPress can do that automatically to save you time.

WordPress is friendly with search engines, too. It’s awesome with SEO right out of the box, and we can make it even better. (Note that by “we,” I mean “Thad” – our resident web genius.)

2. It’s customizable. A WordPress site can get as fancy (or as simple) as you want it to be as long as you’ve got a someone creating it who really knows their stuff. All fields are customized to the individual site so that even the web-shy layman can make changes. And you can make magic happen, too… Like placing a video on your site perfectly with just one little “Vimeo” number. Check this out:

3. It’s expandable. You’re never locked down. Our answer is (believe it or not), “Yes, you can make changes and add that later.” You can always build on ideas and integrate improvements big or small.

4. It’s social. WordPress integrates social media, blogs and discussions incredibly well. It can even pull comments from other websites that link to yours into your site’s feed and a good developer can make it look seamless.

5. It’s safe and sound. At its core, WordPress is secure. It’s an open source site built by the community of people who love to do this tricky web stuff and are really good at it.

(This may sound like a WordPress advertisement, but it’s really just a love letter.)

Quick Response or QR codes have been around for quite some time in the technologically savvy Japan. Their prevalence in Japan’s keitai culture is only just emerging in the mainstream here. Grab a QR code reader from your smart phone’s app store and read more about what QR codes are using the code above.

This article from Ad Week a couple of years ago talked about the potential innovative or prosaic use of QR codes.

I have not been surprised to see some banal use of QR codes as mere substitutes for a URL or as alternatives to print coupons.

What I love about QR codes is their instant ability to connect a user in a transient or mobile environment with a distinct message or form of engagement. It could be recipe tips or cooking “how to’s” in a grocery store; a free demo to a game to while away some time at a transit stop; a video of a band on a tour poster with a free ringtone download; additional audio/visual information in a museum exhibition, and so on.

Reporters without Borders went a step further and integrated the utility of QR codes into the channel and message itself, demonstrating the stunning innovative potential inherent in this technology:

There is also an essential beauty inherent within QR codes themselves, as well as a beauty in their utility. This has not escaped investigation:

Anyway. I don’t have any clever gimmicks with these QR codes, but pop along to one of the options below and post a comment on some suggestions you have or examples of great QR Code use:

What’s that? It is iHumblePie in the form of an iPad. Specifically, my iPad, which became one of the 7.3 million iPads sold during Apple’s last fiscal quarter. In other words, that is about one iPad sold per second.

I had disowned the need for an iPad and shortsightedly committed that opinion to these pages before now (you can see the ingredients to my humble pie at this BrandFlakes post here). So why buy one now? Part of the answer is it was Christmas. Another part is that it is a shiny new toy and Apple are remarkably good at making their products magnetically appealing (and I have little discipline). I am also surrounded by colleagues, companies, clients, peers and friends who have and exalt them. And perhaps I was wrong, in that the iPad does genuinely occupy a niche that will render redundant many of my laptop/smart phone attractions and utility features.

With the seeming exponential growth of apps, the utility and attraction of these types of device can only grow. I’m still in the play mode, so the eventual benefits and implications of having an iPad remain to be seen. I’ll let you know. In the meantime, are there any apps you’d recommend?

It has been an interesting couple of decades watching language evolve rapidly around substantive, swift changes in our technological lives. The speed of innovations in technology has not always been met with a similarly quick development in language or, at least, in a consistent, agreed upon form of expression that we can all use to describe the same concepts. The announcement by the Associated Press last Friday that their recommended style guide for the phrase “Web site” will now be “website” would seem a small update, but reflects the enormity of change wrought in our lives by technology.

The human condition has always been illuminated in art and science and manifested through a persistent hunger to know more. For millennia, people have explored curiously the worlds around and within us and, along the way, produced momentous works of art, knowledge and scientific discovery. In tandem with those explorations and discoveries, the framework in which to discuss them has also required innovation. By definition, innovative concepts require innovative tags, labels, words and symbols to facilitate a conversation about them.

So, as we move from Web site to website and, most likely, from e-mail, e-commerce, e-anything to eeverything, consider also how our language or symbols of communication, representation, identification and meaning are changing in tune with our understanding of our technological lifestyles. (more…)

I might have to whisper this amidst the hyperbole around Apple’s iPad, but I just don’t buy it. Don’t misunderstand me; the iPad will likely be a huge success and will change the industry. I just cannot quite see how this fills the gap between my iPhone and my MacBook. Actually, I can’t see the gap. What I see is a gray area of overlap between my iPhone and MacBook.

I’m no technology geek, so I won’t address the technological wonder or disappointment (what, still no Flash?) of the iPad. What I am struggling with is the whole purpose of this device. When I consider my lifestyle, I don’t see a place for the iPad. Its main appeal seems to lie in the category of technology use that could be called entertainment. But when am I going to indulge in that via an iPad? When I am working (and maybe goofing off a little), whether in the office, at home or a coffee shop or other “third place”, my MacBook serves my needs excellently. During social time, my iPhone provides more than enough connectivity, entertainment and flexible communication to fill those periods. As for other moments “in between”, such as hanging around at airports, laying on the beach or relaxing on a casual Sunday afternoon at home, I’m able to enjoy life absent technology, hard as that might be to believe.

My thoughts are heretical around here, where Apple is loved with a religious fervor. I’m sure a colleague or two may respond on this blog. What I really need, though, is a single device that merges the convenience, connectivity and flexibility of an iPhone with the power and utility of a MacBook, all spruced up with the entertaining delights that might be found on an iPad. Something like an iEverything.

What do you think? How do you live? What do you need?