Spring Cleaning: 15″ MacBook Pro, 30″ Cinema Display and OLPC XO Laptop on eBay
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
It’s been a busy start to 2008 for Bainbridge Studios, but one thing I’ve been meaning to do for weeks now is get some computer hardware up on eBay to clear out. Having recently switched to a new 2.4 GHz MacBook (Black) as my main machine, I’m selling my previous workhorse, a 2.33 Ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, along with a BookEndz docking station and my mammoth 30″ Cinema Display (the new MacBook can’t drive a 30″ at full resolution, so I’ve downgraded to a new 23″ Cinema Display).
I’ve got all three up now on eBay, along with the XO laptop we acquired from the One Laptop Per Child program’s “Give a Laptop, Get a Laptop” program back in December.
If you’re interested in any of these items, you can check them out now on eBay:
15″ MacBook Pro 2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD
30″ Apple Cinema Display
BookEndz Docking Station for 15″ MacBook Pro
OLPC XO Laptop
Update (5/28/08 - 10:15am PDT): The 30″ Cinema Display has sold, but bidding is open on the MacBook Pro and the BookEndz, and the Buy It Now is still in place for the XO.
Update (5/30/08 - 11:30am PDT): The OLPC XO Laptop has now sold.
Website Launch: RideFlyReservations.com
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
We’re continuing to expand our footprint in the online travel sector with the launch of the newly redesigned RideFlyReservations.com. We’ve been working with the fine folks at RideFly for the past two months on developing the site’s front-end/user interface, which was then coded by their in-house development team for deployment. Click here to check out the newly redesigned site.
Website Launch: Vanessa Minnillo
Monday, January 28th, 2008
We’re very pleased to announce the launch of the new official website for television personality Vanessa Minnillo. Ms. Minnillo, the former host of MTV’s TRL and a correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, has been working with Bainbridge Studios over the past year on developing a new online presence, which is now live. We’ll be working with Ms. Minnillo over the coming weeks and months on expanding the site and its content.
2008 Macworld Keynote: The Small Business Perspective
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
Yet another Steve Jobs Macworld keynote presentation is in the books and, as would be expected, the Apple faithful are all abuzz. As a major fan (and consumer) of Apple’s products, Jobs’ annual keynote is very much the equivalent of Christmas morning for (Mac) geeks. Present company included.
At the moment, most of the buzz coming out of this morning’s presentation is surrounding the new MacBook Air, Apple’s almost-but-not-quite-ultra-portable notebook computer. Weighing in at less than three pounds and barely 3/4″ inch, it’s clearly one sexy machine, and one that I’m sure will sell like crazy.
Sitting back and digesting this year’s event, I’m focusing on today’s announcements from the perspective of a small business owner; what did Steve Jobs unveil that we can really incorporate into our workflow to help us work better, faster and more efficiently for our clients?
Website Launch: Crossbeam Capital
Friday, January 11th, 2008
We’re proud to announce the launch of a new website for Crossbeam Capital, LLC, a Bethesda, MD-based real estate investment firm. We partnered with one of our regular collaborators, Crossbow Group, to design and code the site, which went live earlier today.
Wishing Everyone a Safe and Happy Holiday Season
Friday, December 21st, 2007
As we pack it in for our brief holiday break, Bainbridge Studios would like to take a moment to thank all of our clients, associates, freelancers and more for a wonderful 2007! We’ll be back in the office beginning Wednesday, January 2nd, ready to tackle the New Year.
Happy Holidays!
Thanksgiving Schedule
Monday, November 19th, 2007
Just a quick reminder that the Bainbridge Studios office will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday this Thursday and Friday, November 22nd and 23rd. We’ll be back on our regular schedule on Monday the 26th.
To all of our clients and readers, we’d like to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and a successful Black Friday!
A Lazy Friday
Friday, November 16th, 2007
Despite the best of intentions, sometimes you’re just not as productive as you’d like to be. The key, aside from not finding yourself in that position too often, is to learn to accept it when you do.
This afternoon was the perfect example.
While I had a very clear, well-planned agenda for things I needed to get done today, by the time lunch had passed, I found myself unfocused and struggling with the tasks at hand. Perhaps it was the culmination of a long week of project work, a lack of sleep (to which any new parent can attest), the ever-present Friday afternoon distraction of Layer Tennis, or the fact that a seemingly large scale anti-war protest materialized outside the office this afternoon (complete with hovering news helicopters). Or some combination of all of the above. Either way, I wasn’t getting a damn thing done past 1pm today, and once I accepted that fact, my tension dissipated.
Sometimes a little goofing off is the perfect way to recharge your batteries.
BTW, props to Aaron Draplin for doing the Pacific Northwest proud in this week’s Layer Tennis showdown.
Designing Email Marketing for Mobile Users
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
Tamara Gielen of BeRelevant!, a blog focusing on best practices in email marketing, cited a range of statistics on business-to-business (B2B) email in a post this afternoon. The item that really caught my eye was the following stat:”The percentage of business people who regularly read business emails on their mobile devices (keyword “regularly”) was 37%, up from 30% just a year ago.”This is a significant percentage to consider for anyone sending marketing emails to customers, clients, etc.
Much has been made in recent months in garnering across-the-board support for CSS standards in HTML (graphic) emails, but marketers need to pay just as much attention to the mobile user. While some mobile devices fully support and render HTML emails (the iPhone is one such device that does an excellent job of this), others are very spotty in their support for such messages (my last phone, a Blackberry, regularly chewed up HTML emails into an unreadable mess).
What’s the solution? Well, ideally, implementation of HTML and CSS support in mobile email apps. That however, is a bit beyond the control of Joe Businessman. What you can do, however, is make sure you’re covering your bases with not only the graphic/HTML versions of your marketing emails, but pairing those with plain text versions. Email marketing services such as Campaign Monitor support and encourage the practice of sending plain text versions with all HTML campaigns; the idea being that mobile users (and customers who elect, on for perceived security reasons, to block/not enable HTML emails in their mail app) will be able to view the plain text version. Granted, it may not pack the visual punch of your snazzy graphic-based email, but at least the core message is getting through, right?
Here at Bainbridge Studios, we’ve begun pairing plain text versions with clients’ HTML emails in a number of cases, and are in the process of updating our workflow to implement this practice across the board. Our goal is to send both HTML and plain-text versions of all customer marketing emails before the end of the year, and we’re on track to complete that transition.
We feel that’s the best way to offer full value to our clients for their email marketing practices and to insure that their messages are read by the widest audience possible.
It’s Been a Busy Week
Friday, June 1st, 2007
Despite the short post-holiday work week, we’ve managed to get a couple major projects wrapped up. Yesterday, we launched the new website for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth, and today we went live with a new site for Sunridge Medical Wellness Centers in Scottsdale, AZ.