RustyBrick, Inc. - Blog

Our Apps On Channel 2 Israel (ערוץ 2‎)

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 08 February 2012 17:40:09 EST

Channel Two (aka ערוץ 2‎) in Israel seems to have featured some of our apps in their segment named "יקציות בסמארטפון לחרדים" or "Orthodox Smartphone Apps." I honestly do not know Hebrew all that well, so I cannot translate the video, but here is the Hebrew and English translation from the description of the video as posted on YouTube.

First the news segment:

חדש: אפליקציות בסמארטפון לחרדים

נראה שהטלפונים החכמים כבר יודעים לעשות, ואפילו היהדות הופכת טכנולוגית יותר באמצעות המכשירים הניידים: תוכנת תפילות, איתור מקווה קרוב וגם הדלקת נרות בלחיצת כפתור -- אפליקציות חדשות הופכות את הטלפון גם לתשמיש קדושה

*מובייל מניין הינו כלי חדשני ביותר המשתמש בפסגת הטכנולוגיה כדי לאפשר ליהודים בכל העולם לקבל את כל המידע הדרוש להם בזמן אמת.
*עשרות אלפי נקודות עניין יהודיות בכל העולם. מדובר במאגר היהודי הגדול ביותר בעולם. בתי כנסת, מקוואות, מסעדות כשרות, בתי ספר, מלונות כשרים, כל הזמנים ביהדות, סידור ועוד.
*כל משתמש יכול להוסיף ולעדכן נתונים למערכת.
*ניתן לקבל גישה למערכת גם מתוך אתר האינטרנט שלנו: www.m-minyan.com , כך תוכל לתכנן את הנסיעה הבאה שלך עוד לפני שיצאת מהבית..
*הרשת החברתית הראשונה בעולם המתייחסת לצרכיהם של היהודים באשר הם. אתה יכול ליצור קשר מיידי עם משתמשים אחרים להגשמת מטרות משותפות.
*חידוש: ניתן בלחיצת כפתור לארגן מניין עם משתמשים אחרים הנמצאים ברדיוס הקרוב אליך ביותר ! נתמך ע"ג מפה (דמוי GPS) בכל מקום בעולם !
*באישור ובהמלצת גדולי ישראל, והרב הראשי לישראל.

New: Orthodox smartphone applications

Smart phones seem to already know, and even Judaism becomes more technology through mobile devices: Prayers software, finding hope and candle close at the touch of a button - new applications also become the holy relic phone

* Mobile Where is the most innovative tool for the user at the top of the technology to allow the Jews all over the world get all the information they need in real time.
* Tens of thousands of Jewish points of interest around the world. This is the largest Jewish population in the world. Synagogues, ritual baths, kosher restaurants, schools, kosher hotels, all times in Judaism, sequencing and more.
* Each user can add and update data in the system.
* You can also access the system from our website: www.m-minyan.com, so you can plan your next trip before you left home ..
* The world's first social network relates to the needs of Jews everywhere. You can create an immediate connection with other users achieve common goals.
* Request: You can organize a minyan at the touch of a button with other users in the radius near you! Supported with on a map (like GPS) anywhere in the world!
* Approval of the recommendation of the great men of Israel, and Israel's chief rabbi.

Source: Our Apps On Channel 2 Israel (ערוץ 2‎) at RustyBrick.

The Tenth Baby Born To The RustyBrick Family & All Are Girls

Barry Schwartz — Sun, 29 January 2012 21:33:14 EST

Ronnie's wife just a few hours ago had a baby girl. Congrats Ronnie and Civia!

That is their 3rd child and 3rd girl - 3 for 3! But that isn't the unusual part - what is a bit weird is that of all the kids to be born to the RustyBrick family, all of them are girls. All 10 of them!

Ronnie had 3 girls while at RustyBrick, Joe had 2 girls while at RustyBrick, Steve had 2 girls while at RustyBrick, Jimmy had 2 girls while at RustyBrick. I had a girl while at RustyBrick as well.

So Ronnie's 3rd girl makes that 10 girls to be born to the RustyBrick family with no boys yet to be born to the RustyBrick family.

The big question is, who will break the streak?

Congrats again Ronnie and Civia!

Source: The Tenth Baby Born To The RustyBrick Family & All Are Girls at RustyBrick.

Chairing SMX Israel 2012 On January 15th

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 04 January 2012 20:07:14 EST

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.

Miracle Lights By Shazak On iBooks

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 21 December 2011 17:28:32 EST

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.

Testing 50 X-mini II Capsule Speakers

Barry Schwartz — Tue, 20 December 2011 12:40:03 EST

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.

Cyber Monday Results: 712% Jump In iPhone App Sales

Barry Schwartz — Tue, 29 November 2011 13:43:54 EST

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.

Cyber Monday Sale - Huge iPhone App Savings Across The Board

Ronnie Schwartz — Sun, 27 November 2011 19:54:54 EST

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.

Our ShulCloud Booth at Kinus Fair & URJ Biennial

Barry Schwartz — Mon, 21 November 2011 13:09:18 EST

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.

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

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

Steve Jobs Has Died On October 5, 2011

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 05 October 2011 19:52:39 EDT

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.

Michael Mozart of JeepersMedia Interviews Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz — Thu, 25 August 2011 21:21:02 EDT

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.

Google Chrome Preloading in Action

Michael Butler — Wed, 24 August 2011 09:41:56 EDT

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.

RustyBrick Indoor 2011 BBQ

Barry Schwartz — Tue, 16 August 2011 13:09:22 EDT

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!

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.

Facebook Launches Mobile Messenger App

Michael Butler — Tue, 09 August 2011 16:43:31 EDT

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.

Happy Birthday iPhone Siddur: 50% Discount Today Only

Barry Schwartz — Thu, 04 August 2011 09:41:51 EDT

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.

Google Maps Android Update Enables Public Transit Navigation

Michael Butler — Wed, 06 July 2011 16:24:18 EDT

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.

JavaScript Hover Effects to Speed Up Page Load Time

Michael Butler — Fri, 01 July 2011 14:36:17 EDT

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.

Siddur iPhone App Top 100 Grossing Reference Apps

Barry Schwartz — Wed, 29 June 2011 15:58:23 EDT

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.

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.

My Talk At La Red Innova Madrid 2011

Barry Schwartz — Mon, 20 June 2011 11:32:29 EDT

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.

Crazy Bird Pecking At My Office Window

Ronnie Schwartz — Fri, 17 June 2011 13:23:27 EDT

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.

HTML5 Video on TravelShark for a Better Experience

Michael Butler — Wed, 15 June 2011 19:48:10 EDT

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.