'TechSqueeze' Archives

Download Our Brand-Spankin'-New-and-Improved City Apps!

By Alex Rodriguez Wed., Feb. 27 2013 at 11:57 AM

You know, we here at New Times are always looking for ways to spit, polish, and shine up our sites to provide you with a better news-seeking experience.

We know, that makes us really awesome, but beyond that, it makes you awesome for keeping up with us.

Where can you get the latest Broward news on politics, Florida Man, Mary J, -derp, the Dolphins, Rick Ross, and food trucks?

Allow us to show you.

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New Times' South Florida Web Awards 2012: Vote Now!

By Jose D. Duran Wed., Oct. 3 2012 at 2:00 PM

Categories: TechSqueeze

We've spent the past few weeks scoping out South Florida's social media landscape in search of the best of the web. Our eyes are a bit bleary from staring at our computer screens and iPhones, but here it is: our first annual South Florida Web Awards. From the apps you can't live without to the blog you should be reading and the Instagram photos that put South Florida under a toaster filter, we're recognizing those who take the time to digitally document our area.

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Green Room, Web Awards 2012

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Why Does City of Fort Lauderdale's Google Ranking Suck?

By Chris Sweeney Fri., Sep. 21 2012 at 5:00 AM

Categories: TechSqueeze

Today's morning post requires a bit of reader participation. Go to Google and type in "Fort Lauderdale."

Results will vary based on browser, search history, location, and a host of other factors Google's all-knowing algorithm accounts for. But you'll most likely see that somehow, a long-ago-abandoned and now-defunct URL for the city's website -- ci.ftlaud.fl.us -- outranks fortlauderdale.gov, the city's fully functioning website, which it has been promoting and using for years.

This annoys and perplexes city spokesman Chaz Adams and Fort Lauderdale webmaster Mark Dennin, and for good reason.

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Tags:

Bill Gates, Fort Lauderdale, Google

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Are Local News Apps Worth a Download?

By Craig Agranoff Mon., Feb. 8 2010 at 9:27 AM

Categories: TechSqueeze

Nearly every news outlet in South Florida, including, New Times, has a cell phone signup form where you can receive headlines and tidbits via text message. Most of the local news outlets in both television and print also have mobile versions of their sites that load automatically when you visit from your phone. The Sun-Sentinel has a good example of that in action.

That's a good start, but I'd honestly like to see more. Especially in a technically sophisticated area like we live in here.

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Tags:

iPhone apps, technical difficulties, television news

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Amber Alerts, Myah, and Your Mobile Phone

By Craig Agranoff Wed., Feb. 3 2010 at 4:28 PM

Categories: TechSqueeze

Last Friday afternoon, Myah Knighton-Black went missing from Riviera Beach. On Sunday, police reached out to local media to say that the missing 14-year-old could be in Miami-Dade County. As of this writing the girl has not yet been found. Still, the case provides an example for how the Amber Alert system works via mobile phone.

Coordinated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Amber Alert system is responsible for all of those highway signs, television and radio broadcasts alerting the public to children gone missing. It takes some serious tech.

There are a few of those regional signs on I-95. They're controlled by regional action centers that the NCMEC uses so that alerts can be sent where they can be seen by the driving public quickly.

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Tags:

amber alert texts, amber alerts, iphone amber alerts, iphone missing children app

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Imaneed Classifieds: A Silly Name -- and a Great Idea -- With South Florida Roots

By Craig Agranoff Wed., Jan. 27 2010 at 5:04 PM

Categories: TechSqueeze

Imaneed is a real-time classifieds service that is based in Weston, where its founder, Matt Lally, lives. He created the site as a way of making classified-style ads more dynamic -- functioning in real time rather than "print time." The idea is innovative, even if the name's kind of goofy.

After completing his education in the U.K., Lally moved to South Florida and founded Augme Mobile, which he later sold to Modavox Inc. (an Arizona company). At that point, Lally told Juice he saw a need to bring newspaper-style classifieds up to date with a more real-time, net-based service.

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florida classifieds, florida startups, imaneed.com, matthew lally

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Imaneed Classifieds: A Silly Name -- and a Great Idea -- With South Florida Roots

By Craig Agranoff Wed., Jan. 27 2010 at 5:04 PM

Categories: TechSqueeze

Imaneed is a real-time classifieds service that is based in Weston, where its founder, Matt Lally, lives. He created the site as a way of making classified-style ads more dynamic -- functioning in real time rather than "print time." The idea is innovative, even if the name's kind of goofy.

After completing his education in the U.K., Lally moved to South Florida and founded Augme Mobile, which he later sold to Modavox Inc. (an Arizona company). At that point, Lally told Juice he saw a need to bring newspaper-style classifieds up to date with a more real-time, net-based service.

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Tags:

florida classifieds, florida startups, imaneed.com, matthew lally

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Phone Drones: The Frustrations and Perplexities of Placing a Phone Call in South Florida

By Craig Agranoff Mon., Jan. 25 2010 at 9:06 AM

Categories: TechSqueeze

"They f*** you with cell phones!" says Joel Kodner, one of the most outspoken members of our South Florida Twitterverse. He's quoting Joe Pesci's character in Lethal Weapon 4, who was ranting about poor reception, dropped calls, and the rapidly decreasing size of the gadgets themselves. That was 12 years ago -- imagine what he'd have to say today in regard to data plans, rollover minutes, hardware/network exclusivity, and so on.

The entire industry seems focused on profiting not by offering unparalleled service and functionality but by confusing, frustrating, and contractually imprisoning the customer.

The iPhone is currently the world's top-selling portable. It's been limited to just one carrier, AT&T, but if the iPhone makes itself able to be available to other carriers, and that's going to bring new complexities.

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iPhone, technical difficulties

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Phone Drones: The Frustrations and Perplexities of Placing a Phone Call in South Florida

By Craig Agranoff Mon., Jan. 25 2010 at 9:06 AM

Categories: TechSqueeze

"They f*** you with cell phones!" says Joel Kodner, one of the most outspoken members of our South Florida Twitterverse. He's quoting Joe Pesci's character in Lethal Weapon 4, who was ranting about poor reception, dropped calls, and the rapidly decreasing size of the gadgets themselves. That was 12 years ago -- imagine what he'd have to say today in regard to data plans, rollover minutes, hardware/network exclusivity, and so on.

The entire industry seems focused on profiting not by offering unparalleled service and functionality but by confusing, frustrating, and contractually imprisoning the customer.

The iPhone is currently the world's top-selling portable. It's been limited to just one carrier, AT&T, but if the iPhone makes itself able to be available to other carriers, and that's going to bring new complexities.

More »

Tags:

iPhone, technical difficulties

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Do You Really Need a Copywriter?

By Craig Agranoff Fri., Jan. 22 2010 at 2:34 PM

Categories: TechSqueeze

The web is full of shady people, with shady sales approaches and tactics. It is hard to go online without being pressured to buy something. Believe it or not, people actually pay "copywriters" to come up with these sleazy sales pitches.

After investigating the sector, it's disheartening to see how much money these bloodsuckers charge for their services. But then I came across Allison Nazarian -- an exception to the rule, apparently.

Nazarian, the Boca Raton wordsmith who heads TheCopywritingStore.com and the AllisonMediaGroup.com, goes beyond just writing sales copy for the web. She actually teaches her clients how to do it themselves so they don't have to come back to her every time they need new copy.

Except, um, isn't that bad for business?

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