Another Reason why I Love Apple!!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 2:02 PM

Hi All,

So I know its been a while since my last post, but I wanted to share what I think is a pretty amazing story with you!

Our team here at SAGE Event Management just finished a great week working with Alex Mandossian and his Click and Be Free team. It was an awesome event where they taught the attendees not only how to set up a membership site from scratch, but also provided the templates and tools to make it happen. Pretty amazing stuff.

Anyway, at the end of the last day, we packed up the ballroom and moved any valuables to our “secure” staff office. The next morning, I came downstairs, and was missing my trusty MacBook Pro as well as four of our team’s iPad 2s. We called hotel security to file a report, and they suggested we call the police to file a report with them as well. As we were waiting for the police, I remembered that my MacBook Pro had Lion on it, which now includes this neat feature called “Find My Mac”. Its a psuedo gps locator that uses local wifi networks to tell you where your mac is when you’ve lost it.

When I logged into the app, it showed my computer, and one of the missing iPads, as being across the street behind a Taco Bell. I thought it was a bit weird, but when the police showed up, I told them where the app showed the location of the MacBook and the iPad(s). They left saying they would take a look.

Given that we’re in Los Angeles, I thought to myself there were probably more import crimes that the police had to deal with, so wasn’t expecting much.

So imagine my surprise when 20 minutes later I get a call from the original officer telling me that they think they’ve found our equipment. All four iPads, along with my MacBook Pro were sitting in a converted van “RV” behind the taco bell across the street.

I was honestly shocked to have everything back in my position less than 12 hours after it was stolen! A big thank you to the people at the LAPD, as well as the really smart people at Apple for creating the awesomeness that is Find My Mac/iPhone/iPad.

If own a Mac with Lion on it, an iPad, or an iPhone be sure to turn on the Find My “device” feature! It saved me over $5k in lost equipment yesterday.

Talk soon!

Blue

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List Building

Monday, March 29, 2010 at 1:01 PM

Here's a short video I shot for you on my way to Toronto at Newark airport.

 

Here's the link I spoke about in the video: http://www.BlueMelnick.com/ListBuilding

Enjoy!

Blue

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An Open Letter to Steve Jobs

Monday, March 22, 2010 at 8:08 PM

Mr. Jobs,

My guess is this isn't actually being read by "The" Steve Jobs, but if it happens to be…. thank you for taking the time!

This weekend I took yet another step towards watching movies on my mac from "reputable" sources, such as the iTunes movie store.  My girlfriend and I decided to watch a movie on Saturday night after spending a great day walking around New York City.  To my surprise, Twilight: New Moon was available for rent in HD on the movie store.  Right away, I clicked the rent HD button, typed in my iTunes password and began to pop some popcorn for movie night.

Choice in movie aside, the night was looking up!  I didn't have to search all over to find a copy of the movie, and it was one-click easy!  I have a Mac Mini hooked up to my 42" Samsung LCD via the Mini-Display port to VGA adapter, so we great fantastic quality!!  We were all set to tuck in for the night, until I clicked play…

Upon clicking play, iTunes gave me an error message telling me that I couldn't play the movie on this computer because of the display attached not being HDCP (I think that was the acronym anyway) compliant.  I thought maybe it was because the Mac Mini wasn't authorized on my account (as I have four other Macs), but this wasn't the case.

It seems that the HD version of this movie has some form of copy protection preventing people who purchase the movie legitimately to actually view it.  I'm not concerned about the $4.99 I spent on the movie (although it is one less Starbucks latte this week), but more disappointed that I wasn't able to watch a digital copy of a movie I had purchased on the computer I had purchased it on.  To take it one step further, I looked all over the New Moon page on iTunes to see if maybe there was a notice warning about this possibility, but couldn't find one.

My next step was to try downloading the same movie again in SD.  I figured that I would have the same problem, but figured might as well try before looking elsewhere for a copy of the movie.  To my surprise, the SD version worked fine.

So in the end, it all worked out.  We watched yet another bad movie on a Saturday night (we should have downloaded UP :)), enjoyed some quiet time together, and went to bed dreaming about our pre-ordered iPads…. except for the small point that I lost $4.99 and tolerance for the movie studios (who are undoubtedly to blame for this ridiculous DRM policy).

Hoping your weekend included no roadblocks presented to you by DRM.

A loyal fan and customer.

Blue Melnick

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Creating Video on Your iPhone

Monday, March 15, 2010 at 1:01 PM

I gave a presentation a few weeks back at Suzanne Evans' Be The Change Event on Creating Video That Sells.  It was my first time speaking on stage for more than 15 minutes (which you can see here), and I really enjoyed it!!  I also received some great feed back from the people in the room, which was great.

One of the things I mentioned during my presentation that received a lot of questions was the idea that you can now film, edit, and publish video from your iPhone!  That being the case, I decided this weekend to put together a short video of how to do this.

Hope you like!

Blue

 

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Why Does Bad Video Repel??

Monday, March 8, 2010 at 1:01 PM

Since I put the following video up online, I've been getting some people asking me: Why does bad video repel?

A lot of people are under the mistaken impression that if they grab any camera, shoot a video, and put it on their website, or on the social networking sites out there, that they'll get more traffic and convert more leads.  This is only true to a point.

Here's the problem: If you're video looks bad, or sounds bad, even if your message is on point, it may actually decrease your conversion rates.

If I were talking to my friend and mentor David Neagle, he would likely tell me about the vibrations that a video that is not congruent with your message sends; how your prospect's sub-consciense receives those vibrations, causing your prospect to say no (or be repelled).  He would then finish it with something along the lines of vibration never lies.

For the uninitiated, let me give you the english version of that ;)… If you're message is a positive one; if you're teaching people about an abundant lifestyle or how to run successful business that has many clients, but you can't afford video that looks and sounds professional, people will see that as a disconnected message (even if they don't realize it).  This disconnect causes confusion, and we all know that a confused mind says no.

Let me say that again in case you didn't already know it: A Confused Mind Says No!!

The truth is, we as entrepreneurs who want to implement video in our business, have been ruined by television and movies.  People are used to watching high quality video that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce, and in many cases, millions!  How can we compete with these budgets to produce video that looks and sounds good so it enhances our message instead of takes away from it?!?!

The answer is, as with many things in life, education.  You need to learn how to use some of the amazing tools we have at our disposal today to the best of their ability.  You see, you can set up your home studio for under $400 (check out this article on what to buy) !!  You can then take some simple steps to ensure that the video that you create generates the desired result (more leads, more traffic, more sales, etc…).

What to know more? Go to www.BlueMelnick.com/15minutes to download a presentation I did on exactly this topic.  I think you'll really like!!

Hope to "see" you soon!

Blue

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