Last week we launched a new application called “Baby Loves Music”. That same week we received our first Cease and Desist letter from Baby Loves Everything to stop all infringing acts of the name Baby Loves Music, as they claim common law ownership over the name.

After some digging at the US Patent and Trademark Office, we found that a patent for the name Baby Loves Music was listed, but dead. We feel we are outside the definitions of goods and services, but none-the-less (even though the patent is dead) we are not here to bust anyone’s chops.

We have designed a solution to this issue, and it is as follows: We have changed the name of the application “Baby Loves Music” to “Baby’s First Music”. We have changed all instances of the name across websites and iTunes. A update to the application has been approved for sale, and all owners of the application will receive a push notification of the update’s availability.

We wish the owners of the “Baby Loves..” line of products would accept our sincere apologies if they feel we have infringed on any trademarks (living or dead), and want you to know that in no way did we wish to profit from or harm your brand. We also wish to state that Dirk+Weiss has no affiliation with the name Baby Loves Music, or company Baby Loves Everything, LLC.

Thank you to everyone for your cooperation!

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This Pecha Kucha presentation from Scott Thomas, designer of the Obama website, talks about how the need for change did not stop at a new president. The need for change, and the spread of Obama’s campaign across the web and social media is now widely accepted as one of the main catalysts for his election to office.

Scott Thomas is also part of The Post Family.

20 slides, timed for 20 second up-time on the screen. Efficient! We love this presentation format, as it keeps content rich, and audiences engaged. Loose the bore, and the bullets.

Yes it’s true that Apple has lost a little bit of their tight grip on their App store and development system. An official ruling was made recently that states that owners of such devices are fully allowed, without legal worries, to hack their device to install any apps that they wish.

Woh! Any App? So Dirk+Weiss could go and make tons of apps for these “Jailbroken” (hacked) phones? Well, sure we could, but we think it’s just not that practical at the moment. Here’s why:

1. Apple releases firmware updates for your device that will most likely break all the hacks. Yes, they can and will do that.
2. The App store is doing for apps what iTunes did for music. Yes it cost money, but damn is it easy to manage and buy.
3. Jailbreaking is not that tricky, but still requires some know-how beyond Apple’s plug and play attitude. So the market for jailbroken apps is much lower than the iOS market as a whole.
4. People want the apps they download work properly. This is not to say that the new wave of apps will be crap, but without the app store approval, its fair game for any and all despicable hackers to steal information from your device.
5. Apple has officially recognized that Jailbreaking is legal, but don’t show up to the genius bar with a bricked (dead, due to hacking) phone. Jailbreaking will still void your warranty.

So, we believe that this is one of many steps forward for the mobile application market, not to mention the fact that Google released a program that lets anyone make apps for Android. Mobile connectivity is growing exponentially. Facebook just hit 500,000,000 users last week, and according to them, over 25% of people access via mobile devices.

This TEDTalk covers the concepts and fascinating developments of the website WikiLeaks. The closest scenario we can compare it to is something along the lines of telling a child to “Not Press The Red Button”. We all know the child will push the red button, weather they know the consequences or not. It’s simply the need for Human Curiosity.

About a month ago, we received a free $100 credit for Google Ads. We deposited our free coupon, and in return, have landed a client on the other side of the world.

These Google Ads are the ‘Sponsored Results’ that appear when you see search results, on the right side of the page. The way it works is quite simple. You decide what search phrases pertain to your business, and decide how much per day you would like to spend. The more you spend, the more visibility you have.

In our scenario, we decided to just try it out, and spend only $1.50 per day. So after about 60 days, our credit will have been spent. So far, we have only spend $45 out of the $100, and we have had some great results.

Pocket change in the world of advertising. We are planning to ramp up or daily allowances for Google Ads, to increase our visibility. Even if we deposit $1,000, it is still considerably more cost effective and efficient than taking out an ad in the newspaper or printed media.

The other upside to Gooogle vs. Printed Ads is the turnaround. It takes time to create and publish printed media, and the ads that live there. With Google, your ads are up in minuets, and tracking happens in less than 12 hours, with millions of potential clients to see your ad.

This method landed us an India based client, that found us via Google, and loved what they saw. We are currently working on a new website design / development, and a re-working of their branding elements.

This type of advertising is manageable and accessible from small to large businesses, placing many competitive businesses on the same playing field.

We can work out a strategy with you and your business to set up a Google based advertising model.