Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Don't forget the forums!

Hey guys!

Just a heads-up that there are forums for the SHARD website!

Either use the following link or click the SHARD Forums tab on the top bar.

Thanks! Can't wait to see ya there!

..Carter..

A Change in Social Media Plans...

Hey everybody. I know it's been a little while since the site had any activity, but I just wanted to update everyone on SL's social media presence.

For the entirety of the site's existence, SL has had a large presence on Google+, and that has been mainly it. (Much to the chagrin of some.)

Up until February, we also enlisted Google Friend Connect, a service that allowed people with Twitter, AOL, and various other services to follow the site as well. However, Friend Connect... no longer exists. Well, it does, per say, but it only allows you to connect with Google+... which you can already do through the embedded Google+ tab on the blog.

So here's the role call for SHARD Labs: If you previously used Friend Connect to follow the site, PLEASE switch over and click "Follow" on the Google+ tab.


If you don't have a Google+ account or haven't bothered to follow us in the past... well, do it or suffer the consequences. Just kidding. Maybe.

Ta ta!

..Carter..

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Review | The Qoo Bracelet

Today's review is the Qoo Bracelet, a nifty transparent form of media sharing brought to you by AC Grindl, the founder of the Colombian-based company. Many many thanks to him for dealing with the import hassles of getting the bracelet to me. 

Check out his website where you can buy one of your own!


Review: Qoo Bracelet



What is the Qoo Bracelet? Simply put, it's "social media you can wear." It's an NFC-equipped, smartphone-connecting wrist band that seamlessly, privately, and instantly lets you share your favorite links, pictures, videos and other forms of social media with anyone else.

Just by holding up your wrist.


HARDWARE:

The Qoo Bracelet is a simple, minamalistic band of rubber with a larger disc of rubber in the middle. This disc contains the pre-programmed NFC chip that will enable you to share with phones.

The band is a smooth white rubber. It feels nice and doesn't pull at your arm hairs as it slides around. There's no connector at the bottom; instead, strips of metal run through the band. These lock into place outward, and then snap into a loop when bent. This makes for a one-size-fits-all fit, which is nice, considering that people's arm vary so greatly in size.

There's not much else to say; the company's Qoo logo is embossed on the top of the circle in pink (or gray, the color I recieved.)

SOFTWARE:



The software that you'll use to upload your media is conveniently powered by Wordpress. In fact, the custom site that the band redirects to is essentially a modified blog. This makes it very easy to upload your pictures and whatnot without worrying about rewriting NFC tags and whatnot.

To begin, you'll need the instructions that came with your Qoo bracelet. These instructions provide the unique alphanumeric code that you'll need to enter into your site in order for your band to direct phones to the site. The Qoo website does contain several video instructions that'll be very helpful during this process.

WARNING: YOU MUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LETTER. Missing or messing up a step can cause your band to redirect to nothingness instead of the personall media wall. And we don't want that now, do we?

Once you own your custom mini-blog, you'll be able to customize to your heart's content. There are more tutorial videos on how to do this as well. Wordpress has a handy system that categorizes your videos, pictures, links, posts into seperate categories through the help of a static homepage.

This brings me to a small complaint: the upload size. Wordpress has an 8MB file size upload limit, which works fine for most media, but not videos. If you want to upload a video that's larger than that, you're gonna have to provide a link to a YouTube video or file storage site instead.

But the system is very nice overall. There's a plethora of different languages to choose from, so you don't have to worry about what language you speak in order to use the band. The site customizer lets you change the themes, colors, and much more.

Overall, the band is a pretty handy tool that greatly simplifies the media sharing process.

Once again, thanks to AC and if you want to check out (and possibly purchase?) the Qoo Bracelet, head over to the Qoo Shop and pick one up for $6.99.



Keep checking back for more reviews coming soon, and consider supporting the GoFundMe if you like what you see! Until next time,

..Carter..