News

Tom’s top tips for putting together better marketing emails

Tom Furmanski April 01, 2019 0 Comments
Getting started with emails can be the most intimidating part! Here's my top three tips for where to begin. 1. Make the most of your subject line If you want your marketing emails opened, read and clicked, it starts off with the subject line. The best subject lines are short, descriptive and give your clients a reason to explore your message further. Top Tips Keep it short and sweet / Tell them...
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Micro Interactions – Are you engaging your website visitors?

Chris Grant March 24, 2019 0 Comments
Micro interactions are the latest (possible biggest) UX trend to be recorded so far, thus critical for modern design which can’t go without them anymore.  We are surrounded by micro interactions, as they are present on every website, app, or program we’re using.By micro interaction, we refer to every task-like engagement of users with their devices, smooth enough to pass unnoticed as the...
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The world-wide-web turns 30, what’s next #ForTheWeb

Chris Grant March 12, 2019 0 Comments
It all started rather innocently. In 1989, some scientists at CERN, the science research center in Switzerland, wanted to automatically share their information with fellow scientists working elsewhere in the world. Email already existed, but there was no easy way to transmit large amounts of data other than saving it on a disk and physically bringing it to another computer.So Berners-Lee, a...
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Controlling call flow in the Asterisk Dialplan using Curl and Json

Chris Grant March 08, 2019 0 Comments
It's very common that we want to use external services from our Asterisk Dialplan, and many times those external services are accessible via HTTP (such as a REST HTTP API). In this article we are going to see how we can use cURL to query an external HTTP service and read a response in JSON format and take action on the values returned to control the call flow in our dialplan. Using cURL to...
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The most dangerous phrase in the language…

Jenny Howell March 08, 2019 0 Comments
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was a U.S. Naval officer, and an early computer programmer. She was the developer of the first compiler for a computer programming language; at the end of her service she was the oldest serving officer in the United States Navy. Grace Hopper is also famous for a quote, that guides so many programmers and developers, including our team at O'Brien Media. The quote, "The...
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[Infographic] For smartphone users mobile data can come with a hefty price tag

Chris Grant March 06, 2019 0 Comments
For smartphone users fond of streaming, mobile data can come with a hefty price tag. The cost varies heavily between different countries and a new analysis of mobile data prices by UK-based price comparison website cable.co.uk shows where a gigabyte of data is cheapest and most expensive. The analysis focused on 6,313 data plans in 230 countries with India being named the cheapest. The analysis...
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You’d batter believe it, here’s our perfect Pancake Day recipe

Chris Grant March 05, 2019 0 Comments
Eggs, flour, milk: check! Master this basic batter for a super-successful Pancake Day and enjoy with a variety of sweet and savoury toppings and fillings. Ingredients 150g plain flour 300ml semi skimmed milk 2 medium eggs 1½ tbsp olive oil Method Sift the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well and whisk, drawing in the flour from the sides of the...
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Gool Peran Lowen (Happy St Piran’s Day) to you all!

Chris Grant March 05, 2019 0 Comments
I grew up in Cornwall before making the move to Swindon in the mid-90's (wow, that makes me feel really old!) and I still feel a strong connection to Cornwall, especially the North coast around Wadebridge, Rock, Polzeath and Padstow which is where my parents, sister and I lived. I still try to head back as often as possible, staying at a caravan park that's owned by the parents of someone I knew...
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Why you might need to refresh your website

Tom Furmanski March 03, 2019 0 Comments
As a website design business, you would think that our website would be immune from needing to update our look. But you are wrong. As website designers we are always trying to improve our website to make it better, easier to navigate, and more attractive to clients. And as marketing is ever evolving, then so must our website. Read our top 4 signs it might be time to redesign your website: 1. Your...
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Meet the 230 new emojis approved for 2019

Chris Grant February 27, 2019 0 Comments
The Unicode Consortium, the group which approve the icons before they appear on the likes of Android and iOS, has given the green light for no less than 230 new emojis.This means that the designs included on the official list should be visible on smartphones in the second half of 2019. The list is the sixth major update since the birth of emojis, way back when, and it's a big...
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