Oniracom’s new identity revision is not a radical change from its previous incarnation, but it’s more revised and organized than at any point in our 15-year history. After such long a stretch of time, something has to change or complacency creeps in, threatening future creativity. As we pivot to specific offerings for a select clientele, our identity will reflect that.

For fifteen years Oniracom has grown into a leading creative marketing agency in the Santa Barbara area, but the company success was not achieved overnight. The Oniracom brand originated at 1453 Jameson street in the city of Montecito, with a small team in a duplex. Gradually, the team started to feel congested as they expanded up to fourteen people and realized the need to relocate. Jacob Tell, Sean Campos, and Mike Wald saw this as an opportunity to immerse Oniracom into a larger community. The chosen current location of 720 East Haley in downtown Santa Barbara is a vital part of the Oniracom success. The new town allowed them to expand their client target to the many small businesses in the area by actively outreaching and physically connecting. Oniracom has grown its reputation within the community and its broad range of clients by taking that opportunity to relocate.

In a rapidly growing economy full of cultivating ideas and start-ups, Santa Barbara has become a main vessel for small businesses. Locally known tourist areas such as the Funk Zone and Downtown, have become popular vacation spots. With the East side of Santa Barbara seemingly forgotten, it has become a perfect opportunity for local small businesses to nestle up and command their space. The native community is small and interconnected. Businesses are known for supporting each other and word travels extremely fast.Pure Order Brewing company, PlayBack Recording Studio, and Oniracom are three entrepreneurial companies located in the upper side of the Funk Zone who are sparking a cultural rebirth. Oniracom has teamed up to revivify the lower East side town as, The Lagoon District .

Dead and Company announced earlier this year that they would be joining forces for a US Summer tour. Playing in Jerry Garcia’s absence, John Mayer took the stage and proved to be the purest talent of our current generation. Amongst legends Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Oteil Burbridge, Jeff Chimenti and Bill Kreutzmann, each audience member was fixated on Mayer’s ability to improvise with the group so effortlessly. I was fortunate enough to experience the show and witness the fresh and the seasoned Dead Head celebration.

You look around and see iPhones everywhere. Apple products have dominated the gadget industry, and its name holds value beyond comparison to that of other brands. It’s hard to compete with this… but Androids are up for the challenge.

Years ago, image recognition was only a dream, but today it is slowly creeping into reality. Image recognition is defined as technology that can see what’s going on, and communicate it out loud. Milestones have been overcome by image recognition this past year, and we can see the great benefit it can provide both small and large businesses alike.

More than just sounding neat in theory, we ask what image recognition is capable of doing and has already accomplished. For one, it has the ability to improve businesses. Also, day to day activities can become more efficient and enjoyable. And most importantly, image recognition has the vast power to aid the visually impaired.

The 2016 Santa Barbara Bowl season is well under way! Artists like G-Eazy, the 1975, and Chris Stapleton have already stopped by, but there are plenty more acts to prepare yourself for. Here are some dates I’m looking forward to…

We’re all familiar with the obstacles that come with scheduling work meetings. It’s something so simple, yet at times seemingly impossible.

Google Calendar has introduced a new “Find a Time” feature exclusively for Google Apps and Androids.

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival brings in around 100,000 people into the desert city of Indio, California for two back-to-back weekends in April. This year I got to witness the music mayhem first hand during Weekend 1.

What’s new with Facebook? As the company continues to improve, new technology is introduced. Facebook has announced chatbot and Live Chat. This has the potential to replace 1-800 numbers and other “Help” related outlets. Facebook is working with Live Chat developers who can potentially build contact buttons that directly message people for help on websites. Instead of having to email or call help stations, customers can interact with someone on Live Chat, which optimizes efficiency, timeliness, and customer satisfaction. Happy customers = Happy business.

When was the last time you received a handwritten card? These days, time is money. You don’t have time to sit down and hand write a card, and now you won’t need to. Introducing Hallmark for the digital age. Felt and Punkpost are two apps which allow you to “craft personalized note cards from your phone, with ink that looks like you actually wrote it yourself.”

Here’s how it works.

Botlist. Didn’t you hear? It’s what all the newest phones are raging about!

Botlist is an app store for bots. That’s right, there’s now a centralized directory for all the bots you’ll ever need in one place, rather than from a variety of different apps and services. Compiling potential outlets that range vastly hopes to save time and room on your mobile devices.

We live in an age of music, creativity, and expression. Part of today’s culture is harboring a community. Concerts are everywhere, and now there’s even more reason to see what all the hype is about. Ticketmaster has teamed up with Facebook so we can now buy tickets directly through their website on event pages.

Being an environmentally friendly business comes with its perks. First and foremost, you get to feel good about making the world a safer, healthier place. Reducing the use of energy and resources provides an opportunity to improve profitability through cost savings. Additionally, you get to take advantage of rebates and other incentives while attracting new environmentally-concerned customers and improving brand image. Lastly, a green company reduces risk by meeting legal requirements and anticipating future regulations like the Obama-Biden New Energy Plan.

Oniracom and AIGA Santa Barbara have collaborated on several events over the past few years, but this latest one might just be the best. We are proud to sponsor AIGA SB’s joint event with StartupSB, “Convert Like Crazy: 10 Design and Copy Hacks You Can’t Afford to Miss,” taking place April 15 from 6:30-8:00pm at Workzones.

Sick of cluttered news feeds and not knowing whether your posts are being seen? Facebook is developing a new way for businesses to reach their ideal customers. Recently, It was leaked that sometime in Q2 2016 the social media giant will allow business Pages to send advertisements via Messenger to customers who have previously contacted them.

Yet another one of Apple’s rumored leaks is out. The iPhone 7 seems promising, with technological advancements not yet seen. Some of the new features headlined include:

“iPhone 7: Apple ‘plans to release three different iPhones this year’”
“iPhone 7 leak suggests ‘thinnest, smoothest handset ever’”
“iPhone 6S: patent shows Apple is working on waterproof phone for the near future”

...But debatably the most impressive is:

“iPhone 7: Apple ‘to introduce charging from 15ft’”

The Doppler Lab buds are HERE. Literally. This generation has become one that is constantly moving toward new and innovative technology. To survive in this industry of entertainment and all its accessories, you have to be original. Originality is hard to come by when almost everything has been done, but Doppler Lab’s Here buds has accomplished this feat engineeringly and experientially.

Towards the end of January, Facebook introduced an organic targeting tool to help publishers reach the audience they want engaging with their content, and to analyze the type of people who actually end up reading it. There are three basic features in this new Audience Optimization tool.

Spotify: 75 million users. SoundCloud: 175 million users. SoundCloud more than doubles Spotify’s number of listeners and users, making it the new YouTube of audio. SoundCloud is a looming threat to Spotify (often compared to Netflix in this situation) because it promotes network value rather than monetary value. Since it started catching hype, SoundCloud has fostered a community of rising artists and fanatical listeners, eager to discover and get lost in an endless, beautiful stream of music. “Once you find an artist you like on SoundCloud, you can then see which songs that artist likes and go down a rabbit hole of music awesomeness.”

Today’s marketing environment is a visual one. Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but video content is increasingly dominating the digital sphere. By 2018, 89% of internet traffic will be video. Statistics and strategic moves from social platforms indicate why this prediction seems plausible:

• Within the last year, Facebook users went from watching 1 billion videos every day to more than 8 billion.
• Twitter, which acquired Periscope in March 2015, now autoplays their live streaming videos within feeds.
• Spotify is introducing video content to its Android app starting May 2016.

“There’s not a minute to waste.” Uber is well aware of this concept, and has made quite the name for itself by taking advantage of that. How Uber manages to stay on top of its competition, however, is a constant struggle. Uber steadily tries to beat out neighboring competition like Lyft, taxi companies, and other alternative modes of transportation to keep their name on top. The solution? Customization.

The well-known Ride Request feature that we’re already familiar with just got much more personalized. Passengers can now stay updated with news and updates all with the convenience of Uber’s new service called “Uber Trip Experiences”, which delivers playlists, local news, and travel tips all to the palm of your hands. Although third party experts will control the flow of content, each ride’s personalization comes from Uber. “The time the content takes to consume will be synchronized with the estimated duration of the journey.”

When news broke last week of rock icon David Bowie succumbing to liver cancer at the age of 69, the Internet reacted quickly. Within 12 hours of the news, the hashtag #Bowie generated over a million tweets globally, and “35 million people had 100 million interactions about the singer on Facebook.” Perhaps the most relevant and intriguing statistics after any musician’s death in this digital age come from online music services like Apple Music and Spotify.

Peach, the new social media application has generated lots of buzz these past few weeks. So, what exactly is it? Dom Hofmann, the founder of Vine who also jumpstarted this app says it is simply “A space for friends.” Launched on January 7th, Peach is already ranked as the 8th most popular social networking app according to iTunes. The question, then, is: Will it stand a chance against the other giants of social networking apps?

While Summer has finally come to a close, the hot weather and the hot new albums it brought with it are here to stay. From pop to alternative, rap to electronic the music scene has been dominated by a ton of new music, and it’s wonderful. Here is a recap of some of the most successful releases in the past several weeks.

A parched California may be getting some much needed relief this coming winter. Scientists and climate experts are now certain that an El Niño rivaling that of the infamous 1997-98 El Niño should arrive in just over a month. For most of us here on the West Coast of the USA we think of El Niño as just a surge in the amount of rain that falls throughout the winter months since that is the only effect we tend to notice. However, an El Niño is actually defined by the changing of normal wind and ocean currents in the Pacific which results in a major warming of Pacific waters and significant weather patterns on a global scale.

Today, Apple CEO Tim Cook made some pretty lofty claims about Apple’s next generation of products.

“While they may look familiar, we have changed everything about these new iPhones”

Apple unveiled the next line of its products today at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, and (as expected) they appear to be stepping up their game. As usual, two new iPhones were announced, but it was the new iPad and revamped Apple TV that stole the show.

Oniracom and Playback Recording Studio host the second Solutions for Dreamers Fridays event of 2015, a networking mixer for creatives, artists, entrepreneurs and community builders.

We will be unveiling some amazing art by Matthew McAvene for the Tiger Heroes initiative, so be sure to wear whiskers and ears to get in the spirit!

“EVERY DAY WE ARE WORKING TO MOVE PEOPLE FROM HUNGER INTO HEALTH. NOT ONLY FEEDING BUT TEACHING HOW TO FISH.”

Earlier this summer, the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County launched its month long campaign, End Summer Hunger. Its goal was to raise $50,000 for the Picnic in the Park program, which is “a country-wide program that provides children under 18 with free, nutritious meals when school is not in session, regardless of their parents’ income.” Surpassing its goal, the Foodbank reached an outstanding $75,000 for the Picnic in the Park program, able to provide over 23,000 lunches to children throughout the month of August.

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County works tirelessly during the summer season to provide local kids with an abundance of food, cooking lessons, and nutrition education. The Picnic in the Park program, which runs through the summer, supplies lunches and games around the community for the thousands of children who struggle with food insecurity. Santa Barbara County has expanded the Picnic in the Park program this year with more food, donations, and volunteers- and they are always looking for more assistance!

Move over NBA and NFL—there’s a new business in town. Today, the eSports industry is on the rise to billions, with an expected growing rate of 30% over the next five years and waves of investors jumping on the bandwagon. Rapidly evolving, eSports generally refer to professional gaming and are quickly becoming “one of the most watched and passionately followed global sports categories amongst younger audiences,” according to international entertainment company MTG’s CEO Madsen Lindemmans. The business has $612 million in global revenue today, with approximately 134 million viewers worldwide. ESports are slowly becoming accepted as a legitimate sport, with MTG acquiring the Electronic Sports League, the largest eSports organization in the world. According to Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise, “ESports are well on their way not just to legitimacy, but to true sports legitimacy.”

Watching the sunrise over Twin Peaks in San Francisco or enjoying the sunset from Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence has never been easier. Today, popular livestreaming video apps Meerkat and Periscope allow us to be part of another city, country, or even continent—without actually physically being there. With both apps giving users the ability to connect with events around the world, the question of “which app is better?” is unavoidable. So, which app is better? We’ve outlined the pros and cons of both below.

‘Tis the season for unforeseen music releases, and the waiting lines have never been longer. Over the course of the year, artists ranging from the iconic hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar to the indie rock sensation Florence and the Machine have been dropping hits like rapid-fire, bringing audiences to their feet, craving for more and more. We’re halfway through 2015, but the year has just gotten started on bringing us timeless pieces, like Wiz Khalifas tribute to Paul Walker “See You Again” and Mark Ronson’s dangerously catchy “Uptown Funk.” Personally, Years & Years’ Communion and Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment’s Surf albums set the electrifying tone for the rest of my year, making me eager for anything and everything about to come. Some forthcoming albums to look forward to include…

Everyone’s favorite Australian psychedelic rock group returns with the much anticipated release of their third album Currents—albeit with a new musical style and a re-defined Tame Impala itself. Kevin Parker emerges as the lone mastermind of Tame Impala, revealing that the presentation of the band has merely been a facade, and Parker writes, records, and produces all of the music by himself in his cloistered home studio.

If you like being entertained, rejoice! Today marks the beginning of four days of comics and more galore at Comic-Con International: San Diego. Over 130,000 super-fans will be heading down to the San Diego Convention center to catch glimpses of, and even experience firsthand, the biggest upcoming movies (and TV shows and games and science fictions). Every form of art and popular media entertainment ranging from 12 foot statues of World of Warcraft characters to sneak peeks of highly anticipated films such as Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice and the next Star Wars will be there. To name drop a few more, the cast and crew of the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones will also be swarmed by eager fans.

Apple entered the music streaming marketplace with the launch of Apple Music, debuting worldwide on June 30th. The app and streaming service aims to consolidate all of your favorite features in online music and foster greater engagement between fans and artists. The release quickly produced animated debate in the tech and music communities; namely, how does Apple Music compare with existing services, such as Spotify and Tidal? Does Apple Music offer any new features that will tangibly enhance music consumption?

We are delighted to announce that after months of the End Summer Hunger campaign, enough funds have been raised by our awesome community to run the Picnic in the Park free summer lunch program for children! The Foodbank now serves more than 600 meals a day to kids from Carpinteria to Santa Maria.

Finally, a way to travel to new worlds, fight dangerous aliens, and go on insane adventures all without having to leave your couch. The idea of virtual reality used to seem like far off, science fiction, turn-all-of-humanity-into-absent-minded-lazy-bums, but now several companies are making that dream (pause for pun) a reality. Companies like Sony and Oculus VR are carving the path to making VR gaming the new norm. The concept of virtual reality is pretty simple, one puts on a goggle like headset and suddenly you’re immersed into the world of whichever specially designed game you’re playing. From then on, you are essentially a part of the game.

While it’s not the first ever piece of wearable technology, the Apple Watch is definitely the most talked about and it was one of Apple’s most anticipated releases in the company’s history. Investors, tech bloggers, fans of Apple, Apple’s competitors, and just about everyone else waited for months to see if the watch would really measure up to the claims made by CEO Tim Cook last year when he announced the watch. And now that it’s been out for a few months, watch owners are voicing their opinions.

Oniracom’s latest collaboration with AIGA Santa Barbara happened this past weekend, when CEO Jacob Tell and Art Director Tad Wagner reprised their roles as reviewers at AIGA SB’s annual Portfolio Day. For those of you who might not know, AIGA is the professional association for design, and AIGA Santa Barbara is one of 70 chapters across the nation. For me, one of many cool benefits of being AIGA SB President is being able to include Oniracom in our design-related, educational, and networking events for the local creative community.

Mondays don’t typically have the reputation for being the best day of the week, but yesterday, we had a great day! Oniracom spent all day with our new client, the Santa Barbara Bar, to do a lifestyle photo shoot in the beautiful Santa Barbara. Working with the talented photographer Lexus Gallegos, we are creating a campaign for the tasty and nutritious bars. We are excited to be working with this amazing bar brand that’s local to our hometown!

Santa Barbara Bar founder, Peter Gaum has owned a wholesale bakery in Santa Barbara for 20 yeas. He created the bars as a delicious and healthy snack for friends and family, but it has turned into a local phenomenon, taking the area by storm. Not only are the bars full of flavor, but they are also gluten-free, a good source of protein and fiber, and contain no added soy protein of refined sugars. Right now there are three flavors: Coconut Almond, Peanut Chocolate Cherry, and Cranberry White Chocolate. We thank Santa Barbara Bar for stocking Oniracom full of these delicious bars, because we can’t stay out of the kitchen!

Check out the Santa Barbara Bar website here to see where you can find the bars-in store (or order online). Below are some of pictures from our photo shoot, check them out!

This past Sunday marked the end of the 2015 Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival, and it was a remarkable success! Thousands of people came out to Alameda Park in Santa Barbara to learn about how to make a difference in the environment while enjoying tasty foods, shopping at the eco-marketplace, and attending a multitude of concerts and events.

Jacob, Mike and Sean worked hard all week to make sure our Storywall platform was ready for the big weekend! Storywall connected festivalgoers with all the exciting things happening throughout the event such as live music set times, tips for being environmentally friendly, and more. Everyone enjoyed interacting with the platform by sending in photos to be displayed on-screen and by participating in contests with awesome prizes including local gifts from the farmers market and an electric bicycle!

Overall, Earth Day and Oniracom’s participation with Storywall couldn’t have gone better. Thank you to everyone who played a role in this year’s festival, we can’t wait until next year! Check out some of our photos from Earth Day below.

Sonos has been a wireless stereo powerhouse in Santa Barbara for over a decade, reinventing audio for the digital age. Here at Oniracom, we’ve been beefing up our music system with Sonos gear since January, and it’s definitely made an impact.

“After I listened to classic albums on our Sonos such as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, The Doors’ Morrison Hotel, and The Beatles’ White Album I heard new things in the music I never had,” said our CEO Jacob Tell.

It’s that time of year again to celebrate the earth and environment at the 2015 Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival! This Saturday and Sunday (April 18 and 19) at Alameda Park in Santa Barbara, there will be tons of events, concerts, games, exhibits, and classes, — all centered on celebrating the Earth. The Oniracom team has put a lot of work into helping ensure the success of this year’s Earth Day, and we are excited to attend.

The festivities start at 11 a.m. on both days, beginning with Bike Valet. Save gas by riding your bike to the festival and park it for free with the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition. Is your bike broken? Bring it and fix it yourself with the help of local mechanics. If cars are still the preferred method of travel, make sure to check out the Green Car Show where potential customers can get behind the wheel of advanced fueled vehicles such as the Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf, Toyota hybrids and more!

Visitors can shop at the Eco-Marketplace for green products, technology, gadgets, and clothing and then take a class to learn about healthy, organic cooking. Local bands will take the Main Stage to play all genres of music including, blues, country, rock, reggae, dance, and indie. On Sunday at 12:30, join Snook the Sloth at the Kids Corner to talk about how we can protect the planet. We are proud of Oniracom Video Producer Luke Archer for his efforts in bringing to life the giant sloth with built-in audiovisual technology.

An exciting contribution from Oniracom, developed by CTO Sean Campos, is “Storywall,” a technology platform that we will be beta testing at Earth Day. Story Wall will connect guests to events, allowing them to interact with the Festival in a unique way. Campos is excited to see thousands of people interact Storywall “in the wild.” Visitors can hash tag #sbearthday to see their photos on Storywall, so make sure to check it out! 

CEO Jacob Tell and Chief Business Development Officer Mike Wald made enormous contributions as a part of the Festival’s Marketing and Outreach, promoting music performances, speakers, events, and much more. Tell is excited to see the Kids Parade on Sunday because Oniracom will work with students from the Multimedia Arts & Design Academy to film the Kids Climate March.

Make sure to visit Earth Day and check out all the cool events and a big thanks to everyone at Oniracom who made this event possible! There is something for everyone at this year’s festival, so visit http://www.sbearthday.org/ to start planning your days!

Spring is here, it’s light out a little bit longer once we all get off work… the times, they are mellow. Which is why our staff compiled an amazing Mellow March Playlist that’s perfect for spring, the light sun rays, days out on the beach, or even a short road trip drive.

Enjoy!

Oniracom is proud to announce that we will be sponsoring the first ever TEDx live event right here in Santa Barbara on Tuesday March 17th!

TED is a nonprofit organization that hosts annual TED Conferences where some of the world’s greatest minds come to speak. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Branson, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and more. TED also hosts a program called TED Talks on their website TED.com where talks are posted daily that viewers can access anytime.

TEDx is TED’s new program of independently organized local events, where people can come together to experience TED Talks video and live speakers simultaneously. 

The first-ever live TEDx will be hosted in Santa Barbara and will include talks by leading scientists such as Laura Shulz, David Eagleman, Donald Hoffman, and Fei-Fei Li. The event will also host some of today’s top astronomers, mathematicians, authors, and philanthropists. For more information, check out the TEDx Santa Barbara website.

Registration is FREE but limited! Be sure to register online here while space lasts.

THEN, don’t miss the after party at Pure Order Brewing Co at 410 N Quarantina, off Milpas. Burger Bus will be serving some great food as well!

We look forward to seeing you there and expanding our knowledge of the world together!

Thank you for making Solutions for Dreamers Fridays a huge success!

The crowd, food, chat, live music & of course, s’mores were all a hit! Thank you to Playback Recording Studio, StartupSB, and Up Global Regional Summit for helping us put on the event.

Here’s to more SFD Friday Nights! Check out some photos of the night, below!

Come out this Friday, February 20th, to Oniracom and celebrate Santa Barbara’s music, art, startup, and entrepreneurial communities with us! This event is a part of the Up Global Regional Summit, hosted by Santa Barbara Up Champions and Up Global, an organization that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship. 

This is a great networking opportunity to connect with creative community leaders and visiting startup builders in a relaxed setting. There will be food trucks, local beverages, s’mores, and live music! Did we mention s’mores?

Performances by:
Jonathan McEuen
DJ ZEEK BEATS
Erisy Watt
Matthew McAvenue
Playback House Band
Special Guests  

What: Solutions for Dreamers Fridays
Where: Oniracom, 720 East Haley St., Santa Barbara, CA
Date: Friday, February 20, 2015 Time: 5:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. 

This event is open to the public, but please RSVP here

Also make sure to check-in on Facebook!

Have you ever wondered if your music player was detracting from the original quality of the music? Well, it’s quite possible. After music is recorded, the file is compressed from its original rate of typically 192 kHz to about 44.1kHz in order to fit on CDs and properly download. But does this actually affect the sound we hear? Famous singer Neil Young believes it does, and so he set out in 2012 to create a device that would be able to support music’s original recording rate. To do this, Young and his team asked for $800,000 in funding through Kickstarter, but music lovers seemed to believe in the idea just as much as Young, as donations exceeded $6.2 million. And thus, the PonoPlayer was created.

The PonoPlayer claims to let listeners hear high-quality music in a way that gives puts the “soul” back according to Young and many others in the music industry. In a video produced by PonoMusic, artists such as Norah Jones, Arcade Fire, Foo Fighters, Kid Rock, Mumford & Sons, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and many other music icons agreed that listening to the PonoPlayer let music be heard in a way as never before heard when using a portable device. With all these stars agreeing that this is a revolutionary device, how can it not be true? But a double blind study by Yahoo! found that average music listeners could not confidently agree.

The study tested the PonoPlayer versus an iPhone and the results concluded that the people thought the iPhone actually played better sound. So why do so many say that this new device is the key to better music? No one is too sure, because those who say they love the PonoPlayer focus on the difference they “feel,” not the difference they “hear.” It looks like the better sound may just be a trick of the mind, because according to scientific studies, the human ear can’t even pick up differences after 44.1kHz (that of the average CD or download).

In the end, paying $400 for the PonoPlayer, plus having to re-download every song for $2, may not be the best investment in a “feeling.” But you can decide for yourself by trying it out at Fry’s Electronics. Would you want to try it? Buy it?

This Sunday February 8th, for the first time ever, the Grammy Awards will be streaming live via CBS All Access, the CBS Television Network’s subscription video on demand and live streaming service. With a free one-week trial subscription, users can access the red carpet arrivals and all of the behind-the-scenes footage before and throughout the awards. The event will stream on multiple platforms such as the CBS app, CBS.com, GRAMMY.com, and the GRAMMY live app for iOS and Android.
The only seemingly downside to this full access and clever marketing tool: it is only available in 14 cities – New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Sacramento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Lucky for you, however, if you happen to be in one of these 14, you’ll get legal and free access to live performances by Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, Tom Jones and Jessie J, Annie Lennox and Hozier, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Miranda Lambert, Usher, Ed Sheeran, Common & John Legend, Madonna, Eric Church, and for the first time in 14 years, AC/DC.
Not only is the Grammy Awards expanding their viewership through legal streaming, but they are also capitalizing on a multitude of different social media platforms. Included in these are: Shazam, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter, Thinglink, Facebook, and Instagram. You can read more about the specifics of each platform here.

The marketing potential of this event is huge – perhaps even larger than any previous award show. This year’s Grammys may definitely be worth streaming from wherever you are, and even if you don’t get a chance to watch them, the odds that you’ll hear about them are definitely in your favor.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has redefined what it means to have broadband internet, officially raising the standard internet speed in an attempt to create a new status quo and improve internet service for Americans. Previously, the standard broadband was 4 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed with 1 Mbps upload speed. The new standard drastically increases the download speed to 25Mbps with a 3Mbps upload speed.

This proposed change came after the results of a Congress mandated annual progress report found that a large amount of Americans were not receiving adequate service. The FCC commissioners voted 3 to 2 to pass this new standard, and this may just be the beginning. According to IGN, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel believes the standard should be raised to 100Mbps!

You may be receiving faster internet soon, are you excited? 

Oniracom’s latest collaboration with AIGA Santa Barbara happened last week, when our own Mike Wald presented “Adaptive Thinking for the Modern Web.” For those of you who might not know, AIGA is the professional association for design, and AIGA Santa Barbara is one of 69 chapters across the nation. One of many cool benefits of being on the AIGA SB board of directors is being able to put on great design-related, educational, and networking events for our local chapter and community.

Mike presented an agile, adaptive approach to web development: overcoming design-vs.-programming tension with techniques and tools to eliminate obstacles and complete projects. Over two decades into the practice of website development, the ever-present tension remains between design vs. programming, aesthetics vs. practicality, left brain vs. right brain. Resolving that tension in order to complete projects has taken many forms, the most successful always boiling down to “are we moving toward the goal, or moving away from it?“ Mike advocated jumping right in to get the job done, fostering improvisation and communication between creative colleagues to eliminate mental and procedural obstacles blocking the finish line.

Facebook has created a useful and interesting new update since moving the application tabs to the left hand column of the timeline. Since those call to actions were lost, Facebook has now given users a new way to gain more support. With the new “call-to-action” feature for Pages, page administers can choose to include buttons that will make it easier for others to support their page.

Buttons include:
• Book Now
• Contact Us
• Use App
• Play Game
• Shop Now
• Sign Up
• Watch Video.

According to this official Facebook article, the new feature created a 2.5x higher conversation rate for Pages, enhancing customer acquisition efforts.
Do you manage a Facebook Page? Consider adding a Call-to-Action to direct your fans/users to a recent campaign for more support!

Coming to Austin, Texas this March: The 22nd annual South by South West (SXSW) Festivals!

South by South West (SXSW) is a set of music, interactive, and film festivals that occur every March in Austin, Texas. The festival was created to serve as a hub for artists, creators, and their audiences to develop and further their careers and expand upon each other’s creative ideas. It’s lively and artsy home of Austin attracts audiences from all over the globe and offers an ideal setting for people to meander from venue to venue, exploring live performances, sitting in on informational panels, and networking with others in their industry of choice. 


Music: March 17-22

The first SXSW festival was the 1987 South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas. Since then, the festival has grown to become the largest of its kind in the world, with more than 2,000 artists performing at over 100 venues, and almost 28,000 conference participants.


Every year, the festival serves as a promotional platform for members of the music and media industries, including artists, panelists, businesses, and audiences. The music festival is unique in that incorporates thousands of live musical performances with panels, presentations, and other special events that are located at various venues throughout the area. About six events take place at each venue every night, meaning there are over 100 bands playing at any given moment. With a conference badge, you can start venue hopping at 8pm and attend as many events as you can make it to before the last show ends at the stroke of 2am. Strategy and efficiency is key!


Interactive: March 13-17

In 1994, SXSW added the Interactive Conference to accommodate the growing technology and digital industries. This branch of the festival features panels and presentations by some of the tech-world’s industry leaders along with special events that showcase the newest websites, video games, and startup ideas as a preview for the nearing future of technology.
This year’s Interactive Conference will include sessions such as the 18th annual SXSW Interactive Awards and the SXSW Trade Show, as well as the SXSW Gaming Expo – an open platform of game tournaments and game testing for consumers, developers, and game masters.


Film: March 13-21

Also added in 1994, the SXSW Film Conference and Festival gathers filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to preview the latest and most innovative film ideas. Over 150 film sessions occur throughout the week each year, which inspire discussion and networking among film industry members such as directors, actors, producers, and fans among many others.
The festival breathes creativity and collaboration, and is an opportune setting for making connections with some of the best in the biz.

User-generated web content has globally increased to the point where almost everyone participates in some way online, whether it is through blogging, Yahoo! Answers, LinkedIn, or FaceBook. There is a new generation of people that create and consume more content online, and with this enters new ways to manage this increase in worldwide imagination.

Specifically for YouTube, a company called Fullscreen contributes to a user’s web content by giving them the tools to create and the strategies to gain fan support and recognition. Fullscreen fosters innovation worldwide by allowing web users to expand their networks and to connect to others.

And now, Fullscreen just announced that they will be supporting users in making full-length movies, allowing for exciting opportunity among YouTube users. They have already begun working on three projects with groups that got their start on online. Get ready to discover and view original movies by the YouTube community. For more info on Fullscreen’s first three original movies, read this Mashable article.

Are you a YouTube user? Considering checking Fullscreen out: www.fullscreen.com

There’s not a lot to look forward to at the end of January. Maybe you’ve come to the realization that your New Year’s Resolution isn’t realistic (no one can eat that much kale) or maybe you just don’t like the chilly weather. But since 1986, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) has been brightening up the classic January blues. This year, the festival is back with 11 days worth of events for anyone and everyone.

The SBIFF doesn’t only show films, it is full of events from free seminars to celebrity award presentations. With so much going on and loads of awesome events to choose from, we’ve put together some information on the events and films that we can’t wait to check out. 

Opening Night:
Kicking off the film section of the festival on January 27th at 8:00 pm is “Desert Dancer,” an inspiring, true-story about a man’s journey to becoming a professional dancer in a country where dance is illegal. After the film, for those 21+, is the “Opening Night Gala,” a celebration of the start of the festival with food and drinks, dancing, and live entertainment in downtown Santa Barbara.

Films:
This year, there are over 20 full-length films by directors from all over the world, including the USA, the UK, Canada, Israel, and Belgium! Plus, there are special events for specifically for local filmmakers to display their talent and highlight the creativity of Santa Barbara locals. See the Santa Barbara Independent’s website for official dates!

Events:
The SBIFF recognizes the brilliant work of many celebrities and creative geniuses, which is why there are 9 categories of different awards to be presented to innovators in the film industry. Past recipients (and attendees of the SBIFF) have been people such as George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lawrence, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Attending this year’s award events gives you the opportunity to hear an hour and a half of personal details about the honoree’s career. 

Are you on a budget? No worries!! The SBIFF has many free events! Check out the SBIFF official website for more details on this years festival!

Some say that it’s a small world, and thanks to our advancements in technology, the world may have just gotten a little smaller. On January 14th Google released its’ update for the Google Translate app which now includes a radical new feature… translating spoken word! Now, you can speak into your phone and the app will translate and speak back your words in another language of your choice. This has the potential to make traveling and communicating abroad much easier, because no one has the time to play charades with strangers!

Another cool feature of this update includes Word Lens,which allows you hold up your camera to text and have it automatically translated. However, according to Mashable, this only works for English,French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, other languages will still require you to actually snap the picture. Luckily, an internet connection isn’t needed to use Word Lens, so translating text can be done anywhere. These updates are available to both IOS and Android users, so go forth and translate.

Are you excited to start using this new update?

With our fast pace of business, 2014 already feels like history.  Here’s an impressive look back at our year.

Behold, our wonderful client map of Santa Barbara! Recently, a new local company called 805Connect featured Oniracom as a partner which summarizes our connection with the Santa Barbara community perfectly. You can read the full article here. Thanks for the support, Santa Barbara. Proud to call you our home.

It is officially a new year, and as I say farewell to the old and hello to the new, I’ve begun the process of determining a few key goals for my new year.  As I was doing so, I stumbled upon Mark Zuckerberg’s latest New Year’s exploits.  In the past, he has set extreme goals and followed through. One year he set out to learn Mandarin, and ended up holding an entire Q&A session in the language later that year. Another example could be vowing to wear a tie to work every day rather than the hoodies he’s become so well known for. 

This year, he has decided to crowd source some ideas from anyone and everyone who would like to write a comment.  Pretty cool move there Zuck. The Facebook CEO is not only good at following through on crazy intense New Year’s Resolutions, he’s good at being open to the ideas of others!  Check out more of Zuckerberg’s exploits in an awesome TechCrunch article here and try to think of a few goals for yourself in 2015!

And just because I was feeling inspired by his ability to commit to difficult goals, here are a few of my own little goals:

1. Make more stuff.
This one is simple.  I enjoy creating collages, watercolors, music, you name it, I enjoy doing it.  I am making the goal here and now to push through the ordinary and work toward creating more stuff.

2. Put down the Insta and break out the camera more.
I really enjoy photography.  It’s kind of become a hobby/side job at times, which is a real honor to get the opportunity to do, but that being said, I’ve become lazy and only capture moments on my little IPhone and rarely tote my camera around any more.  I’m going to aim to change that this year a bit. Quality over quantity will be the motto here.

3. Master the Fish.
I am not a prolific surfer. Not even that good on my best day. But man do I love the sport of it. One of my personal highlights of 2014 was stumbling across an awesome used Fish board.  2015 will be the year of mastering the fish.

4. Write one thank you note a week.
This one is inspired by one of Mark Zuckerberg’s past resolutions, where he wrote a thank you a day to people who were making the world a better place.  I am not that intense, so I have modified this to once a week.  This should be doable.

2014 has been the best of times and the worst of times, but here’s to 2015!

The year 2014 officially comes to a close TONIGHT and we are excited about the upcoming festivities.  As we look forward to the fresh start of 2015, we thought it would be fun to recount some of our favorite moments from 2014.  So without further adieu, here are Oniracom’s Favorite Moments of 2014!

Drew
1.  Finishing my Major Classes at UCSB - School was a large piece of my 2014 so I am happy to be through the really difficult classes, but also appreciate having the opportunity through Oniracom to go back to school.
2. Oniracom Ping Pong Table - The Tell’s graciously loaning their ping pong table has creating the perfect respite from a difficult development problem.

Calia
Arcade Fire at Santa Barbara Bowl was such a great moment since everyone Oniracom was there! They were amazing live, of course and the whole Reflektor tour was one for the books. So incredibly beautiful!
Also getting the ping pong table in the office has forever changed me.

Keir
My favorite moment was bringing my AIGA people to do a studio tour of Oniracom! (you can see the sweet invitation here)
Also Jacob did a presentation based on a deck I made! (here are a couple of images from it)

Haaris
2014 was a great year for this guy. Work wise there was SOOOO much I was blown away from. Hands down the SB Bowl Pint campaigns were my favorite. Not only is it something that will help out the environment at the best venue in the USA; the bands, staff and patrons all loved it! The Pints sold out on every artist run and hopefully that will continue in 2015. Also if you follow SB Bowl on Instagram I was the guy taking pictures before doors open, it was one of the more “fun” tasks i got to do at Oniracom. I must be doing something right cause in the later part of the year this guy now has a corner office, oh snaps!!!!

I moved into a killer new apt in SB and now have a Command Center (man caves are so 1972) where I plan world domination and throw an occasional haduken. Talking hadukens no Street Fighter V this year BUT one of the biggest games this year, Destiny, is in my world and am happy to report this thing is slight heroin for the eyes. Destiny brought me back into the world of 1st person shooters, I love you playstation 4.

Took some time off this year to see friends get married in Boston, and it was a trip to remember. Later this year I DID NOT break tradition and packed on some serious holiday weight this thanksgiving back in NJ and paid to the NY Giants lose to the San Francisco 49ers.

There were a couple of flicks that sole this dudes heart in 2014, Snowppricier, X Men Days of Future Past, & Guardians of the Galaxy are just some. But my fav of 2014 has to be the return of the OG monster himself, GODZILLA. Thank the stars that this was a solid monster movie and not that debacle of whatever it was Ferris Bueller was in the 90’s.

2014 Music was incredible, I should know I am the specialty DJ over at 92.9 KJEE when I am not working here. Here is a link to my best of 2014 show: http://www.kjee.com/MUSICxx.html  Best live show i saw this year was Mr. Jack White. Even though I had a fever it was still an amazing time with an incredible musician. Also Run the Jewels 2 came out and basically saved Hip Hop for me. Oh and I met Lorde.

Cant wait for 2015, STAR WARS Episode 7x menax !!!!!

—cross handle Lightsaber gif—-

Jason
1. Graduating From UCSB!
2. Seeing DJ Koze play 3 hours on the sandy river beach in Berlin
3. Officially joining the Oniracom crew in the office full-time!

Mike
1. Nonstop concerts at the SB Bowl (Grace Potter and Robert Plant take the cake)
2. An epic trip to NYC with my fiancée Nicole
3. My wedding to that same fiancée a few months later

Bre
Perhaps my most important Oniracom moment this year would be joining the team… but to take it all a bit further, I’ve had a blast simply working alongside the team and trading gifts for the white elephant at the Christmas party!

John Hayes
Hut to hut hiking in the Italian Alps!

Justin
One of my highlights of 2014 was four years in the making. In October, I experienced my first and second ever Phish shows at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Jacob Tell our fearless leader has been a Phish fan for a long time. I’ve learned about Phish from Jacob, who plays Phish first thing in the morning when he arrives at the office and every evening after everyone else leaves. I grew to respect Phish from Jacob’s many stories about the influence that following Phish had over Jacob and Sean’s decision to start Oniracom. I had promised Jacob that I would finally go to a show this year, after my attempts in years past had been foiled by conflicting events.
The show was as fantastical as expected, the venue was pristine, and the people came out in rare form. I think my favorite part of the whole experience was finally “getting it.” For years Jacob has tried to sell me on Phish: describing the music, describing the energy and the experience. Admittedly we both knew that there was no way for me to understand the allure of Phish without experience it myself. So, I finally went. I loved it. I bought a hat. The music that I heard at the shows occasionally pops into my head, and always gives me a smile.

Instagram has added 5 new filters to their repertoire and all I can say is, that’s rad.  If you’re anything like me, your favorite part of posting something on Instagram is, in fact, not the actual posting of it, but the editing of the photo.  I find it to be so fun to add filters over photos to get a new look to an image.  It’s kind of like an image accessory in a way.  Want to look mysterious? Go with a filter like Willow.  Want to look really artsy and out of the box? Go with Lo Fi. Want to go with the Tumblr jokesters? Opt for Toaster. 

Now Instagram has created five new filters: Slumber, Crema, Ludwig, Aden and Perpetua. Not only that, you can hide the filters you don’t want to use and rearrange the order using the Manage button. So if you have a certain aesthetic you’re going for, you can’t mess it up! You can just hide the filters that don’t match your brand. Can we say, awesome for branding?
There isn’t too much to say about the five new filters that hasn’t already been said, but you can check out Instagram’s very own blog post here

And just for kicks, here are some photos of my delightful pup Tank being a goofball. 

Get out there and find your perfect filter!

Our annual holiday party was a bit bigger this year! We were thrilled to have all of our jolly employees there and also some friendly clients! Since it was a bigger group, our White Elephant gift exchange was flooding with gifts! 29 to be exact. Also, Jacob surprised us all with some rad new Oniracom T-shirts (see below).

Some highlights from the gift exchange:

Tad’s annual drawing
This gift has been won by yours truly now THREE times in a row. Well actually my boyfriend & I. Our luck is going to run out soon…

Tiki Toss
I almost had this one in the bag! But then I had it stolen by Justin, and then it was stolen by Jason again to lock it in his hands.

Kinetic Sand
Still not completely sure why this one was popular as I’ve never seen it in action, but it was stolen 2 times as well!

Marnie the Dog Calendar
Appropriately won by Miss Tracy, we now have Marnie the Dog staring at us daily in the office. Cheers, Justin!

We enjoyed everyone’s company and we hope you all have a lovely holiday season.

Thanks to Tad for taking the most awesome pictures to date!

CLICK TO READ MORE >>>

The holidays are in full swing.  I’ve personally been shopping like a crazy person getting all the gifts for my loved ones. I’ve been to lots of stores and seen lots of holiday ads, but all I can say is, ‘tis the season for beautiful and poignant Apple Ads!

In case you have not heard or seen yet, Apple has released an emotionally charged ad featuring a girl, her grandmother, and Apple Products.  Say what you will about this, but the advertising strategy, as usual, is perfectly timed, emotionally charged, and overall, flawlessly executed.  The concept portrayed, is if you get one gift, a gift created by Apple, it can become the tool that creates gifts of a greater value for years to come.  The tagline used in Apple’s Youtube Header is: “From one gift come many”. The brilliance of this ad can be unpacked in so many different ways, but I will highlight the three I’ve been most struck by when watching the video over a, ahem, quite a few times.

Brilliance Factor Number 1:
It does not focus on one particular product.  It utilizes the three most recognizable products: the IPad, a Mac, and an IPhone.  This is important because it not only shows the usefulness of more than one product, it stealthily advertises the interconnectivity between the different products.  The grandaughter converts the old song from a 45 to a digital track on her Mac, records vocal and instrumental overlays on her Mac, mixes on her IPad, gives to her Grandma via Mp3 track on an IPhone. 

Woven into the story is the usefulness, creativity and inter-connectedness of each product.  All of this while still getting you to feel all of the feels. Incredible.

Brilliance Factor Number 2:
This ad shows in the last 30 seconds that an IPhone is so easy to use, that even a Grandma can use it.  Please don’t take offense if you are a technologically savvy Grandparent. The point I am making here, is that Apple is subtly addressing the idea that only certain generations can use these products.  All of those arguments are crushed by this ad because there is nobody around to turn the IPhone on for Grandma, There is simply a note that says “Press Play” sitting on top of the IPhone, hinting at the fact that the Grandma is familiar with the product.  Apple products are not for particular demographics, they are for ALL demographics.

Brilliance Factor Number 3:
Emotional impact.  The ad strategy that Apple has been able to execute frequently and execute well, is humanizing their products.  After all, what good is a smart phone without a person using it, or, dare I say, purchasing it? The ability of this particular ad to appeal to nostalgia, yet at the same time a hope for a brighter tomorrow, is what makes it so darn beautiful.

So, go ahead, watch the best ad of the Holiday season.  I won’t judge you if you cry.

This past Friday marked the day long event where the 57th Annual Grammy Award contenders were announced. According to Rolling Stone, the event concluded with “A Very Grammy Christmas” where the five nominees up for the Grammy’s biggest award, Album of the Year were announced. Beyonce, Pharrell Williams and Sam Smith won most nominations (6 each) according to Mashable.

The most surprising nomination was Beck’s Morning Phase, the singer has not been nominated for Album of the Year since 1997 and 2001, however earlier in the day Beck was nominated for Best Rock Album, while the album single “Blue Moon” was nominated for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song according to Rolling Stone. 

Beyonce after just having missed the cut off for the 56th Grammys was a clear candidate, given earlier in the day she became the most nominated female in Grammy history, surpassing Dolly Parton and ended the day with 6 nominations for the 57th Grammys. 

Sam Smith totaled 6 nominations as well, gaining recognition in all major categories including Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist to name a few.

Pharrell also racked up 6 nominations, however, impressively William’s name appears on the credits for three of the five albums nominated for Album of the Year which includes being featured on Beyonces and Sheeran’s X says Rolling Stone. Other competitive categories such as Best Rap Album, Song of the Year, and more were announced, we look forward to watching and seeing who take home Album of the Year February 8, 2015.

Review By Tyler Blue

One moment Lev Allanblitz was a fan in the audience freaking out to Michael Franti and Spearhead. The next he was commanding the Arlington Theater’s stage, belting out a verse of Sublime’s “What I Got.” This was just one of many spine-tingling highlights of the first Solutions for Dreamers Festival. Conceived as a benefit for Heal the Ocean, it was brought to life by a team of ambitious visionaries and eco-friendly sponsors. Graced with a talented lineup of compassionate musician and a promenade of environmentalist booths, the spirit could not have been more positive. Throw in a bevy of elaborate puppet, prop and costume designs, and Santa Barbara had itself a multimedia event for the ages.

Early in the morning of what would be a gorgeous, sunny Saturday, Jack Johnson landed on a red-eye from Hawaii. Practically the patron saint of Heal the Ocean, he helped make the night extra special by sitting in with three of the four bands. His bandmate, drummer Adam Topol, kicked things off with a short set from his side project, Culver City Dub Allstars. The sextet unfurled their thick, rhythmic force on the empty theater. Soaring tenor sax solos cascaded on top of the rich, textural base of dub, jazz and soul.

Some artists play music to wake people up while others intend to create an escape. Matthew McAvene accomplishes both simultaneously. Holding nothing back emotionally, his songs have that rare ability to linger on the mind while revealing deeper meanings. Playing only his third appearance with a complete band, this quartet is clearly onto something. Anders Bergstrom’s mandolin stamps the sound with honest Americana while Steve Campbell injects primal power from behind the drum kit.
Review by Tyler Blue

Admirably transitioning from coffeehouse to theater, McAvene’s salt-of-the-Earth voice understands the spectrum of pain and hope on gems like, “Thin Line.” He gave way to a sobering interlude when friend, Danny Riley, stopped the room in its tracks, performing one of his songs. Nice-guy McAvene is also a master puppeteer, committed to wowing people visually as well as aurally. The theme of the event was all-encompassing thanks to an array of ocean creatures dramatically presented throughout the night.. McAvene is pioneering an exciting, theatrical movement, adding new dimensions to a concert’s capacity for sensory stimulation.

If you were trying to dance in the seats during Animal Liberation Orchestra’s set, chances are you came away with a bruise or two. The hometown heroes kept the heat rising as they ripped through an 80-minute set of their typically-uplifting California soul. “Shapeshifter” spiraled listeners through a sonic whirlpool generated by keyboardist/singer, Zach Gill. Bassist Steve Adams used the group’s first appearance in its hometown’s biggest theater to stretch the depths of his low-end frequency.

College buddy Jack Johnson joined the fun at the end of the set, fittingly concluding with ALOs homage to Isla Vista, “Wasting Time.” Beastie Boys-cohort, Money Mark, livened the mix with melodica while guitarist, Dan Lebowitz, dished out a searing slide solo. In between sets, an underwater documentary offered a transcendental excursion to the deep. Dyson Sphere’s dissonant soundtrack evoked otherworldly beauty in the movements of stringrays and jellyfish.

The tone was set just by staring at the backdrop - a peace sign in a bullseye surrounded by bullet holes - and military camouflage nets draped over speakers. A war siren signaled the beginning of our evening’s final phase as the audience instantly surrendered themselves to the guidance of Michael Franti. In the vein of Bob Marley, the 6’6”, dreaded troubadour captivates his people like a true musical shaman. When he asks the crowd to jump up and down, that’s exactly what it wants to do.

Drawing awareness to the human toll of war is a responsibility Franti has taken on with piercing conviction. Like a hip hop Marley, his songs convey simple messages which resonate on a universal frequency. Along with his sonic assault squad, Spearhead, they unleashed an extended set of older favorites and all the best songs off last year’s release, “Yell Fire!” It was a night for deep bass as Carl Young repeatedly strutted center-stage, dropping bombs from behind wicked-cool sunglasses. Drummer Manas Itene from Nigeria gives Spearhead an authentic dancehall vibe with his tropical bounce and towering vocal octaves. Laying down a swinging groove, he turned “Hey Now Now” into a carnival ride.
In comparison to their set days before in L.A., the energy in Santa Barbara was on a whole other level. “East to the West” and “Sweet Little Lies” were both chilling and jubilant. “Hello Bonjour” lit the place up with hypnotic dance appeal while the irreverent spirit of the aforementioned “What I Got” elicited pandemonium. Keeping the pedal to the metal through a three song encore, we were sent off with the one-two punch of “Stay Human” and “Everybody Ona Move.” During the finale, 20 costumed dancers shared the stage as the excess of joy bubbled over the brim. In the midst of it all, the peaceful revolutionary just stood there grinning.

Oniracom is proud to be a partner of 805Connect—a comprehensive database created to provide an official directory and networking platform to connect all businesses in the 805 area code. We are excited to have this awesome service available to us! It’s more than a simple business directory, 805connect is also a “place for public entities, private organizations, businesses, entrepreneurs and non-profits, as well as educational institutions to have visibility and connect within the regional business community. It is designed to give you insight into the people behind the businesses in the region.”

Jacob was recently interviewed to be featured on the 805Connect’s Partner page here. He says, “Oniracom is excited to support 805connect because this region is our home. We love the people, businesses and events of the 805, and strive to connect with local organizations on a daily basis. Our love for local has grown stronger the more we invest in this area, and we believe the 805connect network will create a healthy platform for community support and collaboration.”

To signup and learn more, head to their website here.

Here at Oniracom we are pretty passionate.  We are all passionate about many different things, but the thing we can all agree on, is that we love music.  I mean, we really LOVE music.  We all weighed in on our favorite albums of 2014. So, without further ado, here are everyone’s top pics for 2014.  Enjoy!

CALIA:
Tough Love - Jessie Ware
No Mythologies to Follow - MØ

JASON:
1. Caribou - Our Love
2. Moodymann [self-titled]
3. Sun Kil Moon - Benji

KEIR:
01 The War on Drugs - “Lost in the Dream”
02 Spoon - “They Want My Soul”
03 TV on the Radio - “Seeds”
04 St. Vincent - “St. Vincent”
05 Thievery Corporation - “Saudade”
06 fka Twigs - “LP1”
07 Merchandise - “After the End”

I just couldn’t stop playing War on Drugs. I already loved that band but this album was everything I wanted and needed it to be. Only slightly less so for Spoon (a great album to play bass with). I’m already stoked about TV on the Radio after only a few days. The rest are all good too, but honorable mention goes to Thievery Corporation for being my favorite album cover of 2014; it’s perfect for the tunes, title, and theme.

Oxford Dictionary honors “vape” as the word of the year, and I want to go die now because that is the worst thing I have ever heard.  I do not like that word. I do not like the way it sounds, and most of all I don’t like those silly blue lights.  I find them distracting.  Before I get caught up creating my very own version of “10 Things I Hate About You” on here, let me just say this, the English language is full of so many beautiful words, descriptive words, eloquent words.  But every year, the “word of the year” seems to drop a few more IQ points*.  I’m pretty sure we are in the negative field of IQ points now.
I can’t help but to think of Robin William’s character in Dead Poet’s Society

The word very sounds like a vacation into intelligence now.  Okay okay, I’m being tough on the silly “Word of the Year” choice over at Oxford Dictionary, I get that.  But I just saw the Mashable article, which you can refer to here.  and thought, wow, this is why people hate my generation.  So, if not for the need to reference two of my favorite movies of all time,** I needed to write this diary of outrage towards the “Word of the Year”, because the world needs to know that the millennial generation is more than vape-ing selfie-taking baes.  (Of course no judgement if you partake in any of those activities. I know you’re so much more than those things)
All that to say, I hope we can all learn something from this. 

You can read the Oxford Dictionary’s official release as well.

*The one caveat to this claim, is that I fully support the word Muggle being acknowledged as a superior word choice in any situation.
**I have actually referenced three if you have read the above asterisk.  Because, Harry Potter is awesome. Also I know it is a book series, but you get my point.

PACHAMAS are new interactive pajamas that come to life! The brand hopes to inspire kids to make their dreams come true through this unique digital experience. They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign and they need your help!

The pajamas are made from organic cotton and come with a reality app and companion book, soundtrack and its own card game.The goal of the pajamas is to allow the kids to dig deeper into their imaginations and become connected with nature. It promotes the healthy development of today’s children and makes parents feel more comfortable knowing that their kids are spending their time becoming more involved with nature and learning new things.

Aaron Ableman, the chief creative officer of these pajamas, believes that this is “nutritious children’s entertainment” and it uses the “power of music and storytelling to transform children’s lives”. This is the world’s first interactive dream wear line that “can change the world one pair of PJs at a time.  Help support their mission at their Kickstarter campaign here!

Have you or your friends used Venmo, or any other money transferring app but feel neglected by the inability to send the recipient a seflie along with your money transference? Fear no more! We now have… Snapcash. Snapchat and Square are collaborating on this project where Square will handle the actual cash movements and Snapchat will host the social networking platform. The deal will also provide Square with access to Snapchat’s 100 million plus monthly active users according to Mashable.

To use the new feature, one must live United States, have a debit card, and be 18 years old. Snapcash will be made first available to Android users, and shortly after it will be brought to iOS users. When using Snapcash, one also creates a Square account where the actual money transference will take place. This new feature exhibits Snapchat’s ability to push past its original limitations of strictly existing as a chat application and now becoming a surprising new competitor to mobile payment companies such as PayPal. 

Snapchat has recently begun marketing and developing platforms for Snapcash, so draining your bank account might be even easier in the near future. Also, we love the video Snapchat made for the new feature. It’s crazy but that’s part of the reason why it’s amazing!

Read more about it on Snapchat’s blog.

One of our newest clients, Blind Tiger Santa Barbara, is celebrating the month of November and men’s health with a Made In Movember ‘STACHE BASH next Saturday, November 22nd.

They are also hosting a contest for the BEST ‘STACHE on social media—if you post a photo to either INSTAGRAM or TWITTER with hashtags #stachebash AND #blindtigersb, and FOLLOW @blindtigersb, you could win a bundle of super awesome prizes!

‘STACHE BASH supports the Movember Foundation, who seeks to raise awareness about men’s health and wellness.

The winner of the contest will recieve:
—2 Free Tickets to the Made in Movember ‘STACHE BASH on November 22nd
—2 Free Drink Cards
—Gift Certificates to Richie’s Barber Shop
—Dinner for two at Blush SB

Amazon Echo part speaker part voice activated personal home assistant is new on the market and has consumers wondering what this product is for. Alexa is Amazon’s new version of Siri, which when asked can set alarms, reference the dictionary and play music. Echo has some promising features, but at this point seems slightly out of place. Amazon’s main objective is to sell products, but it is unclear at this point whether the functionality the Echo will provide highly marketable. However, Amazon has had success in the past with technological gadgets such as the Kindle when ahead of the market.  

It looks like Echo is making its way to the smart home scene just in time along with Google and Apple’s new home smart gadgets. According to Mashable, Echo could take Amazon from one-click purchase to no-click purchase, creating the ultimate in-home impulse purchase engine — all done with voice command. this new smart home technology could be a change in the future, making online shopping, downloading audio books and simple day to day questions easier and more convenient than ever. When addressed, Alexa, the Echo will listen and respond to questions, tasks and commands given to the device. The purpose of this product is to add a smart technology feature to homes and aid in day to day tasks. Smart home devices are a rapidly expanding market, and Amazon’s new product is currently being tested by being sent to some Amazon Prime members to test the product and receive feedback. According to Mashable the device runs around 99 for Amazon Prime members for a limited time and 200 for other customers.  

President Obama intervenes to save the internet by asking the FCC (Federal Communications Commissions) to classify the internet as a public utility, and not allow destructive practices like fast lane and throttling which will limit internet equality according to Gizmodo. The idea of net neutrality, gives innovators the chance to thrive, Obama wants the internet free and open in order to protect neutrality. Internet providers have a legal and ethical obligation to not block access to certain websites you want to visit, or to pay for priority to competitors. The internet has become an essential tool for communication and life. 

The FCC asked for feedback on its policies, and the general public responded. With over 4 million responses, the public has asked that consumers, not companies choose what sites to use and are currently very dissatisfied with current rules and regulations being practiced by the FCC. Obama then backed the public, by sending a message asking the FCC to reconsider some of its unethical practices, and adhere to the publics requests and dissatisfactions. The internet’s inherit purpose was to be a communication tool, without regulations that would spur innovation and promote freedom. According to Gizmodo, Obama is presenting a 4 point plan including: no blocking, no throttling, increased transparency, and no paid prioritization to target the main problems. In the past there have been telecommunication acts passed to prevent cellphone and telephone holders from financially over paying in services used in everyday life. Now we will have to wait for a response from the FCC since it is an independent agency. 

For those of you who might not know, AIGA is the professional association for design, and AIGA Santa Barbara is one of 69 chapters across the nation. One of many cool benefits of being on the AIGA SB board of directors is being able to put on great design-related, educational, and networking events for our local chapter and community. Oniracom has already been part of many AIGA events (Jacob and Tad have been Portfolio Day judges, and Oniracom hosted a studio tour this past May), but the biggest bang so far was definitely last Thursday’s “Art of Music” discussion, where Jacob was a panelist and I co-moderated with David Cowan, also of AIGA SB.

We were thrilled to be speaking with some legendary heavy hitters: Hale Milgrim (former President/CEO, Capitol Records); John Kosh (former Creative Director, Apple Records; current Principal at Ten Worlds Productions), and Andy Engel (former Art Director, CBS Records; current Principal, Andy Engel Design, Inc.), and they did not disappoint. The combined wisdom from our featured panelists was a great blend of business, design and inside information, and music by DJ Darla Bea helped set a groovy tone. Here’s a quick rundown of what we covered (full audio at the AIGA SB website; all photos by Tad Wagner):

Apple pay sets a new benchmark for mobile payments, however, they are not alone.  according to Mashable, MasterCard has been a pioneer of mobile commerce innovation for years, including the world’s first contact-less and mobile payment solutions. Apple Pay turned to MasterCard to help ensure high quality mobile transactions. Earlier in 2005, Mastercard used Near Field Communication technology to turn almost anything into an instant and secure form of payment, meaning your smartphone, bracelet or watch could soon replace your wallet. These new methods of payment, enable consumers to spend more than they regularly would with traditional payment methods. Mastercard, has been working to promote and distribute these new methods of payment and further expand these technologies promoting them to be faster, more secure and convenient. Some may be worried about the security of using contact-less payment methods, but master card ensures heightened security through 3 layers of tokenization, EMV cryptology, and biometrics meaning respectively a special number assignment which prevents hackers from stealing your card information, creating a one time transaction number, and is thumb print or passcode secure.  Wallets might be a thing of the past, while reliance on smart phones and technology is predicted to expand and grow.

We were elated to get a bag of coffee in the mail from Bedfellows Roasting Company this week.

The company’s founder Marc Beauregard, now living in San Francisco, is a long time friend of Oniracom, soulful singer/songwriter, surfer and all-around cool guy.

Tomorrow, AIGA Santa Barbara is hosting The Art of Music: Translating Sound to Sight at the Balboa Building (735 State St.) from 6 to 8 p.m. Organized by our very own designer/developer Keir DuBois, the event will include presentations by Capitol Records president Hale Milgrim, former Apple Records art director John Kosh, former CBS Records art director Andy Engel, and our CEO Jacob Tell! Each will be sharing their personal experiences with the processes of designing iconic album artwork, gig posters and illustrations to show how artists transform their songs into something visual.

Keir was interviewed by the SB Independent recently to talk about the event. He is beyond excited to have these legendary artists speak at this event. He stated, “I still get starry-eyed thinking about what it was like to work somewhere like Capitol Records, so we like to draw a balance between inspirational stories for creative professionals and discussing the practicality aspects of the job.” You can read the full feature here.

Admission to the event includes food, wine, and music spun by DJ Darla Bea that you won’t want to miss. To learn more about the event visit santabarbara.aiga.org!

Recently, Facebook has released a new update allowing for a more organized way to post batches of photos from your smart phone. According to Mashable , Once an iPhone or Android user uploads a set of pictures from their mobile device, the app generates a quick preview of how the photos will be displayed and then allows users to rearrange image order.  This can be done by holding the selected photo and dragging it to the desired position. This update is compatible for selecting up to thirty photos at a time including tags, captions and locations. Now smartphone users are able to control photo order from the convenience of their phones rather than being limited to having this control on just website uploads. According to Mashable, Facebook is positioning photos as more of a platform for telling stories about everyday moments, rather just a place to store albums of hundreds of photos. This places emphasis not only on the large album uploads, but the importance of smaller photo uploads telling a story or updating Facebook friends. These smaller uploads are coined stories, which are different from albums in size, focusing on sharing in the moment with one’s Facebook community. 

Fitbit recently unveiled their new and improved super watch the Fitbit Charge, just in time for the Holiday season. Six months ago the company recalled their product the Fitbit Force to due the nickel content in the surgical steel affecting some consumers causing allergic reactions, thought limited in cases according to Mashable Fitbit offered a full refund, and worked hard to come back with a new and improved product. During this release, Fitbit introduced the three products it is releasing within the next year.  

Products include the Fitbit Charge, the Fitbit Charge HR, and the Fitbit Surge. Currently the only product available for purchase is the charge which offers special features that track steps, calories burn, and sleeping patterns, which can then be synched to your smart phone. The fit band also displays incoming calls and messages, so you can check your wrist before reaching for the phone. So far the Fitbit products come in black and slate, but new colors such as blue and burgundy will be released in 2015 according to Mashable.

The FitBit collections offer the combination of hardware and software unity to take health tracking to the next level. Relying on smartphone devices is less efficient, than synching the features of a smartphone and smart watch. The Fitbit HR offers heart rate monitoring during physical exertion and rest periods alike, offering extensive health insight for only a 20$ price increase. the Fitbit Charge HR offers heart rate monitoring, GPS, sleep analysis, and activity tracking. Unfortunately these two products are yet to be released to the market, but we will patiently await their release, and look forward to taking health tracking to a new level.

HBO has recently announced its intent to do a standalone streaming service starting in 2015. No longer will college student’s borrow their parents HBO GO access accounts. A recent trend in entertainment is the shift from television viewing to online video streaming. According to the The Daily Titan 1 in 3 people in their 20s and 30s watches Netflix or some other streaming service more often than they watch television.Now HBO fans will not have to pay for a pricey cable subscription to view their favorite shows. 

HBO is looking to make a profit on their extensive list of shows and merge into the online streaming market which offers factors of ease, convenience, and reduced costs for online streaming service users. According to The Source , the CEO of HBO is attempting to target the 80 million homes who do not currently have HBO.  A HBO standalone streaming service would compete with other top online streaming mega-giants like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Instant Video. It is rumored, however, that HBO could be charging up to $15 a month according to Martin Peers at The Information , it will be tough to compete with the cheaper options of Netflix and Hulu offering services for $7.99 and $8.25 for Amazon Prime respectively. It is assumed their transition into the online market will flow seamlessly, and game of throne fans can now breath a sigh of relief, cut their cables cords, and continue their viewings online. 

HAPPY ALMOST HALLOWEEN! One of my favorite holidays is finally here, and I am even more excited about it this time around because it’s on a Friday! Halloween should be one of those holidays that switches its date in order to always land on a Friday or Saturday.

Well, we’ve got you prepared for any Halloween festivities you may be having this weekend with an awesome Spooky playlist. This one may be our best one yet!

Haaris:
“Abigail” - King Diamond
“Halloween” - King Diamond
“2 Minutes to Midnight” - Iron Maiden
“Cereal Killer” - Redman & Method Man
“Take Me To Your Leader” - King Geedorah
“The Killing Joke” - Captain Murphy
“The Cyborg Slayers” - Dethklok
“March of the Fire Ants” - Mastodon

AND THE SCARIEST MUSIC EVER:
“Halloween (Michael Myers) Theme Song” - John Carpenter

Jason:
“Dead Man’s Tetris” - Flying Lotus
“Gesaffelstein” - Atmosphere

Tad:
“Witchcraft” - Frank Sinatra
“Superstition” - Stevie Wonder
“Werewolves of London” - Warren Zevon
“Rock Lobster” - B-52’s

Jacob:
“Nature Trail to Hell” - Weird Al

Justin:
“Monster” - Kanye West
“Rustie” - Attak
“Voices In My Head - SBTRKT

Keir:
Band of Horses “Is There A Ghost” - creepy/fun exercise in minimalism: only words in the song are “I could sleep when I lived alone. Is there a ghost in my house?”
Beck “Scarecrow” - Reminds me of driving I-10 to Palm Springs at night, with all the weird and strange implications of that.
Camper Van Beethoven “O Death” - Surrealist/psychedelic folkie spin on the traditional old song.
Morrissey “Jack the Ripper” - Moz turns the Victorian-era serial killer episode into (what else?) an angsty melodrama.
TV on the Radio “Wolf Like Me” - Love as toxic lycanthropy, because why not?

Mike:
“Monster Mash”
“People Are Strange” - The Doors

Tracy:
“Ghostbusters” - Ray Parker, Jr.
“The Ghost Who Walks” - Karen Elson
“I Put A Spell On You” - Nina Simone

The GamerGate scandal started as a battle in the online gaming community between a game developer and ex-boyfriend. According to Mashable , The developer’s ex boyfriend wrote a 9,000-word screed about their relationship, accusing her of trading sex for favorable press coverage and other career boosts. Although this information was false, the gaming community preceded to intervene full force. 

One focal points of the scandal was the relationship between Zoe Quinn, an independent game developer and alleged sexual partner Nathan Grayson who is a video game journalist. The gaming community viewed this as an ethical scandal, drawing attention to the corruption within the video game journaling community. (aside from the fact Nathan never wrote an article on one of Quinn’s games) According to Bloomberg View   the underlying problems of the scandal seems to be misogyny, and the politicization of geek culture.

Misogyny has been a prevalent trend throughout the online gaming community for quite some time. There have frequently been anti-women messages spread throughout online community and spread quickly due to online anonymity. Female gamers have been particularly weary in speaking out on the controversy in order to avoid having their personal information leaked online. Felicia Day recently spoke out on the movement and her personal information was leaked in the comment box of her blog. The anonymity within the online gaming community seems to be instigating the harassment and expanded the online threats.  

Within the gaming community there seems to be a split between those wanting to protect harassment victims, mostly feminist gamers who vocalize their views online, and those misogynists who harass female gamers and leak their personal information online. There has become an inherent divide online, and many have become focused on fighting opposing parties rather than virtual zombies.  

The whole entire GamerGate scandal has gotten out of control, some female gamers have received death threats and there seems to be no end to the visual harassment either. This scandal has skyrocketed past a little debacle between exs, and has spiraled into a full force problem, drawing attention to the negative aspects of the online gaming community. Perhaps this will be a wake up call for the gaming community to take back their online forums and focus on what they initially went online for, love of video games. Or perhaps this online warfare will continue, reducing the online appeal of gaming communities for many people.

On Tuesday, October 14, I took a trip down to Carpinteria Family School to do some abstract watercolor painting with the students there.
Here’s a little photo documentary of our fun. Thanks Angela White for the invitation!

Ello is a revolutionary social networking site unlike all the rest. Ello, is different from Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking giants in that it is completely add free. Ello’s manifesto reads, “We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate — but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life. You are not a product. Ello. This is what makes Ello unique from its forefathers.  To generate revenue, Ello allows for users to customize their pages with special feature tools which may be purchased for a small price according to Ello these features are not necessary, but do provide some financial support to the company, as well as allowing for users to continue to create and uniquely customize their social networking experience.

Ello is set up as like a mash between Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter, in which users may generate statuses, post pictures and gifs, find friends and comment on posts. Started by a small group of programmers and artists, Ello has sprung up quickly with rapid popularity. There are as many as 35,000 requests to join the social networking site per hour according to The Guardian , and Ello’s head team is working rapidly to keep up with their growing popularity. The site however is not new; Ello was launched in March and was intended to be a small, invite- only community between friends. Interest was recently sparked by the LGBT communities’ migration to other social networking sites after Facebook launched their real name policy, prohibiting users from using names other than their legal names. As interest increased, Ello became more public, but one must still obtain an invite to join the site. Some have even begun selling Ello invites on eBay ranging from 5-150 dollars according to Mashable ,but it is still unclear whether or not Ello will be a fad, or is here to stay. 

When looking to boost the revenue generated by your website consider adopting one or all of the following strategies.

Dangle the Carrot with Inbound Marketing
Visitors to your website have a one-track mind. They want to get what they need and get the hell out. It’s up to you to capitalize on the opportunity to convert a visitor into a customer. The traditional solution to this challenge is to bombard your site visitors with endless calls to action for deals, discounts and more information. But the best solution is to present visitors with the information they seek while receiving something valuable in return. Inbound marketing is a practice that follows several steps to ensure that customers are engaged with the right offers and the right content at the right time.  Leads require cultivation, and inbound marketing nets you the information you need to convert visitors into leads and leads into sales.

Back to the carrot. Think about your website in terms of the value that it offers to visitors e.g. your services, your ‘secret sauce,’ your content. For example if your website hosts an article listing “5 Easy Ways to Grow Followers on Social Media” and the article is getting a lot of traffic from search terms like “Social Media Marketing Ideas” or “Improve my Social Media marketing,” you gain practical insight into the needs of your visitors. Use this insight to create content that will bring in more visitors. Now ask yourself, “what are visitors doing once they find what they are looking for?” If the answer isn’t “contacting my company” then you are missing out on a huge opportunity. 

If we apply inbound marketing to the example above, the scene changes dramatically. With inbound marketing we take a desirable piece of content like the “5 Easy Ways to Grow Followers” article, and convert it into a downloadable format like PDF or eBook. We display a portion of the article content to the visitor upon landing on the page. Then we offer them the complete downloadable file as instant gratification for filling out a simple contact form.  If you prefer to display full articles on your site, you can convert a collection articles into a topical ebook and offer it as the incentive, while keeping the full articles available to visitors.

With inbound marketing visitors volunteer their contact details including the background information you need to facilitate your sales process, in exchange for the valuable resource they were searching for. Smart leads are worth giving away a carrot or two.

Add Value to E-Commerce with Product Bundles
Your e-commerce business is missing out on revenue. It is typical for online merchants to sell out of a handful of products regularly, while the bulk of the products remain on the shelves failing to generate revenue. E-commerce brands are adopting a new strategy to aid in liquidating slow moving products: product bundling.

A product bundle is a package of two or more products sold together for one price on a single sku. The goal of product bundling is to increase your site’s average transaction value and ‘add value’ to popular products. We do this by bundling popular products with less popular but related products on a single sku at a discounted price. For example instead of selling a popular pair of boots for $300 and a slow moving bottle of boot cleaner for $25, you sell a bundle, the boots and the boot cleaner together for $315.

The key to this strategy is bundling your popular products with products that are not only slow moving, but also high margin. Bundling high-margin products allows you to discount the bundle while still clearing a sensible profit margin. In the example of the boot cleaner, assuming that the vendor purchased the boot cleaner at wholesale for less than $15, they are making more money from the sale of the bundle than they would be on a sale of the popular product alone. That being said, the other key to this strategy is to NOT bundle two popular products. Under most circumstances bundling two popular products at a discounted price can only hurt your revenues.

Try bundling products and then posting the bundle to your brand’s Facebook page as a limited time offer. Measure the response, rinse and repeat with different bundles until you discover a few winning combinations. You will find yourself selling out of bundles in no time.

Capitalize on Mobile Traffic with Responsive Design
Share of web traffic is shifting to mobile devices at increasing rates. Take a look at your site analytics and make note of the growth in mobile traffic over the last 24 months. If your site is not optimized for mobile and tablet devices, mobile visitors will become frustrated with the experience and leave your site for a competitor. Visitors can become equally as frustrated with an app or dedicated mobile site experience (e.g. mobile.oniracom.com) that does not support the full functionality of your site.

The solution is Responsive Design, a smart take on user interface design that kills three birds with one stone. The three ‘birds’ are desktop, mobile and tablet device visitors, and the one ‘stone’  is a responsive website. Take a minute to pull up http://oniracom.com on your computer and your phone or iPad. You will notice a few differences between the user interface on each device.

First, the URL for the website is the same whether opened on a desktop or mobile browser. Second, the site content is optimized to be viewed within the bounds of each screen without requiring any double-tapping or pinching. Third, the menu, header, footer and other website features also scale to be device optimized.

With responsive design, all of the design elements and content on the site respond to the browser window through which it is being viewed. All of this happens in real time using fluid, proportion based grids, flexible images and CSS3 media queries. The framework for the layout of the site is based on relative units like percentages, rather than absolute units like pixels. Responsive design is the new standard for website design and should be made a priority for the next iteration of your website.

Use responsive design to capitalize on your mobile traffic, creating a better experience for your site visitors and a smarter canvas for your content.

Need Help Getting Your Website Up to Speed?
Email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I will assist you in any way I can!

Justin Davis is the Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Oniracom. You can follow Justin on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn

Dear Dreamers,

Over the past several years, we have had the joy of working with our video partner Luke Archer.  Luke is the Creative Director and founder of the Cool Hand Look Agency. There are some big changes going on at Cool Hand Look, so I decided to interview him about the reinvention of the Agency. 

Here are some excerpts from that interview. Enjoy!

- Jacob

Q. So explain to me, what is the Cool Hand Look Agency?

CHL: We are a bad ass biker gang…except Dana has a scooter,  and Gianny cruises his moped around town. Ok, so were not a biker gang, but what we are is a group of creative’s that have been collaborating on projects for years. Dana and Luke have been working together as the technical duo behind the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and Gianny has been their go to cinematographer since they first crossed paths in 2006.

We three are draw together by a love for creative production, and a general outlook on life, that is; people are what matters, relationships are everything, and “you only live once so do your best while you are here” attitude. 

We all have pretty amazing stories.

Dana Morrow is a rare pioneer that has kept up with an ever-changing industry.  In the 1980’s he owned the top video agency in Seattle, dragging his knuckles on tape-to-tape editors. He then went on to own his first AVID, and the business blossomed. Like many a smart businessman, he sold the company at it’s heyday and promptly moved to Santa Barbara’s Riviera, and began to bless the local community with his production chops and his contagious smile. When he’s not combing over the details of our next production, Dana and his wife Sharon, enjoy spending time with clients, family, friends, and Santa Barbara. Wow. We live here!

Where to start with Gianny Trutmann? Gianny is a first rate director of photography trained at the Brooks Institute.  When we say first rate we mean it -  he will literally take a bullet to get the perfect shot.  In fact, he has…just ask him to show you the wound. He grew up in Guatemala, where his family still resides. But like any smart cinematographer, Gianny moved to California and started making great television content, while launching the first RED Boot Camps in Los Angeles, Argentina, and Venezuela. For the past 14 years, has called Santa Barbara his home. When he’s not on a production, you might find him hanging out of a helicopter, experimenting with new cinematic technologies, or sniping new locations on his motorcycle.

And that brings us to me, Luke Archer. I was a bit of an academic rebel in school. I caused a ruckus, but somehow always ended up at the top of the Dean’s list.  After graduated business school in Monterey, I dived head first into entrepreneurship; co-founding a product development company, a learning company, a television production company, and more recently, launched the Cool Hand Look Agency. 

So what am I passionate about? God, my family, and content. Breathing content. Eating content. Dreaming content. Sleeping Content. Creating content. I can’t stop. 

Q. What do we do?

CHL: We work with brands. Our clients come to us to help them create, communicate, and deliver their brand message to the Public. That is what we do. We develop creative campaigns, content, commercials, and designs to tell your brand story and cultivate sales. 

Q. What is with the wacky Monster Suit?

CHL: That’s me, Luke, in the Sherbet the Monster Suit. Man is it hot in there! We had so much fun with this shoot!  Sometimes you just got to let the inner beast out.

Sherbert was designed and built by local artisan, Matthew McAvene. Matthew cut his teeth at the Jim Henson Company makers of the Muppets! He is a hella-of-a-guy and was kind enough to let us borrow Sherbert for the photo shoot. Matthew is also a great commercial artist.  You have probably seen his work scattered around Santa Barbara and wondered who created this fantastic art? Check out more from Matthew McAvene at mackyworld.com.

Q.  Who took those great photos and where?

Local photographer and Brooks Institute graduate, Lexus Gallegos. She took these bad ass photos at the Historic Arlington Theatre.  Check out her incredible photos at lexusgallegos.com. Special thanks to the Metropolitan Theatre Company for allowing us to shoot at the theatre and a very special thanks to Karen Killingsworth for making that happen!

Q. The shoot looks like a lot of fun!  Do you have any video?

CHL:  Of course we have the video that we asked you to ask us about!  We didn’t bring any video lights but we couldn’t resist shooting a couple of seconds of slow motion at 4K.

Thanks for your time Jacob.  Solutions for Dreamers and Oniracom, YOU ROCK!

Communist leaders in China have recently blocked and banned social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and now Instagram in light of the recent protests in Hong Kong. Protestors have been fighting for free elections, rather than being forced to choose from a predetermined ballot. These sites were shut down in order to prevent photos of the protests from flooding the Internet, in attempt to detain the conflicts going on within the city. Many living in mainland China are unaware of what is going on in Hong Kong due to strict government censorship. The hash tags and photo images of police attacking the protestors sparked government officials to block and prevent further media posting during this time in attempt to restrict access of information to other Chinese citizens. But this isn’t the first time China has censored Instagram, according to Stuff earlier this summer the Instagram app was removed from the android app store in china.” 
 
Social media has been extremely influential during recent political unrest around the world. Some examples include the use of social media to coordinate revolution during the Arab Spring according to Engadget.  Earlier in 2011, The Egyptian government restricted use of the Internet, SMS and other methods of communication in attempt to control the riots. In March,Turkey banned YouTube in order to prevent continued videos of government corruption from leaking to the public. At the time, Twitter was also banned, in attempt to presumably limit the spread of corruption videos and prevent informing Turkish citizens of such scandals. Activists in the Ukraine have been gaining attention by tweeting hash tags and photos encouraging thePresident to talk to the citizens and keep them informed. The movement was started by Maxim Savanevskij,according to Yahoo,who is encouraging the political figurehead to inform citizens of the reasons and motives behind the government’s actions. 
 
Censoring social media is just one example of Chinese government officials attempting to curtail awareness of the protests. Students and protesters have been creative when attempting to circumvent the communication cut offs. Using apps, such as FireChat, allows for protesters to communicate should the government cut off or restrict cellular data. This app allows people to communicate when there is no Wi-Fi or cellular data, and avoid firewalls. As of now Chinese government officials are attempting to contain the protest, and prevent the rest of China from knowing of the current turmoil through web restrictions. 

Ever wonder how many of your followers, fans, and fellow Twitter users stumble across your tweets and hashtags? Wonder no further, gauging Tweet success will no longer rely on the number of favorites, retweets and replies one receives.  Twitter has recently implemented an analytics dashboard, similar to Google Analytics allowing one to “gauge the performance of each and every tweet you sent. How many people saw it? How many of those actually clicked your links?” according to TechCrunch.  This new feature is available to all verified Twitter accounts and Twitter Card advertisers and publishers. It offers a broad, strategic view of one’s tweets, showing how many people viewed the tweet, clicked on links, as well as comparing your Twitter success to previous months. This new feature will be helpful for advitisters using Twitter as a promotional tool. Now they will be able to easily enhance their Twitter advertisements focusing on consistency, timing, and tweet mechanics which will in turn help Twitter users send more efficient Tweets and reach their targeted audience with ease!

Apple is never far from the headlines these days, especially after their iPhone 6 and Apple Watch  launch that basically stopped time. Today, Apple released their first update to the iOS 8 operating system (which was released last week), that turned out to be an absolute nightmare.

A tidal wave of complaints and panicked rants on Twitter led Apple to immediately (and awkwardly) withdraw the update. The two largest issues were the alleged loss of service and the disabling of TouchID. The update was initially to fix a bug on HealthKit, but no word on if that got fixed since it was overshadowed by the other glaring issues.

Mashable has been keeping very close tabs on iOS 8, reviewing the good, the bad and the panicked scramble to downgrade after this disastrous update.

I myself have not yet downloaded the update (storage problems FOREVER/#regrets on not getting the 32GB in the first place) but for now, this setback just goes to show that as far as we’ve come in the technology of mobile phone softwares, mistakes are still made. Of course, no operating system is perfect and i’m looking forward to seeing how quickly Apple can fix this.

Ever since stepping into Topshop’s Las Vegas store several years ago, I have been in love with the UK brand. When I was in London this past year, I got the chance to go into several Topshop stores, including their flagship in Oxford Circus, and was amazed at how the brand has become basically a household name in the UK. They not only have innovative clothing at affordable prices, but they always have seemed on point with weaving technology seamlessly into their label and fashion shows.

This year at London Fashion Week (#LFW), they stood out above the others with their democratization of fashion by targeting the younger customer base with a social media takeover.

Back in the day (and by back in the day I mean like, three years ago) when I was a DJ at UCSB’s on campus radio station, KCSB 91.9FM I was on TOP of my new music releases. I was required to come up with a fresh weekly playlist that included alternative artists who you wouldn’t hear that often (if at all) on commercial radio stations.

So yes, I had my new music radar goggles on at any given moment. Anything that hit my ear that sounded remotely new (even if it was a new twist on a cover) would make my ears perk up. I would immediately turn to the person closest to me and ask, “Who is this playing?” Eventually, I realized Shazam was probably a good thing to invest in, as many random individuals I encountered were as clueless as me, and probably a bit afraid of my loud, abrupt questions. Now, in an office environment at Oniracom I hear some new tunes occasionally, but my radar has become quite dull. Sometimes I become too engrossed in my work that my ears are never really listening to the music playing on the speakers. It’s a shame because my coworkers have GREAT taste in music.

Luckily though, this past week the music was just too good not to listen to. New Tennis, Jhene Aiko and Generationals graced my ears.

Tennis’ Ritual in Repeat is just as strong as their two previous albums, if not stronger. The album flows gracefully from one track to the next. “Night Vision” creeps up with a soft drumbeat and soft vocals then, one of their previous singles “Never Work for Free” follows with the upbeat beachy sounds we know and love Tennis for. Other stand out tracks in this album include “Bad Girls” and “Solar on the Rise.” Take a listen here!

Next up, we have the much anticipated debut album from Jhene Aiko. Although I’m not a fan of the cliche album name, Souled Out, Aiko did not disappoint with her tracks. It’s a beauteous R&B record with pretty vocals to the max. I won’t say too much more, listen to the deluxe album here.

OK, lastly we have Generationals with their album, Alix. “Black Lemon” is such a fun, hoppy boppy, lovely opening track. Yes, I said “hoppy boppy.” Like you can’t stop bopping your head back and forth because it’s just that catchy. The rest of the tracks are equally as “boppy” and I am a bit sad that this album came at the conclusion of summer because it would have been a great summer road trip soundtrack. Guess I’ll just have to listen to it in Fall and pretend like it’s summer (not like that’s an issue in Santa Barbara). Grab Alix here.

More “New Album Release” posts coming soon!

This morning at 10am PST, the whole world gathered for the unveiling of the highly anticipated iPhone 6 at the Apple Live event in Cupertino. However, Apple not only revealed the details of the next iPhone but also debuted their very first product in the world of wearable technology. The Apple Watch, described as “a smartwatch with inductive charging, a square face, sapphire glass, swappable bands, a heartbeat sensor and a rotating digital crown” by TechCrunch, is Apple’s sleekest new product proving their innovation in the advancement of technological development.

While Apple made it very clear that the watch is not simply an iPhone on your wrist (the watch is only compatible with iPhone 5 and 5s), the list of applications and functions available on the watch holds its own against its mobile counterpart. The design of the watch is classic Apple, with remarkably clean features and lines. All the watches use the innovative “digital crown”, aka the spinning thing on the side of the watch, to access the different interfaces and utilities.

A quick description of the aesthetic differences between the collections:
WATCH: The standard 38mm and 42mm watch faces with leather and stainless steel bands in a variety of loop designs and colors.
WATCH SPORT: Made to withstand sport-style use, these watch faces are made with a 60 percent stronger alloy case. This collection also includes a “sport band’ made of durable Fluoroelastomer in a variety of bright colors.
WATCH EDITION: This collection seems to be the high-end collection, with Rose and Yellow 18-karat Gold 38mm and 42mm watch faces and leather straps.

Twitch, a video gaming community started up in 2011, has recently made a deal to be bought by Amazon for a whopping 970 million dollars. Twitch is a live streaming video platform focused mainly on combining interactive experience, live video streaming, and video games. The site offers live viewings as well as on demand requests for video game content.  Rumors earlier this summer suggested
that Google was positioning to acquire Twitch for a one billion dollar deal. Recently Twitch announced Amazon would be buying the company. 

The surprising merger is Amazon’s largest purchase since Zappos in 2009 (Forbes).  Initially, the fit might seem unnatural, but the CEO of Twitch is hopeful of this new merger, and is excited to work with Amazon to expand their company while keeping the buildings, employees, and general work community the same. 

They also share similar goals and Amazon will be able to supply the company with the resources to further expand and better Twitch’s online community (Mashable).

It seems that Amazon acquiring Twitch will be for the best interest of Amazon and Twitch users alike, in that Twitch will remain fairly independent.  The rumored Google deal fell through due to potential antitrust issues attached to purchasing Twitch (because of Google’s ownership of YouTube, one of twitches main competitors). One major advantage Twitch has over YouTube is its massive live video streaming community. Another fear faced by Google was the fact that Twitch video streamers often play unlicensed music in the background which could serve for some legal issues if Google were to acquire the company. The Amazon-Twitch acquisition is set to finalize later in 2014, according to Twitch. 

This September, a new app is going to make you feel like it’s your payday! The new iPhone 6 is supposedly debuting a new payment platform based on near field communication.  Near field communication “is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity” (Mashable).

This near field communication will not only provide iPhone users the ability to store coupons and credit card information on the phone, but also “present and anticipated applications include contact-less transactions, data exchange, and simplified setup of more complex communications such as Wi-Fi” (Mashable). The main goal of this new payment platform is to be able to replace a person’s wallet with just a simple device on the iPhone.  Instead of carrying around multiple credit cards in a wallet in your purse or back pocket, all you need to do when making a payment is to swipe your phone, how crazy!

The rumors have consisted of many people with mixed emotions about this new payment method.  The new iPhone is said to premiere on September 9th and that is exactly when the rumors will be put to rest! Excited to see how this new iPhone will turn out!

The Ice Bucket Challenge, known as the challenge that supports the ALS foundation, has grabbed the attention of people worldwide. When checking Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, there is constantly a post about the ice bucket challenge, a picture, or a video of someone participating in the challenge. This challenge is “inevitable” and “unavoidable” (Mashable).  There is not one person who hasn’t heard about this challenge or doesn’t know someone who was nominated to participate. When a cause becomes this powerful via social media, we need to ask: why are people so interested and continuing to stay engaged?

The challenge allows the public to engage with one another and unite to do something for a great cause!.There’s a personal satisfaction that results from participating in the challenge, and the participant feels gratification after the challenge (Mashable). Having an ice bucket dumped on your head not only helps raise awareness for the ALS foundation, but also the participant feels as though this challenge does something for them personally. The participant is publicly called out on the Internet to support the cause, therefore they literally sees themselves in the public eye as a supporter of a great cause. Another reason why this challenge has been successful is that it’s simple and fun. Both donating money and getting a bucket of ice poured on your head take minutes, and hey, it’s also pretty fun.

Instagram unveiled their newest venture in the app world this morning: Hyperlapse.

Hyperlapse is exactly what it sounds like: “a new app to capture high-quality time lapse videos even while in motion.” according to Instagram’s official press release.

Mike Krieger, Instagram’s co-founder and CTO told Wired that “this is an app that lets you be in the moment in a different way…we did that by taking a pretty complicated image processing idea, and reducing it to a single slider. That’s super Instagram-y.”

Hyperlapse is very much like taking an entire $15,000 setup and creating a cinematic-grade time-lapse video, with different speed options to create different “looks”, and image-stabilization, which is the key to it all. The product team behind the app are product designer Chris Connolly and software engineers Thomas Dimson and Alex Karpenko. Karpenko actually created the first image-stabilization technology for smartphone videos with Luma. This was added on to by Dimson, who after realizing that smartphones had the built-in technologies that could stabilize video footage. This developed into a prototype app, which was the start of Hyperlapse.

All you have to do is shoot a video, pick how fast you want it to speed up (the options range from 1x to 12x) and then save it to share with others. The interface is remarkably clean and very similar to Instagram, but the decision to develop it as a separate app stems from Hyperlapse being such a distinct idea that would be shrouded if it was simply added into the existing Instagram app.

Excited to try this out, and see how users get creative with this app!

There are many updates to be expected in the social media realm—Ads on Snapchat, ad opportunities on Instagram, and Vine video imports/edits are on their way!

Recently, Instagram launched a suite of deeper analytics for advertisers that is made to offer greater visibility into viewing campaigns on the network. The program will be rolled out to Instagram’s ad partners such as Levi’s, Hollister, Taco Bell, and more. It will leverage Facebook’s demographic information and let advertisers see an age- and sex-based breakdown of users interacting with branded messages. The metrics will allow advertisers to get a detailed view of all ads and posts which can be sorted by impressions, likes and chronology. According to a post by Mashable, “The idea is to see which types of creative are working best.” This will be a great tool and insight for brands to be more effective with advertisements on Instagram.

Along with updates and ads, Snapchat is planning to jump on the bandwagon and broaden its offerings with ads, TV and movie clips and news articles. The content would display on its ad service called Snapchat Discovery. Brands like Taco Bell and McDonald’s have already launched accounts on Snapchat and others have made deals with stars on the platform to distribute branded messages. Snapchat plans to woo advertisers by reaching out to companies with its “Snaps” concept and having ad messages sent over the service. It is to be expected this November to start seeing more promotions through Snapchat “stories” or content from TV shows. Find out more on the Snapchat report here.

Lastly, an update for Vine allows users to import existing videos from a phone. This is competing with Instagram’s 15-second video option as opposed to Vine’s six seconds videos. In addition, the app will also let you edit the imported video such as duplicating portions of the video or muting the audio. Along with the updated feature, Vine added a grid to help properly compose your shot. Whether you import an old video or shot a new one within the Vine app, you are now able to edit videos faster and with more precision. Read more about the Vine update here.

Next week is the moment we’ve all been waiting for… Jack Johnson at the Santa Barbara Bowl. What could get better than that, right?

We’d argue a show that actually reduces plastic consumption and promotes a plastic-free lifestyle to aid the environment, of course! LoaTree, Jack Johnson, and Klean Kanteen are launching a wonderful campaign at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Sunday, 8/31 and Monday, 9/1 in conjunction with Jack’s two shows called #MyCupAndMe. Patrons will be encouraged to purchase reusable cups to help the Bowl meet its sustainability goals. By purchasing a reusable cup, you will receive $1 off any beverage every time you use the cup. You can help green the bowl by rocking the cup!

“We consider ourselves not only hosts of our musical guests, but stewards of the Bowl’s land,” says Rick Boller, Executive Director at the Santa Barbara Bowl. “We are part of this amazing community who supports the Bowl.” LoaTree also states, “The #MyCupAndMe campaign is the Bowl’s first effort to begin addressing the serious problems associated with single-use plastics which is part of their broader venue-wide waste reduction campaign.”

This campaign will begin at the two Jack Johnson shows, but will continue throughout the rest of the 2014 season at the Bowl. AND you can qualify for some prizes by participating in the campaign. Get the details below from LoaTree!

1) Starting August 18th, register online at http://www.MyCupAndMe.com to capture your commitment to reducing single-use plastic by telling us stories of the steps you’re taking to eliminate plastics from your personal lives. All entries will be registered to win. Winners will be selected and notified by email on Saturday, August 30th. Register TODAY!

Prizes include Jack Johnson CD’s and ukuleles, autographed by Jack, Jack Johnson branded Klean Kanteen stainless steel pints and more! Additional prizes will be given away throughout the Bowl’s season for ongoing #MyCupAndMe supporters.

Images leaked Tuesday by Android Police supposedly show the long-awaited joint effort of Google and Youtube. The new service, titled Youtube Music Key in the screenshots, will also mean changes for Google’s existing service: Google Play will reportedly become Google Play Music Key.

While i’m still not entirely seeing the appeal of yet another music subscription service, many of the features do seem interesting:
- A free trial month will be offered, and thereafter $9.99/month
- At least 20 million music tracks in the music library available to users
- Additional content such as concert footage, covers and remixes
- Offline playback of music videos and songs with audio-only option for background and screen-off listening

The most interesting claim in my opinion is the statement that all of this can be done “without an Internet connection” and the options for screen-off listening. However, i’m still unsure if this is enough to set it apart from the already existing services such as Spotify, Beats Music, and Google Play and draw users to pay for the service.

There is still not word on when any of this will be released or a predicted launch date, so we will have to wait and see how the final product develops and if it’s anything like the leaked images.