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travelworldnetwork · 6 years ago

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Club Med and Peisey-Vallandry, France. Photo: Club Med

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Picture the scene: you're in a warm, woodsy brasserie perched in the French Alps, peckish after a morning's fun and games in the snow, snuggling up around a table with loved ones and new friends and licking your lips at the prospect of a deliciously cheesy lunch. There, on the table, emitting a heavenly scent to any fromage fan, is a bubbling pot of Fondue Savoyarde – a speciality of the Savoie region of France in which we're holidaying.

Cooked with white wine and garlic, this creamy ensemble is flavoured with three different alpine cow's milk cheeses – comte, emmental and beaufort – and is nigh on impossible to look at, and smell, without wanting to dip in your fork, to which you can attach crusty chunks of baguette nestled in the bread baskets on the table.

Exceedingly tempting, too, is raclette, another pungent alpine cheese that's being toasted to near-melting point on a small grill. We just have to scrape it off and drip it on to our baked potatoes and charcuterie. Complemented by vinaigrette-laced salads, Chignin-Bergeron (a crisp Savoie white wine) and a dessert of blueberry tart, whipped cream and espresso, this is a typical lunch in the Savoie region, and indeed in other parts of the Alps, and brings not just immense satisfaction but also provides fuel for further alpine adventures in the afternoon.

As we depart Brasserie des Pistes, the chalet-style venue for this calorific feast, the easiest thing to do would be to get back on the real pistes. A two-minute walk down the mountain-side, below the brasserie's sun terrace, is one of the myriad chairlifts of the Paradiski region, one of the Alps' premier winter sports areas.

Boasting 425 kilometres of ski runs, with altitudes ranging from 1200 metres to 3250 metres, Paradiski is spread across the gorgeous Tarentaise valley and sub-divided into three major zones: Les Arcs, Peisey-Vallandry and La Plagne. We're staying at Club Med Peisey-Vallandry, which is located at virtually the midway point of the region.

Walk, ski or snowboard out of the resort's back door and you'll find apres-ski bars, said chairlift (which whisks you to a variety of slopes suitable for all levels) and the Vanoise Express, a cable car that links Peisey-Vallandry with La Plagne. It bobs 1824 metres across the valley – and 380 metres above the valley floor at its highest point – in just four minutes.

We board this engineering marvel using the Paradiski pass that allows you to hop on the region's buses, chairlifts and funiculars (Club Med guests get the pass for "free" as part of its all-inclusive package). Unveiled in 2003 and made up of two double-decker cars that can each hold 200 people, the Vanoise Express is the longest cable car in the world without pylons.

Right now, we probably wouldn't be able to see any pylons even if there were any. The sun had been wrestling with the fog all morning and the fog has temporarily won the battle, wreathing the whole valley. In clear weather, spectacular views are a given through the windows and glass-bottomed floors, with everything from quaint little alpine villages to Mont Blanc, Europe's highest mountain, there to be gawped at.

As we close in on La Plagne, however, we can just about make out the tips of the frozen pine trees we're drifting above. My fellow passengers debate which movie or TV show this spooky scene reminds them of. There's talk of Game of Thrones and its zombie White Walkers. Some of the older folk – OK, me – mention The Fog, a 1980 film by horror director John Carpenter. A few hours later, I find myself wallowing in nostalgia once more and daydreaming about The Chronicles of Narnia. I half expect the White Witch or Aslan to make an appearance as we tramp through the magical, snow-drenched Vanoise National Park, a few kilometres from our resort.

With the fog-induced poor visibility dashing any post-lunch downhill skiing plans, we opt for a safer and more leisurely activity: snowshoeing. We clip on our plastic snow-shoes, and grab some walking poles at the park's Nordic Centre, a chalet-style hub where you can hire equipment and source maps detailing local trails.

With the fog dissipating, we hike, in the company of local guides Yann and Marie, through this sublime slice of countryside – France's first national park, founded in 1963 –beneath towering, pine-carpeted peaks and past avenues of larch trees, sprinkled with white powder. Apart from the sound of us scrunching through the snow, and of water trickling under ice-blanketed streams, it's blissfully silent. It would have been much noisier here a few centuries ago, says Marie. She reveals that this was a bustling silver and lead mining area and we pass an abandoned stone building, formerly the French School of Mines, where engineering students from across the country would come to learn their trade.

Back then, the area was called Monts d'Argent ("mountains of silver", or money). A little further on, we come to a cluster of rustic wooden homes, icicles hanging from the roofs, in the one-street hamlet of Beaupraz aux Lanches. There is no sign of life as we shuffle along. We're told people live here in summer but in winter it's empty, almost eerily so, due to the threat of avalanches. With our cold breath wisping through the air and the setting sun causing bursts of pink and purple to mark the darkening sky, we return to the Nordic Centre, where the effects of a particularly torrid avalanche in 1995 are depicted in framed wall photos. Then we return, by bus, to base camp where roaring fires, hot chocolate, cocktails and nibbles await in the welcoming lounge area of Club Med Peisey-Vallandry.

Decked out with plush leather and fabric sofas, stone columns and timber beams, this 284-room resort opened in 2006 and is set to be "refreshed" over the next two northern summers. It has a quainter, more traditional alpine vibe than Club Med Les Arcs Panorama, which was unveiled, 10 kilometres away as the bearded vulture flies, last December.

While not as cool and contemporary as its sleek new baby sister, Club Med Peisey-Vallandry resort has a cosy charm, with many of the same perks and facilities as Les Arcs Panorama, such as free skiing and snowboarding classes, heated indoor and outdoor pools, all-inclusive meals and alcohol and quirky evening entertainment by the affable, youthful Club Med staff known as GOs (gentils organisateurs).

The Peisey-Vallandry location, with its cute village setting and wide array of easily-accessible slopes, might have more appeal, especially for beginners. And, as we discovered, if you fancy a break from the pistes and the resort, you're not short of alternative activities, whether it's fondue-munching in local brasseries or falling under the spell of the beguiling Vanoise National Park.

FIVE MORE THINGS TO DO IN VANOISE NATIONAL PARK

CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING

Harking back to the days when hardy alpine folk would use skis to chase game and gather firewood, this form of skiing involves propelling yourself across snow-covered terrain, and guarantees a good upper-body workout.

HORSE AND PONY RIDES

Trot through the snowy forests in the saddle, keeping an eye out for local wildlife such as the alpine ibex, a type of wild goat that flourishes in these mountains.

BIATHLON

Try your hand at one of the most watchable of the Winter Olympic events, combining skiing and rifle shooting.

DOG SLEDDING

Glide across the park's winter wonderland in a husky-pulled sled and learn how to harness, steer and brake.

NORDIC WALKING

A step up from snow-shoeing, you'll eat up more ground – and burn off more calories – with this fast-paced hiking technique.

TRIP NOTES

Steve McKenna was a guest of Club Med and Peisey-Vallandry Tourism Board.

traveller.com.au/france

peisey-vallandry.com

FLY

Air France flies to Paris from Sydney and Melbourne; code share with Qantas or Etihad. See qantas.com; etihad.com

The nearest train station to Peisey-Vallandry is Gare de Landry, a five-hour trip from Paris. See en.oui.sncf

STAY

A seven-night winter stay (December-April) at Club Med Peisey-Vallandry is from $2385 a person; children under four, free. Nearest airports to the resort are Grenoble and Geneva, about 2½ hours by road. See clubmed.com

from traveller.com.au

#Travel Guide

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fmservers · 6 years ago

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Alexa gains support for location-based reminders and routines, calling features & more

Amazon Alexa is gaining new capabilities, including support for location-based reminders and routines, the ability to call local businesses by voice, and the ability to check your email, hands-free, on supported Alexa devices, among other things. These features were previously introduced this fall at Amazon’s Echo event in Seattle, alongside a host of other capabilities for the smart assistant, including things like hunches, cooking instructions, multi-step requests, and more. However, not all the announced features had yet to roll out to Alexa device owners.

According to Amazon, Alexa will soon allow you to set reminders that are tied to a specific location. This feature is starting to arrive now for users in the U.S. and will continue to roll out over the next few weeks, Amazon says.

Once enabled, you could say something like, “Alexa, reminder me to turn on the dishwasher when I get home,” or “Alexa, remind me to take the chicken out when I get home,” for example. Alexa will automatically speak the reminder and send a notification to your phone.

In the case where an Echo device is not available – like the office, perhaps – the push notification will be your alert.

In addition, Alexa’s Routines feature will now add support for location-based routines, as well.

Routines are a set of several commands you can kick off through a trigger phrase. For instance, you could currently say something like “Good morning” to have Alexa raise the blinds, turn on the coffee maker, and offer you the news, weather and traffic reports.

Location-based routines, meanwhile, are those that trigger when you leave or arrive home or work.

That means you could have Alexa turn on your lights and play music when you’re a block from home, for example.

Along with the feature’s launch, you’ll also be able to save personalized locations to use with the location-based features, so you can more easily create these customized commands.

Routines are being upgraded in several other ways, too.

For starters, parents will soon be able to set up kid-friendly routines using their Echo Dot Kid’s Edition or any other Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Plus that’s FreeTime-enabled. For instance, a “good night” routine could have Alexa share a good night message, turn off the lights then play sleep sounds or music for an hour. Customizable routines will also be available to parents.

Similarly, adults will be able to take advantage of time-limited music in Alexa Routines with the update, too, and they’ll be able to include “wait actions” within routines – meaning, pauses in between taking action on various commands. (E.g. “good morning” could turn on the lights, but wait 20 minutes before offering the news.)

Routines can also turn on Do Not Disturb or stop the audio from playing.

Routines can now support Announcements, too – like a Dinner Time routine could include a command to announce to everyone it’s time to eat across all the household Echo devices.

And finally, routines will now support push notifications as part of the routine. That means you could program a routine to send a notification to a shared Alexa app that says “I’m on the way home,” when you run your “I’m leaving work” routine.

Timers are being improved as well, as Alexa will soon allow you to add and remove time from timers with your voice. For instance, you can say “Alexa, add five minutes to my timer,” instead of having to cancel it and start a new one.

Alexa will work as a phone replacement of sorts, too. Alexa users can now search and call local businesses and restaurants by voice from their device, by saying things like “Alexa, what’s the number for Domino’s” or “Alexa, where is the nearest Whole Foods,” followed by “Call them,” when the answer is provided.

The new email feature was also announced in September, and essentially allows you to check your inbox by voice.

The feature works with Gmail, Outlook.com and Hotmail.com inboxes for the time being. To use the option, you first have to link your inbox to Alexa through the Alexa app. You can then ask Alexa to check and reply to emails, hands-free by asking her to “check my email.” You can opt to read, reply to, delete or archive messages by voice, says Amazon.

Alexa doesn’t have to read your emails one-by-one, however. You can also say things like, “Alexa, do I have any emails from Sarah?,” for instance.

If there aren’t any emails from the person specified, Alexa can be used to set up a one-time notification so you get the message you’re waiting on when it arrives. Alexa is also aware of the email importance settings from the email providers, so you can manage the messages flagged as “important.”

The email option isn’t limited to one user, but allows everyone in the household to manage their own inbox, protected with a personalized voice PIN.

This feature is rolling out to U.S. users today, while others are launching in the days and weeks ahead in the U.S.

Via Sarah Perez https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

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sandralmuller · 6 years ago

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Cobbler's kids: how to unwittingly hurt your writing business

Early on in the late-90s action movie “The Negotiator”, police negotiating expert Chris Sabian remarks:

“I once talked a guy out of blowing up the Sears Tower but I can’t talk my wife out of the bedroom or my kid off the phone.”

It’s a modern twist of the timeless proverb ‘the cobbler’s children have no shoes’. If you haven’t come across the term before, it refers to someone who, while perfectly capable in their profession, is unable or unwilling to help their family with whatever skill they’ve mastered (in this case, the cobbler can’t even give his own kids shoes).

And it’s a phrase that’s been kicking around my head for the past few months.

Why?

Because recently, I took the plunge into solopreneurship.

Little did I know…

I tripped up. A lot. Surprisingly, the things I stumbled over weren’t what I expected. Sure, finances are a drag, but easy to keep on top of if you spend the time. Replying to potential clients pronto and having the right process — two of the ‘professional basics’ — were both things I picked up super-fast.

But the things that I helped clients with as a copywriter, and got great feedback and response almost every time? No problem… except when it came to my own business.

So, what were these ‘cobbler kid’ mistakes leaving my business high and dry? The list is a long one, but these were a few that particularly stung.

1. Not optimising for SEO

What went wrong

You’re probably asking, “How the heck does a copywriter not optimise their own site for SEO?”

And that’s a good question!

Simply put, I didn’t appreciate the value or importance of SEO. My introduction to the industry and priority for the last several years was direct response copywriting. SEO barely rates a mention in this field, as the focus is squarely on how to craft effective, persuasive messaging.

SEO is its own speciality and one that I only recently started to explore. And yes, I’m discovering some hard lessons.

Getting back on track

The first step to getting half-decent at any skill is to get a clue from a credible source.

The next stages involve a lot more elbow-grease. Slowly revisiting my web pages to optimise them for SEO is a painful but necessary task, but building off-site SEO with things like guest posting (with the help of lovely people like Sandra!) and directory links have been the #1 priority over the past month.

2. Under-pricing your services

What went wrong

Any business who doesn’t charge enough is at worst going out of business and at best checking in for a long stay in Struggle Town. And it’s not just a matter of profit and loss. Cheap prices can be a red flag to many customers and earn you a reputation as a budget service provider.

And yet, from my very first jobs in copywriting — where I wrote blog posts for $10/hr — to even earlier this year, price has been a big problem for me.

Imposter syndrome and lack of self-confidence certainly played a major part in that. Getting much of my early work on an online freelance platform, where low-cost bidding is prevalent, also had a role. Plus, the simple fact was that I didn’t know industry rates for a lot of things I did… a very basic thing I needed to address.

via GIPHY

Getting back on track

To be honest, I sometimes still struggle to charge a fair rate. Being in a Facebook community where others encourage you to charge what you’re worth has been one big way to put the Under-charging Monster back in its box.

Sick of the wild ‘I guess it’ll be $70 for a web page’ guesses, I also followed the SEO example and read up. Being a bit of a Kate Toon fan (if you haven’t noticed), I took her pricing course, which created a lot of clarity to what I charge these days.

3. Not doing enough marketing

What went wrong

If you’re a copywriter, you’ve probably done jobs where it’s been as much about the marketing as it is the copy. Even if I’m not giving marketing advice, I almost always talk to clients about how they’re going about marketing their business.

Oh, how I wish I could have had that conversation to myself twelve months ago (without appearing like a complete crazy to the world).

In my earliest days, I was completely oblivious to the marketing side of things. And while I’ve learnt a lot over the years, it wasn’t until I’d been running my business for some months that the need for marketing became painfully apparent.

Captain Obvious GIF

Getting back on track

I’ve found marketing as much an organisational challenge as anything else. Carving time out of every week to spend just on marketing has started the wheels to slowly turn.

Experimenting with things like social media and pay-per-click ads has also been educational. There have been mistakes (like setting up a landing page but disabling the opt-in button, then spending a few hundred dollars driving traffic to a useless page) but the lessons have been valuable most times.

Content marketing — in which blogs play a big part — also rears its head. On top of being super for SEO, it’s a powerful marketing tool for many businesses and sits at the top of my marketing to-do list these days.

4. Spending too much time with prospects

What went wrong

I’m an introvert but can spend hours talking to almost anyone about a subject I’m a fan of (like marketing, copywriting, or AFL). It’s a weird paradox.

So, when businesses approach me, I’m always happy to have a chat.

The problems started when I took 1, 2 or even more hours out of my workday to talk to prospects. Regardless of whether I ended up with work, it quickly became an inefficient way of scoping a project.

Getting back on track

Today, I try to be more ruthless and protective of my time.

I’ll always be happy to help people out, but the investment is more carefully controlled. 60-minute chats can be cut in half (or more). The pre-work I used to do is now sidelined until a project is green lit.

Finally, to finish on a more personal note…

5. Getting snared in the distraction trap

What went wrong

When you’ve got writing to do, it seems like the perfect time to jump on Facebook. Check out LinkedIn. Re-tweet a few blog posts.

That’s never been my problem, luckily. When it comes time to write, the siren song of social media is one I can happily sail past. But… email is a different proposition, even though the problem is the same (as Sandra points out here).

The little dopamine hit you get when a new email lands in the inbox is all it takes to keep me checking email throughout the day, even though 95% of it is non-urgent, irrelevant of flat-out crap.

While it’s not a serious time sink, it does break your concentration. That momentum kill is enough to hinder your productivity for the next couple of minutes. Add that up enough times over the day, and you’ve just lost a big chunk to the nefarious inbox.

Getting back on track

Using an app like Freedom to block access during my writing time was an obvious first step (which reminds me, I’ve been slipping lately!).

The second thing was to give myself permission to let my inbox blow out a bit throughout the week. “Inbox Zero” is a tempting target to strive for, but it becomes more a distracting annoyance than liberating. Cleaning out emails once every week or two is more than enough, just to make sure it doesn’t get to this…

via GIPHY

How about you? Are you selling your shoes in the market while your kids (AKA your business) run barefoot in the back streets? And if so, what can you do to bring the love back into your own ‘home’?

About the author

Owner of the imaginatively-titled Dean Mackenzie Copywriting, Dean is a freelance copywriter trained in direct response methods, with most of his work centring on landing pages, emails, websites and sales pages.

He also enjoys speaking about himself in the third person and a good cup of tea.

Pin it to read later

Cobbler’s kids: how to unwittingly hurt your writing business was originally published on The Smarter Writer

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enterinit · 7 years ago

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Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17083 for PC released

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17083 for PC released.

Font Settings and Fonts in the Microsoft Store

Fonts are an important asset for your visual creativity. In this build, we’re introducing new experiences for managing your fonts in Settings, and for acquiring additional fonts from the Microsoft Store. You may be familiar with the Fonts control panel, which you could use to see the fonts that are currently installed, or to install or uninstall fonts. That control panel hasn’t been able to show off newer font capabilities, such as color fonts or variable fonts, and a refresh has been needed. In Build 17083, we’re providing a new Fonts page within Settings.

The initial page for Fonts settings provides a short preview of each font family. The previews use a variety of interesting strings that are selected to match the primary languages that each font family is designed for together with your own language settings. And if a font has multi-color capabilities built into it, then the preview will demonstrate this. When you click on one of the family previews, it will take you to a details page that provides previews for each of the fonts within that family, along with other information about each font. There is a default preview string, but you can enter your own, custom preview string as well. For Web developers and advanced typographers that want to make use of OpenType Variable fonts, there is a separate variable-font details page that allows you to explore the continuous, variable-design capabilities of the font. Along with the new Settings experience, we are introducing fonts as a new content type in the Microsoft Store. To find them easily, there is a link from the Fonts page in Settings directly to the Fonts collection in the Store.

Note that you need to be running build 17040 or later to be able to install the font packages in the Store. For now, we have a small set of curated offerings from Microsoft’s library of fonts, but this will grow over time. Make sure to come back regularly to see what’s new! We hope you’ll find the new font experiences in Settings and in the Store will enhance your own creativity. We’d love to hear your feedback via the Feedback Hub, or your reviews of the font offerings in the Store.

Diagnostic Data Improvements

Microsoft uses Windows diagnostic data to focus our decisions and efforts to provide you with the most robust and valuable platform possible. By participating in our diagnostic data programs, you have a voice in the operating system’s development, improving the overall product experience and quality through your insights. We value your privacy. Our commitment is to be fully transparent on the diagnostic data collected from your Windows devices and provide you with increased control over that data. As part of this commitment, we’re adding two new features in this build for Windows Insiders which can be found under Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback. Diagnostic Data Viewer The Diagnostic Data Viewer is a Windows app that lets you review the diagnostic data your device is sending to Microsoft, grouping the info into simple categories based on how it’s used by Microsoft. To get started, navigate to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback. Enable the Diagnostic Data Viewer Toggle and then click the button below to launch the app. View your diagnostics events: In the left column, you can review your diagnostic events. Selecting an event opens the detailed event view, which shows the exact data uploaded to Microsoft. Microsoft uses this info to continually improve the Windows operating system. Search your diagnostic events: The search box at the top of the screen lets you search all of the diagnostic event data. The returned search results include any diagnostic event that contains the matching text. Selecting an event opens the detailed event view, with the matching text highlighted. Filter your diagnostic event categories: The app’s Menu button opens the detailed menu. In here, you’ll find a list of diagnostic event categories, which define how the events are used by Microsoft. Selecting a category lets you filter between the diagnostic events. Provide diagnostic event feedback: The Feedback icon opens the Feedback Hub app, letting you provide feedback about the Diagnostic Data Viewer and the diagnostic events.

Opt-in for Standard User With our commitment to transparency and control, a standard user can now make changes to the Diagnostic Data levels. When an administrator sets the Diagnostic Data level, a user can choose to update the Diagnostic Data setting . This control also provides notifications when these settings have been changed by another user or an administrator.

Timeline Improvements

We’re thrilled to hear how excited Insiders are about Timeline! We’re also listening closely to your feedback and are pleased to announce several changes in this build to put you more in control of your privacy. You’ve told us through the Feedback Hub that you want us to make it easier to delete activities from Timeline. We agree that deleting multiple activities is cumbersome, which is why we added the option to delete everything from a given hour or day from the context menu. When you are in the default view, you will see a new “clear all from day” option when right-clicking on an activity. If you clicked “see all” to see activities for just one day, this option changes to allow you to “clear all from hour” instead. Because this option can clear a lot of activities at once, we will ask you to confirm this choice before deleting the activities.

The second change gives you more granular control of the privacy of your activities. A new setting allows you to sync your activities to the cloud for a seamless cross-device experience. You can enable “Let Windows sync my activities from this PC to the cloud” in the settings app, or you can enable it via an option provided at the bottom of Timeline. Until new users enable this setting, Timeline will only show four days of activities. (If you are upgrading from an earlier WIP flight, you may not see this option as the setting is already enabled.)

Windows Shell Improvements

Quiet Hours gets a new name and more! With the expanding feature set in this area, we will now be calling it Focus Assist. Speaking of which, you can now also switch between the three Focus Assist modes by right-clicking the Action Center icon in the taskbar.

Making Windows Hello setup easier: We’ve made it easier for Microsoft account users to set up Windows Hello on their devices for faster and more secure sign-in. Previously, you had to navigate deep into Settings to find Windows Hello. Now, you can set up Windows Hello Face, Fingerprint or PIN straight from your lock screen by clicking the Windows Hello tile under Sign-in options.

Windows Settings Improvements

See your UWP app version numbers: We’ve heard your feedback, and in addition to the other work we’ve been doing on the UWP app settings pages in Settings we’ve also updated them to include the app version number for easy reference. As a reminder, the easiest way to get to the app settings page for a particular UWP app is to right-click the app in Start and select More > App settings

New options for sorting your startup apps: Based on your feedback we’ve added a dropdown to the Settings > Apps > Startup settings page so you can choose to sort the apps listed by name, state, or startup impact.

Hyper-V/WSL Improvements

Windows Hypervisor Platform API: We have added an extended user-mode API for third-party virtualization stacks and applications to create and manage partitions at the hypervisor level, configure memory mappings for the partition, and create and control execution of virtual processors. A third-party client can run alongside a Hyper-V managed partition while maintaining its management, configuration, guest/host protocols and guest supported drivers.

Ease of Access Improvements

New setting to turn automatically hiding scrollbars on or off: We’ve heard your feedback and have added a new setting for those who would prefer their scrollbars stay always visible. It’s available under Settings > Ease of Access > Display. Turning this setting off will result in the scroll bars in UWP (XAML) apps persisting as scrollbars in their full expanded size, even when not interacting with them. Note: In this build Start won’t follow the setting – we’re working on it. You choose whether to enable or disable the color filters hotkey: In order to help reduce accidental invocation of this hotkey, we’ve added a new checkbox for this under Settings > Ease of Access > Color filters settings page. The default state is disabled. We’ve made a number of other Ease of Access improvements in Settings, including: We’ve added Narrator landmarks throughout Settings to quickly move between search, navigation list, and main landmarks. And for Narrator users, the page heading (shown visually at the top of each page) will no longer read out as being at the bottom of each page. In Settings > Ease of Access, we’ve shortened the name of the “Cursor, pointer and touch feedback” page to “Cursor & pointer size”. We’ve swapped the positions of Color Filters & High Contrast in the Settings > Ease of Access navigation list. In Settings > Ease of Access > High Contrast, we’ve switched the default theme to be “High Contrast Black”. We’ve added links to Settings > Ease of Access > Narrator Settings for learning how to use Narrator and for adding more voices. Also the cursor movement mode combo box in the “Use Narrator cursor” sub-section has been removed. We’ve updated the Settings > Ease of Access > Speech page to present information & settings about Dictation, Cortana, as well as Windows Speech Recognition. We fixed an issue where Settings > Ease of Access > Eye control was a blank page. We’ve updated the Ease of Access search terms & results to better align with the available settings. Duplicate search results have been removed. Throughout Settings > Ease of Access you’ll find new “Related settings” links.

Windows App Permissions

Control access to your pictures, videos, or documents folders: With this build we’re giving you more control so you can now decide which UWP apps can access your pictures, videos, or documents folders. If a UWP app needs access to any of these, a consent dialog will pop up prompting you to accept or deny the request. If at any time you change your mind about the decision, you can go to Settings > Privacy where you’ll find 3 new Settings pages (one for each of the folders). If you deny access to a particular folder, to protect your privacy that UWP app will revert to only being able to access its local app folder.

General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

Thank you for your support of the early testing we’ve done with Sets. Your feedback helps us as we continue to develop this feature. Starting with this build, we’re taking Sets offline as we ready RS4 for release. If you have been testing Sets, you will no longer see it – however, Sets will return soon in a post-RS4 flight! Thanks again for feedback, and we look forward to sharing new Sets features with you soon. We fixed an issue for those using Start menu with the all apps list hidden, where Start would crash if you clicked on one of the all apps list headers, changed the width of Start’s tile grid, then went back to the all apps list. We fixed an issue where clicking on a toast notification might take multiple tries since a single pixel drag initiated a swipe and resulting in the click being ignored. We fixed a high hitting reliability issue from recent flights resulting in explorer.exe potentially crashing if you dragged a Microsoft Edge tab from its window then put it back. We fixed an issue where the lock screen background would be lost after restart if “Show lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen” was turned off. We fixed an issue where the login screen over remote desktop would be blank instead of showing a password prompt in recent builds after waking the host from sleep. We fixed an issue resulting in Start not having the Reveal effect in recent flights. We fixed an issue where the all apps list in Start would become offset if you exited tablet mode while the all apps list was zoomed out to show only the headers. We fixed an issue resulting in the Uninstall, Share, and Rate & Review verbs not working from a UWP app’s context menu in Start in the previous flight. We fixed an issue resulting in the Store title bar overlapping the rest of the Store app when in tablet mode in the last two flights. With the recent redesign of Cortana’s Notebook, we’re shifting to use that as the primary entrance for Cortana’s lists, and removing the entry point for lists from Cortana’s navigation pane. We’ve updated Windows Defender’s systray context menu to now use the modern style. We fixed an issue resulting in rendering artifacts in the Clock and Calendar flyout when transparency was enabled. We fixed an issue that could result in Windows getting stuck on the rebooting screen for a long time. We fixed an issue where Settings would crash if you tried to change the state of the microphone or camera permissions in Privacy Settings. We fixed an issue where Settings would crash if you opened the notification settings for an app that had a notification waiting in the Action Center. We fixed an issue where Lock Screen Settings would crash if the “Force a specific default lock screen and logon image” group policy was set. We fixed an issue from recent flights where Settings might crash when navigating to “Email and App accounts”. We fixed an issue where Shared Experiences Settings took a really long time to load (30+ seconds). We fixed an issue resulting in microphone and camera settings in Privacy settings flipped to deny all device access after upgrading to recent builds. We fixed an issue where Windows Update Settings might show a red exclamation mark, but no text explaining why there was an alert. We fixed an issue where the width of the list of updates in Windows Update Settings would fluctuate as you scrolled it. We’ve made some tweaks to the Video Playback Settings page. We’ve made the decision to remove the recently added Keyboard Settings page under Settings > Time & Language and will consider returning it in a future release. If you’d like to add another keyboard to your language, you can do this as before from the Region & Language Settings page by selecting the language you wish to add to. Advanced keyboard settings (including overriding your default keyboard and emoji panel settings) are still available – the link to this page has been moved to Settings > Devices > Typing. Update and Shutdown is now available again as an option if you click the power button in Start when there’s an update pending. We fixed an upgrade issue resulting in a “Path Not found” error on “Staging apps on CreateMetadataDirectory” in the upgrade logs of you’d installed an app from the Store before upgrading and had moved it to a secondary drive (an option in Apps & Features Settings). If you were impacted by this issue upgrade would still succeed, however the app wouldn’t work after upgrading. We fixed an issue where the back button in Windows Defender Security Center would be invisible if you opened WDSC through a link in Settings. We fixed an issue resulting in the GraphicsPerfSvc service sometimes using an unexpectedly high amount of CPU in recent flights. We fixed an issue from the last two builds resulting in apps that came preinstalled with Windows potentially failing to update in the Store with error 0x80073CF9. We fixed an issue resulting in the copy action in Photos only working the first time it’s used. We fixed an issue where the embedded handwriting panel and the handwriting panel might show at the same time. We fixed an issue resulting in the handwriting panel unexpectedly appearing recently when tapping or panning certain win32 text areas. We fixed an issue where the numeric keypad of the touch keyboard didn’t work in certain password fields found on the web. We fixed an issue where using a child key on the Greek or Czech touch keyboard layouts to input accented keys wouldn’t work. We fixed an issue where the Emoji Panel’s Most Frequently Used section wasn’t updating. We fixed an issue where the Emoji Panel would close after a single emoji was entered in certain apps even if the option to enter multiple emoji at once was selected. We fixed an issue resulting in two finger scrolling using touch or mouse not working Word 2016 in the last two flights. We fixed an issue where running Magnifier with bitmap smoothing enabled and then closing Magnifier could result in text now appearing blurry, or the PC suddenly becoming slow/laggy. We fixed an issue from the previous flight where the Windows Defender icon might be missing from the systray, even if it showed as enabled in Settings. We also fixed an issue from the last two flights where the icon unexpectedly showed a warning even though no warning was visible once you opened the app. We fixed an issue where when opening Task View immediately after an upgrade you might need to wait 15-30 minutes before Timeline was visible. We fixed two issues impacting Timeline reliability. We fixed an issue resulting in Microsoft Edge not creating Timeline activities if used immediately after login. We fixed an issue where PDFs opened in Microsoft Edge on the previous flight would appear off to the right instead of centered. We fixed a high impact issue resulting in Microsoft Edge launch failures in the last two flights. We fixed an issue resulting in the Microsoft Edge title bar sometimes being the wrong color. Thank you everyone who shared their thoughts on the updates made to the Microsoft Yahei font – we’ve made the decision to return the font to its Fall Creators Update state while take your feedback into consideration. We fixed an issue resulting in certain devices hitting a bug check (GSOD) with error System Service Exception on the last two builds. We fixed an issue with Linux containers on Windows using Docker Community Edition for Windows (edge) on many machines. The docker pull or docker run commands will fail with an error “Not enough memory resources are available to complete this operation”.

Known issues

If you have a VPN client installed via the Microsoft Store, it won’t work after upgrading to this build. If you require your VPN client to work – you might consider holding off taking this new build. If you install a font product from the Microsoft Store, then later install a new build (feature update), the Store package will remain installed, but the fonts within the package are not installed. Until this is fixed, the temporary workaround is to uninstall the product from the Apps page in Settings, then re-acquire the product from the Store. When users try to create a Microsoft Edge InPrivate window from inside a Mixed Reality headset, a regular window will get created instead. Users won’t be able to use InPrivate inside Mixed Reality in this build. InPrivate on desktop is not affected. We’re preparing for the inclusion of OpenSSH Server as a deployment mechanism in Developer Mode. However, the UI code got checked in ahead of the components, and so while there is a “Use OpenSSH (Beta) for remote deployment” switch in the UI under Settings, it won’t work, and turning it on will break remote deployment to that device until the switch is turned off. Audio playback from Microsoft Edge is sometimes unexpectedly muted. A workaround is to minimize Edge, count to three, and then unminimize. We’re investigating reports that Win32 apps pinned to Start have blank live tiles that show only a name starting with “W~”. We’re investigating an issue where using Task View to switch to an app might result in touch not working properly in that app. If you encounter this, restarting explorer.exe will fix it. The link for “Advanced display settings” is missing in Display Settings. If you need to access this dialog for now you’ll need to open Run and run “rundll32 display.dll,ShowAdapterSettings 0”.

Developer Notes

Deploying an x86 app to a x64 PC remotely result in “FileNotFound” deployment failures if the target PC is running Build 17040 or higher. Deploying an x64 app to a x64 PC remotely or a x86 app to a x86 PC will work fine. Read the full article

#Windows #Windows10 #WindowsClient #WindowsInsider #WindowsStore

0 notes

kristinejrosario · 8 years ago

Text

3 Email List Building Techniques You Need To Use in 2017

This is a guest contribution from Jawad Khan.

If you’re serious about blogging, I’m sure you’re already building an email list (or planning to do so)

Since you’re a Problogger reader, I’m also assuming your knowledge and expertise in blogging is significantly higher than most newbies.

So you’re well-aware that “Get Free Email Updates”, that beautiful sign up form in your blog’s side-bar, isn’t an attractive incentive for potential subscribers anymore, right?

No one wants to subscribe to another email list just to pile up more junk in their email inbox.

Don’t get me wrong.

Email is still the best way to build a relationship with your audience and turn them into paying clients.

Studies suggest that 66% of online consumers in the US aged over 15 made a purchase as a direct result of marketing emails.

Source: Quicksprout

Another study suggests that 54% of online buyers that abandon a shopping cart, but are reminded again via email, will complete the purchase. According to a recently published report by email Monday, email marketing has an ROI of 3800% ($38 in return for every $1 spent)

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it has become more important for bloggers, marketers and eCommerce businesses.

But since everyone’s trying to squeeze email addresses out of their blog visitors, people have become more guarded about their contact information and only sahre it away when they see clear value in return.

This is why most marketers use lead magnets for list building.

But it’s 2017, so you need to be a bit more creative and find new ways to effectively deliver your lead magnet to your audience and persuade them to join your list.

Not sure how to do it?

Let me share 3 list building techniques that you’ll see many smart marketers use in the coming months.

1. Host a Virtual Summit to Steal Subscribers from Industry Influencers

You’ve read expert round-up posts, right?

Turn them into video content and you have yourself a high quality virtual summit.

Virtual summits have been around for a while but the concept really picked up in late 2015. Throughout the last year, I’ve seen hundreds of influencers in dozens of different industries participate in virtual summits, skyrocket their email lists and fill their pockets to the top.

It’s one of the fastest ways to not only build an email list but also to enhance your brand image and influence in your niche.

You might have seen banners like this one in your Facebook newsfeed in the last few months.

Here’s how it works

The summit host picks a very specific topic for the summit (e.g email list building or Amazon self-publishing, Shopify dropshipping etc.)

He decides the dates and the duration of the summit (usually 4-5 days)

The host gathers 15-20 experts on the topic and conducts video interviews (live or recorded) with each one of them

Every expert who is interviewed has the option to promote a paid offer or a lead magnet during or after the interview (a link to the offer is also published on the interview page)

All the experts promote the event to their own email subscribers. For example if a virtual summit has 10 experts with 1000 subscribers each, it is promoted to 10,000 people. This creates a pool of potential subscribers for all the participants.

The host gets all the subscribers that opt-in to watch the event live.

Once the live event is over, the host can sell the recorded event as a paid product or a lead magnet.

Sounds simple, right?

Hosting a high-quality virtual summit can be expensive and technically challenging.

Which is why only the top influencers in most industries are currently using it for email list building.

But no one’s stopping the lesser known bloggers from doing it.

If you can’t get A-list experts to join your event, look for the second-tier experts who have a loyal following but are looking to expand their reach. You’ll find them in every industry.

If you don’t have a lot of money to spend, use free tools like Google Hangouts to record your interviews, use any WordPress landing page plugin to create landing pages for the event and get the job done.

In short, if you get it right, a virtual summit can literally give you thousands of subscribers overnight.

2. Use Facebook Live Videos To Build Your List in No Time

Facebook Live has spread like wildfire

Studies show that Facebook is getting more than 8 billion video views every day and users are spending 3x more time watching live videos as compared to the recorded ones.

Source: Facebook Video Statistics 2016

The top influencers and experts in almost every industry are using Facebook Live to get closer to their audience, engage with them more frequently, and strengthen their personal brand by answering the most burning questions of their followers.

Darren himself does regular “Ask Me Anything” sessions using Facebook Live.

As I said, the user-engagement level on Facebook Live is much greater than recorded content. And it’s always easier to persuade an engaged audience to take action. Which is why Facebook Live presents the prefect opportunity to route viewers to your email list.

How to do it?

Just ask them.

Really, that’s all it takes.

Create a free resource like an eBook or checklist, which is relevant to the topic of your live video, place it on a landing page to collect emails, and ask users to download it during your Facebook Live session.

Also add the landing page link as a pinned comment on your video, and to the video description so that viewers can download it even when you’re not live.

Amy Porterfield used this exact strategy to get hundreds of subscribers to her email list.

Facebook Live videos currently enjoy additional organic reach, so this is the best time to use it to build your email list.

3. Include Laser-Focused Content Upgrades in Your Guest Posts To Open Floodgates of Subscribers

Guest blogging is one of my favorite ways to drive traffic and find subscribers.

In the last 3 years, I’ve written over 500 guest posts on some of the most widely followed marketing and SEO blogs on the web, generating thousands of email subscribers.

But many bloggers struggle to generate any traction from their guest posts.

Do you know why?

Because they rely on the good old author bio links to send them subscribers. Many others simply link to their homepage and hope people would subscribe to their list.

That’s not how it works.

Bloggers that generate hundreds of subscribers from every guest post do 2 things really well.

They write super quality guest posts with lots of actionable insights

They create laser-focused content upgrades used within the body content. Most editors have no problem allowing this as long as the post offers real value to the readers.

Not sure what a content upgrade is?

It’s a post specific lead magnet that offers something additional to the readers of a blog post.

Brian Dean (Backlinko) increased his sign up rate by 785% by adding a content upgrade to this post.

Insane!

Bryan Harris shared this detailed case study of how one blogger generated thousands of email signups to his blog by combining content upgrades with guest blogging

They work in all niches.

For example, if you’ve written a blog post “7 Healthy and Safe Weight-Loss Tips for First Time Moms” you could create a checklist on “23 Healthy Foods You Should Eat While Losing Weight” and use it as a content upgrade.

Content upgrades work so well because, unlike generic lead magnets, they are targeted towards an engaged reader who is already interested in the topic.

They’re so effective for lead generation that many leading email marketing tools now have separate features to create content upgrades and add them to your blog posts.

SumoMe, for example, introduced a new two-step pop-up for content upgrades that has been tested to increase signups by 200-300% in some cases.

But when you’re guest blogging, you don’t have access to the tools used by the host blog. So you should simply link to the landing page of your content upgrade from where users can opt-in and subscribe to your list.

Wrapping Up

Email list building is more important for bloggers than ever before. It is the only channel that gives you direct and uninterrupted access to your reader’s inbox, and allows you to focus on long-term relationship building.

The tips I’ve shared in this post are already being used by some of the best marketers on the web. Making them a part of your list building strategy will surely help you attract more relevant and engaged subscribers.

What list building techniques are you applying to your blog right now?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Jawad Khan is a content marketing consultant and a freelance blogger for hire. Follow him on his blog Writing My Destiny, Twitter, and Google+.

The post 3 Email List Building Techniques You Need To Use in 2017 appeared first on ProBlogger.

from http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/EFPw02B7IiY/

0 notes

richardrobertsimsuccessblog · 8 years ago

Text

3 Email List Building Techniques You Need To Use in 2017

This is a guest contribution from Jawad Khan.

If you’re serious about blogging, I’m sure you’re already building an email list (or planning to do so)

Since you’re a Problogger reader, I’m also assuming your knowledge and expertise in blogging is significantly higher than most newbies.

So you’re well-aware that “Get Free Email Updates”, that beautiful sign up form in your blog’s side-bar, isn’t an attractive incentive for potential subscribers anymore, right?

No one wants to subscribe to another email list just to pile up more junk in their email inbox.

Don’t get me wrong.

Email is still the best way to build a relationship with your audience and turn them into paying clients.

Studies suggest that 66% of online consumers in the US aged over 15 made a purchase as a direct result of marketing emails.

Source: Quicksprout

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it has become more important for bloggers, marketers and eCommerce businesses.

This is why most marketers use lead magnets for list building.

But it’s 2017, so you need to be a bit more creative and find new ways to effectively deliver your lead magnet to your audience and persuade them to join your list.

Not sure how to do it?

Let me share 3 list building techniques that you’ll see many smart marketers use in the coming months.

1. Host a Virtual Summit to Steal Subscribers from Industry Influencers

You’ve read expert round-up posts, right?

Turn them into video content and you have yourself a high quality virtual summit.

It’s one of the fastest ways to not only build an email list but also to enhance your brand image and influence in your niche.

You might have seen banners like this one in your Facebook newsfeed in the last few months.

Here’s how it works

The summit host picks a very specific topic for the summit (e.g email list building or Amazon self-publishing, Shopify dropshipping etc.)

He decides the dates and the duration of the summit (usually 4-5 days)

The host gathers 15-20 experts on the topic and conducts video interviews (live or recorded) with each one of them

Every expert who is interviewed has the option to promote a paid offer or a lead magnet during or after the interview (a link to the offer is also published on the interview page)

The host gets all the subscribers that opt-in to watch the event live.

Once the live event is over, the host can sell the recorded event as a paid product or a lead magnet.

Sounds simple, right?

Hosting a high-quality virtual summit can be expensive and technically challenging.

Which is why only the top influencers in most industries are currently using it for email list building.

But no one’s stopping the lesser known bloggers from doing it.

If you can’t get A-list experts to join your event, look for the second-tier experts who have a loyal following but are looking to expand their reach. You’ll find them in every industry.

In short, if you get it right, a virtual summit can literally give you thousands of subscribers overnight.

2. Use Facebook Live Videos To Build Your List in No Time

Facebook Live has spread like wildfire

Studies show that Facebook is getting more than 8 billion video views every day and users are spending 3x more time watching live videos as compared to the recorded ones.

Source: Facebook Video Statistics 2016

Darren himself does regular “Ask Me Anything” sessions using Facebook Live.

How to do it?

Just ask them.

Really, that’s all it takes.

Also add the landing page link as a pinned comment on your video, and to the video description so that viewers can download it even when you’re not live.

Amy Porterfield used this exact strategy to get hundreds of subscribers to her email list.

Facebook Live videos currently enjoy additional organic reach, so this is the best time to use it to build your email list.

3. Include Laser-Focused Content Upgrades in Your Guest Posts To Open Floodgates of Subscribers

Guest blogging is one of my favorite ways to drive traffic and find subscribers.

In the last 3 years, I’ve written over 500 guest posts on some of the most widely followed marketing and SEO blogs on the web, generating thousands of email subscribers.

But many bloggers struggle to generate any traction from their guest posts.

Do you know why?

Because they rely on the good old author bio links to send them subscribers. Many others simply link to their homepage and hope people would subscribe to their list.

That’s not how it works.

Bloggers that generate hundreds of subscribers from every guest post do 2 things really well.

They write super quality guest posts with lots of actionable insights

They create laser-focused content upgrades used within the body content. Most editors have no problem allowing this as long as the post offers real value to the readers.

Not sure what a content upgrade is?

It’s a post specific lead magnet that offers something additional to the readers of a blog post.

Brian Dean (Backlinko) increased his sign up rate by 785% by adding a content upgrade to this post.

Insane!

Bryan Harris shared this detailed case study of how one blogger generated thousands of email signups to his blog by combining content upgrades with guest blogging

They work in all niches.

Content upgrades work so well because, unlike generic lead magnets, they are targeted towards an engaged reader who is already interested in the topic.

They’re so effective for lead generation that many leading email marketing tools now have separate features to create content upgrades and add them to your blog posts.

SumoMe, for example, introduced a new two-step pop-up for content upgrades that has been tested to increase signups by 200-300% in some cases.

Wrapping Up

What list building techniques are you applying to your blog right now?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Jawad Khan is a content marketing consultant and a freelance blogger for hire. Follow him on his blog Writing My Destiny, Twitter, and Google+.

The post 3 Email List Building Techniques You Need To Use in 2017 appeared first on ProBlogger.

3 Email List Building Techniques You Need To Use in 2017

#Richard Roberts IM Success Mix #3 Email List Building Techniques You Need To Use in 2017

0 notes

silvino32mills · 8 years ago

Text

3 Email List Building Techniques You Need To Use in 2017

This is a guest contribution from Jawad Khan.

If you’re serious about blogging, I’m sure you’re already building an email list (or planning to do so)

Since you’re a Problogger reader, I’m also assuming your knowledge and expertise in blogging is significantly higher than most newbies.

So you’re well-aware that “Get Free Email Updates”, that beautiful sign up form in your blog’s side-bar, isn’t an attractive incentive for potential subscribers anymore, right?

No one wants to subscribe to another email list just to pile up more junk in their email inbox.

Don’t get me wrong.

Email is still the best way to build a relationship with your audience and turn them into paying clients.

Studies suggest that 66% of online consumers in the US aged over 15 made a purchase as a direct result of marketing emails.

Source: Quicksprout

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it has become more important for bloggers, marketers and eCommerce businesses.

This is why most marketers use lead magnets for list building.

But it’s 2017, so you need to be a bit more creative and find new ways to effectively deliver your lead magnet to your audience and persuade them to join your list.

Not sure how to do it?

Let me share 3 list building techniques that you’ll see many smart marketers use in the coming months.

1. Host a Virtual Summit to Steal Subscribers from Industry Influencers

You’ve read expert round-up posts, right?

Turn them into video content and you have yourself a high quality virtual summit.

It’s one of the fastest ways to not only build an email list but also to enhance your brand image and influence in your niche.

You might have seen banners like this one in your Facebook newsfeed in the last few months.

Here’s how it works

The summit host picks a very specific topic for the summit (e.g email list building or Amazon self-publishing, Shopify dropshipping etc.)

He decides the dates and the duration of the summit (usually 4-5 days)

The host gathers 15-20 experts on the topic and conducts video interviews (live or recorded) with each one of them

Every expert who is interviewed has the option to promote a paid offer or a lead magnet during or after the interview (a link to the offer is also published on the interview page)

The host gets all the subscribers that opt-in to watch the event live.

Once the live event is over, the host can sell the recorded event as a paid product or a lead magnet.

Sounds simple, right?

Hosting a high-quality virtual summit can be expensive and technically challenging.

Which is why only the top influencers in most industries are currently using it for email list building.

But no one’s stopping the lesser known bloggers from doing it.

If you can’t get A-list experts to join your event, look for the second-tier experts who have a loyal following but are looking to expand their reach. You’ll find them in every industry.

In short, if you get it right, a virtual summit can literally give you thousands of subscribers overnight.

2. Use Facebook Live Videos To Build Your List in No Time

Facebook Live has spread like wildfire

Studies show that Facebook is getting more than 8 billion video views every day and users are spending 3x more time watching live videos as compared to the recorded ones.

Source: Facebook Video Statistics 2016

Darren himself does regular “Ask Me Anything” sessions using Facebook Live.

How to do it?

Just ask them.

Really, that’s all it takes.

Also add the landing page link as a pinned comment on your video, and to the video description so that viewers can download it even when you’re not live.

Amy Porterfield used this exact strategy to get hundreds of subscribers to her email list.

Facebook Live videos currently enjoy additional organic reach, so this is the best time to use it to build your email list.

3. Include Laser-Focused Content Upgrades in Your Guest Posts To Open Floodgates of Subscribers

Guest blogging is one of my favorite ways to drive traffic and find subscribers.

In the last 3 years, I’ve written over 500 guest posts on some of the most widely followed marketing and SEO blogs on the web, generating thousands of email subscribers.

But many bloggers struggle to generate any traction from their guest posts.

Do you know why?

Because they rely on the good old author bio links to send them subscribers. Many others simply link to their homepage and hope people would subscribe to their list.

That’s not how it works.

Bloggers that generate hundreds of subscribers from every guest post do 2 things really well.

They write super quality guest posts with lots of actionable insights

They create laser-focused content upgrades used within the body content. Most editors have no problem allowing this as long as the post offers real value to the readers.

Not sure what a content upgrade is?

It’s a post specific lead magnet that offers something additional to the readers of a blog post.

Brian Dean (Backlinko) increased his sign up rate by 785% by adding a content upgrade to this post.

Insane!

Bryan Harris shared this detailed case study of how one blogger generated thousands of email signups to his blog by combining content upgrades with guest blogging

They work in all niches.

Content upgrades work so well because, unlike generic lead magnets, they are targeted towards an engaged reader who is already interested in the topic.

They’re so effective for lead generation that many leading email marketing tools now have separate features to create content upgrades and add them to your blog posts.

SumoMe, for example, introduced a new two-step pop-up for content upgrades that has been tested to increase signups by 200-300% in some cases.

Wrapping Up

What list building techniques are you applying to your blog right now?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Jawad Khan is a content marketing consultant and a freelance blogger for hire. Follow him on his blog Writing My Destiny, Twitter, and Google+.

The post 3 Email List Building Techniques You Need To Use in 2017 appeared first on ProBlogger.

from ProBlogger http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney/~3/_w8wFiq1b3s/

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travelworldnetwork · 7 years ago

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La Sagrada Familia, by Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain. Photo: Alamy

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When you think about architecture in Barcelona, it's natural for Antoni Gaudi to spring to mind. His wildly imaginative buildings adorn virtually every holiday brochure and tour itinerary, and like the millions who flock to the Catalan capital each year, you might well have gazed at the eccentric neo-Gothic spires of his unfinished masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia; wandered past the dreamy rooftop chimneys of his Casa Mila (La Pedrera), or gawped at the kaleidoscopic mosaics of Parc Guell, a hill-top retreat where he honed his landscape gardening skills. Yet Gaudi's creative wonders are just the icing on the cake of a city that wows architecture lovers, full-stop.

Few other places boast such a chocolate-box selection of stunning buildings and al fresco installations. You can easily spend a day neighbourhood-hopping, admiring and photographing visually-arresting architecture – from the medieval landmarks of the Gothic Quarter to the cutting-edge newcomers of Poblenou's 22@ district – and pausing every now and then, perhaps, for a cafe con leche at a pavement cafe or a refreshing glass of cava and tapas at a vivacious bar.

There are intriguing self-guided architecture trails to follow, such as the Ruta del Modernisme, which links 120 of Barcelona's decorative Art Nouveau and Modernist buildings conjured by the likes of Gaudi, Josep Maria Jujol and Lluis Domenech i Montaner in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But to deepen your appreciation of the city's aesthetic beauty, join a tour with Barcelona Architecture Walks. Comprised of a group of architects hailing from both Catalonia and overseas, it runs a series of themed urban tours, including one wholly devoted to Gaudi's genius.

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Design Hub Barcelona, DHUB, made by MBM Arquitectes. Photo: Alamy

I'm in Barcelona before embarking on a Mediterranean cruise with Royal Caribbean, and I opt for the Barcelona & Urbanism tour, which explores how today's vibrant metropolis came about and continues to evolve, fashioned by the forces of art, history, politics, economics and nature. On a warm, sun-kissed late afternoon, on Placa Universitat, just north of the city's labyrinthine Gothic core, we meet our bearded guide, Ricard Pons i Mascases. Barcelona-born-and-bred, he's a big Bob Dylan fan, his favourite motto being Dylan's quote: "Nothing is as stable as change". Ricard explains: "I like that because I think it applies to many things, such as the way a city somehow seems to be a finished object, but is actually changing all the time.

Barcelona – as with most cities – is like a living being with its own character. It's a bit like a tree. You don't notice it changing from day to day, but it does." As Dylan's The Times They Are A Changin' starts running through my head – nudging out Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe's operatic Barcelona – we stroll through Eixample, an elegant neighbourhood that sounds far more exotic in Spanish than English (it translates to Expansion). While Eixample is famed for its eye-catching Modernist buildings, it's an under-appreciated architectural jewel in its own right – the brainchild of visionary 19th-century designer, Ildefons Cerda.

As we amble beside Eixample's wide, geometric tree-lined streets and even wider avenues, flanked by imposing apartments, with flowers, laundry and red-and-yellow Catalonia flags fluttering from iron balconies, Ricard brings the potentially dry topic of urban planning to life, pointing out the intricacies of various noteworthy buildings and regaling the absorbing story of Cerda, a civil engineer who was passionate about turning Barcelona into a genuinely "liveable city" (a radical proposal in his day). The Spanish government asked Cerda to expand Barcelona beyond its walled old quarter, which dated back to Roman times and saw a huge population increase during the industrial revolution. By the mid-1850s, as factories and homes sat cheek-by-jowl, overcrowding and diseases, such as tuberculosis and cholera, were rampant. But after the walls came down, on Cerda's recommendation, Barcelona could breathe, and Eixample spread, gradually connecting the historic quarter with the old villages outside the city limits (including Gracia, now one of Barcelona's most desirable districts).

Ricard shows us photographs of Cerda's masterplan, which was to be seven times larger than the old quarter and mashed many urban planning influences: from ancient Greece and Rome, the colonial towns of the Spanish Americas, and Baron Haussmann's contemporaneous boulevard-filled renovation of Paris. Today, Eixample's wide arteries buzz with tooting cars, buses, scooters and bicycles but were built to allow easy passage for transport such as horse-drawn carriages and railways (Cerda was fascinated by these new-fangled trains). Roomy sidewalks slowly bloomed for pedestrians, and with more space to play with, Barcelona's affluent families, merchants and municipal authorities commissioned architects to construct ostentatious homes and offices.

On Gran Via, one of Eixample's main thoroughfares, we pause outside La Casa de la Lactancia, which was originally built to support children from disadvantaged families. Bearing a sculpture on its facade of women breastfeeding, it's now an elderly people's home, capped by a sleek glassy annex.

The well-being of residents, rich or poor, was key to Cerda's plan, says Ricard, and while many ideas were implemented, some of of his socially-minded proposals were watered down under pressure from property speculators and landowners. Cerda wanted low-density buildings, no more than three storeys high, to enhance natural light and ventilation, with each block to have inner communal green spaces, too. But restrictions were eased, buildings soared up to seven and eight levels, and factories and apartments mushroomed where gardens were supposed to be. Angry at how his project had been compromised, Cerda fled Barcelona, and died in poverty in northern Spain, reportedly never having been paid for his Eixample exploits.

Some of the wrongs of the past are being fixed, says Ricard, who leads us into a cluster of inner apartment courtyards where community hubs have flourished over one-time industrial sites. Behind the shiny contemporary Sant Antoni library, where the brick chimney of a former sweets factory still stands, kids lark around on climbing frames and kick footballs, as their parents chat and mingle (or tap into the free wifi). Ricard says more and more apartment rooftops now have gardens, a trend that would no doubt have pleased Cerda.

We end our tour on the lofty viewing platform of CC Arenas de Barcelona, an old bullring given a 21st-century makeover by Sir Richard Rogers (it's perched beside Parc de Joan Miro, a tree- and sculpture-studded enclave built on the site of a former slaughterhouse). Gazing over Barcelona, a city sprawled between sea and mountains, we survey the modern high-rises jutting into the skyline, notably Torre Glories, the "Cucumber", a Catalonian twist on London's Gherkin, by Pritzker Prize-winning French architect Jean Nouvel. Illuminated in vivid colours after dark, it overlooks Placa de les Glories Catalanes, which Cerda had envisaged as the centre of the "new" Barcelona, but remained on the fringes, the surrounding area instead spawning textile factories and workshops, and known as the "Catalan Manchester".

Now rebranded as the 22@ district, it's a riot of construction cranes, skyscraping tech hubs, studio-galleries, luxury apartments, sleek trams and innovative sights such as Encants Vells, which houses a 14th-century flea market beneath its glossy mirrored canopy, and the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona, a design museum that reminds me of a Transformer's head. Ricard covers this fast-changing area on foot in another tour, Barcelona and the Future City (and the following morning I nose around this intriguing district myself). Before bidding us adios, our affable guide returns to Cerda's legacy.

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Former bullring, Arenas de Barcelona. Photo: Alamy

"Although he was from Catalonia, many saw him as representing the government from Madrid and it took a lot of time for him to be appreciated in Barcelona. But Cerda is part of a chain of miracles that have made Barcelona what is is today. It was his work, his stable grid, that allowed other architects, like Gaudi, to play and create their incredible buildings." Hailing the 1992 Barcelona Olympics as another miracle, the catalyst for the city's transformation into a world-class visitor destination, Ricard adds: "Growing up, I never imagined you could compare Barcelona to great tourist cities like Rome, Paris and London. Well you can now."

Steve McKenna travelled as a guest of Royal Caribbean, Barcelona Architecture Walks and Hotel Arts Barcelona.

TRIP NOTES

traveller.com.au/spain

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Antoni Gaudi's Casa Mila better known as La Pedrera, built with a limestone facade. Photo: Alamy

barcelonaturisme.com

TOUR

Barcelona Architecture Tours run daily public walks, lasting two to three hours and priced from €35 Euro ($55) per person. Private tours can also be booked. See barcelonarchitecturewalks.com

CRUISE

Royal Caribbean operates several cruises from Barcelona, including on its brand new Symphony of the Seas – the world's largest cruise ship. See royalcaribbean.com.au

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Torre Agbar Agbar Tower, Barcelona, Spain. Photo: age fotostock / Alamy Stock Photo

STAY

For a five-star stay with Mediterranean and city vistas, check into the glass-and-steel Hotel Arts, Barcelona's joint-tallest building (with neighbouring 44-floor Torre Mapfre). The seafront hotel boasts 483 rooms and upmarket bars and eateries (including a two-Michelin-star restaurant and a stylish Club Lounge). You can enjoy breakfast and also hang out in the hotel's lush, pool-blessed gardens, in the shadow of El Peix, Frank Gehry's iconic golden fish sculpture, a symbol of post-Olympics Barcelona. Rooms are priced from 289 Euro ($462). See hotelartsbarcelona.com/en

from traveller.com.au

The post How to find Barcelona’s hidden architectural wonders appeared first on Travel World Network.

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enterinit · 7 years ago

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Microsoft announced Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16237 for PC

Microsoft announced Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16237 for PC.

What’s New in Build 16237 For PC

Microsoft Edge Improvements:

Read aloud with word and line highlighting for all websites: With the read out loud feature for web, users will be able to read aloud any webpage with word and line highlighting. PDF read aloud: With the read out loud feature for PDF, users will be able to read aloud any PDF document with word and line highlighting. Other improvements to address your feedback including: If you click Share in Microsoft Edge, the Share UI will now match the Microsoft Edge theme if it is different from the rest of the system. Share UI will also now launch under the Share button, rather than in the center of Microsoft Edge. When you add a favorite, you will get a delightful animation now that indicates where users can find their most important websites in the future. We fixed an issue where copying double byte characters (for example Japanese or Chinese) out of Microsoft Edge and pasting into another app wouldn’t show the characters correctly in the second app. We fixed a Microsoft Edge issue from the previous flight where opening links in a new tab might cause a new window to open with the link instead. We fixed an issue from recent flights where the Print dialog in Microsoft Edge would show a blank preview page and lead to printing a blank page. We fixed an issue resulting in the Microsoft Edge context menu not showing up on pen barrel button tap. We fixed an issue when returning to Edge after a crash. Your tabs will be automatically restored for you.

Windows Shell Improvements:

No more logging out to fix blurry desktop apps: Hey, do you hate having to log out and back in to Windows to fix blurry desktop apps after docking, undocking, or remoting? We do too! In this flight, you only have to relaunch these apps in order to have them render crisply. If you have a high DPI display (a 4K display or other high dots-per-inch (DPI) display, such as Surface displays) and change the display scaling value in any way (this can happen when you dock/undock, remote from a device with a high DPI display, or otherwise change the display scaling setting) most desktop apps become blurry. This is due to 1) the apps don’t respond to a DPI change notification, because they haven’t been updated and 2) Windows keeps the display scaling/DPI data that it reports to apps constant until you log out and back in. In this flight we’ve changed the way that Windows provides DPI-related information to these applications such that each time one of these applications starts, they’ll get updated data from Windows. This means that for these applications, you simply re-launch them in order for them to render correctly if they’re blurry. While this isn’t what we all want: having these applications render crisply all the time, we feel that it’s a lot less painful to relaunch apps instead of having to close out of all apps and going through a log-out/log-in cycles. Some things to note: this won’t work for all desktop apps (and doesn’t apply to UWP apps). Also, this only helps apps that become blurry after a change to the display scale factor of the main/primary display. This change, unfortunately, doesn’t improve apps that are blurry on secondary displays when in “extend” display mode. Please give this change a try and let us know if you hit any bugs. Notification and Action Center improvements:

We’ve adjusted our notification buttons to now span across the bottom of the notification, rather than being right-justified. We just made it easier for you to take action on your notifications by auto-expanding the first notification in each notification group in the Action Center. Now you can quickly triage your emails, snooze your reminders, reply to your texts, etc. without the need to expand every single one of them. In response to feedback about the X to “dismiss” notifications being confusing, we’ve adjusted it to now be an arrow to make it more clear that the notification is actually being pushed to the Action Center to be reviewed later. We fixed an issue from recent flights where if you received 20 notifications from a specific app, then received more (without ever clearing them from the Action Center), ShellExperienceHost would start crashing repeatedly in the background. We fixed a recent issue where tapping on the chevron of an expanded notification in the Action Center wouldn’t collapse the notification. We fixed an issue from recent flights where opening the Action Center might not clear the badge on the Action Center icon, leading one to later believe there were new notifications when there weren’t any. We fixed an issue where Notifications and Actions Settings might have unexpectedly had a number of unnamed apps listed at the top in recent flights. We fixed an issue where Windows Defender notifications might include unparsed parameters (showing a % sign). My People improvements: Notification badges for people pinned to the taskbar will now be consistent with the color of your theme if you’ve opted into showing color in Start, Action Center, and other places on the system. When you receive emoji from people pinned to the taskbar, we now refer to this as a “pop”. You’ll see this terminology reflected under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar.

Input Improvements:

Emoji Panel turns it up a notch: Type to search with the new Emoji Panel now supports emoji 5.0! We also added a bunch more keywords along the way. Have you ever wondered “What the heck is this emoji supposed to be”? Wonder no more! If you hover your mouse over any of the emoji in the Emoji Panel, you’ll now see a handy showing you the exact Unicode character name. Bonus: we’ve added tooltips to the categories so they’re no longer a mystery. We fixed an issue for our dark theme lovers where the X to close out the Emoji Panel was black on black. Improved touch keyboard experience: We fixed an issue where the touch keyboard was passing the wrong window size information when shapewriting with the one-handed keyboard, leading to accuracy issues. Please try it again in today’s build and let us know if it seems improved. As you type with the touch keyboard, you will now hear a sound with each key press – much as you did with the previous version of the keyboard before we introduced our new one. We fixed some issues in learning your typing style, so you should find text predictions improved now the more you type and correct using the touch keyboard. Since we now will relaunch the keyboard where you left it, we’ve decided to remove the left and right docked modes from the one-handed keyboard. As a refresher, if you want to move the keyboard, simply drag the candidate bar. We improved the reliability of the Japanese one-handed 10-key Kana touch keyboard. We fixed an issue from recent flights where the touch keyboard and handwriting panel would unexpectedly appear sometimes. We fixed an issue where the text candidates would appear using unexpectedly small font. We fixed an issue where only the one-handed keyboard was available on PCs with small screens. Handwriting panel improvements: We fixed an issue where if the text in the handwriting panel shifted while you were inking, it could result in an unintentional ink stroke across the panel. We fixed an issue where a word might be inserted twice if you dismissed the panel by changing focus to somewhere else on the screen.

PC Gaming Improvements:

We have updated the Game Mode icon on the Game bar.

Task Manager Improvements:

With Build 16226, we added GPU support to the Task Manager. We’ve made some improvements to the Performance tab, and in today’s build you’ll find: GPU performance updates: We’ve made a few small changes in this build to the GPU performance tracker in Task Manager. We’ve updated the UI layout, and added more details like DirectX version and the physical location of your GPU. Only hardware GPUs show up in the list, and the software-only basic display adapter is hidden. More improvements coming soon!

Hyper-V Improvements

You will see a new “virtual machine gallery” under quick create. There isn’t anything in the gallery yet and we’ll have more details on this in the future. In the meantime, choosing “Local installation source” will allow you to pick an image from your computer.

If you’re wondering where the options for VM Name and networking went, they’re in the “More options” section which introduces another new feature in Hyper-V. Hyper-V on Windows 10 provides a default network so your virtual machines share networking with your computer using NAT.

Changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

We fixed an issue from the last flight where doing a PC reset via Settings > Update & security > Recovery and choosing “Remove everything” might put your device into a reboot loop. It is now safe to use this option again. We fixed the issue causing some inbox apps to be displayed with a name that looked like “ms-resource:” and listed at the bottom of Start. We fixed an issue from recent flights resulting in the Photos, Groove Music, and certain other app’s live tiles not working. We fixed a high hitting crash impacting Start and Cortana in recent flights. We fixed a recent issue where you’d find two Connect apps in Start – one as expected, with a blue app icon, one unexpected with a light grey app icon and non-functional. We’ve updated Start so that if you press and hold on an app in the all apps list, the context menu will now appear after a moment, rather than first having to lift your finger. We’ve added a new option to Cortana to enable or disable showing your cloud content in the search results. We fixed an issue where Cortana search might drop the first typed character if Microsoft Edge was the foreground app. We fixed an issue from recent flights where Alt+ wasn’t working in Win32 apps to input special characters. We fixed an issue resulting in the up/down keys potentially hanging input when used after typing something into certain search boxes that offered dropdown suggestions. We fixed an issue where the Network & Internet Status Settings page might say a network was public even though it had been set to be private using the Control Panel. We fixed an issue where the “More”/“Less” text wasn’t localized in the custom color picker in Color Settings. We fixed an issue where switching away and back to Windows Spotlight in Lock Screen Settings resulted in an infinite spinner in the preview image. In order to fulfill our promise to always ship with quality, we have made the decision to disable Chinese (Simplified) dictation. It will be back once we have had some time to smooth out the experience. Voice input for English (United States) will still be available. We fixed an issue from the last few flights where Task Manager was frequently hanging on launch for some Insiders. We fixed an issue from the last flight resulting in Storage Spaces unexpectedly erroneously saying there was no disk space available. For Insiders flighting using the Pro edition on a Surface Laptop, we’ve addressed a recent issue where Win32 apps (for example PowerShell and Command prompt) were blocked by Device Guard after upgrading. We fixed an issue some people were experiencing resulting in content copied from Screen Sketch and pasted elsewhere appearing to be just a black box rather than the expected sketch. We fixed the issue causing Xbox Live in-game experiences such as gamer profiles, achievement details, and other dialogs to fail to load. We’ve updated the Win32 MessageBox to now be natively per-monitor DPI aware! That means it should no longer be blurry when used in mixed DPI environments, or when changing DPI. Curious to try it? One place in particular MessageBox is used is in Notepad, in the error dialog that pops up if you search for a word that’s not found in the text.

Known issues for PC

Thank you to everyone who tested and submitted feedback on the Cortana Vision features –including the Camera Roll Insights and Cortana Lasso – which we introduced in Build 16215. These features will no longer be available in Insider Preview builds going forward. The cross device Map Handoff feature has also been removed from Insider Preview builds. You will no longer see directions shared with your mobile device after searching for a location on your PC. We’re continuing to investigate reports that the battery status on certain laptops isn’t updating while the device is unplugged. If you think you are seeing this, please send in feedback via Feedback Hub and use the capture feature when logging your feedback so we can get your logs. Depending on the implementation of the 3rd party firewall product, it might result in Windows Defender Security Center showing an ‘Unexpected’ state. We’re investigating options for addressing this. Until that time, if you are using a 3rd party firewall product, and see this state in Windows Defender Security Center, please reference the UI of your 3rd party provider to understand your protection status. In Recovery Settings if you choose “Reset This PC” > “Keep My files” the operation will fail at 1% and will revert with no changes to the system. “Remove My files” option will work as expected. Apps that call into the firewall, such as Microsoft Edge and other apps that use networking, may become unresponsive until you reboot. Trying to use the dictation hotkey (WIN + H) in UWP apps won’t work – you’ll see the UI come up and immediately dismiss. If you’d still like to use dictation, the microphone in the touch keyboard will work. You can right-click the taskbar for an option to show the touch keyboard button if it’s not already visible. We’re investigating your reports that the Copy Link option displayed in Microsoft Edge when you right-click a hyperlink isn’t working in recent builds. Click to Post

#Windows #Windows 10 #Windows Client #Windows Insider

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