Truly Gabe Carey: Foursquare and InDesign

Whats up with Foursquare?

I chose to join foursquare recently because I had only heard tidbits of information about it over the years and wanted to find out more. I was surprised and interested to find out that foursquare would be a great fit for me. I love being able to find new restaurants, breweries, cafes, and fun places to go. I dont't travel all that often but when I do its nice to have an app that lets me find great places around me when I am unfamiliar with a new city or area. Foursquare helps you find the perfect places to go when you are out on the (any) town for a day or night out. I think its great to have a personal touch by reading customer reviews. It is also very convenient that foursquare allows you to track places you have visited and show you new places to have a new adventure. You don't have to guess what to do anymore. With foursquare you can check the price of the place you want to go, read reviews, view what places are "open now" and see places that are offering specials at the moment. Another great thing about foursquare is that everything is tailored to your tastes; you choose which types of food and activities you are interested in and at each new location you go to foursquare will recommend places that suit those fancies. Whether you are looking for a quick bite to eat, a popular place to go, or a place that people are talking about now, foursquare makes it easy as pie. 2.

FUN-FACT

Foursquare has seen better days and in recent years it kind of lost its thunder the business has still been around, but in the same way that MySpace and Friendster are still around, which is as shadows of their former selves. " But in recent weeks Foursquare is not only back, it’s nabbing a lot of attention. It started when Twitter announced it was partnering with Foursquare to bring an accurate, location-tagging feature to its 288 million monthly users. This interesting tidbit was quickly followed-up by Foursquare’s own announcement that it was launching an advertising platform, called Pinpoint, which allows advertising messages and retail promotions to target consumers who are literally within walking distance of your brick-and-mortar location. Then, within the past few weeks hotly contested rumors flooded both the tech and finance blogospheres with assertions Yahoo had ponied up $900 million dollars in a bid to acquire Foursquare. It has yet to happen if it will happen at all. But why all this sudden love for Foursquare?" 1.

Foursquare may have lost its appeal on the mainstream market, and it may be making a resurgence, but either way I think its a neat little tool to have in ones pocket. I know the struggle and frustration of being in a new city and not knowing where to go or what to do. There are many ways to find those answers and Foursquare is one of them. "As one of the best city guides you can get on a smartphone, actually, with a fully revamped user experience that puts some of the 5-year-old company's best information front and center. Foursquare 8.0 is a big step forward for the app, but it's far from perfect." 1 According to some reviews, the new app can be a little busy on a small 4" smartphone screen. If you can get past the business and take the time to navigate the app and become intimate with its ins and outs you will be rewarded. New filter features allow you to search for places by amenities such as wifi and pet friendliness. (Thats neat!) All in all it seems like the company did succeed in making the foursquare 8.0 app into a pretty amazing city guide, provided users invest a little extra time with it. 1.

Is Foursquare for you? Explore more about Foursquare's new developments in the video below.

Adobe InDesign

Another great program from the Adobe Creative Cloud is InDesign. The program that allows you to take your ideas and create stunning layouts for print, web or mobile projects. I have been working with this program to design a book cover, magazine cover and two-page spread. Like any other Adobe program you will need to put some time in to get to know the ins and outs of the program, but with fairly basic knowledge you can start creative layouts of your own. Below are a couple videos that can aid your beginners journey as well as a links to the Adobe website InDesign for dummies. ( everything you need to know)

Getting started with InDesign

1. Beginners guide to InDesign

2. Five Top features of InDesign (2014)

3. Magazine cover

Adobe InDesign found here ----> https://www.adobe.com

InDesign for Dummies -----> http://www.dummies.com

With the links above you can find out whats new with InDesign and track each new update that has been made. You will find tutorials and be able to use all of the tools in InDesign in no time. Even if you have never used this program, with a little time investment you will be designing layouts like a pro. This program is incredibly useful and a skills with it are a big bonus on your resume. The cool thing about InDesign is you get to release some of your creative juices and let them flow! This program allows you to be the author, artist and designer with all of the control. Even if you are a great writer and love to write all of your materials in Microsoft word, switching it up for a change and writing in InDesign could blow your mind. After all books and magazines aren't all about the words now are they? "In the publishing world there is a real disconnect between the writers and the book designers. They are treated as two entirely separate skill sets." 5 When you learn InDesign you take charge and become the master of your publishing destiny. Become a chameleon and change your color (if you are a writer become the designer, and vice versa). If this concept challenges and encourages you then investigate what InDesign is all about and do great things.