2015 in Review

2015 was full of changes for Spokt. As we’ve grown, we have added several new features throughout the year to make Spokt more enjoyable for you. Here’s a summary of enhancements and features from this year.

Organized Member List

For Hub Admins, you can now view your member lists in order of first name, last name, or date joined.

Replace Photos

We realized that sometimes, you might accidentally upload the wrong photo, or find a larger one after you post, so we made changes so you can replace photos without having to delete the post. Simply click “Edit” on the particular post, and select “Choose File” next to the words, Replace Photo. Don’t forget to save your changes!

Mobile Site Enhancements

With the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, we updated our mobile site to fit the larger screen sizes. We also implemented landscape view, and added the ability to edit posts and replies on your phone.

Book Updates

While Books itself was released in December of 2014, we made improvements to it throughout 2015.  You can now view Books as a list, or in alphabetical order. If you want to see how books work please watch this screencast.

Calendar

Calendar was released on April 1, 2015, no joke. You and your Hub can keep organized together, plan events, and celebrate a number of occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. It is a great tool to help members continue to connect with each other. You can also print your calendar. For general calendar information, you can watch a screencast, or check out this post.

Video Embeds & Updates

In August, we made some changes to Videos. You can now upload videos from your smartphone, and you can use the new embed codes from YouTube and Vimeo.

Harbor

We released Harbor on October 18, 2015. Harbor is our backup tool, so you can have peace of mind, knowing that your data will always be safe. We offer Harbor backups a la carte for $49, or as part of our Extended or Premium Hubs, compare these new plans here.

We are excited for 2016 and what it will bring, and glad you are along for the ride!

Announcing: Harbor

After 12 months of hard work, we are excited to announce our newest feature, Harbor. Harbor is our tool to help you back up your data from Spokt to your computer. We want you to have control over your data, and make sure you always have access to it. We want you to always be able to access all the memories you have saved on Spokt.

There are two ways to use Harbor. It is included in our Extended & Premium Plans, or you can order an A La Carte Harbor backups on demand. In our Extended Plan, Harbor backups are semi-annual, and in our Premium Plan, you get monthly backups. Either way, Harbor gives you that little extra bit of peace knowing your data isn’t just safe — it’s yours.

Fall Sale

Did you know that you can save up to $30 on a new Hub this fall? We have made some exciting changes to Spokt, and want you to get the most out of them. A few weeks ago, we introduced our all new Hub plans: Family, Extended, and Premium. Our Family plan is perfect for families, as you might have guessed. You can have up to 75 members, with 15GB of storage. This makes it the ideal plan for close families to keep in touch. Our Extended plan is for those with a slightly larger vision in mind. You can have up to 350 members, 30GB of storage, and you will receive Semi-Annual Harbor backups and the ability to point a custom domain name to your Hub. Finally, our Premium plan is the ultimate Hub, with unlimited Hub members, a whopping 60BG of storage, a custom domain name, and monthly Harbor Backups!

Spokt has always been a great value, and this sale makes Spokt even sweeter. Our Family plan is $59/year, but if you create a new Hub by October 25, your first year will only be $44, which comes out to $3.67/month. Our Extended plan (a $149 value), is $89/year, but with our sale, your first year is only $69. If you choose our Premium plan (a $330 value), it is $119/year, but you can save $30 to pay only $89 on your first year!

We are excited to start this new season of Spokt with you, and can’t wait for you to continue sharing life’s moments with those you love through Spokt.

Remember This Feature?

One of our most popular features among our users is the “Remember This?” feature. Once your Hub has been active for some time, the “Remember This?” feature will display one of your older photos at random. It’s like a blast from the past! Next time you see it, click “see another”, and a different photo will appear.

If you want to comment on the photo, or see other users’ comments, simply click on the photo. A fun aspect of this, is when you comment on a old gem, it will appear in your fellow Hub members’ Unviewed list and can spark new conversations! “Remember This?” is a fun way to see old memories, and share them with the ones you love.

Spokt Recommends: Cinematic Pop

Have you heard of Cinematic Pop? In their own words, they are

A new genre of music. It is the fusion of sweeping, emotionally-charged classical music you might hear in a film-score, with your favorite rock and pop songs. We take iconic pop/rock songs from the last 40 years and remove all of the electric guitars, amps, and drums. Then we rebuild it with a new framework based on full-orchestra, choir and soloists while preserving the soul of the original song.  When you hear our version, we want you to recall and connect with the original, but also feel like you are hearing with fresh ears for the first time

We’ve been listening to their renditions, and think they are phenomenal. They are a bridge between traditional orchestra music, and the pop music of today, so people with different music tastes can connect with each other. Cinematic Pop gives us a fresh take on songs we know and love, and presents them in a way that makes us want to listen to their version over and over again. If you would like to learn more about Cinematic Pop, you can visit their website here. We’ve provided a few of our favorites below, enjoy!

Video Embeds

Recently, YouTube got rid of the “old embed” code, which was needed to post videos to Spokt. Now, you can use the new embed code to post YouTube videos to your hub, as well as Vimeo videos. Simply go to either website, click “Share,” then “Embed,” then copy & paste the code into Spokt. You can paste the embed code into any post or reply.

We hope you enjoy this improvement!

Video Updates

You can now upload videos from your phone! To do so, log in to Spokt on your mobile phone, and click the “+ Video” option. Fill out the Title, Text, and Books fields, and then click “Click to Browse”. You will then be prompted to either record a video, or go to your library. Once you choose your video, you will see a green progress bar as your video uploads. When your video is processed, it will be shared with your hub for all the members to enjoy.

Spokt Recommends: Baked In AZ

Spokt has a recommendation for you today! I love a good recipe, and this blog is full of them. The Baked in Arizona blog  is a great place to find all sorts of recipes. From Potato Quiche to Pumpkin Pie Truffles, there will be something for everyone. Here are three recipes that I’ve tried, and loved:

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars – These are amazing. I’ve made them several times, and they always satisfy my sweet tooth. They never last long though… They are usually all eaten within a couple days!

Zuppa Toscana – I’ve loved Zuppa Toscana soup since I was a kid, and I thought I’d try out this recipe.  I loved how fast it came together, and the roasted peppers really gave the soup a pretty color, and yummy taste.

Oriental Chicken Pasta Salad – Have you had a salad that is just some sad looking lettuce with ranch dressing and croutons thrown on top? This is not one of those salads. It is crisp, fresh, and fun to look at AND eat!

We hope you enjoyed this recommendation; stay tuned for more in the future! Let us know if you have something you’d like us to review, and we’ll be sure to take it into consideration.

Tips to Boost Activity in Your Spokt Hub

Recently, we received a question from a new user asking how to better get his family members involved and participating in Spokt. Below is our response. What would you add?

Hello Ernie,

Reach out directly (whether that be through phone, email, or in person) to your family members, and tell them more about Spokt and how you hope what it can become for your family. To me, Spokt is like sitting in the living room and catching up with my family, but without having to travel all over the country to bring everyone together. When you find something you really enjoy, you want to share it with the people who mean the most to you. Sometimes, when people receive an invitation, they don’t know what they are being invited to. I’m as skeptical as anyone!

Another thing to get things rolling is to post some photos in your hub, ask some questions, post a poll. Try to get a conversation going and invite your family members to share. Ask someone to post photos from a recent vacation or graduation.

When you reach out to your family to tell them about Spokt it shows that you care about them, and want to stay connected. Then, when people see their invitation, they understand more about what Spokt is, and then be more inclined to join and participate. You can also send them a link to our demo hub, so they can get a feel for what Spokt is like!

Good luck!

It’s your turn, use the comments to help Ernie and others make their Spokt hubs more successful.

Thanks in advance!

Have Your Calendar and Print It Too!

We’ve had lots of great feedback about our calendar, and we’re happy to share one more enhancement we’ve made to it: Printing! Don’t get carried away and kill too many trees, but you can now print out your calendar to have a paper copy. First, you will need to open up your large calendar, by clicking “View Calendar” on your Hub Home. When the calendar is open, all you do is press Ctrl + P (or Command + P), and you will be prompted to print the calendar. Click print, and you will have a hard copy of your Hub calendar! You can also use, File -> Print if you are used to doing it that way.

While we were at it, we also made posts and comment threads print-friendly. If you would like to print a news post, you open up the post you want to print, and click Ctrl/Command + P, just like printing the calendar.

We hope you enjoy these enhancements as we continue to improve Spokt!