Life blog

Om Malik’s Broadband Blog � Google Sells and Market Yells

I wonder if they need a mobile guy like me. I could use a few of those bucks.

Link: Om Malik’s Broadband Blog � Google Sells and Market Yells.

The Bay Area housing market is all set to “kick-it-up-a-notch” as many newly minted Google millionaires are going to go shopping for palazzos. TheStalwart has details on the insider selling. For those of you who missed out on the Google IPO, here is your second chance. The company plans to raise $4 billion. Its not going to be risk free, according NYU finance professor Aswath Damodaran tells Fortune.

MobHappy: Free Mobile RSS Reader Loaded with 14 Essential Mobile Blogs

Link: MobHappy: Free Mobile RSS Reader Loaded with 14 Essential Mobile Blogs.

So we've teamed up with the guys behind Free News and come up with our very own RSS Reader - FREE to all MobHappy readers - the full version costs $20 a year. Instructions for downloading are at the end of this post.

via Darla

Futurice - PhotoBlog

This is not another blog client. Futurice has thought through all the requirements to make this an easy to use mobile app with subscription and bililng issues all worked out. A good example of a mobile app tied into a Web service.

Ah, but they can do this because they own both the server and mobile app side of things. I think the skill they have on both sides of the connections helps them come out with such great end to end solutions.

Link: Futurice.

Futurice PhotoBlog is a full-featured multilanguage mobile photo blogging system for sharing photos with friends. You will automatically get your own username.blog.futu.info website where you can post images. For the service provider there are many billing options.

Futurice PhotoFeed

Cool app. I love these guys. Wish I could dream up other apps with them.

Link: Futurice.

PhotoFeed - a free mobile photo feed reader

Photofeed is an application that brings your favorite photo blog feeds directly to your Nokia Series 60 phone. The application is free and you can subscribe any feed that implements ATOM with some mobile optimizations.

I've had some great discussions with them regarding mobile-friendly issues in Web 2.0. Here is one example of something that could use a bit of help if there were a standard mobile Atom feed. But, right now, feeds are sloppy because everyone is using a broadband PC.

thee blog ov al_iguana - Nokia 6680 and Three

Another happy customer. Basically, 3 has a great network that users won't use. Now, how's that for 'cutting your nose off to spite your face'?

Link: thee blog ov al_iguana - Blog Archive - Nokia 6680 and Three.

My wonder-phone has a flaw. a serious flaw. because I’m on Three. I can’t access the internet. They’ve blocked it. No blog clients. No RSS readers. No Wap. All I can do is visit Three’s website. A Pay website. Want to read the news? Each item costs 50p. The weather? 50p.

Wake up guys!

Nokia - PCS'98: Nokia introduces new TDMA digital phones designed for consumers who value ease of use and individuality - Press Releases - Press - About Nokia

My first mobile phone was a Nokia 5160.

Link: Nokia - PCS'98: Nokia introduces new TDMA digital phones designed for consumers who value ease of use and individuality - Press Releases - Press - About Nokia.

The Nokia 5100 series further demonstrates Nokia's commitment to individuality and ease-of-use, featuring Nokia's innovative and highly intuitive Nokia NaviKey concept- a new feature that lets phone owners use a single button (the NaviKey) to easily access all the powerful functions of the phone.

Can you imagine what my experience with mobiles would have been if I had started with another phone from a different manufacturer? I so took to the phone that, thereafter, I flogged every non-Nokia phone I reviewed because they were so hard to use (I had something to compare them to). I remember, for example, using a phone that was impossible to use and having a hard time doing anything basic, like saving numbers to the contacts or trying to call an already-dialed number from the log. Sheesh!

I've been a bastard about the mobile experience ever since.

What really puzzles me is that the phone came out about 7 years ago and still manufacturers are struggling with their phone UIs. What's that all about

Alex de Carvalho: Solitary Mobility vs. Mobile Sociality

Found this while reading Alex's site. Alex got this via Michael Heilemann, Binary Bonsai. Read what Alex's insight is on this exchange.

Link: Alex de Carvalho: Solitary Mobility vs. Mobile Sociality.

Christian Lindholm created a stir while presenting Nokia's new products, including the N90 transformer, at Reboot 7.0:

"If you own an iPod, please stand up". [Most conference attendees stood up]

"Now take the iPod out of your pocket", [only] two people can produce their iPod.

The point: "If it's not in the pocket, it's not mobile".

 

Christian always comes up with these simple insights. I was blessed to spend so much time soaking up his thoughts. In a way, I was tutored by him while delving deep into my old Navi-key (his idea) Nokia 5160 (my first mobile) and Series 60 (his baby)  and came prepared to his Lifeblog group with my own insights collected while not under his wing. Working with him was a real mentoring sort of thing. In so many ways, Christian and I complemented each other and showed each other new things, but also, we (to the frustration of many) found a great synergy that we fed off of and kinda gave us a great burst of energy to accomplish the zany things we did. Also, he gave me so much support to do what I did - it was essential to my success.

Wow, we had fun while it lasted.

Sigh. I don't know if Christian and I will end up together again, the situation is still so murky. Nonetheless, my next gig now has to take it to the next level. That's a tall order. I wonder who can offer that? Or will I have to go it on my own?

Lifeblog post

Thu 18.08.2005 21.29 Image 033

oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Nokia Smartphone Hacks, First Edition

I'd be willing to read it, rate it, and review it if someone were to give me a copy. ;-)

Link: oreilly.com -- Online Catalog: Nokia Smartphone Hacks, First Edition.

Now you can learn how to take full advantage of Nokia's powerful mobile devices, known as "smartphones." Learn how to take screen shots, access Internet content, use email and messaging, and so much more. It's the only guide available today that lets you unlock all of Nokia's time-saving secrets.

Qualifications: I have been using Nokia smartphones for 5 years (9110, 9210, 7650, 3650, N-Gage, 6600, 7610, 6670, 6630, 6680, N70 - have I missed any? - and I've played with practically all the other ones). I also have written many reviews over the past 10 or so years.

textually.org: SMS Guerilla Projector

I found this again, thanks to textually.org. I mentioned it here.

Link: textually.org: SMS Guerilla Projector.

The SMS Guerilla Projector is a high powered, home made projection device that can be used to project SMS messages on to buildings, signs or any other surface.

Follow the link to the Troika site and look at their disruptive devices.

Change Agents With The Balls: The Rise Of The Amateur Professionals, Prosumers, Pro-Ams - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings

Great article (still got to read the 70-pager attached) on professional amateurs. I know this topic, but it's well said here with a great collection of quotes.

I point this out because these are the people who will drive Web 2.0 and all our economy. We are going back to artisans (and guilds?) and away from certified employee in hierarchical structures. It's the democratization (flattening?) of work. This is the heart of the Creative Economy.

Link: Change Agents With The Balls: The Rise Of The Amateur Professionals, Prosumers, Pro-Ams - Robin Good' Sharewood Tidings.

As access to powerful and low-cost new media, electronics and digital technologies becomes easier and easier thanks to innovation and lower and lower prices, creating value, products and good content is not anymore the exclusive property of large corporations, or financially equipped teams of investors. Amateurs professionals are figuring out in more than one way, that they too can be effective and even sustainable products creators without needing to tap into large budgets, expensive machinery and highly paid professionals.

Gartner: Nokia Can Avert Disaster in North American Mobile Phone Market

Hugues J. De La Vergne, from Gartner, has come out with a brief report, suggesting what Nokia can do in North America. On one side, he's right. On the other side, he's just so wrong. On the whole, the analysis is not new, but at least a year behind everyone else.

Link: Nokia Can Avert Disaster in North American Mobile Phone Market.

Nokia is fast losing ground in this market. To turn things round, it must offer clamshell designs, bolster its CDMA range, expand its midrange and high-end portfolios, and meet carriers' demands for customized phones.

Where he's right: Yes, Nokia can do well playing by the historical rules of the North American market. Indeed, the same rules can be followed in the rest of the world to - do exactly what operators want, deliver what users think they want today.

Where he's wrong: This recipe is formulaic and reactionary. It only addresses the market today and sets up for disaster any company who follows this recipe. The more control we allow the operators to have, the more they will think they have, the more they will dictate the whole ecosystem. That's bad for innovation, for growth, and for everyone who is not an operator. And, yes, I have my own view of how Nokia can kick some serious butt in the US, but won't talk about it here just yet.

Credit where due: Hugues is quite right in that the other half of the argument is simply Nokia doesn't seem to have a broad enough offering in CDMA and GSM in North America in general. I think they are offering North America phones designed (separately) for the European and Asia market. Also, they just need to put out more phones in CDMA - though, in that market, that means designing phones for operators.

 

Well, it's not all that bad to design phones for specific operators. And I think it would be cool for Nokia to do that. But, I feel that the operators and Nokia are trying to do a fusion of different opposing product creation techniques instead of choosing one (let Nokia design it) or the other (let the operator design it) for specific phones.

 

Oh, and get off this thing of clamshells. That's so 2004! To suggest Nokia make clamshells at this point in time is well over a year past due.

Education tool a phone call away - Technology - theage.com.au

Elizabeth is sure making waves in Australia using mobile phones (and Lifeblog) for learning.

Link: Education tool a phone call away - Technology - theage.com.au.

"We need to explore what mobiles mean for learning, and begin thinking of these phones as capable of supporting us in many aspects of communication,"

Camera Corner: Lifeblogging with the Nokia 7610 by Gina Trapani- The Digital Journalist

Super Photographer Gina seems to be hooked on the 7610 and Lifeblog. Go Gina!

Link: Camera Corner: Lifeblogging with the Nokia 7610 by Gina Trapani- The Digital Journalist.

Since I got my 7610, I've turned into a text messaging fanatic who takes cameraphone snapshots and short videos of everything and anything - that perfect antipasto I had in Sicily, a funny bumper sticker, or my nephews wearing Jackie O. sunglasses.

peterme.com: No. Really. It's not *about* the technology.

Here's a good conversation thread basically saying Web 2.0 is not about technology, but about attitude. Indeed, for a company like Nokia (where I am still working at), where the industry is still young and in a closed proprietary money-grubbing lock-in-those-customers state, it will be a nifty challenge to take on the open and linked attitude of Web 2.0.

Link: peterme.com: No. Really. It's not *about* the technology..

APIs facilitate openness, but they're meaningless if your organization doesn't have the conceptual underpinnings to take advantage of it.

Sigh. I have so much to say on this topic, but it's a jumble of notes.

Some day. Some day.

Church of the Customer: The science of word of mouth

Some interesting data on word-of-mouth. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm really big on WOM - it's what I did in the past year.

But, thinking a bit, I am really also advocating companies participating in the conversation of the community they sell to and work with. Might WOM also be extended to include how the company interacts with its customers? Instead of WOM being about (in the end) selling a product, might it not be the way to do all your business?

Link: Church of the Customer: The science of word of mouth.

In our last podcast, we chatted with Dr. Walter Carl, an assistant professor at Northeastern University who is researching organized word-of-mouth programs and whether they alter the medium's natural ecosystem.

BzzAgent provided Walter with a big chunk o' data to study and today, the company released some of his findings in a six-page whitepaper. (We're mirroring the 229kb PDF here.)

Joi Ito's Web: Where am I?

Ahh, if I could do something similar with those 'Where am I?' photos I always do. Click a picture, post it with the coordinates. I bet Chris can rig something up.

Link: Joi Ito's Web: Where am I?.

Plazes has a cool new feature called "Where is". So you can see "Where is Joi Ito?". It relies on Google maps which is a bit sketchy with addresses for Japan, but otherwise it seems to work quite well. On the other hand, it doesn't show the routing as well as the old map using IndyJunior.

Hmm, also realized I haven't been anywhere lately.

Sigh.

Overserving the user!!

I have noticed recently that I have become more rabid that we are overserving the mobile user.

Link: MobHappy: Wow, Somebody Might Be Listening.

Their argument is clear, concise and cohesive: the business is still too focused on technology, and this gets in the way of serving users. People are presented with too many features on their devices, none of which are especially good nor easy to use. When it comes to services, setup and provisioning is currently horrible, and the services themselves aren't presented in a helpful manner.

The best test is to give an advanced smartphone to someone outside the industry (as I do regularly) and come back later to interview them on what they use on the phone.

My findings are pretty consitent, regardless of phone. People mostly use (usually in this order):
- Voice calling - might seem stupid to highlight that here, but it's essential to understanding where the money is
- SMS - not MMS, not email
- Alarm clock
- Contacts
- Camera
- Maybe, calendar

And that's it.

Heck, I'm a power user and there is a boat-load of krap that I never touch. Can't the manufacturer let me get rid of those apps to free up space in my menu? Also, phones nowadays seem to have so much krap that is put in simply to tick off a feature list for an operator! Argh, it's so annoying.

Marc's Voice: Anina.net

Link: Marc's Voice: Anina.net.

I met Anina at BlogHer. She's an 'in your face" power A-List woman, determined to take on the world - on her terms. I guess being a supermodel trains you pretty well.

Anina's still rocking! I hope to have dinner with her and Paris Match on Thursday.

ideo.com :: Careers :: Boston

And there you go - here's a top-notch innovation consultancy looking for biz dev folks. If you don't know IDEO, then go read about them. A heck of a company. They have been helping companies innovate for so long, it's hard not to bump into something nifty they had a hand in creating.

Link: ideo.com :: Careers :: Boston.

IDEO’s Boston office is seeking a mid-level business development professional to share in all aspects of business development efforts across all IDEO practice areas. The emphasis will be on bringing in new business for practices currently represented in the Boston office including the “Consumer Experience Design,” “Health,” and “Emerging Enterprises” practices.

Hmmm. Boston. Innovation. Health. Sounds interesting. ;-)

Business Week's new Innovation sub-site

There was a great Business Week article recently on Innovation. It came just at the right time for me: I have been thinking about and discussing various aspects of innovation these past few weeks, trying to craft a personal view of innovation and how I could lead the creation of mobile lifestyle products and services.

As you might know, when the Nokia Lifeblog team moved on to bigger and better things, I stayed on at Nokia Ventures Organization (NVO) to look for my next gig. I have been venturing in one form or another for many, many years and now see that I am a junkie for early-stage stuff and creating nifty products. And, after spending my summer holiday thinking of what to do next, I am sure I want to do continue doing something creative, innovative, and disruptive (that's why I've changed my tagline, above, to better reflect where I'm heading).

As I said I've been reading and thinking a lot lately, mostly about networked innovation, strategic business development, community involvement, risk taking, and the creative economy (the one that comes after the knowledge economy). And, just like last summer, when Business Week came out with an article to support my crazy anti-mass-marketing ideas, this summer Business Week gives me something, once more, (a whole site!) to support my crazy collaborative innovation ideas.

In the past year or so, I tried some things that were slightly out of my scope as a marketing and sales dude, things that were more biz dev and partner collaboration. Partly because these activities were out of my scope, I wasn't able to give them the attention or structure I wanted. But, now that I am free of my marketing and sales duties, I think it's time to delve deeper into collaborative business development.

I have also realized that what I saw as simply 'collaborating to create cool stuff' was actually my way of playing to discover and tease out innovative products and services using a network of companies and people. Furthermore, what to me was just a way of creating something, is really my personal design strategy of what makes a cool product.

So, in the end, I have a better idea of what I did, what I thought was a type of collaborative business development, and that where I am heading is related to networked innovation, design strategies, and the future of the mobile lifestyle.

Now to write all this down in full and find someone to support me. ;-)