iPhone 3G reviews - useful sites
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Just a quick post today: I’ve seen a couple of pages which may be of use for learning a little more about the new iPhone 3G and also accessories.
Appleinsider have a great post here with some good pictures and some nice detail.
I’ve also found this superb site called testfreaks which collates all sorts of reviews in one place (saving a load of time and hassle). They have a section for the iPhone 3G here - click - well worth a look.
In terms of my own experience, the software is STILL laggy, but does seem to speed up every now and again. I have had no crashes or bad experiences with the apps I have installed, but I have not managed to get the GPS working. Not one bit. I need to do some thorough testing, because if it is faulty, it is going back pronto!
Featured on the Ribbit Blog
Well I never! I’ve been featured on the Ribbit Blog. They did actually let me know I was going to get a mention, and to be fair, there communication has been excellent, and through twitter 
Now I am really looking forward to using amphibian! Just to clarify, developers can get started now, but no live apps yet.
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Toms Shoes - a unique marketing success story
I’ve just picked this up via my morning feeds and I am SO impressed.
Toms Shoes are a company who have been around for only 2 years. They have a very simple message:
Buy a pair of our shoes, and we give a pair to someone who really needs a pair.
The company was set up by Blake Mycoskie. He was a former contestant of “The Amazing Race” who was inspired by the low-cost alpargatas (espadrille-type shoes) during a trip to Argentina, where he saw people who could not even afford the very basic shoes.
Why has Toms Shoes impressed me?
Number one - a superb cause - people really do take this to heart, and what a great way to promote and sell a product when you know you are doing some good in the world too.
Number two - a quality product, a fun one, and not just one style, many styles (so more purchases!).
Number 3 - great brand, which is telling a story - people LOVE stories.
Number 4 - great marketing - lots of viral potential, loads of evangelists who spread the word, and the big one.
Being unique. Standing out and being noticed, doing something different, which also happens to be great.
I wonder if they sell them in the Uk yet? Time to hit up cuil, or maybe I will just stick with Google!
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Not so cuil
This week has seen the launch of the new search engine by some ex-Googlers.
It’s called cuil. It was looking pretty cuil, until people started testing it. Techcrunch have a good post here, where cuil could not even find cuil in their SERP. Hmmm.
SEOMoz have another great post looking at a comparison between Microsoft Live search, Google, Yahoo! and cuil. Needless to say, the latter did not fair brilliantly. This is a massive case of too much promise and under-delivery. The thing a business needs to avoid above all costs.
They had quite a few things going for them - ex-Google staff (know what they are doing), in stealth mode, massive hype and PR in the blogosphere, but then went pear-shaped when people started using it. To be fair, they must have had some cojones to try and take on Google, the most succesful online company in history. So, they tried, and for now at least they failed.
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Amphibian
I’ve blogged about a couple of things before, when I’ve actually said wow and it has made me think, “man, I need that!”.
Well today is another one of those days, and funnily enough, it is not npower who is doing this to me 
It is ‘Silicon Valley’s First Phone Company”, Ribbit, which has just been bought by our very own BT. Techcrunch have a good post here on the acquisition which has cost BT a cool $105 Million, but I honestly think it is money well spent.
So what is Ribbit?
Our platform enables developers to bring together the richness of voice calling and Web 2.0 experiences. With Ribbit, voice can become a rich feature that can be added to any application, on any device. Free from a traditional handset or the latest mobile phone, voice can now be delivered and received on multiple devices in multiple locations, across any network. It can be integrated, monetized and personalized using the Ribbit platform.
The best way to understand how powerful Ribbit is, is to check out the first application which is called amphibian.
amphibian looks amazing! I’m pretty staggered with how useful and intelligent it is. You know that feeling when you think, whoa! How an earth do they do that? It feeds my fascination with all things web!
With amphibian you can finally:
Manage your mobile voicemail like email on your computer and on your mobile phone.
Turn your voicemail into text to make voice messages sharable, searchable, and most importantly actionable.
Take and make mobile calls from any browser or web page - such as iGoogle, Facebook, and many more.
Experience Caller ID 2.0 - dip into the social web and know not just who is calling but what the caller has been doing.
I urge you to check out the amphibian page here and watch the demo movie - it shows how your mobile phone becomes completely integrated with the amphibian web app. What really impressed me is the fact that when someone calls (get this), it show up their caller details but will also show their latest flickr photos, blog posts, movies etc. Now THAT is impressive.
I’ve registered my interest and am now really looking forward to getting going with this. One of the coolest webapps I ever seen - I hope it launches soon, and well done BT!
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite
mobileme Contacts disappearing
mobileme is certainly a massive PR disaster for the normally robust Apple.
UPDATE -it’s even made the BBC site today.
I’ve just suffered from the loss of all my contacts on my iPhone which is a slightly nervy experience! However, I have now solved this by following these instructions:
- Turn your iPhone or iPod touch off and then back on (if you did not already try this above).
- Turn syncing off for the affected data. From the home screen, tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, and Calendars, and then tap your MobileMe account. Move the slider for the data type that is causing you issues. Wait for confirmation that that data type has been disabled, then press Home. Confirm that the data has been deleted on your phone, and then turn syncing for that data type back on.
This is taken from this Apple support article and I can report that I did exactly this, and managed to get all the contacts to reappear. I would definitely also back up your address book and calenders, just to be sure.
npower sucks
Rant mode on:
Don’t you just love utility companies? Not only do they overcharge you, but they also send you threatening letters. Let me explain - we have recently moved our utilities to British Gas, hoping that we get some better service - npower have easily set the standard for rubbish, woeful and uncaring customer service, so we figured, hey, we might as well change.
So, we changed to BG, and then they sent us a last meter reading for the gas. It was wrong. Told BG, told npower. They told us they would sort it out. You know the drill, “don’t worry Mr Moss”. Yeah right. Total drivel.
So, today I get a letter from npower, saying why haven’t you paid, we will be sending round a Debt Collection Agency if you are not careful etc etc. No other communication. No phone call.
So, on the phone, 9 numbers later, no joy. Queue. Queue. 15 minute wait predicted. 40 minute wait predicted. So quickly remembered this excellent website where you can access numbers that the companies don’t want you to know about - direct dial numbers, 0800 number etc. (Click here and bookmark it). Eventually got through to helpful lady, who then said - “Nothing to do with us, you need to speak to British Gas”.
I give up.
Useless. Incompetent. Hopeless. Chocolate fireguard (managed to get that phrase in on the conversation I had). Choccy teapot. These and more, are ALL too pleasant for the utility companies I have had the misfortune to deal with.
Moral of this story - invest on some new technology (solar power although unlikely in the UK), or perhaps geo-thermal stuff, so you can cut ties from these vultures. Grrrrr.
UPDATE!
Well, after receiving no reply from the letter I sent and not trusting the customer service to give me any update, I rang their Accounts Collection Manager directly.
I think he was a little surprised to get a call I made it VERY clear how unhappy I was with the service and also their now number one ranking on Google for npowersucks. What did amaze me is that he said it was the first he knew about it, so he had not got my letter, although he had been away for a few days. What I cannot believe is that he knew nothing about it, and I have a letter from him in my hands. Doh. I give up.
So, he has now promised to phone me back this morning. Updates as they happen!
UPDATE 2!
Well, as promised, he phoned back within ten minutes, and all is being resolved Hat off to him for getting back to me so quickly. They now seem to be up to date with the where we are, and are going to be looking at some compensation - I should jolly well think so - I’ve wasted 3 hours on this so far!
Silverback - impressive in practice
Silverback test from theappleofmyi on Vimeo.
I am very impresses with Silverback - easy to install, easy to use and within minutes I was recording myself clicking around a couple of sites, all with sound and video capture via the iSight. Superb!
10 Easy Steps for a Small Business to Get Set Up for Community Management
Community Managers?
You may well be asking what the heck is a Community Manager? Well, with the power of the web, the rise of broadband for most people, and the fact that a companies’ product and brand (and people) are being talked about online 24/7, a Community Manager is someone who is going to look after this extremely vocal and viral communication channel.
Jeremiah Owyang has an excellent post on what a Community manager should be doing, and Chris Brogan has also written on the subject.
It is worth noting that Jeremiah’s post is back in March, 2007, so this is not a new concept by any means, and many switched on companies are already employing these people, especially in the tech sector and startups launching new webapps.
Other business sectors missing the boat?
I have a feeling though, a very strong hunch, that many other businesses in more traditional sectors have not a clue about the online channel, or at least, are disturbingly behind the times.
The Healthcare/Pharms sector is one that I have a great deal of experience with, and certainly the company I used to work for, was completely ignorant of anything to do with monitoring the online communication channel. I would hazard a guess they still are too (and that was even with me trying to get them to understand that they needed to take the web seriously).
Not just Healthcare/Pharms Companies
Even small businesses should be engaging with their customers and prospects online. They could give someone the task of managing the online communities relevant to them. I also think that UK small businesses are not as switched on with online marketing and communication as US businesses. From what I read and see, they are a couple of years ahead of us here in the UK.
So how could a small business set up a Community Manager / Management Programme?
- Identify where people are talking about their brand / company / product or service
- Engage with these people by joining forums or commenting on blogs
- Communicate on their emails, websites, blogs that they have a community manager
- Ensure that the nominated community manager understands just how important this is
- Utilise a variety of online tools to see what is being said, by whom, and where
- Makes sure that they always try and fix problems quickly and efficiently which crop up
- Be completely transparent and open when they are speaking with people online, so they know you are the community manager for x company / brand
- Have a dedicated page on their website showing a picture of their community manager and how to contact them
- Make sure that the internal people, the other employees and parts of the business know what is happening and let them know WHY this is happening - show the benefit
- Really important this one - get some value from having the community manager - as well as listening, you can also communicate with your online advocates - let them know about new products, get them spreading the word, encourage them to write about you, do some research with them.
It is essential that a Community Manager is assigned, especially when the business / product / brand has a vocal following online, or is being discussed on a regular basis. Don’t get left behind and miss this opportunity.
Silverback - website usability software
This is seriously useful. Seriously cool. Seriously good value for money. Yes, I’m impressed.
Silverback is a Mac app for:
Spontaneous, unobtrusive usability testing software for website designers.
It has some great features:
* Capture screen activity
* Video the participant’s reactions
* Record the participant’s voice
* Add chapter markers on the fly
* Control recording with the remote
* Export to Quicktime
All for $49.95 with 10% donated to a Saving Gorillas Charity, plus a 30 day free trial.
This could be a HUGE hit with people wanting to test websites and how people will interract with the site.
Silverback screencast from Jeremy Keith on Vimeo.
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