Exclamation blog: Stories, Ideas and loud noises
Mobile RSS Solutions - What’s Out There?
Exclamation is usually our blog that’s reserved for storytelling. Well, half of storytelling is listening, right? And it’s pretty hard to “listen” to a story on the bus or the train unless you’re into books on tape, and, as much as Audible would like, I doubt a majority of the people I know are as into books-on-mp3 as I am. I think they’re much more likely to read, rather than listen, on the fly.
One of our clients told me the other day that he wanted to start reading and commenting on more blogs on his Blackberry. I realized, in talking to him, that I don’t know what are the best mobile RSS readers, as of this summer. I remember setting up HubDog about 18 months ago on the lousy T-Mobile MDA smartphone, nearly vowing never to use mobile RSS again. Mobile RSS has been tossed around for the last couple of years, but only recently have a few real contenders come along. I know that EnGadget did a posting on this a while back, and I don’t think of this as so much of an update as a condensation!
So, here’s a quick roundup, based on the popular platforms. One disclosure: NewsGator is a current LaunchSquad client.
Blackberry: NewsGator Go! is the best thing I’ve seen, but you can use a web-based app like Google Reader, if you’ve got the time to do a bit more clicking.
iPhone: The native Safari RSS reader on the iPhone is pretty strong, but lately, in the the Apple forums, NewsGator has been gaining some traction. Most of the iPhone RSS conversation takes place in Apple’s Internet & Networking forum. To register for a Newsgator account, you can go here, and you’re you’re set up you can log into the mobile RSS portal here. It’s definitely what I’d use to sync mobile and desktop RSS together. If you want to view multiple feeds at once using feeds that you’ve read before using Google, you can use Google Reader, as it’s been recently optimized for the platform. What it lacks in comparison NewsGator’s horsepower, it somewhat compensates for in look and feel.
Palm: Bloglines Mobile has a light-looking PDA interface, but for more robust RSS reading on the Palm platform, but if you’re looking for a standalone application it looks like QuickNews may be the answer. Google Reader is also a suitable alternatative, but I haven’t personally used it on a Palm.
Regular Phone: Feedm8 seems to be the service of choice for most major publishers (CNN, Reuters, Engadget), and I’ve even seen Digg using it lately. It works fairly well if you’re just reading basic RSS feeds published by large publishers. On the other hand, I wouldn’t recommend it for encrypted RSS, and it’s a free service that’s only usable with some publishers. If your phone is even slightly Java-enabled, NewsGator Go! would be a good fit, and is worthwhile for any heavy-duty RSS usage.
Reflections on TechCrunch40, Part I
TechCrunch has entered the fold of must-attend confabs with its inaugural TechCrunch 20, err 40, held last week at The Palace Hotel in San Francisco. As a newbie to the Bay Area, it was a quick study on the state of ideas and venture capital in Silicon Valley and globally. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head of it being a DECA competition for grown-ups and, as such, could have stuck to 20 companies. It was a lot like a web conference in 1999 or early-2000 — enthusiasm, opportunity and capital abounds. The questions I kept asking (both skeptically and optimistically) were:
How is this company going to get customers?
How will this company make money?
Is this company creating a need?
Why that name?
In thinking about the presenters, here are some thoughts around those questions.
Cubic Telecom will get customers because it’s a practical service — free international phone calls for the business traveler. The management team was smart, polished and experienced. If you ever travel out of the country, watch for the launch of Cubic Telecom later this fall.
CastTV and Mint are two different examples of companies that seem poised to make money fast. CastTV has impeccable search for video and will likely get acquired. That’s one way to do it. Create a service that outperforms any other and complements an existing company’s service and, voila, a couple hundred million (or more) could be yours.
On the other hand, Mint has a very smart, sustainable model that, most importantly, provides access to customers that advertisers want and has an excellent value proposition for its users — control your finances. I can aggregate all of my bank accounts and track spending, performance, payments and more with Mint. If I can get a better rate on a credit card than the one I’m using, Mint will tell me and direct me to the offer. This is the most basic example and one that shows you why the site is a win for user and vendor. Mint won the TechCrunch40 grand prize, so while I’m front running, it got my attention and had me logging on as a user by the end of its six-minute presentation
ZocDoc was another company with an idea that solves a problem I have: finding a medical provider. Around this problem, however, they’ve built a rating system and have gone deeper into the doctor’s profile than I find online with Blue Cross Blue Shield, for example.
The question I kept asking was, why can’t I just do this on Yelp, where hundreds of doctors are getting rated now? The only incremental value I could see was that it linked to a list of insurance providers and could tell me if that doctor took my insurance. But isn’t this something that I can cross-reference on Yelp in a five minute phone call?
Speed was also an issue with ZocDoc. It allows you to see who has appointments available that day so you can get right in with that nasty case of poison oak or a cracked tooth, but I wonder if the doctors will keep their scheduling info up to date? What I did like a lot was CEO Cyrus Massoumi’s vision and conviction about solving this problem.
Look for more TechCrunch reflections soon…
Virgin Airlines: Alex Albrecht Was Right
I must admit, right off the bat, that I have a little bit of Virgin guilt; I left the Virgin Mobile phone service to jump ship to the iPhone (and their obstreperous deal with AT&T, who have sent me 100% erroneous bills, so far). So I expected to be a bit biased in favor of the new airline. Aside from hearing the initial Diggnation reports from Alex Albrecht, I’d heard little more than secondhand anecdotal about flying Virgin, all of it uniformly positive. So I was prepared to like them.
I can now say that flying Virgin is about as nice as flying first class on Delta, for about half the price. I know this sounds lame, but I hope they jack their prices up a little bit, just so Southwest and Delta don’t lose too many of their price-sensitive customers over the whole deal. (Note to new airlines: filling your first flights with influencers/bloggers is a pretty freakin’ smart thing to do.)
Without giving the whole anecdotal experience, I’m going to do a 2-minute highlight rundown. These are just a few reasons I think I’m switching from United, unless I’m traveling a route that Virgin doesn’t fly.
10. Bottled water is expensive at the airport. At JFK or SFO, a 33 oz. bottled water typically costs about $5. If you can suffer through the pre-boarding sans water (due to FAA security restrictions), it’s all-you-can-drink once you get on board. And the cute little bottles are available in little glowing bins next to the restroom. Economic benefit: $5.
9. The mood lighting is no joke. When you walk into the plane the pink and purple mood lighting really is calming. I can’t picture how someone could go into full-on screaming jerk mode with this kind of lighting; it would be like starting a tiff with a server in some hipster nightclub. What are the other airlines even thinking with harsh fluorescent lighting? Economic benefit: $10 (What I’d be willing to pay to arrive 25% more relaxed).
The music selection is an extension of the mood lighting. The plane is like one fairly well-chosen iPod, programmed by thirtysomething Londoner. Looking through the selection, I realized that it would entertain my dad, one of my octogenerian great uncles (if they could figure out the interface) or my 21-year-old brother. My in-flight playlist consisted of some interesting surprises: the new Orbital, Bloc Party, Cold War Kids, High School Musical (so, I was curious), John Legend, a few interesting early U2 tracks, and a bunch of Led Zeppelin album tracks that I hadn’t heard in a while. The 3000+ track library contained a few things I didn’t expect to find on a plane: Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, a bunch of Steve Earle, and an hour’s worth of good Frank Zappa. A few audiobooks would be a heavenly addition. (Economic benefit: $5 - not having to use my iPhone/iPod on the flight, period.)
7. Non-branded coffee, and it’s good. I’ve had enough burned Starbucks on United to last a lifetime. (Economic benefit: nothing, but there’s something to be said for not drinking bad coffee).
6. Allows for prosumerish full-control of the in-flight experience. Want to watch a movie? $8. Want to eat the fruit and cheese plate (mediocre)? $7. The plane’s Linux-based Red in-flight entertainment system, while still obviously in beta, gets the job done. While it may feel like they’re nickel-and-diming you on the amenities, the base flight of the flights are great, and they don’t box everyone in to watching the same crappy movie. While I’m unsure if average joes are going to start a chat session with the person across the aisle, the feature will be radically popular with groups traveling together. Who knows, maybe it’ll get kids to think that chatting with their parents is cool. (Economic benefit: at least $50. Having a dynamite playlist probably allowed me to get more done than I would have at work, with no email to interrupt me.)
5. Really loud music in the bathrooms. It may seem a little intense to do your business to really loud salsa music, but if it gets each person in and out of the restroom 10 seconds faster, that’s a heck of a lot less waiting around for everyone. (Economic benefit: $1. I’d pay that much to get in to the bathroom 10 seconds faster whenever I went on a flight.)
4. No obnoxious announcements. Not once on the flight were persons told to stay in their own cabin. It’s sort of implied, by the black-outfitted flight attendants, as if by doing so, you’re being, well, uncool. The only thing that came close to being a little too cheeky is the announcement that the airline doesn’t accept cash.
3. Exit row: $25. United, I’m sick of begging. Please, just let me pay the extra $25 up front so that I don’t have to beg, plead and flash my cheesy Premier Associate card so that I can have an exit row seat. Virgin just lets me lock it down when I make my reservation. (Economic value: $0, since I paid for it.)
2. The plugs, the plugs. Being able to calmly sit and do email on the snappy T-Mobile connection in the terminal was good enough, but not having to stake out an outlet and sit on the floor like my dog, Teddy, was worth ten bucks to me. Getting off a plane having just listened half of Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key of Life because you saw it on the in-flight system - bonus. Getting off of a plane with a fully charged laptop? Double-bonus. (Economic value: $0, since I’d get this on United.)
1. Total lack of logo-based branding Virgin America’s in-flight branding was more like, “Welcome to the Virgin Mobile building” than “You’re flying in a really exciting airline today!” It made me realize that, in all of their attempts to reach me, United and Southwest have failed with their in-flight magazines and mediocre toiletries that don’t reach my demographic. Virgin, in providing a low-key whole-experience brand (fresh flowers at check-in, relaxed staff, super-clean planes) spoke more than a dozen logos and forced smiles could. (Economic benefit: I’d be willing to pay $8 to get rid of all the logos. And another buck to empty the seat pocket.)
So, from my initial estimates, even if the cost of the United flight is the same as Virgin’s, the economic value of the Virgin Flight is $80 higher. Thus, even if Virgin jacks up the price of the SFO-JFK run to $190-200, each way, I’m still game. The math works.
Wish-list: Individual droppers of Natural Tears to fight in-flight dry eyes, better breakfasts, planes that never lose connection with the satellite feed.
Diigo Debuts WebSlides - The Ten-Minute Preso Fix
Normally, I wouldn’t pop a vendor’s release in the Exclamation blog, but I really think that Diigo has come up with a pretty novel idea. Slideshows, when they’re good, tell a story. And that’s exactly what Exclamation is about - telling kick-ass stories.
This morning, Diigo officially released WebSlides. They’re probably hanging out at Office 2.0 right now, basking in the glory of their slideyness. This release puts social tagging and bookmarking a little bit closer to the average joe, as it lets them enjoy the benefits of the medium without having to learn the guts of how it works.
Here’s a good example of how WebSlides looks: a slideshow on genealogy 2.0.
We’ve been using Diigo here at LaunchSquad for about five months, and while we normally use it to forward cool sites around the office (and share with clients), there are some pretty solid applications for marketing, PR, social media and communications here too. WebSlides allows the user to make a slideshow of anything they tagged in Diigo. So, for example, if you have about 10 minutes and a decent wireless connection, you can prepare a narrated clip portfolio to show some of your company’s work (e.g. great articles written about your company or your clients). As long as these sites are already bookmarked in Diigo, you can pop them into the drag-and-drop interface and create the show very quickly; a web-slides feature has always been an Achilles
heel of PowerPoint. (Well, geez, one of many - who am I kidding, here?)
WebSlides differs from, say, Slideshare, because (1) it’s not just for uploading pre-existing Pages or PowerPoint presentations into a slideshow. It’s meant for making web-clipping slideshows, quickly. Not to diss Slideshare too much; they’re good for what they are - a post-presentation YouTube - but you really can’t make anything that looks too polished due to their bric-a-brac UI.
For the time being, I’d go easy on using sound and narration gratuitously on WebSlides, as it doesn’t seem to have quite caught up with the rest of the product, but Diigo is usually good about fixing all bugs in a few weeks. WebSlides is a practical innovation from a company that’s been percolating with good ideas for some time now.
Paying Yourself First - How LaunchSquad Does It
There’s been a bunch of conversation in the blogosphere about “Paying yourself first.” As a total devotee of time-management gurus like David Allen, I was a little surprised to hear of some personal productivity trend that I hadn’t at least heard of. (I fancy myself a relatively productive guy - maybe I’m wrong?!)
The deal with “paying yourself first” boils down to this: focusing your priorities on stuff that maximizes your time. It’s the old Pareto Principle in action: the law of the vital few. It basically states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. For example, it’s highly likely that you wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time, or that you spend 80% of your time with 20% of your acquaintances.
Here are some of the ways that I do it, on a daily basis:
1. I always read my RSS feeds first thing in the morning, 30 minutes before email, so I can fully “soak in” articles that require a deeper read, before I get on the email treadmill
2. I always put my hardest tasks between 8-10 a.m.
3. I always tie any social campaign I work on to a clear business objective, so I don’t get bored or get thrown off-track.
4. I always wear sunscreen when I leave the house, because I’m too forgetful to put it on during the day.
5. Everything goes on the calendar, but if it takes less than two minutes, I always do it immediately.
Everybody’s got their own way of paying themselves first.
Account executive Carolina says, “Early in the morning I set up my to-dos that I definitely want to accomplish during the day.”
LaunchSquad softball captain Jeremy says: “I always write down (physically write) what needs to be done, then prioritize that list.”
Corey, an account executive says: “I take care of easy emails right away - if something requires a short response, I shoot it off.” He also avoids forcing himself to do things when he’s not in the mood. “If I have to write something and I’m not feeling it, I don’t force myself, because I’ll just waste time.”
Anna, one of LaunchSquad’s newest team members, says: ” I suppose one of the ways I pay myself first is by educating myself every day on current events and world news. While media monitoring for specific articles and trends as they pertain to my clients is essential to my role, by staying updated with the news in general, I am more of a resource to my co-workers and clients. I’m “paid” to read the news! For someone my age, social networks are applicable as well.”
So, the next time someone asks how your workday was, instead of mumbling, “It was okay,” you can print out a Pareto distribution and say: “If you must know, it was within these exact parameters.”
