I’d been looking forward to Apple’s announcement of a new iPhone for a long time, and while the iPhone 3G S (announced earlier in the week) looks marginally better than its predecessor, there are a handful of important features I’d hoped to see in this release that just aren’t there (more…)
Having trouble convincing your organization to invest in social media? You’re not the only one. Many of my prospective clients are in the same boat. They understand that social media can be used to help their organization grow and manage customer perception, but unable to estimate a realistic return on investment grounded in a real-life case study, they have trouble rationalizing a significant investment in social media. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough companies that measure AND talk openly about the dollar-value ROI of their social media investment.
One company that is talking openly about their social media ROI is Dell, who today announced that since June of 2007, they’ve earned more than $3 Million in revenue via Twitter alone. (more…)
It’s Friday, and that means it’s “Follow Friday” on Twitter (users recommend the twitterers they find interesting). I haven’t participated much in Follow Friday in the past- not because I don’t follow great people – just the opposite. I follow so many interesting people that I can’t fit them all into a single tweet. I’m currently following 535 people, and I either know them or want to know them because I think they’ve said something interesting. In honor of Follow Friday, I thought I’d share some of the most interesting and prolific “tweeps” I follow that tweet regularly on mobile topics. (more…)
Today at The WallStreet Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference, Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s executive chairman, and Roger McNamee, Palm’s director and co-founder of Elevation Partners announced some brand, spanking new features for Palm’s new webOS, the operating system that will power the Palm Pre when it launches on Sprint in the US on June 6. So, will it be THAT good? Here’s the scoop: (more…)
Today, I’m diverting from my standard mobile and social media musings to talk about something that’s bugging me: laptop bags. I’ve been casually shopping for a new laptop bag for weeks now… I currently own the Tumi laptop bag, below. It’s functional, but it’s your typical bleh laptop bag- grey, sporty, and not particularly feminine. I love its durability, but carrying it is killing my mojo.
I want to replace it with something black, stylish, contemporary, high-quality, professional, and durable (i.e. no “pleather”/vinyl) – a bag that looks like it was made for a woman – not a 60-year-old salesman or a college student. Call me demanding, but I won’t carry a laptop bag that’s pink, blinged out in gold cursive lettering, glittery, is made by Juicy Couture or Betsy Johnson, or pattered with leopard or flower prints. I’m a business woman in technology, not an eccentric fashion maven, college student, or somebody’s “boo”. If I showed up to a meeting with a bag like this, I’d feel ridiculous: (more…)
Nokia’s new Ovi Store officially launched today. It represents a step in the right direction for the diversification of the mobile content market in general, but there are substantial kinks to address. There are enough blogs and tweets out there that rehash the high and low points (highlights for me include: Terence Eden’s post, All About Symbian’s Post, Mobile Industry Review, and TechCrunch). In this post, I’m going to focus on the lessons Nokia and others can learn from this launch:
#1: Call your first launch a Beta, and give users a chance to contribute to its success.
You hear that? … What about that? … Still can’t hear it? What you’re probably not hearing is the sound of people talking about your brand online. Right now, you could be missing tens, hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of consumer led conversations about your brand.
Unconvinced? If you’re based in America, how many times in the last six months have you heard a friend utter the word “Snuggie” or a “ShamWOW!” versus the number of times you’ve actually seen an advertisement for a “Snuggie” or “ShamWOW!”? If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably heard the words uttered and seen them printed on social networks more than you’ve actually seen the commercials. Brands infiltrate both in person and online conversations every second of every day. While you can’t eves drop on every voice to voice conversation about your brand, it’s now easy to find out what people are saying about your brand online. (more…)
Last Thursday, the Windows Mobile Developer Team (@wmdev) announced via Twitter that Windows Mobile 6.5 is done:
“For the record, Windows Mobile 6.5 is DONE… complete… looks really good IOHO and every bit functional. ping us if u want to know more.”
I’m excited to hear about this Windows Mobile release. Though, I switched to a Nokia E71 last week (largely for the form factor), until then, I’d been using Windows Mobile phones as my primary mobile devices since I started working on the first Windows Mobile Palm Treo in 2005. Windows Mobile is a robust OS, though from a usability perspective, in previous versions, it’s had some oddities, which took getting used to.
In Windows Mobile 6.5 Microsoft seems to have addressed several of these usability issues by introducing a new, friendlier user interface, gesturing capabilities, and these cool features: (more…)
Today, I was doing a little research on the new Samsung JACK (sequel to Samsung’s Blackjack series) when I noticed that Samsung is using the Sun Micrososytems logo as the favicon on its JACK web pages (circled in red, below)… Oops:
I went to the Apple Store in Walnut Creek, California on Saturday to buy what I KNEW would be the best birthday present ever for my uncle… An iPhone without the contract. Now, before you gasp, gulp, and bemoan the fact that I’ve never bought YOU such an extravagant birthday gift, let me digress for a moment to say: 1) Stop whinging ;-D 2) It’s the thought that counts 3) it was a joint gift 4) a group of us agreed to buy it for him last year, but didn’t because we didn’t want him to get stuck with the hefty data charges. We rainchecked the gift, so this year counted double. I’ll get back to my story soon, but first, another diversion to set the stage… (more…)
