Back in the old days it was easy to buy a cell phone – if it made phone calls you were good to go. At some point the cell phone became the “smart phone” which is really code for “universal communications and entertainment device that fits in a pocket.” It’s pretty amazing really, but a short list of things I expect my phone to do these days includes:
Web browser
E-mail device
Contact and calendar management
Task managment and notepad
Instant/text messaging
GPS moving map with audible turn-by-turn directions
Watch television shows, movies and YouTube
Music player (and music store)
Mobile hot spot providing Internet access for multiple computers
Newspapers and magazines are struggling to keep customers spending money on their paper products while both readers and advertisers are quickly turning to online news, commentary and fiction. So it’s interesting to watch publishers adapt to this new world, testing technologies to draw in readers and trying to keep their ad revenue flowing.
Three magazines and their online advertising caught our attention over the past couple of days. One site (Forbes) we may never visit again because their advertising is so obnoxious. Another site (Esquire) has an ambitious online/offline integration that works well and is fun to play with. The third (InStyle) also tried to integrate online features, but it was a total bust – we couldn’t make it work at all, which probably doesn’t make Taylor Swift very happy since she’s the 3-D cover girl.
Bad – Forbes
Never, ever design pages like this
Forbes has solid editorial content and a rich history, but the desperation apparent in their online advertising is ridiculous. They seem determined to cover every inch of the online page with ads. For some time now their site has been loaded down with multiple animated ads on each page. This is really distracting when trying to read the story. To make things worse, some of those ads have sound that begins playing automatically. This can be shocking if you left the volume turned up while rocking out the night before, or it interrupts your current soundtrack or the quiet of your office. Read the rest of this entry »
Most of the excitement about telephones these days concerns the iPhone, Palm Pre, Android phones and similar small computers. These devices let you browse Web sites, check your e-mail, make appointments in your calendar, watch the latest You Tube videos, listen to music, take pictures, make movies, direct you to your next meeting with spoken turn-by-turn directions, and even make phone calls.
With all that excitement in your pocket it’s easy to forget that most of us are also tethered to one or more wired phones at home and work. Missing an important call from a client is easy to do if you don’t hear your cell phone ring, and don’t bother checking your office voice mail before heading out on Friday afternoon. Using only a cell phone works for some people, but it’s not practical if your company has a main and/or toll free number, or for those cases where you have to transfer a caller down the hall.
Google seems to be everywhere these days so I guess it’s not surprising that they are also trying to shake up the old fashioned phone business with a service called Google Voice. (No surprise, AT&T has already complained to the FCC about Google Voice, trying to nip this upstart competitor in the bud.) Like many of their other new online tools Google Voice is technically in beta test so it’s not guaranteed to be reliable, available, or ever become a real product. But for now at least Google Voice is available, mostly reliable, free, and really handy for small businesses in particular. Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever been on the phone with a client across the country when you wanted to show them something on your computer? You can try reading the URL. (Me: type this URL. Client: what’s a URL? Me: nevermind. in the address bar of your browser, type httpcolonslashslashwww… Client: wait. what’s a colon?) But that’s a great way to waste valuable time and aggravate the client. If you have a spreadsheet, or some artwork to show them your only option is usually to e-mail the file – another great way to waste the client’s time on the phone, and they might not be able to open your file anyway. Read the rest of this entry »
The folks at Twitter have just released an interesting new guide for businesses. Called Twitter 101, the online guide (also available for download as a PDF file) provides a comprehensive overview of Twitter, the terminology you’ll need to understand, and best practices.
The really fun stuff is the case studies from companies like Dell, Pepsi, JetBlue, CoffeeGroundz, and Teusner Wines. Some of these companies are large, public corporations while others have just a few people. Lots of good ideas in there that would apply to any business.
I don’t know anything about this company, but I love their little video called “Entrepreneurs can change the world.”
Sometimes we all need a reminder that our grandparents, parents and many others probably struggled more than we have. They worked hard and generally left the world a little better than the one they were given. Check out this video, maybe it will awaken your inner entrepreneur and encourage some fresh thinking about your own life and business. Drop us a note if you feel motivated.
The company behind this is called Grasshopper and they provide phone services. Check them out. Anyone that can make a cool video like this is worth looking at.
Sorry to be a downer at the beginning of summer, but this is important so pay attention for a few minutes. How long has it been since you made backups of important files? If you make regular backups, have you checked them to be sure they really work to recover your data? Are the only backups in the same room as the original files?
A friend called for help last week. Her computer picked up a nasty virus that left the Windows XP machine unable to boot. It was an older computer that was about due to be upgraded anyway so she bought a new model. She had nightly backups of the most important files, documents, accounting and tax records, and things like that so she was up and running quickly with no stress.
However, she had many gigabytes of photographs, videos and music that were too big for her to back up conveniently so the only copy was on the virus-infected, internal hard disk. We solved that problem by plugging her bad Windows drive into one of our Linux machines and copying the files to an external USB drive.
After solving her problem we went shopping and found that large-size backup drives have gotten really cheap. Our first stop was Staples. They have a 1 TB external USB drive for $149. A 1.5 TB drive is only $179. After that we dropped in at a new Best Buy that just opened yesterday. I don’t know if this is a short-term special, but they had a 1 TB external USB drive for only $119. That’s a lot of storage for the average user and at that price everyone can afford backup.
iDrive Backup Solution
Another backup option that you should consider are the “cloud” storage providers that put your important files on their servers in a data center somewhere. That’s really good because it protects your valuable data from flood, fire, vandalism, etc. Two companies to check out for this service are Mozy and iDrive. These services are very reasonable – for about $5/month (both Mozy and iDrive will even give you 2GB for free!) you can have off-site storage for your most important files.
The solution I prefer is a combination of local and remote backup. Keep local copies of everything on one or more large USB drives. Also keep remote copies of the important stuff.
Whatever you do, have a plan for backup. It doesn’t cost much and will eventually save you a lot of time and money.
UPDATE: As of early June the MiFi is also available from Sprint.
We usually recommend Sprint in the US because of their fast data network, but Verizon has a really interesting new device coming out soon that will make us get a Verizon account for the first time ever. This little thing is a wireless Wi-Fi router, like the one in your home or office, but it has a rechargeable battery and it connects to the Internet through Verizon’s 3G cell phone network.
You can now have your own personal hotspot, for multiple Internet users, wherever you need it. Think about that for a minute. Now your team has Internet access anywhere:
remote or outdoor job sites
conferences and trade shows
a sales presentation where you don’t have time to figure out the customer’s network
How often have you walked into a customer’s conference room and then had to crawl under the table in a skirt looking for the network connection? How often has the customer said “Sure we have wireless Internet” only to find out that you can’t get connected, as valuable presentation time is wasted?
David Pogue of The New York Times was the first to get his hands on the MiFi. Read his initial review here. David’s followup comments are available on his blog.
Verizon doesn’t have any information on their Web site yet, so we’ll have to wait and see about features in the router, battery life, Wi-Fi signal strength and more. But if this is as good as it looks, Verizon has us as a new customer.
Quick Followup:
A couple of days after writing this Sprint announced they would also be offering the MiFi, starting early in June. Read their press release.
