The ipadio team have very kindly placed my latest phlogs (phone-blogs) on their frontpage today:
Have you been listening in? I’ve had quite a few emails from surprised individuals flicking through Google Reader only to be shocked to hear my voice coming from the rss feed. That’s the beauty of ipadio. Over the past few days I’ve been traveling so it’s been quite difficult to get the time to sit in front of the laptop — thus I’ve been doing a few ‘phlogs’ instead.
You can check out the latest phlog (I was talking about iPhone app discovery system, Chomp) here.
Download the iPhone app and get phlogging yourself — it’s free!
* Beta site KangoGift is now providing the hookup for what might be called presentexting. The service lets gift givers send text-message (SMS) vouchers for real presents.
* KangoGift (located in Cambridge, MA) is currently only partnering with businesses in Harvard Square; though they hope to eventually roll out to other areas.
I think we’ll begin to see this kind of thing fly, very shortly. I love it. I love the immediacy of it, the convenience.
You can, for example, text someone a hot chocolate! All you need to do is visit KangoGift.com, select the product — pay for it and then tell them the recipient’s mobile phone number. They immediately get a text message (or an ‘enhanced’ message, if their handset supports it) telling them about the gift. The recipient simply needs to show the text message at check-out to redeem the voucher.
I can imagine using this kind of facility a lot, especially if they had an on-device application that made the ordering process a 15-second activity.
If you live in Cambridge, MA, I reckon you should give KangoGift a go and see how you get on. I look forward to seeing this kind of thing expanded to other areas and countries.
Just in case you’re wondering where HulloMail comes from, I thought I’d re-post this old Mobile Industry Review video from yonder. It was first published on the 10th of November, 2008 — so it’s well over a year old — but in it, you can see the top man at HulloMail, Andy Munarriz, give us a super overview of what they were intending doing (they’d only just launched).
It’s good to see a company telling us what they were intending doing — then a year later revisiting to see that, yes, indeed, they’ve delivered! Good work HulloMail! Check them out at www.hullomail.com.
It’s also good to see the olde MIR TV chaps on the show — in fact the interview with Andy was conducted by none other than James Whatley. I *loved* that MIR introduction, I really did… ROLL CREDITS!
I’ve been using HulloMail as my voicemail replacement for about 6 months and it’s been flippin’ fantastic (not to mention the fact it’s actually free of charge!). I really like the way that voicemails arrive as emails with audio attachments in my Google Mail, however in recent months, HulloMail have been innovating like crazy to deliver their service in a mobile application. As a result, I’m a heavy, heavy user of their BlackBerry application that lets me flick through and play my voicemails as necessary.
I’ve also installed and made a lot of use of their Android app.
And I’ve been waiting for their iPhone app too. The brilliance of the HulloMail service is that it’s handset independent. So when I installed the iPhone app and logged in, my voicemails were right there ready and waiting. (Even though my iPhone operates on a different number that I never bother to give to anyone. )
I’ve obviously redirected my main number to HulloMail so if you call me and I can’t answer, you’ll be handed over seamlessly to the HulloMail system.
There’s a real bit of innovation that’s arrived with the iPhone app though: They’re called “Hullos”.
As Rolf Harris says, can-you-guess-what-it-is-yet?
A ‘Hullo’ is a voicemail sent from the HulloMail iPhone app (BlackBerry and Android apps will be activated with this soon). It’s the equivalent of sending a voicemail… but without having to arse about actually placing the phone call.
This is brilliant because I *continually* need to leave messages for people. Oh, email, Twitter, yeah.. they all serve a purpose, but voice is just quicker and a lot more convenient. So I’ve been using this tons over the past few days. I often want to ‘leave a voicemail’ because I don’t want to interrupt people by calling them. It’s actually somewhat inconvenient if you’re trying to leave a voicemail but the person answers. It’s even more annoying when the person answers in a flustered manner because they’re riding their bike, or in a board meeting, or whatever.
It works fantastically well on the iPhone. In fact, here’s what the iPhone app looks like:
If you call and leave me a voicemail (and you’re a HulloMail subscriber), I obviously see your voicemail arrive on the HulloMail app. HulloMail has already queried my Google Contacts to see if it can find your name — if so, that’s appended to the voicemail record. I go ahead and listen… then to send a reply, I just hit the shiny new ‘reply’ button. That opens up a recording window with a 30 second counter. I hit ‘record’, speak, then send. Done. Really, really cool.
If you’re NOT a HulloMail subscriber, then I get the option to still send you the voicemail — but it’ll be emailed. (Because your piece of shit mobile operator’s voicemail is 15 years old and can’t handle this kind of thing.)
I strongly encourage you taking the time to check out the main HulloMail service — and once you’ve created your account, if you’re on the iPhone, search for ‘HulloMail’ and download the app.
The service works beautifully with BlackBerry and Android. And if you’re using something else — like a Nokia — it’ll still work, just you won’t get the fancy voicemail UI.
As paramedics attempted to revive her son Bryson after he was found floating face down in a swimming pool, Shellie Ross sent out a message on Twitter , asking her followers: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
Five hours later, when her son was pronounced dead, she again took to the Twitter site to update her 5,000 followers.
“Remembering my million dollar baby,” she wrote.
Moments later, she posted a photo of her son on the site.
We’re all walking around with devices that can capture brilliant quality video (or in the case of the Samsung Omnia HD i8910, HD video at 720p@24fps).
This is beginning to make life difficult for quite a lot of people, in particular those in the service industry.
Take London Underground for example. Jonathan MacDonald, friend of Mobile Industry Review (See jMac’s MIR Show takeover), witnessed one of those negative customer service incidents that would normally have remained in the shocked consciousness of maybe 10-15 people for a few hours before being forgotten.
We’re so accustomed to not being able to ‘do anything’ about this kind of thing.
Not Jonathan MacDonald. Have a read of this. I’ve published an extract below for simplicity:
Today, just after 230pm, I saw an elderly man with his arm trapped in the closing door of a faulty train at Holborn Station.
We all thought the train was heading further east but actually, for reasons we shall never know, the train was terminating at Holborn and we were ushered out onto the platform by two (shouting) staff in Underground uniforms.
The elderly man was slow to get off in the mad rush, hence the entrapment.
A few people around called to staff to open the door again so he could be released.
About 30 seconds later the doors opened again and he removed his arm.
I watched as he calmly relayed his experience to the staff member (who was called Ian by the way).
Ian didn’t think it was a problem – in fact, he was furious that the guy had mentioned it at all, especially as the guy was standing close to the track.
After a while, Ian started shouting at the guy to “stand back there is a fucking train approaching“.
The elderly guy quietly questioned why Ian had to swear (as did several other passengers).
Ian literally screamed in this guys face (and I quote): “because there is a fucking train approaching and I need to make sure nobody is over the fucking yellow line“.
The elderly guy stood his ground – admittedly the wrong side of the yellow line (which was hard to see as there were hundreds of stranded people on the platform).
Ian then told the guy that he wasn’t allowed to get on the next train and had to “come upstairs to speak to the police“.
That was when I pulled out my video camera.
The below clip is taken immediately after Ian’s initial outburst and you can hear him repeat the police part too.
All seems fine until the incoming train arrives and the elderly guy tries to get on it – although watch how twitchy Ian is during the train arrival..
You will hear Ian telling him not to get on and then threatening a halted service until he gets off again.
Listen to what Ian says. Watch the reaction of the other passengers.
But then – right at the end of the clip (at exactly 50 seconds), you will hear Ian exclaim (again, I quote): “sling him under a train“.
I’m not sure this is cool. I felt compelled to blog it.
Jonathan then published this video of the experience:
The video clearly shows the London Underground staffer doing exactly as Jonathan describes. It’s shocking, it’s ridiculous, it’s totally uncalled for.
Now I’ve witnessed it, I’m not impressed. I doubt you will be too.
I love the fact that Jonathan made a complaint on the London Underground site (there’s a screenshot of it on his post) and in the ‘your comment’ section of the form, he simply wrote, ‘blogged entire incident here: http://www.jonathanmacdonald.com/?p=4024‘.
It used to be that complaints were handled easily by big faceless monopolies, especially in the UK. There was a department for complaints, somewhere in the bowels of the organisation, ignored by everybody else.
I suspect that’s how things work at London Underground at the moment.
But that complaint, thanks to Jonathan’s outrage and subsequent effort to publish the video and write the post, has now become a media issue. How long before the complaints department in big companies has to merge with the public relations department?
I think the chap in the video is certainly soon to learn the power of social media.
It’s 7am and you’ve just been woken up by some gentle harp strumming from your iPhone.
You have a look at your email.
You check out Twitter.
You put your iPhone down and you head off for a shower then get dressed.
[You live somewhere crazily cold -- somewhere in Mid-America, right?]
You look outside and see it’s a gloomy, ‘orrible, flippin’ cold day.
As you put your bread in the toaster, you reach for your iPhone and bring up Viper SmartStart.
Here’s what the app looks like:
Yup. It’s connected to your car.
COME ON.
You tap the START button on the application.
Outside you can hear the roar of your Range Rover as it starts up, gently humming.
You butter your toast and have a look at the news on the Telegraph iPhone app.
You pick up your briefcase, iPhone and car keys (just.. you know, for the fun of it) and you head out to the car.
Your car, having been humming away for 5 minutes, is beautifully warm, de-iced and ready to rock.
You smile.
Love it.
Absolutely LOVE it.
You can, as you’ll have seen from the app itself, control the trunk (or ‘boot’ as we say in the UK), along with the car’s central locking (LOVE IT!) and the always-useful panic mode.
And of course, you can control *multiple* cars from one iPhone.
All you need is a car that has a compatible ‘remote start’ function. If you’ve got that, then you need to pony up $299 for the extra module and — bish bash bosh — you’ll be able to control your car from your iPhone with the free app.
If, like me, you don’t have remote start on your car, then you’ll need to get the $499 option. Fair enough.
You’ll also have to pay the $29.99/year service charge (the first year is included in both options).
You’ll probably also want to get somebody to professionally install the system.
If you’re in the States, pop over to your local Best Buy for more details.
And if you’re not in the States… tough. Although I’m sure this will go international shortly.
