3 Rs of a Startup Business

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When you are running a startup, which opportunities to pursue can be a difficult task. Even though, one may want to take on all opportunities, it would be very unwise to pursue them all. Since the resources are limited a structured qualification process that is easy to understand by all, yet quick to execute goes a long way.

Over the years, I’ve developed what I call the “3 Rs” and I share it with others in my company as well as others in the entrepreneurship community.

Here’s what they stand for, and the blended output is subjective, yet very helpful in the qualification of a prospect.

Revenue: Cash is king, especially in a B2B business, so a customer bringing in revenue matters.

Reference: Depending on the stage of the business, the quality of the customer reference is very advantageous.

Resourced: The product the prospect wants is already built, which means incremental cost is zero or very low. Or do you need to go out and build it?

The ideal of course is a very good quality customer wants to give you lots of cash for something you have already built. That’s an easy case.

The harder cases are:

  1. What if a high quality prospect (good Reference for future business) wants to give you little or nothing in cash (low Revenue). This is where, if the reference is really good and you already have it sitting on the shelf, you may want to do the deal.
  2. What if a high quality prospect will give you a lot of Revenue, but you have yet to build it (not yet Resourced)? This is where you need to decide if the product to be built can be resold many times (e.g. licensed software) or is it a “work-for-hire” custom product just meant for the larger entity (i.e. one-time revenue potential)

In a software business, in a B2B environment, if the use-case or application is right down the middle of the Resourced product, the other two will help you decide whether to take on the opportunity or not.

Not all comers are your future customers, choosing wisely can be the difference between a thriving and dying business.

How To Engage Your Customers In A Connected World

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[This blog first appeared on American Express OPEN Forum on May 23, 2011]

In today’s “always-connected” world, it’s increasingly true that referrals are better than cold-calling. Businesses that engage customers and allow them to scream from the social media rooftops will be pleasantly surprised. Listen to what your customers are saying online, and you will see measurable sales uplift.

How to send pictures from your mobile phone to a digital screen

So how can a small business owner reach out to always-connected customers and keep them engaged?

Understand their world

There are 303 million mobile devices in the United States (close to 96 percent penetration), according to CTIA. Twenty-seven percent of thosemobile devices are smart phones capable of browsing the Web, going on social media sites, tweeting and so on. New devices like the iPhone, iPad and Android products will escalate the always-connected culture. Your prospects and customers are always online at work, at home and on the go. They inquire, search and interact—blind to your company’s “operating hours.”

Use systems/tools for help

Fortunately, there are many systems and tools that you can use to make it easier to manage so that you don’t have to actually be available 24/7. Short, pithy and clear product videos on YouTube can direct people to self-help. Informational blogs and a FAQ or resource page on your website can also answer many customer questions. If your customer community is large and active, create a online user forum. Also, you can tweet messages about your product or service—but don’t forget to also highlight news and information on related topics in your industry. Increasingly, businesses have a corporate LinkedIn account and active Facebook pages. If your business relies on 24/7 services rendered by various servers, then so do your customers. There are many software-as-a-service tools that can send you e-mail, SMS or mobile app alerts. Some systems even provide you a dashboard of your various systems and severity of automated alerts.

Mobilize your team

Engaging customers and prospects is not just the senior management’s or customer service representatives’ role. It is the entire team’s role, so the entire team must be empowered to act. After training, stress three words: Use common sense. Then, watch how well an empowered and results-oriented team operates. In an always-connected world, there may not always be a “map” or instructions from management. Dynamic teams solve problems on the ground, and you must give them space and trust to do so.

Measure and respond

Today, there are many free and paid tools that allow you to measure anything. At the very least, you should use Google Analytics to measure traffic to your website. Sophisticated tools can even tell where on your website customers are clicking, so you can eliminate sections of the website that people don’t care for. Create “listening posts” around the Internet that direct users to your website—content on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and referring links from stories on media sites or partner sites. The larger the number of links, the higher your organic ranking in the eyes of search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. If you want to give the organic ranking paid help, you can buy AdWords, sponsored links and banner ads. Whatever you use, make sure you can measure its efficacy.

Show that you care

With customers, always listen, listen some more and respond—online, in Twitterland, on Facebook and even via e-mails and letters. Even if the response is, “We are aware of the problem and working on it,” please respond. The speed at which you respond will speak volumes about your proactive stance. And speak with authenticity. Everything is amplified by the Internet, so promote, but don’t cross the line. Ask for forgiveness if needed, but be proactive and authentic.

Establish referrals as a new sales channel

If people trust you, they’ll recommend you to their social media friends and retweet or share your tweets or blog posts. When it all works, it’s like magic. Referral and repeat business keeps coming and the amplification of the Internet makes it a virtuous circle.

How We Decided On Cochlear Implant

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For those with severe hearing loss, and difficult compromise in quality of life, there is a constant search for tools that will provide some form of hearing. Unfortunately, in our family, my father’s hearing starting going after he was about 45 years old and at 69 the decision was made to get a cochlear implant (CI) and he was fitted with a Cochlear Ltd (Australian) device by Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) in Boston a few months after his 70th birthday.

In June 1991, when my parents visited the United States for the first time (they normally lived in Nepal) one of the important checkups we did for my dad was to take him to MEEI for a hearing test. I knew little about his hearing loss and nothing about the state of the art of hearing aids, etc. After tests, both ears were confirmed to have reduced hearing function compared to similar 45-year old person. They recommended a hearing aid in at least one ear–thus started many decades of watching my dad’s hearing deteriorate and trying to keep up with costs and technologies to make his life functions bearable.

In the following 20 years, my dad got 4 different hearing aids (two for each ear)–first and 3rd were Widex (both purchased in the US), second was an Oticon (purchased from an Audiologist in the UK) and the last was a Starkey (purchased in Nepal through a distributor in India). There were regular visits to the audiologist and I saw the audiogram (chart showing how each ear responds to sounds of various frequencies) that were getting progressively worse. Functionally, what it meant was that Dad was increasingly not understanding what was being said, others were having to shout at a higher volume. The net result was that Dad was becoming less communicative, withdrawn from conversations and, ultimately, his earlier quality of life as an ethnobotanist was severely compromised.

In late 2009, I saw a public TV show about how a young girl of about 6 years or so had received a cochlear implant and the most memorable part of the hour-long show was when the CI was “turned on” a few weeks after the CI surgery. The girl’s gleam was electric and she was very happy with the sounds she was hearing for the first time. It was a success story for a little girl that had been congenitally deaf.

In Spring 2010, after a especially frustrating years (mostly for my mother), we took Dad to MEEI again and I was in the sound-proof room where the audiologist was testing his hearing. First, it was various tones (frequencies) at various levels (amplitudes)–the results were not good. Then came the actual English words and Dad had to say what he heard–the results were disastrous. When the examiner said a word like “door” and Dad would respond with “toy” (and most were similarly unrelated in sound and wildly incorrect), I knew something different had to be done.

The audiologist emerged after the test and said–”he got less than 10% of the words correct–even a more powerful hearing aid is not going to help him.” The only next treatment is to get him a cochlear implant. It was a shock because I thought cochlear implant was meant for young kids, not older folks. The audiologist said they do implants on people past 95 years of age, so at 69, Dad was a good candidate. She gave me some material and told me the process to get the implant should Dad choose to do it.  Wikipedia states, as of April 2009, approximately 188,000 people worldwide had received cochlear implants; in the United States, about 40,000 adults and over 30,000 children are recipients.

The Process

There were the candidacy qualifications and the process to getting the CI treatment:

1. They prefer healthy people (many tests were done–and fortunately Dad is very healthy)–and a recommendation from Dad’s primary-care physician that vouches that he can go through a major surgical procedure

2. They prefer people with a sound mind (a social worker interview is a pre-requisite)

3. Those with severe hearing loss that don’t have suitable efficacy from other methods like hearing aids

4. The patient has a supportive family and social structure around them (hence the social worker)

5. The patient had a very high quality living before the severe hearing loss and wants to live in the “hearing” world again (i.e. is not resorting to sign language, etc.)

After an appointment with each of  1) surgeon, who explains how the CI is surgically implanted, 2) audiologist, who describes how the CI works after surgery,and 3) a social worker, who delves into the social, mental stability and a battery of tests and labwork, the entire package is sent to a Decision-making Board of MEEI (that meets only once a month). Dad’s case was OK’d and MEEI proceeded with insurance and other financial aspects to actually acquire a CI device.

After all the decisions were made, the surgeon alerted us that Advanced Bionics (AB) devices (a US manufacturer) we had picked out was recalled by the FDA. The full recall is here. The surgeon had most experience with AB and now he was recommending Cochlear Ltd (and Australian company). We were alarmed and wondered if Dad was going to be a test case for the surgeon, but we satisfied ourselves that from the perspective of the surgery, the devices were about the same. MEEI started offering Med-El, an Austrian company, but we decided that it was too new a device for MEEI, so we went ahead with Nucleus 5 device from Cochlear Ltd.

The Surgery

The surgery date was set after the CI device was received by MEEI (it took about 5 months after the go-ahead by the MEEI board). There was a pre-surgery meeting with the surgeon a few weeks before surgery date to go over pre-op and post-op details. The surgery itself was going to be 3 hour long. We met the surgeon on the day of the surgery around 1pm (arrival at MEEI was at 1045AM to start initial tests, insertion of IV for saline and anesthesia). When I asked if Dad was his first surgery patient, he said, “No, he’s my third today.” These surgeons are experts in microsurgery that are conducted by microscopes.

Post-Surgery

Dad had to spend 1 night at the hospital (as with all CI patients). There was 3-inch sutured gash behind Dad’s ear–and the surgeon had left a drain for excess blood to drain out. As he predicted, after 4 days Dad was able to walk around–he was insistent that Dad should not a) sneeze or cough and b) lift heavy objects for at least 2 weeks.

Power-On

The internal computer is powered on by audiologists 6 weeks after surgery. That date is July 25, 2011 and we are awaiting the good news. The power-on is scheduled in 3 different appointment–the first one will provide low power to the computer inside and the brain will start getting initial signal. Two weeks and 4 weeks after that second and third power-ups are scheduled.

The Final Result

I’ll report with the results after all 3 powerups here. But this is what we are expecting after speaking with the experts.

1. Dad had a great prognosis of recovery of up to 90% of his original hearing, although the doc do tell us the benefit may be as low as zero to 30% only (but with today’s procedures and devices, the benefits are much higher)

2. He will have to “learn” the new sounds coming from the audio processor (outside the skull) and his hearing nerves will have to translate the signals given to him by the tiny strip of transducers inserted into the cochlea. The “learning” is progressive over time.

3. His hearing aid will not be of any benefit since sound will never pass from his outer ear to his middle ear. All the signals are carried directly into his cochlea.

4. He can also hear better in noisy environments and also with a Bluetooth headset.

Conclusion

For Dad and our family, the social toll has been so great that any benefit from his close to stone-deaf self will be greatly appreciated.

(I will update this blog regularly to report on how Dad is doing with CI inserted at age 70).

Extending the Brand in Time, Location and Medium

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In the last few years, end users have been using a number of mediums intensively and the diversity of new mediums and devices does not seem to be slowing down. End users are on the web, but more specifically they are spending more time on social networks like Facebook. And the sophistication of personal devices, such as smartphones and, increasingly, tablets have allowed the end users to be everywhere, all the time. Sooner or later, brands tend to respond to what end users want. It is clear that the brands and their agencies are aware that messaging just on a single medium is not sufficient—a cohesive message on a number of channels, on different devices and social networks is not only required but is becoming the norm.

Inertia is powerful. Hence, the silos oft-quoted by ad agencies and brands managing various media channels still exist, but are fortunately softening. The spends are also not commensurate with how end users are consuming. Due to inertia, it is always easy to allocate the same or similar spend to TV, which is still getting more budget than it rightfully deserves. The chinks are, however, clearly visible and the spends on Internet, mobile and, now, social media are increasing rapidly.

Brands are getting the message that they need to extend their scope beyond a single time-slot or at single location or a certain medium. Here are two examples:

  1. Submission to Times Square: As part of their hip-hop-themed branding campaign, Kodak wanted to make sure end-users continued to have Kodak on the top-of-mind for their photographic needs. Kodak has a wide array of campaigns in various media channels, but one that connects user generated content (UGC), users’phones and billboard in Times Square is worth noting. Users can send in photos via email to sokodak@aerva.com and the photos are moderated for appropriateness and an acceptance code is sent back so the user can decide when to put their picture up on Kodak’s Times Square billboard. Since Times Square is a popular destination, it is appropriate that the user gets to decide when he/she is on-site to pull up the accepted photos. Since the trigger is via text message, a user with any phone can trigger the photo. An end-user can be engaged across medium (from web, mobile, digital out-of-home) to various locations (from concerts, Times Square to home and on the go) and at multiple times (during UCG submission, acceptance and self-activation over a longer period of time).  See more…
  2. Submissions from Facebook: Brands follow scale and eyeballs and Facebook, with its 600 millions users and sticky UGC, have noticed and want a presence in the social network. Many brands are allowing users to send in their images or videos from Facebook or participate in various campaigns via multitude of applications to other channels, such as brands’ websites, digital-out-of-home or even into gaming applications.  Target Corp. launched a “Big Baby Billboard” marketing campaign that allowed new parents to create birth announcements via a Facebook application, and enter for a chance to have their announcement displayed on three digital billboard in New York City’s Times Square or on giant magnetic billboards at two sites in Los Angeles.

By carving out a corner of the social network and creating an announcement at Facebook.com/TargetBaby, Target is using the medium that users are already absorbed in and becoming a participant in that conversation. There are, of course, many more campaigns that involve users’ Facebook accounts or a brand’s Facebook account, but the conversation gets to other channels like Twitter, company websites, digital out-of-home and email (Target sent out keepsake photos when the parents’ babies showed on the billboards in Times Square on magnetic boards in Los Angeles). See more…

It is clear that we will continue to see cross-channel campaigns and it seems the way end users are choosing to engage, cross-channel mechanisms are the only ways for brands to have that conversation with end-users.

Mexico Spring 2010

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My first time ever in Mexico and it was a memorable trip. It was a business trip, yet the 3 days there had all the makings of a great vacation.

Avenida Insurgentes, Plaza Garibaldi and Downtown

After settling into the hotel on Avenida Insurgentes Sur (a main thoroughfare running north-south in the capital for 18 miles and considered the “longest street in Latin America”), our hosts, owners of Playmixes, took us to a restaurant atop the World Trade Center, a tall glass tower, where in addition to dinner we got lessons on various types of tequila. Then on to Plaza Garibaldi–I had never seen that many Mariachi bands in my life. It was past 10pm and the entire plaza was abuzz with perhaps 200 mariachi bands, some running alongside our taxi to play us a song. This spectacle was not to be missed so we hired a band to play us a popular Mexican song. Although Mariachi are originally from Jalisco in the Pacific coast, this plaza became their home after heavy migrations into the capital around 1920s.

Mexico City is large and the variety of things to see and do will whet any palette. And the people are friendly and are themselves a melange of different ethnicities. Perhaps the only downside are the frustratingly gridlocked roads at various times of the day (around rush hours its particularlyl bad). The underground subway system is good and cheap, but to get to specific destinations, you’ll have to succumb to the roads–you almost need to resign to the fact that at certain times you’ll spend hours getting from place to place, especially across town.

Coyoacan

One beautiful town on the southern side of the city (also called “DF” for “District Federal”) is Coyoacan (“place of the coyotes”), which used to be a town on the banks of Lake Texcoco and connected, by a causeway, to the Aztec  capital of Tenochtitlan, an island on the lake. Hernan Cortes setup up his headquarters at Coyoacan in 1521 after conquering Tenochtitlan, so the town has a distinctly Spanish architecture and the walks and plaza are peaceful and very beautiful. There are markets, plazas and dozens of museums in Coyoacan and adjoining San Angel, but I particularly wanted to see Museo Frida Kahlo, situated in the house where Frida Kahlo (1907-54) was born, lived most of her adult life, and eventually died. Since childhood Kahlo had polio on her left leg, but at 18 she broke her back in a traffic accident, causing much pain. Therefore, so many of her paintings and sculptures have very macabre themes. In 1929, she married muralist Diego Rivera (a notorious womanizer) and divorced in 1939, remarried the following year, but lived separately. The museum also has many of the artifacts of everyday life, with a definite artistic twist–ceramics, paintings, financial logs of income/expenses (no photography inside the house, but outside in the garden, adorned with more sculptures, is ok). But there are also rather sad reminders of Kahlo’s life: her wheelchair and her stiff corset that she was required to wear to contain her pain and disability.

Teotihuacan Pyramids

About an hour northeast of the capital are the vast ruins of  the city of Teotihuacan (meaning “the place where men become gods”), which is very impressive with very large pyramids and wide avenues and excavated palace remains. Founded before Christian era, this area was inhabited by over 125,000 people over 8 sq miles and dominated life in the region–and was suddenly abandoned around 650AD (the origin, way of life and abandonment is still a bit of mystery to archeologists). The ruins were held sacred by the Aztecs, but Cortes never discovered this place, due to mud and vegetation covering the site. On one end of the complex is the Pyramid of the Moon, a four-tiered structure and offers great views of the long avenue (named “Avenue of the Dead” by the Aztecs who mistakenly thought the building on either side of the avenue were tombs). In the middle of the site is the Pyramid of the Sun, which stands on about 738 ft x 738 ft square area (similar to the Great Pyramid of Egypt, but half as high as the Pyramid in Egypt). It takes about 20 minutes to climb it, but the steps are very steep and narrow in some places. The top is flat–a great platform to take in the view. The museum is near the base of the Pyramid of he Sun and contains many artifacts collected at the site as well as human remains with jewelry and arrowheads as ornaments that were discovered in various excavations.

Zocalo

Downtown Mexico City has a lot of character and old architecture. Not to be missed is the main square, called Zocalo, and the old neighborhood around it. At one end of Zocalo is the majestic Catedral Metropolitana, the largest cathedral in Latin America and one of the greatest religious buildings. Like many large cathedrals, it took hundreds of years (240 in this case) to build and many architects, sculptors got involved and gave their own stamp and the stamp of their era. The weight of the cathedral led to the subsistence of the soft soil, which became even more severe after the 1985 earthquake. The structure was stabilized after restorations that were completed in 2000, yet the crooked columns and uneven floors are the hallmark of this magnificent cathedral.

Since it was May 1, there was a socialist rally going on and notable communists’ photos were strung across the Zocalo, almost anachronistically. The gigantic Mexican flag that is characteristic of this square was also flying high. The subway system stop is right at the Zocalo so it is a good way to get into downtown (unless of course the station is closed due to big demonstrations as was going on May 1).

Xochimilco

Just south of Mexico City, Xochimilco “place of he flower fields” named by the Aztecs, was also once a lakeside village connected by a causeway to the capital city of Tenochtitlan. There are many canals and floating boats which are rented by both tourists and chilangos (the City dwellers). Canal-bound mariachis, vendors and even photographers ply the canals. Definitely try the corn lady and her spicy sauce on the corn-on-the-cob, but the drinks vendor should also memorable. On busy weekends, the canals also get hopelessly caught up in traffic jam–nevertheless, its really a lot of fun, specially if some local folks show you the way (and the local rhythm).

A True Destination

Mexico City is an amazing motley of extremes and beautiful and friendly people. In just 3 days, we went to the downtown sites around Zocalo, Plaza Garibaldi, with its hundreds of Mariachis and some night clubs. Second day was mostly Coyoacan and Frida Kahlo museum as well as local markets and taking in some Spanish architecture. Third day, we toured the Pyramids at Teotihuacan as well the Venice of Mexico at Xochimilco. However, to really appreciate the Mexico City and also take in some of the museums one should allow at least a week, but probably much longer. There is the ancient, the modern and the ultra-modern. There is something for art lovers, history buffs and night clubbers. There is something for everyone–its what you make of Mexico City that counts.

Nexus One, one month on….

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Wow its hard to believe its been a month and I feel I’ve done so much with the N1. In short, its SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL!

Here are some of most used features and some cool things I’ve done (after phone/email/browsing, etc.):

1. Tethering.

Installed Froyo (Android 2.2) manually on my Nexus One. For manual Froyo update (took only 5 mins, incl. download of tetherxp.inf file), goto http://bit.ly/cHDcvR Immediate benefits: tethered access (no more Sprint cards on my trips) and no Sprint fees of $60/month. You cannot use the Tethering and USB storage simultaneously–but that’s never a problem.

2. SIM Unlocked.

You really rejoice the value of having a SIM unlocked phone when you are travelling internationally (in my case, UK, Middle East and Nepal). All I do is I get a local SIM card, stick it in and I’m able to start calling/texting. In Nepal, I amped the same SIM chip by paying NRs. 113 (approx. $1.50) to setup GPRS data plan and about $0.01/KB. Although Nepal Telecom (NTC) has had notorious customer service, I actually got in and out of their new offices in Pulchowk, Kathmandu, within 10 mins and the GPRS Data roaming was enabled within 12 hrs. You need to put in a few parameters after Creating a new APN (Home > Settings > Wireless & Networks > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names).

3. Wifi.

Even in Nepal been conducting business as if I was back in the US. That’s because a neighbor has ADSL and shared the Wifi with me. N1 can be setup to scan and lock on any wifi (Free or setup password for secured ones). Of course, when there is wifi, the GPRS data roaming does not kick in, but when you are out of wifi range, the data roaming kicks in.

4. Google Voice.

All my voicemails are transcribed now. Some transcriptions are truly hilarious (mostly people speaking in Nepali or Newari) but those in English are accurate enough that I understand the context, and if important, I can listen. I have not used the SMS portion of Google Voice enough.

5. Google Maps.

Even in Nepal, Google Map works. Nepal has no structured street names, yet it did a fairly good job. And of course, when you are in a new country, having Google Map right on the phone is precious.

6. Clock and Alarms.

Most places N1 picks up the local time very nicely (my Blackberry was always in Boston time and I made many mistakes when converting to local time, etc.). Only in Nepal it did not pick up local time (perhaps because Nepal is the only place the offset from GMT is not on the hour or half hour) it is 5h 45m ahead of GMT. I was able to set local time manually. Setting alarms is so easy (Blackberry was ok, but nowhere near N1 ease-of-use) and the clock/alarm numbers are LARGE so you can use the N1 as your alarm clock when you go to sleep (there is a dimmer so you can sleep without light pollution).

7. Camera and Video.

I can’t say enough about the 5MP camera. I’ve stopped carrying my regular digital camera and pocket video cameras. Also the arrangement of photos is very easy, the user interface to advance or slideshow is brilliant, UI for flash/no-flash, zoom (5 levels from 1x to 2x) are also truly intuitive. And it is very sharp (there must be some image enhancements involved–I hear there is a “smile detector” built in). Coming from my Blackberry world, having the accelerometer so the images shifting to portrait or landscape is handy.

8. Weather.

Weather is from The Weather Channel. I rely on the weather icons and forecasts a lots, esp. if one is in a new country. In addition to highs and lows, I like that the weather widget has relative humidity (and that’s important especially in the summer in Nepal, where AC is not common) and wind speeds.

9. News.

News is collected from various sources. By default there was Top Stories, Entertainment and Sports. I added US, Business, Sci/Tech and Health, which was very intuitive to do. That way it was very easy to stay in touch with goings on around the world.

10. Twitter.

I use Seesmic as my client and it is great. Updates for the client come automatically and I think I’ve gotten 2 updates so far. I consume more than contribute Tweets on the N1, but all depending on how much waiting-around time I have, which I’ll have plenty of of the way back.

I’m getting very used to using the touchscreen, even to type (remember I come from the Blackberry world–7 years of it) and kinda like the haptic feedback. The phone freeze (happened once in the first few days) has never happened–I also upgraded to Android 2.2, so I’m told many problems were resolved then.

One issue bugs me, and it has happened only twice (once after Froyo upgrade): the touchscreen calibration goes out-of-whack, which means you cannot touch anything accurately, not just typing keys, but even larger buttons). Phone restart fixed it both times.

The biggest known shortcoming is battery-life (again coming from Blackberry, which I charged every few days), having to do an overnight charge or several charges during the day challenges a forgetful mind.

Overall, I like it! And you will, too!!

Goodbye and Namaste from Kathmandu Nepal.

Nexus One, one week on….

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So its been a week that I’ve had my Nexus One. Here’s how I’ve learning to live/work/play with the N1. What I did in order of my own requirements:

1. Sync for Outlook. Bought gSyncIt for $14.99. To sync between Outlook Calendar/Contacts and Google cloud (which sync with the N1). Google does not provide a sync tool if you don’t have a corporate Exchange server (many business users complaining about this omission). The gSyncIt setup is quick and a lot of toggle buttons for many, many parameters are not too hard to understand (most are set to default settings). It adds 2 little buttons to your Outlook “Sync” and “Settings”). Settings you do once, Sync you can do manually every so often or automagically at certain interval or at start/exit of Outlook.

2. Password. You set a pattern on a 3×4 dot matrix. The pattern is your “password.” If you miss more than 4 times, you have to wait 30 seconds to try again.

3. Speed Dial. There is no speed dial, but there is something even better, which is single icon of your contact, which when pressed, it dials the number of your choice. Home > Menu > Add > Shortcuts > Speed Dial (then you choose the phone number of your contact). Very nifty and prevents “butt dial” which frequently happened to me on the Blackberry (quite embarrassing since the called party hears you walking or in random conversations, but also quite expensive, if you “butt-dial” from abroad and roaming charges are levied, since its considered a “legitimate call” by my wireless carrier).

4. Camera and Video camera. Really easy to use. The shutter button and the “Back” soft button are too close so I keep pressing Back. But the quality of the photos and videos are very impressive.

5. Marketplace. Browsed up and down the Marketplace and downloaded some apps: NPR, Barcode scanner, LED Flashlight, Shazam. All were free. Not sure how billing is done if not free (assume via my carrier’s monthly bill).

6. Google Voice. From what I’ve read, all SMS is free, voicemails are transcribed into text (how cool and useful) and you can make international calls for only 2 cents (far cry from 30 cents to Nepal). I have yet to set this up, but it only comes in N1 sold in the US.

7. Using like a data card. I have a Sprint card I take everywhere to be used with my laptop. Google announced during Google I/O a few days ago launch of FroYo (Android 2.x) to be released in the next few days will make this possible so I don’t need the Sprint card anymore.

8. Music and data. Next project is to transfer my music and essential data from my laptop to the N1, using the USB cable that came with it.

One very disheartening news. The N1 froze when I was taking a call (exactly 1 week after I got the phone). Options when I got the “Error in com. google.android” were “Force”, “Wait” or “Ignore”. I pressed “Force” and the “depressed button highlight” was on, but nothing happend. I removed the battery to do a hard reboot (don’t know how to do a soft reboot yet). It was very, very disappointing–to have to reboot within 1 week or getting the N1.

Nevertheless, I’m getting used to using my fingers to type. And best of all, I’m browsing a lot (I never used the browser in the Blackberry) and spending hours in the park, reading news, IM-ing, emailing, etc. (it helped that the temps Cambridge was in high 70s F, so sitting outside and getting lost into the virtual world of N1 was a possibility).

More next week…

Nexus One After 7 Years of Blackberry

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I (finally! see the ordering saga below) got my Nexus One (N1) from Google yesterday and its been constant stream of fun discovery and a few let-downs.

Google Nexus One is sleek, powerful and easy to use

A month ago, the trackball on my Blackberry Curve 8310 just came off, I put it back in and held it back with tape and started my search for a new phone. I had been with T-Mobile since 2003 and used initially a Blackberry 7105t, which had QWERTY keyboard (but two characters to a key and used their SureType quite effectively), then got a Blackberry Curve 8310 with a full QWERTY keyboard. Just for the record I got my first PDA in 1998 (a Palm, then a Palm IIIc, then a Palm V) and had been quite happy with grafitti using stylus. In all devices, it was important for me to sync with my Outlook contacts and calendar.

So it was a big decision. Stay with the latest Blackberry (perhaps a Bold) or switch to touchscreen smartphones. I didn’t like to use my grubby fingers to navigate and type. Some colleagues at work have the iPhone (and Apple laptops to match) and some have Google G1 phones and one person upgraded to a Nexus One in April. Only I remained with the Blackberry, primarily due to the keyboard and the sync with Outlook. The trackball simply falling out was a bad omen for Blackberry. Then last week, in the middle of an important customer call, the device went dead (my guess now is that the battery was old and it was suffering from hysteresis effect, where after a while the battery loses charge very quickly). That was the last straw–I dumped the Curve immediately and put the SIM chip into an OLDER 7105t and tried to use it. By then I had been researching actively so this is how I reached my decision.

1. No more Blackberry (got to move with the times).

2. iPhones looked good, but my colleagues felt it worked better if my main laptop was an Apple. Also I did not want to change to AT&T (I had several very bad customer service experiences with them).

3. I had some good reviews from colleagues who were G1 users, but the Nexus One seemed like the better device if I was to go down the Google camp. I also read many reviews including this one from TechCrunch.

The Ordering Process (A Nightmare, which lasted 3 days)

a. You can only get the device direct from Google at google.com/phone (i.e. you cannot feel it, touch it at a retail store, like with other phones). Only yesterday Google admitted that the buying experience was horrendous for some folks, like me, and will now sell N1 at usual phone retail stores (see announcement).

b. I had to call T-Mobile to separate my number from a family plan (Family Plans and other special accounts do not qualify for Nexus One phone, which is highly inconvenient, but the T- Mobile people were surprisingly helpful, but they were themselves exasperated by Google’s Nexus One website ordering process. Once my number was an individual account, I thought I could just order the N1, but no luck. The only explanation on Google’s site after filling out the phone number and last 4 digits of the SSN is “You are not eligible for an upgrade at this time”. “Oh it must be our data interchange with Google” said the TMO folks. Even after 48 hours, no luck! (during this time, I’m using an ancient Blackberry 7105t with no sync capability since the Blackberry desktop application was too new of this device).

c. And you cannot call Google, only fill out forms, etc. NOBODY responded.

d. Finally, TMO gave me a number to call, because they were totally puzzled themselves. The number was for HTC (manufacturer of the N1), who explained that any corporate discounts on the TMO account will make the “upgrade” ineligible. After having TMO (my 7th call to them!) disable the AAA monthly discounts, I was able to order, $279 and no shipping charge for overnight Fedex. FYI, those signing up to new accounts with T-Mobile will get the N1 for $179 and those that don’t want the 2-year contract yoke can get the device for $529. All N1 are SIM-unlocked and usable in other countries by inserting the local SIM chip.

The Setting Up Process (A Breeze, which took minutes)

N1 did arrive by 1030am the next day. The package comes with the phone, a removable battery, 4 GB Micro SD storage card (expandable to 32 GB), USB charger and microphone headset (with forward, reverse, pause/play controls on the wires). There are NO manuals, only a credit card size instructions that tells you to charge the battery first. It took about 45 mins to fully charge the battery, inserted the SIM chip (which is accessed by removing the battery–and there is only ONE way to remove the battery, by flipping a notch at one particular corner–no instructions or diagrams–had to go online to figure this out) and was able to start making calls immediately and getting calls within 5 minutes of inserting the SIM chip.

After you link to a gmail account, all your gmail emails (my personal account) was accessible immediately. Read on about Outlook sync for email/contacts/calendar and tasks.

The Fun Stuff

The device is beautiful and looks a lot like the iPhone. It is thin at 11.5mm (vs. 12.3mm for the iPhone 3GS), smooth and light at 130 grams (vs. iPhone at 135 grams). The 480 x 800 OLED capacitive touchscreen was large and beautiful (by contrast, iPhone screen is 480 x 320) The 5 Megapixel camera took truly beautiful photos, even in poor lighting conditions. The video camera also performed well. The “Gallery” application organizes the camera outputs well.

The GPS-driven Google maps and voice-recognition for landmarks on maps worked well (e.g. “find all gas stations nearby”). There is no voice training needed for speech recognition.

The Browser was a true joy, which was ATROCIOUS on the Blackberry (so I never used it). Within minutes I was checking out Facebook and the user experience was pleasant, images good (with option to enlarge anything you choose).

You can set the Wallpaper to be your own images, static images provided or gentle videos called “Live Wallpaper”, which are really pleasing to the eye. The one I picked “Grass” shows moving grass and the color of the sky changes depending on the time of day.

A “mic” icon for any application such as “Phone” “Maps” etc. allows you to call up by speech recognition, rather than by typing. I said “batting cages in Watertown” in the Browser app and it took me to the results page with the site I was looking for at the very top.

Phone Calls

It was easy to make and receive calls, hold calls, mute and switch from speakerphone (which was loud and clear) and my Motorola Bluetooth headset (discovering the headset and pairing was immediate, while it took several minutes and lots of fumbling and retries when I paired it with the Blackberry). Doing 3-way, and multi-way calls was intuitive with “Add calls” button. Switching from Speakerphone to Headset to Handset was also just a button while the call was ongoing. There is a noise cancellation mic at the back of the device, which cuts out wind, machinery noise and other unwanted noise while you are calling, so I’m told this feature really makes the phone call experience truly enjoyable.

The Downers

From  my research, I learned that there is no Sync with Outlook (if you don’t have an Exchange server), but Google does provide a free sync application for enterprises with Exchange server, which obviously is aimed at eroding Microsoft’s hold in the enterprise (see details here). It appears you can get 3rd party sync apps if you want to continue to use Outlook, such as gSyncIt for $14.99, CompanionLink, Soocial and Plaxo. While I can drink the Google Koolaid hook-line-and-sinker, the business partners I deal with are still with MS Office and Outlook, so I cannot leave it fully, not today. Many business  users are fuming about this (more).

The accuracy of the touchscreen may need to be calibrated–I don’t know how to do it yet. Its quite frustrating when you hit the wrong button on the virtual keyboard. For common English words, the suggestion bar does work well.

The battery life is short. I know the official numbers are hours of talk time, etc.  but I thought the battery was going down to below 50% within a few hours of active use. I know lighting up the screen uses the most energy. Maybe getting a dock ($45) for charging at the office or at home is going to be important. If you set the dock next to the bed, you can use it as your alarm clock–even comes with a screen dimmer for nighttime use.

I’ll try and write more as I learn more–I’m expecting to wrestle a bit with the Outlook sync. Stay tuned!

Southwest US Trip in the Winter

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The Southwest United States is truly beautiful any time, but in the winter, the serenity seems to be compounded. There are fewer people, the temperatures are more bearable and the snow adds a beautiful dimension.

We planned a 5-day trip to start and end up in Las Vegas, NV. I had to be in Vegas for a tradeshow, Digital Signage Expo 2010. Make good use of National Park Service website www.nps.gov and also be sure to get the $80 NPS Passport for the whole year (otherwise each NPS visit is $25 per car).

Day 1: Las Vegas to Grand Canyon via Hoover Dam. Total time: 6 hours with 1 hour at Hoover Dam.

View from Hoover Dam, construction of new bridge

The last time was in Hoover Dam was in 1988 and 1989, in 2 of my 3 cross-country drives. In those days, you just parked on the bridge and peered down. Now there is a fancy visitor center, indoor parking garage and several parking lots. The 1950s bridge and the structures built on the bridge including public restrooms were truly artful and depicting that era.

The grandeur of Grand Canyon in evening light

The drive was peaceful and characteristic of any southwest drive: lots of mesas in the distance, red clay, shrubs and small trees in the desert plateau, and a highway that is very sparse and tranquil.

Snow on south rim below El Tovar & Bright Angel Lodge

Clearly, they are planning for more traffic as the road from Las Vegas to Kingman, AZ is being widened and a new bridge over the Colorado river (parallel to Hoover Dam) is being built. This might also be a security measure to protect Hoover Dam, a vital power resource for Las Vegas, Los Angeles and the southwest, and an important dam, and also serves as the bridge over Colorado river. Such a vital resource could easily be a target if it is easily accessed by vehicular traffic.

When I was a student, traveling in my hatchback, I camped when I got to Grand Canyon. This time we got a room facing the South Rim in Bright Angel Lodge. The changing light provided so much beauty and grandeur to this vast and beautiful canyon.

Day 2: Grand Canyon to Page, AZ. Total time: 3h30 mins, including 30 mins at various lookout areas.

 

 

You cannot get too much of Grand Canyon, so we toured west from Bright Angel Lodge to Hermit’s Point.

NOTE: There is excellent shuttle transportation, which is the ONLY way to get around in the summer months (starting May 1), but in the winter, you are allowed to drive around in your own car.

Walk into Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona

After more visits to the panoramic Yavapai Observation Point and Desert View on the west entrance of the park, we made our way out of the Park to Page, AZ, via Rt 64, a very, very quiet and picturesque Arizona highway, and then hitting Rt 89, which was a fast north-south thoroughfare.

Dinner at the Fiesta Mexicana Family‎ Restaurant was very cozy, full of art and sculptures and great Mexican food!

We were all ready for guided tour to the slot canyon in Navajo country called Upper Antelope canyon. You go in 4-wheel drive vehicles with Navajo guides (about 15 to a vehicle), about 20 minutes, mostly through sand dunes and backcountry to arrive at the beautiful slot canyon. You walk right through it–the entire tour through the canyon (about 5 feet it its narrowest point, but up to about 15 feet across mostly) has all shades of light coming in–takes about 30 minutes to get through to the other side.

 

Lower Antelope Canyon (we did not go there) is accessed from the top, not the bottom and is run by another Navajo family. Clearly the two families have some kind of dispute going on (it would make their business much more lucrative if they cooperated provide a package deal).

Day 3: Page to Zion National Park, UT: 2h30 mins, including 30 mins at various lookout areas.

On Zion Mt Carmel Highway

We loved Page and Antelope Canyon and the beauty all around. In the summer Page is famous for the watersport on Lake Powell, but in the winter, it was pure serenity.

One of the hazards of winter travel is snow.

Beautiful mountain in Zion National Park in Winter

We were meant to go to Bryce Canyon at stay the night at Best Western Ruby’s Inn (and looking forward to the heated pool–most hotels in the Southwest have outdoor pools that are used only in 3 season), but we got word that there were several feet of snow in and around Bryce Canyon National Park.

We, therefore, decided to go straight to Zion National Park, which did not disappoint.

Red mountains and red earth everywhere with melange of fresh white snow.

Zion Lodge, built in the 1920s is right in the park and there was availability, but we instead decided to stay at the Best Western right outside the park’s south entrance. Unlike the famous Ruby’s in Bryce NP, the Best Western in Zion is nothing special, although the view from the back of gigantic spectacular mountains (and the setting sun) was truly memorable. Dinner at the mile-long, western town–simple oven-baked pizza + beer–was conclusion to a spectacular day.  And snow had stopped!

Day 4: Zion NP to Las Vegas, NV: 3h30 mins, including 30 mins at various lookout points.

Guess what! It was snowing and about 4 inches had accumulated–hiking was going to be a tough (or fun!).

We decided to go up canyon on Zion Canyon Scenic drive, to Temple of Sinawava (last 2 miles is walking along the Virgin River)

up to The Narrows. Then a short hike to Weeping Rock, pictures with the famous Three Patriarchs, and it drive out of Zion National Park on Rt 9 to Las Vegas.

 

 

 

 

Day 5: Las Vegas.

Paris in Las Vegas is a good resting spot

Live Opera at an indoor Venetian Square in Las Vegas (the sky is not real!)

In little over 3 hours from Zion NP, we were in the heart of Las Vegas strip. The serenity was gone, but there was the Vegas energy and crowds.

Paris Hotel was a good resting spot after a few days of US South West trip. Never ceases to amaze me how Vegas mimics some of the greatest landmarks and does a fairly good job of it, such as Eiffel Tower at 50% size of the original in Paris, France. This time I went inside the Venetian Hotel, with the canals, gondola, opera singers and sky that looks life-like, but its a lot of artful painting and lighting.

We will remember this beautiful US southwest trip for a long time…

Picture2Screen on Kodak board in Times Square

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User-generated content (UGC) and digital screens always fascinated me.

Now we have a very good example of this with the Pic2Screen application from Aerva, Inc. (www.aerva.com) powering Kodak LED board in Times Square. Kodak’s Tom Hoehn, Director, Brand Communications and New Media wrote a nice blog about it and how it works.

Aerva Pic2Screen Application driving Kodak Billboard

Essentially, images can be emailed to kodak@aerva.com and the system acknowledges receipt and sends all submissions for approval or rejection. All approved submissions get a code back that the user can text in to trigger the upload of their picture to the Kodak LED board.

Sponsors have always been tad bit tepid about UGC. How does one control/manage unwanted content? Its hard to compete with the dynamism and creativity of UGC or produce the volume of UGC;  there are ways to tame the animal, at least its unwanted aspects.The moderation interface for the Pic2Screen allows for rejection of objectionable content, blurred images or otherwise inappropriate pictures, thus providing protection to the sponsor and pleasant experience to the viewers.

Kodak and UGC images on a jumbotron are perfect, especially when Times Square venue is all about engaging the audience and increasing one’s brand value. In summer 2009, Kodak launched its “It’s Time to Smile” year-long campaign (full PR) and already it seems like many smiling faces are being sent by many users.

Speaking of user control, the user can also provide a caption to the image in the “Subject:” line of the email. Probably one of the most clever elements of this Pic2Screen implementation is that the user-trigger also allows the user to dictate when to trigger the image, thus making it easy for them to travel to the venue and triggering their image, thus making the display a destination in itself. This trigger is via text-messaging (universal mechanism of mobile interactivity), which is also important, especially if one is standing in Times Square with a simple phone (i.e. not email or data capability).

If you cannot be at Times Square, check out the EarthCam.

The trend is for blending of all sorts of UGC and social networking, and to spill from just the web onto mobile devices and digital screens indoor or outdoor.

Happy New Year 2010 (will be watching the ball drop in Time Square but also checking out faces on Kodak’s Smile Gallery)