Wrapping up the trip recap... San Fran Siblings
Only a couple more stops to go to wrap up my recap.
After Petaluma, we stayed in San Francisco to meet up with Mere's siblings, and hangout with Toby and Brooke, too.
@ptrain's siblings.
I can't speak for Mere, but they're my fave couple that we hangout with... Love the matching shirts!
I can haz nap now?
View from Amy's apt.
Foggy!
Driving the Europod down Lombard St.
Did I ever tell you about my special talent? I took this picture. In fact, many of the pictures I have where its just me and another person up close, I took. I have a knack for flipping the camera around and holding out my arm in a way that makes it look like someone else took it. In fact, my aim may be better when I'm not actually looking.
Helio releases Exchange sync... Now my milkshake is better than yours
So I didn't actually get it going yet, because I'm probably moving to a new mailbox, but Helio just launched its Microsoft Exchange support... and they pushed the little sucker right to my phone without telling me. I had to find out from another blogger. Apparently, tech is ahead of PR.
Assuming this works, even if its just a timed sync, its awesome.
Now if only that Exchange server could be Gmail/Gcal, I could die.
Don't go without healthcare, because...
... don't let coverage lapse because the companies use that as an excuse to jack up the already insane rates.
And health status has nothing to do with it, you WILL get hit with a softball ricocheting off a mustang while you're kayaking, approximately three days after you let coverage lapse. All while a cat sits at Chelsea Piers saying "I HAS YOUR INSURANCE SIRTIFICAT RITE HERE".
--Hilarious e-mail from Ed Costello
IFlop?
Link: IPhone Use Disappoints; Apple Slides - New York Times.
Apple’s shares slumped 6 percent on Tuesday after AT&T said the early surge of iPhone buyers starting service on its network was smaller than some analysts had anticipated.
(Nelson Muntz: ha-ha!)
Registered users? Here's the stat I want to see... Growth of Engagement
I was talking to a VC about a company with a million plus users and I realized how many web applications I've signed up for and never went back to, or only used once and never went back to again. I'm a registered user on those sites, but so what?
What's really important to driving value is that someone uses your service more today than they did yesterday, and startups need to make sure their data capture is robust enough to be able to slice and dice this.
The services that have created the most value for me are ones that I use more now than the first day I started with them: Typepad, Flickr, del.icio.us, Twitter, LinkedIn, Last.fm, Facebook, Highrise. Sometimes, my usage of them grows because others join or I see what others are doing with it, like Twitter. Other times, the product is flexible enough that I can find new uses for it and grow into it, like del.icio.us and tagging things for: myself as a memory tool. All of these applications are ones that I started out with slowly but I use them more and more everyday.
If I was a VC, I'd want to know account level data. Andrew is looking into time spent on the site for the USV portfolio, and of course that's good if it grows, but I'm not sure how comparable that is across different types of sites. Plus, sometimes I'll leave a site open all day and never do anything with it because I forget about it. For me, logins is a good proxy, but not perfect either.
Run the numbers... How many of your users logged in more in the 2nd week of usage than they did in the first? Week 3? Month 3?
Registered users is an absolutely meaningless statistic. A million registered users and $5.35 will get you a Jamba Juice in NYC.
Subway Thumbing
The girl that sits across from me is knitting a scarf in a bag...it is full of color...bright, vibrant color which she is not. She is drab. Gray bag. Brown boots. A jacket of indeterminately gray-blue-green color that one might paint a Chrysler. Her knees are bruised...probably from tearing out a carpet in her no bedroom walkup. She makes things there...fixes things. Has a toolbox and a good pair of scissors, not some plastic crap you buy in the Duane Reade back to school aisle. She just got up and off, but she'll probably buy a Diet Coke from the bodega on her corner in Downtown Brooklyn, because even though its after midnight, she'll probably spend a few more hours on that scarf tonight.
After living with the Helio Ocean for a month... 5 things to like and 5 things not to like...
Most reviews give the reviewer a very short amount of time to look at something and then tell the world what they think of it--not enough time to find all those little quirky things you're used to doing with your gear that wouldn't come up in day one.
So, after a month of having the Helio Ocean, James Bond ringtone and all, here's 5 and 5 on either side:
I like...
- The form factor and design of the hardware itself. The double slider is fantastic. I can dial numbers like a normal human with ease and type e-mail in a separate place. Its sturdy and scratch resistant as I've been keeping it in the same pocket as my keys and that did a number on my Treo in the past. And, the thing is, with a phone, you have to imagine the hardware is more important than the software because that can always be fixed, upgraded, added upon, etc. If you don't like the actual brick itself, there isn't a lot you can do with it.
- Built in apps. Doing offline gmail on the subway is heaven and its hilarious to answer a "Whatcha doin?" IM on AOL with "Walking down Broadway."
- The price. I'm all about getting value for my dollar and paying $65 pretax for unlimited texting and high speed data... I thought it was a misprint. That and the phone was only $250. I don't think I'll ever spend $600 on a phone again... certainly not if its coming out of my pocket anyway.
- Integrated multimedia. When I send photos to Flickr by e-mail, it asks if I'd like to get something out of my photoalbum, rather than having me chase down folders and directors like Win Mobile did. That's the good thing about a closed system... everything on there is meant to work together and it does nicely.
- Gaming. I've already won the championship in the poorly named Derek Jeter baseball game on this platform... and rented it twice for 99 cents a week. Its 7 to buy, but I think I'll get tired if it before than. Buying a game and paying for it was a snap, and the graphics and speed are great. The Mets could use a 2 hitter like F. Suarez on Brooklyn. :)
I don't like...
- Calendar/contact sync... coming soon? I'd love for someone at Helio to tell me when they plan on supporting Exchange sync for calendar and contacts. That would tip me off as to what kind of solution I should be searching for in the meantime. Would it kill them to let us know? I mean, I bought the phone because I trusted the "coming soon" would come through... the longer it goes, the more likely it will be that I'll try to get out of my contract b/c of false advertising... six months is not coming soon to me. Coming soon is a month, maybe two. In the meantime, I had to manually upload contacts, which didn't work 100% and I have no mobile calendar integrated into the phone, which is killing me.
- The menu architecture is screwy. I miss the Start menu from Win Mobile... mostly b/c I could put my favorites in it. I spend most of my time texting, Gmailing, Google Mapping, and snapping photos... I want to be, at most, two clicks from that, but I'm an extra click and maybe two. First, the menu that shows when the phone first comes on is just blank and pointless. I have to hit the Menu key to get Helio's graphical menu, which gives as much real estate to buying music and videos as it does to the camera, which might be good for others, but not for me, so I want to be able to change what's on that menu... or Favorite past it entirely.
- Phone home? Go back to the first screen. This is a phone, correct? So how come when I'm on any other menu other than that blank pointless first screen, I can't activate the phone app by pressing the green phone key? That's silly. I have to hit back like four times sometimes to get to the first menu to be able to make a phone call. Also, when I go straight into my contacts, pick a contact, and click the "Call" link via the middle button, it doesn't work. Same when that call button pops up when I'm in my e-mail and it autodiscovers a phone number... clicking call just takes you back to the rotating Helio menu and does nothing. Didn't anyone QA this thing? That needs to be fixed.
- Autotyping. Can I turn this off? I'm using to hitting the Shift key on my own things, and also not expecting when I do hit shift at the beginning of a sentence, because it autoshifts for me, when I hit it again, I go into Caps Lock accidently. I can't tell you how many times I do this. Its not saving me any time. Plz turn off, kthx, bye.
- No blogging tools. Writing, reading, nothing. I really really miss my Newsgator mobile, which I suppose is a bigger problem thant they don't use a platform someone can write useful apps to, but this is the one that bugs me the most. Seriously, how much would it cost them to build an RSS reader? If they built a nice one (and got that Exchange thing fixed) they'd get so much more viral marketing through geek channels than their ridiculous marketing campaign is getting them.
- EDIT: Oh, wait, one more thing, but this is a Sprint network issue or maybe just a phonewide issue... b/c it used to happen on my old phone... When I go into the subway and then come back out, it will not reconnect on the data side unless I turn the phone on and off. If I come right out of the subway, and then try to sync anything... nothing happens.
Bonus: Don't call it a phone. Helio has the most ridiculous marketing campaign I've ever seen, mostly because it does nothing to actually sell the product. Just a big blue flame, picture of the phone, and the words "Don't call it a phone" does nothing for people. Most people scratch their heads and go, "Well, isn't it a phone?" It is a phone, trust me. I have it.
Instead, I would write.... Unlimited texting, IMing, e-mail for a limited price...$65 a month + $250 for the phone. I'm pretty sure that would get more people in the door.
All in all, if they fixed Exchange, you'd have a much more serious market for this phone, b/c that's the most important thing a lot of people want to do. The little nit picks about menus and extra clicks aren't so bad at all and I like the phone... its just not making me as productive as I could be.
Blogging, RSS reading, and Exchange sync please!
Oil change for Vroom!
15,115 miles... Time for oil change #5. The guy says I need a power steering oil, too... How the heck do I know? This car eats various car liquids like there's no tomorrow.
Amherst makes it possible to attend without loans... I'd give Fordham more money if they could do this...
Link: {mikeoliver.org} » Blog Archive » Proud to be a Lord Jeff.
Amherst will be replacing the student loan portion of all students’ financial aid packages with a scholarship.
Last Friday night in Petaluma at my Aunt A's house
My godmother, who I call Aunt A, always remembers my birthday. So, even though it is actually next week, when I stayed at her house last week, she got me a cake...
This is Aunt A... her kids have guinea pigs. Guinea pigs are surprisingly Web 2.0, because they are lightweight, flexible, and have feeds.
Stop #10 Yellowstone pics and videos.
I'm a little bit bleery eyed from not sleeping on the redeye last night, so yes, these are out of order. Don't know how Redeye VC does it.
We got to spend a day and a half in Yellowstone on our trip and it was really amazing. We came in through the east entrance via Rt. 16 and stayed at the Grant Village Hotel. The accommodations were simple but sufficient. Then, the next day, we spent the whole day working our way north, seeing geysers, waterfalls... all sorts of natural phenomena. One thing I didn't know about Yellowstone is that the whole thing is sitting on a very thin layer of the earth's crust... making it a haven for hot springs, boiling mud pools, etc. The springs spew minerals of all sorts of different colors making for some amazing formations.
So, here goes... First, this is one of the first things we saw when we came into the park. A Buffalo came perilously close to the EuroPod:
We missed Old Faithful by 5 minutes, but caught this other guy just in time:
