[It's not all about the money. We invest in smart projects.]
The best thing about Producteev is that you can manage each of your course sections, as well as your personal life- all with one tool!
There is a delicate balance between juggling subjects, multiple students, and professional goals on top of personal matters. Summer is over, and it's time to get back to the daily grind that is teaching. The workload seems to be ever-increasing with each passing semester, and the old-fashioned lesson planners and grade books can only go so far! Let Producteev for Education help you reclaim your life!
Simple Guide to the Path of Tranquility:
- Using your .edu e-mail address, sign up to Producteev for Education. (Link below)
- Once you're in, assign a 'workspace' for each of your sections.
- Under each workspace, plot the information highlighted on the syllabus.
- Assign due dates and reminders as needed. These can be done via e-mail and IM.
- Add some visual appeal! Assign colored labels to each category of assignment. For example: Response Papers = Red; Research Reports = Yellow; etc.
- Observe the activity in all your sections with one glance through the 'overview.'
- As assignments get completed, mark them 'done.' Now onto the next project!
But wait there's more! Producteev for Education adds another layer of awesome to what it has to offer.
- Hold that Thought: Add notes to your tasks! Feel free to quickly jot down any ideas you may like to implement... before the thought gets lost in another rush of ideas!
- Sharing is Caring: Collaborate with a colleague or superior on tasks!
Now of course we won't just tell you about our amazing software, and leave you to fend for yourself! We offer videos that would help you get started with Producteev. Heck, whenever you're ready, there are additional videos available to help guide you through the basics of each feature. Once you get into the swing of it all, you will soon find that you have... (get ready for this)... breathing room!
Whether you are a school teacher, college/adjunct professor, or even a private/after-school tutor- only you truly understand the workload that goes unnoticed with your occupation.
Unlock the door to your peace of mind, and let Producteev for Education be the key. Sign up now with your .edu e-mail address, for this free premium service by Producteev!
Recommended Reading: Producteev for Students: Breeze Through that To-Do List!
It’s getting increasingly hard to tell where one Web application ends and another begins. Everywhere you turn these days some provider of a Web application is announcing another application programming interface (API).
The latest example is Producteev, which offers a task-management application as a service. As much as Producteev CEO Ilan Abehassera would like people to use his service online, he’s more interested in having other application providers embed Producteev inside their application services. After all, task management probably is better as a subset of another application rather than a stand-alone app.
As Web applications evolve, they are becoming as borderless as our Web sites. The average Web site today is a collection of modules delivering content from who knows where. The model is now being applied to Web applications that are taking advantage of custom and de facto industry standard APIs that essentially allow customers to customize and integrate these applications with just about any other Web application.
The rise of these new borderless Web applications will present some interesting security and data-management challenges. But what was once a relatively simple mashup concept involving the sharing of data between two applications rapidly is becoming a never-ending series of composite applications that are always connected.
From an end user perspective, this capability presents all kinds of possibilities for mass customization as part of the general trend toward the consumerization of IT. From an IT manager’s perspective, however, mass customization currently equals mass confusion.
There's no doubt we're seeing the rise of a new era of applications of the Web; then only real question at this point is how are we going to manage them?
If you’re a new startup or have a new product you want to launch at TechCrunch Disrupt, we encourage you to submit your company to compete in our the Startup Battlefield. Disrupt SF’s application process is being hosted courtesy of task-management startup, Producteev.
The Startup Battlefield is a tournament-style launch platform where startups demo their products and impress the audience and panel of experts over multiple rounds of competition. Experts will be brought in to mentor and judge startups on product, business models, team, design and usability and more. The final round will put startups in the hot seat where some of the most successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and business executives will grill them in front of the audience. Audience voting as well as expert feedback will factor into final competition scores.
One startup will emerge the overall winner and take home a $50,000 cash prize at the close of the conference, Wednesday afternoon.
Deadlines
Apply to compete in the Startup Battlefield.
Open applications will be accepted through midnight pst, Sunday, August 8.
Final decisions will be extended to applicants by Friday, September 3.Applications will be reviewed, companies will be interviewed and offers will be extended on a rolling basis, so it’s to your benefit to submit your application as soon as you are ready for consideration. Applications may be saved in draft mode, so please do not submit an application before you’re ready for full consideration. Powerpoint slides and videos are optional to submit, but due to heavy application volumes, we strongly encourage you to submit a few slides and a short video for the best chance of moving forward with an interview. Video quality is not important, but getting a quick overview of your product is very important to us.
We expect to extend 15-25 offers for companies to launch and compete in the Startup Battlefield. The final number will be based on the applicant pool.
Startup AlleyAny company less than two years old and less than $2 million in financing is welcome to participate in the Startup Alley demo area. The audience’s favorite Startup Alley company will secure a spot into into Round One of Startup Battlefield live at Disrupt.
Yes, lots of news these days...! And we particularly like this one.
You already know that you can attach files to your tasks as a note. Pretty popular feature, because it's an easy way to manage different versions of your files, related to your tasks. By the way, if you send an email to task@producteev.com with a file attached to it, it will be automatically posted as a first note...
Back to our announcement : What if you didn't have to download those files to view them?
It's now a reality, we've partnered with Scribd (the Youtube for documents), so your files will be displayed right below the note, viewable in one click. And that's a game changer to us, makes things much easier to work on Files and comment on files without going through the painful download process.
You still have the choice though : Download or Preview.
Here is the list supported by Scribd :
So, how do you like this one?
- Portable Document Format (.pdf)
- PostScript (.ps)
- Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
- Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pps, .pptx)
- Microsoft Excel (.xls, xlsx)
- OpenOffice Text Document (.odt, .sxw)
- OpenOffice Presentation Document (.odp, .sxi)
- OpenOffice Spreadsheet (.ods, .sxc)
- All OpenDocument formats
- Plain text (.txt)
- Rich Text Format (.rtf)
- And we added Pictures (.jpg, .png, .gif...)
SquarePik Adds Photos and Video to Foursquare
by rahsheenMarch 22, 2010Foursquare has gained a lot of popularity as one of the forerunners in the location-based application race, facing such competition as Gowalla and Yelp. All of these services are basically the same, but SquarePik adds another dimension of interaction that makes Foursquare just a little more interesting. SquarePik integrates with Foursquare to provide a method for attaching photos and videos to your checkins.
SquarePik is the brainchild of Pikchur Inc. (our coverage) and 39 Inc. It is currently only available as an iPhone application, which you can get from the App Store for $1.99. SquarePik works in three easy steps:
- Choose a venue from the list, or create one if it doesn’t exist
- Take a photo or record a video
- SquarePik automatically checks you in at that location
Not only will SquarePik give you the ability to add rich media to your Foursquare checkins, but it also lets you view any media that others have shared while checking in at that location. This opens up a few different and interesting possibilities. Foursquare has already created a game around their location checkins, but an individual visiting any venue could start their very own game or meme. Those visiting after the fact would see the photo/video and copy it. A real-estate agent could checkin at various properties that they manage and post media describing the details and “secrets” of that property. An artist could post media related to a live performance at a specific venue. People attending any event after that would be able to see, via SquarePik, exactly how that event went down and possibly gain the artist some new fans.
The possibilities here are very interesting and make me think of a Lokast-type system, with the ability to leave things behind for others to find. Also, combined with Zillow, this could be a powerful tool for Real Estate agents. A trusted source tells me that SquarePik may eventually grow into a “full-blown Foursquare client.” That should open up some interesting possibilities in it’s own right. The only thing I wish for is the ability to access SquarePik via the web. Pikchur and Foursquare both have web interfaces, so it’s not much of a stretch.
Category: Reviews | Tags: 39 inc., foursquare, location based services, pikchur
SquarePik Adds Photos and Video to Foursquare
by rahsheenMarch 22, 2010Foursquare has gained a lot of popularity as one of the forerunners in the location-based application race, facing such competition as Gowalla and Yelp. All of these services are basically the same, but SquarePik adds another dimension of interaction that makes Foursquare just a little more interesting. SquarePik integrates with Foursquare to provide a method for attaching photos and videos to your checkins.
SquarePik is the brainchild of Pikchur Inc. (our coverage) and 39 Inc. It is currently only available as an iPhone application, which you can get from the App Store for $1.99. SquarePik works in three easy steps:
- Choose a venue from the list, or create one if it doesn’t exist
- Take a photo or record a video
- SquarePik automatically checks you in at that location
Not only will SquarePik give you the ability to add rich media to your Foursquare checkins, but it also lets you view any media that others have shared while checking in at that location. This opens up a few different and interesting possibilities. Foursquare has already created a game around their location checkins, but an individual visiting any venue could start their very own game or meme. Those visiting after the fact would see the photo/video and copy it. A real-estate agent could checkin at various properties that they manage and post media describing the details and “secrets” of that property. An artist could post media related to a live performance at a specific venue. People attending any event after that would be able to see, via SquarePik, exactly how that event went down and possibly gain the artist some new fans.
The possibilities here are very interesting and make me think of a Lokast-type system, with the ability to leave things behind for others to find. Also, combined with Zillow, this could be a powerful tool for Real Estate agents. A trusted source tells me that SquarePik may eventually grow into a “full-blown Foursquare client.” That should open up some interesting possibilities in it’s own right. The only thing I wish for is the ability to access SquarePik via the web. Pikchur and Foursquare both have web interfaces, so it’s not much of a stretch.
Category: Reviews | Tags: 39 inc., foursquare, location based services, pikchur
Miami, Florida-based Labotec has landed a round of funding from Kima Ventures, a European early-stage investment fund founded by entrepreneurs and angel investors Jeremie Berrebi (Zlio, Net2One) and Square backer Xavier Niel (Free, Iliad).The VC firm thus joins Kipost and FS Ventures as investors of the crowd-sourced mobile app development venture. The size of the round remains undisclosed, but we hear the amount of financing totaled just south of a seven-figure sum, so we'll peg it at in between $800,000 and $999,999.Labotec offers a relatively unique way of mobile app publishing, based on crowd-sourcing ideas from third parties. Basically, people who have ideas for mobile applications on any of the major platforms but lack the time, development skills or resources to actually build them can submit their ideas through the Labotec website. The ideas are subsequently evaluated by Labotec, and if one gets thumbs up from a committee of unnamed field experts associated with the company, Labotec funds the entire development, distribution and marketing of the app. The IP is co-owned by whoever submitted the idea ¿ targeted are carriers and handset manufacturers ¿ and Labotec.The 'Inspirer' (the person or organization that brought forward the idea for the app) doesn't pay a cent, but if the app ends up generating revenue, the first $25,000 that it makes goes to Labotec ¿ no matter how long it took to get to that point. After that, the Inspirer gets 50% of any revenue that may follow. Labotec notes that they're still testing this model and that it is subject to change in the future.Labotec says that it has received hundreds of new project ideas from 27 countries since its inception in May 2009. A total of 3 applications out of those ideas have launched (iSOS for Android, iMove2Music and FakeSMS for iPhone) and 20 are slated for release by the end of this year ¿ which basically means a lot of the submitted ideas are junk. The company says it plans to use part of the just-raised capital to hire 10 more developers of mobile apps for platforms such as iPhone, Android, iPad and BlackBerry.CrunchBase InformationLabotecInformation provided by CrunchBase
Miami, Florida-based Labotec has landed a round of funding from Kima Ventures, a European early-stage investment fund founded by entrepreneurs and angel investors Jeremie Berrebi (Zlio, Net2One) and Square backer Xavier Niel (Free, Iliad).
The VC firm thus joins Kipost and FS Ventures as investors of the crowd-sourced mobile app development venture. The size of the round remains undisclosed, but we hear the amount of financing totaled just south of a seven-figure sum, so we’ll peg it at in between $800,000 and $999,999.
Labotec offers a relatively unique way of mobile app publishing, based on crowd-sourcing ideas from third parties. Basically, people who have ideas for mobile applications on any of the major platforms but lack the time, development skills or resources to actually build them can submit their ideas through the Labotec website.
The ideas are subsequently evaluated by Labotec, and if one gets thumbs up from a committee of unnamed field experts associated with the company, Labotec funds the entire development, distribution and marketing of the app. The IP is co-owned by whoever submitted the idea – targeted are carriers and handset manufacturers – and Labotec.
The ‘Inspirer’ (the person or organization that brought forward the idea for the app) doesn’t pay a cent, but if the app ends up generating revenue, the first $25,000 that it makes goes to Labotec – no matter how long it took to get to that point. After that, the Inspirer gets 50% of any revenue that may follow. Labotec notes that they’re still testing this model and that it is subject to change in the future.
Labotec says that it has received hundreds of new project ideas from 27 countries since its inception in May 2009. A total of 3 applications out of those ideas have launched (iSOS for Android, iMove2Music and FakeSMS for iPhone) and 20 are slated for release by the end of this year – which basically means a lot of the submitted ideas are junk.
The company says it plans to use part of the just-raised capital to hire 10 more developers of mobile apps for platforms such as iPhone, Android, iPad and BlackBerry.
Miami, FL (March 15, 2010) Labotec announced today that it has secured a round of funding from major strategic partner Kima Ventures, founded by Jeremie Berrebi (Zlio, Net2One) and Xavier Niel (Free,Iliad). Europe-based fund Kima Ventures joins Kipost and FS Ventures as an investor in Labotec. The company plans to use the funds to accelerate growth in all areas of its business and to support its plans for massive scale in 2010.
Labotec is pioneering a new form of mobile applications publishing based on crowd-sourced ideas. Since its recent inception, Labotec has received hundreds of new project ideas from 27 countries. 3 applications have already launched (iSOS for Android, iMove2Music for iPhone, FakeSMS for iPhone) and 20 are slated for release by the end of the year. Labotec engages with innovators that have always dreamed to see their ideas commercialized and be given the right tools to succeed in the marketplace.
“Mobile applications are becoming a must-have for subscribers and carriers, Labotec has the potential to turn an idea into a great business” said Jeremie Berrebi, partner in Kima Ventures.
“Our goal is to produce a user-oriented portfolio of applications on mobile devices such as iPhone/iPad/iPod, Android or BlackBerry” explains Florian Seroussi, Labotec co-founder.
“Kima Ventures and its founders bring another layer of opportunities we couldn’t approach until now” says Pierre-Olivier Carles, CEO of Kipost.
According to research analyst Research2guidance, the surge in applications will be driven by a fast-growing number of smartphone users, estimated to increase from about 100 million in 2009 to nearly 1 billion by 2013. Yearly application revenues will rise from US$1.94 billion (2009) to US$15.65 billion in only four years, according to most recent research findings.
About Labotec Inc
Labotec’s mission is to select great application ideas for iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android or Blackberry, finance them, and gather the required resources together to go to market with a finished application on any Application Store.
For that purpose, Labotec has established a selection and approval process that is both simple and swift. Labotec Inc HQ is based in Miami, Florida, with an office in Toulouse, France.About Kima Ventures
Kima Ventures fund launched in 2010 by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. Our goal is to support and finance innovative companies with seed capital all over the world and to promotes the growth of startups, supporting them in the fastest and most effective ways.
Kima Ventures partners with the best business angels and venture, funds, and invests primarily in projects that meet a simple need and have a simple business model.Labotec Inc
20900 NE 30th Ave Suite 603
Miami, Florida, USA
Twitter: @Labotec
info@labotec.comPR Contacts:
Europe
Stephane Menoret
stephane@labotec.com
+33 6 77 55 01 41US
Florian Seroussi
florian@labotec.com
+1 417 262 60060 Comments | Posted by admin March 16, 2010
This is a review of Producteev by Charles Lau.
In today’s Internet, we have blogs, social networks, social bookmarks, wikis, and all other sorts of webware that we can lay our hands on. The Internet is also finding ways to make you platform independent with all the software that you are using such as office productivity software (with Google Docs), email software (with Gmail) and image editing (with Picnik).
How about managing your projects and tasks with your job? You have been a really busy executives and managers, and you would really hope how you can make your work more efficient.
Well in fact, one of the most time-consuming tasks in your project(s) is the task of managing the priority of all the actual tasks. You would hope to know what you need to do today, and what your staff are doing in exactly the way you wanted. You don’t have to micro-manage them, in order to manage what they are doing today, tomorrow and the day after. All you need to do, is to manage the actual task overview of each employee.
Introduction to Producteev
Today, I am going to talk about Producteev. It is an intuitive and fully drag & drop-able solution to collaborate with your colleagues over shared projects and tasks.
How did I manage to find this site? I chance upon this site through Chris Brogan on twitter. And I thought this is quite a good addition to our world wide web!
Here’s a summary of what Producteev is:
- In a nutshell, you can create tasks for yourself or to assign to members of your team, and you can then leave comments on these tasks as your project evolves with time.
- You will be accessing to a lot of useful task-management features such as file management, reminders, a calendar and numerous third-party applications such as mobile apps, desktop and IM bots.
- You will also be able to manage both the tasks as well as to-do lists, and communicate efficiently with your team.
In fact, as you can see, it is still in beta version currently. Even though the software is already in place, they must be still trying their very best to test the software first before they make it official.
Overview of Producteev
You will see boxes of to-do tasks on your dashboard when you log into the system. And on every box, you will share your tasks with your colleagues, or to make it private. You are free to create a new box whenever necessary. (See below)
There is also a live feed section for you to find out what your colleagues have done in the tasks. This live feed also allows you to message your colleagues, upload a file to the message, and even to message privately. (See below)
You can also upload files onto the server. Your colleagues can also comment on it. (See below)
Any other features on top of that?
Simply said, this is what Producteev is all about. And they surround their features to be compatible with different mobile devices. On top of that, you can also sync Producteev with the various services such as twitter to update your tasks!
Interview with Producteev CEO
I have been able to interview the founder and CEO of Producteev. His name is Ilan Abehassera.
When I approach Producteev, I wonder if they are going to accept my interview questions with my current startup of this blog. Never did I knew that Ilan is a really approachable person who not only answered all my questions immediately, he even added me in his LinkedIn account. Wow! Thanks Ilan.
Here’re the questions I have interviewed on 2 April 2009:
1) When did you start to have this idea of starting this website?
Ans: I had the idea 2 years ago, and starting working on a prototype 1 year ago. I finally decided to start a company around it on July 8, 20082) How long have you been working on this site?
Ans: Since June 1st 2008, so 10 months3) What’s your vision of this site?
Ans: ”Producteev is building the first productivity platform developed on top of the tools we all rely on every day (email, IM, mobile, desktop, outlook, gmail, google docs,…)”Group Task Management is still a largely unsolved problem : emails or IM are used as our main tool to assign tasks to colleagues, but we can all agree those are not efficient to manage and track tasks and projects.
=> With Producteev.com, we help you centralize tasks, projects, internal communication and files by using whatever communication service you rely on.
4) What is the server technology behind? Why is the server able to support all of our information in terms of space and bandwidth?
Ans: We are based on the LAMP stack, with 2 servers (1 web server + 1 mysql server)5) How many of you are working on maintaining this website?
Ans: 3 full time6) Will there be any always-ongoing research to further improve the system?
Ans: Of course, we have a huge roadmap ahead of us, and just recruited a mathematician that will build a better algorithm to prioritize tasks (but sshhhh, this is a secret!)Conclusion
First of all, I would like to thank Ilan for the interview in this blog post. His other two colleagues include Aric Lasry (Co-Founder and Lead Developer) and Simon Dawlat (Director Product Marketing). They have a lot of experiences before they work on this project with Ilan. You may find out more about them in their “about us” page.
Looks like Producteev is progressing as I have just checked Ilan’s twitter that they are employing their first employee! Congratulations!
Producteev certainly has potential as this very simple task management can be quite complicated when it involves two or more people. I can tell you that because I have been working in an office and most of our time is to keep our tasks insync! We’ll see how this project is going to evolve into!
Fake SMS is out and available on the App Store
Fake SMS is one of the most succeeded app that gives you the opportunity to make some jokes to your friends. Simply create fake text conversations from fake contacts (eg : Barack Obama) or real friends.
You can create as many messages as you want for each conversation and choose the elapsed time between the reception of each one of them. You can also decide if the first message will be sent by you or the fake contact to initiate the conversation!
With this system, you can simulate a strongly credible conversation and trap your friends, family, colleagues … !
Fake SMS will allow you to avoid a party or a meeting by showing a fake text conversation with one of your parent, or let your friends think that you.Get it here: App Store iTunes Link
Posted by admin January 15, 2010
We here @ Pikchur have been working really hard on a few things lately. The first is our joint venture with 39llc to develop a Foursquare application that allows you to check-in with multimedia.
It’s called SquarePik.
The application allows people to check-in with a photo or video. In addition, the app will show users all photos and videos dropped at a particular venue. Along with some of the expected features such as, the ability to add locations, search for locations, and view your friend’s last checkins, we hope to provide a supplementary application to the already popular Foursquare iPhone app.
The app is built on top of our new “GeoSocial” API (more on that later) and is available in the iTunes store for just $1.99
Now, our new Geo-Social API is aimed at providing developers of geo social apps such as Foursquare the ability to quickly integrate the following features:
- Multimedia check-ins (Photos & Videos)
- Pull feed of Media Dropped @ a venue
- Pull feed of Thumbnails for a list of venues.
- Allow for multimedia tips (coming soon)
Documentation for our API can be found here : http://groups.google.com/group/pikchur-api/web/geosocial-api-documentation
We also added the following to Pikchur.com:
- Landing pages with Foursquare venue badges: http://pikchur.com/Muq
- Geo social venue specific timelines: http://pikchur.com/timeline/foursquare*368848
- Nifty venue RSS feeds: http://pikchur.com/rss/geosocial/foursquare/368848
Well that’s it for now, stay tuned as we improve SquarePik and our Geo social API.
As always, feel free to reach us with your comments, concerns and feed back @ info at pikchur dot com
Thanks,
The Pikchur Crew.
iSOS app can be activated in case of an emergency. Just by one click on the icon, iSOS will send emergency voice, texts messages, emails, FB and twitter updates to 5 of your chosen contacts. Plus, it automatically calls 911 (112 UE) and send your GPS-positioning so that people can find you and help you easily & efficiently.
Get isos on Market today
As Foursquare
continues to gain momentum (both in users and with mainstream deals), a number of services are popping up to augment it. The latest is Pikchur
, a service that already lets you share you pictures on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and other services. And now they’ve added Foursquare to the mix, and built an entirely new iPhone app just for it.
SquarePik is an app that lets you check-in on Foursquare while at the same time dropping an image or video at a venue you check-in at. Because Foursquare doesn’t support media natively, SquarePik does by combining Foursquare’s check-in API with its own backend to store the pictures and record their location. Sadly, to see these pictures or videos you have to sign in to your Pikchur account (which you can do with your Foursquare credentials) on the web.
Still, it’s kind of cool that Pikchur was able to build an entirely new Foursquare iPhone app with added functionality. Some people may even prefer its look and feel as it features bigger icons and a large centrally-located check-in button. The downside is that the venue location information doesn’t seem to be as accurate as Foursquare’s actual iPhone app, and there are none of the other goodies such as seeing who else is at a venue. SquarePik also doesn’t break up check-ins by city, it just shows them all in a stream.
Pikchur is the latest service to add picture functionality on top of Foursquare. Last month, Photocheck.in started offering the same idea, but it’s slightly different in that you send a geotagged picture and it checks you in on Foursquare at the address. TweetPhoto quickly followed with an approach that is much more like Pikchur’s (but again, Pikchur’s is all about their native iPhone app).
Given Fousquare’s growth it should be no surprise that we’re seeing these new services that reside on top of it much like we did with Twitter. And while one might think Foursquare could eventually cripple these simply by adding a native photo element, that was also said about Twitter, but it never happened. That said, given that Foursquare is much more app-centric, I wouldn’t be shocked if we do see the ability to tag pictures to venues eventually.
Find SquarePik in the App Store for $1.99
.
and we have you and many others to thank.
More than two million people have downloaded our apps so far – and our revenues exploded by 10 from the year before. For this success, we thank our customers for trusting Labotec as a partner, We also attribute this amazing growth to our talented team of dedicated men and women who work hard all year long. And of course, we remain grateful to our investors who have been instrumental in our achievements.
Two years ago when we started this crazy project, I sat down with Julien Codorniou (Microsoft) who convinced me to enroll Labotec into the Microsoft BizSpark program. We did and it worked out to be a great move. The Redmond team supported our efforts to develop Pikchur for Windows Phone platform. Microsoft placed our application on a giant phone located in Herald Square in New York City. Unfortunately (or fortunately) our revenues have surpassed $2M and it voids our BizSpark accreditation for 2012. It’s been a wild, wonderful ride!
Labotec will open new development offices in Manhattan in early February, in the heart of Chelsea. We are starting a large-scale recruiting campaign for Mobile UX/UI designers, iOS and Android Senior/Junior developers to work in New York City. Our goals for 2012 are to grow through acquisitions, geographic expansion, recruiting more talent, and a focus on strategic partnerships, reinforcing Labotec teams located in Miami, Florida, and Toulouse, France, through our joint venture with Digidust Europe, A special thanks to Pierre-Olivier Carles, Labotec’s co-founder for his dedication and support.
Wishing everyone a peaceful, prosperous and healthy New Year.
Florian Seroussi
We are proud to present KiDSAPP in Africa for Android Tablet!
Following the success of KiDSAPP the Farm and KiDSAPP in Africa on iPhone and iPad, our KiDSAPP applications now enter the Android market, starting with KiDSAPP in Africa.
Since its launch, KiDSAPP applications ranked #1 in more than 35 countries and was played by a million of young children.
Designed for kids from 3 to 6 year old, KiDSAPP in Africa offers kids a playful and colorful immersion into an interactive savanna. Based on sound & touch effects, this app immerse kids into the wild world of the African Savanna.
Developed in cooperation with teachers and parents, KiDSAPP in Africa is designed to both educate and entertain.
Features of the app include:
- Interactive puzzles
- Interactive tracing games
- Drummer game
- Interactive savanna game - day and night
- Sharing option
- Background music
- High quality animal sound effects
- Easy interface
The application is free with in-app purchase to unlock additional features.
We’ve been hard at work at Labotec, packing lots of new benefits into Prompterous releases for iOS. Let’s dig in on all the things that make Prompterous the best prompter on iPad ever.
New and Refreshed Design
Prompterous needed a clean fresh user interace. We worked hard analyzing feedback received over last 12 months, listening to beta users all around the world, optimizing buttons to be more iOS 5 friendly. Our challenge was to change the look but not the feel although several core changes took place. First noticeable change: the icon but as you will go along using the application you will see a complete new UI.
Dropbox, Google Docs, EC2
Our developers got their hands dirty tweaking Prompterous engine on both the application and the server side. Dropbox and Google Docs integration were dramatically improved gaining in speed and approaching the zero error. Texts sent through email are processed via Amazon Web Services. There too we made major mods to increase response time. Overall we aimed to more efficient.
Behind The Scenes
Our #1 priority is customer support. We have a dedicated team ready to help you if you need assistance. You can join our good people directly from the application by clicking on support@prompterous.com. We keep working on new features and we invite you to send your feedback or wishlist. We want Prompterous to be perfect.
Get it here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prompterous-hd/id385053734?mt=8
- New tutorial
- New and improved buttons
- Prompter added to right side
Based in Miami, Labotec is hiring 6 iOS and 4 ANDROID mobile passionate professionals, willing to develop iOS/Android mobile application developer skills in a growing company.
Candidates who meet all of the referenced requirements below, are encouraged to apply by sending their resume to anna@labotec.com and link(s) to portfolio containing relevant examples.
Requirements:
- Prior experience developing apps for Android/iOS devices
- Prior experience as software application development lead successfully delivering projects, including application architecture, code review, project scoping, bug triage and debugging
- Experience in Android/iOS User Interface Design and User Experience Design
- Success shipping applications to the Android Market/Apple Store as lead developer (please provide links to the apps)
- Experience integrating Android/iOS apps with APIs and other enterprise web services
- Experience working in a team and as an individual
- Familiarity with other mobile application development technologies is a plus (iOS/Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry).
- Understanding of certificates, encryption, and other security based concepts is a plus
- The ability to be productive and work with short deadlines.
- Passion and curiosity for games, mobile applications, socialization and how they all work together.
In partnership with Appsfire, KiDSAPP: The Pocket Farm was offered for FREE for 24 hours.
With more than 10,000 downloads in one day - a 400% spike in downloads - , KiDSAPP has reached a total of 100,000 downloads! The app also made the top 100 in 38 countries i.e. 20 more countries than last week!
We thank our partner, @Appsfire, for such a success.
Made by @Labotec and @Caroline Huet, KiDSAPP the Farm was ranked #1 app Education in 21 countries and voted Best App for Kids by Apps4kids.
Steve Jobs - Greatest Of All Time.
Thank you on behalf of everyone working at Labotec. We created our company after you invented an industry. You are our Raison d'Etre. Rest in Peace.
Florian, Pierre-Olivier, Anna, Dustin, Karo, Stéphane, Jean-David, Alexander, Sylvain, Paul, Hervé, Hubert, Julien, Philippe, Benoit and all our contributors.
We heard you and made significant changes on Prompterous HD.
New features added:
- directly import and sync documents with your Dropbox account
- directly import text from your Google Docs
- Minor bugs fixed
- iOS optmization
- Faster rendering when using mail-to-Prompterous option
Prompterous remains the cheapest full-featured teleprompter on iTunes for iPad.
The new version of the most advanced teleprompter for iPad is available!
Prompterous has been ranked #1 Business Application in the U.S and 10 other countries.
Get ready... Prompterous 1.1.2 will be soon on the market.
The new version of one of the most advanced teleprompter for iPad is about to be released.
At this occasion, we offer the current version for FREE. Hurry it's for limited time only!
Pikchur allows users to quickly connect and share photos to many popular social networks, micro-blogging services, and media hosting websites. The Windows Phone 7 application is packed with new platform features such as Bing map integration for geotagging, pivot controls for organizing photo information and comments, and a live tile, so users can see their most recent photo on the phone’s start screen. The application was launched simultaneously in five languages, provides privacy options, and includes Facebook and Twitter integration, so users can start sharing instantly.
Video Demo here:
MIAMI, FL, May 24 2011 /LABOTEC PR KIDSAPP/ -- LABOTEC Inc. today announced tKIDSAPP: The Pocket Farm app for iPhone is now available on iTunes. The app, available for download in the Apple App Store follows KIDSAPP HD: The Farm initially launched for iPad. KIDSAPP HD has been ranked #1 application overall in 3 countries- France, New Zealand and Taiwan and #1 in education category in more than 23 countries including US and Canada.
KIDSAPP: The Pocket Farm for iPhone is a redesigned version of Labotec’s popular iPad application. The application provides comprehensive user interface specially adapted for small fingers. Aimed at children from 2 to 6 years old, the application provides interactive screens around elements of the farm. “We spent weeks exploring different scenarios with young children and PK/early childhood teachers on building the best possible user experience for children.” says Caroline Huet, Art Director and co-producer of KIDSAPP. Other favorite features of the app include:
- Professional illustrations of a day and night farm environment with 26 animated animals and elements: bird, cow, sheep, horse, cat, pig, duck, rooster, chicken, chick, goat, dog, sky, tractor, frog, goose, butterfly, bee, barn, windmill, cloud, sun, moon, tree, windmill, fences.
- High quality animal sound effects.
- High quality images for retina display
- 5 animal puzzles (day and night)
- 5 animal colorings (day and night)
- 1 tractor coloring
- 1 tractor puzzle
- Shaking iPhone function to reset all the drawings
- Saving option for any of your kid’s artwork
- Nice music in background all over the navigation
- Easy interface
- Sharing option KiDSAPP: The Pocket Farm is a simple and intuitive application based on gestures and motion stimulating your kid imagination and senses.
The app will be available on additional mobile platforms, including Android in the near future. Access the app by visiting http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kidsapp-the-pocket-farm/id436360152?mt=8# . For more details about KiDSAPP please visit http://www.kidsapp.com or http://www.labotec.com About LABOTEC Inc.
LABOTEC is a mobile software company that develops application for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 platforms. LABOTEC Inc. also provides support to its customers and their target audiences to better understand and interact with each other in the mobile world. Among other applications, LABOTEC has successfully published KIDSAPP for iPad, Prompterous for iPad, FakeSMS for iPhone, iSOS for Android and Pikchur for WP7. The company is part of Microsoft BizSpark Program. LABOTEC headquarters’ in Miami, Florida with offices in Paris, France and Mexico DF, Mexico. More information available at http://www.labotec.com
New version of the premier application that turns your iPad into a powerful teleprompter is now available on the iTunes Store.
New features available:
- Ability to scroll UP or DOWN during lecture
- New touch gestures added
- Highlighted phrase
- Prompter added to left side
- Fonts updated
- Bugs fixed
- Better compatibility with 4.3 OS
BestAppsForKids.com has opened votes to choose the best toddler application.
Click here and vote for KIDSAPP now!
BestAppsForKids.com, the parent selected app and game website, launches a contest to choose the best toddler app and we're very proud KiDSAPP HD – The Farm has been nominated among the competitors!
A public vote will be open once all the nominations are in. Check this out!
The free version of KiDSAPP HD-The Farm has just been released on the app store. Free features available:
- Professional illustrations of a day and night farm environment with animated animals and elements
- High quality animal sound effects.
- High quality images
- Cow puzzle and coloring
- Shaking iPad function to reset coloring
- Saving option
- Nice music in background
- Easy User Interface
- Sharing option
From tonight until Sunday, BeMyApp gathers once again developers, designers, marketers and idea generators, eager to turn innovative application ideas into reality. This time the event occurs in San Francisco, California at the pariSoma innovation loft.
Same concept: in 48 hours, each team builds a mock-up and develops one application idea. Each of them is presented, tested by beta-users and … voted by users and prestigious judges such as: VentureBeat, Inside Facebook, Free App A Day, 148Apps and Blue Run Ventures.Labotec sponsors this event and gives the opportunity to one of the selected ideas to cut in the line to be Labotec’s first priority and turn the app prototype created during BeMyApp into a sleek and moneymaking appFollow this event for a gallon of fun, energy drinks and absolutely no sleep☺Labotec loves rewarding creative people that see things in the world that others have missed;Good luck to everyone!
The new version of the most succeeded app that gives you the opportunity to make some jokes to your friends is now released! Your fake messages are even more credible with the new features:
- Lock screen image option added: while the timer is set, your lockscreen looks exactly as your iphone sleep mode screen.
Labotec, an independent mobile app development agency with offices in Paris and Miami, is looking for mobile passionate professionals, ready to work in small, award-winning team, developing cutting-edge mobile apps for leading global brands and proprietary products.
Three, Miami based, positions to be filled: Senior Mobile Application Programmer, Junior Developer, UX Mobile Designer.
Candidates who meet all of the referenced requirements below, are encouraged to apply by sending their resume to anna@labotec.com and link(s) to portfolio containing relevant examples.
1) Senior Mobile Application Programmer
If you have a serious passion for mobile application development, we want you to be a part of our team.
Requirements
2) Junior Developer
We’d love you to have experience with any of the following technologies:
Not required, but an advantage if expertise in any of: iPhone, graphic design, and commercial work experience.
Work includes Objective-C development on a variety of mobile applications, smaller custom projects and internal product development. Opportunity to work in small, dynamic team working for large international clients, on cutting-edge technology.
The position would suit a recent graduate with 0-2 years experience. Flexible work hours available.
3) UX Mobile Designer
Requirements
Tasks:
Document UI/UX specifications
Participate in an agile, supportive, multidisciplinary team where project management, client relations and commercial responsibilities are shared, and initiative and creativity is welcomed.
Desirable:
You can now use Pikchur on Tweetbot 1.2!
If you already use them, simply go to your “Account Settings” > Select Photo & Video Upload and choose Pikchur.
If not you can download them here!
As always, feel to reach out to info@pickhur.com if ya have any questions or feedback!
~Pikchur Team
So you want to add Pikchur to your next App? Great!
Our API mimics the ones you already integrated in the past, and all you need to do is
Also, when you have your app, we can add you to our supported apps page! :)
You have two API options.
This is used if the application wants to post the status message it sent for the authenticated service. For example if you use this with an authentication for “Twitter” we will not post a note to Twitter but the photo will still propagate out to the users remaining synced services (facebook, flickr, etc).
Endpoint XML: http://api.pikchur.com/simple/upload
Required Parameters:
Username/Password OR if using Twitter’s echo oAuth system please include the following headers
oauth_consumer_key=”YOUR KEY HERE”,
oauth_signature_method=”HMAC-SHA1”,
oauth_token=”YOUR TOKEN HERE”,
oauth_timestamp=”TIMESTAMP”,
oauth_nonce=”OAUTH NONCE”,
oauth_version=”1.0”,
oauth_signature=”SIGNATURE”
Optional Parameters:
Sample response
abc
Used to authenticate and post a photo to the user’s Pikchur account, along with a status update to Twitter and any other supported service users have synched.
(If the service requested for authentication is not Twitter, it can be specified by sending it along with the request, such as identi.ca, plurk, etc.)
Please make sure all data sent is formatted as multipart/form-data.
Endpoint XML: http://api.pikchur.com/simple/uploadAndPost
Required Parameters:
Optional Parameters:
Sample response
abc
So, you want to convert our URL’s to usable source urls of the media?
We gotcha..
- Thumb (48X48) http://img.pikchur.com/pic__t.jpg
- Small (170XScale) http://img.pikchur.com/pic__s.jpg
- Medium (320XScale) http://img.pikchur.com/pic__m.jpg
- Large (600XScale) http://img.pikchur.com/pic__l.jpg
- Original http://img.pikchur.com/pic__o.jpg (PRO Only)
For example : http://pk.gd/l00 Converts to http://img.pikchur.com/pic_l00_l.jpg
- Thumb Image (48X48) http://vid.pikchur.com/vid__t.jpg
- Small Image (170XScale) http:// vid .pikchur.com/ vid __s.jpg
- Medium Image (320XScale) http:// vid .pikchur.com/ vid __m.jpg
- Large Image (600XScale) http:// vid .pikchur.com/ vid __l.jpg
- MP4 http://vid.pikchur.com/pic_.mp4
For example : http://mp.gd/aoi Converts to http://vid.pikchur.com/vid_aoi.mp4 (Thumbnail @ http://vid.pikchur.com/vid_aoi_t.jpg)
As always feel free to drop us a line if you need help @ Support@Pikchur.com
We recently received a few request with people asking us how it is you go about editing your photos contrast, red eye, rotate or even crop on Pikchur.com
So we decided to write this short 3 step post on how to get started.
Step 1: Login, Go to your photo and click “Edit Photo”
Step 2: Go to the bottom and Click “Edit With Picnik”
Step 3 Begin to edit!
And thats it!
Hope that helps, as always thanks for choosing Pikchur :)
Sorry for the late post, we sent out word that we support the new echo Auth functionality twitter released but forgot to write a blog post about it.
For documentation on how to integrate the new support please review our API Docs @ : http://bit.ly/dbWGQe
Feel free to reach us any time @ API@Pikchur.com for support/feedback.
~The Pikchur Crew
Hey guys,
As you know Twitter for the iPhone is out, and allows for “custom” photo posting. To Add Pikchur support to your Account simple follow the steps below.
First Click More
Next Click Settings
Now Click Account & Settings
Select Services
Next Click Image Service
Then Select Custom
And Finally enter this URL
(Custom Photo URL http://api.pikchur.com/twitter)
And thats it, you now have the ability to post directly to Pikchur via Twitter for the iPhone.
As always feel free to reach us anytime, we love to hear from you.
~The Pikchur Crew
Hey, you can now post images & videos to Pikchur from Twitterrific, how sweet is that!? Here is how you do it:
1) Launch the application and tap on the Compose button in the upper-right corner of the screen.
2) In the window that appears, tap on the camera icon and select “Change Upload Service”.
3) At the bottom of the list that’s displayed, you’ll see “Other…”. Tap that and you see a text field where you can specify the “Media Service URL Endpoint”.
4) Enter “http://api.pikchur.com/twitterrific” and then tap outside the popover window to dismiss it. Done!
That’s it you’re set to use Pikchur in Twitterrific for photos & videos :)
What’s nice is that this media end point supports twitters new echo oAuth functionality so no need to update your settings with the Restful API is shut down.
Hope you guys like it :)
-Pikchur
Thanks to @Davidedichillo suggesting we add the end point, and helping us write the how to get Pikchur on the iPad instructions.
Great news, triggers now work within our API as well as our mms/email posting methods. Which means any application that supports Pikchur will now be able to have a basic trigger system which will override your posting settings on the go! We have plans to include some pretty slick custom triggers really soon, but for now refer to this list of service triggers.
To override any of the services you are posting to simply include the trigger in the subject of your post in the following format :
To turn posting OFF for a service: -triggername-
To turn posting ON for a service: +triggername+
Twitter( tw )
FourSquare( 4sq )
Flickr( fk )
Tumblr( tr )
Jaiku( jk )
Facebook( fb )
FriendFeed( ff )
Plurk( pl)
Identi.ca( id )
Koornk( ko )
Totspot( ts )
Brightkite( bk )
For example if your account settings are :
Lets say you want to not send to twitter but you do want to send to Plurk.
All you would have to do is in your subject/message is add the following triggers -tw- +pl+
When we recive your request we will override your account settings to match your trigger request and filter out the triggers from your message for that one upload.
We are working on some pretty neat things to be released really soon, so keep an eye out!
~The Pikchur Crew
Pikchur Teams up with @France2TV to launch a contest for a chance to win 2 tickets to the Coupe d’Europe de Rugby 2010.
Homepage: http://france2.pikchur.com/
Timeline: http://france2.pikchur.com/timeline
Media Landing Page: http://france2.pikchur.com/OsK
“Envoyez une photo typée Rugby à rugby@pocarles.com et vous la retrouverez ici http://bit.ly/9YAfuM Les 2 plus RT avant lundi gagnent ! :-)” - @France2TV
In order to win you must have the most Retweets, we look forward to seeing what Piks come in and good luck!
~The Pikchur Crew
We here @ Pikchur have been working really hard on a few things lately. The first is our joint venture with 39llc to develop a Foursquare application that allows you to check-in with multimedia.
It’s called SquarePik.
The application allows people to check-in with a photo or video. In addition, the app will show users all photos and videos dropped at a particular venue. Along with some of the expected features such as, the ability to add locations, search for locations, and view your friend’s last checkins, we hope to provide a supplementary application to the already popular Foursquare iPhone app.
The app is built on top of our new “GeoSocial” API (more on that later) and is available in the iTunes store for just $1.99
Now, our new Geo-Social API is aimed at providing developers of geo social apps such as Foursquare the ability to quickly integrate the following features:
- Multimedia check-ins (Photos & Videos)
- Pull feed of Media Dropped @ a venue
- Pull feed of Thumbnails for a list of venues.
- Allow for multimedia tips (coming soon)
Documentation for our API can be found here : http://groups.google.com/group/pikchur-api/web/geosocial-api-documentation
We also added the following to Pikchur.com:
- Landing pages with Foursquare venue badges: http://pikchur.com/Muq
- Geo social venue specific timelines: http://pikchur.com/timeline/foursquare*368848
- Nifty venue RSS feeds: http://pikchur.com/rss/geosocial/foursquare/368848
Well that’s it for now, stay tuned as we improve SquarePik and our Geo social API.
As always, feel free to reach us with your comments, concerns and feed back @ info at pikchur dot com
Thanks,
The Pikchur Crew.
Wether you guys have been naughty or nice this year, doesn’t really matter to us! As thanks for all the support you have given us, we decided to throw a short but sweet holiday contest.
Head over to the contest page, check out the prizes, and start sending in those holiday photos for your chance to win.
To enter this holiday cheer contest all you have to do is send in a photo or video that is holiday related to your Pikchur account with the hashtag #holidays09
We will select a winner based on a few attributes
1. Number of Re-tweets
2. Number of “UNIQUE” views (not view counter on landing page)
3. How creative the photo or video is.
4. Your entry must be dated after our contest has started (Don’t tag one of your popular photos or videos :-])
Happy holidays :-)
Pikchur
Hey, you can now post images to Pikchur from Tweetie, how sweet is that!? Here is how you do it:
1. Open Tweetie and go to settings, should be under account.
2. Click on Image service and then go down and click on custom.
3. Enter http://api.pikchur.com/tweetie as the posting url.
That’s it you’re set to use Pikchur in Tweetie for photos :-) If they add a custom url for video posting then you will also be able to post videos to Pikchur via Tweetie.
Happy Friday
-Pikchur
Good evening ladies and gentelman, on this edition of what’s new on Pikchur, we bring you Picnik editing and Retweeting of photos and videos!
We don’t know about you but we have grown to love Picnik’s service, it really makes editing photos a snap. Well, we are proud to announce that we now support full photo editing via picnik. All you have to do is edit any of your images and a nice little “Edit With Picnik” section will appear on the bottom right of the page. Click on it, and edit away! Once you are done, our busy rendering bots will grab your edits and spit out your image to reflect the changes you’ve made.
While doing this update we also decided to jump on the tweetmeme bandwagon and add a Retweet button to all image and video landing pages (Just like the one on the top right of this post). So if you see a nifty image of a kick ass Leprechaun, or a crafty video of a nifty pigeon exercising, you can quickly and easily surface it to your Twitter stream.
Below is a short screen cast of the photo editing features in action. Enjoy
-Pikchur
Hey guys,
As you may or may not know, we moved our servers to a new home today! This means we are going to be a lot more responsive and overall better!
As for the more interesting stuff, we pushed a slew of sweet new updates for you guys. By far the biggest item on the list .. drumb roll… Motion Pikchures! You can now use your mobile device or our website to upload videos! Yeah, you heard us, we now support video in addition to photos! So give it a try, you don’t even to change anything, just send in videos as if you were sending in photos.
As for the complete change log, here it is:
-Video support
-Find friends on facebook and twitter that are also on pikchur
-Completely revamped profile pages.
Ex: http://pikchur.com/people/jewgonewild or http://pikchur.com/people/Orical
-API upgrades and fixes
-API modified to support videos
-API feed functions revamped
Happy Piking!
Hey again! Another day, another update..This time we are showing Nokia some love and welcoming them to our family of supported services. If you haven’t noticed Nokia Ovi Share is pretty nifty and has very cool media management, so we decided it would be a great addition.
If you don’t have an account you can sign up, it’s quick and easy, once you’re done, head over to Pikchur, log in and sync in your Ovi account!
Important: In order for us to post photos to your Ovi Share page you must add an album called “Pikchur” to your Ovi account. (Excuse my quick ‘photoshopping’)
These are just minor updates for now, but stay tuned, we have a big one coming out reallllly soon.
Hope you guys enjoy!
The Pikchur Crew
Hey guys, hope everyone’s having a good Tuesday. We pushed a small update and added Posterous as a posting service. Now you can add your primary Posterous blog to Pikchur, snap away and your shots will cross post to your Posterous blog!
I leave you with a video of bunliu for inspiration. Happy Piking!
Updated: We are back up and running with Twitter posting, any photos sent in via MMS,mobile,web and 3rd party apps should now be posting to Twitter, happy days ;-)
Hey guys,
We are aware that none of you can log in to Pikchur via twitter basic authentication or OAUTH (Please note that Twitter OAUTH is completly down). It seems that the basic Twitter API is up and running, however our servers seem to have been mistakenly blacklisted from using it.
This is most likely do to the Twitter DDOS attack that occured yesterday. They are probably blacklisting a lot of people in order to get the situation under control.We have contacted Twitter and are waiting for a response back. Hopefullywe can get back up and running ASAP.
These issues also effect posting your photos via the web, MMS, and certain Twitter clients that use our API. Please be patient as we are trying our best to get Twitter authorization and posting back to normal.
Thanks,
The Pikchur Crew.
Hey guys!
Hope everyone is doing great! We wanted to let you know that we just enabled a Content Distribution Network (CDN), which will make everything on the site load a little faster, well a lot faster ;-)
The CDN has various access points, so no matter where you load up Pikchur from you’ll notice an instant boost in speed, and overall responsiveness. The following edge locations are enabled:
United States
• Ashburn, VA
• Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• Miami, FL
• Newark, NJ
• Palo Alto, CA
• Seattle, WA
• St. Louis, MO
Europe
• Amsterdam
• Dublin
• Frankfurt
• London
Asia
• Hong Kong
• Tokyo
This is one more step we are taking to ensure you enjoy your experience with us. Feel free to drop us a line with any questions/suggestions you have.
Happy Piking!
~The Pikchur Crew
As you may or may not have noticed, last night we pushed a new version of Pikchur with an enchanced UI and revamped homepage. Of course this is just some of what we’ve been working on so here is the full feature list for anyone who cares to read on ;-)
Design/UI
Homepage (http://pikchur.com)
This page has been completely re-designed to give us a more simplistic to the point look. Our previous page had to much going on and we didn’t want to overwhelm newcomers ;-)
All pages (e.g http://pikchur.com/timeline)
A side menu can be found on all pages, this improves overall site navigation.
Dashboard (http://pikchur.com/dashboard)
We scrapped the tab based navigation and moved to a side menu. It’s a lot nicer and also allows you to find stuff you need quicker. We also consolidated the
We also removed the constant upload section that appeared on top of the dashboard pages and moved it to it’s own page. This allows us to display a lot more content on the page and push everything up a bit so you guys gain a lot more real estate.
Pikchur landing Page (e.g http://pikchur.com/CYG)
This page also has a side navigation menu and streamline views for sharing,feeds,and trackbacks. You will also notice two additional menu items if you are a Pikchur pro member. Statistics, and Original Size. More on these two later in the post.
Header and Footer
These are pretty minor and probably not worth noting, but the header on all pages changed as well as the footer. The header is significantly smaller than what we had before, and again allows for more info to be displayed on the page.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Functionality
Pro Accounts
We added the ability to purchase a Pikchur pro account. A full list of features can be found here: http://pikchur.com/upgrade
Twitter Oauth and Facebook Connect
This update was really overdue, but basically it makes connecting your Twitter and facebook accounts a breeze. For Twitter it also means a more secure experience, you never have to share your password with us ever again ;-)
Backend Tweaks
This might be boring stuff to you, but it gets us really excited anytime we optimize our image propogation, mail, MMS and backend processes. We won’t go in to to much detail here but lets just say our services are purring like a fine fed kitteh cat!
We hope you enjoy the cha cha changes and as always your feedback is welcomed!
~The Pikchur Crew
NEW YORK, NY, January 24, 2012 – Producteev, a leading cross-platform task management provider for teams and individuals, today unveiled a slew of new apps that are more hyper-connected through cloud services, desktop OSs and mobile devices. Now available as a web app, iPhone and Android mobile app, and Windows and Mac desktop app, Producteev is moving closer to its goal of enabling universal task management. Today, people need to create and store tasks across a multitude of platforms, devices, services and locations from email and IMs to voicemails and notes, traversing cloud services and sites on work-based PCs to personal laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Leveraging the cloud, Producteev's new apps sync, capture and manage tasks and to-do lists across the broadest list of platforms, devices, cloud services, and locations.
Android App : Download here : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.producteev.android.alpha22
Note: it's a public beta, we know the app is not full featured yet, but it's already a VERY good start, and will keep improving from now on.
iPhone App : Update here (waiting for Apple's approval, should happen any time) : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/producteev/id306289289?mt=8
New UI, new back synchronisation engine (no more sync issues!), new features!
Windows Desktop App : Download here : http://hostedapps.producteev.com/windows/producteev-windows-v1.zip
First app on Windows Desktop, let us know what you guys think!
New Web App :
New UI, new features like sub-tasks, printable task lists, integration with TaskRabbit, cross-workspace notifications, cross-workspace search, new onboarding process for teams, and so on and so forth. Just log on and try it out!
This is what we've been baking for you guys for the past few months, hope you like it!
Weekends are generally meant to be a time to unwind, rejuvenate, and focus on the other aspects of life that matter- but do you find yourself wasting valuable weekend-time?
For those of us who don't have weekend jobs, or plans to visit family/friends, and all household errands have been completed; there are still ways you can be productive during the weekend!
Give in to Your Creativity
Write out a list of creative things you would like to do, but don't quite find time for during the work-week. Teach yourself to sing/play/dance to a favorite song. Create something thoughtful for loved ones. Experiment bold new recipes. Post some how-to videos on YouTube. It'll feel so good to cater to the side of you that you normally set-aside. You may learn more of yourself in doing so!
Give in to Your Inner Child
Go ahead and relive the joy of filling the pages of a coloring book! Disregard your grown-up diet, and indulge in your favorite childhood treats! Go to the park with a child, and play to your hearts content! Or maybe you can play with slime, or clay. Nothing wrong with it, no one will judge you. It's all quite humbling.
Give in to What You've Abandoned
Come on now. Don't let 'writers block' be your excuse for not finishing your novel, or posting new entries to your blog- you know you want to continue, but you've become too comfortable with not! You may have many messages waiting for you in one of the social media accounts you signed up for and later neglected- revisit those!
Surely there are tens of hundreds of thousands more ideas that can be added to this list. What are some of your suggestions?
Don't let Twitter snatch you away from your tasks!
What is it about Twitter that gets us hooked? According to Twist Image President, Mitch Joel:
Be cautious of your Twitter activity- don't get sucked into the vortex of multiple endless exchanges! You would be so much better off if you were to take that very same energy, enthusiasm, and zest, and place it towards your own tasks!
How good are you at resisting the temptation?
Regardless of the size of your office setting, it is sometimes difficult to remain focused at work. One may typically find other co-workers to blame, but we each have the ability to greatly reduce the disturbance factor by tweaking our own actions. Entrepreneur Dave Cheong came up with a fantastic list of tips and tricks that are sure help you make the most of your day and get stuff done!
What else would you add to the list? Is there anything here you strongly agree, or disagree with? Sound off and let us know!
Have you ever been caught red-handed, using the Internet for personal reasons at work? Well you're not the only one (you sneaky sneaky thing!) After breezing through this interesting infographic from CareerBuilder- get back to work!
Does your workplace block the access of certain websites? Are you free to post whatever you wish about your company via social media? Let us know in the comments below!
Hi everyone, Ilan here.
I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the iPhone app. A couple of people complained about the fact that our app is getting old, and doesn't alway sync. You're right on both fronts.
Getting old : why is it getting old? The reality is that we only have one (brilliant) iOS and Mac developer (for now), and he's been working on the (successful) Mac app ever since the iPhone app has been released. The good news is that he started again baking the brand new, shiny and fast iPhone app V2 for a couple of months already, and it's simply going be out of this world. Sneak peek :
I can't give out any release date (even though it's set), for PR purposes. More about this soon.
Sync: When such a technologically complex app gets older, you find out about 'bugs' over time, and sync is one of them. What happens is that when a Producteev account is getting bigger and bigger, the iPhone app is having a hard time to sync it. This issue is obviously fixed in the new version, since we built a brand new sync engine. Again, having one developer on this platform is not always easy to manage, but that'll change.
Overall, a lot of things will change in the next couple of weeks, since we're obviously working on something big that involves A LOT of improvements, more platforms supported, and a couple of surprises.
We'll open private betas seats soon, on a one-to-one basis.
Thanks all for your support in the meantime!
Ilan, co-founder and CEO
The Case for Project Management
Last Updated on Saturday, 15 October 2011 01:21 Written by Mike Cottmeyer Saturday, 15 October 2011 01:21
How far ahead should we plan? I depends on what you are building, when you need to have it done… and if you aren’t going to get done… how soon do you need to know about it. If your goal is to build the highest value features possible, deliver continuously to market, get real time feedback… you might be able to get away with planning a sprint or two out… maybe less. If your goal is to deliver a specific set of predefined features, all of which need to be done by the end of the quarter, you may want to have all three months laid out. It’s not that we wouldn’t inspect and adapt and deal with reality, it’s just that we need to know if our velocity isn’t trending such that everything is going to get done. If we don’t know how we are doing against done, we don’t know what tradeoffs we need to make along the way.
I’ve worked with several clients recently that were trying to operate as if the software they were building was emergent. It wasn’t. They were being asked to deliver a specific outcome, with a pre-defined set of time and cost constraints. For these guys, it was absolutely silly to only plan their backlog two weeks at a pop. They had no idea how they were doing against the expectations of the business. They had no idea if they were on track or not or how they should approach the business to negotiate scope trade-offs. They had no means to determine if their approach was trending toward and acceptable outcome. The reality was that they were going to work really hard, probably deliver a great working product, and still have their stakeholders upset with them.
Having a plan doesn’t mean that we have to have a death march. Having a plan means that we have a baseline to measure against. Some way to determine if we are making the progress necessary to achieve our goals. Remember that line in the Agile Manifesto? We value responding to change over following a plan? While we value the items on the right, we value the items on the left more? The plan isn’t the problem… it’s failure to respond to change… to deal with reality that is the problem. If I have a fixed time, fixed cost, fixed scope project… I damn well better be delivering incrementally using an agile approach… it’s the only way of knowing if I’ve got a shot in hell of being successful. It’s the only way we can confidently let our stakeholders know if we are on track or not.
Not every team needs a project manager… but I think many could benefit from some really good project management. I’ve been an agile project management guy from the beginning, but I am becoming increasingly convinced that we need to be teaching teams, not just how to self-organize, but how to effectively manage delivery… product or project delivery, I don’t care which. Self organized teams need to have everything necessary to deliver an increment of value… it’s my opinion that everything necessary to deliver an increment of working product includes someone that knows how to manage risk, validate assumptions, communicate with stakeholders, assess progress against the goal, and know when things are off track. That can be the PO, the ScrumMaster, or someone else on the team… again, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that project management is happening… no matter who does it.
"Make each day count twice" - Bill Rancic, winner of the 1st season of The Apprentice and author of You're Hired: How to Succeed in Business and Life.
In startup life there's this saying that startup years are twice as long as regular years. The explanation, in most cases, has to do with longer hours. Although the thrill of being in a startup means learning new things at an unimaginable rate, the price means missing out on the comfort of a traditional 9-5!
In You're Hired, Bill Rancic gives entrepreneurial advice and covers an interesting concept with creating "psychological edge" from essentially working two shifts in one day.
*Lunch is ordered in and probably spent multi-tasking.
We've all heard about "the early bird catching the worm." But what about Rancic's "making each day count twice?" It might be what's holding you back from that million-dollar breakthrough! ;) As you can see from the following photo of Donald Trump, it's the kind of commitment required for entrepreneurs who mean business.
What do you think, worth a shot?
Photo credit: Ari Moore
If at least one is of use, we can go home happy!
Increase Productivity 30% with the Tetris Effect
TRIZ for Problem Solving & Generating Ideas
How to Switch Out Season Clothes
"You have the power to make New York City the global capital of innovation and entrepreneurship" - Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Tech Meetup (NYTM).
Producteev is way better than RTM!
Pretty much ;) One year ago, that's what they said!
Like his t-shirt gives away, Daniel Buchner is a developer with heart! He currently works at Mozilla as a product manager, is married, has a pet dog, and goes mountain biking for fun.
Daniel manages his entire workflow on Producteev, which at the moment includes the supervision of three engineers. He also takes advantage of our multiple workspaces feature and is hacking away on a fancy side project. Shhh, it's in stealth mode!
As a devoted product manager, he admits to occasionally being behind on deadlines. His advice for staying on track, in spite of minor setbacks?
When a task is late, don't just ignore it. Change the deadline, and write the reason(s) why in the notes.
Good call, Dan! He adds:
Producteev really has the right set of features for developers! It's way better than RTM, in my opinion. Especially how it's organized. The UI, sidebar, filter....are all great details! There's a decent set of standard features.
Daniel, like many of you, is a Google and Android fanboy. Here at HQ, we're working on building even better Google integrations, as well as finishing that native Android app! The latter of which includes deadline modification notations. :)
Stay tuned for another exciting product manager story, with our very own Stephane!
Organizational culture powerfully influences a company's performance — or at least we say so. I often hear executives reassure me that projects will get done because "we have an execution culture," or that customers will be well taken care of because "we have a culture where the customer comes first." At the same time, culture is also one of the great rationalizations for managerial shortcomings. Many times I've heard that a project was delayed because "we don't make quick decisions around here," which is the managerial equivalent of "the dog ate my homework."
But the problem with all of these statements — both positive and negative — is that they don't really mean anything. Worse yet, they can't be translated into any kind of action. At best these declarations are vague generalizations; and at worst they are misleading stereotypes.
The truth is that most leaders don't know how to develop a useful picture of their organization's culture, which is why they resort to platitudes. However when managers can better articulate the behavioral patterns that constitute the culture, they can determine which behaviors facilitate results — and which behaviors should be avoided.
For example, a large automotive parts company had just completed a merger, and the senior team — made up of leaders from both firms — struggled with making decisions. They either took too long to decide, or the decisions just didn't stick. To fix this problem, the team asked themselves some simple questions about the decision-making culture: To what extent are decisions currently made by consensus or by the CEO (on a scale of 1-10)? On that same scale, how were decisions made at your heritage company? And on the same scale, where should the decision-making process be in the new company?
Each person on the team answered these questions separately, and a facilitator consolidated them as the basis for a group discussion. When looking at the answers, the team quickly realized that the previous companies had very different decision-making cultures (one was a slow process of building consensus, and the other used open, time-bound debate with final decisions made by the CEO). The team members also had very different expectations for how the process should work. By making these differences concrete and conscious, they were able to have a constructive dialogue that led to ground rules for decision-making.
Any management team can assess its culture by asking these kinds of simple questions across a range of organizational behaviors. For example: To what extent do we reward individual vs. team results? To what extent do we share information broadly or parcel it out narrowly? To what extent do we encourage or discourage risk?
Asking these kinds of questions can smoke out the differences in expectations that people have about the organization. Not everyone experiences culture the same way, so a structured way to discuss those differences can increase alignment and the ability to take collective action. In practical terms, culture is not an intangible cloud that hangs over a company, but an outcome of the way people behave on multiple dimensions. Better understanding of these behavioral patterns — and how each person experiences them — makes it possible to decide whether to continue them or not.
To what extent do you question your organization's culture?
Matt Murphy was always one of our strong advocates, so we decided to interview him, to learn more of how he used and continues to use our services. Matt is an inspirational youth worker by day, and a super blogger/jokester by night! But ah- that didn't stop him from obtaining his MSW from Adelphi University and a M.Div. from Denver Seminary.
How did Matt do all this?!? Haha, of course with Producteev!
Pre-Producteev
Before using Producteev, Matt used a combination good old-fashioned pen and paper, and iCal- which worked quite well for him with small projects. As the responsibilities starting piling on, he came to realize that he needed something that would help him organize and make timelines.
Prior to joining, there were several incidents that took place, which led Matt to realize that he needed to spice things up with his task management. He wrote us, "Once I didn’t realize, but the system had an error and asked me where do I want to sync my tasks and calendar from. I clicked the wrong button and poof! Right before the busiest time of the season I lost all of my tasks (assignments) that were due in all of my classes then and there. Missed the due date on one assignment, scrambled and had to spend all that time re-entering all my data again."
Syncing data across platforms and new computers proved to be challenging as time went on, and Matt decided to look for Productivity software on his iPhone. One of his buddies heard of this, and was quick to enthusiastically suggest Producteev. Matt has been hooked since then.
Attention old school gamers & geeks! We're co-hosting our second Geek Rendezvous NYC meetup with Loosecubes next week. That's Monday, October 10, 2011 7-9pm.
Come hang & win! Geeks who attended the last rendezvous and played charades had an absolute blast. Twelve of them actually *won* something, and the next winner could be YOU!
In it to win it
Strategizing is serious business
Now if only our upcoming Game Night coincided with Comic-Con! That would make it even more awesome :D
Photo credit: Eva Blue
A team of students in the School of Computational Information Systems are thrilled to install and "get the ball rolling," so to speak, with ProducteevEDU.
The institute is based in Col Fabriciano, Brazil, and the educational initiative provides free premium accounts for online task management to any individual associated with higher learning (students, faculty, staff).
The campus' Laboratory of Computational Intelligence (LIC) now has students, volunteers, as well as a lab coordinator and teaching assistant managing tasks on the platform agnostic collaboration tool.
"Producteev is simply great! Over the past several weeks, it has transformed the daily lives of students and helped to better facilitate teamwork and communication!" remarked Dr. Francisco Reinaldo, instructor of engineering, artificial intelligence and programming languages. "I'm really looking forward to Producteev making all LIC work processes better."
This semester marks only the beginning, as the school's smooth transition to an online project solution makes everything from building complex algorithms to sophisticated software programs to even *bots* more manageable!
In a short amount of time, Producteev just might enable this determined set of students to take over the world!
Bobby Travis is a family man, a top notch blogger, and knows how to kick GTD's ass.
In addition to potty training his his little one, he's also taught her David Allen's personal productivity techniques. Below are what I refer to as, The Four Stages of GTD Proficiency:
Game face
initially settling upon the seemingly overwhelming methodology
So far so good
coming to the realization that this GTD stuff's not so bad
Practice makes perfect
reinforcing positive habits leads to growth each day
I am the champion!!
thanks, Dad, for always believing in me & helping me succeed
Our special thanks to the Travis family for making productivity fun again :)
Google is the father of Android operating system and unlike Apple they decided to stick to making solid software independent from hardware. Android is not a phone but really an advanced computer system to smarten any device with an on and off switch, phones, appliances, car media systems, televisions, watches…All those OS (operating system) implementation are actively being researched in Mountain View facility by remarkable engineers.
Andy Rubin – Mr Android- created the Nexus series. Nexus phones are especially designed to match Android operating system with most adequate hardware. First gPhone was made by HTC, sold exclusively via Google.com under the overblown Nexus One name, fully unlocked. Google managed to piss off everyone in the process: manufacturers (why pick HTC), carriers (why no deal a la Apple) and consumers who expected subsidized phones and live support (not Google’s strongest point).
Bottom line, Nexus One was called a failure. Google was ridiculed and attacked from all sides. A nice welcome from the Telecom industry to Silicon Valley giant.
But Google is too big to fail. Too smart to be impressed. They learned from their mistakes, they poured more gazillions of dollars, invaded every space left open by Apple and Nokia, making Android the dominating platform as we speak. Apple fanboys will argue about revenues, look and feel but it doesn’t really matter. The simple fact that there is an actual argument is a victory for Google.
Second Google Phone Nexus phone was manufactured by Samsung under the name Nexus S. Launch was simultaneous in the US with T-Mobile and UK with Vodafone. All carriers distributed new Nexus phone. It became an immediate success thanks to its amazing Amoled screen, SIP/Voip capabilities, NFC chip, 1Ghz cpu, true multitasking – all those things still absent from iPhone.
While Apple had 3 iterations of their phone since June 2007 with 1st generation (iPhone 2G), 2nd generation (iPhone 3G and 3Gs) and 3rd generation (iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S), Android jumped 7 major upgrades (from Cupcake to Ice Cream Sandwich) since March 2010. Progress of Android is incredible for a large corporation going through extensive Q&A before release.
It brings us to a short review of latest Galaxy Nexus phone. I’m using a GSM version (not the Verizon LTE). Note this GSM is a penta-band which means it operates identically on both AT&T and T-Mobile 3g/4g network. It will provide HSPDA on any GSM network. Amazing.
Phone is running latest ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) 4.0.3, rooted, non branded and factory unlocked.
In hand phone feels large but not thick and holds pretty well. Case is all plastic, not very elegant. Thin sporting a large, vivid 4.65-inch screen.
Face unlock will certainly be standard in smartphones a year from today. It works well, and in case it doesn’t you can use PIN login.
Once unlocked i was amazed by transition speed between screens. Android always struggled at it while 3rd party launchers offered good alternatives. I guess Google looked into those apps and patched their OS on ICS.
Another standout for Nexus and ICS is the notification system. Apple recently introduced notification drawer which often overlaps native applications. On Android each notification can be dismissed with a single swipe to the side or can be batch cleared with a simple touch.
Now diving into built-in apps we discover a brand new stock browser offering realtime sync feature between Nexus and Chrome browser, fullscreen view, “request desktop site” which you can click if you want to see the full desktop version of a site and incognito mode (browser doesn’t keep browsing history).
A redesigned Gmail app adding an action bar allowing almost any operation, and best of all you can now store up to 30 days of your emails for offline viewing. Very handy during long flights.
Among cool gimmicks, you also find a panorama mode in camera settings, time-lapse video recording, magazine UI mode in gallery and DUC – Data Usage Control to monitor your data usage according to your billing cycle and Android beam which is like Bump app on iPhone but uses NFC technology.
NFC (Near-Field Communications) is a technology that establishes radio communication with each NFC enable device by bringing them into close proximity. Practically NFC can be used in contactless payment systems, you load a virtual card with prepaid credit and you can make payments using your phone. How does it work? Simple, bring your phone near the credit card terminal, a popup appears on your phone prompting for a PIN code. Enter your custom PIN and bing you just made a purchase. You don’t have to show your credit card to teller, no need to put your PIN in front of a waiting line, no phishing, no skimming, no identity theft. You lose your phone, still fine unless you have a post-it glued in the back with your pin-code.
Verizon has blocked Google Wallet on CDMA version. My GSM factory unlocked device is working fine with Google Wallet. Only thing wrong with this technology is the non awareness of cashiers. I paid using my phone at local CVS and it created a real drama. They had to call store manager, who then called CVS HQ to find out what this NFC thing was all about.
One important thing to know about Galaxy Nexus is NFC is integrated into the battery. Be very careful when buying an extra or extended battery to use exclusively Samsung batteries. Forget about eBay knockoffs.
Battery life wise I’m holding a full day with standard 1750mAh but arguably I’m not running the LTE version which apparently drains much more power. In case you need more you can upgrade to a second battery or the 2100mAh extended one. An option iPhone users don’t have.
There are few differences between LTE and GSM version. GSM is 10grams lighter and about half a cm thiner. LTE carries 32Gb while EU version is only 16Gb. LTE stock battery is 1850mAh vs 1750mAh for GSM.
Bottom line Galaxy Nexus is a true innovative device adding much more features than any other phone. Google Voice, Google Talk, Google + and Google Search are so deeply integrated into Android that it’s make usability a bliss.
What Google wants, Google gets and unless Apple pulls a rabbit out the hat quickly…
Most of my non american friends keep asking me how to bypass roaming charges when visiting the US.
Couple of years ago, it was very hard to find decent voice/data prepaid in North America but things have changed. Changed a lot.
Here is a list of Prepaid services I know of (feel free to point out new providers).
H2O (an AT&T MVNO) http://www.h2owirelessnow.com Technology: GSM
You can chose from $40 for unlimited voice/text/MMS to $60 for unlimited voice/text/MMS/data. They are my favorite as they are working in any AT&T locked devices (such as iPhones) and provide 3G/4G on AT&T bandwidth. No ID required. Free SIM. And cherry on the cake, you have $10 of FREE international calls anywhere in the world.
Any H2O Unlimited Plans include FREE $10 Int’l Calling to over 100+ countries. At 3.5cts/min to France that’s over 5 HOURS of free talk time from you cell to France. If you need more you can just add $10 and keep calling the world.
H2O also offers prepaid broadband at 4G speed for $50/month UNLIMITED (yes no cap) no contract nothing.
Pros: AT&T Network, coverage, speed, pricing, Broadband plan
Cons: Very few point of sales, top-up can complicated without a US credit card, hard to find top-up cards, expensive international rates after free $10
Simple Mobile (a T-Mobile MVNO) http://www.mysimplemobile.com/ Technology: GSM
Simple Mobile is a H2O copycat but based on T-Mobile network (US smallest carrier). They are excellent for short visits as they offer a 15 days unlimited voice/text for $25 (no data).
Here is a list of existing Simple Mobile plan:
$25 Unlimited 15 Day Talk & Text
$40 Unlimited Talk, Text & Web
$40 Unlimited Talk, Text & Web + $10 Unlimited ILD
$60 Unlimited Talk, Text & High Speed Web
$60 Unlimited Talk, Text & High Speed Web + $10 Unlimited ILD
Simple Mobile also offers BlackBerry PREPAID plan. Just slide your SIM, sync your device with your BlackBerry ID and you’ve got your own BBM running for free in the US on 4G speed and unlimited international long distance calls.
BLACKBERRY PLANS
$50 Unlimited Blackberry Talk, Text & Web
$50 Unlimited BlackBerry Talk, Text & Web + $10 Unlimited ILD
$60 Unlimited BlackBerry Talk, Text & High Speed Web
$60 Unlimited BlackBerry Talk, Text & High Speed Web + $10 Unlimited ILD
I highly recommend Simple Mobile for their incredible selection of prepaid service. They are innovative in this space, aggressive and there is actually real people handling customer support.
Pros: good customer service, easy top-up, short stay plans, blackberry plans, 4G speed, full website management, lowest international rates I’ve seen in prepaid mobile.
Cons: poor broadband, limited coverage (T-Mobile), their plans can be confusing sometimes.
MetroPCS http://www.metropcs.com/ and Virgin Mobile http://www.virginmobileusa.com/ Technology: CDMA
Personally I don’t like CDMA as I need to use my own phone when travelling. Buying a new phone, transferring contacts, messages, bookmarks, and emails is not an option. But you might want to consider them as an option if all you want is a cheap voice/text plan for your visits in the US. Coverage is really average.
Other solutions:
T-Mobile Prepaid http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/ too many options, they always try to upsell more expensive features.
AT&T Prepaid http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/go-phones/ same as the above.
According to BusinessWeek China Telecom is preparing a major offensive in prepaid telecom offers. First they are said to start with an MVNO but should soon work on their own infrastructure.
Bottom line there are plenty of options for tourists or business people to use a phone on US soil without spending more than $50 for all-you-can-eat talk, text and web plans. Think about it if you are coming to Las Vegas for CES.
World has changed, business is global and no one wants to travel so conference calls have become a daily protocol.
Unfortunately a conference call can easily turn into a farce. And it happens A LOT.
I just can’t put up with heavy-breathers or “do you hear me better now” crap. So I decided to drop out certain conference calls where a minimum essential politeness is not met.
Based on my experience participants should stick to rules below:
If within first 5 minutes, participants are not ALL on the call, I’d rather re-schedule.
Feel free to share your tip, eager to learn.
Until few months ago, “no” was not in my vocabulary. Shortest word to write and yet hardest word to say.
I grew up thinking no was the most awkward, guilt inducing, nerve racking, embarrassing word in the language.
Society evolves around yes or hope and when a no comes around it must be accompanied by weak excuses and rationalizations.
“No” is offensive when said in an unassertive or aggressive manner. That’s how we all use it, faking sorry feelings or exploding because too much is too much.
And when we force ourselves to say yes instead of no we feel pitiful adding more anger to our lives.
At 42 I discovered the power of no. The decisive no that doesn’t need explanation, direct and simple.
The no that saves so much time at the end of the day and makes your yes so much valuable.
No to a bunch of small things we keep in the air because we fear hurting feelings.
And I will accept your no over a million of “yes but” that will never happen. You don’t lose friends over a no, you lose them over a wrong yes.
I made so many mistakes by not saying no. Mistakes costing friends and monies.
Please people, accept my apologies for not saying NO when I wanted needed to.
Bottom line, no has changed my life in the best possible way.
“Tone is the hardest part of saying no.” — Jonathan Price
Everywhere I go, everywhere I read, eat, train or work, Wikileaks is the center of most conversation.
The world is divided in those who believe Wikileaks is a public service aiming for more transparency and those who believe Wikileaks is a dangerous anarchist movement.
I support the latter and will explain why.
Liberty, democracy, journalism vs privacy, diplomacy, and equilibrium.
Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Let’s rewind time. Wikileaks stole classified information from US Intelligence by hacking into access-restricted computers or calling for US employees to steal files. This action by itself is definitely a crime. And no one can contest that so far.
I find it amazing some seem surprised US is running a diplomatic ballet. They do LIKE ALL OTHER COUNTRIES ON THIS PLANET.
It would be childish to think other democracies are not using the exact same modus operandi. Collecting and reporting info is the oldest form of Intelligence countries have put together way back in the days of Romans, Egyptians and Greeks.
Wikileaks targets specifically the United States of America.
Why? I think we should legitimately ask ourselves this question.
In a quest for ‘open transparency’ wouldn’t it be fair to get classified cables from all the parties involved?
But Wikileaks is obviously not interested in stealing German, Russian, Chinese or Iranian classified information. In fact Wikileaks has never unveiled any ‘secrets’ about any other country but US.
Their tweets are clearly showing their motivation:
Actually the whole stream is anti-American. How pleasant for the free world…
Like other terrorists, Wikileaks is relying on US infrastructure to relay their heinous message- Amazon, Paypal, EyeDNS. Here comes Dumb and Dumber screaming for boycott against those companies who stopped providing support to Wikileaks. Pathetic…
“Obama and Clinton must resign”. Maybe they should; but not for any of those ‘embarrassing’ cables. Just because they failed to protect sensitive information from going public.
Martin Varsavsky wrote a short piece on how Wikileaks has taught us a lesson. If it’s private – keep it private. I cannot agree more. Countries will increase their level of security and the whole Wikileaks plan for transparency goes flushed down the drain. Bravo.
What’s Wikileaks next target? Take a wild guess? Bank of America. Yes, another stolen hard-drive (thank God it’s not an iPhone- Jobs would have sent Apple Police) from a high ranked executive-which violates, corporate and personal privacy, bank secrecy and 100’s of common laws. Oh, and yet another American symbol. But that is for the greater good argues the hypocrite humanitarian.
No one was hurt.
Julian Assange claims no one was hurt in the process. Is this his perspective? Your perspective? Or the perspective of thousands of diplomats, ambassadors and consuls around the planet being “invited” to provide explanations and apologies?
If I post a picture of you naked it won’t kill you. It won’t hurt me either but will it hurt you?
All other countries are picking whatever they need from Wikileaks to serve their local political careers.
Segolene Royal likes the way Sarkozy is painted by US diplomats.
Antonio Di Pietro enjoys every word describing Silvio Berlusconi.
Netanyahu likes to read embarrassing cables regarding Ehud Barak for a reason.
Censorship of the uncensored documents.
Only a small portion of documents has been published. Why not all? What is the logic of sorting messages when you claim transparency? Is Wikileaks releasing documents in filtered manners? Is there a negotiation behind the scenes on the release of those documents?
We know absolutely nothing about Wikileaks, their founders and the organization. And yet, every frustrated anti-American is ready to embrace their cause to Satanize a great country.
Here in America, we have this thing called the First Amendment, which allows people to express what they think in political and social speech.
It doesn’t mean you can steal classified information, publish it, and then hide yourself behind a convenient Amendment of a Constitution you are not part of.
You should know US administration is the only one to declassify Diplomatic Cables on regular basis as stated in The Freedom Of Information Act [PDF] . You can also find the archives online here from Georges Washington University.
Time will tell if Wikileaks intentions are nobles or not. But I strongly believe Wikileaks is conveniently irresponsible and damaging to the World.
Let’s hear your opinion.
Yesterday I was driving to Kennedy Space Center near Orlando. I say “near Orlando” because if you use a GPS forget finding Nasa Visitor Center on your map using Orlando as a city. So I thought checking their address on Google would help me set-up my GPS – unfortunately they give you directions but no address.
GPS wants an address starting with a Zip code or City and Street name.
Digging a bit further – I found out Kennedy Space Center is located in Orsino Florida.
Hurray!! Ooops. Nope, Orsino doesn’t come up on my GPS.
Annoyed but not desperate I followed the driving instructions from their website and…we made it.
But driving back home, I had an eureka moment.
What if our GPS could use an extra simple trivial entry mode?
Hmmm, the idea is appealing but the infrastructure to build something like is ridiculous. Just think about indexing millions of places around the globe and assigning a unique ID. Impossible.
I’m still thinking, brainstorming while everyone is deeply asleep in the car…I needed to keep my neurons alert to resist diving in a coma myself.
Bang! Why not use Foursquare? Each venue is clearly marked with a unique ID. Each ID fits a description and best of all it offer tips, specials and nearby points of interest.
Man this is too simple. Way too simple. Imagine your email signature now:
Florian Seroussi
@florianseroussi
LABOTEC Inc.
Venue: 250674
Now just plug 250674 on Google maps, car GPS, TomTom, NavTeq, VZ Navigator or any tracking device and there you are, on your way to our office.
The service should shine by its simplicity, be global, accurate (something Foursquare might need to work on a bit) and reliable (no whale fail kinda).
I’m sure some of you will comment that this can be done using phone numbers in some GPS. True – but reality is:
Anyway, far from the Groupon-coupon-discount-lbs bs, I think Foursquare should definitely explore this opportunity to offer car manufacturers a solid and inexpensive alternative to complex existing entry mode on navigation systems.
If not Foursquare, then maybe a reckless entrepreneur ready to build a layer on top of the existing location based service? Facebook places? What do you think?
I was lucky to be seated on the perfect side of the plane with my point and shoot camera within reach. The image is a bit shaky, backlight disturbing for a couple of minutes but overall, a great view over NYC.
Few minutes of post-editing on iMovie (yes- I’m learning) and below the result.
In case you live under a rock, a short recap of “the lost iPhone” saga.
6 months ago Gawker Media admitted that it paid $5,000 to get their hands on a prototype of a fourth-generation iPhone for its gadget blog, Gizmodo. Seller of the device told the editors of Gizmodo and other technology blogs that he “found” it unattended in a bar.
I’m not trying to debate if buying a lost or stolen phone is legal or not. This is for the big guys. My opinion on the subject is that as long as Gizmodo did not pay to get the phone stolen in the first place, it sounds legitimate to publish the info (although I think it’s wrong). In comparison Techcrunch did post stolen Twitter documents aka Twittergate [documents stolen from Twitter’s servers- not lost, or found. Stolen…and the thief is actually behind bars in France for hacking.] and I was shocked. Maybe my expectations for TechCrunch ethics are higher than for Gizmodo.
There was a before April 2010 and an after. Gizmodo was the underdog gadget blog, TechCrunch the REAL valley mag (no reference to Valleywag – a Gawker zine) and Mashable the gossip tech people magazine.
What happened next? Gizmodo boomed with 4M unique (up to 5M in April, more than TechCrunch and Mashable altogether).
Gizmodo got more publicity for this stunt then any PR could dream of.
Mainstream media started leaking the info on national networks and traffic picked up almost instantly.
Oddly they didn’t ‘take’ any customers readers from their competitors; on the contrary they brought nearly 3 Million fresh souls into the game.
Was it worth it? Hell yeah. And for everyone! Do I approve? No, but I’ve proven wrong many times.
Now that 6 months have passed I see no downside for Gizmodo.
Apple screwed this one up pretty badly. Losing a prototype in a bar was epic. Denying and covering up the mess was like pouring oil on fire. Finally sending the Feds after Gizmodo made Jason Chen look like Robin Hood and Steve Jobs an arrogant little rich kid going after his lost toy. Last but not least, Gizmodo is banned to any Apple event. No biggie there.
Don’t they have teams full of damage control experts in Cupertino? PR moguls?
Apple is a marketing raw model for tens of thousands of entrepreneurs. Where did it go wrong? Why such a drama?
A simple “Yes this is one prototype of a phone we might or might not decide to launch. It’s just that – a prototype. We would appreciate a prompt return of the device in our lab.” would have sufficed to kill the story.
Was the all thing staged to get more publicity?
Obviously a phone was lost and Apple’s execs were all over the case. But Jobs is smart enough to make the best of any given situation- so yes, it’s possible that they played it all along to get more coverage for the launch of the iPhone 4.
Arrington said he would have not paid for the phone. Not so sure he’d say that again today.
TechCrunch is by far my favorite source of information. I can’t read Gizmodo – too inquireresq- and Mashable is full of buttons and boxes which makes the content completely unattractive.
I’m glad Mike sold TechCrunch to AOL. Hope they make good use of his baby.
So, do you think it’s legit to pay for exclusivity?
A year ago I would have been harsh on a new Windows Phone OS. I was harsh in this post.
In April 2010 I saw a very early stage Windows Phone 7 prototype and I said to myself “the whole idea sounded bad, now it looks terrible”.
Microsoft challenge was to start from a blank page. Forget Windows Mobile, WinCE and even Windows to re-create a different user experience based on what was learned from iPhone and Android.
The very first device Microsoft handed out to me for testing purposes was a huge brick, barely functional. My partner Pierre-Olivier Carles needed a phone for a few days and I decided to let him try ‘the phone of the future”. Let’s keep it nice and just say he wasn’t convinced
In the meantime, Apple and Google were upgrading and updating their OS considerably adding speech to text, turn by turn navigation, better applications, new features…I was even more perplex on Microsoft’s strategy.
I was wrong. Wrong to under-estimate the power of a world leader in Operating Systems, best software company of all times.
Few days ago as part of our Device Agreement we received a pre-production unit which has nothing to do with anything you have seen before. It’s snappy, reactive, user friendly, reliable, well presented and integrates the best of Microsoft.
I’m not sure if Microsoft will grab the smartphone market. But they did a wonderful job in a short period of time under huge competitive pressure.
95% or so of computer owners are using Windows, 99.99% of all users are using Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), and 90% of the enterprise world is running Exchange mail server. Well if you are one of those users, this phone is for you.
Native integration of Office Suite makes DataWiz/DocumentsToGo looking almost ridiculous. Outlook native integration with Exchange will ease the life of millions of users.
Admittedly I’m not one of those. But let’s not ignore the vast majority of users because we live in a bubble where Apple rules.
Apple and Google have almost zero experience in gaming unlike Microsoft Xbox solid success. WP7 fully uses Xbox Live so players can stay connected to their favorite games. Gaming + Enterprise might be the winning combination.
I’m not sure how much money Microsoft is investing to conquer the phone segment but last Thursday I was face to face with Steve Ballmer and I felt an incredible energy around Windows Phone 7. It’s not a side project – with all the risks attached. Microsoft will use all of its influence to convince manufacturers, distributors, publishers, and users that Windows Phone 7 is a winner.
I have a feeling that Microsoft is going after Google and too bad if Apple is on the way.
Below a short video of a pre-production unit. What do you think?
Today Google announced the integration of Google Voice into Gmail allowing users to place and receive phone calls from their computer from any place in the world to the US for FREE.
Since the acquisition of GrandCentral by Google, Craig Walker and his team have been working hard to make the world a better place for communication.
One of the targets is to make Google Voice accessible to all users (meaning outside the scope of Google) with an horizontal approach ranging from Mobile phones to Web based applications and device dependent applications as well. Google Voice has been available for Blackberry and Android phones for over a year. But they never could make it to the iPhone. The application went live for a few hours before Apple’s executives decided to remove it from the app store raising a Valley drama on Twitter and Facebook.
Google asked the FCC to look into Apple’s motivation, Apple replied, FCC sent a few letters, AT&T denied any implications…bottom line: nothing happened. In a world where technology is evolving around time, FCC has failed to do its job.
Worse, I believe FCC integrity is challenged by its dependance to regulatory fees mainly paid by carriers and manufacturers e.g. AT&T and Apple. I see an urgent need to reform FCC processes to adapt to 21st century technology pace.
Here is an imaginary open letter from Google to FCC regarding Apple’s Rejection of the Google Voice for iPhone Application.