Monthly Archives: January 2014

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If this seems like an odd arena for T-Mobile to step into when it clearly has important things on the wireless side to tend to, you’re not alone. From the standpoint of building brand recognition with folks who are cost-sensitive, this certainly makes sense, and we’re sure a good number of people will actually take advantage of this. But how much does this distract away from T-Mobile’s objectives as a carrier? Only time can tell how this one will play out.

“The Uncarrier wants to be the Unbank of prepaid debit cards” via TechCrunch

As a small startup we are constantly wrestling with “wow, that new direction looks like shiny, let’s go after it.” Yet focus and clarity is important for our products and ultimately for our customers. 

I’m curious how T-Mobile will fare as they start to act like a bank, taking on the likes of Simple and potentially distracting from their goals as a telco.

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Binil Antony is the co-founder and CMO of Dexetra, the startup behind the Friday app – a contextual personal search application for Android. Friday is a featured app in the …

“Next, take a look at the app’s zero state again. If the app has to do some processing before it starts surfacing content, then ensure that your zero states can keep the user interested with feature introductions, tips or dummy content.”

We think about this a lot with Contactive since we need to “supercharge” your address book, and that can take a bit of time. 

Lessons we learned from being featured on Google Play

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I believe the change in attitude came from truly connecting and tuning in at home. This required disconnecting from work (e.g. turning off the computer and phone), and completely focusing all of my attention on the details of the home. Cooking a great meal. Helping with a science project. Discussing the future with my partner.

Scott Weiss, “Success at Work, Failure at Home”.

Great article by Scott on the challenges of balancing work/life when you’re the CEO of a growing startup. I think the insights are broadly applicable outside of just the CEO role; for me, joining a startup after working at big company for 10 years has forced me to rethink several key parts of my own personal work/life balance.

I can be a workaholic, so a while back Amy and I worked on a few simple “strategies” for ensuring we stay connected regardless of how intensely I through myself into my job. My favorite, Friday Date Night, is something we loved doing in Seattle and have picked up with gusto here in NYC. We need to work on “leaving our phones in our pockets”, but making sure we have one or two dedicated nights per week of just cooking dinner, binge-watching Netflix, and drinking good wine are what keeps me sane.

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As the App Store Top Charts seem to prove, people don’t seem to be looking for “an inbox for everything,” but instead for sharply focused apps delivering solid value at a moment’s notice.

“Facebook plans suite of standalone mobile apps for 2014” via The Verge

“Calendar could be another opportunity for Facebook to embed itself into its users’ lives. Facebook Events are perhaps the most popular way to send out birthday party invites — yet Facebook has largely ignored its potential. All the while, free apps like Sunrise tastefully bundle Facebook events into your Google or iCloud calendar. A Facebook Calendar app, like the new Messenger, would have to be the best calendar app — not the best Facebook Calendar app — which means no spammy “Sponsored Events” or suggested parties. The app could plug into Google Calendar, like Fantastical or Sunrise, but provide the best Facebook Events experience, since that’s what people are using to track of events they’re attending. It’s also worth noting that Facebook is still the place most people check to keep up on birthdays — a sorely undervalued and essential functionality that Sunrise duly steals.”

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Upgrading your plan may be a good way to avoid overage charges, but Sprint might have another option: WiFi calling. 

Another carrier (potentially) allowing their users to make calls over WiFi. The value prop makes sense (“This will allow you to make calls when your cellular reception is poor”), but it is also a big defensive move to offer their own alternatives to 3rd-party OTT apps like Line.

Sprint might launch free WiFi calling for select Android devices

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contactiveapp:

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The Contactive team would like to wish everyone a very Happy (if not belated) New Year! 2013 was a great year for us here at Contactive and we’re sure 2014 will be even better.

We’ve been working hard over the last few months to improve your Contactive experience from the ground up. We…

Woot! Let’s rock 2014!!

TWENTY FOURTEEN

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2020 could see the end of online versus offline. “The membrane between the online world and the offline will effectively disappear, as continuously connected devices fully disappear into our pockets, clothing, our jewelry, our selves,”

Glen Hiemstra, of Futurist.com, in “8 Unexpected Ways Technology Will Change The World By 2020”

“We will not think of two different worlds … but instead see simply a fully integrated life.”

I sometimes feel like I have a duality problem. I love being hyper-connected, I love the “quantified self”, and I love sharing. At the same time my wife and I try to remember to “put down the phones and just talk”, often by leaving them in another room when we’re reading, eating dinner, etc. Convergence of offline and online will bring about amazing things (IMHO), but the downside is that you will have to actually actively do work (unplug, silence notifications, etc.) to just relax and read a book.