June 2009

Pillow talk with Calliflower

by alec on June 30, 2009

In The Ideal Task Manager National Post writer Danny Bradbury highlights iPhone applications that are big for small business.  The lede for the story? Calliflower.  Last week Danny asked us if we had any small business users using Calliflower for iPhone.  I made a few phone calls, and asked several of our customers if they would be willing to talk, including Sonja Podstaskyj who runs a virtual assistant business at afishinsea.ca.  The rest is history, as they say. Sonja uses Calliflower on iPhone to organize and check in on her clients global conference calls from the comfort of her bed.  At 5 AM, it sure beats getting up.

Pillow talk, anyone?

{ 0 comments }

Mashed-up beetles? Not what you think.

by alec on June 29, 2009

This may be the ultimate wireless mash-up.  The photographs below show a wireless interface developed at UC Berkeley, which is implanted in flying beetles. It’s part of an experiment designed to create “cyborg beetles” which can be controlled in flight. The plaque reads, in part:

“The miniaturized thorax-mounted system consists of a neural stimulator, muscular stimulators and a micro-controller. Flight initiation, cessation and elevation control were accomplished through neural stimulus of the brain which elicited, suppressed or modulated wing oscillation.  Turns were triggered through through the direct muscular stimulus of either of the basalar muscles.”

DSC_0032 

DSC_0033

{ 0 comments }

Canadian broadband needs an upload overhaul.

June 27, 2009

Yesterday YouTube doubled the upload limit available to users in response the increasing number of high definition videos that are being sent to the site.  Now you can upload a 2G file, instead of a 1G file.   YouTube has made it easier to upload a high definition file as well. According to Liz Gannes at [...]

Read the full article →

Skyhook: how iPhone OS 3.0 delivers location services

June 26, 2009

Many folks assume that iPhone’s location services are GPS based.  In fact, they’re not.  They use a complex amalgam of WiFi hotspot location, cell tower triangulation and GPS provided by Skyhook Wireless.  GPS service, by itself, is vulnerable to overhead obstructions, and can take as long as 5 minutes to obtain a fix.  However, once [...]

Read the full article →

Rogers “Pay As You Go” US roaming

June 25, 2009

The customer service fairy seems to have paid a visit to Rogers recently.  Yesterday, I called and inquired about roaming rates to the US for my trip next week.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that roaming data rates to the US have dropped from $6,000 per gigabyte, and that I could now buy a [...]

Read the full article →

Truphone adds 11 Nokia handsets

June 25, 2009

The team at Truphone has been focused for quite a while on their iPhone products.  Yesterday, however, they made an announcement that hearkens back to their roots.  11 new Nokia devices have been added to their list of compatible devices, including the N96, N78, N85, N79, 5630, 5800, 5320, 6210, 6220, 6650 and E63.  All [...]

Read the full article →

Apple iPhone proves the axiom: it takes three tries to get any tech product right.

June 25, 2009

It’s been famously said of Microsoft that it takes them three tries to get anything right.  In actual fact, it probably takes every company three tries to deliver a truly great product. Release 1 – get the product to market.  Release 2 – listen to customers and correct the biggest omissions in the product.  Release [...]

Read the full article →

The $10,000 Facebook Email Challenge

June 24, 2009

I dread getting email on Facebook.  How is it that Facebook, with 200 million users, still suffers along with the same broken email client as two years ago.  With no folders, no offline mode, slow search, no forward, no ability to add people to a thread, no archive capability, and no ability to delete multiple [...]

Read the full article →

Calliflower expands: Flat Rate International Conference Calls now available from 30 Countries.

June 22, 2009

Late last week, we crossed another milestone with Calliflower.  As customers have discovered the tremendous savings Calliflower can deliver for international conference calls, plus the rich and engaging Calliflower feature set, they have driven demand for new points of presence. We’ve been only too happy to comply, adding local dial numbers wherever we can in [...]

Read the full article →

How did you spend your weekend? #iranelection

June 22, 2009

I spent much of my weekend glued to the Internet, transfixed by the images and words coming from Iran.  Unable to keep up with the flow coming from Twitter, I turned to Andrew Sullivan’s excellent Daily Dish, where he has published a digest of the more reliable Twitter sources, as well as videos and commentary [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Alec on LinkedIn Alec on Twitter Alec on Facebook Calliflower on Youtube RSS Feed Contact me