10 iOS Apps I Am Thankful for This Thanksgiving

This post was inspired by a comment from a Kevin Rose interview with Pandora's CTO Tom Conrad.  Conrad said that Thanksgiving was one of Pandora's best days for new user downloads because family and friends sit around the table after a big meal and talk about the apps that they use most.  These are the 10 iOS apps I am thankful for this Thanksgiving.

I tweeted about it and Conrad's reply gets moved to #1 this Thanksgiving.

Memoir - yourmemoir.com I just downloaded it and haven't used it long enough to give a detailed review but the recommendation alone makes it an app worth checking out. Memoir lets you collect your memories, share with friends, and get reminded of them. For parents, this is a must!  @Memoir joked on twitter that they overheard someone say it should be called MOMoir. 

Pandora - pandora.com I love spotify, but it can be a productivity killer. So many choices, so much time to waste. It's the same problem I have with Netflix, I spend more of time browsing than lsitening. Pandora keeps the music going and I am always amazed by the new artists that Pandora introduces to me. With Pandora integrated into my Volt, its the go to music app and has replaced the radio completely.

Evernote - evernote.com all my devices, anywhere I am. It's the digital version of my moleskin. I don't use the special Evernote moleskin but I do transfer my paper notes into Evernote by taking photos and uploading them with the app. Index, save, and search for later. You never know when that brilliant idea will hit you and if you are a touch ADD like me, they can be gone as soon as they come so its a good idea to make a quick note and save the brain space. My wife can only remember so much for me!

Flipboard - flipboard.com my personal content curation hub. Whenever theres a topic I want to follow, Flipboard is my go app for becoming an expert and  gathering market intelligence. It combines relevant news with social updates from people I friend or follow.  It beats the heck out of Yahoo or HuffPo and its perfect when I am sitting at the airport.

Quora - quora.com I have lots of questions and sometimes google isn't enough.  When I need an experts answer, I go to Quora. If you answer some questions you will build up Quora Karma and get points to ask an expert to answer your questions. When we were preparing for our trip to Vietnam, I asked a question to a former U.S. Official and had a thorough and helpful answer within the hour.  The answers are public but you can ask them anonymously if you have a fear of asking stupid question (if there is such a thing).

Frequent Flyer Miles Tracker - I travel alot and I try to always get a good rate before staying with a single carrier. The Frequent Flyer app has every airline and helps me keep track of the frequent flyer accounts for each airline. Easy copy and paste of the numbers and a comprehensive list of airlines makes this free app a must for business travelers.  I am sure there are better apps that keep track of your points automatically. This is just the app I use. What apps do you recommend for airline frequent flier mile tracking?

Hilton Hotels App - Hotels are one area where loyalty really pays off.  The Hilton app makes it really easy to book a room while I am on the go. Its nothing special but I use it so much that I decided to include it on the list.

Instagram - If I take a good photo its going on instagram. The filters are still the best (in my opinion). Not much to say that a Billion $ hasn't already said. Instagram continues to be one of the apps I use most and a great place to keep all the photos of my daughter.  

Dropbox - Unlike the app on your desktop that keeps all the files locally for quick access, this app retrieves them in demand. For grabbing a PDF or forwarding a presentation while on the go, this app is critical.  I can fill up the free 5 Gigs pretty quickly but they are awesome about giving you more apace for inviting your friends. Just share something with a friend and grab 500 MB when they sign up.  

GarageBand - If you like making music and want a fun distraction, theres no better $5 app. For the price of a pack of Earnie Ball strings the GarageBand app gives you a bunch of instruments and hours of fun. It doesn't even matter if you can't read music or play an actual instrument, they make music composition as easy as can be and its just fun to use! I've had this app since the first generation iPad and they keep updating it with better and better features. 

What app are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Document Management at Home: Pursuit of a Paperless House

Episode 1: Admitting I have a problem is the first step to recovery.

For many year's I have stubbornly clung to the paper in my home, partially because of the industry I have worked in, partially because of the fear of audit.  This is a series of post's for the next few months where I will share my experience of eliminating paper around the house with Document Management at Home.

When there were just a few bills, an accordion folder was enough.  But it wasn't long before I needed to upgrade filing systems (and then upgrade again, and again).  There is a different filing system for different stages of life (see bottom of post), each one bigger than the last.  This can really add up, but no one really can tell because it happens slowly, every few years needing more storage for stuff I never look at.  The space being a bigger problem than the cost of storage.

The documents kept coming and even though more things are sent electronically now, I was not getting ahead.  Stop the madness, but how.

I realized that it was time to stop the inevitable cycle and go electronic.  Businesses do this, why can't I.  I have tried to get all of the paper organized before, and really, I have done an alright job of keeping things organized.  But paper storage days usually went like this. 1.) Get frustrated by the clutter and decide to spend a few hours cleaning up.  2.) Open stacks mail I never looked and and organize open mail into piles for storage or trash. 3.) Put documents I don't need in the recycling bin, if they are confidential shred it first.  3.) Put files into manilla folders, then into file folders.  This happens every 6 months or so, but the problem doesn't go away, it just gets filed away.  So now it is time to do something about it.  I will share my experience of trying to eliminate paper around the house and I will share my plan for managing all of the records of my life.

 
Life Stages of Document Storage at Home

College Grad: the accordion folder $10.99

Young Professional: the file folder $19.71
Family Clutter: Boxes of Files $34.84








Paper Prisoner: Filing Cabinet












Hoarder: Storage Shed

Testing...Obamacare Website debacle & what went wrong

The October 2013 uproar over the Obama Administration's bumble of the healthcare.gov roll-out has all parties pointing fingers.  The administration is pointing the finger at the government contractors, several were used, but primarily CGI Federal.  It is believed that around $400 Million has already been spent on the website and surely there will be more costs to come. http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/BL-DGB-30290

With the echoes of Edward Snowden still haunting D.C., I am somewhat surprised that contractors were used for such a high profile project.  But that's government for ya!

Anyone who has worked on a software or website development project should not be surprised by this continuing news story.  

So what went wrong?  It can be broken into three categories: Change of Scope, Timelines, and Testing.

Change of Scope: Like almost any development project, initial requirements failed to outline every detail.  When new players get involved, this also opens up the possibility of "arm-chair developers" who throw in their opinions late in the game and may even force some changes.  Right or wrong, this creates a nightmare scenarios for the actual developers that have to accommodate these changes to scope.  Reports from the contractors say that many last minute changes to the workflow of the site caused a bottleneck of traffic and they did not have time to properly test the changes.

Timelines: This is probably the biggest cause of problems for the Obamacare website.  Timelines for launch were set way back when a line in the sand was drawn for penalizing American's that did not have coverage.  Now work backwards.  There was about 5 months from site launch to penalty deadline.  Open enrollment takes time and the site needed to be up early enough for citizens to be able to comply.  So the site HAD to go live. . . or did it.  

The reasons for firm deadlines are purely political. Obama didn't want to give the GOP any more reasons to attack Obamacare. The Obama Administration could have recognize that they only get one chance to launch the site and do it right.  They could have delayed the launch and made their case for how critical the site was to providing health care for all Americans. Now they will be delaying the deadline for non-compliance penalties and the website launch has been a disaster. 

Testing:  "Ok, everyone in the office login at the same time.  No smoke?  Ok, launch it."  

That's about the extent of the pressure testing done on the site prior to launch.  Insufficient and naive.  For an administration that felt so strongly about the need for health care that they prioritized it over the economy, it is surprising that they failed to anticipate the demand. Google "how to test your website for millions of visitors". There are solutions for this and cloud storage and scalable virtual servers can handle massive traffic spikes.  If any IT professional built a $400 million website that couldn't handle that level of traffic, they would be fired.  

Whose responsibility is load testing?  Depends on how the contract was written. Either way, the administration didnt make it a priority and any testing that was done failed to simulated real user experiences.

Now that the contractor CGI federal is speaking out to defend their work, they are making it clear that "the problems can be fixed". http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/24/crash-and-burn-lawmakers-grill-obamacare-website-contractors/

And they will send the "A Team"...for a price.  Surely the costs will continue to rise beyond $400 million.  

The failed launch came down to 3 things: changes in scope, unrealistic timelines, an a lack of testing.  So what can an uninsured American do? 

In the meantime, there are alternatives to healthcare.gov.  

List of alternatives to healthcare.gov

1. State-run exchanges: Depending on where you live, you won't use HealthCare.gov at all. These states are running their own exchanges: California, Connecticut,Colorado, the District of Columbia,Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland,Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada,New York, Oregon, Rhode Island,Vermont and Washington state. Don't be fooled by websites masquerading as insurance exchanges, though.

2. Paper applications and the telephone: download and mail it in. Hotline operators at (800) 318-2596 can help explain how to fill out the form and can even take applications over the phone.

And 5 more alternatives over on HuffPo.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4109749

Follow me on twitter @rynmcmns

Make Money with your iPhone

Startups are giving you legitimate ways of making money with your iPhone.  With get rick quick schemes aplenty, there is good reason to be skeptical but there are a few apps that make it easy for you to start making real money.  The apps that are really succeeding have deals with national brands to feature jobs like sourcing photos of local restaurants or auditing in-store displays.  Here are the top 3 Apps that you can start making money with today.

3.)  TaskRabbit - This app was launched in July 2011, just a few months after the closed a $5 million Series A round.  TaskRabbit lets anyone post a "task" for anyone else to complete.  From picking up a package to helping someone move.  About TaskRabbit  Download the app

Reviews on iTunes are mixed with a bell curve favoring 5 stars, but plenty of 1 star reviews.  My criticism of TaskRabbit is that available tasks are concentrated in a few major metro areas (San Fran, Chicago, etc).  My opinion is that TaskRabbit will lose out to competitors that have focused on corporate sales instead of peer-to-peer tasks.

I have tried to use TaskRabbit, but the available task are not in my area.



2.) Field Agent - This startup has not received the funding or TechCrunch exposure.  Their website tells Target, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, and P&G.  Download the app and you will see a nice list of available jobs.  They aren't the highest paying jobs, but they make it extremely easy to take a job.  The instant approval lets you take a job when you are close by instead of applying and waiting an hour+ for approval.  I tried Field Agent for the first time tonight, auditing the Laundry Detergent aisle at Wal-Mart.  From download to first task, it maybe took 5 minutes and I complete my first task in 5 minutes or less.  It was 10 questions and 2 photos... a  pretty easy $8.  The only problem I see with Field Agent is that it has just a few opportunities in any area.
a different story though with a strong list of customers like
 
About Field Agent   Download the app

1.) Gigwalk - This startup is leading the micro-job-app space, with almost $8 million in funding so far, they are the most likely to succeed with the combination of marketing prowess and focus on corporate clients to keep the map full of gigs.  I downloaded for the first time in 2011when I first read about it on techcrunch.  At that time, it had the same challenges as TaskRabbit, a lack of available "gigs" in my area.  So I mothballed the app until I got an email update about new gigs posted for a campaign with Bing.  Bing has gone all out to pay you $10 for taking some pictures and updating local business back to 2012 when they started to crowdsource their business listings.  This got me interested again and I proceeded to apply for a get 15 gigs.  All I can say is, read the directions carefully and make sure you practice using the Bing panoramic app.  I didn't do to well, only getting paid for 3 of the 15 apps because my panoramic photo skills were lacking.  They gave me a chance to get better images, but I had to ask to be removed from the tasks because I was unable to get back to the locations before the deadline.  As of June 18th, 2013, there were still a ton of Bing gigs available.
listings.  This partnership goes

Gigwalk has done an awesome job of filling the map with available gigs.  For your first few gigs, they require someone to approve you before you get the gig.  Complete a few gigs and it turns to an automated process.  They rank their gigwalkers based on the gigs you have completed so if you sign up, make sure you complete it.  Once you finish a gig, it goes to the customer for review.  I did mine on a Saturday and I got feedback by Tuesday and was paid the following day.  Paypal is their only method for payment currently.

About Gigwalk  Download the app

In my opinion, Gigwalk is in the lead, but Field Agent has the potential to build a strong company on this business model.  Download the apps and start making money!

Think of the NSA as Just another twitter follower

Productivity in Washington blamed on access to once-believed deleted snapchat photos.

Rebrand the killer whale

Communication 3.0 for human resources

Coffee Cup Sleeve Ad

Traditional advertising channels are slipping as market share gets diluted to the now 40+ channels that marketers have to choose from. The classic three of radio, TV, and print can still have some unique applications.

Take for examples these coffee cup sleeves spotted at Imperio coffee in Columbus, Ohio. Promoting WOW Cable, the real estate that is usually occupied by a brand logo is replaced with a full color promotion for WOW's cable, phone, and internet service.

Is this effective? It's a difficult campaign to measure. This particular ad did not have a QR code, mobile page, or campaign specific URL. Without one of those three pieces, the sleeves are no different than a print ad, billboard, or bus sign. It's more effective if the ads are targeted. The challenge of targeting directly conflicts with the economics of printing.

Is it worth it for the coffee shop? Depends on the coffee shop. Small businesses need to save money and you could expect that the ad pays for all or a portion of the coffee sleeve and the coffee shop gets the discount in exchange for the service.

Who would do this? This marketin channel is for small, neighborhood coffee shops only. Why wouldn't Starbucks do this? 1.) they don't have to. 2.) they would not sacrifice the brand image to save a few pennies 3.) Customers would distain the change from their symbol of affluence that turns them into walking billboards. And 4.) They couldn't afford it.

That may be a slight exaggeration since Starbucks could surely afford to spend more on their sleeves, but they would lose the economies of scale that their operation has and their buying power would be diminished. Big brands buy in bulk and the high volume prints for paper and packaging are static, repeated images.

There is a startup in Columbus working on this exact challenge. How to provide measurable, localized, small runs for independent coffee shops. They also have a mission to donate a cup of water for every coffee sleeve.

Check them out at coveredcoffee.com

Big Data Fail: WalMart

I try to keep things positive here, but this event affected me personally ao I thought I's share my experience. A little while back I had someone fraudulently make a purchase through my account on walmart.com. They bought some RAM and had the order shipped to an address in California.

Identity theft happens and its a huge problem that will only grow. That's not my complaint. Walmart handled the issue OK, but its really my bank that came through to wipe out the charge. Where Walmart failed was in the follow up.

They followed up to find out how
I liked my purchase. Not just once, but twice. The email was sent two
Weeks after the incident was resolved. This big data fail by Walmart

Google "walmart big data" and the first article that pops up is about walmart making Big Data part of its DNA. http://smartdatacollective.com/bigdatastartups/111681/walmart-makes-big-data-part-its-social-media

Walmart has succeeded at making "big data" part of their PR rhetoric. Not a bad thing and alot of companies are doing it. They missed an opportunity to use their big data for damage control. They have the information, but didn't connect data on fraudulent purchases with their email automation systems. One more data field for control would have stopped the email trigger to ask me how I liked the RAM (ie. fraud, if yes, don't email follow up).

USPS Get's Creative With Augmented Reality

Of all the unexpected things fromt he CES show this year, hearing anything related to the USPS is a surprise.  Aurasma introduced a yet-to-be-released app the turns a mailpiece into interactive content.  This Augment Reality application will let mailers connect with the web in ways that QR Codes could not.  The UK based-augemented reality startup has been at it since 2011.

I think an app like this has potential, but has many challenges.  If the USPS is looking for more volume, I am not sure this will get them there (and it won't get them anywhere close to the hemorrhaging volumes).  This is an added expense to a direct mail campaign and mailers will scrub their lists to send this premium piece to a highly targeted audience.



The More You Know Blog where I found this video does not make it clear if the USPS is actually partnered with Aurasma.  I googled a little and found Aurasma's facebook page that posted on January 10th "Great to see our partner USPS getting recognition at CES for their Aurasma powered app that brings your mail to digital life "

Check out more on Aurasma at www.aurasma.com