Posts Tagged 'email'

My facebook identity

Published June 14, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
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At noon Saturday I picked my new facebook vanity url and from now on I’m facebook.com/dvirreznik. Simple and precise. According to facebook, 15min into the action, some 500,000 people registered their urls, at a staggering rate of 550 per second!

The question you need to ask is ‘what facebook has in store for us next?’ Having your own vanity url has been around for couple of years now, with LinkedIn, Flickr, SlideShare, Gmail, Twitter, Qik and many more. Being a number is so 1984, and facebook realized that. In my opinion (and others) facebook are working on something bigger, that would increase the loyalty of its friends – something like an email service.

And why the heck not? According to recent data facebook has some 200,000,000 loyal users and growing, built-in chat services, strong eco-system of developers – the only thing missing is messaging. And when you pick your vanity url you basically decide your email address: dvirreznik@facebook.com.

If you have other suggestions I’d love to hear them – drop a comment below.

Why do I love Topify

Published March 9, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
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There has been lots of buzz online surrounding the beta launch of topify, an innovative service from my friends Arik and Ouriel, providing an email access to your twitter notifications. You can ask for an invite to the beta version by starting to follow @topify.

What does Topify do?
I set my twitter preferences to email me whenever I get a DM (direct message). The problem is (was actually) that I cannot ‘Reply’ to those messages – I need to go to my twitter application (mobile, web, desktop) and ‘Reply’ from it. Topify solves that problem. Another feature Topify offers is the ability to follow the people following you – directly from your inbox. You can see the short bio of the person, his/her last update, # of followers/following and other metrics. Want to follow – just ‘Reply’ to the message.
Ezra was kind enough to volunteer for this demo – thanks man! The email thread I captured below has 3 messages: DM I got from Ezra, my reply to him and Topify’s confirmation of that reply. It’s very simple and easy.

You can see the DM Ezra sent me ‘can i volenteer?’ on the top of the image.
Clicking ‘Reply’ via Gmail sends a message to ‘xxx_d_twitterusername@topify.com’ – where xxx stands for a unique topify user, ‘d_twitterusername’ is quite obvious.
Last message in that thread is the confirmation from topify that my message was sent to Ezra.

Now all I need someone to develop is a character counter for Gmail – since twitter allows up to 140 chars, and I’m using Gmail to reply, I lost count of the words, and my message got cut by topify. Arik/Ouriel – planning something like this?

Gmail Labs adds Lotus Notes Replication Capability

Published January 31, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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One of the many things I love about Google Reader is its Offline mode – which comes in handy especially during flights. I can read (a lot of) feeds and blogs, marking for later the things I want to tag/dogear/post/delicious. This story at Calcalist.co.il caught my eye, talking about Gmail Labs adding offline capability to the popular e-mail service. Wow.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love Gmail (much more than Yahoo! Mail), and the Labs have some cool products, BUT, two things bugs me in this story:

The first, Lotus Notes has been sporting this ‘offline’ mode since its inception, some 16 years ago. It’s called ‘Replication‘, and allows you to take everything (not just emails) offline, including composite applications, calendar, emails with attachments – and syncing with the Domino server when such a connection is available.

The second is the total disregard to Lotus Notes and Domino as a desktop email client/platform. The reporter, Dora Kishinevsky, mentions that such a feature is similar to what desktop email clients do, like Outlook. Israel is a Microsoft country, but there are other vendors, and some journalists know that.

Links:
Gmail Labs adds offline capability – Calcalist.co.il
Google unveils beta of offline Gmail option – NetworkWorld (via Ed Brill)
Gmail Labs adds a decade old Notes feature – Alan Lepofsky

First 48 hours with Lotus Notes Traveler

Published January 15, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
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It’s been just over 48 hours since I started using Lotus Notes Traveler over my Nokia N95 and I have this to say – it’s addictive and I love it!! I’m using Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.0.0, with Lotus Mobile Connect for VPN to IBM network (which also gives me access to our intranet – cool ;-), and it has changed the way I work.

Now, some friends might say I’m a ‘connection-junky’ – must be online all the time, but they are blowing it out of proportions a bit. I do have fring, twibble, gmail, FB mobile, Lotus Sametime Mobile, Opera Mini and other mobile applications that keeps me connected – because it’s easier to access them when I want, where-ever I want. Also, I’m not connected all the time because my N95’s battery will die after 4 hours of usage..

I must say that the Lotus Notes Traveler setup is pretty easy, no technical knowledge required. Define your Domino server, how you connect to the network, what you want to sync (mail, calendar, contacts), always-on (push mail) or by-demand, and you’re set.

So, after downloading this cool Symbian screenshot application (thanks Yoav), I’ve taken some screenshots of what Lotus Notes Traveler can do. All those screenshots (and more as time progresses) are available at the facebook album.

Links:
Lotus Notes Traveler post
Lotus Notes Traveler product page at ibm.com
Lotus mobile solutions
Lotus Notes Traveler Album

iPhone 3G – Not for me, thanks

Published June 11, 2008 Uncategorized 2 Comments
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Since yesterday’s announcement at WWDC, it seems the world has stopped: no more hunger, we found a cure for AIDS, our atmosphere is fine, water is more expensive than gas and everyone are happy – the iPhone 3G is here.

Even thou Apple are continuing to I-G-N-O-R-E the Israeli market, consciously (still not clear why), there are plenty of iPhones here, much more than in Jordan or Central Africa Republic. I advise Apple to read the Hebrew chapter from Microsoft’s book. But that’s not the main problem I have with Apple.

No Lotus Notes support. That’s my problem.

I don’t get Steve Jobs, really don’t. What’s the point of brushing off 45% of your potential customers? If iPhone 3G wants to compete with BlackBerry in the corporate market place, why Apple ignores almost half of its consumer base? And don’t start talking about Apple’s SDK for iPhone. Have you read the fine-print? Show me where you see the word ‘mail’ in there. There are other ways of making iPhone-Lotus integration, but they are not acceptable by Apple.

Even if Apple will sport Lotus Notes support, the iPhone still lags behind the cellular standard of 2008 (and even 2007). Yes, it’s sleek, and very cool. You can’t deny that. But when it comes to features and functionality, there are better devices out there: Nokia N95/N96, Blackberry Curve /Bold, Palm Treo, LG Prada, HTC Diamond and others.

So, if anyone at Apple cares, no iPhone 3G for me.
I’m staying with my Nokia N95, definitely buying microSD 8GB HC card now.
The day there’s native Lotus Notes support, I’m ordering one. 16GB, black.

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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.