Category: SpinVox

SpinVox 4 U

This piece first appeared over at the SpinVox Blog in the early hours of this morning. But upon re-reading it this afternoon I figured I’d publish it here too on my VOX as I don’t consider it a just another ad for them but rather a personal recommendation of some of their FREE services.

And anyway, it’s my blog, I’ll post what the hell I like!
😉

As ever, all comments welcome.
Enjoy..

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SpinVox For You – YES YOU! – cross-posted from The SpinVox Blog

That’s right! You! There! Reading this!
🙂

So I was chatting away to one of my peers the other day and I happened to mention I worked for SpinVox and their immediate (and rather dismissal) response was:

“Oh, that Voicemail thingy?“

And I said:

“Well… Yeah.. but NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! As well..“

Y’see – Whilst I do agree that one of the killer applications of the SpinVox product is Voicemail… (we’ll come back to this one another time – it really has saved my life on more than one occasion) …there are still SO MANY other ways you can have SpinVox in your life.

Allow me to outline three that I personally use quite regularly…

1) Ok. Let’s start with group text messaging. Know what that is? The ‘one to many’ thing yeah? No? Well look, let me tell you about Blast.

Blast through SpinVox has two cool benefits: First up, (which I think is just damn cool on its own), you can speak a text message. That’s right. SPEAK. A. TEXT. Cool as.
The second benefit is not only can you speak your SMS but you can also set up a predefined list of up to TWENTY recipients. That’s right, Twenty.
That is cool. I honestly had no idea it was that many… (I thought it was like five or something) …I think I’m going to have to review my account definitely.
I only have the numbers of a couple of loved ones in my group at the moment. Maybe I’ll delete them and create a new group of blast buddies: “Pub friends” – yeah, that’ll work. 🙂

2) Next – You’re out and about and you remember – (like me) –

“Damn, I must remember to pack that thing for tomorrow“

So what do I do? I call my Memo through SpinVox number, leave myself a little reminder message, and then – when I get home – it’s there in my email inbox:

“Dude, don’t forget to pack that thing for tomorrow“

Cool? Maybe.
Handy? Hell yeah!

Especially if you like to keep notes throughout the day and don’t have time to write anything down.

3) Finally, one of my favourite applications of the SpinVox product: Blog through SpinVox.
Admittedly, something I’m yet to demonstrate on this blog – (we’re currently midway through redesigning the place – I’ll activate voice posting after that goes live) – but I have used it before on my own blog and I’m glad to report it works very well.

You can literally blog from anywhere. Well… anywhere where you can make a phone call anyway… Mount Everest for instance!

Thing is, and this is what makes it a ‘must-have’ instead of a ‘nice to have’:

With Blog through SpinVox the ‘I was’ becomes ‘I am’.

And that, to me, is just SO powerful.

Try it. I dare you.

😉

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EDIT:

Early reports say that that ^ reads like a SpinVox ad.
Meh.

It’s been a long time coming…

This is me, (in case you weren’t aware) trying to get to grips with, (read: NOT DROP), my N95 while hanging out the back of a yellow cab crusing the streets of San Francisco.

But the look on my face pretty much typifies the look that’s been on my face since the last time I blogged.

I have been at it non-stop.
Hence the lack of blog-love lately I guess…

So this is a quick refresher/breather – I keep looking at this post and realising that there is still quite a lot I need to cover off…

But I’m not going to do it here…Sorry. Still too much to do.

EDIT: Err… Reading this back through – looks like I have! Ha!

So first – a ‘to-do/blog’ list of things I need to get done…

Without a doubt I need to give up some more love to the guys at Mippin.

My dear friends over in Fulham have just released the latest iteration of their great product which now includes Twitter, Flickr and Facebook integration. Awesomeness…
Full lowdown and (completely unbiased) review coming soon. Promise.

Nex, I was going to blog about the FOWAs. But to be honest there were only a couple of things that came out of that that are worth mentioning – so I’ll do it here:

1) I got to meet Jyri, industry hero and founder of Jaiku.

Which was just cool.

2) I got to meet Vero – aka thatcanadiangirl.

She’s a great blogger, a great girl and best of all… a great geek!

And finally… The best thing about the FOWAs?

The themes of openess and web 2.0ness that I’ve been discussing with my close friends, peers and colleagues (ie that podcast I did for instance), well those themes (some of which I’m actually writing a paper on at the moment – more on that when I finally get off my backside and finish it) were all very apparent at this event.
Seems like the rest of the world.industry is finally waking up! Rock..

Ok – so that’s the FOWAs done. Tick that box…

Oh – and as an FYI – The FOWAs were put together by the uber smart guys over at Carsonified.
Who do a whole host of similar events…

One of which is coming up in a couple of weeks and is called: The Future of Mobile… or The FOM.
I first heard about this event when I was still working with Mippin and was particularly interested because my then CEO, Scott Beaumont (no link – sorry – where’s your blog gone Scott?) was scheduled to be one of the speakers..

I’m not entirely sure that is still the case at this time (and am currently awaiting confirmation) but either way it should still be a great event (it’s being held at The IMAX for crying out loud!) with some great speakers and a fantastic after-party too.. Hehehe…
Someone who definitely will be speaking is my main man Dan Appelquist (whom I mentioned in my last post).
He’ll be talking about: Life Beyond WAP: Advance Browsing, Mobile Ajax, and the Future of the Mobile Web.

So yeah – I’ve got my ticket… Have you?

Now moving on from the Future of Mobile to the very future-looking Mobile Geeks of London who held their second group meet up recently. This poor boy had to miss the event but the guys made sure that I wasn’t missed..
As you can see below…

Bless ’em… Champers?! For me?! Ooo… Suit you sir!

Anyways – I must take a moment to extend much Whatley-Love to a few people who made sure that even without the host with most – MGoL will still meet & geek!

First up: Peter Romiszewski – or ‘Romek’ for short, big geek and a great Jaiku buddy to boot.

Next: Richard Hyndman – ex-colleague from Refresh Mobile and master of all things Mippin
(who doesn’t actually have a blog so I’ve linked you to his Jaiku – hope you don’t mind Rich!)

And Finally: Ed Cave – Txt2Lock Guru, nice bloke and attendee of the original ‘Geeks’.

Cheers guys. Much love and many a beer to be provided at MGoL III…
Something that is currently on my radar and my even sneak in before the end of 2007!
You heard it here first! Shh!

Now – that’s covered off everything that I wanted to write about in my last but one post…
But I still have to SO MUCH to blog:

  • My business trip to San Francisco, (well – everything that happened after the first 24hrs anyway)
  • Social Networks through SpinVox
  • And all of the news and coverage that followed that… Because it’s NOW LIVE folks! Go! Get it!
  • A couple of other blogging projects that I want to talk about
  • Mobile Geeks of London III (I’m waiting on ONE PERSON to come back to me before we move ahead)

And a whole host of other things too I’m sure…

…so keep checking back folks – more to come… very soon.

Until then.

WD signing off.

24hrs in San Francisco…

…and what a mission it has been!

I land and realise as I’m getting off the plane that I left my wallet next to the wifi hotspot at London Heathrow.

Whoops.

I check my emails and I have a converted voicemail – (cheers SpinVox) from someone who not only found it, but handed it in, got the details of the guy/department she gave it in to and then left her number too in case I was still around. Rock.

Go to customer services here – explain all, show them the email. They get on the phone. My wallet is fine but I have to pick it up in person.

Bugger. No money, no cards and no way of getting to the hotel.

The man standing next to me says:

“Where you staying?”
“The Clift” says I.

“Oh, I used to run their Limo company. Give me two minutes…”

“But I have no money! I can’t pay you dude…”
“I’m sorry Sir, but you lost your wallet right?
“Right.”
“And how much was in it?”
“About $200 US.”
“And it’s been handed in and all the money is there and all is good right?
“Yes.”

“Well that’s some good karma right there Sir so that means you’ve
obviously done something to deserve it. So hey, have some more –
Take the Limo to the Clift Sir, and enjoy your stay San Francisco.”

F**k. Me. Wow.

I get to the hotel. Can’t check-in, no credit card.

“But I have my passport?”
“No Sir, we need a card, sorry.”

I call up a random US colleague who I know is down the road at the conference. Explain all. He turns up, checks me in, gives me $200 ‘to last me’ and then rocks back to the conference!

I then unpack, shower and stuff (my room is awesome) and head on down to the Nokia party I got invited to. Get given a whole bunch of free phone stuff as well as an invite to their exclusive after party. Which I went to, made new friends. One of which I got really drunk with and we passed out in the hotel lobby in the hours of this morning.

Later that day, I get an email from my friend and colleague Dan Appelquist (Great guy, from Vodafone, runs Mobile Mondays) – he knows I’m in town – says would I mind picking up a parcel for him which he forgot when he
was here last week..

“Sure…” says I.

Dan then says I should hook up with this girl,

“Cathy, you guys are both in the messaging / Web 2.0 cross-over space. I think you would both enjoy meeting up and you might find some synergy to what you’re both doing. You’re both out at CTIA going to various parties (not that I’m jealous) so I leave it to you.”

I look at the email. I read it again.

DUDE!!!!

The girl I got hammered and passed out with in the hotel lobby the night before? …Yup.

Cathy.

Brilliant.

Small world or WHAT?!
Unbelievable.

And I’ve only been here 24hrs. Ha. Let’s not even talk about today when I rocked up the conference and EVERYONE is wearing a suit. Apart from….

ME!

Flipflops, torn jeans, sunny gs, t-shirt… Like this in fact:

Very amusing.

Felt like that scene from Pretty Woman..
Love it.

More to come soon – promise. But this place is awesome. At the time of writing I’ve been here 48hrs and I wrote this yesterday but lost my connection before I could post! Grr… Ah well.

More stories to follow…

🙂

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Ladies and Gentlemen..
It’s official.

Tomorrow – Aug 24th marks my last day at Refresh Mobile.

Over the past 13mths I’ve worn many hats and gone through many job titles… so here goes –

Ahem – SO – I am leaving the role(s) of:

Mobizines Manager, Customer Champion, Chief of Blogger Relations, Content Merchandiser, Blogger, Product Manager, Quality Control Manager and Service Evangelist… (breathe) …at Refresh Mobile.

Phew… and where am I off to?
Well…

I’m off to go and be the new Digital Marketing Product Manager over at the voice-to-text specialists, SpinVox.
Working alongside another new(ish) recruit – James Scroggs – to help them expand the SpinVox brand and products across the world and throughout the entire universe!
😉
In the meantime – I wish the guys at Refresh every success with Mippin…

…which, by the way, IS fantastic. I’m gonna be taking it along to the SMS Text News Unlimited Drinks event tonight – so if you’re coming too – grab me and I’ll give you a cheeky preview…

And I owe a massive amount of thanks to them also, for plucking me from obscurity many moons ago (more details here) and helping me grow in all sorts of ways…

(ask Scott Beaumont what I was like when we first met!)

It really has been an incredible journey* (which is by no means over for them – Mippin is gonna ROCK!) but at this point our paths are headed in different directions…

Good luck guys – The first round is on me at the next Mobile Geeks of London!

🙂

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*Some key points in the Refresh Mobile journey so far – in no particular order:
(and I’ve probably missed a few too – so expect this list to grow)

– Nokia Developer of the Year 2006

– The Mobizines Blog

– Launching Eyemags

– Shortlisted for the Meffy Awards

– Nokia Download!

– Getting Mobizines live in the US – Hungary – South Africa and Germany!

– Mippin – Make It Mobile