Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

Just heard an internet entrepreneur complain about his parents’ use of their mobile phones. They switch them off when they are at home and often forget to turn them on when they leave the house. Our generation carries a mobile phone at all times and sometimes doesn’t even have a home phone. This is hard to explain to our parents and other older people. The entrepreneur urged them to simply keep the phone on at all times which they warily refused. They told him they didn’t like the prospect of people calling them everywhere and all the time.

My grandfather was a doctor in a small village. He had one of the 20 phones. His phonenumber was 9. When my father grew up the phone was still regarded as a serious tool which you would only use for urgent matters. My father made one phonecall a year and his father had him sit down and make a list of things he wanted to ask - a script - which he had to show for approval before he made the call.

I remember when I had to explain - defend even - to people why I had a mobile phone. Recently I met someone who didn’t own a mobile phone. This was a fact that led to a lot of amusement at the party where I was at. It was noteworthy enough to keep everybody talking about it for about a hour.

One day telephone calls will be free. They might be always on. Probably it will use some technology that confuses me. I will not understand it and resist. My daughters will come over to have a chat about my phone use. They will say something like this:

“Why do you hang up daddy? What is the use? Why do you need to be disconnected? It is so inconvenient to have to reconnect every time we want to hear how you are doing. Last week you hung up the phone for 3 hours! We only found out after 2 hours and then we spent almost a full hour to reconnect! You know it is free, right? No need to keep it short. From now on just keep your communicator switched on at all times so we can hear you, see your heart rate and check your temperature…

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Keeping my Blackberry synced with my mac has been a constant struggle for years now. I tried several software solutions and often destroyed my calendar. Right now there is one appointment in my calendar that accidently got itself duplicated 3000 times. I can’t go to that week or iCal crashes. I can’t delete them either because that also crashes iCal. I could delete all older events but then I lose everything. So I just ignore it.

Today Google announced something that might help: BlackBerry Sync for Google Calendar

I installed it and it seems to work fine, so far. Now I have to think of a way to sync Google Calendar with iCal and then I am Synced all over the place. Spanning Sync should do the trick but that is pretty expensive with a $25 one-year subscription or a $65 one-time purchase.

If you have a Blackberry just surf to this link and you can install the application right away:
http://m.google.com/sync.

A few weeks ago I dropped my iPhone on the kitchen floor and cracked the glass. I was extremely disappointed and shared my feelings on Twitter.

But then Oscar Kneppers came up with a beautiful plan. I’m not going into all the details here because I want to leave that to Bright Magazine but it involved Mark Hoekstra and you can see the result here:

The Black iPhone:
http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/822/paint-it-black-the-iphone

I am so proud that MY old iPhone is now THE coolest iPhone in the world!

Please also Digg the story:
http://digg.com/gadgets/The_ONLY_Black_iPhone_in_the_World

Now also on Gizmodo:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/iphone/iphone-mod-thinks-differently-316602.php

And on the unofficial Apple weblog:
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/10/29/iphone-or-newton/

Make Magazine:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/10/old_school_iphone.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

Wakoopa, a company I own shares in, today announced a new product/service. They now track usage on iPhones too. We all own iPhones at the office and I think it is a smart move to take advantage of the iPhones popularity this way. Here is the official press release:

PRESS RELEASE - Amsterdam, October 22 2007
Software startup makes iPhone usage transparent
Amsterdam-based company Wakoopa has announced today that it’s tracking worldwide iPhone usage. Since January, Wakoopa has been developing an online social network where software usage can be tracked. Next to Mac and PC software, it now also monitors applications for the new Apple handheld, the iPhone.

Social network
Wakoopa (http://wakoopa.com) is a social network specifically for software users. Wakoopa’s service enables people to track and designate what software they are using. This creates a “view rating” or usage indication of software. Visitors and members of this community can look at what software has been used for how long in their social circle, and which type of software is most popular at a certain moment.

Better choices
Wakoopa founders Wouter Broekhof and Robert Gaal want to make iPhone application more transparent with this new addition. Broekhof: “The iPhone truly is a revolutionary device that has inspired developers worldwide. We want to make the usage of these applications more transparant. Not only for developers, but for our users who will be able to make better choices when it comes to software”. Apple announced last week that developers from outside the company will be able to create iPhone applications in the future. Currently it’s already possible to create iPhone software in the form of web applications. Both these types of applications can be added and tracked on Wakoopa’s iPhone site (http://i.wakoopa.com).

Wakoopa
Wakoopa launched in May this year and has welcomed over 20.000 unique members since. The Dutch Creative Industry Fund (DCIF), an investment fund founded by the three largest Dutch media companies, invested in the company earlier this year. Shortly after, BusinessWeek awarded Broekhof (23) and Gaal (22) as “Europe’s Top Young Entrepreneurs 2007”.

Even if you don’t have an iPhone Wakoopa is still a great service to check out. I use it on my Mac and display a widget on my blog here showing what applications I use. When I visit Wakoopa I get suggestions of other interesting applications I could use besides or instead of my current software.

As you might know I have a huge (complete!) collection of Wired Magazines. Regularly I grab a random copy and browse through it. Today I grabbed a 1996 issue with Steve Jobs on the cover. I only read half of the article but was thrilled when I found a quote that made a huge impression on me when I first read it.

The last question that Gary Wolf asks is “Is there anything well designed today that inspires you?”. Steve Jobs then tells a very personal story about his ideas about design and how he and his family deals with technology.

I can recommend reading the whole article but i also want to quote this one particular part here:

Design is not limited to fancy new gadgets. Our family just bought a new washing machine and dryer. We didn’t have a very good one so we spent a little time looking at them. It turns out that the Americans make washers and dryers all wrong. The Europeans make them much better - but they take twice as long to do clothes! It turns out that they wash them with about a quarter as much water and your clothes end up with a lot less detergent on them. Most important, they don’t trash your clothes. They use a lot less soap, a lot less water, but they come out much cleaner, much softer, and they last a lot longer.

We spent some time in our family talking about what’s the trade-off we want to make. We ended up talking a lot about design, but also about the values of our family. Did we care most about getting our wash done in an hour versus an hour and a half? Or did we care most about our clothes feeling really soft and lasting longer? Did we care about using a quarter of the water? We spent about two weeks talking about this every night at the dinner table. We’d get around to that old washer-dryer discussion. And the talk was about design.

We ended up opting for these Miele appliances, made in Germany. They’re too expensive, but that’s just because nobody buys them in this country. They are really wonderfully made and one of the few products we’ve bought over the last few years that we’re all really happy about. These guys really thought the process through. They did such a great job designing these washers and dryers. I got more thrill out of them than I have out of any piece of high tech in years.

From an interview by Gary Wolf with Steve Jobs for Wired Magazine in 1996 titled “Give The People What They Want”

A few months ago I received a message from someone I once met. He had moved from one company to another and wanted to let me (and the 400 other recipients in the To: field) know his new contact details. I opened the message and included was a 1.2 megabyte JPG with his new contact details, in an image.

Can you imagine how inconvenient that is? Ever since then I have been paying special attention to how people communicate their new addresses and have now decided to write a ‘How to’ about the subject.

So, are you planning on moving to another company? Changing your email address? Phone-number? Feel the need to send your friends and acquaintances a personal note about this upcoming change? Here are my 5 tips to do it efficiently:

1: get a Plaxo account.
Plaxo works very simple. You enter your details there and so do lots of other people (15+ million). Now instead of changing your contact data everywhere you only change it online and everybody who is connected to you via Plaxo also gets your new contact data. It is a great system and I look forward to they day they have 5 billion customers and my address-book will always be up to date. Unfortunately some people really dislike Plaxo which brings me to tip 2.

2: get a temporary Plaxo account.
Even if you don’t like Plaxo many other people do. And it is by far the easiest way to change your data in a lot of your contacts addressbooks. Simply get an account, enter your correct data. Keep it like that for a week or so and then log out again. No need to stay connected to Plaxo all the time.

3: Don’t send raw data
Even if you send me your new contact data as text in a message I still have to copy page each line to my AddressBook. That is way to inconvenient. Please use the excellent vCard format. See next tip.

4: Send a vCard
vCards are simple XML files with your contact data in it. Most applications can read this format straight out of the box. If I get a vCard attached to an email message I simply double-click it and it is opened and added to my AddressBook:

Uploaded with Skitch!

You can generate a vCard in most applications simply by selecting your own record and selecting ‘Export’ and then choosing the vCard format. But if that is too difficult for you you can also generate your own vCard: http://vcardmaker.wackomenace.co.uk/

5: Upload a vCard
Not everybody can receive attachements. Some Firewalls or mailservers strip away any message they don’t recognize. Upload your vCard to a server and supply the url. Here is mine (Right click and choose ‘Save link as…’ to download).