Posted by Tattletech on Jan 26, 2011 in
Location Based Services,
Mobile,
Start ups 
Image via Wikipedia
This was supposed to happen with Blue-tooth — see /interact with other Bluetoothers around you, connect if you wanted to and boom! Instant local social. But Blue-tooth was unreliable and gosh-darnit, was just a little too weird and slightly too complicated for the common man to work out. So we waited.
Then all these smartphones came on the scene, we got LBS – now just Location Services (LS) and now this. A new Twitter follower came on the scene today and introduced me to Hob-Knob. They claim to be the only “Locally Based Social Networking Application. Chat, share pictures or files and get deals all with people and businesses located within the same wifi as you”.
Careful, read that correctly…. located in the SAME wifi as you are. That means that if I am say, at terminal 2D at CdG where I usually find myself waiting for a flight to somewhere, everyone using that wifi there and I can connect, share, chat and of course the self-proclaimed savior to LS – get deals from nearby retailers, which in that case, would be Relay and the airport snack shack.
I kinda dig the concept behind Hob-Knob cause it throws narrow and not wide, it takes the basic premise that you are there now, in the moment around those people in that location and why not benefit from it. Although if you are close enough to share photos with someone you know in the same wifi area as you are in, why not just get up and go over and show them one-on-one, unless of course you are in high-school at the back of the class and your BFF is in front of the clase and you must send her a photo of Eric, the new kid that just transferred in from Helsinki. In that case, it would be useful. You can follow Hob-Knob (Knob? really? did they miss the boat on branding or what?) on Twitter @hobknobbers
– JH
Tags: Bluetooth, Helsinki, Hob Knob, local based services, Social network service, Social Networking, Wi-Fi
Posted by Tattletech on Nov 21, 2010 in
Things We've Learned This Week This post is a little late – but after a busy week from being on the road and at the TechCrunch Europas… we had to let it all setttle a bit. Here are things we learned this past week:
1. London is still really expensive.
2. Never start buying cocktails for a group of people who have had too much to drink and just put it on your hotel bill. The next day, you will not be happy.
3. Emerging tech/VC events are really just like a one-day summer camp reunion, nothing more. Be seen, have some drinks, go out later.
4. No matter how much funding a start-up has, with an un-experienced marketing person at the helm, you will zig and zag all over the place and get no where.
5. A good marketing person steers the ship with ease, but even they can’t control an eratic CEO.
6. Investors should not be doing PR of any form for their portfolio companies. Nada. Zip. Zero. So cut it out.
7. Apps still won’t work without network coverage or WiFi, let’s fix that.
8. How long can you coast on luck or self-deprecation? Pretty long apparently according to some.
9. You can not launch a product in 2 days.
10. There is only noise at big trade shows, not noise. Don’t be delusional in thinking otherwise.
11. Old school 80s style PR is dead. Today it’s a jagged, volatile communications landscape that’s all about targeting, social, issue hi-jacking, thought-leadership & disruptive concepts.
12. Where there is a will, there is a way.
–JLH
Tags: ink Communications, London, Public relations, Summer camp, United States, Wi-Fi
It’s not a long list. It’s not an overly complicated list. But it is a list and we have decided that it will be a regular post. As regular as possible. I mean some weeks, you learn nothing. And as that guy on Warehouse 13 said, “we acquire knowledge faster than wisdom” So here goes what we learned.
1. Pity is NOT a sales strategy. Yup. It’s not. When you want to sell something, it’s probably NOT a good idea to say times are tough when you want someone to buy an ad. Not sure, but we think that is not a winning combo.
2. Diplomacy still counts. Just cause you can shout out anything you want, anytime of the day on the old Twitter-o-gram, doesn’t mean that in relations with your fellow humans you can’t be a little diplomatic when it comes to participating in the process of the day. And, if you miss a call you are supposed to be on, you kinda don’t have the right to go back later and re-direct the people that were on the call.
3. Mindless blather is annoying. This false-belief that Tweeting out everything you hear at a conference or event is interesting out of context is annoying. Full stop. Don’t do it.
4. Skype, Facebook and Google are all bonkers. They should come with a warning label that reads like one they put on tobacco. In fact, they are the new tobacco.
5. Shutl is for people that have nothing to do. I’m all for speedy delivery, but how badly do you really need that new purple dingus thingee? Cause if you want to set up a delivery and then sit and watch it being delivered via the route it takes on the internet, you need a job or you fell and hit your head.
6. Blouses are too sophisticated to be a part of the mindless fashion chatter. Yes they are still in and yes it means you might have to shop at a store that isn’t H & M.
7. Universal communication is where the future is for staying connected – voice, chat, IM, texting, all in one wins in the end. See Nimbuzz news.
8. Coffee is key to a good happy, productive workday and its always nice to get little reminders on Twitter about when you need this “said” coffee.
9. Google is bonkers, did we say this already? Yea this week they want us to “log in” more and their display revenue figures prove they are still a one-trick pony. And yet, still no one can really say what Google does…we still say Skynet, but no one ever laughs.
10. Despite our fancy technology, lickety-split delivery, ability to shout whatever we want, when we want, make WiFi calls on airplanes, cries that print is dead — We still live, breathe and behave in a Web 1.0 paradigm.. we all know that a land line call has the best quality, playing a record (so yea Spotify rulz) gives us more pleasure than chocolate, holding the newspaper in your hands on a Sunday with a nice cup of coffee feels right. — JLH
Tags: blouses, Coffee, Diplomocy, Facebook, Google, Nespresso, Skynet, Twitter, Warehouse 13, Web 1.0, Wi-Fi
Posted by Tattletech on Mar 23, 2009 in
Cool stuff,
Innovation,
Mobile,
Red Herring Now that we have a few spare minutes but before Plugg fades too much in our memory, here’s the juicy news on Nimbuzz, courtesy of the awesome Tobias Kemper. They have just announced a new VoIP app for the iPhone! The new app enables you to make free Wi-Fi calls to your IM buddies with a full dial-pad, AND you can make VoIP calls to landlines and mobiles wih Skype Out, as well as with their other partners Gizmo5, Vyke, sipgate and A1. The new app lets you see how much Skype Out credit you have remaining right on the dial pad, and if you don’t have access to WiFi, you can make VoIP calls to your Nimbuzz buddies using their dial-up VoIP in over 50 countries!
How does that work you may ask? Nimbuzz dials a local access number using their VoIP servers that will connect you anywhere in the world, for the same cost as a domestic call. Genius! On top of that, you can magically turn youriPod touch into an iPhone and make calls via Skype Out or usering a Nimbuzz VoIP provider.
Sounds pretty cool to us. We’re going to give you more with the upcoming Tattletech Hot Seat interview with Tobias Kemper, don’t miss it!
Tags: IPhone, Nimbuzz, Skype, Wi-Fi
Posted by Tattletech on Sep 23, 2008 in
Technology,
Weird things
Image via Wikipedia
Mobile Tech Today ran an interesting story on tiny devices creating a big buzz. Actually they said that a spokesperson for the Consumer Electronics Association toted nine devices around with him including two camcorders and a pair of computers (all in one bag) – but they were all tiny and all under $400 USD. Tiny devices run the spectrum — computers, speakers, notebooks, recorders – all of them designed to let you take your content with you and watch it, record it, edit it or even play it back with Dolby. Want an example? According to the reporter, the Sylvania Meso runs for $399 Meso and weighs only 2.2 pounds and a keyboard about 80 percent of normal size, but it packs a 1.6-gigahertz Intel 
Atom processor , stereo speakers, built-in WiFi and a webcam. The $499 Wind, also with a 1.6-gigahertz processor, sports a full-size keyboard. Both have screens smaller than 9 inches but come with 80 gigabytes of storage. They would both fit nicely in my tiny Prada bag.
In the “I don’t want to look like at total tech nerd while driving department”…. the BlueAnt Supertooth Light and the Funkwerk Ego Cup let you chat while driving but without that pesky speakerphone hogging your stylish and totally clean sports car.
The BlueAnt device clips to a car’s sun visor and the Ego Cup can be attached to a flat surface but an attachment lets the speakerphone rest in a standard-size cupholder, so make sure your SuperGulp is not taking up all the space.
Tags: Consumer Electronics Association, Intel Atom, MsiWind, Wi-Fi
Posted by inkgirls on Apr 16, 2008 in
Innovation,
Mobile UDcast recently is making a lot of people that don’t even know them happy by bringing the internet to high speed trains (TGV). The company’s UDgateway satellite-delivered Internet access appliance has been installed in the Wi-Fi equipment and servers as part of a mobile Internet trial in three trains of the TGV-East of the French National Railway Network. Now as you speed around France you can get the internet – cool. EE Times Europe ran a nice little summary of the story
Tags: Computers and Internet, Internet access, UDcast, Wi-Fi
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