06.29.07 - iPhone Arrives - New Ads Online

The iPhone arrives on the 29th. Apple has also released 3 new iPhone ads ( 1, 2, 3, ) on their web site. Very well done indeed. Apple continues to set the bar high for tech advertising. Intel, Dell and most of the companies in this space really need to take a cue from Cupertino. Simple, to the point and the product does the selling.

I'm really hoping for the sake of my Realtor® friends that the lock box manufacturers will quickly add this phone to their list of devices for property access, there's no reason for them not to. Even without the lockbox access, the iPhone is poised to become the ultimate Realtor® communication device. Oh, and did I mention it shows W I D E Screen Video Podcasts? :) Can't wait to get my hands one one.

Web 2.0 - Best Practices Award

Last year I awarded the first Mike's Corner Web 2.0 "Best Practices" award. Today I'm bestowing the award on a company that's had it's share of issues with regard to customer communication recently, Dell. The folks in Austin have decided to use the power of social networking to find out what people really want in a PC. They call it Dell IdeaStorm. Essentially it's a form of consumer transparency.

"Dell IdeaStorm launched on Friday, February 16. Dell employees are monitoring IdeaStorm to gauge which ideas are most important and most relevant to you. And we'll share those ideas throughout our organization to trigger new thoughts about how we evolve as a company. As your ideas continue to pour in, we will use this page to provide updates on ideas that Dell is considering. We'll also show you how your ideas are being put into action at Dell over time. Please check back to see your ideas in action."

The site uses a "Digg" social news style format to promote good ideas to the top. Idea Storm also features a discussion forum and section to preview and comment on upcoming products. The top voted ideas come as no surprise to me. High on the list is a "Craplet Free" system. Delivering a system with a clean operating system unencumbered by resource hogging trial ware, nag screens more. They are even using the site to determine how the site itself should be structured. The next step is "YouTube" style video upload section. I just wonder if they will allow the exploding laptop videos to make their way to the site?

I could see this same type of environment working for well for brokers. The Tuesday morning meeting is probably all but dead. It's a safe bet that most offices see a lot less of their agent staff these days. Home offices and mobile technology have seen to that. Allowing agents to participate in "digital brainstorming" sessions could provide brokers with a good road map for company initiatives and prevent investments in programs that may not be well adopted. Using this type of tool could be more effective than a digital suggestion box or Intranet due it's social structure and transparency. In a business model such as RE/MAX where decisions are made by committee, this could be an invaluable way for individual groups to post and work with new ideas. From a business planning perspective it would be great to take a historical snapshot of the decision making process from the birth of an idea to it's implementation and beyond.

On larger scales, such as Dell, the biggest obstacle I see to this type of program is manipulation of the system. Anyone with an agenda or just too much time on their hands could potentially "game" the site. An example is a thread that says "Bring Back The Dell Dude" For all we know that guy might be trying charge up the paddles on his 15 minutes of fame in hopes that the Idea Storm site can shock it back to life. Then again maybe there are people out there that actually want to go through the hell of those commercials all over again. I'm sure there are people hard at work on ideas to avoid situations that prevent unscrupulous use of the system. That said, I am of the mind set that there is value in pretty much all of the content, even at the long end of the tail.

Mike Antoniak, a tech writer for Realtor Magazine mentioned to me recently that Michael Dell publicly proclaimed he would be happy to sell a system with Apple's Macintosh OS X operating system on it. Now there's an idea I would love to see it stormed to the top of the list. Because for me personally -- Dude, that's the only way I'm gettin a Dell.

Wired Says Supersize Your RSS

Theres a good article in Wired today about RSS. It explains a bit about how Vista (Windows) will impact RSS and how to get the most out of your feeds. There are some links to a few tools that I wasn't aware of for managing feeds via e-mail etc.

"We recently tested a number of RSS services that help "power users" do more with news feeds. Offerings from internet giants like Google and Yahoo team up with software from smaller, niche players like RMail, RSSfwd and Feed Shake to custom tailor the feed-reading experience in a number of ways."

To be honest with you, I only use a Windows box when I have to. That said, it's the business I am in so our work stations must have Macs and PeeCees in a co-existent habitat. From what I've heard Vista is real hog on processor, memory and video space, so it looks like some of the current PeeCees may have to move to the donation pile at worthy charity. Anybody have any idea of a worthwhile cause able to put them to good use?

Another Apple Milestone - The iPhone is Here!

As expected, Apple unleashed it's latest major product announcement yesterday. The iPhone has arrived and it is nothing short of amazing.

"iPhone is a widescreen iPod with touch controls that lets you enjoy all your content — including music, audiobooks, videos, TV shows, and movies — on a beautiful 3.5-inch widescreen display. It also lets you sync your content from the iTunes library on your PC or Mac. And then you can access it all with just the touch of a finger."

This phone is beautiful and even operates on the Mac OSX operating system. To those who have never experienced OSX, this means stability and ease of use. It also means that full blown applications can be developed to work on it. Now you can see why Apple hasn't released a Tablet computer, they leapfrogged the mobile world with a device protected by a stack of patents. Touch Screen controls and Keyboard, Conference Calling, WiFi, Bluetooth, Broadband Internet access in a REAL Internet browser (Safari), random access "visual voice mail",free IMAP E-mail with in line photos from Yahoo, camera, photo management system, Video and more are packed into a design that only Apple could create. Your MLPodcast videos will look and sound awesome on this new device! It's slated for release in June '07 with Cingular. Knowing Apple, that could be any day between now and then.