March 16, 2007
we’ve been spending a lot of time with windows mobile 6 over at the funlab.
and just when you think it can’t get any better, it does!
suffice to say, the new management & control features included in wm6 are phenomenal, if long overdue.
in fact, we’ll be showing windows mobile 6 live at the next meeting of alabama smb, currently scheduled for the end of the month.
and no, there won’t be any recording or livemeeting broadcast of this one.
you’ll have to be there in person to see it.
|| posted by chris under funlab, mobility, thumbs up || comments (1) ||
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March 16, 2007
seems like there’s been a good bit of conflicting information regarding whether or not upgrades to windows mobile 6 will be made available for devices currently running windows mobile 5.
dash owners are already rejoicing, since t-mobile announced very early on that an upgrade would be released for them.
the rest of us, however, get to sit & wait.
mothership, however, has offered free wm6 licenses to vendors for upgrading their current devices to wm6.
that’s a huge thing, kiddos. which should remove a major obstacle to vendors like htc offering upgrades.
now, how much opportunity to sell new devices that both oems & mobile operators are willing to sacrifice remains to be seen.
but this is yet more proof how serious ms has gotten in this market with the release of wm6.
|| posted by chris under business, freebie, mobility || comments (1) ||
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March 15, 2007
last week’s xchange solution provider show was a veritable cornucopia of vendor giveaways.
altho yours truly didn’t win any of the big big prizes, at least not yet anyway…
it was still amazing to see how much stuff the vendors were laying on people.
to get an idea, here’s the second bed in my room at the hyatt, which performed an invaluable function as the swag repository…
highlights of the swag definitely included the label machine from brother…
a beautiful poker set from ricoh…
& the nutcracker from msppartners.com. i can testify, first-hand, that this was mastermind’s absolute favorite piece of swag, mainly because it was the one she felt she could get the most immediate & productive use out of upon returning to her secret lair.
but the absolute best giveaway, hands-down, had to be the shipping boxes from aten. basically they furnished boxes & paid the freight cost for every attendee’s swag to be sent home. talk about a brilliant idea! kudos aten!
of course, tons of us also decided to lighten our suitcases by dumping our dirty laundry into a valet bag & shoving it into the box.
in the end, all the stuff the vendors do is with the express goal of creating a favorable impression in attendee’s minds regarding their company & its products. and the vendors’ efforts range far beyond just the stuff they are giving away. it’s really what all their efforts for any show should work toward.
in that case, the funcave best in show award for overall effectiveness has to go to….
panasonic
their nothing beats the original marketing efforts regarding their toughbook line of ruggedized notebook computers was fantastic. i was already a fan of their badass notebooks, but their hospitality suite was brimming with cool stuff to do, like shooting a testimonial commercial for panasonic toughbooks, and…
getting your picture taken with a couple of celebrity look-alikes.
the vendors have to really watch their messaging tho.
for example…
since panasonic’s marketing message was that knockoffs suck…wouldn’t that, by extension, include their hired look-alikes? lucky the duke’s gun was a fake.
and ricoh’s messaging was a winning hand, replete with a dealer & a blackjack table in their hospitality suite. but i’m not sure that associating the idea of gambling with your product is a good one. dunno about you, but i never gamble when it comes to the stuff i put in for or recommend to my clients.
|| posted by chris under business, freebie, thumbs up || comments (0) ||
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March 14, 2007
if you’re using windows live messenger, you might have noticed folks in your contact list showing up with this icon preceding their name…
mothership’s instituted an ad-revenue sharing program for the following 9 charities:
unlike a direct hit for money, this seems to serve as a 2 pronged approach…
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generate revenue for the charities from something people do normally, without a direct cost to those folks.
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generate awareness about the charities & causes through people’s natural curiosity about the i’m program.
seems pretty win-win-win to me. and it’s dead simple to do:
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decide which charity you want to support
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download & install live messenger
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click tools->options
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place the text code of your choice into your display name, then save the change
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*red+u = american red cross
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*bgca = boys & girsl club of america
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*naf = national aids fund
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*mssoc = national multiple sclerosis society
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*9mil = ninemillion.org
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*sierra = sierra club
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*help = stopglobalwarming.org
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*komen = susan g. komen for the cure
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*unicef = the us fund for unicef
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start chatting
personally, i think this kind of program is a good thing. so both the funcave & the funlab are in it, supporting the american red cross.
|| posted by chris under community, freebie, opinion, thumbs up || comments (0) ||
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March 13, 2007
just got back from the cmp xchange solution provider show in san diego.
considering my company’s real name, you can imagine my surprise that my name badge looked like this…
made for a good conversation starter all week, that’s for sure.
more on the show, which was phenomenal, after bit.
|| posted by chris under business, freebie, more cowbell, thumbs up, travel || comments (2) ||
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