Experience from the iPhone 3G Line & Beyond

July 12th, 2008 arthurfreydin

Oh man, where do I begin. This is going to be a long one.

I’m heading back from work on Friday, July 11th at around 3pm EST and decide to brave the lines at Menlo Park Mall in Edison, NJ for the new iPhone. I figure I should be in and out in about 2 hours or so, before my girlfriend even gets home. Even so, I call her and let her know what I’m doing just in case I dont make it home before she does.

This is my story in chronological order.

4:00 PM: I walk into the mall and start walking down towards the Apple Store. I approach the store and am immediately directed to the “iPhone Line”.

4:05: The line stretched across a shorter wing of the mall. Here’s a satellite image of how everything is layed out. Let’s refer back to this image for the rest of the post:

I know it’s a bit hard to see, but the red, open-ended rectangle is the iPhone line. The miniature Apple logo directly above it is the location of the Apple store.

4:20: I wasn’t really sure how long the wait could be so I was thinking 2-3 hours tops. A few of the people in line reaffirmed my estimation so I was in the clear.

4:45: Looks like the line starts to move a bit but it turns out that it was just the security guards condensing the line to make room for newcomers.

5:30: The shit starts to hit the fan. At the one and a half hour mark, a very nice Apple employee walks by with two gifts: one of them is free water. The other is a close approximation of how long our wait really is: approx 4 to 4.5 hours. Awesome. I’ve already been in line for an hour and a half so I just figured I’ll wait.

6:00: Uh-oh. Someone cut in line about 4 or 5 places behind me. This made one particular person somewhat agitated and he confronted the line-cutter. Mayhem insued. Security is called. Threats of arrest are made. Line-cutter exits the line.

6:15: An Apple employee decides to drum up some excitement and wake up everyone in the line by running the entire line holding out his hand for high-fives. I slap his hand. So do my new friends around me.

My friends on the line (can’t remember their real names so I will make them up):

Mike: He’s new to the iPhone world and is sporting a Blackberry Pearl. He’s constantly on the phone but seems nice, if just a bit on the slow side.
Jacklyn: She’s likely in her mid to late 30s and is holding a Palm Treo. She has a 2 year old that her mother is watching. The mother and her kid stop by to say high every now and again while remaining in the mall throughout the entire wait. Jacklyn and I joke about her priorities a few times.
Michelle: Michelle is younger and is originally from San Diego. This is also her first entrance into the iPhone universe. She only took out her cellphone once throughout the entire wait and I didn’t get a good look at it. Her boyfriend accompanies her but heads off to the bar in the mall every now and then to have a few shots and to catch the Yankees game. At one point, he was gone so long that he had time to watch 3 innings of the game.
Trevor: This one is very young - maybe 15 or 16 tops and will be paying for the 8gb iPhone from his own pocket. His mother instructs me to keep an eye on him because he is a diabetic, and then leaves to go see Hancock at the theater in the mall. She gets through the entire movie and then returns later.

7:00: Trevor’s mother comes back with a AT&T brochure in hand and questions him about the monthly fees. Turns out that Trevor did not know that the new iPhone required a $30 data plan. Trevor’s mother casually withdraws him from the line and Trevor did not complain. Approximately one hour ago, I overheard Trevor explaining to his friends that he will weather the line until he gets the iPhone, no matter what happens. Poor Trevor.

7:30: A rather annoying Apple employee named Karl walks down the line answering questions. We ask how much longer the wait can be. He says an hour and a half tops. Fine with me, that’s what I expected. Jacklyn and I joke about why we wait so long for a stupid phone.

8:00: Karl (annoying Apple employee from 7:30) tells us that things should move quite a bit faster now. They have shut down the Apple store for everyone but the people in line to get an iPhone. Spectacular.

8:30: An hour has passed since we asked anyone how much longer we will be waiting. Karl approaches and against my better judgement, I ask him how much longer. He looks to the people in front of us and his shiny new black iPhone (why?). “Only about another hour or so”. Refer to 7:30 and you should find that I was not amused.

9:00: I’m getting tired and begin to feel it. The mall starts shutting down. The AT&T store across from us closes (they have been sold out since noon).

9:30: There are about 7 or 8 people in front of me now. They are calling us one by one for the iPhone. Karl is back. He asks us if we had any corporate discounts because a few of the people directly in front of us have been refused or delayed because of this issue. Jacklyn speaks up. Karl says “come with me”. They go talk under a palm tree in the mall.

9:45: Jacklyn comes back after a hair-raising visit to the AT&T store. The store has been shut down for about 30 minutes now but employees were forced to remain to deal with iPhone technical issues. Jacklyn is glad they stayed. They were able to reverse their corporate discount.

10:00: I get called in. People clap and I thank them.

10:02: I walk into the Apple Store and am greeted with a very pleasant atmosphere. They’re treating people like kings and queens. I notice that some people that were called in 30 minutes ago are still in the store chatting up the Apple employees. My personal Apple employee approaches and asks what she can do to help me. I tell her that I want a white 16gb iPhone.

11:00: I am still in the Apple Store. It turns out that my personal Apple employee thought that I wanted to open up an extra line for my new iPhone instead of replacing my BlackBerry and has spent the past 45 minutes on the phone with AT&T customer service since she was having issues with activating a new line. I catch a glimpse of the conversation and reaffirm that I would just like to replace my existing phone as a simple upgrade. She sighs and hangs up the phone.

11:20: The Apple employee has had to go through 3 new iPhones since she messed up the activation on the prior 2 and had to start over every time. It becomes clear that she knows nothing about the Apple brand and this is likely her first week on the job. She finally succeeds in the upgrade and successfuly rings up my new iPhone and a Belkin case. I stumble out of the store only to find out that the entrance by which I parked has been chained off forcing me to exit through the only entrance still open - on the other side of the building.

Midnight (9 hours later): I get in my car and sit in traffic on the way home due to a lane closure on a major highway (route 1).

Would I do it again? Probably.

Posted in gadgetry | No Comments »

FAIL: Sony PS3 In-Game XMB & Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

July 3rd, 2008 arthurfreydin

So I was pretty excited when Engadget announced that Sony would be releasing firmware 2.40 which promised in-game XMB (the PS3 menu system) and trophies (could care less about this one) on July 2nd. One thing that I was extra stoked about was that you can create “custom” soundtracks to your games by playing music files throught the XMB. Since I love racing games and probably play them more than I should, this would be a huge bonus since most of the music in these games leaves quite a bit to be desired, especially Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

So July 2nd could have been special. I fired up my PS3 and quickly (well, not so quickly) installed the new firmware. Sweet, it also comes with a clock on the top-right of the XMB - bonus! Once the install finished with no issues - unlike other people - I loaded up Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Right away, I disabled all forms of music. I entered a race and quickly shifted back to the in-game XMB to load up some mp3s.

Ugh. Not only does it not allow streaming of music, but it won’t read off of usb hdd’s either. OK, fine, I copied a few albums to the internal hdd and tried playing them. No dice. Sony politely tells me that it is incapable of playing media for this game. WTF?! The one game that would actually benefit from an alternative soundtrack won’t allow it! Seriously Sony, was that necessary? Now I’m too lazy to re-enable the in-game music that came with Gran Turismo.

UPDATE: Looks like Sony has actually decided to pull the 2.40 firmware due to reports of bricked PS3s.

Posted in gadgetry | No Comments »

Xobni is a Bit More Useful with LinkedIn Integration, But Not Much

June 26th, 2008 arthurfreydin

Xobni, an Outlook email analytics & more plugin, just integrated [very sparse] LinkedIn data. No matter if Xobni is a bad startup name or not, it shows a lot of promise. I’ve used Xobni on and off ever since it was profiled on TC and was at first impressed. After some use however, I’ve noticed that aside from the email analytics function, I’ve already been using most of the features in Outlook itself. So after the initial novelty wore off, I eventually stopped using it.

Now, Xobni (”inbox” spelled backwards) has announced LinkedIn integration. It’s a great idea but flawed in implementation. You see, I already have a LinkedIn plugin for Outlook that I use pretty heavily. Xobni partnered up with LinkedIn to implement a small snippet of contact data (just position & company). All that partnership did is further clutter and already cluttered Xobni toolbar. If I wanted to see LinkedIn data on a contact, all I have to do is hover over the LinkedIn “info” button in Outlook.

Xobni’s core features is really where the bread & butter is and that is what they should focus on, especially after backing down from a $20M offer from Microsoft. Their email analytics data is actually pretty useful and their search is just a bit better than Outlook’s. I’d like to see them expand on that functionality as well as offer their plugin for more email providers other than Outlook.

PS. For those that are having trouble viewing LinkedIn data in their Xobni toolbar, you have to activate it first by going to Xobni > Options in your Outlook menu.

Posted in analytics | 1 Comment »

Google Ad Planner Complete Walkthrough

June 25th, 2008 arthurfreydin

There’s been a lot of chatter about Google’s new Ad Planner so I decided to sign up just to see what all the craziness was about. After about 12 hours, this email came in from Google:

Thanks for your interest in Google Ad Planner. We’re happy to announce that you’ve been accepted into our beta testing program.

To get started, visit www.google.com/adplanner and sign in with your Google Account username and password.

If you need immediate assistance with Google Ad Planner, please visit our Help Center at http://www.google.com/support/adplanner/. We also welcome your suggestions and feedback at http://www.google.com/support/adplanner/bin/request.py.

Welcome to Google Ad Planner!

Sincerely,
The Google Ad Planner Team

Great, time to play.

When you first login to Google Ad Planner, you are presented with two options: Create a new media plan or Begin research. Let’s start with Begin research.

The first screen you will see after clicking on Begin research is a listing of all the sites that Google has data on (presumably from the Google Toolbar).  Towards the top of the left sidebar, you are presented with 3 key metrics that refresh based on your selection of demographic filters below. Combining all of the sites selected by default, Google supposedly has 100% country reach which equals 240M unique visitors and 180B page views.

What is likely the bread and butter of Google Ad Planner, the demographics filters allow you to drill down by filtering sites by gender, age, education, and household income. Google Ad Planner also allows a user to specify demographics based on a specified site. For example, selecting techcrunch.com, Ad Planner will display demographically similar sites such as crunchbase, techmeme, ycombinator, and scobleizer. You can also enter more than one site to search against if you need to drill down further.

Once you have narrowed down your demographic filters by using one of the two methods I have outlined above, you can now sift through the results on the right hand side. Selecting multiple updates a metric aggregator towards the top of the Ad Planner page with total site statistics and selects them for inclusion in a media plan. The metrics that are presented are Category (Computers & Electronics for example), Comp Index (Score showing how concentrated your audience is on a site relative to users in your defined country), Unique Visitors, Country Reach (Estimated percent of total internet users within your defined country), Page Views, and Google Content specific metrics including Ad Formats and Impressions per Day. It’s important to note that not all the sites in Ad Planner are part of the Google Content Network.

Google Ad Planner also has the handy option of drilling down even further per site by clicking on a little graph icon next to the site name (reminiscent of Quantcast site metrics) for insight into its demographics and traffic data/patterns which looks to be like a perfect integration of Google Site Trends (btw, why does the Google Site Trends page default to Wikipedia stats?) released just last week. Unfortunately, as of right now, it looks like Quantcast does present more data than Ad Planner does - Ad Planner only displays data that I have covered in this post.

That’s about it for the research module (let me know if I left anything out here). Now let’s move on to actually creating media plans.

Another important note is that Google Ad Planner doesn’t yet seem to be integrating with your Adwords accounts for one-click plan implementation for your content campaign. The only thing that the Media Plan option provides is an exportable (CSV or MediaVisor CSV) and an overview of all your selected sites.

So that’s basically it. Out of the box, this tool isn’t incredibly useful but the functionality is definitely there for future improvements. I look forward to seeing what the Google Ad Planner team has in store for us.

Posted in analytics, email marketing | 4 Comments »

Where to Sell Your Old iPhone (and have more than enough money for a new one)

June 21st, 2008 arthurfreydin

The new iPhone (iPhone 3G) is coming out on July 11 so that just leads to one question: How are you going to sell your old one?

Lucky for you, there are plenty of ways you can sell it:

  • Cell For Cash - $100-$280 depending on iPhone model
    I have actually used Cell For Cash to get rid of my old phones and they are very dependable. You tell them what phone you have and they tell you how much they will pay you. After you submit your info, they send you a postage-paid box to be used to send them back your phone. Within approximately 1 month, they will have verified that your phone works and will then cut a check back to you. Simple.
  • simplysellular - $84-$150 depending on iPhone model
    This service works the same as Cell For Cash above but pays out a bit lower, especially for the 16gb model.
  • eBay ~ $350 depending on model

I for one will probably go the eBay route and let it completely pay for a new 8gb 3G iPhone. It’s a bit more hassle than Cell For Cash but worth it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

How to Use AutoText on Your Blackberry

June 20th, 2008 arthurfreydin

Here’s a quick walk through on how to use the AutoText capability and a couple of examples that don’t come included out of the box.

First, let’s discuss exactly what AutoText does. From Jeff Barr’s blog:

AutoText is a macro (text replacement) system with some built-in intelligence so that it can handle multiple languages and mixed case text. AutoText is responsible for some of SureType’s spelling correction features. For example, it automatically replaces “acn” with “can,” “ehr” with “her,” and so forth. Basically, the spelling correction dictionary is out in the open and … is also fully editable.

That sums it up pretty good and is a bonus because I didn’t have to type it out myself :).

If you’re new to your Blackberry (god help you), here’s where you can find the AutoText settings and how to add a new instruction, step-by-step:

  1. Go to your application screen (the one with a bunch of icons on it)
  2. Open up the “Options” application (should be all the way down on the bottom and looks like a wrench)
  3. Select the AutoText option
    Once in the AutoText screen, your Blackberry should present you with all the built-in instructions.
  4. Hit the Blackberry hard button on your phone to bring up the context menu
  5. Select “New” from the menu
  6. Enter the word you would like to replace as you type in the first “Replace” field
    example: “teh”
  7. Enter what you would like that word replaced with
    example: “the”
  8. Click your trackball and select “Save”
  9. Done!

Now, onto a few uses of creative text that didn’t come pre-packaged with your Blackberry.

  • b4 = before
  • goin = going
  • hr = hour
  • mins = minutes
  • r = are
  • sec = second
  • sry = sorry
  • thx = thanks
  • u = you
  • w = w/
  • y = why
  • yday = yesterday

One important point to keep in mind with AutoText is that it only automatically replaces what you have typed once it recognizes a space after the word to be replaced. For example, it won’t replace “y” with “why” but will if you type “y ” (there’s a space after the “y”).

Posted in general | No Comments »

Gmail Automatically Deleting Spam Emails?

June 19th, 2008 arthurfreydin

Leave it to Gmail to dwindle my spam count down to 843 emails from a probably record shattering 5683 a few weeks ago. The problem is that I never even had a chance to review those emails before Gmail took it upon itself to rid me of all that spam. This is somewhat of an issue for me since I’ve noticed that Gmail isn’t 100% perfect in identifying spam versus regular mail. I would like to have had the opportunity to skim through my spam stuff before Gmail deleted it.

On a somewhat related note, Gmail has a sense of humor. Here is what I saw after browsing through my spam folder:

Gmail Spam Humor

Posted in general | No Comments »

We’re a Small Business and We Know How to Leverage Email Marketing

June 19th, 2008 arthurfreydin

Let me begin by saying that I am by no means an expert in email marketing. However, that statement just might qualify me to write about an experience that I have with a certain car dealership and its marketing techniques.

I used to own a 2006 Volkswagen GTI and have brought it in for service at Reydel, a local Volkswagen dealership. For those that have ever owned first model year Volkswagens, you know what it’s like: the car’s in the shop every other month, for the full month. During that service, I did the unthinkable: I gave them my email address. Now, I never provide my email address for fear of spam, but they caught me off-guard.

Ever since I gave them my email address, I have received nothing but targeted emails from them. Their emails are one of the only mass marketing emails that I read these days, just to see what they’ve come up with next. I receive emails that remind me of my next oil change, 35k mile service, owner discounts, and exclusive test drives.

These people just get it. They understand that Volkswagen drivers (victims?) are a different breed; these people love their cars and will do anything to make sure they’re in top shape. They are also the type of consumers that eat up exclusive test drives and online service scheduling. So, Reydel: that’s a win for you!

Posted in email marketing | No Comments »

7 Things Your GPS Should be Able to Do

June 18th, 2008 arthurfreydin

I wouldn’t trust myself locating my car in the driveway without using a GPS. I’ve left the house in the morning on my way to work and have turned around because I’ve forgotten my handy TomTom OneXL (I’ve been making the same exact trip to work for a few months now and can get there blindfolded). Needless to say, I’ve become pretty dependent on that little piece of gadgetry.

GPS units have come quite a long way since the first models came out - but they still have a long ways to go. Below is a list that I, a heavy GPS user, have put together over the past month or so.

  1. Compute Toll Charges
    Computing toll charges would be a huge bonus to anyone that lives in a state where you are constantly slowing down for a toll plaza (hi New Jersey).
  2. Compute Gas Cost
    This one’s a bit more difficult since the GPS unit will require quite a bit of information about your car, amount of gas you currently have and aggregate $ /per gallon (which some GPS units already have). Even without all that data available, a GPS unit can also provide the user an option to estimate total cost.
  3. Add 1+2
    This little mashup of tolls & gas cost can give you a pretty extraordinary result: total trip cost! So now you can tell your parents “Hell no, I’m not paying $34.87 to drive to grandma’s house just so she can pinch my cheeks”.
  4. Driving / Cost Analytics
    We (or maybe it’s just me) love the word “analytics”. How does a weekly/monthly/yearly breakdown of driven miles/costs/frequently traveled areas sound to you? This would be huge for fleet managers & those that expense travel expenditures. Said report can be automatically generated and emailed once a month to your superior for review & compensation.
  5. Walking Mode
    Some GPS units may already have a walking mode but not as comprehensive as it could/should be. Walkers would typically use the GPS for site-seeing in tourist towns so why not also provide them with pertinent touristy information?
  6. Scenic Travel Mode
    Bored on a Sunday at 6pm and realize that everything is closed and you now have nothing to do for X hours? Great! Fire up that GPS and look through all the scenic routes you never thought existed in that boring state of yours and go for a drive!
  7. GPS Radar Detector
    Duh! When do you use your GPS the most? If you’re anything like me, you use it most on the highway. You also wish you didn’t have to use that stupid cigarette lighter splitter (why we haven’t replaced those cigarette lighters with usb plugs is beyond me) to power both your GPS and radar detector. What do you do? You take your GPS and your radar detector and smash them together to form one wonderous trip companion!

There. Now your GPS is actually useful.

Posted in Uncategorized, general | No Comments »

Foxmarks: A Google Browser Sync Alternative for Firefox 3

June 18th, 2008 arthurfreydin

One add-in that no longer functions in Firefox 3 is Google Browser Sync. The add-in syncs bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history across all PCs and Macs that have Firefox installed. Unfortunately, Google has decided to completely terminate the add-in for any future versions of Firefox which saddens me quite a bit; it has been an indespensable tool for me.

Fortunately, I have already found an alternative: Foxmarks. It only syncs bookmarks and leaves out all the additional functionality that Google Broswer Sync has supported but it’s one step closer to solving the issue. Foxmarks also allows you to access all your synced bookmarks from a web portal that it creates for you for free.

Posted in general | 2 Comments »