Millenium Marketer

I am writing you this e-because I really, really want to see the Palm Centro do better. While I, like many others, am a big fan of the iPhone and even the iTouch for its amazing native touch screen capability, I really think it is time other players in the smartphone market give Apple a run for its money.

Of course, your company doesn’t have the ever-perfectionistic Steve Jobs as your company founder, but really, I like to cheer for the underdogs because without them, where would Apple be?

In your next release of the Palm Centro, please include the following:

1. A larger keyboard that pulls out. My hands are small, but not that small. Or, maybe the option to have a touchscreen keyboard.
2. A better camera. I just found out that Nokia and Samsung won some prestigious awards from a well-known photography magazine. I usually think of Nokia and Samsung phones as “utility” phones, not super-productivity phones where I might Flickr my pictures. Come on, help me and my friends out.
3. Lower the barriers with the web and give us more web integration. If WordPress is having trouble integrating with Palm software, then this says to me that the open source model is biased towards the iPhone. Get out there and outreach to software engineers. Get them excited about the Palm and let’s see cool software emerge like it used to…way back in the 90s.

If Palm can do these things, then maybe, just maybe I can stop hearing about the iPhone where ever I go. Until then, you’re just OK, but you’re not cool yet.

Oh yes, and you can certainly tell McNamee about this. Thanks.

At the risk of being wickedly evangelical, I decided I needed to figure out what kinds of mobile apps are out there for my Palm Centro to stay social. Most apps seem developed for Blackberry or Windows Mobile platforms, although there are easy workarounds.

My tolerance for a 4 lb Dell form factor has been reduced to a spoiled few ounces in a Palm Centro, a small sacrifice to a tinier screen just so that I can be more impulsive and share “of-the-moment” thoughts and keep on top of the latest news where ever I am. Like, yeah, I need to be more ADD.

The best will be during huge events where I can Flickr with the camera, Tweet, e-mail blog while on a train or other moving vehicle, and remember stuff without searching frantically for wireless networks or pray for battery power.

My posts may be much shorter and more frequent after this one, and here’s how:
Flickr
The Centro’s specs say that the camera phone has 1.3 pixels

When I go to Flickr Mobile, it tells me I can email my photos to a designated address.

Your subject line will be the title of the photo, and the email body becomes the photo description

Tweet
Yeah, I know. I can easily receive text messages on my device and I don’t have to worry about downloading program clients. But what is the fun in that?!
So, MoTwit is the application for Palm users.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

E-mail Blog
Wordpress has a workaround to blog posts from your mobile device. The FAQs can be found here. As usual, WordPress claims that the process is easy: set up a dedicated e-mail address for blogposts and then configure your settings.

The disappointment for the average user sinks in when I see things like:

When you are done creating the new e-mail account , return to the Writing Options panel and fill in the name of the mail server and port number your web hosting provider uses.

Oh damn, I don’t know what that means. WP, can you give me an example?

7/10/08 Update: Setting up a new e-mail address is easy, but I wasn’t too clear how to get WordPress to synch with the new e-mail address.

Remember Stuff, or I mean, the Milk…
Oh and most important, here’s another use for Twitter that is rarely mentioned. Productivity. So, now I can send Tweets to my calendar and tasks to Remember the Milk. That’s uber-social and fun, too. Makes me want to put tons of stuff on my tasks list, although it would be nice to SEE what is on RTM. When RTM gets around to developing a Palm mobile app, then I will be in heaven–Girl Geek heaven.

07/04/08 Update: Tweeting to Google Calendar turns out to be a really nice way to make quick reminders on-the-go since the Google Cal Mobile doesn’t have an update function.

Since this is just the start and I am only learning about all these apps, I’ll say it’s about time to have some discussion on this from more advanced users. What apps have you found really useful for mobile?

I just received my new Palm Centro in the mail today and I am thrilled! It is always fun to have a new toy. “Productivity” in this case is over rated because most people who use smart phones are use them for both business and fun.
It’s important to remember when to use which features–yet another reason why GTD is very useful for setting priorities, and processing projects. We are in a world where technology-created-ADD is extremely prevalent.

One thing that is really exciting about this phone is the camera feature, which will allow me to create voice interviews or web cam posts, so hopefully some of those will come on the fly if I can manage to use all of the phone’s features.

This is a good opportunity to consider Sprint’s sign-up process and look at how well they are doing at managing new customers. I joined through the Sprint Employee Referral program and got a special deal, so already I am more inclined to want to be part of Sprint than not.

GOOD
Quick service at a reasonable price: I bought the phone online, which made it really easy. The package arrived quickly just two days after it was ordered. Reps were readily available to answer questions immediately after the phone was activated.

BAD
Interruptions: In the transfer of the lines, Sprint called to activate the line, which made us suspicious about phishing. It was also an interruption of our day having to deal with the issue right away instead of when it would be most convenient.

Referral Roadblocks : I got my phone through a referral and wanted to make sure the referral went through. Once my phone was activated, a customer representative answered to verify the address and other information related to the phone line. I asked about getting the referral bonus, and the customer service representative said I would have to call back after she confirmed all information. That is two times I have to dial, although I can see how it would be beneficial for the rep to be available to answer any questions about the new service.

Sprint, as your newest customer as of today, I give you three stars. Two off for the interruption of my work with the shiny new toy and three for a nice phone that arrived promptly and the activation was easy.

I would have preferred to have the referral and activation information in the box, though so I can feel more empowered as a customer to choose the time of day I would like to activate it.

But thanks for the shiny new phone and a much affordable phone plan!

Photo source: TechFresh.net