Archive for May 2007

Palm has introduced the Palm Foleo, the first mobile device companion. Smaller than a laptop and larger than a Treo, the mobile companion comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built-in. This lets the Foleo connect to Treos and other compatible smartphones and handheld devices and available Wi-Fi connections.

The Foleo also marks Palm’s first product that uses the Linux-based operating system. How will a product like this do? I used to carry a portable keyboard with my PalmOS device, but a keyboard is smaller than the Foleo. Do business professionals want to carry a Foleo along with their smartphones? While traveling, they most likely won’t want to leave their laptops behind. Carrying a laptop AND a Foleo looks like gadget overkill.

Hey, aren’t tablets similar to the Foleo? Granted they weren’t made to be companions to smartphones and didn’t typically come with a keyboard. Tablets work well in doctor’s offices and for service providers, so they can update records and report services rendered. But they don’t serve the mobile professional well.

What if the Foleo worked like a Treo without the need for a Treo? Don’t think that would work either. People love to have the small phones they can stick in their pockets and purses. The Foleo doesn’t have the portability people want or need. Most of the time, business professionals carry briefcases, which gives them a place for the Foleo. But the Foleo’s role looks limiting after analyzing this from various perspectives.

The new device weighs 2.5 pounds and contains a five-hour battery life. The Foleo comes out later this summer at a special price of $499 with the $100 debate included. Like its handheld counterpart, the Foleo comes with instant off and instant on. No waiting for anything to load.

Personally, I’d rather see Palm spend its energy on taking the PalmOS interface to another level even with Linux as its backbone. PalmOS works better than Windows Mobile. Think of PalmOS like the Apple of handheld devices — simple and fulfills its purpose. Palm created its operating system with mobility in mind rather than trying to copy the desktop experience like Microsoft did with operating system on Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile devices. Thoughts?

Usability goes beyond making Web sites easier to use. It’s also about making appliances, day-to-day activities and other things easy to use. When I use my blender, I can’t figure out why there are labels for puree, chop, frappe, crush, and so on. It’s a blender! The blades just spin around and around. The blender maybe has three noticeable speeds. This also contributes to the too many choices problem.

Those designing the menus for DVD movies have to consider usability issues, too. One poorly designed movie menu on a DVD had two buttons that appeared illegible. The font was so small no one could read it, so we selected both buttons to see what would happen.

Donald Norman discusses this in his Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design and Jakob Nielsen covered DVD menus.

Even elevator buttons can cause problems as I covered in an old post on hospital usability. The post also referenced a school speed zone sign — these signs have another problem: The times appear too small. You’re driving a car and can’t stop or slow down enough to catch the times if the sign doesn’t come with yellow lights.

My microwave has five very clean buttons because we’ve yet to use them. We fall into habit of relying on a handful of buttons or commands that we don’t take the time to learn about the other features.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) provides excellent resources and support for small businesses as does SCORE, an organization made up of retired volunteers who advise small business owners.

This Escape from Cubicle Nation blog entry suggests that every entrepreneur needs the following four professionals:

* Lawyer
* Banker
* Accountant
* Insurance specialist

The entry also provides suggestions on where to find these four professionals. One thing I’ve learned from others as I don’t want to learn the hard way: Stay on top of your money even if you have an accountant. People have seen their trusted accountants steal from them because they didn’t watch the books. I’m not sure those with a spouse who has health benefits covering the family need an insurance specialist.

Those with no children may want to investigate insurance because it could be cheaper for the spouse to not add you to the insurance plan as adding a spouse can up the numbers for some health plans.

Freelancers and small businesses, what professionals do you use and how?

Having a nanny would be nice in terms of getting help to chauffeur my kids, help when I’m run down and make meals. The nanny in Nanny Mania does it all except the chauffeuring. Then again, the family’s head of household is the Mayor of Suburbia, so he probably has a chauffeur too.

The game takes a different approach than the games of the fastpreneur game genre. Here you’re not running a business, but instead working to keep the house clean and the family happy. Nanny Mania also feels like a Sims game in that you watch the family live their lives within the walls of their home.

I wish cleaning could be as easy in real life as it is in the game. Click the item once and it’s clean. When furniture or a fish tank needs cleaning, they appear highlighted in yellow. Click once and nanny’s arms flail around for a few seconds and poof the item is clean. Some tasks take more than one click such as changing the baby’s diaper, giving the baby a bottle and cooking a meal.

The game begins with the parents and one baby. Easy peasy. Each level contains five games. When you complete a level, the parents have another child and the younger ones get older. The most the nanny handles is four children. After that, the only thing that changes is the age of the kids, the messes they make and the frequency of the messes. Eventually, you won’t have to deal with dirty diapers or warming bottles.

I thought the game would change once all four kids arrived. It doesn’t and the game turns monotonous in little time. I feel like I start every level doing the same steps with small variations. Soon, I dislike Dad because he goes off to work or plays golf leaving Mom alone to eat with the four kids.

In no time, I figure out the family’s routine. When Dad returns from anything, I expect muddy footprints and a messy dresser. Sometimes I follow him into his bedroom where he changes his clothes and messes the dresser so I can fix the dresser. He doesn’t seem to mind the nanny watching him change. Mom also doesn’t care if I walk right through the bathroom while she bathes.

I see Mom enter the baby’s nursery and change the diaper, yet the game tells me to change the baby’s diaper within minutes. People, I have three kids and I know a baby doesn’t need changing that often. Just Mommy logic.

A Mac user playing the game became frustrated when he clicked ahead and struggled to undo some moves when something unexpected happened like mealtime. Mac users don’t have two mouse buttons on their notebooks — I am an unlucky gal who doesn’t own a Mac, but I imagine the Mac has an option for undo. For PC users, undo actions by pressing the right-mouse button.

The game may attract the younger set as repetition helps them improve game play. But for me, I play enough so I can write this review. I have no desire to play Nanny Mania. The game’s strengths are the graphics and speed (some games have subtle pauses or take too long to make something happen). I believe Nanny Mania could have greater success if it would introduce more elements to offer more variety.

Download the game from your favorite site:

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games
• Reflexive GameCenterSolution

The iPod has that certain something that leads its users to adore it like nothing before. People want nothing but an iPod. No substitutes even when the non-iPod has more memory, comes in your favorite color and costs over $100 less than an iPod. So how did the iPod earn this special treatment and the ability to compel people to say, “Cool” when they hold one?

A book cover in the disguise of an iPod, albeit on paper, still manages to ooze coolness though it isn’t the real thing. Scroll your finger over the cover’s button and scroll wheel and you can feel the smooth button extend slightly above the scroll wheel. Apple has established itself as a company that goes all out when creating a product, but there’s much more to the iPod story than people realize. The Perfect Thing explores many aspects of the story.

As a deaf person, I’m hardly the music lover who would take an interest in the iPod. I received the book as an abstract assignment and it gripped me from page 1 to the index. I received an iPod video for a gift (I do enjoy some songs that I pick up and learn by heart. Plus, I used it to listen to children’s books in audio to practice listening), but someone stole it.

While reading The Perfect Thing, I couldn’t help but order an iPod Nano straight from Apple’s Web site complete with my name engraved on its beautiful red skin. I also bought a cover to protect the iPod as I don’t like it when my gadgets get marks on them. But then I reached the part where Steve Jobs took offense to seeing Levy’s iPod covered up. Because of that, the beautiful red color and the way the aluminum felt — I took off the cover for good.

The chapters, like iPod’s shuffle feature, are independent and don’t go in a specific order except the first chapter. I don’t know if that’s true, as I haven’t seen another hard copy of the book.

“Perfect,” goes behind the scenes of iPod’s launch in October 2001, not the greatest timing after 9/11. “Download” covers the revolution of downloading and digitizing music including codec, MP3s, WinAmp, Napster and the record companies suing. “What makes an item cool?” sets the tone for the chapter titled, “Cool.” Can there be a formula for coolness? This chapter teaches great marketing lessons from Apple’s design, packaging and advertising of the iPod.

“Origin” returns to the iPod’s roots on its development and the things that came before iPod that affected the iPod’s creation. There’s a reason we use the word podcast instead of audiocasts when referring to audio feeds. “Podcast” visits the formation of citizen broadcasting from CB radio to podcasting.

People judge each other by the clothing they wear, they do the same by the playlists they carry in their iPods as “Identity” delves into the fashion statement of playlists. No one expected Apple to make a comeback, not even when Steve Jobs returned in 2000, and “Apple” touches upon the comeback and how Apple surpassed the market’s expectations. The iPod attracts thieves and the earbuds send a message to the public “to leave me alone” as the “Personal” chapter looks back at the Sony Walkman, the white earbuds, hearing loss and how users personalize their iPods.

The shuffle feature scrambles music hence the name for the cheapest and smallest iPod Shuffle. The feature is simple, yet the chapter on “Shuffle” offers fascinating insight into the possibility of a conspiracy behind the shuffle formula. Some people swear that some songs, artists and whatnot get more attention than others do. But everyone at Apple, including the engineers, says shuffle works randomly. Intriguing stuff anyway.

Marketers, iPod lovers, Apple lovers, Mac lovers, business people, technology people, gadget people. The book will appeal to all of them. After all, Levy writes, “The iPod is a pebble with tsunami-sized cultural ripples.”

Title: The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness
Author: Steven Levy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0743285220
Date: October 2006
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Cover Price: USD: $25.00 Amazon: $16.50

The book guides the reader through the three-part process to prepare, deliver and follow through in getting to a positive No. No doesn’t come easy especially when trying to please a client who asks to move up the delivery date. You’re afraid to say No because it means losing future business, respect and perhaps, your job.

The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes not only helps you improve your negotiating skills in such work situations, but it also applies to your personal life. With the tips in the book, you won’t fear the consequences of saying No and you’ll find ways to make the situation work out for everyone.

Have you fallen into one of the three-A trap? Tripping up in one of these traps means the person takes steps Accommodate, Attack or Avoid when encountering a No situation. These traps won’t make anyone in the situation feel good about the solution. Accommodate means saying Yes when we want to say No. Attack means saying no poorly. Avoid means saying nothing at all and not taking care of the problem.

The book digs up situations that you know you could’ve handled better. Applying the concepts from the book to past situations will prepare you for doing better next time without worry of blowback. Self-help books face the challenge of encouraging their readers to change. The idea of a positive no sounds difficult — and it isn’t easy either — will come to readers if they take the time to understand and apply Ury’s advice. Don’t expect bandage style advice that can fix anything with a simple stick-on.

Of course, you could prepare and set up a great response for a positive no, but what if the requestor doesn’t take no for an answer? Ury shows how to prepare Plan B, a backup plan. He also shares a decent amount of real-life examples, large (court case involving a large company and a customer) and small (not having time to help), of how people handled such situations.

Crack the book and it takes no time to become engrossed in Ury’s clear and breezy writing style. The book flows and the length satisfies. Fans of the Ury’s classic best-seller will appreciate this one and won’t feel a sense of déjà vu in having read Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.

Title: The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes
Author: William Ury
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553804987
Date: February 2007
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Cover Price: USD: $25.00 Amazon: $16.50

I love the Metaphor Minute newsletter from Anne Miller, author of Metaphorically Selling. Each issue comes with a short example of how to use metaphors in business and presentations. The latest issue shows how someone finally got her point across using fishing as the metaphor:

Corporate executives who cling to the old “dialing for dollars paradigm drive me crazy – especially if they want their reps to crack into corporate accounts. In today’s business environment, it doesn’t work. But for some strange reason, my repeated attempts to correct their errors in judgment falls on deaf ears. It’s like they have a total blind spot in their brain about this matter.

How can I make these idiots understand? I’d ask myself. Clearly logic wasn’t working. It took some serious thinking, but I finally figured out how to get it through their thick heads that new sales strategies were needed.

But first, a bit of background: I live in Minnesota – “Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Fishing is a hugely popular sport here, even in the dead of winter. Our hardy outdoorsmen drill holes in the ice and sit in little shacks in the middle of the lake for hours on end. If you’ve seen the Grumpy Old Men movies, you know what I mean.

The decision makers I was talking to understood fishing. So I created a metaphor that helped them understand why their salespeople were struggling. Here’s essentially what I said:

Bob, you’re telling me that you want your sales reps to reel in the big ones, right? But you also said you’re extremely frustrated by their lack of success. In fact, you’ve been unable to hire people who are capable of doing this.

(Bob nods his head, agreeing with me.)

Selling today is a lot like fishing. Every lake has its trophy fish and all the anglers are out to catch it. But my chances of catching this lunker are pretty slim if I’m not a savvy fisherman. As you know, here are so many things you need to take into account if you want to be successful:

For example, what kind of fish do you want to catch? Is it a catfish, walleye, muskie or sturgeon? Or perhaps you want to go dolphin fishing – in which case you should be on the ocean.

What about the bait? Should you be using minnows, worms, frogs or artificial lures? And what size should your bait be?

Then what about the appropriate equipment? Will you have access to a boat or not? If so, is it a canoe, yacht, bass boat or rowboat? How about your rod & reel? How thick should your line be? Will you be casting, trolling or sitting still? Do you have a depth finder?

What type of environment are you fishing in? Does your trophy fish prefer deep pools, shallow waters and lily pads or hiding under rock piles. Since we know that fish behave differently if its 80 degrees and sunny versus a frigid -10, what are the weather conditions?

Am I not right that you go through all this thinking just to try to catch a trophy fish? (He nods in agreement.)

Bob, like I said earlier, selling is a lot like fishing. You can’t expect your people to be successful reeling in the big ones if you just send them out to the lake and tell them to keep casting. It doesn’t work that way.

Bob finally got it! Why? Because I related selling to something he loved and understood.

c.2007, Anne Miller, author, “Metaphorically Selling,” amiller@annemiller.com

How have you used metaphors or creativity to get a point across or in a presentation?

Lifehack had me thinking about handling criticism. As a one-person business with no manager to meet with me to discuss performance goals and progress, I must rely on my clients for feedback. They’re essentially my managers.

On occasion, I e-mail a client requesting feedback. I explain that I want to serve him or her better in future assignments and the only way I can do that is ask for feedback. Even though I asked for feedback, I gulp when I see an e-mail from that person. Something about human nature forces us to feel jittery about feedback though we tell ourselves that we’re always growing and improving. Feedback in e-mail — which takes away some of that personal touch — doesn’t soften the message.

AbsoluteWrite‘s article lists one thing that works for me: “Not everyone will like your writing/work.” This is no different than putting out one food dish for everyone to try. How likely will everyone like the dish? We have our likes and dislikes, so there will always be someone out there who doesn’t like the work we do simply because they have a distaste for it.

Example. I attended a fantastic week-long management class where at the end of the class, we sent evaluation forms to people we’ve worked with. Nine out of the ten responses came with positive feedback. That one negative had opposite scores and comments. Despite nine good ones, that one hurt. I hadn’t yet learned that not everyone will like my work. The negative feedback turned into a learning experience as I worked on the areas needing improvement.

Escape from Paradise with an island adventure includes five games to take a break from the beach grind. Beach and grind in the same sentences? When your people spend most of their time cutting trees (sorry, Al Gore and environmental activists — these aren’t real trees, y’know?), building huts and catching food, you’d call it drudgery too.

In doing reviews, I try to avoid referencing other games except to indicate what the game resembles. However, I can’t overlook the similarities between this one and Virtual Villagers. Even having played and finished Virtual Villagers 2 (VV2), I had a good time playing Escape from Paradise .

Both games offer advantages and disadvantages. If you can only get one, I couldn’t begin to recommend one over the other. Let’s talk about Escape from Paradise for a bit as VV2 has had its day. You land on a tropical island when your cruise ship crashed and encounter Mr. Tiki Man. Tiki dude guides you through your adventures on the island, so talk to him often.

Like VV2, you help your people build, eat, drink and socialize. Otherwise, if they’re unhappy, they work slower or leave your tribe for another. The game also involves finding parts to build a radio and playing one of 17 mini-games, which is where the game resembles Tropix.

The games help you score points and other surprises. Thankfully, you don’t have to win all of the mini-games to complete the game. I simply sucked at some of them. Five of the games appear somewhere on the island and you unlock their levels as you progress in the game. The other mini-games appear where the 30 challenges you have to do one-by-one to survive on the island.

With many elements thrown into the game, the whole thing comes together nicely to create an adventure game with strategy, arcade and puzzles thrown in. The variety works great for those (me) who bore easily like with Nanny Mania.

The speed and inability to move people from one spot to another drove me berserk. Like Sims-style games, this one plays out in real-time and at times, I can’t do anything but wait for the people to build something before I can move on. I’d love to click a fast forward button. You can play the mini-games to help past time as the people continue working while you play.

It’s a long walk for the little people to go from the starting part of the island to the latter part of the island. In Virtual Villagers 2, I could pick up villagers and plop ‘em wherever. This one requires waiting until their little feet get them to the destination. One of the cuter parts of VV2 was helping villagers become parents and watching the babies grow up. The villagers had more personality than those in Escape from Paradise . I laughed more with VV2.

Unlike VV2, this one doesn’t take days to finish. It took me about two days plus I did it without help (there wasn’t much available yet). I needed more help with VV2 and picking up all the items turned into a chore. Your people work to rack up skill in both games. This one had three skills while VV2 had five, but I preferred this one since it was easier to get an idea of how much work it’d take to move up to the next level. VV2 could take twice as long for one skill for one person than it does for another.

VV2‘s ending could’ve been better considering it told you bits and pieces of history and it could’ve wrapped up nicely had it told you the complete story. Both games equally drew me in and their endings were about the same — not as exciting as hoped, but not terribly disappointing either.

Side note: The game crashed when I tried to play two mini-games. Thankfully, I didn’t lose my place in the game. I’ve reported this to the developers.

Download the game from Big Fish Games.

YouTube, Google Video and other related video sites aren’t just for hobbyists anymore. Businesses post their videos on these sites, too. BtoB Magazine looks at how video has grown and whether it has a place in B2B marketing. I admit I’m no pro at video nor do I follow it much since I’ve taken the fact that most won’t be captioned for granted. However, I still keep one eye on the use of video just to stay on top of how they’re used especially for business.

Videos add something words in an e-mail or on a Web site can’t: emotions. These come through in the presenter’s voice and facial expressions. Like blogs and e-mail newsletters, the Web contains numerous videos. Since videos can take a little longer to view depending on the viewer’s Internet connection speed and the network, keeping the videos within a couple of minutes long suffices.

Better yet, have a text-based entry that covers the same material as the video and give viewers a choice. A business that can take the time to create a video — one business told me it takes an hour to make a five minute video — can take the time to write a short summary covering the important points. You can reach a wider audience using this approach.

Make sure visitors know what’s video and what’s not. Some sites don’t do a good job of this. You click an entry to get its details only to see text accompanied by loading video.