Pajama Entrepreneur

I was at Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM) in Barcelona the last two days checking out the latest in mobile gadgets and this one is my favorite because it marries the basic thin Nokia phone with Nokia’s new Maps 2.0 application. Maps 2.0 is the Nokia GPS map adapted to pedestrians. According to Nokia, it has an “accelerometer” which measures changes in direction and orientation. The built-in compass makes it easy to follow the map when you are walking around in a city. So when you turn, the map automatically switches orientation so it shows you where you are facing. This is very handy when you are emerging out of a metro station and have no clue in which direction to proceed.

I had a chance to try out the 6210 (pictured above) with Maps 2.o yesterday. I signed up for Nokia’s “Hidden Barcelona” tour. I went in a tuktuk (see below) with a representative of Nokia. We drove to the center of town, close to the Barrio Gotico and we had to find a hidden square called the Square of Silence. Anyone who has been to Barcelona knows that it’s easy to get lost in the center with its tiny alleys. There is no way to orient yourself against the steeple of a church or a building. It’s like walking in a maze.

So with the 6210 and Maps 2.o, I walked, the map told me to turn left here, right there and voila, there I was at the Plaza Saint Felip Neri. I realized suddenly that I had been there before but I don’t think I could have found it again without the 6210’s Maps application. Below is photo of the square, which I took with the new 6220, a phone that Nokia announced this week which has a 5 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics. I could have uploaded this photo directly to my Flickr account but decided to transfer it instead to my Mac Book Pro so I could post it on this blog.

What I also like about Maps 2.0 is that if you are driving, you can see upcoming parking lots, auto mechanics and petrol stations. The map also marks churches, museums, metro stops and train stations.

How often have you wandered around a city completely lost, trying to figure out where the metro stop is, not knowing that it’s only one block behind some building?

What I’d like to do with Maps 2.0 is layer over points showing my friends’ favorite restaurants, cafes and hangouts in Barcelona. Then, Maps 2.0 will really shine. It’s great that Nokia is putting this application on the lower end phones so that it gets mass adoption.

Think all those Facebook widgets are so cool? Watch out for this one which installs the Zango adware / spyware, says Fortinet:

Fortinet Global Security Research Team discovered a malicious Facebook Widget (officially, a “Platform Application”) actively spreading on the social networking site which ultimately prompts users to install the infamous “Zango” adware/spyware.

Click here for more information.

[From Niall Kennedy]

UPDATE (10 Jan 2008): Facebook has deleted the widget from the site.

Cory Doctorow has written an excellent piece about how Facebook suffers from exactly the same dilemma suffered by earlier online social networks: when everyone’s on, it’s not cool anymore. And worse — you’ll need to “defriend” people. Oh how to do this without offending people? You can’t. Here’s an excerpt from Cory’s article:

You’d think that Facebook would be the perfect tool for handling all this. It’s not. For every long-lost chum who reaches out to me on Facebook, there’s a guy who beat me up on a weekly basis through the whole seventh grade but now wants to be my buddy; or the crazy person who was fun in college but is now kind of sad; or the creepy ex-co-worker who I’d cross the street to avoid but who now wants to know, “Am I your friend?” yes or no, this instant, please. It’s not just Facebook and it’s not just me. Every “social networking service” has had this problem and every user I’ve spoken to has been frustrated by it. I think that’s why these services are so volatile: why we’re so willing to flee from Friendster and into MySpace’s loving arms; from MySpace to Facebook. It’s socially awkward to refuse to add someone to your friends list — but removing someone from your friend-list is practically a declaration of war.

I left LinkedIn, a popular business networking site precisely because lots of people wanted to be my contact and began pestering me for endorsements even though I hardly knew them. It was a complete waste of time. If I need to contact someone, I don’t need to go through LinkedIn. I have a very good network already and my friends are more than willing to make introductions to other people.

Here is a screenshot of my Facebook newsfeed dated 10 November 2007. Pay attention to the California Car Insurance sponsored ad in my feed. Is this all Facebook can do - insert stupid irrelevant sponsored ads about California car insurance to a person who lives in Amsterdam?

Facebook is purportedly worth $15 billion. If my company were worth even $1 billion, I would spend at least $100M working on a super-targeted advertising solution and with that kind of money, $100M, I could do it. First, I would definitely ask the person to whom I am showing the ads what he or she is interested in.

Clearly, I don’t live in California. Even without asking me, Facebook would have known NOT to show the ad. Who gets ripped off? The advertiser. Who gets annoyed? Me.

If this is all Facebook can muster, what can I expect next in my feed? Dog and cat food ads, even though I own no pets? Weight-loss diet ads even though I weigh 100 lbs (five feet four inches in height)?

Wouldn’t surprise me. Sloppy, unprofessional work from a company worth bucket loads of money. I am not impressed.

UPDATE: Several hours later, I see on the left hand side of my Facebook feeds, two ads delivered one after the other: (1) Botox and (2) Tired of Dating?

First, I do NOT need Botox. I may be 46 years old but I don’t have hideous wrinkles and the thought of getting large needle next to my head to inject poison sounds gruesome to me. Second, I don’t give a damn about dating or being tired of dating. Where the hell does Facebook get this idea that I need wrinkle-reducing treatments or help in my romantic life? Is my photo THAT bad?

In the past few weeks, I have attended two conferences, Mobile 2.0 in San Francisco and Nokia’s Mobile Mashup in Palo Alto, on the supposedly new world of mobile Internet, a paradise where everyone can use these incredible applications on their mobile phones AND access the Internet in all its glory. Unfortunately we’re stuck with a basic reality: expensive data plans and the attendant roaming charges when you go abroad. Until I can get a cheap, flat-rate, all-you-can-eat worldwide monthly data service plan, I am not going to use these applications. Of course, I already use Google maps, search and visit a variety of websites on my mobile phone using Wi-Fi when I can find it. But Wi-Fi is not yet everywhere and it’s still sometimes a hassle to use: login screens that make you type in long characters (on a cell phone this is very unpleasant), having to pay every time you log on to a different network. Until we have cheap flat rate plans and no roaming charges, I’m afraid it’s a waste of time to develop these apps and attend these events.

UPDATE: SFR, the French operator, launched their version of “unlimited” mobile 3G Internet access. Click here to see the press release and here to see the article with video clip on Journal du Net. Several problems with this:

• There are 3 different tariffs (39, 49 and 69 EUR) with various services, like mobile TV associated with them. I find it confusing.
• You have to sign up for 12 to 24 months. What if you just want access when you are in France occasionally?
• Works only with certain phones.

If this is the mobile operator’s way to encourage mobile Internet use, good luck.

I have not been posting much over the past couple of weeks because I was ill for several days and then very busy with projects. There are so many conferences this month, one of which is my own Muniwireless event in Silicon Valley.

Mobile 2.0 in San Francisco (Oct. 15) in San Francisco: new mobile apps and business models

Web 2.0 Summit (Oct 17-19) in San Francisco: but I will only be hanging out in the lobby. Here’s an article in the SF Chronicle about how to make deals and meet interesting people without actually going to the trouble of paying for the conference and seeing the sessions

Muniwireless Silicon Valley (Oct 21-23) conference in Santa Clara: all about citywide Wi-Fi networks

Ninety-two percent of young people surveyed by Dutch research firm, Qruis, between the ages of 6 and 29 say they don’t want to see ads on their mobile phones. Only 11 and 13 percent of those surveyed gave a positive or neutral reaction to ads on chat and game sites. Ads on websites and in emails received a positive/neutral rating among 13 and 15 percent, respectively. Funny enough, 33 and 41 percent of young people consider ads in traditional media, TV and newspapers, not to be irritating.

Qrius believes that young people consider their mobile phones and chat programs to be private domains where advertisers are not welcome. I think there’s a simpler reason: they’re used to seeing ads in newspaper and on TV.Qrius will present the results of its annual survey next week.

I have not seen Qrius’s report and don’t know what kind of advertising young people find objectionable. Still, I wonder how Blyk, the first free, ad-supported mobile operator, will do when it launches in the UK in a few weeks. Those who plan to monetize their sites (gaming, video, chat, etc.) may be turning off their audience by inserting annoying ads.