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.

I love simple applications that do one thing and do it well. Instapaper is one such application. Use it to bookmark online articles to read later. You can subscribe to your list via an RSS feed.

Here’s how you use it. Go to Instapaper and register. Add their “Read Later” button to your bookmark toolbar. When you stumble upon an article you want to read later or keep for reference, just click on the Read Later button and it is automatically added to your Instapaper list.

When you go to your Instapaper account, you will see your list of articles. You can click the RSS button on the right side to add the feed to an RSS newsreader like Netnewswire. So simple and convenient!

Since everyone is making a list at the end of the year, I decided to create one, too. Here’s my top 10 most useful applications — things I couldn’t live without in 2007. Some are online apps, others are software that you download to your computer. I have a Mac Book Pro running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.1).

(1) Gmail: Google’s online mail application has reduced the amount of spam I receive to nearly zero. The mobile client is stable and fast. You can use Gmail to send and receive emails from other email addresses. Since your email is stored online, even if you lose your laptop or the hard drive dies, you always have access to it.

(2) Google Docs and Spreadsheets: perfect for sharing documents and spreadsheets. Like Gmail, you never worry again about your hard drive dying or losing your data.

(3) Backpack: create to-do lists, keep reminders (that send SMS or emails to you so you never forget anything) and keep an online calendar that syncs with Apple iCal. Backpack is one of the excellent online applications developed by the wonderful 37 Signals. They are known for Basecamp, the project management and collaboration application. There’s a free and a paid version.

(4) Transmit: fast, easy-to-use FTP software for the Mac. I’ve tried others, but this one is the fastest and most intuitive.

(5) Wordpress: the best blogging software around, with a huge community of developers of plug-ins, themes, widgets, etc. Wordpress powers this blog and other blogs I have set up in the past. Wordpress also has a hosted service, called Wordpress.com, for those who can’t be bothered to set up, host and maintain their own blog. Created by Matt Mullenweg, it is used by thousands of bloggers and big media companies.

(6) Netnewswire: RSS news reader. I don’t like online RSS readers because it takes forever to load the feeds. I like Netnewswire’s clean interface.

(7) Skype: this application has saved me thousands of Euros in phone calls. I can’t imagine life without Skype. I have no more long distance phone bills and since most of my contacts are on Skype anyway, it’s much easier to reach people or IM them.

(8) Gizmo Project: like Skype, Gizmo Project allows you to call people for free (if they are also Gizmo Project users) or to call landlines and mobile phones for low rates. Most of my contacts are on Skype so I use Gizmo Project primarily for calling landlines and mobile phones. I use it also on my mobile phone because unlike Skype, Gizmo Project has software for the Nokia phones. So when I am abroad and in the vicinity of a Wi-Fi network, I avoid roaming charges by using Gizmo Project on my mobile phone via Wi-Fi. I buy $10 units and it takes me months before I use it up. Another true money saver!

(9) Ad Block Plus plugin for Firefox browser: This plugin blocks obnoxious advertising on web sites. No more miserable flashing banners, video ads that suddenly play and blast out your ears, nasty advertising animations. My web surfing experience has improved dramatically since I installed Ad Block Plus.

(10) Super Duper: this is the best backup software. It is easy to use and fast so there is absolutely no excuse anymore not to back up your hard drive every night. Tech support is very good. I emailed their support team and got a response within 24 hours (they solved my problem — which had nothing to do with the Super Duper software but with errors on my hard drive).

This is my last post on Pajama Entrepreneur. I have moved all of the posts on this blog to Rose Cantine, my other personal blog. I will be blogging there from now on.

Why? I’m tired of maintaining two Wordpress blogs. Every time Wordpress updates their software, I have to update two blogs, including the plugins. I don’t have time for this anymore.

So, all of my tech and business related posts, which I used to host here on PJ Entrepreneur, will now be on Rose Cantine.

See you there!

Farhad Manjoo, Salon’s tech columnist, did quite a bit of research and showed that Macs are indeed cheaper than PCs. Moreover, their eBay resale value is higher:

Even for computers, brand matters. This week I compared prices of several machines from Dell, Gateway and other PC vendors against Apple’s lineup of Macs. In most cases comparable Macs sold for within $100 more than the PCs. But the Apples had something extra: that logo, the design, the history . . .

I switched to the Mac in 2002 and I don’t understand why people still use Windows PCs.

Microsoft launched a unified communications platform (merging email, instant messaging and telephony) that Business Division President Jeff Raikes claims will put an end to telephone tag:

“The era of dialing blind, the era of playing phone tag, the era of voice-mail jam…that era is ending . . . I don’t want to get in touch with your number. I want to get in touch with you.

Sorry Jeff, but actually most of the time, I don’t want to talk to people. I want them to leave a message in my email box which I can either read or listen to in order to determine whether it is worth responding to. Based on what I hear and read, I will respond.

Why do companies love offering products like this - a hodgepodge of stuff that does not really solve a pressing problem? Right now my problem is I get too many emails from business contacts, friends, family, email newsletters, etc. The last thing I need is people managing to reach me via phone interrupting my already busy day.

I want FILTERS, intelligent ones, and I have a few solutions already using email, but nothing is optimal. Messages from close friends and family go into a mailbox marked “read right away”. I have various mailboxes for different levels of urgency. But what I certainly don’t need is a solution that allows people to talk to me whenever THEY want, not when I want.

The city of Paris has begun offering free Wi-Fi access in public parks and gardens, museums, libraries, and other public buildings. To find out which areas have Wi-Fi, go to wifi.paris.fr. Inspired by San Francisco, the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, issued a public tender last year, seeking a provider to deploy the hotzones. SFR and Alcatel-Lucent won the bid. France Telecom, a sour grapes loser, is suing the city, saying it is unfairly competing with FT’s own paid hotspot access. France Telecom’s subsidiary, Orange, is reportedly Apple’s exclusive partner in France for the iPhone.

Ironically, San Francisco, the original model for this project, has no Wi-Fi. I guess depending too much on a private company to fund everything (in SF’s case, EarthLink) is a fantasy.

To read more about the Paris Wi-Fi project, click here. Another successful project recently launched by the city is Velib, free bicycles available at various points in the city, especially around metro stops. The city partnered with JC Decaux, the outdoor advertising company, to fund this project.

Paris Wi-Fi website: wifi.paris.fr