General

Any Mobile Masterminds?

February 18, 2008 by Ellen

Several years ago, we registered MobileMasterMind.com, intending to make a general info/help kind of site for mobile device info. Like too very many of our good intentions, we never got around to doing anything about it, and our ownership of the domain is expiring this week.

I was going to let it expire, but Marc suggested that someone who reads this blog might want it, so if anyone does, post a reply here saying so by Wednesday of this week. I’ll renew it for a year and transfer it to anyone interested. If more than one person is interested, I’ll let Julie pick who gets it using her secret random winner picking method.

And don’t forget that part 3 of Eten Blog dot Com’s Developer Interview series is now online. It was originally designed to be a 3-part article, but there’s going to be at least one set of followup questions as well.

"Smart" Systems

February 7, 2008 by Marc

People are always talking about “smart” systems. These are automated systems that are meant to make a company more efficient, drive sales, and provide a great customer experience. Often, and unfortunately, the implementation of these systems goes hand in hand with cutting back on the role of real people in the process. Time and again, these “smart” systems prove incredibly stupid.

This whole issue is particularly important to us right now, because we’re working on some “smart” systems of our own. Where are they a good thing and where are they a pain? How do you use them in a way that really does make life better rather than more complicated? Read on for my thoughts and a chance to voice your own opinion!

So here is an example of a “smart” system gone horribly wrong. A friend of mine ordered some flowers from an online flower shop. After that he started getting their personalized emails (“Hey Joe! Time to buy some roses!”) advertising all sorts of great opportunities to buy flowers. He tried the remove button but it didn’t work.

Then, this week, he gets an email reading:

“Joe, send Mary Valentine’s Roses and Save 20%!”

The problem here is that the reason Joe bought flowers originally was to buy flowers for his niece Mary’s funeral. Will Joe ever buy flowers from this company again? Certainly not. The smart system designed to drive sales has just guaranteed that this customer will never buy from them again. In fact, he’ll probably go around telling other people not to buy from them.

On the other hand, take your average Voicemail system. I LOVE voicemail. Many years ago, when I worked in Real Estate before Voicemail became common place, I used to have endless problems trying to get messages to people, and more importantly, get them to the person accurately. With Voicemail they always here exactly what I want them to hear. It’s direct, efficient, and effective.

OK, so what does all this mean to Ilium Software? Well we’re working on a way that will let people who are requesting unlock codes (“I lost my codes but need to reinstall. Can you send them?”) get them automatically, rather than waiting for us to process the request manually. It seems like a great idea, but even this sort of automated system can get really frustrating.

Take this example. Bob buys eWallet for Pocket PC with one email address and eWallet for desktop with another. He fills out the form, asking for his eWallet for Pocket PC codes, but he uses the desktop purchase email address. We write back:

“Sorry. We can’t find your purchase.”

To which Bob replies “What do you mean I didn’t buy it? Of course I bought it!” and now everyone is frustrated.

So I guess the question is this…as long as there is a way to still talk to a real person, does the advantage of instant code responses that are right most of the time outweigh those occasions where the “smart system” does something stupid? I mean we’re still there to help in person (call us, email us, we’re there) if the smart system botches the job. Or is there no amount of speed that can outweigh those moments of smart system stupidity?

We want to make sure because the goal here is to get you guys the information you need faster, but not at the expense of good service.

Monday* Morning Mobile Miscellany

February 5, 2008 by Ellen

*(I wrote this Monday. I’m publishing it Tuesday because we updated our blog software yesterday, and couldn’t publish new articles.)

A few related posts and articles I found interesting this morning:

Users’ Bad Habits Invite Malware, Forum Says. I have very mixed feelings about this. I’m a huge fan of being careful. I drown boxes of old business cards rather than just throwing them out, shred everything with anyone’s info on it, even things like holiday cards, and have told my favorite aunt she’s not allowed to send me email until she learns the difference between CC: and BCC:. But I’m not a fan at all of the “blame the users” approach to problems, which I think is much too prevalent among technical people. Yes, people are afraid of change, as the article says, but with good reason. Who hasn’t installed or upgraded some software, only to find their PC not working as well, or not working at all? And who believes that even the most conscientious use of security software and techniques is going to stop all the malware? Not me.

People should practice good security - absolutely. But that alone isn’t going to be enough. The internet infrastructure, particularly email, has to change. And I’d love to see installed software behaving a lot better as well.

But speaking of practicing good security, Marc sent me a fun page describing why Passwords are like Underwear. I particularly liked the illustrations. Maybe I’ll send it to my aunt.

And, finally, getting back to mobile, Tariq at Eten Blog dot Com is publishing a very in-depth interview he did with representatives of a few of the major mobile developers. The interview will be published in 4 parts (it’s long) - the first one is online here. Check it out if you’re interested!

Our Partner Store is Open

December 3, 2007 by Ellen

We’ve just started selling a few partner products - titles developed and maintained by other companies. You may have seen other of the mobile sites doing this already, and you’ll probably see more over the next few months. We’re still a pretty small industry, and at least some of us are trying to work more closely together and give each others’ titles some extra exposure and sales. Plus, like Amazon selling shoes and hairdryers (both of which I’ve bought from them recently), we’re hoping that our featuring other titles will make it easier for visitors to find what they want, even if we don’t make it ourselves.

The support for any partner products on our site will be provided by the company that makes it - PocketInformant by WebIS, 1-Calc by OmegaOne, etc. - but we’re only selling titles that we know are well supported, and that we know we can always reach the author of. The sales will go through the Handango engine that’s the backend for our own title’s store as well.

It’s an experiment - if it doesn’t work well for us, for our visitors, and for the other titles’ authors, we’ll take it down. If it does, we’ll add more titles. We’ll never turn into a big software portal - believe me that we’ll never turn into a big software portal - but we’re hoping we can expand just a little and help our visitors as well as ourselves and our friends.

You Can't Be Too Rich, Too Thin, or Too Careful

December 3, 2007 by Ellen

More and more, I realize you really can’t be too careful.

I got an email this morning, looking like it was from PayPal, telling me to login to my account and update my information. I have enough experience to know what to look for before hitting any link, and also to know what kinds of emails to be suspicious of in general, but I also know that a lot of people don’t. I used to think things like the personal images and extra security questions were overkill, but I’ve changed my mind. I’m taking security a lot more seriously now, because some of the tricks the bad guys are pulling are pretty impressive.

I’d bet that people who read this blog (and thanks for reading it; I really like being able to just “think out loud” on my PC and call it working) are pretty careful and knowledgeable too, but I’d also bet that everyone has at least one friend or relative who’d read an email like the one I got today and click that link that looks legitimate. So if you know someone like that, this would be a great time to remind them that emails aren’t necessarily from who they say they’re from. And that links don’t necessarily go to the site in their text.

And now back to figuring out how to get rich and thin.

Thanksgiving Week

November 19, 2007 by Ellen

Well, it’s Thanksgiving week in Michigan, and I think we’re all pretty thankful that we have jobs - way too many people around here don’t. As well as that people are still buying our software, that we’re still winning awards (we just won 3 Best Software Awards from Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine, announced today), that the guy who broke in a few weeks ago only took the one laptop, and that our offices aren’t freezing all the time (unlike the last two). And for the internet, which made this all possible, and which has given us all so many new and improved ways to goof off. And of course for our customers, friends and supporters in the mobile world. We couldn’t have made it without you.