Srcasm

I happened to send out a Tweet today (like I do everyday) about a new product that’s being offered in the wild, Apostrophe.  It’s a great CMS (content management system) that was written by some great folks from P’unk Ave in Philadelphia.  In addition to being pretty simple to install, it’s highly customizable and has a very slick design.  I highly recommend it to web developers, graphic designers and people dabbling in the art of web dev.  But alas, this post is not about Apostrophe, it’s about another CMS tool called PageLime.

PageLime is another CMS that is completely web based.  This means, as a SaaS (software as a service) product, there are no server-side installs, no extensions to be added to Apache or complicated databases to be setup.  PageLime was created by two guys who were/are freelance developers and hold full time jobs in addition to supporting PageLime – Emil Anticevic and Thomas McLeod.  And they’ve done an excellent job so far from a technical and personal perspective.

Right after I signed up for the service, I got an email (a form email) from one of the founders over there, Tom.  While it was an automated email, it had a number of things that help people connect to a great service: It was personal, humorous, to the point and from a real email address.  Let’s take a closer look at each of those and why I feel that this will eventually lead these guys and PageLime to great success:

1. Personal – The email that came through looked like this:
   Hi,
   I’m Tom, co-founder of PageLime. I just saw that you registered a new account. Let me know if you have any questions,comments, concerns, PageLime bugs, want to talk about life, or anything else. I would love to help out. Thanks – Tom
   See how Tom and Emil did that?  They make the user feel like they were receiving a real email from the founder.  This means that the user feels a personal connection to not only the person sending it but the company and product behind it.
2. Humorous – Part of the email mentions that they’d love to talk about life with you.  They aren’t trying to pitch more about their product or trying to elicit only comments and suggestions from the user, they’re actually trying to make a real connection.  One that may last beyond the use of the product, today.
3. To the point – This welcome email is short and to the point (not like this blog post).  It means that it’s a quick read, I didn’t send it right to spam and I didn’t have to load any images to get the whole picture.
4. From a real email address – This may be one of the most important aspects of this welcome email.  The email comes from Tom and Tom’s real email address.  This means that if I do want to talk about life or report some PageLime bugs I can simple respond to the email.  It doesn’t go to some massive mailbox, it goes to Tom’s actual inbox.  That’s pretty neat.

There are a number of ways that companies can make a real connection to their users, fans and readers and these are just a few things that PageLime has done well.  I hope to see them continue to be as personal as they can for as long as they can.  This is uber-important for the future of their product.

What do you think?  Should companies be more personal?  Less?  Should they try to stay involved with their users on a real level or stick with the “large company” mentality?

I know, I’m a terrible continuous blog poster but one day it’ll get better.  For now, please check out this video by RJMetrics all about the terrible choices that startups make today:

I know, I’m probably jinxing myself (as my friend Amanda explained to me) but I wanted to share something with you.  It’s called Apps Status Dashboard.  Being a premier customer, I found out about this great tool many moons ago and I want to share it with you.  You can find the dashboard I’m speaking of at http://www.google.com/appsstatus (yes, that’s two S’s in there).

When you get to the site, it looks something like this:

From there you can find out the past weeks worth of statuses for all of Google’s professional services.  Sure it doesn’t include YouTube but honestly, no funny cats falling from trees videos or girl playing the flute with some random part of her body videos are really not that important when all you need is your work email and your calendar.

Next time Google is down for you, check this page to find out whats going on.  They keep it updated fairly well and at least you’ll know whether or not you’re crazy–er.

I’ve been longing for this update to my HTC G1 and now I finally have it.  No, TMobile didn’t push it to me, I decided to go ahead and force the upgrade myself.  You know what?  I can’t believe I waited this long!

The upgrade was painless.  It took about 30 minutes, a few reboots of the phone and about 100 MB of downloads to get it all set but now I’m golden.  The only — and I mean only — downside is that I had to wipe my phone’s data.  Not to worry though, emails, contacts, favorites and calendars are all store at Google so they came right back down.  Now I’m left with a phone that’s speedier, prettier and can do oh-so-much-more!

I’ve only been running the software for about 15 hours, 3 minutes and 18 seconds and here are some of my inital thoughts (think of it as a top 10 list of reasons to upgrade to Cupcake.):

1. It’s way faster than before. Menus pop up quicker and my home screen doesn’t lag nearly as much.  In all fairness only time will tell if this is truly true as it could also have to do with erasing all of the apps that I had installed previously and the 400+ photos that were stored on my SD card.
2. An onscreen keyboard is the way to go. When I decided to get the G1 instead of an iPhone I loved the idea of a physical keyboard.  In retrospect, I still love it but I needed an OSK as well to help me send those quick, “Oh hey!” or “I’ll see you at 5.” text messages.  Sure ChompSMS and Steel helped me out quite a bit but it made for an inconsistent user experience.  And I learned at the last Refresh Philly that that’s a no-no.
3. I love root (not celery). While this isn’t really an Android Cupcake feature, it was a benefit to doing the upgrade myself.  After the upgrade, I had full access to the phone’s OS.  This means, among other things, that I am able to run wifi tethering so that I can use my phone as a modem while on the go.  That’s pretty cool.
4. The browser is wicked fast. The updated browser software is not only fast but since it now has an OSK (see #2) I don’t need to use Steel.  While I loved that browser, there were a few sites that would sometimes load very strangely or crash the browser in Steel (namely Gmail mobile).  No more will I have to suffer this terrible problem.  Multi-touch is pretty cool to have as well.  I can zoom in and out just like an iPhone.
5. Widgets are pretty cool. I can finally have my calendar on my home screen.  With the new widget functionality (and API) developers can make all sorts of neat things to post directly to the desktop.    I’ve tested a few of the widgets and have some things to grow and fix (the weather one for sure) but it’s a great addition to the “team”.
6. They finally fixed the dial pad while on the phone. One of the biggest headaches while dialing an automated system was that the keypad disappeared after a few seconds.  You’d then need to press the menu button once or twice and hope that screen came back on before the automated system gave you the boot.
7. Video recording AND uploading will make for some interesting nights. Google released the ability to record video right from the camera app.  In addition, when you’re done recording you’re offered to share it via MMS, email or an upload right to YouTube.
8. Auto screen rotation makes the UX really nice. One thing that Google added was auto screen rotation.  This means when you turn the phone on its side the screen flips.  This is nice for web browsing and checking out pictures online and off.
9. The Gmail application has been upgrade to be much faster and cleaner. Not only does it load emails much quicker but they’ve added the ability to multi-select emails.  This means it’s easier to label, archive, delete and mark messages as spam.
10. Finally, I have a renewed faith in the Android OS. It seemed that Google stalled on much of the software upgrades.  Many branches of Android were being formed but none that came directly from Google and HTC.  Now I know that they’re working hard on making this OS the operating system of choice for all smart phones.

I’m really excited to see where the OS goes next.  Netbooks, other phones and new applications are just the tip of the iceberg.  I’m happy that I’m along for the ride.

If you’d like to upgrade your device (warning: I’m not responsible if you blow it up) you can check out the directions over on Android And Me.

As of last week IndyHall, a coworking space based in Olde City, Philadelphia, opened it’s doors to its new 4000+ square foot office.  IndyHall nearly tripled its amount of usable space and brought in a huge slew of new memberships.  It was and still is one amazing, dynamic crowd of people.

Whether you’re a graphic designer, programmer, musician or IT-techy-nerd (me), you’ll fit into the IndyHall scene.  With permanent and part time memberships, there’s something for everyone.  I wanted to let you know my experience (and how great it is) after week one in the new office — In a bulleted top 5-style list.

• The space is huge – While we were painting, drilling, running wires, occasionally drinking and setting up the new space it didn’t look that large.  It was larger than the old place but it was impossible to envision what it would look like with the 30+ desks we have now.  It’s awesome.  We have so many new members and so much more room to spread out while working.
• Having a kitchen (a real one) is pretty freakin’ rad - It’s easy, while working as an independent (or full time, working independently), to forget how great a home-cooked meal is.  Now that we have a nice kitchen, I’ve seen many more people bringing in food and even cooking.  This morning I walked in to Dana cooking eggs and bacon!
• A real sound system really make a world of difference - In the old space, we had a speaker setup on one side of the office.  The problem with this is that it’s either too loud for the guy sitting next to it or too quiet for the person sitting on the other side of the room.  Sure you could have brought your own head phones but sometimes it’s nice to let someone else run the music juke box.  The new system at IndyHall64 sounds great.  Chris Jurney picked out a great sound system that distributes music evenly through the whole place.
• Integrated coffee – Okay, this machine was also at the old space (IndyHall Classic) but I have to reiterate how great it is to have robust coffee maker in-house.  It not only saves money but also time.  While Olde City Coffee is right around the corner, it still takes a few minutes to get out and back.  And in the IT world, this can make or break a project.
• Super-awesome-incredible-talented-intelligent-sometimes-quirky people - Anyone can make a shared office space.  Get a bunch of people with some extra cash and rent some floor in a nice building.  That’s the easy part.  What Alex and crew have done at IndyHall is brought a whole slew of amazing people together to form one kick-ass community.  Everyone that works out of IndyHall brings something unique to the table.  From Two Guys on Beer and round3media to RipItApp and incredibly complicated music-analyzing software, the people here have it all.  That’s the best part of working in this new office space.  We can now fit so many more great minds and great people into one place.

If you haven’t yet had the chance to stop by, I highly recommend you do.  It’s located at 20 N. 3rd Street (2nd Floor) in Philadelphia, PA.  It’s a short walk from the El and there’s parking right around the corner if you need it.  When you stop in, be sure to give me a shout.  I’m now a lite member and I love it.

Corrected: A type-oh.