It is really spring in New England. Not the dark, rainy, miserable season where blossoms and crocuses are beaten by cold, heavy rain till they are quickly lost and then rapidly followed by 80 degree full on summer. This year it is like the springs of my youth in Washington, DC where buds and tulips last. Where there is sun and days in the 50s and 60s and you can feel the promise of warmer weather on the way. This year it’s a real payback for those months of winter that we suffer through in Cambridge.

For the last two weeks I’ve endured a little IT winter of my own (not caused by our IT crew who have been patient and very helpful during my double crisis). Due to a virus on my laptop and a loose plug on my BlackBerry I’ve lost over 50 tabs in Firefox and more than 100 bookmarked stories in Viigo (as IT crises go pretty minor, but hear me out).

Those 50 tabs and 100 bookmarks, they represent 150 actions that I meant to take “someday.” Websites I meant to read. Ideas I meant to blog about Links I meant to share. But honestly would I have done that or was I just waiting for something like this to come along and clear my plate? Based on the age of some of those bookmarks and my past history, I suspect the latter.

So I’m not mourning those lost links. I now have a lighter browser full of opportunity.  Those bookmarks? Most were too outdated for blogging, if they were really necessary then I will search out the information when the need arises and I now have a lot of freed up memory on my smartphone.  Those digital losses are like last fall’s dead leaves that no longer clutter my yard so that the new spring grass looks inviting.

Loss is a part of life in the real world and online.  And so is spring.

Digital Spring is a post from: Trumblog

Viigo, developers of my favorite news reader application for BlackBerry, announced today that Viigo has become a part of RIM. In a press release on their website they announced that

Our team has joined RIM’s global organization and will continue to bring our expertise in BlackBerry® application development and real-time content delivery to the BlackBerry platform. The Viigo for BlackBerry app will also continue to be available for download through BlackBerry App World™.

I have been a fan of Viigo for a long time and  wish everyone at Viigo the best and hope that this will lead to improvements to the application and benefit BlackBerry.

Viigo Now Part Of Research In Motion (RIM) is a post from: Trumblog

In the last couple of weeks I was asked by the BlackBerry application Viigo and the IM client Digsby to nominate them for Mashable’s Open Web Awards and each time I did it gladly.  Why,  because I love both products and want them to be recognized for excellence.  I suppose that I was an easy mark for both programs considering that I’ve blogged about how much I love them (I’ve blogged about Viigo 8 times and Digsby twice), but it got me thinking about showing the love for the things that you love.

I’m not writing any old thing, I’m only talking about the things that you love.  The tools that make your day easier, more productive, enjoyable and all around better.  The places where you love to go, that make you feel good, that have great things or service and make you glad that you came.  The things that make you happy, help you look good, do the things you love, give you joy.  All things that you spent time, money or effort on that you would do again because of what you got back from that investment. Those are things that you’ve got to share the love for.

Why? Because when you share the love you give back.  You help out the people behind those things, places and services in reaching more people, making more people happy and maybe making their livelihood a little better too.  And after what they gave you, don’t they deserve it?

So when that product asks for a nomination do it.  Review that awesome book you just read. Send a shout out on twitter about the great thing you found.  Write an amazing review on Yelp for your favorite spot.  Let the things you love know that you love them and help your friends find the great things out in the world and avoid the junk.  Do it today.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgreene/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Sharing The Love About Those You Love is a post from: Trumblog

I’m a bit of a mobile geek. Over the last 10 years or so I have been addicted to a series of devices and am currently sporting a BlackBerry 8310.  I’ve reviewed a bunch of applications here and I thought that I’d round it out with a series of posts  reviewing the remaining ones that I use on my smartphone.

To begin the series here is the list of apps that I run on my BlackBerry (other than the system and pre-installed ones)all of which I’ll be reviewing over the next couple of weeks.

• Google Voice
• Gmail
• ÜberTwitter
• Facebook
• Yelp
• Google Mobile App
• Google Maps
• Flickr
• Qik
• Viigo
• WordPress for BlackBerry
• ScoreMobile BlackBerry
• BlackBerry App World
• Google Sync

I look forward to your feedback and suggestions for other applications.

BlackBerry Application Reviews is a post from: Trumblog

The Snaptu BlackBerry application  is a challenger to Viigo for the top do-everything application for the BlackBerry. It aims high, with a long list of applications, but comes up short across the board with limited functionality.  It’s worth keeping you eye on this challenger, but not time to make the switch yet.

Like Viigo, Snaptu has a variety of modules, Snaptu calls them applications, that extend Snaptu’s functionality from just an RSS reader into a complete information aggregator.  So in addition to reading the news and RSS feeds with Snaptu you can access Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, check sports scores, weather and movie show times, watch videos on YouTube, look at pictures on Picasa and Flickr, etc. Snaptu lays out these applications in a iPhone style tiled layout, which contrasts well against Viigo’s more functional list of modules.

Snaptu sets it’s sights high with an extensive set of applications. Here’s their list at the time that I am writing this, but I expect that there are more by the time that you read it.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• AccuWeather.com
• My Movies
• The Guardian News Reader
• Picasa
• Flickr
• TheSportsCampus
• LinkedIn*
• YouTube*
• Reuters News Reader
• Lndon Tube
• BBC News Reader
• Google Calendar
• Sudoku
• Live Football (soccer to us in the US) Scores
• London Pub Guide
• Europe Concert Tickets
• Cricket Scores and News
• Dictionary
• UK TV Guide
• Google*
• Photobucket*
• MySpace*
• Orcut*
• GetJar*
• Multiply*
• Netlog*
• Yahoo!*
• ESPN*
• NBA*
• Ask*
• Friendster*
• OpenTable*
• Last.fm*
• Gmail*
• hi5*
• Wikipedia*
• eBay*
• Bebo*

Now, many of these applications (as of this writing the ones with asterisks) are just links to these services mobile webpages, but clearly Snaptu’s goal is to be a universal application for the  BlackBerry.  Unfortunately though Snaptu is an excellent example of “Jack of all trades, master of none.”  For example:

• In the Flickr application you can’t upload a picture
• In the Twitter application you can’t search on a term
• The Facebook application requires a few too many clicks to get to a profile page
• In the RSS reader there is no indication if a specific article has been read or not

In other words, without exception Snaptu provides an inferior version of the application that they are trying to replace.

The RSS reader is the most important of the applications to me personally and here they have most of the features that you expect, but miss some basics  and don’t go above and beyond.  For example, the reader comes with a great set of feeds plus it allows you to import feeds from Google Reader, but it doesn’t seem to allow a separate OPML file to be imported.  You can select which feeds from Google Reader are to be added, which is nice, but there’s a trade-off because it means that new feeds you add to Google Reader are not automatically added to Snaptu.  Once you start reading you run into the biggest gaffe, which I mentioned above, but will repeat again, the application does not show which articles have been read.  I can see which feeds have unread articles in them, but not which articles those are.  That is an enormous usability issue.  Articles can be emailed, sent to Twitter and posted to Facebook, images load quickly, but links do not show up in the articles and you cannot bookmark them on Del.icio.us. Last year I reviewed all of the available RSS readers on BlackBerry last year and made charts of their functionality which  I’ve updated for Snaptu below.

Snaptu Application

Snaptu Functionality

Snaptu Functionality

Finally Snaptu requires a wireless connection to work, which I don’t fault them for, it’s a legitimate choice, but it makes a huge difference for folks like me who like to catch up on news during their subway commute.

Snaptu seems to be focusing too much attention on the breadth of their offering rather than the quality.  Until that is done I won’t be giving up my individual Facebook app, UberTwitter, Flickr and Viigo for Snaptu, but when they do I’ll excitedly take another look.

Snaptu Aims High, But Falls Short As The One App For Blackerry is a post from: Trumblog

Evolution tends to lead to more complex structures, not simpler ones.

Applications and devices release new versions, each with more and more expanded functionality until they are bloated and swollen with features that only appeal to a few users, but results in a memory hog with difficult navigation.  It’s rare that you see an application scale back to the essence of what originally appealed to users.  However that is exactly what Viigo did with their News product and the result is a fast, focused and useful application.

Viigo made it’s reputation as an RSS reader for the BlackBerry and had the best set of functionality around.  Naturally Viigo began to build on that foundation and in their Tango release last summer added Sports Scores, Weather, Flight Status, etc.  Since then the application has gained more and more modules like Social Networks,  Shopping, Entertainment, Politics and Finance.  If you are a Viigo user who depends on those services then the memory is well worth it, but for those just looking for an RSS news reader then the cost: benefit ratio of memory to features was trending in the wrong direction.

Enter Viigo News.  Viigo News is a slimmed down application that focuses on what made me a Viigo enthusiast in the first place, it’s an outstanding mobile RSS feed reader and not much more.  Everything that I wrote in my initial review of Viigo is still true.  Viigo works offline (which is critical for my subway commute), it displays full posts, links are accessible, you can easily share links, and setup and customization are a snap.  The improvements that Viigo has added to these areas over the last year or so have been maintained such as posting to Facebook, Twitter and Del.icio.us.

Unlike the “full” version of Viigo, Viigo News skips the (now unnecessary) user interface that was added for the Tango release in order to acsess the variety of modules.  Viigo News launches straight to the news section listing of channels and RSS feeds.  In the promotion of Viigo News there was plenty of information on the number of channels that users could pick from and there are lots of categories and all the most popular feeds.  But since there was no mention of  integration with aggregators like Google Reader and Bloglines, I was afraid that this was one of the features removed for Viigo News.  Luckily that was not the case and when I fired up Viigo News I was pleased to see all 100+ feeds from my Google Reader account appear and fill up with news.  Also maintained in Viigo News are the some of the modules like Politics, Entertainment and Local Interest, only now as channels among the RSS feeds rather than as different modules, however that may be a remnant of an earlier installation and I don’t seem to find a location to add new books or feeds to these channels.

Viigo has done an excellent job of eliminating the other modules from the application without any noticeable impact on the news section at all.  All the functionality and keyboard shortcuts seem to be in place.  It’s just the secondary features that are missing.  Viigo News is definitely lighter on memory, switching from the “full” version to News seems to have freed up about 500MB on my BlackBerry 8310, and the application seems generally zippier when moving from article to article and posting to social networks.   All of this is achieved without any noticeable loss of functionality to the news section from the “full” version of the application.

If you want your weather, sports scores, financial information, flight and package tracking all in one application then download the full version of Viigo.  If you prefer other applications for that functionality or just want an excellent, fast mobile RSS reader then Viigo News is the application for you.

Viigo News: Less Filling, Works Great is a post from: Trumblog

Viigo, my BlackBerry RSS reader of choice, rolled out Tango 9 at the end of June with a bunch of new features.  I’m very pleased with the release and working on a review, but in the mean time Viigo has rolled out a bunch of videos explaining the release and the many features of the release.

More videos with detail on the other new features including posting to Facebook, Twitter integration, audio and podcasts, enhanced weather forecasts, and shopping with Gazaro.  Viigo’s YouTube channel has all of these videos and more.

Viigo Tango 9 Videos is a post from: Trumblog

I’ve fallen a bit off the blogging wagon in the last few weeks because of travel for work, a new agency of record agreement and a lot of deliverables, not to mention trying to spend some family time. As a result there is a bunch of news that I’ve thought about over the last few weeks and just haven’t had time to write about. To try and catch up here are some quick bytes.

• I’m beta testing Viigo’s Tango release and am very happy with it so far. There are a few key parts of the program that are missing, both functionality that isn’t live yet and some old features that seem to have been left out, but overall this is a great upgrade. More details later.
• There’s a generation gap of sorts when it comes to social networking and web 2.0. While over 50% of adults regularly use text messaging, blogging or social networking to stay in touch, boomers are sticking with email to communicate with friends and family.
  
• It looks like travel is going to be a big part of my summer, but I forgot my BlackBerry charger when I was in San Francisco earlier this week. At the airport I picked up a PowerUp EarHugger which was a godsend. It will charge my BlackBerry from a standard outlet, a car’s lighter, USB, and a 9 volt battery. Damn, that’s some kind of useful!
• Thank you San Francisco International Airport for your little work pods by the United gates. In about an hour before my flight I cranked out a serious amount of email and dealt with client issues thanks to a real chair a little desk place space, an outlet and T-mobile access making my travel home more relaxed and less of a burden on my co-workers.
• Being on the first Google Search Engine Results Page is more important than ever. Jupiter Research is showing that the number of users who only view the top 3 results is now up over 25% and about 41% only look at the first page. To put that in context in 2002 only about 32% stopped at the first page of results. Are we getting better at searching with longer, more defined queries? Are we more likely to blame ourselves when the results are not what we expect and do a second search? Whatever the reason clearly SEO is critical as is a wide variety of media in order to capture a greater amount of SERP shelf space with universal search.
• Google’s has a 61% share of mobile search, which is roughly the same as their share online too. That despite the hordes of traffic from the iPhone and a nice set of utilities for the BlackBerry. Frankly it makes you wonder why it isn’t higher.
• Then again the hype about the iPhone seems over done considering that it’s market share is dropping while BlackBerry’s is rising. That BlackBerry users continue to increase is no surprise with IT departments scooping them up by the barrelfull for corporate employees, but Palm’s share is rising too? Hmmmm.
• I know that Comcast is supposedly running a bandwidth throttling test in Warrenton, VA, Chambersburg, PA and possibly Colorado Springs, CO, but I swear that I see it at home when FTPing 20MB+files at home. Come on Comcast do you really want me to switch over to Verizon that badly?
• I’m one of the 16% of the working world who is hyper-connected, but then again all online marketing professionals either are or should be. If yours isn’t, wonder to yourself why they aren’t trying new things and looking in new directions. If they are ask them how they stay grounded with your audience who isn’t.

There’s more of this to come, but in the interest of actually posting something for a change I’ll save that for later this week.

Marketing Bytes is a post from: Trumblog

Viigo posted a video describing the features of the Tango beta release for WES. It’s been there for awhile, but it’s whetting my appetite for Tango. Some details on the release’s new features; RSS, sports, weather and WES Conference data, are explained. More features including podcasts, stock information and flight schedule updates are expected for the beta. The home screen now shows all of the services in the service library and their intention is to open up their API and allow third parties to produce services as well.

The video says that RSS feeds won’t see much difference because of their focus on other areas for this release, but that enhancements will be coming.

Sports will provide access to final and real time scores for the NBA, NHL, MLB and Golf. Users can select the specific sports to follow, but not specific teams. I’m not a golfer, but the leader board functionality looks detailed enough to satisfy fans. They promise that the NFL and soccer (MLS or international?) will be included by the fall.

Weather data is provided from Accuweather and provides current conditions and a 5-day forecast for any city in the US or international. That will put an end to my Weather.com daily email update. You can add cities from your BlackBerry and see temperatures in Fahrenheit or Celsius

Since this video was produced to showcase Tango at the WES conference that feature has the most detail. WES data is personalized based after logging in. Conference data including the time and a description is available and can be added to user’s schedule. The schedule can also be added to your BlackBerry calendar, which seems very handy. Sponsor data is also available and you can request more information from these sponsors. I can see these features becoming well used for many events and conferences and is probably the money maker that Viigo’s looking for.

A nice look at the upcoming enhancements. I’m looking forward to the beta.

Viigo’s Tango Video Explains New Features is a post from: Trumblog

Viigo’s new Tango program looks like it will release on June 16 according to their teaser page that includes screen shots that promises a new interface, channels for weather, sports, flight status, reviews, news and excitingly podcasts. The interface looks sexy, cool and most importantly easy to navigate. Clearly Viigo’s trying to bring a little iPhone to the BlackBerry and simplifying access to the new services that they are offering while still maintaining their core RSS reading capability.

Unfortunately Mark Ruddock, Viigo CEO, has stated that “the first Tango release will not have Google Read/Write synchronization enabled.” That’s a feature that I have been really looking forward to and until it’s there I’ll still have a roving eye on the lookout for new RSS reading options for my BlackBerry.

It seems like the wait might be a while since Ruddock is focusing on the UI platform that “will allow us to evolve Viigo much more rapidly than ever before….Future releases will work on improving the RSS service itself (including major improvements to MyViigo on the web).” Sounds to me like new services may be added before full Google Reader integration is added (sigh), but lord knows their website needs a boost.

The tease is enough to get me interested and add a chicklet to my site in order to buy a little love from Viigo and hope to be included in the beta. Come on guys’ give me a little love!

Viigo Tango Beta June 16 is a post from: Trumblog