Tim de Jardine | Blog

Finally, after literally months of seeking I have found the best GTD (getting things done) application on the Iphone & Ipod Touch: Todo by Appigo.

Why does this app beat all other Iphone GTD applications? One word:

Integration.

Todo integrates flawlessly with Remember the Milk (RTM) and Toodeldo (what I am currently using). These are two of the most popular GTD web-based applications.

A single system is extremely powerful. You have one place for data, backed-up and synced over the air with a local copy on your IPhone.

RTM and toodledo also offer many other ways to use this system with dashboard widgets for the mac and pc along with firefox extensions and igoogle plugins.

Other GTD applications have not achieved integration with already popular products and instead chosen to try to make themselves the central hub for web-based GTD rather than leverage off proven products like RTM and toodledo.

Download your copy here.

Seth writes an insightful blog post on the limits of meta.

Organisations or individuals who try to use a medium to write about a medium are eventually limited.

I have always thought that these types of pursuits apart from rare exceptions are sometimes quiet acts of desperation to gain authority in a field that they did not quite succeed in.

Some examples include:

• writing about writing
• blogging about blogging
• songs about songwriting
• A online business about how to succeed in an online business

Can anyone think of any other examples?

When I was in school I often was told off by the teachers for day-dreaming. Whether I was using my imagination for school related purposes or something else didnt matter.

We were disciplined to not use our imaginations when we should have been encouraged to using them the most. Why?

Creative thought.

Creative thought is the most powerful form of thought. Turning the formless into the form is a skill that few have due this brainwashing. Those that have creative thought win.

Work mode is the state of being that you routinely slip into when you arrive at work.

The patterns of getting coffee, checking email and even thinking can influence your work mode. These patterns have developed your entire working career.  Have you ever had a clear thought about a problem at work after work has finished and wondered how you didn’t come up with the answer at work?  This is work-mode.

Take a moment and ask yourself; where you learnt your work-mode patterns from?

Was it that first poor boss or your old office buddy Gary? Was it your mentor or that slacker whos always late? We are all influenced.

The point is this: Work-mode can be disruptive because you may not be performing at your optimal rate. And if your not at that optimal level, you then you need to change your state.

The
two methods to do this are either by moving your body or drastically
changing your focus.

Here are some suggestions:

• Take a brisk walk
• Snooze for 15minutes
• Listen to some music
• Talk to a friend
• Watch a video that is non work related online
• Laugh a bit

For the past few weeks I have been getting a morning coffee from Felix, a cafe in Wellington. The coffee at Felix is excellent, and the staff friendly; until today. You see, the inevitable has happened. Word has spread about Felix, their coffee and prompt service. Today I ordered my brew and about 15 extra people show up after me, most ordering take-away.

The system just broke.

While diners sit and get their coffee first, those who ordered takeout are last priority. This led to a crowd of people in the front entrance of the restaurant, giving the illusion that they have no spare seats!

The point is this:

Your system, must evolve to meet the demands of you customer. It would be simple for felix to prioritise orders to takeaway customers as diners sit down and talk, they are not as time concious. Takeaway customers stand and think.. They think about todays meeting, what they want to do when they get into the office, whether they are late for a meeting and why the hell they are waiting! We live in an impatent world.

Ironically I overheard the Barista comment to a colleague “dont they know there is a coffee shop down the road?”…right and you are a? Coffee Shop? Dont flatter your competition Felix, you’re obviously better.

Evolve.

UPDATE:

Looks like Felix have evolved their system to accomodate for the demand and got a new person to serve! Its better service and orders are prioritised for takeaway, great stuff.

Came accross a blog post based on a survey that mentions that 30% of 18-24 year olds would consider quitting a job if Facebook access was blocked. Ann’s initial and current reaction is “Grow up Punks”.

In my opinion this survey is an example of a trend that we see time and time again with the adoption of a new technology. We witnessed this with instant messaging, personal calls at work, non-work related conversations, getting up from your desk! and heaven forbid, flexible hours! All these concepts are denied initially, ridiculed, accepted then treated like they were always so.

Facebook has many benefits to organizations, at its basic essence it is just another means of communication. The majority just do not realize this yet. Facebook could:

• Increased collaboration internally
• Stimulation of Discussion
• Hyper communicating with friends to avoid personal calls
• Connecting with others in the industry for opportunities
• Increase Employee Satisfaction

Lets not forget: Those 18-24 year olds are the future of business. The trend will continue to grow exponentially with those who have grown up with social networks (the under 18’s).

Today Apple released the IPhone 2.0, this is truly a ground breaking device and I find it hard that the likes of Microsoft and Rimm to compete.

This is just another example of how a company has innovated to create a remarkable product and a marketplace backed by a community to drive it. This is the point of change.

During the keynote speech a few examples of applications were showcased by various developers. Some of my Favorites:

Loopt, which turns your phone into a social compass.
Some interesting Medical applications from MIMVista, who plan to release a dozen applications for mobile devices. This is a huge untapped marketplace. There were also some body-part learning applications that will be interesting to trial.

Software is available on July, looking forward to trialing it.

Old management style sucks. Thats right, the hierarchical structure that exists that brings petty games, alliances and soul selling does not work anymore. There is a new style of management that is not fueled by ego or career status or getting ahead of your work colleague. In old management you are rewarded by time in the job over actual ability. This will change.

The new management style calls for a flat organization with open channels of communication. An organization where your point of view really does matter, where you are given credit for the work that you do. You are rewarded by ability, not by how long you have been in the same position. Too idealistic?

The new management is open, transparent and flexible. The structure of an organization is flat. There are no games, only the pursuit of a common goal of progress. In the new organization you can talk to anyone (even the CEO!), you can express an idea and people will listen. It is the greater good that is in mind, not simply personal agendas.

The new organization does not suffer from bloat, bureaucracy or mediocrity. At its core is creativity, openness and collaboration.

It comes down to this:

Do you want to keep to the old working style and work 5 days to get 2 days off? (5=2)

or

Do you want to make a difference?

Many are making a difference already

Today my Nike Plus Sportsband arrived. After NOT being able to get this from the local store here in Wellington New Zealand (I was told to wait till next year!!!). I purchased this from Ebay Australia.

The concept is I wear the Sportsband while I run, it tracks my time/distance and I upload it to Nike Plus website where I can track goals and compete against other people all around the world.

Unfortunately the device that arrived was defective (LED screen damaged in some areas). I’ll have to send this back, I wonder how the warranty will playout…

I am really looking forward to using this device. Nike has made running social somehow.

UPDATE
—
I called Nike New Zealand and got the usual corporate run around. Looks like I am sending it back to the USA and waiting for a refund.

A popular buzzword among entrepreneurs (especially technologists) is the notion of crossing the chasm. This involves the shift in adoption from early adopters to a mainstream market. Based on Crossing the Chasm a book by Geoffrey A Moore this theory is relevant in a mass market psychology.

The problem with going for a mass market “sweep” is that it rarely happens anymore, especially in technology. There are an infinite number of choices for all consumers in a society increasingly dominated by clutter.

A more effective strategy is to push for a niche. Adopt the long tail. Kevin Kelly puts a good point that if you get 1,000 true fans you’ve got your living. Good in a small sense, but does this scale? The auction giant EBay is a niche product. Netting 3% of the internets users at any one time. Lets face it, there is no mass market in an increasingly connected world with no borders, there simply is too much choice.

The model has changed. For example if you are featured on a prominant blog such as techcrunch or a news network such as CNN early adopters and adopters will know of your existence. The challenge then comes not from adoption but to persuasion.

The idea of a mass market is an old-age myth of boom or bust, of a 20th century fantasy regarding a zero sum game. If you cannot sustain your business, then you need to rethink your strategy but if you want your product to be used by everyone, then start making it average.

The most important chasm that exists is one that is within your Niche. Crossing that involves a combination of acceptance, timing and hard-work. Cross from bleeding edge adopters to early adopters is ideal. Apple does this successfully with around 3% of the total computing market and billions of dollars in revenue.

Apple has achieved success with its closed model of computing. Apples vision of computing as an appliance (hardware + software) calls for a closed system.  This approach could be creating one of the companies greatest catch 22 situations.

With the released of the Iphone and the consumer reaction to the closed system of providers and software platform, this has seen an uprising in an open-source community creating thousands of applications for the Iphone at little or no charge.  The consumer reaction to the device was positive, but to AT & T and a closed system; quite the opposite.  

Now Apple faces itself with a catch 22 dilemma. Psystar a company that has just started up in California now offering reverse engineered cheap hardware that will run Apples operating system. In other words Mac clones.  This opens up Apples software and takes away Apples control.  Naturally Apple will file suit with Psystar.

Perhaps this approach is not the best?

The future will be Open Systems and I see parallels in the Iphones hyper adoption and Apples latest OSX issue.  If Apple wants to be a large player they could simply certify other hardware providers to run OSX and increase their marketshare.  To keep their niche Apple would reject the notion of open and play the way they always have; closed.

Only time will tell.

There has never been a greater truth as is this:

Thoughts in your mind; ideas, thoughts, concepts, situations, scenarios, future events. They do not exist.

No-one has ever got rich off a future idea or been killed by a past thought.

These exist in your mind and they are not real. They are not real

People get rich of acting in the NOW. right now, this is the only reality.

Success is an accumulation of nows.

The constant repetitive ACTION of the moment, the reality.

What are you doing now?

Google Apps have formed a partnership with Salesforce.com, a popular CRM.

Its an interesting move and one for the better in my thoughts. I have been trialing Salesforce for a while and the setup was relatively simple to integrate with google docs. For the other services such as gmail and calender, I am dissapointed and I wasted 1/2 an hour trying to get this to work. Why? because of you need a paid version of salesforce to “trial” this. How much? Well the only way to get this is to contact salesforce. bad move. Build trust with me and then I might buy from you.

I would prefer Highrise integration. Its a CRM minus the bloat that you get with “useless feature rich” applications. With Highrise you sign up for the free version and all the pricing is disclosed at all times to the user, so they know what they are in for and can plan ahead. If only Salesforce was this transparent then this would be a sure winner.

Transparancy builds trust.

Was checking out some of the latest software as a service (Saas) companies at simplespark when I noticed that many offer a “free 30 day trial”. That got me thinking.

A free 30 day trial used to be worth something as it was a means of re-assuring the buyers confidence before making a purchase.

I don’t think this method works now. 30 day trials are disappointing and not really worth anything. If I see a 30 day trial and I do not know the app, I will close the page. Why? Because there is no trust between me and the company. In order to gain my trust, I need free. The cutting edge SaaS providers give away free versions of their software and sell pro versions. E.g Flickr, Salesforce, Gmail, Basecamp etc etc

30 days builds a trial, free builds trust

Marie-Claire Andrews writes an interesting blog post about this. This is so true.  Often people are so precious about their ideas, believing the idea itself is the worth.

The outdated romanticism of the mad scientist working away in the basement to only be discovered is not the case. It is the execution of the idea and the pleasure from creation that should motivate an entrepreneur.

A true entrepreneur wants to change something for the better, for the masses. The true entrepreneur is not motivated by credit or fame or their own benefits.

It is societies benefit that motivates the entrepreneur.

2 great posts from Kevin Kelly and Chris Anderson.  Meaty posts, but well worth the read.

Free as in Gmail, Flickr, Digg, Facebook, Wikipedia only touch the surface.  More to come soon.

A new company named zzzphone just released their beta version of what looks to be a game changer for the cellphone industry. For years retailers have been making expensive margins on cellphones charging ridiculous prices for phones. For example here in NZ a m600i sells for $900 from Vodafone where I can get it off Ebay for less than $500.

This is different though, its not just margins its the holy-grail. You can customise the cellphone as you choose, adding/removing components. Best thing is there is no middleman here, they sell direct from the factory and phones come with a 2 year warranty.

Head over to zzzphone to have a look.

Seth Godin as usual writes a highly insightful post about the music industry, its evolution and learning from the latest revolution. This post is highly relevant as cd sales were down 10% in the music industry last year…apparantly this is an 8 year trend! This post is just as applicable to many different industries.

Just got on the Beta program of Xobni (Inbox spelt backwards). Xobni is a revolutionary way to search and use email providing social features that have been seriously lacking from Outlook. Xobni has saved Outlook. This add-on makes Outlook “Email on Steroids”. What a breath of fresh air.
Some Features:

“Effortless email management

blazing fast email search, automatic phone number discovery, threaded conversations, and more.“

Watch their video demonstration for more and signup for the beta! This one is going to be huge…