The announcement of Google Mail Goggles is cracking me up. If you haven't already heard, the Goggles (hopefully) prevent you from sending email you may later regret, be they the product of inebriation or whatever else you might do on Saturday night. When enabled, the Goggles check to make sure you really want to send that email to your ex-boyfriend at 2 am on Friday night with, what else, but a few math problems. I guess the idea is that if you are cognizant enough to solve some math problem, you can be trusted to make the right decision on your own. However, if you cannot answer what 196 x 7 is, maybe you should wait until the morning to profess your love or tell someone off. I like this idea... although I think for some people it might be more useful on cell phones...

-posted by Stephanie

Nokia, the world’s number one mobile phone maker, recently announced it would begin selling a touch-screen phone that offers free music downloads.

The phone comes with Nokia’s new ‘Comes with Music’ bundle which has signed up all the major record labels (Universal, Sony, Warner Music Group, and EMI) and even many of the independent labels and is said to offer about five million tracks. Nokia’s music will differ from others on the market since you’ll be able to download tracks for free (data and airtime not included… so this could add up).



The phone is called the Nokia 5800 xpressMusic handset. The phone’s 8 GB internal memory can be beefed up with another 16 GB on a micro SD type memory card - which means you can store over 18,000 songs. The company claims it’s able to offer the tracks at no cost because it bundles the cost into what you pay for the phone (an estimated $395). The first such phone offered will be available in the UK, the world’s third-largest music market, on October 16.

No word yet if/when the phone will be offered in the U.S. However, the launch has created a media buzz both favorable and unfavorable. Gizmodo's also got a hold of Nokia's canned video for the 5800. Is this going to be the iPhone killer? You make the call.



-posted by Andrew

Seems like I'm experiencing a rise in spam lately. While I have a folder these junk emails usually drop into, it's annoying to have to view and delete them later. While I don't look inside any of these emails, I do occasionally read the subject lines (spammer marketing speak can be quite entertaining). I got one last night that was both humorous and disturbing. The subject line read "We have hijacked your baby." Can you hijack a baby? I don't think so. In any case, I don't have a baby, but If I did, I probably would have checked to make sure he or she wasn't snatched from the house. It's a shame spammers are getting more aggressive and all we can do is sit back and take it.

-posted by Lindsay

What do you do when your competitor has slowly been pecking away at your reputation for years? Sit quiet? Speak up? Microsoft, which apparently has been TiVoing through the highly entertaining and brand-trashing "Mac vs. PC" commercials, finally appears to be gearing up for a major counter-attack. According to the News Tribune, in September, Microsoft will launch a $300 million ad campaign to help improve its image. Microsoft has hired some major star power for the campaign -- Jerry Seinfeld, Will Ferrell and Chris Rock. I can't wait to see these comedic giants in action, but don't think for a minute that I'll consider giving up my Macbook, iPod or iPhone.

-posted by Lindsay

I headed up to Giggles on Saturday night to see one of my favorite comedians Jeff Dye (third place winner of this year's Last Comic Standing). It seems that social networking has become a bottomless pit of comedic material. Jeff and the two opening acts couldn't resist poking fun at the social networking phenomenon that consumes all of us. One of my favorite comments was from a comedian who admitted to changing his activities/interests to "showing up to work on time, filing, sweeping, etc." when he had his resume out. All of this is a good reminder not to take ourselves or our social networking too seriously.

-posted by Lindsay

I've been trying to resist blogging about the "I Am Rich" application for the iPhone since it first started making news last week, but I can't hold back any more. After a respectable 8 purchases, the $999.00 app has been pulled from the App Store... but it still has some "fans." Gizmodo has posted a guided tour of the "I Am Rich" app, and it is truly a work of art - I mean, how can you not get ahead with the inspiring mantra and beautiful gem that glows in the background, reminding you that "you could afford it." Watch this video, its delightful... and if they ever let "I Am Rich" back in the App Store, consider getting it, you "deserv" it!

-posted by Stephanie

Technology is always more fun when you can use it to make mischief! VoIP is now taking prank phone calling to a new (and improved!) level. The new Disney’s Hannah Montana Wake-Up Call allows users to enter a phone number and the delightful Miley Cyrus’s voice will wake them up or send them a reminder: “Dear [name], don’t forget that today you have [activity].” There is no authentication of the user, which allows the user to enter any source phone number they want -- enabling the user to make the calls look like they are coming from someone else. Naughty, but fun!

Read more about this new service in Alistair Croll's blog entry in GigaOM.

-posted by Shawnna

Cliff Edwards' Tech & You column this week profiles a new product from Emotiv Systems, a San Fran-based start-up backed by Technology Venture Partners (out of Australia) and Epicure Capital Partners. Emotiv has developed a mind-reading headset (yes, that's right) slated to ship this year for just $299. The device translates your thoughts into computer instructions using EEG technology (similar to what hospitals use). Emotive says it is initially targeting the entertainment and gaming markets. Sign me up, as long as I get to keep my hair that is.



-posted by Adrienne

Microsoft unveiled a controversial focus group study last week that involved its now year and a half old Windows Vista operating system. The company recently set up a blind study involving a video demonstration of what they were told was the forthcoming “Mojave” operating system. However, the subjects of the study never actually got to demo Mojave AND were actually watching a disguised demo of Windows Vista but were never told this until after the video. Microsoft says it conducted the Mojave experiment over three days in San Francisco before 120 subjects. The company says the subjects, on average, gave Vista a rating of 4.4 out of 10 prior to participating. The average rating jumped to 8.5 after the subjects watched the demo, according to the company. Some journalists claim Microsoft is trying to insinuate there is a big disconnect between the actual performance of Windows Vista and the PERCEIVED performance based on negative media coverage and ads by mainly Apple.

I was part of the general launch of Windows Vista for Microsoft, so I’m glad I could get a peak into their re-launch of Windows Vista.

-posted by Andrew

Yes, there were hiccups. Yes, I cursed profusely at my MacBook, then at iTunes, then at my iPhone, then at the USB cable connecting my iPhone to my MacBook, then at my dogs (just because that's how I roll)....then I collapsed in exhaustion and shed some rare tears. However, after the 6 hour ordeal ended, my iPhone was updated with the new 2.0 software and I was downloading my first application (celebrating with some interpretive dance and the running man). The whole experience was so traumatic, I couldn't blog about it until today. My phone was actually a brick for 5 hours -- how do you recover from that. What if I missed a call from Barack Obama thanking me for my $5 contribution!!!

Okay, so I know what's on your mind. What was my first application? Wait for it, wait for it: Big Canvas PhotoShare of course, duh. Now why would I download that application first (before the hailed iPhone Light Saber app)? Well, to be honest, they're a client and I wanted to jump right in and start using it. And, I have to say, it's "da-bomb" (not my term, but a cultural phrase used to express mucho satisfactiono). Why is it "da-bomb" Justin (that's right, I also roll in the third person now)?

Well Justin, the best way to describe this apps value, is to tell a little story. So, here goes. Last Saturday night Justin attended a 30th b-day party at Lucky Strike (a chi-chi high-end bowling alley in Bellevue where a beer costs $8 and all the waitresses are rude, two thumbs down). Some other friends couldn't attend, but wanted to get updates on how it was (couldn't attend, sure, I'm a little sick, cough, cough). Enter PhotoShare to save the day!!! With this app, Justin was able to take pics during the event and immediately post them to my PhotoShare website. Justin's other friends could then access for immediate real-time photo-logging (that's right, new term for photo blogging, absorb it, feel it, wrestle with it, now embrace it)....or people at the event could access them later to get some pics. Best part, no one has to register to see them. A couple quick touches on the iPhone screen and the pics were up and posted. Soooooo easy (queue "heavens open" music and "hallelujah" chants). Justin can't wait to go on vacation and send back constant reminders to co-workers that he's in a tropical location and they're not. End of story.

Net/net, you should all go get this application and join the PhotoShare community. 2,000 people are downloading that application daily and they have more than 10k users since the launch last week!!!!

And, BTW, the Light Saber application – while not a productive app – is pretty much every StarWars geek's wet dream (Justin drops mic, yells "peace, I'm out" and walks away from his desk.)

-posted by Justin

I am one of those sorry saps who drives a lot. I haven’t always been this way, but since joining VOXUS, I have an almost 100 mile round-trip commute. With the recent spike in gas prices, I constantly find myself shopping around to find the lowest local gas prices on TacomaGasPrices.com. It’s a listing of supposedly the bottom of the barrel gas prices in the Tacoma, WA metro area and I’ve found it works well. The site is an arm of GasBuddy.com. The company is a network of gas price listings sites for various areas and claims it is a grass-roots community effort to lower gas prices. It works by having members post prices in their area to the site.

I just signed up to be a resident reporter/member. The site claims a fringe benefit for members is they are entered into a number of raffles based on the number of points they accumulate (mainly through price postings). The site says these raffles include $250 gas cards.

I’ll let everyone know if I’m pumped up about member perks soon.

-posted by Andrew

PCs and mobiles are not stealing traditional sofa TV viewers according to a recent Nielsen report covered by Red Herring. In fact, time spent watching traditional TV rose four percent from 2007. These numbers indicate that there is room for all three screens in the market. For me, any time I spend watching TV on my PC or mobile is supplemental to the hours I log in at home on the couch. While I might be a little less productive with TV at my fingertips all day, I wouldn't want it any other way.

-posted by Lindsay

Seems there are a few gaming geeks roaming the halls of VOXUS. I’ve got news for you all, those of us who use gaming consoles for something other than playing video games have got some good news. Microsoft and Netflix have unveiled a partnership under which Netflix will stream movies directly to you through Microsoft's Internet-based Xbox Live service. Under the deal, customers who have an Xbox 360 console attached to their TVs and who subscribe to Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold service (cost $50/year), and who are also Netflix subscribers, can download Netflix movies at no additional cost. In addition to Netflix, NBC will be adding TV content to the Xbox Live Marketplace and Universal will be contributing movies. I’ve got a secret for you all… I rarely (if ever) use the Xbox for gaming. It’s my media hub to stream pictures and music from my desktop.

Gaming geeks be gone.

-posted by Andrew

It has been a bad few weeks for the Mercedes and Lexus drivers here at Voxus, so I thought I'd share two new sites: DriverSide and RepairPal. Still in testing, both sites rely on user supplied data to quote price ranges for various automotive repairs. More details in Stephen Wildstrom's review (he prefers RepairPal).

-posted by Adrienne

Apple is launching MobileMe, Apple's replacement for .Mac, on July 9. Heads up that www.mac.com will be out of service between 6 p.m.-12:00 a.m. Pacific that day. MobileMe remotely syncs computers and devices, including the iPhone, so there is an upside for many of you .Mac fans out there.

-posted by Rachel

Just read on Wireless Week that Chrysler is going to add WiFi to many of the new 2009 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep cars. My husband (a Chrysler shop foreman) probably already told me this, but I wasn't listening (car-talk goes in one ear...). The Uconnect Web would be a really cool feature for us freaks that can't put our laptops and iPhones down in the car. Very cool, Chrysler. Keep it up! All you need to do now is make your cars more sleek and sophisticated on the outside and I'm in.

-posted by Lindsay

Following up on the Debating Twitter post from earlier this week, this morning found me doing some research and design work for our clients that are targeting the MySpace/ Facebook crowd. Now, a little back story is in order: I have a rather unique last name. It is Eastern European in origin. Specifically Polish, according to most records. Most all of my relatives, those that aren't back in the old country, are based somewhere in and around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with some having migrated to Michigan, and a little splinter group that went first to DC, where I was born, then to California. That's pretty much it. Suffice it to say that if someone has the last name of Forecki, we're related by blood or marriage.

Also, I'm old. Okay, not really, but -- as the late George Carlin would say -- older. I've been around a while. I predate the Web and email. Back in high school I was using Apple computers that weren't a Macintosh, because those hadn't been invented yet. And I've been in technology and around computers ever since. I know things. Like Google.

Specifically, I know about Google Juice, which is basically the idea of owning your name on Google rankings. Thanks to the fact that I'm in technology PR and that my name (and email address, damn you spammers!) is plastered all over the Internets, I've generally owned most of the Google searches for Forecki. (Except for a certain author who has been my nemesis on Google searches for years and who shall now remain nameless lest I help her rankings.)

All of which to say that I basically pwned Forecki-wannabes on Google. And Facebook. And LinkedIn. In fact, to the point that I stopped really searching a year or two ago, because it seemed pointless (and a little vain, but that's beside the point). Unfortunately, while I wasn't looking my relatives clearly launched a sneak attack. In the form of a new generation of teenagers and twenty-somethings. Their offspring, with the same last name. These kids know things too. And they are suddenly crushing me on Google. There are almost a dozen on Facebook. One has even registered forecki.com for crying out loud.

Sigh. I need to get busy.

-posted by Paul

Nice review by Associated Press tech writer Peter Svensson for the new Samsung Instinct, the first real competitor to the Apple iPhone. Sprint Nextel will begin offering the phone on June 20, getting a jump on the new 8-gigabyte iPhone, launching on July 11 and backed by the AT&T network. Apparently, there are also new BlackBerry models coming out later this year for Verizon and AT&T. It's interesting to note that all of these phones are featuring cameras with at least 2 megapixels -- the first thump in the death knell for low-end stand-alone digital cameras.

-posted by Rachel

If you're like the majority of users, "in between activities" is the most popular time to watch mobile TV. Next favorite scenarios include "while waiting in line" and "while in transit." Of the same pool of users, 31% report watching mobile content for less than 5 minutes with only 8% watching for 31-60 minutes. Among the non-watchers, perceived expense is the most popular reason for not trying mobile TV services.

To view the full study, visit Wireless Week.

-posted by Lindsay

The Social Networking Dilemma: Too Many, Too Little Time

Having trouble picking the right mix of social networking sites? Well, the list just keeps getting longer (see FierceWireless' Jason Ankeny break it down). These new sites will no doubt contribute to the social networking overload many professionals and students experience today. I can only hope that consolidation in the marketplace comes soon. Wouldn't it be nice to Twitter from your FaceBook?

-posted by Lindsay

Although it's a competitor's slogan, Clearwire might be wondering whether or not its investors can clearly hear it, along with the tunes its proposed suitor, Sprint Nextel, has been singing. A general investor's meeting is being held this week in New York to discuss the implications of the companies' merger. There might be a lot more news coming out of this conference, since industry rumors are swirling about a reorganization (again!) within Sprint to shore up sales. The Wall Street Journal also reported last month that Deutsche Telekom is "considering" acquiring Sprint...this as a follow-up to its purchase of VoiceStream (now T-Mobile) seven years ago. Might make sense, but this would mean the combined companies would have three different networks, handset supply chains and brand names. Stay tuned.

-posted by Rachel

When I first began working in the PR business, late night runs to Kinko's for last minute presentations and copies were the norm. Before Powerpoint, color copiers and whiz-bang office supplies were readily available, it was just me and "Kinky's" that stood between a client's success or failure on the road. So it is with some regret that I noted that FedEx, the new parent company of Kinko's, is dropping the name in favor of shoring up the FedEx brand. I suppose it was inevitable, as thousands of us no longer make midnight runs in our pajamas to fix one final typo in a presentation booklet. Maybe that's a good thing.

-posted by Rachel

So, on May 21st, Wii Fit was released in the U.S. (with the exception of NYC, which got an early batch last Monday). As a proud owner of a Wii (which was played constantly for the first month or two after Christmas and has since been collecting quite a bit of dust... which I suspect has happened to many of the Wii owners such as myself who have no kids and can only swing a remote in the air like a tennis racket so many times before finding the couch and American Idol far more interesting) I am very intrigued by this whole concept.

The Wii Fit is a bundle of game software and a white board that you stand on that can weigh you (boo!) and sense your movements (yay!). "Games" include yoga, hula hooping, skiing, running and many more. There have been a ton of articles written in the past week about the Wii Fit, including this one from CNN that gives a good summary of what it's like to actually experience the Wii Fit. The general consensus seems to be that it is super fun, somewhat challenging and will get people off the couch and moving around, although it may not be quite enough to replace regular work-out routines.

In conclusion, yes, I will probably go out and buy this new contraption, because I do things like that - and yes, it will probably be fun and entertaining - but no, I don't think I will be canceling my gym membership... at least not yet.

-posted by Stephanie

Virgin Mobile has expanded its subsidized mobile program, appropriately named "Sugar Mama," with a new Facebook feature. According to a FierceWireless story, Virgin Mobile users that download the company's Fund My Phone application to their Facebook profile can earn minutes when their friends view advertising and participate in market research. I'd like to see this same type of creative subsidization in the mobile entertainment market: allow friends to help other friends earn credits toward TV and video.

-posted by Lindsay

Interesting article in VentureBeat earlier this month. Microsoft is notorious for fluffing its market figures by emphasizing the positive, so it's been widely noted by analysts, editors and bloggers that the company has been curiously silent on Zune...and now we know why. Only 2 million units have been sold since it launched in late 2006; in comparison, Apple sells a little over 3.5 million iPods a month. It's hard (and maybe unfair) to compare the two figures, as Zune is only sold in the U.S. (and the iPod is global), but one can safely say that Zune is underperforming -- and I don't think its new gaming initiative is going to make up the sales gap.

-posted by Rachel

Six Hour Startup, a Seattle-based networking and educational organization, is sponsoring a pretty interesting conference on May 31 at the Columbia City Theater. If you're interested in starting a business, this is the place to go -- you'll get all of the nuts and bolts you need to be off and running. Best of all, it's just $99 and includes lunch (a bargain). Speakers include entrepreneur Andy Sack, Dan McComb from Biznik.com and Carolyn Duncan from Fundinguniverse.com.

-posted by Rachel

Have you ever uttered text-speak out loud? I'm guilty of saying "OMG" in social situations and yes, I've received some interesting looks. While I thought that may be a sign of some dysfunction on my own part, the long-term impact of mobile communications on language and society never really crossed my mind. The Economist recently took a hard look at this trend. In the article, experts suggest that "Entire subcultures now define themselves primarily or exclusively through their chosen text-messaging or instant-messaging argot." This can be troubling for younger texters learning language in school and also texting shorthand, a form of communication that oftentimes lacks spelling, punctuation, syntax, and other core language rules.

-posted by Lindsay

With all the data loss and identity theft around these days, you'd think the term "flash drive" would make IT professionals, especially security professionals, cringe. BUT, apparently not – do these folks live in an alternate reality! A new survey conducted by SanDisk reports that companies around the world are unaware of the extent to which unsecured flash drives are used in their organization.

Check out these stats from Sandisk:

- 77 per cent of corporate end users use personal flash drives for work-related purposes, but, when asked to estimate what percentage of the workforce uses personal flash drives, corporate IT respondents reckoned only 35 per cent.

- According to SanDisk, people use flash drives to hold customer records (25 per cent), financial information (17 per cent), business plans (15 per cent), employee records (13 per cent), marketing plans (13 per cent), intellectual property (6 per cent), and source code (6 per cent).

- Approximately one in ten (12 per cent) of corporate end users reported finding a flash drive in a public place. And when asked to pick the three most likely actions they would take if they found a flash drive in a public place, 55 per cent said they would check out what was on it.

- Almost half (44 per cent) of end users revealed that, to their knowledge, their organization did not have a policy forbidding the copying of corporate data on personal USB flash drives.

- 41 percent of corporate IT managers report they are at least 'somewhat uncomfortable' with the level of USB flash drive usage in their organizations, revealing a significant level of potential risk.

-posted by Justin

For the second time in the last month, a Google executive has jumped ship for Facebook. Ethan Beard, the former director of social media at Google, will join the privately held company as director of business development.  Some speculate the move to infiltrate Google's ranks is a direct result of the social-networking company trying to provide some senior support to its 23-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.  They say the momentum started to shift from Google to Facebook much like it moved from Microsoft to Google about a year ago.  That's when ex-Googler and current Facebooker Justin Rosenstein wrote a public email declaring the social network (Facebook) was "the Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago.  That company where large numbers of stunningly brilliant people congregate and feed off each other's genius."

Will people begin saying ‚ "Google is so last year"?

-posted by Andrew

Red Herring recently reported that Modu, the Israeli startup that the Guinness Book Of World Records claims has developed the lightest cellphone at 1.41 ounces, has raised $100 million in venture funding.  Not bad for a company that launched its phone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year.  The company was founded just a year ago by Dov Moran the founder, chairman and ceo of M-Systems, which invented the USB Flash Drive.  Modu claims its phone can be slipped into a wide variety of Modu jackets and transformed into different electronic devices, from a phone to a digital camera to a music player.



Check out the picture of the phone.  It may remind you of the phone from one of my all-time favorite movies Zoolander.



-posted by Andrew

Starbucks at its annual shareholder meeting has pledged it will get back to its roots - coffee. New equipment, better/more informed baristas, fresher coffee, yahda yahda. Sounds like a good branding 101 plan. Joe Pine, co-founder of Strategic Horizons LLP and an expert on marketing experiences, warns that the plan could go wrong if the company doesn't do a good job explaining the changes to baristas who will be responding to "confused customer's questions." Not sure what's confusing...Starbucks is going to give me a better latte. What I do find confusing though, is the company's plan to begin offering energy drinks and get into the health and wellness business. Pretty sure last time I checked energy drinks and caffeine weren't so great on the body. Oh well, I'm just happy about the better latte.

Allison Linn's MSNBC article has more info.

-posted by Adrienne

Apple hasn't always caught my eye... making the MacBook Air a rare exception. Every time the commercial comes on, where the MacBook Air is pulled out of a manila envelope, the longing to own one intensifies. Recently, reviews for the MacBook Air have highlighted a few negative aspects. Including faults like the MacBook Air doesn't include a built-in optical drive, FireWire, Ethernet, mobile broadband, and the fact that it only has one USB port. And like with its other laptops, Apple refuses to outfit the Air with a media-card reader or an expansion card slot. There has even been controversy surrounding MacBook Air's claim to be the "world's thinnest notebook." Some say the Mitsubishi laptop from 1997 was even thinner. Still, none of these faults have stopped my wishful thinking that someday a trade will be made for my iBook G4 to a slim and sleek MacBook Air...

Find more info on one of MacBook Air's latest reviews.

-posted by Shawnna

Rachel just posted about an interesting "workplace experiment" over at 37signals. I'm a huge fan of the company, regularly use their Backpack hosted application and routinely read the company's popular "Signal vs Noise" blog. In fact, I was reading this particular entry at home when Rachel called and asked what I was doing. I replied "learning about how to make VOXUS better..." or words to that effect, and I am always looking for good ideas. As such, I have some thoughts on the 37Signals experiment, which breaks down into three areas:

Shorter Work Weeks: the company has instituted a 4-day work week...

We found that just about the same amount of work gets done in four days vs. five days. So if that’s the case we could either push everyone to work harder during those five days or we could just skip one of those days. We decided to skip one of those days. So recently we’ve instituted a four-day work week as standard. We take Fridays off. We’re around for emergencies, and we still do customer service/support on Fridays, but other than that work is not required on Fridays.

The last sentence is the kicker. This abbreviated work week is not a new concept, and I agree with it in general as it applies to companies that produce products. Hell, I had friends that worked at aerospace companies that were doing this in the 80s and 90s, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that it goes back further than that. But notice that 37Signals doesn't give its customer service/support business an extra day off. Why? Because a service business has to run on its customer's schedule. From our standpoint, even having our primary account folks work a part-time schedule is problematic, because in a service business clients expect to be able to reach you whenever they need you, and expect you to deliver work on their schedule, not yours. Certainly there is a great deal of latitude in approaching this issue, and a strong set of mobile and collaborative tools can work wonders. But it remains a fundamental difference between companies that manufacture goods and companies that provide a service.

Funding People's Passions: another 37Signals innovation...

We decided that 37signals would help people pay for their passions, interests, or other curiosities. We want our people to experience new things, discover new hobbies, and generally be interesting people. Part of the deal is that if 37signals helps you pay, you have to share what you’ve learned with everyone. Not just everyone at 37signals, but everyone who reads our blog. So expect to see some blog posts about these experiences.

This is... insightful. I am quite intrigued by the approach, which is a riff on the traditional "lunch and learn" that has been kicking around at companies for years. I'm not sure what we're going to do with the idea yet, but it's definitely a keeper.

Discretionary Spending Accounts: and finally...

We’re in the process of giving everyone at 37signals a credit card. If you want a book or some software or you want to go to a conference, it’s on us. We just ask people to be reasonable with their spending. If there’s a problem, we’ll let the person know. We’d rather trust people to make reasonable spending decisions than assume people will abuse the privilege by default.

Again, not a new idea, and we already more or less do this at VOXUS. The part I like best about their approach is embodied in the last two sentences. I have personal experience with companies that basically managed down to the lowest common denominator; if someone did something wrong, an entirely new policy or process was instituted company-wide to address the issue with one person. Which is just dumb, and frankly an example of bad management. Trust, verify and correct is much better.

I still don't see this working into a trip to Greece for Rachel, however.

-posted by Paul

I like to think that VOXUS has taken the lead in creating an enjoyable work atmosphere -- but my hat is off to the folks at 37signals (www.37signals.com), that nifty little company that brought Basecamp and Campfire to the market for building collaborative work environments. According to a blog post, 37signals has adopted several new workplace strategies for 2008 that I'd like my boss to take note of: four day work weeks (oh, yeah, I'm so there), stipends to pay for the development of new hobbies (I'm thinking I'd like to learn Greek...in Greece) and individual credit cards for discretionary spending (see previous reference to Greece). I used to envy the cafeterias, bus systems, massages and gyms for Microsofties and Googlers, but now those perks seem so old school.

-posted by Rachel

According to researchers at Informa, the mobile social networking market is expected to reach a whopping $29 billion by 2012. As reported by FierceMobileContent, mobile social networking generated $1.5 billion in 2006 and is on a path of high growth. In a related story, CNET suggests that social networking via mobile devices hinges on the availability of location-based services, providing users with information specific to their location, like what friends are nearby, the nearest jazz club, etc..

Admit it, "mobile social networking" is a mouthful and "MSN" doesn't work either. Anyone else in favor of a shorter name? Maybe "mobisoci"..."mobisocnet." Got any other ideas?

-posted by Lindsay