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Here comes the Android

I know for some people Google’s announcement about Android wasn’t as exciting as the expectation of hearing them announce an actual “Gphone” (as it was often called there was still a rumor Google was working on an actual device), yet it seem implementations and applications based on this open and free mobile platform are finally [...]

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Simplicity Sells

After catching-up on all the topics and discussions from the vuids group that came out around the Holiday season, the idea that seemed to kept coming up was that it’s still very hard (if not harder) for designers to get designs done right, mostly due to external reasons (things sold the wrong way, business requirements, [...]

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For driving directions, pick a voice – Yours!

Forget about Persona! We all know personalization is the new black, and everyone strives to make devices, systems and interactions as individualized as possible so as to gain better and faster acceptance. I’m glad to see these ideas are starting to expand to new areas. In this particular case, I recently learned about a company [...]

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Social gaming on a Jumbotron

That’s right. How many times have you been outside and saw one of those humongous ad displays telling you about the next great thing since sliced bread? Well, what if you could now interact with those displays, and not only that, but even be able to play with other bystanders! I’ve seen similar things in [...]

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Voice-activated features in cars

As some of you might have seen in TV ads, Ford Motor Co. recently announced a partnership with Microsoft along with the availability of a new technology called SYNC that allows you to control your stereo and phone while driving simply using your voice. What made this even more interesting to me was the fact [...]

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How much is your privacy worth?

Monthly phone service: $49.99. New phone: $19.99. Privacy: Priceless. Is it really priceless? If you had to put a price to it, what would it be? A new start-up called Pudding Media thinks it has an answer for that, and it is a lot lower than you would think: free calls. In a very similar [...]

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Customer Service and the phone in a Web 2.0 world

Do you love me? I was just reading an article on Fortune asking the question of whether your customers love you or not. Similar to the recent post I had regarding companies that are using customer service as a differentiator, this time around they analyze some Entrepreneurs which are not only using it that way [...]

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When Call Centers become an Advantage instead of a Cost

I recently read the story about how Netflix is using its call center agents as a strategic weapon and differentiator against their competition – particularly Blockbuster. Could this finally indicate a tipping point in the way corporations view their “Cost Centers” “Call Center”? Not only are they eliminating the use of email to manage customer [...]

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Apologies and SpeechTEK East

First of all, I would like to apologize for my absence this past month. To be honest with you, I’ve been going through some life-changing experiences (including a new baby and a career move) which have taken priority over my posts. Nevertheless, I’m happy to say that I’m back and very excited about the future! [...]

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Four VUI Lessons from Social Web Design Pitfalls

I was reading an article this morning about things we can learn from Social Design. In particular, what I liked was the fact that they weren’t trying to analyze the typical examples – Facebook, YouTube, SecondLife, etc. – but rather learn from the mistakes of other less-known ventures. In particular, there were four “Lessons Learned” [...]

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