PayPal’s Coolest Mobile Wallet Feature: The Oops Button

Posted on 11/13/2011 by Jonathan Greene

Good overview of the latest paypal mobile wallet (and offline features) … they have a lot to overcome to become a viable in-store solution.

The most notable feature of PayPal’s mobile wallet is payment flexibility. Users of PayPal’s mobile wallet application will be able to choose how they want to pay for purchases even after the sale. That means a purchase can be transferred to a different credit card, a debit card, a PayPal account or even a store gift card, if necessary, directly through the PayPal app. The payment could also be split between multiple cards/payment sources.

via Forbes.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Optimum Online – Wifi – Authentication – Sorry

Posted on 10/18/2011 by Jonathan Greene

Optimum Online – Wifi – Authentication – Sorry.

I’m sure I’ve ranted about this previously but Cablevision needs to get a clue.  I use this service daily while at the train and find it helpful, though frustrating to manage … You can’t update your devices for their metro wifi service when connected to it in the city or on your mobile device.  It only works from home when connected via your home service.  You also have to understand and find the MAC Address which is not really very consumer friendly at all.

 

Posted in gadgets and technology, mobile | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Continue to (re)define yourself

Posted on 8/14/2011 by Jonathan Greene

nice interview via FastCompany with John Jay, W+K’s Global Executive Creative Director on breaking out of Silos …

via Chase Jarvis

Posted in marketing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Pedal-Powered Vending Machine Dispenses Drink Samples

Posted on 8/9/2011 by Jonathan Greene

 

I caught this one via Adrants and think it’s pretty cool. I typically go out of my way to avoid the street team sample people, but this would certainly get my attention… no so sure about the drink however given the infusions of pseudo-healthy additives.  

 

Posted in cycling, events, marketing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Apparently Consumers Don’t Trust Google or Apple With Mobile Payments

Posted on 8/9/2011 by Jonathan Greene

An interesting study from Ogilvy … and a not so surprising response given our historical payment relationships are with the traditional payment brands. Should be interesting to track changes here though as it’s quite clear that Apple and Google will both be evolving considerable solutions. Even though Apple has yet to formally announce payments, they already have over 200 Million cards on file and are ready to roll. With or without NFC.

via Adage

 

Posted in Android, iPhone, marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2011 Tour of the Catskills: Assault on Devil’s Kitchen

Posted on 8/7/2011 by Jonathan Greene

 

Yesterday I competed in my second road race, the Tour of Catskills and it was awesome! I chose a one day race option over the 3-day stage and of the two possible days picked the Assault on Devil’s Kitchen which turned out to be the hardest climb I’ve ever tried.

 

My race was a mixed class 4/5 65 mile road race and as you can see from the results, only 36 of the 47 registered riders competed.  I placed 7th which I’m quite pleased with knowing I trained well and raced hard.  We left from Tannersville, NY which is on Hunter Mountain and raced through some gorgeous roads in the Catskills.  There were a few climbs in the early stages of the race, but the Devil’s Kitchen climb at the end would clearly define how things resolved in the end.

From the prior race I had entered I knew I wanted to be up front early to avoid any chaos or potential crashing and while I did not start right in the front, I quickly found a hole on the side of the peloton and moved right up the line.  I guess everyone thought I was crazy, since no one followed and I was easily off the pack and riding alone which was quite exciting even if it was only the first few miles.  Unfortunately my chain dropped after a quick descent as we turned onto Scribner Hollow road and into the first small climb.  It took two tries to get the chain looped back and by that time the group had passed me again.  It took a bit more effort than I would have liked to catch back up, but I managed to reconnect with the bigger group and recovered from my adrenaline burst of nerves.  I fought back some cotton mouth as well and soon enough settled back into the general pace.

Throughout the race I found myself either with the lead group or in the chase group which was generally right behind a small gap.  I was taking note of the guys around as we rode and it seemed there was some aggressive posturing going on with a few guys mainly on the flatter portions but those guys quickly gave way as we hit each of the climbs along the way.  I knew I was in a good position within this group as I felt I was one of the stronger climbers – not really knowing what was in store towards the end of course.  There were a few really nice descents including one amazingly long smooth and ridiculously fast run down where I hit a new top speed (55mph!).  During the descents I was generally careful and more cautious than if I’d been by myself allowing guys to float by and to make sure that I had enough space around me.  I don’t generally ride with too many other people and felt it would be best to be safe here.  During that major descent, I think down County Rt 20, I was able to bridge a big gap which was a pretty exciting moment in the race for me both from the adrenaline pumping at that speed, but also as an achievement to ensure my position.

Over the next 20 or so miles the ride got a bit windy and the group really started to thin out.  We dropped a bunch of guys including 3 in a crash which I think happened when a rider lost his chain and was a standing target for guys coming around the corner.  There was a small break of 2 and then 4 guys and they stayed about 30-45 seconds ahead of us for a few miles, but leading up to Devil’s Kitchen we finally caught two of the guys.  We had a really pace line going and I did a pretty long pull to ensure I did some hard work.  The line up chase group leading to the climb was four guys including myself and then … well then Devil’s Kitchen arrived.  Platte Clove Road is a 5K Cat 2 climb that goes up about 1400ft and appears to be mainly straight up.  There are a few slight steps and a few mild curves … it’s absolutely brutal.  Of the four guys, in my group two escaped and I fought on with another rider until we frankly had to dismount.  I was pretty unhappy that it got to that point, but after about 2.5K of climbing I wasn’t sure I could turn the pedals around fast enough to stay on my bike.  I ended up walking much of the rest of the way to the top – though even when I eventually pedaled across the KOM line, the damn hill kept on going!  Amazingly the guys behind and those I passed on the way up from other groups never caught any time on me and for the next six miles I went into time trial mode, pedaling as hard as I could over the rolling terrain.  As the signs starting counting down the final 5K, I could feel the excitement of finishing my first road race and cornering into the crowded town of Tannersville I fired away my last bit of energy to sprint in.  I heard the announcer call me the Man in Black as I crossed the line and I felt great bringing it all to a close.  Full details on Strava …

The event was awesome — well organized, guys were great – competitive, but friendly and I look forward to competing again soon.  I’m hoping to do the Tour of the Adirondacks in mid September which is also put on by the same organization.  I pre-rode the main loop a few weeks ago near Lake George and it’s a beautiful run as well.

 

Posted in cycling | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Strava’s Social Fitness Works You Harder

Posted on 8/2/2011 by Jonathan Greene

I’ve become a huge fan of Strava for tracking my cycling workouts as well as sharing and tracking friends and pros.  The data viz portion of Strava is really solid, easy to understand and actually quite robust.  I’ve been a Garmin Connect user since I bought my bike (and GPS) three summers ago, but Garmin has always lacked social connections.  As a result of Garmin’s lacking social functions, I’ve also been using DailyMile and while I really like DailyMile as well, I can see how the updates and strides Strava continues to make will probably assist in my full migration soon …

The basics … Strava gets cycling.  More than any other service, they break down hill sections of your rides into competitive segments and allow you to automatically compete against yourself as well as all other riders who also sync their rides into Strava.  Initially I missed this piece when I first tried it months ago as I was early in and did not appreciate the difference with Garmin.

The ability to quickly see that I’ve climbed my best that day (regardless of how my legs felt) is immediately rewarding, but it’s also quite motivating to learn that even though I felt strong, my time was better on a prior ride.  This gets me thinking of the conditions of that prior ride and how I can do better the next time out.  Adding in the social layer makes it even more competitive and even passively (without actually knowing the other people) you can still compete and set goals to try and ladder up the King or Queen of the Mountain competition for a particular climb.

Another really excellent feature within Strava is that it automatically groups you with the people you’ve ridden with that day as everyone syncs their data.  Today as you can see from the screenshot below, I rode with 3 other people and Strava automatically grouped us so we can easily compare and discuss how things went afterwards.  This type of discussion is happening naturally even with people I’ve just met (like today) and it’s quite powerful stuff.

 

The updates that Strava added today have only enhanced both the views of your ride data as well as the ability to slice the competitive ladder more discretely (even fairly) so you can compete on age and weight which certainly play a factor in some rides.  I particularly like the Suffer Score and also how your power and heart rate are displayed to show the real level of effort for a particular ride.  Strava calculates power using some algorithmic special sauce.  I don’t have a power meter currently so there’s no way to know how accurate it really is, but for the moment it’s a great baseline to compare like my other stats on the regular rides I do.  I should note that while Strava does offer a free service, it’s $6/month to get the full range of utility and I believe it’s well worth it.

Strava isn’t the only game in town and while today’s update also includes mention of the Running beta and potential for Triathletes, Runkeeper is pushing out their own update to include more social inclusion.  Runkeeper already has Street Teammates which work like DailyMile’s and Nike+ friends.  You can track how each other do each week and cheer people on.  I consider that the basics … Today Runkeeper sent out an email pushing their new update which like Strava will let you digitally run with friends.

You’ll note as it mentions in the email above, you need to do this afterwards by selecting your Street Teammates or Facebook friends.  While this isn’t hard to do, it’s that extra step that Strava does automatically that ensures you are actually using it.  I’m really interested to see how Strava continues to evolve around new sports and particularly how deep they go with Cycling.  If you’d like you can follow me.  I’ve also recently added a widget that shows my recent rides on the ride sidebar if you still visit the site.

Ride safe!

 

 

Posted in cycling, gadgets and technology, marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Consider the user …

Posted on 7/28/2011 by Jonathan Greene

I know it’s obvious, but it’s amazing how some companies don’t take user experience into account when designing their products.  Take for example the bike route mapping sites MapMyRide and RidewithGPS … MapMyRide appears to be the market leader given they’ve been around for a long time, but man is it painful to use.  They have a decent number of routes if you look around, but the site compresses the map to a small area and there are really a pretty gross number of ads on the page as well as on the map itself.  Their goal is of course to get you to upgrade to a paid account and certainly the incentives are there given the volume of ads … The problem for MapMyRide though is that they are not the only game in town and RidewithGPS arrived on the scene with an excellent route planner and a great map browser.

Take a look at the two screens …

From Route Planning
From Route Planning

Both are views of my local area and show available routes … so the experiences are as “parallel” as they can be to show the difference.  I went into fullscreen mode to try and maximize as much of the view as possible.

Which would you prefer to use?

Posted in cycling, marketing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Social fitness can really get you going

Posted on 7/18/2011 by Jonathan Greene

I enjoyed +Kevin Tofel‘s post on social fitness at GigaOm… I’m a big fan and love the data.

I don’t particularly care about the live streaming aspects though.  To me it’s more about comparative results, challenges and motivations of the community. I now have social sports friends met through DailyMile and even here on G+.

I recently started to really use Strava which is a cycling community site that greatly enhances the experience Garmin let lag on Garmin Connect through social features and specific breakdowns of events like climbs which even get classified. Whether the data is being used to motivate (like Kevin’s insane number of continuous running days) or note personal bests, firsts or other achievements it’s all easily possible thanks to the data.

As has also been discussed recently on Google+ getting access to and enabling the meshing of our data for maximum use is still really missing in the market.  Runkeeper seems to be leading the charge with their goal of becoming a fitness hub through the Health Graph API, but it’s still quite early.

Posted in cycling | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Firespotter Labs launches their first product – Nosh

Posted on 7/14/2011 by Jonathan Greene

Today, Firespotter labs has revealed their first product called Nosh. As you may know, Firespotter is a spinout of some former Googler’s including Craig Walker of Google Voice / Grand Central fame. They received funding from Google Ventures in April of this year and sprinted towards this month with their initial release.

So what is Nosh? Well it’s a social recommendation system for restaurants and food, though unlike other services which focus on the restaurant, Nosh is looking to get down to the item level. This detail will provide much better insight into what’s good and importantly what’s not so great at restaurants all around you.

They’ve posted a nice video overview which I’ll share here to give you the full pitch.

Nosh: Three Dinners from Firespotter Labs on Vimeo.

Nosh works on both Android and iPhone which is great. The experience is quite similar across both systems. Here’s how it works – First either browse your feed for interesting posts and pictures to find what’s good to eat nearby. Or if you like you can explore the local establishments in the directory or even add your own. When you get to the place you’ve decided to dine, you can add the item you’ve chosen, give it a quick rating and snap a pic. Everything is synced up on the Nosh website though I believe you need to be initiating posts via mobile to confirm (via GPS) that you were in fact there …

  

While Nosh is just getting started, it’s a very interesting service. The goal of Nosh and Firespotter according to Mr. Walker is to empower users with information in industries that are ripe for change. Given that the essential dining and discovery experience has stayed the same for quite a while, they prioritized Nosh as their first shot. There are currently about 150,000 menus in the system to ease the process of reviews, but there’s also quite a bit missing, which isn’t a ding it’s just the reality of starting something so large.  I look forward to sharing and learning from you … be sure to add me as a buddy if you signup, I’m just getting started myself.

Posted in mobile | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google Sync For iPhone

Posted on 7/4/2011 by Jonathan Greene

I guess I knew about this, but had yet to consider why I’d want to switch my Gmail config over to Google Sync.  5 minutes later I can assure you that it’s the right move.

Thanks to Business Insider’s quick guide, you can setup sync for Mail, Calendar and Contacts which has immediately reconciled my years of .Mac BS sync conflicts and duplications in contacts and added a multi-calendar view as well.  Mail remains the same …

With the addition of Google+, I’m  deep in Google services and this just keeps it all nicely together. And no I don’t have any invites at the moment unfortunately …

 

 

 

Posted in iPhone, mobile | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

After all these years … iPhone goes unlocked

Posted on 6/14/2011 by Jonathan Greene

Waking up to see the iPhone finally and officially offered as an unlocked device made me quite happy. It’s somewhat ironically showing up the day Apple also agreed to settle with Nokia over their long debated patent issues which is interesting given my long history using Nokia unlocked devices.

If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone 4 is the best choice. It arrives without a micro-SIM card, so you’ll need an active micro-SIM card from any supported GSM carrier worldwide. via Apple Store U.S..

In the years since I’ve left Nokia, I’ve also gone back to buying on contract for my personal devices as the Apple / AT&T upgrade plan has worked just fine and I’m fortunate enough to be able to migrate devices for business using a work-provided SIM. I haven’t seen anything but positive reporting about the changes to iPhone availability … some noting of course the “high” pricing though those prices are close if not even more expensive than the historical “expensive” unlocked Nokia devices which used to be counted against them.

As times have continued to evolve courtesy of the pressures Apple has been able to provide in the industry it’s likely the real buyer is the more niche traveler (able to find micro sim cards) but really the grey market. With an unlocked iPhone now available you don’t even have to jailbreak it to resell in a capable GSM country. It’s ready right from the box ….

Posted in apple, gadgets and technology, mobile | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Make Some Noise!!

Posted on 4/22/2011 by Jonathan Greene

This album cannot come soon enough …

Posted in music | Tagged | 3 Comments

Fight For Your Right – Revisited

Posted on 4/7/2011 by Jonathan Greene

simply awesome.

more here

Posted in Listening, music | Tagged | 1 Comment

Not my favorite color

Posted on 3/24/2011 by Jonathan Greene

Last night’s launch of Color is certainly getting a ton of press. They have a great team, a ton of cash and an interesting app – at least on paper. Having tried to use it a few times in the day as well as last night, I’m not sure I’m really going to care all that much.

The purpose of Color seems to be enabling social through the intention of proximity. In other words, you are able to share because you are close to someone else. You might not (and probably don’t) know these people but because you are nearby you can gain a new and shared perspective. I think that’s a pretty cool idea. What I would really like to see however, is the inclusion of my existing social network so that I can also get a prioritized and shared view with people I already have a real interaction with — even if these are just digital buddies. I love social discovery, but not at the exclusion of my existing base.

I transitioned from Instagram to Picplz and much like my journey from twitter to jaiku (and back to twiiter). I engaged with a community of people with shared interests. In many cases these interests actually came from using the services. Picplz and instagram are really quite similar. They are both simple, let you have fun with your photos and make it very easy to share externally as well. What I also like about both is that I can use an existing picture and then push it out which means I have the original locally to my device – and in the case of picplz also backed up on dropbox. Color forces me to snap a new picture of myself as an ID and then continues to “force” me to snap a new picture if I want to share. Perhaps part of this is due to the focus on that shared perspective of a location (the context of the social to begin with), but it forces a very strict type of sharing.

Color comes with no instructions and initially the UI while completely fresh, is far from easy to use. There don’t seem to be any guidelines with how things are used or shared and that actually bothers me. Because it’s far from self-evident, I find a level of discomfort here and that’s not good. Also, because Color is complex not actually that fun. When I installed it a second time on my Nexus S I had to start over. My presence from the iPhone was in no way transferable … in fact it seems as though you are essentially disposable. Without a way to associate yourself to your content or contacts, you just float through.

I shared the hype of Color last night with some co-workers and quite a few people actively played with it today around the office so it’s easy to see how a collection of people and images starts to work. I’m just not sure it’s actually for me.

I usually get a good feel quickly and Color is making me work too hard to use it.

Posted in Android, iPhone, mobile | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

AT&T and Metro North Testing Wifi?

Posted on 3/21/2011 by Jonathan Greene

I spotted a new hotspot while waiting to depart from Grand Central tonight …

ND ATT Metro North Trial

Unfortunately, I was unable to connect from my iPhone or laptop, but signal was pretty decent for a few fleeting moments regardless. I really hope that this is an active test and that wifi starts to rollout. Currently there is wifi along the train line via Cablevision, Time Warner and Comcast though it’s impossible to actually use on the go.

Battle of the cable company wifi networks

I obviously have no helpful information on this possible test, but can say I’d be very interested in using it and would even pay.  AT&T is looking to glean an extra $45/mo for tethering and while that would be bandwidth I could use all to myself, a slightly slower shared connection would be of great use.  I tend to use the iPad rather than my laptop, but there are plenty of times when the laptop would be handy …

I wonder if Metro North is serious with this and even if they’d consider free.  For pay, I’d love to see it packaged or validated with a monthly rail pass.

 

Posted in mobile | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Where is PayPal’s gateway to real world payments?

Posted on 3/18/2011 by Jonathan Greene

I just caught a post on Techcrunch that got me thinking about PayPal’s mobile strategy a bit … Apparently they’ve finally released a Symbian client following the long(er) standing clients for Blackberry, iOS and Android.

Apple and Google’s competing plans for NFC and the likelihood of competing payment services, you’ve got to wonder what PayPal has in store.  As the current leader in P2P and longer tail transactions, they don’t have a scalable solution for real world commerce.  PayPal is stuck in the matrix if you will.  Bling Nation has enabled tests with NFC tags, but that’s really a bridge to integrated NFC and if the dominant players are unlikely to allow access to the secure elements within their systems (where payment and security live).

The ISIS consortium has yet to announce a handset partner, only that Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile will all work together with Discover and Barclay’s.   If the Google and Apple plans come forward as expected there will clearly be room for multiple payment options as both have devices on multiple carriers.  I did a quick search this morning and found a piece recently posted on Fast Company claiming instead of NFC PayPal will instead focus on QR via their RedLaser application …

EBay’s solution is the humble QR code: a cheap and common successor to the barcode of yore. Late last year the auction giant acquired RedLaser, an iPhone and Android app that lets smartphones scan QR and UPC codes on retail goods to compare prices at brick-and-mortar and online retailers.

Rob Veres, eBay’s General Manager of Redlaser, says that the company’s recent QR pilot program with Atlantic Records has already proven that QR codes can create leads and drive sales, but he believes what small businesses really want is rewards programs that work as well as major retailers’. “The big guys already have their loyalty plans, but smaller businesses don’t,” says Veres.

EBay plans to change all that by taking a loose approach to geo-targeted discounts. Instead of requiring people to physically show up and “check in” to get deals, as on Foursquare, Veres says merchants can instead stick QR coupons in advertisements around town. Once captured by a user, that QR code can instruct the user’s phone to show information about the shop or product, search for price comparisons or ratings, or even initiate a purchase over the phone’s data connection. [Fast Company]

QR is again a bridge … and while there’s been considerable adoption, device integration and ease of use has not fully reached mass adoption.  RedLaser is nearing 9 million users though so they are making some decent ground.  Until there’s mobile web purchase for retail (particularly smb) this is not going to go too far.  All of these plans lead to a wallet-like solution and you’ll want the full benefits not just a random purchase here or there.

So back to Nokia … I wonder if Nokia might end up being PayPal’s answer to the real world.  While Nokia has effectively stalled in this market they are still the world leader in market share and have suggested all future devices will include NFC.  They don’t have any public payment partners yet … Another option could be BlackBerry which has also said they will include NFC in future devices … again no payment partner here.

PayPal has evolved quickly, though they have stayed within the online realm.  Bump accommodates some limited real-world p2p, but nothing close to real commerce – at least not yet.  They’d better hurry as Visa is working back towards P2P with their own solution …

Posted in payments | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Google Maps now with Google Earth

Posted on 3/17/2011 by Jonathan Greene

I’m not certain when this change went through but it’s pretty cool to see Google Earth inside Maps itself.  Now if you hover over the Satellite option over in the top right corner, a new square floats out to let you choose Earth.  You can see it here:

Google Maps with Google Earth

You do have to download and install the Google Earth plugin for this to work but given how infrequently I think to use Earth vs Maps, I could see starting to get a lot of use out of the additional detail available.  Google Earth is actually very cool yet I always think to go to Maps first.

Tapping the more link under webcams gives you more options for things like bicycle routes etc.

 

Posted in gadgets and technology, software | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Brief History of Title Design

Posted on 3/17/2011 by Jonathan Greene

Pure Awesome.

via A Brief History of Title Design on Vimeo.

Posted in fun stuff and good links | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Cyclotrope

Posted on 3/16/2011 by Jonathan Greene

very cool

Posted in cycling | 3 Comments