Evernote 4

If you haven't done so already, be sure to upgrade your Evernote client to the latest version. Evernote 4 is a much much better version of Evernote than any of the Evernote 3.x clients that were previously available. I've been using it for a couple weeks now and it is a lot faster and smoother than what I was using before. From the Evernote blog:

Starting from scratch
Evernote 4 is a major departure from Evernote 3.5 in every way. While 3.5 added tons of great new features, there were some problems we simply couldn’t fix: the blurry fonts, slow startup times, large memory footprint, and poor support for certain graphics cards were all issues that the technology behind 3.5 (Windows .net and WPF) was incapable of resolving. As a result, we ended up chasing down platform bugs rather than adding the great features our users wanted.

So we decided to start over from scratch, with fast, native C++ that we knew we could rely on. As you’ll see, the results are amazing. This new version will set a foundation for rapid improvement.

On our test hardware, Evernote 4 starts five times faster, and uses half the memory of Evernote 3.5.

The new Evernote is completely written from scratch and it acts just like it. After a somewhat lengthy install process (it has to un-install the old Evernote and replace it entirely, don't worry, you won't lose your old notes), I fired up the new Evernote and was shocked by how fast it loaded. Normally I would fire up the app and have to wait ~1-2 minutes for the clunky Java loader to bring the screen up, but now the Evernote client comes up almost instantaneously! That alone would make this new version a huge improvement in my book, but they've also gone ahead and upgraded the client design with a more streamlined user interface that makes it easier to navigate your notes.


The icing on the cake is an improved web clipper (especially for Internet Explorer) that makes it easier to save and organize notes on the fly. All in all this is a huge improvement for Evernote and I think this release will go a long way to appeasing disgruntled Evernote users who felt that the software was slow and clunky.

Six to Nine Scholar

I mentioned last time that I was writing an article over on Six to Nine Scholar, and lo and behold it's now published! Give it a read and let me know what you think.

WTC Brand Crisis

In the triathlon community, any controversy that arises is eventually discussed heatedly on the forums at Slowtwitch.com, the leading forum for endurance athletes. On the last weekend of October, the forums at Slowtwitch were active with a new scandal revolving around the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), the owners of the Ironman Triathlon brand. The negative outburst from the community, and the subsequent handling of the event by the WTC reminded me of a framework for managing scandals we learned about in our Marketing courses. I’m not certain if the WTC management used the exact steps we covered at school but the way they responded to the situation certainly fit into the framework provided. Read more.

Blogging activities

Well, I haven't been posting much here but I have been working on other blogging activities around the web:

Tri Blog: My side project is coming along quite nicely and I hope to "launch" it over the next month or so. Nothing too crazy here, just a triathlon blog site. I'll post more about this soon.

Work Blog: I'm trying to revive our internal blog at work and it's not going so well. I've added tons of content to the site and I'm encouraging others to blog but I haven't seen much activity. I even created a blog contest for the month of November which is NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) and offered a $25 gift certificate for the best blog entry, but I still can't get the team to actively engage with the blog. It's a topic I hope to bring up during our year end retro meeting on December 10th.

School Blog: A couple friends from school started up a blog called Six to Nine Scholar and they've invited me to write with them on the site! I'm a little nervous about publishing my first article to the site since they have pretty high quality material over there, but hopefully my article is up to par. Here's a sneak preview of the article (which I'm still revising a bit):

WTC Brand Crisis

In the triathlon community, any controversy that arises is eventually discussed heatedly on the forums at Slowtwitch.com, the leading forum for endurance athletes. On the last weekend of October, the forums at Slowtwitch were active with a new scandal revolving around the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), the owners of the Ironman Triathlon brand. The negative outburst from the community, and the subsequent handling of the event by the WTC reminded me of a framework for managing scandals we learned about in our Marketing courses. I’m not certain if the WTC management used the exact steps we covered at school but the way they responded to the situation certainly fit into the framework provided.

Design contest

I mentioned my triathlon blog venture a couple posts ago, and my efforts to create something a little bigger around it. As part of that I've commissioned a design contest over on 99designs.com to help me come up with a set of images for use on the site. The sets consist of three images, one for each sport in a triathlon (swim, bike, run). These images will be used as buttons, badges and icons on the site, and I'd also like to use them as a set for the main logo of the site. So far 60 entries have been submitted by 18 designers, which is just incredible. I've been really impressed by the images that have been submitted and by the overall time and efforts put in by the designers.

The contest is nearing an end and now I need help deciding on a winner. I've created a poll over on 99designs and want your input on the 8 'finalists' I've selected. Which ones do you like best and why? You can give 0-5 stars to each entry and provide comments as well. Remember, I'd like to use the trio of images as a logo and also each image independently as an icon.

Here's the link to vote in the contest. Thanks a lot for your help!

What I'm Reading: Bike edition Pt. 2

More bike service & app news! The first one is called Capital Bikeshare and is based around the Washington DC area. The service uses a technology called BIXI that allows riders to access the bikes via a special key card. It seems to be pretty low hassle and affordable. Definitely one to check out this weekend for everyone headed to DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity (like our friend Chuck over at Chicago Bike!)

Another bike-sharing system making use of new technology is SoBi, the Social Bicyle System.

SoBi is the first public bike share system to rely entirely on wireless technology for tracking, locating and unlocking bikes. The system is compromised of three elements: the social cyclist, the central server and the social bicycle.

Here’s how it will work: after creating a SoBi account — via web, mobile phone or street kiosk — a cyclist will have unlimited access to bicycles in the bike share system, which will be equipped with GPS, a secure lock and wireless communications. Once the cyclist locates an available bike, he can use a pin code to unlock it. The central server will approve and track the transaction.

Here's a video of SoBi in action.

And last up we have an iPhone app that lets you use your iPhone as a bike computer. This is pretty cool for casual techy bike riders, but as a more advanced bike rider I don't think this little app holds a candle to a standard power meter (although it is a lot cheaper, just a $100 kit).

Chief Marketing Technologist

Oh hello, I think I just found my next job title: Chief Marketing Technologist. I don't think I've ever seen a title description align so closely with what I want to do next, but the CMT description does just that. Scott Brinker, president and CTO of ion interactive, explains the CMT as an executive who is:

“… a hybrid between business and technology, a strong background in engineering and IT, is an early adopter of technology, but someone who also understands the pragmatic realities of scaling technology. But most importantly, someone who brings those skills and combines them with a deep love and passion for the marketing mix. This is a technologist that reports to the CMO, not the CIO.”

The role is for an individual who understands both technology and marketing, who understands how one side impacts the other, and who can seamlessly move between both worlds.

Your company may have seasoned marketers and top-of-the-line technologists, but it takes those who are dually knowledgeable in both marketing and technology to really make the right moves in Internet() marketing, as they are the ones who really understand the way the web works and what’s possible for marketing from a technological point of view.

What are the main goals of the Chief Marketing Technologist? Brinker goes on to list the three key goals for the role:

1. Translating Strategy into Technology

Working with the CMO and the marketing department and translating their needs into technology implementations. Being able to understand the needs of both marketing and technology and bringing everything together into a cohesive plan.

“The idea of a marketing technologist is someone who’s natively versed in both
languages and understands the concepts of what’s in technology and what’s in
marketing, and they can serve as the translator,”

2. Choreographing Technology Across Marketing

Taking all the data that is available to an organization (web analytics, marketing automation, advertising behavioral segmentation) and bringing it together to make sense of it all. Having different systems talk to each other and work together to optimize the larger organizational strategy.

“Choreograph the entire collection of marketing, technology and data that we see
throughout the organization. Find ways to tap the synergy between all of these
different components,”

3. Infusing Tech into the Company’s Marketing DNA

Bringing technology to the forefront of the organization and teaching others to leverage it to achieve their needs. Taking technology into consideration during the larger decision making process.

“Perhaps most importantly, is to infuse technology into the DNA of marketing
itself — our practices, our people, our culture,”

You can learn more about the Chief Marketing Technologist over on Scott Brinker's website (via Mashable)

Active blog work

Although it looks like I haven't been posting too much on this blog, I have in fact been blogging quite a bit lately on another blog venture of mine. This other blog revolves around my other passion, triathlon, and it's something I've been quietly working on over the past year or so. Just recently I've decided to step it up a bit and create something bigger around it. I don't expect it to blow up or be the next big thing, but I do hope it's a fun way for me to combine my favorite activities together. I'll post more details as they develop.

New Evernote features and apps

A bunch of new Evernote features and add-ons have popped up recently that have caught my eye. The first couple items are built into the web browser and the last one is a standalone app from the Evernote Trunk that I'm trying out.



First up is Site Memory, a new feature from the Evernote team that allows website owners to add an Evernote button on their website. The button works just like ReTweet or Share button, except the user shares it right to their Evernote account. I don't see how this is much better than the existing Evernote button I have on my browser's toolbar, but it does give the site owner more control over how their web content is saved. The site owner can customize the data that is saved to add additional content or frame it in a different way. This is a new feature that was just added last month so I haven't seen it in use yet. It should be interesting to see what types of sites take advantage of this new feature, since there's not that much benefit to adding this button just for Evernote users. It's not like a Share button where you're offering your user a chance to share your content with his/her friends, which then brings in more traffic to your site.



Next is a cool Chrome extension called Simultaneous Search that allows you to search Evernote notes as you search on the web. This looks really useful and should allow you to really leverage your saved notes in your everyday routines. Right now to get any value out of my notes I have to actively pull up an Evernote client and search within it, but this new extension allows me to passively incorporate my saved notes into all my searches. Plus it should be a nice little shortcut for quickly searching saved notes. I use Firefox right now as my primary browser but this new Chrome extension might just be the push I need to switch to Chrome full time.

Next up is a note-taking/organizer app called Awesome Note that offers full syncing with your Evernote account. I just started playing around with the app this week (the free Lite version) and so far I like the To-Do list features and the calendar view for tasks. It has a much richer interface than the Evernote mobile app but it syncs with Evernote on the backend so that helps bring all my notes and whatnot together in a single location. I'm always on the lookout for new ways to improve my To-Do list process so I'm giving this app a shot for a couple of weeks to see how it delivers. There's a paid version of this app but for now I'll stick to the Lite version.

Microsoft's $1 Billion spend

Microsoft will reportedly spend $1 billion to launch Windows Phone later this year. That seems like a lot of money to launch a product but I guess Microsoft is showing that's its (finally) serious about mobile. Despite this large spend, it doesn't seem like analysts are too hopeful about Microsoft's chances in the mobile OS game. A mobile OS report out of Gartner has Microsoft's Windows Phone market share dwindling down to 3.9% by 2014, with Android and Symbian battling it out for the top spot. Interestingly enough they have the iPhone OS market share holding steady and not flat out dominating the industry over the next couple of years.

$1 billion seems like a lot of money to be throwing at a potentially losing product... but I guess Microsoft has to do it if they even want a fighting chance in the market. As Paul Thurrott from WinInfo Daily puts it "How much of your own money would you spend if you had to save your own life?" (Love that quote!)

Forecast: Mobile Communications Device Open OS Sales to End Users by OS (Thousands of Units)

OS	2009	2010	2011	2014
Symbian	80,876.3	107,662.4	141,278.6	264,351.8
Market Share (%)	46.9	40.1	34.2	30.2
Android	6,798.4	47,462.1	91,937.7	259,306.4
Market Share (%)	3.9	17.7	22.2	29.6
Research In Motion	34,346.8	46,922.9	62,198.2	102,579.5
Market Share (%)	19.9	17.5	15.0	11.7
iOS	24,889.8	41,461.8	70,740.0	130,393.0
Market Share (%)	14.4	15.4	17.1	14.9
Windows Phone	15,031.1	12,686.5	21,308.8	34,490.2
Market Share (%)	8.7	4.7	5.2	3.9
Other Operating Systems	10,431.9	12,588.1	26,017.3	84,452.9
Market Share (%)	6.1	4.7	6.3	9.6
Total Market	172,374.3	268,783.7	413,480.5	875,573.8

Source: Gartner (August 2010)

What I'm Reading: Bike edition

After reading about a new bike sharing program starting here in Chicago (B-Cycle) I started reading about other bike sharing networks around the world and how technology is being used to power these movements. There's a top 10 list of bike sharing systems to watch but unfortunately Chicago isn't on the list (yet). Ah well, we'll be on that list soon enough. If you're looking for more homegrown bike sharing options check out this high-tech meets lo-tech service called Social Bicycles that will soon be available in New York. I actually didn't realize New York had such friendly biking-in-the-city options until I read this biking in New York blog post over at Chicago Bike. I guess it's not all crazy taxis and bike messengers on the streets of NYC.

Btw, have you been following the adventures of Precious the Bike as it travels across America? It's a fun little social experiment about a tweeting bike as it rides from coast to coast to raise money for the Livestrong foundation to fight the "biggest douchebag of all", cancer. It looks like Precious is in Colorado right now. You can follow all the tweets at @yesiamprecious.