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OKCupid App Adds Geo-Location. Is This Awesome?

Recently, there was much ado about an Apple patent that was filed, where it would allow users to locate people near them, and browse a small profile. In a personal discussion, some friends and I agreed that it wasn’t that likely that Apple would ever actually make something like this, but here they were patenting it just the same. I thought to myself, “this seems like something OKCupid would do.” Lo and behold, that’s exactly what they’ve done!

OKCupid first came onto my radar because of their excellent blog, OKTrends, where they occasionally perform statistical analysis of the people using their site. Everything from what you should send in your first message through what types of photos tend to get the best ratings is covered. They recently wrote an article called, “What if there weren’t so many white people?”

A friend tried to show me her profile, but since it was private to OKC users only, I ended up making one myself. The site is so well designed that it gently pushes you along to fill out your profile and answer match questions, all the while rewarding you by moving a bar from left to right labeled “Profile Completion”. Needless to say, my profile is now complete. Damn you, gamification! Continue reading “OKCupid App Adds Geo-Location. Is This Awesome?”

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WebOS Is The New BlackBerry

HP made a large purchase last year — they bought Palm. And with that came Palm’s brand spanking new smartphone operating system, WebOS. Despite a rocky start thanks to under-powered hardware and battery-sucking early builds, WebOS has actually gotten decent reviews. Everyone who uses it seems to say that it’s a really solid operating system. And they say it with a glimmer of sadness, since it seems like nothing could unseat Apple as the king of Smartphone Mountain, nor Android as the rogue gathering an army and preparing to lay siege against the incumbent king.

And yet, HP might just have a fighting chance. Recently, they released the TouchPad, a tablet which in many ways rivals the iPad or the current favorite Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Critics will say that the TouchPad is crippled by lack of software, but they’re missing the point. Everyone has different needs from a smartphone, but remember when the iPhone didn’t have apps at all? It survived in part because, as 37 signals put it, “Ten Apps Is All I Need“. Do those basic apps well, and most people don’t need much more. Pretty much every app that you want to use is made to work with Mobile Safari, and should work fine with WebOS’ browser, which also runs on WebKit.

Did I mention it already has a customized Facebook app/web layout, something which even the iPad doesn’t have? Or that it has its own Skype client? Because it already has both of those. And that’s why HP is going to take the scepter of “business tablet” away from RIM and their PlayBook. HP has deep pockets to promote this thing, and they’ve already started advertising on TV. It’s currently priced the same as the iPad, and while it may not be flying off the shelves, we can expect HP will drop the price around the holiday season and advertise around then too. Continue reading “WebOS Is The New BlackBerry”

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More Domain Hacks and Cool International Domains

Bored with your .com? Are you over your .org?

In a world where “capturing the .com” is generally thought of as necessary for brand success, a few proud rebels stand apart from the rest. We are the domain hackers, and we make the internet more fun for everyone.

Remember Del.icio.us? That is one early example of domain hacking. I’ve talked about it here before, too.

Today, we’ll just look at the .so domain extension, from Somalia. Here are a few that I found were available, along with ideas for what they could possibly be used for:

  • virtuo.so (a musician’s personal site)
  • espres.so (coffee or fast news)
  • youare.so, (you are so… what?)
  • iam.so (/hot /cool /witty, etc.)
  • thats.so (/trendy /typical)

Here are a couple of other, non-Somalian, domains that are available at the time of this writing (.gy is from Guyana):

  • fog.gy (San Francisco? London?)
  • futu.ro (obviously it’s about the future. Also futurolo.gy)
  • pr.odi.gy
  • slan.gy (urbindictionary competitor?)
  • tan.gy

I think that’s enough for today. If you want to purchase any of these domains, head on over to 101Domain (my preferred international domain registrar, I used them to register this site) and get it taken care of.

Thanks for reading!

PS – I found several cool websites while researching this post. Here are the three coolest:

  1. wasa.bi
  2. syzy.gy
  3. zom.bi
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2010: Year In Review

Hi there! Welcome to a new decade. We’re glad you decided to join us, here in the future.

Anyone who knows me could probably tell you how much I like “the future” (answer: quite a lot), but I’ve been pretty hesitant about predicting my own future. I may have developed the tendency to not plan too far in the future from two places:

  1. Tim Ferriss. In “The 4-Hour Work Week”, Ferriss suggests that it’s difficult if nigh impossible to keep plans for 6+ months. Mostly, I agree with this, but I intend to challenge it.
  2. My Job. Working for The Art of Charm is exciting, nerve-racking, challenging, and fulfilling, all at once. Most of all, it has taught me how working for a (relatively) small business is a very dynamic process, and not too much is set in stone.

Whatever the reason, I’m going to break the habit of not-planning somewhat and set down some predictions as to what might transpire in my life this year. But first, Seth Godin told me to write about what we “Shipped” in 2010.

Not a bad year at all, if you ask me!

That’s all for now. I want to publish this post so I can start writing the next one.

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PS: I tried to fix the comments. I’m sorry they were broken. Ow! Don’t hit me! That’s abuse! They should be working now. Please leave your thoughts below.