oDesk’s weekly column brings you the latest news on labor markets, innovation, and online work.

Week of 12/14/2012:

Bloomberg: Alternatives To Running Your Business From Home
When working from home, the line between personal and professional can quickly become blurred. If that sounds too familiar, check out Karen E. Klein‘s tips for finding flexible work options outside your home office. Beyond local coffee houses, Klein recommends venturing out to libraries, hotel lobbies, co-working spaces and even incubators for a refreshing change of scenery, some networking and collaboration opportunities, and often a great cup of coffee.

Forbes: Is Your Employment Model Too Stateful?
Is your workforce stateful or stateless? Rawn Shah discusses the concept of “Workforce-as-a-Service” or “talent in the cloud,” repurposing the IT descriptors ‘stateful’ and ‘stateless’ to describe allocation of human resources. Shah writes that a stateless workflow—one in which people can contribute to multiple projects at the same time instead of being stuck in one role or task—can help businesses be more flexible than with a stateful model. The benefits of going stateless include accessing the right employee expertise every time, while fostering greater business agility.

Business Insider: Mary Meeker’s Must-Read Presentation on the State of the Web
Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins shared her annual 2012 Internet Trends presentation this week. In it she discusses the state of the Internet, with analysis and forecasts on everything from mobile advertising to tablet adoption. She also discusses disruptive technologies and how they are transforming traditional industries, shifting the world away from a heavy dependence on fixed assets to one in which assets are lean and resources are on demand. This certainly applies to organizational structure and workforce models—check out one of her slides below!

Did we miss anything? Are there any insights you find particularly interesting? Let us know in the comments section below!

View the original article here

 

Editor’s Note: For the client side of location-independence, check out Jay Shapiro’s story published earlier this week. 

Sights and sounds that many of us will never see or hear are just another stop on the road for Bernard Vukas—from Ottoman mosques in Turkey, to rice and curry shops in Thailand, to a beachfront office in the Philippines.

With a lifestyle that is nothing if not location independent, Vukas—a Microsoft Office Business Applications (OBA) developer originally from Croatia—has embraced the “work anywhere” freedom enabled by online work.

Vukas’ adventures started with a rather inconspicuous piece of furniture: His couch.

When a friend referred him to Couchsurfing—an offbeat networking site that connects travelers with available “couches” (i.e. local hosts) in cities throughout the world and uses karma for currency—Vukas was intrigued. He began hosting couch surfers from around the world and, in the process, was bitten by the travel bug himself.

Soon after, he read the book The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau and realized that perhaps work and travel could go hand in hand. Since his freelance developer work was all conducted online, he decided to give it a try.

Vukas’ first stop was Istanbul, Turkey. Using a travel agency to book his trip, he took a bus tour from Serbia to Turkey.

As vacations go, however, he wasn’t thrilled with the experience. “The fact that we stayed in a hotel and ate quasi-European food wasn’t appealing at all. This motivated me to strive to stay as away from hotels (and as close to the locals as possible) next time.”

While his travel arrangements didn’t meet his ideal, his work experience went well. As the bus wound its way from Serbia to Turkey and back again, Vukas made use of the time between stops to accomplish work; he’d brought an extra battery, but it wasn’t needed as the bus had electrical power. When he wasn’t working, he took in the sights and sounds of the former Ottoman empire.

When his trip wrapped up, Vukas was hooked: Working while traveling opened up almost any place in the world as a place to call “home.”

It wasn’t long before he was preparing for his next destination.

Vukas decided to venture even further from his home country of Croatia, ditching the cold European winter for the tropical climes of Thailand.

This time, however, he decided to give couch surfing a try himself.

“[Thailand] was my first time using Couchsurfing…and it was awesome!” he said. “I’m not a huge fan of planning, so I hired a girl on oDesk to help me organize everything. She had been to Thailand before and she connected me with Phiseak Klanutai, the organizer of weekly Bangkok Couchsurfing meetings. I ended up staying with him…for almost four months.”

Vukas spent a total of six months in Thailand before returning home. After logging another trip to Thailand, as well as a trip to Bangladesh, he was convinced: Location was completely irrelevant to his ability to make a living.

This realization freed him to take an even bigger step: Uprooting himself and moving halfway around the world to the Philippines.

For this decision, Vukas credits Google. “Pictures of Boracay that appeared on Google Images were part of the reason I moved. I’ve had 30 years of winter in Europe, and I wanted a change. This seemed like a perfect destination!”

Based on his experiences, Vukas has some key advice for other contractors who want to embrace travel while still making a living:

Establish a work center: ”I try to set up a home-base as soon as possible, so that I’m able to work,” he said. “When I travel, I usually work from my room. On rarest occasions I go to coffee shops. I rent on a monthly basis, usually apartment-style 1- or 2-bedroom units with a kitchen.”Stay longer: ”I try traveling as little as possible, spending at least three to six months in one location. Renting on a long-term basis is important, as well as arriving to your destination in the off-season.”Make sure your costs are covered: Make sure to set or adjust your travel plans according to how much you expect to work and earn while you’re there—this means researching what your costs will be and setting a budget. And don’t be afraid to charge what you’re worth, Bernard advises contractors. “I usually recommend starting in the $20-30 range, especially if they have a good career track record.”

For Vukas, online work has been the key to changing travel from a mere vacation into a way of life. Have you had a similar experience? Share your travel adventures and on-the-road work advice in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance technology and business journalist. She also works as an editor and copywriter for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and nonprofit organizations. Julia brings to oDesk a passion for empowering small businesses through the innovative use of technology.

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By Nick Loper

When it comes to virtual assistants, a common misconception is that they are just virtual secretaries for you or your business. While they can certainly perform that kind of work — from processing emails to addressing holiday cards — the truth is they can be more than that.

Much more.

In fact, if you limit your virtual assistant (VA) to traditional administrative jobs like playing gatekeeper, booking travel, or setting appointments, you’re missing out on a great opportunity.

Here are seven out-of-the-box tasks a virtual assistant can help you with:

1. Customer Service
Keeping your customers happy is critical in any business, but it can also be time-consuming. A virtual assistant can help manage the volume of customer service phone calls, emails, and live chat requests that come in, as well as help streamline your support process.

Bonus Opportunity: If you have your virtual assistant respond to customer queries early in the sales cycle, you can award them a small bonus for each sale they help “close.” It’s a small gesture to help keep them motivated and increase their income, while at the same time boosting the bottom line with incremental sales.

2. Writing Content
Content marketing can be a powerful tool in capturing new business, and there have never been more avenues in which to publish that content. Unfortunately, writing great content is a very time-intensive process — which means it is the perfect job to give to a talented virtual assistant.

Bonus Opportunity: Sometimes writing the content is the easy part; the hard part is coming up with the idea! Your virtual assistant can help keep an eye on industry trends by subscribing to HARO (Help a Reporter Out), creating Google Alerts for certain key phrases, and reading related blogs. All of these will help them come up with ideas to create content about.

3. Proofreading
If your virtual assistant is a skilled writer, they probably also have an eye for editing. You can have them look over your written work before you make it public. Whether it’s an important email, a sales letter, or even a book, having an extra set of eyes on it can be a big help.

4. Research
As an entrepreneur or simply a busy professional, odds are you’re always thinking of new ideas, but may not have time to fully research them. A virtual assistant can be an extension of yourself and do the digging for you.

For instance, there was a car that used to park near my place that was plastered in advertising. I wondered what the IRS rules on vehicle advertising were (for example, if I put a company ad on my car, could I write off ALL of my mileage as an advertising expense?), so I had my VA look into it.

(In case you’re curious, the answer was no.)

5. Lead Generation
If you’re in sales (and everyone is to a certain degree), a virtual assistant can help identify leads. Simply give them a list of instructions and criteria and have them run with it.

For example, in real estate investing that could be, “Contact ‘For Sale by Owner’ listings and ask them these qualifying questions.”

6. Social Media
Maintaining a strong social media presence is crucial these days — both for increasing exposure to new customers and building relationships with existing ones. The problem is it’s always on, and it can be a major time suck.

However, you can give your VA some guidelines (what kind of content to post/retweet, how often to post, how to reply to questions, etc.), and effectively remove yourself from much of the process. Even for personal brands, there is an opportunity to free up a lot of time with a social-savvy virtual assistant.

7. Human Resources
As your business grows, you may need to bring on additional help. Why not have your virtual assistant coordinate your human resources efforts by handling job posting and applicant screening?

You should still interview the final candidates, but in the meantime you’ll save much of the trouble and headache involved with the hiring process.

What kind of work does your virtual assistant help with? Please share your experience in the comments section below!

 

Nick Loper is an online entrepreneur and lifelong student in the game of business. His most recent project is VirtualAssistantAssistant.com, a directory and review database for virtual assistant companies. He has been using online work since 2005 and is the author of “Virtual Assistant Assistant: The Ultimate Guide to Finding, Hiring, and Working with Virtual Assistants.”

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By Amin Palizban

This post originally appeared on the 7Geese blog.

Last week, I attended a fireside chat event with Gary Swart, the CEO of oDesk, where I was blown away by the concept of an on-demand online workforce and how Gary predicts that by 2020, one in every three employees in the workforce will work remotely online. This topic also came up a few days ago at an event I attended at Stanford, where Mary Meeker gave her talk on 2012 Internet Trends. Mary asserted the trend towards an on-demand Workforce-as-a-Service (WaaS) using platforms like oDesk, which enable employment to be asset-light with very minimal fixed costs. I’ve now realized that the on-demand workforce is a reality and many tech giants here in the San Francisco Bay Area are embracing it. In this blog post I’m going to discuss on-demand workforces and how oDesk leverages this trend.

oDesk is the world’s largest workplace that brings the job to the worker rather than the worker to the job. oDesk addresses the problem of job opportunities not always existing where the talent lives by creating a platform with a time-based compensation model for workers. The service has over 500K clients and more than 2.7M on-demand workers with rapid growth. Gary mentioned three trends that have helped them with their growth:

Internet and technology: More bandwidth and tools like Skype and Google Docs have made it much easier to work remotely. The internet has also made it much easier for people in the developing world to keep up with the latest technologies and learn market-needed skills.Globalization: Many businesses, including SMBs, are expanding worldwide and need a global workforce to sustain them. Furthermore, the number of English-speaking people is increasing around the world.Economy: The economy is forcing businesses to be agile and do more with less. An on-demand workforce is elastic and scalable.

On-demand workforces are not perfect and have some challenges associated with them. However, the main reason that I personally have not been a big believer is the importance of alignment to company values and bigger objectives, and how I thought it was impossible to have it with an on-demand/remote workforce. I posed my thoughts to Gary during his talk (image from the talk on the left) and his response changed my perspective. Gary admitted to this growing challenge and mentioned a few ways they overcome this problem in their own company, which employs a high percentage of remote workers:

Giving an opportunity to have impact: People want the feeling of belonging to something bigger. oDesk enables its remote workers to work on a platform that has visible global impact.Learning and development: oDesk engages its remote workers to continuously learn and enhance their skills. Furthermore, people on oDesk’s platform are taking ownership of their own learning which is needed to stay competitive.Fair compensation: People want to be paid fairly and oDesk usually exceeds that expectation by enabling workers to get paid more than the market average for their geographic location.Balanced life: Many people join oDesk because of the flexibility it offers to work from anywhere. This is what they value and this is what oDesk can offer them. oDesk attracts top-notch talent who leave big companies like Amazon to gain the flexibility and life balance they desire.Face time: oDesk occasionally flies in its remote workers to work in its head office or sometimes flies people from head office to go spend time with remote workers around the world.

After listening to Gary’s talk, I realized that what we are doing with the 7Geese platform to align employees to company values and objectives can be utilized to align on-demand and remote workers as well. Suddenly, the vision for 7Geese became more in alignment with the future of work.

Amin Palizban is the CEO and Founder of 7Geese, a social performance management tool for the agile and entrepreneurial workforce to track goals, receive recognition, and gather feedback. He has always been interested in entrepreneurship and has started few successful businesses. Amin is passionate about utilizing technology to improve society, user- centric design, visual arts, and shared-value capitalism. He holds a Bachelors degree in Engineering from the University of British Columbia. When not at work, you can find Amin reading blogs at a coffee shop, freehand sketching, jogging by the ocean, practicing Yoga, or playing Capoeira.

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Freelancing is the fastest-growing sector of the economy, according to The Atlantic, and already up to one-third of working adults in the U.S. are classified as independent contractors by the Government Accountability Office.

These solo professionals are also a pretty happy group. The 2012 State of Independence in America report from MBO Partners, for example, found that 71 percent of independent contractors have a high level of satisfaction with their work—and the vast majority expect things to stay the same or get better over the next year.

However, it’s increasingly evident that being self-employed isn’t without its challenges; with the continuing shift in the way the world works, many traditional systems and safety nets don’t fit the independent lifestyle.

In particular, despite the rise in independent contractors, their interests are generally unprotected. Even their numbers are unconfirmed; the Bureau of Labour Statistics stopped tracking contingent workers in 2005, before the economic downturn.

As a result—as cynical as it may sound—there’s only one person who is able to look after you and your self-employed future: You. Here’s some guidance on two of the most important considerations for long-term freelance career planning—protecting your finances, now and in the future, and staying professionally relevant.

Retirement planning is a fairly universal challenge. “Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day,” wrote economics professor Teresa Ghilarducci in a New York Times opinion piece.

Financial issues are perhaps more magnified among self-employed professionals who have no employer—or employment support—to turn to for assistance with healthcare expenses, household emergencies, or periods of low or no income.

According to a survey from 24 Seven, cash flow is the number one concern that impacts freelancer happiness.

Providing advice for a freelance couple on CNN Money, financial planner Colleen Weber recommended a robust emergency reserve to help cover unforeseen shortfalls and protect against the feast-or-famine flux of freelance work. “The ideal target for freelancers: six months to a year of readily accessible funds,” she wrote.

That’s no small amount of change to squirrel away when you have other bills and expenses to pay on an ongoing basis. While a financial planner can give you the best advice for your particular situation, taking stock of your current income and expenses—plus setting a reasonable budget and sticking to it—is a starting point many know but still forget.

When you’re primarily focused on paying your bills this month and next, retirement can seem far on the horizon. In fact, many retirees turn to freelancing as a meaningful way to stay active and engaged while supplementing their income; for example, nearly half of working Canadians plan to ease into retirement by continuing with part-time or freelance work.

However, banking on a lengthy professional career instead of savings adds more risk to an already unknown future. U.S.-based freelancers have four basic investment options:

You may also consider the Freelancers Union’s 401(k) Retirement Plan, open to anyone who receives 1099 income and tailored to help meet the needs of independent contractors.

“Staying professionally relevant” is the challenge that most frequently keeps freelancers awake at night, 24 Seven’s survey found.

When it comes to ongoing education and the competition for talent, there’s extra pressure on the self-employed to manage their own career and guide it towards not just the skills needed now, but those needed in the future.

Given the rapid pace of change in the world we work in, how can you anticipate where you should focus your energy?

Social media provides a phenomenal opportunity to stay on top of industry trends, whether you’re participating in conversations on Twitter or in LinkedIn groups.In-person networking is another way to learn what others are doing, as well as how general client needs in your industry may be shifting.In addition to networking opportunities, trade shows and conferences are some of the best ways to learn what’s new and coming soon in your particular sector.

You can also turn to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for a forecast: Their Occupational Outlook Handbook projects out to 2020 in a number of sectors, providing an overview of broad skills required and the job outlook.

What are you doing to plan ahead—for yourself or your business? Share your ideas in the comments section below.

As assistant editor of the oDesk blog, Amy Sept brings to oDesk more than a decade of communications experience and a passion for helping nonprofits and small businesses succeed. She is an experienced freelancer and the founder of Nimbyist Communications, a marketing and public relations business specializing in nonprofit promotions. She has previously studied both journalism and music, and before launching Nimbyist was manager of communications for a mid-sized nonprofit organization.

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Our friends over at Singularity University recently published a fascinating article in The Washington Post about the impact of technology on the future workforce. It features an email exchange with Vivek Wadhwa, Singularity’s Vice President of Innovation and Research, and futurist Ray Kurzweil, in which they discuss whether the rapid advancement of technology will have a net positive or negative impact on employment in the future.

They both make intriguing points, but one that I feel strongly about falls on Kurzweil’s side of the argument—which is that Internet technology is creating a revolution in employment, one that’s for the better.

Using mobile apps as an example of new technology that has created employment opportunities, Wadhwa says there have “only” been 500,000 or so jobs created in the mobile app economy. But what I think is important to note is that the mobile app economy is much earlier in its evolution than the Internet is, and there is still significant growth ahead of it. On oDesk for example, we saw mobile app development demand take off just a few years ago and it’s now growing rapidly, at a rate of more than 115% over the past year.

It’s also important to remember that advances in Internet technology have created exponentially more jobs than in the mobile apps sector alone. We see this in online work, where the Internet has catalyzed job creation across the board by eliminating geographic barriers—and not just in industries that deal with new technologies. Even in age-old professions such as legal work and writing, the Internet has brought growth to countless industries by creating opportunities that didn’t exist before, that are unrestricted by geography. And the growth is staggering: from 2009 to this year, hours worked on oDesk have grown 8x.

Everyone’s talking about the rise of “telecommuting” and “virtual work” — all of which refer to leveraging the Internet to bring work to the worker, rather than the worker to the work. Today, it’s about enabling the best minds to work together, regardless of where they happen to be. Technology makes this possible. And we predict increasing connectivity and Internet savvy is going to continue to fuel this employment revolution, with one in three workers hired to work online by 2020. Now that is what I call an employment revolution.

To read the article in full, find it on The Washington Post here.

Gary Swart is the CEO of oDesk, the world’s largest online workplace. Gary is a thought leader in entrepreneurship; how best to hire and manage teams; and the future of work, including online work. He is passionate about helping small businesses thrive, fueled by his extensive experience working with startups and small businesses that use oDesk, as well as by mentoring entrepreneurs and business school students. Gary has spoken at the Inc. Leadership Conference, The Economist’s Ideas Economy panel, South by Southwest, TechCrunch 50, TiECon, GigaOM’s Net:Work Conference in 2010 and 2011, and at Harvard Business School which teaches a case study on oDesk. His commentary has appeared in a variety of publications including Forbes, TechCrunch and The Washington Post. He has also appeared on numerous TV and radio shows, including BBC, National Public Radio, and the Fox Business program “After the Bell.” Previously, he led SMB Sales for the Americas at IBM’s Rational Software Product Group, and prior to that served as VP of Worldwide Sales at Intellibank, where he was responsible for leading the sales organization. Gary holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.

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Planning a trip to a foreign country in the past was quite an effort — and without a travel agent, it was close to impossible. Now, with tools like Trip Advisor, Kayak and other online travel sites, the average person can create a dream vacation in hours.

I wish planning an international event was now that easy — at least, that’s what I thought as I planned two large events for oDesk this year.

Early in 2012 we decided to recognize our most active contractors by hosting oDesk events, which we named Contractor Appreciation Days, in a city near them. We held a Facebook contest to determine which locations had the most active and engaged contractor communities, and two of the winning countries were Bangladesh and the Philippines. The goal was to host fun events in each country, where we could engage with a large group of our members, reward top earners, share news from oDesk and enable contractors to network.

I had never been to Bangladesh or the Philippines, nor do I have relatives there. Plus, in addition to planning the events from 7,000 miles away, I was working with a rather conservative budget. At first this project seemed extremely daunting and nerve-wracking, particularly when one event was estimated to have 1,000 attendees! But with a little prep and on-the-ground support, I’m happy to say that these events were a success. We had excellent feedback from our members and we learned a lot about contractors, their countries and ourselves in the process.

As a result, I wanted to share my experiences to help future event planners. I won’t sugarcoat it, it does involve a lot of work. But with the tips laid out here, I hope you can benefit from my experience.

One of the best things you can do is find a local event planner — one that lives in the area where the event will be held — who has a lot of experience planning previous events in the area. For Bangladesh, I found a contractor on oDesk who specialized in project management. After an interview over Skype, I knew Saidur would be knowledgeable, capable and proactive. We started with a small task: send me three locations where we can host at least 500 people. I requested pictures of the locations, quotes, and availability. Within a matter of days we had a venue selected and Saidur proved himself invaluable in helping with all the other logistics.

In the Philippines, the event was much larger and needed more than one local contact. This is where a few great contractors came in, two of which were Judy and Jasmine. Judy is a professional event planner who not only works on oDesk, but who also works for an event planning company in Manila — which means she had the connections we needed to secure a facility, food, A/V and security. Jasmine connected with a large network of oDesk contractors. She scoured the talent of colleagues in that network and found us a DJ, registration desk staff, photographers and entertainers.

The big lesson I learned here is that online talent is not just for online work! These contractors were my eyes, ears and feet on the ground, helping to pull these events together in ways that I couldn’t.

With the proper planning, you’ll find that putting together an event is easier than you thought. First, create a planning document that can be easily understood by both you and anyone you may pull in to help with the event. I’m a big fan of checklists — mine included the basics like the facility, travel, and presentation content. It also included uniquely international items like getting vaccinations, hiring security, and packing every type of AV adaptor we could possibly need.

And when it comes to materials, over-prepare. For example, bring back-up copies of all your presentations (we had copies in an email inbox and a thumb drive, on our laptops, and sent to our local staff) and bring printouts of the attendee list, the presentations and nametags. Try to order all of your promotional items and giveaway products through local vendors. Don’t be afraid to hire an assistant event planner to manage these details.

In many locations, cash is the only payment option, particularly if you are looking to minimize costs. Some contractors are willing to make payments and be reimbursed; others would like the cash upfront. For any expense that was paid by a contractor, I requested a signed and scanned official receipt from the vendor. Make sure you have the vendor’s contact information, so if you have any concerns, you can call him or her to verify the expense before you send a payment. Remember that it can take several days for a contractor to be able to withdraw the funds they receive through oDesk.

The day of the event is when the bulk of the expenses need to be paid. If you are uncomfortable traveling to a country with upwards of $3,000 with you, there are a couple of options: You can wire funds to a local Western Union outlet and pick it up when you arrive, or you can contact your bank to pre-approve the ability to withdraw a large sum of funds from a bank or ATM in the country you are visiting.

It’s good to check in with your online team once a week, over the phone or via Skype. As you get closer to the event, increase the frequency of your calls. You can also keep everyone on the same page between calls by having a daily email check-in and a shared spreadsheet with the budget and task lists. After you have hired people to staff the event, you can make on-the-ground collaboration easier by creating and distributing a document with all their photos, names and mobile numbers. And don’t forget to have a call with all of them in the weeks prior to the event to address any questions or concerns.

Flying halfway across the world is a big investment. Depending on how many people you send, one-third of your costs can be the flight alone. We had about four days on the ground for each trip and not a second was wasted. Prior to the trip, we contracted with a PR specialist for that region and had interviews scheduled with target media outlets. Through our networks we were able to secure meetings with government officials to discuss online work opportunities, and our contractors also organized a little sightseeing trip. (Clearly, sleep was not a priority.)

While we did put a great deal of time and effort into these events, in retrospect it really was a treat to be able to plan and attend them. Not only did I meet many great contractors and establish a team of resources in the local community, I learned so much about each culture and now can better visualize the daily lives of the people I work online with every day.

If you are planning an international event, I wish you the best of luck and a bon voyage!

For those who have already experienced planning an international event, what did you find most important? We would love to hear your tips in the comments section below!

Monica leads contractor marketing at oDesk, building programs to improve the marketability and success of oDesk contractors. Prior to oDesk, Monica ran product marketing for several consumer solutions at PayPal, including PayPal on eBay, Buyer Protection, Student Account, and PayPal on Skype. Prior to that, Monica led customer programs at eBay, including an acquisition and customer advocacy team that helped more than 40,000 small businesses and created more than $345 million in annual sales. In her time at eBay and PayPal she won many awards, including the eBay North America Business Impact Award and the PayPal Award for outstanding individual achievement. Monica received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of California, Riverside.

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National Public Radio (NPR) was facing an innovation challenge: In five years, they hadn’t produced a single successful new show—but had spent millions on failed experiments.

As Andrew Phelps discussed on the Nieman Media Lab blog, NPR’s programming staff needed a new approach. That’s when a development process already being used in the IT department was re-purposed to create radio programs. That methodology? Agile software development.

“[Agile is a] philosophy that products should be released early and iterated often,” explained Phelps. “The shows are live (cheap) and/or adaptations of existing shows (easy)…Listeners and local program directors are invited to help shape the sound of the programs, making it something of a public beta.”

Built on several decades of academic theorizing and real-world experimentation, agile is a project management approach that’s traditionally been geared towards software.

The specific principles that define the agile process were formalized in 2001 by a group of like-minded developers in the Agile Manifesto. Since that time, it has become a de facto standard for efficient, adaptable, customer-oriented web and software development.

When NPR began implementing agile, they didn’t employ every aspect of it. Instead, they made use of the elements that were most relevant to developing radio programming, including:

iterative development (i.e. shows are changed based on listener and station feedback), andembracing simplicity (i.e. using live production and basing new shows off existing shows).

As NPR’s example illustrates, the principles that make agile such an effective software development tool can have extensive application to the rest of the business world as well, making non-IT teams equally adaptable and efficient.

Here are a few key agile hallmarks and how they can apply to your business—whatever sector you happen to be in.

Your highest priority is to satisfy your customer.

Jason Little, an agile expert and organizational change coach, helps non-IT industries successfully implement agile principles. One client was struggling to manage 12 different groups of customers. When they stopped to consider how they were interacting with their customers, however, “they immediately discovered they were over-saturating their audience with too many messages and were able to self-correct,” explained Little.

One way any industry can implement the customer satisfaction principle is by actively listening to the customer throughout every stage of product development; only develop incrementally and get the customer’s sign-off at each new level. This isn’t about allowing your client frequent opportunities to completely change the project, but instead making sure the work you are doing meets their expectations at every stage.

Conduct regular reflections on how to become more effective, then change accordingly.

Often called a retrospective, this agile methodology encourages teams to have regular meetings in which they talk about what worked and what didn’t in the last project they accomplished. Based off that discussion, improvements are made to the team’s workflow and management.

Little emphasized the importance of the retrospective in strengthening teams—and online teams in particular. “Regardless of industry or products and services being offered, getting into a rhythm of making small incremental improvements is a strong, positive habit for management teams to build,” he said.

He added that when team members see their supervisors investing in improving, they’ll embrace its importance for themselves.

The best products emerge from self-organizing teams.

Projects that are micromanaged rarely turn out well for anyone—a key reason behind the agile principle of self-organizing teams. Little summarized it by noting that “the people doing the work are the best suited to figuring out how to do the work.”

Mary Poppendieck concurred in her book, Implementing Lean Software Development. “Respect means that instead of telling people what to do and how to do it, you develop a reflexive organization where people use their heads and figure this out for themselves.”

In any industry, teams that are given ownership of their project are more creative and driven than their micromanaged counterparts. By implementing this agile principle, you’ll be walking in the steps of ROWE-inspired organizations.

Daily and/or weekly meetings keep the team on track and coordinated.

Many software development teams hold daily and/or weekly “stand-up” meetings to keep each other abreast on a project’s progress. These meetings, if kept short and sweet, are an incredibly valuable tool for any business. What should these focused meetings cover?

The state of each attendee’s project work and what has been accomplished since the previous meeting;What work is going to be accomplished in the next period; andAny obstacles that a team member is facing.

These meetings are often referred to as “stand-ups” because, ideally, they should be short enough that everyone could stand during the meeting.

Little suggests regularly including both clients and stakeholders in at least some of these meetings. “I was working with a software team on one of those doomed projects and the simple change we made was to include the customers and stakeholders to the daily stand-ups twice a week,” he said. “Regardless of the methods and tools used to deliver the project, the flow of communication dramatically increased which helped the stakeholders realize how much work they were actually asking for and they found out about problems much sooner.”

Radio isn’t the only non-tech field to be inspired by agile. Marketing, freelance writing, book publishing and education are just a few of the industries being transformed by an innovative production methodology.  After all, if it works for Morning Edition, you know it’s got to be good.

Do you know of other non-tech fields that are successfully using the agile approach? Has your company tried it? Share your input in the comments section below.

Julia Camenisch is a freelance technology and business journalist. She also works as an editor and copywriter for a wide range of clients, including national magazines, small businesses and nonprofit organizations. Julia brings to oDesk a passion for empowering small businesses through the innovative use of technology.

View the original article here

 

oDesk’s weekly column brings you the latest news on labor markets, innovation, and online work.

Week of 12/7/2012:

Xconomy: Maximizing Value and Minimizing Risk With Remote Workers
A veteran in the world of remote work, Nathaniel Borenstein shares what he’s learned about ensuring that virtual work arrangements are successful for both the employer and the employee. Borenstein emphasizes the importance of trust as a building block for great remote work relationships, allowing teams to collaborate efficiently and work cohesively. While hardly a simple exercise, virtual work is a great way to attract new talent and reward employees for a job well done, he writes.

Deloitte: Making Virtual Work ‘Business As Usual’
The construct of ‘work as a place’ has been replaced by the recognition of work as an action—a thing you do as opposed to a place you go. In this Deloitte report, Julianne McInerney, Omosede Idehen and Leah Goodman write that, due to a multitude of pressures, the way we work is becoming increasingly virtual, diverse and dispersed—changes which present significant challenges for firms looking to compete in the global workplace. While infrastructure issues certainly must be addressed in the shift towards a remote workforce, the authors argue that the entrenched mindsets of managers and employees are the largest barriers to progress. Deloitte provides a useful roadmap for overcoming these barriers, concluding that making virtual work into ‘business as usual’ might be the best way to achieve your goals.

99U: Why You Should Treat Your Freelance Portfolio Like A Stock Portfolio
One of the main priorities of any freelancer is establishing a steady stream of work—and ensuring your skills stay relevant enough to keep that pipeline full. Sarah Horowitz, the founder of Freelancers Union, advocates for the use of a “freelance portfolio” to fine-tune your project mix, allowing you to stabilize your income flow and minimize risk. In addition, by establishing the right distribution of clients and projects, you can meet income goals and focus on fine-tuning your most in-demand skills.

Workbar: 5 Questions Good Managers Ask When Managing Remote Teams
With an astounding 61% of the Fortune 500 reporting they will broaden their telecommuting policies in the next few years, the ability to manage distributed teams is becoming an increasingly important skill in the workplace. Workbar shares five tips for maintaining company culture and improving efficiency when managing virtual teams. Their takeaways? Define goals, integrate communications, and make sure to show appreciation for the work they do.

Did we miss anything? Are there any insights you find particularly interesting? Let us know in the comments section below!

Jenna Weiner is the associate marketing manager at oDesk and the editor-in-chief of the oDesk blog. With a background in business and technology writing, she specializes in public relations, content strategy, branding and social media marketing. Before joining oDesk, Jenna was a writer and editor for Monitor Group’s marketing department and the Business & Technology Section Editor for Brafton Inc. Jenna graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University with a B.A. in English.

View the original article here

 

oDesk’s weekly column brings you the latest news on labor markets, innovation, and online work.

Week of 11/30/2012:

Harvard Business Review: Make Results Matter More Than Face Time
If performance—not face time—drives organizational success, why are workers still so focused on punching the clock? Ellen Galinsky, President of the Families and Work Institute, considers the lagging implementation of results-only work environments, concluding that it may be due to employee skepticism and the inability of managers to accurately manage performance. Regardless of potential obstacles, Galinsky challenges businesses to put results ahead of face time. She uses the example of Ryan LLC, a global tax firm, to highlight the benefits of a successful transition.

McKinsey Quarterly: The Evolution Of Work—One Company’s Story
Virtual collaboration has revolutionized the way we work today, but how can companies adapt to these changes? Rebecca Ranninger, Chief Human Resources Officer at Symantec, reflects on her company’s implementation of a virtual work program and discusses the dissonance between the tremendous benefits of a flexible workforce and the issues that can occur when employees are no longer in the same room. Ranninger highlights the importance of tailorable solutions, and recommends training managers to utilize remote work as they see fit.

Harvard Business Review: How To Manage Conflict In Virtual Teams
There are few threats to productivity as significant as workplace conflict, but how do you resolve conflicts in the virtual realm? Keith Ferrazzi shares his knowledge about conflict resolution in the virtual workplace. While conflicts are less likely to surface in the virtual world, a lack of face-to-face contact can exacerbate issues that do arise. Ferrazzi suggests that the use of online discussion boards and shared virtual workspaces can help quell issues through promoting frank, productive discussions and helping defuse potential conflicts.

Huffington Post: Commute Smart Means Work Smart
Tired of the morning commute? Ray McGroarty, Global Director for Enterprise UC Solutions at Polycom, urges workers to skip the commute and move towards the flexible, mobile future of work. With ready access to the necessary technology, McGroarty suggests that teams must surmount “cultural and behavioral barriers” to thrive remotely. In order to reap the benefits of mobile working, McGroarty advises corporations to set ground rules, which can shorten the learning curve for both employees and managers. He also recommends establishing support mechanisms for technical issues, bolstering communication on IM and video chat, and creating a culture of trust.

Business Insider: How To Boost Morale In A Virtual Workspace
Workplace collaboration has become increasingly virtual now that teams are often spread around the country, if not the globe. As a result, teamwork has never been more important, relays Katherine Graham-Leviss, founder of assessment and virtual coaching company XBInsights. In her interview with Business Insider, she shares her insight into the intricacies of virtual collaboration. A veteran of managing virtual teams, Graham-Leviss emphasizes the importance of adjusting communications strategies to best fit the personalities on your team, as well as the benefits of a structured virtual work environment.

Fast Company: Remote Worker Disaster Response Checklist
From floods and hurricanes to blackouts, oDeskers have overcome incredible odds to get work done in the face of adversity. In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Cali Williams Yost shares some great tips to help freelancers prepare for any trouble that could come their way. From power to security, Yost provides a short checklist of freelancing necessities to help online workers prepare for any disruption.

Jenna Weiner is the associate marketing manager at oDesk and the editor-in-chief of the oDesk blog. With a background in business and technology writing, she specializes in public relations, content strategy, branding and social media marketing. Before joining oDesk, Jenna was a writer and editor for Monitor Group’s marketing department and the Business & Technology Section Editor for Brafton Inc. Jenna graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University with a B.A. in English.

View the original article here

 

By Tom Opdyke

While Jay Shapiro watches his daughter perform in her Montessori school glee club in New Jersey, an international team of contractors works on videos promoting his startup, Infinite Monkeys. As his daughter sings:

A team leader in Louisiana hires translators to script the video in seven languages, then brings on a voiceover artist.A producer in the Philippines adds the audio tracks.A team in India mounts the videos on the seven language-based Infinite Monkeys websites.A contractor in India search-engine-optimizes the videos for YouTube, and a U.S. contractor uploads them.

A few weeks later, as the project is completed — on time and within budget — Shapiro; his wife, Alice Gugelev; and their children, Maya and Kurt, are comfortably worlds away at the family summer cabin on Gibson Lake in Ontario.

“There is no way I could have done that before oDesk,” says Shapiro, who started working with online teams more than a decade ago when he founded Singapore-based BLUE, an award-winning digital advertising agency that he later sold.

Life at BLUE — without VOIP or even a thought of cloud storage and real-time communication — was different than Shapiro’s approach to work today.

Back then, with satellite offices in London, Singapore, Tokyo, China and on both U.S. coasts, Shapiro lived in a narrow seat with no leg room at 30,000 feet and ate unevenly heated meals from an airline commissary.

“I would typically spend three weeks of every month flying circles around the planet. At the height of the stupidity, in 2007, I had a house in Singapore, a house in San Mateo [CA], a leased flat in west London and a leased flat in Beijing. I’ll never do that again,” says Shapiro.

He still works more than 50 hours per week, but now he does it from anywhere he wants. That has included a glacier in Alaska, as well as stops in southeast Asia and many parts of the United States while the family was traveling.

“I’ve learned that I don’t have to be tied down with a permanent staff or have to be headquartered in one location,” says Shapiro, whose company — which allows anyone to build their own mobile app — reached a milestone of 10,000 created apps in its first year.

The startup’s sprint initially involved about 140 contractors, Shapiro says. Today, he uses 30 to 40.

“Infinite Monkeys presented the rare opportunity to have a clean sheet of paper. No legacy teams or structures,” he says.

“With the advent of online project management tools and access to a huge talent pool, we could assemble a team with all the skills you could possibly need to build a company. We have staff literally spread across six continents. They are an incredible team that brings us a level of skills and cost-efficiency we could never get in the past,” says Shapiro.

Infinite Monkeys, launched in February 2012, grew out of Shapiro’s recognition that evolving technology was making mobile app development easier, just as it had with website design.

His site, a drop-and-drag app that requires no coding knowledge, operates on a freemium model and provides its professional app builder free to any 501(c)3 nonprofit group. Infinite Monkeys also donates 10 percent of every dollar earned to a foundation to save orangutans in Borneo.

Alice, his wife, also runs an oDesk team in support of the couple’s charity: Muskoka Foundation. The non-profit group works with a broad network of travelers who use their skills to teach workshops ranging from business to photography, at orphanages, children’s shelters and community centers around the world.

Although Shapiro’s home is in northern New Jersey, his preferred business address is “global nomad,” as he runs Infinite Monkeys from a laptop with no fixed address. Often it’s from his lake house in Canada, but occasionally it’s from his custom-built motor home — a carbon-neutral, heavily modified Ford F650 he calls the “EcoRoamer,” in which his family tours the world.

“If you had said to me three years ago that we could work this way, I would have said it would be impossible” he says.

Shapiro leverages oDesk’s tools and others, such as cloud storage, white-boarding, screen-sharing and video-conferencing.

Says Shapiro: “It doesn’t matter if a person is in the cubicle next to me or a couple of time zones away, we’re working together as a team. We’re really living the dream.”

Brought under one roof, Shapiro’s team would need about 4,000 square feet, plus support services and equipment — costs that could choke a startup launching in a conventional way.

“With a virtual organization, we don’t worry about the typical overhead because we don’t need all that space and equipment,” Shapiro says.

And having a global workforce can bring unexpected benefits.

For example, when Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast in late October, Shapiro lost power at his home for three days, but Infinite Monkeys never missed a minute of work.

“Because of the distributed nature of our team, the company just kept going, that’s pretty powerful.” he says.

Tom Opdyke is a B2B/B2C public relations and marketing thought leader specializing in branding for enterprise systems developers, financial services institutions and start-ups. He is a veteran print, broadcast and digital writer/editor, with more than three decades as a journalist. Also an actor and commercial voice talent, Tom has written two movie scripts (in option), contributed to an anthology of southern culture and written and voiced scores of regional commercials. He especially likes voicing video games and animated characters. When not otherwise occupied, Tom is a high school and college baseball umpire, public speaker and voice coach.

View the original article here

Published by Paul Coombes on December 7, 2012

As the title suggests, it’s been another impressive week of content produced by the Nokia community.

Driving across New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge, Johnny W. Lam took some stunning photographs of one of the United States’ oldest suspension bridges using a Lumia 920 camera.

Posted on his Twitter page, he also shows the outstanding picture clarity and light adjustment facilities in this picture of the historic Central Park, once again in the Big Apple City-in-the-North-Eastern-United-States.

This colourful and magnificently detailed image captured by Billy’s Lumia 920 is simply impeccable. The depth of paint colour and textile come to light brilliantly – you’d almost want to put your face in it.

 

Wasim from the T3CH Boys welcomes the Lumia 920's ‘really good’ feel in your hands, the ‘nice’ ability to customise the tile sizes and approves the ‘smooth’ running Internet Explorer 10 service. 

Impressed? I thought so. Have you taken a better image with your Nokia Lumia 920? Do you have a hands-on review of your own? Feel free to share your thoughts either here (or on Twitter).

[Image credit(s); Johnny W. Lam, Crystal Phuong & Billy]

View the original article here

If you’ve got an Xbox 360 and a Nokia Lumia, then downloading the Xbox SmartGlass app is a no-brainer. Xbox SmartGlass transforms your Nokia Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 into a controller for your Xbox, enabling you to interact with movie, music, and games content – right from your much loved smartphone. 

Xbox SmartGlass is all about helping you to extend the entertainment experience of the Xbox 360, by placing the power of the Xbox in your hands.

This companion enables you to delve into Xbox Music, Xbox Videos and Bing search, as well as browsing the Internet without having to touch your standard console controller. Connecting to your Xbox 360 much like your wireless controller does, there are no cables to entangle the experience.

To start with, the Xbox SmartGlass start screen displays what you’re currently doing on your Xbox 360 – just as a reminder, I guess. But beneath that, you’re presented with a list of things that you did on your Xbox – played a game or used Internet Explorer, for example. If you’re looking to interact, or play with one of those again, just tap the relevant icon. Otherwise, sliding the screen to the left or right will open up more options.

The discover panel presents you with a selection of featured movies, music and games titles. Selecting any one of these will allow you to dig deeper into the title, showing you details of the item.

If you’ve selected a game, you’ll be able to see if any of your (Xbox LIVE) friends have played the game, along with any achievements that are up for grabs. If it’s a downloadable game, you can then choose to download it to your console there and then.

Selecting a movie will bring up the synopsis, details on the cast and crew – of which are clickable, to show you other films they’ve starred in – and a related item section. There’s also a SmartGlass panel that contains a Video Guide. This guide displays information about a film as you’re watching it, springing to life when actors appear on screen, providing you with their filmography. Ultimately, it delivers a richer experience.

The SmartGlass panel also exists in any music title you’ve stumbled upon, but this contains the Xbox Music Experience. Much like the Video Guide above, it allows you to learn more about the artist that you’re listening to.

Offering tracks, games, or movies in the form of featured content is all well and good, but chances are you’ll want to search for something manually. Slide across again and you’ll reach the Bing search panel.

The great thing about this search function is that you can search by either the song/game/movie title, or by your favourite actor or singer. What you’ll be presented with is a long list of media items, all relating to what you typed in. Some may be songs, others may be games or films; just scroll down to discover new titles or find what it was you were looking for.

Xbox SmartGlass also acts as a trackpad when you’re using the new Internet Explorer that was added in this autumn’s dashboard update.

With Internet Explorer open on your Xbox, sliding your finger across your phone’s screen moves the cursor in exactly the same way on your Xbox – your finger becomes the cursor. Navigating the cursor to the address bar at the top will allow you to enter a URL, and to make things as simple as possible, Xbox SmartGlass launches a keyboard on your phone to allow you to enter in a URL from your Nokia Lumia.

When it comes to clicking on items or links, tap your phone screen to make that happen and zooming into webpages is possible by placing two fingers on the phone screen and pinching together – reverse that to zoom out.

What if you’re browsing the web on your Xbox and have to leave the house? Take that web page with you on your Nokia Lumia. Tap the icon at the bottom that resembles a phone with an arrow pointing to the screen and the webpage you were just looking at on the Xbox will be transferred over to your phone. You can now carry on where you left off, away from your Xbox and on your phone while you hop on a bus.

Xbox SmartGlass is free to download from the Windows Phone Store, so make sure you grab it today.

Do you use an Xbox 360 and Xbox SmartGlass? If so, tell us your experiences with it, using the comments section below.

View the original article here

Published by Tom Hall on December 10, 2012

 

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about the the new additions to the Nokia Lumia family and it’s time now to shine the spotlight on the Nokia Lumia 820. And why not?

Let’s start with the recent photoshoot where the Lumia 820 co-starred with some of the excellent Nokia accessories, all captured on the Nokia 808 PureView by Marc for the excellent Pureview Club. The Lumia 820 was captured during some down time away from the set, and graciously allowed Marc to snap a couple of candid shots.

 

**Update** Robert sent me a note on Twitter that he’s had a few things to say about the Lumia 820, and I had to include it in this post. He reckons that the phone delivers a

‘capable and compelling package’

and that it

‘performs like a champ’.

For futher in-depth coverage of the phone, I turned to Michael Fisher at pocketnow who (in response to his readers’ requests) has posted a cracking review of the Lumia 820:

My personal highlight from the video:

‘a thin, heavyweight device’

He’s talking about the feel in the hand, compared to the Nokia Lumia 920. Michael also promises more videos in the future covering build quality and how the phone fares as a ‘daily driver’, so keep an eye out for those on his YouTube channel.

Have you got your hands on a Nokia Lumia 820 yet? Taken any amazing pics either of it or with it? We’d love to see either, so drop them in the comments or tweet us.

View the original article here

 

In just two short weeks, many people around the world will be celebrating one of the most exciting times of the year – Christmas. For those of you that haven’t even started your Christmas shopping yet (that includes me) and don’t know where to start (again, me), we’ve gathered up a small handful of apps that might make this time easier for you.

As we all know, Santa Claus is coming to town and he’s making a list – which he’s checking twice. At times like this, that’s without doubt the best place to start.

Let’s start by creating a checklist.

Fortunately, there’s an app built right into your Nokia Lumia that’s perfect for the job and it’s called Office OneNote. You’ll find it within the Office Hub.

 

Think about who you need to buy for and write their names down in OneNote. Then, beneath each name, write the gifts you plan to purchase for them. Once you’ve done that, highlight the item and press the to do icon at the bottom – the one that looks like a box with a tick inside of it. Repeat this with all the items and you’ll have a fully workable checklist.

Press the pin icon at the bottom to have this sent to your Start Screen for easy access as you’ll probably refer to this a lot over the next couple of weeks.

Next up, a shopping app.

Amazon Mobile gives you access to one of the largest online retailers in the world. With this app installed you can browse products just like you would on a PC, but with a great extra feature.

 

When you’re out and about in the shops looking for a bargain, you’ll want to make sure you’re receiving the best deal possible. Loading the barcode scanner from within the app (which can be pinned directly to your Start screen for quicker access) lets you compare prices of the product you’ve seen in store with those online at Amazon. You can also read reviews of that product to see if you’re making a wise purchase, and check availability at Amazon, too.

Fear not, Amazon Mobile purchases are routed through secure servers, just as they are on the Web.

It’s probably time to head back to that OneNote checklist you made earlier, and tick off that jumper you’ve just purchased for uncle Tony. It only takes a few seconds to do that.

eBay is another great online site for picking up a bargain. While this isn’t a conventional online retailer – it’s an auction site – it does offer a never-ending list of items, sold by people just like you.

 

Because eBay users often sell old items they’ve once owned, it means that the cost of those items is considerably cheaper than those you’ll find in the shops. It also means that if you’re looking for something that’s not produced anymore, there’s a chance you’ll find somebody on eBay selling it.

It’s often a great place for people to re-sell gifts they’ve received, too. Like those dodgy slippers you’ll receive this year from granny. Sssh, don’t tell her, though. Always accept your gifts with a smile.

You can do all this without having to get up off the couch, and instead right on your Nokia Lumia.

One thing’s for sure, if you order something online, it’ll need to be delivered – that’s one of the benefits of Internet shopping. However, hoping it turns up on time can be a tedious task.

Whenever you order something online, you’ll receive a tracking number so that you can, well, track your order. Package Tracker supports over 60 carriers and enables you to follow the progress of your delivery, without having to visit the numerous websites you’ve purchased from.

 

Whenever your package reaches a new milestone, such as arrived at terminal, or delivered, you’ll automatically receive a notification telling you about it.

Bing Maps is used to show you the location of the package, so you’ll always know where it is in the world.

One way to cut the costs of gift, or food purchasing this season is to use vouchers. Many places accept vouchers, offering 2 for 1 deals or money off purchases. Vouchercloud delivers vouchers to your phone – in the UK – in a number of ways.

 

If you’re looking for something specific, you can use the search function to find a good deal. Alternatively, and this is probably the most useful when you’re in the shops looking for a deal, is the Near Me function.

Using the GPS in your phone, Vouchercloud will show the best deals around you.

Most deals will probably be 2 for 1 deals at local pizza joints. However, look a little closer and you’ll see money off vouchers for hardware stores, clothing stores and others.

But don’t waste those pizza vouchers – treat yourself after a busy day shopping.

There we have it, some ways to make shopping at Christmas a little easier by using your Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia Lumia 900, Nokia Lumia 920 and Nokia Lumia 820.

Do you have any tips for Christmas shopping that we didn’t think of? Let us know, in the comments below.

Image credit: FutUndBeidl

View the original article here

 

If you’re a sports fan then having a mobile phone is just as crucial as having a tennis racquet, some football boots or a cricket bat.

How else are you going to get live scores, fixture lists and the latest news?

My Nokia Asha 311 smartphone is the ideal device for these purposes and there are plenty of apps in the Nokia Store to satisfy the needs of any sports fan.

On your marks, get set, ready? Go!

 

This is the app formerly known as ESPNSoccernet, but if you were a fan of it previously then you can be rest assured that the name is all that’s changed.

This app still offers live football scores, fixtures, match stats and tables of all the major leagues around the world. In other words, this has all the vital information that a football fan will need. 

Sticking with football, there are a couple of other apps that you may want to try out. Live Scores (free) does what its name suggests and Goal News Launcher (free) brings all the stories from goal.com to your Asha device.

 

The sedate and charming world of cricket… The glorious sound of leather on willow! I love the tradition of clapping the batsman out as they walk to the wicket.

Cricket fans are well catered for in the Nokia Store. Cricket Companion 4.0 provides ball-by-ball coverage of matches, news, results and those all-important statistics.

There’s also Cricket Calling (free), which provides many of the same features and for something a little different I really liked Cricket Wicket (free), which provides the sound of tumbling wickets and the crowd cheering in the background. It’s a tremendous ringtone option.

 

Keen golfers will really appreciate this mScorecard app. It helps you keep track of your score while you are playing and even uses GPS to help you track your distance to the green?

Armchair fans of the sport may be interested in Golf App (free) which connects to feeds of the latest golf news and also has tips on how you can improve your game – should you ever feel inclined to have a ‘good walk spoiled’.

There also has be a honourable mention for Nokia Golf Tour 3D (free) an engrossing golf simulator where you can play alone (against the conditions, of course) or against an opponent. Lots of fun and great graphics too.

 

Fans of Formula 1 have a great choice of apps in the Nokia Store – and that’s not even including all the racing games.

F1 Confidential promises to offer insider gossip, news and pictures from the pit lanes. If you’re seeking something a bit more conventional then ESPNF1 (free) is probably a better bet.

This has commentary and summaries or faces, latest standings, driver profiles and everything else you could hope for. Along similar lines is F1 Live! Lite (free).

World of Red Bull (free) is not solely devoted to F1, as it also features many of the energy drinks’ other daredevil sports, but you may want to give it a spin nevertheless.

We know it’s impossible to cover every single sport and with any list there’s always a risk that your particular favourite may get left out! But, with a sharp intake of breath, here are some other notable apps for lovers of the following sports:

 

Rugby devotees may want to download Rugby App (free) for all the latest news in the world of the oval-shaped game.

Talking of oval shapes, gridiron fans, or American Football, if you insist, can stay up-to-date with NFL Scores (free).

If you prefer your motor racing to be done on two wheels rather than four, then you should check out MotoGP Superbikes (free) or World Superbikes (free).

Is wrestling a real sport? I would suggest not, but either way there’s aWWE (free) and WWE News for you to choose from.

And, finally, the prize for the most esoteric and exclusive sports app in the Nokia Store has to go to Polo Club (free). For all the latest news from the world of polo!

Top image credit: foxypar4

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Near Field Communication – or NFC as it’s commonly known – is a technology that’s been growing for a couple of years now. But what is it and why would you want to use it? 

What is NFC?

NFC is a short-range wireless technology that allows the exchange of data between devices. It only works with short distances of about four inches at the most, so you have to be very close to another NFC enabled device to transfer the data.

Looking back at Nokia’s NFC phone history, you can see that Nokia  has been active in trialling the use of NFC for a variety of use cases.

Here are some reasons to get excited about having NFC on your phone.

1. Leave your wallet at home. With the Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820, your smartphone has the ability to remember your credit/debit card details. At the moment, these details are stored in Wallet and can be referred to when you need to type in your card details, or also when making purchases from Windows Phone Store.

Additionally, the ability to tap your phone against an NFC-enabled point-of-sale terminal will be coming in the near future – you’ll then be able to ditch the real-world wallet for good and opt for a digital one.

2. If you’re out of town and staying in a hotel, your door keycard information could be stored on your phone, meaning you’ll never leave your hotel room again without the door key. While this isn’t immediately available, tests have already taken place in a chain of hotels by Nordic Choice Hotels showing that it’s a real possibility.

3. Use your phone as a pass for use on transport systems. Just swipe your phone across the NFC reader, like you do with already existing contactless travel cards. Contactless systems exist in the UK, Germany, China and all around the world.

4. Swapping business cards can be done virtually, easier and cheaper than it’s done now. Put two phones in close proximity with each other and let the phones do the transfer. You’ll never have to buy business cards again, as the data can be rewritten if needed when you change jobs, or change your number.

5. If you do a lot of browsing on your Lumia 920 or Lumia 820 and like to share those great webpages with your friends, you can now send and receive links via NFC.

When you’re on a website, selecting the More option will open up a few options. Select Share Page and then Tap+Send to start the link transfer when you’re phone is held against another NFC-enabled phone, or NFC-enabled Windows 8 PC.

6. Your loyalty is important for businesses and they usually offer a discount for returning customers.

In the future, loyalty cards could be thrown out and your details held on your phone. Buy those shoes you’ve had your eye on with a swipe of your phone. The store will also recognise your loyalty and give the discount.

7. Location aware apps could make use of this technology too. For example, users of Foursquare have to load up the app, find the location, and press the check-in button to check-in. However, there’s no reason that this can’t all be done using NFC.

Hold your phone to an NFC reader and let the system tell all your friends where you are.

8. Sending photos or videos to your friends or family is now made really simple, by using the Tap+Send feature on your Lumia 920 or Lumia 820. Selecting the Tap+Send option within an image or video will start the process – tapping your phone against another NFC-enabled phone will complete it.

That’s just eight ways NFC could be useful to you when you go about your daily routine. But I’m sure there are more ways to use this technology that we’ve not thought of. NFC is going to make lots of things much easier, leaving you with more time to do other, more important things.

How would you like to see NFC used? Will you be using NFC? Let us know your thoughts and ideas, in the comments box below.

Image credit: StockMonkeys.com

View the original article here

In my post last week about customising your Nokia Lumia’s dialler, I made the innocent point that it was not the most obvious part of the smartphone that you could produce apps for.

As I asked at the time, how can you improve on a numerical keypad?

My attitude sums up why there are bright young things out there creating apps and changing the world, while I am merely writing about how brilliant they are!

One of those bright young things is Cara Zheng, 25, of Guangzhou, China, who is part of a three-strong team who look after the highly-rated RapDialer app.

Cara, who works full-time as an accountant, has been involved with RapDialer since December 2011, when it was still just an idea inside the head of the chief designer James Yi.

Just a couple of months later it was available to download on the Windows Phone Marketplace, and Cara has been helping out ever since looking after operations, testing, customer service and much more. The third member of the team is designer Joe Zou.

Rapidly approaching its first anniversary, the app now has thousands of users in over 68 countries and is available in 12 languages – with three more to follow shortly.

I was particularly struck by how the team invites suggestions from users and asks volunteers to help them make RapDialer available in their local languages.

In an interview with Conversations, Cara spoke about the importance of user feedback, why Windows Phone 8 is a great opportunity for them and what’s to come in RapDialer v3.0.

When James had his first Windows Phone, he found it inconvenient because of the lack of a smart dialler. He was also unsatisfied with well-known dialler apps in iOS and Android.

Then he was inspired by the Windows Phone user interface and tried to make a powerful but simple and clear smart dialler with a new experience. The enthusiastic response from users proves it’s viable.

At the very beginning, when Windows Phone was still in its early stages, feedback focused on those things that we could not do because of Windows Phone restrictions.

However, with the gradual improvement and development of RapDialer, old users are maintained and new users come in. They start to offer new ideas they hope to have, and tell us how they feel when new features are added.

Three people in the RapDialer team cannot discover all the bugs, but users help us to discover and revise them. So users’ feedback is like a mirror; reflecting our good and bad points. 

We summarise suggestions from users and pick up the urgent and valuable ones. For example, users who are used to Blackberry phones, asked to have the 1-99 speed dial feature and some users asked for full-text search, so they could select items to display or be searched. These features were added and had a good response.

We have users from 68 countries and many warm-hearted users ask to be allowed to translate RapDialer into their mother language, simply because they use it every day and like it very much.

Most of them are fluent in English and are able to understand our app’s idea. Most importantly, many of them are developers, students, teachers, or have app translation experiences. 

This is an advantage in both costs saving and helping us broaden international markets.

The first version translation work is usually done with high quality but since our app is always developing and new features are added continually, the first translator may not be able to follow translation work promptly.

We may need to wait for a long time until they give feedback or ask another translator to do it. Overall, volunteers’ help is still a good way of working.

We spent lots of time finding a way to compile the same codes to WP7 and WP8 .xap files at the same time and we need to make adjustments on different behaviours in WP7 and WP8 for the same API.

We value intellectual property protection of our app but unfortunately, no free or cheap but reliable WP8 Code Obfuscation Tool is available, which temporarily stops us from publishing the WP8 version.

Also, we are in great need for WP8 devices to test, but currently they are expensive and not so easily obtained in China.

Yes, we believe customer growth will boom in the WP8 era, which is the greatest opportunity to us.

In v3.0, we will go further, to give RapDialer more the feel of being a toolkit instead of a simple dialler. For example, cool and quick switching between T9 keypad and QWERTY is coming, as well as function expansion in SMS.

Since we are also busy in our jobs at the end of the year, v3.0 expects to be published in the first half of 2013.

Image credit: King….

View the original article here

Published by Joel Willans on December 11, 2012

Audio speakers have come a long way since Ernst Siemens slapped a patent on the first loudspeaker back in 1877; US researchers have even used nanotechnology to turn cow bone and a stethoscope into a speaker system. Agricultural-medical mash-ups aside, let’s see what else has hit the shelves over the years.

Siemens (yeah, one of those Siemens) wasn’t the only audio buff polishing his patents in the early days of audio-tech; in the 1890s, Thomas Edison developed a diaphragm-and-stylus contraption that was used in the very first talking pictures, though not to any great success: it became known as the machine with the ‘Wee Small Voice.’ Hmm.

Early 1900s -Eglephone speakers

The amplification revolution kicked off with French cinema owners placing engineer Leon Gaumont‘s speakers behind the screen and carrying them back and forth as the action required. Dynamic! By 1919, Gaumont’s Eglephone speakers could amplify sound to a crowd of four thousand, equivalent to the capacity of London’s Brixton Academy. In the USA, a moving-coil loudspeaker known as the Magnavox was used by Woodrow Wilson in 1919 presidential address; rather than speak into a microphone, Wilson’s voice was picked up by two huge horns suspended over his head that routed his voice to the loudspeakers. The audience were able to hear him up to a mile away.

Between the World Wars, developments in audio speakers boomed, if you’ll excuse the pun: researchers like General Electric’s Rice and Kellog (sadly unaffiliated to the cereal empire) and Bell Laboratories Wente and Thuras hammered away at direct radiator and electrostatic speakers. All very technical, but by the mid-1930s, they’d come up with stereo sound. No point stopping there: in 1940, Walt Disney premiered Fantasound, a system that used three audio channels and 54 speakers, and by 1958, composer Edgar Varese was using 452 speakers in his Poeme Electronique. In the meantime, bookshelf speakers were being produced for the home market, and Victrola-style acoustic gramophones began to be replaced by tweeters and woofers.

From basic pocket radios to entire portable turntables with built-in speakers, the domestic market went mobile. In 1965, Philips released the first compact cassette tape, which used a low-fidelity monophonic speaker and retailed at about $325 in today’s money. The 1970s brought Dolby’s noise reduction technology and a new International Standard in noise reproduction. And today of course, we’ve got NFC and Bluetooth speakers, which can play music wirelessly from your  smartphones, while charging it.

We’ve sure come a long way since the days of the Wee Small Voice. But what does the future hold? Let us know your predictions in the comments below.

View the original article here

The best innovations in technology are often the ones that combine simplicity with a sprinkle of magic. Think about the first time you connected a device to WiFi or the first time you made a video call with Skype.

Our latest app for the Nokia Lumia 820 and Lumia 920, PhotoBeamer, offers a similarly amazing new experience for smartphone users.

Download PhotoBeamer
Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap VisionScan the QR codeTap on the link when it appears on the screenInstall the application from the Windows Phone Store

This is what happens. You install the app and use it to look at pictures in your gallery. As soon as you open a picture, you’re told to go to photobeamer.com in any web browser (not the one on your phone!).  

Point the phone camera at the QR code that appears on the website, tap it when it’s visible on the camera screen, and then the magic happens.

Your photos are automatically transmitted to the website and shown on the screen without another click. It’s the fastest and most adaptable way to show off your pictures we’ve seen.

Of course, behind the scenes, there’s quite a lot of complexity going on that’s required to allow things to happen so quickly and simply.

David Fredh, who joined Nokia as part of the recent acquisition of imaging know-how from Scalado, is the lead product manager behind the app. David explains: “We had two main aims for PhotoBeamer: to make sharing as simple as possible. But also to make it as fast as possible.”

The QR code is, of course, unique every time the site is opened, and as soon as you’ve scanned it, the app starts sending your pictures, caching them for fast performance as you scroll back and forth through a set.

Images are streamed progressively from the device to the target screen. Thanks to this optimisation of the data, PhotoBeamer can work even on a standard 3G connection, as well as 4G and WiFi.

Samuli Hänninen, who heads up Nokia’s imaging efforts, commented: “It’s great to see the first full delivery from our colleagues in the new Lund office, and a terrific product that reaffirms Nokia’s leadership in the imaging space.”

View the original article here

Published by Ian Delaney on November 12, 2012

As promised back in June, two of the world’s favourite social games, Draw Something and Words with Friends, are now available for all Nokia Lumia devices, whether running Windows Phone 7.5 or Windows Phone 8.

 

Download Words with Friends

 Download Draw Something

Press the Search button on your Nokia Lumia and then tap VisionScan the QR codeTap on the link when it appears on the screenInstall the application from the Windows Phone Marketplace

While the games are available for all Windows Phone users, lucky Nokia Lumia users will be able to download the apps for free, for the next two months.

Draw Something is a social drawing game. You’re given a word for your friends to guess, through the medium of a finger-drawn sketch on your Lumia’s screen. It can be played co-operatively with friends, or competitively with rivals. Features include push notifications and colour packs which turn simple doodles into rich masterpieces. So far, the hit game has produced 7bn drawings across the world, and now Lumia owners can join the fun. So start drawing and get your inner artist out!

Words with Friends is a social word game in which you challenge friends, or strangers, to create better words than you on a square grid. In-game chat messaging allows players to easily keep in touch. You are probably quite familiar with the basics of the format. But you get a triple-word score bonus for spelling ‘L-U-M-I-A’ (not really, we’re afraid).

There’s little more to say here. They’re great, world-famous games with millions of players. And they’re free for Nokia Lumia users only a limited time, so grab your copies now and let us know what you think of these titles in the comments.

View the original article here

Mapping and location-based services are integral to Nokia’s future and a key way that we stand out from the crowd.

Nokia’s commitment to building the leading location offering is demonstrated every day around the world in its rich set of location-based apps like Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport, Nokia Maps, Nokia Pulse and Nokia City Lens. Quite literally, Nokia helps people navigate their world. But this is only the tip of the iceberg: as a result of our acquisition of NAVTEQ and other mapping industry players, Nokia was the first to build the world’s most accurate and comprehensive global digital map by sending teams to verify every street in every city.

We can do more with our location heritage and mapping expertise, and go beyond a digital version of the paper map. Maps can be more than getting a person from point A to point B. They should bring places to life and inspire us to sense our world.

This is why today we are introducing HERE, the world’s first location cloud that delivers a location platform, location content and location apps across any screen and any operating system.

Just like digital cameras created possibilities that were unthinkable with analog photography, today’s digital mapping has amazing potential to grow into what we call computational cartography, the ability to produce maps on-demand and tailored to their actual use cases. Today’s digital maps are generic – i.e. always the same, irrespective of the content they visualize. We also believe that this game-changing evolution in mapmaking should be available to more businesses and more people around the world – it should expand beyond cars and beyond Nokia devices.

“Location based experiences need to evolve from an app-centric approach towards a holistic customer experience; consumers want services that are optimized for multi-mobile device use and available on demand, everywhere”, said Thilo Koslowski, VP and Lead Automotive Analyst, Gartner.

Nokia Lumia and HERE are naturally made for each other, providing the best location experience on a smartphone, but we aren’t reserving HERE just for Windows Phone. Instead, we are opening it up to all devices and operating systems to give everyone, with any type of device, the possibility to recognize and the ability to use the best location platform in the world. This openness is what sets HERE apart from other digital maps in the world. And with HERE, location will be an even more powerful differentiation for Nokia.

We’re making HERE Maps available for iOS in the Apple App Store as a HTML5-based app and introducing HERE Maps API for Android. We will also introduce HERE Maps for Firefox OS and we’ll continue working, together with Mozilla, to give people the best mapping experience on the OS.

We are introducing LiveSight, a technology based on a highly accurate, 3D map of the world, which provides the most precise and intuitive augmented reality experience. Nokia City Lens, developed exclusively for Nokia Lumia devices, is the first application using LiveSight.

Our industrial collection of data is about to leap a chasm with the planned acquisition of earthmine. earthmine offers a complete solution for collecting, processing, managing, and hosting 3D street level imagery.

So stay tuned. There is so much more to say in the coming hours and days and the long-term, and we’re looking forward to your continued feedback as we move ahead. You can also follow us on Twitter: @heremaps.

image credit (home page banner): Ken Ohyama

View the original article here

iOS, Android, Firefox OS: HERE is available everywhere – Nokia Conversations : the official Nokia bloghtml {background-repeat: no-repeat; -webkit-background-size: cover; -moz-background-size: cover; -o-background-size: cover; background-size: cover; height:100%;} .youtube_sc{background-color:#000;color:#fff;font-size:12px}.youtube_sc a{color:blue;text-decoration:underline}.youtube_sc,.youtube_sc img,.youtube_sc iframe,.youtube_sc object,.youtube_sc embed{max-width:100%;_width:100%}.youtube_sc.fluid{position:relative;height:0;padding-top:25px;padding-left:0;padding-right:0}.youtube_sc.fluid .inner.block{display:block}.youtube_sc.fluid .inner,.youtube_sc.fluid iframe.yp,.youtube_sc.fluid object.yp,.youtube_sc.fluid embed.yp{position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0;top:0}.youtube_sc.fluid.widescreen{padding-bottom:56.25%}.youtube_sc.fluid.fourthree{padding-bottom:75%} #wpadminbar{ display: block !important; } iOS, Android, Firefox OS: HERE is available everywhere

Published by Pino Bonetti on November 13, 2012

TweetToday’s announcement means that we’re bringing HERE to all devices and operating systems to give more people, with any type of device the ability to use the best location platform in the world. This openness is what sets HERE apart from other digital maps in the world. And with HERE, location will set Nokia apart.

Introducing HERE Maps for iOS

We’re making HERE Maps available in the Apple App Store: iOS users can more easily access our rich mapping experience with a single tap on their home screen. The app has been developed with the same HTML5 technology that powers the mobile web and is therefore very versatile and optimized for mobile use.

With HERE Maps for iOS you can get smart directions to navigate your way around town, whether you’re driving, walking or taking public transportation, so let’s have a closer look at all the features available.

What is HERE Maps for iOS?

With HERE Maps for iOS you can save an area to your device, so you can explore even without data coverage. You can save an area in advance and use it later at up to 4 different zoom levels.

Since you don’t walk on the same routes you drive, HERE Maps for iOS gives you dedicated voice guided turn-by-turn walk navigation that guides you along the best route for walking there: pedestrian routes, through parks, down alleyways, and more. With voice navigation, you will spend less time looking at your phone and more time enjoying getting there.

 

Because HERE Maps for iOS has been designed for urban use, the voice navigation only works for journeys on foot. However, there’s also public transportation and driving directions in over 500 cities and you can make transfers easily with detailed public transport connections. With live traffic information and incident notices, you know where the traffic is, so you can spend less time driving there and more time being there.

 

With HERE Maps for iOS you can organize favourite places by categories such as “Hip Bars” or “Cheap Eats” and sync them with HERE.com so you can build your personal map on the go and easily find them again.

For instance, you can add a place to your collections on your phone and post a review when you get home: wherever you are, you’re always in sync. This feature is very easy to use because you can sign-on with your Nokia or Facebook accounts.

 

On an iPad you can also see the top 25 places nearby at a glance: HERE Maps automatically displays up to 25 best places near you in a scroll window at the bottom of the screen. Simply tap a place and get all the details or scroll down and filter your results by category (shopping, going out, sights and more).

Whether you’re making plans for later or just want to share a great new find, HERE.com lets you share locations with just a tap, including how to get there, with a simple link sent over SMS, email, or social networks.

Introducing HERE Maps for Firefox OS

Because one of the main attributes of HERE is its openness, we’re also partnering with Mozilla to create new location experiences for Firefox OS. In the coming months, we will introduce HERE Maps for Firefox OS and we’ll continue working, together with Mozilla, to give people the best mapping experience on the OS.

One more thing… HERE Android API

HERE Maps for iOS and Firefox OS are not our only effort to give everyone the ability to use the best location platform in the world. Today, we’re also introducing HERE Maps API for Android, which will made available to partners in the next months.

In apps built with the HERE Android API, users will be able to interact with extruded 3D buildings, search for specific buildings and preview their routes in detail to more realistically show where they’re going.

To showcase what partners can offer when they build Android apps with our HERE API, we have prepared a reference app in the following video.

Disclaimer: this is not an actual app that we are releasing in the Google Play Store, it is just a reference app we have developed to showcase which features we are offering to partners for their location-based Android apps.

Follow us on Twitter: @heremaps.

Update

Because many of you are asking about it, we would like to express one more time that Nokia Lumia and HERE are naturally made for each other, providing the best location experience on a smartphone.
While the new brand is being rolled out, you can find here the latest exciting news about Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport and Nokia City Lens, which have been recently updated for Windows Phone 8. 

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Comments Björn

Someone make sense of it. Nokia will release a offline map app for iOS, Android & Firefox OS but no offline maps app for WP7.

mart

Being faithful doesn’t pay off.. How sad…

C38S

Have you tried it on iOS? It’s more of a feature showcase. The amount of offline data is not huge. Windows Phone Nokia Maps are infinitely more capable.

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Thank you @C38S:disqus indeed the offline capabilities you have on Windows Phone are much more advanced.
Not to mention turn-by-turn car navigation.

Auðunn Baldvinsson

There is no offline feature in Nokia Maps on WP7 devices like Lumia 800/900. This feature only exists in Nokia Drive in WP7, but not Nokia Maps. Why this is I simply cannot understand.
I also find it unbelievable that Nokia provide this function on IOS before its own Lumia devices.

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @google-63f0fcf92156c309977f081b99b76f34:disqus I believe we had this conversation before. Sadly on WP7 the offline feature is only available for one app at a time.
On iOS we do not offer a true offline experience but a map caching for a small area and only up to 4 zoom levels.

Auðunn Baldvinsson

Yes we have Pino, I think you can tell that I would really like those features in my lumia ;)

Prodigy1

Hi Pino, is Nokia Maps (and Nokia Drive etc.) still going to be Nokia-branded in Nokia’s phones? I think it would be a shame if everything gets rebranded as “HERE”, even if it is great to see that Nokia is utilising the Location possibilities better than ever. Thanks for the answer!

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @Prodigy1:disqus all the Nokia location-based apps are going to be eventually rebranded as HERE. Stay tuned to know when this is going to happen.

http://twitter.com/FakeSteveC Fake SteveC

Good news that HERE is characterised by its openness!

Can you tell us which open license the HERE map data is being released as?

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @twitter-37700132:disqus I think it’s clear here that we are talking about the availability of apps, platform and content. All these business pillars are available for licensing.

http://twitter.com/Nokia_AD Rajavelu

@haikus Pino: What happens to WP8? Let us know soon pls!!

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @twitter-271802651:disqus I think I answered all your questions on Twitter.
For completeness, I’m going to repeat that our location platform is part of Windows Phone 8 delivering the best location-based experiences on a smartphone.

TheDayWalker

Hi Pino, just had a question regarding Nokia Maps on Lumia phones. Are the maps gonna be fully intergrated into the OS? At the moment when you click on certain links in Bing etc it will open up Bing maps instead on Nokia Maps. Why would anyone wanna use Bing Maps when Nokia Maps is installed? This is crazy since you can’t even find Bing Maps in the app list. I know you have improved integration a bit in Windows phone 8 by providing links to open up Nokia Drive from Bing, but I think it’s really frustrating to have an OS that only half integrates Nokia Maps into the mapping experience. Is this gonna change or are Microsoft preventing you from allowing all map links to open Nokia Maps/Nokia Drive? If it is gonna change, any chance of a loose time frame? Thanks.

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @TheDayWalker:disqus what you call “Bing Maps” is the Windows Phone Maps app which is still powered by us. We are aware that the behavior described by you is not optimal but we are working on it.

Breakingillusions

did i read it correctly android ios and firefox os first microsoft and now nokia why Microsoft and Nokia supporting competitors :S

chancooluk

Yes this is true. Nothing was announced for Windows Phone. It looks like Nokia are only interested in enhancing the ecosystem of Lumia handsets, not WP as a whole.

Microsoft should just sell the OS to Nokia. It wouldn’t surprise me if HTC and Samsung bow-out of the Windows Phone game in the near future.

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @Breakingillusions:disqus @chancooluk:disqus please have a look at the previous blog posts too where we have announced advanced location experiences for Windows Phone. Take this one for example: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/10/31/frequently-asked-questions-maps-on-windows-phone-8/

http://www.maisonchaplin.blogspot.com/ Albert De Castro

If Samsung or HTC embraces the Windows Phone OS, more people will be able to discover this OS and maybe switch to Nokia Lumia in the future, as Windows Phone still doesn’t have a relevant market share.

akr

Returning my Nokia Lumia 920 and going back to iPhone. Any one give me a good reason to buy a Nokia Windows Phone anymore? This is as stupid on Nokia’s part as Microsoft releasing MS Office for iOS and Android next year. Why would any one bother buying MS Nokia phones if their core services that make them unique are made available on competing platform? Has Apple made iWorks,iBooks etc for Windoze. Learn something from Apple and Google. Nokia and Microsoft just dont get how to collaborate and make the platform succeed. Windows Phone 8 launch has been a joke. There were 3 separate events held and still they had no date on when the device would be available. ATT store employees have no clue about the Lumia range. MS stores have put the phones way in the back. MS Store employees carry iPhone and Android phones.. Someone kick Ballmer out of Microsoft and Elop from Nokia.

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @disqus_TydHndgJXC:disqus Nokia Lumia and HERE are naturally made for each other. With our location platform literally powering Windows Phone 8 we can deliver far more advanced location experiences than with just a dedicated app on other OS.

Rishi

That’s the difference dude. Now this giants are concentrating on compability issues.
Every device should support everything. And after that still you buying android or windows phone it’s victory.
I am also iphone user but still windows phones are better at some points like better UI, more connective , better hardware , NFC , wireless charging etc.

http://www.facebook.com/gmiguel83 Jorge Miguel

And someone should kick you out of this forum. Mr Elop is doing the best he can to get Nokia back on track and I think that he’s doing a great job. Give him some credit.

http://twitter.com/jussiwacklin Jussi Wacklin

And I thought OVI brand mistake would have taught us something. Well, let’s call it HERE then

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Let me clarify again that HERE is a brand that speaks for itself, it’s about location, very focused and with a clear mission of offering the best location-based services on any OS. I’m sure you can see the substantial difference.

LoyalNokiaFanboy

pino please can you tell me what benefit does nokia get by making HERE available for all OS???

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @loyalnokiafanboy:disqus have you read this yet? http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/11/13/here-the-next-generation-of-location-services/
In a nutshell, location services are a business and they are at the heart of Nokia’s strategy.
By extending the number of people who can access our services, the business grows.
On the other side, some of our services, like live traffic information, benefit from the number of people who use it: the more drivers we can anonymously track, the more precise these service get.

http://twitter.com/samonoise Luis Arturo Vargas

Wow, the phone in the video above is the best looking phone Ive seen in this site in years!!

Ztuka

Plan B, the beginning of it?
Please let Nokia Belle be true open source now.

Nokia Belle is close to perfection in many aspects..

http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

Nokia really is acting like Microsoft now. I was first told about this by someone who was GOING TO get a Lumia 920 to replace her aging BlackBerry. She’s now going to get an iPhone 5 because there’s NO ADVANTAGE (except UI) to going with Windows Phone. Microsoft is giving iOS and Android Office, Xbox Games, Xbox Music, Photosynth (they actually both had it BEFORE WP), etc. Now Nokia is giving them the best of mapping. Any killer feature/service/app that they come up with, they hand it over to the competition.

Is everyone at Nokia and Microsoft trying to gain fame as an MBA failure story?? I don’t mean to be so harsh, but it is frustrating trying to evangelize for an ecosystem and products that don’t seem to care about their OWN ecosystem and products.

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @twitter-12834332:disqus after all our discussions about Nokia’s location business I was hoping you to understand what we are doing here.
Please remember that our location platform is powering Windows Phone 8, this means a far more advanced location experience. We like to say that Nokia Lumia and HERE are made for each other because we can combine our expertise as hardware manufacturer and as mapping company.

http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

Hi @haikus:disqus – I am trying and trying, but I see so much of what makes Windows Phone a nice alternative to those other platforms GO to those other platforms. I am an active user and evangelical “switcher”, but the differentiating features are harder and harder to come by. Frankly, the camera tech is about all I have left.

I love the idea of more location power, but I wish some things were exclusive to Nokia…or at least Windows Phone. People on iOS and Android have almost no reason to switch or that is the perception. We WP users, on the other had have to constantly be reminded of the “app gap” while our killer features are being shared.

I’m among friends here so I’m airing out my frustrations. Speaking of which, can you PLEASE send some red Lumia’s to the Los Angeles area AT&T stores? I’ve been trying and trying and trying to get one. :)

Erkki Ruohtula

Really have to agree with you and others here with the same sentiment. Excellent mapping is (or was) one of Nokia’s key advantages for which it has paid very dearly to acquire. It should not be allowed to “leak” to competing platforms. The argument I heard elsewhere about more users improving quality makes sense only if you assume a priori there will never be enough Nokia users. In other words, already assuming you lose. Not a recipe for success.

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @twitter-12834332:disqus @google-9c54cead8ed6e87643c9f29238d672be:disqus I’m probably going to repeat myself but the location experience natively delivered by an OS like Windows Phone 8 will be always steps ahead. We also believe that in order for these services to evolve, they have to be available on all possible screens.

LoyalNokiaFanboy

“We also believe that in order for these services to evolve, they have to be available on all possible screens.” can you please justify this statement????

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

I have answered this question above http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/11/13/ios-android-firefox-os-here-is-available-everywhere/#comment-711977679

http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

@haikus:disqus – never mind about the phone, I was able to find a red Lumia 920, finally! :)

http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

@haikus:disqus We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. Whether or not the experience on WP8 is better, the perception is still that they can get our goods on Android and iOS and thus, they won’t be switching. :(

On my other topic, I hope you are hard at work getting me some red Lumia 920 supply in Los Angeles. I neeeeeeeeed my crimson caller!

http://twitter.com/gregstar5 Gregstar5

Your end is near Nokia rebranding again

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @twitter-435719103:disqus
you may find my reply http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/11/13/ios-android-firefox-os-here-is-available-everywhere/#comment-709604093 useful

Ztuka

Pino Bonetti
I salute you for being real helpful.
I think this is among the best conversation feedback from a Nokia Employee I have seen.
This website is called Conversations by Nokia and finally a employee that deliver some feedback with a heart that belong to Nokia.
It is not that common actually.
Be proud and fight on.
Yours sincerely
Ztuka

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Awww thank you @Ztuka:disqus , it’s a real pleasure to work with the loyal Nokia community!

http://twitter.com/slangeditorial Ben Scheim

@haikus:disqus is an awesome dude.

mS

This is a good sign. Respecting other platforms and utilizing their popularity.

Nokia Android phones in the horizon?

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @disqus_eF53JabZjS:disqus thanks for your support. However, please don’t speculate and consider that Nokia’s smartphone strategy is focused on Windows Phone.

alexben

Even this open application not available for Nokia 6110 (The first Navigator mobile by Nokia). There not a single reason left to buy NOKIA. They ditches software (Even their last OS windows 7), handsets… whenever they want, better go with android, at least they support their software with backward compatibility for quite some time.

derek jones

So I see support for WP, iOS and android yet nothing for symbian or meego. Support through 2016?

imfeezdammit

No response… Surprise surprise…

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @google-0d28634e8f9da858173233d23814187e:disqus @imfeezdammit:disqus please not that Symbian and Nokia N9 already have very mature versions of the Nokia Maps Suite. Additionally Nokia’s smartphone focus is about WIndows Phone since over one year.

imfeezdammit

So the thing about support until 2016 wasn’t really true? Anyway as a proud owner of 3 Symbian and a Meego handset, I’m not really that bothered. Maps isn’t the only ‘mature’ thing I have to brag about. Would’ve just been nice to be acknowledged every now and again by Nokia. Because thats what my phones are. Nokia inside and out. Not Microsoft, not Google, not Apple. Nokia.

http://twitter.com/capricotwi04 Caprico

Guys, forget it. Nokia doesn’t exist anymore. At least in the form of the company we used to appreciate it. Our Symbians and MeeGos – even if they’re still new phone – are relics of the good old Nokia times. Support isn’t there anymore, since the Finish company has been stroke down by the American Microsoft. Yes, MS-Nokia made fool out of loyal customers, ripped us of with expensive phones and lied to us whenever they could. Nokia doesn’t want their customers anymore – so feel free to switch to Android or iOS, what most Nokians did anyways by now (although I recommend to keep your MeeGo or Symbian).

What we experience now isn’t anymore the voice of Nokia, but Microsoft. What’s left is just a weak company, carrying a wonderful name.

So simply forget about “Nokia”, it’s not there anymore. We have to accept and let that new “mapping-service”-company do their thing and hope for them, what they do is right. And maybe we’ll even get such (really fantastic!) mapping service à la “HERE” for future phones with a Nokia soul (e.g Jolla).

derek jones

Well nokia sold me a symbian smartphone 3 months ago, nokia 808. So you’re saying I shouldn’t have bought it because you guys had no intention of supporting it? Give me all the money I paid for it back and I’ll gladly ship it back to you. First no hotspots support, then no nokia music, bye bye city lens, now no “here”. Thanks for making me feel like a valued customer.

C334S

I got heaps of software updates on my Symbian phone this year. Not just 1 major update like on iOS but several.

http://twitter.com/AnUtterTwonk Peter

The decision to hand out WP exclusive Nokia mapping services to other platforms aside, the real concern I have here is abandoning Nokia branding. Not only will these Nokias mapping strengths be given to Android and iOS (the single biggest thing we had to try lure people to the WP side , gone), these users wont even associate this superior mapping product to Nokia!! Both as a consumer and a Nokia investor, I am very very concerned about this decision, having given it a lot of thought and reading many responses here, I just don’t see that this is good for Nokia. I pray I’m wrong… :S

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @twitter-471065349:disqus we believe that this is the right decision for Nokia and for our location business and I’m sure you will soon find a way to agree with us ;-)

http://twitter.com/AnUtterTwonk Peter

The only way I can see this being a good idea if the Nokia brand is still somehow presented in-app and maybe even remind the user that the definitive Nokia/HERE experience is available on Lumia phones. Btw Pino, left some Nokia Maps feedback for you on the earthmine article.

http://www.hard-graft.net/ Prestwick

Hi Pino, this has to be a positive step for Nokia. The more that Nokia gets out there and chases the competition then the more that people will turn around and say “if their apps are this good then what are the phones like?”
I think its time to tone down the hysteria. These apps are either deliberately castrated to make sure Nokia’s own phones keep all the better features to themselves. Other versions aren’t anything new just a link to Nokia’s (admittedly impeccable) maps website. WP8 and Lumia isn’t going to lose out here.
I’m a Lumia 800 owner and the phone utilises Nokia maps and Nokia Drive so well. I’m looking forward to putting Drive to the test when we drive from Kent in England to the French Alps, hope your code is up to the test, Pino!!! ;-)
I really have to pat Pino and his team on the back for producing a top notch service which is a joy to use :-)

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Thank you for your positive feedback @prestwick:disqus ! It made my day ;-)

http://twitter.com/Hdrules Hradayesh

Nice and powerful maping alternative for ios and Android users, kudos to Nokia for this brave steps to become leader in location ecosystem

Nokia 701 owner

Seriously? It has support for Firefox OS but not Symbian?
I mean c’mon i’ve never even heard of Firefox OS!

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @nokia701owner:disqus HERE is also the new name for our location-based apps. On your Symbian smartphone you already have the Nokia Maps Suite.

http://www.geekchoice.com Dagmar Schneitz

So wait, you can use this map while walking as well as driving? I walk a lot, so this would be my app!

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @DagmarSchneitz:disqus you may use the app to get walk, car and public transportation directions.
The voice guided turn-by-turn navigation however is exclusive to pedestrian routes and I wouldn’t suggest you to use it while driving, you might end up on a footpath ;-)

http://www.facebook.com/spencer.caplin Spencer Caplin

Hi
Does this mean that Nokia will allow the HERE app on non nokia lumia Windows Phone 7/8 devices ?
Thanks
Spencer

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @facebook-100000679896708:disqus HERE is already powering the whole Windows Phone 8 ecosystem, albeit still branded as Nokia Location Platform.

Guest

Because many of you are asking about it, we would like to express one more time that Nokia Lumia and HERE are naturally made for each other, providing the best location experience on a smartphone.
While the new brand is being rolled out, you can find here the latest exciting news about Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport and Nokia City Lens, which have been recently updated for Windows Phone 8.

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Because many of you are asking about it, we would like to express one more time that Nokia Lumia and HERE are naturally made for each other, providing the best location experience on a smartphone.
Read more at: http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/11/13/here-the-next-generation-of-location-services/

While the new brand is being rolled out, you can find here below the latest exciting news about our location-based apps which have been recently updated for Windows Phone 8.

Nokia Maps: http://conversations.nokia.com/tag/nokia-maps/
Nokia Drive: http://conversations.nokia.com/tag/nokia-drive/
Nokia Transport: http://conversations.nokia.com/tag/nokia-transport/
Nokia City Lens: http://conversations.nokia.com/tag/nokia-city-lens/

http://twitter.com/PHATRS Ben Thomas

When will you create a iOS API? We have an app that uses maps extensively and need something better than Apple Maps.

David Mata Martins

Switch to Lumia (:

cheesevangelist

Let’s be honest – WP is killing Nokia, so I’m glad to see you’re finally getting out of Microsoft’s walled garden. Such a shame you didn’t go with Meego and it’s glorious swipe UI, but that’s old news.

Still, is there any chance of porting this to one of your own products – the Nokia N9? Its Nokia Maps app is ok, but loads rather slowly and has fewer features than the new ‘here’ app.

Gene Selfish

So as far as I understand, Here for iOS will support voice navigation only for walking routes, not for driving, correct?
If so, and considering also the other limitations i expect this app to have compared to the full fledged lumia experience, I think this is a very smart move on nokia’s part.
Not only will they get all the benefits of a map service potentially running on any smartphone on earth, they will also get a showcase of one of the biggest strengths of their phones on every major competitor’s systems.
Very smart.

David Mata Martins

Didn’t think of it that way… If they block a lot of the features presented in Lumia 920 is a good ideia (: But they just can’t be giving away all they have… They must be carefull (:

It’s like my winrar free-subscription time… 30 days right? (4 years and counting).
I’m a nokian and I still have my nokia 1600 since my xpressmusic was stolen… And I don’t want to see people not switching because their killer app is now available for all the others…

http://www.facebook.com/MichaelMain Michael Main

When will this be available? I don’t see it in Apple’s App store

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @facebook-1404705698:disqus we are waiting for the app to be approved in the store. As soon as this happens we will inform you. Make sure you follow @heremaps on Twitter

Ab

Nokia is doing EVERYTHING right at the moment. Maps and cameras are nokia’s strength. This is the start of nokia’s big comeback. Your CEO must have balls of steel approving this major aggressive move forward. Nokia is the new apple. I would very much like to meet him and ask him how he did it. I owned an iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S and I’m very much looking forward to my lumia 920 on order with Telstra. The maps look fantastic.

Prasenjit Bist

One more point guys maps is a serious business and Nokia please dont play the Symbian politics here by holding on great stuffs for WP and not giving them to iOS or android .. that will hurt ur reputation and brand

http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

Hey @haikus:disqus,

Could you guys do a story on shooting video with Windows Phone 8? I am trying to figure out how to have focus if I turn off the constant auto-focus. I find that it hunts to much and you see a surging in the frame. Do I have to find the focus with auto-focus and then turn it off??

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Good one, @twitter-12834332:disqus we will look into this.
You can also send your blog post suggestions on Twitter to @nokconv

Richard Morgans taxibeeper

tly developing a satnav that gives taxis&private hires fares called taxibeeper can you contact me with regards to using the here api

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

You have a good idea @richardmorganstaxibeeper:disqus you can find our developer offering at http://developer.here.net/

Richard Morgans taxibeeper

Thank you Pino,what I particularly like is the voice commands making it safer for a taxidriver reall,more satnav feel,so is the api free to developers ?

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Some functionalities are for free, others are part of a premium plan. All the infos are available at http://developer.here.net/web/guest/plans

Richard Morgans taxibeeper

thanks Pino

http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

Well, it’s been released for iOS and, in my opinion, makes WP and Nokia less of a switch threat. Thurrott writes today that HERE maps on iPhone are BETTER than on Nokia’s own Windows Phone. I might be missing something, but I still don’t see how giving away this app helps Nokia. There’s no revenue as the app is free and has no ads and it lessens any incentive for iFans to jump ship. They even have offline and voice. I know there are differences, but perception is important here.

Me: Nokia maps and navigation is awesome.
iFan: I know I have that not too. You still don’t have Instagram, right?

Ugh. The iOS–>WP app gap continues while the WP–>iOS app giveaway revs up.

*I can’t link to the article, but just Bing: “Thurrott Why is Nokia HERE For iPhone Better than Windows Phone Maps”

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @twitter-12834332:disqus
we have been discussing this topic long enough. Again, the two main reasons are two:
- Volume: more people use our maps = bigger business for Nokia
- Better services: e.g. traffic info are more accurate if more people contribute to them
I’m sure you can think about many other players who are using the same approach. This strategy shouldn’t come as a surprise.
I also disagree with the blog post by Thurrot, which is why I have posted there a long and thorough reply.

http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff Daly

Hi @haikus:disqus

I don’t mean to drag this on and I get the second part if the users are contributing to the traffic data a’la Waze, but the first part still confuses me. You aren’t charging for the app and there are no ads, right?

It doesn’t matter. I’m on Team Nokia and I am always trying to switch people and from my perspective, this made switching seem less attractive.

**off topic** in these threads, is there a way to be notified if someone responds?

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

I know you are a great supporter @twitter-12834332:disqus ;-) And do trust us, we know what we are doing. Of course some elements will be clearer in the future.
If you want to be notified, have a look into your DISQUS settings. Usually, if another user @-mention you (like I usually do), you should automatically get a notification.

http://twitter.com/daniloborg_es Danilo

So.. Why iOS has walk navigation while your Lumia line (7.x) don’t?

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

Hi @twitter-80123405:disqus I believe we are discussing this topic on Twitter too: it’s a limitation of the Windows Phone 7.x platform.

SVKNet

Why HERE is not available on “ALL” WP7 mobiles?

http://twitter.com/haikus Pino

We haven’t made any announcement regarding other WP7 phones yet.

SVKNet

So can Non-Nokia WP7 mobile owners expect to have Nokia HERE like iOS and Android?

mustapha

nokia i love you

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