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For those asking themselves what’s going on at GrandCentral, the “one number for life” service acquired by Google last year, today Google announces Vocito, a desktop UI for GrandCentral and, this time, for Mac users only.

It’s basically an apple script which integrates into Address Book or the popular launcher Quicksilver. In general, any application which supports the “tel:” URLs can be used with Vocito.

I installed it and as soon as I try to make a call from my Mac Address Book, I’m requested to insert my GrandCentral userid and password.  At that point, nothing happened (and no error messages), but it’s probably because I tried to call an italian number… The behavior should be the following: it calls my GC number and the remote number and connect them together.

I’ll check it out again to see how it really works. Finally something new from GrandCentral. You can download it at this link.

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Technorati Tags: Address Book, call, Google, GrandCentral, luca filigheddu, vocito

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This is what I’ve been waiting for since the release of version 1.5 of Gmail for mobile, the previous version that was completely unusable for me, as stated in this blog many times.

According to Google, many important improvements have been introduced in this new version, such as multiple account management or offline support (that is, create drafts even while no signal is available). In addition, users will experience an overall improvement in terms of performances, new shortcut keys and the ability to configure and use more than one gmail account.

This new version is available in 35 different languages for Blackberry and J2ME-based phones. I look forward to trying it out on my Nokia N95 and to compare it with the new Nokia Email, as I did already with the previous version.

UPDATE: after trying it out, I noticed the “refresh” button disappeared and now emails are automatically updated. Your mobile phone rings too, in order to notify new emails. Cool!

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Technorati Tags: gmail, gmail 2.0, Google, luca filigheddu, Mobile, Mobile phone

In the last couple of weeks I received a lot of friend’s requests on Facebook from people I’d never have thought could have joined Facebook. Schoolmates as well as old friends, many of them finally discovered Facebook and joined it. Moreover, the driver who led them to join was to stay in touch with people, new and old friends, colleagues, classmates, relatives.

This is a clear sign that something huge is happening and that there is no doubt Facebook is more and more going mainstream.  That said, I started looking at this phenomena from a different standpoint: is Facebook capable of behaving like an operating system? If you look, for example, at the new Facebook iPhone application, everything you need from an operating system is there: messaging, IM, applications, microblogging, presence, live feed, photos, videos…

In my opinion Facebook could potentially be used for 99% of your time as a central dashboard from which you perform any activity on your computer and your mobile phone, but there are five important features that are currently missing.

1) Address Book - I mean the ability to add people in your “Friend’s List” regardless of whether they are subscribed to Facebook or not.

2) Mail Client - Currently Facebook’s messaging service is rather poor and is not ready to become a fully functional mail client. What if Hotmail would be integrated into Facebook? After Live Search, another move to better integrate Facebook with Microsoft’s services.

3) Documents - If I were Facebook, I would buy a service for online documents management as Google did a couple of years ago with Writely which was the basis for Google Docs. This application, together with the powerful mail client mentioned above, would be a killer feature for me.

4) Web Browser - It would be great if I could open any web page from within Facebook itself, leveraging its powerful sharing capabilities. A wordpress/typepad/… blog editor? A Wordpress.com Facebook application is available already, but a similar app for personal wordpress installations is still missing.

5) Calendar/PIM - 30Boxes is already offering it and it seems users like it (about 24.000 monthly active users) even if it’s still a little percentage of the whole FB population.

What do you think? What should Facebook add to become a real operating system? Can we expect to see a new mobile phone “F1” sometime soon? I look forward to your comments.

Technorati Tags: facebook, Google, Google Docs, iphone, luca filigheddu, operating system, Web 2.0

Today I’m spending some time at the Plug&Play Expo in Sunnyvale and I have to say I’m impressed. There are almost 40 startups presenting and showcasing their services and products and some of them definitely rock. I mean, many services I’m coming across really solve a problem and add value to your internet experience as well as your “normal” life.

One of them is Cooliris. In a nutshell, they offer a plugin/extension for the most popular web browsers which let you get access to web content from any website and in particular for those containing rich multimedia content in a very effective and way.

They basically provide you a 3D view of the content that you can browse and manage very easily. You can also share it by email simply by a drag an drop.

In the example below, I just made as search “san francisco” on SmugMug. CoolIris immediately provided me with the results of the search in a unique 3D interface through which I can browse photos, share them or jump to the original web address.

You can also switch to a filmstrip view similar to that provide by Adobe LightRoom.

Major serach engines are available, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Photobucket, Amazon, Flickr, Smugmug. Down here the same search (”san francisco”) with YouTube. As a result, I get all the videos related to that keyword.

If your website is “cooliris enabled” your visitors will be able to see your content in a very attractive and easy-to-use way. A Wordpress plugin is available too, you can can choose what content you want to show to your blog readers by setting up a stunning slideshow available from your blog.

There is much, much more and I highly recommend to try it out. Really a great service which makes browsing a complete new experience. Kudos to Cooliris for this wonderful and very useful application.

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Technorati Tags: browsing, cooliris, facebook, Flickr, Google, luca filigheddu, Photobucket, Search, smugmug, yahoo, YouTube

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Here at Mobilize Steve Lee, Project Manager at Google and responsible for Google Maps for mobile, just revealed that when users have the ability to get their current position either by a GPS-enabled device or through the data network, the usage of the application doubles.

He said this happens especially when people search for a route to get to somewhere, since they don’t have to waste (about) 1 minute to insert their current position manually. This is an important point, since mobile applications must all be about simplicity given that when we are on the go, we are usually  rushing, in our car or, in general, with very limited time, and even one minute is very important.

Google is working hard in this space and yesterday they just announced a new version of Google Maps featuring Street View and Walking Directions, the latter being something I was always looking for. Here is a video.

Again, the main problem any application like Google Maps faces is battery life. Those apps are the future but there’s still a lot of work to be done in the field of power management and the challenge is to make batteries last at least 15 to 20 hours even with an intensive usage of the device, so that device can be recharged over night. What do you think?

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Technorati Tags: Android, Google, Google Maps, Google Street View, luca filigheddu, Mobile, Mobile phone, mobilize, Street View, Walking Directions

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During ITExpo I had a very interesting chat with John Nahm, CEO of PhoneVite. John and his partners are former managers of Dialpad, the company sold to Yahoo a few years ago. It seems Dialpad has been a great source of bright minds in VoIP, since also Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, co-founders of Dialpad, sold their latest service GrandCentral to Google a couple of months ago.

That said, John showed me how PhoneVite works and I was really impressed. It’s very simple, but the number of potential applications for that service is huge. Birthday reminders, alarms, alerts and so on. In the web version, you can create your “phonevite” very easily, select a group of recipients, then you get a call from the system through which you can record your message from your phone on the fly.

Another way to create a “phonevite” is straight from your phone (PhoneVite To Go) through a dial in number without the need of using the web version. This is very useful since certain types of professionals who are working on field (think of firemen or doctors, for example) can quickly send an instant alert to a big group of people.

Last but not least, they have a widget for Facebook or iGoogle to make the creation of a phonevite even easier.

The first time you sign up you have to perform a process to verify your phone number. This way any outgoing call will be made showing your caller ID, something which will make any call familiar for your recipients. It’s also useful to authenticate you when using the PhoneVite To Go service.

John mentioned some interesting ways to use this service. Think of a call from your son’s school informing you that your son is not really attening the class today… Think of a call which starts automatically as the lesson starts… Bad for your son! He also told me that recipients can give their feedback on whether or not a certain call was appropriate, a good way to discover suspicious usages of the service (that is disturbing marketing calls)

Up to 25 calls, PhoneVite is free, then you pay 0,05 per call (no per minute charges are applied), for US and Canada users only. Then they offer some very cheap packages, shown below:

In conclusion, another services aimed to solve a well defined set of problems instead of using VoIP to make cheap calls only. There are many ways to use VoIP effectively and PhoneVite is definitely one of them. I bet some big names will look at PhoneVite carefully very soon. Prediction? Why not an integration with GrandCentral so that former collegues can finally work together again?

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Technorati Tags: alerts, Craig Walker, Google, GrandCentral, John Nahm, luca filigheddu, phonevite, Vincent Paquet

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If you want to get the latest news and keep an eye on the new trends of next generation mobile applications and services, the Mobilize ‘08 conference is an event you can’t miss.

Mobilize ‘08, organized by Om Malik & the GigaOm team, is an event focused on next generation applications for mobile devices, with a special attention to everything in the space of mobile web.

Mobilize will explore the advancements driving the development of the mobile web as well as the implications and opportunities, for both entrepreneurs and their investors. Indeed, despite big plans and visions, the promise of the mobile web—and a truly untethered Internet—has not yet been realized.

The speakers’ list is impressive, ranging from the co-founder of Google Android to the CTO of Cisco System. The topics to be discussed at the conference are the hottest you can find both in terms of innovation and business in the mobile world:

• Next Generation Networks, Handsets and Chipsets
• Rethinking Products in the Age of Hyper-connectivity
• The Economics of Mobile Development Platforms
• LTE or WiMAX: Which One Owns the Future?
• Mobile Browsers
• Location-Based Services
• Emerging Mobile Business and Revenue Patterns
• Mobile Investment Trends

Moreover, many new companies will be launching their products at the conference during a special LaunchPad session. Among the others, Pinch Media, a company which claims to help iPhone developers to grow and track their business, and Fonolo, a service launched during eComm ‘08 which promises to announce a new hot new application during the show.

Mobilize ‘08 will take place in San Francisco on Sept 18th at the Mission Bay Conference Center. I should be around during these days so I’ll do my best to make it.

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Technorati Tags: Android, conference, gigaom, Google, luca filigheddu, Mobile Web, mobilize, om malik