Tim Howell’s Weblog

Microsoft Outlook is much maligned in the technical community, with critics lamenting its occasional lack of robustness and its variable performance.

The undeniable fact is that most information workers use Outlook. The product is installed on 350 million desktops worldwide, and represents a fertile market for third parties who can take advantages of its weaknesses to add value. Where there’s weakness, there’s always opportunity.

In the past few days, there have been a couple of developments that have really added to my Outlook experience:

• Xobni has been made available to a broader beta community. With all the recent discussion about the “social graph,:” Xobni (which is “inbox” spelt backwards) acknowledges that there is a significant amount of this data contained within email: the people you send email to are often those with whom you have a close relationship, more so than many “friends” you may attract in Facebook or elsewhere. Xobni makes it easy to make the most of these relationships, analysing the messages to pull out contact information, email messages and documents relating to an email address/contact. Very nicely done, without a performance hit.
• NewsGator also announced its entire range of RSS readers are free. I used NewsGator’s Outlook reader years ago when there were few options around. For a period I also used FeedDemon, but gave up because it was sometimes less than stable. Now these clients are both free and updated. And, as an aside, this is a fantastic strategic move by NewsGator who can use their client products to drive interest and use of their enterprise RSS offerings.

Lastly, I’d be remiss to not mention the Outlook support we provide at ActionThis. We’ve supported Outlook 2007 since launch, and quietly released our Outlook 2003 client at the end of 2007. If you’re looking for a service to help you get more things done, that works the way you do, then look at our free trial.

Last week, Google announced an update to its mobile mapping software which, in addition to providing maps, also provided the user’s location – without the need for GPS.

Enthusiastically, I installed the software on my iMate JasJam and showed colleagues our location, even though it was working to a range of +/- 1700 metres. Fantastic.

Next day: It couldn’t locate me. And I’ve not been able to get it going since.

There’s a bunch of speculation as to how this service works, all of which essentially require the cellular network to provide some data. There was talk of Google having arrangements with networks to make this data available, but there’s been no confirmation if that’s the case, especially here in New Zealand.

To me, it appears that Vodafone was allowing this data to be transmitted/received and then turned it off – for whatever reason.

Has anyone else used the latest Google Map application on their mobile device, and have you been able to get location information? Any other thoughts as to how this works?

UPDATE: This service still works, although it’s variable.

After a four year journey, I’m moving on from Quest; a journey which began when we started AfterMail in 2003. Quest has been a great company to work for, but there comes a time where it’s time to try new challenges - this is my time.

When AfterMail was born, we were confident that we were creating a technologically innovative solution to solve the email management problems facing most organisations. As a start-up, with a great team of people, we were able to develop a product, a customer base and a market presence through a lot of skill, hard work and - dare I say it - luck, culminating in the sale to Quest in early 2006.

Quest has continued that momentum, combining the strength of our technology with its global sales and marketing organisations. The underlying product technology of Archive Manager (which AfterMail is now called) is still a differentiator, and will be leveraged even further in the years to come to deliver some compelling features. I will continue to watch the company’s progress with interest, and want to thank everyone with whom I’ve worked - it’s been a great ride.

As for the new challenge, I’m joining Intergen to help launch ActionThis, an innovative service designed to help end users and managers get things done. Success is all about execution, and there are few products which drive this while working in conjunction with everyday tools. More will be revealed in the coming months, but sign up here for the beta if you want more information.

There has been lots of discussion and debate around our need for faster broadband, better network infrastructure and a more open and competitive market (not to mention who should make the required investments).

Many proponents are arguing that by having faster broadband, we New Zealanders will have improved access to overseas markets and be able to access, market and sell ourselves and our products to the world. 

Surely this is only one benefit of improved infrastructure?

Why not take a broader view, looking at what else would be possible by having a more robust and better performing network infrastructure. Such infrastructure is an enabler for more than online applications and services.

Quoting Paul Budde:

“These commentators are missing the point – that the need for new infrastructure has little to do with high-speed Internet access – that the major usage of this new infrastructure will be to deliver healthcare services such as video monitoring of patients at home, remote healthcare for aged people, education services, smart energy meters, allowing home owners to monitor and better manage their energy usages, e-government services and so on.

A mindshift is necessary in relation to the use of this infrastructure. It should be looked at from a social welfare and economic benefit viewpoint, rather than the present discussion about how fast our Internet access or video downloads need to be.”

These arguments don’t contradict what’s being sought by many people; rather, they provide further justification for what’s being discussed.

After yesterday’s euphoria (and it wasn’t just you, Rod), everyone’s had time to think about the iPhone and its Achilles heels. Like most people, my initial reaction was “I want one,” but now I’m having to think twice - lucky I’ve got 12+ months to think about it before it arrives here in New Zealand.

Key weaknesses or unknowns for me are:

• Limited battery life (up to 5 hours) which is not great for serious usage or for when you want to watch video on a long plane ride and then use the phone. Why isn’t there a way to replace the battery?
• The robustness of the touchscreen is unknown. If the phone is used as an everyday device, how beat up with the screen get? I carry my Blackberry in my pocket and it’s stood up to a lot of wear and tear.
• What the device doesn’t have: 3G, slot for expandable memory, Wifi syncing, ability to swap batteries etc.
• No support for native Exchange or Office, which will limit its market for those of us who need this for business - not that this is Apple’s target market.

Paul Kedrosky and Scoble elaborate further, and these are indicative of other comments I’ve seen.

No doubt we’ll ignore these weaknesses given the sexy looks and interaction model, plus the increased forgiveness we have for anything carrying the Apple brand, although it cannot be disputed this is a revolutionary device.

The Venice Project is the next venture from Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, serial entrepreneurs and founders of Kazaa and Skype. The Venice Project, as it’s known, is a venture for distributing TV and other types of video over the Web, with the intention of disrupting media in a similar way to how Skype disrupted the telco space.

More coverage is available at GigaOm, amongst others, but I’ve just received my beta invite and will be trying it out soon. Let me know if you want an invite when they become available.

Recognizing that they are more than a computer company, Apple’s changed its name to Apple Inc.

Way more interesting, though, and inevitably something that will be covered in blogs and in the press for weeks, were its iPhone and Apple TV announcements, proving once again that Apple is thinking different - and thinking big - when it comes to consumer electronics.

More revolutionary to be is the iPhone which, at less than half an inch thick, the doesn’t use a keyboard or a phone keypad for interaction, instead using a touchscreen to access a broad set of features including making phone calls, watching videos, listening to music, surfing the Web and checking e-mail.

I really like the way in which the device appears to “switch” between roles when you’re listening to a phone call, emailing someone and listening to music, although time will tell whether a multipurpose device such as this will succeed against more specialist devices. It sure gives the Zune a run for its money, though.

Also, the way in which you can flip between contacts and things like album art, using the tip of your finger, sounds like a really interesting approach to interaction - can’t wait to try it.

While FCC approval is now being sought, the release timeframes indicate a midyear 2007 release for the US, through to an early 2008 release in Asia. Cingular is the telco they’ve partnered with, and the partnership appears exclusive for the short-term at least. Presumably this means the devices are locked down, preventing their use elsewhere. I guess that means a release is 12-18 months away here in New Zealand.

Nevertheless, Apple had to impress at this year’s Macworld to distract from their recent options issues, and with the iPhone and Apple TV, they surely have.

Congratulations to my brother and the team at StarNow, featured in this month’s issue of Idealog magazine as part of a broader look at the software innovation that’s happening in Wellington. Like many start-ups in this city, they’re on the lookout for people at the moment - if you’re a good .NET developer, drop them a line.

Last night, a member of the family won the Dyson Product Design Award, which aim to reward a new generation of emerging Kiwi designers with product design ideas that best demonstrate innovative and inspiring solutions to everyday problems.

In this case the award is for an intravenous pump that is more portable and flexible than other IV drips, amongst numerous other benefits. From an article written before the award was given, Matt has “designed a lightweight device that pumps in the medication or fluids while transmitting blood analysis data back to a monitoring station every two hours - enabling recovering patients to leave hospital perhaps four days earlier to recuperate in the comfort of their own home.“

Another great example of Kiwi technology being recognized, and with potential to achieve significant global success.

Quest Archive Manager - formerly known as AfterMail - won an award at TechEd in Boston last week, providing further recognition for our team.

What’s more, this was an award voted for by peers, which makes it even more special: attendees at the show voted Archive Manager as ‘Best Exchange Product’.

Rod’s also commented on the award - it’s been a great three years.