AfterTheDotNet

Fitbit - Automatically Track Your Fitness and Sleep

 Fitbit is a device which tracks your fitness.

• Fitbit tracker is a small device that you can wear in your pocket, clip it to your pants, shirt, bra or to your wrist all day and it will track your activity you have done in a day.
• When the Fitbit tracker is  within 25 to 50 feet of a base station the data from your Fitbit tracker would be uploaded to the Fitbit website. You can view the data after logging in to the system.
• The data that Fitbit tracker will record is
  1. calories burnt,
  2. steps that you have taken,
  3. the amount of time you have slept (it also counts the hours of your REM sleep),
  4. the distance you have walked and
  5. the time taken to walk that distance.
• In your account on the Fitbit website you can setup goals for yourself which you can track.
• Fitbit tracker has a motion sensor which is similar to the Wii.
• According to the developers of Fitbit the tracker will “the Fitbit should be roughly 95-97% accurate for step counting.” which is very good.
• Fitbit tracker works with both Windows and Macs.
• Fitbit’s battery lasts you about 10 days when used regularly.
• Fitbit will be launched in December 2008 or January 2009.
• The price of Fitbit tracker is $99.
• You can preorder it here.

Pros

• The pros of Fitbit tracker are obvious – Keep track of your fitness.
• Monitor your sleep. Irregular sleep patterns can play havoc – ask me about it.
• Be more healthy and in control

Cons

• Though there are no specific cons of this device but for the sake of it I might say that too much monitoring might not be healthy. Changing your lifestyle because of minor changes is not recommended as it is not healthy.

Conclusion

If you do not take readings too strictly but use Fitbit to determine patterns the device is a must for everyone in this day and age. In the future though, since it is very small, I see Fitbit’s functionality being added to other devices like cell phones or mobile phones. Right now it is a sure winner.

Fitbit - Automatically Track Your Fitness and Sleep

Tags: gadget, geek, health, manage

Another avatar generator – FaceYourManga?

FaceYourManga allows you to create an Avatar for your self or your friends in an absolutely free, easy and quick way. Deciding which image to use

for your profiles on the web 2.0 services is tough. FaceYourManga generated avatar is a good option. It is promoted by Pixel Heads who are flash designers.

Some of the features are

• The plans to support different languages though right now it supports Italian and English.
• The website allows you to create an online version of yourself which is called an avatar.
• There are not many instructions but the interface is intuitive and usually you would be able to figure out what to do.
• The amount of customization that is allowed is what makes FaceYourManga different from other services. Some of the unique features that makes it exclusive are

• tattoos,
• piercings,
• jewelry and
• wild hair options

You can use the Avatar for

• Skype®,
• AIM®,
• Yahoo!® Messenger,
• ICQ®,
• MySpaceIM®
• mobile phone,
• Forum,
• Third party Chat applications and
• Your blog

FaceYourManga is completely free. However, you can customize your Avatar further for which you have to pay and the website uses PayPal for e-commerce.

Conclusion

Initially I thought that Face Your Manga is just another of those flash applications which one come across on the Internet. The Simpsons Movie Avatar Generator was a popular application till some time back. I was pleasantly surprised after I used the service and would recommend using it to create an Avatar. Avatars allows your contacts to associate with you as they have a visual representation. So give it a spin and this is what I created for myself.

Tags: avatar, online, web 2.0

Crowd computing with Tradevibes’s Startup exchange

If you are one of those who is interested in startups and also like to dabble in stocks or trade stocks then Startup exchange is for you.

Startup exchange, which is in alpha, is promoted by Tradevibes and is part of the Tradevibes website. Startup exchange is a virtual trading exchange where members trade stocks of tech startup companies. TradeVibes describes itself as the best way to discover, research and discuss hot (and not so hot) startup companies and Startup Exchange is one of the products that is offered by the users to maintain their interest in the core product.

Once you join the startup exchange you give 100,000 virtual dollars and you start

trading in stock of the tech startups trying to earn virtual money. The winners are declared every week and there are prizes for the highest earner (return) and for that member who has the highest net worth that week. The prizes are interesting ranging from a meeting with a tech entrepreneur to Wii.

Startup exchange is a good example of how crowd computing can be used to generate intelligence. In the case of Startup exchange crowd computing is used to predict the stock markets. The concept is interesting as Tradevibes uses this game to evaluate the value of the tech startups. In their own words “the prices of the companies in the exchange represent the community’s view on the valuations for these companies”. They hope to attract enough members so that they are able to predict the trends in the actual market.

There have been mixed reactions to the virtual exchange. If you want to explore more about Startup exchange then head to their blog which has more information.

Pros

• The members benefit as they can make some extra money while indulging in the favorite profession and also acquire knowledge. It is a good service to subscribe to for students of economics with particular interest in startups. 
• Virtual Exchange is also helpful to those who trade in stocks of tech startups in the ‘real’ world.
• Virtual Exchange is helpful to the Venture Capitalists.
• Virtual Exchange is helpful for technocrats to know what is ‘hot’.

Cons

• The amount of work the members do is not justified by the value of the awards though recognition is not measurable but then Virtual Exchange needs to get more popular as a service where one can find rock stars as far as tech startups is concerned.
• More tools and knowledge base would help the members in making Virtual Exchange better.

Conclusion

Virtual Exchange is a interesting service and will catch interest of users. A increase in incentives and a better knowledge base would go a long way in making the service a great one.

Tags: companies, computing, crowd, exchange, startup, technology, virtual

Use twitter to promote your website and blog

Twitter according to Wikipedia is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users (also known as twits) to send updates (otherwise known as tweets) which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Twitter was seen as a tool to update your friends, colleagues and family about what you were doing or where you were. It was heavily criticized by some as a time waster and a distraction until some smart guys came along and they started using this tool to build their personal reputation or brand, to promote their websites and their blogs and last but not least breaking news. These Twitter is used as a tool for networking and online relationship building.

Since I was new to Twitter I set out to explore how I can use Twitter to promote blogs and website. You might find a number of articles if you Google “Twitter promote blog website”and the thought of going through them is intimidating. However, I had heard so much about Twitter and its advantages that I went through those articles and posts over a span of two days and here I’m sharing the gist of my findings on how to use Twitter to promote your blog or website

Drive Traffic: By posting updates about your website or the blog you can drive traffic to your website. Since most of the followers you will have will be like minded people the traffic you create is useful traffic as chances are that the your followers on Twitter would be interested in the content you have linked in your tweet.

Make Business Contacts: Business contacts can be made using Twitter which might not be possible otherwise. Once you are following business contacts on Twitter you will remain up to date about their latest activities.

Establish Yourself as an Expert: If you are an expert in any area (and specially if you are an expert in a technical field) then Twitter is right place to establish yourself as one by answering queries of your followers.

Ask Questions: On a different angle, you can use Twitter to gain knowledge and become an expert in a field by asking questions to experts or people who are an authority on a particular subject.

Get Ideas for Blog Posts: By following the tweets of contacts or experts in a particular field you are bound to get some interesting ideas about topics of your blog posts.

Provide Live Coverage: Live updates on events can be provided through tweet. Recently the Worldwide Apple Developers Conference was covered live by some Twitter users one such user can be found at https://twitter.com/wwdc2008

Find and Share Resources: Last and not the least is that Twitter can be used to share and find resources for different fields as Twitter encourages  users to to share information.

However, one should be careful not to Tweet more than needed because too many updates in a day might upset some of your followers and it can get worse if someone officially complains about spamming. Therefore one has to ensure that when Twitter is used as a marketing tool one is not too direct about it and the updates should contain useful information which would be useful to your followers.

Problogger who is a respected blogger shares his process of using Twitter. Problogger sends an update whenever he posts on his blog and if there are quite a few comments on his first update then he follows it with another update giving feedback on the comments. Problogger uses Twitter in another innovative way where he asks his followers to let him know whether a particular post on his blog is worth Twittering or not and I’m sure he gets more responses on such queries than a regular update.

I would recommend adding Twitter to your online marketing resources and if you need tools to help you use Twitter then I recommend the tools listed on this page http://mashable.com/2007/09/29/twitter-toolbox/

Tags: blog, blogging, marketing, micro, online, personal, Twitter

Now movies staring you, your family and friends

Listening the NATN (Net@Nite) on the TWIT (This Week In Tech) I discovered a website called JibJab whose creators, Evan and Gregg, were interviewed on NATN.

Though the website is an old one I thought it was worthy of a mention as they were doing something futuristic. JibJab is a service that allows you to send customized greeting videos and images. The fact that you can star in the videos or images, even if you are not a ‘techie’, makes the service interesting and fun.

All the animations are done in flash. Initially JibJab started with political satires as themes for their videos and then added a sendable section in 2007 where they have animated greetings. The fact that you can customize the video makes the service interesting. Sendables are of two types – premium sendables which are available to those customers who sign up by paying a small fee (ranging from $0.50 and $3 depending upon the greeting card you choose) and general sendables which are available to anyone who signup for the free service.

There are some JibJab exclusive videos which feature rich people and the most famous one is the George Bush and Al Gore rap battle which was their earliest production. The best thing about the service is that it is easy to customize the videos.

The 35 member team is doing a commendable job and is one of the few companies that have lived through the dotcom crash. The sendable service is called JokeBox and can be accessed from the main JibJab website as well.

Strengths: easy to use, fun, creative and free

Weakness: If bandwidth is a constraint then the service will test your patience.

Tags: community, ecards, video

Market to MOMs with a web 2.0 company – Mom Central Consulting

If your product or service is targeted at mothers then Mom Central Consulting is the right service for you. Mom Central Consulting helps businesses to market to Moms. In simple words Mom Central Consulting is social media mom marketing firm.

Mom Central Consulting have deep, authentic Moms knowledge and experience to assist any business in marketing for moms with meaningful results. The marketing aspects that Moms Central Consulting assists on are

• Positioning and Brand Strategies
• Business Development & Strategic Alliances
• Marketing Communications
• Concept Development

Some of the tools or mediums that Mom Central Consulting uses are

• Word of mouth
• Sampling campaigns
• Drive traffic
• Sales promotion
• Coupon promotions and
• Real time events

Mom Central Consulting has a proven track record and you can get the list from there website at http://www.momcentralconsulting.com/

There is a special promotion on where if you register for their service you receive a promotional MOM Central Trend Report for free!

Tags: MOM central consulting

Sendible – The message sending manager

Sendible allows you to send messages to people by scheduling them in the future. There are multiple options for recipients. You can schedule a message to email addresses, phones via SMS, contacts in Facebook, contacts in MySpace and to your Twitter followers. One of the great features is that Sendible allows you to send international SMS free of charge.

Some of key uses of Sendible are

• Sendible lets you schedule messages to be sent in the future to various platforms like Email, SMS and social networking websites like Facebook or MySpace.
• You can manage all your contacts from one place as Sendible integrates with all major email providers like Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail and other major social networking websites.
• Create future reminders for yourself. Now that you can import your Facebook friends birthdays into Sendible calendar it is very easy to set up reminders for them and perhaps also schedule an email to them.
• Keep yourself informed about upcoming events. You can also subscribe to information and choose it to receive it in the medium you are likely to use the most eg. mobile, email or a social networking website.
• You can manage your outbox. You can get a bird’s eye view of what your future messages are and make changes if needed.
• Sendible.com allows you to create ad campaigns and have your ads appear in the messages our users are sending to their friends and customers.
• The latest update (June 30th 2008) allows you to update your Facebook status via Sendible.

Future additions

The following would be added soon

• support for other social networking websites like Friendster, Hi5, Orkut and Xing.
• Ability to update multiple services at one go. Right now one has to update different services one at a time.
• Ability to setup surveys in Sendible and invite people to take the survey from Sendible.
• Ability to set up events in Sendible and send invites from Sendible using different mediums.

AfterThe.Net analysis

Ease of use	Easy
Learning curve	Short
Version	Beta
Design	Average, intuitive and can be improved.
Pros	Very usable, can be used to add value can be used by everyone
Cons	lacks support for new social networks which I’m sure would be added in future
Competitors/Alternatives	Hellotxt Tweetlater Fuser
Recommendation on a scale of 10	5

Tags: email, future, manager, message, reminder, sms

RSS feeds on your instant messenger

If you are not using RSS feeds to get the latest posts on other blogs then this tool is not for you. If you use RSS feeds and find it painful to go to your RSS reader for new updates then this tool is for you.

IMfeeds is a tool which allows you to receive RSS feed updates in your IM (instant messenger). RSS feeds are updated every five minutes. Though there are other tools that are similar but the simplicity of the this tool makes it unique.

Signing up for IMfeeds is really easy.

• add IMfeeds to your contacts in the IM. If this is confusing then go the home page of IMfeeds.com and click on “get started”and the next page gives you an option of adding IMfeeds as your contact on Yahoo messenger,  MSN messenger, Google talk or AIM.
• Once added you send a message to IMfeeds which has the command ‘join’
• You receive a reply instantly with a link in it to confirm your account.
• The confirmation page asks you to choose a username, password and asks you to agree to the terms and conditions.
• Once your account is created you can add feeds to your IMfeeds account for which you want the updates to be sent to you.
  You can add the feeds by providing the feed address in your IMfeeds account on the IMfeeds website or you can send a command from your IM with ‘sub’ added to the RSS feed address. RSS feed address can be got by right clicking the orange icon on the website for who’s RSS feed you want to subscribe to.

You can unsubscribe by either manually deleting the feed in your IMfeeds account or by sending a message with ‘unsub’ in front  of the feed address you have subscribed to. IMfeeds also allows you to import OPML files that have been exported from other RSS readers.

IMfeeds also allows website owners to create their own badge which can be placed on their website which can be used by readers to start receiving website updates from IMfeeds by clicking on it.

IMfeeds does what it is supposed to do and if you are big fan of RSS feeds you will like it for sure.

Tags: IM, messenger, RSS feeds