MobileMe Could Make Me a Convert

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I honestly haven’t been paying that much attention. As we develop FastFigures as a web-based service rather than a native application, it has taken a lot of the pressure off when it comes to the hardware. What’s new and what’s different about the hardware gets munched down to a “what changed in the browser?” question instead.

So I wasn’t paying great attention to the iPhone announcements yesterday. But something did catch my eye: the announcement of MobileMe.

Here’s the bottom line: sort, search, modify, create and move contacts, calendars and emails and they show up on all your computers — Mac, Windows, web and iPhone — at the same time with all the same information without synchronizing anything. If you are familiar, this is what Exchange does in the enterprise. Of course, most of us aren’t in the enterprise so Exchange does us no good.

I have been dying for this solution. I love the web-based calendaring and emailing coupled with auto-sync locally. For my money, I could even care less if it shows up locally – just give me the web tools.

Apple’s price is $100 per year for a single person or $150 per year for a family of 4, basically $8 to $12 per month. It also comes with a place to store data files and photos.

There are shortcomings at this point, from what I could tell. What happened to Task syncing and notepad syncing, for instance? For that matter, what happened to tasks altogether? I still don’t see a Tasks application with the iPhone and nothing in the screen shots indicated it was integrated with the calendar, which is where it should be anyway.

So would MobileMe get me to switch to AT&T and buy an iPhone? It gets me closer. Fix the task list issues and it would make me reconsider.

Introducing FastFigures, Web-based Calculation and Reporting

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This week Infinity Softworks officially rolled out FastFigures. FastFigures, a web service, is designed for professionals and students who perform calculations and share results with clients and colleagues. It combines our powerOne software calculator experience with customized, sharable reports and the Internet for access anywhere.

Some features we are most excited about:

  • The template format we invented works really well for what-if analysis. So we didn’t change it. Calculation templates show all the data at the same time, offering the ability to calculate different variables easily. For instance, if I want to know my monthly payment on a house, I calculate that variable in the Mortgage template. If I want to know how much house I can afford with a different monthly payment, I can calculate that in the same template.
  • Easily add your own templates. Although we are constantly creating calculation templates that are designed for real estate, financial and investment services, construction, math, science and engineering, you are welcome to create your own. You can even choose to share them or keep them private. Creating a template is easy and can include all kinds of data types — real numbers, fractions, tables, lists, dates and more — and be built with hundreds of pre-created functions.
  • Access FastFigures from your desktop, laptop or smartphone. We designed both a “standard” version of the site and a mobile version. It works really well with Windows and Macintosh, iPhone and iPod Touch, Windows Mobile devices, Palm Treo, Centro and T|X, and BlackBerry smartphones.
  • Save your data. For years we have been asked to save the calculations so our customers can keep a record for instant recall and calculation comparison. Not only do we save the last calculation, but we also keep a history of calculations for you as well, all of which can be recalled from both computer and smartphone.
  • Share a report. This is my favorite. Saving the data also generates a professional report, which can be shared with clients and colleagues. No waiting! The report can be created right in the field or at your desk so your client’s have it instantly and you don’t have to add “create report” to your to-do list! And better yet, the report can be customized. Pick different layouts, add your own logo, contact information, and even change the image.

We’ve designed FastFigures to be fast, fun, simple and easy. And best of all, it’s free during beta. I hope you’ll give it a try.

Please visit FastFigures from your desktop or laptop computer:

http://www.fastfigures.com

Or visit FastFigures from your smartphone:

http://mobile.fastfigures.com

Financial Discovery

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Over the past couple of weeks, I have been asked to compile a couple of presentations here in Portland. I thought I would share those with you.

As those who know me know, I have extensive background in creating and preparing financials for both investor readiness and day-to-day corporate use. I learned a lot in college (I have an undergraduate degree in accounting and a master’s in management), have done it for Infinity Softworks since 1997 and helped numerous other companies do the same.

The first presentation, delivered to the Oregon Entrepreneur’s Network, focuses on the fundamentals of financial statements and how to prepare financial projections. Please feel free to review that presentation here:

The second was delivered to OTBC Technology Incubator, which Infinity Softworks resides at and I am an advisor. This presentation delved into an investor’s perspective of those financials, what an investor is looking for, and what it says about the preparer. Please feel free to review that presentation here:

Please feel free to contact me via About Me if you have questions or need help.

iPhone v. BlackBerry: Which to Choose?

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All I heard for a while was predictions for the death of the BlackBerry. And then everyone around me said you can’t get third-party apps for the iPhone. When you can, then the BlackBerry will be dead. Then the iPhone SDK was announced and the death watch of the BlackBerry started again.

Personally, I don’t see it for two main reasons. Here’s why:

1. IT Departments. At big companies across the country, IT departments love the BlackBerry. RIM’s secret sauce, as I learned last year at the BlackBerry Wireless Enterprise Symposium, is not so much the device but instead its ultra-cool server software that lets IT professionals control those pesky little devices. BlackBerry Enterprise Server doesn’t just control the interchange with Microsoft Exchange and other email systems. In addition, it gives the IT department complete control over those devices. There are hundreds of pre-canned permissions and the ability to generate more.

In the enterprise, RIM is the leader — Apple is playing catch-up — so RIM doesn’t have to develop ultra-cool, innovative devices. All market leaders have to do is generally keep up with the joneses and they will keep the market. And that’s what RIM continues to do, its latest being the BlackBerry Bold just announced last week. Improved layout, check. Improved browsing, check. Wifi, check. A handful of other things people have been dying for, check. Good enough to keep Apple off our rears in the enterprise, check.

2. Email. The second reason is a usability issue. I have not used an iPhone but I have used an iPod Touch. The browser and interface are top-notch, way above and beyond what anyone else has done. But where the device falls short is when it comes to typing anything. It’s horrible. So the market splits: are you an email and texting and calendar and tasks person? Or are you a browsing and music and YouTube person? If you fall into the former, like me, then BlackBerry does it since I am primarily email and secondarily browsing. If you prefer gaming and entertainment, the latter is for you.

So in my mind, BlackBerry isn’t dead in the consumer market, either. It all comes down to taste. But what is clear — and to me has been for the past year — is that it is a two-horse race. The likes of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Palm’s operating system and Symbian — at least here in the States as it is dominant in Europe — are also rans.

Seeing Bubbles

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We have put two bubbles behind us over the last seven years, the web/tech bubble that took out both Internet 1.0 and set mobile computing back five years, and real estate/easy capital bubble that sent all our house prices into the tank.

But we are an irrationally exuberant society. So in its place must form a new bubble, a new fad, if you will. And while I am not particularly happy about identifying this one, as I think it’s a very good thing, it is starting to feel like a bubble.

What bubble, you ask? Well, this one’s a color… green.

The green movement bubble is starting to get out of hand. There are funds developing simply for green technology. There are retail stores devoted only to green products. There are companies popping up everywhere to take advantage of your guilt.

To be honest, this one makes me sad. It has been a long time coming that we, as a country, focused on sustainable living. I have been saying for years that our priorities around gasoline consumption should be considered a national security threat and we should be funding a move off that standard. When I was in college 12 years ago I wrote a paper saying $3/gallon gasoline would be the tipping point. I was close. It looks like $4/gallon will be it (12 years of inflation?).

But retail stores? How do you compete when everyone else has green clothing in their stores, too? And tech funds devoted to planting trees for every mile driven all funded out of personal guilt? I think it’s difficult to sustain.

Don’t get me wrong — it will be a good ride for a while. And great things will come of it. The tech bubble ushered in an era that made shopping easier and music digital and company marketing more manageable and trackable. Infinity Softworks wouldn’t exist if the only place to buy software was in retail. And the housing bubble increased home ownership substantially and made credit affordable to a lot of people that couldn’t get credit before.

Here’s hoping we get lots of excellent advancements before this green bubble pops.