I was excited to try out the freshly announced Google Voice, open initially only to GrandCentral users. Since the company was acquired so long ago, I couldn’t remember if I had, in fact, actually signed up for Grand Central. this morning, when I tried to log in with my Google account, I was greeted with this screen above.
My takeaway: I guess I’m not a GrandCentral subscriber and Google really dropped the ball on an opportunity to educate and excite potential future users of their new service.
Update: Google fixed the landing page for Google users that aren’t yet able to use the service. Well played, GOOG, well played…
Today Amazon launched the iPhone app many had been speculating about for a while now. This post isn’t meant to be a review of the app as there are plenty of folks out their with sound opinions of what this launch means for the Kindle, Apple, etc. (Need more? Here you go.)
As a huge Kindle fan (V. 1 snowspeeder represent!) who’s spent a lot of time thinking about what it could be once the devices + service matures, what I find more interesting than the application itself are the possibilities suggested by the Kindle as a platform that seamlessly crosses devices. Just imagine if they opened it up to developers for other apps (Instapaper integration = very exciting).
Now one can more easily imagine finally being able to bookmark a Times article on the Kindle and have it sync with a NYTimes.com account to read later on at your desk. Or what about being able to suggest articles read on the Kindle to others? While you’d never want to manage the idea of a Profile (w/ preferences) from the Kindle, you’d be happy to do it from the web (or even your iPhone) and have it reflected on your Kindle (as it still remains the best of the devices for consuming text-heavy content).
These are not terribly forward looking features but you’ve got to start somewhere. Today gave us a decent app but more than that, it offers a glimpse into what a truly multi-platform consumer experience could one day be, where each device in the ecosystem can be leveraged for its particular strengths.
Karen and I recently took a fun introductory wine class (The Elements of Wine) at Astor Wines. They’ve got a really great setup over there:
(Reminded me a bit of Kitchen Stadium)
This was the lineup of food we’d be pairing with our wines. Loved the interactive voting setup (see remote on right) as much as I love the prosciutto.
Towards the end of the class they gave us a printout with different wines plotted on two axes alongside foods that they pair well with for both red and white wines (PDF).
Apart from being a really useful tool when learning about different wines (I’m cropping the images and syncing them to my phone for use on the go), I thought the visualization was well-executed and made a complex set of information and relationships pretty clear.
I highly recommend you check out all of their wine and food classes. They make a great gift, too.
