Posted: March 2nd, 2011 | Author: Jolie O'Dell | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: smb, Startup, tech, technology, telephony, tellfi, Web Apps, y combinator | Comments Off
We’ve been playing with
TellFi, a freshly launched startup from
Y Combinator that makes
SMB-style telephony a breeze — even for remote teams with multiple phone lines.
It lets you handle call forwarding, voicemail, extensions and even call analysis with ease and from a super simple web interface that business owners or administrators can understand.
We can see it working for the average Joe or Jane, too; however, the people who’d likely get the most utility out of the app are small and medium-sized businesses, including freelancers.
Here’s how TellFi works: You choose a U.S. or Canadian area code, then choose a phone number from a drop-down menu. This is your TellFi number. You can then configure your TellFi number to do a few interesting and useful things.
For example, you can set up your number just to take voicemails and to e-mail you an MP3 of each message. The voicemail can also be transcribed; TellFi co-founder Jason Corwin says the transcription is roughly on the level of what you’d get from Google Voice, but “we’re currently working with providers to find a solution for the best transcription quality possible.”
Alternatively, you can configure your TellFi account to do call forwarding. In that case, when callers dial your TellFi number, the service will ring one or multiple phone lines — perhaps multiple cell phones for a distributed team, or your personal phone line and home line — and, if desired, take a voicemail if no one picks up. Again, the voicemail would be e-mailed to you as an MP3.
Finally, the service offers a sophisticated extensions feature, which lets you set up a greeting (either recorded or read in a “robot voice”) and let your callers decide what they want to do. Extensions can be set up to record voicemail and ring other phones, either around the clock or within a given time frame.
For example, I set up a Mashable San Francisco office TellFi number with extensions. Callers could press 1 to leave a message, press 2 for the bureau chief, 3 for the startups reporter, etc. Choosing options 2 or 3 would ring our bureau chief’s or startup reporter’s phone between the hours of noon and 5 p.m. (You know what they say: The early bird gets tired!), and take a voicemail message during the remaining hours of the day.
Not only does TellFi offer convenient call handling on the front end, it also gives users a very handy dashboard for analyzing call volume and the breakdown of wireless versus landline calls. And we love the web interface for quickly listening to voicemail messages, also available in the dashboard.
So, what does all this telephony cost? For you, dear Mashable readers, it’s free for the first month. You can try out the service with one local line and 50 minutes; and you don’t need a credit card to sign up.
Otherwise, it’s a very simple fee structure: Pay a monthly rate, with no taxes or sign-up/cancellation fees. For $10 per month, you can get one local number and 100 minutes. An additional $14 per month adds an extra 350 minutes and a toll-free number to the package. And at the Pro level, users pay $70 per month for 1,000 minutes, two local numbers and a toll-free number.
Future features will include private and customizable conference lines, which Corwin says is “one of our most requested features. Just today, we added local Canadian numbers to TellFi, which Google Voice doesn’t offer. We’re also currently testing international calling with a limited number of customers.”
Corwin says he and co-founder Conor Lee found that traditional SMB telephony solutions were typically “painful and expensive” and that non-traditional options, such as Google Voice, didn’t offer decent features for businesses. About 100 early customers — including freelancers and other small businesses — indicated to the TellFi team that “there were many people in a similar situation that were looking for a quick and easy system for setting up their phones.”
If you try TellFi, let us know how it works out for you.
Image courtesy of Flickr, Seattle Municipal Archives.
More About: smb, telephony, tellfi, y combinator
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Posted: March 2nd, 2011 | Author: Sarah Kessler | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bill gates, coveritlive, education, features, Khan Academy, social good, social media, Social Media Lists, Startup, TED | Comments Off
Bill Gates has led ambitious philanthropic efforts in global health, development and education through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gates will curate a TED Session called “Knowledge Revolution.” Speakers include Salman Khan, the founder of popular “YouTube university,” Kahn Academy. Historian David Christian, development worker Amina Az-Zubair and epidemiologist Bruce Aylward will also be on hand.
Interested in hearing about the “Knowledge Revolution” as it happens? Because a live video stream is not available of the event, Mashable’s Social Good Assistant Editor Zachary Sniderman and Education Reporter Sarah Kessler will be live blogging the event today from 5:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. ET. Join us here at that time for live updates, discussion and analysis. Join in to share your questions and add your voice.
Image courtesy of Flickr, OnInnovation
More About: bill gates, coveritlive, education, Khan Academy, social good, social media, startup, TED
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Posted: March 2nd, 2011 | Author: Sarah Kessler | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bill gates, coveritlive, education, features, Khan Academy, social good, social media, Social Media Lists, Startup, TED | Comments Off
Bill Gates has led ambitious philanthropic efforts in global health, development and education through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gates will curate a TED Session called “Knowledge Revolution.” Speakers include Salman Khan, the founder of popular “YouTube university,” Kahn Academy. Historian David Christian, development worker Amina Az-Zubair and epidemiologist Bruce Aylward will also be on hand.
Interested in hearing about the “Knowledge Revolution” as it happens? Because a live video stream is not available of the event, Mashable’s social good assistant editor Zachary Sniderman and education reporter Sarah Kessler will be live blogging the event today from 5:15 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. ET. Join us here at that time for live updates, discussion and analysis. Join in to share your questions and add your voice.
Image courtesy of Flickr, OnInnovation
More About: bill gates, coveritlive, education, Khan Academy, social good, social media, startup, TED
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Posted: March 2nd, 2011 | Author: Sarah Kessler | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: cooliris, instagram, mobile apps, posterous, Startup | Comments Off
Posterous is launching new iPhone and Android apps Wednesday that fully integrate its new group feature, which turns e-mail lists into groups.
Currently, users can only set up a group by e-mailing newgroup@posterous.com to receive a group e-mail address and URL. After that, any member of the group can send text, video, photos, music and other file types to the entire group by e-mailing the group address.
Adding mobile to the mix makes it easier for members to manage groups away from their computers. Users can add group members using their mobile contacts, create groups, use one-tap posting and view groups from within the apps.
The move signifies a new focus on private group sharing for Posterous. The company, which had previously focused on post-by-e-mail blogs, launched its group feature in December. By default, groups are set to private, and the new product challenges group communication tools by competitors like Yahoo, Google and Facebook.
Since launching the feature, Posterous says that the average number of new users each day has doubled; 76% of groups use the tool for private communication, and 25% of them have used it in place of an e-mail chain at work.
In addition to the updated apps, Posterous revamped its homepage to highlight the new private network feature.
As Posterous continues to emphasize its group feature with mobile, it has a lot of competition. Group chat app GroupMe recently added location and photo sharing, and Fast Society helps groups communicate during events.
Group photo sharing — the most popular use of Posterous groups thus far — is also heating up. The personal networking startup Path added the ability to share photos with anyone via e-mail in February, and photo apps like Instagram allow users to save e-mail groups for efficient photo sharing. Cooliris creates private photo “streams” that groups can add to.
What posterous has going for it is its flexibility. Users can now access it from the web, mobile app or e-mail. They can use it for public group blog posts or to communicate within groups. Instead of focusing on photos, it allows users to upload almost any file format. It will be interesting to see whether customers gravitate toward this flexibility or opt for a menagerie of niche apps.
More About: cooliris, instagram, posterous
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Posted: March 2nd, 2011 | Author: Jennifer Van Grove | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: democon, ecommerce, Fashion, Microsoft Kinect, online shopping, Startup, Swivel, technology, Web Apps, Web2.0 Startups, zugara | Comments Off
Modern women dream of the day when they can buy a super cute dress or practical pair of pants online that will fit perfectly on arrival.
That day is not yet here, but two new products from Zugara and FaceCake Marketing, presented at the DEMO Spring conference, combine augmented reality with online shopping, hoping to take womankind one giant visual leap forward. Regrettably, they also fall short of that mission.
Swivel, from FaceCake Marketing, taps into Microsoft Kinect’s motion-sensing technology to offer a virtual at-home dressing room. Users grab an item of clothing or accessory, and get to see how it could look in real life. Shoppers can select a background to see how items translate to settings, say a ski slope.
In demonstrations, Swivel feels more like a game than a shopping tool. Clothes shopping, more than any most areas of commerce, is a matter of precision. Will the clothes fit in a flattering way? Will the real-world fabric or color, which may be a shade different from its on-screen counterpart, still compliment your skin? Is that pair of shades just the right shape for your face? Swivel could make online shopping more entertaining, but won’t solve many of your real e-commerce challenges. At least for now.
Zugara’s solution is the Webcam Social Shopper. It is equally appealing in principle, and disappointing in practice. It will work for anyone with a webcam-enabled PC. Visit a partner retailer’s website, hit a button to try on apparel and see first-hand if a style is right for you. You can also snap a photo and share it on social networks to solicit feedback from friends.
Despite the delight of experiencing something avant garde and high-tech, I found trying on several dresses to be terribly disappointing. Not one came close to fitting the on-screen me. If augmented reality cannot help me envision the real thing, there’s nothing real about the experience at all.
Neither Zugara or Swivel will be a panacea for marketers, brands or retailers, who are looking to lower the rate of returns. Swivel’s virtual shopping experience creates a false sense of hope, while Zugara layers items in a way that could discourage sales, not improve them.
For now, women (and men) are still best served with a more practical product like Polyvore for creating new looks.
Image courtesy of Flickr, doublebug
More About: democon, ecommerce, fashion, Microsoft Kinect, online shopping, Swivel, zugara
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