iakttakelser (observations)

Hi everyone. I was a regular feature-phone user until a year and a half ago. In that very moment, my boss, Morten Jacobsen, asked me to become an iPhone user. I was sort of upset at the beginning. I thought I was happy with my regular Nokia. Now I know I wasn’t that happy. Yesterday my iPhone 3GS (my iPhone 4 is already ordered) I tried to fix the screen myself and I totally broke something inside the Apple device. You, up to now, I’ve been living without my iPhone and that has been tough. I couldn’t be “unconnected” for so long, so I borrowed a Nokia E7 from our iFacturas’ office. Nokia E7 is a new smartphone, but let me tell you that is far, far, far from an iPhone user experience!! Sorry for Nokia. This brand had always been my mobile brand. But, I’m suffering a whole lot with this Finnish device. It’s like going back to 1999!!! In fact, it’s being so difficult for me to deal with it, that I’ve borrowed an old iPhone 3G and I’m now transferring all my app to this old iPhone. Sure i...

Tengo la suerte de trabajar para un hombre extremadamente práctico en todos los sentidos. Si unimos a esto su pasión por la tecnología y la simplicidad , resulta fácil entender por qué iFacturas es la aplicación de facturación móvil más sencilla del mercado. Como responsable de marketing de iFacturas, son incontables las aplicaciones financieras que he analizado dentro del App Store. La mayoría de ellas son aplicativos web mostrados en un iPhone, por lo que no aprovechan las oportunidades que el propio dispositivo móvil puede aportar al sistema de facturación. Y lo que es aún peor, al ser una aplicación exportada de la web al iPhone, todas las acciones resultan más complicadas que desde el ordenador y todo se muestra a un tamaño más reducido. Hace un año, cuando empezamos con el desarrollo de iFacturas, teníamos claro que nuestra aplicación sería totalmente desarrollada y diseñada para iPhone y que aprovecharíamos todos aquellos elementos que el propio iPhon podía aportar para mejo...

The big Mac event this summer is the new version of OSX, which will be more like the OS of the iPhone and iPad. A post from TechCrunch by MG Siegler has the whole story . Here is a part: The iPad 2 nears! An  iPad 3  is on the horizon! iPhone 5 is coming! Maybe  an iPhone nano ! New MacBook Pros! New iMacs! Maybe even an Apple television! Of all the Apple rumors out there  right now, there’s a odd lack of talk about something we know is coming — and soon: OS X Lion .

How bad I didn't know HipMunk.com before ordering tickets to Dusseldorf. We used RayanAir and have afterwards learned that we are going via Netherland. I also know and love Flipboard. The rest isn't relevant for me. A post from mashable.com has the whole story . Here is a part: 4.  Flipboard Flipboard  launched this year  as one of the first  iPad  apps that sought to reimagine social media for a new form factor. The tablet gave designers and developers a chance to think about lean-back, glossy, high-end design experiences. Of course, magazines had a heyday; their content is already almost a perfect fit for the iPad. But when you think about social media content — those messy, spaghetti-like, intertwining and overlapping feeds of drama, irrelevance and the occasional gem — you begin to see what a challenge the makers of Flipboard had on their hands. Could social media be both beautiful and functional on a tablet? Flipboard integrates personalized Twitte...

Long time ago it was Ajax, later REST. Now we got JavaScript, Silverlight and Objective-C which we currently are using on our UX clients. Silverlight has decided to leave us, so we are stuck with the two and adding HTML5 and CSS3. Well that's in our iFacturas home-turf. A post from O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging by Mike Loukides has the story in a broader view. Here is a part: In the browser-dominated world, static content and data were inevitably mixed. Yes, we had templating systems that let developers separate static content and design elements from data. But once the application server did its magic, what was delivered to the browser was HTML pages mixing data with other content. Browsers were similar enough that, with some browser detection hacks on both the server and client side, it was relatively easy (though a pain) to generate pages that would run anywhere. That doesn't work any more. It's naive to think that you can wrap so...

I don't dare to think about how many times I've said or written Point & Click. Describing touch-mobile apps, the last year the Flick & Swipe has just begun to be used. When the first desktop OS inspired from the touch-mobile-cloud arrives next summer, we will use it all the day. A post from TechCrunch by MG Siegler tells you the story. Here is a part: It feels like we’re on the verge of something — “feel” being the keyword. Personal computing has more or less been the same for a few decades now. It’s the mouse, the keyboard, the monitor, and the machine. With things like notebook computers, this has been altered a bit, but it’s the same basic idea. But with the rise of smartphones and now tablets, the whole concept is finally starting evolve. And it looks like OS X Lion  will be a key to this transition . On stage last week during their Back to the Mac event, Apple gave a sneak peak at some of what they have in store for the next version of OS X. Of note, CEO Steve ...

Are you into apps, search or social media? Now that we have the Windows Phone 7 out of the closet, it interesting trying to understand whats the difference between the user experiences in the three main mobile platforms: iOS, Android and WP7: iOS is the App experience at the core. 90% of the iOS users uses apps. Of Android users only 15% use apps. iOS is like a walled garden for the apps. Apple continuos nurturing the eco-system with better tech, solution to support the app developers like iAD and Game Central. Android is the search mobile. Google has only one objective, and that's selling ads from the data stored in their servers. And search make its all possible. The problems Google had with Buzz, showed everyone that they was not into the social media yet. Windows Phone 7 is the new kid on the block. And it's the only who have taken the social media into its heart, or to be technical, into their operating system. The integration with Facebook is so profound that it jus...

At last I got it. I've been reading about the new interface for months. I've used two pages: Home and Messages. Home has way more information as you see above. The lists are selected here from a new tab after Timeline, @Mentions, Retweets and Search. Nice! I selected my own favourite list @mortjac/dayli-twits and moved to messages. Then I can see the conversation connected to each post. Cool! I will certainly use the twitter native pages more. Great update and better User Experience!

This is the fourth post in my series: «8 reasons why PCs, servers, applications, search and web have peeked, whilst the mobile, the cloud, social media ant apps are surging ahead.» Today trying to tackle the change from PC to mobile. It’s astonishing that my current mobile is way more powerful that the IBM XT from the 1980s. It consisted of two cabinets, two screens and a keypad and weighed way more than 20 kg. The PC The PC is just that - a personal computer. It has all that we are accustomed to expect from PC, fast computing, a lot of space, ability to run a lot of programs concurrently. And use with a keypad and mouse. This nice machine however, is perceived hostile by a lot of children and elderlies, and is a source to endless frustrations for professionals. I´m so fed up installing and setting up my PC’s every three month, that I rather pay someone to do it. Before I loved to this chore work myself. But after 2 years with iPhone, I’ve found that we shouldn’t accept this stupi...

User Experience - UX versus Graphical User Interface - GUI This is the third post in my series: « 8 reasons why PCs, servers, applications, search and web have peeked, whilst the mobile, the cloud, social media ant apps are surging ahead .» Today I'm dealing with the change from GUI to UX. The GUI use the desktop metaphor, imitating the office workers desktop with documents, mapper in order to hide the complexity of the operating systems. Apple commercialized the GUI with their Lisa and Macintosh computers. Apple learned from Xerox Park, which created the first GUI experimentally. Microsoft followed suit with their WIndows 1.0, which I personally ran on the IBM XT. It was sooo slow. The UX on the other hand has abandoned the desktop altogether with context. UX devices normally have access to range of sensors, helping the user to establish context. The context can be geographical, time, light condition, direction, orientation and temperature to name a few. Based on this context...

From HowStuffWorks.com This is the second post in my series: « 8 reasons why PCs, servers, applications, search and web have peeked, whilst the mobile, the cloud, social media ant apps are surging ahead .» Today dealing with the huge change from mouse to touch. iPhone pioneered this change from their first version. One important change from earlier attemps was that they used capacitative screens instead of resistive ones. The capacitive screen allowed use of fingers, and could also sense multi-touches, ie. touch from more than one finger. Nokia et. al. just laughed at the iPhone which didn’t even have MMS or copy/paste. Still it grabbed the high-end market from Nokia and the others. Many iterations and 3 years later the multi-touch on iPhone4 and iPad is smooth and precise. Way better than any other touch-phone out there. But as the smartphone markets matures, the other mobiles will follow, and Apples technical lead will be less. That’s excellent, because the importance of multi...

There isn't than many graphical options in a smartphone! A shocking question, but I'm afraid the answer is yes. All have to do with the apps vs. web battle, which seems to be favoring apps. A post from Smashing Magazine Feed by Cameron Chapman tells: Look at your mobile phone. If you’re like most tech-savvy consumers, you’ve likely got a smartphone of the Apple or Android variety (or maybe a Blackberry, especially if you’re working in the corporate world). Most of us use our smartphones on a near-constant basis doing everything from checking email to working on projects to entertaining ourselves. How much of all that do you do in your phone’s browser? The answer is probably “not much”.

Google Voice Action from Voice Search for the mobile is an upcoming feature that can ease the use and make the mobile much more effective. Just think how easy it will be to search and send a SMS, twitter or short email. If it is something that can give Apple run for the money it is Google Voice. See what TechCrunch writes on this .

Since my colleagues, friends and family knows I´m into mobile computing, they sometimes ask me for an advice when they want to change mobile. They shouldn´t because I´m developing for iPhone and Windows Phone 7, and since the latter isn´t on the market I always recommend iPhone.  Normally I show them the apps I use every day and how I use it in work and leisure. But they don´t often follow my advice. And I don´t know why. So I´m constantly dealing with "why on earth people don´t know their own best?" (of course they know - they do what they can think is best for them :) They who don´t by iPhone tend to buy an Android phone , and it is pretty demanding to introduce people to the differences when they are not into what  F orrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps in ars technica call curated computing . She states: ...a mode of computing where choice is constrained to deliver less complex, more relevant experiences. Let me repeat that, because it's the essence ...

First screen after setup. It’s a fact: Independent Contractors (IC) and PCs don’t get along well at all. The Independent Contractor Association of Spain assures that contractors don’t feel comfortable working with computers, but there’s one thing they always carry and can manage: the smartphone. That’s why No Excuse Accounting has developed a mobile tool for ICs, that lets them create invoices in seconds due to its extreme intuitive interface. It lets them take advantage of the GPS and camera in order to invoice faster, and thus, to better document the final invoices. If you are an IC, with iFacturas you can bill at the point of service . Just click on the app, and the program will automatically select the customer you are located at, so just start the timer, note down the concept, stop the timer when you are done and send the bill. As easy as it sounds. The whole invoicing process can be done in 60 seconds by yourself. Sign in here if you want us to advice you when you can ...

Microsoft BizSpark honour us today. They write. "BizSpark Startup of the Day - No Excuse Accounting No Excuse Accounting, one of the Showcase Startups at the European BizSpark Summit, delivers an ERP solution to Norwegian and Spanish small and medium enterprises. The BizSpark startup of the day is No Excuse Accounting, based in Norway and Spain. Below you will find an interview with Morten Jacobsen, CEO and Antonio Revaliente MD. All the best to them and congratulations for being the startup of the day!" Bootstrapping ie. blood, sweet and tears are not unknown to the team. Here is Anne (PM), Bego (UX) and Reva (MD) busy doing work in la Vila Joyosa, Spain. Thanks BizSpark! We will pay back with the nicest WP7 app you can imagine :)

Guy Kawasaki and Morten Jacobsen in Paris Tell us who you are and your role in the company: I ́m a «General Ledger Visionary» happened to be the in right place at the right time. I ́m the CEO and founder of «no excuse accounting» in Norway and Spain What did you do before creating your company? Creating other companies within the IT and accounting market. How do you feel being the most promising «Starup of the Day» per Microsoft BizSpark? I feel excited about promoting our tools to the only companies in the world which can really create new jobs - startups. What is your companies mission? Our mission is to help the Independent Contractor stop losing time and money, by providing his loved smart-phone with an compelling new invoicing, accounting and payment experience, as a service in the Cloud. Tell us what your company does in 140 char. 100 millions of independent contractors can use smart-phones as their primary computer, allowing them to invoice at the point of service. How d...

Thanks to @GuyKawasaki advices and due to @ObjMarketer, my meta-campaign went remarkably well. Today I have started a new campaign for No Excuse Accounting together with @Revaliente, the marketing responsible of the Spanish/Norwegian invoicing app company (and self being CEO). We will run 4 weekly campaigns, choosing from the following themes: • Time • Cost • Ease of use • Integration with accounting • Security We will use this template for each campaign whith one message each day: • The problem • Customer (context) • Solution • User benefits Each message will be run 4 times with 8 hours intervals. Languages: Norwegian and English Blogs: ifacturas Twitter accounts: @noexcuseacc The measurable goals for the campaign are: • 1st. Week: 10 clicks per post, 100 clicks in total, 2 re-tweets, 50 new followers Run the campaigns on from Mondays to Thursdays and evaluate them on Fridays. I will post more on the weekly campaigns and also about the e...

NPR : "As the computing power of cell phones increases, more and more sophisticated mobile apps are being developed for the mental health field. They're seen as a way to bridge periodic therapy sessions — a sort of 24-7 mobile therapist that can help with everything from quitting smoking to treating anxiety to detecting relapses in psychotic disorders. These mobile technologies let users track their moods and experiences, providing a supplemental tool for psychiatrists and psychologists."

After the excitement around our iFacturas.com  at the #BizSpark EU Summit in Paris, I have to write down some thoughts about immersive computing and invoicing. My main objectives were to represent a physical object and be faithful to the natural user interaction (NUI) metaphor. So we created an electronic representation of the paper invoice. We´ve done that by taking away whitespace and only showing a couple of lines. So in short; its an invoice image, and with this you can flip back and forth to earlier or later invoices. When you touch the invoice, magically appears some buttons, which let you filter between drafts, invoiced, sent and paid invoices. We are now striving to increase the smoothness of the flipping, it still a bit slow. To be true NUI however is pretty difficult. As you can see in our video , we are using some pop-up menu to do what we didn´t find enought space to represent. Now we´re trying to get rid of them, and doing that followi...