Which Smart Phone is Best - BlackBerry or iPhone?

05.26.09 - Working in a technology based industry, it's ironic what little time I have to try out the latest and greatest gadgets. I'm so busy working on my client's needs and projects that it leaves me so few precious moments to play with things like smart phones.

That is, until I purchased an iPhone last summer and joined the ranks of the Apple crazies outside our AT&T store.

It took awhile for the iPhone 3G craze (and technology) to hit northern Michigan, but when it did last summer, I found myself standing in line outside the closest AT&T Wireless store an hour before opening. I was such a geek. And, I was one of 15 lucky ones that day to get a 16 GB iPhone 3G. Granted it was white when I wanted black, but it was an iPhone 3G and I was getting one! I did my homework so studiously the weeks leading up to my purchase, that I felt like it was THE phone for me.

As each AT&T shopper gloriously came out of the storefront with their new iPhone we'd clap and cheer. It was almost like Christmas morning. Except dorky.

Out of all the features the iPhone had to offer, I was most interested in the Google Mapping (GPS) and push email application. I had a trip to make down to northern Indiana for a girlfriend's wedding the weekend after my purchase, and I was looking forward to stretching the iPhone's GPS legs. Any of you that grew up in the Midwest know all about country roads and the winding paths they can lead you on, right? That was no problem for me - I had my iPhone! Did I print out a Google map or MapQuest map before making the trip? No way! I grew up here and I knew my way around, and if I figured the iPhone would save me if I got off track. After all, it had GPS.

The Google Mapping application worked great. I plugged in my starting and ending address, and the map magically plotted my course. Funny thing about those county roads. They often end and then restart across town. My GPS took me on a wonderful sight seeing journey through the country and places I didn't remember back in the day; then it took me to a dead end. Turns out Google Maps didn't account for the country road dead ending. We were about an hour and a half late for the wedding and got directions from a non-Hoosier native at a Clark station who had a really bad accent. But the accent got us to the other end of the country road so...

On to the iPhone's email program - I have six email accounts that I check constantly and it's important for me to be able to check email seamlessly, especially on a device that I have paid several hundred dollars for and signed a contract for well, a LONG time. To my dismay, I found that the push email wasn't working smoothly.

In fact, it would hang up constantly. I got so sick of seeing the "checking for email" message for minutes on end, I stopped relying on the iPhone for email.

Oh Safari, Safari, Safari. During the 2008 presidential election, I came to rely on my iPhone's Safari browser to stay current on all things election when at home. It seemed as soon as I would really get into an online article, BAM! Safari would shut down without notice. Talk about frustrating - especially if the article you were reading was linked to after jumping through hoops from several different places. How do you get back to your spot easily? When I'd restart Safari it magically had no recollection of the last place I was at. GRRRRR.

I can tell you the email and Safari issues were not due to my iPhone's settings or configuration, or a specific website or virus. What it ended up coming down to was the iPhone operating system needed to be upgraded. I understand upgrades, but an upgrade right after I bought the equipment to get it to work how it was intended to work originally? COME ON. From day one it didn't work right. Apple lost me at "upgrade".

The Google Mapping issue - I should have known better. Google Maps has had my home address at the wrong end of the street for at least two years now.

Enough complaining about the iPhone, as there are some great aspects. The touch screen technology was awesome; and the ability to add apps and such were great too. Although once I got in the Twitter craze, I was disappointed with the lack of a free iPhone Twitter app available online. (At least I couldn't find one.) My favorite feature of the iPhone was visual voice mail. Loved, loved, loved that.

Thinking about what to get my husband for his birthday earlier this month, I stopped into Radio Shack (which is also an AT&T retailer). I was drawn over to the phones; I suppose the void the iPhone had left in me was too much. I looked over the LG's and Sony's and finally a light beamed - and there were the BlackBerrys.

As I looked over the Bold and Curve, I found myself wondering how I could talk John into ME getting a new BlackBerry and how to dish off my iPhone to HIM.

John loved my iPhone when he had used it before and is an Apple guy; his main computer is a Mac G5 and when we first started dating he had an old Apple PowerMac. This plan may work, I thought.

As I compared the BlackBerry Bold with the Curve, the main differences I noticed were the lack of 3G and wireless capabilities on the Curve and the Bold was slightly larger. I opted for the Curve as I rarely used the wireless access on my iPhone, we don't have 3G in northern Michigan and I liked the size and look of the Curve.

After my experiences with the iPhone I must say I was pleasantly surprised how much I loved my BlackBerry right away. Things were easy; navigation and setup was a breeze. And I was able to install free apps easily along with push email working as push email should: flawlessly.

I was happy to find out that the over 500 plus emails I have saved on my server would not be downloaded into my BlackBerry upon setting up my email accounts. It would start receiving email as of the date it was setup. Yay! Do you know what a hemorrhoidal pain it was when the iPhone's push email rarely worked and you would have to wait AND WAIT for it to receive old emails from the server? I know what you're thinking - delete those emails off of the server! But I like to keep an archive for some time for my own purposes. My response is, shouldn't a smart phone be smart enough to do what I want it to do? The BlackBerry Curve comes pretty close.

Occasionally I'd find myself touching the screen and waiting for a response (duh! this isn't the iPhone or the Storm), but after awhile I adjusted and understood why users call BlackBerrys "crackberrys".

John took the news quite well and loves the iPhone - it's perfect for him and his needs. He was able to upgrade the iPhone OS without issue and is happy as a Georgia peach; I ended up getting him something else for his birthday and I got a BlackBerry for my un-birthday. I was officially inundated in the "crackberry" club.

Somehow I think I got the best deal. And I think you know my answer to the blog title.

Of course, this blog is from my own personal experiences and opinions. John will likely write a follow up to this posting with his love for the iPhone. To each their own, and I wish you luck in choosing your smart phone and recommend lots of research before committing to a particular device. Good luck!

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WAIT! BlackBerry apps I like - and you may like too
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Twitter
After trying TwitterBerry and being thoroughly unimpressed, I tried Uber Twitter and fell in love! You can too - http://ubertwitter.com

Calendar
Besides my issues with Google Mapping, I must say I am a fan of Google, especially Google Calendar. Did you know you can sync it with your BlackBerry calendar and even your iPhone calendar? This app has changed my work life. Google Calendar | Google Sync

YouMail & vyMail
Remember how I mentioned I liked iPhone's visual voice mail? BlackBerry users can have it too. First check out and install YouMail; how cool is the personalized messages based on the caller's phone number?

After YouMail is installed, then install vyMail which is a third party add on for YouMail. Wah-lah visual voice mail and it works like a charm! Best of all, free of charge. (YouMail may not work with all carriers. Check their website for more details.)

Working From Home - Don't Fool Yourself

05.23.09 - When I began doing website design and development back in 2002 as a side job from home, I never thought it would turn into a full time profession for both me and my husband. Back then it was fun to be able to work from home with my two small sons. I'd whip out a website design as they napped in the other room.

As new projects and clients came calling, I ditched my full time position as an IT/Operations assistant and we acquired another website design firm's client list, things got very busy. We ended up remodeling part of our garage to allot for an external entrance into a defined office area.

The idea behind the office addition and remodel project at the time was to have an office area in our home where we could (a) get away from the kids to get projects completed and answer the phones; (b) meet with clients away from the internal portion of our home; (c) save money due to not having to pay towards renting a business space; and lastly (d) keep things conveniently close.

Working in our newly constructed office lasted close to nine months before both John and I were ready to have a breakdown.

If you must work from home, I have some tips for you, but I would seriously reconsider it as soon as possible... Don't believe the glorious notion that working from home is wonderful, especially if you fit any of the criteria below. It's a big fat lie.

Tip #1: If you have small children, rethink a home office
The straw that broke the camel's back was summer vacation. We now have three children and last summer they were ages 7, 5 and 2. As well-behaved as I like to think my children are, they are still kids and behave like kids (ie: drive their parents nuts). Our original plan was that one of us would be with the kids in the main part of our house or outside while the other would work in the office area, answer phones, meet with clients.

Unfortunately, our "plan" didn't account for when one of us would be in the bathroom, shower or have our back turned.

Let me give you an example. While I was meeting with a client in the office space, I hear the kids banging on the door and screaming at the top of their lungs - "Mom! He's pulling my hair! Mom! He pushed me!" Turns out my husband was in the shower. Pretty embarrassing to say the least.

Tip #2: Take a shower.
I'm no stranger to working long hours as a business owner. The long hours would often translate into late nights past 3 a.m. (hey, the kids were asleep and I can really get a lot done!). To keep your mental prowess, you are now sleeping in past 10 a.m. to allow reasonable functioning. Since you're getting up after 10 a.m., your clients are already at work and leaving you messages. You jump right into work answering emails and returning phone calls all while wearing your robe and bunny slippers. Before you know it, 10 a.m. is now 5 p.m. and you haven't showered. And you look like you're the crazy uncle that has been kept locked up in the basement.

Tip #3: Don't tell your relatives or friends you work from home.
Why? Because they think you are hanging out at home ready to hang out with them. Or watch their kids. Or go shopping.

Hey, you work from home. You can do whatever you want - so they expect you to have the flexibility to do what THEY WANT.

It reminds me of that Everybody Loves Raymond episode where Ray is able to work from home and sets up his office in the basement and gets nothing done. My experience was similar only times it by one hundred.

Tip #4: Mow your yard and pick up the toys before your client visits.
Oh, and that trim on the side of your house you haven't had time to paint? You might want to do that. Because the way your house looks and presents itself directly affects the image you portray to your clients.

Exhausting, I know. Now you're at the point where you haven't showered, the kids are screaming and fighting, your girlfriend keeps wanting to know why you can't babysit for her while she gets her nails done, your house is a dump and you have 1 p.m. meeting with a new client to redesign their website. Do you think that new client will want to hire you when you are so stressed out you look like Phil Spector on speed and your house needs some serious Home Makeover Edition? Probably not.

After nine months of wrangling and fighting the establishment (the establishment = my kids, friends and relatives) I decided to save myself my insanity (and make more money!) and take the next step. I rented a business space in downtown Charlevoix.

How's our new office space working so far?
We've been at our new location for a little over 8 months now. I believe we have gotten some clients that we never would have for the simple fact that we have a professional presence downtown, which more than covers the monthly expense of having an office rental.

We've got set office hours. I shower before going to the office now (that's a big plus!) and I can leave the kids and their sibling rivalry at home.

If we don't mow the yard or pick up the big wheels in the drive it's not a deal breaker.

And oh, still need to paint the trim on the side of the house. But I don't stress out about that anymore. Life is good.

Adventures with External Hard Drives

05.21.09 - I love external hard drives. They're great for on the go storage and backups and conveniently adapt to disaster recovery plans as they can be taken off site and stored at a remote location.

Last year, I purchased a Seagate FreeAgent 500 GB external hard drive from our local OfficeMax store. At first I wasn't crazy about the software ("Why do I need more software to install on my computer?" I thought), but after using it I loved the incremental backups of my work documents - website layouts and such - and personal pictures.

My external backup drive and my backup plan ran smoothly up until a few months ago when I transported my backup hard drive from my home office to work and attempted to plug in the usb connection. That's when I noticed that the USB connector had disconnected from the internal pci card. I'm very careful with my equipment and know that it was of no fault of my own that this happened and was likely a manufacturer failure. Hey, it couldn't be something I did now could it! Not one to fret, I wasn't too concerned as I had the same documents backed up on another computer.

That very afternoon, a computer tech was visiting my office and I queried him on the broken usb port issue. He informed me that the hard drive was likely fine, I just had to remove the external casing and hook the hard drive up to my computer to access the documents. Just as I thought, piece of cake, I know how to do all of that.

Well, let's say prying a Seagate FreeAgent casing open isn't child's play. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to open. In fact, it took me well over an hour to do it and that's no exaggeration. Once you get the super tiny screws undone there's a whole set of hoops you must jump through and this continues until you finally get your golden egg out of hiding.

Now that I had my "golden hard drive" accessible, I realized that it required a SATA connection and since I didn't have a SATA cable, the hard drive ended up collecting dust in my home office for almost two months... That is until I realized I needed access to a particular website layout that was only saved on the golden hard drive. How was that possible? I am so careful backing up my documents on two separate computers and external drives. I don't know how I missed this one layout (probably one of those 3 am work sessions), but I needed it right away. Of course, this was at 1 am on a Sunday night.

That's when I decided to go back to square one and considered re-soldering the usb connector back to the pci card. Buying a SATA cable was out of the question due to availability (and my immediate need of the document).

After lots of trial and error, brainstorming, (I'm not a welder and I can't solder to save my life) and of course John's attempt at using scotch tape and wood glue (we were out of super glue) to connect the broken pieces together, I decided to check out google and see if anyone else had a similar issue with the particular brand and broken pieces I had. Of course, it wasn't an isolated case and others were in the same boat as I.

At this point I had put in hours of prying open the casing, research, and just plain wasting my time on silly ideas that I was willing to try anything to get access to my documents. The best solution I found was a simple one - purchase a hard drive enclosure. As much as it pained me, I had to wait until the next day to do this due to the weekend. So, the next morning I made a trip to Radio Shack and purchased a Gigaware 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure for $40. Dropped in my hard drive and it worked like a charm.

The saddest part of the story isn't the fact that the solution only cost $40 when I probably spent 5+ hours working on this when I charge $80 per hour when I bill clients.

The saddest part is that the layout wasn't even on the hard drive.

Oh well, technology hurts and this adventure certainly did. But I have my 500 GB hard drive back so it's still a win. Thank you Radio Shack.

Redesigned Websites Gallery

05.13.09 - Checkout some of the websites JBR Graphics, Inc. has redesigned. The differences in the before and afters are quite stunning. There will be more that we'll be adding very soon, so check back. You can view the gallery here.

Suggestions & Responses: Appointment Organization

Previous Related Posts:
Goals & Solutions: Day One Case Study
Goals & Strategies for Effective Time Management
Managing Time Effectively as an IT Professional

As a small business owner of a website design and development company, I've been blogging about my efforts to streamline my workday and the tips and suggestions I have received from Vicki Voisin, The Paralegal Mentor. This blog will focus on Vicki's suggestions for appointment organization and scheduling.

Vicki's Suggestions with my Responses:

SUGGESTION: Don't schedule any appointments for Mondays or Fridays.

RESPONSE: Mondays are usually crazy for us since clients are getting with us after the weekend and Fridays we like to be able to catch up before the coming weekend. I have pre-blocked out any Mondays and Fridays on our schedule so there is no compromise to this suggestion.

SUGGESTION: The first thing you need to determine is your 'peak productivity time.' Do you do your best work first thing in the morning or some other time of the day? For me, it's first thing in the morning and then I start to fizzle later in the afternoon.

RESPONSE: My peak productivity time is definitely in sync with Vicki's, in the morning. By the afternoon we are ready to fizzle out.

SUGGESTION: The next thing you need to ask is which activity requires your 'peak productivity time'? Is it working on the computer or meeting with clients? I suspect it's working on the computer but that's up to you.

RESPONSE: Once again, Vicki hits the mark with her suggestion, it is working on the computer.

SUGGESTION: You'll need to determine the task that requires your highest energy and schedule it for your peak productivity time. For instance, if you are at your best from 9-12 and you need your highest energy for web design, then you will only do web design during those hours and you will schedule client meetings for later in the day.

RESPONSE: Since we have determined our peak productivity time is in the morning, new website design projects will be worked on and completed from 9-12 daily. We're only going to schedule client meetings on Tues., Wed., and Thurs.

SUGGESTION: How much time to you allot to client meetings? One hour, two? I'm sure that just depends... but you could schedule client meetings for later in the day and maybe just two days a week. Can you get them done in that amount of time? Can you 'end your day' with client meetings?

RESPONSE: Our client meetings usually last from 30 minutes to one hour, depending on the meeting and type of client we are meeting with. Ending our day with a client meeting is fine.

SUGGESTION: Don't let your clients meet with you just for the sake of meeting. Be sure there is a definite purpose for the meeting and always get right to the point of the meeting as quickly as possible. You might start the meeting by saying, 'I've scheduled one hour for this appointment because I have to xyz so we do have to finish in that amount of time.' If they know up front how much time you have, they will usually stick with the schedule.

RESPONSE: This is great suggestion. With some client meetings I definitely feel that there's no need to meet with the client although they insist. Granted, we do charge for the meeting in most cases so it's not a complete loss, but at the same time if I'd like to save the client money when possible.

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Here are some other ways we have streamlined our client appointments.

Syncing my Google Calendar with my BlackBerry Calendar

I have upgraded my BlackBerry to add Google Sync to sync our Google Calendar (which we schedule our client appointments and meetings on) with my BlackBerry calendar. This way I have access to our most up to date calendar in an efficient and easy manner at all times. If I am meeting with a client at their place of business and they'd like to schedule another appointment, this can be done quickly and accurately.

Some professionals reading this probably think this was a no-brainer, but I must say I hadn't even thought of doing this until working with Vicki on her suggestions and thinking of all of the things I could do to streamline my appointments.

Food for Thought

Some times we are so busy working on implementing new technology for our clients that we are sorely lacking on technology for our own business. Our company website always seems to be last on the list to be updated.

It may be important to keep in mind that no matter what field you work in, don't forget about taking care of yourself and your own personal business. In our case, we need to put our company on the to do list as well. I hope these suggestions are helpful to you or your business.

Bobbie Rathjens
Co-Owner of JBR Graphics, Inc.

Goals & Solutions: Day One Case Study

Previous Related Posts:
Goals & Strategies for Effective Time Management
Managing Time Effectively as an IT Professional

Let's take a look again at our goals and what solutions we implemented to achieve the anticpated outcome (Vicki's action plan suggestions).

GOAL: (1) Eliminate phone and email interruptions; and (2) answer every call during our business hours. This will eliminate frustrated clients and loss of potential sales from new clients.

SOLUTION: As a small business, we aren't ready to take on the expenses to hire a full time receptionist. Plus, a full time receptionist wouldn't intercept emergency after hour calls. We decided to hire a messaging service to answer our calls during regular business hours. It was important for us to use a Michigan based business, so we chose Michigan Message Center. Taking Vicki's cue, every call is answered in a timely fashion and the caller is informed that we will be returning calls between 2-4 pm M-F. The callers are aware of our system and when they will receive a return call. No more hang ups or frustrated clients wondering why we aren't available to answer the phone. We are instantly emailed any phone messages which also proves as a valuable internal call record.

GOAL: (1) Identify emergency issues (ie: website or email down) and handle immediately; (2) eliminate non-urgent calls to our personal cell phones.

SOLUTION: We have a server monitoring program that notifies us immediately if the server is not responding. Our answering service has strict instructions to put through emergency situations to our cell phones. (We identify emergency situations as a client's email or website being down.) This way our clients can speak with us instantly in this situation. Additionally, client's aren't given our personal cell phone numbers so they won't be able to call our cells directly in the future - as is possible if we call the client from our cell phone (caller id).

GOAL: (1) Reduce stress from project time lines not being completed; increase work productivity; (2) no more STRESS!

SOLUTION: The solution revolves around eliminating the stress generated primarily from phone calls. Since the solutions above relate directly to this goal, we have found we are given back the 90% of our work day for project time, which equals less STRESS.

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Day One Case Study
Today was the first day we enacted Vicki's Action Plan. Strangely enough, just having a plan relieved a lot of stress. Having the tools (message center, plan to call back clients during the time window) to eliminate my number one stress trigger (the phones) was empowering.

We had two instances where the operator attempted to put through clients to our cell phones when it wasn't an emergency situation. It was okay, as I was able to email my contact at the company to eliminate this from happening again. It's important that the operators stand their ground and let our client's know if it's not one of the emergency situations, they can wait for a call back during the predetermined window. Since we get email records of all client messages, we are fully aware of whom is calling and what it is in regards to. I did my best not to jump the gun and call before the 2pm time. It was hard, but I did good complying to my own rules (okay Vicki's rules!).

Call counts: 17 calls total; 85% of all calls received before 12:00 pm.

I made a point to query our clients during call backs on how the new answering service was working and if they were professional. Every single client I asked commented how professional, courteous and well trained they were. (More stress gone.) Clients weren't upset about the call service; in fact they seemed to be happy that someone answered and that I returned their call during the promised window. Who knew it would be that easy?!

Remarkably as the day went on, I felt stress dissolve and ended up getting a lot of work done. Nothing blew up today which helped. And the time I took to return phone calls was under 40 minutes total, well within my call window. I cannot imagine how many more calls (repeats) we would have received if these clients would have been prompted to leave a message on the machine...

Tomorrow I will report on how things go as I implement a "no looking or responding" email rule - except at 9 am and 1 pm. Let's hope I can do it...

Bobbie Rathjens
Owner, JBR Graphics, Inc.

Goals & Strategies for Effective Time Management

As per my previous blog post, we are implementing some changes in the way we manage our time at JBR Graphics, Inc. Some of the suggestions we were given are really no-brainers but make a HUGE difference in my work day. Let's start with listing the goals we look to achieve.

Our Goals:

1. Eliminate phone and email interruptions.
2. Answer every call during our business hours. This will eliminate frustrated clients and loss of potential sales from new clients.
3. Identify emergency issues (ie: website or email down) and handle immediately.
4. Eliminate non-urgent calls to our personal cell phones.
   
5. Reduce stress from project time lines not being completed; increase work productivity.
6. No more STRESS!

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After speaking with Vicki, she had some simple strategies for this IT professional.

Vicki's Recommended Strategies:

1. Spend 90% of our day working on projects.
   Right now we are spending 90% of our day answering phones, returning calls, putting out fires and meeting with clients.
   
   
2. Return phone calls during a window of time during the day and inform clients of this when they call.
   Currently, calls are answered and returned on demand with continuous interruptions preventing work from getting completed. Many times we are unable to answer calls and the caller is asked to leave a message. More often, we aren't able to return calls in a timely fashion.
   
   
3. Meet with clients on certain days of the week only.
   When a client requests a meeting day and time we comply without hesitation causing our work day to be unstructured which makes it difficult for our day to flow properly.
   
   
4. Read and return emails only during a window two times per day and notify the client of this via our automated help desk response.
   Like the above, emails are returned on demand making it hard to get much done. Some days we can receive upwards of 150+ legitimate emails.
   
   
5. Utilize mind mapping for prioritizing our projects.
   I am a list writer and have lists EVERYWHERE. They aren't doing me any good anymore so this suggestion will surely be tried.

An update to follow soon with how we have implemented Vicki's suggestions and a progress report on our first full day utilizing the suggestions.

Bobbie Rathjens
Owner, JBR Graphics, Inc.