CT Consulting and Training Blog

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I continue to be impressed by the improvements made in the Blackberry Storm OS V 5.  If you haven’t downloaded it yet go to http://worldwide.blackberry.com/update/blackberrystorm.jsp to get the Upgrade.  You download to your laptop or desktop, install and then cable the BB and you are prompted through the update.  Theoretically you can apply the update Over the Air, but it is huge and running it through your PC will be much faster.

Possible deal for you: I use a great little utility called TetherBerry that allows me to connect my netbook to the web using my Blackberry.  When the app is running on my netbook (could be your laptop) and Blackberry it allows the Blackberry to function as an aircard.  All I have to carry in order to connect to the web FOR FREE is the BB cable.  (I have an unlimited data plan on my BB.) I just received an ad from Tetherberry – for a limited time you can buy the app for $25.95 (which is almost half off the price I paid)  at http://tinyurl.com/yh6sde5.  It is a one time fee and works anyplace your BB works.  It is definitely not as fast as an aircard — however, it allows me to quickly get on line and get things done when traveling with just my netbook and in a location where I’d have to pay for wifi.

Installing ACT 2010 on Windows XP? You MUST upgrade to XP SP3.

Please be warned that not doing so can cause a blue screen.  Please see this link for the updated System Requirements for ACT! 2010: http://www.act.com/2010/system/actpremium/

ACT! 2010 is also now qualified on Windows 7 and IE 8.

If you own a Blackberry Storm stop whatever you are doing and upgrade to the new version of the OS – Version 5.  Released on Monday, it is faster and there are valuable added usability features.

They have included great new “big easy” buttons: like a nice Send button on the Compose Email screen, a Go button on the web browser, etc.  Great Concept – this will save me lots of wasted clicks: first on Menu and then Send.  The SMS feature is much improved – much closer to a chat window that you may have experienced in Google Chat or other app.

And that lag that drove me crazy when I turned from portrait to landscape – almost gone!   Good thing because my BB was suffering from shaken baby syndrome…

My Twitter feeds to the phone appear in a list and I can navigate back in time.  The embedded links load FAST.  Really fast.

For more detail on this upgrade please click here: http://www.wirelessandmobilenews.com/2009/10/blackberry_storm_os_50_officially_announced_by_verizon.html

And also on the mobile device front: Google is at it again: they have just announced a free navigation system for mobile phones that offers turn-by-turn directions.  I never paid for the Verizon navigation system available on my BB – I always used my Garmin, but it irritated me that I purchased a device that included a GPS and Verizon then wanted to charge me to use it.  Now Google Maps for Mobile uses the GPS in the BB, entices me to search for a cafe, knows where I am, and gives me turn by turn directions to get to the closest Starbucks.  And by the way it shows me the traffic as well. (I never paid for that service from Garmin either.) Now I have it all for free on the Storm. It’s a good day here in my mobile device world.

Just watched the demo by Allen Duet (Sage) on the Social Networking integration within ACT!  I hadn’t understood “the half of it” .  Utilizing Social Networking allows INFORMATION to FIND YOU!

Is it relevant to business?  Yes, Yes  and Yes!

There are three big wins:

1. Prospecting: helps you to find new leads and gain contact details.
2. Relationships: the value of a transaction is correlated to the value of a relationship – in other words, we make high value purchases only within a high value relationship and social networking helps you build those high value relationships.
3. Efficiencies: the first user establishes the links making it easy for all to view info on any contact.

Imagine this: you input a contact name and using the dashboard plugin and/or web info tabs can see information about that person from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.  In a moment you might have location, education, pictures, interests and contact info.  Each time you return to that contact with a single click you see each of the sites and what is new on them.  The same gains are possible within the related Company record and sites like Social Mention, Twitter and Kudzu.

The information is out there – ACT! 2010 lets you mine it quickly and easily.  Can’t wait to start to demo this myself!

Excellent meeting of ACT users and prospects in Westport today.  We hosted with two other ACT consultants and had about 65 attendees.  The presentations were excellent. Emily from Sage focused on the new features of ACT! including:

1. Social networking integration
2. New “look and feel”
3. vCard and iCal capabilities
4. e-Marketing (SwiftPage) and drip marketing

Ira from C3IP presented their Voice Over IP product which integrates with ACT! – it is amazing! Also saw the newest release of HandHeldContact which runs an application on your handheld (i.e. BlackBerry) that looks and feels like ACT! and updates ACT! data wirelessly. Everyone was impressed by all the products.

The editors of PCMag (yes, it still exists and is still important) have given the new ACT! 2010 4 of 5 possible stars.

You can read the entire review here:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354172,00.asp

Bottom Line:
“This new version, with its sleeker interface and new web features, is probably a must-have upgrade for existing users, and is sure to attract new users who were discouraged by the steep learning curve of earlier versions. There’s nothing else as effective as ACT! for keeping track of business contacts and activities, and the program finally has the interface it deserves.”