Apple, Email, and the Amazon Phone

I was not overwhelmed by the Fire (i.e the Amazon phone) this past week. It shows Amazons continued fidelity to the model that has made the Kindle a success: devices that feed directly into the Amazon store. The phone service includes membership in Amazon Prime, and also has a feature called Firefly, which lets users take pictures of objects and add them to their Amazon shopping cart automatically. The phone is really an extension of the store that you happen to use to make phone calls. (There is also a feature called Dynamic Perspective that provides a 3D-like experience it seems for users through monitoring how you are looking at/holding the phone though I have never been a fan of 3D technology.)

Conversely, I found Apple's keynote at WWDC rather exciting as they announced the new version of Mac OS X, iOS, and also a new programming language. The new announcements for iCloud were particularly great as the service is growing in areas that provide real value to consumers. The ability for the service to be more file agnostic in terms of storage via iCloud Drive is fantastic, and a step in the right direction to compete with similar services via Dropbox and Google. The increased link between iPhone, iPad, and Mac (picking up phone calls via you Mac, Messages posted across all devices etc.) provides a strong service advantage over other providers. Apple's strength has always been integration between software and hardware so it is great to see the company play to its strengths.  I can't wait for the fall and the new version to be released.

Lastly, I have also added a few updates to the Email Resource Guide:

Articles About Email:

• Email Overload 19 Tips for Taking Control of you Inbox by Kadhim Shubber (Guardian, 6/2014)
• The Uncomfortable Truth About Email by Betony Kelly (Tumblr, 6/2014)

Application(s):

• Thunderbird: A customizable free mail client from the same folks that brought us Firefox.

Email Add-on Services(s):

• Signals: This service lets you know when know when you emails are open, and provides hooks into other services (Hubspot) for metrics, and CRM templates.