Tue, 20 July 2010
A brief followup to show #056, we talk about our thoughts after Apple's iPhone 4 press conference. Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show.
Category:general
-- posted at: 1:00 PM |
Thu, 15 July 2010
The iPhone 4 has been the fastest selling device in Apple’s history, nearly 2 million units sold in the first weekend of availabity. But is it ready for prime time. This is the iPhone 4 recap show. Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show. Category:general
-- posted at: 12:00 AM |
Tue, 6 July 2010
2010 is half over, and the smartphone battle is raging on. If you're
thinking about getting your first, or changing up your existing
smartphone, we're going to break down the latest in what's out there
right now.
Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show. Category:general
-- posted at: 9:00 AM |
Thu, 24 June 2010
I had the opportunity to talk recently with First Orion CEO Jeff Stainaker to talk about the PrivacyStar Blackberry application. First Orion is a company dedicated to privacy, and has created PrivacyStar with the consumer in mind. This Q&A with Jeff highlights what you need to know about the popular app. Q. Give me a general overview about PrivacyStar. A. PrivacyStar is a company dedicated to privacy on your telephone. Right now, it's only on the Blackberry, but soon it will be on Android. We'll eventually get into VOIP world and even wire-line segments. We're a company that will continue to enhance our services, and add into the privacy that we give to our customers each month. My phone rings all the time, seemingly nonstop from 8am until 9pm. Many of the calls are business related, but even though my number is on the Do Not Call list, I still get a lot of telemarketing calls. The history behind the DNC list, is that it was very effective when it came out 10 years ago, but it isn't as effective now because there aren't enough people filing complaints to allow the regulators to enforce the rules. There are millions of calls telemarketing calls made every day, and we estimate that as much as 20% of calls by telemarketing calls are to DNC list subscribers. This has grown exponentially over the last 5 years.
Q. Why do you think that is, what's happened in the last 5 years to create so many unwanted calls? A. Landlines are dropping by about 10% a year as people look for ways to save money. As they give out their cell phone number more and more for things like deliveries and such, the more chance it has of getting into the hands of a telemarketer. The real issue is that if you talk to regulators, they want complaint data. If you try to file a complaint, you'll notice that it is pretty hard to do. So, if you get a call at 6pm at night from someone who you don't want to hear from, you don't have the time or patience to sit down and write it all down, then get online and file a complaint. So one of the things we do is capture all the data necessary to file a complaint, and with a single press of a button, it will submit the complaint to the FTC. We have filed about 45,000 complaints in the past 4 months. There are a lot of people out there that want to help the government enforce the rules. This is the first part of the app. Also with our application, you can not only file a complaint, you can also block those calls directly from your phone. It can also do both at the same time, making it easy for the customer to report and block simultaneously.
The third thing we do, is provide a caller lookup. All phones will show a phone number of the caller, but unless they are in your address book, you don't know the name of the caller. However, more and more do you get calls from people not in here. With our caller lookup, PrivacyStar will tell you within 2-3 seconds who is calling by reaching out to one of the 26 databases we reach out to. And if for some reason we can't find a name, it will at the very least return the city and state they are calling from. In just the past 2 months, we've done over 2 million lookups.
Q. How does the service actually work? Is the call routed through software on the phone, or is it going through some central server? A. The way that the app works, is that it is all resident on the phone. We know the numbers that you have blocked on the device, and so it uses API's in the app to force the phone not to ring, buzz or notify you of the call, and simply hangs up on the caller. The call does not go to your voicemail, and it does not inform the customer that they have been blocked. It just appears that the call can not go through. The fourth thing we have is a web portal that allows you to login to the site, and see all the numbers you have blocked, all the complaints you have filed, and everything you do on the portal is synced with the device and vice versa. We did this because so many people upgrade their telephones frequently, and we wanted to make sure that the info followed you. When you get your new phone, you install the PrivacyStar app and it pulls down all of your information that you have saved in the past. Q. What devices does this application work on? A. All Blackberry devices with OS 4.5 and above. By mid-July, we'll have an app that will work on Andorid. We have an issue with certain API's not available to developers for the iPhone, so we don't have anything in the works currently as a restriction from Apple. We're exploring some other techniques, but aren't ready to announce them yet. Q. How would you categorize your primary target customer? A. We advertise through many of the online advertising services like admob and whatnot. RIM has also featured us many times, as well. We've found that small businesses are using the service a lot, and Real Estate Agents have been a great market recently. Also, many doctors are using our service. We're 99% effective in blocking calls, 85% effective in call lookups and it makes sense for most people to use our service. Q. How can people try out the service? A. There is a 7 day free trial, which is easy to get through App World, or by texting "myprivacy" to 74700 and we'll send you a link. Or you can also get it at privacystar.com. Q. How much does it cost? A. The service costs $2.99 per month, charged directly to your credit card. Right now we have a Special, for $12.99 you get 6 months of service. Q. What other features do you have? A. We just surveyed our 200,000 users and announced a new service called Smartblock. Every week, we will populate your phone with about 25 numbers that are known "spam" callers. These are all numbers from our user base. We provide that to all customers over the air. One other feature that we've announced is Do Not Disturb. This is like an auto-reply for phones. The call will automatically go to your voicemail, and you can have it send a text back to the person letting them know that you aren't avoiding that person, and does it without your intervention. We've also found that 92% of our customers say they would like carrier billing. We're hoping within 30 days we can offer this service. We're well down the path with the largest carriers out there, and should have it out soon. We're also looking to add real-time caller ID lookup. It's been asked for a ton, and we've got it under development. Q. How many calls are you blocking? A. We are blocking approximately 1 million per day. Unblocking a number is just as easy as blocking. Just go to the person, choose remove, and the person will be able to call you again. Q. What countries does the service work in? A. Right now, it works in the US and Canada. We have users in other countries, but they don't get the complete experience like call lookup. We're were fortunate enough to be one of the 11 apps at the RIM WES conference, and we had a number of people want us to have the service available for them in their country. Some didn't have DNC lists, and are getting as many as 15 telemarketing calls per day on their cell phone. Q. What services are you working on for the future? A. Our focus will be on VOIP and traditional wireless phones. 97% of people said there is a need for the service, and we're hoping to get the service out to as many phones as we can. We want every consumer that pays for their phone to be able to control it. Recent Press Release First Orion Announces New Features for PrivacyStar BlackBerry App
SmartBlock Leverages Crowdsourced Data to Proactively Block
Nuisance Calls and ‘Do Not Disturb’ Automatically Texts Callers With
Away Message CONWAY, ARK – June 08, 2010 – First Orion today announced new features to its popular PrivacyStar BlackBerry app. The powerful, yet easy to use application providing unlimited call blocking and reverse caller lookup now has a SmartBlock feature that takes the top blocked numbers from amongst PrivacyStar subscribers and proactively blocks them across its entire user base. A new Do Not Disturb feature allows users to redirect callers to their voicemail while simultaneously sending them a text message acknowledging their call. PrivacyStar’s new SmartBlock function takes the top blocked numbers the PrivacyStar community has blocked and automatically blocks them across its network of subscribers. Now PrivacyStar subscribers can keep known nuisance callers from calling them by selecting SmartBlock in their settings menu. The list of blocked numbers that make up SmartBlock is kept current in accordance with PrivacyStar user activity. PrivacyStar users will also be able to share the numbers of nuisance callers with their friends. Once an unwanted call is received the PrivacyStar subscriber can choose to include that number in their Privacy List and send that number in an email to a friend. This is particularly helpful when dealing with debt collectors who often target the numbers of an entire family. For BlackBerry users who want a break from calls, but do not want to block them entirely, PrivacyStar’s new Do Not Disturb feature forwards all incoming calls to voicemail while sending a text message to the caller. PrivacyStar subscribers are able to create their own customized text message. “Our new SmartBlock feature helps our customers avoid harassing callers before they even receive the first call,” said Jeff Stalnaker, CEO of First Orion. “Along with the new ability to share the numbers of nuisance callers with friends and family and the Do Not Disturb text message option we aim to consistently grow our portfolio of privacy services.” PrivacyStar provides comprehensive and unlimited call blocking. BlackBerry users can block individual numbers, entire area codes or enter any combination of digits for a truly personalized service. Telemarketers who transmit a string of random numbers or ‘spoof’ their number in an attempt to fool caller ID can also be blocked. All blocked calls can be managed, including unblocking, from a personal web portal that is automatically synced with the device. PrivacyStar remains the first and only mobile app that captures detailed information about possible telemarketing violations including date, time, number and identity and makes it easy for users to supply this information to law enforcement authorities for investigation.
PrivacyStar Features and Benefits
About First Orion Category:general
-- posted at: 4:06 AM |
Tue, 22 June 2010
Tiered data plans and what they actually mean for consumers. We go
through the latest word from each of the major US carriers, and break
down what they mean by "Unlimited." Also, how much data do you really
need, are data tiers a good thing, and how AT&T plans to meter your
usage with its Femtocell.
Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show. Category:general
-- posted at: 9:00 AM |
Tue, 8 June 2010
The iPhone 4 is official, and the Sprint EVO 4G is out. We’re going to
break down both for you and have podcaster extraordinaire Michael Manna from T4Show here to help.
Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show. Category:general
-- posted at: 9:00 AM |
Thu, 3 June 2010
It’s no secret that I am a huge Slacker Radio fan, and tout the service
any chance I get. As other platforms like the Blackberry gain station
caching functionality, i knew it wouldn’t be too long before it came to
the iPhone. Well, the wait is over, and version 2.0 of Slacker Radio
for the iPhone has just been approved by Apple and can be downloaded
through iTunes on your computer or Apple device. Users of other
Operating Systems can also listen to Slacker through dedicated apps, as
the company has support for 5 different OS’s.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW WITH PHOTOS Category:general
-- posted at: 4:21 AM |
Thu, 3 June 2010
In July of 2009, CDMA Blackberry users finally received a Blackberry
that stood up to their GSM counterparts. The Tour brought with it a lot
of great enhancements over the previous CDMA Blackberries, but was
quickly overshadowed by the announcement of the new GSM Bold in late
2009. Sprint and Verizon customers had to wait, but finally have a
Blackberry that they can be proud of, with the Bold 9650. Just
released on Sprint for $200 with 2 year contract and mail-in rebate.
The Blackberry Bold used in this review was provided by Sprint.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW WITH PHOTOS Category:general
-- posted at: 2:18 AM |
Tue, 1 June 2010
Constantly on the lookout for things that make my life easier, it seems
that with every new gadget I buy, it makes things more complicated.
Charging is one of the primary issues I find when traveling, and try as
I might, I just can’t seem to find a way to have fewer cables in my
bag. USB charging always seems like a great idea, but then you either
need to have a laptop with you to charge from, or some sort of
alternative. When Zagg came out with the ZAGGsparq, a battery block of
sorts that allows for 2 items to be plugged in and charged
simultaneously, I was encouraged by the concept. However, issues with
the first generation ZAGGsparq slowed it’s rollout earlier this year.
The new ZAGGsparq 2.0 is now out, and for $99.99, this may be the right
portable power solution for you.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE REVIEW WITH PHOTOS Category:general
-- posted at: 12:18 PM |
Tue, 1 June 2010
A show dedicated to the Crackberry fanatic. With new hardware out there on Sprint, we've got expert Kevin Michaluk to talk about it all. Visit TCPJ Unlocked and click on "Subscribe to Premium Content" to sign up for the show. Category:general
-- posted at: 9:00 AM |
