My Internet Gadgets

Aplikacja pomaga znaleźć dobrze strzeżony i tani parking obok dowolnego lotniska w Polsce.

2017-02-12T10:33:00.000+01:00

Od pewnego czasu korzystam z aplikacji NaviParking, dzięki której mogę znaleźć w Polsce tani i bezpieczny parking w pobliżu lotniska.
Aplikacja zarejestrowanym użytkownikom umożliwia w ciagu paru sekund rezerwacje miejsca parkingowego na wybranym parkingu. Wypróbowane parkingi można dodać do listy "ulubionych" i jeszcze bardziej skrócić proces rezerwacji parkingu w przyszłości.
Płatności dokonuje się na miejscu przy wjeździe na parking lub po powrocie z podroży odbierając samochód.
Ceny parkingu w zależności od pory roku mogą być nawet poniżej 50zl za tydzień co w polaczeniu z bardzo tanimi i wygodnymi lotami Wizzair umożliwia bezstresowe i tanie wakacje lub podróże służbowe.

One-click parking reservation at Polish airports

2017-02-12T10:11:00.000+01:00

One of the problems while traveling by plane is finding cheap and safe parking close to your airport of departure.
Since a few months I use NaviParking app which helps registered users making one-click parking reservation at the car parks located near every airport in Poland
In the app you can keep all your favourite car parks including the contact details what is very convenient the day of traveling.
You don't have to bother about payment: you pay when you arrive at the car park or after returning from your trip while collecting your car. Weekly rate for parking can be as low as 10 euro making my travels by my favourite low cost airline Wizzair very affordable.

Customer Experience Management at Avero Achmea needs urgent improvement: my customer journey story

2015-06-04T15:06:00.000+02:00

While attending TMForum Live conference in Nice where Customer Experience Management gets lots of attention I would like to share my Customer Journey I experienced with Dutch insurance company Avero Achmea which clearly demonstrates that some insurance companies can learn a lot from telecoms in the field of Customer Experience Management.
When on 14th April 2015 I decided to sell my life insurance and called Avero Achmea advisory department I was informed that due to a very busy time I should expect a letter from Avero Achmea, with all required documents to submit my request , within a few weeks. This was the first bad surprise: why do I need to wait so long for a simple document with value of my life insurance? The letter I received on Saturday 25th April was dated 21st April.
On Monday 27th I sent the documents including copy of my passport to Avero Achmea counting on receiving money a few days later. As I haven't heard from Avero Achmea for two weeks I called Avero Achmea to find out that: yes they received the required documentation on 30th April BUT they have a huge backlog and I will have to wait for my money for a few weeks. This was the first shocking experience for me: why it takes that long to process a simple request. After my remark that when Greece will leave the eurozone the stock prices will go down and I will loose lots of money because of such a long processing time on Achmea side I was told that actually my shares were sold the day Avero Achmea received my request so I should not worry.

A few days later I got a letter , dated 18th May, from Avero Achmea :

Dear Mr Stawinski, recently we received information about your Life insurance. We aim always to respond within 10 working days. Unfortunately in this case we will not be able to do it.
When you will receive from us our response ?

Within 4 weeks you will get from us reaction. Thank you for your patience

Do you still have questions ?

Please contact our intermediar

Best Regards

Jack Hommel

CEO

This letter in my case was completely out of context. I am sure that Jack Hommel is not aware that his name is misused to sign such completely meaningless letters which clearly show they are printed in thousands without addressing any specific situation of the customer. I am just waiting for payment of my money, I do not need advisor. I only need information about amount I am going to get and when.

My customer journey hasn't finished yet. Yesterday I used the complain form on Avero Achmea portal and wait for the response and for my money.

As former Chief Architect at ABN Amro Bank and UPC I am sure that Avero Achmea urgently needs help of ICT Architects to improve the Customer Experience Management and can take advantage of developed by TM Forum CEM frameworks.

Google Uber partnership a serious threat to local taxi businesses

2015-04-21T22:11:00.003+02:00

A week ago I arrived by Thalys in Paris and used Google Maps to find out how to get to my hotel by public transport. To my surprise, I saw Uber mentioned at the end of the list with the information that I can expect an Uber ride in 13 minutes, with the expected costs of 13-18 Euro. My travel time would be 36 minutes, 20 minutes less than by metro.

I still decided to take a metro, for just 1,8 Euro, which is relatively cheap in comparison with London’s metro.

Last Sunday I arrived at Heathrow Airport and used Google Maps to figure out how to get to my hotel at the airport by public transportation. Again at the end of the list Google Maps informs you that Uber can take you to the hotel for just 5 pounds arriving in four minutes. On my way back Google Maps informed me that Uber would pick me up in two minutes and I could get to the airport in 12 minutes for just 8 pounds.

This is extremely appealing as the official taxi price at the hotel is 18 pounds and Uber can pick you up without practically any waiting time! Providing Uber information in Google Maps requires the integration between Google Maps and Uber platforms.

How can local taxis compete with Uber in these circumstances?

Do local taxi companies have a chance to be listed on Google Maps even if they manage to digitise their business? Even if they are listed, can they offer competitive prices?

I am afraid that the answer to both questions is NO. It means that there is no bright future for local taxi companies facing joint competition from Google and Uber. This case is very interesting in the context of the EU Google antitrust case as it looks like in the digital platform era The Winner Take It All

My 10 month old MacBook Air refused to boot

2015-02-15T11:53:00.000+01:00

Last week during my business trip abroad, I started my day with a not working MacBook Air. It just refused to boot. I could see the light on the back side of the monitor and that’s all. This is the last thing you would expect from a 10 month old computer.

On the Internet I could find some magic key combinations helping me to recover it from this frozen state, but nothing worked. The fact that I was one of thousands of MacBook Air users experiencing the same problem did not help with my frustration. I had to give it back to my store for repair and face ca three weeks of waiting time..

I got the impression that the Apple quality is much worse than during its early days, and the fact that it takes so long to solve such a problem is very frustrating. I had to buy a new MacBook Air model and the only positive experience was that Time Machine has fully restored all my data from the Airport Time Capsule.

The recent rumours about Apple entering the car business, and is “working secretly toward creating an Apple-branded electric vehicle” to challenge Tesla sounds like a fairy tale in the context of the quality problems I experienced with my laptop.

Watch out for low costs activity trackers sold by airlines

2015-01-31T13:28:00.003+01:00

Since my Apple shop visit in San Francisco in November 2013 I am an enthusiastic user of Fitbit.

It replaced my watch on the left hand and instead of the time I started watching the number of steps I made every day. I also discovered a very handy feature: the vibrating alarm which is very helpful to give you a discrete signal to notify you when you about to finish your presentation at a conference or meeting.

Yesterday after coming back from a business trip my wife proudly showed me the Nuband activity tracker which she bought on Wizzair plane for just half of the Fitbit price. A real bargain she said.

Unfortunately very soon we found out that the Nuband app is not working, we could not even connect the iPhone with the device and the sync up failed to execute.

After a quick research on the Internet we realised that we were not the only ones with a not working Nuband device. Most of them have been bought on a plane flying Lufthansa or Qantas. The iOS Keepfit+ app has no rating and since July 2014 had no updates. Android one has an average rating 2 which is very bad when compared to the Fitbit app which has a rating of 4+.

Be warned, don’t be tempted by wearables bargains at tax free airlines shops. I think that airlines should be much more careful while selecting their tax free assortment as disappointed buyers will blame them instead of the manufactures for their bad experience.

If anyone knows how to get a working Nuband replacement we would be grateful to hear from you.

Regarding Fitbit, I have just found out that they introduced a new model Fitbit Charge HR with Heart Rate monitoring which I was awaiting since I started using Fitbit to replace my Polar Heart Rate monitor.

iTaxi app helps to join New Year party on time

2015-01-01T19:09:00.002+01:00

Yesterday we were preparing for a New Year celebration. Around 22:00 PM my daughter started calling all taxi companies in Warsaw but without result. It looked like the whole Warsaw was on the way. To my surprise iTaxi app, I am using every time when I need a taxi in Warsaw, showed a taxi just one minute away from our home. Ordering a taxi was a matter of just one click. In this way my daughter and her two friends became new customers of iTaxi as they were very happy to join their party on time.

Will iTaxi be able to face the competition from Uber? Uber started its operations in Warsaw last August and I hope that iTaxi will not only maintain, but also increase its market share and it will be a very good alternative for those willing to pay more in return for a better travel experience.

I have just became a registered user of Uber app and will try the Uber travel experience soon.

Tourists in Poland lose money accepting payments in Euro

2014-12-27T09:25:00.000+01:00

Since my last post about "unfair" exchange rates offered by the Euronet ATMs, most of the payment terminals in Poland introduced the possibility of payments in Euro as an alternative to payments in local currency Polish Zloty. The Polcard terminals are labeled with encouraging slogans such as;

“Card payment in your currency ! OK ?"

"Kartenzahlung in Euro ! OK ?"

I have also seen DCC logo standing for Dynamic Currency Conversion, informing tourists about the possibility of payments in their own currency. It’ s all about the convenience of payments in the currency you are used to in your own country. Unfortunately this convenience, based on my analysis, can be very expensive.

In general accepting offered exchange rates by the payment terminals or ATMs means losing money. I decided to do a little analysis and collected all my payment transactions from the 26th of December using different payment cards and ATM’s. My analysis still shows that the worst exchange rate is offered by Euronet.

On 26th of December the official bank exchange rate reported by the European Central Bank was;

1 EUR = 4,3078 PLN or 1 PLN = 0,2321 EURO

On that day I was offered by Euronet 3,9123 Polish Zloty for one Euro, exactly 9,5% less than the official exchange rate.

On the same day Bank PKO offered 4,168803 Polish Zloty for one Euro which was 3,24% less than the official exchange rate and 6,5% more than the Euro exchange rate offered by Euronet.

I made two transactions using the payment terminals. While paying 108 Zloty for delicious hot chocolate and deserts at Wedel I was offered 4,1698 Zloty for one Euro (0,2397902 Euro for one zloty)

This was not bad as it was very close to the exchange rate offered by the PKO BP. The other terminal did not offer any Euro payment options and my own bank (ABN-AMRO) applied the following Euro exchange rate: 4,2895 Zloty for one Euro ( 0,2331 Euro for 1 Zloty). This was 3% more than the Euro exchange rate offered by the payment terminal.

As a tourist in Poland you should absolutely avoid the Euronet ATM. The question is how much you can actually lose withdrawing 2000 Polish Zloty at Euronet ATM in comparison with PKO BP ATM?

See below!

For 2000 Polish Zloty you would pay 31,49 EURO more using the Euronet exchange rate when compared to the PKO BP ATM and 40 Euro more than at the exchange office "kantor" at Hotel Metropol in Warsaw.

The best option is to pay using your own bank card, as my ABN-AMRO Bank offered by far the best Euro exchange rates. Reject Euro payment options offered by payment terminals and trust your own bank exchange rates.

NaviParking helps tourists find a safe and secure car parking space in Krakow

2014-04-26T23:22:00.001+02:00

Many friends told me that it's a real hassle to find a safe and secure car park in Krakow. This brought me to an idea to develop an app navigating tourists to 24H guarded and secure car parks close to the Main Square. I hope that NaviParking will become an indispensable app for all tourists visiting Krakow allowing them to fully enjoy their time there instead of wasting it on finding a car park they can trust.
The problem "where to park in Krakow" is solved :)

Euronet ATMs still the worst place for Euro (EUR) Polish Zloty (PLN) exchange.

2013-12-28T17:51:00.000+01:00

In my previous post I did not recommend tourists visiting Poland using Euronet ATMs service to convert Zloty (PLN) to Euro (EUR). Hoping that this has changed, over the last two months, I again withdrew Zloty from Euronet's ATM during today's visit in Warsaw. To my disappointment the offered Euro / Zloty exchange rate (1 EUR = 3.73 PLN) was again more than 10% lower than the official bank exchange rate reported by the European Central Bank ( 1 EUR= 4.15 PLN).

For 500 Zloty I was about to be charged 133.85 EUR. Obviously, despite of a clever program trying to change my mind (see the screenshots below) I did not use Euronet conversion service :) This was a right choice as my bank, ABN-AMRO charged me only 122.06 EUR!

Today the best Euro/Zloty exchange rate was offered by the exchange office "kantor" at Hotel Metropol in Warsaw. Those having Euro in cash could buy 500 Zloty for only 121 Euro.

This is how Euronet offers Zloty withdrawal with Zloty/Euro conversion

In case you decide to chose the withdrawal without Zloty/Euro conversion Euronet tries to change your mind :)

If you like to know how get most of value from Euro in Poland you might be interested in reading my recent post "Tourists in Poland lose money accepting payments in Euro"

How tourists in Poland can enjoy cheaper holidays

2013-11-09T22:56:00.000+01:00

In my previous post I described growing popularity in Poland of mobile payments and various initiatives, as IKO, challenging credit cards companies. The highest credit card transaction costs in Europe made mobile payments a very attractive option for both consumers and retailers.

In September Polish Parliament passed the amendment to the Act on Payment Services and as result from 2014 the maximum interchange fee of 0.5% will be introduced on all Polish payment cards

While Poles are going to take advantage from much lower , closer to the EU standards, interchange fees the tourists need to be aware of quite common practices of offering Euro payments, instead of Zloty, while using credit/bank cards. The offered Euro payment option comes across as something you at least understand and can trust. However it can be very expensive. How expensive I tried to figure out myself while using Euronet ATM machine in Krakow on 19th October 2013.
While withdrawing 500 Polish Zloty I was offered Euro exchange rate option. I neglected that option as I found the offered exchange rate too low.
A few minutes later, however, I did decide to use the offered exchange rate, as you can see in the attached receipt, 1 Euro = 3.775 Zloty (PLN), to find out how bad the offered exchange rate was.
Not choosing the Euro option was very beneficial for me: my bank ABN AMRO applied an exchange rate 4.1397 zl for 1 Euro and I only paid 120,78 Euro (including 2.75 Euro transaction costs) for 500 Zloty instead of the 132,4 Euro charged by Euronet.
According to ECB the official exchange rate that day was 1 Euro = 4.1808 Zloty. Using Euronet exchange rate you pay 10% more for Zloty than you should using the official exchange rate.

What at first glance came across as an advantage appeared to be a very expensive option.

I found the following statement on the Euronet receipt very interesting:

"I have chosen not to use the Mastercard currency conversion process and agree that I will have no recourse agains Mastercard concerning the currency conversion or its disclosure"

All in all you can enjoy your holidays in Poland for even 10% cheaper if you do not accept payments in Euro and rely on your own bank currency exchange rate, use the country's biggest ATM network of PKO Bank Polski or find a trusted specialised currency exchange office (kantor)

Lexus navigation disappoints , NaviExpert shines

2013-08-09T15:55:00.000+02:00

Recently I started to drive the Lexus CT 200h. This fuel-efficient hybrid car is really a pleasure to drive.

Before my travel to Poland - a week ago - I asked a Lexus dealer in Eindhoven to install the newest June 2013 update of the navigation maps, despite my experience with car navigations described in my previous post

To my disappointment I could not find a lot of places in Poland but it was not due to the bad maps. Apparently the Lexus navigation expects you to use the special Polish characters which was not the case in my previous navigation which I used in my BMW. It was explained to me by a very helpful and kind Lexus dealer in Krakow.

However the way the selection of special characters works is far from being user friendly. First you need to enter a proper sign and then a character on the second screen. I find this very inconvenient especially while you are driving; I believe that the way BMW navigation handles special characters find is much better and safer.

On the way back from Warsaw to Berlin I was completely lost when my navigation tried to “take me away” from the A2 motorway, as the navigation was not aware of the almost 100km A2 motorway between Warsaw and Lodz (Strykow) which has been opened in June 2012!

After finally recognising the A2 motorway the POI of the Lexus navigation could identify only ONE petrol station and NO parking places anywhere on the 400km A2 motorway from Lodz to the German border!

For that experience I “only” paid 180 Euro.

A good example of a very fast maps update is a Polish smartphone navigation NaviExpert which just two days after the opening of a new part of Expressway S2 connecting Warsaw with A2, was able to navigate me through this road to the A2. Fortunately I had enough smartphone navigation apps allowing me to drive the fastest way back to Holland.

This bad experience with the Lexus navigation only strengthened my believe, I described in my previous post, that the future of the car navigation systems belongs to smartphone based navigation apps.
The recent Waze acquisition by Google shows the importance of engaging driving communities in updating, real time, the status of the road conditions and providing the maps updates.

Convenience of mobile payments in Poland

2013-06-24T20:12:00.002+02:00

When you visit Poland you might be surprised with the number of mobile payments opportunities!
In my last post I wrote about the success of the IKO mobile payment app of the Polish Bank PKO BP.
There are however many more mobile payment opportunities...

While in Warsaw, I pay for the public transport using SkyCash. As a matter of fact you have a choice of three different mobile payments services: SkyCash, mPay, MoBILET. So far I haven't seen this many mobile payment services being advertised to pay for public transportion ticket as here in Warsaw.

This month Master Card Mobile has launched a special promotion offering public transportion tickets for 50% of the regular price! MasterCard Mobile is teaming up with several mobile payments services as SkyCash allowing you to also pay for parkings and cinema tickets. Unfortunately the current version of the MasterCard Mobile app only allows you to register with a Polish mobile number.

For over a year you can also buy Intercity train tickets simply using your smartphone giving you the option to pay with your credit card but also using a variety of mobile payment services. The ticket you can download on your smartphone as the conductors can read it using similar scanners as we are used to at the airports.It saved me a lot of time during my frequent train travels from Warsaw to Krakow.

At the moment most of the mobile services requires you to have a Polish mobile number, but as the volume of mobile payments in Poland is growing dramatically I expect that mobile services will soon be available for international visitors.

App replaces bank debit cards in Poland

2013-06-17T12:08:00.000+02:00

The Polish Bank PKO Bank Polski is the first one to introduce (in March, 2013) an app allowing mobile transactions, including ATM withdrawal, without a debit card. Two months after the app introduction over thirty thousands bank customers activated the app.

Last weekend, I for the first time withdrew Polish Zloty using the IKO app and issued my first IKO check to pay my friend for Katie Melua 'Cancer? It's curable' concert.
I cant wait trying more mobile transactions with IKO :)

On iTunes IKO got very high 4+ rating. This is how IKO app is advertised in Google store

“Make payments and withdraw money from ATMs with innovative PKO Bank Polski mobile application. Download IKO application now and see how easy is life without a wallet!

PKO Bank Polski application gives you access to fast and secure mobile payments. IKO allows you to pay with your phone in thousands of retail stores and make withdrawals in the Poland's largest ATM network. With IKO application you can also pay in online stores and send money to your friends giving only their cell phone number.”

Those concerned with security of such transactions I recommend a very good article in the Banking Technology Magazine “Wincor-Nixdorf predicts mobile cash withdrawal explosion” .

"There is an opportunity to make mobile banking even safer than internet banking is today" as stated in the article.

The mobile banking explosion is on the way....

BMW 320D EfficientDynamics beats Fiat 500 Twin Air in fuel economy

2012-10-28T21:52:00.000+01:00

Coincidentally, at the beginning of this year, both my wife and I started to drive new cars.

We selected new cars based on fuel efficiency, a "green car" with Energy Label A. Ania was “sold” when she saw the Fiat 500 Cabriolet. I was long awaiting the BMW 320D EfficientDynamics February introduction.

This car with an eight-speed automatic transmission has an amazingly efficient engine. My average fuel consumption over the last 46000 km, indicated by the board computer , is 4.6l /100km. No wonder that it got a 10/10 Green-Car-Guide rating!

Unfortunately, while my wife was enjoying the Fiat 500 driving and its beauty, its fuel consumption was very disappointing. Average fuel consumption reported by the board computer over the last 2500km is 7,2l /100km !

I decided to test both cars myself on the motorway between Best and Amsterdam (111km in total) during a very relaxed traffic conditions ensuring no traffic jams and allowing constant speed between 90 and 110km/h.

The BMW fuel consumption was amazingly low. Far below the technical specification !

The board computer indicated 3.2l /100km but based on the fuel refilling the calculated fuel consumption was 3.93l/100 (average speed 98,2km/h)

The Fiat 500 lost the competition . Indicated , by the board computer fuel consumption was 4.2l, based on refilling data 4.6l despite lower speed adjusted to minimize constant fuel consumption (average speed 86km/h )

BMW fuel costs (6,77 Euro) were 32% less than the cost of the benzine consumed by Fiat 500 (9,96 Euro) !

As I can recommend BMW 320D EfficientDynamics as the best green car in this category I definitely discourage everyone, expecting low fuel consumption, from buying Fiat 500 Twin Air.

It looks like I am not the only one experiencing very high fuel consumption by the Fiat 500 Twin Air. If you Google for “Fiat 500 Twin Air High Fuel Consumption” you will find hundreds complains.

In “Eco warrior: Fiat 500 Twinair” you can read “

“But if the drive had been fun and a convincing demonstration of the 500′s ability to be genuine allrounder, it did expose one of the 500 TwinAir’s major weaknesses – fuel economy”

Real World Car Fuel Consumption v Official Figures describes a case of a Fiat 500 Twin Air driver complaining to BBC about high fuel consumption “he was regularly getting 35mpg and couldn’t understand why when Fiat claim that the 500 will return 68.9mpg as a ‘combined’ figure with up to 76.3mpg on the ‘extra-urban’ cycle.”

My wife complained about the high fuel usage to the Fiat dealer in Eindhoven but she was informed that if this problem is known already on the Internet they can’t do much about it

The only way to put pressure on car manufactures is to start collecting real fuel usage from consumers themselves and publish fuel usage statistics. Smartphone apps open this opportunity and I expect that consumers, very soon, will be able to confront car manufactures with real numbers, not as individuals, but as driver communities car manufactures won’t be able to ignore anymore.

In the meantime I hope Fiat will provide my wife with advise how to drive Fiat 500 Twin Air economically.

Yesterday (17-11-2012) we agreed with the Fiat dealer at Pietersbergweg in Eindhoven a one week fuel consumption test starting 27-11. However I do not expect much from this, as the dealer confirmed that the fuel usage stated in technical specifications are based on the labs tests and the real-world fuel consumption figures are much higher. The dealer referred to much higher fuel usage by their Fiat 500 Twin Air show model making only 12km on one litre (8,3l per 100km !) .
I agree that the real-world fuel usage can be higher than measured during labs tests. But 80-100% higher usage is misleading consumers and if this is the case Fiat 500 Twin Air should never get a Green label and Dutch tax benefits.

Another great running day

2012-10-21T18:34:00.000+02:00

This morning was a lovely Indian Summer. I was running at my usual place, a natural park close to Eindhoven.

When I started my run iRunner was reporting unusually high heart rate and, soon after, gave me a warning about malfunctioning sensor. After a few tries the problem was solved and I could continue my run.

It reminded me about my frustration caused by Suunto T6 heart rate monitor,for which I paid at the end of 2007 350 Euro ( more than 500 US dollars !), reporting also unusually high heart rate without, however, any additional information to help identify possible problems.

Now 5 years later, for less than 70 dollars (including smartphone application) , you can enjoy much more intelligent heart rate monitors with far more functionality.

Since I received a replacement for my broken Wahoo sensor ( thanks to a very good service from
i-Mobile.nl in Rotterdam) I take two belts for running, Polar H7 and Wahoo Blue HR, not to spoil my running by a broken device.

Apple navigation ideally compliments my BMW one

2012-10-13T22:56:00.000+02:00

After iOS 6 and iPhone 5 release Apple got lots of negative publicity about "imperfect new Maps app". I was not under that bad impression after experiencing missing motorways and tunnels on Google maps. As described in my previous post I got very enthusiastic about the Google navigation which I use regularly , especially given that the traffic information is much better than on my BMW navigation .
This spring, while driving from Berlin to Poznan and enjoying the recently opened motorway in Poland, to my surprise, this motorway was missing on Google Maps. Apparently Google missed 200km new motorways opened just before the European 2012 Soccer Championship in Poland & Ukraine which was reported in Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s leading newspaper.

The tunnel “Leidsche Rijntunnel" on A2 between Utrecht and Amsterdam opened in February 2012 did not appear on the Google Maps until summer. Now my Nexus S indicates approaching the tunnel with adjusted brightness on the screen. Apple navigation, the first few days, was also lost in the tunnel.

I am looking forward to the intelligent maps which can much faster respond to the changes. This should be possible by effectively using the location data provided by telecom operators or navigation apps providers.

Telefonica's recent announcement about “big data" analysis service demonstrates such opportunities. I am positive that soon, the location data will be released real time allowing fast updates of navigation maps.

As I enjoy great iPhone integration with my BMW the Apple Navigation is a perfect addition to my BMW Navigation. Apple turn-by-turn navigation can be seamlessly started to bring me to the address found in my email or contact list without a need to start BMW navigation.
The missing map on my BMW large screen or heads-up display is the only disadvantage.

Soon, I hope that the traffic information in Apple Navigation will be as good as the Google one and new BMW integration software will enable displaying Apple Maps on my BMW screen and heads-up display. At that moment Apple will take BMW navigation over :)

Smartphone-based Heart Rate Monitors not easy to troubleshoot

2012-08-10T18:52:00.000+02:00

Bluetooth Smart 4.0 enabled new generation of Smartphone Heart Rate Monitors.
As described in my previous post I was very enthusiast about the Wahoo Fitness iPhone BlueTooth Heart Rate Belt until the last week the iSmoothRun App indicated much lower heart rate I used to have. This was the first indication that something was wrong. My first idea was that it was a bug in the App, introduced after a recent software upgrade,causing the problem.
When no heart rate was shown on iSmoothRun App and number of other "jogging" Apps I was experimenting with, I started to look on Internet to find out about known problems with the Wahoo device. I came across a very good troubleshooting instructions on MyDigifit site which I recommend everyone to follow in case of problems with Smartphone based heart rate monitors. Through this I learnt about MyDigifit jogging app MyRunner. When even with MyRunner and my wife's iPhone 4s the Wahoo sensor did not work I knew for sure that the device was broken. On Amazon I came across number of complains about not working Wahoo device including "dead on arrival" cases. That's why I decided to order the Polar H7 Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Sensor and give it a try.
Unfortunately, as Smartphone based heart rate monitors include at least three components (sensor, smartphone, application) from often different vendors, it takes quite a lot of time to troubleshoot any problems. It would help if a vendor independent, certified by third party, diagnostic app would be available on the market to help diagnose such problems as I described above.
While enjoying the Polar Sensor I am looking forward to the Wahoo response to my complain and hopefully a new Wahoo belt will arrive soon.

Smart Bluetooth Turns Smartphone Into Heart Rate Monitor

2012-06-24T00:02:00.000+02:00

Almost a year ago I described my experiences with my first iPhone heart rate monitor based on
the Wahoo solution which replaced my Suunto device. As the iPhone does not have a native ANT+ support the solution requires Wahoo ANT+ dongle that you need to attach to your iPhone to receive heart measurements from the Wahoo Heart Rate Chest Strap. At the beginning I had to experiment with different apps supporting the Wahoo device as my favorite app MapMyRun+ was very unstable. I tried RunKeeper and iSmoothRun.

Unfortunately after jogging in Krakow a few weeks ago I lost my Wahoo dongle and was forced to buy another one. I was just about to order a new Wahoo dongle on Amazon, for 79,95 USD, when I came across the newest Wahoo heart rate monitor, for almost the same price! I bought the Wahoo Blue HR Heart Rate Strap for iPhone 4s that was introduced in January 2012 which is based on the Smart Bluetooth 4.0 and is not only much cheaper, than the total Wahoo solution including the strap and dongle, but also much more convenient to use. It does not require a dongle anymore as it relies on the Smart Bluetooth support introduced in the iPhone 4s.

It is interesting that on the package Wahoo states that it is a "Wireless heart rate monitor for iPhone 4S and other Bluetooth Smart Ready Device" which reflects Apple leadership in adopting new wireless technology. Apple introduced the Smart Bluetooth 4.0 support in most of the new products including iPad 3 and Apple TV. About potential of this new Bluetooth technology you can read in 9to5mac

My first experience was great, I didn't have to worry anymore about the dongle that is so easy to lose. The best app seamlessly supporting my new heart rate monitor is iSmoothRun

At the moment the following smartphones are 'Bluetooth Smart Ready' (have Smart Bluetooth 4.0 built in):

iPhone 4s,

Motorola Droid RAZ

Samsung Galaxy S3

To turn one of the above smartphones into heart rate monitor you need 'Bluetooth Smart Ready' Heart Rate Chest Strap.

I found the following 'Bluetooth Smart Ready' Heart Rate Chest Straps on the market:

Wahoo Blue HR Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Strap

Polar H7 Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Sensor

I advice every runner owning the iPhone 4s to buy the Wahoo Blue HR Bluetooth 4.0 Heart Rate Chest Strap or Polar H7 Bluetooth Smart Heart Rate Sensor

After just a few weeks of enjoying the Wahoo Blue HR device it stopped working and I decided to replace it with the Polar H7 Sensor. You can read more about this here.

According to a recent report from IMS Research "Bluetooth Smart is expected to be the most utilized wireless technology in sports and fitness devices shipped in 2016" and some 10.3 million Bluetooth Smart enabled consumer medical devices will ship between now and 2016.

You can expect a lot of new innovative smartphone applications enabled by smartphones with native support of Bluetooth 4.0 and ANT+ wireless technologies.

The total list of Bluetooth Smart products you can find here

Enjoying BMW apps

2012-06-09T21:51:00.000+02:00

Since a few month I drive a BMW Efficient Dynamics 320D.

While I was selecting a new car I was looking for a "Green Car" with sufficient engine power and a car which enables easy integration with my iPhone.
As I wrote in my previous blog, car manufacturers should innovate to support seamless integration with smartphones and tablets. BMW, as a part of the ConnectedDrive vision,
introduced BMW Apps in March 2011. After a few weeks of driving experience with the use of BMW apps I am convinced that BMW will be able to combine the two best things in the world: the best car technology and great iPhone experience.

From the very few available BMW apps

I like the Web radio the most, which allows me to listen to my favorite Polish news station Talk FM and the best Business News Radio Dutch 'BNR Nieuwsradio'. You can also post tweets or update your Facebook status by using car data such as outside temperature or location. BMW promises many more apps soon.
Hopefully the BMW iDrive platform, co-designed with Apple, is going to be open to third parties developers which should result in many new applications.
BMW started cooperation with third parties to get new apps on the BMW platform. The first one certified is AUPEO which my daughters like very much. It is a pity that Spotify is not yet integrated with BMW iDrive.
I expect that BMW will also start to cooperate with other companies such as airlines resulting in great BMW apps improving further travel experience.
What about an app that will inform you about your delayed flight or one that will send you a notification regarding available seats on the next flight that you would have to consider due to bad traffic?
That sounds like a far away future but I have no problem waiting as even without the apps BMW's driving experience is far above my expectations and the fuel usage is really very low: over the last 20000 km my average fuel consumption was only 4,8l per 100km (58.85mpg UK, 49mpg US) despite enjoying often the sport driving mode.
The BMW uses at least 20% less fuel than Audi A4 Avant 2.0TDI I was driving for the last three years.
It is also much more economical than the most sexiest small car of 2011 Fiat 500 TwinAir turbo my wife bought recently with average fuel consumption a bit less than 8l p 100km (35.3mpg UK, 29.4mpg US). This small FIAT got plenty of design awards but at the same time on Internet you can find lots of complaints about its abnormal petrol consumption.
Imagine what kind of car could be produced if German technology would be combined with Italian design !

Another advantage of BMW Apps is that you will never have problems finding your car back, you carry your BMW parking location with your iPhone.

There is a risk, however, that some drivers would like to update their Facebook status or tweet while driving therefore my recommendation is to disable those applications when the car starts moving.

No Android 4.0 upgrade for "Android iPhone Killer" bad news for Android

2012-02-20T22:52:00.002+01:00

Samsung Galaxy S was my first Android phone I could not resist to buy after positioning it as an "Android iPhone killer" . As an iPhone fan I wanted to have an unbiased view of the Android phone capabilities versus the iPhone experience I got used to so much. In this way it became my second smartphone, not counting my office blackberry which is for me a necessary evil to do my work. I described my experience with the Samsung Galaxy S in a number of recent posts.
Not working applications as Skype, compatibility problems and a very painful experience with Samsung Kies software,used to upgrade Samsung Galaxy firmware , demonstrated everything BUT an iPhone experience ! That was a reason I decided to give Android another chance and decided to buy a Nexus S which in many ways addressed shortcomings of the Samsung Galaxy S.
The recent Samsung announcement which says that the Samsung Galaxy S will not get an Android 4.0 upgrade is not only bad news for more than 10 million Galaxy S users but it also demonstrates a much bigger problem I wrote about and was hoping Google would address:
huge fragmentation of the Android market encouraging the smartphone manufactures to do their own software customizations which are costly to maintain and demand so much from the smartphones CPU that software upgrade cannot be done without a risk of impacting customer experience. The second one is the official Samsung explanation for not supporting the upgrade. In this way Android 4.0, with so many new features as, long awaited, data usage monitoring program preventing users to exceed their data plans and be confronted by high data roaming costs will not be available to millions of users just 16 months after the phone introduction !
In my view the only assurance to have the newest Android version on your smartphone is buying the Google phone, like Nexus S. All other smartphonesmanufactures will stay far behind in offering the latest Android version on their phones due to a significant effort required to make new versions work on their hardware. Unfortunately Google missed the opportunity to become for Android , what Microsoft is for Windows. Lack of Android standardization will make smartphone innovation very costly, pushing Android smartphone manufactures to a low margin commodity market. Motorola acquisition will for sure not help but make position of current Android smartphone manufactures even worse. No wonder that more and more smartphone manufactures are looking for cooperation with Microsoft to offer Windows phones. I think that the recent success of Nokia Lumia 800/900 and public statements, as from HTC CEO Peter Chou, about the newest HTC windows phone Titan II "This is my personal device,” will help to accelerate a move towards Windows OS. I am sure that due to a very mature Windows release process and the software standardization the smartphone manufactures can focus on what they do best : hardware innovation The users of Windows smartphones will enjoy Windows experience and features coming with new Windows versions for years.
I strongly believe that this year will be a spectacular year for Windows smartphone manufactures and Windows mobile platform will for sure find its way also in enterprises.
Soon we can expect news that "Windows iPhone killer" is coming as the iPhone is for sure not going to be killed by Android as there is no such a thing as an "Android experience" and it is the user experience that counts.

European Union follows US Open Data strategy

2011-12-29T21:57:00.005+01:00

In March 2010, I wrote about the importance of "opening" government and enterprises data to smartphone application developers. I referred to the US Open Government initiative, which was launched on December 8 2009 hoping that the EU would follow this example. The European Commission's December 8th Press Release on launching the “Open Data Strategy for Europe” was great news, especially given that the US has already demonstrated the value of opening the governmental data. On the US Open Government portal you can monitor the number of developed (smartphone) applications using the public data and the progress made so far.

The Open Data Strategy is expected to “deliver a €40 billion boost to the EU's economy each year”. I don't think it is too optimistic. The Open Data will accelerate the speed of innovation in new smartphone applications saving energy consumption and the European citizens' time. It will dramatically increase the transparency (read efficiency) of governmental institutions and enable enterprises and SMEs closer collaboration in the spirit of Open Innovation.

However, it is a long way to get there. The US was in a much better position to start freeing the governmental data thanks to a very mature Enterprise Architecture of Governmental Institutions as a result of the Clinger-Cohen Act. In the European Union an equivalent of the Clinger-Cohen Act still needs to be designed and implemented. The good news is that there are already a number of Open Data initiatives in Europe such as "hack de overheid" which in Dutch means "hack the government" welcoming and supporting the Open Data Strategy.
The Open Data was an important topic during the first European Commission's Innovation Convention which I had an opportunity to attend. Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman Google mentioned in his keynote speech the importance of making data available to SMEs enabling innovation. I found his message to politicians "to start operating from facts, from data. Not from some political view or traditional view.." very remarkable. He stated that that governments own more data than Google! In this case, the quote from the press release “Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a goldmine of unrealised economic potential” is not exaggerated.

The Innovation Convention has demonstrated, that in the middle of the European debt and Euro crisis there is a lot of potential in the European community and institutions which can by unlocked through innovation and opening the data. It is very reassuring that Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes emphasized her commitment to ICT's driven innovation and Open Data Strategy in her New Year's message.

I am positive that Enterprise Architects will play a crucial role in making this happen.

Kindle helps to master yoga during the retreat in Goa

2011-12-10T20:35:00.007+01:00

I just came back from my first yoga retreat in Goa. I and my wife Ania were following, for two weeks, daily yoga classes with Mark Robberds in Purple Valley. We started our Ashtanga Yoga journey in December last year. For me, going to India was a logical step to master Ashtanga. I found Purple Valley on the Internet and the moment new yoga classes were published I booked our November retreat. It was a great experience: both the place and our teacher far exceeded our expectations. We are already planning on coming back.
At the beginning of the retreat Mark recommended some books. Despite of the quite shaky Internet connection in the Valley I managed to download The Mirror of Yoga by Richard Freeman. Other iPad owners followed my example and started to use Kindle and enjoyed benefits of instant access to Kindle books.

For me this yoga retreat was, like the Kilimanjaro climb six years ago, a real breakthrough in my lifestyle. The Kilimanjaro climb made me run every week for at least 10 kilometers. Hopefully after this yoga retreat I will start training yoga every day. Some other retreat attendees will join enthusiastic iPad Kindle readers.....

It's time for Green Mobile Data initiative

2011-10-22T19:53:00.003+02:00

After bad experience with blocking my Nexus S by Vodafone due to high data roaming costs I closely started to monitor the data usage on my smartphones.
3G Watchdog application installed on my Nexus S and Samsung Galaxy gave me a good view on data usage per application. I also found out that even when you do not use your phone for the whole day running in a background applications still generate a significant data traffic.
One of the most data hungry application is Google Navigation which I have on both of my Android phones.
It counts for ca. 5MB data traffic a day during home office drive. It is a lot of data considering that my Nexus S was blocked after using just 7.5Mb for which I was charged 55 Euro (ca 75 USD) !. It is also a lot of data considering the recently introduced data plans by mobile operators in The Netherlands starting with 100MB a month.
According to Nielsen research Android users in the U.S. consume ca 20% more data than iOS users (582 MB versus 492 MB). Android platform does nothing to make users aware of large data consumption. iPhone iOS has at least a system parameter Mobile Network Data showing total ammount of data traffic.
Users of Android phones are advised to install data monitoring applications as 3G Watchdog. The success of 3G Watchdog application (1,000,000+ downloads !) shows urgency of the high data usage problem.
Google responded to it by introducing a new data usage application as a part of Android Ice Cream Sandwich which will be delivered with the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus in December. According to the official Google blog
"Ice Cream Sandwich gives you complete control over the amount of mobile data you use by helping you better understand and manage it".
I believe that it is time that both smartphone and application designers are encouraged to follow the principle of minimum data usage while delivering the same functionality and customer experience.
Google navigation in off line mode, using smart caching or “traffic information only” mode would reduce the data traffic at last 10 times.
It is time for introducing data usage labels comparable with eco labels in automotive industry.
Android and iOS platform designers need to think how to contribute to lower data traffic and equip the platforms with features helping the smartphone users to reduce data consumption like BMW auto start stop function which turns off the engine at traffic lights to reduce fuel consumption.

Data traffic is directly linked to energy consumption both on smartphone side as telco operators.
In my view introducing Green Mobile Data labels will dramatically reduce the smartphones data traffic and eventually save lots of energy. Otherwise data tsunami due to growing cloud popularity is inevitable.
It’s time that smartphone users realize that they can contribute to lower energy consumption and the future sustainability by lower data consumption. The Green Mobile Data initiative supported by smartphone industry and application developers will help consumers to make a right smartphone choice.
I am looking for a new car at the moment and one of the characteristics I am looking for is a green energy label. I hope I can do the same choosing my next smartphone and the future applications.
For now,also from the data usage perspective, iPhone is my preferred choice.

We keep iPhone 4S today 20th October till 15:00 for you reserved

2011-10-20T20:36:00.005+02:00

This was SMS I received today from T-Mobile, one day before the start of iPhone 4S presale and a week before iPhone 4S launch on 28th October in The Netherlands
It was very tempting to take advantage of T-Mobile offer and be one of the first iPhone 4S users in the Netherlands. However I and my whole family decided already to wait for iPhone 5!
My daughter Karolina traveling with Semester at Sea around the World sent me already a reminder to stop her T-Mobile subscription before her return late December to be ready for iPhone 5 introduction.
I liked T-Mobile initiative to reward loyal T-mobile iPhone customers by giving them opportunity to get new iPhone model one week before iPhone 4S launch in the Netherlands.
I count on having the same opportunity for iPhone 5, hopefully, beginning the next year.