Tim de Jardine | Entrepreneur

Ninja Cat Technique Revealed - Neatorama

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:24:46 +1300

Ninja Cat Technique Revealed - Neatorama

Apple Shoots Past Nokia As World’s Most Profitable Handset Vendor

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:21:25 +1300

Apple Shoots Past Nokia As World’s Most Profitable Handset Vendor

The best GTD App for the iPhone

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:05:12 +1300

What is the best GTD tool for the iPhone? for many of you GTD’ers this is an important question! I have been through a myriad of apps and here is my opinion below:

After using Things, Omnifocus, Todo, Toodledo and many more, I have realised there is no perfect solution. One thing we have to understand is that you will have different requirements for your task management.

For me the two that stand out equally are Things and Omnifocus.

There are however a few aspects to consider before purhasing.

Simple Task Manager:

If you are looking for a simple to use GTD task manager, I would recommend Things

Stay in Sync in all Areas:

Things and OmniFocus both can use Mobileme to stay in sync effortlessly.

Desktop Version:

One of the most important aspects, this allows me to GTD from anywhere at a greater speed. Things and Omnifocus both have desktop versions.

Ease of Use:

Things is by far the easier to use than Omnifocus, which takes a few weeks to learn.

Advanced GTD:

Omnifocus is much more powerful than things with its advanced filtering, contexts and location based GTD.

Personally I am using Omnifocus and finding it the best for me. Omnifocus is a powerful tool that integrates seamless with Omnifocus for MAC. It meets all my needs. However I would also recommend Things, it is just as powerful if not as scalable.

Underbelly: What startup bloggers don’t tell you

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:42:15 +1300

Underbelly: What startup bloggers don’t tell you:

Interesting article on advice from those “a-listers” in the startup industry and the reality of running a small business

About Me

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:56:00 +1300

As an Entrepreneur I build tremendous value by producing products that solve real-life business problems. I have a talent with the ability to see an industry, take in the big picture, find out the gaps in that industry and create a product that fills the gaps. I only operate at the world-class level.

When I launch a product it makes a splash on the international stage.

I currently work as a VP-Product and Director of 8Interactive, an iPhone development company for business apps. We are working on our first app FeedMe, a content delivery platform for Publishers to create an audience on the iPhone and deliver content to their pockets. Its about engagement, creating brand equity and monetization.

To find out more about working with me, please send me an email to tdejardine@gmail.com

How to create a killer iPhone app

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:14:00 +1300

There are now 100,000 apps in the iPhone store. Most of them are junk. Some are good, but very few are excellent.

The problem with the app store is it is so intriguing to developers. Many poor souls live on the myth of quickly releasing a nice toy app and making boatloads of money.

Toy apps are cheap knock off games like farting apps or funny jokes. These joke apps are typically used for <5 minutes and never used again. The myth of the developer who writes an app in the lunchtime, releases it to the app store for $.99 and then reaps the reward is truly an outlier case. Have a look in the app store, most apps are just junk and they are not being purchased.

When the iPhone first came out it was just a race to see what could be done. Any cute toy got attention. Now with saturation starting to kick in you need to stand out. To stand out, you need to solve REAL world BUSINESS problems.

Why do I advocate business apps over consumer? The reason is as the iPhone moves into the enterprise a demand for these will only increase. Business people pay $ for apps, consumers don’t want to.

I don’t buy or play games in the iPhone. I don’t have time. The only apps I buy are ones that save me time, such as OmniFocus, TomTom, NetNewsWire or Dropbox to name a few.

So, before releasing an app consider these questions:

Does the app solve real life problems?
Is their a problem to be solved?
Will the app be used every day?
Is there a market for the app already? (if so how saturated is it)
Will the app have a proper mobile experience (take a look at CRM’s for an example of how not to create a mobile experience).
Who are your competitors? (Purchase all the apps in your space and study them)
Are your competitors making money?
Does the app help the user save time?

These are a few pointers to get you started. My point is this: its not child’s play. The days of cute toy apps are fading fast as people wake up and decide how they can use this platform in a useful and effective manner.

What works for you?

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Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:59:03 +1300

via whi.s3.prod.lg1x8.simplecdn.net

The Different Types of Twitter User

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:50:00 +1300

There are many different types of ways to use Twitter and this has lead to different types of user behavior. Some people tend to have a pattern in how they user twitter, I have summarised patterns I have observed below:

The I am so busy, but I am on twitter user

This user tweets about how busy they are e.g “3rd Meeting of the day and its only 9am!!”

I am cooler than you user

This user uses social networks to justify how cool they are and make you envious. E.g “just checked in business class, cos thats how I roll”

The Link Junky

This user tends to only Tweet links and not get involved in conversations

The Literal User

This person uses twitter to explain what they are literally doing e.g “at work”, “at home” or ”on the can”

The ReTweeter

This person retweets every link they see mainly from “A-list” twitter users.

The Prolific Questioner

This user asks questions. Only questions.

Hashtag Overuse Syndrome

This user can’t get enough of hash tags e.g “Had a great day today #I am so cool #crushit #greatday”

The Ghost

Drops off the face of the planet for 6 months then returns to twitter

The Flash in the Pan User

Does 20 tweets in the space of 1 hour then never uses the service again

What are the other types of Twitter users you have encountered?

This post is for you the young ones -watch out for stale bread

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:59:01 +1300

This post is for you the young ones -watch out for stale bread:

Experience does not equal success, Experience does not equal knowledge and Exprience does definitely not equal judgement. Just because someone has “25+ years” experience in XYZ field does not…

Crush it! the next book you should read

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:29:07 +1300

Crush it! the next book you should read:

Gary Vaynerchuk has just launched his first of many books and it looks fantastic. Watch the presentation above by Gary and see his passion, knowledge and tips to…

Video promotion is underutilized in the startup world

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:00:08 +1300

Video promotion is underutilized in the startup world:

Video promotion is one of the easiest way to pitch your product to a wide audience. It is also a very valuable tool to portray your message. One of the biggest mis-conceptions about video is that…

What is your companies hedgehog concept? An important but often overlooked statement about your business

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:08:30 +1300

What is your companies hedgehog concept? An important but often overlooked statement about your business:

An important but often overlooked strategy for your business is a hedgehog concept. Originally coined by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, the concept deals with what you are best in the…