Local access in 45 countries

Together with our phone number provider Localphone we can now offer local access in 45 countries with Android and iPhone apps. The iphone app has been out for a while and finally a week ago the Android app was released.
We have tried it out and I am pleasantly surprised by the sound quality.

Currently available countries;

International number

With the new international number, Inum, we just got we had a spike of visitors and a few unsuccessful calls. It is not that difficult. Call in, enter PIN before the beep, don't wait for it, finish with # OR call in, wait for the beep and then speak to be anonymous.
I made some calculation. Inum is 12 digit numbers, if I got it right it's 12*12^10=743 008 370 688 available numbers. With a world population estimated to 6 876 600 000 it is possible for every world citizen to get their own number, even with a growing population.
Imagine if Inums vision come true, all world carriers and service providers made Inum numbers free to call or at least call to a cost of a local number. Then we all would be much closer together.

I like the idea of softwares and services provided for personal use for free, it is not that I am cheap. Yes, I got a computer running Linux but I also have a Windows and Mac, all for different purposes. Free software give more people a chance to evolve, specially in poorer part of the world. I am more likely to purchase softwares offered for free, maybe with limitations, for my more demanding needs or for my business.

What is web present?

Twice the last couple of days I have heard that a website is not necessary, they are on facebook.
First from a selfemployed in the music industry, he manage all his correspondence with clubs, record labels etc. on facebook. Maybe that works in the music business, I don't know. The seconed time I heard it was from a small business owner, "we don't see the need of a website or blog because we have a facebook fan page."
What is this about? Cheapness? Lazyness? Overestiamtion of facebook? Or maybe just stupidity?
Or maybe it is I missing something, after all I live in a internet intense world. As I see it a facebook page is great for business, as a compliment to a website. You can send small updates to friends and follwers and if you respond to comments you can have a good interaction with your fans and clients.
But a website is where you present yourself and your company, you can have a blog if you would like to say more than, what should be a short, status update.
Prospective investors, partners, clients and maybe suppliers would like to see more of you than what fits on a facebook fan page I can assure you.
This is an intresting phenomena, but not what I was supposed to write about today.

We see an steady increase of visitors, but not the same trend in users, one have to ask why? Is it something to put your voice on the internet that is scary? In writing people can say the dumbest things and people are not strangers to say less thoughtful things on the phone. I both have made and received calls from bars in the middle of the night. But I have learned from my mistakes, someone sent me this a few weeks ago, Drunk Dialing Rules, good reading if you are a frequent drunk dialer, and I have sat up a new account for myself here with a feed that does not appear in the Public feed, that way I can call in when I feel the need and if it still sounds reasonable in the morning I mail a link to the proposed receiver.
So let's hear it, what is on your mind?

News

Feels like the fall came early to Sweden. After the tropical weather we have had this summer I shouldn't complain. But if we are hit by a tropical hurricane I may start grumble a little.
There is an upside with the rain. We get some things done. The news so far;
As asked for, a new profile setting. You can now choose to have your private public, but not show up in the public feed. This means you can post a call, link it to a social network of your chose, like facebook or twitter and your fiends are able to share your thoughts without signing up. However, anyone searching for you is also able to see your posts. it's only the posts to public feed that are taken away.
Another news is ability to post links, this of course come with responsibility and risks. Posted links to sites with pornography and other sites mentioned Terms will be erased and the profile deleted. Safety first - Before you click on a link you should hoover over it and check the status bar at the bottom of the browser window that the link takes you where it says it will. Another whay to do validate a link is to right-click on the link, choose copy shortcut, copy link location or similar, depeding on browser, and paste it into the address bar. When you paste it it will show you the real address. If it is valid just hit enter, if it's suspicious press esc. Try it on the link Terms above.
A third news is ability to comment anonymous post, just for fun.
We have also rearrange some things on the sites to make it more user friendly.
Still to do and what we are working with is show posts in local time zone, right now it show UTC time although it say CET which is not correct.
I finish up with confirmation to my earlier blog entry. Wyclef is indeed running for president in Haiti. I root for him, if USA have had an actor for president, California has a bad Austrian actor for governor, why couldn't Haiti have a singer for president? A singer that already done a lot for the Haitian people.

Summer is over... Soon

Finally vacations are over. Well, I have been working for a month, but the rest of the staff is back and we have start planning the comming improvements I told you earlier.
A lot of people around the world still have vacation. Especially in here in Europe where, in many countries, we have 4 or 5 sometimes even 6 weeks vacation per year. And when you are away on a trip somewhere you can have alot of use for postacall.
Sure you can always write on facebook or twitter how nice your day were, or you can make your friends really envious by calling in and post a voice message with the sound of waves and clinking bottles in the background while you having a Margarita on the beach.
Social media wise it has been an exiting week. If someone did not know about Wikileaks earlier they sure do it now. Being a Swede I have to say something about there location, whether they are based in Sweden or not I leave unsaid, they have contributors from all over the world. But they do have there servers in Sweden, because we truly believe in the freedom of speech and freedom of press.
Not only the freedom of speech that suites the government.
And there is a rumor going that Wyclef Jean will run for president in Haiti, still just a rumor, but we will know next week when the candidacies will be registred. I vote for him if I could. During my lifetime has no man worked so hard and done so much for so many people in need.

Back to reality

Back from Mexico with some new ideas, both for mer personal, but more important some improvements for the sites.
Small things like more privacy options, but also to keep better track on the anonymous calls that we really want to hear.
When you see the possibilities of the service we offer we could start having some real fun.
Later we will add some more features and call-in options, but that will have to wait. Stay in touch with us and see what will happen the coming year, we have an exiting future a head.
I see more and more "call in your feed" services show up, but still there is non as comprehensive as we are.
Sign up and see for yourself, we won't spam you. If we ever send out an e-mail it is because some serious changes on the site, privacy or terms. Eventually we will probably have a newsletter, but for now we keep news in the blog or Administrator goes out with it and you can read it in the Public feed.

An oh so late note

I am sitting in the pearl of the Pacific, Mazatlan, Mexico.
My toes in the water and ass in the sand looking out towards Bird Island with a cold beer
in my hand. It is good to be me.
It is not good to be my colleagues sitting at home trying to keep the site up.
My phone died, the be honest everything technologic died when I came to Mazatlan, cell phone,
notebook and internet connection began malfunction. You are not supposed to be working here.
so I can't post any regular calls, but hopefully I can get some nice photos for you.
Tomorrow Mexico is meeting France in the world cup and that's always an exprience.
Mexican really lives and dies with their team.
I see the tides are rolling in, so it is time to hit the waves!

Hasta luego!

A two week retrospect

We made some small changes for a smother use and better integration with other sites.
I have understood that some people have missed the point with what we created here,
what makes us different from the rest. To quote a friend who had an epipheny;
"I can see it now, I really get it. To hear the voice of someone... it's great!"
And that is the core of our service, you call in your message and then you have the option
to post a link to your facebook or twitter accounts. Or you can use a 3rd part like twitterfeed
or service of your choice and feed your RSS to your preferred sites. You find the RSS-feed
under the tab "My posts"
The text and upload photos is just extra, nothing unique with that, we build the site
around the possibility to record your spoken message and spread your voice to the world.

Launch!

Welcome to a new way to keep your friends updated.