Less Than 25 Random Things

Lots of things to catch up on, so I'm going to be brief with each topic.

- Favorite new iPhone app = Feeds. It's a free app that syncs Google Reader with all of its regular functionality (sharing, making favorites). Also integrates with Instapaper. I never use Instapaper, in most places I have good 3G coverage if not WiFi so don't really need it. I've heard other people rave about it.

- What is going on with the Facebook boom? @HowardLindzon says it's because misery loves company. He calculates a direct correlation between unemployment and Facebook growth. Could be. The growth I see is in my unlikely middle aged friends. Not tech or social media savvy, but they've discovered it's a great way to keep in touch with generations of friends using minimal effort. Suddenly there are 25 Random Things we know about people we haven't seen since high school.

- I haven't seen a Kindle 2 in the wild yet, but it was introduced this week. Some people love it, but it wouldn't be worth it for me. I admit to doing almost all of my reading online these days, like all information junkies. Google Reader is my Kindle. The books I read are for classes I'm taking. I'm reading "The Future of the Internet - And How to Stop It" for a Computer Ethics class. Worth reading. And it's available for the Kindle :)

- I had some frustrations with Bank of America this week, and after pressing one and two and speaking to people who were robot-like, twittered "Bank of America please help me!". They tweeted a reply with a request for my phone number, and I got a call from "from Ken Lewis, the CEO's office" at Bank of America. I was sure it was a joke, until they gave me the return phone number to call him back. They are doing a big Twitter PR effort (to combat other negative press we all know about) and fixed my issues very quickly. Twitter is the best way to solve customer service issues. I did the same with FiOS and after 3 pre-tweet visits (where the problem always returned the very next day), the tweet led to a high level support person who came to fix things. The problems never returned.

- The New York Times says we need a "New Internet". Interesting reading.

- Curious about the growth of the Mobile Monday group on Linked In. They seem to be adding 100 new members per week (a lot for a Linked In group). 3800 members so far.

- SlideRocket is terrific. I've been using it more and more, and think that unless you are a very talented PowerPoint artist, Sliderocket is everything you need.

- Another great cloud based application I've been using is LovelyCharts. This is something most people use Project for, but for a simple impressive flow chart, it is so much easier.

I don't think we need a New Internet. We've put so much time and energy into the old one.