EQO Community - Mobile VoIP

Check Out EQO's Fa-Bus-Pa on Facebook's Glo-So-Net

jho — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:51:15 -0700

So, there’s this great new social networking tool I stumbled upon recently called “Facebook”. If you haven’t already checked it out, you should definitely give it a try – it’s pretty cool. In addition to having your very own profile with all your friends on it like you can on MySpace, they also let you create business pages to promote your products and services, which I took the groundbreaking liberty of doing today.

Ok ok, so EQO’s been a little bit slow with promoting ourselves on Facebook's Glo-So-Net thing (...global social network/ing – I coined it right here and now), but that’s just because we wanted to put together an awesome Fa-Bus-Pa (Facebook Business Page???), filled with all things EQO Mobile VoIP Free Mobile IM & Free Texting Related.

Well actually, what would make it even more awesome (though there’s some debate this may simply not be possible), would be for you to go and visit EQO’s Facebook Page, and not just become a fan (we know you waaaaaaant to), but also become a contributor. We’re always looking for product feedback, new feature ideas / suggestions, or anything else you think anyone would find interesting.

Check it out today! Don’t be one of the last people on Facebook...to join EQO’s Page.

EQO CEO Bill Tam at next week's Dow Jones Wireless Innovations event, Redwood City, CA, April 22-23, 2008

jho — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:30:58 -0700

Webster’s dictionary defines innovation as:

in·no·va·tion ɪn əˈveɪ ʃən/ Pronunciation Key –noun

1. Mobile VoIP, text messaging and FREE IM with EQO.

2. the act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods.

Well #2 is probably the more accurate definition while I await Webster’s response on #1's definition suggestion.

Why is EQO at this year’s Dow Jones Wireless Innovations conference in Redwood City, CA, at the Sofitel, San Francisco Bay, April 22-23, 2008, you ask? Open Opportunity, and Turning Mobility Into Profitably (very clever) – of course!

The website told me that last year brought many changes to the wireless industry that will forever impact how people use their wireless devices. Apple introduced the iPhone; Google announced an open mobile operating system; even carriers and handset makers declared their openness. But how much is hype versus reality? Such changes will ultimately affect not only carriers and device makers but start-ups and investors, opening up increasing possibilities for revenue.

To help both VCs and entrepreneurs get a view of the innovations and opportunities that will emerge in 2008 and beyond, Dow Jones VentureWire is putting together an impressive group of speakers, including individuals from some of the major carriers, CEOs from 70 of the most promising mobile start-ups (most notably our own mobile god, EQO CEO Bill Tam) and, of course, some of the leading investors in the sector (show me the money!).

Come catch Bill Tam April 22, 2008 between 3:05-4:40 PM in Salon 3. That’s right, he only needs just over an hour to tell you about how EQO is one of the fastest growing Mobile VoIP players (and the most AWESOME) in the industry, how we are adding tons of new users everyday, and by this humble blogger’s opinion – how our monetisation model has the makings of Forbes-type-recognized success.

If you are in town next week soaking up all that Redwood City has to offer (I know, there’s so much to do…) – Wireless Innovations is a must-see!

More on working smarter from 37Signals

chris — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:50:07 -0800

Since reading and blogging about Getting Real, I've become more interested in what 37Signals has to say. I've started perusing their Signal vs Noise Blog from time to time and have found a couple more gems worth sharing.

The first post that caught my eye was a response to Jason Calacanis' now infamous post on how startups can save money. I had already read what Calacanis has to say and found it to be generally good advice. If you want to get the most out of people, you should indeed set them up for success. But I was irked by the same point that David at 37Signals was, that Calacanis recommended firing non workaholics, and was interested to read the response post Fire the workaholics. Clearly there is a happy medium, but I found that I generally agreed with the 37Signals point of view, that working smarter not longer should be a priority. This is clearly a heated topic near and dear to people's hearts, exemplified by the outrage at the original post. Just read the comment stream to see how sensitive a topic this really is. Clearly there is a need to work hard and put in extra hours from time to time, but some of the studies mentioned in the comments talked of the effect working long hours can have on motivation. It seems that, in the long run, more hours to a point does not equate to increased productivity. It's counter intuitive, but then that's psychology for you.

The second post that I fell in love with was this one about Questioning your work. It lists a series of questions to ask yourself before embarking on a new project or even when starting simpler tasks. If you are really doing the right thing, the answers to these questions will confirm that. But if you are undertaking folly, asking yourself these questions will help you realize it. What are we doing and is it worth it? What else could I do that might be better than this? Is there an easier way to do this? I will surely ask myself these questions and others like them more often in the future.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Motorola going down hill...

chris — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:43:43 -0800

Two years ago I was kinda sad when I ended up with a Motorola V635 and not a RAZR as my personal phone. RAZR's were so freaking cool back then, but they generally sucked from the nerdy technical point of view. Just try running EQO on a RAZR V3 and you'll see what I mean, slow... I was really happy with my V635 when I got it. It was way better than my circa 2002 Audiovox (colour screen!) and made calls just fine. It wasn't until I got my hands on some other high end phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson that I realized just how greatly Motorola phones paled in comparison. Motorola pulled off a marketing coup with their four letter 'almost a word' naming scheme, featuring RAZR, SLVR, PEBL, KRZR, ROKR, RIZR and so on. It seems that the consumer community has gotten over the then cool RAZR form factors and voted with their dollars because Motorola's phone division isn't doing so well. Who'd a thought better qualities products would sell more?

The news today is that Motorola is actually splitting off it's phone division from the rest of its business, a move many see as protecting the successful business from the phone division's inevitable failure. I'm not really surprised by this and I don't recommend that anyone buy into the pending IPO of Motorola Mobile.

UPDATE: Wow, didn't know it was this bad!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Samsung and LG beta testers needed!

chris — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:16:57 -0800

We at EQO are in a continual pickle when it comes to Samsung and LG phones. We would love to support them all, but there are just too many for us to get our hands on. To make matters worse, neither have developer programs that are of any use. Thank you Nokia and Sony Ericsson for being so helpful!

We currently only support a small percentage of the estimated 47 billion different Samsung and LG models out there and we need our user's help to support more. If you are interested in helping us support your phone, please send us an email to beta@eqo.com providing your phone model, country, and mobile service provider. If we think there is a chance that EQO Mobile will work we'll help you try EQO, which will hopefully lead to us officially supporting your phone. Helpful beta testers will have the chance to win EQO Prize Packs, in addition to the tremendous honor of being the first to use EQO Mobile on a particular model. We thank our users in advance for their kind efforts and hope to hear from you soon!

Cheers,

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Symbian Beta Version 1.2.1

chris — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:19:17 -0800

We have released version 1.2.1 of the EQO Symbian Beta for Nokia Series 60 3rd edition phones. This version alleviates many of the "Memory Full" errors that our testers were getting. This problem may not be solved for people with over a thousand contacts, but the general population should be much less afflicted. Problems with the symbol table for text entry persist on some phones. Affected users will surely realize right away. We have addressed this bug, but the fix didn't make it into this release. Version 1.2.1 also contains many other minor bug fixes that make this release faster and more stable.

When upgrading to the latest version of the Symbian Beta it is a good idea to remove the old client first before upgrading to version 1.2.1. There are some issues with upgrading over the old version, be warned. Get the latest version from our Symbian Beta page or by visiting get.eqo.com/symbian on your mobile browser.

Thanks again to all of our testers and please keep the great feedback coming in our Symbian Beta Forum. After this next Beta period, we'll be announcing the winner of the EQO iPod Shuffle!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

The Future of Mobile

chris — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:04:43 -0800

Here at EQO we have a giant mobile phone library consisting of just about every type of phone imaginable. Us lucky employees get to try everything and take our pick. My mainstay to date has been the Nokia E61i, a Symbian, wifi enabled, full keyboard super phone that's as functional as it isn't sexy. Lately, I've been carrying the iPhone in my leisure time while still using the E61i at work (EQO doesn't run on the iPhone, yet). I must confess that I now love the iPhone and loathe switching back to the E61i every day. While the iPhone isn't technically more advanced than my E61i, it is supremely better to use. This giant leap in mobile experience got me thinking about the future of mobile in general. Now that calling/texting, mp3 players, cameras, push email and so much more is ubiquitous, what's next?

1. Web on mobile, not mobile web. Thanks to iPhone, I can now use the web, the real web, on my phone. The real web differs from the mobile web (scaled down versions and bad interfaces) in that it doesn't suck. In the future, all phones will be like iPhone in that the web experience will not suck. The proof is in the hits, Google is finding out.

2. GPS will bring us killer location based services. Google Maps Mobile can now tell me roughly where I am and tell me about nearby businesses of the kind I am looking. Soon enough, I'm expecting my phone to tell me stuff without my asking it:
Phone: Hey Chris!
Chris: Yeah, Phone?
Phone: There's a bar 30m ahead then 20m right that your brother-in-law Erik loves. Try the Scottish Ale.
Chris: Thanks phone, I'll check it out.

3. Real Applications. The mobile app market is growing and improving, but is only exploited by the brave few technical souls willing to suffer with installation and connection problems (generally caused by the near sightedness of mobile operators in general). With the advent of open platforms (Android) and the web on mobile (not the mobile web!), developers will be able to easily build and distribute applications to wireless devices. I'm expecting to be able to do all that I do on my PC, much of which is increasingly web based, on my phone, just as easily.

4. Real Usability. The traditional phone interface at its basest level presents a list of contacts with some options. Generally, this is where people spend 90% of their time even though their phones can surf the (mobile) web, play music, take pictures, and then some. The iPhone was a great leap in usability. It's the most discoverable phone I've ever used. Technopeasants can easily figure it out. I believe the iPhone affect on mobile usability perception will enable the majority to take advantage of what phones can technically already do, beyond calling and texting.

5. Media Factories. We are seeing this now. The most potent of phones are media factories, but again only for the technocracy. Currently, it is too challenging and/or costly for most people to shoot video and beam pictures around. This will change. Facebook mobile image uploads are just the beginning. Lifecasting, live reporting, photo diaries, and the like will become easier to produce and distribute.

6. Modu. While I hate pre announcement hype videos that don't tell you what the product is going to be, I must say I was pleasantly surprised to find out about Modu. Modu is essentially a next generation SIM card, a SIM card that makes calls. As a SIM card is to a phone, Modu is to all other electronic devices. I'm eager to see what they have in store for their modular gem.

7. Real VoIP. There are many mobile voip services out there, including a bright shiny orange one from EQO. None are truly the equivalent of Skype on a PC. Services using wifi aren't truly mobile, not until wifi covers the world and handoff is perfected. Services using 3G connections still require a contract with a mobile operator. All other VoIP services provide a cost benefit via other mechanisms. Existing mobile voip services are great, but they are only steps towards pure voip.

iPhone is the best mobile I've used to date that makes powerful mobile services usable. I'm not just saying that as an Apple fanboy, I really believe its the best phone ever. I can't wait to see how the rest of the industry will respond to its brilliance. One thing is for certain, things are looking up for the consumer.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Forget about last week's Oscar's - the SPIFFY Awards are TOMORROW!

jho — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:41:04 -0800

If you’re like me, you yearn for an awards ceremony that truly means something. After all, exceptional achievement deserves exceptional recognition. This Thursday – tomorrow night – from 5:00-7:00 PM, is one of those opportunities. It is with great honour and pleasure that I announce that EQO has been nominated for a prestigious SPIFFY Award!

The SPIFFY Awards recognize the most outstanding telecommunications start-ups in Silicon Valley, as judged by the members of the Service Providers Forum (SPiF) of the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley. The SPIFFY's consist of 8 award categories (nominees are listed on the event website):

The Edison Award for Most Innovative Start-Up
Ground Breaker Award for Engineering Excellence

The San Andreas Award for Most Disruptive Technology – This award is for the most game-changing startup to present at the SPiF meetings. It is offered to the company whose progress is most likely to disrupt markets, and change the way people do things – SOON TO BE EQO’s!!!

The Fred & Ginger Award for Most Supportive Carrier
Graham Bell Award for Best Communication Solution
The Core Award for Best Fixed Telecom Opportunity
Prodigy Award for the Most Successful SPiF Alumni
The Zephyr Award for Best Mobile Opportunity

If you’re in the Bay Area tomorrow night, make sure to get your hands on some last minute tickets as it promises to be an exciting night. Just think – in just over 24 hours you could be watching our resident hero, EQO CEO Bill Tam, gracefully accepting this year’s San Andreas Award! I have exactly the same amount of time to finish getting ready for the exclusive SPIFFY Awards party that I host at my pad every year... Sorry folks, this one’s by invite only.

For more information on this year’s SPIFFY's, visit the Telecom Council's event site.

EQO Symbian Beta Version 1.2 Released

chris — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:15:38 -0800

The eagerly awaited second version of our EQO Symbian beta has arrived. The first beta yielded much excellent feedback and we thank our kind testers for all their hard work. We've tried to incorporate as much of what we heard as possible into this next version, although 1.2 is still a beta with issues of its own. That being said version 1.2 is greatly improved and offers:

Enhanced stability and performance.
Predictive text and text input status notification.
IM stability and bug fixes.
Contact search filter.
Other good stuff I can't think of.

When upgrading to the latest version of the Symbian Beta please make sure to remove the old client first before upgrading to version 1.2. There are some issues with upgrading over the old version, be warned. Get the latest version from our Symbian Beta page or by visiting get.eqo.com/symbian on your mobile browser.

Also, there is a major bug in version 1.2 that we are aware of and are already fixing for the next release. On some phones, opening the Symbol table for special character input causes the app to crash. I imagine you'll find out rather quickly if you are affected or not.

Thanks again to all of our testers and please keep the great feedback coming in our Symbian Beta Forum.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO's New Facebook Application: Vibrator!

chris — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:57:17 -0800

I am pleased to announce that EQO has recently released its first Facebook application. It probably isn’t what you would expect, but it’s a fun application that will likely appeal to those who like Pokes.

Our app is called Vibrator and it lets you send your friends Vibes. Vibes are like vibrating pokes with fun messages and animations. Vibes can be sent between Facebook users, but EQO users have the option of receiving Vibes on their mobile phone. For example, if I sent you a vibe your phone would vibrate and you would see that “Chris sent you an I told you so Vibe!” We have lots of fun Vibe types, but you need to earn some of them by sending enough Vibes.

Please give it a try and let us know what you think! We are interested in your feedback and would love to know how you think Vibrator could be better and what vibes you might be interested in sending to your friends. And never fear, we have some other Facebook features in mind that are more communicative in nature. Also, props to Handi Mobility for developing Vibrator with us. They do great work and I highly recommend them.

Please try Vibrator and, while you are it, you might as well join the EQO Facebook group!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Come see EQO at Mobile World Congress this week!

jho — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:22:46 -0800

It's that time again! Second only to Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa and Chinese New Year's momentous annual events, 2008’s Mobile World Congress (formerly GSMA, now MWC) officially began in Barcelona today.

For those of you who don’t know, this event combines the world’s largest congress for the mobile industry with a leading-edge exhibition that showcases the very latest developments in mobile from around the world (I know, I couldn’t be more excited too!!!).

The Mobile World Congress, which runs from February 11-14, 2008, is the premier event for the global mobile industry, which is why of course that EQO is in attendance again this year! If you happen to stop by the show this year, make sure you come look for our local hero, Bill Tam (of current esteemed EQO CEO fame). He’ll be doing the rounds at the show and would love to talk to you about all the cool and exciting new things that are happening at EQO right now -- like our brand-spanking new awesomely-cool first Facebook application: EQO Vibrator (the name says it all...REALLY).

We also officially announced the GLOBAL expansion of our award-winning Mobile VoIP service at the show today. What does that mean for you, the EQO blog reader? Well, if you don’t already have EQO now couldn't be a better time to get it – no matter where in the world you are. If you already have EQO, make sure to tell all your friends who couldn’t access our voice service (and cheaps texts, and free IMs) in the past that they can now get up and running.

Also, just a reminder to you all that Valentine’s Day is this Thursday – if you’ve forgotten to get your sweetie something like I tend to do every year – be sure to check out MWC if you’re in the area. If you’ve ever been to a huge tradeshow like this, you already know there’s is tons of free swag to be had that would serve as great last minute gift ideas... nothing says loving like corporate branded promotional items.

Lastly, in case attending MWC doesn’t float your boat – and if you live in and around the Vancouver area, today is also the last day to attend the Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships in Whistler, BC, featuring men and women competing in Downhill and Super Combined events on the new Wild Card/Jimmy's/Lower Franz's course – which I highly doubt will be anywhere near as exciting as what’s happening at MWC.

Good times at Facebook Developer Garage

chris — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:35:01 -0800

On Monday night I hit up the local Facebook Developer Garage to demo an as yet unreleased EQO Facebook project called Vibrator. It was good times and really cool to hear the guys behind such widely installed apps as Hockey Pool and Are You Normal? share their knowledge. I definitely took something away from them towards making our app better. I also realized that I have an injured Sidney Crosby on my Hockey Pool roster...

My favorite app presented was Eat-a-Rama, a Yelp-style Google Maps mashup for restaurant ratings. It shows you restaurants within the map you've chosen and also shows ratings and reviews for each restaurant. The killer feature here is the ability to see what restaurants your friends have rated, adding an element of trust. I added the app as soon as I got home. The interface of the app is very slick and user intuitive, which was nice when it came to adding my favorite restaurants to their listings. My three favorite restaurants near my house weren't listed yet, weird. Don't worry folks, I've added the only three good restaurants in Cloverdale. The good news is you now know where to eat if you are ever in the hood. The bad news is that you would be in Cloverdale.

Another interesting presentation was that by Garth Shoemaker. His app, I'm Reading, was pretty sweet. I wasn't really into it because I get enough recommendations from people I talk to in real life that my "to read" pile is substantially large. I also don't need to show everyone how smart I am through books I've read, which is only moderately smart seeing as I count Harry Potter amongst my favorites. What really got me interested in this guy was his "protect the internet" rant urging us to be good netizens. He likened apps like Vampires and Zombies to the scourge of the internet. He urged us to be conscientious when releasing Facebook applications that might annoy him and other self righteous computing science graduate students. I imagine he wasn't a fan of Vibrator either. Personally I get a kick out of simple apps that are really just a bit of fun. Sending a SuperPoke! or biting a chump is a social interaction I liken to a physical nod, smile, or shove. These acts means something and if people want to do digitally do such things to eachother, who is this guy to say they shouldn't?

When it came time to present Vibrator I was rather more nervous than usually I would be in such situations. I generally consider developers to be amongst the smartest people in the world and I find presenting our app to them a bit intimidating. My nerves weren't aided by the error Facebook tossed me the first time I tried to do anything. I'm convinced it was Facebook's fault and not ours... The next action I took was error free, no harm no foul. Vibrator was received with the usual laughs and skepticism, but the proof will be in how many people end up using it. I hope lots.

All in all it was a good night. I learned much from the other presenters and from presenting myself. It was great to see the Handi guys, who helped build Vibrator, and ex EQOer Ash of PeerGlobe out there. Miss604 has a great run down of the whole night on her blog; I also was quite hungry. Looking forward to the next one...

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Pivotal 700MHz auction begins tomorrow!

chris — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:02:19 -0800

This is a topic near and dear to our hearts here at EQO. As you may well know, the FCC is auctioning off a chunk of the 700MHz spectrum previously used for analog TV channels 53-59 (those channels will now be digital). The FCC is doing this so they can make billions of dollars and their interest, as far as I can tell, is purely financial. The 700MHz spectrum is ideal for wireless in that signals travel further and penetrate obstructions better. The owner of this spectrum could set up low cost, high service availability, and fast wireless network that could change the face of the American wireless industry, which is generally considered a laughing stock compared to the rest of the modern wireless world.

The front runners to win this tasty bit of frequency are Verizon (evil) and Google (awesome). Verizon would likely use the spectrum to buoy their own position in the USA by offering services only slightly better than those of their competitors with little to no improvement in usability or feature innovation. On the other hand, Google is rumored to be planning a free (ad funded) and open wireless network that would turn the wireless industry on its head.

I'm surprised at how little press this is getting considering the magnitude of the implications, but then maybe I'm just a dreamer. In any case, the auction begins and, sadly, we can't follow it, but Engadget will tell you all you need to know. We should know the results in a couple of months and favorite to win, based on no personal bias whatsoever, is Google.

Long live Googletel!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO Symbian Beta is here!

chris — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:17:35 -0800

The EQO Symbian Beta is here! This version differs from our J2ME version in that it is built natively for Symbian Series 60 3rd edition phones. The Symbian version offers many improvements over the J2ME version, but is also still a little rough around the edges being a beta and all. Since you are all my great friends, feel free to use my promo code "chrisr" for some extra sign up credit.

Get started on our Symbian Beta page and learn all about it. If you do decide to give the Symbian Beta a try, check out our Symbian Beta Forum for the latest news and bug reports. Users that fill in our Symbian Beta Survey will have a chance to win an EQO iPod Shuffle!

Supported Models:
3250, 5500, 5700, 6110 Navigator, 6120, 6121 classic, 6290, E50, E51, E60, E61, E61i, E62, E65, E70, E90, N71, N73, N75, N76, N77, N80, N81, N82, N91, N92, N93, N93i, N95

Cheers and thanks for testing!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO Finishes 2007 Strong

chris — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:03:52 -0800

It's been a crazy and intense year at EQO, much like the first. As we near our second birthday, things are really looking up. Our traffic has gone through the roof in December, which seems to indicate that our efforts of the past year are starting to pay off. Thousands of people are signing up for EQO everyday now and we are busier than ever! Alexa has a great graph of our wonderful traffic boost, which I blame on our recent bug fixes, increased platform support, and more and more countries being added all the time.

Cheers to a great year and here's hoping for the best in 2008! Thanks to all of our great users who stuck with us through the "challenging" times and helped us with bug reports, beta tests, and feature suggestions. We've got a lot of great stuff planned and already in the works, so please stay tuned.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Funny Video about Facebook

chris — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:43:51 -0800

Saw this on TechCrunch this morning, a funny video about Facebook on Wallstrip with Lindsay Campbell: http://www.wallstrip.com/2007/12/17/12-17-07-facebook/

SuperPoke!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Looking for Sagem Beta Testers

chris — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:34:14 -0800

We are working on adding Sagem phones to our supported list and are seeking keen beta testers to help us get their Sagem phone supported. The minimum requirement is that your Sagem phone support J2ME MIDP 2.0. If you are interested in using EQO on your Sagem phone, please send an email to chris@eqo.com and we'll get you started. Successful beta testers will be rewarded with $10 of free EQO Credit and chance at the illustrious beta tester of the month prize!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

VoIP Interveiw with Bill Tam

chris — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:32:55 -0800

I know what you are thinking, how many podcasts with Bill Tam do you have to listen to? The answer is five, but trust me when I say that this is the best one ever. This one, "Bending the Needle" with VoIPUser, has new stuff about our plans to bring mobile VoIP to the social networks. You should probably check it out and then peruse the Bill Tam podcast archives for your listening pleasure:

Bill on RedHerring.tv
Bill on TechTalk
Bill on Forbes
Bill on CBC

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Canada to open up chunk of spectrum

chris — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:09:52 -0800

Maybe it's because our dollar is doing so well or because hockey is a way better sport than baseball, but it seems that Canada really gets wireless. This Engadget Report inspired my bold and ridiculous statement, that and I like making fun of the American dollar and I hate baseball. Canada is planning to open up a good 40MHz chunk of spectrum to newcomers for the purposes of wireless competition and innovation. Compare this with the FCC's plan to auction off spectrum for many billions of dollars, their inability to adopt Google's pleas for openness, and their concessions to monopolistic carriers like Verizon. Props to the Canadian government on this one; here's hoping this will propel the mobile industry in the Great White North, eh.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Verizon Still Evil

chris — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:17:41 -0800

Verizon today announced that they are opening up their wireless network to all compatible CDMA devices, TechCrunch reports. A friend just messaged me citing this as good news, "they are opening up the walled garden, eh?". While this news is encouraging, I tend to think Verizon is still evil.

Firstly, unlike the unlocked GSM phone market, third party sales of CDMA devices aren't exactly flourishing. Where will customers be coming from with their untethered CDMA phones? I'm guessing, and I know Verizon is hoping, that customers will be bringing their Sprint devices right on over. So what appears as a friendly act of openness, could really boil down to a customer grab.

Secondly, I'm guessing that Verizon will be charging some reasonably substantial "service activation" fee to bring devices to their network. Really, they aren't losing anything when compared with selling subsidized phones chock full of Verizon services. What I think this announcement boils down to is a seemingly heroic attempt to sway public opinion towards Verizon with promises of openness. Brilliant, but evil.

Ditch the long contracts, ditch the pricey cancellation fees, and support non-BREW third party software, then I'll be impressed. Long live Googletel!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Free calls from Europe to the USA this Thanksgiving

chris — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:29:29 -0800

EQO is offering free calls from Europe to the United States this Thanksgiving so all you expats out there can call home for the holidays! The promotion runs from 08:00 GMT on Thursday the 22nd to midnight GMT on Sunday the 25th. That gives you Euro-Americans almost four days to call home for free with EQO. Wherever you are and whoever you are calling, happy holidays and enjoy your turkey!

PS> Thanksgiving was six weeks ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(Canada)

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO Poll #4: I love Schwag!

chris — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:05:11 -0800

By schwag I mean corporate promotional items, not the recreational drug that also goes by this name. Whether you call it schwag, trinkets and trash, or tchotchkes, what really matters is the good times. Recently we've added EQO branded pint glasses, toques, and Nerf footballs to our arsenal that already includes standard fare like pens, coffee mugs, stickers, umbrellas and t-shirts. I know most see schwag as useless trash (besides pens and coffee mugs, which are quite utilitarian), but what it really is is fun and symbolic. Evangelists and loyal users alike often associate these trinkets with the product, brand, or cause and view them as badges or trophies. The stickers that Apple includes in every package go to good use; we can only hope to get there one day with our Nerf footballs (which are awesome). In the mean time, I thought it would be fun to poll our users on what items to add next. What do you think?

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Engadet Burns Fido

chris — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 13:14:10 -0800

Engadget Mobile is my favorite blog next to Guy Kawasaki. They deliver the most relevant mobile news and are hilarious to boot. Today's post about Fido's 3G announcement is a perfect example of their genius. I cede to their brilliance.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Dell selling unlocked Nokia devices!

chris — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:46:54 -0700

Nokia Series 60 devices are rare in Canada, especially the third edition. Rogers and Fido both sell only one, the same one, which is the pitiable, wifi-less E62. If you fancy yourself phone connoisseurs, like we at EQO do, this lack of availability is disappointing. We end up borrowing from Nokia or paying a premium at local outlets in niche shopping centers for our S60 needs. It was to my delight and surprise when EQO developer extraordinaire Bryan Wang today pointed me to Dell.ca, who are now selling unlocked S60 devices! Better yet, Dell is selling these Nokia phones for cheaper than anywhere else I've seen. This is great news for Canadian S60 enthusiasts! Most Canadians don't even know what a phone can do; I'm hoping this turn of events leads to wider spread adoption of Nokia phones in Canada, where S60 has next to no market share. Nokia might even consider advertising in our northern marketplace, heretofore largely untainted by iPhone.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO CEO Bill Tam on TechTalk with Craig Peterson

chris — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:43:58 -0700

EQO CEO Bill Tam recently appeared on the Tech Talk with Craig Peterson podcast. You should probably listen to it because its tech that talks to everyone. Seriously now, Craig and Bill give you the run down on what EQO is all about.

Listen to the Podcast here.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Emerging Trends Blog features EQO

chris — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:21:00 -0700

Google Alerts brought me a wonderful post this morning coming from the "Emerging Trends: Cell Phones" blog today. Becky describes how EQO works and how she sees it fitting into business organizations. If you want a third party take on EQO and how it might help you, give this one a read.

Cheers,

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO on Discovery Channel

chris — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 11:56:04 -0700

The Discovery Channel, of Mythbusters and Shark Week fame, did a piece on EQO Mobile entitled "International Phone Calls: Pricey No More"! This is big news for me as it is so very satisfying to have one of your favorite TV channels pay attention to your company. The article details the incredible cost savings a user can expect on their international calls when using EQO Mobile. I hope this article inspires Shark researchers around the world to start using EQO Mobile in the hopes we can make an appearance on an upcoming episode of "When Great Whites Attack!". Nevermind, if that was a real show it would probably be on Fox.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Join EQO Facebook Group

chris — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:04:47 -0700

Like everyone and their dog these days (including my dog), EQO Mobile is on Facebook. Seriously, my sister made my dog a profile page, Wilson Richardson, check it out. My sister is a contemporary arts student, enough said. Anyway, yes, there is a group for EQO Mobile users on Facebook. We do not have a Facebook application out there yet, but I imagine we'll make one eventually. When we do release a Facebook application I guarantee it will be super awesome and useful, unlike most of the other applications out there. The EQO Mobile Facebook group is a great way to link up with other EQO Mobile users, keep tabs on our support videos, and stay tuned to our latest brilliant blog posts. More importantly you'll learn how to sign up with promo code = chris to get double the free minutes.

Join our group!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO Launches Worldwide IM Support!

chris — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:44:33 -0700

This past week EQO increased the availability of its free or cheap mobile VoIP calling service to one more country. We've upped the total number of countries with calling support to 29, adding Mexico to the fold, hola amigos! Not only that, but we've opened up the EQO Mobile IM and text messaging services to the entire world. Now anyone can enjoy the wonderfully free EQO Mobile IM interface anywhere! We've also added the ability to sign up for an account from inside the EQO Mobile application, making it easier for our users to download from sites like getjar.com.

Check EQO feature availability in your country.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO Support Videos: Episode V: The Mobile Strikes Back - EQO Out Calls

chris — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:11:23 -0700

The second EQO Support video follows in quick succession! The Mobile Strikes Back was actually shot before A New Hope, but we had to do Episode IV again because the first one was so bad. Peter Chandler edited this video in no time and did a fantastic job, considering he taught himself video editing earlier this week. This time we are going to show you how to make cheap EQO Out calls. We call London (the EQO UK Office masked as Harry Potter) for only $0.026C a minute. Enjoy.

Chris
EQO Customer Support