Every single year that goes by, more and more people are born.  While all these births are taking place, people are growing up, growing older, getting into cars and congesting the crap out of American highways.  Point is, we’re all getting a heck of a lot more mobile, but how mobile we can be also depends a lot on how much we can avoid the pitfalls of all these new people…namely, Traffic.

I just read an awesome article about two giants teaming up to hopefully do something about just this problem.  According to the article, Nokia and UC Berkeley are teaming up to test real-time GPS traffic monitoring to see if the active displaying of where the traffic is, can help people avoid it, and thereby reduce it in general.  Basically what they found out was, if as little as 5% of drivers contributed location data from their cars, the entire thing would be a success and this monitoring could be extremely effective on any particular highway.  Groovy.

So what do we need to do to make this happen?  What do we need to do to get as many cars as possible equipped with this so all of us can eventually completely avoid traffic whenever possible?  You’d think with all the advances in modern technology we’ve already enjoyed, we’d be able to completely avoid traffic altogether.  Guess not, but hey, how awesome is it to have Hannah Montana delivered to every possible mobile device?!  Yeah, no.

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If I’ve said it once I have said it a million times…nothing is better on a Monday morning than waking up and finding in my feed reader a post from someone that is in love with the MoGo Mouse.  Lucky for you and I, today was one of those days!

That’s right my faithful friends, I just so happened to find a post over on John Robbins’ Blog!  John was one of the rad individuals selected as a Microsoft Valuable Professional and as such was awarded a MoGo Mouse BT in his little care package!  That said, he had some pretty darn good things to say about our little product that could.  Here’s a little quote from his post:

“I just needed a mouse for a short time, I popped out the MoGo Mouse. After a painless pairing with my Lenovo X60 Tablet, I got to work. After ten minutes of real use I realized that the MoGo Mouse is far more comfortable than I could have ever imagined. In fact, I haven’t pulled out my Microsoft mouse since.”

First off, congrats on the MVP award, second off, thank you for your kind words.  We couldn’t be happier you enjoy the product and know it will serve you well in the months to come!

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Man, when it rains it pours for all us Mobile Warriors out and about.  First we find out about the ability to program your DVR from your cell phone, now we’re finding out that AT&T is going to launch their very own Mobile TV Service sometime soon!

You heard right folks, the service that was supposed to be released sometime last year is finally being launched.  According to the article I just read, “the service will launch with two exclusive channels, in addition to the eight channels on rival Verizon Wireless…”   Sounds like if they really want to compete they better make darn sure it competes with Sprint’s service as well.  Bottom line is, no matter what wireless provider you use, it’s great that this kind of technology is coming everywhere.  Not only will you not have to program your DVR over your phone, you won’t have to miss the episodes of your shows at all!

Regardless, go check out the article, brace yourself for February 5th, and get ready to be rockin’ some of your favorite stuff right there on the tiny screen of your tiny cell phone.  Crazy how fast we’re advancing.  Crazy.

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Last week Elizabeth posted about just how crazy it’d be to have a Bluetooth lawnmower cruising around your yard.  Can you imagine?  That said, in passing she also mentioned how the future truly is here in that she can simply email her DVR to tell it to start recording…well for all us mobile warriors, turns out the future is actually a lot MORE here than we thought.

That’s right friends, mobile warriors, American Idol lovers…DirecTV is actually going to be allowing you to program your DVR from your cell phone.  Yeah, your phone.  Think of this, you could be sitting in an airport and remember how much you can’t miss Lost and 10 seconds later, you’re recording.  Crazy.

Basically it’s called the DirecTV DVR Scheduler and it’s pretty darn sweet for all you customers of the service.  The ability to be mobile, stay mobile and not have to sacrifice the creature comforts of actually being home is amazing…not to mention futuristic.  So, just imagine your Bluetooth Lawnmower cutting your grass, your DVR recording American Idol and you on a plane, 5,000 miles away.  How Jetsons of you.

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Fairly sure unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are well aware of the iPhone, the need for an update, and all the people that tried to manipulate theirs themselves and ended up with a big fat brick.  Ooops.

That said my friends, a REAL iPhone software update is finally here and by the sounds of things, it helps do some pretty nifty things.  According to the article I just read the new update allows users, “to find their location using the Maps application; text message multiple people in one message; create Web Clips for websites; customize their home screen; and watch movies rented from the iTunes Movie Rentals.” 

While the iPhone notoriously lacks GPS, something that I’m guessing will be remedied in the future renditions of the device, the new update lets users find their location “automatically” by triangulating their position based on WiFi access points, and cell phone towers…good Lord, wouldn’t adding GPS just be, well, easier?

That said, if you are an iPhone user, use your iTunes to get things updated…I’m quite sure you’ll be happy.

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Well well well, nothing like kicking off Monday morning with some good news!  The good news in question, kind friends, especially if you’re a mobile warrior is this:  Research into fuel cells might just be able to effectively DOUBLE your cell phone battery life.

Ok, now there is some not so good news…well, I suppose it depends on how positive of a person you are as to whether or not this news is bad or good:  This advance in technology won’t be ready until around 2010.   This is where your outlook can determine if that’s bad or good, bad in that it’s not NOW, but good in that it’s not 2050.  Right?

According to the article I just read:

“Angstrom Power recently completed trials of a fuel cell system that effectively doubled talk time and the overall battery life in mobile phones. The trial involved a Motorola SLVR L7 and a fuel system that fit inside the phone without modification. The Micro Hydrogen platform uses a new fuel cell architecture, micro-fluidics and a refillable hydrogen storage tank to provide power. Angstrom believes the technology could be built into phones as early as 2010, but the logistics of refilling/recharging systems have yet to be worked out.” 

Sounds groovy to me, personally I am psyched for the day I don’t have to charge my phone mid-afternoon just so it doesn’t die in the evening!

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Here you go folks, Matt Westover’s final post from inside CES 2008!  It was a great week for MoGo and thanks for following it through the days!!

The Harsh Realities of…The Morning After CES

Where are all the camera’s?  Where are the producers? What happened to my limo?    Uh-O, CES is over and it is back to reality.

Reality started for me at about 1am Friday morning when I landed back in Boston.  My limo had morphed into a dirty cab taking me home.  Upon exiting the cab at the corner near my house, I accidentally hit the door handle getting out of the car and knocked my Blackberry out of my hand and onto the wet ground outside the car.  This would not have been the end of the world until I realized the cab was parked over a city drain and my Blackberry bounced off the grate and fell perfectly through one of the holes and splashed in the drain water below.  The screen light was on so I could clearly see my bberry sinking down and into the pipe with the rain water.  In one second, my phone and my database was gone. Yes it was gone forever.  How did I react?  It was an irreversible occurrence and had to get over it and figure it out in the morning.

The 6am wakeup call came very quickly and the day was going to be a busy one.  Once the kids were fed and off to school I was staring at a 9 foot Christmas tree in the middle of our living room that needed to be sent out with the trash.  Whoa, I just went from summer weather in the “anything goes” city of Las Vegas to rainy cold weather in Boston staring at a Christmas tree that needed to be cut in pieces and thrown out.  Clearly, I was back to reality.  Grabbing a power tool, I cut the branches off the tree and took it all out for trash.  One action item down; many to go.

Now, I was chomping at the bit to get to the cell phone store the moment it opened. Without my phone and email, I was out of contact with our MoGo team and had to get connected again.  The store was open and my replacement phone was in stock.  Now the challenge was restoring my database; if I could get it back at all.   After 20 years in the backup segment of the market, I had a backup of my bberry database and could quickly back off the proverbial “edge of the bridge” as the day was looking up at that point.

Now I could get back to work.  Or so I thought…..  It turns out I had to take our dog to the vet as it was one of my roles I agreed to when we bought the dog.  After a couple of hours and a little medication, our dog was back in action and I now I was back to work.  What happened to my life of luxury I had the day before?  It may not have been reality but it was much easier than this juggling act I was going through today!  And who needs reality anyway?

Ah, there is the twist.  Reality may have very wide or very narrow swings of its pendulum. It is for each one of us to manage the adversity reality can place in front of us at any moments notice.  This week of CES was all real and the pendulum swung broadly from the highs to the lows and it was up to our MoGo team and me to manage ourselves through it and drive the company ball down the field in 2008.

All the best athletes, doctor’s, teachers, business professionals (the list goes on) have setbacks and difficult times in their journey to success.  None have an easy ride and a straight road to success. What made them the best and what defined their character is how they responded to adversity and how they stood back up on their feet, dusted themselves off and kept competing.  A champion is made in the difficult times and recognized as such later.  A champion prepares tirelessly without the camera watching and executes with unwavering focus when the camera’s are rolling!

Though everyone wants to be a champion; few are preparing themselves to overcome their own or their company’s own challenges/setbacks to become a champion!

Now that the bright lights of the camera’s are gone and the limo’s aren’t here, it is our time to prepare/execute for the year and come back to CES in 2009 and beat our past performances!  Yes, as it turns out, we are our own competition and if we worry about ourselves and stay focused to our game plan, we can surpass our CES success of 2008.

Today’s reality was challenging; I will make tomorrow’s reality better!

Matt

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Can I just say how lucky we are to have a head honcho like Matt Westover? It is truly amazing to have the man in charge be so open, so vocal and so, well, cool. Here’s more from him inside CES 2008!

Day 4 at CES started quickly as we were very fortunate to be on Donny Deutsch’s “The Big Idea” last night and the excitement and interest in MoGo from the CNBC show kept us out later than usual seizing the moment! Though CES was winding down our phones were ringing off the hook for last minute meetings before everyone flew out of town. Many of our current partners watched the segment and thankfully, are proudly associated with us. They all expressed their enthusiasm to make 2008 an even bigger year with us than our record sales year of 2007! We will take all the sales we can as we are focused on making 2008 our breakout year; our “Crossing the Chasm” moment, if you have read the book. 2008 will not be the year we follow the “4- Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferris. I have asked Tim for a little help as my weeks are now standing at 4+ 80 hours….. so I am failing his course.

The first year we attended CES with our new company and only a few handmade MoGo’s we were there test marketing our messaging and positioning of the MoGo. It would not be formally released into the market until later in 2006. We hit the jackpot and were lucky enough to find the right person at NBC and were 1 of 4 products they profiled live on the “NBC Today Show” live from the CES show floor! We did not even have a company booth there! Stating the obvious, that was a good first CES for us. Last year we introduced our next generation MoGo’s at CES and won the “Best of CES” award! We beat our billion dollar competitors. Again, we viewed our second year an overwhelming success. And now, this year we are fortunate enough to participate in “The Road to CES” series underwritten by American Express and produced by CNBC and Donny Deutsch’s “The Big Idea” ! One of Donny’s show experts for the series, Dr. Doug has blogged very favorably about MoGo (http://www.cnbc.com/id/22579768/site/14081545/page/2/ ) and we thank him for his support. We are fortunate to have the best blogging about us. See our blog at http://www.mogomobility.com/.

We are 3 for 3 at CES and we now have 1 year to outdo ourselves at CES 2009. Donny and team, help!! We will definitely be using the commercial Deutsch Inc. produced for us, as it is excellent! Have you seen it?

So now the MoGo team has mounds of business cards and actions items ahead of us from this week. Though we had a blast promoting MoGo’s until we dropped each day and are exhausted from the week, our work has only begun. We must follow up and capture the business momentum from this year’s show!

I leave the show wondering how I can show my appreciation for what all the wonderful people producing and working behind the scenes at “The Big Idea” did for MoGo and our team? The awareness and branding they generated for the MoGo is simply something we could have never accomplished on our own. We must find a way to return the favor to them! Remembering what my parents taught me— “it is better to give than receive” and we will be receiving the benefits of this CES experience for months! So I leave today with the difficult action item figuring out how we could possibly give back to them, anything near what we are receiving……………

Gratefully,

Matt

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Matt’s infectious enthusiasm and from-the-floor perspective had me wanting more!

You too? Easy enough. CNBC has been featuring Matt’s perspective as a key part of their live CES coverage. Check it out! And to read a little more about the man behind the Golden Mouse, here.

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Straight from the bosses mouth today for you fine folks!  Here is a post from the man behind the MoGo, Matt Westover!  How cool is it to get an inside look at CES 2008 from Matt himself?  Very cool my friends, very cool.

We are in day 3 of CES and feel we have exceeded the goals we have set for ourselves here. As a young and quickly emerging company, we look for very tangible results which move the sales needle coming out of CES. With 1000’s of companies here and the enormous amounts of money that are being spent, we simply cannot out-spend the larger companies to capture awareness and brand recognition so we must rely on more gorilla tactics to get our name and products above the noise level.

This year and in the spirit of Las Vegas, we introduced the MoGo GoGo Girls to our CES execution plans. These MoGo GoGo Girls, wearing MoGo branded tops, are carrying MoGo’s and striking up conversations to demonstrate our product. Additionally, after they speak to a CES attendee about our MoGo, they offer them a coupon for a $20 discount when they buy a MoGo. They successfully provided attendees with 10,000 discount coupons so far! The MoGo GoGo Girls are a show favorite! This year we have also been very fortunate enough to be invited by CNBC and “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” to be on their show at CES. This is a terrific opportunity for MoGo and the show will air Wednesday night at 10pm Eastern. Please watch it! I have been watching the show since its inception and feel honored to be included in their CES show series! Much to my surprise, Donny and his team hired his former advertising firm (Deutsch Inc.) to make a commercial for us to make MoGo a houshold name! Not only was this something we could not have made on our own (we are not advertising exec’s)they made a very exciting commercial with all the right messaging! Additionally, this commercial will definitely help us to be a household name quickly! If that was not enough, Donny announced to me on the show that CNBC was going to the run commercial on CNBC at their expense as as well! I was excited I was at risk of looking like contestant on “The Price is Right” and starting jumping around pumping my fists with over the top enthusiasm. Right then Donny tells me he will also run our ad during the SuperBowl….at that point I did jump out of seat with excitement only to hear him say he was only kidding…..he totally got me as I fell for it hook, line and sinker and could only laugh at myself at that point.

Relatively speaking we think MoGo’s are to computer laptops as Ipod’s are to music and Donny is really helping us get to the next level as a company. We simply could not have done this on our own without Deutsch Inc., CNBC and Donny’s expertise. They are really wonderful people to work with and see why they are so successful! Stay tuned for more MoGo news tomorrow!

Best Regards,

Matt

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