LIVEdigitally

photo source: Engadget. markup: JT

Over the past few months I’ve seen tons of speculation, demos, and implementations of companies building apps and technology to turn smartphones into remote controls.  Now I get the vision, and yes, for some folks, this is going to be a wonderful marriage of technologies.  But when I say “some” I mean few.  I just don’t think people are really thinking it through in an actual home with real people.

Here’s what I think is going to happen:

1. User downloads smart remote app to phone
2. User manages to get said app working
3. User controls TV with phone
4. User is psyched, declares new configuration as “hella cool”
5. One of the following occurs:
   1. Phone battery dies terribly rapidly due to persistent wifi connection.
   2. User takes remote control to bathroom during pivotal moment of show.
   3. Phone call during even more pivotal moment of show.
   4. etc
6. User goes back to using regular, reliable remote.

Sounds great on paper, but I think it’s one of those problems that people aren’t going to typically face until they actually run into issues like I describe above.  But once they do, the safe prediction I can make is they stop using it that way.  For more, here are the 9 reasons a smart phone makes for a dumb remote, in my latest column at Crave on CNET.

I am so excited to announce Stage Two Labs newest creation: NudgeMail.

NudgeMail is the world’s first fully email-based reminder system. There is nothing to download, nothing to install and no username or password to remember. NudgeMail works on all connected devices and all email clients.  It’s simple, refined, elegant, powerful, and I’m loving it.  Seriously.

We’ve been testing it for a few months now, and in that time NudgeMail has simplified my email and my life. In the past, my inbox would be overflowing with hundreds of emails, the great majority of which I needed to deal with later.  Now?  My inbox sits with an average of 12-25 emails pending, with only 4 of them being more than 2 weeks old.

I can’t prove it, but I can certainly claim anecdotally that seeing an inbox with no scrollbars makes me feel like I’m in much more control over my time than I was before.  It’s a great feeling.

I recognize that some people like things like tasks, calendars, apps, widgets and external reminders. More power to them. I also know that there are many people like me who can’t make these other reminders work, but they can get email to work. My hope is that NudgeMail provides real value and benefits to people who need to organize their inboxes and their work flows.

For more on the story of how/why we launched NudgeMail, read here.  For a bit more on the design philosophy behind the product, read this.  For some third party opinions, you can read more about NudgeMail at the New York Times, Geek.com, Mark Evans Tech, TechVibes (includes a video interview with Adam and myself), and CNET.