e’s Week in Review: Gympact, Toutapp, Steve Jobs
January 2, 2012 – #01
Each week I want to share with you the interesting things I come across. It could be anything; blog posts, tech products, new apps, quotes, etc. If you’ve found any interesting tidbits or news, please share in the comments below, I’d love to hear about them.
First, Happy New Year! Can’t believe it’s 2012.
1. Gympact. Is your New Years resolution to hit the gym? Do you have a weekly gym goal? Are you willing to put money on it? This app is about tough love. Each week you develop a goal on how many times you’ll go to the gym. You then attach a price you’re willing to pay if you don’t meet that goal. The app works on check-ins. If you don’t meet the goal, you have to pay the dollar amount you had tied to that goal. If you meet the goal, you see some green from all of the other users who didn’t meet their goals. Gympact collects a 3% fee on these transactions. Read more of Mashable’s coverage. P.S – you can’t do drive by check-ins. You must be there for at least thirty minutes.
2. ToutApp. Curious on the activity within your email inbox? ToutApp is a pretty slick tool that produces data on your Gmail activity for all of 2011. It produces a pretty neat infographic with various levels of data – it shows you how many emails you dealt with (received) over the year and how quickly you responded to them. On the flip side it shows you how many emails you sent, to whom, how many were replied to, the time of month, day, etc. Read more of Mashable’s coverage.
3. Steve Jobs. I completed the tale of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson. One of the greater books I have read. It portrays the true side of Jobs. It’s truly a tell all kind of book. Though the printed version may seem overwhelming by the thickness, you won’t be dissatisfied. As I was nearing the end of the book I wish there was more. It truly is fascinating the impact this man had on our society and the industries he flipped upside down. Simply put, he’s a genius. Check out my full review here.
Now it’s your turn to share… Go.
Like you, I loved. loved, loved the bio on Jobs. I wish Isaacson had revealed how Jobs financed his approach to great products (first) rather than great profits. It takes a lot of vision, patience, and dedication to a solid goal. Lack of these is what flips the model upside down. Don’t we all wish we had his apparently undeniable charisma ~
If you read the book and embrace the insanely great product concept, be prepared to be slapped upside the head when you return to your desk the next day. Sigh. Still, we can aspire. I agree it’s one of the best books I’ve read in a long long time.
Hey Barb… hope all is well.
I do think Isaacson could have dug a little deeper into the financing portion but what I think is amazing, and how it affected the financing of products, was his reality distortion field. The book outlines how he was producing, engineering, and designing great products with a tiny fraction of resources and materials his competitors were working with. And I think this was part of his simplicity approach that filtered into everything about him and Apple.
You’re right though, Apple is simply a unique organization and it’s hard for the average company to adopt that philosophy. We all want to be successful like Apple and have a brand like Apple – but don’t want to make that business model change.
Thanks for commenting Barb. Have yourself a great 2012!
Eric.