From the desk (and BlackBerry) of Keith Parnell

We all knew this was coming. The 8-18 year-old generation is tomorrow’s business leaders. This generation will be 100% connected when they hit the workforce because it’s been a normal way of life all of their lives.

A national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that … today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

How does this compare to your digital life? The technology is here today to retrieve, and have pushed to you, any type or massive amount of information you could imagine. Whether you want to or not, the means to make you more efficient is here in our laptops, smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. Are you taking full advantage of the digital revolution?

Photo credit: waxmerchant

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Listening to Dandy Life by Collective Soul.

Finally, hot off the presses, great news! The Keith Parnell | Coffee with the CEO iPhone App is available in Apple’s App Store. Download the new app here.

Why would you want this app? From one place on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get the most current blog posts from my blog, tweets from Twitter, and videos from YouTube. Too cool.

Many thanks to the team at MotherApp for building my iPhone App!

Keith Parnell iPhone App Press Release:

About this Blog:

Keith is the Founder & CEO of JASE Group, a marketing and new media agency based in Norfolk, VA.

Keith is Co-Founder & CLO of NeedLocalHelp.com, an Internet start-up that specializes in local business services, local small business advertising, and providing the most comprehensive local search directories across the United States.

Keith is also Co-Founder and Co-Principal of New Media Conventions.

Keith is a speaker, writer and blogger at keithparnell.com. He frequently performs interactive talks and how-to sessions for companies, non-profit organizations, conferences and seminars. He is a knowledgeable and passionate speaker on a variety of topics including new media, online marketing, social media, inbound marketing strategies, brand management solutions, and successful advertising techniques.

Technology, marketing and social media are among Keith’s daily passions. He has a vast presence and personal network in the social media world with c. 25,000 followers and subscribers from his blogs, Twitter, JASEzone, Facebook, LinkedIn and FriendFeed networks.

Keith is a member of the Entrepreneurs Forum of Hampton Roads, the Hampton Roads Internet Marketing & Technology Group, the Williamsburg / Peninsula Internet Marketing Group, and the Virginia Opera Guild. Keith video blogs at CoffeeWithTheCEO.com.

About MotherApp BlogEngine:

MotherApp BlogEngine converts your blogs and tweets to a native iPhone app. It extends your reach to the mobile medium and provides a dedicated space for your audience to engage. MotherApp BlogEngine also generates additional stream of income through embedded advertisement. Visit http://www.motherapp.com/en/blogger/ for information and sign up for MotherApp BlogEngine.

About MotherApp:

We are the industry-leading provider of cross platform mobile applications. Our patent-pending MotherApp Engine turns one HTML source code into native apps on multiple mobile platforms, including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian. We improve time-to-market, while reducing development and support costs. Our customers today include world-class banks, carriers, financial press, retail, radio stations, tourism boards and ad agencies worldwide. For more details and press enquires, please visit: http://www.motherapp.com.

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Listening to Hard Times by Ray Charles.

I stumbled across this really cool interview Robert Scoble (Rackspace Hosting) did with Jeremiah Owyang (Altimeter Group, formerly of Forrester Research) and Ray Wang (Altimeter Group, formerly of Forrester Research). I can’t remember the last time I didn’t stray from a 27 minute video. These guys are fascinating and definitely forward-thinkers that you should follow.

My takeaways from the video:

“Sometime real-time is not fast enough.” - Jeremiah Owyang

Translation: We must think about what will happen tomorrow and predict moves, changes, issues, and trends.

“B2B and B2C is dead.” - Ray Wang

Translation: Because of the ‘best of breed’ concept between on-premise information storage and cloud computing, the fundamentals of relationships are changing.

The Social CRM Space is becoming evermore dominant. Mapping out your social graph is what companies are doing today in preparation for tomorrow. Facebook wants to become an identity company, not a social network. Their vision is that wherever you go on the web, your Facebook friends go with you.

“I put that [RSS Reader] away. Most of my traffic is coming from Twitter.” - Jeremiah Owyang

Translation: We cannot afford to not have real-time data today.

iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Android - “Definitely iPhone because its platform is easier to build on.” - Ray Wang

Translation: A lot of developers will be able to build on the iPhone platform much easier than any other. Simple for the developer means power and more technology for the consumer and enterprise user.

Special Note: This may be the first time any comment has intrigued me about the iPhone. Being a BlackBerry evangelist (!), I’ve always contended that BlackBerry will be tops for a long time. I’m interested now in the iPhone purely because it could solve some of the limitations I have now with mobile technology.

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Listening to I Still Believe by Norman Brown.

Alright, my BlackBerry friends, where’s my business card reader app for my BlackBerry?!

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Would you, do you still pay for hot spot Wi-fi? Is the lower speed of data travel through your Edge or 3G smartphone enough of a trade off for the session costs of wi-fi at an airport or Starbucks?

Friends poll:
What cellular/data service provider (based on first hand experience) has the most saturated coverage areas across the majority of the large metropolitan areas in the United States? 3G is a must.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

I’m at this month’s Internet Marketing & Technology meeting in Chesapeake. The speakers are discussing the advantages of both the iPhone and the Blackberry line.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Okay, I didn’t mean that as harsh as it sounded. But my life is digital. My family knows that. My friends know that. Most everything I do in my professional and personal life is captured in some way on some media platform.

I tweet my work. I tweet about meetings. I tweet about clients. I blog on several different blogs. I take photos like crazy with my BlackBerry and immediately email them to TwitPic which autoposts to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. I take videos with my BlackBerry and live stream them to Qik which autoposts to Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook. I tweet about my wonderful family. I tweet while on vacation. Heck, I even tweet while at Major League Baseball games.

I am digital. I am live. Hear me roar.
I get questions all the time about taking a break from being digital. And I always answer with the same response - “why?” I enjoy being digital. There’s no stress for me to being digital. I don’t need that break that some people might. In all actuality, I’m a bit uncomfortable not being readily connected.

Let me clarify a bit for you on what I mean by being “digital”. I don’t mean just having access to my social media channels, although they are important to me. My BlackBerry and notebook give me a safe place to write my thoughts, for my blog and for private. They give me quick access to my huge music library which is a great stress reliever for me. They give me a way to collect and view my vast photo and video libraries. They provide me a way to quickly Skype (audio or video) call with my Nicole or my daughters or my Mother.

So you see, being digital is not a burden to me at all. Being digital is my way of life that provides me the most efficient, profitable and comfortable way to manage my time, my daily tasks and my stress.

Besides, I love my job. My job is my life. My family and friends are my life. And my life is digital. So why would I want to change that?!

I think a very important question for company decision-makers is, How Tethered Should My Team Be?

My world is very interesting and overall I think unique. Not unique for the tech industry but unique as compared to the work force as a whole. I require myself to be electronically connected at almost all hours of every night and day. Much to Nicole’s chagrin, yes, ‘every’ night and day. My tech team is nearly the same and during their disconnected times there should be another connected person capable of filling the needs of the organization.

Let’s move to other member (sets) of the organization’s team. Should the Operations team be consistently connected? Should the Creative team be consistently connected? Should the Sales team be consistently connected? Should the Marketing team be consistently connected? Within each of these teams an evaluation of senior management, team leads and team members should also be weighed. Should they, or at least their role, be consistently connected?

Here’s my answer - YES! Yes, they absolutely sure should. Each of these teams occupy a vital role in the decision-making processes that are important to the organization’s success. A senior member of each of these teams should be always available, reachable and able to communication at any given time as dictated by the real-time needs of the organization.

So how do we make this connectability happen? Smartphones. Smartphones that are reliable, (platform) stable, secure, usable, functional and yes, okay attractive. RIM’s BlackBerry tops the list of recommendations from every top organization around the globe. Nokia (the N95) makes fine smartphone products as does Palm (the Treo).

CIO.com’s Survey Results for “How Addicted to Your SmartPhone Are You?
5% - My phone is for business. I put it away at night, unless I’m traveling for work.
2% - I check messages every few hours after work and on weekends. But I’d never bring my smartphone on vacation.
19% - I’m more productive because of my smartphone, and it doesn’t negatively affect my work/life balance. I wouldn’t call it an addiction.
67% - My smartphone never leaves my side. At work, rest, play, vacation, you name itmy best electronic friend is with me.
7% - IMHO That’s NOYB. BB4N. EOM. (In my humble opinion, that’s none of your business. Bye bye for now. End of message.)

Where do you stand?

Kyle at BlackBerry Cool has published his list of top 5 BlackBerry social networks. I’ve reposted them below.

What do you think? Are there others that you like?

What about your favorite social networks for iPhone?

BBMNation

BBMNation is a social network that, like most BlackBerry social networks, uses PINs to connect users. Designed by a night club promoter named Steven Ojo and his partner Alex Trumpower, the site launched about a year ago. The site is incredibly bare bones, and has a graphical style reminiscent of web 1.0. On the bright side, its users seem to be attractive college students, possibly associated with Steven Ojo’s night club background.

You can register for BBMNation here.

Magmic Social

Magmic Social aims to connect its BlackBerry and mobile gamers with one another in order to create a better overall mobile gaming experience. The site does this by connecting users, creating high scores, developing personalized avatars and promoting a more interactive community.

Magmic Social is in my opinion, the most unique of all the BlackBerry social networks. The reason is that is focuses on the one aspect of BlackBerry that gets the least news coverage: games. I’m hard pressed to find a blog that focuses on BlackBerry games specifically, which is interesting considering it’s such an up-and-coming market.

Go see Magmic Social for yourself here.

BlackBerryUnderground

BBUnderground is a social network that has a comprehensive vision. The site is a social network that could be described as somewhere between Facebook and MySpace. BBU is seeking to capture the BlackBerry space and be a one-stop-shop for news, opinion, software, accessories and networking. Each member can add music, video’s, photo’s, blogs and discussions, as well as start events, and create and participate in the bbu forums. As a social network, I really commend the idea of being a resource for the community that has a monetization plan. Far too many social networks are lacking a business plan.

Check out BlackBerry Underground here.

BlackBerry Ave.

This site has a look and feel that is very similar to BBMNation. As a direct competitor with many of the other social networks for BlackBerry, this site uses file transfers to make it unique. The site allows users to upload 1000 MB of files to share with other BlackBerry users. This could meant that the site gets a good following of media freaks.

Find some friends on BBMNation here.

PinSwapMe

PinSwapMe has a lot of what you would expect in a BB social networking site. I would say it’s direct competitor in BBUnderground, in that it wants to be a one-stop-shop. I like that PinSwapMe provides a wide range of things to do on the site. It’s important for every social network to have a reason to visit on a daily basis.

Take a look at PinSwapMe here.

It looks like T-Mobile USA has finally released the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Javelin) for public consumption.

See the T-Mobile details here. See the Javelin spec sheet here.

BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 from T-Mobile

Stay effortlessly connected with the Blackberry® Curve™ 8900, the sleekest, lightest, thinnest full-QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry® with all the features you need.

Suggested retail	$499.99
Instant discount	-$200.00
Mail-in rebate	-$100.00
$199.99

Research In Motion held an event to celebrate the opening of a new plant in Sydney, Australia. At the event, they had a nice panel showing the history of BlackBerry devices dating back to the RIM 950 Wireless Handheld (bottom left) released in 1998, followed by the 957 model in 2000 (top left). RIM unveiled the data and voice BlackBerry 5810 (bottom right) in 2002.

See the full set of photos from the RIM display here.

The London police have opened a new channel of communication for reporting crime in their city. If you witness an incident, simply text your name, location and a brief description of what you saw to 07940 500 500.

I wonder how long it will take the not-so-honest individuals to abuse this system with false reports?

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Ever wanted to tether your Linux notebook to your BlackBerry? Well, now you can.

Barry is an open source application that allows you to tether your Linux machine to your BlackBerry for Internet access, to sychronize data, backup and restore, and program management.

Here is a list of Barry’s possibilities from their website:

• Charge your Blackberry’s battery from your USB port.
• Retrieve Address Book, Email, Calendar, Service Book, Memos, Tasks, PIN Messages, Saved Email, and Folders.
• Export Address Book contacts in text or LDAP LDIF format.
• Make full data backups and restores of your device using a GUI.
• Synchronize contacts and calendar items using the OpenSync framework.
• Use the Blackberry as a modem.

To download Barry to your Linux machine, click here.

BIO-key has announced the release of version 3.5 of PocketCop, which gives law enforcement officers access to state and federal databases, including motor vehicle information. Police officers can quickly and easily check to see if a given person is wanted or if a car was reported stolen.

According to their website, “PocketCop is BIO-key’s industry-leading solution for secure access to federal and state law enforcement and motor vehicles databases from handheld devices.”

“With PocketCop, officers on foot, motorcycle, bike, marine and mounted patrol, as well as investigators and command-level staff, can quickly and easily identify a wanted person or stolen vehicle directly from a BlackBerry smartphone.”

PocketCop also takes advantage of the BlackBerry wireless platform’s built-in web browser to reduce IT administration costs. With real-time deployment, the PocketCop end-user can download and activate the PocketCop thin client application software from any location to make the PocketCop-enabled BlackBerry smartphone fully operational and ready for use in the field.