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I’ll Show You My iPhone Apps If You Show Me Yours…

September 5, 2010 by Roxanne Varza

A while ago, I bought a netbook – a Sony Vaio, to be specific (mainly for price, removable battery, size and pixel reasons as a traveling blogger). I tweeted my purchase, not really expecting anyone to care all that much. It was more just to pass time as I waited in line at the FNAC. But turns out quite a few people did care. Perhaps there are also people that also care that I use Jolicloud as my netbook OS (virtual hi-five to Tariq), have a Nikon Coolpix digital camera, that I don’t own an iPad (yet) or an iPhone4 and that I have actually purchased songs off of iTunes – sad, but true.

Now, maybe you’re wondering what apps I have on my iPhone?

So here are the stats: I currently have some 108 applications on my iPhone and I delete and download rather regularly. I prefer not to pay for the app unless it’s really something special – which means yes, I have purchased apps. The most expensive app I have ever bought is probably in the €4.99 range.

Back to basics.

I’ve got a number of apps for news in English and French, including The New York Times, Le Monde, Les Echos, Challenges, NPR News, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, etc. Then I’ve naturally got to keep up with my tech blogs in French and English, which means I’ve also got a few names like TechCrunch (naturally), VentureBeat, Presse Citron, Korben, Journal du Net, Journal du Geek, Guy Kawasaki, etc. And then I’ve got Facebook, Linkedin, Skype and Yammer (to communicate with the TechCrunch gang – by the way, I just adore Yammer). I recently added Viadeo, even though I’m not particuarly active on that network, because it is hard to tell whether Linkedin or Viadeo is the network of preference for the French scene.

Birdy Nam Nam.

For Twitter, I use Twitter’s app – I actually tested a whole ton of Twitter client apps (Echofon, Seesmic, Twitterific, etc.) on the train from Marseille to Paris and happened to like Twitter the best, even though there are still a few missing features and it just started crashing on me yesterday (bad Twitter, bad). Seesmic was a very close second – so I keep it on my phone just in case. The Twitter app that disappointed me the most was Echofon, which happened crashed on me when I was at a conference. As a blogger, that is perhaps the 2nd worst thing to forgetting my laptop charger. I should keep this in mind if the Twitter app I currently use doesn’t get its act together.

An American in Paris.

2 apps that have dramatically changed my life are Pinger Textfree and iConvert. I use Pinger to text everyone in the US for free when Orange was trying to slap on extra euros to my monthly bill for international texting (I’m a huge texter). And iConvert I use for anything from keeping tabs on the euro/dollar exchange rate to properly cooking in grams and milliliters.

I get around round round get around I get around.

Apps I use to get around Paris and such include the standard Google Maps and RATP lite – a free application which maps the Metro lines. I’ve also got the Voyages-SNCF application on my phone for TGV tickets and the Velib’ application for the nearest bike-share stations – even if I’m not the biggest Velib user on the planet. 2 more apps I recently added just to make my life easier are Comuto‘s carshare application and Taxi Bleus for taxi reservations – but I haven’t had an opportunity to actually use either of their services yet. And of course Pages Jaunes, aka the Yellow Pages, is always good to have if you’re looking for an address.

I’m the Mayor of nowhere.

Travel and news-related apps are probably the 2 biggest categories of applications on my iPhone. I’ve also got a few geo-social apps, like Submate, Foursquare and CheckMyMetro – which is the Foursquare for the Paris Metro. I should have Plyce too but the truth is, I’m just not a huge user of geo-social. Well, not yet. Anyone who is my friend on Foursquare knows this. It’s kind of like how I’m not a huge user of online chat (Gchat, Skype, Facebook, etc.) – it’s nothing against the service but more the fact that I use it for one-off situations rather than on a regular basis.

Paris, Paris.

When it comes to exploring Paris, obviously I love the MyLittleParis app  for discovering hidden places and things to discover (yes,  I covered this for TechCrunch). For more classic touristy info, I downloaded Paris à Pied – the free app is supposed to provide info on museums, parks, etc. but hasn’t really done much but crash on me several times. Not très cool. Then again, there are other paid apps that are probably better quality but I didn’t bother to look into it. I do find it odd that the Louvre is one of the few local museums that actually has its own app though. I guess when it comes down to it, there is really no better app for discovering Paris than the Guide du Routard’s app (€4.99) – I especially like section on free stuff to do in Paris.

Not exactly in the bag.

If you’re thinking to yourself: wait a minute, she’s got no shopping apps on her phone – you’re right. There are naturally tons of apps for shopping (Vente-Privée‘s app is a huge hit) but this hasn’t really sunk in to my system yet. If I’m going to buy anything on my phone for now, it’s probably going to be a TGV ticket.

Oh là là, c’est oh-so-French.

I did download a few apps that are pretty much France-only apps. One of them is the Ticket Restaurant app, which lets you see which places near you accept Ticket Restos (which I discussed in an earlier post). There is also Clopclop (which recently came out only for iOS4) – a similar idea but for finding cigarettes or open tobacco shops. I’ve also got iPharmacien for finding a near-by pharmacy – but haven’t used it yet (PS: if anyone has good medical apps, let me know).

Yum yum.

French food is a must so I’ve got a few apps for restaurants and recipes. I bought Marmiton’s application because I just love the recipes on the site. The application is also just beautiful and insanely helpful while grocery shopping. Then I’ve got the Guide de Restaurants (by lintern@ute). And for reservations there is TableOnline (am I going crazy or are Restopolitan and La Fourchette MIA from the App Store?). I’ve got Qype, Yelp and Dismoiou on there too but haven’t really dug into using them yet for social recommendations – but I will. According to Alloresto’s website, there is an iPhone app for take out but it isn’t in the App Store…

Pass the time away.

Of course the geek in me has a few games and rather stupid apps too – I naturally have Tetris and Fat Booth and a couple other random games that I hardly use. I have a few education apps as well – one on sushi, one on French sign language and the Corsican language app I cannot stop talking about. I’ve obviously got dictionaries, translators, a few quiz apps (history, geography, etc.) and Wikipedia on there as well.

Why, Europe, why.

The one app (and service!) that I am perhaps most sad about not being able to use in Europe (aside from Netflix, which has very little to do with iPhones) is Pandora Radio. I was a HUGE Pandora user in the US. So then you’re probably wondering what music application I have on my phone – Deezer? Spotify? Answer: both. Although I’ve been a Deezer user longer than a Spotify user, I’ll admit it. I also have an iPod for my iTunes – which I don’t play on my iPhone to keep it’s rather pathetic battery in shape.

The price is right.

2 great little apps that I have on my phone, Pikadeo and Mobiletag, let you get more info on what cinema is playing a movie by photographing a poster or which store sells a particular item for the best price by identifying the bar code. Both French companies, both fabulous applications. But not 100% fool-proof, FYI.

It’s showtime.

My all-time favorite application is Allociné’s iPhone app – for movie times, locations, tickets…and previews ! Even if I don’t have time to go see a movie, at least I can easily keep up to date with what’s playing and effortlessly watch the trailer.

A very-close 2nd-favorite application is either Shazam or Melodis’s Soundhound – which identify random songs you hear playing in bars, restaurants, etc. I hate that they’re both capped at 5 free songs/month so I like to switch between the 2 (*insert evil laugh here*) to get 10 songs for free. :) Between the 2, I actually prefer Soundhound because at least there are ways you can EARN more free songs without buying packages or subscriptions. Clever.

That’s (not) all folks!

Obviously I didn’t name all 108 applications on my phone – but I definitely covered a fair chunk of them. I’d be interested to know what absolutely essential applications I forgot – especially for someone living in Paris. Feel free to add to the comments and let me know…

Posted in France, Technolgy, Twitter, iphone | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Man, Those French Rappers Love Their Startups

September 4, 2010 by Roxanne Varza

This is just a random post on something that crossed my mind rather randomly the other day. You may’ve heard of Snoop Dogg’s gig with leading social games publisher Zynga. And if you didn’t, well, all you need to know is that it involved Zynga hiring Snoop Dogg to blow up a car for the launch of a new game, Mafia Wars. Whether or not you love the idea, Zynga did it. And it got noticed.

Orelsan is to Facebook what Snoop Dogg is to Zynga.

So if Snoop Dogg is out there promoting Zynga and Kanye West is showing-up for random concerts at Facebook headquarters,we might as well put French rapper Orelsan in the same boat. It’s not exactly the same because – unlike Snoop & Co.- Orelsan and Toxic Avenger probably weren’t approached by Zuckerberg or Ternovskiy to feature Facebook and Chatroulette in their video for the song N’importe Comment (yes, I translated Alexia Tsotsis’s post for TechCrunch France on this).

To any French-speaking readers, I apologize for the agressive and degrading lyrics – and pokes. It’s not any worse than Snoop Dogg. But I would like to give Orelsan credit for the game-console necklace bling, which is almost chic for geek. If he can wear a Nintento console around his neck and make it look cool, heck, I’d expect to see the Minitel as a fashion accessory and a vintage Freebox as interior decoration in no time.

Oh but wait, there’s actually a French electro-pop group (from Nantes!) called Minitel Rose – check out their video for Magic Powder. Maybe French musicians find tech cooler than one would think.

Je suis un Chatroulette-o-holic.

But even better than Orelsan, Toxic Avenger and Minitel Rose is French rock group Je Suis Un Chien. These kids actually used Chatroulette to make their video for the song Hologram.

I saw your mom on Chatroulette.

Calm down, it’s just a lyric from a song comedian Max Boublil wrote about Chatroulette (in French: “J’ai vu ta mère sur Chatroulette). His song is about as goofy as the Entrepreneur State of Mind / New Dork. But a little less mature and thought-out. Oh well. And in all honesty, Mr. Boublil’s song doesn’t really have much tech in it other than the word “Chatroulette”.

Je t’ai Googlisé.

But to my knowledge, no French rappers have written the Skyblog song or the Meetic melody. Do they have a strange preference for US technologies? Is that what it’s about? It seems kind of natural to throw US company names and technologies in ridiculous songs because 1) yes, they are insanely widely adopted and 2) the company names often become verbs in the English language – which is definitely not as common in French. Then again, I have heard lyrics that tend to reflect what is being used locally – for example MSN Messenger rather than AOL IM (wow, that was ages ago). I’m not suggesting that local startups should put their energy into inventing buzz words for a market they are already saying is too limited in size so that some rapper can come along and potentially help the brand. But could it help user adoption especially in the B2C space in some cases (I’m almost inclined to put out a few examples here). Then again, I could also point out that there are American companies – like Linkedin, for example – that didn’t exactly go this route either.

Nonetheless, it’s really quite telling that French rappers and rockers and whathaveyou are using social media in their group names, their music videos, their clothing, etc. – and regardless of the language. I’m sure there are other examples out there that I haven’t included too…

PS: all of this is way better than Miley Cyrus rapping about killing her Twitter account.

And over in the US, not all stars are Tweeting and going to YCombinator Conferences à la Ashton Kutcher. For example, there’s Miley Cyrus who killed her Twitter account very publicly and bashed the service (and essentially most online services where one could spend a lot of time). I’m not going to go into details because from what I understood it was all just insanely stupid – which is also reflected in this horrible rap music-video she made to match.

Thankfully no French rappers or rockers have done this – to my knowledge. Actually they seem more or less in tune with the tech trends, from what I’ve seen so far. Then again, very few of them actually have verified Twitter accounts – but who cares. Maybe it’s the French social media music video bunch that will be the type of “innovation ambassadors” I was trying to get at in an earlier post on French Hollywood being MIA from tech.

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurs, France, Innovation, Internet, Technolgy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Le Best Of: French Tech Blogs

August 21, 2010 by Roxanne Varza

I’ve had quite a few non-French people contact me regarding the best tech blogs and news outlets in the French technosphere. As my Twitter lists are far from being up-to-date (they will be soon!) I thought I’d put a few names to know here.

French Blogs 101.

First off, one very simple way to find out what’s out there and what’s being read is à la Technorati, via Wikio’s rankings (done according to number of links to the blog and apparently retweets as of June 2010).

But let me highlight a few of my favorites/names to know that are perhaps less-known outside of France (in absolutely no order whatsoever)…

Electron Libre @3l3ctr0nlibr3)

A really super blog about hi-tech, media and culture. You’ll get everything from Microsoft’s latest adventure to what Italy’s Berlusconi’s been up to – with a little twist of what’s been going on with French music start-ups.

Korben (@korben)

The best of geekdom, seriously. Korben will publish anything from a possible wannabe Social Network Google Movie (yawn) to a video game that lets girls beat up men who hit on them (yeowza). Honestly, it’s hardcore tech with a terrific twist of entertainment.

Presse Citron (@pressecitron)

Presse Citron is another blog at the peak of tech – but with more of a newsy flavor. Main topics span from the next best Twitter-based service to the war between printed versus electronic books. Definitely a must-know blog for France’s tech space.

Frenchweb.fr (@Frenchweb)

Tech and start-up news – and not just for the French tech space! Groupon acquisitions, Facebook Places launch, you name it, it’s all there. Plus, there are tons of terrific interviews with local entrepreneurs – and foreign ones too. Not a blog to overlook.

Blogomania.

And of course there are TONS I didn’t mention. You’ve also got your local ReadWriteWeb France, Mashable France - oh, and TechCrunch France. Obviously. :)  Ya, ok, there are obviously many more worthwhile blogs/online media publications I didn’t cover – especially for hi-tech and start-up news  (VendeDesign, Journal du Net, Journal du Geek, Accessoweb, JeanMarieGall, etc.). By no means does it mean that I don’t read them or find them insanely well done. The French tech space is FULL of bloggers.

Bonjour, je m’appelle geek.

There are also some local tech experts that have their own blogs and are really worth knowing – I’m thinking of Olivier Ezratty and Jean-François Ruiz’s WebDeux, but there are certainly more. I also really love when I come across entrepreneurs that have blogs as well. I’ve seen some really fabulous ones – but perhaps my all-time favorite is that of Submate founder, Laurent Kretz (yes, it’s in English!). Oh, and it looks like Netvibes and Jolicloud founder, Tariq Krim, may be back to blogging as well. THAT would be something.

And the girliest geek blog award goes to…

GamonGirls. I love the initiative. Yoda USB keys, iPhone news, gadgets, blah blah blah – all that with a hint of pink. Thank God it’s more serious tech and less like that horrible Valley Girl show. Don’t get me started.

By the way, anyone recognize the host ? Hint: DFJ.

Don’t be MIA.

I am not even going to try and pretend this list is anywhere near exhaustive. If you’ve got a killer blog about tech and startups in France, PLEASE add the URL below with a brief description of exactly what you cover and in what language. Merci!

Posted in Blogging, Business, Entrepreneurs, France, Innovation, Internet, Technolgy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Does French Innovation Need a Few More Famous Faces?

July 26, 2010 by Roxanne Varza

This subject has actually been on my mind for a while, triggered by the first time I saw MC Hammer at a conference in San Francisco (pretty sure it was the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit in 2008) and thought it was a total joke. The man had announced the launch of his start-up DanceJam.com and all I can remember thinking to myself, hashtags included, is:

#WTF is a hiphop celebrity from the 80s doing trying to mingle with the Silicon Valley crowd?

(Watch the video and then imagine it playing in your head as you casually see him speaking on stage at a tech conference…)

But Hammer wasn’t the only one making the Hollywood-hall-of-fame-Silicon-Valley-crossover. Ashton Kutcher showed up at TechCrunch50 only a few months later to launch Blah Girls. And regardless of what you think of his investments, U2 lead singer Bono has been doing more than just hanging out with VC firm Elevation Partners since 2004. So as much as I may want to laugh about Hammer’s online dance class site or the name “Blah Girls”, I can’t deny that these celebrities only help make Silicon Valley look sexy –  even if it’s in a ValleyWag type of way.

France has no ValleyWag. Not yet.

I’m not sure it really needs one though. There’s no reason to turn the budding tech community into a gossip rag at this point. Plus, no French tech stars are dating anyone famous à la Digg founder Kevin Rose and I-dont-know-who and if they are, well, quite frankly who really cares. But what the tech community could definitely use is a little more advocacy*, as the words “tech” and “geek” still go hand in hand.

Lights, camera, actionnaire.

Ok, that was a lame joke, since actionnaire is the French translation for shareholder. But back to the point. Some French Hollywood stars, like Thierry Lhermitte and Patrick Bruel, have actually gone the investment route. Cinema star Lhermitte invested in a anti-piracy company TMG and poker-addicted singer Bruel went for Winamax. Sure, they look more like support for personal interests and projects rather than investments in innovation but I could say the same about MC Hammer’s site now couldn’t I? Seriously, Cannes, send over a few more famous French faces!

PS/ Journal Du Net put together a list of top tier French business angels back in March but most of the faces come from the tech world.

The fine line between fame and geekdom.

In the US, I always felt that there was an incredibly fine (read: “invisible”) line between being a star from Silicon Valley and a star from Hollywood. And to prove it, Hollywood’s take on the tech world has also transformed, moving from a documentary-style take on Microsoft’s development (Triumph of the Nerds), to a TV series (Pirates of Silicon Valley) and now to a feature film (The Social Network). The 2 industries almost feed off each other now.

To be honest, I don’t know of any local equivalents to these films/shows (please enlighten me if they exist). So rather than a melodramatic version of Facebook’s history, court cases included, all the “innovation” that gets any media attention is the rather comical yet pathetic saga of France.fr (don’t get me started). But off the top of my head I can already think of at least 2 local start-up stories that would make killer screenplays.

Allez les Bleus, er, entrepreneurs !

But French entrepreneurs are making their way to prime time television, slowly but surely. In fact, one of my favorite initiatives is that of Meetic and Jaïna Capital founder Marc Simoncini, who recently began hosting 15-minute TV segments featuring entrepreneurs on Canal+’s iTele. Sure, Sarkozy may still need a verified Twitter account (Elysée Palace doesn’t count) to be officially considered an early adopter – but a fair share of French soccer players (ignoring the World Cup fiasco + underage prostitution issues) have already beat him to it. Look, all I’m saying is that if the Queen of Jordan can show up for LeWeb and find the time to Tweet, there are definitely more local faces that want to join in the fun…

*By “advocacy” I do not simply mean investment and tweeting but simply adopting certain technologies, participating in conferences, etc.

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurs, France, Innovation, Internet, Technolgy, silicon valley | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

My thoughts on the French Government’s attempt at a “digital workshop” #loi20

July 8, 2010 by Roxanne Varza

Last night, the President of the right-wing French political party UMP, Jean-François Copé, inaugurated what was supposed to be an atélier numérique participatif or a participative digital workshop. The menu of topics to be covered included a variety of issues on web 2.0 and internet regulation. I attempted to live-tweet most of the event in English with the event hashtag: #loi20.

Shut up and participate.

First things first, I realize we’re talking about the French government** but the fancy shmancy suit-and-tie atmosphere didn’t really put the “participative” in “atelier numérique participatif”. I vote that the next digital workshop attempt to adopt a more start-up feel by introducing the Google dresscode. Ah, but let’s not be ridiculous, perhaps the “participative” aspect can be casually overlooked.

How about some technology with that digital workshop?

Worse that the stuffy atmosphere was that there seemed to be a clear absence of “digital”. Aside from there being a lone iPad in the entire room (no, it was not mine – and I’m aware that the number of iPads doesn’t really prove anything), there seemed to be a really obvious lack of technological support. The TV screens, traditionally known for their motion picture capabilities, displayed a static subject of debate for over 2 hours. I’m faily certain that a good portion of people in that room wrote a thing or two on Twitter, yet none of it was displayed anywhere in the room. I highly encourage the government to consider adopting the model of tech conferences in the future – or at least to visit one just for a bit of inspiration.

Once upon a time there was a big, bad Internet.

Another thing that kind of struck me as odd was the way some of the topics were addressed, as if the Internet and all these web 2.0 companies were really out there to get us. *Insert an evil Zuckerberg laugh here* Oh, and apparently someone in the room thought that Linkedin and Amazon were in some kind of an evil partnership to distribute information regarding your sexual orientation. Hmmm…there were definitely remarkable differences between last night’s crowd and the more internet savvy gang that I’m used to. Dare I say generational gap? My favorite part was the elementary, 2-minute course on tagging Facebook photos.

Excuse me, you seem to have dropped your objective.

I had to leave early so I didn’t get to hear all the brilliant things that were surely said about net neutrality and the Hadopi law. But then again, I definitely didn’t grasp the whole point of the event. Was it to simply answer questions about tagging Facebook photos and “revealing” your sexual preferences to Amazon and Linkedin (pretty sure neither companies have any information on this, by the way)? Was it for the government to get “a general consensus” (based on the 50 or so people in the room, of which only 7 spoke) on certain topics? What? I thought there was going to be some kind of presentation, some kind of information or a game-plan to be distributed. But no. Well, whatever the objective, if the government wants to get an idea of where the Internet community stands on certain issues, they’re going to have to try a little harder.

#nocomment

Plus, did I mention that Copé left early to go “take care of” the whole banning the burka deal?

**For everyone that is going to get on my tail about using the word “government”, please note that the French translation of this word is “administration”.

Posted in Business, Entrepreneurs, France, Hadopi, Technolgy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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