aBrilliantBlog

For the second time in so many years I ate at Kafool Hummus Fool (I have no idea how to spell this in English so I tried to spell it phonetically) and again was very pleased. It’s at 2 Nachlaot Benyamin in Tel Aviv and is a tiny place with seating for no more then 10 inside but many more outside. This time I had the chicken hummus and was surprised at how good it was. My wife had a soup and it was so big she couldn’t finish it. The atmosphere is great and the service is even better. They speak English and have no problems with large groups. We were served quickly and with a smile. I spoke with the owner Asi who told me they had been there for 4 years. I hope to make another trip there before I leave, but if I don’t make it I will without a doubt come back on my next visit to Israel. They are at the end of the street called Nachlaot Benyamin where an art fair held on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is just next to Shook HaCarmel which goes on everyday besides Saturday.

Make sure to visit them on your next trip to Tel Aviv, I highly recommend them.

Kafool Hummus Fool is at #2 Nachlaot Banyamin and their phone number is +972 3 5108408 .

Batay Avon

I don’t usually like to tear into products or services, I try to find good things to write about and be positive for the most part, but this isn’t a usual post.  I just flew from New York’s’ JFK airport to Barcelona, Spain on Iberia airlines.  It was a real pain in the ass from beginning to end, and we still don’t have all our luggage so it’s not over yet. When we arrived we checked in at American Airlines First Class area (my father in law is a million miler and has lifetime privileges) and there was no ticket for my daughter, in addition my wife and sister in law could not have their boarding passes from Barcelona to Tel Aviv.

While on the flight I bent over to get something from my bag under the seat in front of me and  was elbowed in the head by a male flight attendant.  It wasn’t to hard but instead of apologizing he said to me, “excuse me……. I’ve got to do my job.”  My wife said my jaw dropped, I expected him to apologize.  I wasn’t in any real pain but that’s just what you do when you unintentionally strike someone in the head, right?

After landing we asked for help in getting the 2 boarding passes and we were told to walk to the other side of Barcelona airport.  We walked back and forth at least twice before getting fed up.  We finally went out of security and over to the El Al counter where they were kind enough to assist us.  Iberia was not when directly asked for help.  We were a party of 8, 2 of us being in their 70’s and probably should not have been rushed around a large airport.  In my opinion Iberia should have offered assistance with fixing our situation or at least offer to transport our 2 older travelers.  I was totally dismayed and disappointed with the experience.  After finally getting the 2 boarding passes and to the gate we were faced with the fact that one of our pieces of luggage did not arrive in Barcelona.  My poor mother in law was in tears, all the gifts for her grand children and other family we were visiting in Israel were missing along with her dress and other nice clothes were in the missing suite case.

After arriving in Tel Aviv we waited for over an hour for my mother in laws missing suite case before filing a missing bag report.  Instead of being offered any compensation for not having her dress and gifts we were told “we’ll get in touch with you”.  I personally got involved and started calling Iberia.  I was put off by them and rarely got thorough to any human being.  I called their Israel, Spain, and US offices and never got any assistance.  I ended up getting help from El Al airlines who went above and beyond.  Multiple times they walked over to Iberia for me and checked for the missing bag.  It finally arrived after going missing for 5 days.

I tend to expect this kind of action from a company with a beta product not a corporation with offices all over the world and that has been in business as many years as they have.  Iberia you can do better, a lot better.

I was just at a Burger King in Tel Aviv, more specifically in Ramot Tzhala and was I happily surprised to see that they offered free WiFi.  It was a treat I didn’t expect to find.  I didn’t test the speeds but I was able to make a VOIP phone call via DeFi Mobile on an N95-4.  Good job Burger King and I hope this trend spreads.

I have a Nokia N85 waiting for me when I return home from vacation in a few weeks, but instead of letting it sit unused while I’m gone I told my Dad to play with it.  I didn’t know if he would or what he would think, he has been using my old E61 for a while now and has been enjoying it.  I’m glad that he’s been using it and here is his short review.

“Hi Jeb,

I like the N85.  I put my sim card in it and it never got below 3 bars here at my desk.  It takes nice pics with modest zoom lens, has beautiful screen, prints $100 bills that look real (sorry - just wanted you to wake up).  Anyway, it never went under 3 bars, so is it the 3G that gives it better reception?  Whatever it is, I like it.  It is an awesome phone.  I am beginning to understand that it becomes fun to do all these things on such a device.”

I think I’ve found my new reviewer.  Anyways, I’m really jealous my Dad is playing with the phone I’m supposed to have.  Anyways, just so you have some understanding, my Dad was a basic S40 phone user until recently and now enjoys all the S60 goodness.  If you have any questions about the N85 feel free to post them and I’ll ask my Dad to answer them.

I’m very excited, I just got a new Kingston 8gig Micro SD card from New Egg.  It’s nothing special but I never found the need to have a card this big in the past.  I am going to be taking some long flights very soon and I wanted to be able to put movies on a card to put in the Asus EeePC901 I’m reviewing. I’m looking forward to using this and taking advantage of the added memory.

I don’t have all the details just yet, but I got an IM the other night telling me that Truphone (mobile VOIP) is now set up to receive calls on the iPhone.  Previously users could only place calls, which is nice but a little restrictive.  Now having Truphone on your iPhone is like having 2 phones built into one.  Truphone will give you the ability to make and receive calls at a much reduced rate when roaming outside your home area.  I use Truphone on my Nokias every time I travel out of the country.  It has been the cheapest and easiest way for people to reach me and gives me the opportunity to reach out.

Check out the Truphone website to get all the details, I’m still a little vague on how it works on the iPhone but I do know that these guys have a really useful app that is now available on at least 3 platforms, iPhone, S60, and Blackberry.

So I am going away for 3 weeks this winter.  I will  be visiting the beautiful country of Israel.  I am trying to line up my technology in advance for this trip and trying to keep it as light and little as possible.  I will have a handful of phones with me including the Nokia N78, N95, and my trusty yet dated E61i, I have a review netbook at the moment.  It is an Asus Eee PC 901 and I am loving it.  I also have a Proporta battery pack, which will keep my Nokias charged everywhere.  As for connectivity at airports and around the city I have a Boingo account that should keep me connected at the 4 airports I will be visiting and I hope lots of other locations around Israel.  I am concerned though that I will run out of juice on the netbook mid flight.  I am planning on making it a video  player for my daughter and I don’t want her upset the battery died mid Elmo episode.  I wish I could get a tip for my Proporta charger to use with the Asus.  I am considering purchasing a converter for use in cars and on the airplane to plug the Asus into.

I now have to start thinking about my connectivity to the grid.  I already have an Orange Big Talk sim card to use for my voice needs.  I am now looking into data so I can stay connected to email, IM, Jaiku, Twitter, and mobile maps and search.  I count heavily on mobile connectivity and being able to search and look up maps whille I’m mobile.  I am hoping that I can add data onto my Orange sim card but don’t have high expectations.  Last year when I was in Israel I had the sim in a Nokia N95 and it was not able to access the data I paid for.  My contingency plan for data is using United Mobile.  I have to check on the data rates but they usually pretty competitive.

Two of my favorite services I use everyday are GrandCentral and Truphone.  I take all my calls via GrandCentral and forward them to Truphone.  I can either answer the calls via Truphone or forward them to my current GSM #.  When I change sims upon landing in Tel Aviv the Truphone app on my phone will ask me if I want to forward my calls to my Orange sim versus my AT&T sim I use in the US.  This means I can have all my calls forwarded to my Orange sim in  Israel and not pay a penny for the service or to receive calls on the Orange sim.  If this is getting confusing to you imagine how I feel, but it works and it works quite well.  I did the same kind of thing when I was in Barcelona earlier this year using a Yoigo sim card.

Last week I did a friend a favor and asked a few bloggers if they wanted to use my friends product.  I thought I was being helpful to both the bloggers and my friends company.  Just for the record I consider the bloggers friends to.

Anyways, one blogger turned the product down, the other two accepted it.  One of those two was happy with it and the other was disappointed that he didn’t get a letter with an explanation of the company or even a business card of someone to contact if they had any questions.

Now, I’m a bit surprised how this all went down, but at the same time I guess this is not  very uncommon.  I have been lucky enough in the past to get some toys to test and they are sometimes accompanied by some additional information, at the bare minimum a business card of the person sending the product.  I have received a tea bag each and every time Proporta has sent me anything, now that was a nice touch.

I am proposing a question to my blogger and PR friends.  How would you like to be handled by PR people?  Do you want a follow up call, a letter in the package, or to be left alone all together?  What have you come to expect and how can the experience be any better?

I personally would like a note with contact info of the person sending me the package.  In some cases I know who’s sending me something and I have a previous relationship with them.  In that case nothing is necessary, but the first time I get a package I would really like to know how to contact the sender.

Lookie lookie what I got my hands on.  It’s the Nokia N85 iSync plugin for Macs.  I can not vouch for this app but it does come from Nokia.  I have not used it yet because I don’t have an N85.  Hint hint, if someone wants to send me the N85 I would be eternally grateful.  Anyway, here is the LINK to the download.  I hope it helps and please let me know if there are any hiccups.

By the way, I am hooked on the N85 for a few reasons, it is Feature Pack 2 which means it has one of my new favorite features Contact List switching.  Switch between your built in contact list and the Sim card list or view both at the same time.  Genius.   My other favorite feature of this device and a huge plus to it is the triband 3G.  This means it will work in most big cities in the US and in most other countries of the world.

Nokia just announced a new device, the Nokia N97.  It’s a bit to late to go into detail about it so here are some pics and video from

Jonathan Greene www.atmasphere.net

Video

Robert Scoble

http://www.kyte.tv/ch/6118-scobleizer/283228-nokia-n97-169-video

Flickr pics

Also Nokia Maps 3.0 now in beta and a new IM/email app.

I will post more later.