Gary Sheynkman dot com

How many phone numbers do you have?

Some of us are lucky enough to just have one, others (like me) don’t have that luxury. To keep sane I have a pretty well sorted system that I use to keep it all in check. Here are my phones and how I sort them:

1. US private/personal mobile number
2. US BlackBerry work mobile number (with attached unlimited world data plan, cheap data no voice plan)
3. US “Desk” Skype number
4. UAE “Desk” phone number
5. UAE mobile

I will let you in on a little secret: there are only two devices.

My ATT BlackBerry is just an email device. I do not give that number out to anyone. The ATT BlackBerry data plan is the cheapest I’ve seen in the world.

Now for the other 4:

My private phone is on a family unlimited US plan. That number calls to my US based skype number which has unlimited international calling. The skype number forwards to my mobile phone from Etisalat in the UAE that has free incoming.

My UAE desk phone forwards to my UAE mobile phone.

My outbound calls are either made through my UAE cell or if international my Skype Out account (connected through a VPN since its blocked in the UAE). Etisalat also happens to have some of the cheapest roaming charges around.

In case I miss a call, my voicemail system sends me an MP3 via email that I can sort and listen to at any time.

I use a Nokia E51 (highly recommended, pictured above) for all my voice calls (including skype through Fring) and a road warrior Curve as my mobile data hub.

In short: Use an online call/routing system to call a line that has free incoming calls as a “hub number”. Have that number be the number where you get a lot of calls from, but not where you local mobile is.

Shoot me an email or leave a comment if you have a better system

Hello, its 2009. Why is technology still so passive?

To date, I am a huge fan of the paper PDA (I’ll touch on why in another post) for my to dos and notes. Meetings, however, are kept on mobile devices. Google Calendar, BlackBerry, and Outlook meeting invites rule the day.

If you are not a couch potato and not a cubicle dweller, you meet people. You take a meeting here.. .a meeting there. You might be meeting someone for lunch. If you are active and up and about you are ruled by your mobile device calendaring.

Here is an idea. RIM, Apple, Palm, Microsoft, Nokia… Listen up!! I am giving away a free idea so that your customers love your devices more.

If I have a meeting in 30 minutes, my Blackberry tells me “Hey you have a meeting in 30 minutes”. That’s it! What a waste!

How about a single click option to send a “I’m running 20 minutes late” email to everyone on the meeting invite… and automatically send a text message to them as well if they are in your phone book. This saves valuable rush hour/vital  phone call minutes on actually getting there on time and finishing the conversation without having to send an email or make extra apologetic phone calls. Shit happens. People run late. Everyone understands… now how about a mobile device that eases the process?

You are welcome.