Ahmed Shuja is a UX Designer!

Google Profiles is not available for your organization

This is completely whack!

We use Google Apps to host our company email, documents, calendars etc etc since years. Over the previous months Google has been nagging about switching our domain’s accounts to Google accounts. So now, when we sign in on our Google Apps for our domain we have to sign out of our Gmail accounts. Fair enough! Makes a lot of sense to me. I actually (somewhat) like it! 

Here’s the drama…

Now they’ve come up with Google+. Sounds super exciting, with all the buzz going on about it. I have been getting invites. When I see my peers’ Google+ profiles, I want one too! Oh look, there’s a “You+” link > top left. 

Brilliant! I’ll click it…

But hey, there’s a problem here. Google says… 

Google Profiles is not available for your organization

So now what do I do? Poor feedback from Google doesn’t guide me to any solution. Possibly expecting that I am a power user of sorts who can figure it out on my own. Well I did. There isn’t much that can be done, but wait for it to happen.

But what about all the other users of my domain.

I know for a fact all accept 2 of them are going to get lost, and will be probing those 2 or me as to what they should do now. 

Bottom line: I am extremely disappointed. 

BlackBerry Apps: Wordpress vs Tumblr

Just downloaded the WordPress for BlackBerry app and typing in the first post from my phone.
Here’s a bit of a background on the situation at hand. I have been a WordPress author for some years now. Since recently (a relative term which in my case means almost 2 years) however I never seem to get enough time to sit down in front of a PC just to write a blog post. Then suddenly I stumbled upon Tumblr. It was love at first sight! I intend to post my study comparing WordPress and Tumblr very very soon. So help me God! For now… Back to the point…

WordPress vs Tumblr BlackBerry Apps : first impressions

I have been using the Tumblr app since some months now. Its awesome. It let’s me do the job that I NEED to do – “Post my thoughts etc online”. I can instantly share/ post a photo or a URL or more by using the “Send to Tumblr” menu item added by the Tumblr app to my BlackBerry menu. If I wish to access the app first – Tumblr BlackBerry app is super fast to load and gives me the option i.e. Freedom and Control to switch the default view by simply checking a box. All the way down to the “advanced post options” (with a send to twitter checkbox) and the final act of posting the Tumblr app is designed to help me focus on the real job… Sharing content!

On the flip side however, while the WordPress app lacks in all things going in favor of the Tumblr app, the WordPress app allows me to do lots more. It let’s me format my post for starters. To top it all it allows me to manage my entire blog from my mobile device!

The WordPress app has a very clever multi-select option, but wait the check boxes don’t even look like check boxes! While being a technologist (as some may call me) I hesitated before selecting an item. I did wonder if I will be opening a detailed view of the spam entry in the comments section or will I select it? I reckon more I use this app – I will be able to compare the two much better. Right now (2AM) is probably not the best time to dig deeper.

To bring this post to a close… here’s my question: do I really need to manage my entire blog from my phone? Or is mobile blogging or micro-blogging all about “sharing content”?