Archive for the ‘Beta’ Category

Thank you. We’re working hard.

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | located in Beta, Features, Success Stories | No Comments »

We launched two weeks ago, and I wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you for the kind words, and for your interest in Ribbit Mobile.  We’ve been hard at work on this service since I first joined the company back in 2007, and it’s great to see such a positive response.

The beta launch was covered by covered by 60+ media outlets, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Forbes.  And we’ve had requests from Australia, South Africa, and Canada asking us when we’re going to expand.

Here’s a customer story I really liked, thought I’d share it with you. It is from Nithin Rao, a long time Ribbit Mobile beta user who is throughly enjoying the voice to text transcription feature as it helps him keep the projects moving forward, even while 36,000 feet in the air:

While the beta has started well we have identified what needs more work.  We’re working hard to fix the Plaxo and CSV import issues.  And while the browser based calling voice quality has been good, we have a project underway to make it even better.  You’re going to love the results.

We continue to send invites out, and appreciate your patience as we work through the waiting list. We know it is never fun to wait.

Do let us know your ideas to improve the service.  You can post your ideas to the idea wall or contact us at support@ribbit.com.  If you want to reach me directly give me a call on my mobile. Thanks, we look forward to the advances ahead.

Dan, Ribbit
VP Product Management
650-776-7176 (mobile)

And for those of you in the UK who want Ribbit Mobile…

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | located in Beta | 2 Comments »

…it is coming soon. Woot!

We have been in a private trial with BT employees for several months, and everything seems to be going smashingly well, so we plan to extend that to the fine folks outside of BT.

If you would like to give Ribbit Mobile a try, you can request a trial invite. Ribbit will begin provisioning accounts in the first quarter of 2010 and will do so on a first-come, first-served basis. So sign up and watch your inbox folks!

Ribbit Announces Free Communication Suite For Mobile Professionals

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 | located in Beta, Features | 6 Comments »

Big news for us today! Ribbit Mobile, our cloud-based service that provides a new way to manage calls, messages and phones is now available to the general public in an expanded beta release. Ribbit Mobile’s core set of features transforms the way people communicate by letting them decide how, when and where they want to stay in touch.

Features Include:

Ribbit Mobile lets users communicate in ways never before possible by enabling them to merge multiple phones, route mobile calls to other phones and even answer their mobile calls on the Internet. Ribbit Mobile users can stay connected on their own terms—wherever they are—so they never miss another important call.

Unlike other Internet voice services, Ribbit Mobile doesn’t require a new phone number, a new phone or a software download—and the service can be made active on any mobile phone in less than five minutes.  Ribbit Mobile converts voicemail to text and sends it to users via SMS and email, eliminating the need to dial into voicemail and listen to messages. It provides an online message inbox where messages can be managed and stored forever (see below).

Ribbit Mobile also offers users a back-up phone online for those times when a users’ device is lost, stolen, broken or mobile service is unavailable.  The Web-based version of the mobile device enables Ribbit users to continue to make and take “mobile” phone calls via an Internet connection, regardless of their location or device accessibility.

Open Platform Drives Telephony Innovation
Ribbit Mobile is built on the Ribbit Platform – a robust, extensible platform with open APIs that lets developers add features to Ribbit Mobile. As more developers create applications, the service will become increasingly powerful and innovative.

We are also announcing the “Developer Rewards” program, which will compensate developers based on how much their applications are used, even if their applications are offered for free to end users. Unlike traditional app stores, Ribbit developers are rewarded on creating the most useful and popular applications that drive platform and network usage. We’ll have more on this program in the coming days.

It’s Free!
During the introductory beta period, we are offering the “Professional” package free for everyone on a trial basis. Reserve your account now and watch your inbox. It is on a first-come, first-served basis and we will be releasing a batch of beta invites every day.

Quotes:

• Ribbit CEO Ted Griggs - “With voice and data networks merging, consumers, businesses, software developers and even traditional telecommunications carriers are exploring new ways to communicate and evaluating how to successfully manage multiple communication streams. The challenge is that up until now the ways in which we most commonly communicate—voice, text, email, IM—exist in largely separate online and offline worlds.  Ribbit Mobile is changing all of that.”
• Jerry McClain, a Mortgage Loan Officer and a Ribbit Mobile user: “Ribbit Mobile gives me a competitive advantage and helps me close deals faster. I receive over 30 voicemail messages a day, and Ribbit Mobile gives me instant visibility into which ones are important so I can focus on what matters most.”
• Jeff Weintraub, a contractor specializing in remodeling, and a Ribbit Mobile user: “Every contractor knows that clients often change their minds during a project, and keeping the details straight can be a big job. Ribbit Mobile lets me keep an unlimited voicemail archive of all of my client communications so that I can easily reference old messages that provide instructions or requests. I don’t lose important voicemails after 21 days like I did with my phone carrier—and if a client ever says ‘I didn’t ask for that,’ I can find the related voicemail and we can review it together.”

Additional Links:

• How It Works
• Ribbit Support

Ribbit Mobile: Do you know what you’re missing?

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 | located in Beta | 1 Comment »

With over 6,000 BT employees now taking part in the BT/Ribbit Mobile trial, we’ve discovered that people often sign up out of curiosity… and end up being raving fans.

As an experiment, we asked Ribbit’s own Ray Lee to give up his Ribbit Mobile account.  Ray joined Ribbit from BT as the Director of Platform Business Development, and we thought he might be willing to give up his account. We were wrong. Ray didn’t want to be without Ribbit Mobile, not even for a single day.

To find out why, we sat down with Ray and captured his thoughts about Ribbit Mobile…

If you haven’t signed up yet - do you know what YOU’RE missing?

Don’t listen to us…listen to them.

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 | located in Beta | No Comments »

We recently asked a handful of folks who are in the middle of the BT Ribbit for Mobile beta what their thoughts were so far on the service, here’s what they had to say:

• Adam Green: It’s like a web portal for your phone.  You can set it up in a number of ways - I have it so that calls come to my mobile first, after that it will forward it to all the numbers I have listed on the service, including Skype and my computer.
• Dave Gibson: If you use email a lot, it’s good to receive messages left on your phone (as they show up) in your email (especially if your mobile phone is turned off most of the time).
• Keith McKnight: Gives you more control of your mobile experience - manage your mobile calls on your own terms.
• Scott Boorman: A good speech to text voicemail service with excellent call routing.

Are you having similar experiences? We would love to hear from you! We welcome more comments from you as you dig into the beta release as knowing how people are using Ribbit is way better than us simply guessing. :)  Tell us. Please.

Need help getting started? Check out our great resource library. Something not working quite right for you? Let us know and we’ll get on it.

Your feedback is extremely important to us. Reach out. It’s ok. We don’t bite.

One Ribbit feature saved me 2.5 hours a week

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 | located in Beta, Features | 2 Comments »

Always trying to squeeze more time out of my work week, I recently calculated the number of minutes I spend calling into my voice mail box to retrieve messages from missed calls (for the record, it is fair to say I get quite a few calls *and* I miss quite a few calls).

I averaged out the results over a two week period and was floored.  I was investing almost three hours a week on dialing into my mailbox, listening to the messages, then [sometimes] having to call or email someone else to pass the verbal message on as they were the person who should have received the call in the first place.  That was three hours a week I could have spent doing something else. Three hours!!!

This little ‘experiment’ confirmed I needed to rethink the way I interacted with my phone, and how I processed my messages. I had to find a way to free up those three hours a week so I could invest them in other ways (whether personally or professionally).

Enter Ribbit. You should know I am a fairly new addition to the staff here. I am also a big believer of the ‘eat our own dogfood‘ way of thought.  The order for my business cards had not even been processed yet when I dove in and set up my new account.

It is interesting to note the change in my behavior began immediately upon receipt of my first voicemail funneling through the Ribbit service. As a recent example shows (see below) I am sent an email that had a transcription of the voicemail, an option to listen to the voice mail by using a standard call in number *and* an .mp3 of the voice mail I could click and listen to from within the email.  A service that gives me options in how I interact with it. Nice.

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The best part of getting this message was being able to email this contact back (I knew his email address) to set an interview time. This took me less than 15 seconds from start to finish, including confirming his response (in email form). Calling him back and having a discussion or calling him back and missing him so I would have to leave him a voicemail would have taken twice that amount of time…if not more.

Don’t get me wrong. I love human interaction, but some things should be done quickly and without much effort. This message was a perfect example of that, especially as my phone was ringing again with more items to address. Yes, I think it is time to change my number…but I digress.

I spent two weeks interacting with my voicemail via Ribbit and found it produced an average time savings of 2.5 hours per week.  That is 2.5 hours I got back in my week to invest elsewhere, say…maybe for a trip (or three) to the gym. Just think, I can become a healthier Kristie and I have Ribbit to thank for it. Ha. Might seem silly to some, but it is these ‘little’ things that make a difference.

Bonus: Having my voicemails come to me in an email means I now have an easily searchable archive of my messages. Woot.

Disclosure: Individual results may differ based on your personal voicemail activity. As I mentioned, I get a few calls. Ok, I get a lot of calls. While the number of calls has not subsided, the amount of time I spend processing them has significantly been reduced. You may not save 2.5 hours in a week - but what if you could save 1/2 hour? That is still awesome…right?

Getting Started with Ribbit

Friday, March 20th, 2009 | located in Beta | 1 Comment »

The most important thing you need to get started with Ribbit…is a beta code…and the best way to get a beta code is to sign up for Ribbit for Mobile, and then watch your inbox. We are currently in a private beta and will be doling these beta codes out in small handfuls in the weeks leading up to our official launch (Summer 2009).

Now, once you have your beta code, log in and click on the help button on the top right of your Ribbit for Mobile account:

The Help button will take you to a great library of guides, videos and tutorials showing you how to get the most from the Ribbit product. Our team has done a great job putting these resources together and are adding to the library daily so dig in and educate yourself.

Now if you find yourself in need of some help, so not hesitate to contact the Ribbit support team at support@ribbit.com or call us at +44-0800-028-1150 (UK) or 1-800-4-RIBBIT (US) and if you think there is something we can be doing even better - be sure to shoot us a note via our feedback page or add it to our Idea Wall. Your input will help shape the Ribbit for Mobile product.