Known Problems: Sign-Up Form & Set My Location

Michael Arrington wrote us up on TechCrunch today. We are going to get a lot of hits. I better inform the new users of known problems and about our next refresh.

First, the [Previous] and [Next] keys on the Sign-Up page do not work because of our JavaScript. Instead touch to move to a field. Then, use the back <x] key to delete the field-name before entering data.

Second, you can only change your location to another landmark inside the SF Bay Area with the “I’M HERE” feature in OpenLandmark. Unfortunately, there are very few landmarks in OpenLandmark yet. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We are working on a new refresh (target March 3). It will include bug fixes and internationalization (French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Chinese and Malay) for Fon11. Other languages will follow soon. Contacts will be sorted by availability and most recent. Nearby will include time zones so you know when not to call.

OpenLandmark will include new posting pages to speed up the seeding of landmarks. This will allow us to enable more metropolitans around the world.

Thank you for using our products.

Sharing Information on Fon11: Under Your Control

One of the advantages of using Fon11 is that you can share information with your friends and contacts while exercising full control over what level of sharing you engage in.

For example, only those people you have chosen to add as contacts can see your presence message, mood, and availability. You control how closely they can see your location - and if you want, you can hide your location completely. In addition, your contacts will not necessarily be able to see all of your phone numbers. They see only those numbers that you have specifically given to them and that they have input into their contact listing for you. As a result, automatic number updates only go to those contacts who already have the relevant phone numbers in their contact lists.

Fon11 takes your privacy concerns very seriously and will protect your phone numbers and other personally-identifiable information contained in your account. We do not keep track of which contacts you have called. For further details, please read our Privacy Policy.

Bug Fixes

We fixed a couple of bugs today.  One caused a bookmarked link to freeze in the “Sign in to continue” error page, after a session has timed out.  The second affects the input filter that was applied to the message page.

Tip: See What Your Friends See

Add yourself as a contact to see yourself listed in the Contacts and Nearby pages. This way you can see what your friends see.

How Does My Location’s “I’m Here” Work?

I’m Here is a feature in OpenLandmark, a companion site for Fon11.

This feature allows you to set your current geolocation (represented by latitude and longitude) at the landmark. This is the only way to set your current location on an iPhone and iPod Touch.  We are waiting for Apple to announce the SDK, which we hope will allow Web apps to access the Skyhook WiFi/Cell tower geolocation information in Version 1.3.

OpenLandmark is also a work in progress. Although we already have the ability to support many metropolitans around the world and to create new metropolitans rapidly, it’s a daunting task to create landmarks all around the world at once. It’s going to take time. We have started seeding landmarks in Berkeley and Las Vegas. We also have a user-generated landmark bookmark and shoot-and-upload solutions, which we are working to implement quickly.  We hope this will speed up the creation of landmarks, thus making Landmarks a feature you can use around the world.

iPod Touch enabled, but phone features are not supported

The iPod Touch can now access Fon11. Please note that only non-phone features are supported. Clicking on a contact, for instance, will result in an error on the iPod Touch.

Fon11 on iPod Touch, PC Safari and as Mac Widget

Fon11 alpha was launched with iPhone support only. We did so to limit the number of users hitting our site while we continue to improve existing features and incorporate your feedback. Thanks for your interest in Fon11 on iPod Touch. We will open that tomorrow morning.

PC Safari and Fon11 Mac Widget will come soon. Please follow www.twitter.com/fon11 to get the latest updates.

Introducing Fon11 “A Live Phonebook”

Think about the last time you changed your mobile phone.  How long did it take you to re-key your contact list? How did you inform your friends and contacts that you had a new work, home or mobile number?  Now, all you need is Fon11 and you can simply update your phone number in your settings.  Fon11 will take care of the rest and update your contacts’ phonebooks.

We aim to make the phonebook alive. Share your availability, what you are doing, your mood, and your location with your contacts via the phonebook. Locate your friends and landmarks nearby.

Our team has worked long and hard and we’re excited to roll out Fon11. This is just the beginning. Fon11 is a work in progress, and we intend to add a lot of other cool features. For example, the API release is coming very soon, which we hope will attract other developers to create versions of Fon11 for other mobile devices.

We hope you enjoy using Fon11. If you have ideas, or find bugs in Fon11, we hope you’ll take a moment to send us feedback.