Happy Holidays from the HeyCosmo team

The entire HeyCosmo team wants to wish our HeyCosmopolitans a very special holiday and prosperous New Year.

It is hard not to look back on 2008 with a reluctant sense of hope as the United States and the world became engulfed in so many negative events. We have truly started to see how interrelated people are from all over the world—we are not embroiled in a U.S. recession but in a world recession; we do not find that the U.S. is experiencing unprecedented unemployment singularly but on a global scale; and we find that the U.S. is not the only country to feel loss and pain of terrorism but it is the world that feels this. What one country experiences we all feel the effects.

When looking back on the year 2008 remember the good things along with the not so good. In 2008 we progressed efforts towards AIDS prevention and treatment around the world. Global ecological issues leaped forward and started to become recognized for what they are. We also started to seriously recognize the importance of alternative energies and their place in the survival of our planet.

This is an important time to remain in touch with your friends and loved ones. It is a time to tighten our belts and not needlessly spend, however to still keep the economy running by using our money wisely. We need to exercise our money, not sleep on it. Remember HeyCosmo for these tasks. HeyCosmo Blaster to communicate and organize; and HeyCosmo Concierge to find what you need quickly and without wasting your time.

Have a great New Year and party responsibly.

Sincerely,
The HeyCosmo teams...


Remember: If you have experienced any inappropriate or abusive usage of our applications please contact us through our website. We will need the specific time and date, the phone number you were contacted on and the message content. We investigate all reports of abuse and contact the originator if necessary.

A little edge for Billy?

I guess we have to assume this Blast was made by child who wanted to use our HeyCosmo services to get a little edge on a possible dodgy record of his year’s indiscretions. …or possible it was done in good fun! Actually, this was sent by a user as a cute Santa message to several friends to boost holiday spirit.

Santa, you know I tried my best to be good, but sometimes I made mistakes. I already sent you my list but forgot to ask you what you wanted for your visit.
Option 1: Press 1, if you want cookies.
Response 1: I think we have two kinds. I’ll put them both out.
Option 2: Press 2, if you want cookies and milk.
Response 2: I will put some ice cubes in the milk so it doesn’t get too warm. Mom buys 2 percent.
Option 3: Press 3, if I should leave hay for the reindeer.
Response 3: I don’t think we have enough for all of them, but I guess they can share.

We know this didn’t go to Santa because we currently do not have HeyCosmo service in the North Pole, but our team is looking into it for next year.

Do you have some interesting and fun ways of Blasting your friends, family, or Santa? Post a comment so everyone can try it.

HeyCosmo Blaster is about getting your message out and receiving a response in 60 seconds—a great tool to organize and corral your communications; however it is also a fun application. Share your spirit with your friends using HeyCosmo Blaster.

—Remember to always Blast responsibly. HeyCosmo applications are not to be used to annoy or for telemarketing purposes. It is recommended you let your friends and family know that you are using this tool to communicate so they can expect the call.

HeyCosmo website design changes

It is safe to say that the majority of readers of this blog came in through the HeyCosmo website, but specifically for those that didn’t, "Check out our new design changes!"

The new design addresses these areas:

• Make it easier for new visitors to find descriptions of what we do and of our applications.
• Give users a more direct location to login to their accounts.
• Display ready links to top web 2.0 functionality, including: Facebook; Twitter; social bookmarking; and of course Block/Unblock functionality.

We do admit that our previous design appeared a little confusing, and based on your input and recommendations we hope this revision makes using our applications a lot more friendly and direct. We want HeyCosmo to be a fun experience for you as well as giving you the tools to help you organize your social and family circles.

We appreciate your constructive input.

Christmas is coming...are you ready?

I know we don’t need to remind you that Christmas is quickly approaching. Do you know what the top selling consumer gift item was on Black Friday (the Friday following U.S. Thanksgiving Day)? That would be the Nintendo Wii, which is showing to be the hottest gift item this year. How many stores are you going to call to ask if they have the Nintendo Wii in stock before you either find it or give up and go to “plan B” for your child’s gift?

...10 toy stores?

...15 electronic boutiques?

HeyCosmo Concierge can make those calls for you! You have better things to do with your time this holiday than spending it on the telephone—we can do it all for you right now.

Misconceptions About HeyCosmo Service

Although vast majority of HeyCosmo apps users and call recipients have reported great experiences and are devoutly loyal to our service, some blog critics recently misconceives HeyCosmo as a telemarketer and questions how we obtain phone numbers of the call recipients. To clarify our service:

Where does HeyCosmo get the phone numbers?

• Call recipient phone numbers are input by the user. We do not obtain those numbers ourselves. Call recipients are getting call blasts from someone that they know. The only time we ask for a call recipient’s phone number is if they wish to have that number block or unblock from future calls.
• There is always the possibility that a SPAM company could use HeyCosmo apps that are contrary to our usage policy. We watch for unusual bulk activity on our servers to try to spot this activity, however it is very important that our users report improper activity so we can contact the sender and stop the inappropriate action as quickly as possible.

Why does HeyCosmo Blast ask you to “press 1” at the beginning of the call?

• When you receive a HeyCosmo Blast on your cell phone, pressing “1” opts you in to listen to the message—you are not purchasing anything from HeyCosmo.

What’s with the ad during the call?

• A short ad is played at the end of the message while your selected option is being processed back to the originator of the call. This ad is how HeyCosmo provides the service free-of-charge to users. Some ads ask for the listener to interact if they are interested in receiving more information. You are never required to interact with the ads and will never falsely state this. This type of ad placement is becoming more important in our communications and multimedia future. Most have already accepted this reality. (see articles on The New York Times or Computerworld)
  

Block/Unblock calls

• We’ve made it easy for a call recipient to block all HeyCosmo app calls by providing the Block/Unblock button on our new website. One blogger suggested that the function didn’t work for him when he tried to block his cell phone number. We periodically test to make sure this is working and have validated that the functionality in order.
• For security we have a verification function that calls your number to validate and confirm that it is indeed your number that you wish to Block/Unblock. I will be releasing more information about this when it is readily available.

Your constructive comments are really important to us and to clear up any concerns about our service. Please post public facing comments to this blog, or send me an email.