OurielOhayon

Calling abroad from your cell, is a kind of nightmare. Just in Israel

This is the story of a new israel wonder, in a country where high tech is king.

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I rarely make phone calls. I prefer email or skype. But sometimes i need to. Like today

i had to call someone abroad from israel and from my cell phone. I then discovered this is an option you need to activate with Cellcom (why???) although i am a long time customer. 

But this is not the main problem (it s just a one off)

You can't just dial the number you want to call ( +country code+ number). It does not work. Well it takes to a voicemail explaining you that you need to use a local roaming operator.

This means that you need to ask a dial code before each number to call abroad (013/014+country code+number)

This is SO stupid. Because suddenly my contact book is useless.

I need to take the number i want to call [which you never know by heart] somehow (copy paste it) then add this dial code. then paste it again in the dialer then dial it.

This is just a stupid experience. 

I am not going to obviously change every single number in my contact book specially because when i am abroad i won t even be able to use those.

So 1 message to my cell company:CELLCOM (or maybe others). CHANGE THIS NOW!

Either make a deal with those operators and route my numbers or let me dial at full rate directly

The glowing NYC startup scene

I spent a few days in NYC. I met there, several entrepreneurs, investors and incubators. One thing i got away with, is the feeling that NYC is becoming a leading hot spot in the internet field. I felt an energy that i only felt until now in the the Valley. Even in Israel i could not feel this at such a level. This is just impossible to describe. You have to feel it. Take a look at those hot startups HQed in NYC (Square, Foursquare, Etsy, Stack Overflow,...) - discovered via Alley Insider

I spent an evening at DogPatch Labs (pic below), a super cool incubator/startup host created by Polaris Ventures. I was really blown away by the quality of some projects. SecondMarket was by far my favorite (a market place for illiquid assets) which i believe has the potential to become a new generation Nasdaq. 

The fact that this Area is burgeoning is not only related to the amount of talents, new funds (like Founder's collective, Betaworks, Lerrer Media Ventures and more)  available but also to the natural type of ecosystem locally present for certain internet verticals: in particular anything that is Ad-related, Finance-related. There is also another reason why i believe this Area will become a hotter: it is on the east cost and from a logistical point of view this is way more convenient to be there when you work with Europe than with the valley.

I know a few Israeli startups preferred to settle there like 5min, Outbrain and Boxee. This make totally sense.

To be clear: the truth of the matter is that the NYC is not the only place in the US where entrepreneurs choose to start. Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Seatlle, and many more cities see this evolution happening. Which is a good thing.

But, now i have one more reason to love NY. and this time it is not because it has the best jazz clubs in the world.

Was great meeting you Tzipi!

Was great meeting you Tzipi!, originally uploaded by ourielohayon.

i did not know how famous she was, until we talked. She's super nice, super funny and amazingly full of energy. Made my trip a breath. Thank you Tzipi!

Chatroulette Piano magic

I never got ChatRoulette as a service, although i understand why it is unique and people like it. But this video made me think twice

[iphone] notification to Cellcom iPhone customer: no support is provided to Mac owners [yes, the same company that make iPhones]

Another Cellcom (Israeli cell operator) wonder!

I just acquired an unlimited data package so i can surf with my iPhone and use it as a modem for tethering. I insist my iPhone is 100% legit, acquired in France and paid the extra to get it unlocked and usable anywhere.

Today i discovered that the tethering, is not properly working although i was garantied when i acquired it, that everything would be fine. It is working when you are connecting your iPhone to your Mac via USB. But not over bluetooth, which is the whole point of that option

I do not want to Jailbreak my phone (by doing so, it is quite easy to make it work). I want to keep it clean. So i called the Cellcom customer support to find out the issue. And i have no answer

Today Cellcom explained me that they do not provide customer support to Mac owners, because the company decided not to. Meaning that if you have any sort of issue with your iPhone which is related to your Mac (connectivity, iTunes,...) no support is provided. 

Rewind. I spend 30 min on the Phone with a sale representative. No mention of that. I was in their shop today for 30 min. No mention of that. There is something wrong in their sales process. Or they assume PC market share in Israel is 100%. 

The only way i had to find out was to get stuck with a bug and call the customer support. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL!

We are in 2010, Mac has been sold in Israel for more than a year and Cellcom decides not to provide support to Mac owners in Israel. What a wonderful news!

Cellcom simply offered to cancel my data package, but i don't want to because the alternative is just to move to another operator and it is a real nightmare to do it. So i am stuck

until i find a solution. Or some reader from this blog can help me to.

Cellcom in the meantime acknowledges there is no need to provide support to Mac customers. I know a few people that are going to be upset about that!

btw i assume the same answer will be provided by Cellcom to Android customers