Use kwiry, get free Netflix….

Ok, so we’ve been moving our offices (in addition to our usual busy schedules) and the blog posts have been few and far between, but we’re moved in now (maybe will do a post on our move…), so expect to see more on the way….

We have, though, been selecting winners of our weekly “It’s On Us” promotion.  Since we launched kwiry Shortcuts, this promotion specifically awards users of the Netflix or Amazon shortcuts.  Simply use one of the shortcuts and you’ll be entered into our weekly random drawing.  The winner gets either a free month of Netflix service or a free Amazon product that they texted (under $25).

Our first three winners all sent in Netflix Shortcuts.  They all demonstrate interesting situations for when you might want to add a movie to your netflix queue on-the-go:

1. The “you have to see this” situation: This is when you’re chatting with your bf/gf/spouse/kids and you say “you haven’t seen _____? We’re renting it.”  In this case, Jim M of Pleasant Hill, CA was out with his kids and they asked him who the Marx Brothers were.  So he used the kwiry Netflix shortcut and added both Monkey Business and Duck Soup to his Netflix Queue.

2. The “my friend told me I have to see this” situation: Similarly, you’re out and about and your friend says incredulously, “you haven’t seen _____?”  Not wanting to miss out any longer, you use your trusty kwiry shortcut and add it to your Netflix queue.

Stephanie E of Washington, DC had just that experience with Flashdance. Hope you liked it Stephanie!

3. Previews situation:  This last one is particularly frustrating. You’re watching previews at a movie theater or on TV at home and see a movie that looks interesting and you inevitably forget the title. kwiry to the rescue!

Luke N. of St. Peters, MO had this experience recently and kwiry’d Big Rig via the Netflix Shortcut.

So start adding movies to your Netflix queue via kwiry or use our Amazon shortcut.  Both will automatically qualify you for our weekly promotion!

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kwiry will select Nintendo Wii winner on Sunday! Invite your friends to win!

We’re selecting a winner for our Nintendo Wii Contest on Sunday! See here for all the details: http://blog.kwiry.com/tell-your-friends-about-kwiry-win-a-wii-63/

Get started now, click invite friends from your Friends Page!

One more thing! If you add the kwiry Facebook application, you get 2 more entries into the Sweepstakes!

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Use kwiry to Stop Your Baby from Crying

Our last winner of the It’s On Us Promotion before we launched the new shortcuts version was Chris B. of California. Chris B. used kwiry to remember to buy the DVD “The Happiest Baby on the Block - The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer”. He was selected as the weekly winner and kwiry bought it for him.

To quote Chris,

I learned about this DVD at a Paternity class that I went to with my wife. Kwiry has been helpful to remember not just this but about everything I need to remember daily.  I love Kwiry and literally use it several times each day!

Hopefully Chris can put the lessons learned from this DVD to good work so that he can one day have time to watch a movie rented from Netflix or read a book while his baby sleeps soundly.  Of course he’ll be able to use the new Netflix and Amazon shortcuts to remember.

kwiry continues to be a real hit with parents.  See some of our earlier posts about parents using kwiry:

http://blog.kwiry.com/use-kwiry-to-avoid-fees-for-checking-bags-101/

http://blog.kwiry.com/birthday-gift-for-mom-76/

http://blog.kwiry.com/just-in-time-for-mothers-day-parenting-and-kwiry-a-theme-71/

http://blog.kwiry.com/week-3-its-on-us-promotion-jason-wins-parenting-inc-book-60/

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kwiry is Cool Site of the Day - vote for us!

kwiry has been selected as today’s cool site of the day!

Click here and vote for us using the drop down at the top of the page.

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Amazon shortcut - changes

First of all, we’re very excited about all of the wonderful press coverage and all the new kwiry members.  Sorry for not blogging sooner, we’ve been very busy making sure everything is working well with the new features and with all of the new traffic.

One key issue we discovered a couple of days after launching our new shortcuts feature is that some users were having trouble with our Amazon shortcut.  We temporarily disabled the service and we contacted Amazon.

Unfortunately, Amazon has security in place that mistakenly identifies the kwiry Amazon shortcut as malicious.  They don’t have a way to fix this in the short term.  However, we will be working with Amazon to try to develop a better way to allow users to link their Amazon and kwiry accounts. For the time being, we’ve had to remove the previous functionality of the Amazon shortcut and delete existing Amazon account information from our servers.

In the meantime, we’ve implemented a new solution for the Amazon Shortcut.  When you text “amazon product name”, we’ll  e-mail you Amazon search results with quick links to see them at Amazon.com.  We’ll also store the same for you in your account at www.kwiry.com.  There’s no need to add any Amazon account details, you can just start using it right away.

For those that were able to successfully link their accounts and use/try the Amazon shortcut, we’ll have to disable that feature.

We apologize that we weren’t able to restore the full functionality of the Amazon shortcut, but Amazon simply doesn’t have the ability to support it right now.

Our Netflix shortcut is still fully functional and we’re working on more!

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kwiry Introduces Shortcuts; Add Movies to Netflix Queues and Products to Amazon Wish Lists via Text Messaging

We’re very excited to announce the latest set of features at kwiry today, we’ve had a busy summer….

kwiry shortcuts

With the launch of Shortcuts, you can now use kwiry to directly add movies to your Netflix queue, add products to your Amazon Wish List, and add appointments to your calendar!

For example, if a friend recommends a movie at lunch, simply text “netflix” followed by the movie title to 59479 (k-w-i-r-y). kwiry automatically adds the movie to your Netflix queue and the movie arrives on your doorstep – no more scribbling down the name on a napkin or forgetting the recommendation.

kwiry’s new Shortcuts feature includes the following services:

•    Send a message with “netflix” followed by the name of a movie to kwiry (e.g. netflix mystic river) and the movie will be added to your Netflix queue.

•    Text “amazon” followed by the name of a product (e.g. amazon jawbone headset) to add it to your Amazon Wish List.

•    Add an appointment to your calendar via text message using the shortcut word “task” (e.g. task buy anniversary gift 8-25).

•  Send in multiple kwirys in one text message with the “list” shortcut (e.g. list alicia keys, www.chucknorrisfacts.com, get dry cleaning).

To link your Netflix or Amazon accounts, click here and you can get started right away! See our FAQ for more details.

Keep a lookout for more Shortcuts and and a planned Developer’s API, allowing others to create their own shortcuts for kwiry users.

Along with the launch of Shortcuts, we’re updating our popular “It’s On Us” promotion. Each week, we’ll randomly select a kwiry Shortcut to Amazon or Netflix, and the person who sent it in will receive an item from their Amazon Wish List or a free month of their Netflix subscription as a gift from kwiry.

new kwiry e-mails

You’ll probably notice that we’ve enhanced the e-mails you get when you send in a kwiry.  Now you have 5 buttons to quickly decide how to process your kwiry so you can get to the info you want even more quickly.

new kwiry homepage

You may have noticed a brand new homepage and other visual enhancements throughout the site to accompany our latest release of features. What do you think?

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Obama to Announce VP Running Mate via Text Message

Some news from the Obama Campaign this morning,  they plan to announce the VP running mate via text messaging (and e-mail).  Not ure if this is more validation of the ubiquity of text messaging or just another attempt to seem “hip” or “relevant”.  In any case, I can imagine that news reporters might be leaving their SMS alerts on for the time being…..

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Teacher & Oprah Recommend “Postapocalyptic tour de force”

Chris L., the latest winner of the kwiry It’s On Us Promotion, was talking to his teacher about a Science Fiction Paper he was writing for his Creative Writing class and the teacher recommended the book The Road, by Cormack McCarthy as reference.  Chris texted it to kwiry so he could remember to check it out and is now the lucky winner of the book courtesy

McCarthy is also the author of the book No Country For Old Men, made into a recently acclaimed movie.  The Road was also part of Oprah’s book club, reminiscent of a past winner. This book sounds like a dark one……

Violence, in McCarthy’s postapocalyptic tour de force, has been visited worldwide in the form of a “long shear of light and then a series of low concussions” that leaves cities and forests burned, birds and fish dead and the earth shrouded in gray clouds of ash. In this landscape, an unnamed man and his young son journey down a road to get to the sea. (The man’s wife, who gave birth to the boy after calamity struck, has killed herself.) They carry blankets and scavenged food in a shopping cart, and the man is armed with a revolver loaded with his last two bullets. Beyond the ever-present possibility of starvation lies the threat of roving bands of cannibalistic thugs. The man assures the boy that the two of them are “good guys,” but from the way his father treats other stray survivors the boy sees that his father has turned into an amoral survivalist, tenuously attached to the morality of the past by his fierce love for his son. McCarthy establishes himself here as the closest thing in American literature to an Old Testament prophet, trolling the blackest registers of human emotion to create a haunting and grim novel about civilization’s slow death after the power goes out.  (Publisher’s Weekly via Amazon)

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Use kwiry to Avoid Fees for Checking Bags

First of all, apologies for not posting in so long, has been quite a busy time here at kwiry, lot’s of exciting news to come!

Now, to explain that cryptic title….Our latest It’s On Us Promotion winner is Ross D. from San Francisco, CA.  Ross and his girlfriend Abby R. were on vacation in Vermont and browsing in a bookstore when they came across Crafty Mama by Abby Pecoriello (different Abby).  They thought the book would be perfect for a friend of theirs who is expecting.  Normally, they would have just bought the book, but owing to the recently imposed fees by the airlines for checking even 1 piece of luggage, they had no room in their carry-ons.  So they used kwiry to save the day and sent a quick kwiry to make sure to remember to buy it online later. Instead of just saving the $15 or $20 checked bag fee, though, they got the book for free thanks to the kwiry promotion!

Here’s some more info about the book, which once again harkens back to our parenting meme…

“Abby Pecoriello launched the first-ever crafting club for new moms during her maternity leave. The concept proved to be such a hit that in the two and a half years since, she’s led hundreds of sold-out Crafty Mamas classes throughout New York City. Now, in this spirited, witty book, she provides the how-to for women to form their own Crafty Mamas groups, from learning the best ways to reach out to other new moms in the area, to the nuts-and-bolts of running the group: setting a budget, buying tools and supplies, choosing a venue, and more. Then come the projects—50 hip, no-sew craft ideas that are inexpensive and easy to make, and will delight moms and babies alike: “Light the Night” nightlight, No-Sew Swanky Blankies, The Poncherello, Photo Au Go Go Bracelets, Hip Purses, Insta-Bibs, Peek-a-Books, Photo Bragnets. Includes simple tutorials on using a glue gun, editing digital photos, how to decoupage, jewelry basics, and more.” (Product description from Amazon)

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John Adams, HBO & family ties

Our latest It’s on Us Promotion winner is Allan N. of Dallas, GA.  Allan used kwiry to remember to buy David McCullough’s acclaimed biography of John Adams.   Allan had multiple reasons for wanting to check out this book - fascinated by the founding history of the United States, he watched the recent miniseries about John Adams on HBO.  Additionally, per Allan, “John Adams shows up in my family history”.  Sounds like a great set of reasons to me!  Now he’s the proud owner of the book, courtesy of kwiry, so he can be even more of an expert.

The Amazon review of the book includes the following snippet:

Overshadowed by the lustrous presidents Washington and Jefferson, who bracketed his tenure in office, Adams emerges from McCullough’s brilliant biography as a truly heroic figure–not only for his significant role in the American Revolution but also for maintaining his personal integrity in its strife-filled aftermath. McCullough spends much of his narrative examining the troubled friendship between Adams and Jefferson, who had in common a love for books and ideas but differed on almost every other imaginable point. Reading his pages, it is easy to imagine the two as alter egos. (Strangely, both died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.) But McCullough also considers Adams in his own light, and the portrait that emerges is altogether fascinating. –Gregory McNamee

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