Movies, Music and Books Galore

While my promise to start blogging more regularly has not been well kept :(, there has been no shortage of activity here at kwiry, including many more It’s on Us Promotion winners.

For the first time, two kwiry users one with the same kwiry and only two weeks apart! Both Eric S. of Lincolnshire, IL and James N. of Hoboken, NJ used kwiry to add Iron Man to their Netflix queues, and in doing so, they each won a free month’s subscription to Netflix.  Eric heard about Iron Man from some friends at work and James saw an ad for the movie - both used kwiry to add it to their queue immediately.  Sounds like Iron Man is worth checking out.

Just like James, it seems that many folks use the kwiry  Netflix shortcut when they see a preview of a movie that seems worth checking out.  Kelly V. of Washington DC saw a preview for What Happens in Vegas in the movie theatre and kwiry’d it. Dan O. saw an ad for Mongol on TV and kwiry’d it because he knew he’d never remember otherwise. Ning B. of Mountain View, CA uses kwiry while watching the previews on other Netflix DVDs - Crank was a recent one he added to his queue.

Logan D. of New York, NY, has been on a classic movies kick recently.  Appropriate for NY, he was watching Goodfellas with some friends when one said that he had to watch Mean Streets too. A quick text later and it was in his queue. Similarly, Tom G. of Norwalk, CT was chatting with friends who recommended Pan’s Labrynth. Now it’s in his queue and he has a free month of Netflix as well!

So what’s the lesson here? Regardless of where you see or hear about a new movie, just kwiry it and you’ll have it in your trusty Netflix queue. As a bonus, you might just get a free month of Netflix courtesy of kwiry? Aren’t we nice?

It’s not only Netflix though!  kwiry users who use the kwiry Amazon Shortcut also qualify for the It’s On Us Promotion.  Jeannine D. of San Diego, CA was listening to Terry Gross’s Fresh Air on NPR and heard this piece about Oliver Sack’s book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.  She kwiry’d it to remember and won a complimentary copy from kwiry. Astute and loyal kwiry blog readers will remember that two other kwiryers won the It’s On Us Promotion by being inspired by NPR as well - Tracie J of Ann Arbor, MI won a book and Ralph C. of Overland Park, KS won a CD.

So whether it’s a movie, a book about music, or music itself, use kwiry to remember it and you just might win something too!

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kwiry Awards Nintendo Wii!

This is another long overdue post… But getting back to a regular blogging schedule now.

On August 30th, we randomly selected an entry from  Robert S. of New Lenox, IL as the winner of our Invite Friends Promotion. To quailify, Robert invited many friends to use kwiry, generating entries into the sweepstakes. Congratulations Robert! We hope you’re enjoying the Wii! On the topic of the Wii, I got excited earlier today when I heard that the classic NES game PunchOut is coming to the Wii.  Now I just need to find someone with a Wii to let me try it, maybe I’ll swing by New Lenox… Robert?

Thanks to everyone who participated in this promotion! We hope you’ll continue to tell your friends about kwiry and we’re working on ways to make that process even easier.

Sad the Wii sweepstakes is over? Don’t forget about our weekly It’s On Us Promotion, where every use of kwiry Shortcuts gives you a chance to win a product from Amazon or a month’s free Netflix subscription. See here for some of our recent winners.

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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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