Retail banking - the Ukrainian way I've been fascinated how fast the western banks adopt the Ukrainian culture.

One of the latest examples - UniCredit Bank, which gave me a great gift at New Year's Eve. Just a few days before the New Year I tried to deposit a bit over $1000 into its ATM, which took the money, gave me an error message, and instead of putting the money into my account, decided to leave it for itself.

Well... One month of errands with their call centre, and I was able to get half of the money back.

Is it the Ukrainian influence, or is it universal? Wondering, if things like this happen in other countries.

Ярлыки: banks, business in Ukraine, finance

  ¶ 11:56 Комментарии: 87

  3G, here we come! This is my first post via Utel Internet.

I've been always fascinated by the way chinese are taking over the global IT market. On one hand, noone cannot beat their prices, on the other, noone cannot discern the logics behind the chinese user interfaces for their equipment. I think, at least one or two generations will pass away till they learn.

Here are some highlights of my first experience with 3G in Ukraine:
- No installation CD included!
- Built-in flash memory with intallation files inside. wow!
- The chinese way to spell "Utel" is "U'tel". hm... Great idea for re-branding! Should talk to Utel folks about this.
- "You required to register" and no menu to enter SIM PIN. Really strange.
- Finally it works! the connection speed shows proud 3.6Mbps!

Now the speed test:
Youtube 4-minute video download - 12.5 minutes.
The office WiFi loads a video twice as long in 4 minutes.

Ярлыки: mobile content, technology

  ¶ 12:56 Комментарии: 6

  Video IVR A new wave of mobile content is coming to Ukraine as well, with the start of Utel 3G. One of the most interesting functionalities is the video IVR menus. To spur up your fantasy, just imagine that you can call a restaurant to book a table, and waiter lets you see the table where you'll be seated, or when you call an information hotline, you can also see the tech support person you're calling, and so on.

The problem with this is that most of the 3G phones support the H.263 video standard with Adaptive Multi-Rate compression (AMR) audio. This standard supports only 176x144 picture resolution, and was originally designed for mobile video conferencing - if you try to view video fragments that require greater detail, such as films, sport events or hot babes, it just won't work: the picture will be too blurry to see any details.

So, all these great video telephony ideas will have to wait till the H.264 standard will become more popular, which will support higher resolution video.

Ярлыки: business, business in Ukraine, mobile content, technology

  ¶ 14:54 Комментарии: 7

  Swing Dance Parties in PaTiPa Starting from this Sunday and on, my dance club organizes swing dance parties in PaTiPa Club! Feel free to call me for discount flyers! The event starts at 7pm and goes on till 10pm.

UPDATE: next party (Sunday, November 18) will be on 9 Anri Barbusa Str. (near Palats Ukraina metro).

Ярлыки: announcements, swing dance;

  ¶ 13:51 Комментарии: 7

  Swing Dance Class! I have a place in my swing dance class for 5-7 beginners!

Feel free to get in touch! if there will be English-speakers in the class, instruction will be done in two languages.

The place: Klovski Spusk 4a. Classes are 1.5 hours each, Mondays 8:40 pm and Thursdays 6:50pm.

Ярлыки: announcements, lindy hop, swing dance

  ¶ 16:37 Комментарии: 1

  FCBi Ukraine I am in the process of starting new agency - FCBi Ukraine, as a new business unit of FCB Media Arts Group. FCB Media Arts is the second largest privately owned communications holding in the CIS.

Basically, I will continue doing the same - interactive communications, mobile marketing, new media - but as a part of a larger structure, which obviously provides great synergy, as well as opportunities to work on large challenging projects.

The agency's uniqueness is combination of expertise in all digital media, including internet, mobile, bluetooth. We call it "DDD" - Direct, Database & Digital.

I am expanding my team, and looking for:
- Art Director
- Media Planner
- Account Manager
- Internet Project Manager
- Graphic Designer
- HTML Coder/PHP Programmer
- Flash Programmer

Ярлыки: business, fcbi

  ¶ 01:04 Комментарии: 1

  My iPhone review As one of the first iPhone users in Ukraine - got it during the first few weeks when they were out on the shelves in the US - I've been reading many reviews of this gadget, but really most of them neither capture the essence, nor give the clues whether this product will be successfull in my part of the world - Ukraine and Russia. I am going to write a brief review of the information that hasn't been captured in other reviews. The really best thing about iPhone compared to other smartphones, such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and others, is that it actually works well! Most of the smartphones are either too slow, or freeze when you open a java-app and at this unlucky moment someone calls.

Current iPhone hack does have a few limitations. Most serious ones are these:

1. SMS's sent to your iPhone are not delivered. You can send SMS's to any number as much as you want, but you'll receive none.

2. When placing a call without bluetooth handfree or headphones, the person on the other line won't hear you until you press the "speaker" button twice.

3. If you purchased a "hide your number" option for your mobile number, you won't have a way to turn it on/off. Your number always be hidden!

If a new hack comes out that solves this problem, I'll definitely write about it here.

Besides this, there are some technological limitations that I doubt Apple's going to fix in the nearest future:

1. Weak contact management.
I have about 2500 contacts in my address book, and I rely heavily on sorting them by Category. During iPhone syncronisation, categories are not imported from my Outlook.

Besides this, iPhone gives me ability to look up contacts only by first or last name. Many times I store only first name, and have 2-5 people with the same name. The only way to find out which one I need is to open each one of them.

2. I cannot take pictures with focus 30cm or less. Eg. I come to a business meeting, and I am too lazy to write down business card details. If I try to take a picture of a business card, it'll turn out too blury to see anything.

3. I cannot import addresses from SIM-card into iPhone address book. Sad, but not crucial.

Despite of my addiction to this gadget, if anyone in Ukraine and Russia asks me whether to buy it or wait longer - I'd say WAIT.

Ярлыки: iPhone

  ¶ 02:28 Комментарии: 25

  Visa craziness Seems like I am not going to Herrang dance camp this year... I was expecting to have EU visa after a business trip to Germany to visit my partners, BUT: German embassy accepts documents at least 30 days in advance. Once I submit the documents, I need to wait another week or more while they process my request. The crazy thing is that all visa applicants have to pay for visa application in advance, prior to scheduling the interview, without knowing how much time it takes.

After two stamped-to-death passports and over ten years of travelling, I think it is time to start a web site with Rating of Stupidity of the Embassies in Ukraine. What do you think?

Ярлыки: business in Ukraine, travel

  ¶ 10:13 Комментарии: 1

  Doing business in Ukraine series: Trademarks registration in Ukraine Trademarks in Ukraine

Registering a trademark in Ukraine is not a straightforward task, as it may seem initially.

From the birdview, everything’s simple – there are plenty of trademark registrars, local companies and quite a few international well-established international companies. You can find prices for the service any amount from €90 to thousands of euros, but the result will be pretty much the same – TM registration certificate issued by the ukrainian state authority. However, paying premium price to register your trademark does not protect you from a trademark fraud, unless you make a few pre-cautions. Here are a two things to remember:

• If you plan to register .UA domain and your trademark contains text and graphics then it is better to submit registration for a separate trademark with only text of desired .UA domain spelled in English. Otherwise, you have risk that your .UA request will be rejected.


• To insure proper protection of your trademark, include only primary text, such as your company or product name. It is better to register secondary text, such as slogan, as a separate trademark if you think it needs protection as well.

Regarding the timeframe of registration – most of the international trademark registrars go with the standard official procedure, which will require at least 6 months for your TM to be registered. However, there are several local trademark registration companies that can provide you with much shorter period of registration in smaller time, as short as one or two months.

Ярлыки: business in Ukraine

  ¶ 16:46 Комментарии: 1

  Swinglandia 2007 The Swinglandia 2007 starts tomorrow!

If you plan to visit us, please see the map.

Even if you cannot go for the whole one week of dancing, feel free to come for at least one or two parties any day from the 28th of April to the 2nd of May.

Just in case if you get lost, or want to learn more details - my phone is (044) 2038773.

Ярлыки: announcements, lindy hop, swing dance

  ¶ 09:08 Комментарии: 3