Chris Weyer

Matrix Integration hires Chris Weyer as a dedicated sales person selling Matrix Telephone Service under U4’s name. Matrix has been selling U4 services for three years. This is the first dedicated full time person they have hired to sell these services.

Melissa Yoder & Don Simmons

Melissa Yoder is a new U4 employee working customer service at the U4Store. Don Simmons is a new Benson employee working as an accountant for Benson. I expect eventually Don will become a U4 employee helping Bill out and be another accountant since Bill has taken on several peoples jobs. Welcome aboard!

Elkhart Fair Pennies

Last year at our fair recap meeting we talked about what we were going to do this year. Rich suggested we get a penny machine and have smashed pennies we give away. I like to plug people when I can and now is a fine opportunity. Rich has a side hobby that he collects and sells long pennies. Rich Hays owns the site http://www.longpenny.com/ this is a site about everything and anything in regards to smashed pennies. You have all seen them, those machines at the rest stops or amusement parks where you put in fifty cents and a penny and out comes your penny smashed with a design on it.

We plan on investing about $50 which is approximately 5000 pennies. Guess what if it’s a hit we only have to go to the nearest bank to get more pennies. In thoughts of following the wonderful book “Wizard of Ad’s” we tried to find something 3 years ago that someone would put in their wallet and not get rid of because it has value. We produced about 15,000 phone cards and just handed them out everywhere. The value wasn’t much but in their minds it was a lot. In fact just about a month ago I saw a lady at a drive through (I was helping at a chicken barbeque and taking orders) with a U4 calling card in the front of her wallet. What incredible advertising. Cheap but affective.

I don’t know how the pennies will go off this year. It could back fire or it could go off incredible. Does anyone ever through a penny away? Not usually as there is value to it. Maybe not a lot of value but what do you do with it? You put it with all the other stuff you don’t know what to do with. We are pretty excited to see how things go with this.

Qwest

We have received permission to get our account setup with Qwest. We will be using Qwest for long distance services as another backbone provider. As many and many carriers are buying each other it creates fewer and fewer opportunities for diversification. We plan on adding excel to our portfolio by the end of the year. This will make U4 extremely diversified.

Google Maps and Pocket PC!

Bill and I took an 800 mile trip to Louisville, Kentucky and Jasper, Indiana. We set out with any paper maps, just destination addresses. There was no planning accept we need to be at each destination to have a meeting.

If you talk to Bill, he will be the first to tell you he gets lost easy. I enjoy navigating. We were able to get exactly where we were going without having to ask for directions (Yes, we are men). Once during the trip we got off course and I think I surprised Bill when within a few blocks had us back on course.

U4 has supplied me with a Pocket PC. It functions as a phone, my calendar/planner, contacts, hand held PC and a whole lot more. My only complaint is I wish the size of the screen was larger. The Pocket PC allows me to view/edit Word Documents, Excel Spreadsheets and PowerPoint Presentations. I can also read/respond to email and surf the internet. I have added software to view PDFs and Plan Trips.

Bill and I left the office and forgot the addresses for our destinations. I called the office to get them. While on the road I entered the info into Google Maps on my Pocket PC. In a few moments I had the route, travel time and the miles to my destination. As I moved the map on the screen, Google Maps updated. I was even able to search for restaurants along the route. While Bill drove I was able to tell him the next turn. I was able to zoom in and see extremely detailed info about freeway on and off ramps.

As example, the directions for getting onto I-465 from I-69 said take exit 1 to I-465 South. Anyone who has driven this interchange knows it is more involved than that. Google Maps allowed me to zoom in and see that exit 1 split and if you find yourself in the wrong lane you would be heading west on I-465. Because I could see this detail I was able to tell bill that he should be in the left lane of the off ramp and stay to the left when the off ramp split.

We used this detail at every interchange we use. It was extremely valuable in Louisville. I grew up with paper maps. They indicated there was an interchange, but you had no idea what lane to be in, which sign was the correct one to read and should I get off her or there, oops to late we missed the exit.

I am now looking at a Bluetooth GPS to make it even easier to navigate!

Google and Intel pledge to be greener

Climate Savers Computing Initiative consisting of Dell, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Google, and Intel plan to make the computers 50% more efficient by 2010. The plan is estimated to save $5.5 billion in energy per year and estimate it will increase the cost of the PC by $30 per unit. “I believe that there really won’t be a direct increase of costs for the PC as they will be using fewer components to make it cooler” stated Ben Plikerd. This shift in energy conservation marks yet another small but important move to live greener.

Amp’d Mobile files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Amp’d Mobile filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past Friday despite fast growth. Amp’d currently has 200,000 paying customers with service subscriptions of over $100 per month. Amp’d is a MVNO on the Verizon Wireless network. They were operating on a $100 million dollar debt.

Erin Weybright Receives Laptop - U4 Scholarship

Erin Weybright, Senior at Wawasee High School, was awarded a laptop as the U4 Scholarship at the Honor’s Night on May 5th, 2007. “Erin was chosen from 10 applicants because of her investment in the community, commitment to working at Ace Hardware and dedication to school,” said Rich Hays Director of Marketing and Presenter of the Scholarship. Hays continued, “Helping graduates like Erin with the next step in education is an obligation we feel we have to our community.” Erin has been accepted to Butler University and plans for a career in Financial Planning and Marketing. Ben Plikerd, CEO of U4, said, “We wish her well and know she will have a great future.”