mobilisms.com

Gone are the days of the bulky billfold, various plastic credit cards and that irritating 16-digit card number.

With last week’s debut of PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout, the tech blogosphere has erupted with online chatter surrounding the world of electronic commerce. Let’s face it- There are countless reasons for optimism. The landscape is already highly competitive, with applications ranging from Square to Boku, and the fast-paced lifestyle of U.S. consumers would fully support the demand for this kind of innovative technology. Even eBay CEO, John Donahue, has boldly stepped forward to proclaim mobile as the “safest form of payment,” making mainstream adoption that much closer to reality.

What’s interesting about PayPal’s newest initiative in mobile commerce comes with their joint announcement of PayPal Local, an iPhone application that introduces location-based features allowing users to find nearby businesses that accept PayPal. Imagine checking in to your favorite restaurant and discovering PayPal as an accepted form of payment! This mobile pairing has the potential to streamline the process of asking for the bill, waiting (sometimes, praying) for transaction completion and returning the receipt to the server.

It’s official. Mobile commerce has evolved from the stage of conceptualization. We now understand how real, tangible expressions within this space will quickly lead to mainstream adoption.

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With the release of “Apple of my Eye”, the first short film shot and edited using the iPhone 4, I started to envision the future of mobile journalism and how iMovie could potentially transform the way we consume news media. Michael Korbel’s short film showcases the iPhone 4’s capability to capture raw emotion and visualize complex storylines while using a minimal amount of equipment. Be honest- In the right setting, “Apple of my Eye” might make you tear up, just a little.

So what does this mean for future iReport contributors? Well, quite a bit. Recording HD video at 720 p resolution/30 frames per second could produce award-winning documentaries capable of immediate web submission. Can you imagine the effect this would have had on the Iranian Twitter Revolution? Unedited video uploads went viral overnight, drawing international coverage and raising awareness of the turmoil surrounding the distressed country.

In the United States, we’ve seen growing popularity in Facebook and YouTube video uploads reporting police brutality. This has caused government officials to question altercations caught on tape, making the video camera one of the “most effective weapon(s) that ordinary people have to protect against and to expose police abuse.”

Recently, YouTube launched CitizenTube, a feed that tracks breaking news video uploads with a “focus on strong visuals and non-traditional sources.” Allvoices, a newly launched citizen journalism platform, has seen record growth internationally, with 6.5 million unique visitors in the month of May. Though iPhone-to-web direct uploads are not yet available, these signs show that journalism is shifting focus toward user-generated content, where importance lies in the citizen’s point of view.

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Lately, I’ve become very interested in the push to put mobile devices in the hands of the developing world. Not because I think some kid in a remote village of a third-world country needs to play with Twitter’s new “Places” feature (although they just may want to); it’s because of the promise that lies in what the spread of information and technology could do for bridging the quality-of-life gap.

In the next two weeks, a group from UC Davis will compete for the Imagine Cup, a global contest by Microsoft that awards students who create innovative technologies that can help the world. The team’s invention is a software for cell phones that identifies vascular diseases in children by taking a picture of their eye and sending the information to a server for diagnostic testing. The results are then texted back to the phone.

Similar to this, a new device created by MIT’s Media Lab will allow for a simple, on-the-spot, eye exam for refractive errors in vision by way of a cell phone’s camera.

I think this is where mobile needs to develop. Both these technologies create opportunities for low-cost health care to go out into rural locations where other modern medical options aren’t available.

While it’s fun to push the limits with our social networks and digital media, imagine the possibilities from moving mobile into a more practical space where it can address the world’s largest problems – one application at a time.

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My generation thinks we’re the kids of technology, but children today understand the digital world even better than we did at their age.  Last weekend, my cousin’s four year old daughter, Mycah, was getting fussy while all of the adults were busy chatting over dinner, so I quickly downloaded the Monkey Preschool Lunchbox application and handed over my iPhone to Mycah. She immediately began playing the game with little direction from me. Before I knew it, she had mastered the touch-screen element of the phone and was on her way to winning the game that actually never ends.  Within minutes of seeing her completely engaged in the application, (and fuss-free I might add) both her mom and dad downloaded the application on their phones and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox quickly and easily earned another two dollars. In today’s day and age, smart phones can be used as much more than just devices to make calls, send texts or write emails. Smart phones can, in fact, be used as pacifiers (or as Mycah calls them, binkies). Now if only smart phones could feed the kiddies as well, grocery stores, restaurants and planes would all be quieter places.

For more recommendations on modern day binkies, check out Parenting.com

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Apple’s fearless leader, Steve Jobs, took the stage yesterday at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference to announce – or build up – the latest iPhone. Here’s what I took away from the hype:

• FaceTime: One front-facing camera to open up the world of mobile video chatting and conferences, and one on the back for the traditional approach. I love the idea of portable video chats, but I’m not sure how well it will catch on.
• Camera: Five-megapixel camera with LED flash and 5x digital zoom. Not a replacement for a point-and-shoot, but getting extremely close.
• HD Video: Ability to shoot high-definition video in 720 pixels, along with the option to download the new iMovie app. Basically, shoot and edit your video on-the-go. I see this as a HUGE threat when it makes its way to the iPod Touch.
• iBook: Synchronize the reading application from your iPhone to your iPad or iPod so that you pick up wherever you left off. You can also make annotations.
• High resolution: The screen is now 300 pixels per square inch (four times that of its predecessor). It’s great from a visual standpoint, as well as it creates more options for designers moving forward.
• Design: Now at 9.3 millimeters thick, it’s the skinniest smart phone around (for now). It also lost the wobble by flattening out the previously rounded-back. In addition, steel frames are in place for greater durability.

All this magic will be available to you on June 24th. It will be interesting to watch how some of Android’s latest models stack up. While Apple always pushes it forward for their users, other companies are gaining more of a handle on the technologies…finally.

Disclaimer: AT&T is a client of Fleishman-Hillard.

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My parents generally understand technology. So when my mom, who has already been using a smartphone for some time, got the new Droid Incredible – I thought she would have no problem adapting to it.

However, four days after the phone arrived, I find my mother sitting in her office flipping through a sticky-note and bookmarked copy of the phone’s manual. She can’t figure the thing out.

So here’s my mom, reading glasses and all, hunched over a tiny manual with her new incredible phone. Turns out, she was just trying to check her voicemail. I don’t know how long she had been sitting there pressing buttons and flipping pages, but I picked up the phone and had her listening to her voicemails within 30 seconds. Problem resolved. She quickly writes notes of each step and thanks me.

This got me thinking about the interesting ways people go about learning their device. I don’t know that I’ve ever read a phone’s manual – or even a computers, for that matter. I think the younger generation has been brought up in such a way that the flow of many user interfaces almost come as second nature to us.

However, as more and more baby boomers push themselves to use the life-management tools provided by smartphones, how can phone makers adjust to fit to their learning styles and technology needs? These people didn’t grow up with a mobile phone in hand, but they are just as likely to use it now. They also control about 83 percent of consumer spending, so it would be who of companies to adjust to them.

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Photo By: Dan Counsell

Apple has laid down the law with the latest amendments to forge its path of world domination. Okay, it’s not that serious…yet.

Regardless, Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, has decided that he is no longer entertaining the idea of compatibility with other codes. Popular tool software, like Adobe’s Flash, will not be accepted as substitute for application generation, per the updates to the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.

I think this speaks volumes of the company that we have all been seduced into adoring for its quirky advertisements and addictive simplicity. While I see Jobs’ desire to keep his platform progressive and limit the production of “sub-standard apps,” I agree with the application developers who are cursing him for hampering of others’ creativity.

From a marketing standpoint, it’s a risky move. Apple is a company that projects an image of innovation, and yet they are the first to smack down other’s ideas. To me, a person who is soon-to-be in the market for a new cell phone, the iPhone’s allure is its trillions of useful – as well as funky – applications.

If irritating application developers drives that creativity away from Apple, the iPhone might just lose its luster. However, knowing Apple, I’m sure they will continue to push their supremacy down our throats and hold their ground until a device finally has the power to knock ‘em over. For now, though, Jobs’ stubbornness wins again.

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