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.

Continue Reading

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.

Continue Reading

Living in Texas and trying to stay mobile without using a car can be tough. While I have a car, this summer I chose to try commuting to work by bus instead of driving. I initially downloaded the Ride Austin iPhone app as a mobile method to help me conquer public transportation in Austin. My $2.99 investment was worth every penny — I literally would be lost without it.

The app helps you find the closest bus or train stop to your location, shows you the schedule for routes that go by that location, and lets you look at route maps.

Chicago, Portland, and Seattle, among others, offer apps with real-time bus schedules where each bus is tracked with GPS systems so you know whether your bus is early, late, or right on time. Buster, the Chicago Bus Tracker costs $1.99, while Portland and Seattle’s apps are free.

Acrossair, an app development company, put out augmented reality apps last year for several large cities in which users can find the nearest transit station via their iPhones’ video function. The following is the developer’s description of the New York Nearest Subway app:

“When you load the app, holding it flat, all 33 lines of the New York Subway are displayed in colored arrows. By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many miles away they are and what lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons.”

In addition to NYC, the $1.99 Acrossair app is available for cities including London, San Francisco, Madrid, Paris and Tokyo. Some cities also have free versions supported by Apple iAds.

See below for an example of the New York app’s interface or watch a short video on the Acrossair’s website.

The Google Maps app that comes pre-loaded on every iPhone has a pretty nifty public transportation feature as well. It allows you to pick your current location, addresses from your contacts’ information, or a custom insert and then choose directions to there or from there.  You can also choose to depart ‘now’ or select a time in the future, and then are presented with the three routes numbers closest to your departure time, their expected

arrival time, and the total fare for your journey.  Not bad for an app that came with the phone! Hindsight is 20/20, and I wish I’d found out about the capabilities of this app before purchasing Ride Austin.

Here is a screenshot showing the next bus I can take from my office to my apartment.

Going careless can be initially daunting but public transportation apps really helped ease the transition for me.

Continue Reading

What would Christopher Latham Sholes say about this? Indian mobile phone maker–Lava International Ltd–has created two phones sans QWERTY since  “a large segment of mobile users who are not familiar or comfortable with QWERTY or Multi-tap keypads.”

They are talking about folks who have grown up without a computer and rely on their mobile devices for everything. While I find this hard to believe that people would choose ALPHA over QWERTY, it does bring up an interesting point. Does QWERTY still have relevance in our abbreviated lexicon?

Mr. Sholes orgininally developed QWERTY to increase productivity (but not too much) for those on a typewriter. But I wonder if that productivity (or an even stream of productivity) can still be accomplished when folks type things like, “OMG,” “Thx,” and “FML.”

Regardless–this is an interesting move that could (but probably won’t) change how consumers use their mobile keypad.

Continue Reading

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.

Continue Reading

(Video courtesy of Sparxoo)

Continue Reading

While we’ve all been anxiously awaiting these June days—first Apple’s official announcement about the new iPhone, followed by Apple & AT&T consumers flooding both websites, and finally, the day we’ve all been waiting for… June 24th: the official arrival date of Apple’s iPhone 4.

However, Christmas morning has come a little early for a lucky few of us with a number of iPhone 4 preorders arriving up to two days early. I wasn’t able to get the Apple website to let me through until close to 11 PM CST (yes, I tried all day on the 15th), and now—as of 9:20 AM one day early—I just got a call informing me that my new baby was just delivered to my home. Taking an early lunch (it is only 9:45) to go it up.

Stay tuned for a special Mobilisms video post of the first unboxing of our office.

Disclaimer: AT&T is a client of Fleishman-Hillard. All thoughts and opinions expressed in our posts are our own.

Continue Reading

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

Continue Reading

Life is becoming more and more interactive right in front of our eyes.  Today’s installment brought to you through mobile interactivity.  One of the most popular forms of mobile interaction, centered around our lives and connections, is geo-location based services like Gowalla and Foursquare.

I personally play both of them, and I emphasize “play.”  Not only do they provide another source of social connection, but they enable a game-like experience in my life.  (I’ve also helped implement one of the first B2C experiences in Gowalla, a trend with both of them that is now picking up more steam.)

New to the game, both literally and figuratively, is Stickybits.

Stickybits is fascinating.  The technology is centered around bar codes – these “stickybits” – to which people can attach photos, videos, and/or written word.  In essence, they enable any real-world object to easily be made into social objects, ones that can be shared, passed around, commented on, connected through – anything, really, that you can imagine sharing with someone, just through a simple barcode.  (You can either buy barcodes from Stickybits or you can use existing barcodes and download the Stickybits app, which is only available on iPhone and Android right now.)

As an example, think of a birthday card (which has a barcode).  Instead of signing a long, drawn-out message on this birthday card, I can record a special video message and attach it to the card.  Then, I can pass it around to others in the office for them to attach their special message to it.  Then, when the recipient receives the card, they can scan the barcode and experience everyone’s messages.  Cool, eh?

Think now, of applying/using user reviews.  If I want to see what others have said about a new pair of tennis shoes before I buy them, I can scan the barcode and see a list of user reviews, provided someone has started the “string.”  If not, I can create the review myself and attach it to the code for others to see who come after me.

There are cool things that you can do as the initiator of this string – you’re basically the moderator of all content posted thereafter.  Anyone who contributes to the string can receive automatic updates and become even more involved in the (virtual) conversation.

From a brand’s perspective, this should be really exciting.  Any packaged good that they produce has a barcode.  They can easily attach a brand message or a special call-to-action or exclusive content for all who come into contact with that product to experience.  You want to attach a special message from a thought-leader, or an executive at the company?  No problem.  You want users to vote on a particular flavor of soda (Mountain Dew)?  No problem.  You want Tom Hanks to deliver a Forrest Gump-like anecdote on that box of chocolates?  No problem.

I talk often about the power of merging the offline with the online.  It’s really what the 11th Screen is all about.  This technology not only enables that real-time merging, but it provides connection, interactivity, and a little fun.

(This was originally posted on www.11thscreen.com)

Continue Reading

I used to loathe my phone; it could make a call, send a text and take pictures – and nothing more. Finally in March I joined the rest of the functioning world and got my very own iPhone 3GS. So how has my mobile life changed since the iPhone entered the scene? Besides the fact that my text message count now reaches the moon and back (thank goodness for unlimited texting), I use my phone entirely differently.

Having my trusty iPhone has opened up a whole new world of mobile possibilities. I share pics and videos with my friends, I upload pics to Twitter and Facebook with the mere touch of a finger and I have iTunes and Pandora with me at all times. I’m much more involved socially, even when I’m alone. Case in point: last week I went shopping. Normally I wouldn’t go shopping by myself (I need help deciding what looks best). Luckily, I wasn’t truly alone; my iPhone was with me, and therefore everyone in my contacts list. I sent pictures to friends as I shopped, asking them which outfits they liked, which shoes went with it, what purse was the cutest etc. I even tweeted a video while I was there. I can only imagine how much easier picking an outfit would’ve been with the iPhone 4 – video calling with FaceTime would have been even faster! It was so simple, and I picked my outfit in record time.

My iPhone lets me live in the moment. I used to have to wait until I was back at my laptop to share something – like my cute new outfit – on Twitter or Facebook. Now Echofon and Tweetdeck, Foursquare and Gowalla let me share anything, anytime, anywhere.  My newest obsession is Shazam – I can download any song that I hear, even if I don’t know what song it is. This phone is seriously smarter than I am, and it connects me instantly. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go respond to the tweet notification I just got from my iPhone.

Continue Reading