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New Methods - Measurement of Word of Mouth Marketing 10/04/01 - 0 views

  • A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing Assessing its impact as well as its volume will help companies take better advantage of buzz. APRIL 2010 • Jacques Bughin, Jonathan Doogan, and Ole Jørgen Vetvik
  • Exhibit 1: Word of mouth is influential throughout the consumer decision journey. Exhibit 2: By looking at impact as well as volume, marketers can measure the effects of word-of-mouth messages more accurately.
  • Consumers have always valued opinions expressed directly to them. Marketers may spend millions of dollars on elaborately conceived advertising campaigns, yet often what really makes up a consumer’s mind is not only simple but also free: a word-of-mouth recommendation from a trusted source. As consumers overwhelmed by product choices tune out the ever-growing barrage of traditional marketing, word of mouth cuts through the noise quickly and effectively.Indeed, word of mouth1 is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions. Its influence is greatest when consumers are buying a product for the first time or when products are relatively expensive, factors that tend to make people conduct more research, seek more opinions, and deliberate longer than they otherwise would. And its influence will probably grow: the digital revolution has amplified and accelerated its reach to the point where word of mouth is no longer an act of intimate, one-on-one communication. Today, it also operates on a one-to-many basis: product reviews are posted online and opinions disseminated through social networks. Some customers even create Web sites or blogs to praise or punish brands. Register to read this article.
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  • Read more at www.mckinseyquarterly.com 
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GPS Users Fear Getting Lost In Wireless Expansion : NPR [13Jun11] - 0 views

  • GPS devices have become ubiquitous: Millions of drivers rely on them for directions.
  • The government hopes to construct a new air traffic control system based on GPS navigation rather than the use of radar.
  • They've also become an important tool in agriculture.
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  • But a multibillion-dollar proposal to provide broadband Internet access using satellites and a network of 40,000 antennas could interfere with their devices. This could potentially make it harder for first responders to find emergencies, aviators to fly and drivers to navigate
  • In a video on its website, LightSquared offers an enticing vision:
  • "Wireless devices will work in every single part of the country," the video explains. "People will be able to send e-mail from the Grand Canyon. Download a full-length movie in mere minutes while on the move. Make a phone call far away from Anywheresville."
  • the problem is that the radio signals the broadband carrier wants to use for its wireless network would interfere with signals GPS uses.
  • the government's own tests have shown the LightSquared signals cause some GPS receivers to lose signal strength and others were knocked out entirely.
  • 'A Zoning Dispute'
  • part of the radio spectrum which the FCC granted to LightSquared is right next door to the part of the spectrum GPS services use.
Dan R.D.

Beyond GPS: your phone in 2015 | KurzweilAI [01Nov11] - 0 views

  • Attention smartphone users: the recent launch of the first two satellites for Europe’s Galileo global navigation satellite system (GNSS) could make things a lot more interesting in about four years.
  • Galileo will deliver real-time positioning accuracy down to one meter range, compared to 10 meters for GPS, the European Space Agency (ESA) states, and it plans to give non-European users access.
  • Meanwhile, Apple’s new iPhone 4S has a chip that will be able to access Glonass (the Russian version of GPS), Engadget reports. Other manufacturers, including Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics and Texas Instruments, will also support Glonass — and Galileo as soon as it is operational — with new chipsets and software able to receive and integrate all three main GNSS systems.
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  • So we can expect an explosion of next-generation location based services and apps and a race between GNSS providers, chipset makers, handset manufacturers, system integrators, app developers and carriers to deliver better position accuracy and reliability, led by Apple, Microsoft/Nokia, and Google/Samsung/others.
  • What will that mean for you? Imagine messaging a nearby unknown person by just pointing your phone, or driving in a unknown city with the help of the geo-located augmented-reality overlays shown in the Microsoft Future Visions concept video, which would require very accurate positioning of moving targets in real time.
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The Future Of GPS Navigation With Wikitude Drive [26May11] - 0 views

  • Now Mobilizy, the leaders in augmented reality geo-location applications for mobile have taken the next major leap by combining augmented reality with GPS navigation software. Wikitude Drive is the award winning GPS navigation application for Android devices, it has already been awarded numerous prizes including the “Galileo Master 2010” of the European Satellite Navigation Competition, “Global Champion” of the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge and Winner of the “World Summit Award 2010”. Previously available for Austria, Germany and Switzerland the application is now available for Spain, UK, France and Italy. What’s different about Wikitude Drive from other navigation applications is it overlays the live route over the camera feed rather than using a traditional map view.  This new augmented reality view enables you to see exactly where you are going and the route without having to take your eyes off the road ahead. Having said sometime back that someday AR will change navigation, it’s been enjoyable playing around with the beta and testing the UK maps. As everything is stored on the server all the maps are up to date and I was even able to navigate to my house which hasn’t even made Google Street View yet. Turn by turn instructions are given clearly using a speech engine so you’ll always have the expected voice instructions.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

Jiepang to deliver NFC check-ins and rewards to Chinese merchants * NFC World [26Aug11] - 0 views

  • China's leading location-based social service is distributing NFC window stickers to more than 3,000 merchants in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Taipei and Hong Kong
  • Jiepang is to distribute NFC window stickers to more than 3,000 merchant partners in six cities in Greater China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Taipei and Hong Kong.
  • Jiepang is China's leading location-based social service. Its users currently check in and earn rewards via a GPS-enabled smartphone app which comes preloaded on all new HTC, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and other smartphone brands in China, including all three of the new Nokia NFC smartphones announced earlier this week.
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  • Consumers use the service to check in to locations as well as to share tips, photos and comments. The system also automatically sends this information to a number of social networking platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook as well as local networks, so that friends and followers are notified whenever a Jiepang user checks in to a particular merchant.
  • Jiepang provides its fast growing network of merchant partners with a self-service platform they can use to provide offers to Jiepang users who check in to their locations, Leo Lee, Jiepang's marketing and business development manager in Hong Kong, has told NFC World.
  • The platform allows merchants to both choose the type of offer they wish to provide and set their offers so that rewards are triggered according to the kind of user actions they want to see. A reward can be offered, for example, each time a user checks in or only when they have checked in, say, three times during a set period of time.
  • Jiepang doesn't charge merchants for using the platform, and it doesn't plan to change this in the future, Lee added. The company's revenues, instead, come from partnerships Jiepang has established with brands such as Starbucks, McDonald's, Nike, Louis Vuitton and nearly 300 others. These enable the brands to use Jiepang "to reach, engage, and learn about their customers in both the offline and online worlds."
  • NFC offers a number of advantages over GPS to both users and merchants, Lee told NFC World. "NFC is a lot easier and convenient" for users, he says, and merchant partners can be sure that, when a user checks in, they really are present at their store. "GPS is not 100% accurate, you can be a few streets away," explains Lee.
  • The new service means that NFC phone users will be able to simply touch their phone to a window sticker in order to check in to a location and register their eligibility for a reward. Then, once they have fulfilled the criteria for a given reward, a mobile coupon for that merchant will be delivered to their phone. Jiepang users then simply show the coupon to the merchant in order to redeem it. Once accepted, the merchant voids the coupon by pressing an on-screen 'void' button on the customers' phone.
  • "NFC has a lot of possibilities for mobile commerce," says Lee. "We want to help small, medium and local merchants to use our platforms."
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Announcing the FLORA, Adafruit's wearable electronics platform and accessories [20Jan12} - 0 views

  • Today we’re announcing our new open-source wearable electronics platform and series of accessories. We rarely announce something until it’s shipping to customers, but you’ll see a lot of these out in the world from our testers as they show off some projects – so we wanted to post about this now.
  • For the last few years Ladyada has been thinking about everything she wanted in a wearable electronics platform for Adafruit’s community of makers, hackers, crafters, artists, designers and engineers. After months of planning, designing and working with partners around the world for the best materials and accessories, we can share what we’re up to. The hardware is now in the hands of our staff and testers!
  • We call it the FLORA.
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  • The FLORA has built-in USB support. Built in USB means you plug it in to program it, it just shows up. No additional purchases are needed! Works with Mac, Windows, Linux, any USB cable works great. Currently the PCB comes with a mini B connector but future versions may change to microUSB. Either will work great. The FLORA has USB HID support, so it can act like a mouse, keyboard, MIDI, etc. to attach directly to cellphones. Our iPhone/iPad/Android app coming soon. The FLORA’s modules include: Bluetooth, GPS, 3-axis accelerometer, compass module, flex sensor, piezo, IR LED, push button, embroidered + capacitive keypad, OLED and more. The FLORA has a small but easy to use onboard reset button to reboot the system.
  • The FLORA is fabric friendly. The FLORA does not use FTDI headers (built in USB support) headers of any kind sticking out can grab and tear fabric. The FLORA has an onboard 3.3v 100mA regulator with protection schottky diode and USB fuse so that power is consistent and can power common 3.3v modules and sensors.
  • The FLORA has onboard polarized 2 JST battery connector with protection schottky diode for use with external battery packs from 3.5v to 16v DC in. Can be used with LiIon/LiPoly, LiFe, alkaline or rechargeable NiMh/NiCad batteries of any size.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

Your mobile wallet - 0 views

  • We've been promised a wallet in our phones for years, but 2012 will be the year that it breaks through. The advent of this technology will mean more than just the convenience of a 'Jedi wave' of your phone to pay for coffee. From tracking your carbon footprint to smart posters, mobile payments are another piece of the infrastructure of the 'Internet of Things'.
  • NFC, or Near Field Communication, is a type of chip built into mobile phones to allow contactless payments. Although the NFC technology has been around for years, a major barrier to progress has been the lack of payment terminals.
  • The Transport for London Oystercard is a form of contactless payment, and you've probably seen contactless payment terminals in popular sandwich chains like Pret and EAT. The same terminals can be used for NFC mobile payments as these phones become available. The difference is that NFC will allow the phone to interact with the terminal using an app, making it much more flexible than the debit card or Oystercard systems.
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  • The real promise of NFC goes beyond convenient payment for coffee, because every swipe of your phone becomes an opportunity to exchange data and trigger an application. You can use NFC to record your payments, and to exchange other information. Discounts, entry tickets and special offers could all be offered using this technology. Y Combinator start-up Tagstand makes NFC-enabled stickers and 'smart posters' to use in ads, trade-stands and other locations. These stickers allow you to tap your mobile phone on anything and do anything from sharing contact information, to sharing music, starting a multiplayer game or providing a discount coupon. MIT Media Lab produced a short 'day in the life' video to illustrate more possibilities, including a carbon footprint app that would use data from your purchases and transport choices.
  • There are already a few phone handsets that support NFC, but many more will be launched in 2012. The Nexus S is the first mainstream handset that already has NFC built in, but Nokia, Blackberry and Samsung are launching NFC phones soon and the Apple rumour mill suggests that next year's iPhone will have mobile payments. (NFC world has an exhaustive list of handsets).
  • Ultimately, NFC is another example of a technology that will connect together the 'Internet of Things'. Along with RFID and GPS, it provides another way for us to use our phones as a window into a world of data from connected devices and printed objects, making a seamless link between our data and the increasingly data-driven world around us.
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

NFCNews | Continental unveils NFC auto solution in Vegas - 0 views

  • German automotive supplier Continental has announced that it will showcase its new NFC-enabled vehicle access control solution this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
  • According to Continental, the “Simplify your Drive” system uses a virtual key that is stored on the SIM card of NFC-enabled phone. To unlock a vehicle, the user simply taps their handset against the car door equipped with an embedded reader.
  • In addition to access control, the solution makes it possible to load personalized settings – e.g., seat position, climate control, radio station, GPS directions to common destinations – on the NFC key, so that when you unlock the door your car automatically adjusts to your driving preferences, according to Continental. Drivers can also use NFC to wirelessly charge their cell phone during travel.
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  • According to Continental, the solution will be particularly useful for car sharing or car rental services, as it enables the provisioning of virtual car keys over the Internet, rather than having to keep track of physical keys.
  • For example, once the customer has selected a vehicle on the rental website, a temporary digital key from Continental and the driver’s profile is loaded onto the cell phone’s SIM card via a secure data link. At the same time, the cell phone receives the license plate number and the location of the car.
  • Continental says it is currently working with telecom companies to integrate services like Deutsche Telekom’s “mobile wallet” for storing and organizing the electronic car key in the cell phone. With the addition of mobile wallet technology, drivers may be able to organize their bank account or credit card data and pay for car sharing or car rental services
Marc-Alexandre Gagnon

German Rail System to Get Mobile Payments This Year [26Aug11] - 0 views

  • Come November, the world's second largest mass transit company will let its riders pay for trips by waving their cell phones at the terminal. The Deutsche Bahn, Germany's main railway operator, began implementing its Touch&Travel mobile payments system in 2008 and expects it to be ready within two months.
  • The system will rely on near field communications (NFC) chips contained in customers' mobile phones to handle the payment transactions for each trip. Alternatively, riders can pay with their phones by scanning a QR code at the beginning and end point of their ride.
  • Touch&Travel mobile apps are available for iPhone and Android-based smart phones. "In addition to using NFC or barcodes to provide location information, smartphone apps can use GPS or the user can type in a location ID number," writes NFC World. Riders will be billed for their transit usage at the end of each month.
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  • Contact-less payments are just one of the many uses for NFC, which is one of the most-talked-about technologies of the last year. Some other use cases include exchanging contact information, mobile gaming and unlocking doors, to name a few. Still, mobile payments are perhaps the most anticipated of its future uses, as everybody from banks and credit card companies to Google and smaller tech startups have been preparing solutions in this space.
  • New York City's transit system started its own pilot program for mobile payments last year, which lets riders pay for trips with their iPhones. Since the iPhone does not yet support NFC natively, the devices need to be housed in a special casing in order to work with New York's subway, rail, bus and taxi systems.
Dan R.D.

10/04/23 Collective Layer of Fantasy - Augmented Reality Flashmob in Amsterdam - 0 views

  • This weekend in Amsterdam you may see a whole bunch of people waving their smartphones around at once. It’s the first social net/augmented reality flashmob, aka a fabulous way to combine three novel Net memes into one event.“Every square in every major city in the world knows the ‘human statue’ phenomenon,” he notes, so the intention of this weekend’s performance art is to take the human statue game totally into the digital world.have a smartphone that’ll run Layar (i.e. one with GPS).activate Layar, wave your smartphone in the air and ogle whatever strange and wonderful digital statue installations Veenhof’s chosen to populate the augmented space over Dam Square with. There’s a rumor that the Beatles will be showing up in pixel form, to recreate their famous Abbey Road pose.Is this the start of a new trend? You betcha. Flashmobs are still a popular affair, and AR is a tech that’s on the point of exploding into the mainstream public consciousness.
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    Augmented reality opens up a lot of possibilities for businesses. Imagine looking through your smartphone and having a chat with the geico gecko about your car insurance.
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Research and Markets: Global - Mobile Broadband - Location Based Services Insights [17M... - 0 views

  • (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f92935/global_mobile_br) has announced the addition of the "Global - Mobile Broadband - Location Based Services Insights" report to their offering. Despite the hype regarding this technology since around the year 2000; we have just recently begun to see applications for this technology become available to mass audiences. This is thanks to services like FourSquare and Facebook Places offering users the ability to check-in. The future of mobile Location Based Services will continue to emerge as handsets with smarter capabilities, new apps and user interfaces continue to permeate the market. This report provides a broad global overview of trends and developments in the mobile location based services industry, including a brief overview of GPS.
  • For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f92935/global_mobile_br
Dan R.D.

Sony Sets Its Sights on Augmented Reality [31May11] - 0 views

  • The future of mobile gaming will merge the virtual and real worlds.
  • Unlike many augmented reality systems, Smart AR does not use satellite tracking or special markers to figure out where to overlay a virtual object. Instead, it uses object recognition. This means it works where GPS signals are poor or nonexistent, for example, indoors. The markerless system is more difficult to pull off, but it allows many more everyday objects to be used.
  • Sony has dabbled with the technology before, using two-dimensional barcodes known as CyberCodes as markers for tracking objects.
Dan R.D.

Kevin Fitchard: Nokia's new interim CTO Tirri on the concept of the "Internet of Things... - 0 views

  • "The Invisible Internet is associated closely with the concept of the “Internet of Things,” in which a multitude of everyday objects are connected wirelessly. In such a world, not every object will have the intelligence to make decisions for itself — your carton of milk doesn’t need an advanced processor, only the ability to communicate what it is and its expiration date — but collectively they’ll create a form of ambient intelligence, allowing them to self-organize as a group. If the Invisible Internet of Things does become a reality, the Web will cease to be merely a virtual space, where people interact with one another from behind a PC or phone’s screen, and become a real space — “meat space,” if you will — where thousands of objects, both personal and public, interact with one another.
  • The one element, besides a radio, all of those objects have in common is awareness. They have to be able to sense one another as well as their surroundings. Embedding devices and objects with that kind of sensitivity probably is the smallest challenge the Internet of Things faces right now, said Henry Tirri, head of the Nokia Research Center. The core sensors needed in the network of the future already are embedded in the average smartphone today: GPS and cellular triangulation sense location; accelerometers and digital compasses sense movement and direction; digital cameras can see for the devices. Some of those sensors need to be refined, but for the most part, devices already have access to enormous amounts of raw sensory data, Tirri said. The challenge for the industry is processing that data, interpreting it and combining it with data from other sensors to make it useful. Once the technology overcomes those problems, there’s no limit to what can be wirelessly enabled, he added.
  • “In today’s world of handsets, we talk in billions; in the future, we will talk about trillions of devices,” Tirri said. “Radios and sensors will be very small. They will be in everyday devices like coffeemakers and key chains, as well as all consumer devices, but also things you wouldn’t think you’d have wireless capabilities, like chairs, tables, even your bed.”
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DatesNearMe Launches Location Based iPhone Dating Application [11May11] - 0 views

  • We observed the emerging trend of online dating among today’s tech savvy generation and in order to simplify it, we decided to launch Dates Near Me, a free mobile dating service which caters towards the requirements of today’s generation. The iPhone dating application works by broadcasting the location of users based on GPS signals that permit them to find nearby singles and meet up right away if they desire. “Begin your search to find a like-minded companion, friend, lover or date using DatesNearMe mobile phone dating application on your iPhone and Google Android. With the singles showing an ever increasing desire for on the spot gratification, we realized the importance of mobile dating technology”, remarked the CEO of DatesNearMe.com Few reasons that make DatesNearMe better than any other mobile dating application are: 1. Highest level of privacy and security settings so that you can flirt with comfort. 2. Find singles around you with the help of our map view or list view. 3. 100% Free. Definitely no charges or catches. 4. Filled of features with high user friendliness. 5. Create your profile in less than no time. Just a few clicks if you update from Facebook. 6. Add users to your hot List, and see who has added you to theirs. 7. Easily flirt with hotties with winks, smiles and live messages.
Dan R.D.

Ian Bogost - Gamification is Bullshit [08Aug11] - 0 views

  • In his short treatise On Bullshit, the moral philosopher Harry Frankfurt gives us a useful theory of bullshit. We normally think of bullshit as a synonym—albeit a somewhat vulgar one—for lies or deceit. But Frankfurt argues that bullshit has nothing to do with truth. Rather, bullshit is used to conceal, to impress or to coerce. Unlike liars, bullshitters have no use for the truth. All that matters to them is hiding their ignorance or bringing about their own benefit. Gamification is bullshit. I'm not being flip or glib or provocative. I'm speaking philosophically. More specifically, gamification is marketing bullshit, invented by consultants as a means to capture the wild, coveted beast that is videogames and to domesticate it for use in the grey, hopeless wasteland of big business, where bullshit already reigns anyway. Bullshitters are many things, but they are not stupid. The rhetorical power of the word "gamification" is enormous, and it does precisely what the bullshitters want: it takes games—a mysterious, magical, powerful medium that has captured the attention of millions of people—and it makes them accessible in the context of contemporary business.
Dan R.D.

Mobile Apps Must Die [24Sep11] - 0 views

  • Too much trouble The problem with apps, and by this I mean native apps that must be downloaded to your phone, is that they are just becoming too much trouble to organize and maintain. It's just not realistic to have an app for every store you go to, every product you own and every website you visit. This creates an ever increasing set that must be curated, organized and culled. It's a common task we all perform, removing old and unused apps every few months, effectively garbage collecting our phones. Very organized folks relish the opportunity to tidy their burgeoning app menagerie but most can't bother and their home pages scroll into a receding haze of choices.
  • Movie posters with radio tags such as RFID or NFC will allow me to get an interactive version of the poster on my phone to show me more information 
  • Any consumer item, such as ketchup or milk bottles, also with radio tags, will allow me to not only get more information on these items just like the poster, but also track usage and even offer to purchase replacement items
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  • Shopping malls will offer maps and hours whenever I’m there
  • My local bus stop will be geo-located so all I need is my current GPS fix and I can get just the information for that specific bus stop, knowing when the next bus will arrive. While this is possible today with some fancy urban systems, deploying a geo location system allows any city to do this, across all bus lines much more cheaply.
  • Any store will have an app that I can interact with as I walk through their door
  • A local food cart vendor will offer not only their menu but where they are going next and when they’ll return
  • An on demand rental car company, such as Zipcar, will allow me to register and drive away with one of their cars, just using a bluetooth connection on my phone.
  • Just In Time Interaction All of these concepts are of course just speculation but they represent a trend that is thundering down upon us. Each of these devices will likely need some form of interaction but only as I approach them, a “Just in time” interaction model that gives me interactivity but only when I need it.
Dan R.D.

"The Internet of Things" is the new Sorcerer's Apprentice [24Aug11] - 0 views

  • In Disneys Fantasia, Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice brings to life everyday objects such as brooms and buckets to help him with his tasks of cleaning - what starts as a good idea ultimately ends with terrible results as he fails to be able to control them.Whilst Mickey may have gotten out of his depth, this thinking of everyday objects being brought to life isn't just a fantasy.
  • Obviously not in the literal sense we see in the Sourcers Apprentice (although that would have been great!), but more in the sense that previously in-anmiate objects can now start to record their activities. Termed the "Internet of Things" this was discussed in part by a talk at DICE by Jesse Schell about gamification and how this may extend into everyday items and tasks. (The video is really worth watching if you haven't previously seen it)
  • What Jesse discussed in terms of earning points for brushing your teeth has now been enabled by start-up Green Goose. Using a combination of intelligent stickers or product add-ons, Green Goose claims to be able to track any activity, from cleaning your teeth to drinking a class of water.
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  • Internet of Things pioneer, Kevin Ashton said of this:-The problem is, people have limited time, attention and accuracy—all of which means they are not very good at capturing data about things in the real world. [...] If we had computers that knew everything there was to know about things—using data they gathered without any help from us—we would be able to track and count everything, and greatly reduce waste, loss and cost
  • The challenge for both brands and consumers will be the same as that faced by the Sorcerer's Apprentice - once we start providing/collecting this information, can we keep control of it, manage it and get the best benefit from it... or will it simply overwhelm us.
Dan R.D.

How This Guy Is Making Your iPhone Virtually Human [17Sep11] - 0 views

  • Today, your iPhone is a gadget, a mere consumer appliance. But your future iPhone will become increasingly human. You’ll have conversations with it. The phone will make decisions, prioritize the information it presents to you, and take action on your behalf — rescheduling meetings, buying movie tickets, making reservations and much more.
  • In short, your iPhone is evolving into a personal assistant that thinks, learns and acts. And it’s all happening sooner than you think,
  • Ultimately, however, human beings are hard-wired to communicate with other people, not computers. And that’s why the direction of interface design is always heading for the creation of artificial humans.
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  • For speech, Apple has maintained a long-standing partnership with the leading company. A version of iOS 5 with Nuance Dictation has reportedly been sent out to carriers for testing.
  • There are four elements to a machine that can function like a person: 1) speech; 2) decision-making algorithms; 3) data; and 4) “agency,” the ability to act in the world on your behalf.
  • For decision-making algorithms, Apple can rely on the amazing technology it purchased in April, 2010, when it bought Siri, a company that created a personal-assistant application that you talk to, and it figures out what you want.
  • The most expensive, ambitious and far-reaching attempt to create a virtual human assistant was initiated in 2003 by the Pentagon’s research arm, DARPA (the organization that brought us the Internet, GPS and other deadly weapons).
  • The project was called CALO, for “Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes,” and involved some 300 of the world’s top researchers.
  • The man in charge of the whole project was a brilliant polymath who worked as senior scientist and co-director of the Computer Human Interaction Center at SRI, Adam Cheyer (pictured above).
Dan R.D.

Wireless M2M security apps to rocket [23Jun11] - 0 views

  • Vehicle tracking and recovery remains the major application area for wireless M2M communication in the security industry, using devices that combine GPS with GSM and GPRS technologies. The main markets in terms of units and value include tracking of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. However, there are also several emerging niche markets, such as construction equipment as well as leisure vehicles and boats.
  • “There is still a significant untapped potential in the residential market segment for monitored alarms,” commented André Malm, senior analyst at Berg Insight. He added that only about 25% of the 30 million alarm systems in Europe are connected to an alarm receiving centre. The latest generation of monitored alarm systems with GSM and GPRS is well adapted to the residential market as many households abandon PSTN services.
Dan R.D.

Amex, Foursquare take mobile wallet scheme national [23Jun11] - 0 views

  • Program doesn't require coupons or NFC chips; discounts appear on Amex statements after a purchase
  • Computerworld - American Express Thursday announced the national rollout of mobile payment system that pairs its Amex credit card with a user's smartphone-based Foursquare profile to offer discounts for retail purchases. The discounts, initially available from retailers H&M and Sports Authority, are credited to a user's Amex card within three to five days of a purchase, the company said, adding that no coupons, smartphone codes or NFC smartphone chips are needed. Foursquare, a mobile platform that uses GPS technology, currently has more than 10 million subscribers who use the service as a social network to share their location with friends. The joint effort requires that cardholders register with Amex to link their card to their Foursquare profile.
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