Future of mobile commerce, in a skinny vanilla latte?

Thanks CNET for this on an iphone app that's actually useful:

Your decaf caramel macchiatos and no-whip pumpkin spice lattes are going mobile.

In a double-shot launch (sorry), coffee giant Starbucks unveiled late Tuesday its first two iPhone apps. The first one, called MyStarbucks, is a no-brainer: you can use the phone's GPS capability to find nearby stores (previously, this was available via text message), search ingredient and calorie information for Starbucks beverages, study coffee bean varieties, and build virtual drinks to see what exactly would be in one if you ordered it.

But it's the second app, called Starbucks Card Mobile, that could be worth a double-take. The app allows for balance check and refilling of Starbucks gift cards, which the company has expanded into a customer loyalty program by offering discounts, free refills, and two hours of free Wi-Fi to cardholders. And in two experimental test markets, the Starbucks Card Mobile application can use a barcode to replace the plastic gift card altogether.

As far as mobile e-commerce is concerned, this could be a big deal.

Mobile retail promotions, from text-message codes to redeem for free drinks to the nascent pop-up deals in geolocation app Foursquare, are nothing new. And mobile payments are commonplace in countries like Japan and South Korea. In the U.S., they haven't caught on yet. But having a ubiquitous national retailer like Starbucks in the game could change this.

The barcode-based electronic gift card from the new Starbucks iPhone app.

(Credit: Starbucks)

"We're really venturing into new waters in terms of mobile payment," Stephen Gillett, senior vice president of digital ventures at Starbucks, said regarding the Starbucks Card Mobile app.

"The mobile app is really the powering of some of our most frequently used functions on (the Starbucks card's Web site) and our in-store activity in terms of balance and payment and favorite orders," Gillett said. The app was developed internally with some help from third-party companies like mobile billing start-up mFoundry, he said.

Unless you're geographically very lucky, you won't be able to pay for a venti frappuccino with your iPhone just yet. Only 16 Starbucks outlets, eight in its home turf of Seattle and eight in Silicon Valley, can currently handle the barcode-based gift cards. These are stores already internally designated as test spots for new Starbucks technology, Gillett said.

"In some of these Seattle stores we've tested store manager laptops, allowing them to get instant messaging, full access to e-mail, and conferencing," he said. "These are some of the stores that got the new AT&T Wi-Fi earlier."

As a result, that means the integration process may be smoother for the test stores than it would be for a random Starbucks elsewhere in the country. "The store employees are used to getting new kinds of technology, new kinds of services earlier than most markets," Gillett said.

Estimates vary on just how big the U.S. gift card industry is, but according to the Federal Reserve, it's certainly well into the billions and continues to grow. As for Starbucks, already one in seven transactions at the coffee chain involves its array of gift and loyalty cards, Gillett says. "We see a significant amount of our traffic represented by loyalty cards of some sort," he said.

And eliminating that need for a physical gift card is a pretty obvious next step, especially if you've ever spent any time fishing around for one in a handbag.

The question is whether a new concept like barcode-based gift cards can easily scale to a chain as widespread as Starbucks. Mobile barcode systems have typically been rolled out in far smaller contexts--short-term advertising campaigns, for example, or companies with far smaller reach such as Equinox, a high-end gym in a handful of U.S. cities that recently began letting members check in with an iPhone-based barcode. And while Starbucks has been battered by the recession and has closed several hundred stores in the U.S., it still operates or licenses over 10,000 outlets in the U.S. and thousands more overseas.

So Starbucks is taking a slow approach to mobile payment testing, which means that customers outside of Silicon Valley and Seattle might not be seeing it any time soon.

"We're really working on getting that (customer) feedback before we put any long-term plans in future markets," Gillett said. "This really is a consumer-driven app in so many ways. This is an app that we need the customer experience to have a very strong influence on."

He was equally mum om whether Starbucks Card Mobile will offer advance mobile ordering options or other potential features. "Again, we're really looking to this app hitting the real world before we lock in future functionalities," Gillett said.

The same goes for taking the app beyond Apple's handset. Apple and Starbucks have a years-long and complicated history encompassing both iTunes and AT&T wireless service, but a mobile payment option ideally wouldn't be restricted to the iPhone.

"We are definitely interested in non-iPhone based platforms, particularly Windows and Android and BlackBerry," Gillett said. "But at this point we're just really focused on the launch for this."

Nudographics

Coke did this so well in Europe, but puma have sexed it up pretty nicely.

Models strip down for a bare market - http://theindex.puma.com/
By Edmund Tadros | NEWS.com.au | September 24, 2009 09:37am

These models strip as the share market goes down / Supplied

Not sure why, but he spends the entire market day playing with his barbell / Supplied

• New iPhone app animates market movements
• Features male and female models stripping
• Sponsored by a Sportswear company

UNDER normal circumstances the daily movement of the share market might only hold the interest of investors.

But a Sportswear company - we won't mention their name or the product line they're trying to spruik - has come up with a way that will have many hoping for the ASX 200 share market index to slump.

The company has developed an iPhone application and a related website that has male and female models stripping as the Australian share market drops and putting clothes back on as the market index increase in value.

The data feed of the share market's movements are on a 15-minute delay and there is also the option to monitor the US share market Dow Jones industrial index and the German DAX share market index.

When the respective share market is closed, the models are shown sleeping.

And, for better or worse, no matter how much the share market tanks, the models don't go nude.

New Tommy Hilfiger Store 5th Ave

Tommy Hilfiger has opened a new global flagship store - in the heart of Manhattan.

The new store - at 681 Fifth Avenue - is the largest in the brand's global network and positioned amidst an elite group of upscale retailers on one of the most prestigious shopping avenues in the world.

Inspired by modern meets traditional, and based on 20th century architecture, the 22,000 sqft freestanding store is designed by the Tommy Hilfiger creative team in partnership with Callison Architects. Taking creative cues from McKim, Mead, and White, the store's interior features a dramatic, modern centralised staircase that doubles as a viewing platform for a revolving art installation and ascends a total of four levels. Designed digitally, the staircase resembles a floating sculpture that provides continuous views of Fifth Avenue, complete with Brazilian cherry treads and glass railing.

Spanning four floors and a lower level, the store features oil-rubbed bronze metal fixtures as well as a grand restoration of the building's facade to its original Indiana limestone. The first floor, offering men's sportswear, is offset by elegant ivory drapes against walnut panels, channelling the old charm of a library and men's club.

Upon walking downstairs, the lower level houses Hilfiger Denim where customers can find a bar-inspired wrap desk with stools and a seating area - all set for comfortable lounging.

The second floor presents an extensive selection of men's tailored, runway and accessories, and a glimpse of the main floor and lower level from a glass railing with leather cap. The third floor showcases women's sportswear and is characterised by Tommy Hilfiger-trademark 1960's Venini chandeliers and a Brazilian cherry herringbone floor, while the fourth floor offers the women's runway collection, emphasised by glass doors that open onto a balcony overlooking Fifth Avenue.

To commemorate the opening, the store features an exclusive product offering, upscale retail services, and a new global packaging debuting this US autumn with shopping bags and ancillary items that are 100 per cent recyclable. The highlighted product will include the Tommy Hilfiger Fifth Avenue Pink Collection, comprised of pink women's outerwear, knitwear, dresses, scarves, gloves, watches, belts, and gifts such as journals and luggage tags as well as select pink men's ties; additional men's product will focus on plaids, ranging from a plaid trench coat to a classic pea coat.

Retail services will offer a tailor, shoe shine, and iconic American snacks, in addition to varying monthly complimentary activities such as personal denim fittings, celebrity stylist appearances, monogramming and shopping nights.

Shame that name

Nice work from Green Peace. Using social media to try make Rudd's name dirty if he does a dirty on the climate: http://www.dirtykev.org/

Smokescreen - online game / show

Thanks Contagious... love this approach to making content interactive

Smokescreen

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08/09/2009

While teens, and the majority of other web users, are aware of threats that exist online, they have a tendency to seem relatively seem distant and remote. With this in mind, Channel 4’s web adventure Smokescreen has just launched, challenging teens to increase their awareness of some internet dangers, while taking part in a 13-part web adventure aimed at 14-16 year olds.

Developed by the production company Six to Start in London, which also produced Penguin’s We Tell Stories ARG, the game challenges players to uncover a mystery behind a sinister new game, Rumour Mill, hosted on a fictional social network known as White Smoke. Players must set about uncovering information via chat rooms, IM, widgets, profile pages, emails, voicemails, CCTV footage, twitch games, puzzle games to drive the plot forward.

Alice Taylor, commissioning editor, education, explains: ‘We wanted to help teens learn about data issues through play, while exploring big ideas such as privacy and surveillance, Orwell and CCTV. We focused the plot down to within social networks, where teens spend a large amount of their time, looking at issues such as stalking, fishing, data awareness, privacy settings and policies.’

The various missions can be played over the next eight weeks, after which the game will form a complete three hour playing experience. Taylor adds: ‘We have a presence on social networks because we wanted to turn up in teen’s attention streams, but these spaces are really crowded with a lot of brands searching for attention. Teens love to play games, even if they don’t label themselves as gamers. Therefore, we decided to spend at least half our budget on games.’

She adds: ‘We are building these games to try and be as native to the internet as possible. We are seeding content by behaving like a dandelion, including on US sites, such as www.kongregate.com as well as UK ones, because nine out of ten sites visited by teens are based in the US.’

Adrian Hon, co-founder Six to Start, says: ‘Smokescreen is the world’s first game about life online. Every time you hear about a teenager being hauled up at school because of their Facebook profile, or someone being conned out of their password on Twitter - that's what Smokescreen aims to explore. And because our game puts players in a simulation situation, we can give them an experience that is far more powerful and immersive than any other media.’

www.smokescreengame.com
www.sixtostart.com

Social Media is Slowly Changing the Demographics of Political Engagement

Thanks again ReadWriteWeb for this post on social media's growing impact on the political lanscape

Traditionally, political participation has always been highly correlated with income and education. According to a new report (PDF), this is still holds true for those who participate in political activities online. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, online users with a higher income are still far more likely to participate in political activities online than those with lower incomes. At the same time, though, the Pew study also sees some hints that new forms of civic engagement through social media services could soon change this pattern.

According to this report, 31% of all users on social networking sites engage in some activity "with a civic or political focus." Pew defines this category very broadly, though, and includes relatively simple activities like 'friending' a political candidate as an "activity with political focus." In total, about 10% of all internet users have used social networks for this kind of political activity.

A far more interesting statistic is that 15% of all Internet users have left comments on websites about political or social issues, or posted images or written blog posts related to politics or social issues. What is even more interesting, though not surprising, is that young adults between 18 and 29 are far more likely to use social networks as a venue for political and civic engagement than older users. These younger users who engage in political activity online are also far more likely to participate in politics offline.

Social Media Might Level the Playing Field

Social media is mostly the domain of younger Internet users and while young adults (18-24) are, as a group, less interested in political activities online, they are far more likely than any other group to use blogs and social networking sites to engage in political discussions. About 34% of young adults make political use of social networking sites and 34% post political material on the Internet.

Users under 35 represent 72% of those users who make political use of social networks. In addition, the income and education gap for those who engage in political activities on social networks is far less pronounced when compared to those who use other forums.

Will These Trends Continue?

What will be interesting to watch, the Pew study points out, is how these younger users will use these existing networks as they get older. It will also be interesting to see if these developments will mean that socio-economic status will become less of an indicator of civic engagement, or if these new technologies will create new barriers of entry for those with a lower income and education level.

Given that the US just experienced a highly contested election cycle and is in the middle of a heated debate about health care right now, we have to wonder, though, if these numbers will continue to hold true over the next few years or if they were just a blip on the radar.

City Life, One Minute At A Time

Thanks PSFK for this post on a great programme underway to give us 1 minute glimpses of life in other cities. Fascinating stuff

cityoneminutes is a global web video project that allows you to observe 41 different cities around the world in one-minute intervals.

From a drunk man staggering to hail a cab in Addis Ababa to a serene San Francisco cityscape in the wee hours of the morning, there’s a wide range of cultural and behavioral morsels to absorb, in addition to all of the architectural and design idiosyncrasies of each area.

You can search for videos by city or specific time of day, watch an entire day in one region, or skip around from place to place.

The project is part of a greater collaboration between Dutch public television station VPRO and many different sponsors (including UNICEF and the Netherlands China Arts Foundation) called theoneminutes, which is a site that applies the same one-minute video idea to different scenarios- such as train rides, weddings, and abstract video art.

theoneminutes is also accepting submissions for all of their different categories at present. The best one minute videos will be picked out at year’s end for an annual awards show. Click here for more information.

[via Pop Up Cities]