Near field communications - the death of the password?

Bit slow off the mark with reposting this, but a nice article from Computer World about how near field communication (NFC) enabled devices, like the new Android Nexus (can't wait for them to be released here in OZ), could not only change things like credit cards and micro-payments, but also how we handle secure access to data and services.

How Apple and Google will kill the password
Prediction: Your phone is about to become a universal biometric ID and debit card

By Mike Elgan

January 29, 2011 07:55 AM ET


Computerworld - Imagine sitting down at a public PC, surfing the Web, visiting Facebook, checking your online bank account and buying something on Amazon.com -- all without entering passwords or credit card information.

It gets better. You get up and leave without even logging out. Some shady criminal type sits down at the same PC and finds his attempts at cracking your password foiled at every turn. Your accounts can't be accessed because your phone is no longer on the desk.

It gets better still. Hop in your car and press the "Start" button -- no key necessary. The car knows it's you after you wave your phone over the dashboard, and it adjusts the driver's seat and steering wheel just for you.

On your way to work, you swing by Starbucks to grab a Trenta Iced Cafe Mocha with whip. To pay, you wave your phone over a terminal on the counter, grab your drink and head for work.

Arriving at the office, you sail past security with doors unlocking automatically as you approach them. When you walk into your office, the lights and PC come on auto-magically.

But what's this? While you were out, IT replaced your old-and-busted PC with the latest and greatest. The PC is a blank slate, and it's unaware of your data or settings. No worries. Just drop your phone on the desk, and the system instantly implements your settings and begins downloading your work documents from the cloud.

While all this is happening, a co-worker walks in talking smack about the game yesterday -- and the ill-advised bet you lost. You owe him $10, so you both pull out your phones. You launch an app, type in the number 10, and tap the phones together to transfer the money.

All this has taken place without a single password or credit card.

The magic happens when you can combine a biometric ID system (which uses some kind of scan from a smartphone to verify that you're actually in possession of the device) with a secure short-distance wireless communication technology that other devices (cash registers, PCs etc.) can read.

What's wrong with passwords?

Why do we need a new ID system? Because most users don't create secure passwords, and they can't always remember the ones they create.

On any public system -- like, say, Facebook -- if a hacker tries the 20 most common passwords on enough accounts, he'll eventually break in. Any two-bit suburban script-kiddie can download free software to crack the majority of passwords on a public system within hours.

Many people use a single password for all accounts. Once a hacker gains access to the password, he can wreak havoc, steal your identity, destroy your credit, ruin your relationships and expose your secrets.

Password protection -- or lack thereof -- is the IT industry's dirty little secret. Passwords are a broken and obsolete model, yet everyone relies on them and pretends they do what they're supposed to do.

The obvious password replacement is biometric identification -- the use of a system capable of recognizing unique physical attributes, such as fingerprints, iris patterns or voices.

Far too many people don't trust biometrics because it feels like Big Brother technology. But I believe that if the biometric system resides on the user's cell phone, and is under the user's control, such technology would be far more acceptable to the public.

How Apple will kill passwords

Apple doesn't discuss future product plans, but it appears likely that the company is aggressively pursuing the development of technologies that replace IDs, passwords and credit cards.

Two years ago, Apple was in the news for patenting a range of biometric ID tools for the iPhone, such as a voice recognition system, a retinal scanner that uses the phone's camera or, most likely, a system that uses the screen to scan fingerprints.

Last year, Apple hired an expert in Near Field Communication, or NFC, to head up the company's Mobile Commerce department. NFC is technology that enables the transfer of data over distances of just a few inches -- a model that's far more secure and reliable than, say, Bluetooth. Other inside sources have been quoted as saying that Apple plans to build NFC into the iPhone 5.

Apple has also recently advertised three job openings related to payment platforms and short-range wireless data transfers.

And Apple has been granted NFC-related patents.

Apple is in a unique position to add biometric ID and the short-range communication technology that would make it effective.

Because Apple makes both handheld devices and PCs, it could easily build support into both. And because Apple already maintains one of the largest e-commerce systems in the world -- the various iTunes stores -- it already has most of the infrastructure for payments in place -- and the credit card numbers of millions of customers.

Most important, however, Apple has proved to be the best company in the industry at taking research concepts that have been going nowhere for years and mainstreaming them overnight. It did that with multitouch user interfaces, cell phone videoconferencing and touch tablets. And it could do it with biometrically secured NFC ID and commerce systems.

In other words, all Apple needs to do in order to turn the iPhone into a universal debit card is to add a tiny, inexpensive chip to the device. And all Apple needs to do in order to make the iPhone a universal secure ID is to add a fingerprint scanner to the phone and put another chip in its various desktop systems.

Of course, it could be a while before you can use an iPhone as a universal debit card. It could take Apple some time to establish the partnerships and programs necessary to get every gas station and grocery store to support iTunes. But the password-killing ID card functionality could exist on Apple systems as early as this year, or most likely next year.

How Google will kill passwords

Google, meanwhile, does discuss (some) future plans. CEO Eric Schmidt announced late last year that Android Gingerbread 2.3 and later versions will support NFC at the software level. It's up to Google's hardware partners to build that functionality into Android devices.

Google is already using cell phones to improve security. The company has a universal password log-in that grants admission to most of its many online services, from Gmail to Google Latitude. Google encourages users to associate that single sign-on password with their cell phone number. If someone hacks your Google password, you can get a new password sent to your phone.

The Android platform has also been at the forefront of workable biometric solutions for cell phones. In fact, you can already download Android apps that do face recognition and iris scanning.

What doesn't exist yet is a Google-approved or Google-designed system that ties it all together -- NFC, payment and biometric ID. But with Apple apparently taking the lead when it comes to using a cell phone as a debit card and a universal ID, you can be sure Google will step up and do whatever is necessary to compete.

I believe that it will soon be possible to live without passwords or credit cards. If Apple builds in these capabilities, you can be sure Google will. And if Apple and Google do it, so will all of their competitors.

It won't be easy -- we can look forward to messy standards and privacy battles. But once they ship cell phones that can replace both passwords and credit cards, I think life will be more convenient -- and more secure.

Mike Elgan writes about technology and tech culture. Contact and learn more about Mike at Elgan.com, or subscribe to his free e-mail newsletter, Mike's List.

Augment your foraging - technology that helps you find a free feed

While this application is not about to lead me to a feast of wild strawberries in downtown Sydney just yet, is is a fantastic example of how technology can be used to bring us closer to our natural world rather than take us further away.

Mashing up crowd sourcing and citizen science principles, Boskoi feels like exactly the sort of approach that could help get a screen focused generation back in touch with the world around them. Imagine using AR tech for this and other crowd sourced/citizen science created ways to explore the urban environment, rather than to win a car (no offense MINI Getaway... i love that idea as well)

Here's more details on the application courtesy of The Pop-Up City


Augmented Foraging With Boskoi

By Joop de Boer | Published: Thursday November 4, 2010

Everywhere in the world you can find plenty of remarkable fruits, vegetables, mushrooms and herbs in the wild. Not only in the forests of Africa, but also in metropolitan areas around the world an enormous variety of edible species can be found. Boskoi is a new open source project that aims to unlock the collective knowledge about these edible species and their location. Boskoi is a tool to explore and map the ‘edible landscape’ wherever you are while using your mobile phone.

The app enables users to submit own findings and post these to the map. Additions to Boskoi will be reviewed by an editorial board, considering toxicity, pollution and endangered or rare species. Findings can be reported on the website or through the beta app for Android phones. The team has set up some rules though to respect nature, ownership and health: (1) be friendly (ask permission if ownership is unclear), (2) be generous (how much do you really need? Leave most for others), (3) be alert (beware of toxicity and do not tread on other plants when picking), and (4) be careful (only add locations that are robust and can survive limited foraging).

Boskoi is a project by the Amsterdam-based foragers of Urban Edibles, initiated by research and design collective FoAM and supported by Urbanibalism and Pollinize. The app is based on Ushahidi, an open source platform for mobile phones that people in crisis situations use to report what happens. The app was built for the post-election crisis in Kenya in 2008. Ushahidi was also used to map the catastrophe in Haiti and the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. For Boskoi “report an incident” is changed to “report a find”. The app aims to highlight what is growing and living in our daily environment as it stresses the quality of the eco system close to the city. The makers of the app found out that the diversity of plants in The Netherlands is higher in the urban than in rural areas. The idea of Boskoi is to develop new networks between people and their living environment through ‘augmented foraging’.

In several countries online mapping networks regarding freely available fruits and vegetables are already running, for instance the Urbana-Champaign Fruit Map. To combine the data collected by all of these ‘sidewalk harvesting’ projects, the initiators of Boskoi are planning to create a ‘Forage Markup Language’ in order to make the knowledge available to everyone. Another future innovation could be a culinary plug-in with special recipes.

Nokia & Burton = push snowboarding

Fantastic open source approach and what a pointer to what Nike+ could have been if Apple didn;t do it ;)



http://blogs.nokia.com/pushburton/

Mobile Myths Debunked

Nice summary from Adage on the 'real' status of the mobile phone world

----------------

Blackberry Is Not Dead, Steve Jobs Isn't King of Handsets, and Other Conventional Wisdom You Should Reconsider

by Kathryn Koegel
Published: September 13, 2010

Mobile is a confusing marketing space, and we're in the midst of a hype cycle perhaps equaled only by the dot-com frenzy of years past. And whenever there's hype, misconceptions aren't far behind. Here's a look at four of them -- and a reminder why you shouldn't believe everything the soothsayers say.

[Excerpted from "What You Need to Know About Mobile Marketing," a recent Ad Age Insights report.]

It's not an all-Apple world ... and it never will be
There seems to be an app for just about everything at this point (with more than 250,000 available, and counting). And while Apple seems to have a lock on the app market, in fact it represents just a small part of the U.S. mobile market, according to ComScore. Gartner, which tracks phone shipments rather than usage, pegs Apple's 2009 U.S. market share at 5%. The iPhone is a game-changing phone, however, as its interface is the one that managed to alter consumer behavior irrevocably; as a result, it has enjoyed the greatest interest from developers.

Source: comScore custom survey, November 2009

The iPhone audience is a distinctive one. It is youngish (but not too young; consumers under the age of 24 are not likely to be able to afford an iPhone, or to be locked into a long-term AT&T contract). And it is made up of early adopters, those who influence the purchases of others and who are a marketer's dream. If Apple's exclusive contract with AT&T is done with this year, as has been reported, and a Verizon version hits the market, there is no telling how much Apple's penetration will spike. Until that happens, there are other platforms marketers must pay attention to.

Blackberry is not dead
Research in Motion's BlackBerry is still a significant presence in the market and will continue to be, especially in the business world. The BlackBerry is supported by most Windows-based concerns. For marketers looking to reach the business audience, high-net-worth individuals and a slightly older demo than the iPhone, targeting through the BlackBerry is a smart (nay, essential) move. The BlackBerry challenge has been that, with the mass of devices having a trackball rather than a touchscreen, it's simply not as interactive an interface, and can make it difficult to even locate apps. BlackBerry has plans to introduce a new browser.

Consumers love Google, and now, to ride the wave of that affinity, the company has rolled out Android. Research on future phone purchases from ComScore and ChangeWave indicates T-Mobile's ads touting its 3G capabilities -- plus the fact that not all consumers want a contract with AT&T, and that the Android is a close-enough facsimile to the iPhone -- suggests we are at the dawn of a phone war that stands to benefit all consumers, as it likely will lead to better service and pricing [see chart 16, pull from page 14 in white paper].

Microsoft ceded its early dominance in the smartphone market to RIM and BlackBerry, but this fall it is launching Windows 7 for mobile. Reports from the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, where the system made its debut, were positive.

Not all people do all things on all phones: market accordingly
At this point in the evolution of mobile as a marketing medium, the number of consumers who perform activities such as downloading apps or looking at the mobile web or WAP (wireless access protocol) is relatively low; comScore estimates that 34% of those with cellphones consume some sort of mobile media (WAP or apps), 31% use SMS (but do not consume any media via the phone) and 35% use phones only for making calls. This is changing rapidly, however, along with the adoption of smartphones. What people do on their phones is predictive by age and gender. The younger a consumer is, the more likely he or she is to personalize his or her phone, or purchase a ringtone or wacky screensaver. The older, more business-oriented consumer, however, is more likely to have an unlimited data plan and, thus, to use the phone for web access. Guys are more likely to listen to music and purchase games on their phones. [see chart 17, pull from page 15 in white paper].

RIM's market share and the demographics of mobile media activities

"People need to stop looking at mobile consumer activity across modalities -- browsing, apps, and SMS/MMS -- and think that one form will predominate while others go away. More importantly, marketers need to stop wishing for this to happen. While it might be easier to exist in a world where mobile consumers only used apps, the reality is that SMS and browser-based activity will continue to reach audiences that apps cannot and, in the case of SMS, be a more effective medium to drive response," Evan Neufeld, VP-marketing, GroundTruth, said.

Smartphones are not likely to ever penetrate the entire market
Just as there are people out there with analog TVs with those funky converter boxes, some people just want to use their phones to talk and will not ever be incented to pay fees for data. Some people simply do not want e-mail and media whenever, wherever. Due to behavior displayed by younger consumers, the group described here will likely concentrate in older demos. Smartphone adoption may be somewhat analogous to the digital video recorder. While the TV industry worried that DVRs would achieve much larger penetration in a short period, in truth, DVR usage stalled out at around 30% of TV households in 2009, according to Nielsen. Not everyone wants to pay for the service, and not everyone, clearly, desires that much control over their media.

It's not as complicated as it sounds
Not all types of mobile marketing apply to all companies, and the "crawl, walk, run" principle should be employed with mobile. Pick the discipline that most relates to your product category and start there. For some content providers and retailers, it may be optimizing their sites for mobile (a surprising number of companies have not yet done this). For retailers with successful email programs, it may be developing an SMS program to appeal to the legions of "textirati" who prefer SMS to e-mail. For any marketer using print, TV or outdoor, activation programs can extend the effectiveness of their campaigns by helping to generate opt-in lists or hand-raising customers. Whatever you do, don't just develop a one-platform app and assume that you've got mobile covered.

Future os Screens - Experience video

Some more interesting stuff from the guys at TAT. Some of this stuff is really not far off...




Capacitive screens has now become a commodity for touch screen devices. Screen technology is now taking the next leap and the coming years imagination is the only thing stopping us. We will soon have dual screens, malleable screens, screens built into wifi connected mirrors, desks or backside of gadgets clothed with e-ink screens, tactile feedback, color screens with great contrast in sunlight, holographics/stereoscopic screens, color e-ink touch screens, or screens actually knowing where they are in relation to other screens thanks to ultrasonic emitters and microphones.

We want to show some of these things in an "experience video", that shows a normal day in a couple of years when all these technologies are affordable enough to be used everywhere. This video is the result of our experiment with open innovation, read more about our experiment here. Big thanks to all the people from TAT and around the world who helped out and sometimes shared their ideas and sometimes gave us homework on our own ideas.

Mobile interfaces

Well never done this before, but just loved this post from the Amnesia Blog that i had to copy the whole thing here. Awesome mobile interface stuff and yet another reason why i'm backing Android to be the dominant, universal OS of the future. Thanks @eunmac and @razorfish

The future of the mobile UI is behind a velvet curtain

I have seen concepts from this company before (more about this below) and they always seem to be taking different approaches to the rest of the world.

The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) has yet again showcased a UI they call Velvet – pull out a widget or Google Maps query, and a sheet of your desired result waves with the virtual wind, before stretching out flat for you to more comfortably interact with.

This is what TAT has to say about the Tablet UIs out there and why they are different:

On one hand we have companies that scale phone UIs to tablets. On the other hand we have companies offering the full blown desktop experience scaled down to tablet size. We believe that both of these approaches will result in crippled user experiences. For example, the tablet form factor is perfect for media consumption and this could be manifested in the UI. TAT recognizes tablets as a radically different type of device – personal and mobile yet powerful and creative. We are now on a quest to design fantastic UIs that are optimized for this device space.

Here is the Velvet UI in action

As I said before these guys have some pretty awesome, yet radical ideas – check this augmented reality ID out – TAT augmented ID

I have an Android phone and I have been looking for a decent home screen and I really hope this little beauty will hit the market at some time soon – TAT Home

These guys are definitely someone to look out for in the future – if you want to learn more about them, check out their blog

SMS slingshot

Some cool interactive projection stuff, Thanks Digital Buzz blog.

Always amazes me that this sort of stuff just doesn't seem to have much uptake in Australia

Foursquare Launches Location Layers - This is Big

I agree... this could be a huge development. Thanks Josh and ReadWriteWeb

Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / July 6, 2010 11:44 AM

Looking at life through rose-colored glasses? How about walking through your town and seeing it as the Huffington Post or the Independent Film Channel sees it? IFC announced a new campaign this morning with leading location-based social network Foursquare that will allow you to do just that. The Huffington Post launched a Foursquare layer today as well.

IFC polled its member base for short descriptions of their favorite places in the towns they lived in or visited, then picked the place-descriptions that best suited the IFC's brand ("Always on, slightly off") to upload into a Foursquare database. Foursquare users can now opt-into getting those tips pushed to them whenever they check in near one of the annotated locations. It's a chance to effectively say, "I want to see this town as IFC fans see it." For marketers, this has got to be incredibly appealing, and for urban explorers it could be one of the best examples yet of effective Augmented Reality.

Location as Platform

In January, Canadian newspaper chain Metro did a deal with Foursquare that tied content like restaurant reviews to specific locations as "tips." When we saw that, we said that the era of location as platform had arrived. Then, in April the Wall St. Journal began experimenting with location-based news, adding interesting news tidbits to locations around New York City on Foursquare. That was getting interesting - not just lightweight content like restaurant reviews but things like a note that a terrorism suspect was once arrested in a particular location!

Please Push Me

Now the next logical step is to enable users to opt-in to having a publisher's content pushed to them. That's what IFC and on a smaller scale, the Huffington Post, have done today. Click to follow these publishers, check in near one of the locations they have annotated and your phone will get special tips pushed to it just like you get when near a place where one of your individual friends has left a tip.

A Psychedelic Journey

IFC's crowdsourcing its data set is very cool. It's not hard to imagine any number of organizations mobilizing their constituents to mark-up the physical world like this. Other organizations already have data geo-located. The Huffington Post Foursquare page is very sparse right now, but imagine if stories were parsed for geolocation (Superfeedr now does that automatically, for example) and populated locations by XML. You might check in downtown and get pushed a note from Huffington Post coverage of a protest or other news event a few blocks away. Not into HuffPo? How about a HotAir layer? Why silo yourself? Let's get a Memeorandum layer in Foursquare!

See also: Why We Check In: The Reasons People Use Location Based Social Networks

There may be some technical matters to work out before dynamic content can be fed into Foursquare, but I'm sure the company is working on those. (In response to this article Huffington Post Social Media Editor Rob Fishman tweets that many of the ideas discussed here "are already underway.")

I'm ready to follow the local historical society, an environmental justice organization or two, perhaps an art-graffiti-watchers association - the possibilities are nearly endless. Imagine allowing background location tracking and notification for some layers. "To see the world through the lenses of my favorite organizations" would be a nice addition to the reasons why people say they use check-in apps.

Can Facebook implement this kind of feature once location is rolled into its service? It's a little hard to imagine; this feels like a feature that would best come from a service with location at its core.

In a perfect world, these location-based social networks would act like browsers, able to see and post interoperable location-based data from and to any platform. Don't hold your breathe on that, though. The potential impact of marking-up the world is large enough that single vendors are most likely to try to dominate it all on their own first.

This is a really exciting idea.

Around the World in 80 Days goes QR

Ha... love this so much. It's just so damn quirky, clunky, mixed up and obvious that it gives some real 'ye olde world' charm to digital. Even down to the awesome 'snuggiee-esque' infomercial. I'm ordering one right now. Thanks Mr McCrudden

Personal cities

And to follow on from that, a great concept post from my favourite guys at PSFK:

Intelligent Cities: The Personal City

May 10, 2010

The development of systems that allow city wide exchange of data and the reaction to that data is important to study. The impact of what is sometimes called the sentient city is not just at a city level but it also impacts communities, neighborhoods and families.

Intelligent Cities can create personal, helpful, efficient and communal cities. In four articles on PSFK, I’m going to describe each of these four aspects and the manifestations occurring today that point to a better urban future.

We are broadcasting information about us more than ever before and we can interpret this data to help us understand our quantified selves.

Devices collecting personal data about our lives give individuals deep levels of insight on their habits and behaviors. These systems are often passive, gathering data in the background from day-to-day activities. Over time, this information gives people the tools and motivation for people to improve their lives.

Manifestations Of The Personal City

Check In & Share

The popular Foursquare service provides a simple example of how people appear to be more willing to provide their personal information. Foursquare is a combination city guide and social game that encourages people to explore their cities while broadcasting information about their location. Users are motivated to share this personal data as part of a competition with their social circle, receiving points each time they check in at locations such as restaurants and bars.

Passive mobile apps monitor sleep habits over time

Mobile applications like Owl and Sleep cycle track a user’s sleep habits passively during each night. By monitoring a user’s movements, snoring levels, and other ambient data from the environment, these services collect a comprehensive database of information that helps to better understand one’s behavior.

Shared Traffic Info

Waze is a free mobile application that enables drivers to build and use real-time road maps, alerts on traffic and accidents, and data. Drivers can actively report and update other users with what’s happening on the road including accident alerts, police traps, weather hazards, cheap gas offers and more.

Connected body scale wirelessly sends weight data to the web

The Withings Connected Body Scale measures a user’s weight, fat mass, and lean mass, and sends that data wirelessly to a personal profile online. The device syncs with Google Health to build a long-term picture of the user’s health information.

Future Developments

How could the Personal City enhance our lives? Here is some of the suggestions we received at a recent presentation with Asian/Pacific region bloggers:

1. A weight monitoring system tells you what to eat

2. In-depth data allows for better matchmaking service

3. Find likeminded people to sit together when you travel

4. Monitor energy consumption

5. Understand the relationship between food types and your weight gain

There are plenty of other ways the Personal City can evolve. Leave your suggestions in the comments box.

Next Steps

PSFK has prepared a unique presentation on Intelligent Cities. If you would like to invite our staff to present it to your team and discuss possible opportunities for your company to explore, contact PSFK’s Jeff Weiner – jeff.weiner@psfk.com

Paypal to split checks and collect money

PayPal has launched an updated version of its new Send Money application for iPhone.

Version 2.0 of the PayPal Send Money app allows PayPal and iPhone users to access to their money securely, including bump money transfers, split check and collect money.

With bump users can put two iPhones together, and funds are transferred between their PayPal accounts. The split check feature allows users to divide and reimburse each other for the cost of a meal, including a tip, for up to 20 people. Collect money lets users request money from multiple people for a joint gift, concert tickets, and more. Users can send gifts of money on the spot for birthdays, anniversaries or any moment of impulsive generosity.


Smartphone sales have surpassed 172.4 million units in 2009*, and consumers worldwide are expected to spend $119 billion** by 2015 via mobile phones. PayPal mobile transactions have increased almost six-fold, from $25 million in 2008 to $141 million in 2009.

“Today, you leave the house with three critical things: your phone, your wallet and your keys,” said Frerk-Malte Feller, MD of PayPal Australia.

“PayPal Send Money lets consumers access their wallets through their phones. Because with PayPal, the wallet lives in the cloud – the mobile phone is just one device customers can use to access it.”

Send Money users can set reminders for recurring payments, donate money to, and manage their PayPal accounts from the iPhone. For international transactions, it also features a global currency calculator and 15 languages. A PIN or password is required for every transaction to prevent unauthorised use.

The application is available to download free at the Apple iTunes store.

Posted from InsideRetail 31st March 2010

The Check-out of the Future: Fewer Humans, More Phones [video]

Older 'future video' and article from NCR via Fast Company. Even thought it's nearly a year old, i still love signs to a future of RFID/NFC, internet of things...

National Cash Register is one of those grand old American companies that, come the digital revolution, might have gone the way of the rotary phone. Instead, with a trimmed down name (now NCR), and a ramped up R&D operation, the company is transforming the way we handle our money--or its digital equivalent.
We visited NCR’s "Innovation Center," an expansive high-rise display space filled with next-gen ATMs, kiosks, and self-service systems that will let you do everything from check into a hotel (and find your way to your room), to burn a movie (and redeem the old ones you no longer want.)

We were most taken with the possibilities of using our cellphones to conduct business in all sorts of intriguing new ways. We got the company to demonstrate a few cutting edge applications that may soon appear in a bank or hotel near you.

An App for That, Too: How Mobile Is Changing Shopping

Thanks Ali for sharing this on 'Shapping' (hey i just made up a new word)

Via Adage: These Six Products Give Retailers a Reason to Be Excited About the Platform

by Natalie Zmuda
Published: March 01, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Mobile phones are fast becoming the way consumers find coupons, research products, compare prices and make purchases. It makes shopping easier for consumers, but that doesn't mean retailers are thrilled at the prospect of consumers consulting mobile phones from their aisles -- after all, does Best Buy want you to know that the item in your cart can be had cheaper at Amazon -- and purchased right now on your phone?

"There is fear, but it is the new reality," said Dan Butcher, a reporter at Mobile Marketer. "Retailers are becoming aware that consumers are using their phones in the store to make decisions. They're realizing that they need to support that platform."

Indeed, retailers who don't embrace the technology now will be left to play catch-up in the years to come. But there is reason for retailers to be excited about the shifting mobile landscape. Many of the mobile applications coming onto the market actually benefit bricks-and-mortar retail by improving the in-store experience or driving traffic to stores that are either nearby or boast the best deals.

There are dozens of retail-related mobile applications on the market today, making it impossible to highlight them all. Here are half a dozen that stand out for the impact they're having on the way consumers shop.

SHOPSAVVY
Launched: November 2008 by Big in Japan

WHAT IT DOES: With this app, users can comparison shop by scanning a product's bar code with a camera phone. ShopSavvy finds the lowest prices online and at nearby brick-and-mortar retailers, as well as coupons, and lets users make transactions. Last month, ShopSavvy reported more than 42 million scans. Available on the iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and Nokia phones.

WORTH WATCHING: Walmart is slated to soon open up its grocery pricing , meaning consumers will be able to quickly see if it has cheaper cereal than their local grocery chain. Retailers are realizing it can be advantageous to embrace apps. Said Big in Japan co-founder Alexander Muse: "They realize, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. But if I stay out of the conversation, I never win."


YOWZA
Launched: June 2009 by Greg Grunberg, an actor on "Heroes," and August Trometer, CEO- Thunderstone Media

WHAT IT DOES: Using GPS to determine shoppers' locations, Yowza delivers coupons to nearby stores. Users can set the parameters between 1 mile and 50 miles. The app boasts more than 1 million unique users on the iPhone and iPod Touch and an additional 4 million users through a syndication deal for BlackBerry, Android and Palm.

WORTH WATCHING: Some retailers fear easy access to coupons means full-price shoppers may become discount hunters. But Messrs. Grunberg and Trometer say it attracts a younger consumer base willing to spend more. Retailers using Yowza can also make near-instant updates to their offers, so items that aren't selling can be promoted and offers can be deleted when items are sold out.


RETREVOQ
Launched: December 2009 by Retrevo.com

WHAT IT DOES: More of a mobile advisor than an application, RetrevoQ uses texts and tweets to dispense info. Shoppers can text 41411 or tweet @retrevoq including the make and model of the electronics product they're considering, and RetrevoQ will respond with advice on whether it's a good buy, a fair price, the price range available online for that product and a link to reviews at Retrevo.com, a consumer-electronics shopping and review site.

WORTH WATCHING: Few retailers have the bandwidth or expertise to answer each and every consumer query on-premise, making this a welcome service. However, for those retailers like Best Buy or HHGregg that pride themselves on in-store expertise and count it as a differentiator, RetrevoQ levels the playing field.


FASTMALL
Launched: December 2009 by MindSmack

WHAT IT DOES: This iPhone and iPod Touch app provides interactive maps of malls, highlighting elevators and the quickest route to stores, as well as helping shoppers find food vendors and remember where their cars are parked. A shake of the phone turns up the nearest restroom location. Shoppers can also make lists and access coupons.

WORTH WATCHING: The death of the mall has been touted over and over during the last decade. And while it's true that shoppers are turning to new formats or going online, all many of them want is a simpler shopping experience. Making mall shopping easier and more interactive through mobile apps has the potential to win over some consumers.


THEFIND: WHERE TO SHOP
Launched: December 2009 by TheFind

WHAT IT DOES: Shoppers can find which stores carry the products they're looking for and where those stores are located, as well as compare prices with nearby retailers and online retailers. The app will even calculate the driving cost to each store. It is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

WORTH WATCHING: Mobile price comparison is going to become a bigger and bigger issue for retailers. While having the shopper in-store used to mean a better chance of clinching the sale, retailers now need to find creative ways to ensure they're not regularly bypassed for cheaper options.


GROCERYIQ
Launched: September 2008 by Free State Labs

WHAT IT DOES: Coupons.com acquired the popular grocery app in January 2009 and released version 2.0 in December. The iPhone and iPod Touch app allows consumers to create grocery lists, organize them, access coupons and share lists with others. Shoppers can also take photos of bar codes to add items to their lists and create lists of frequently or previously purchased items.

WORTH WATCHING: The day of the paper list is gone, as is the paper coupon, at least as far as millennials are concerned. As this group ages, starting careers and families, consumer package goods players and grocery retailers will be paying close attention to the way they shop. Mobile apps like this one have the potential to make shopping more interactive, easy and fun for these tech-savvy consumers.

13th street - interactive horror film

Yep... the coolest thing i've seen for a while. A 'pick-a-path' adventure experience carried out via mobile and cinema. Awesome! Great work Jung von Matt

Wow stuff...

Been busy/lazy for much posting this week, but here are two things that made me go Wow recently...

Nokia's geolocating, Ovimaps interactive billboard (thanks @damjanov for the link to the vid)



And, the totally cool, all-in-one soccer ball, portable generator, community builder and global health tool... Soccket (Cheers Springwise)

Over 1.5 billion people—one quarter of the world’s population—live in areas with no access to electricity, according to a recent UN report. Capitalizing on a sport's global appeal to address this problem, a group of Harvard University students developed sOccket, a soccer ball that turns energy from a kick into electricity.

The portable energy-harvesting device captures the impact energy normally dissipated when the ball is kicked, storing it to charge lights, cell phones and batteries. It works with inductive coil technology, similar to that found in flashlights that power up when shaken. For each 15 minutes of play, it can store enough energy to power a small LED light for three hours. sOccket could eventually help ease the reliance on toxic kerosene lamps in developing nations, thereby reducing the associated health risks.

Currently in the prototyping stages, sOccket has been successfully piloted in Durban, South Africa, and the development team has plans to market a commercial version of the sOccket in Western countries as a high-end tech toy, possibly using a "buy one-give one" model, to subsidize the cost of distributing sOccket in developing nations. Being an all-in-one soccer ball, portable generator, community builder and global health tool, sOccket is another shining example of the functionall trend covered in our sister site’s latest briefing. sOccket has attracted several development funding grants and is now in the process of developing production and distribution partnerships. One to partner with or otherwise get involved in? (Related: Hippo water roller — Single-use toilet bag turns human waste into fertilizer.)

Website: www.soccket.com
Contact: soccket@ideatranslationlab.org

Augmented Reality Platform Covers Building Exterior

Thanks PSFK for this. I know there is some much hype about the AR space these days, a lot of it unfounded, but the sheer scale of this just makes it incredible. Wonder if i can get a client to turn a whole building into a comms channel?

January 7, 2010

Located in the shopping district surrounding Tokyo’s Tachikawa Station, the exterior of the mall-like N Building has been covered with QR code data so that store information can be captured from street level. The design teams at Qosmo and Teradadesign Architects have also put together an iPhone app that gathers real-time information and conversations within the building through an AR-like interface.

Watch a video of the project below:

N Building from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.

Augmented reality - WOW there's lots of it about

Hi all and welcome to 2010. I'm getting off to a slow start dealing with jet lag post South African trip... always love that place.

Anyway, for the first post of the year i thought I'd clump together a load of interseting examples from the AR bandwagon. Definitely not going away and it's really starting to look like it something actually useful

First a look at AR vs VR from Techcrunch

Augmented Reality Vs. Virtual Reality: Which One Is More Real?

by Erick Schonfeld on January 6, 2010

Remember when virtual reality was all the rage? It had a good run, especially during the 1990s, and perhaps culminating with Second Life in the decade which just closed. But virtual reality is old in the tooth. People are a lot more interested these days in “augmented reality,”surpassed “virtual reality” as a search term sometime last summer (see chart). or at least they are on Google where it

Maybe people are searching for it more just because they are not sure what it means, but it definitely is entering the collective consciousness. If virtual reality is a complete immersion in a digital world, augmented reality (AR) is more a digital overlay onto the real world. It enhances the real world with digital data, and therefore it is much more interesting than a completely fabricated environment. There is an element of magic to AR apps because they juxtapose data and graphics where they have no business showing up.

The advent of touchscreen mobile phones with GPS and cameras such as the iPhone and Android phones is giving rise to an array of AR apps from Sekai Camera, Layar, and more. Generally, these apps show the world around you as seen through your phone’s camera, but in addition to functioning as a viewfinder, your screen also functions as a regular computer screen. With help from the GPS and on-board compass, it can place information or graphics on top of buildings or objects seen through the viewfinder.

But that is just the start. Universityresearch labs are springing up to explore augmented realty as a new computing interface. The latest AR app is the Parrot AR.Drone, and combines a flying remote controlled toy with an iPhone app. The app turns the iPhone into a remote control (a concept we’ve seen applied to video games), but there is also a camera on the drone, which let’s you see from its point of view and play virtual shoot ‘em up games with other drones. The shooting happens on the screen, while the toys fly through the air in real life. There is also a solo mode where you can shoot enemy jets on the screen juxtaposed into your living room or wherever you happen to be flying the drone. (Watch the video below to see what I mean).

You can take your virtual reality and get lost on Second Life. I’ll take augmented reality any day. It’s just more real.

Secondly, a list of the seven things you need to know about AR from the Guardian (thanks Simon)

Seven things you need to know about augmented reality

Smartphones are bringing the once-SF concept of augmented reality into the everyday world

Augmented reality: the Nearest Tube iPhone app

Augmented reality is a lively creative mess. Now that smartphones have relieved us from unstylish fantasies of goggles, the technology is finally getting real. In 2010, the world is becoming subtitled, and your future will be augmented.

Augmented reality applications enable users to see additional layers of data when they view normal objects through smartphones or webcams.

Since programming an augmented reality application is easy, every computer student can develop augmented software for a smartphone. Very many of them are. These days, applications mushroom everywhere a bit of augmentable content is to be found.

As in the early days on the internet it is a wild augmented west, and so you need a guide. In part one of our review, we highlight the seven most important things the informed user of today needs to know about augmented reality.

Part two will focus on journalism and augmented reality.

1. Layar

Layar is paving the way. As the witty Japanese introduction illustrates, Layar makes use of the smartphone camera and compass. As you look on your screen information is overlayed on top of the world surrounding you.

A lot of augmented reality applications allow that, but what makes Layar so appealing is that it allows external developers to submit, well, layers, a decision that helped it to become the most flourishing augmented reality application even though it is only available for the Android phones and not ready for the iPhone.

Popular examples are Wikitude, which presents data about nearby points of interest, or Yelp which is providing reviews of nearby restaurants, shopping and nightlife possibilities. Since it can be used for any form of data there is even an application showing where hundreds of billions of US dollars of US recovery funding got spent.

2. Pathfinder

Lost? Among the most popular applications at the moment are travel applications, perfect for augmented reality. Nearest Tube, London Tube and London Bus help you handy to find your way through London, but of course there is an application for nearly every large city by now.

Several astronomical applications transform you into an 21st century explorer, such as the Heads Up Navigator, the sympathetic old school Theodolite and Sun Seeker or Accrossair. And there will be more to come, as a world full of subtitles makes perfect sense for lost travellers.

3. WordSnug, the essential sympathetic nerd tool

If you find yourself holding tight to your laptop on the street seeking somewhere with free Wi-Fi, download WorkSnug. It's a navigation app on the same principle as the nearest-tube-applications, but also provides you with information about Wi-Fi spots' power supply and coffee quality, and makes it easy to get in touch with other lonesome nerds.

At the moment WorkSnug is only available for the iPhone and in London, but it's coming to Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and Paris in February before hitting San Francisco and New York in March.

4. Let me entertain you

The addition of an 3D object is another important augmented reality feature. Several games already make use of this: Mosquitos, Wanted Dead or Alive, and Firefighter 360 place targets in the world surrounding you while the multiplayer game Gunman simply uses the T-shirt colour of your friends.

If you are not a bloodthirsty teenager but a knackered parent you should get The Hidden Park, a game that combines technology and outdoor experience; this neatly designed iPhone game keeps your child busy in London's Kensington Gardens or South Bank, New York's Central Park or Munich's Englische Garten.

So after the interactive media artists Blast Theory have already tested what's possible in urban gaming, and augmented reality will boost this further. Yet to be invented is the augmented reality movie, but you can watch an early version of what might be to come in the video above.

5. Everyday use

One thing that's striking about augmented reality is that it is so everyday. In 2009, applications were developed for a lot of different day-to-day situations. They help you find your car, test the size of the parcel you packed before you go to the post office, arrange and test new furniture, or present information about the food you're buying like the one Giuseppe Costanza developed at London's Central Saint Martin's for the communication design course.

6. Why not the other way around? Augmented virtuality

Interact with your computer using the physical world: SixthSense uses natural hand gestures to interact with the computer. It projects the screen on your hand or any other surface using a tiny small wearable gestural interface. Developed by the Fluid Interfaces Group of the MIT Media Lab, this application is yet to be mass-marketed but pretty impressive.

7. If you want to stay on top of things, have a look at the following blogs

2010 will be the year where augmented reality will reach the mass market, because finally smartphones are widely available, the applications are easy to use and pretty useful. To stay on top of developments, follow the London based Augmented Planet blog run by Lester Madden, The Augmented Times, or Games Alfresco, which is a bit more dedicated to the reinvention of interactive entertainment.

If you really wanna dig deep, get down with augmented reality guru Bruce Sterling, who recently gave a keynote about the dawn of the augmented reality industry.

Watch out for part two of our special on augmented reality and journalism.

And finally, from Springwise, a cool Layar app making AR useful in a tough environment... the madness of a music festival... assuming that anyone is sober enough to operate their phone that is.

Just a month or so after augmented reality browser Layar won EUR 75,000 in Vodafone's Mobile Clicks contest, the technology was already being put to work in a custom-designed application for Louisiana's Voodoo Experience music festival.

Layar is a free mobile browser for Android devices and the iPhone that overlays computer-generated information on top of real-time, on-screen images from the handset's built-in camera. The Voodoo app was designed by New Orleans ad firm Zehnder Communications using Layar 2.0 to let festival-goers with enabled phones get information on performances, attractions and services simply by pointing their phone cameras toward key parts of the festival grounds. When viewing concert stages, for instance, one custom AR layer provided information on lineups, schedules and current artists performing, including artist profiles and Web links. Pointing a phone camera at a vendor would show menus and pricing, while other points of interest highlighted by the app included vendor locations, artist displays, restrooms, ATMs, entrances and exits, medical sites and other services. Zehnder was one the first 50 firms worldwide named as developers of the Layar platform. A demo of the Voodoo app is available on Vimeo.

In addition to a whole new world of entertainment and useful information for mobile consumers, augmented reality also opens up a wealth of new OFF=ON opportunities for advertisers. Time to explore the possibilities for *your* tech-savvy brand...?

Website: www.z-comm.com
Contact: jzehnder@z-comm.com

Google goggles

Found this a while ago and forgot to post it. Yet another useful AR app on andriod. Thanks Mashable

Put on Your Google Goggles and Visually Search the World

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Google’s breaking news left and right today. Of course the big news is that real-time search is live, but the release of Google Goggles can’t be overlooked. The brand-new addition to Google Labs is an experimental application for Android devices that supports visual search.

How does it work? Just open the app, snap a photo and voilà: Google () will process the image and return search results. The photo search functionality eliminates the need to type or say anything on your mobile device, and it adds context to your real-world surroundings.

While the technology is pretty remarkable, Google admits that it is still in its infancy. So while some image searches work brilliantly — think photos of books, business cards, artwork, places, logos and landmarks — don’t be too disappointed if your image searches for food, animals, plants and cars are less than stellar.

Still, the application should prove useful, and we hope to see versions of it made available for other smartphone users as well. For now, though, iPhone () users can turn to a number of different augmented reality applications for camera-enabled search functionality.

Watch the video below for a demonstration of Google Goggles.