Deciding when and where to go out on a Friday night just got easier for San Francisco consumers with a new, mobile map application that automatically shows where the hotspots are.
Sense Networks' CitySense, which just entered alpha, gives users a real-time view of how busy the city is as well as where the busiest places currently are. There's no need to sign up—users simply download the free application onto their Blackberry (iPhone support is coming soon) and view a "heat" map of activity throughout the area, linking to Yelp or Google to zero in for more information about the hotspots. A billion points of GPS and wifi positioning data from the last few years complement the real-time feeds underpinning the technology, which operates on Sense Networks' Macrosense platform. (Macrosense, which is designed for analyzing massive amounts of aggregate, anonymous location data in real-time, is already being used in the business world for selecting store locations and understanding retail demand, for example.) Focusing on nightlife, the next version of CitySense will be able to tell users not just where the activity is, but where people like them are concentrated. By tracking and comparing users' history and preferences, it will be able to show them where they're most likely to find people with similar tastes at any given moment. As a result, each person's nightlife map will look a little different, and will display a unique top hotspot list. (The personalized feature is optional, however, and any such data can be deleted at any time, the company promises.)
Privacy issues aside, it seems safe to say that this is just the beginning of the mashups made possible by GPS-enabled cellphones. How long before this comes to other cities—and gets ad support?
Website: www.citysense.com
Contact: contact@citysense.com
Spotted by: Ozgur Alaz
No sooner did we write about Orange's wind-powered recharging station at the UK's Glastonbury Festival, than one of our spotters alerted us to another eco-innovation for charging cellphones—also at Glastonbury, and once again by Orange.
This time, Orange has tapped into the energy festival-goers expend dancing and put it to work for powering up mobile phones. The Orange Dance Charge, developed with renewable energy firm Gotwind and currently just in prototype form, weighs just 180 grams and measures 4¼ x 2½ inches—about the same size as a pack of cards and the same weight as a mobile phone. The unit comes encased in a black elastic neoprene strap that gets attached over the wearer’s bicep with Velcro, much the way a runner’s arm-mounted MP3 player does. As users move their arms along with the music, a specially designed system of weights and magnets creates an electrical current that gets stored as charge in a reserve battery. That energy can then be used to recharge a mobile phone. Reportedly, Orange tested the Dance Charge out at Glasto by employing a "Dance Charging Man" at the festival who was on duty to dance (for free) with those in need of some recharging.
As we noted before, it's hard to beat green free love at a summer music festival—but throw in some fancy footwork and an official Dance Charging Man? It doesn't get better than that! ;-)
Website: pressoffice.orange.co.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=808&NewsAreaID=2
Contact: orangepr@golinharris.com
Spotted by: BusinessGreen via RK
With food prices soaring across the globe, consumers are understandably concerned. To help ensure that retailers don’t pass on more of the price increases than is strictly necessary, Italy's Department for Agriculture, Food & Forestry is offering transparency by text message. Its SMS Consumatori service tracks prices for over 80 types of fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products, fish, etc and lets consumers access them when they’re out shopping.
To use the service, shoppers send a text message to 47947, typing the name of the product they want a price for. (The system recognizes both singular and plural nouns, as well as variations.) They instantly receive a reply listing both a wholesale price and average retail prices in the North, Centre and South. If a product has various varieties, the service sends separate messages for each of the most popular ones. For example: text "pear", and SMS Consumatori will return three separate messages, for Kaiser, Conference and Abate pears.
Taking a thorough approach to getting its prices right, SMS Consumatori sources information from 2,200 different stores, ranging from butchers, market stalls and greengrocers to 'ipermercati' and discount stores, and covers all of Italy. Prices are updated from Tuesday to Saturday. The project's website also shows price development over time, and where the highest and lowest prices for each product were found. Shoppers can even fill a virtual shopping cart and see what its average cost would be; registered users can save their shopping baskets for a personal view on historical data.
The service is free, but to keep costs and traffic down, consumers can request a maximum of 5 prices per day and 30 per month. Since it doesn't look like global food prices will drop anytime soon, this is one to set up elsewhere if you're in government or telecom/mobile. For more on how to prosper (or fail) in a fully-informed marketplace, check out trendwatching.com's briefing on transparency tyranny.
Website: www.smsconsumatori.it
Spotted by: Giulia Cuccolini
Although mobile content is something consumers can buy and download from virtually anywhere, Chinese start-up Duo Guo is banking on a different approach by selling such content through specialized kiosks in brick-and-mortar retail stores.
Based in Shanghai, Duo Guo—a subsidiary of D Mobile Inc.—has developed partnerships with China's largest retailers and leading global media companies to bring games, ringtones, software and other mobile services to China's 500 million mobile phone users in a retail setting. Each Duo Guo kiosk is staffed by a salesperson, who can help consumers as they browse for content. Once customers make their selections and pay, the content gets beamed to their phone via Bluetooth. In addition to its starting line-up of ringtones, wallpapers and games, Duo Guo recently began offering exclusive mobile content from emerging Chinese artists through its "artist of the month" program, and has launched into ticket sales as well. Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Tesco are among the stores that have signed up to host Duo Guo kiosks in China, while the company also operates its own standalone stores in subway stops and Shanghai’s busy Zhong Shan Park area. Content at Duo Guo kiosks is updated every Friday to encourage frequent browsing.
While it may seem counter-intuitive that consumers would want to buy mobile content in a physical setting, many Chinese consumers are reportedly wary of buying online, fearing that they'll be overcharged or end up paying for the wrong thing. There's also apparently a fair bit of uncertainty as to which products will work on which phones. In China’s smaller cities, meanwhile, mobile phones can outnumber wired internet connections, fuelling a black market in high-priced street-side sales of pirated content, CEO Jonathan Serbin told Pacific Epoch. Duo Guo is positioning itself as the legitimate alternative. While its cost structure is higher than those of the online services, Duo Guo also enjoys new ways to generate revenue, such as by collecting fees from mobile application companies for introducing customers to their services, he added.
"We realized that there is a great opportunity for selling mobile content, applications and services at retail," Serbin explained. "People were excited about buying a phone—they had maybe just spent a month's salary on their phone—and they were saying, 'Why don't you give us the opportunity right here, at retail, to buy this cool stuff rather than go home and have to search online [for it].' This is a great moment, when the customer is learning about their phone and is excited about it. We saw an opportunity to sell content in a very dynamic setting; to have a guided experience. The sales people help them find content and discover what is most appropriate for them."
Launched last year and backed by US hedge fund Jana Partners, Duo Guo currently has about 25 stores in Shanghai. It is in the process of expanding to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Beijing, with hopes of having 100 stores by year's end, 500 by the end of 2009. One to partner with—or emulate—in other markets around the world?
Website: www.duoguo.cn
Contact: info@duoguo.cn
Spotted by: RK
Mobile phones are connecting people around the globe like never before, but the simple fact remains that they don't work without electricity. In Uganda, which has one of the lowest levels of electricity in Africa, Motorola has launched an initiative to provide solar recharging stations that can be run by local, entrepreneurial women.
Launched last year, Motorola's Motopower project has brought 55 solar-powered kiosks to Uganda that offer free mobile phone charging to local consumers. Each kiosk is charged by a 55-watt inverted solar panel and can charge up to 20 phones at a time. The women who run the kiosks, meanwhile, are also equipped to sell handsets and operator SIM cards and to provide repair services. For local people without their own phones, the kiosks effectively function as a local "phone booth" for making occasional calls as well.
The initiative was designed to empower entrepreneurial women by providing them with the foundations to manage their own sustainable businesses. As part of a start-up package, each entrepreneur is given four Motorola handsets and a business skills training course. Nikesh Patel, senior sales director for Motorola Africa's mobile devices business, explains: “The Motopower initiative is the first of its kind to exist for women in Africa. Through this program, we are giving women the opportunity to run their own business, learn valuable entrepreneurial skills and generate a positive income.”
Of course, besides empowering women and helping Ugandans stay connected, the project will likely increase Motorola's share of the local market as well. It's a win-win-win, and one for other global corporate citizens to emulate as often as they can!
Website: www.motorola.com/responsibility
Contact: responsibility@motorola.com
Spotted by: Treehugger via RK
We covered mobile virtual network operator Blyk both before and just after its launch last year. For those who have been wondering how the company is doing, last week it reported that it had reached 100,000 members in Britain in just six months.
Blyk targets 16- to 24-year-olds with its free mobile phone service, which includes 217 texts and 43 minutes every month. In exchange, of course, they get advertising—up to 6 messages sent to their phones each day. Britain's youth don't seem to mind, though—Blyk reached that 100,000-member target six months ahead of schedule. Response rates to the ads in question have also achieved a whopping average of 29 percent—far surpassing the norm, which tends to hover in the single digits.
Shaun Gregory, Blyk's UK CEO, explains: "Reaching 100,000 members is significant for advertisers because it gives them the opportunity to engage with a mass youth audience in a highly efficient and cost-effective way. In six months we have built up a deep knowledge of our member base, which now exceeds many established youth media players, and with over 7 million 16- to-24-year-old phone owners in the UK, there is huge potential for growth."
Blyk will launch in the Netherlands in the second half of 2008, followed by other European markets after that. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs and Industrial and Financial Investments Company (IFIC) recently joined the company's list of investors, which also includes Sofinnova Partners and a number of others. Free love, you're on a roll!
Website: www.blyk.com
Contact: membercare@blyk.co.uk — sales@blyk.co.uk
Spotted by: RK
Travellers who need internet access on the road typically have two choices: either limit their use to the confines of hotel or café wifi—which can be pricey—or subscribe to long-term and expensive broadband data card services. New York-based RovAir now offers a third option with its day-pass wireless mobile broadband service.
Founded last fall, RovAir provides wireless mobile broadband aircards, data cards and evdo cards for internet access without an extended contract. To do that, the company itself maintains the necessary long-term subscriptions for data services with Verizon, Sprint and AT&T. It then offers those services in a day-pass format for those who need short-term but continuous access on the road. Coverage extends anywhere the provider's cellular range goes, which can be searched on RovAir's site. RovAir will ship the data card to the consumer express or by courier, and also provide return packaging. Costs depend on the number of days of use, beginning at USD 5.95 per day. There is a three-day minimum.
Until wireless access is universally available and universally free, there will clearly be demand for a variety of plans like RovAir's. More choice is always a good thing—who will bring it to mobile warriors in the rest of the world?
Website: www.rovair.com
Contact: sales@rovair.com
Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
While you may never be too old to learn, when it comes to gadgets, you can never be too young to teach. A Dutch initiative is taking advantage of kids’ innate cell phone proficiency by training them as ‘phone coaches’ and getting them to transfer their skills to older users.
Bellendoejezo—which roughly translates to “this is how you make a call”—organizes cell phone workshops that cover topics such as using predictive text, creating contact groups, enabling Bluetooth and exploring mobile internet. Not all of the students’ students are equally advanced, though, so sometimes they’ll stick to the basics, like locking a phone’s keyboard, sending a text message and using voicemail.
A group of VMBO students (preparatory middle-level vocational education for students aged 12–16) was trained to work as phone coaches. The program’s goal is to improve their social skills and self-esteem, and give them access to corporate environments they might otherwise not be exposed to. Bellendoejezo is aimed at the corporate market, and charges up to EUR 50 per person for 60-minute workshops. Clients so far have included law firms, banks and an energy company. (Related: Teaching people to use their feature-rich phones.)
Seems like a relatively easy to launch (non-profit) project that benefits everyone involved. One to copy to other parts of the world? Students with an entrepreneurial bent, meanwhile—those that have already been charging their parents for computer and phone tutorials—will no doubt spot the business opportunity here and start up their own coaching services ;-)
Website: www.bellendoejezo.com
Contact: bellendoejezo@live.nl
