Official Specs for Motorola DROID

If you're interested in knowing the official specs of the Motorola DROID, I have rounded them up. The quick highlights:

• 3.7-inch WVGA (854x480), 16:9 touchscreen
• Arm Cortex A8 550 MHz Processor
• 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash
• DVD-quality video capture and playback (720x480)
• 16GB microSD (32GB expandable)
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• QWERTY keyboard
• 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS (with Google Maps Navigator)
• 1400 mAh battery
• 6 oz (169g)
• 2.4 x 4.6 x.5 inches (60x115.80x13.70mm)
• Android 2.0

If you're not interested in Google Maps Navigation, you should be. It's been one of the most requested features for Google Maps for quite some time and to finally have it in Android 2.0 is an absolute game changer. Just check out the stocks of standalone GPS makers like Garmin and TomTom.

Only the fact that it requires internet connection makes it less interesting than TOMTOM but that's my own opinion. If they can find an offline solution it will be a killer navigation app!

Apple has grabbed up 30% of the smartphone market

Apple has grabbed up 30% of the smartphone market with the iPhone, nearly twice the market share the device enjoyed this time last year. The info comes from a survey by ChangeWave research. The survey shows that the Blackberry is still the leader in the smartphone market for share at about 40%.


Apple is nearing the approval of over 100,000 apps for the App Store marking a significant milestone. That number makes the App Store by far and large the biggest of the app offerings on the market. By comparison, the much younger Android market has only 10,000 apps and the Blackberry App World has only 3,040.

The North Face Launches Updated Snow Report iPhone App

More and more retailers are using the iPhone to capture customer eyeballs outside of their shopping experience. Outdoor retailer The North Face is no exception, with the launch of their updated, Twitter-filled Snow Report 2.0 app today, giving skiers and snowboarders access to aggregated resort-specific Twitter updates, weather, and snow condition feeds.


While The North Face already had an iPhone Snow Report app, the new version adds the Twitter feeds, which they claim is the first to aggregate topical information and Twitter news feeds into one application. It also lets users Tweet their own updates directly from the application.


Of course, the app is designed to increase sales. It also includes a The North Face store locator. Meanwhile, specific ski resorts are on the iPhone app bandwagon to improve customer experience on and off the mountain. Jackson Hole recently developed an iPhone application, available early next month, that features their winter trail map with iPhone’s built-in GPS technology, locating the user by pinpointing his or her location on the ski resort’s trail map. Big Air Software, separately, is marketing its iTrailmap 3D, which pulls from a database of over 500 resort trail maps and records a snowboarder or skiers trails throughout the day.

Disney iPhone App Mixes Magic with Advertising

Disney’s new iPhone app, launched today, rewards users for checking out Disney.com. The company plans to eventually offer exclusive bonuses for shopping at Disney Stores. The necessary mobile push for Disney comes along with the company’s move to catch up with the times, with Apple’s Steve Jobs leading their in-store experience redesign efforts.


The app is free, and features a digital game called “Click2Life” where users must take photos of characters from Disney movies on its website, which make those images come to life on their phones. Capturing the correct images also unlocks exclusive video and downloadable content such as frame images that can be overlaid on photos and wallpaper for cell phone screens.


Smart play, Disney marketers. In the future, the app will likely feature clues inside Disney stores, and could allow bonus ontent to be delivered to phones based on their location.

Only 1% of iPhone Owners are Dissatisfied

Apple's incredible success in moving iPhones could be due to one statistic. According to pollster ChangeWave, a whopping 99% of iPhone users call themselves "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their device. In fact, those reporting "very satisfied" made up 74% of respondents.


This blows away RIM, with only 43% of users reporting they are "very satisfied" with their BlackBerry. Apple has jumped from holding 17% of smartphone market share one year ago to 30% today. The iPhone is hot on RIM's heels, as the BlackBerry has 40% of the smartphone market.

Continental Airlines mobile ads more effective than online

The airline’s agency partner, MediaVest, tapped MoVoxx and Quattro Wireless for the “Volver por un rato” campaign, which consumers could enter by texting a keyword to a short code or clicking on a WAP link within an SMS alert from Univision and other publishers. The contest let consumers enter to win a trip for two anywhere in the world, up to $2,500 worth of plane tickets, by submitting a video.Continental Airlines mobile ads were five-to-ten times more effective than online at generating responses from Hispanics, a demographic that tends to be heavy users of wireless devices.Nine times as many users visited the WAP site versus the wired Web site with similar media efforts in terms of banner ads driving traffic to each site. Because mobile is a less cluttered environment than the PC, mobile ads get much higher response rates.

Ads within SMS alerts were effective in driving Hispanics to Continental's WAP site

Mobile Web Usage Keeps On Growing, And Growing, And Growing …

Browser maker Opera has released its latest ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report this morning, claiming that there was a huge surge in mobile web usage past September. Last month, more than 35.6 million people used Opera Mini (which is now serving over 500 million pageviews per day on average on a wide range of mobile devices), up 11.5% compared to August 2009 and more than 150% compared to September 2008. The Norway software developer also claims more than 2 petabytes of data is now processed by its servers on a monthly basis. That’d be 2,000 terabytes!!

Google Redefines GPS Navigation Landscape: Google Maps Navigation For Android 2.0

If you weren’t sure about switching to an Android phone in the near future, this might put you over the edge. Google Maps Navigation is an absolutely killer app. And it is only available for Android 2.0 phones.

Today is Droid day, and for the most part Google is taking a backseat and letting their partners get most of the attention. But Droid is the first Android phone to run Android 2.0, and Google Maps Navigation is clearly the early trophy app for those devices.

The features include easy search (no need for address), voice search, traffic information (from data sources and crowd sourced from app), and street view close up pictures when you get near your destination. And the car dock mode gives bigger, simpler icons and auto-voice mode

Volkswagen uses mobile (again) to announce new vehicle launch

The all-new 2010 GTI made its debut in the Real Racing game on Thursday, claiming to be the the first time an automotive manufacturer has used the App Store to announce a new vehicle launch. Volkswagen is also giving consumers who play Real Racing GTI the chance to compete for the six limited-edition 2010 GTIs that are fully-customized inside and out.Volkswagen of America Inc. has announced its latest automobile launch through its Real Racing iPhone game application.

“With the personalization of media and the challenges inherent with reaching constantly connected consumers, we challenged ourselves to rethink the way we launch vehicles in order to engage our consumers in a meaningful way,” said Charlie Taylor, general manager of digital marketing at Volkswagen of America, Herndon, VA.Volkswagen is no stranger to the mobile platform. The automaker recently launched a WAP site that acts sort of like a shopping assistant (see story). Volkswagen is also using 2D bar code technology to make its traditional printed media more interactive and engaging for consumers (see story). Mr. Taylor said that mobile devices help Volkswagen reach consumers in a more direct way.

Augmented reality set for major growth: ABI Research

Increasing smartphone capabilities will cause augmented reality to have a booming impact on the mobile platform, according to a new study from ABI Research. As advertisers leverage the augmented-reality platform more, ABI found that the technology is poised to grow from generating $6 million in revenue in 2008 to $350 million in 2014. ABI credits advanced smartphone capabilities such as video cameras, GPS data and compasses as key to unlocking the power of augmented-reality advertising.

“The key finding is that the augmented reality market will diversify into multiple markets, which will generate nearly $190 million in mobile applications, games and customized augmented-reality revenue, and nearly $170 million in mobile augmented-reality advertising revenue, by 2014,” said Larry Miller, research director of NextGen at ABI Research, Oyster Bay, New York. Augmented reality is the overlay of graphics onto a video stream or other real-time display. ABI Research provides analysis and forecasting of emerging worldwide trends.

ABI cites Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android handsets as examples of smartphones opening up augmented reality to the mass marketplace.The study, “Augmented Reality: Adding Information to Our View of the World,” found that advertisers will learn to insert tags into navigation displays to increase revenue. The study calls for the development of global databases to store a variety of geo-tag information. That will be aggregated from information contributed from governments, businesses and individuals. Mr. Miller said that the most surprising finding of the study was the lack of companies involved with sports-related augmented reality. He said that the study found that only one company is providing augmented reality applications for televised sporting events. Those features include moving the first down line in football and the strike-zone animations in baseball.

“Augmented Reality is rooted in the concept of adding information to visual displays,” Mr. Miller said. “Digital marketing campaigns incorporating Web-based augmented reality graphics can add new dimensions to the kinds of content available for online advertising.“ For marketers to find success with augmented reality, the applications will have to offer better information, an intuitive user interface and other features that are not possible through existing applications. Mr. Miller said that augmented reality can also be used for mobile commerce. “Here’s one possibility: Imagine going into a store, aiming your smartphone’s camera at a product and having the display show not only the product, but competitive pricing at online venues,” Mr. Miller said. “Currently, mobile augmented reality applications require a smartphone or other handheld device with a camera, GPS and compass capabilities, as well as adequate processing power,” he said. “Augmented reality applications eventually will run the gamut of consumer interests.”

Check out IKEAs augmented reality; Finally an AR which is truly usefull!

Augmented Reality seams to be on everyone’s lips and so in the marketing department of Ikea. With the help of ClanMo, Ogivly and Mindmatic, Ikea created a mobile application that is a portable interior-planning tool. What I like about this approach is that it gives consumers a true value. Now they can try and see for themselves how the furniture’s look in their living rooms before they buy them.

IKEA distributed the application through in-store poster urging consumers to text a number in order to get the application, on the internet through IKEAs website, and with the help of Bluetooth pillars inside the outlets beaming the application to the consumers.

I think this is a great concept. What I don’t understand is the limit some advertisers put on the concept they have created? I have had trouble finding this application and am under the impression that it was limited to the country were the campaign ran. Would be smart to post the content created on the forums for mobile content around the world to get a huge spread. You can read more about the case at theclanmo webpage.

Create and order personalized Nike sneakers straight from your iPhone

This free app (iTunes link) has been available on the App Store since the beginning of this month, but surprisingly there hasn’t been a lot of coverage about it. Even despite this excellent video about it (embedded below).

This application allows you to select flashy looking sneakers that were custom designed by others and purchase them straight away, but there’s a lot more to it than that. For instance, you can dive into your photo library and select any image, after which the NIKEiD iPhone app will automatically detect which colors are in them and let you choose two for your own custom shoe. Or you can just use the Color Picker to select two colors you like.

Evidently, you can filter the results even more based on your specific needs (e.g. only shoes for men, unisex basketball clothing, etc.). Using the My Locker feature you can also save your favorite designs and access those you’ve customized on the NIKEiD website. Once you’ve selected a custom design you like, you can shake your iPhone to shuffle the colors, but you also get some options to genuinely personalize sneakers with your name, a custom logo or whatever you like.

Did I mention you can buy designs straight from the app? Kudos, Nike, kudos.

Will iPhone 4.0 Include Apple's Latest Patents?

Apple has been prolific in the patent department lately, especially when it comes to patents that relate to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The latest filing shows a process that would allow someone on a phone call to send files to the other party without ending the call or leaving the phone app. The iPhone would automatically determine where to send the files based on the contact information of the person connected. Even if multiple parties are in a conference call, the person sending documents, emails, contacts or text messages could send this data in one step while still connected to any of the participants.


Peter Henry Mahowald receives credit as the inventor in Apple's patent filing. Although this sounds like a useful feature, there are even more recently discovered patents that could make their way onto the next generation iPhone. We recently reported that future iPhones may record consumer abuse events for later diagnostics by Apple. By recording when devices are dropped hard or placed in temperature settings that are too high or too low for proper operation, the company can prove a device was abused. This patent describes the device automatically shutting down when a dangerous condition exists or if the iPhone can no longer operate to protect against further damage. Another recent patent filing would automatically switch to speakerphone if the sensors detect that the iPhone is laying flat and still on a table, for example.
Future iPhones may also allow users to share music or other media while on a call. 
These patents feature interactive playback control even while connected to the other party. As usual, Apple engineers must have their work cut out for them. No telling exactly which patents will make it into the next generation device.

The upcoming Motorola Droid is getting hyped

The marketing campaign for the upcoming Motorola Droid is in full swing, with the new phone looking to be both the definitive Android handset and a genuine challenger to the iPhone.

Following a fairly vicious attack on the iPhone through the launch of the “DroidDoes” ad campaign, which essentially calls out all of the iPhone’s shortcomings, an associated mail marketing campaign has also been launched for the device. The message? Droid is omnipotent, scary and has night vision, at least according to this messaging: “It hears, It knows / Fast. Scary fast / It sees in the dark.” The promotional mails form part of a campaign that’s actually building some palpable excitement within the geek community: the kind of excitement usually reserved for products built in Cupertino. Is Judgment Day fast approaching for the iPhone? We’ll know at the end of this month.

View my WordPress Adds Themes Optimized for Mobile

According to WordPress, there are more than 60 million page views that come from mobile phones per month for WordPress.com blogs. With that kind of traffic, how your site renders on mobile devices could be a big boon to increasing engagement.
That’s why we’re excited to learn thatWordPress has just launched two new mobile themes for WordPress.com blogs that will be automatically displayed when a compatible mobile phone attempts to access your site.

Mobile Web Is Taking Over the World (and Other Internet Trends)

Mobile Internet usage is sharply on the rise in the USA and all over the world. Apple’s share of the mobile smartphone market is only going to increase. AT&T’s mobile data traffic has increased by 4,932% over the last three years. There will be over 1 billion “heavy mobile data users” by 2013.
These are just some of the stats that were shared with the audience at the Web 2.0 Summit today in San Francisco. Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker led a speedy and high-charged presentation over Internet trends. The data and stats packed in her 68 page presentation is nothing short of mind-boggling. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the next major growth wave for Google in terms of search engine marketing is the mobile Internet. He predicted that within a few years, mobile advertising would generate more revenue than advertising on today's web.

WinMo 7 vs. WinMo 6.5, will it surprise us??

Though we certainly made an effort, we just don’t play well with Windows Mobile 6.5. With that said, we really do (honestly!) hope that Windows Mobile 7 comes and blows our minds. I have my strong doubts but they can prove otherwise. Though we’re still almost completely in the dark when it comes to WinMo 7 details, WMExperts has managed to shed an inkling of light on the subject.

Frito-Lay's Cheetos places 2D bar codes on packaging

The Frito-Lay subsidiary in Mexico called Sabritas is now using a 2D bar code on a special Halloween version of Cheetos packages to engage consumers. The code is placed on the Cheetos package and links to free branded wallpapers. Scanbuy is making it possible for Mexicans to scan the code using a mobile application called Códigos Ideas, which is widely distributed on Telcel handsets.


“2D bar codes give Sabritas a very engaging way to deliver branded content right to the phone,” said Jonathan Bulkeley, CEO of Scanbuy, New York. "The code effectively mobilizes a physical object, like a package, in a very simple way for the consumer.”
Cheetos isn’t the only brand using 2D bar codes on packaging. Major marketers like Coca-Cola and Nike have seen good results with the Scanbuy technology in Mexico. Bissell, floor-care innovator and maker of home-cleaning products, has placed EZcodes across an entire line of vacuum cleaners which are sold by retailers nationwide.
The codes link to additional information on the product to help inform shoppers in the store.“Often times, a company will invest in mobilizing their content, but then have difficulty driving traffic to it,” Mr. Bulkeley said. “The visibility of the 2D code makes it easier for people to get to that content in seconds.

Vicrea’s Browser as upcoming city tour alternative for Layar

Vicrea is a Dutch corporation, and the next video shows a concept augmented reality application they are developing. They should really just ask Layar to give them a branded version. I understand you don't want the layar brand on your application with certain services but make it more appealing then instead of a bad copy-paste. More information, here, in Dutch.

Air Painter: Augmented reality for the android Graffiti taggers!

It's similar to geoPaste, an Android application that lets you draw on real-life. Air Painter is a Japanese Android application with a similar premise, though its user interface seems a bit more refined, as can be seen in the video below (don’t worry about the German, you don’t have to understand it to see how cool this application is). More information on AirPainter’s hompeage, and here’s another video.