Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

Design Observer has published a fascinating two part essay on augmented reality, the warping of space and time, and how mobile is changing humanity.

The contemporary convergence of mobile phone, camera, wireless Internet and satellite communication — the key ingredients of the digital handheld — accelerates the reconstitution of place from real, occupied space to a collage of here and there, past and present. But digital technology’s effects do not only blast us out of place; they also bore us into the sights right in front of us — those in our viewfinder. Our sense of place is augmented by information wired from the World Wide Web.

The article takes a deep dive into history to put our present behaviors into context. Continue reading here: Part 1 | Part 2

Wake Up World describes itself as the first social video alarm clock. It lets friends and family remotely wake each other up using personalized video content.

The recently-developed iPhone app, which costs $0.99, supplies you with a username and secret code upon registering. You then share your secret code with other Wake Up World users, who can send you videos which appear at the time you set your alarm to “wake” you.

We've seen everything from television shows to dining become digitally socialized through mobile apps. With this P2P networked alarm clock, is your morning routine next?

[via psfk | @JonLombardo]

With technology's every advance comes an increased rate of evolution. The numbers above visualize this and point to a movement towards mobility. More and more often, tools are being used on-the-go as iPhone apps are developed and downloaded. Just look at the money made off of global mobile messaging and data, or the number of SMS's sent worldwide! It reminds us of Sprint's Plug into Now effort.

• Pushing the buttons for social change | The Hindu (via MobileActive)
  A one-day camp, Mobile Tech 4 Social Change, will held in Bangalore this Thursday to exploring the power of mobile technology to advance social change goals. Participating NGOs will discuss problems and different ways to use, deploy, develop and promote mobile technology in health, advocacy, economic development, environment, human rights, and citizen media to name a few areas.
• Mobile Web Use to Triple, says Forrester | Mobile Marketing Magazine
  According to a new Forrester Research forecast, by 2014, nearly 40% of European consumers will be tapping into the web via their mobile phone.
• Nokia Sets Facebook Deal, Launches New Phones | WSJ.com
  Today Nokia showed off new music phones and multimedia services, including a "Lifecasting with Ovi" offering that integrates its phones with social-networking service Facebook.
• Napster Commits iPhone-cide; Opts Out Of Streaming App Competition For Now | mocoNews
  While RealNetworks looks for Apple to approve its Rhapsody iPhone app and newcomer Spotify prepares to launch, the wait for a similar streaming app from Napster is over: there won’t be one. Apparently the Best Buy subscription music service has designed an app that would allow subscriber streaming to the iPhone but won’t submit it for Apple approval “due to the high licensing fees for streaming to a mobile phone."
• Audible adds mobile calls to action to traditional advertising | Mobile Marketer
  Print ads for the audiobook seller include a mobile call to action, asking consumers to text AUDIBLE to short code 35620 to get a bestseller free. The mobile calls to action are present within New York Times and Wall Street Journal print ads, online via banner ads, and on New York City subway trains. We've seen a few similar ads on the subway and have to wonder if that's the best idea, considering there is rarely reception down there.
• New gadgets prod people to remember their meds | The Boston Globe
  A study released this month by the New England Healthcare Institute found that anywhere from a third to a half of all Americans don’t take their meds, or don’t take them at the right time or at the right dosage. To address this, MedMinder has designed an intelligent pill organizer called Maya that reminds patients when each pill needs to be taken.
• GPS Hackers Blaze Own Trails With Crowdsourced Maps | Wired.com
  Roughly half a million people are eschewing proprietary maps information from GPS companies and instead going with crowdsourced versions, all based on data from map hack site OpenStreetMap.
• July 2009 Metrics Report | AdMob Metrics
  Mobile ad network AdMob surveyed over 1,000 of our iPhone, iPod touch and Android users to find our more about their interaction and download behavior with apps. Highlights include:
  • Android and iPhone users download approximately 10 new apps a month, while iPod touch owners download an average of 18/month
  • More than 90% of Android and iPhone OS users browse and search for apps directly on their mobile device instead of their computer
  • Upgrading from the lite version was the top reason given when users were asked what drives them to purchase a paid app
  • iPhone and iPod touch users are twice as likely to purchase paid apps than Android users
  • Users who regularly download paid apps spend approximately $9 on an average of five paid downloads per month
• Yelp Brings First US Augmented Reality App to iPhone Store
  Social review service Yelp has snuck the first Augmented Reality (AR) iPhone app specifically for the US into the iTunes App Store. The "easter egg" feature allows iPhone 3Gs owners to shake their phones three times to turn on a view called "the Monocle," which uses the phone's GPS and compass to display markers for restaurants, bars and other nearby businesses on top of the camera's view.
• Coupons You Don’t Clip, Sent to Your Cellphone | NYTimes.com
  Mobile coupons — usually text messages with discount codes sent to a cellphone — are becoming the blue-light specials for the digital age, promoting last-minute clothing sales, two-for-one entrees and cheap tickets to the theater.

Turn your world into a tabloid with Paparazzi.

In this installment of MobileBehavior TV:demo, we're talking to Scott Varland, co-founder of Socialbomb, about his company's iPhone game, Paparazzi. It's a great example of mobile software that turns life into one big game, or what's known as prescriptive social software, like GoWalla or foursquare.

The app basically lets you rack up points just by taking pictures of your friends. The more photos you're involved with as subject or photographer, the more points you receive and the more famous you get. Photos taken in “hot spots”—places where other players have already taken a lot of pictures--are also incentivized. Add a snarky headline and automatically share your pictures on Facebook.

Paparazzi came out of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program and we wrote about it when it first launched right before SXSWi. Now hear more straight from Varland:

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming segment, email us!

One of the key trends we noticed at SXSW this year was the application of game theory to social networking. And at the "Social Gamers" panel, the Facebook Developer's Garage, and elsewhere, it was apparent that mobile is playing a huge role.

For one, mobile enables synchronicity in social gaming. People can be engaged with or targeted by the exact contexts they find themselves in, where they are more likely to respond. So, for example, players of CrossRoads, a mobile-based "big game" from area/code, literally run away from invisible ghost characters in the street. Users of foursquare will see "nearby places" recommended by friends when they ping the service with their location. If they go to these places, they can earn points.

This leads to the concept of gaming elements to build social capital—and hence encourage social network behavior. One person might brag about how many friends of Facebook, followers on Twitter, number of reblogs or rank on foursquare just as someone else takes pride in the reputation on World of Warcraft. In the “real world,” others prize their frequent flier miles and our grocery store bonus points. It’s all the same, really. In a way, it ties back to the concept of personal informatics, that is quantifying, analyzing and comparing our personal data points. Our worlds are increasingly composed of these “points.” The question is: Can our desire for “winning” them encourage social—and even consumer—behavior?

It definitely seems to be. We might base our travel plans on whether we can earn “double points” through Jet Blue, or return someone phone calls because they gifted us with an “energy pak” in Mafia Wars (a true story). We’ll be seeing even more of an explosion around this now that iPhone apps can leverage Facebook Connect. As captured by mobile, even more of what you do IRL can affect your social status online. Check out Paparazzi (Vikram’s pick the other week). Through this iPhone app you can take pictures of people, post it to Facebook, and score (or lose) points based on the who, what and where of the photo. Meanwhile sites like Tumblr and omgpop have mentioned implementing micropayments for virtual items. This type of virtual economy is what sustains Zynga’s entire business model.

Gaming and socializing are bleeding together, motivating (or discouraging) us from doing things in our daily lives. But the question is the: When do we stop caring? Will we always value these intangible points?

At SXSW, a couple panels evoked the term “Whuffie" --"the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow's science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. A person's current Whuffie is instantly viewable to anyone, as everybody has a brain-implant giving them an interface with the Net".

Now all we're wondering is: Where's our implant?

foursquare, a new mobile social application we mentioned last week, had its coming out party at this year's South by Southwest Interactive festival (SXSWi) in Austin, TX. Having made it into the iTunes App store late last Thursday, foursquare had over 3,000 sign-ups by the following day--the first of the festival. The numbers rose throughout the week as the service got the same organic buzz and community embrace received by Twitter in 2007.

We caught up with co-creators Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai on Day 2 of SXSW for their first-ever on-camera interview (since then, they've been featured in the New York Times, The Observer, and LA Times among other top pubs). This is a longer version of an interview that originally appeared on our partner show The Interwebs.

Trouble viewing the video? Click here to see it on blip.tv.