Category Archives: Mobile

Ray-Ban Ambermatic App

Apps, Mobile, Photography

Not a week goes by without a new mobile photo app by a brand. Last month it was Sony with their PhotoHopping, develop by LBi, and last week it was Coca-Cola with their fancy new photo-sharing app Happy Places.

But the one that seemed less of a bandwagon jump was Ray-Ban’s Ambermatic App, developed by R/GA Stockholm.

The free iOs App allows Ray-Ban users and fans to shoot their the photos and once taken, the App sends the image to the Ray-Ban flagship store in Covent Garden, London, where it is re-shot through an analogue Ray-Ban Ambermatic lens, and returned to the handset in Ambermatic style.

With so many photo apps, it’s about time for Instagram/Facebook to consider premium filters for brands, much like Hipstamatic did when it was *hip* (pun intended).

FeelPress: Log what you feel, before you forget

Apps

With all the tweets, shares and likes, the creative mind needs an exit in the opposite direction. Escaping from technology, we hope emotions remain unattached from the technium.


The “life logging” app Freepress intends to record our feelings, on a vain attempt to not forget our most enduring experiences over time.

Feelpress. Before you forget. from FEELPRESS on Vimeo.

Nothing that other Quantified Self apps haven’t tried before, but it’s always entertaining the belief that we can tame ourselves through new media. Yes, gamification included.

FERRY from The Dam Armada

Mobile, Web Design, Web Development

With agencies finding harder to recruit talent and trying to diversify risk, it is now common to find business incubators as agency spinoffs.

Within  W+K Amsterdam there’s the business unit The Dam Armada, made up of a team of creative developers and designers, turning ideas into products, the first one being FERRY.

Created for designers and developers, the tool consists on FERRYScript (the exporter)  and FERRYDocker (the interpreter), converting PSD layers into a production ready set of png and XML files, interpreted by FERRYDocker ready for iOS interfaces.

The tool is on sale now at http://ferry.thedamarmada.com for 14.99 euros, saving a developer a few hours a month of chopping and slicing.

Sweet Holler Gram

Mobile, Source, UX, ,

Right after publishing my previous post on personal media i found out about the new Made By Many project for SXSW, an Instagr.am mashup named Holler Gram.


Photo credits: Made By Many

An iOS application, it turns the iPad into a portable sign, as you signal to people around you what you’re about to tweet or the hashtag you’re thinking for whatever conference might be rolling at SXSW. For those guilty of making backchannel noise at conferences, you can now do it in style :)

From voting to sharing your favorites, there’s a lot to explore, on a perfect example that blends both social with personal media.

P.S. if that wasn’t enough, the agency did afterwards another Instagr.am mashup with a full page takeover that collects on a dashboard the photos taken by their atendees at the event.


IDEO looks into the future of the book

Interactive, Mobile

On his latest post, Tim Brown talks about the future of the book, and how it shows up as an experience on tablets.

From share of voice on Nelson, reading list suggested by your coworkers with Coupland and rich, contextual narratives with Alice, IDEO explores some of the themes we’ve been discussing at Fullsix recently: think beyond the hardware and instead push the limits of what you can do with content and social technologies.

For those interested in UX, mobile and new forms of publishing, head to Big Conversations Facebook page and share you opinions.

Profiles of Generation M2

Marketing, Mobile, Society, Technology

Cross-posted at The Trendwatch

If it is not texting and looking and TV, it’s computer and listen to my iPod (…) If i know i’m gonna miss a show i record it.

I have facebook on my cellphone. I could research a word, do anything on my phone.

— Diamond, 14

The Kaiser Family Foundation released today a report on Generation M(2), a research on media habits of 8-18 year olds, with a sample of more than 2,000 young people across the US. Impressive how this 100% connected generation is using mobile as the main gateway to digital content. Not to mention the multitasking habits. But you knew that already, right?

Key findings of the report include:

  • Over the past five years, Young people have increased the daily consumption of media from 6:21 to 7:38

    kff-consumption

  • An explosion in mobile and online media has fueled
    the increase in media use among young people.

    kkf-ownership

  • Youth who spend more time with media report lower grades and lower levels of personal contentment.

For a short overview of what kids have to say, follow the video below:

Review: TMN HTC Magic (Android)

Mobile, , , , ,

Since the iPhone was out, i secretly hoped that my mobile carrier in Portugal -TMN – would come to their senses and at least provide some decent alternative below 500€. Unexcited by the Crackberries or even the Nseries, when Google announced Android mobile OS in 2007 i thought the waiting was over. 2008 went by and no geek device worth mentioning (ok, maybe Nokia’s E71 made me think twice) and i was getting really nervous the past few months with no news regarding the “Google phone”.

tmn-android
Disclaimer:
This is a review for TMN’s HTC Magic, based on a device provided by the company. TMN is a Fullsix client, but that never kept me from being demanding.

A few weeks ago, after complaining on Twitter about the lack of exciting devices on TMN, out of the sudden the company announces that HTC Magic is available for pre-order. If things seemed promising, it got even better as last week a member of the board kindly allowed me to review the device. As i only had the chance to pick the package yesterday, let’s cut it short with an unboxing video and highlights first:

With less then 2 busy days getting acquainted with HTC‘s multitouch device, here’s the first impressions:

  1. It feels just about the right size. And since we’re on the ergonomics, why do multitouch devices feel so slippery and greazy? Extra points for the HTC Magic sticking to only one side button. I freaking hate those devices where you’re always pressing external buttons unintentionally.
  2. Yes, it’s true. It’s not a blazing fast OS. Kind like Firefox 3, before 3.5 was out. So, let’s hope for an updated OS soon (altough i’ve read somewhere you can use the Hero‘s ROM on Magic already)
  3. Loving the Augmented Reality apps. SkyMap and Wikitude are a sign of things to come.
  4. The integration with Google services is, in my opinion, the best feature. From complete mobile sync with your address book, to smooth experience on Google maps, it’s where Android shows its best. And it can only get more efficient, if Sergei and Larry wish so.
  5. Pay close attention to extra apps (notifications, GPS monitoring) as it can drain your battery and data plan. Which takes me to one question for TMN: can we have some decent mobile data plans, please? And while you’re at it, a support page for the device would be nice also.
  6. It’s not an iPhone. Can we please stop with all the comparisons? And yet, i feel there’s more future on the Android platform, as nowadays the iPhone ecosystem is starting to feel a bit like MySpace. Somehow i feel the developers are slowly shifting to more open platforms, and it’s always useful to pay attention to the Alpha-geeks

Overall it’s a solid device and one of the best choices for those who can’t live by without Google services (yes, i’m already thinking about Wave). I still don’t dream of electric sheep, so if there’s anyone interested on providing an iPhone 3GS for review you could still change my mind :) Any questions, feel free to drop it in the comments.

User Experience and Context

Mobile, Motion,

Somehow related to last post’s theme of progressive enhancement, i found out via Johnny Holland a simple but effective video on “Designing for Mobiles: Users & Context”. The student work is based on the first chapters of Barbara Ballard’s book Designing the Mobile User Experience, depicting the increasing importance of understanding the newer platforms, where and how are they used, and how it relates to designing the user experience.


Designing for Mobiles: Users & Context from Niek Dekker on Vimeo.

GPS Mission

Mobile, , ,

GPS Mission is a location-based game for mobile phones. Using the Mission Designer application, you’re invited to create your own mission using GPS coordinates.

Anyone with a GPS enabled phone can go through mission tasks, control checkpoints or complete their photo assignments, on a new kind of personal ARG.

The Flex application was developed by Orbster. Recently, at Ars Electronica, they were involved in Mission Future‘s location based hunt, with several GPS Missions around the conference venue.

A Blind Call

Advertising, Mobile, Osocio, , ,

The Braille League (Belgium) helps blind and partially sighted people in professional, social and cultural areas, promoting also several actions to create awareness to the problems this group of individuals faces.
On a brilliant and innovative use of the omnipresent cellphone, agency Duval Guillaume challenged a ordinary daily event: You know when you happen to make a call by accident to the first recorded contact on your cellphone address book?


ablindcall.jpg

So how about turn that into a good action, by placing The Braille League number on the first slot ?
And so the award winning campaign “A Blind Call” was born:

  • Add “A blind call” as a contact on your cellphone (contact = A blind call ; number = 070 22 22 30)
  • If you accidentaly press your address book, that would be the first number
  • You no longer would bother Adrian, Alan or Armando – thanks, anyway! – but rather contribute to solve blind people’s problems.
  • The call ends after 30 seconds with a maximum toll of € 0,75 *.
  • The campaign is live until 31/12/2008

A Blind Call

Thousands of people made a blind call, and the much awarded campaign had a surprisingly large coverage in media. A great use of world’s largest platform for a good cause.

This entry was cross posted from Osocio.org