Smartphones

Mr. Selfie

Over the last year I have pretty much shut down my interaction with Facebook, slowed the number of postings to Instagram, and Twitter, and I am trying to wean myself off of social media. (yes I am aware that each of these posts shares to Twitter, which shares to Facebook, Tumblr and LinkedIn) Call it a backlash to the overshare world we now live in. One thing I rarely do, is take selfies. I actually hate them. Not just mine, but any selfie. The whole narcissistic idea of them just puts me off, especially when there is so much more interesting stuff to look at besides a picture of yourself making a pouty face. That brings me to the video below from weareseventeen, a fun little send up to our smartphone obsessed world set to a bouncy electronica soundtrack. I think it sums things up quite well.

“Something we have all no doubt noticed is the increasing fixation with what is going on our smartphones – if it’s not ourselves, then we regularly see other people walking down the street pre-occupied with their phones, we see buses and trains full of commuters fixated on their little screens desperate for some information fix and it’s not uncommon to see friends in restaurants interacting with their phones rather than each other – all missing what is going on around them and reducing their quality of life as a result.

This short animation is a playful tale of this modern phenomenon…”

iOS vs Android, The App Arms Race.

Here is an interesting little infographic for Friday. Trademob has put together a coparison between iOS and Android to see which platform really is the best for app marketers. The infographic compares the two competing operating systems looking at their user demographic, number of apps available, speed of revenue growth, smartphone market share and tablet market share, to see which OS comes out on top. Is it just me, or is this starting to feel like the “Mac vs Windows” wars of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s? Hmmm, either way, its interesting information.

Friday Inspiration. “Aurasma” a Better Augmented Reality.

After yesterday’s post about the digitally enhanced IKEA catalog, I started looking at other emerging technologies that create similar experiences. One of the things I found was from a TED talk video that was published to YouTube yesterday. What I like about this is, unlike Google Glass it already exists, and is being used. Unlike Google Glass it doesn’t need glasses or any other form of wearable technology. It feels more practical. Unlike QR Codes, and other bar code driven technology this is activated by the image itself.

Aurasma, is self-described as “the world’s first visual browser.” and based on the video below you can see why. This has so much potential, and at the end of the video you can see just how easy it is to use and add your own content to. In the video presenters Matt Mills and Tamara Roukaerts demonstrate Aurasma and, the seamlessly animated the world as seen through a smartphone. Aurasma goes beyond previous augmented reality applications , by using their “auras” to do everything from make a painting talk to overlaying live news onto a printed newspaper.

The Parking Douche App.

I want this app for the good old US of A. Why? Not because parking is an issue so much (even though there are plenty of jackwagons here that have no clue how to park their gas guzzling planet killing SUV’s and giant trucks). I want an app like this for all the other things I see like “Lets exit the freeway from the far left lane”, or “Yellow doesn’t mean get ready to stop, it means stomp on the gas and run that light”, or “I don’t need to stay in my lane while I’m texting and driving”. It would appear that this app had some effect on Russian drivers. Perhaps a similar app would have an effect on driving in America. Here is a quick fact for you. Less than 40% of American drivers use their turn signal, and it jumps to more than 60% when changing lanes. Yes we need an app like this.

The app was developed by the Russian newspaper “The Village”, and it works by using image recognition to identify the car, and social media like Facebook to shame the bad driver. All of this happens in real-time, and is proximity limited so you don’t end up spamming your Facebook friends in far away places. The image recognition component reads the plate number to find the driver,then allows you to shame them across banners and media placements on popular websites in Russia. What a great example of how user created content is integrated into paid online media locations in real time.I really love the fact that the way you remove the annoying popup is to share the offender via social networking. It is a viral loop with hooks to the newspaper, and it is creating positive social action at the same time.