Category Archives: Mobile

Yesterday, one of the biggest news stories was about one of the tech world’s media darlings: Path. It turned out that within their iPhone application, Path had been importing whole contact address books from users into their system. This lead to a big uproar within the community and has some even raising the issue about user privacy. Of course, this whole conundrum about privacy isn’t lost on me since I penned a post saying that I felt that Path’s saving grace over being “just another Facebook”  was that it was a private social network…only 150 people of my dearest and closest friends would see the photos and thoughts unfiltered. Well if, on one of the biggest platforms out there, Path purposely (or unintentionally) imported contact information into their servers, then that would clearly raise some cause for concern.

How serious has this become? Well so big that one of Path’s investors, CrunchFund’s head and founder of TechCrunch, Michael Arrington, has published a blog post stating that Path’s founders, Dave Morin and Matt Van Horn, should immediately “nuke” the data in the servers. However, one needs to wonder whether all the hoopla was over the fact that Path imported the address book contacts or if it was that they didn’t give users an option to either opt-in or opt-out (I personally would have liked to have seen it be opt-out by default). And I notice that there are some significant differences between Path’s iPhone version and their Android cousin — for one, I’m asked whether I want to add certain people from my address book on Android. There was never this problem for these devices. Nevertheless, now that this error has been done, Path should probably purge the lists and invite people to do so, but only after making it 100% clear what’s going to happen with this data and reassure people as to the benefit.

And they’ve stated that they’ve done so and put their money where their mouth is:

We believe you should have control when it comes to sharing your personal information. We also believe that actions speak louder than words. So, as a clear signal of our commitment to your privacy, we’ve deleted the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers. Your trust matters to us and we want you to feel completely in control of your information on Path.

TechCrunch writer and CrunchFund partner MG Seigler wrote that while we’re up in arms over the privacy concerns (while totally valid and justified), we might want to step back and analyze the situation to see why Path did what they did–basically we need both sides of the argument:

One thing overshadowed by this situation is that there’s a reason Path was doing this — and it was anything but nefarious: it makes the service more useful. Path is about your personal connections and the best way to establish those connections is for Path to find your true friends also on the network. What’s a great signal if someone is a true friend? If their information is in your address book and if you’re in their’s.

And he’s right…Path is designed to offer us more signal than noise and only those chosen few who we entrust with our phone numbers and reciprocate and place their numbers in our address book are probably more likely to interact with us on a private social network like Path. Nevertheless, Path’s Dave Morin has quickly and publicly apologized for this incident and admitted their mistake.

Whether people accept it or not remains to be seen. Jeremy Toeman from LIVEdigitally thinks Path has betrayed his trust…he didn’t want to publish photos of his kids on Facebook and may have decided to use Path for this, but since this issue arose, privacy fears have come back. When I read his post, he’s right…Path is also at the crossroads and will need to be firm on what their stance on privacy is. With this issue plaguing Path for a while, will people be a bit more timid in using the service? Or does anyone really care and believe that privacy is dead?

No matter the answer to that, Path is learning from its mistakes, getting more users, and chugging forward.

Photo Credit: Balotelli’s clash with Parker went unpunished by referee Howard Webb. Photo: Getty

You might have missed it, but last night, one commercial aired during the Super Bowl that had a direct tie to the Silicon Valley. It was the Best Buy “phone innovator” commercial and aired featuring Philippe Kahn, the inventor of the camera phone, Ray Kurzweil, the inventor of text-to-speech synthesis, the founders of Shazam, Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square, Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, and the creators of Words with Friends (with a great hat-tip to Alec Baldwin). It was a great spot that featured some of the tech world’s biggest, brightest, and legendary inventors and mobile pioneers. It kind of is a backhanded compliment to have it be associated with Best Buy though, in my opinion, but it still is a great commercial. Nice of them to also focus on some of the people you didn’t know were part of the startups – like with Square, the only founder most people know is Jack Dorsey.

Anyways, what did you think of this Best Buy commercial? You can watch the whole thing here.

Yesterday, we bore witness to one of the greatest sporting events in the history of the modern age. A clash of titans, as it were…the New York Giants slugged it out against the New England Patriots and emerged to come out victorious in what is now being called the most-watched television program in US history and also the highest-rated Super Bowl in 26 years! Congratulations to the New York Giants!

But while we remember the game, let’s not forget all the other news that are happening around the Internet simultaneously as the big game. Not only was this the first time the Super Bowl was livestreamed on the Internet to mobile and tablet devices (leading to more viewership, I’m sure), there seemed to be a greater play on social media by not only the NFL and the NBC Network, but also advertisers too. Twitter reported today that the service set a record for the most tweets sent per second (TPS): 12,233 tweets! That’s an amazing amount since in 2008 during the Super Bowl, it was 27 TPS, and in 2011, it was 4,064 TPS. Of course, this massive record of tweets per second occurred during the last three minutes which is when Twitter says an average of 10,000 TPS were sent. But what does this all translate into? Well during the Super Bowl, there were 13.7 million related tweets sent out during the five hour game. These numbers are absolutely staggering!

And what about the other part of the game? The so-called “Brand Bowl”? Well some of them did very well in terms of the conversation, but it’s a bit of a mixed reaction. First, let’s see which of the brands succeeded in getting the most comments:
 In Advertising Age this morning, Bluefin Labs analyzed data of all the television commercials to see which one of them earned a spot in the top 10 highest rated spots with the most response. It should be noted that Bluefin only reviewed content pushed on two major networks: Twitter and Facebook. I wonder how these would be changed with Google+ or on social sporting networks like on OnShare?

Regardless, each ad was tracked for 45-minutes after it began to air and what’s surprising is that one of the first commercials to air during the game was the David Beckham H&M underwear commercial and received 108,914 comments – a sign that the first is the best? Either that, or sex sells…

Not surprising, Chrysler’s hit ad featuring Dirty Harry himself, actor/director Clint Eastwood in “It’s Halftime in America” was a rousing success with over 95,000 comments and came in second. It was definitely one of the big winners of the evening and people are STILL talking about it today! But nowhere on this list was the GoDaddy commercial – perhaps a sign that after years of the racy ads, the public is getting tired about ripping on them and decided there’s much more worthy commercials to talk about?

Perhaps the biggest stumble in the “Brand Bowl” this year was the use of the hashtag in commercials. In light of the McDonald’s hashtag debacle, it might not have seemed good to throw out a hashtag unless you were 100% sure that your commercial would ellicit the response you were hoping for. Some had a pretty good chance at positive reactions, like the Audi vampire commercial (#solongvampires) and the Bud Light Platinum (#MakeItPlatinum), but then there were others like GE’s commercial with the hashtag #whatworks — a friend of mine said that he would tweet out “#whatworks not this commercial”. Hashtags were genuinely a gamble for advertisers in an attempt to get into the social scene.

But did advertisers really embrace the role of social media this Super Bowl? According to the Altimeter Group’s Jeremiah Owyang and Brian Solis, maybe not and they’ve discovered five interesting trends out of the 87 advertisements:

• Brands heavily invested in promoting their traditional websites
• Many did not promote a call-to-action
• Only a sixth of ads explicitly promoted social media
• Hashtag marketing emerged to stimulate continual engagement
• Cutting edge marketers teased with new marketing tactics, including Shazam

So while I think that the hashtag attempt on commercials was a fumble, it’s a trend of the Super Bowl nevertheless. But is anyone still surprised at any of these trends? The website is here to stay and advertisers will continue to push people to them just like they asked them to call their 800 numbers for several decades. There are a few risky marketers who will ask people to tweet at them using the hashtag, but if anything, the Super Bowl is showing us that advertisers are starting to be a slightly bit more innovative in how they reach people, especially on television. Just take a look at this breakdown from the Altimeter Group:

Maybe the 32% of brands during the Super Bowl were airing ads more as brand promotion, but the question is why aren’t you giving your customers something more to take away from it? Even those commercials that asked viewers to use Shazam were giving them a song that would forever be associated with their commercial (lasting branding) and also invited them to rate their commercial (feedback), but by not doing anything like that leaves much to be desired.

So I leave you with this fascinating tip from the Altimeter Group report: promoting traditional websites still king with brands while social integration is “nascent”. Yes, that’s right…brands seem to be gun-shy at using social media to help converse with their customers and the viewers. If anything, the most successful commercials from last night will become viral and people will be talking about it. But will the brands actually be listening?

Photo Credit: Football field by Juggernautco/Flickr

By Julie Blaustein

Bibbil is officially launching its social video platform today to help people easily connect around the world through a magical video experience that you can learn more about here.

“People need an enjoyable and beautiful way to connect with the ones they care about,” said David J. Phillips, CEO and Co-Founder of Bibbil. “With Bibbil, you can now get what you want from video chat – simple, fast, and fun connections to all of your friends and family around the world. There is no downloading, installing, or running of a separate desktop application required. Once inside Facebook, the user is merely two clicks away from video enchantment – and it’s free.”

Bibbil uses game dynamics to reward users and give them access to new features. Starting out on the service a Bibbilittle, a user earns bibbills (virtual points) to unlock new features on their way to the top status of Bibbillionaire. Features include group video chat, party video chat, live broadcasting, and more. The team is also preparing to release its new platform solution that integrates across many mobile devices. To learn how to Bibil visit Bibbil or to learn the 5 easy ways to earn at Bibbills.

The founding team of David J. Phillips, Robbie Trencheny and Jesse Sung have known each other for over 14 years. As serial entrepreneurs, they hold more than a dozen startups under their belts, including a venture backed social discovery service.  To date, the Bibbil team has built its initial version of the application, secured partnerships with leading Web video communications provider TokBox, and ran a successful private alpha launch which spread to over 20 countries in less than 24 hours.

My mobile experience begins and ends with the idea of sensuality. I’m constantly tethered to my smartphone — it spends more time in my presence than anything or anyone else. An extension of my professional and personal self, it has become a proletariat expression of my wholeness, so I expect it to not only function properly, but evoke meaning, transformation, and context… to provide a constant data stream for my psyche. Since my smartphone brings the world to me (and vice-versa), it is my echo chamber, my primary link, my self-styled megaphone. So assessing the mobile landscape to untangle the complexity of choice, to keenly discover the exact combination of features and benefits I desire, to determine which device should be allowed stake a prominent place in my backpack, and confirm its ability to respond to my deepest passions is not a journey to race through — this stimulating, shiny shrine would have to permeate my defenses, break down my gadget skepticism, and drive me into a state of ecstasy… to spark a sense of sensuality, the device would have to elicit a hint of aesthetic escapism.

Enter the HTC Thunderbolt, the grand inheritor of the monster-sized mobile device. Not quite a tablet (yes, it has a kickstand!), but towering over the now seemingly tiny iPhone, it’s a trailblazer in form and function — saddled with a masculine design “narrative”, its style is bold, detached, and unflinchingly unapologetic. Restless in mood, the device is heavy, somewhat contrary, and radical in its performance: both good and bad! First, let’s look at the good.

The Good
Android and the device manufacturers obviously have their sights on iOS. HTC decided to pack a wealth of functionality into the Thunderbolt. From the animated lightning-bolt startup screen, to the brilliant 4.3-inch sized screen, the ‘Bolt takes a symbolic break from the current mobile ecosystem and stakes a claim to become the standard for the next-generation smartphone, battery life or size be damned. 

After a couple weeks with her, I firmly believe my ‘Bolt is here to fulfill all my wishes. She not only wants to serve me, she also informs me in a simple, seemingly uncontrived fashion that some things aren’t negotiable: the 4G connection is mandatory — there is no option to downgrade the speed. Akin to when Apple killed the floppy, HTC and Verizon have decided that I just need to get on board with the “speed train”. My ‘Bolt says to me that it’s time to become a voluntary refugee from the “middle-class” world of 3G — I suddenly feel like I have less in common with those suffering through AT&T’s compulsively affected network. She makes me feel like I upgraded from a Hyundai to a Mercedes. And yes, with Android 2.2.1 loaded, she is more responsive, more usable, and perfectly attuned to astonishing my iPhone-desensitized view of performance. Let me say that again: performance. The swipes, pinches, and taps are lucidly agreeable, the highlight of my device colloquy. Although “Thunderbolt” is her name, my non de plume for her is “Speedy” — her startup lag is more than made up for in her overall contribution to my day-to-day productivity.

Add to the blazing-fast network speed (I’ve had consistent 4G all throughout the SF Bay Area), and the heavenly performance, there are many more simpler pleasures to be had with the ‘Bolt: yes, there’s Flash. I find Flash too often be a pointless battery suck on most mobile devices, however, it is nice when visiting a Flash-enabled site to at least see what’s intended. The 8-megapixel camera (with dual Flash and 720p video) and a front-facing lens snaps sharp photos with an easy upload to Facebook (come on Apple — can’t you give me a ‘send to Facebook’ option?). Another particularly fabulous feature is the ‘Bolt’s built-in mobile hotspot. Simply turn it on, and tether several devices to the 4G connection. I was able to call Verizon and cancel my 3G Mi-Fi right away.

The Bad
The bad? First, I implore you to consider the concept of sufficiency: that the current state of affairs is related to the occurrence of further conditions. The ‘Bolt begs you to think logically about the rhythm of usage … we all know that our mobile experiences are driven by usage (yes, it’s constant in our minds, eh?). I’ve been lucky to extract about 4 hours of usage on one battery charge. Is that sufficient? I find often it is not. I now have extra batteries, and two USB cables to tote around. I find myself constantly seeking an outlet. I strive to entail logic from the certainty that I won’t make a full day on one battery. Sure, my idle iPhone sits by, waiting, tempting, presupposing that I will need to turn to it when my ‘Bolt’s voracious appetite consumes all the stored energy available to it. This is simply the standard condition of the ‘Bolt “experience.” Embrace it, realize the maintenance of it, and define for yourself what is sufficient for you. The ‘Bolt’s oxygen is that battery, and you just have to carry extra oxygen tanks with you if you desire to be truly mobile.

The Thunderbolt next to the iPhone 4

Conclusion
The HTC Thunderbolt is, in a sense, a mobile channel of efficacious sensuality. It’s like “hand-porn” in that it provides power, ability, desire, and substance all in one almost pocket-sized device. The ‘Bolt experience is the result of something more than just interacting with a typical smartphone — it’s an elevated, temporal affair of the head and the heart. She is my hypothetical truth — my motion, sound, color… my envisage of all that is possible in connecting to my world. She doesn’t replace my iPhone, but she has unpacked herself next to it, and is striving to prevail as my device of choice.

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Basic Specs on the Thunderbolt per Verizon: 4G LTE – customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage area; 4.3” WVGA display; 8-megapixel rear facing camera and HD (720p) video recording; 1.3-megapixel front facing camera with video chatting capabilities; newest generation of the 1GHz Snapdragon processor; mobile hotspot capability – share 4G connection with up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices; pre-installed 32 GB microSD card (Actual formatted capacity will be less); built-in kickstand for easy media viewing.

The Thunderbolt is currently selling for $249.99 on Verizon Wireless with a two year contract, $569.99 without the contract.
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Once again, I let my friend Brandon Carson take the reins on this review. It’s all him. I simply inspired him to the device.
Verizon provided me with a review Thunderbolt (that I’m sending back today) and he fell in love with it once he played with it. Soon after, he ran out and bought one. He once told me that the iPhone is like a wife, but the Thunderbolt is like a girlfriend.

Michelle Lentz is a freelance writer, trainer and instructional designer with a serious need for the latest and greatest gadgets. When she has time, she tries to be a wine blogger, although it may just be an excuse for free wine.  She currently lives in Cincinnati but has definite designs on the Bay area.