Category Archives: Mobile

Okay, I got a question for you. How often do you associate your smartphone with making actual phone calls? Do you often feel that it’s more often used to play with the numerous applications you have on there? One problem that you, as a user, might experience is having to switch from your app to the phone — there’s no way to conduct business or do what you need to do easily right from the app. Well, if you’re a developer who wants to combine the best of both worlds, then look no further because Twilio has just released a very important solution to all the world’s telephone problems. Now, communication on your mobile device has just stepped it up a notch.

Introducing the Twilio Client iOS SDK

Twilio,  a Cloud communications company, dead-set on reinventing telecom by creating an industry and world where Cloud computing, web services, and telecommunications are merged together, released a new product that will be very important for developers and companies to build what they call “rich communication experiences” right from their app. The Twilio Client iOS SDK will make it possible for any mobile application to make or receive phone calls while also providing real-time presence information about contacts within the application on the consumer’s iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch device. Essentially, they’re bringing Voice over IP, or VoIP, right into the power of your hands.

ReadWriteWeb’s Dan Rowinski gives us an interesting look at the potential of the Twilio Client in his post:

Imagine playing a game of Scrabble on your iPhone against your mother. You and Ma are competitive and these games tend to turn into rabid battles for literary supremacy. Also, she’s your mother so you want to talk about how things are with the family, your nephew and if Pa is taking that new job in Chicago. So, you press a button in the app and create a voice connection running over your data connection. No dialing, no minutes used. Just a data connection straight from the app.

All of this done right through VoIP?

But what is VoIP?

Voice over IP (VoIP), as defined by Wikipedia, is “a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.” It’s also synonymous with Internet telephony.

What Twilio is doing with their new release is taking the traditional phone and powering it through the Internet. No longer will users need to subject themselves to the land lines, instead phone calls can be done cleaner, quicker, and cheaper, through the use of the Internet and Cloud communications. And there’s definitely signs that say that VoIP is a big success and will grow over the next few years–in fact, chances are that you’re already using one of the most successful applications: Skype.

Mobile VoIP Trends

But if you need further proof…according to Sangoma, a leading provider of hardware and software components powering IP communications, they believe that one of the main proponents of the VoIP trend is the proliferation of 4G technology, probably due to increased data connection speeds and the near real-time delivery of communications. Technology publication VentureBeat also believes that mobile VoIP growth will be making some news in 2012. In a guest post by Andreas Bernstrom, CEO of Rebtel, the world’s largest independent mobile VoIP company, VentureBeat states that “with 4G finally rolled out across the U.S. and technology improvements from companies like Rebtel and Viber, dropped calls will become a thing of the past. mVoIP will therefore go from being a fad, to something that is embraced beyond the digerati, and finally catching on with the mainstream.”

Smartphones are definitely going to play a big part in adoption of mobile VoIP as well–a 2011 Juniper Research study states that the mobile VoIP clients downloaded onto smartphones will account for four-fifths of the 640 million mVoIP users by the end of 2016. Carriers will still feel uneasy about mVoIP and will not be partnering with specialists anytime soon, says the study. But with this proliferation, the number of mobile video calls by users will grow to more than 130 million by 2016, all spurred by the launch of mobile video calling by major players and technology improvements. Even VoIP specialists (the ones that carriers probably won’t work with), like Vivox (and maybe even Twilio now) are working on exploring their alliances with social media, gaming, and software companies.

To put it another way, according to a Morgan Stanley report on Internet trends, if VoIP market leader, Skype, were a carrier, it would be the largest “carrier” in the world. There’s a lot of promise for mobile VoIP services to breakthrough and disrupt the traditional carriers. Hell, even Facebook is even getting involved. It’s garnering a rising share of the communication all through the main device you have in your pocket. From messaging, chatting, wall posts, status updates, sharing videos/music, playing games, and even making VoIP calls–this can all be done right from your mobile device.

So what does Twilio’s Client iOS SDK offer up?

By integrating the Twilio Client SDK into your applications, you’re going to be able to use the iOS device’s data connection (either 3G/4G or Wi-Fi) to call other mobile apps, web browsers, or even phones! The landline isn’t (totally) dead…Twilio wants to marry both the Internet and the telephone together. For developers, if the app has a desire to communicate with anyone or anything, Twilio’s service offers up an easy way to integrate this capability in a “ready to install” package–no creating code from scratch. If you have a better way to improve or build the next Skype or a powerful Google Voice competitor with a twist, then you might want to take a look at the Twilio Client. According to GigaOm, over 2,000 of Twilio’s 75,000 developers have already signed up for Twilio’s SDK beta program.

What Twilio Client iOS SDK can do

But what about the pricing? Twilio’s pricing page indicates that those that are using Twilio Client will still only pay a quarter of a cent per minute for inbound or outbound calls when done in a browser or mobile app. All a developer is apparently going to need is a few lines of code provided within the Twilio Client, add it to their application, and they’re off and running. According to Twilio:

Your users’ interactions become even richer with Twilio Client because your app has access to built-in presence and location data. Now every call is not just a call – it’s a rich communication between your users while they play a game, get customer support, or just call mom. With our native SDK, you have complete control of the experience.

You can get started with the new Twilio Client by clicking here. An Android version is still in development but they’re looking for beta testers right now. You can sign up to be one by clicking here.

Photo Credit: Hypercup.org

Something is definitely happening within the cloud storage space–it’s getting hot!! And for some reason, it all seems to want to target Android users. Why? Is it because right now, Android phones outnumber the iPhone market here in the US? Quite possibly? Maybe it’s the open source nature of Android? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, two of the biggest leaders in cloud storage have just ramped up their efforts to get you to use their service.

One such company is Box and this week, they announced that they were giving up to 50GB of free cloud storage to Android users. This is an incredible amount that will really encourage people to start saving their data in the cloud. Why? For one, you won’t need to worry about always emailing that file to yourself when you want to work from multiple computers and you can avoid having that discussion about “file size limits” by using a service like Box. What’s more, Box is really going after Dropbox users because out of the main competitors (SugarSync, Dropbox, and Microsoft SkyDrive), none really offer anything close to 50GB like Box is. But the only catch here? You need to be an Android user and have the Box app on your smartphone and/or tablet. Oh, and this is only for personal use only…sorry business users, you’re going to need to deal with what you have. There’s a bit more  to the deal but will this be enough to convince people to leave Dropbox? That might be a tough thing to try and do…

The world of cloud storage seems to be one of those “anything you can do, I can do better” type of environments. Now that Box has announced its 50GB of storage for those using their Android app, Dropbox has come out fighting with an increase of their own. Granted that it’s nothing compared to Box, but Dropbox is increasing their storage limit from 2GB to 5GB. Why? Because they’re interested in helping you store your content without it being lost. In a TechCrunch post, cofounder and CEO Drew Houston said that Dropbox’s mission in life  was to help solve all the “hidden problems” that people have had with technology.

What exactly are these “hidden problems”? Who knows, but the solution that the service is coming up with is finding a way to keep your photos taken from all your devices safe and secure–all in one central place. Starting this week, Dropbox has released its very own Android app (with iOS version coming soon) for Dropbox. This mobile app will automatically upload your photos and videos to Dropbox using Wi-Fi or your data plan. One of the best things is that it’ll all be saved in the original format–no size reduction or quality disruptions.

TechCrunch’s Jason Kincaid raised a good point in his post about the Dropbox move: “err, don’t iCloud and Google+ already let you do this?”

I don’t know about iCloud, but with Google+, the fact is that they’re not primarily a cloud storage service–even though we hear about “Google Drive”, the service isn’t a storage service, it’s a social network. No matter what Google’s television commercials say, I believe most people will probably associate Dropbox with being the service to use to store your data in the Cloud. In fact, the explanation that Mr. Houston gave was pretty spot on…there are a lot of people out there who aren’t using either of those services (Google+ and/or iCloud). Most Dropbox users aren’t using Macs at all, so iCloud won’t necessarily work and Google+ is still just getting started.

Dropbox appears to be wanting to start to take over the Internet and become the de facto service for those seeking Cloud storage. And while they’re not going to be giving away a lot of storage, one probably wonders what else lies in store for Dropbox and what other functionality do the wizards of the Cloud have in store?

Look out wallet, the end is near. That’s right…one of the market leaders in virtual payments is extending their reach from just the virtual world into the physical world. Boku, a mobile online payments company based here in Silicon Valley announced that they’re releasing a brand new payment method whose goal is to “disrupt the current way that consumers pay for goods via their mobile phones or credit cards”. The company is probably more well known for processing millions of virtual currency received by people interested in playing games on Facebook, but has made some considerable strides over the past few years in working to improve the mobile payments space. Whether it’s purchasing companies like Paymo or Mobillcash, establishing direct carrier deals with service providers like AT&T, Vodafone UK, or more, Boku has definitely help lead the charge in terms of how disruptive mobile payments have been to the industry.

And just this week, with the company announcing the launch of an near-field communications (NFC) enabled mobile payment platform, Boku has just changed the rules again, perhaps causing some problems for competitors like Zong, boxPAY, PaymentPin.com, Allopass, Fortumo, and others. Being called Boku Accounts, the intent of this platform is to simply exploit the usage of one of the most precious devices that we, as consumers, carry around all day. This program is a “carrier-distributed mobile payment platform” that will be universally-accepted, platform agnostic, and will work for smartphones and feature phones. The benefits that the user will get from Boku Accounts are real-time spending alerts, budgeting tools, offers & rewards, loyalty programs, and much more.

Sure, you might be thinking that there are plenty of options to choose from for mobile payments in real life. Google Wallet is one of those services currently available–so why should people really care about Boku Accounts?  Well for one, it seems that Google Wallet is a bit limited in terms of being accessible. Right now the service is only available on Sprint’s Nexus S 4G phone while they roll it out and you’ll need to have an Android-powered phone with NFC. With Boku Accounts, you’re not limited based on the device that you have, but might be depending on the carriers that they support–right now they have deals with at least AT&T and Vodafone UK. By using Boku Accounts, customers will be able to track their money easily and perhaps even save money–the service offers a bit of intelligence since it will know where you shop or frequent enough that it can offer you special discounts for stopping by. It’s a win-win for customers and merchants. Mobile carriers will get a boon because it’s a transaction being done on their network but through a secure service.

As an added bonus, Boku has partnered up with MasterCard that will help enhance the experience for consumers using their mobile phones to conduct transactions right from anywhere MasterCard is accepted. Through a special deal called Boku Accounts with MasterCard Prepaid, consumers will have a convenient way to pay on the go. Just visit any store or merchant that has a MasterCard Prepaid card or PayPass-enabled device and swipe your phone across and your transaction is made. Another option would be to get a Boku Accounts sticker that you can afix to your mobile device to help process your payment.

The benefit for merchants to accept Boku Accounts is pretty extensive as well: merchants get to create easy-to-manage loyalty programs as well as targeted offers to reach customers through mobile apps, SMS text messages, push notifications or e-mails.  The online campaign management system of the BOKU Accounts platform also provides merchants with sophisticated analytics so they can manage and modify these offer programs over time to maximize consumer reach and repeat business. As TechCrunch reports, just because a merchant doesn’t adopt Boku Accounts doesn’t mean you can’t still pay using Boku Accounts. Users will still be able to make payments via credit card or NFC enabled terminals.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses in the future and whether or not the world will no longer be using their credit cards in the stores or if the wallet is even still being used. In fact, shall we decree that the wallet no longer holds any valuable function? Is our life completely ingrained within the mobile device? We can already communicate, update information, conduct business, and now even pay virtually and physically in real life using the device. But first, they seem to need to get a foothold here within the United States. According to TechCrunch, Boku currently is only running a payment trial with a major carrier in the United Kingdom. No US carriers have signed on, although Boku probably does have a direct line with AT&T, one of the largest mobile carriers in the country. However, with lots of interest and competition running high with mobile payments in stores, you can bet that within the next year or more, the mobile industry will start to carve out some space for services like Boku to take over and be helpful partners.

We’ve all seen the posts about QR tags: they’re either dead or they’re of no use to the rest of the world. But there are some in the marketing world who see validity in actually using QR tags. In fact, they’re practically everywhere. Just look at any piece of paper, packaging, or product box and most likely you’ll see one of those strange hieroglyphic symbols. But just because they’re everywhere, is there actual adoption and usage of these things by consumers?

Some actually believe that there is adoption. According to a December 2011 report by comScore, within the United States, 20.1 million mobile phone owners used their device to scan a QR code between August and October 2011. When you break it down further, 59.4% did so from home, 44% did it from a retail store, and 26.6% did it from a grocery store. 21.4% scanned something from their office while 11.2% were outside or on public transit. 10% did it at a restaurant. People are using these things.

On sites like Mashable, there are a plethora of posts where they say that QR codes for marketing (or in general) are dead.  You can come up with creative means to promote your company using QR tags like Intel’s social media strategist Ekaterina Walter says in a January 2012 post on Mashable, or you might wind up proving people right about QR tags with some of the more memorable fails. It’s definitely a polarizing piece of technology and many people probably have erased it from their memory. Or so you’d like to think that…

Today, Scan.me, a producer of one of the more popular QR tag readers with over 10 million downloads, announced two newsworthy items that have far-reaching implications for the QR industry, and maybe its “second wind”. The first piece of news is that they received $1.7 million in seed funding from several top venture capital firms and even some angel investors here in Silicon Valley. Leading the round is Menlo Ventures with contributions by Google Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Yuri Milner’s Start Fund, Social+Capital Partnership, Transmedia Capital, and Ludlow Ventures. Angel investors include Ariel Pooler, Naval Ravikant, Jim Pallotta, and Troy Carter. It must be saying something about the QR industry when all of these major investors find something interesting about what Scan.me is doing.

But what is Scan.me doing that is revolutionizing the industry and taking QR tags up a notch? That’s the second part of their announcement. Being unveiled today is the introduction of Scan Pages, which are apparently “user-friendly mobile websites accessible via custom QR code or short URL”. What these pages will do is give businesses and individuals the opportunity to quickly and easily create a mobile site.

Wait, it’s a WYSIWYG for your mobile sites! Of course the downside is that it’s not 100% connected with your brand nor is it directly tied back to your company website, but for simple sites done that allows you way more flexibility than you probably can do with existing resources, Scan Pages are a good resource for any beginner or company eager to want to begin their mobile strategy and are using QR tags. Users have an option to select from one of several types of mobile pages: personal, business, social media, website, and simple text. Each of these types has their own interface and design so make sure you choose carefully. Once you choose, you’ll be able to enter your content and immediately afterwards, be given a customized code to insert anywhere you choose. Users will need to log in to their Scan account in order to use it, but I suspect that by doing so, you’ll be able to have tracking data available to you as well as other useful tools.

Something that most people probably don’t think about when they create a mobile page are tie backs to the company social media channels. With Scan Pages, users can add up to three of their most popular networks, including Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Vimeo, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr, AngelList, Github, Tumblr, Foursquare, LinkedIn, YouTube, and many others. The idea is that you create these pages, but it isolates them on this page without any connection to talk back to you–but by adding social media profiles and links, you give additional value and content to the end user and an incentive to build their community.

Garrett Gee, CEO and co-founder of Scan, believes that his company’s innovations will help generate business for others above all other QR technology:

QR codes and other mobile technologies have always had enormous potential, but until now they have been held back by poor experiences and incomplete products…Scan fulfills the promise of these technologies by creating direct connections and valuable information exchange between businesses and consumers.

It definitely looks like it…I personally have created QR campaigns for clients and the things you need to deal with are tracking, custom URLs, and testing to see if the page loads up when scanned by various readers. With Scan Pages, there lies enormous potential for real value and ROI for businesses. And they’re already realizing this opportunity–brands like Barneys New York, Kroeger’s, Lady Gaga, People Water, and others are all participating and using Scan Pages.

To create your own Scan Page, you’ll need to visit their website. But if you want their QR reader for your phone, you can download it from the iPhone or Android marketplace.

Photo Credit: QR tag tattoo by Synergy Interactive

One of the most talked about startups over the past year when dealing with content curation has got to be Storify. When something major in your life breaks and you want to find a good way to summarize it through the use of social media, then look no further than with Storify. Founded in 2009, this seven person company has done a remarkable job surviving the market and being one of the major players in the world of content curation. Just like Twitter has their trending topics, Storify’s service allows people to keep track of the relevant social media trending topics. Users are able to tell their own story about these major events (like Whitney Houston or Greece’s economic downfall or even Madonna’s Super Bowl halftime performance), and embed them on their own website. Be your own crowd-sourced storyteller, by dragging in tweets, status updates, photos, and videos from a variety of social networks in order to help you create a better story and telling experience.

But for the several years, the only way that Storify has been able to be used was through a personal computer–you had to be physically sitting in front of a computer in order to put something together. Well, that is…until now.

Today, Storify announced that it was bringing its service straight to the iPad. For a service that has been used by 22 out of top 25 news sites in the United States, this is a pretty big move because it will allow for much more curation on the go. Chances are that most people will be traveling around town or the country with an iPad rather than a laptop or desktop computer. With this new platform available to users, expect to see much more storytelling happening on the web in real-time. Already, tech publications are praising the way that this has been done. Not since the roll-out of social publication Flipboard has publications like ReadWriteWeb and tech pundit Robert Scoble clamored over an application. Jon Mitchell from ReadWriteWeb explains that Storify’s iPad app is a marvelous piece with the workflow and interface truly realized–almost as if it was always intended for the iPad rather than the computer.

I tend to agree with Jon Mitchell’s assessment about Storify for the iPad…if you’re in a meeting or event and you want to curate what’s being said and do it in real-time, the fact that you have it on a much better interface, not only for aggregation and curation, but for presentation purposes, will be invaluable. Right now the service has become a major boon for media sites and most certainly will now become at least 10x more valuable (I think it’ll open the door up for talks about acquisition pretty soon). Take, for example, the next upcoming presidential debates for the Republican nomination. With all eyes on Arizona and Michigan coming up, the news media will be wanting to collect a wide variety of opinions from people watching and get their take. By simply taking out their wi-fi or 3G enabled iPad devices, the media will be able to curate the information and post it pretty quickly allowing their web teams back in the broadcast studios to share it with the world. Businesses will also be able to take part in using the service when they have major events as well.

Don’t miss any of your favorite social media trends ever again. This is the new generation of social bookmarking…with Delicious, you just had text links with little fanfare or care for the interface. Now with Pinterest you have some more visual appeal to your bookmarks, but often without threaded conversations and context. But with Storify, you’re able to share the entire conversation with whomever you wish and within one thread have plenty of media to help tell your story.

The Storify app is free to download right from the iTunes store or you can go to Storify’s website to read more.

Here’s a great video by Robert Scoble about Storify’s iPad app and a video tour:

Photo Credit: Evolution of reading by Alfred Lui/Flickr