I take it back Chromecast, I hate Comcast

Last year, I wrote a post about the announcement that HBO was incorporating Chromecast into their app. I’d like to say that, to an extent, I take back. I own 2 Chromecasts, and I wish more apps had casting capabilities.

What I’ve found is the major flaw, are the licensing agreements networks have with the cable companies. Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to watch most major network programming without a subscription to a cable or dish service.

I look forward to the day when I can subscribe to individual shows or networks, instead of having to go through an intermediary like a cable company. It’s amazing in this day in age – when technology is eliminating so many intermediaries, particularly in the retail space – that companies like these aren’t just surviving, but thriving.

When I moved into a new home this summer, we attempted to “cut the cord” and only have a Comcast cable internet subscription (they thew in basic cable & HBO free for a year). After trying an Apple TV and a few other devices, I settled on 2 Chromecasts, a Roku, and 2 XBox 360s for our 3 TVs. What’s unsettling is that even if you subscribe to Comcast, they prevent you from using their services (and the networks, like HBO, you subscribe to through them) on pretty much everything but the XBox (they can’t stop the Chromecast, but do prevent viewing their channels on Roku, Apple TV, etc.).

I apologize to Chromecast for my ignorant remarks, as I now wish even more networks (read this ESPN, AMC, A&E, Discovery, HGTV, and others) enabled Chromecast on their apps. I realize now that it’s Comcast and the other cable/dish providers that are really the ones preventing progress in the entertainment space.

Augmented Reality for Marketers

Presenters: Lynne D Johnson – R/GA, John Havens – Porter Novelli
Hashtag: #arsxsw

There’s been a lot of talk over the last few years about augmented reality (AR), and the increasing adoption of smartphones and portable devices has accelerated predictions about its possibilities.  In fact, Juniper Research expects global revenue of AR to reach $1.5 billion in 2015.  Much of this is currently being driven by location based apps.  Those which have been successful for consumers have focused on utility and ease of use, and marketers have used it successfully for awareness and tracking ROI.

There are many, many different things that qualify as AR on this spectrum:

<–  SMS/QR codes – Web/Hologram – Location-Based – POS – Real World Applications –>

Here are a few examples of these types of AR:

QR Codes,  Webcam/Holigram example  – Dabs Acer Augmented Reality ad, Tissot watches (experience of how watch would look on you, and in store sales of watches grew by 85%), Location based examles: Le Bar Guide, Quiznos Layar, Yelp Monocle, Ebay Classifieds, Point of Service example with Legos Kiosk.

In order to move beyond the hype, AR must move beyond simple experimentation, gimmicks, and unnatural behaviors to things that are more useful, natural, and have advanced utility.  We’re only now moving toward real world applications that make life easier and will ultimately increase its adoption.  Examples include Google’s Goggles,  Word Lens,  BMW’s extension of reality for mechanics, Converse Sampler App (try shoe on virtually to see how it looks), and General Motors augmented reality windshield.

Right now, augmented reality is limited to certain devices, however, as it matures, and people see the utility in it and begin to view it as a virtual “GPS” for their lives, the next step are glasses, contacts, and eye tracking cameras that provide facial recognition.   Examples of things people already see this type of value in includes displaying nutritional information about food at restaurants and in dating – displaying web information about a person using facial recognition.

You can imagine that these types of things bring up interesting concerns, from individual privacy to “virtual air rights.”  The virtual air rights are a concern because, as the world around you is literally manipulated, it must be determined who can put what, where.  For example, can Pepsi pay to literally prevent you from seeing Coke machines?

Other interesting visions of what the future holds inlcudes:

TagWhat Augmented Reality network – lets you tag the virtual world, creating a virtual scrapbook at locations for you or your friends.

Virtual graffiti (seen here)

Bump (the iPhone app) – The next phase is to automatically send your information to other people in the same room, based entirely on certain criteria, such as their number of twitter followers.

Checking into products – Such as Stickybits – Illustrates that community management goes beyond online and into the world of virtual reality – listening to what consumers are saying in this new place.

Products checking in to you, through Facebook sponsored stories

Kraft – Anonymous Video Analytics (AVA) – At the point of purchase, the machine looks at you, estimates your age, sex, health, etc, and provides you with a unique ad/offer based upon your estimated demographics.

Activity Interference –  Jon Froehlich, at the University of Washington uses a microphone in the ear to detect when you are eating (with 99% accuracy).  He uses it to pick up on eating patterns and health, but this could be used in the future to help you track your eating habits, or even sound an alarm when you eating when you aren’t supposed to.

Facial recognition – allows you to see more information on the people you are with.  For example, Viewdle is a facial recognition program that shows you the most recent tweet, Facebook post, etc. of the people you are with.  It lets you identify who you may want to talk to in a social context, or in a business context, screen the people you are around to get more information on them.  Similarly, some companies are giving Facebook and Twitter credibility scores (such as Klout), which could allow you to scan the influential people in the room.

This same technology lets police now scan a crowd with a phone and see, through a tag in their phone, who the former criminals are in a crowd.  It’s good because it allows police to find people with a criminal history quickly, but bad because of potential implications of viewing – or blocking – people.  For example, a person might choose to not view any homeless people laying on the street, changing their perspective on the world.

As mentioned earlier, there are definite concerns with virtual air rights and virtual advertising rights.  For example, Bing can block out existing advertising and resell the rights to those ad spaces within their Streetview platform.

As you can see, the world of augmented reality is incredibly interesting, and it will only be a matter of time before we see the tipping point on many of these cutting edge technologies.

Handheld Media Revolution: Insights on Tablet Development

Speakers: Evan Doll – Co-founder, Flipboard, William “Whurley” Hurley – Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Chaotic Moon Studios, Oren Jacob – CTO at Pixar, Executive Producer for Ready, Set, Bag., Moderator: Jason Preston

I was extremely impressed with the panel, which included the founder of Flipboard, a hot iPad app for aggregating social info, the CTO of Pixar and producer for the movie Ready, Set, Bag, and the CTO of an app development company. They discussed the challenges and insights they’ve gained in developing for tablet, including the iPad.

The most important, and unanimous, point made was considering the user experience when developing. Mobile/handhelds/tables are all about context – how are you using it? How are they going to access it? What situation is it in? People are frantic with their phones, you don’t see that with tablets, it’s a more deliberate use.

There’s a growing number of places to put this content, but the predominant feeling of the panel was that Apple may be the best choice to develop for. The feeling was that Apple has a large user base, they support their platform – ensuring quality, and help you monetize it. When it comes to monetization, the feeling was that the mobile environment is easier to monetize than the web because with mobile, you’re in the moment – more than likely, you’re at the point of purchase. At least the context is often much better than the web.

One frustration of the panelists was the common belief that you could design apps once and then port them over to different devices.  You need ton consider the context of each device, as well as the capabilities/advantages/disadvantages of each.  In fact, the one panelist – the Chief Technology Officer of Pixar had hired Chaotic Moon Studios to do his iPad app.  Despite his great knowledge of technology and design, he knew that he didn’t know best practices for the iPad.  So that’s why he hired these developers to do it for him.

Finally, if you’re going to enter into developing apps, know that it’s not a once and done thing.  Despite the fact that most apps aren’t very successful, if it is successful, you had better prepare to support it and change it as devices change and evolve.  One panelist compared it to Flash – when it came out, it was cool and everyone wanted it.  After a while, you had a bunch of old flash websites that never changed because they invested a lot of money initially into something that was cool.

Foursquare at SXSW

Foursquare had been a bit coy these last couple weeks regarding their plans for SXSW, simply tweeting, “SXSW IS LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AWAY! NEW APP + NEW BADGES + PARTIES + CONCERT + MOAR FOURSQUARE. DETAILS COMING. OKTHXBAI.”

A few hours ago, they started to let us all in (a little) on what is to come. Their site – http://foursquare.com/sxsw – has been updated, and what we know is this:

• They’re releasing a new version of the app – Foursquare 3.0
• They’re hosting a party on 3/12 at the Cedar Street Courtyard
• They’re hosting a concert on 3/14
• They’re introducing 18 new badges (not sure if they’ll be exclusive to SXSW or not)
• They’ve partnered with American Express

I’m really excited and interested to see what becomes of the American Express partnership.  When I saw American Express’ own version of Foursquare built on Foursquare’s API – Social Currency – I was immediately impressed.  Not only did they add photo capabilities before Foursquare did, but they added a feature which allowed you to enter in how much you had spent at that venue.

With the partnership, any purchases made with an Amex card would not only check you in via Foursquare, but could provide incredible individual and aggregate data to retailers.  For example, with Best Buy’s Rewards card, they know how much you’ve spent with them – and provide you rewards based on how much you’ve spent.  They also know who you are, along with when and where you made the purchase.  That’s incredible data for targeted marketing and predictive modeling.

Now, every retailer (who accepts Amex), even the small business down the street could have this type of data on their customers, thanks to Foursquare and Amex.  It has the potential to be the retail version of Google analytics for businesses.  When you add the gaming incentives that Foursquare provides, you’ve got something that people want to do and are willing to give up this data for gaming and loyalty incentives.

Geolocation on the “Horizon”

Presenter: Jason Finkelstein, Director of Product Management & Marketing, WaveMarket, Inc.

Geolocation is here, but it’s still got a long way to come (pun intended).  Geolocation started with in-car navigation systems and then moved to personal navigation devices.  Now we’re onto personal location devices that can track you or devices.  The focus of this presentation was on mobile phones.

55% of all SMS messages are “where r u?” – That’s about 650 billion location based text messages in 2009.

We are just starting to see the future of location based services:

Location is a feature of many kinds of products and services, not an industry unto itself or a vertical market.

Types of Geolocation Data:

• Latitude/longitude
• Latency – how long does it take to find your signal/location
• Confidence – radius – still not a lot of confidence in cellular tower location
• Reverse Geocoded (real world address) and Points of Interest – pre-populated locations
• Location Tagged Info (Tweets, Flickr photos, etc.)
• Map Data Layers/GIS (This is a whole industry) – City names, street names, street geometry (one way street, speed limits), Satellite/birdseye/terrain

The industry is working on a “Z” (XYZ axis) to be able to track altitude.

Variables influencing ability to get location information from mobile devices:

Carrier Network – different carriers have different kinds of location built-into their networks, this location is accessed in different ways on each carrier network and can vary in accuracy and latency.

Device Type – 200 million mobile subscribers, Most (81.5%) have limited devices which generally don’t have GPS, but can be found. Some (18.5%) have smartphones with GPS built in.

While the use of GPS chips is increasing, if you are planning to develop location based apps today, you must still cater to the 4/5 of people who do not have this functionality.  The value chain for this development is structured like this:

1. Infrustructure players – Do the calculation of where that phone is – Qualcomm, Nokia Siemens Networks, Sony Ericson, Redknee

2. Wireless carriers – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon – provide the phones and services

3. Location Aggregator – Veriplace – pulls together location data for API tie in by developers

4. LBS Developer/Content – develop the apps and plug-ins

5. End User – uses the device, apps, etc.

However, when GPS is built into the phone, this chain is not completely required.  Apps can then be built to interact with the internal GPS API to utilize location data.

Here are the ways location can be accessed today along with advantages and disadvantages of each:

Standalone GPS – It’s free, uses GPS satellites, so need line of site location.  It’s high accuracy, but it takes a long time to get location (minutes), and some carriers lock the GPS chip.  Download and install an app is still a challange for most people and app developers must develop for different devices.  Also, the app must be running to access location.  It does provide latitude and longitute, which the others don’t.

Cell ID – It depends upon a location database of cell towers.  The phone connects to cell tower and this “location” uses knowledge of where the cell tower is located.  The accuracy of this is lower, but it’s used for both smartphones and feature phones, because it can be located indoors, and has quick location fix (<3 seconds).

WiFi – This also depends on a location database.  It’s similar to Cell ID, but uses MAC addresses on WiFi hotspots – which have limited coverage today.  It can be unreliable due to wifi spots that move. However, if the device has open access to wifi the cost is zero.

Carriers are supporting more location based technolgies on both smarphones and feature phones and sometimes use a combination of the methods above for identifying location:

Assisted GPS – A hybrid of GPS and Cell ID

Triangulation – AFLT – The next level of Cell IDs, it uses multiple Cell ID’s to center a location.  It’s easily accessible via carrier networks and quick  (<10 seconds)

Location is still a challenge for many developers because of this confusing web of networks and the many ways devices can use to find location.  App developers in this area are still sorting through the challenges of location information and authentication and a whole new layer of legal and privacy challenges have arisen.  A recent study showed that people are more concerned about privacy surrounding their location than their credit card data.

Therefore, developer have proceeded forward with a few approaches, such as choosing to focus only on downloadable apps for limited smartphones (iPhone/Android).  Some have made deals with carriers, but there’s a high barrier to entry, so some are working through aggregators like Veriplace to add location to certain app types like sms/voice/web.

Mobile Content is Social

Presenters: Michael Sharon – Facebook , Tom Watson – Facebook, Justin Shaffer – Hotpotato

By itself, mobile devices are immersive – it’s always with you and provides a way for you to exist in a physical or mental place other than where you currently are.  Tools that have been added to those devices have made them “social hubs,” allowing you to connect with others almost anywhere.  There are several things which will continue to evolve to make it even more social.

Friends – Above all, users will tell and demonstrate that this is most important.  However, the debate is what information people want from their friends.  When Facebook changed its mobile friend feed from alphabetized to most recent, it saw an enormous spike in use.  The next debate is figuring out if people want to see the “Top News” or “Most Recent.”  More and more, you’ll see a combination of your Facebook contacts merging with your address book to make sure you have the most updated contact information as well.  Finally, Facebook Connect is even making the gaming experience more social as people can connect games and apps to their friends.

Notifications – There are two types of notifications people are interested in – Active, or what’s happening now, and Passive, or what’s happened since I last checked.  While “push” features make active notifications easier, there’s a fine line between wanted updates and spam.  Therefore, it is extremely important to test this feature before implementation.

Sharing – Facebook knows that people want to share photos (and more and more video and audio).  What has helped this explode has been the speed at which someone can post a photo from a mobile device, and the added ability to “tag” people in photos.  Tagging photos has significantly increased photo viewing as sharing photos becomes a social experience.

Serendipity – The introduction of location based services help you figure out which of your friends is nearby.  This feature has already been implemented by Foursquare, Gowalla, HotPotato, etc.

Discovery – While finding out a friend is nearby is serendipitous, there’s also the potential to discover new people or events.  Mobile offers the ability to do this even better, but what we have yet to see are the privacy implications and the ability to see both your friends and people you don’t know who are nearby (or at the same event).

Control – There has been an explosion in where you can post content.  The same photo/message can be uploaded to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc. in the click of a button.  Users want to know how they can decide where to send it, and “take it back” if necessary (which apparently happens WAY more often than you might think).

Intent – Tools need to be designed to elicit the response you’re looking for.  Make it easy to find the way you want people to participate and put it right up front.

Feedback – Commenting provides a cycle of reinforcement and mobile makes this instantaneous.  Feedback is essential, whether it’s comments or Rewards (like Foursquare badges or Gowalla virtual items). Giving somebody something to respond to makes it social.

Mobile becoming more social will be driven by 3 things – Touch, Speed, and Connection

Touch – How it’s designed and what it information it can allow you to share.  An emerging element of touch is a phone that automatically monitors things – temperature, location, weather, altitude, etc.  Things must be designed for the medium (Facebook’s mobile experience diverges significantly from its web experience) and the context in which it will be used.

Speed – Devices are become faster and can do more, but it’s also about the speed of transferring information through networks (getting this information into the cloud and not just onto the device).

Connection – API’s will rule the future.  It’s about connecting all of your networks and information together and allowing the user to determine how/when/what/where/etc. is shared.

Twitter’s ‘@anywhere’ Third-Party-Integration App Announcement

Just a quick follow-up to the video clips Koz posted yesterday from Twitter co-founder and CEO Evan Williams’ SXSW Keynote interview:

• There’s been a flood of analysis, opinion, and information on the heels of Williams’ (@ev) announcement of the new Twitter third-party-integration application, “@anywhere.”

• If you’re not currently a Twitter user, the ability @anywhere will provide to seamlessly mesh Twitter with other sites, such as The New York Times, Amazon, and eBay, and let users share links and add “follows” without leaving the sites, may certainly bring more users to Twitter.

• Here’s a good write-up from TechCrunch about the features and third-party partners (so far).

I can easily see how @anywhere will change the way I use Twitter. It may sound silly, but I also get how it aligns with Twitter’s No. 1 company principle: Be a force for good.

As @ev said yesterday, “Access to information … is about reducing the walls between influencers and the influenced. Democratization of information changes the world.”

The Rise of Mobile, Web Run-Times, and APIs

DISCLAIMER: Despite my average tech knowledge, this session was WAY over my head.  I’ve tried to capture it as best I can and hopefully you get it.

Daniel Appelquist, Tech Strategist at Vodaphone in UK

It’s the Web, but not as we know it.

Interactivity and graphics

Both Canvas and SVG are integrated into HTML5

W3C Widgets

Widgets and HTML5

• Widgets can use HTML5
• Widgets is a different take on offline apps from HTML5 Appcache
• HTML5 Apps Web Apps written in HTML5 packaged up as Widgets
• Use Phonegap to package these as iPhone apps (for legacy purposes)

APIs

Web Location: the W3C Geo API – Browser using location information

Used by Google maps, local search, Gowalla

Why is location sexy?

• Find what you’re looking for
• Refine search
• Add location to any Web App
• Apps like Gowalla are already on the web – http://m.gowalla.com

W3C Device APIs – working on:

• Contact book, calendar, filesystem, capture audio/video, messaging, device interface, etc.

Mobile: Agency, Carrier & Manufacturer

Presenter: David Hewitt, Sapient

There are key challenges for mobile stakeholders and there are opportunities for agencies to assist.  Here are the challenges and opportunities:

Network operators business challanges

• Reduce costs, churn
• Driving quality, consistency, and experience

Opportunity for agencies

• Position carriers for differentiation
• Bring in the big ideas – that can actually be implimented
• Ability to facilitate dependencies between client groups
• Ability to craft user experiences across multiple devices and help bring specific devices up to carrier standards

Agencies challenges

• New, rapidly changing,
• Competitive, need right ideas and empowering them with tec, need right capabilitys
• Death by estimation – pick the ones that make sense and chart the path

Agency Opportunities

• Educate clients about mobile
• Leverage social media to drive sales
• Include mobile in both media planning and campaign creation
• Work with/hire people with mobile experience

Mobile – The Great Channel Equalizer

David Gill – Neilsen

Mobile is growing, but in what ways and what audience?  Mobile is growing, but one of the largest areas of mobile growth is mobile video.  This area experienced 57% growth last year as people viewed an average of 3 hours of mobile video each month.  This isn’t cutting down on TV viewing though – 59% of Americans with home internet access use TV and the Internet simultaneously at least once a month.  Subscription video content and downloaded video content are the areas of largest mobile video growth over the last year.  Teens overindex in the area of time spent with mobile video, with 36% of them spending 30 minutes to an hour on mobile video each month.

What’s driving this growth – better hardware, a better user experience, apps, sharing and discover, and expanded access to both devices and networks.

How big is it getting – There are currently 30 million people with smart phones, which is expected to nearly double by the end of 2010.  Neilsen is predicting that smart phones will be the majority of mobile phones by Q3 2011.  This is evident by the fact that year-after-year, people who get new phones are choosing smart phones.  Last year hit the highest marks ever in this area – 28.4% of people who got a new phone last year chose a smart phone.

Apps are obviously a growing area.  They have not been very successful on Blackberries since most of these are “enterprise controlled” and downloading apps on them are restricted or frowned upon.  However, the area of most growth is among young kids who are downloading free apps.  Neilsen predicts this area will only continue to grow further.  Texting is a huge area for teens, but particularly among 13-17 year olds.  They text nearly twice as much as any other group (see the photo of the chart.

Overall, Neilsen is keeping a sharp eye on how teens are using mobile – video, texting, apps – because they believe this will drive the future of mobile.

SXSW Scene: Who’s the dude playing four square?

Koz and I were leaving the Austin Convention Center tonight and saw these guys playing four square right outside the doors. We stopped to watch and take a few pictures.

While other up-and-coming brands are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their buzz on at South by Southwest Interactive, this simple game (which cost about $5.99 in sidewalk chalk) had people lined up to play.

Location Based Wars Heating Up

Unfortunately, I’m still sitting here in Bloomington waiting for my flight.  It’s now been delayed 2 hours and 15 minutes.  It’s given me time to double check things (although I’ll still probably forget something) and update my iPhone.

I’ve already mentioned that the location based wars were heating up before SXSW, but I was shocked when I went to update my iPhone today and had app updates from Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, and Whrrl.  And these are just the location based apps I have on my phone (along with Brightkite).

It should certainly be interesting to watch as things progress this weekend as each are running plenty of promotions.  Gowalla is even throwing a party, and the only way to get in is to “find” a virtual VIP wristband by checking in around Austin.  They’re also having a contest giving away some real items if you find them virtually.