Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

Kick off the weekend with our collection of cool finds:

Valerie

Appnoxious
Every week we at MobileBehavior discover several new iPhone, Blackberry, etc. apps that serve to inform and/or amuse us. In a story earlier this week on the this emerging app-centric wireless world, MSNBC seems to have coined a new word to describe their impact – “appnoxious.” This word made it from the story to an entry in the record of emerging language – Urban Dictionary – the same day. As defined by this crowdsourced site, it is “the ability of mobile devices to download apps for just about anything, making it impossible to get through a conversation or activity without someone having access to information that corrects, challenges, or supports you.”

Of course with words like “Bootylicious” moving from slang to inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary, we believe this too could become an official part of our language before too long. If so, you read it here first and perhaps you even used an app to do so.

Michael

Awkward Family Photos
This is the perfect site for your Friday afternoon. I first discovered it when a friend advised me to become one of their 21,300+ fans on Facebook. After noting AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com's Facebook profile pic (and the fact that my friend is a girl and adorable), I was sold. With Facebook being increasingly utilized more with the Boomers and scanners being fairly ubiquitous, we have ourselves a perfect combination to feature these fantastic portraits.

Samantha

Kanye Vision
Besides good music and outrageous rants, Kanye West is known for his crazy slatted sunglasses. Now you can see the world, or at least the Internet, the way Kanye sees it. F.A.T is offering a bookmarklet that slaps those shutter shades over your computer screen so you can surf the web with Kanye vision. Practical? Not at all, but it’s the closest you’ll ever be to getting inside Kanye’s head.

Laura

Cap Sac
Innovation powered not by a semiconductor or algorithm – but a zipper! Perhaps most intriguing about this “fannypack for your head” is that it seems poised for summer ’09 cult status. I attribute this to the mix of early buzz (check, check, check), self-aware camp factor and savvy use of social media – the site includes video uploads from already devoted fans. If we’ve learned anything from Snuggies to Soulja Boy, this formula doesn’t often disappoint. Whether the Cap Sac will be a fad or wield cultural staying power, however, remains to be seen. Either way, I call dibs on neon yellow.

Allison

Flittr
As anyone in marketing or advertising knows, stories are an incredibly powerful way to communicate. We do this through the “deck” (a Powerpoint/Keynote slideshow), but what about personal stories? Do we take time to curate a slideshow in Flickr or Photobucket that has a thread and cohesive meaning? Probably not. This is what led Vikram Tank to create Flittr for his ITP thesis. Flittr is an iPhone application that allows for creating short slideshows with 3 images and 15 seconds of audio and viewing these shows from a mobile phone. According to Vikram, “I looked at pervading trends on the web as well as in photography, and I found that craft can be an antidote to being inundated by information. I created a mobile application to explore the possibility of creating short slideshows with an emphasis on storytelling and curation.” Check it out: flittrapp.com.

Reming

Dork Yearbook
Remember Atari, floppy disks, Oregon Trail and the first time you played Mario Bros? Unlock the inner nerd that you try to keep under wraps and take a trip down memory lane with Dork Yearbook. Be sure to check out the post with the vintage Inside Edition interview with Nintendo—amazing!

Andrea F.

Facebooker, Tweeter or Spacer: Who are you? [MSNBC]
Are you one or are you all three?