Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

In an app economy, there ought to be a way to give. Now there is, with a new feature in iTunes, users can deliver specific mobile applications to their friends and family.

On the drop-down box on each application’s page (next to the “Buy” button) there’s now an option that says “Gift This App.” From that point, you then just enter in details like name, e-mail address and the message that you want to include.

While this has been possible with music albums, and there are app gift cards, this simple little feature could be great way to surprise a loved one on any given day.

[via mashable]

Razorfish has released its annual FEED study charting how consumers engage with brands in a digital era. It makes a few comments on mobile's increasingly vital role in consumerism today.  The iPhone is important, with the rise of Apple's iTunes App Store and a finding that 24% of consumers have downloaded a branded application. Other discussions include the logical swing away from display advertising for a more engaging digital brand experience. Get the PDF here.

• Sentiment Analysis Takes the Pulse of the Internet | NYTimes.com
  An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world’s unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data.
• Sharks vs. Cats!! on Tumblr
  The ultimate battle of the memes is going down on Tumblr right now. Users tag posts #shark or #cat to join the fight. 3 days left before the winner is decided.
• Twitter to roll out commercial accounts this year | VentureBeat
  Co-founder Biz Stone said the company is in the first phase of rolling out commercial accounts that will entice business users to pay for premium services like detailed analytics. After that, the company might move into building business-oriented application programming interfaces (APIs), creating a “commercial layer” over the social network.
• A Tall Tale: Did Twitter Really Save Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”? | AllThingsD
  Earlier this summer, Twitter was blamed for torpedoing movies like “Bruno” and “Funny Business.” Now it is being heralded for giving Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” a big boost. How much power does the micromessaging service have? Can Twitter save the economy?
• How social media became a weapon in the battle for App Store approval | Mobile Entertainment
  Facing Apple's strict approval process, developers are trying to force their hand by creating an online buzz around apps before they're submitted through blog posts and video demos in particular.
• 10 Things Your AR App Must Have to Succeed | The Future Digital Life (via everydayux)
  The iPhone OS3.1 release will connect the hype of Augmented Reality with the hype of the iPhone, and this list details what any good AR app (any app in general, for that matter) should have.
• CHART OF THE DAY: Twitter's Boom Around The World | Business Insider
  Over the last year, Twitter's traffic has exploded 15X to 44.5 million worldwide unique visitors in June, according to comScore. But Twitter's growth story isn't just limited to the U.S. and North America, where only about half its traffic comes from, according to comScore.
• Personas: Visualizing Your Online Identity | PSFK
  A component of the MIT Media Lab’s “Metropath(olgies)” installation, which looks at the non-stop flow of communication and information in the modern world, Personas delivers a data portrait of your online identity by combining natural language processing and Internet search tools.
• 50 Best Websites 2009 | TIME
  Time Magazine released their annual list of top websites. Flickr tops this year's roundup, which also includes the ubiquitous Twitter, ask-a-friend's friend engine Aardvark, music streaming site Spotify, gaming hub OMGPOP, and private file-sharing platform drop.io.
• Seventeen's Fashion Finder | Seventeen.com (via Cynopsis Digital)
  Seventeen Magazine's Fashion Finder iPhone app, which allows users to search for local availability of clothes, shoes and accessories by look or price point, has displaced Zippo's virtual lighter app as the top app in the Lifestyle category with over 75,000 downloads.
• Rhapsody iPhone App | Geeky Gadgets
  Music streaming site Rhapsody has submitted an iPhone app for approval to Apple for approval that offers on demand music streaming. In the past Apple hasn’t approved music streaming apps, as they might compete with with iTunes. In the past Apple hasn’t approved music streaming apps, as they are obviously concerned about competition with iTunes, if Rhapsody is approved it will give iPhone users access to over 8 million tracks and all of its radio stations.
• Mobile Phone Web Sites Top Online Growth In UK | Nielsen Wire
  Mobile phone websites were the fastest growing sector online in the UK with a 58% increase in unique visitors from 7.7 million in July 2008 to 12.2 million in July 2009, according to Nielsen. Drinks brands such as Ribena, Baileys and Coke were reportedly a major factor in this sector's growth.
• Microsoft OneApp Unlocks the Potential of Feature Mobile Phones in Emerging Markets
  Microsoft announced OneApp, a new software application that enables low-end feature phones to mimic the functionality of smartphones with easy access to mobile apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and other apps and games.

Move Over GPS, Here Comes the Smartphone [NYTimes]
Last year we said that mobile phones will kill GPS systems, well, it seems to be coming true. Sales of traditional GPS units from companies like TomTom, Garmin and Magellan have fallen sharply recently. Meanwhile, Garmin's plan to release a phone seems to be taking a lot longer than it should (accounced Jan 2008, now they're saying "later this year"). Guess they ran out of money....

Five Companies Joining Together For 2D Barcode Push [Mobile Marketing Watch]
Modavox, DuPont, Scanbuy, Graphic Packaging, and Augme Mobile are partnering to make mobile barcodes a mainstay in the US. Why could this actually work? DuPont and Graphic Packaging represent hundreds of packaged good services in a wide array of industries, putting the actual implementation directly into the development model.

The Future of the iPhone: Intelligent Object Recognition [Mashable]
Apple has filed patents for an augmented reality technology called ID App that uses image recognition to recognize objects and show more information about them.

6.5 Hours Per Month of Video Consumption Amongst Teens on their Mobile Phones [BitBriefs]
Research from Nielsen shows that 77% of 13-18 year olds own a phone, while 11% borrow one regularly. More specific usage numbers show that in Q1 of 2007, teens sent/received 435 sms a month on average. Q1 of 2009? 2899 text messages, yes that is a a 666% increase in two years. The data also shows mobile video usage by type (Music is number 1).

NY Philharmonic to Raise Funds Via Text Message [PC Magazine]
For its 2009 Concerts in the Park series, the NY Philharmonic is enabling SMS donations. Audience members can send $5 gifts with a limit of $25 per billing cycle and can even download a desktop widget to facilitate donations from home. Understanding the immediacy of the mobile to a user's life is key for leveraging the platform's potential. Signing up, filling out forms, is a discouraging for many, while sending a text is routine.

Google Product Search for Mobile Expanding Rapidly [IntoMobile]
Awhile back Google launched their Product Search for iPhone and Android and now support has been added for the Palm Pre and all devices (with a data connection) in the UK, US, Germany and South Korea.

Top 10 Youth Marketing Myths by Graham Brown [mobileYouth]
Straight to the point slide about the mistakes and misconceptions many marketers hold about Gen Y. Trying to define an age group by certain limited characteristics makes understanding youth easier, but reaching them impossible.

Days Inn Finds SMS is Key to CRM Strategy [Mobile Marketer]
The hotel chain is driving sign ups to an SMS database that lets them send out room offers. So far 30% of guests that opted in have called to make room reservations.

Broadcasters Hope To Re-Program How People Watch TV On Mobile Devices [mocoNews]
The ATSC Technology and Standards Group is due to vote this summer on a definite standard to offer TV to mobile phones. What does this mean for mobile users? Maybe nothing. Indeed, the format will require a special chip to be installed in mobile devices and users will have to pay a monthly fee to receive content. These two factors are enough to block wide adoption because users get plenty of video and TV through channels like Youtube and other streaming sites. Too little, too late?

Multi-Platform Media Sync Software DoubleTwist Gains “Hundreds Of Thousands Downloads”, Is Now Available in Japan [TechCrunch]
Double Twist has been steadily growing as a complementary software for iTunes. The PC/Mac application allows users to share all their photos, videos, and music from one place to a multitude of social networks and mobile devices.

Who Uses Social Networks and What Are They Like? (Part 1 and Part 2) [ReadWriteWeb]
According to research from  Anderson Analytics, 52% of SNS users are a fan of at least one band, 20% would like to see more communication from brands, 15% say they log on at work, at 63% only friend people they know.

Is BlackBerry in the Catbird Seat or the Doghouse? [FierceWireless]
Analysts are debating over the future of RIM. Surely all eyes will be on their new devices --the Tour, launching this summer, and BlackBerry Storm 2, launching in October.

Friday marks our staff members' collective opportunity to flag coolness.  We relish said opportunity.

JEREMY

iTunes 8.1 Lets Your Friends Pick Your Music with iTunes DJ [Gizmodo]
Music in 2009 is already a highly social phenomenon. Between letting my friends see my music on iLike or checking on the recent most played list on last.fm, it's easy to share, comment and discover music socially online. But the one place music ISN'T social yet is, ironically, when you're at a party. You know the type - they've meticulously selected the evening's playlist and there's no way your grubby hands are getting anywhere near iTunes to change it.

That's about to change though. iTunes 8.1 now features iTunes DJ - anyone with the latest version of remote on their iPhone can vote on songs coming up in your playlist, browse through the host's entire collection of songs and make requests. It begs the question: have we all gotten so socially awkward that we can't go up to the DJ and JUST REQUEST THE SONG? A cool feature nonetheless, particularly for larger public gatherings.

LAURA

Oregon Trail for iPhone
Few pixilated, late 80s floppy disk computer games captured the heart of a generation quite like the Oregon Trail. Ma's bouts with typhoid and the perils of wagon repair transcended demographics and, to this day, any American twentysomething worth her joystick can shoot a moose in three tries. So it was only a matter of time before this pop culture relic was dusted off. At $6.99, the Oregon Trail iPhone app brings the fun of river crossing and axel repair to your subway commute.  This morning I lost four of my children to dysentery before 34^th street.  Awesome!

ALLISON

foursquare
About a year of rumors that Google was closing Dodgeball, they finally did last week. I helped bury my favorite mobile service last Friday at the "Death of Dodgeball" party in New York with a packed bar of friends (there were also satellite parties in San Francisco and Portland). But we didn't mourn for long, at least those of us alpha testing foursquare. This new mobile social application from Dodgeball co-creator

Dennis Crowley and mobile whiz kid (and developer of our own mobile site) Naveen Selvadurai is Dodgeball on steroids. Not only can you meet up with friends, you can earn social "points" and discover new places--all through a slick location-aware interface. Now that it has made its grand debut in the App store, the gag order is officially over, so i'll be blogged about this some more. In the meantime check out the site (www.playfoursquare.com/web) and download it from iTunes here (http://bit.ly/xQlV).

VIKRAM

Paparazzi
Everyone whips out their cell phones at parties to snap pics, why not get points for doing it?  In this new mobile game from Socialbomb, you can.  It automatically links into your Facebook profile and when you snap a photo of your friends you get points, as do they for being in the photo.  But Paparazzi fame has its price: take too many photos of one person and they become toxic and cost you negative points.  It's a fun, easy way to make your social life more like a game. It's now available on iTunes  and on Facebook.

ANDREA F.

Sirius XM Radio planning to stream to iPhone, iPod [USA Today]
Not even Apple can save you...

SAMUEL

Akoha
Ever feel guilty about spending too much time gaming on your mobile device instead of saving the world?  Well, now you can do both at the same time!  With Akoha, the world's first social reality game, players earn points by conducting real-world good deed missions with their friends.  Missions are trackable online and multimedia uploads are encouraged.  So, go do something nice for your neighbor for a chance to win.