Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

There has been much talk about how effective mobile devices are in a classroom setting. Since the start of 2009, industry experts have been spreading the word that smartphones should play a role in the classroom. From developing mobile educational software to testing its usage in the classroom, here is how this trend is received around the world.

• The Mobile Learning Environment is an educational tool used to turn smartphones into personal computers. Currently implemented in two Texas classrooms, it includes programs that let students map concepts, animate their drawings, surf relevant parts of the Internet and integrate their lessons and assignments. It also includes mini versions of Microsoft Word and Excel.

• Digital Millennial conducted a study of four North Carolina schools in low-income neighborhoods, where 9th and 10th-grade math students were given smartphones by HTC. The devices operated Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software and special programs to help students with algebra studies. The students used the phones to record, share, and discuss their work, including posting videos on a private networking site. The study found that students with smartphones performed 25 percent better on the final algebra exam at the end of the school year, than did students without the smartphones in similar classes.

• The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina created The Birds and the Bees Text Line, a center that sends instant text messages to sex-related questions posed by teenagers. As epidemiologists claim sex education in the classroom is often ineffective, the program was created as a solution to provide teens with advice from a faceless, non-judgmental expert.

• Beginning March 2009, the government of Tajikistan banned the use of mobile phones in all educational facilities in the country, including schools and universities, to both students and teachers. Perhaps this was a response to the overwhelming impact of protesters who used Twitter to share with the world and speak out against the happenings on war in Iran.

• As we mentioned previously, Purdue students are experimenting with a social "backchannel" platform, called Hotseat, that integrates Twitter, Facebook, and SMS text messaging to make comments in real-time during class. It's being pilot tested in two courses. Professor Sugato Chakravarty, whose personal finance course is one of the pilot tests, said, “I’m seeing students interact more with the course and ask relevant questions.”Implementing smartphones in classrooms is the next step in tomorrow's technology.

Smartphones have already become our dominant communication device. Decades ago educators were skeptical at how the PC would play a role in education. This generation of millenials' conversations will accelerate faster than ever. It is up to instructors and educators to navigate these budding conversations to mature levels of thinking and questioning, as higher education aims to do.

Janice Momoko Chow is a freelance strategist and writer in New York City.  She writes Momoko Mashups, a blog about ideas and inspiration for tomorrow.

• What Do All These Phone Apps Do? Mostly Marketing | NYTimes.com
  This article compares apps to websites in the early days of the web. Says one expert: “It’s starting to get to this point that if you don’t have an app, it’s a little silly; you are behind the times.” Advertising apps are now evolving from novelties to utilities, but the biggest challenge for apps as ads for now is that they are best suited to niche markets.
• Muzu.tv Launches | WebTVWire
  Music videos are a big part of the online video sector. They’re hugely popular on YouTube, and there’s a new YouTube-backed music video site called Vevo launching soon. But Muzu.tv has beaten Vevo to the punch and launched while our backs were turned.
• The ‘Twitter Feed, Netflix Faves’ Mating Game | Bits Blog/NYTimes.com
  A new online dating service called Gelato is based on the notion that your lifestream could be the way to find love online. Rather than relying on static profiles that people post, Gelato taps into your Facebook, Twitter, Hulu or Netflix accounts to provide a running list of your interests.
• Two New Apps Superimpose Wikipedia Over Your iPhone Camera View of the World | ReadWriteWeb
  Wikitude and Cyclopedia, now in the iTunes store, let you view Wikipedia entries about physical locations you look at through your iPhone camera.
• Avatar toys go augmented-reality, courtesy of Mattel and Total Immersion | CrunchGear
  Mattel's new toys for James Cameron's Avatar movie includes a little card that is scannable via webcam and creates an on-screen augmented reality robot or character. Check out the demos at AvatarItag.com.
• Zattikka Announces Atomico Ventures as Lead Institutional Investor | Press Release
  The new online and smartphone gaming network announced today that Atomico Ventures, founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis of Skype and Joost, participated in its oversubscribed seed round. On September 10th Zattikka announced its first acquisition, the highly regarded flash gaming site, Gimme5games.
• Half of Americans Sleep with Cellphone | Marketing Charts
  More than four in 10 Americans say they “can’t live” without their mobile phone and and nearly half sleep with it nearby, according to a global mobile-phone survey from Synovate, which found that cellphones are increasingly becoming consumers’ “remote controls for life.”
• You Aren’t Alone If You Hate Voicemail; Witness The ‘Rebirth’ Occurring Now | mocoNews
  Voicemails are becoming a dying breed as new technologies transcribe voice to text and email, Twitter and text messages become an easier and more instant way to communicate.
• Women Rule the Social Web | Mashable
  When it comes to sites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, MySpace, and Bebo, women outnumber men. There’s only one major holdout for men on the social web: social news site Digg, where 64% of users are male.

• Pushing the buttons for social change | The Hindu (via MobileActive)
  A one-day camp, Mobile Tech 4 Social Change, will held in Bangalore this Thursday to exploring the power of mobile technology to advance social change goals. Participating NGOs will discuss problems and different ways to use, deploy, develop and promote mobile technology in health, advocacy, economic development, environment, human rights, and citizen media to name a few areas.
• Mobile Web Use to Triple, says Forrester | Mobile Marketing Magazine
  According to a new Forrester Research forecast, by 2014, nearly 40% of European consumers will be tapping into the web via their mobile phone.
• Nokia Sets Facebook Deal, Launches New Phones | WSJ.com
  Today Nokia showed off new music phones and multimedia services, including a "Lifecasting with Ovi" offering that integrates its phones with social-networking service Facebook.
• Napster Commits iPhone-cide; Opts Out Of Streaming App Competition For Now | mocoNews
  While RealNetworks looks for Apple to approve its Rhapsody iPhone app and newcomer Spotify prepares to launch, the wait for a similar streaming app from Napster is over: there won’t be one. Apparently the Best Buy subscription music service has designed an app that would allow subscriber streaming to the iPhone but won’t submit it for Apple approval “due to the high licensing fees for streaming to a mobile phone."
• Audible adds mobile calls to action to traditional advertising | Mobile Marketer
  Print ads for the audiobook seller include a mobile call to action, asking consumers to text AUDIBLE to short code 35620 to get a bestseller free. The mobile calls to action are present within New York Times and Wall Street Journal print ads, online via banner ads, and on New York City subway trains. We've seen a few similar ads on the subway and have to wonder if that's the best idea, considering there is rarely reception down there.
• New gadgets prod people to remember their meds | The Boston Globe
  A study released this month by the New England Healthcare Institute found that anywhere from a third to a half of all Americans don’t take their meds, or don’t take them at the right time or at the right dosage. To address this, MedMinder has designed an intelligent pill organizer called Maya that reminds patients when each pill needs to be taken.
• GPS Hackers Blaze Own Trails With Crowdsourced Maps | Wired.com
  Roughly half a million people are eschewing proprietary maps information from GPS companies and instead going with crowdsourced versions, all based on data from map hack site OpenStreetMap.
• July 2009 Metrics Report | AdMob Metrics
  Mobile ad network AdMob surveyed over 1,000 of our iPhone, iPod touch and Android users to find our more about their interaction and download behavior with apps. Highlights include:
  • Android and iPhone users download approximately 10 new apps a month, while iPod touch owners download an average of 18/month
  • More than 90% of Android and iPhone OS users browse and search for apps directly on their mobile device instead of their computer
  • Upgrading from the lite version was the top reason given when users were asked what drives them to purchase a paid app
  • iPhone and iPod touch users are twice as likely to purchase paid apps than Android users
  • Users who regularly download paid apps spend approximately $9 on an average of five paid downloads per month
• Yelp Brings First US Augmented Reality App to iPhone Store
  Social review service Yelp has snuck the first Augmented Reality (AR) iPhone app specifically for the US into the iTunes App Store. The "easter egg" feature allows iPhone 3Gs owners to shake their phones three times to turn on a view called "the Monocle," which uses the phone's GPS and compass to display markers for restaurants, bars and other nearby businesses on top of the camera's view.
• Coupons You Don’t Clip, Sent to Your Cellphone | NYTimes.com
  Mobile coupons — usually text messages with discount codes sent to a cellphone — are becoming the blue-light specials for the digital age, promoting last-minute clothing sales, two-for-one entrees and cheap tickets to the theater.

What Parents Think Teens Are Doing on Social Networks, and What the Teens are Actually Doing [LA Times]
Common Sense Media has found that 37% of teens claim to use social networks to make fun of others, though only 18% of parents believe their own kids do so. The rest of the data illustrates parents' misguided perception of teens' social behavior.

Verizon, LG Give Jonas Bros. Fans a Kick [AdWeek]
The Jonas Brothers are holding  video contest that will allow U.S. concert attendees to create an interactive video of themselves jamming out or playing kickball with the band, via green screen technology. "Playing live in front of our fans and interacting with them in new ways is really what it's all about for us," said Kevin Jonas.

Will Barack Obama's Media Ubiquity Be the Most Significant Aspect of His Presidency? [New York Magazine]
Through Twitter, Flickr, SMS speeches, Facebook campaigns, and an iPhone app, this White House is defining itself by its use of social, digital, and mobile technology in reaching to the American people and the world.

Your "Real" Friends are Your Online Friends (or so Says Gen Y) [ReadWriteWeb]
A recent UK Myspace study amongst 16,000 14-21 year old found that 36% found it easier to talk about themselves online than offline. Compare that to  72% who felt "left-out" in their offline social interactions.

A Text Messaging Reference Service [ResourceShelf]
The Alliance Library system has partnered with 50 libraries to offer SMS reference inquiries to its users. Patrons will be able to text an actual librarian to receive info about specific books.

Apple to Stream First Live Concert to the iPhone Tonight [NewTeeVee]
Tonight Apple will produce its first-ever live event streamed to the iPhone: A concert by the electronica band Underworld. You can view the stream at iphone.akamai.com or underworldlive.com.

Think Again: Twitter [Foreign Policy]
As Twitter is being hailed as a democratic power tool, users must bear in mind that authoritarian regimes will not have too much problem tracing back to dissidents.

Need to Deposit a Check? Try Your iPhone [MarketingVOX]
This week, the USAA bank will releasing an iPhone app that allows its customers to take a picture of a check as a deposit method. After the picture is taken and sent, users can even void or destroy the check.

AR + Physics + Marbles [RubbishCorp]
Students at Columbia University's Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab have developed an augmented reality game that guides a virtual marble through a dynamic maze of obstacles.

Can Smartphones Save the Sex Business? [Fast Company]
The current slump in the adult entertainment industry is about more than just the recession. Like music and news, porn must compete against a raft of free content. Now the business is betting that mobile is its salvation.

Big Media Companies Navigate Free Content and Apps [NYTimes]
Media companies are rushing to offer iPhone apps, while trying to find the right revenue model, including one-time payments, in-app ads, monthly subscription, and paid content.

British Troops Encouraged to Tweet (To a Degree) [Marketing Pilgrim]
Soldiers from the UK have been officially allowed to tweet as long as the info shared is respectful of army policy. The move comes as a sharp contrast with the US army, which has banned all use of social media while on duty.

Millennials Are More Likely To Pay For Your Content [Engage: Gen-Y]
New research shows that 80% of Gen-Y would consider paying for music compared to only 52% of baby boomers. Similar results for paid TV content (Gen-Y 69%, Boomers 51%) and news content (Gen-Y 43%, Boomers 36%).

New Use for Your iPhone: Controlling Drones [Wired]
MIT has been exploring intuitive ways for the military to control unmanned robots, including an iPhone app. Not only would a iPhone-like controller make soldiers’ jobs much easier, it also opens up UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to a whole new, non-military market. If robot control is cheap and intuitive, people might find all kinds of new uses.

The Mobile Broadband Era: It's About Messages, Mobility and The Cloud [O'Reilly Radar]
From MS-DOS to Windows 2000, the way we interact with technology defines how the technology is actually relevant. Now, we are in the mobile broadband era, defined by new and more diverse usage possibilities.

Ginger Anyhow’s Embroidered Text Messages [PSFK]
Ginger Anyhow is translating transient SMS communication into handmade mementos in her "Embroidered Text Messages" series.  The artist recreates each SMS stitch by stitch, thus archiving a message in time, while preserving an ever changing language for future generations.

Photo Contest at the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion [Shanghaiist]
The photo contest is open to anyone who wants to submit a picture related to the campaign's themes. Selected pics will feature on LED screens, billboards, and touch-screen posters all around Shanghai.

Coca-Cola's 100-Flavor Interactive Freestyle Soda Fountain in Action [Fast Company]
Check out Coca-Cola "Freestyle" fountain in action. The vending machine uses RFID technology to let people mix flavors to create a unique drink.

Toyota Plants Giant Solar-Powered Flowers Across US Cities [Physorg]
To promote the launch of its 2010 Prius, Toyota has set up these 18 feet flower-like structures in major US cities that offer free Wi-Fi and electric plugs.

Yahoo Unveils New Home Page [Marketing Pilgrim]
Yahoo has unveiled a new home page that now hosts 3rd party apps and social network widgets. The key change, besides personalized content, is the removal of the tons of links to scores of Yahoo services. Most people only use a handful of those services, says Yahoo, so it’s better to let users decide which ones are present and take up screen real estate.

Mobile in the Middle [Greg Verdino]
Verdino looks at how mobile technologies like barcodes and augmented reality apps can blur the increasingly narrow line between online and offline identities, and online and offline social networking.

Visa Europe Testing SMS Transaction Alerts… Apps Coming Soon? [IntoMobile]
Visa's new mobile service in the UK sends a notifications to users every time their credit card is used, helping people manage expenses in real time and prevent fraud.

Text-or-Treat for UNICEF [UNICEF]
Every fall, UNICEF organizes it's Trick-or-Treat campaign that gives U.S. kids an opportunity to raise money for other children in the world. The event has now integrated a mobile component where anyone can text TOT to 864233 to make a $5 donation.

Study Shows Browsing On The iPhone Is Nearly As Good As Using A PC [mocoNews]
Nielsen conducted a study of iPhone usage vs. PC usage. Asked to complete certain online tasks, PC users were able to complete 80% of them, while iPhone users hit 75%.

Viralsourcing: Let Crowds Create Your Ad Message [BusinessWeek]
"Viralsourcing" is a cute combination two other buzzwords -- "crowdsourcing" and "viral marketing" -- that identifies the practice of tapping "the crowd" for things typically handled internally like product design/promotion and ad creative/distribution.

10 Ways to Use Social Media to Pick a College [Mashable]
This comprehensive list offers alternative ways of choosing a school, besides official (and often irrelevant) rankings. Many include various non-academic indicators (parties, food, opposite sex, drugs, parking) to help prospective students select their ideal college experience.

Addicts of the Information Age [WSJ]
Can't put your smartphone down? Some may call you rude, the Wall Street Journal call you a "Smartphoniac". This "condition" crosses demographics and goes way beyond bad manners, stemming from “a deeper disconnect anxiety, an irrepressible fear that you will miss something if you put it away." Look for the University of Florida's study on the subject, currently being conducted.

GeoMe Launches World’s First Mood Based Search Engine on Mobile [IntoMobile]
The search engine offers location-based searching with updates for your friends. Available on any Java based phone, users can even indicate their mood (from "Cheap" to "Sexy") for filtering results. The search engine battle continues, will niche dominate mass?

Facebook Debuts 'Fan Box' Tool [CNET News]
The social network is opening up even more with a widget for brands, products, celebrities, or anyone that has a fan page to embed their presence on their own sites.  People can now become fans, get live updates, even browse other fans' pictures without going to Facebook at all.

YAPPA Rolls MagaStore iPhone App [Wireless Watch Japan]
YAPPA and Dentsu have launched an iPhone app for browsing or buying Japanese magazines.  The project is going to be launched on a multitude of mobile platforms, and promises to be huge and probably imitated elsewhere (CondeNast, are you reading this?).

Africa texts Obama Before Visit [BBC News]
Obama is once again using mobile technology to connect with the people, soliciting questions via text prior to his trip to Africa. The best questions will be selected by African journalists and asked to the Prez. Who needs the red phone anymore? Just text the guy.

Google's AdSense for iPhone Trips up Advertisers [Advertising Age]
Fresh from its launch two weeks ago, Google AdSense for iPhone is still facing some issues, mainly that ads look formatted for the desktop and not mobile. This is by design; Google thinks that HTML-enabled smartphones are just like little desktops. However this fails to consider the unique relationship that people have with their phones.

Youth Lifestyle Trends | Youth Marketing Mobile Culture Research [mobileYouth]
A look at how teens in China use their mobile, how entrepreneurship might save unemployed youth, and a general roundup of what is happening to young people everywhere.

Coldwell Banker Uses Billboard to Interact with Mobile Consumers [Mobile Marketer]
A huge billboard display on Times Square lets you text any zipcode to 30241 and see sample prices for homes in that area...on the billboard. The interactive DOOH campaign is a smart idea for the real estate powerhouse, especially since the real estate market's integration into the mobile universe is sill lagging.

Trends in Youth Media [mobileYouth]
New research about teen music consumption, their relationship to TV, and their responsiveness to ads on various mediums.

Two in three Japanese dissatisfied with their mobile carrier [WhatJapanThinks]
New study by Goo research shows that 2/3 of Japanese from all ages, and sexes, are dissatisfied with their carrier. The grudge comes from voice plan rates, data rates, network availability, and lack of choice for phone model.

Boston Debuts Citizen Connect iPhone App [PSFK]
The city of Boston has just released an iPhone app that allows residents to file minor complaints with their mobile device. The app supports picture, and text complaints which are geo-tagged through the iPhone's GPS. After mobilizing the complaint, residents receive a tracking number to follow what the city is doing about it.

Google Maps Will Now Include Property Listings [BusinessInsider]
Available in Australia, Gmaps now offers Aussies the ability to find real estate deals around them. The certainty of the feature being launched in the U.S. is unquestionable. Idea: how about a mobile app that notifies apartment hunters when they are in proximity of a location that meets their criteria.

Raising the Ante on Metrics for Mobile Advertising [Mobile Marketer]
In the constant move to find accurate ways of measuring the effectiveness of advertising, the mobile platform offers detailed metrics that no other medium can. Whether through WAP, or smartphone browsing and applications, mobile metrics offer users' preferences, history and, most importantly, behavior.

Obama On The Go: Clippz Launches Mobile Channel For White House Videos [TechCrunch]
Clippz eliminates the hassle of figuring out if a video will play on your phone.  By entering your phone model, the service offers you a choice of videos that will play on your device. They even launched a dedicated White House channel.

Taco Bell Spices up Marketing Strategy with Mobile [Mobile Marketer]
Taco Bell has just launched a new iPhone application to promote its 79, 89, 99 cents value meal. Users enter their budget, shake their phone, and get a randomized choice from the value meal. Taco Bell says that the mobile medium is perfect for its demographic, and the on-the-go customer.

Watermelon Express [Watermelon]
Crunching for the GRE, LSAT, GMAT, MCAT, or even the SAT? Watermelon Express offers internet, laptop, and mobile applications to help you study wherever you are, whenever you want.