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Filling pot holes on the information super highway for 25 years...

The Last Weekly Round up of mobile news from Mutual mobile.

 

Well guys here is my last a weekly Mobile blog post coming from you by Mutual Mobile.  Please feel free to go and signup at mutualmobile.comI apologize for the formatting look, MM changed their format which makes it a pain to copy over in here but here it is, The info is still great.

Starting in a couple weeks you will be seeing new stuff brought to you by my new employer Chaotic Moon.  Please go check us out www.chaoticmoon.com

What To Expect From Apple’s October 22nd iPad Event
The Verge

New iPads are a certainty, but there’s plenty more that Apple could have in store for consumers ahead of the holiday shopping season. Here’s what you should — and shouldn’t — expect from Apple’sOctober 22nd event.

 

NEWS AND INSIGHTS
The New York Times

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The race for the tablet market has become a full-blown sprint. The intense competition will be highlighted on Tuesday, as Apple, Nokia and Microsoft each introduce new tablets.
The Huffington Post

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While the Surface 2 is probably most fairly compared to an iPad or high-end Android tablet, the Surface Pro 2’s processing power makes it more like a laptop.
The Verge

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 While we wait for someone, anyone, to deliver the ultimate smartwatch, what can the best devices available today tell us about perfecting the smart wrist-accessory?
Mobile Commerce Daily

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Mobile’s immersion in our everyday lives actually provides retailers a valuable opportunity to embrace mobile as an asset and use it to foster the biggest advantage a bricks-and-mortar store has to offer: personalized, superior-level customer service.
TIME

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Even though Apple really did make the iPad for consumers, Jobs and his team fully expected it to also become attractive to business users.
Consider us your mobile update. Trends, platforms and strategies. Covering the biggest news in mobile, in just around a minute.
RESEARCH
ZDNet

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Pew Research found that tablet ownership among Americans has now hit the 35 percent mark, up 10 percent from a year ago.
VentureBeat

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The wearable devices industry, which includes smart watches and glasses, will be worth $19 billion by 2018. That’s a big jump over the $1.4 billion the industry is expected to pull in this year, according to Juniper Research, which produced the numbers.
eMarketer

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This year, more than half of US adult internet users, or 102.5 million people, will redeem a digital coupon via any device for either online or offline shopping. New data indicates that there was a significant increase in the number of digital coupon users during the first half of 2013.
ReadWrite

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Apple’s iOS 7 has been available to the public for exactly one month. In that time, about 73% of all iOS users have updated their iPhones, iPads and iPods to Apple’s new operating system, amounting to a little more than 250 million devices.
Forbes

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iOS dominated as the platform of choice for enterprise app deployment with 98% and 95% share in the June and September quarters, respectively.

Eruption, for the Oculus rift game jam contest has been released!! (Shameless self promotion)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uTMI-E0A-N4

Game Description:
Deep in the bowels of a top secret building of S.T.Z.M.N. research facility a lab assistant works late into the night tending to their quadrant smears. In the lab next door things go horribly wrong with a timeline experiment and in an instant the lab assistant is sucked into the void and transported millions of years into earth’s primordial past.

Our hero, dazed and confused, is shaken back into consciousness by a massive quake. Looking around they are surrounded by a harsh, unfamiliar, and unforgiving terrain. The ground shakes again and our hero looks around in time to see a massive volcano erupting in the distance. As the shockwave hits our hero’s fight or flight instincts kick in and they take off running for their life.

Eruption, is a 2.5D platformer designed to challenge the player to escape the hostile world they find themselves in and make it to safety. The user will be forced to look around and dodge incoming objects from all directions. Players will have to think on their feet running, jumping, and sliding in order to save themselves from almost certain doom.

The path to the end is never as easy as it seems.

Controls:
Left/Right – L/R Arrow keys or A and D
Slide – Down key or S
Jump – Space
(Beta) Zoom out – Ctrl

Eruption!!
Built by myself and 4 other guys for the VR Game Jam (@zach, @sorensilk, Nick, and Tom). Most of us were brand new to Unity and game development so it was a great learning experience. We were up until the deadline last night (2am our time) putting in final touches.

We figured most teams would make first person view games so we decided to mix it up with a 3rd person platformer. We think the end result really works well with the Rift. We placed obstacles above and in front of you to force the player to look around the level and not just stare straight ahead.

Not sure where development is going from here but we’d love feedback.  Please visit the official game posting https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=3879

Google’s Mystery Announcement is a mystery no more!

Well folks today our fearless internet overlord Google made some fresh announcements.

NEW Nexus 7 tablet  will be available in 3 models: the 16gb Wifi for 229, the 32 GB wifi model for 269, and 32 GB LTE model for 349. The Wifi Model will start shipping on July 30th, with the LTE model shipping in “coming weeks”.

Upgraded specs from the last one (which ran pretty damn nice for the $$):

Also announced today brand new version of jelly bean.  Version 4.3 is available today for all google devices and the samsung galaxy.

Key Features:

  • New to Android 4.3: advanced multi-user support, bringing in “restricted profiles”. Restricted profiles lets parents limit what their child’s account can do. (Same thing the kindle has recently been advertising.  Why you say? Cause kindle is android based silly.)
  • Bluetooth Smart, or Bluetooth low-energy.
  • OpenGL ES 3.0 graphics system, allowing for considerably more detail in games; according to Hugo, they’re the first to support it.
  • Watching 1080p content on a tablet is great, but most of the content you get today is actually standard definition. This is because the lack of DRM. With Android 4.3, Google’s introducing hardware-level encryption for DRM. The first group Google’s partnering with this is Netflix, allowing you to stream 1080p netflix content to your Android device.
  • The original Nexus 7, the nexus 4, the galaxy nexus, and the nexus 10 will start to get Android 4.3 today.

Another important update comes to the Google Play store which will begin carrying a comprehensive collection of text books from all 5 major publishing houses. Books can be purchased, or rented for 6 months at a time. Text books will be available in early august.

BUT, the biggest announcement is Chromecast.  Chromecast is a tiny, itty-bitty dongle that runs a simplified version of Chrome OS.  Chromecast integrates into the apps you already use on your tablet, phone, or PC. You push a chromecast button, and it pushes that video to your TV. It’s like Apple’s airplay.  Chromecast will play friendly with the iPhone, not just Android.  You can continue to use your phone independently; once the video is playing on your TV, you can use your phone for other tasks. Even if you sleep the phone, the video keeps playing. You can pause/skip videos from the lockscreen.  If you’ve got multiple devices all connected to Chromecast, Chromecast won’t be tied to any of them. You can pause on your iPhone, for example, pick up your tablet, and immediately take control and begin playing from the same place.

On a side note to the Chomecast stuff.  Myself and another of other dev’s I work with spent a good hour today chatting about this part of the announcement.  The conversation was a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride.  At first we were all stoked simply because we had postalized that Google might announce this type of functionality because its been sorely missing for far too long.  But as we spoke more about how it worked and read in between the tech lines our excitement faded as a feeling of “MEH, its pretty cool but what about this, what about that..” set in.  Its a HUGE step up from the ill fated Google Q that was a major POS but the Chromecast is still missing actual screen mirroring.  WHY GOOGLE WHY!!!!!  So at this point your gonna have to wait for ALL of your favorite app developers to add the Chrome Play button to their apps BEFORE you can play Angry Birds on the big screen but hey for $35 its worth it if you don’t already have a smart TV, playstation, Xbox or Apple TV hooked up (Which covers about 90% of the population).

All that being said, I will let you know in three days time after mine arrives….HA

 

 

This Week’s Must-Read Mobile Headlines // June 24

Once again your weekly collection of Mobile News is brought to you by our friend over at Mutual Mobile

This week, Instagram integrates video to its app in an attempt to defend itself against Vine. But is it a smart move? Plus: new data from Forrester on Glass, a first look at iOS 7, and more.

News and Insights

Video Killed The Instagram Star – TechCrunch, In an attempt to overcome Vine, Instagram has added video. But is it a smart move?

Forrester: Google Glass Will Be the Next iPhone (But Now it’s Just a Newton) VentureBeat, A new report says roughly 21.6M Americans would buy Glass.

A Week With iOS 7: The Search for Innovation Amid Renovation – BGR, Does Apple’s bold new mobile vision pave the way for innovation?

Think ‘Mobile Unique’ To Deliver Mobile Delight – CMO, Move beyond “vanilla” mobile apps, and personalize the experience for users.

Disruptions: Mobile Competition Shifts to Software Design – New York Times, Software, not hardware, is allowing mobile companies to leap over competitors.

Gauging the Natural, and Digital, Rhythms of Life – New York Times, The Big Data health impact of wearables is going to be significant.

Apple Scores $30M iPad Deal With L.A. Schools – Mashable, Los Angeles public schools plan to equip every student with the device by 2014. (If you wanna get a better understanding of what this means to education http://www.redefiningliteracy.com/what-is-ilit)

Research

Smartphones And Tablets Have Revolutionized Consumer Connections – MediaPost, 45.3M US consumers watch video on their mobile phones.

How Mobile Is Shaping Global Digital Behavior – eMarketer, Comparing most popular activities across smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

Online Customer Experience Still Easier to Understand Than Mobile, Say E-Commerce Execs – Marketing Charts, Many execs believe it’s simply harder to deliver positive mobile experiences.

88% of Smartphone Shoppers Have Negative Experiences – Mobile Commerce Daily, “If you don’t do it right, customers will go to a competitor.”

Connected Car Market to Take Off – Mobile Marketer, Over 35M car shipments in 2018 will come with embedded mobile technology.

In response to the whole Snowden PRISM thing. The folks at Codecademy said it right…

Excerpt from http://techcrunch.com/2013/06/17/encrypting-your-email-works-says-nsa-whistleblower-edward-snowden/

For my money this hits the nail on the head.  If you call yourself a technologist NONE of this better be a surprise.  Because if it is, your not a very good technologist. For those that aren’t Continue »

This Week’s Must-Read Mobile Headlines // June 17

Bought to you from our friends over at Mutual Mobile

Last week, Apple held its annual World Wide Developer’s Conference. We dive into some of the biggest announcements: a groundbreaking new “flat” redesign in iOS 7, new Macs, iOS for cars, and more.

News and Insights

Apple Debuts iOS 7, OS X Mavericks, and New Macs: Everything You Need to Know – The Verge, All the top news from WWDC, in one place.

Cook Unveils Mission Statement, iOS 7 Gets Colorful, New iPhone – Forbes, A few of the things that happened around Apple this week.

How Apple’s iOS 7 Changes Everything For App Designers – ReadWrite, Everything app designers know has been tossed out the window.

Why iOS 7 Looks Unfinished (Spoiler: It’s Because It’s Unfinished) – TIME, A collection of top mobile analysts’ thoughts on the new OS.

Why Do Super-Elite Customers Get All The Attention? – Forbes, How to use big data and mobile to delight both the “super-elite” and regular joes.

With Wearable Tech, Human Behavior is Now a Design Problem – GigaOM, Wearable devices will be able to influence our behavior in ways both good and bad.

Saks Deploys 2,000 iPads in Stores, to Launch OFF 5th Website in Fall – RIS, Saks’ multi-channel shoppers spend 3-4x what single-channel shoppers spend.

Mobile Marketing Isn’t About Screens or Devices, It’s About Behavior – AdAge, Consumers move fluidly across devices and platforms; brands must do the same.

Research

[Infographic] Mobile at WWDC – The Push, The buzz, the snark, the hits, and the misses from Apple’s annual conference.

A Day in the Life of a Mobile Consumer – Flurry, How consumers are using apps throughout the day, and how it relates to wearables.

82% of eCommerce Merchants Not Tracking Mobile Sales – Mobile Commerce Daily, The majority of merchants don’t know whether a purchase comes from mobile or PC.

One-Third of Americans Now Own Tablet Computers – New York Times, The fastest-growing segments: affluent households, college graduates, parents.

Smart Mobile Devices Account for Small Share of TV Viewing – eMarketer, Only 2% of total TV viewership occurred on a tablet or smartphone.

Webinar on 6/25 w/ Forrester: Wearables – The Next Frontier of Mobile

Ever wonder whats next for mobile?  Smartphones feeling old hat? Then why not make a smart hat or hop on the google train and code some GoogleGlass.

TUESDAY 6/25 we have another webinar focused on Google Glass and smart use cases for professionals that need to be hands-free (think policemen, EMTs, surgeons, firefighters, pilots, etc.). Joining us for the webinar will be Sarah Rottman Epps, Senior Analyst, Forrester (I’ve attached two of her reports for your reference).

Link to register (Hey its free): http://www.mutualmobile.com/webinars/google-glass

Your weekly dose of must read mobile headlines for june 10th

As always, we bring this to you from our good friends over at Mutual Mobile.

As Apple’s WWDC kicks off this week,  Ive-inspired flat interfaces in iOS 7 abound. Is this the end of skeuomorphism? Plus: why mobile web is top of mind for digital customer experience initiatives (spoiler answer:  cause it needs ALOT of help).

News and Insights

WWDC 2013: What Will We See, Not See? – The Push, Apple gives its WWDC Keynote this Monday, June 10. What can we expect?

Why Jony Ive Is Flattening iOS 7 – Fast Company, Let’s reconsider what we talk about when we talk about skeuomorphism.

Why Mobility Matters For Professional Services – SAP, Today, employees are driving how they want to interact with information.

Google Glass: 5 Industries It Will Change Forever – ReadWrite, Which industries can most benefit from wearable technology?

iPhone and Android are Different, So Stop Trying to Compare Them – GigaOM, iPhone and Android are on two completely different trajectories.

Christian Cantrell’s Review of Google Glass – Living Digitally, Thoughts and observations on why the world is ready for wearable computing.

The App Wars Come To Wearables. Consumers Will Be The Winners – ReadWrite, Why apps are the keys to the future of wearables.

The iPad-ification Of America’s Small Businesses – ReadWrite, Why Square, PaylPal and others are turning to iPad for POS technology.

 Research

Survey Shows Mobile Web Gets Priority Over Mobile Apps in 2013 – Forrester, 59% of organizations are prioritizing building mobile web experiences.

Roundup Of Mobile Apps & App Store Forecasts, 2013 – Forbes, A collection of great stats showing how enterprises, consumers are using apps.

Affluent Shoppers Make Mobile an Essential Stop in the Purchase Funnel – eMarketer, One out of five affluent consumers make mobile purchases on tablets.

56% of American Adults are Now Smartphone Owners – Pew Research Center, Ownership is particularly high in the 20-30 year old bracket.

For the First Time, a Third of American Adults Own Tablet Computers – Pew Research Center, What are the demographics most likely to own a tablet?

Android Edges Closer to iPad as Enterprise Tablet Adoption Grows – TabTimes, Good Technology reports Android tablet activations have nearly doubled in the enterprise.

Your Weekly Mobile News Round Up Has Returned…

After a brief retooling your weekly mobile news round up is back.  As always its brought to you by our friends at Mutual Mobile and the letter C (because C is for cookie, and who doesn’t like cookies!).

This week, mobile industry analyst Mary Meeker presented her annual report on the state of the industry. We take a look at the key trends. Plus: mobile’s major influence on retail, both in-store and out.

News and Insights

Mary Meeker Peers Into the Future of Mobile, Wearables and Facebook – New York Times, We take a look at the major themes from the KPCG analyst’s annual report.

Apple’s Tim Cook Points To Dearth Of Multiple-Use Wrist Gadgets – Forbes, At a recent conference, Cook voiced skepticism about wearables like Glass.

Here’s What to Expect From Apple at WWDC 2013 – WIRED, Upgrades to iOS, OS X, hardware, and a whole lot more.

Walmart Takes Contextual, Pragmatic Approach to Mobile – Forrester, Walmart’s mobile approach has paid off in sales, loyal customers, and engagement.

Google Is Learning How Smartphones Impact In-Store Shopping – Fast Company, People who consistently use smartphones while shopping spend 25% more.

Google Won’t Approve Glass Apps That Recognize People’s Faces – TechCrunch, A recent announcement from Google is eliminating the Glass “creep factor.”

7 Cool Consumer Technologies Coming Soon to a Cubicle Near You – CIO, Augmented reality, natural user interfaces, and more entering the enterprise.

The Future Of Technology Isn’t Mobile, It’s Contextual – Fast Company, Coming soon: always-present computers that will anticipate, augment your behavior.

Research

If You Bought An ‘iWatch’, You’d Check it ~95 Times Per Day – Business Insider, Why an Apple smartwatch could be big business.

13 Alarming Stats About Retail in Digital – Digiday, Mobile and digital is forcing retailers to redefine how they market and sell to consumers.

Smartphone Adoption Tips Past 50% in Major Markets Worldwide – eMarketer, Over half of mobile phone users in 6 countries have switched to smartphones.

3 Reasons Why the Tablet is Set to Replace Your Laptop and Desktop – TabTimes, IDC’s latest report predicts tablet shipments to grow 59% this year.

The Wallet is Doomed! – Mobile Payments Today, PayPal’s recent study shows that 83% of consumers prefer digital payment methods.

The Forecast for Google Glass – Business Insider, BI predicts Glass will reach 21 million annual unit sales by 2018.