I came across a great article today via AbelineBiz talking about how major retails are currently utilizing social media to increase their sales around the holidays.  Well, readers, the holiday season is officially upon us.  Author Jackie Crosby of the Minneapolis Star Tribune discusses how the iPhone as well as popular social media tools are revoluntionizing retailers, especially when December looms on the horizon.

Crosby writes:

“Social media has become the newest holiday strategy for some retailers, who are hoping the technology can bring some luster to their efforts to reach customers who are holding tight to their money this year.”

Let’s take this to a personal level.  I’m a college kid, currently enrolled in a PR and Social Media class at Loyola Chicago.  It’s now a part of my education to learn about these technologies and devices (if you’ve stumbled upon my blog earlier, this is old news).  Now, one step further – I use Twitter and various iPhone apps such as Yelp and various iPhone apps to discover deals and the latest news from my favorite stores.

However, though I feel that some companies and stores seem to use these programs and tools to the point that their efforts become a little too Spammy for my taste (ahem, take a peek at Twitter), I do appreciate how retailers are actively engaging in social media.  I’m a big fan of J.Crew, and receive notifications via email for great deals such as free shipping and holiday specials curtailed specifically for their online followers.

Here’s some interesting news:

According to Crosby, “About 47 percent of retailers surveyed last month by the National Retail Federation planned to increase their use of Facebook, Twitter and other online social networks this holiday season. As for shoppers, three out of five say they’re planning to use social media to look for discounts, coupons and sales, according to Deloitte Research.”

I can’t say that I’m surprised, but I am impressed. I’m also one of those 3 out of the 5 individuals who participate.  I feel like I have constant access to the latest news and deals, regardless if I’m near my computer or on the go. My mother enjoys shopping and has recently signed up for Facebook, and even she is now a part of this crowd.  If I’m with her, she asks me if I know of any news or holiday deals for some of our favorite places to shop – and I can access this information immediately.  I may not necessarily make purchases when I visit these places in person, but the awareness garnered by the usage of social media adds to my appreciation of the companies and stores.

What are your thoughts on your holiday shopping outlook and the app trend?

Check out the article here.

I sometimes live on the bleeding edge of technology. Some like to call this being an “early adapter.” Others think I should join a support program with a twelve-step program. My office has a room devoted to hardware and software I’ve bought, tried out, experimented upon, recommended, and sometimes even installed for my consulting company clients, including quite a few law firms.

When I built a new house a few years ago, I just had to investigate the new energy conservation devices, which could lower my utility bills, reduce my “carbon footprint,” and save the world. Likewise, I just had to experiment with design of home theatre and security system wiring, and the home computer network itself. I sometimes chatted about these with others in the neighborhood who were building houses, but didn’t mention one “enhancement” I had secretly worked on.

As the house was being built, I realized it would be more cost efficient to do all the wiring I would ever need, up front, rather than piece-mealing it later. I had been reading about the strides toward creation of working “smart houses” and other Web 3.0 applications, so I decided to make an investment in the future.

I worked with the various vendors installing my alarm system, home theater, cable, phone and other electronic systems, and got them to lay the groundwork for me. Then, being the bleeding edge geek I am, I began my own tinkering, gradually adding new components, as they entered beta stage. Fortunately, one of my clients is an appliance company, so I was able to make some relatively good purchases and get great deals on some important components.

When Thanksgiving came up on my calendar this year, I decided it was time to give the new system a trial run. I really wasn’t ready for a full-blown trial run, but one of my sons knows a lot more about this stuff than I do, so I figured if I got some of the system up and running, he would be in town at Thanksgiving to give me a hand debugging the parts.

This was also going to be the first year with multiple grandchildren, in addition to some of our friends who had become annual Thanksgiving dinner guests. That meant we had to get out the extra leaf for the dining room table, but it really meant the logistics were starting to add up to the point of being almost unmanageable. The question was whether or not I somehow pull off this Web 3.0 Thanksgiving plan in time to really help.

I got out my copy of Microsoft Project and went to work. This had to be a collaborative effort and, fortunately, seemed to be an interesting challenge for the partners in the project. Admittedly, I felt a little like Chevy Chase in one of my favorite movies of the season, Christmas Vacation, trying to pull off wiring the house to win the neighborhood Christmas lighting prize, but eventually, I finished and it was time to send out the invitations.

I decided to start with an old favorite, evite®, so I could at least try to track who would really be coming and send guest updates in a burst. It also helped get a few other issues out of the way early, such as special dietary concerns of some of the guests, coordinating menu items for those who always insist on bringing Aunt Tillie’s famous recipe, etc. I know there are lots of invitation applications out there, but since I’ve used evite® for many events and was familiar with the foibles and periodic “surprises” as it continues to develop, it was an easy choice for alerting guests to “save the date,” and then to harvest the data as we got closer to The Big Day.

Like many American families, we have established some traditions over the years. That meant timing of various parts of the event had to be precise. With folks arriving at various times, subject to last minute variables, this was always a challenge. I thought it would be interesting to see if a preview of a Web 3.0 world would be any better.

Once the first round of evite® responses started to come back and we had our first estimate of the number of guests and basic menu, I was able to get some online counsel for wine pairings with the various dishes, estimate the number of bottles needed, and place my order. One task completed.

About the time we were building our new house, I happened to read Christoper Allbritton’s story in Popular Mechanics, Control Your Appliances Over The Internet. I tried to remain mindful of Albritton’s reference to the “Terminator” sci-fi movies, and scenario where the  fictional military artificial intelligence defense system, Skynet, takes over for humans and then starts to eradicate them as a potential threat. Since my plans didn’t include any air-to-ground missiles, I decided that LG Electronics’ HomNet was a good place to start. After all, their home page says:

LG HomNet is the total home network solution providing a convenient secure, joyful and affluent lifestyle anywhere and anytime with the integration of various digital home appliances. LG HomNet makes the future lifestyle into reality. LG HomNet will usher into a future lifestyle that used to be possible only in the movies and the imagination, together with ultra-high speed Internet, artificial intelligence, and advanced robots.

LG HomNet, a home network system developed by state-of-the-art technologies from LG Electronics!

You will be provided with a new pleasant and convenient digital living culture of the 21^st century through intelligent networking of all-digital appliances, agnostic to any wired and wireless communication technology.

We invite you to a new living culture which has been dreamed about by the whole human race.

Aside from the grammatical issues in LG’s statement, and hoping their use of the term “agnostic” was meant to be closer to the original Greek, as opposed to the more recent religious interpretation, who could resist something, which would provide a convenient, secure, joyful, and affluent lifestyle, anywhere and anytime? Not me.

After taking the HomNet Experience online, I started with the refrigerator/server, adding the ovens, microwaves, and some other appliances in the kitchen. This proved a handy way to coordinate keeping foods chilled, cooking the hot foods, timing the warming of those foods in the food queue, and even providing a shopping list tied into the menu archive, and the family calendar, which is always visible on the door of the refrigerator. This was also great to avoid the previously inevitable, last minute return trips to the grocery for an item that didn’t make it on the old paper grocery lists. Now we could take remote inventory from the store, to make sure we really had walnuts for the dressing or enough whipping cream for the pie.

Once the big day came, we could actually sit back for the first time, and just wait for last minute evite® updates on arrival times. Granted, as James Gunter points out in his law enforcement blog post, Twitter is Not the Holy Grail of Emergency Notification, using Twitter alone as an alarm system is dangerous, but if only the turkey is at state, this may be sufficient. With our Twitter early warning system tied into the day’s calendar on our refrigerator, we were notified, in order, that: our oldest son and girlfriend were on their way; younger son and new grandchildren would be slightly delayed, due to a diaper change; our daughter’s friends would have to make a stop to pick something up on the way; and my old law firm partner and family would be here “soon.”

“Soon” always had a special meaning for my old partner’s arrival, but having done an earlier blog post on the Twitter Geoloction API, I had convinced him to start “tweeting.” With a little advanced coordination, I was able to tell they had not left home yet, was alerted when they started to move in our direction, and a new ETA appeared next to their family avatar on our handy refrigerator/server/message center. Our voice recognition system and data-to speech-program even announced that guests were arriving, making those already inside our “smart house” feel like they were early guests at a presidential ball, where dignitaries are announced as they enter. This was particularly helpful in marshalling the troops to help get the new twins inside before the fresh air woke them up.

Really Cool, New Sixth-Sense Technology was the pride and joy of my new system, even if it was still a beta version. The cobbled aggregation consists of off-the-shelf, Web cam, portable battery-powered 3-D projection system, and other devices connected to the user’s cell phone. The system’s ability to project keypads and other tools onto any surface, to make it a device like those used by Tom Cruise in Minority Report, proved very helpful in the game room. The RFID tracking system allowed us to locate the kids who were tardy in departure from the media room, turning down the heat in that room during dinner, and returning them to the appropriate spot in the movie they were watching upon their return.

We were able to use all this technology to time when dinner started, so the parents of the little kids enjoyed the rare treat of being able to eat in relative peace, coordinating with nap and infant feeding schedules for that optimal state of “joyfulness” promised by the appliance company. It also allowed us to finish before the preselected football games appeared on the adult’s monitors, cartoons came up for the tikes, and video games for the rest of the younger kids.

The background music, which gradually came up as we sat down to eat was a nice touch, as was the list of conversation points, which appeared in the wireless 3D i-glasses some had elected to wear. The ability to look through the glasses at a guest, allow the facial recognition and identification system enough time to identify the guest, and then call up conversation topics suggested by their Facebook references, and other social media search results, including their blogs, proved interesting, if not a little too revealing for some.

The great meal now being history, we can review the video record of the whole event to work on ways to improve it for next year. Using the facial recognition and identification system, we can piece together the level of “joyfulness” for each family member and guest, item-by-item, and plug these back into project software to start planning next year’s event.

The transportation alert module paid off in the first year, letting my oldest son and girlfriend know the system was well on the way to rerouting them back to Chicago, due to a snow storm interrupting their original plans to fly back into O’Hare. The placemats, inspired by some iPhone apps,  allowed us to check just how much food each family member and guest had consumed, and for those who desired it, their iPhone apps would now “remind” them of the exercise plan the system had outlined to return them to normal size, including, of course, the appropriate level of play on their Wii Fit™ system at home.

Now, on to Cyber Monday Shopping.

__________________________________________________________

Apologies to Berners Lee, whose article, The Semantic Web, in a 2001 edition of Scientific American, gave rise to this story. Lucy, in the original story, instructed her Semantic Web agent through her handheld Web browser to conduct a search which started to define the term, Web 3.0.

That’s what I think. Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

If you are really interested, I just started yet another free group on LinkedIn, Social Media Search and Forensics. Many of these articles and discussion about them are posted there. Please join us.

Has some iPhone software if you want to entertain your kid. Click here to read slate.

I posted recently about buying an iPhone.  Now, I’m not technically a klutz, but I am taking some time figuring out all of the capabilities of the thing.  One of those is the calendar.  I found myself looking for a way to synchronize my work calendar to the iPhone calendar (because the damn IT Nazis at work won’t allow me to hook up directly).

What to do?

Well, let’s look to the Apps Store and see if there’s something there I can use.  I log into the store and type in “Calendars” in the search window, waiting for the standard 25 best bets and doubling that list to 50 for optimal coverage.

Choices galore!  But…ummm…not quite what I expected.

There  were the religious calendars.  Calendars designed to put in the palm of your hands all the religious holidays pertinent to a given religion – - the Catholic iMissal… the Islamic religious calendar… the Greek Orthodox calendar… the Pocket Luach (to convert Gregorian calendar to the Jewish calendar and back).

Then the ones I was looking for…only two offerings which would let me synchronize calendars.  And both of those charging about $5 each to use.

Some random calendars – - a calendar that shows the best times to go fishing… a calendar that helps you track when your bills should be paid… and the obligatory ‘eye candy’ calendars:  SI Swimsuit, Calendar Studs, Hooter’s Calendar Girls (no, I didn’t download any of those).

But the big surprise (okay, to me, anyway)?  In the first 50 suggested calendars, there were easily 15, maybe 20, applications to track women’s menstrual cycles!

Some were just trackers, merely history files to show when things (you know…”things”…) happen.  A few of those trackers were more elaborate, allowing inputs for such fun information like cramp intensity, breast tenderness, flow intensity, and the like.

What, again? I did this just last month...

Other cycle trackers were more predictive, giving best guesses of things like when the next cycle will begin or when to expect PMS (hell, I may get that calendar strictly for defensive purposes….gotta know when to be carrying pre-emptive chocolates with me).  Also some that could predict the best times for getting pregnant (to include best times to conceive a boy or girl).

Seeing Red!

The fun part?  The names…

-  some  expected ‘standards’:  iPeriod (yawn), iMensies, iPreg

-  and others:  FemCal, LadyBiz, and (help me with this one, ladies) Petals

And not so amazingly?  There are no “guy” equivalent calendars available.  But, then again, do we really need a calendar to track things like an “erection tracker” or “orgasm intensity” or the like?

And what would the name of such a guy calendar be (to match up with the wonderful names listed above for the women)?

–  iWood?
–  iGotlaid?
–  iWhackedoff?
–  iSaw, iConquered, iCame?
–  others?  Suggestions?

Nah…

I’m still thinking the best one for me is that PMS predictor…a guy needs all the help he can to survive, doesn’t he?

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

I just downloaded this onto my iPhone.

The only problem is this is not real-time data from Google, so I don’t know how much value there is in the app. We need real-time analytics to take action on the insights!

Online optimisation firm Mark Red has released Analyze This!, an iPhone application that makes it possible for stressed managers to monitor revenue and conversion on the go.

Information about goal completions, ecommerce, and campaigns is fetched from Google Analytics and presented in a fast, simple way.

It’s possible to compare daily, weekly, and monthly figures.

More: http://www.webanalyticsworld.net/2009/11/free-google-analytics-iphone-app.html

If you grew up in the 80s, these books must’ve influenced how you thought. The first one I read was The Cave of Time.

I really think that these books affected the way that our generation thinks.(Or at least their readers when they were children.) If you don’t like how the story is going, you can just go back to the last page and change it. Just like your life, if you don’t like where it’s going, choose another path to follow. I used this strategy for bad dreams too. I would have terrible nightmares as a kid, and I would wake up. Then, I’d go back to the point right before the bad thing was gonna happen and make a different decision so it led somewhere positive. Lucid dreaming to some extent.

I thought it would be neat if they had an IPhone app. And they do! It only has Journey Under the Sea and Return to Atlantis. (Released a year ago.)

Follow this link for an awesome write-up and preview of the app. Gonna test it out on my kids today.

**Tried to find a decent pic but they are all too low res.**

Also – I toyed with the idea of writing a book. Amanda reminded me of that. Not like I’m an amazing writer by any means (um, like at all…) but I have a story to tell. I thought it would be neat to present it in a Choose Your Own Adventure style. Or if they had other apps where you slide your finger across to decide which way to go.

Oh ya, and Choose Your Own Adventure porn would be wicked too. Filthy like The Gas.

We all know that iphone has taken every one with a charm. People have straight forwardly starting to reject the old fashiones S-60, and the shift is now towards the iPhone sttrategy. Since their introduction, Iphones have been developing leaps and bounds and have transformed the way most of us work. Its charm and knack has captured people from all walks of life and due to its global appreciation as a chic gadget, the main influenced genre has been corporate and teen sectors. Corporate sector has found some great applications (apps) to manage their all to-do and what-not-to-do scheules and teens have simply found another gadget to show off to their freinds and family. This blog will be all about those iphones and I will be including some tips and tricks and of course we will cover all the new “iDevelopments”. So, just stick around and we will be throwing in more content every day!

This is a slideshow for the biggest selling iTunes apps.  Click here.

25 Best iPhone Apps Of The Year…that i’ve used.

The following is just a few that i pick-up all along….tested and it works with me practically.

1. QuickOffice
Edit Word and Excel documents on the go.

2. PDFViewer
Transfer & view your PDF files to your iPhone.

3. Textfree Unlimited
Free text messaging using Push Notification.

4. Wedict
Mobile dictionary available in Community Resources.

5. Finder
Search through your iPhone with functions like Create, Modify, Send files.

6. Print and Share
Print files, emails, web pages, contacts, images straight to your home printer.

7. RSS viewer
Read RSS from your iPhone.

8. Read It Later
Kept/store any web page for offline reading.

9. Skype
Skype-to-Skype over WiFi using the Skype application.

10. Apollo
Apollo application based IM for iPhone. It supports AIM, ICQ, MSN and Mac accounts.

11. Sketches
Sketches allows you to snap photos, sketch and send instantly to friends via email.

12. Photogene
Photo editing apps, multifunction like crop, rotate, adjust colors, and add filters with Photogene.

13. Todolist
Keep your Todo list organized.

14. Birthday Reminder
Reminder for any upcoming bdays offline.

15. NES
This is a NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) emulator.

16. Bento
Create simple databases to store information about your life.

17. Flight Tracker
Watch flights track in real-time.

18. Vnote
Record voice notes and playback anytime.

19. TweetDeck
Twitter client on iphone.

20. Simplify Music 2
Listen to your entire music library from your home computer.

21. Customize
Cuztomize gives you more control over your iPhone.

22. Beejive IM 3.0
Another multi-IM service client on the iPhone with Push Notification. AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and more.

23. Navizon
Navizon GPS application that make use of Wifi to track your current position and sent it to Google map.

24. Slacker Radio
An alternative to Pandora,

25. Summerboard
Allows iPhone users to install more themes and wallpapers.

Pleasant Valley, NY — This past week the family and I celebrated Thanksgiving. Between all the traveling and eating I haven’t had much time to write. Hopefully this post can make up for that (especially for those of you with an iPod Touch or iPhone).

Not too long ago I was hanging out at the Roosevelt with @Doxtad and Mr. Otero when we found out about the greatest iTouch game ever created. Zac, @Doxtad’s roommate and tech guru, told us about Canabalt. This quirky, black and white game is inspired by parkour, the art of moving. The first 10 minutes of the 2006 film “Casino Royale” provide a great example of this urban phenomenon.

The game is very addictive and very simple. You play as this guy who has to jump rooftops to escape killer robots. To jump, all you need to do it tap your finger on the screen. Here are some screen shots:

- east coast paper boy

Cows in space? What!!?!?!?
It’s a game for the iPhone/iPod touch that’s free.

Object of the game:
Beam the cows back to earth to save them

It’s really fun!! And quite difficult sometimes

Wow!  A website for everything.  Click here.

Do you need to stay connected to Xbox LIVE while you’re on the go?  Well if you’ve got an iPhone a new app will keep connected to LIVE 24/7.  You’ll be able to check friend requests, message your friends, and keep up with all their LIVE activity.  But you’ll have to fork over $1.99 first.  But don’t start digging in your couch for the $2.  Microsoft has mandated that ALL Xbox Live related apps are to cost you nothing.  So it might just take a month or 2 before this app is free.

Well now and again you come across a real gem of an app and this one pushes all the right buttons, being a bit of a fatty I was looking for a customisabe step counter that would record and give an accurate record of my progress and itreadmill fits the bill perfectly.
Opening it up gives a lovely Gui that is customisabe in every way showing speed, distance, step count etc all interchangable on the home screen.

Home Screen

Setting screen is also a joy with lots of settings for weight, step distance and audio setting for keeping the exact pace that you require that is easy to follow and adjust.

Settings page

History page has a wealth of info about your previous workouts and gives you running totals of all.

History Page

It does allow for you to have your music running in the background but typical to the iPhone you have to close the app if you want to change your music so I would suggest having a decent playlist started before you go into itreadmill. I would also put your phone into plane mode as it will also close the app if you wish to answer an incoming call.
This is a beautiful app and well thought out, it works very accurately and has added a new gadgety style to my training. Thoroughly recomended.

Smiddy rating SSSSS

Some of the more wild ideas for iPhone Apps.  Click here to read.

AppBankのセール情報みてHD Cameraというアプリを発見
使ってみるとこれが意外と良い感じでデジタルズームした画像が何となく普通に見えてます。
ズームアプリで撮ったときのジャギーというかノイズが少ないです。
無いと言うよりは補正して消しているのでしょうけど目立ちません。
あと手ぶれというか撮影時に手が動いてしまってぼけちゃった画像の文字が読めることが多い
結構優秀な方でしょうか？
ほかのカメラアプリも色々便利なのですが1ページ目のカメラはこれに置き換えました。

http://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/hd-camera/id335318629?mt=8

Nice that it is free.  Click here to read what it can do for you and your love of watching movies!

Great article with photos.  Click here to find out the standards of Apples App process.

I downloaded 1password when it was free ( it is free until December 1st 2009).

The app is great. I can create randomly generated passwords from lengths of 4-20 digits and I can include numbers and symbols. Would I pay $7.99 for this app? Certainly not! Why? Because i memorize my passwords, but it’s only because they are easy to remember, if they weren’t I would be screwed. This app saves passwords and protects your information with a 4 digit pin on startup and to even see the passwords you need to know the master password. Talk about security!!

This app can keep not only passwords from nosy people but you can keep notes password protected & credit card info. And it is all sealed with your master password.

The week has gone by so quick – as I always say . My exams have finished today, and i’m going to be free for a couple of months, until school starts again. Anyway, here are my top three apps of the week.

Awesome Note – $4.99 USD

This app is just crazy! Or should I say – Awesome? Hahaha OK, enough with the puns. This app combines my ToDo’s, notes, and a whole lot of other good stuff together. The developers are great, they respond to your e-mails really promptly, and are planning many great updates for the future. One thing that I think will make it awesome though is, Push Notifications. It has actually replaced my other ToDo manager – Things. I definitely recommend this app to anyone who needs a great Notes and To Do manager. I like this app so much that I’m going to be doing a review on it, and i’m also going to be giving some lucky readers a promo-code!

Real Racing GTI – Free

This is the free version of Real Racing. I think I might just buy the full version, but the lite version has been quite good. I hope to do a review on the full version in the near future. I’m trying to organize some promo-codes for you. Back to doing my ‘mini’ review, this game is actually REALLY, close to REAL! Go try the free version, I think its really fun.

Archers – Free

This is another great free game. This one is a popular flash game, that’s been recreated or ported, quite well. The game is really intuitive and really fun when you play with friends. Credit to the developer for keeping this game free.

That’s it for my free apps of the week! I’m going to be on a plane in about three weeks time and i’m looking for some apps to use on the plane. I actually haven’t been able to find any that I could use on a plane (without data), that are really worthwhile. If you’ve got any apps, tell the whole world in the comments box!