Two Percent Nation

Palm Mobile Hotspot? I'm sold on a Pre Plus

Palm just had their CES event and went through a bunch of updates to webOS that seemed pretty cool, mostly around developers and gaming apps.  Then they formally announced that the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus are coming to Verizon Wireless on January 25th.  Palm Pre Plus will have 16GB of memory vs the 8GB on Palm Pre and Pixi Plus will have WiFi which the Pixi does not.  They also alluded to an updated design which is meaningless unless it means an improved keyboard. BUT the biggest announcement of all was a feature they're calling the Palm Mobile Hotspot.  

Essentially the Palm Mobile Hotspot feature turns your Palm Pre Plus into a MiFi, which is huge.  I'm a Verizon BlackBerry owner now and I absolutely love the tethering feature.  For $15 extra per month I can connect my laptop via USB to my BlackBerry and get 3G internet access anywhere.  But the cable is a pain and I can't use it to get my iPod Touch online.  A MiFi solves this problem but who wants to sign up for an extra account and data plan when you're already paying for voice and data on another phone!  The Palm solution is ideal - turn your smartphone into a WiFi hotspot.  I've been on the fence about what device to upgrade to from my 8330 Curve.  I was thinking about the Droid, but didn't like the keyboard.  Then figured I'd stick with BlackBerry and get the Tour (or Tour2 if it comes out soon).  But the Palm Mobile Hotspot announcement might just have sealed the deal for me getting a Palm Pre Plus on January 25th.

My foursquare check-in heatmap

So cool. My office in Chelsea is clearly ground zero for my foursquare check-ins but also interesting to see the outskirts including a few concerts at Giants Stadium. Create your own map at http://www.wheredoyougo.net. Hat tip to @gregclayman.

Vindigo shutting down?

According to Silicon Alley Insider, Vindigo, one of the pioneers in mobile content publishing and advertising, is shutting down.  

Vindigo is most well-known for its breakthrough mobile city guide application, originally created for the Palm operating system and then rolled out for Windows Mobile and feature phone operating systems (Java, BREW). Founded by Jason Devitt (now heading up Skydeck) the company transformed itself from a developer of proprietary content applications to a mobile publishing shop creating highly successful mobile apps for big brands such as MapQuest and The New York Times.  The company was also an early leader in mobile advertising selling ads as far back as their original Vindigo Palm app.  In 2004 Vindigo was acquired by For-Side, a Japanese mobile content provider.  Since then it's existence has been tumultous, renaming itself Zingy and then returning to the name Vindigo last year.  My take is that the company hit it fairly big with ringtones and wallpapers and never fully recovered when the bottom fell out of that business.

Through the years I've come to know a lot of great people over at Vindigo some of whom have moved on (Carrie, Ludo, Kevin) and others who are still there (Scott, Russell).  For those still there I wish them the best at this difficult time.

New iPhone commercial featuring Zagat

Last night Apple introduced a new iPhone commercial called "The Great Thing", the third new iPhone commercial this week. The premise is how having access to the internet "in your pocket" can help you on a ski vacation - view the trail map, find a restaurant and book a later flight home.

To "find a good place to eat in town" the ad features ZAGAT.mobi, which I spent much of the last year creating and promoting, which is an absolute thrill. Quite a bit has been written about the impact of the iPhone on mobile web usage and I can confirm its impact on Zagat.  So far this month iPhone is far and away the most common handset used to access ZAGAT.mobi - four times greater than the next most common handset (the BlackBerry 8830). Long live the iPhone.

Video interview with ExpoTV about ZAGAT TO GO for the holidays

The folks at ExpoTV came to the Zagat booth at the Digital Life show back in September and I told them about ZAGAT TO GO and how it makes a great holiday gift for anyone with a smartphone.  They've just put up the footage as part of a holiday gift guide.  Watch the first half of the video below to see my sales pitch.  :)

Nokia's WidSets emerges from Beta but loses BlackBerry support

The digital media world has been abuzz with "widgets" for the last few years and that buzz spilled over to mobile when Nokia launched their WidSets application for mobile devices last November.  WidSets is primarily a mobile RSS reader with a cool GUI interface, though it does enable users to access other web content in a mobile-friendly form.  I had been using WidSets on and off since March of this year when I met with some of the Nokia folks working on the project.  I was able to run it on my Sprint Sanyo 8300 and my Verizon BlackBerry 7250.  It worked fairly well but was pretty slow.  One of its strengths is the ability to manage all your content on their website and have it sync back to your device. 

The main strength is that as a free Java application it was compatible with so many phones.  As a result in the first year of existence WidSets registered an astounding 3 million users on 300 different handset models.   The service officially came out of beta a few weeks ago but one of the unfortunate side effects is that the new release is no longer compatible with BlackBerry devices.  According to a customer support representative they hope to publish an updated version that restores BlackBerry support soon. I look forward to getting up and running on my Verizon BlackBerry 8830 and comparing to the Viigo RSS reader I'm using.

The Samsung Juke is REALLY small

Mobile Mondays NY is held in the Samsung Experience Center in the Time Warner Center in Manhattan's Columbus Circle. The SEC is a beautiful interactive showroom where Samsung's mobile phones are featured centerstage. Last night while at Mobile Monday NY I picked up the new Samsung Juke and was completely shocked at how small it was. All the Verizon Wireless ads I had seen featured close-up photos that made the phone seem much larger. The phone has a unique design where the top swivels 180 degrees to reveal the bottom half which has the screen and keypad. If you're mainly interested in voice and music this is a cool phone.

CEO of Verizon Wireless thinks BlackBerry 8830 "is one of the most closed devices on the market today"?

This morning mocoNews.net covered some highlights of a San Jose Mercury News interview with Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam.  The following excerpt caught my eye:

On an open ecosystem, he says: “If you look at the example of our content, when we first opened up, we had a completely walled garden. We have been bringing that wall down and opening up more applications. The balance is you have to keep the customer in the equation. It’s not just up to the Microsofts or the Intels or the carriers to make the decision. I carry a BlackBerry 8830. That device is one of the most closed devices on the market today. It’s also one of the most popular. Customers can rely on it. Return rates are single digits, 1 to 3 percent. You can put anything you want on some open smart-phones. What would you guess are the return rates on a comparable device to the BlackBerry, with open applications?..Over 40 percent. You can’t predict how applications are going to interact in the real world. It sounds really good. How can a developer of a device predict how those applications are going to interact in the real world? It’s back to the fact that they’re complicated computers and it’s not always predictable.”

Huh?  I have a BlackBerry 8830 from Verizon Wireless too but I have the following software installed on my BlackBerry:

ZAGAT TO GO (of course) Google Maps Yahoo! Go Pocket Express iBerry BlackBerry Theme Worldmate Live Viigo Facebook

Digby Widsets Mobio InfoSpace FindIt Lightpole Cellfire Live Search Boopsie

Verizon's smartphones have always been the most open of their devices because none of these devices run Qualcomm's BREW platform which is what Verizon uses to lock down their "feature phone" devices (e.g. Motorola's RAZR).  BlackBerry devices sold directly to consumers are totally open by default.  However one of the attractions of the BlackBerry platform for the enterprise market is the ease with which the devices of employees can be controlled.  One of the controls that can be applied is preventing the device from downloading and installing third-party software.  However it is completely inaccurate to say that the BlackBerry 8830 (or any BlackBerry) is "one of the most closed devices on the market today".  I'm surprised that Mr. McAdam would make such a  statement.

Weather Channel releases results of mobile banner branding study

MediaPost is reporting that the Weather Channel Interactive and Dynamic Logic conducted a study of the effectiveness of ads running across the Weather Channel's mobile network in July 2007. 

The campaign [for Hilton's Hampton Hotels] showed high effectiveness for brand metrics, as respondents' overall favorability toward Hampton was higher for the exposed group (62% favorability) than the control group (48%). In addition, exposure to the campaign caused an increase in purchase intent (defined as consideration to stay at a Hampton hotel for their next trip) by at least 10 points.

Much of the rationale for the buy-side in mobile marketing has been reaching a coveted audience that is increasingly difficult to reach.  This study further legitimizes mobile marketing by bringing a critical metric used in all other major media and as a result is huge step forward for the mobile marketing medium. Kudos to the WCI for their continued innovation in mobile media. 

Come see Zagat at the DigitalLife show!

The Ziff Davis Digital Life show will be at the Javits Center from Thursday, September 27th through Sunday, September 30th. For the first time Zagat will have a booth (#765) at this consumer technology show. Why? To show off our great digital products: ZAGAT.com, ZAGAT TO GO and ZAGAT.mobi.

I'll also be giving a presentation on Friday 9/28 at 6pm in the DigitalLife Theater about how to "Find the best places to Eat, Drink, Stay & Play wherever and whenever". I'll be demo'ing some of our digital products as well as giving a sneak peek of a forthcoming redesign for ZAGAT.com.

Come see us!