Two Percent Nation

New York City Food Trucks Map

There is a full on craze going on New York City right now over these high-end mobile food trucks. Thanks to Twitter these vendors are able to attract sizable crowds wherever they stop. While it's possible to keep tabs on them by subscribing to their respective Twitter feeds I couldn't find somewhere to see where they all are at any given time. So I've taken a stab at creating a (manual) Google Map of them based on their latest Twitter update. Not the most scalable solution but we'll see how it goes.

This is based on the following Twitter feeds: @waffletruck, @CupcakeStop, @LCBBurgerTruck, @nyccravings, @BigGayIceCreamTruck, @VLAIC, @RickshawTruck, @legamintruck, @TheTreatsTruck, @StreetSweets, @CalexicoCart, @SchnitzelTruck. If I'm missing any please post them in the comments.

 
View New York City Food Trucks in a larger map

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.

Mapping Mister Softee in NYC

I've been playing with Google's My Maps service since it launched last year.  Mostly I've used it for personal maps such as travel itineraries or things like that.  I recently decided I wanted to create a public map to share in Google's directory and see whether I could get others to collaborate.  The arrival of summer in New York City has brought with it the familiar Mister Softee ice cream trucks.  So I've created a Mister Softee NYC map and started it with two of the locations I know of (in Manhattan trucks usually park at the same intersections).  Now I'm hoping to rally the soft-serve loving residents of New York to help me complete the map. If you want to contribute click the View Larger Map link below.

View Larger Map

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!

Sree pimps ZTG

WNBC-TV 4 New York's tech reporter Sree Sreenivasan did a piece called "Web Sites Help You Find Food You Crave".  In it he featured ZAGAT.com and ZAGAT TO GO (pictured in retail form at left) as well as Chowhound and Eater.  Click the image to see the video on WNBC's website.

PayPass trial with mobile phones

The original consumer contactless payment system which has been around for years is Exxon/Mobil's Speedpass.  If you sign up for an account they send you a little fob for your keychain that when you hold it up to the Speedpass sign at the gas pump it bills the credit or debit card you have on file - slightly less work and faster than swiping a debit or credit card because there's no signing or PIN. 

In the last year or so MasterCard has begun to roll out its system for contactless payments called PayPass.  Special debit/credit card readers have been installed at participating merchants such as Duane Reade, McDonald's and CVS among others.  MasterCard issues special credit cards with RFID chips in them or you can get a special fob for your keychain if you already have a MasterCard and don't want a new credit card (like me).

Now MasterCard is working on embedding the technology into mobile phones, as has been done in Japan for some time.  I read about the official press release detailing the joint plans of MasterCard, Citigroup, Cingular and Nokia to test this out in NYC.  I was already aware of the project, though not in the full details, as we have been talking with some of the parties about participating in the content downloads to mobile phones.  One piece of info that I didn't see mentioned on any of the blogs covering the story is that the phone being used for the trial is the Nokia 6126.  This is essentially the same phone as the Nokia 6133 sold by T-Mobile except that it has the NFC (near-field communication) technology.

Tiki to retire

A mixture of disappointment and incredulity when I read this Times report that Tiki Barber is planning to retire after this season. Disappointment because the Giants will lose their best offensive weapon and Tiki may not get that Super Bowl championship he wanted. My bewilderment stems from the fact that Tiki was my classmate at UVA and to imagine myself or any of my classmates already retiring is crazy. Clearly this is just Tiki's first career. But still, it's weird that when I see him at our 10-year reunion next spring I'll still feel like I'm just getting started in my first career while he's moving on to his second.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=25145

Celebrity Sighting: Carlo from the Sopranos

On my way into work this morning I saw Arthur J. Nascarella who plays Carlo Gervasi from the Sopranos on my NJ Transit bus (#158) on my way into NYC. I didn't realize it was him until he got off right in front of me at the Port Authority bus terminal.  I tried to get a photo with my Treo without bothering him so the best I got was the back of his head on the elevator down to the main level:

Not very convincing, I know.  But I was sure it was him when we got to the bottom of the escalator and three NYPD officers were standing there and one of them pointed at him and yelled, "Hey, it's the new construction guy!" This was in reference to the promotion Tony gave Carlo replacing Vito in all construction business in last week's episode.  He pointed right back and smiled but kept on walking.

Technorati tag: Sopranos

Jamba Juice now in Port Authority Bus Terminal

Where California Burrito lay closed and abandoned for years a Jamba Juice has now opened in its place on the main level in the  south terminal of the NY/NJ Port Authority Bus Terminal. Now commuters don't have to settle for the sad excuse for smoothies at Munchy's Gourmet on the second level. For me, I now have a Jamba Juice across the street from my home, across the street  from my office and on the way from my home to my office. Now if only I could email or SMS my order from the bus so it was ready when I got there and could just pick it up and go ....

Presented at the October MobileMonday NY mtg

This past Monday night the MobileMonday New York group had its October meeting and the topic was Mobile Local Content. Dan Melinger from Socialight invited me to speak about Zagat's mobile content products. The other presenting companies were Google, Vindigo and Mologogo.  I presented last and gave a live demo of our latest ZAGAT TO GO software for Palm OS and our BREW application for Verizon Wireless using Dan's makeshift Elmo using a digital-video camera. He has a few pictures of my preso posted on flickr (1, 2, 3). The meeting was held at Google's enormous, playground-like offices at 1440 Broadway.  Rumor has it that the office formerly housed DoubleClick and that Google now has about 500 employees at this location. The turnout at the meeting was great - estimated between 80 and 100 attendees. Exciting to see the NY group gaining momentum and bringing together so many people working in the mobile space.

Technorati tags: Google, Wireless, Zagat