NFC: Not For Cellphones?

Every year, studies come out that show that NFC is the Next Big Thing in mobile, and that it is just around the corner.   Every year, the date of arrival is pushed out by another twelve months, and nothing happens.  [...]

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NFC Terminal

Will Mobile 3.0 Bring Down the Internet Big Guns?

A fascinating article by Eric Jackson appeared on the Forbes website last week. Jackson questions the long-term viability of both Facebook and Google as we move beyond the old vision of the desktop web to a world dominated by mobile [...]

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Internet Big Guns

Welcome Jeff Spirer!

I’m pleased to announce that a long time friend, Jeff Spirer, will be contributing to Mobileslate. As I have been consumed with my startup, Embee Mobile, I still remain dedicated to posting, but have found it challenging to provide content [...]

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Jeff Spirer

VIDEO: Virtual Currency Panel from #FutureOfMoney Summit

Had the pleasure of being on the Virtual Currency panel with: Jered Kenna, Bitcoin Philip Rosedale, Coffee & Power Charlie Shrem, Bitinstant.com Rebecca Watson, RadiumOne Video credit to Silvia Matheus

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Future of Money and Technology Conference

Intuit TurboTax Goes Mobile

The 2012 US Tax Day is coming. While traditionally, it’s supposed to be today (April 15th), the government is kind enough in these situations to give us a natural extension until Tuesday, April 17, 2012. For those who are scrambling [...]

Read More

SnapTax iPhone

VIDEO: How to Replace a Lenovo T420s LCD Screen

A few weeks ago, I had the misfortune of dropping my laptop computer on concrete in a parking lot. The ugly part was that later that day when I tried to boot up my computer, the LCD screen was cracked. [...]

Read More

How To Replace Lenovo T420s LCD screen

Arming the Android Army

It’s not IF, but WHEN. With prices like this from the AT&T store, the Android Army will grow in numbers. Let’s hope Google can manage it better than Nokia with the Symbian Foundation.

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Android Phones

@AmericanExpress Small Business Saturday #4sq Check-In

In an effort to help “The 99%”, American Express teamed up with Foursquare to promote Small Business Saturday for 2011. This is the second year AMEX has run this promotion that it seems to really be growing in popularity. With [...]

Read More

American Express Small Business Saturday

Mobile Computing with #Tablets in 2011

Well, 2011 is pretty much over as we enter the Thanksgiving week. The other day I was cleaning up my desk at home and noticed that I had four tablets mixed in between. It made me realize that that at [...]

Read More

Motorola Xoom

#Foursquare Sense of Accomplishment – #Distance Traveled: #4sqmove

Thanks to (@jamesparton for mentioning this site 4SQ MOVE, a site that measures that distance you traveled, based on your Foursquare check-ins. Created by @BriBarthelemy, here are some highlights about what I was able to glean in using the site: [...]

Read More

4sqmove_highlight

NFC: Not For Cellphones?

Every year, studies come out that show that NFC is the Next Big Thing in mobile, and that it is just around the corner.   Every year, the date of arrival is pushed out by another twelve months, and nothing happens.  Nokia put NFC in a phone several years ago.  Apple has patents for NFC.  But so far, it’s not happening.

Part of the problem is that consumers aren’t looking to replace theNFC Terminalir wallets yet.  Wallets are still necessary for most people because of the requirements for identification, medical cards, and other things besides the credit and debit cards that often fill them.  Another part of the problem is that the solution has its problems…

Once you put NFC on a chip inside the phone, your ability to use it is tied to a) having your phone with you, and b) having your phone’s battery available.  Think about this common situation turned into the NFC nightmare – you are traveling for work and stay out late at a restaurant.  The restaurant is closing so you leave and wait for a cab.  You get in a cab, ride to your hotel, and then, to pay, you take out your phone – wait, your phone is sitting on the table at the restaurant where you left it.  Or the battery is dead.  Now you are sitting outside your hotel with no way to pay.  Leaving phones behind is far more common than leaving wallets behind, based on my informal survey.

Now one thing we know about NFC is that you don’t need a powered device to use it.  I use the transit system in San Francisco and pay with a card that is in my wallet.  Like many other riders, I don’t even take the card out of my wallet, I just tap the wallet on the reader.  It works fine, although I will get to how mobile can improve the experience in the next paragraph, and it’s used in cities around the world.  And it has a big advantage over the phone – I’m often talking or listening to music using my phone when I need to tap, and it would be an interruption to use the phone.  A minor point, but one that is based on real-life experience.

So what is this improvement I mentioned?  People want information about their purchases.  They want to be able to see them immediately, to track their usage, and to know when it has been compromised.  And that is what a mobile app can provide – immediate and cumulative spending feedback.  Because all pertinent information can be carried in the network on the other side of the NFC reader, that information can be made available through the internet to the telephone.  An app can provide information and validation immediately for any tap from a device.  And it can allow events like termination that can help if the card is stolen or otherwise problematic.

Of course, there’s still the basic issue that NFC readers aren’t widely deployed and that the merchants and agencies that will take NFC payments aren’t on-board with a single vendor solution.  But that has nothing to do with mobile, it’s all about the infrastructure.  It’s also why current players in the payments market such as Visa and Verifone have the strongest positions going into the burgeoning NFC market.  Should they make the right moves, the companies  focused on mobile NFC will have far less to do.  Better to focus on couponing – which doesn’t require replacing the wallet and consolidating the infrastructure.  The one “gotcha” with couponing is that it can be done with visual readers and doesn’t require special in-phone hardware any more than NFC does.  There is also the idea of phone-to-phone sharing via NFC, but given other easy ways to do that, it doesn’t look like it justifies incremental cost in phones.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of NFC and have even written business plans that included it.  I use it almost every day with my transit card.  But if the infrastructure is properly built up and the vendors agree on sharing, a card similar to today’s Visa card, supplemented by a mobile app that provides the features that mobile allows, can be just as effective, cheaper, and more reliable.

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Will Mobile 3.0 Bring Down the Internet Big Guns?

A fascinating article by Eric Jackson appeared on the Forbes website last week. Jackson questions the long-term viability of both Facebook and Google as we move beyond the old vision of the desktop web to a world dominated by mobile devices. Let’s call this new world Mobile 3.0 just to have a point of reference. Look at Mobile 1.0 as the cell phone in its original incarnation, a device that supplemented and eventually replaced the wired home phone, as the primary device for voice communications. Mobile 2.0 introduced texting, first in Europe and then in the rest of the world, and made asynchronous conversations possible. Mobile 2.0 added the mobile web but usage was limited by the hardware of the time and by poorly designed operating systems like Symbian.

Mobile 3.0 arrived with the iPhone and the subsequent App Store release. With the touch interface and its companion finger-friendly web browser, and with the native apps that were easy to find and use, mobile devices transformed from simple one-to-one communications devices to an all-purpose method of accessing information (content), social networking, and – well, almost everything. With apps that can both purchase and record sales, Mobile 3.0 has even begun to replace the wallet.

Just like the web transitions, mobile transitions have left a junkyard of failures, from efforts as big as Sony Ericsson and maybe even Nokia, to the lesser known aggregators of ringtones and wallpapers.

Jackson’s Forbes article points out that Web 1.0 companies had trouble getting to Web 2.0. What he doesn’t mention is how many pre-web companies had trouble getting to Web 1.0. This is an even better model for why Facebook and Google are going to fail the transition from Web 2.0 to Mobile 3.0 than the 1.0 to 2.0 failures. It’s a total head switch, not just an upgrade. Just look at the bookstore chains and the catalog merchants to see how devastating it’s been to miss the boat.

A good example for Google and Facebook is Yahoo!. Not just because it’s failing now, but because it spotted mobile early, hired people who understood it and put together programs that should have been effective, but didn’t make mobile part of its DNA. Mobile people were more likely to be perceived as outliers rather than insiders driving the next generation. Despite the best efforts of highly capable people on a number of teams, Yahoo! just never saw the importance of mobile to their future. And despite being ahead of Google in mobile programs through the mid-2000s, they stuck with a core built on the old web. If Yahoo! had only seen that mobile was going to be more important than even Web 2.0, they would be in a better position than Google today for Mobile 3.0.

And that’s what Google and Facebook need to address to survive, as Jackson points out in his Forbes article. Mobile has to be the core of their business, not something tacked on. Users see mobile devices as an extension of their daily life, and the device has to deliver.

Google needs to re-architect search for the mobile user. It needs to be voice-driven and visually delivered. Every search needs to use location information. And searches should adapt to the user’s history. Why are these attributes important? Search on the phone needs to deliver better results more quickly than on a desktop. Users can’t scan fifty results on five pages on the phone without getting frustrated. And visual search results let them select much more quickly. Then there’s revenue – mobile advertising has been implemented in a 0.5 manner and isn’t paying the bills. Mobile advertising needs to be completely re-thought, in a way that provides results to someone other than mobile advertising company founders. This will be the topic of a post here in the next two weeks.

And then there’s Facebook. While many users access Facebook on their phones, it’s difficult to find anyone who says it’s a good experience. Facebook is infinitely better on the desktop, and given the complaints about that experience, it’s not saying much for mobile. Just look at the big user-directed initiative of the last six months – Timeline. Timeline has zero benefit for mobile users, and there is a lot of resistance from desktop users, many of whom find Timeline reminiscent of MySpace. Instead of Timeline, why didn’t Facebook re-think the mobile profile experience? Why is it dreary and useless to look at people’s profiles on Facebook? Does it really have to be this way? Facebook came out with a messaging app, which seemed like a great idea, but it is actually less useful than the messaging instead the full Facebook app. I stopped using it after a few weeks of trying to like it.

These are just the most obvious indicators that Google and Facebook haven’t begun to make the mobile experience central to their strategies. And they show that mobile is still a bolt-on. They are where Yahoo! was in 2005. And unless that changes quickly, high stock prices and big IPOs aren’t going to keep them from being the next AltaVista and MySpace.

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Welcome Jeff Spirer!

I’m pleased to announce that a long time friend, Jeff Spirer, will be contributing to Mobileslate. As I have been consumed with my startup, Embee Mobile, I still remain dedicated to posting, but have found it challenging to provide content on a regular basis. He’s got some great content that he wants to write about, so stay tuned.

For those who don’t know Jeff, he’s been in the mobile and digital media space for a while, having worked at Bango, dijit, Home Shopping Network, Intel, searchme, and Tanla Mobile. He’s also a great photographer.

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VIDEO: Virtual Currency Panel from #FutureOfMoney Summit

Had the pleasure of being on the Virtual Currency panel with:

Jered Kenna, Bitcoin
Philip Rosedale, Coffee & Power
Charlie Shrem, Bitinstant.com
Rebecca Watson, RadiumOne

Video credit to Silvia Matheus

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Intuit TurboTax Goes Mobile

SnapTax iPhoneThe 2012 US Tax Day is coming. While traditionally, it’s supposed to be today (April 15th), the government is kind enough in these situations to give us a natural extension until Tuesday, April 17, 2012. For those who are scrambling to find all their receipts, W2, 1099s, and more, don’t worry, for some of you, you won’t even need to use a computer for this year’s IRS Tax Return. You can simply download a copy of TurboTax from Intuit for your iPad or iPhone. Sounds a bit odd, right? Well, normally the reaction would be: “Taxes from my tablet? Doesn’t seem like it’s possible.” OR “Taxes on my iPhone?How is that possible?!?” While I was a bit skeptical myself, I was happy to get a briefing from the folks at the TurboTax division at Intuit.

For people who have a simple tax return and qualify for the 1040EZ, SnapTax for your iPhone can get you filed within minutes.

SnapTax
icon was the first mobile app to allow users to completely prepare and e-file a federal and state return from their iPhone or Android device. SnapTax is easy, accurate and secure and lets users snap a photo of their W-2 with the camera in their phone and then, automatically transfers information right onto their tax return. Taxpayers then answer a few simple questions, review their return and tap “File My Taxes” to e-file in minutes.

What they have done to try and simplify the process is leverage the camera on the phone to take a picture of our W2 and scan all the relevant items to auto-populate the fields. At $19.99, it’s not necessarily the cheapest app found in the iTunes App Store, but this is still less expensive than a copy for your PC.

Another product that Intuit has launched in order to complete their mobile offering is TaxCaster.

TaxCaster: Now available for iPad as well as iPhone and Android devices, TaxCaster is a free and easy way to estimate a tax refund. With this interactive and engaging app, customers can quickly and easily enter information using visual icons and sliders to see where they stand before they file.

While TaxCaster might be something you use after you file your taxes, it’s pretty nifty how they’re able to fit quite a bit of information in a small package. Perhaps it can help you plan and make good decisions about deductions, exemptions and more. In particular, helping to budget and plan for Donations, Retirement and other items to help reduce your overall payment, and possibly a refund.
icon

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VIDEO: How to Replace a Lenovo T420s LCD Screen

A few weeks ago, I had the misfortune of dropping my laptop computer on concrete in a parking lot. The ugly part was that later that day when I tried to boot up my computer, the LCD screen was cracked. Even worse, my hard drive would not boot. But that’s another story. The good news is that aside from the LCD being cracked, overall the computer survived. Off to a Google search. I found this site, Laptop Screens, where I found a replacement LCD screen for $59. With shipping it came out to about $77.70. I seem to recall the last time I helped a friend go and repair their LCD screen, it cost $200, so the DIY replacement was certainly going to be cheaper and faster.

The best part in all of this was the fact that if I made a video showing a step-by-step guide on how to perform the replacement, and share it on YouTube, then the company would refund me the cost of the screen. So below is my “How To” video on YouTube.

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Arming the Android Army

It’s not IF, but WHEN. With prices like this from the AT&T store, the Android Army will grow in numbers. Let’s hope Google can manage it better than Nokia with the Symbian Foundation.

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@AmericanExpress Small Business Saturday #4sq Check-In

In an effort to help “The 99%”, American Express teamed up with Foursquare to promote Small Business Saturday for 2011. This is the second year AMEX has run this promotion that it seems to really be growing in popularity. With more than 2.75M Likes on their Facebook Fan Page,

The Event

Small Business Saturday is becoming an annual tradition where consumers support local businesses by going to participating stores and buying goods and services with their American Express card. The local business wins by getting a lot of free marketing via American Express, Foursquare and Facebook to promote where to go. American Express did a pretty slick Foursquare integration by synchronizing my AMEX card to my check in and purchases as you can see from the screenshot of my iPhone.

In my case it was convenient that I had to get a pizza today for lunch as I had some friends coming over. My local pizza place happen to be part of the promotion, but I only discovered this when I checked-in to the place. Since my order was over $25, I was basically getting the pizza for free? As I checked my American Express account online, I noticed that the transaction has yet to appear.

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Mobile Computing with #Tablets in 2011

Well, 2011 is pretty much over as we enter the Thanksgiving week. The other day I was cleaning up my desk at home and noticed that I had four tablets mixed in between. It made me realize that that at the beginning of this year, I started with none. The first device I picked up was the Samsung Galaxy Tablet – 7 inch. IMHO it’s still a solid device, but somewhat lacking on screen size.

Samsung Galaxy Tablet

Samsung Galaxy TabThanks to the Samsung Developer Team, based in the San Jose, in particular @hodgreeley for helping me to unlock the device, when AT&T Customer Care was of no help. While a lot of my colleagues scoff at this small device, I still think it has its place in the tablet computing timeline. Part of the downside to this device is the version of Android. Subsequent tablets that I have used seem slicker with newer revs. Among the other features that I really liked which is now standard on several tablets is the fact that it can act as a MiFi access point to get other devices online. One drawback which I wish Samsung would have followed was the proprietary connector for charging and syncing. Mini or micro USB is just the way to go. Period.

Motorola Xoom

Motorola XoomThe second device that I’ve been able to use is the Motorola Xoom. In comparison to the Samsung Tablet 7″ is obviously the side. The ability to use flash has been decent, enough to even use a popular streaming site like Tudou. This device also feels pretty good in your hands with a solid feel. When multi-tasking, I really like the fact that it keeps up. Definitely one of my favorite devices to demoing technology, when possible. I’m looking forward to the next version that comes out soon. Also, a small plug for one of my clients, Touchtype curators of SwiftKey, which has made my life more productive, with their predictive language technology, which really helps make this more than a media consumption device.

Vizio VTAB1008

Vizio VTAB1008 tabletThe next tablet is the Vizio VTAB1008 tablet. While I think a lot of people would scoff at this devices, when comparing it to the Apple iPad, I think people need to understand that this device really focuses on a different segment (value-conscious users). The price point and the fact that it runs Android is a killer. And in speaking with some of the folks at Vizio, they definitely have an agenda to make a dent in the tablet market as they have done in the HDTV market. One other slick design choice that they made, which I wish others could attempt to replicate is the fact that the UI is the same across their smartphones, tablets and televisions. Sony, Samsung and LG devices would be awesome if they followed the same design principles.

Apple iPad 2

Apple iPad 2Last but not least is the Apple iPad 2 in white. This device has gotten rave reviews, endless praise and seems to be the envy of lots of OEMs and users alike. And with the recent iOS 5 upgrade, I really like the iCloud and sync features. Between this device and the Xoom, I use these two frequently for demos, note taking and media consumption. What I find a bit odd is the fact that iPhone designed apps that run on the iPad are not fullscreen. Syncing and organizing my iPhone and iPad apps across devices can be a bit frustrating.

Conclusion

No doubt tablets are here to stay, at least for the next few years. Interesting that it quickly replaced Netbooks, perhaps mostly due to a combination from the hype of the Apple iPad and the price point. I also find it interesting that this year, I am using and switching between different tablets more frequently that I have with mobile handsets. For myself, I think I attribute that to commuting to work on public transportation, thus having time to read more. 2012 will certainly bring an even bigger flurry of tablet devices and smartphones. RIM and Microsoft devices, I have yet to seriously get a chance to use them in real-world scenarios, but I really think they need to step it up in order to stay in the fray.

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#Foursquare Sense of Accomplishment – #Distance Traveled: #4sqmove

Thanks to (@jamesparton for mentioning this site 4SQ MOVE, a site that measures that distance you traveled, based on your Foursquare check-ins. Created by @BriBarthelemy, here are some highlights about what I was able to glean in using the site:

PROS

  • Easy to login, using your Foursquare credentials
  • Graphical overlay using Google Maps to show all of the locations you checked-in to

CONS

  • Only calculates the last 250 check-ins. For the avid user, doesn’t seem you can get a “total sense of accomplishment in kilometers”
  • It takes your complete set of check-ins, even the ones that are [off the grid] and shares those with people

Conclusion

There are plenty of ways to make improvements, enhancements and tweaks for a long while. It’s certainly worth your time to stop by, login and see how you fair.

For those who are curious, my last 250 check-ins yielded 1746km (1085 miles). How did you fair?

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