Category: Brand Evolution

Rocket Taxi: This App checks your location with GPS and lists nearby taxi companies with distances. Just select one, press on it and a call will be initiated to the cab company.

Greenpeace has introducted an Iphone application that gives users a quick and handy guide to finding the greenest toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, and paper napkins sold at the supermarket. Ideally, the best products contain 100 percent recycled content (at least 50 percent of which is from post-consumer materials) and avoid the use of chlorine or chlorine compounds in the whitening process. Products that meet this criteria include Green Forest, Natural Value and Seventh Generation while products from companies like Kleenex, Charmin, Angel Soft, Cottonelle, Brawny, and Scott fall short. The application is free to download.

TellMe for Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't just an app, it's a one-button hub for voice commands of all kinds, including text messaging, making calls, and also jumping to Microsoft Live Search with natural language queries like "weather in San Francisco, California," "pizza in Kansas City" or "mother's day gift ideas."

This patent for automatically sending an audio or video reply to an iChat call is only useful for computer to computer calling, but also for iPhone to computer calling, or computer to iPhone calling.

The server could additionally be set to store video responses, such that when a person comes back online, they could view one or more clips recorded by their peers. To facilitate this, Apple proposes creating a generic video mailbox which could be accessed from iPhones or a website.

Google Voice, is an alternative call apllication to run on smart phones or other devices. Google Voice is now about to hit iPhones by way of an app. This app for the iPhone has immediately access to your contacts.

Here is how it works: you don't press you regular 'Phone' application, but you select your Google Voice button. You just dial a number or select it from your contacts, as you would do in your regular phone application. The App diales out to Google and you' be a called back to connect both sides and you press the Green button. In this way, you do not only skip the standard fees charged to you by your operator, it will also allow you to maintain your calls from any other smartphone or devices. It actually disconnects your telephone number from your device. Additionally, you can also SMS people the same way.

Wave is a new communication platform by Google. It's a Frothy Collaborative Mix of Chat, Instant Messaging, Twitter and Google Docs in Real-Time:. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more..

Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.

TED, the knowledge platform famous for its public talks, launched a new commenting system. Here are the main enhancements:

• it will be possible to reply to individual comments, thereby creating threaded conversations.
• commenters who have uploaded pictures will have these displayed
• it will be possible to vote on comments
• people whose comments receive up-votes will earn "TEDCred" points.

Brands constantly find new ways to engage consumers. In the old days via PR, magazines and newspaper. Since the late nineties through the web. Since a few years it’s possible to react on postings. Now they’ve started to sophisticate
reaction mechanisms. And soon people awarded with a TEDCred label will be invited to give a talk themselves. That’s an algoritm that find talent, to explore opportunities with your audiences, within consumers, within members. It’s a typical examply of the brand coming out.

The French magazine Amusement n°4 is equipped with an RFID tag connecting it to the web and access additional exclusive content online. How does it work? An RFID tag is fixed in the middle of page 2 of the magazine. As soon as the reader touches the magazine's tag to the RFID Mir:ror scanner (see video), which trigger certain actions or have certain digital applications appear.

Vuze, the online video service provider, now integrates playback with iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 devices in its online video portal application.

Airline KLM has launched a digital boarding pass that allows passengers to check in and board an airplane using their (smart)phone without the need for paper. After checking in via (mobile) internet they'll receive a message with a barcode via SMS, email or MMS. The message will also contain standard information like departure time and seat number. The barcode is scanned at the gate and allows the passengers to find their place.

In the next step KLM will use our current position to guide us through the airport. When a plane is delayed, we’ll be informed so we can enjoy another cappuccino. When we have to start walking because the gate is a 30 minutes’ walk from our current position, we’ll be informed in time. And just a few years after this we’ll have a spoken conversation with the brand agent of KLM, which will come into our lives during the sales process and guides us from our front door to the moment we’ve arrived at the next transport hub or destination and which will do the evaluation afterwards.

The Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam now uses 3D projection of a digitale repaired farao head.

Sixth-formers now have their faces scanned as they arrive in the morning at the City of Ely Community College. Face Register register students in and out of school in just 1.5 seconds. The technology works by scanning faces with an infra-red light and matching their image with key facial features stored on a secure system. Not only a hit with the students, who enjoy signing themselves in, the system is saving a member of staff about an hour and a half each day in recording data.

Brands will automate their conversations and recognising people is a key element. It will not only attribute emotions to brands, it will also decrease cost. This is a beautiful example. 

Legacy Locker notifies friends (in online worlds) of your death. When you're still alive, you create a secure environment where you can store all your passwords. When something has happened, Legacy Locker will require a copy of your death certificate before releasing information. Surviving relatives then get access to your mail accounts, online services you used and your online friends. The service costs $30 per year.

Whether we’re talking about our identity in the virtual world or in the physical world: in the mind of people it’s all the same. Whenever someone disappears, they’ll be missed. And to miss someone is a negative emotion. To address this emotion, new companies will step into this market. And this is just the first step.

Social networks will soon integrate this functionality. In the next step, they will first make sure that each individual profile is checked with a birth certificate (or authorisation by the country of the individual’s nationality) to make sure each profile really represents one single individual. As soon as someone claims that someone is dead, it has already been in the national administration, so it can be acknowledged immediately and death can be communicated by their relatives. The social network will offer services to help those who are left behind to handle their emotions. That will be much more important than just informing them.

That’s how social networks evolve into social coaching brands.

IRLconnect connects to your friend profiles on Facebook and Twitter and plots them on a (Google) map. This visualizes not only what your friends are doing but also where they are doing that. Op top, you can change your status for all platforms instanteneously. IRL Connect is private beta. However, you could use the invitekey which is at the bottom of this posting on one of my favorite Dutch websites DutchCowboys.