Category: Brand Evolution

Inside Trip has refined searching for flights to such an extent that not just the price counts as a criteria, but also the amount of transfers, the risk of delays and the average amount of times luggage gets lost.

Through SMSParking inhabitants of Amsterdam can pay for their parking with a text message. A simple text message at the beginning and end of parking will do. The driver parks his/her car and sends a text message with the zone-number of the parking lot and the license plate number of the car to 4030. The system confirms that parking has started with a text message. Placing a separate parking ticket in your car will no longer be necessary. As soon as the driver is done parking, (s)he sends a message with just the letter 'q' to state that they quit parking there. The system again confirms this with a text message which will contain the zone, the license plate number, the time, the date and the price.

Symbian is an operating system for cell phones like Microsoft Windows is for computers. Symbian doesn't work on all cell phones, but it does work on, for example, the ones manufactured by Nokia. Some of the big cell phone manufacturers, amongst which Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola, have announced that they will start a Symbian Foundation. Its most important goal will be turning the Symbian OS into open source, which means that the source code, the big secret of Symbian if you will, becomes accessible to everyone.

American passengers who travel with Delta Air Lines from La Guardia Airport in New York can now download their boarding pass onto their cell phone prior to their flight. That way these passengers will no longer have to wait in line at the Check In desk when they arrive at the airport and instead walk straight towards the Gate. There the mobile boarding pass and the passenger's identity will be checked.

The Dutch county Helmond followed a fierce discussion on the closing times for pubs, cafés, etc on a private blog: Hellemond (Dutch). The county included this discussion in a note, as can be read in the (Dutch) Burgerjaarverslag 2007(pdf) (Civilian year report 2007) which makes it an official approach. The report reads 'Spontaneously a discussion about the note started on a private blog in Helmond which we took into account here.'

Private loans (Dutch) are a new service of the Dutch ABN Amro branch. It's a service for people who want to lend money privately. It often involves a loan between friends, acquaintances or family members.

It's pretty simple. You agree with someone from your area how much you'll borrow and make arrangements about the height of the interest rate and the repayment plan. Lenders and borrowers can orient themselves on the website of ABN AMRO. When they've reached an agreement on the payment conditions, ABN AMRO offers them sample contracts for making the agreement. The site also offers fiscal and judicial tips and a calculator.

The bank doesn't charge a commission for this service, but aims at binding customers to itself and offers additional paid services. The Judicial Service Plan offers direct connection with professionals, specialized in judicial aid.

For 2-6 weeks, Jai of the Dutch eJai is your digital guide in a journey with experiences in Personal Growth, Health, Leadership, Beauty, Relations, Money or Pleasure. For 65 euros you'll be pulled out of your comfort-zone and you'll experience things that you'd never do otherwise. This is how you can get the most out of every moment of the day. Offered to you by your friends.

Dutch news site Nu.nl puts the news on the map (Dutch). You can also look at police notices (crime map) and traffic jams. With an extra timeline you can move through time too.

Rabobank has now placed at least a hundred talking ATMs (Dutch) in its establishments and this year the amount of machines with speech and a receiver will come to a total of 750 (demo (Dutch)). The talking ATM is extremely useful for the blind, the poor-sighted and for people in wheelchairs. A voice guides the user via a telephone receiver through the process of getting money.

Movie theater City Theater in Steenwijk sends people who reserve online a text message with a so-called MobiTicket. That makes them the first movie theater in the Netherlands. MobiTickets are tickets that are sent to your cell phone as a simple text message. The text message contains a unique barcode and information on the movie, the time, room, row and chair number. The movie-goer simply lets an employee scan the text message to gain entrance to the movie. It means never standing in line to buy a ticket.

It's now possible to look at the virtual world of Second Life from your cell phone. After installing a small program you can simply log in with your own user name and password and the fun can begin.

Ally, the new brand agent of Dutch county Almere, is now also available 3D on Hyves. Ally answers people's questions on Almere and events in the county online. Ally is the first chatbot belonging to a Dutch county that can be found on Hyves.

Price comparison site Kelkoo.nl is now also available on your cell phone.

Dutch job-vacancy site werkbank.nl now has a version for the iPhone, which makes it the first website in the Netherlands to have this.

At some of the stores of the supermarket chain Albert Heijn it's now possible to pay by fingerprint. After showing some ID and a means of payment a scan is made of the unique points of the fingertip and name, address, bank account and, if wanted, the number of the customer bonus card will be registered. After this consumers can pay by placing their finger on the reader at the cash desk.