Ok, so generally weekly wrap-ups happen on Friday.. but what are you going to do with new information on Friday, when your brain is already shutting down? Here’s a “things to talk about Monday morning at the water cooler” post—things I learned last week. Interestingly enough, all mobile-related..
- The google search application for the iPhone now has speech recognition. This is one of those features that makes SO MUCH SENSE for an application on a phone. I’ll admit, my first trial with the service was less than perfect: “directions to Mr. Biggs” was interpreted as “directions to students”, but the concept is great.
Of course, it’s even more noteworthy because there is some controversy around the app. Earlier in the week I’d read that the google app uses undocumented APIs to sense when the phone is lifted to your ear. At the time, I wasn’t even aware of the voice search feature. Now it all makes sense. Currently, other applications operate only when the screen is away from the user’s face; they are essentially like standard computer applications. The ability to leverage the fact that the user is on a phone with voice capabilities is pretty significant and may signal a whole new wave of applications… provided, of course, that Apple allows others to use these undocumented APIs too. - In John Batelle’s 2005 book the Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, he mentions a time when we will be able to go into a store, find a product and do comparison shopping using a moble device. I think the creators of the SnapTell app read that book. Snap a picture of a product, and it will identify it and find ratings and prices online.
- Get your own SMS business card at contxts.com. Last Wednesday I was at the Mile High Social Media Club where I met Danny Newman. Rather than both of us pulling out our phones to exchange contact info, he told me to text “daniel” to 50500. I received back a text message with his details, and a link to contxts.com. It appears Danny (CEO of ID345) has set up this system, likely to show off some of the capabilities of his Radius MS offering.
- I admit it, I’m wooed by integration. When LinkedIn announced they were letting a few applications into their mix, I checked them out. I hadn’t heard of Tripit before, but decided to check them out since they were basically endorsed by LinkedIn.
Tripit can help individuals manage their own travel plans, and share that information with others (trusted others via the Tripit network, or everyone via a public badge). One of the most useful features of tripit is its ability to cull your travel details from a forwarded email – you can then access your travel details via your phone. I’m very excited about this, as I have a tendency NOT to print out my travel arrangements before heading to the airport. Tripit manages to achieve two things: increases personal productivity and facilitates in-person connection.
Related posts:
- Subscribe to the RSS feed
- Get Email updates
- Tweet This
- Stumble It
- Add to del.icio.us
- Share on Facebook
- Email to a friend
