Next Great Thing

Transformation from Watch to Cell Phone Now Truly Complete [PSFK]
With most people checking the time on their cellphones nowadays, watchmaker Tag Heuer is getting into the mobile business with a $6,100 phone of its own.

Mobile Insider “Futurecasting With Nokia” [Mobile Insider]
In this Q&A, Nokia’s Director of Interactive holds that LBS will live up to the hype, the mobile web will supplement the internet, and made-for-mobile advertising will fuel its growth. Agreed!

TV Screen Remains Most Seen, Nielsen’s First ‘3 Screen’ Data Shows Web, Mobile Gaining Too [Media Daily News]
New stats show that the while people spend increasing amounts of time watching video on the web and mobile, TV viewership is rising too. So are we glued to screens all day? Probably not, just watching all three at once.

Marketers Are The New Record Labels [PSFK]
Big brands could be saving the music industry, partnering with musicians to provide the large marketing budgets that labels can no longer afford.

Global Trendsetters: Japanese Women Love Their Jewels [SheFinds]
Large multi-colored and clear faux jewels are making their way into Japanese women’s wardrobes from tees, belts, cuffs, and shoes.

Brands Tap T9 Nav to Reach Consumers Through Mobile [Press Release]
Nuance has developed an SEO-style solution for mobile, letting marketers buy keywords on its T9 text input software. Now, anytime its beta users type in “bar,” for example, they’ll see a link to Tiger Beer’s mobile website.

Japanese Mobile Advertising Evolving [EMarketer]
While Japan’s mobile technology is quite advanced, marketing tactics are still a bit 1.0. Mobile advertising is used predominantly for sales promotion and direct response campaigns in Japan, with simple formats such as picture, text, and email ads (read: Spam) dominating.

Photo Messaging Climbed 60 Percent in the United States During the Past Year [Textually.com]
TSIA, with teens leading the surge.

Pentagon using lie-detecting Windows Mobile devices in Afghanistan [IntoMobile]
Lie detection technology on Windows Mobile has been approved for use by soldiers in Afghanistan.

Japanese Mobile Content Providers Agree on Rating System [Mobile Content Today]
Content providers in Japan have created safety guidelines to monitor the mobile web to protect minors. The issue has been on the table for awhile, and a recent crime spree forced the issue.

Emoticon Mask Hides Your True Emotions [Geekologie]
Coming soon to the next Daft Punk music video – this helmet will make you look like the Bic mascot, but with more feeling and less ink.

Back on Take Your Child to Work Day, one of our colleagues brought in his son and daughter. While the day is meant for them to better learn about what grown-ups do, we used the opportunity to learn about what they do. This focus group of two gave us a great snapshot of tween life in the New Jersey suburbs: their habits, limits, interests and opinions, which we’ve decided to share with our readers.

We learned that, for them, IM comes in fourth grade (maybe) and cell phones in fifth. While his daughter loves her Pink RAZR, his younger son wants to spend some extra money to upgrade to an iPhone. They agree they are both too young for MySpace, but frequent avatar sites like Club Penguin and Stardoll. While they listen to their friends, the parental influence is obvious in his son’s choice of favorite actors and songs (Roger Moore?). But it’s mutual; they get to weigh in on family purchases like the color of the family car and TV. Here is more of what the two had to tell us….

9-year-old Son

Time Spent online:1 ½ hours per day.

Computer limits: No I don’t. Unless my sister wants to go on, then 15 minutes each.

Favorite Fun Sites: www.wwe.com , www.agame.com , www.miniclip.com, www.addictinggames.com.

Best online games: The Impossible Quiz, Presidential Paintball.

Social Networks: I haven’t used a social network.

Virtual World: Yes. I kinda use Club Penguin. I used to use it more but it got boring.

Bad stuff for websites: Pop-ups, inappropriate stuff, the messages on the side.

Favorite shows: Wrestling, ESPN.

Favorite shows online: Mrs. Swan (from MadTV) and Old Wrestling Matches.

Favorite Actors/Actresses: Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Eddie Murphy, Will Farrell.

Favorite Bands/Artists: Chris Daughtry, Nickelback, Bon Jovi, FreeBird, Stairway to Heaven.

Participated in online contests: only sweepstakes.

Favorite way to talk to friends: in person.

Use email, IM, Facebook/MySpace, texting to talk to your friends: No. Maybe IM in 4^th grade when my friends are getting it. I’m too young for MySpace or Facebook (makes a distasteful face) .

Want a cellphone: Yes. I want a Sidekick, Voyager, and an iPhone. My parents will get me a cell phone for 5^th grade graduation. They will buy me the same as my sisters (she has a RAZR) unless I want to use some of my money. I think if I spent $20 of my money I could get a Voyager.

11-year-old Daughter

Time Spent online: A lot! Hours sometimes.

Computer limits: No limits, but my parents get annoyed sometimes.

Favorite Fun Sites: www.aim.com where I get to chat with my friends and www.stardoll.com because I can dress up dolls and go shopping.

Best online games: No games really, unless you consider stardoll a game.

Social Networks: I can’t use them yet.

Virtual World: I like to go to www.VMK.com but they are closing the site down.

Bad stuff for websites: Pop-ups and contests on the sides.

Favorite shows: Hannah Montana, MTV, America’s Prom Queen.

Favorite shows online: YouTube is the only place I really go.

Favorite Actors/Actresses: Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale, Hayden Panettiere.

Favorite Bands/Artists: Miley Cyrus, Danity Kane [song: Damaged], Corrine Bailey Rae [song: Put Your Record On].

Create content, upload videos and pictures, write stuff, make slideshows: Not really. Too personal for me.

Participated in online contests: I only participate in contests online to meet celebrities J.

Email: I use email for my friends, camp friends, and penpal.

Favorite way to talk to friends: IM and texting

Use email, IM, Facebook/MySpace, texting to talk to your friends: Email—not a lot; IM—all the time; Texting—most of the time

Cellphone: I have a pink RAZR. I really wanted a pink phone. I text like once a day to my friends. We do it just for fun. Although, calling my parents is the easiest way to talk to them. They’re not very good at texting J. I play one game on my phone and IM once in a blue moon.

Warner Music joins Nokia’s Comes With Music download program [Engadget]
Nokia adds third-largest music label Warner Music to its growing list of complying music labels for the revolutionary Comes With Music download program.

Tipit Lets You Transfer Money Over Twitter. Sort of. [Tech Crunch]
More an IOU than a money transfer, Tipit sends paypal.com Twitter reminders to your buds who owe you for last weekend.

Photos revealing everyday life in Iraq. By Citizen Reporters [PicturePhoning.com]
A new book, Baghdad Calling, is a compilation of amateur mobile pictures revealing the typical life of war torn Iraq.

Europeans picking mobiles over landlines [The Sydney Morning Herald]
According to the European Union, 24% of all Europeans choose mobiles over landlines with Czech Republic, Finland and Lithuania as the most unwired.

Ypulse Research: SuLake’s 2008 Global Habbo Youth Survey [Ypulse]
More findings on Habbo’s Global Youth Survey reveal that teens’ mobile phone usage is up in all areas with 63% playing mobile games—up from only 54% in 2006—and over a quarter using mobile web to surf the net, check email and IM.

Verizon Wireless, Rhapsody aim to increase digital music revenue [Mobile Marketer]
Verizon Wireless and Rhapsody announce a joint venture to offer low-priced DRM free music tracks, which could significantly boost the revenues of the digital music market.

Traditional Video Still on Top, but Mobile, Online Gaining [MobileContentToday]
While the DVD player continues to dominate the video rental marketplace, other forms of media such as online streaming and mobile video are quickly gaining momentum.

Santa Has a Social Network! On Ning! [AdRants]
Santa has finally caught up with the times with his own social network and blog. Not bad for an old man. Now when is he going to trade in Rudolph for a more efficient hybrid model?

Social Grocery Shopping Tools [Trendhunter]
A new social network called Zeer takes the social shopping concept to the grocery store, letting you read reviews, create grocery lists and join communities of similar eaters–all accessible by phone.

German “Future Store” Lets You Grocery Shop With Your Cellphone [Engadget]
The Germans have taken mobile grocery technology a step further with in-store mobile purchasing. Snapping the barcodes of items in your cart creates one big barcode, which the cashier then scans at the register.

Sure, teenagers have heard this warning since they drove Model T’s, but today the wheel faces some major competition for their hands–the cellphone.

Teens are both conditioned and expected to be available on their phones 24/7, especially via text. (Some even consider it an addiction.) This has naturally extended to dangerous behind-the-wheel behavior. So far 17 states and the District of Columbia have restricted teen access to cell phones while driving. But are they obeying?

Mobile Crunch reported on a study done by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety that compared drivers 18 and younger in both North Carolina—which bans teen cell phone use—and South Carolina—where no laws are in place. The study found that both sets of teens used their cell phones while driving at about the same rate.

Insurance mogul Nationwide also released figures about Driving While Distracted (DWD)—driving while either talking, texting, or engaging in conversation—showing that 60% of teens and 88% of adults talk while driving. With an additional 36% of teens texting while driving, Nationwide questioned these drivers on why they cannot put down the phone to drive—47% said they DWD in order to stay connected with their friends.

Okay, so this is a problem. Automobile accidents are the leading cause of teenage death, with teens three times more likely than another other age group to be involved in a fatal car crash. Attempting to enact laws , though, appears to have little affect on dangerous behavior.

Ohio teen Cassie Carr believes that peer-to-peer communication could have a much better impact. After having a friend total her car while reaching for her cell phone, Cassie pledged not to DWD when she gets her license. In addition to her personal pledge, the 16-year-old tries to stop friends from doing it. She said:

A friend of mine texted while I was in the passenger seat. I asked what was so urgent and she replied saying “I still have one hand on the wheel!” I’d rather know that my friends are safe rather than getting an instant response. Why risk your life for something like a text?

Indeed, better to risk your social life then your actual life. We hope Cassie’s pledge catches on.

GyPSii Deals with Garmin [Mobile Content Today]
As Garmin feels the heat from GPS-enabled handsets, they continue to make their devices more phone-like. Now they are hooking up with location-based social network GyPSii to help find friends when you’re on the road.

Tennessee Tops in Texting [Mobile Content Today]
After two years of comparing state mobile statistics, Verizon Wireless announced that Tennessee reigns as “textest” state surveyed, which included a dozen other Southern states.

Towards free location on all devices [Telematics Update]
Open source Cell-ID is the future of free location on cell phones–the missing link to truly scalable LBS.

Teen mobile subscriber market reaching saturation: Study [Mobile Marketer]
With teen mobile subscription growing, researchers expect the market to reach saturation soon when 90% of teens own mobiles. The study also found that teen girls subscribed more than boys.

Samsung Instinct flies off Sprint’s shelves at record pace [Engadget Mobile]
Sprint finally has some good news—the Samsung Instinct (an iPhone clone) has become their best-selling EV-DO device ever in its first week of availability.

Tabletop Football Goes Mobile [psfk]
Foosball appears on the Nokia N95 handset, incorporating the game’s traditional hand and wrist motion to pass the balls through the goal.

How We Carry Our Mobile Phones [psfk]
Some interesting findings from a recent Nokia global study: 80% of Milan women carry their phone in their bag while only 30% of women in LA do, people in BRIC nations are getting multiple phones/SIMS to optimize costs, and clamshell designs are a hit with Chinese women.

Holographic Text Messages [BuzzFeed]
The technology isn’t quite there yet for the 3G iPhone, but some say that holograph messaging may eventually replace voicemail, email and texting as the preferred form of mobile communication.

Vodafone and MySpace Create Mobile Music Platform [Mobile Content Today]
Vodafone struck a deal with MySpace to launch the Vodafone Music Reporter, a mobile service that will give concert goers in Europe the chance to submit reports on sponsored events throughout the summer.

Telefonica to Launch Global Multichannel Mobile Ad Platform [Mobile Marketer]
Telefonica will use Amobee’s Ad Server to enable behavioral targeting on all handsets for games, video and music players, ring back tones and other non-voice related applications and services.

Google launches mobile community [Mobile Marketer]
Google has started a new crowdsourcing platform–a mobile social networking community where they hope visionary nerds will discuss mobile amongst themselves (and Google engineers).

Advertising is the Medium or Distributed Broadcasting [Talent Imitates, Genius Steals]
Instead of getting advertisements via Google’s AdSense, you may soon be receiving clips of Family Guy creator Seth Mcfarlane’s new animated series. Prepare to get “mediatised.”

Eradicating TB with … cell phone minutes? [MIT News]
MIT students are using a new technology called paper microfluids to ensure TB drug compliance in Nicaragua and rewarding patients with free minutes.