Mobile marketing has changed a lot in the past couple of years. Geo-targeting uses your smart phone’s GPS to find out where you are, allows you to “check in” to a location, and deliver targeted messages to you based on that information.

Leaders in the geo-targeting space include Foursquare, Gowalla, and Loopt (plus LooptStar). They are similar in many ways, but each offers a different twist on an increasingly familiar theme. They enable local businesses to find and attract consumers in new ways, such as offering coupons or special offers to regulars based on how many times they’ve come in. Like many start-ups, none have mastered the monetization aspect of mobile marketing, but there are clearly endless opportunities here.

In order to give people incentive to use the apps, various forms of social “rewards” are used that essentially turn exploring your city into a game. We are social creatures, and while some of these rewards may seem meaningless or frivolous, there is an attraction to them as they create an element of social status within communities. A large part of the appeal to people in large cities with lots of friends is to make sure you never miss the action, but I believe the jury is still out as to the real social value of this once the initial allure wears off a bit.

While this isn’t intended to be an in-depth review, I’ll discuss some interesting distinctions of each:

Foursquare – I’ve been on Foursquare for about a year now. It’s been amazing to watch the database of local places grow since it depended on the community to enter locations. Now it’s rare that I go somewhere that isn’t already there. The person who frequents a location the most becomes the “mayor” and some establishments give benefits for that position. You collect virtual badges for achieving certain things, like being in a place with at least 50 other people (Swarm) or hitting 4 clubs in one night (Crunked). You get the idea. Foursquare made a gamble by creating a new database of locations and friends, but it seems to have paid off. The most compelling thing about this is the special offers that are based on your location. When you check in somewhere, the app will tell you if there is a nearby special, or one at the place you are (a free drink for 10 check-ins for example). While Foursquare has exploded in the past year, I haven’t seen a congruent explosion of the specials offered by businesses.

LooptStar is a spinoff of Loopt, which was historically a more informational type of app. Their new entry enters the “rewards” space more heavily. The thing that LooptStar does that I believe will give it an advantage is use Facebook Connect to leverage the largest existing social network rather than wait for everyone to find their friends on yet another new one. They were later to the game, but I believe this will give them an edge in the long run. In LooptStar you become a “boss” rather than a “mayor.” But the rewards look to be more tangible than FourSquare.

Gowalla benefits from being on all major mobile smart platforms, including Blackberry and Palm. They also rely on partnerships with existing travel-related services to offer “trips” and share those with your friends. While Foursquare provides community tips based on your location, Gowalla focuses more on directly exploring your friends’ favorite locations to learn more about what they like rather than the community at large.

All of these apps feature basic sharing with your Twitter and Facebook feeds to let people know what you’re up to. Yelp has entered the space by adding check-in to its feature set and you can bet that Google is going to be all over this with its massive business database and Android mobile platform. The problem these sites have is that they have established brand and culture that make it harder to break into new areas.

While this space is fascinating to watch, it still has a long way to go. The apps depend largely upon smart phones such as iPhone and Android, which represent the minority of the mobile market. Also, I feel that any app that requires you to actively check in to a location rather than simply knowing where you are is going to appeal more to geeks and early adopters than the majority of people. It can be very distracting to interrupt your social experience. “Wait guys… I have to check in here first…”

What’s the alternative? Remember Minority Report, when Tom Cruise’s retinas were scanned everywhere he went? In that version of the future, you didn’t even need a device to tell the network where you were. Cameras were so ubiquitous that they knew anyway. Scary? A bit. Possible? You bet.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Fun, Gadget, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, ePiphany Featured Story

The Astek team is pleased as punch about our latest iPhone app, a flashlight that takes advantage of the new LED camera light in the iPhone 4.

But Light Beam is much more than just a flashlight! It’s the app that could save your party AND your life!

Light Beam is the iPhone 4’s brightest and easiest flashlight using the built-in LED flash! It includes a strobe light and SOS emergency beacon.

Features:

• Uses iPhone 4 built-in LED for brightest light possible.
• Intuitive, elegant design.
• Flashlight: Auto-on when app is opened for quickest access.
• Strobe Light: Bring the party with this ultra-bright strobe light. Or increase visibility for extra safety on your bike at night. Easy-touch slider allows you to control the speed.
• Emergency SOS Signal: Activate with the tap of a button. Beams a repeating SOS Morse code signal via the LED light.

Download Light Beam for iPhone 4 now!

Here’s a screenshot of Light Beam:

Check it out and if you don’t have an iPhone 4 please tell your friends!

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Fun, Gadget, Technology

People have been serving customers in “real time” ever since there have been customers. So this is not a new concept. In fact, we’re using technology to correct a problem that technology introduced–distance between company and customer.

If someone walks into your store with a problem, you fix it immediately. If a customer calls you on the phone, you talk to them (hopefully) immediately. But what if someone posts something negative about you on Twitter or to an Internet Forum? What then?

Real time search allows you to monitor those types of interactions, complaints, and complements. It’s still your responsibility to respond, but the time needed to find such messages has been greatly reduced.

The lines between marketing and customer service are blurring. Quickly responding to someone on their own turf in a respectful manner has potential not only to set them straight, but also increase the likelihood they will tell other people about your remarkable effort to make it right. And your public response will serve as a permanent record for anyone else who sees the comment.

Twitter is currently the primary source of real time content, but expect others to get on board quickly. Twitter’s success has driven the major search engines to add real time search features to their products. But Twitter still manages the majority of real time traffic, so you can use Twitter’s built-in search engine as a place to hear what people are saying about you. Otherwise, expect popular online listening tools to start accommodating real time search in the near future.

This certainly won’t pre-empt any traditional forms of customer service, but people are out there talking about you online one way or another. You’ll be better off if you’re aware of it, since it’s not just going to go away on it’s own. At the end of the day, you should view this as an opportunity to serve people better.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Web, ePiphany Featured Story

While I applaud Apple’s effort to bring the iPhone notes onto my desktop through Mail sync, the implementation leaves a bit to be desired. Twice now I have lost a significant amount of information due to the way Apple syncs the notes.

If you use your iPhone to take notes on the fly as much as I do, you know how painful it is to think about losing any of those precious bits of data. Mark/Sync used to work pretty well, or just emailing them one by one. Generally Apple’s sync works, with one notable exception:

If you leave a note open (that is, you don’t press “Done” or go back to the main notes menu) and then sync with your computer, for some crazy reason Apple will actually pull the old version of the note from your computer and erase any recent additions you’ve made to the note on your phone. Worse yet, even if you’ve saved the note (pressed “Done”) since your last sync, it will STILL grab the one from the computer rather than even reverting back to your last mobile version, which would be slightly less catastrophic.

Lessons learned here until Apple fixes this: 1) Always press “Done” on your note before syncing with your computer. Always! 2) Generally if you are in the habit of putting new thoughts on new notes instead of updating an old one, you’ll probably be better off.

I love my iPhone, but every once in awhile Apple just really gets it wrong. It’s surprising since I’m so used to everything else working so well. No one should have to close/save anything that seems to do so automatically and worry about losing information. I might look into switching app’s, and have Evernote installed. But Apple’s notes are just quick and easy. The screenshot below is from Apple’s Web site. I only wish “Never leave a note behind” were true in this case.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Gadget, Technology

I guess this is somewhat old news, but I got to see a Steelcase Walkstation in the flesh last night at the Office Concepts party in Chicago. I have to admit when I first heard about this concept a few days ago, I snickered a bit, but the idea is growing on me.

At first I imagined someone trying to run, or even jog, while typing or trying to concentrate. I know when I work out the blood doesn’t seem to flow first to the brain, but your mileage may vary.

I was told that the contraption was intended for walking and working instead, at around 2.5 miles per hour. This could make more sense. Everyone should walk for at least half an hour every day. I’ve always believed humans were not meant to be shackled to a desk all day long, and this might be the next step towards a healthier working lifestyle.

Especially with innovations in the gaming world of controller-less interfaces that use cameras and microphones to detect body motions and sound, it’s not hard to imagine a virtual environment where after donning some kind of headgear you can be “walking” through a sunny glade, collaborating with people you “meet” (actually seamless video-teleconferencing) in a pretty natural way.

With a price tag around $5,000, the Steelcase solution isn’t for everyone, and the do-it-yourselfers are already proving anyone can make a treadmill desk for a lot less money. But you probably won’t get the nifty buttons that allow you to adjust the desk height on the fly.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Fun, Gadget, Technology

I’m typically skeptical of new whiz-bang Web sites, tools, and features that set out to “change the way we work” until I’ve actually seen the benefit. Google Wave seeks to do just that. Rather than piling on one more piece of technology or layer of abstraction, they cleared the slate by asking, “How should all of this work?” rather than, “How could what exists be better?”

I’m intrigued because I’ve been having a lot of the same thoughts and discussions lately. Email has existed more or less the same way for well over a decade. People have built new interfaces, ways to tie conversation threads together, and new free services, but fundamentally the idea of sending messages with attachments back and forth in a time-shifted manner is the same.

Google Wave seeks to reinvent real-time interaction and collaboration by treating these interactions in a centralized, consistent manner. This makes sense to me. The more applications we layer on and rave about being “the new thing” (Twitter comes to mind), the more fragmented our communication becomes.

Google Wave may or may not be the answer, or it may just be a step in the right direction. At a glance it seems to be trying to solve something that’s been nagging me for awhile. We are so focused on the tools, we often lose sight of what we are trying to communicate and the value contained therein. At the end of the day, what matters is that we want to share ideas and messages with people who will find them relevant in the most efficient manner possible, no matter when or where they happen. If we’re developing a global hive mentality through our communication technology, it will depend on messages seamlessly interacting across mediums, languages, locations, and context. This is a lofty goal, but it’s one worth shooting for.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Technology, Web

Over the past couple of weeks a series of unfortunate events has led me to spread my computing across two laptops and a Mac Mini (Long story starting with a flat tire and drowned MacBook Pro). We typically use SuperDuper to move the information on computer into another as part of our regular backup strategy. In this case, I’ve been using Apple’s built-in function to transfer the files and settings, which works incredibly well.

Through all this I realized that the love and personal attachment I’ve always felt for my Mac’s has transferred from the physical machine to the “soul” of the machine. Before I get too spooky, let me explain. I’ve been using Mac’s for two decades. They’ve always been a significant purchase (most computers are), but I really used to geek out on the machine itself. Apple has almost always excelled at merging beauty of form with the highest practicality of industrial design (longevity, durability, easy access to replace parts, etc.). Since I lean on the side of function in design, nothing impresses me more than artists and designers who truly innovate and move the industry forward by creating brilliant art without sacrificing practicality. (And yes, even at current prices Mac’s are still practical over the long haul if you compare their average lifespan to equivalent PC’s)

The new MacBook Pro is no different in continuing the practical work-of-art tradition, but the software has evolved to make moving from one computer to another painless and simple. So simple, in fact, that it’s not difficult to imagine that what you’re actually doing is moving the soul of the computer (that is, everything you do to make it uniquely your own) to another body. Taken a step further, it’s not hard to imagine that this soul will one day live in the cloud and that you’ll be able to access it from any computer or mobile device. Let’s not talk about Matrix-esque hard-wiring quite yet.

At first I was slightly disappointed in myself for losing this enamor for my computer. I wrote it off to growing up, or just the fact that with the business I now own several computers when I used to hold onto just the one. But then I realized all I’ve done is stopped caring so much about the physical body of the tool, and now focus entirely on how I use the tool. I still love my Mac. It’s just that now “my Mac” isn’t really a computer, it’s some transient pile of ubiquitous bits and bytes that have a diminishing relationship to the body they inhabit. I guess you really can’t judge a MacBook by its cover.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Fun, Gadget, Technology

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

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Andy Swindler Categories: Fun, Gadget, Technology

In a nutshell, a podmap combines driving directions like you’d get on MapQuest of Google with voice recognition so that you can speak to your destination and get a file with visual and written directions. Like a podcast, you would be able to take this file with you, put it on various devices, etc. I enjoy the GPS navigation system built into my Prius, but the one thing it’s missing is some way to download destinations I look up on my computer rather than punching in addresses manually. Not the end of the world, but I always seem to want just one more feature. Good thing they keep making them better!

Apple filed for a patent back in January 2007, so I’m eager to see what comes of this new technology.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Gadget, Technology, Web

Running through a KVM I used to use, the Apple mouse gives you only vertical scrolling, but requires you move your finger horizontally (on the 360-degree scroll ball). Living with this minor annoyance for awhile, I realized that it’s actually far more ergonomic to move your finger slightly left and right rather than typical scrolling which requires activating far more muscles in your arm.

On a side note, I find it amusing to have to clean my mouse ball after a decade without it.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Gadget, Technology