Jason Rosado

Here’s a new kind of post on recent technological innovations in our wonderfully delightful future-as-present reality. To reflect upon this current day, wherein we finally live most of the future that our ancestors warned us of (1984, for example) I’ll post one thing that’s innovative (and frightening) versus another that’s innovative (and exciting).

Readers can opine on which is better, interesting, etc. I should give credit in advance to my peers at ITP, who often introduce these new finds on our wonderful student email list. These two items come from Ms. Emily Ryan of NoTrustFund fame and Mr. Ari Joseph, of NotTwoMuch.

First up, coming in the Frightening Category. A major reason to find a significant other who simply doesn’t suck, steal your money, or curse at your family members and marry him/her NOW, so as not to engage in what might be the Dating Scene of the near-term future. Because, if you are “single and ready to mingle,” think again, especially if your date has the DateCheck app for your mobile device.

Not only does this harken me back to my days as an undergrad at Wesleyan University, where the DateCheck of choice at the time (rumor had it) were the stalls in the Women’s Bathrooms in the Student Center. It was here that women posted handwritten lists of men to stay away from. Names were added on occasion, some were scratched out. Others were defended or substantiated. Now, a young woman need look no further than their own iPhone to get the “goods” on their potential Mr. Right. Is this exciting or frightening?

And now for our feature in the Exciting category, we have an innovation by those crazy kids (what’ll they think of next) at MIT. The Flyfire is the next generation of multidimensional graphical presentation and they utilize (wait for it…) flying LED helicopters (three words I never even thought of to put together in one sentence).

That’s right, coordinated arrays of little LED lights flying in mid-air to illustrate oh, maybe the Mona Lisa or your next Pepsi ad… Hmm… The possibilities are endless. This is where Lightbrite meets Zero Gravity. Right now, the flying LED helicopters are about the size of a golf-ball. Will they get smaller? The answer, undoubtedly is, yes, of course they will.

But could they get so small that they become the re-animation of a normal display upon which one would watch their video (or video game) entertainment?  Will this technology let me decide where I want my screen to be at any given time?  Like on the ceiling when I’m lying flat on my back or against the walls when I’m walking around the house?  Will it introduce the z-axis in a new as yet physically unaccomplished way for what we know to be 3D imagery today? Is this exciting or frightening?

I would love to hear someone (anyone’s!) thoughts on these matters. Please feel free to post a comment!

So, I’ve been consulting a good friend of mine on the development of a blog, Green Eggs and Glam that focuses on the intersections of her passion for fashion with being a mother and educator. Another friend and fellow classmate at ITP, Ruxy Staicutt also shared some thoughts recently on designing and building an iPhone app for the shopping experience for her Thesis.

This led me to research and think about particular iPhone apps that cater to fashion and shopping. Here are some articles and thoughts about the topic:

Here’s a cool write-up in Styleist on Tommy Hilfiger’s iPhone App (here). From the article, below:

Let’s say you’re in a store and there’s a Tommy item you just can’t live without. But, alas, your size is sold out. Don’t fret! You can immediately check availability with the app and place an order from your Apple device. If something’s out of stock, you have the option of being alerted when it becomes available again. And if you start shopping from your computer, but need to run out mid-spree, your cart will show up on your iPhone and vice versa.

Norma Kamali has been getting a lot of on-line press for her App too (here). But for the most part, the app is not very interactive, in
the sense that you can’t purchase apparel through the app itself. It focuses for the most part on images, press clippings, and a mobile web version of her blog.

Here’s a great overview of different fashion apps as well.
This article led me to find Ralph Lauren’s make-your-own-rugby app. Now that’s creative! I think I’ll be seeing a couple of self styled rugby shirts in my wardrobe soon.

What most interests me in this space, beyond migrating what amounts to “brochure-ware” to the iPhone for viewing on a smaller, albeit touch-enabled screen are the models that allow the user to initiate and execute transactions right through the device. This facilitates the retail experience and adds additional value to the fun (sometimes pain) that can be retail shopping. Here’s a good article from the Times on how mobile commerce facilitated Holiday Shopping this past season. The article also introduces ShopSavvy:

With ShopSavvy™ users can scan the barcode of any product using their phone’s built-in camera. Once scanned, it will search for all the best prices on the internet.

The Lucky iPhone App is billing itself as:

the first-ever digital shopping concierge. Shop Lucky’s favorite products from your iPhone, and we’ll track them down at a store near you, check availability, and even put them on hold for same-day pickup!

Check out the screen shots from their iPhone app below. This business model makes a lot of sense since it ties the retail, catalog and mobile experience together. It is a free app, although I’m willing to bet for the value (and saved time) it provides to a consumer, one could argue it could be a pay-app.

More to come on this topic, as I come across it myself. In the meantime, Happy Shopping!

I thought you might find some of this research regarding Mobile Commerce interesting:

Key facts from this article regarding Mobile Commerce:
– Nine million Americans have already made at least one m-commerce purchase
– 125 million Americans are willing to make a purchase in the near future.
– Many merchants are utilizing alternative Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for their websites to be activated when their customers access their websites via mobile devices

And per this article, the Tower Group estimates:
– by the beginning of 2009, between 150-300 banks and credit unions will sign contracts for mobile banking solutions
– Mobile banking will reach close to 6 million users by the end of 2009
– 42 million active users of mobile banking solutions by 2012

According to this article:
– More smart phones will be purchased than PCs in 2011

And interesting developments per global giving/donations, in this article:
– Donations via mobile devices are outpacing commercial payments
– $11 million in 3 days were raised for Haiti’s disaster relief efforts via text messaged initiated payments

Here’s another article that supports my long-held hypothesis that mobile philanthropy will drive mobile commerce in the United States. The article posits that the crisis in Haiti will be the turning point for adoption of mobile commerce.

… and this article discusses the opportunity for mobile remittances addressing un-banked and migrant worker customer bases