Summertime, and the living is easy – especially if you’re planning a holiday with Gekko
Taking a vacation is always something to look forward to, but planning the vacation isn’t something that’s on the top of the list. Lucky for me, Gekko has just launched an app that will do just that, plus more.
Now, as MSNBC put it so well, you can “Friend your way to better travel.” Gekko is a new Facebook app that allows users to get travel recommendations from friends, compare hotel prices, and also lets you request deals directly from hotels if you don’t find the price you’re looking for. So instead of going through multiple steps – ping my friends, Google the hotel, check the hotel website, enter my dates and get a price, ring the hotel to see if there are deals missing from the website, ugh, you get the idea – I can now do all of these steps in one fell swoop. Saving me time and money, which means I can spend more time packing sundresses and SPF, then working on my vacation. Oh, it also gives me a nice way to spark new conversations with friends – “Ooh, so you’re thinking of going to Iceland?! How cool is that?” (Probably very cool – or even cold).
Check it out at apps.facebook.com/gekko
Related articles
- Friend your way to better travel (MSNBC)
- Gekko Pulls in Prices and Lets Users Request Deals to Differentiate From Other Facebook Travel Apps (insidefacebook.com)
- Gekko launches new Facebook hotel booking app (Breaking Travel News)
- Gekko goes social with Facebook app (Trav0lution)
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King.com kicks cross-platform butt!
In today’s Inside Social Games, King’s MAU (Monthly Average Users) and DAU (Daily Average Users) for newly launched Miner Speed are illustrated, showing a fantastic growth curve. The game was just released on the iOS as a free app just last week, so these numbers are especially impressive.
The social games industry is moving more towards the cross-platform approach, yet few if any have been able to successfully bridge the divides. With these results, King is proving they are onto something. Puzzle Saga, Bubble Saga, Miner Speed and King’s games portal all occupyed spots in the weekly lists of top 20 games by growth on AppData in the last month. I’m excited to see what’s next!
Related articles
- King.com Games Gain Growth Through Cross-Platform Play (insidesocialgames.com)
- King.com launches its first cross-platform mobile game (exclusive) (venturebeat.com)
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Viewdle launches Social Camera so you can tag, share and socialize on the go
I like to take a lot of pictures so I often encounter an intimidating backlog of pictures I need to sort through. Gah – who was that person in this shot again? Did I send this to my peeps already, or not. When your mind isn’t operating like a spring chicken, it’s nice to have technology come to the rescue.
Hooray for Viewdle’s Social Camera – the only way to tag friends in your mobile photos and share them instantly with Facebook, Flickr, MMW or email.
Tag photos of friends with your phone
Want to tag photos from your phone? SocialCamera is the only way to tag the mobile photos that you want to send to friends. SocialCamera works with the Android camera, so you can take photos with built-in, instant tagging. It uses Viewdle’s advanced face recognition technology to identify the people you take photos of the most, and tag them for you.
Automatically share your photos
It only takes 1 click to share your tagged photos with friends through Facebook, Flickr, MMS, or email. As you take photos, SocialCamera will create a faceprint of your friends, so you can automatically match their social contact info to their picture – your camera will know who to send your photos to. Sharing photos on Facebook will automatically add them to a new album for your friends to see instantly.
Socialize with your photos
SocialCamera was created to start conversations with the phone on your camera. Faceprints of your friends will let you communicate back and forth, with photos. Adding a caption to your photo will let you add a message or status to any email, MMS, Facebook post, or Flickr photo you tag.
Download SocialCamera in the Android App market for free here https://market.android.com/developer?pub=Viewdle.
Related articles
- Viewdle Releases SocialCamera For Android: Instant Photo Tagging, Sharing (techcrunch.com)
- Android App Sees Faces & Tags Friends in Photos (mashable.com)
- Viewdle’s Social Camera App Tags and Learns Your Friends’ Faces (Forbes)
- Viewdle Ready with Social Camera. An Android App That Never Forgets A Face (AllThingsD)
- Viewdle SocialCamera Automatically Tags Pictures (socialtimes.com)
- Viewdle Facial Recognition for Android Goes Live with SocialCamera App (intomobile.com)
- Facebook Facial Recognition Could Get Creepy (pcworld.com)
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King.com Delivers First Mobile Game with Cross-Platform Approach
Today, leading social games company, King.com, announced the launch of Miner Speed on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, the first mobile game within King’s new cross-platform approach. In the new mobile app, users will be able to play with friends via Facebook Connect, or offline to hone their skills for tournament gameplay on Facebook or King.com.
Related articles
- King.com launches its first cross-platform mobile game (exclusive) (venturebeat.com)
- King.com’s Facebook Gamble: We Interview CEO Riccardo Zacconi (pcworld.com)
- King.com Brings Its Casual Games and Tournament System to Facebook (insidesocialgames.com)
- King.com takes tournament games into Facebook (venturebeat.com)
- King.com Launch Follows a Strong 2010, With a Maturing Stable of Games on Facebook (insidesocialgames.com)
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Dang – according to CNBC, I have the 2nd most stressful job of 2011
Apparently, PR execs have the second most stressful job, right behind Commercial Airline Pilots (so much for my recent flying lessons) and right before Senior Corporate Execs. The reason for the stress in PR is:
Public relations executives are “completely at the mercy of their clients and buyers,” says Tony Lee, noting that their success or failure depends on the actions and decisions of clients, creating a stressful situation because their performance is in many ways out of their hands.
Well, I do agree there are elements that are beyond our control. For example, today President Obama is at Facebook for a Town Hall event and there are a lot of media in attendance. If we would have had a client announcement today, it would have been tough to compete with the President for attention. However, there are many other times when we usher a client announcement to the press and everything goes smoothly and spectacularly. I guess those are the days that compensate for the stressful days!
Related articles
- The 10 Most Stressful Jobs of 2011 (CareerCast.com)
- Research Shows Publicists Are Stressed (mediabistro.com)
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Mission Accomplished (and I beat 75% of all male LA Marathon finishers!)
First it was the cold that I picked up while in Austin for SXSW. Then it was my iPhone that got corrupted during a software update that wiped out the marathon playlist that I had built over the past few months including 100 motivational songs, and of course, there was my shin splint in my left leg, and something that could be either serious or minor in my right knee that I’m supposed to have MRI’ed(haven’t done it yet). But that wasn’t going to stop me. No, no. I set my alarm for 3:50am, Dominic had room service deliver coffee at 4am, and I was off on the shuttle bus at the start line at 5:30am determined to finish and do my very best.
The weather forecast called for heavy rain on marathon Sunday, but as runners huddled in Dodger Stadium, only a light shower passed by before the horn went off at 7:44am to start the race. As we entered ChinaTown, full of adrenelin and enthusiasm, the first rains started to fall. Ahh, this feels good! Nice and refreshing! The rains stopped, then started, then, Noah decided to show up with his ark as I saw him float by in the roads that became rivers in LA. Holy floodzone, Batman! Runners stretched out their arms in submission to the rain gods that soaked us to the core over and over again. Then the winds showed up, bringing down the mile markers throughout the course so you didn’t know how far you’d run.
Although us runners felt a bit sorry for ourselves, looking like drowned rats scrambling for dry land, I really felt sorry for the volunteers who struggled with inside-out umbrellas as they stretched out their arm to offer us water, Gatorade, slices of oranges, bananas, Clif bars, and even Yakult! They were soaked and shivering, but were intrepid as they stood their ground to make sure we were supported.
I never realized that cold, wet, weather brings on cramps and hypothermia so quickly. At one point, I reached over to turn down my music so I could hear the crowds better and I was immediately struck by a massive cramp down my right side. I struggled with that cramp while another developed in my right shoulder. As I was happily enjoying a downhill section of the race around mile 24 or so, I was fighting several cramps in my thighs and shins. Geez! I’ve never had so many cramps at one time in my life. I kept telling myself to relax and just take it easy. They would subside, but if I tried to accelerate, they’d come back again, so I just kept my pace slow and steady.
A very welcome surprise was the face of Joon appearing around mile 20. The last 6 miles were really hard for me, so having her cheer me on and run with me gave me an energy boost that left a smile on my face!
On Ocean Avenue, the home stretch, I could see the finish line in the distance, but I had to get through the driving race that stung my eyes and cheeks. Street blockades slid across the road with the force of the wind, almost clipping a few runners in front of me. Most spectators didn’t have umbrellas by then – why even try when Mother Nature was going to win anyway.
Crossing the finish line, I looked over and saw Dominic, Robert and Min cheering me on! As they took a picture, I tried to pose which caused my left butt cheek to cramp. I’ve never had a cramp there before, but let me tell you, it hurts!
I didn’t earn a PR or a BQ, but I gave it my best and survived brutal weather for 26.2 miles. And as you can see from this chart, I actually didn’t do so bad!
Thanks to everyone who supported me, my charity – Freedom Is Not Free, and sent me good vibes. I really needed every ounce of your energy to get through this one! My muscles are super sore but my heart is happy and full of gratitude. Thanks again.
Related articles
- Rookie Wins LA Marathon, Sets Course Record (laist.com)
- 25,000 runners hit soggy streets for LA Marathon (abclocal.go.com)
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When is the right time to add interactivity to a TV show? #GamesForTV #SXSW
This week at SXSW in Austin, Texas, King.com hosted a provocative panel addressing this question and others surrounding the topic of “TV Networks Extending Interactivity for Fans.”
Noah Hawley (@noahhawley), producer and writer behind shows including Bones, The Unusuals, and My Generation, provided insights on creating shows with interactivity baked in from the very beginning. When fans are given the opportunity to continue experiencing with characters outside of the hour on TV, the show is given the extra support and interactivity needed to nurture a loyal and engaged following.
However, creating these additional touch-points can be expensive, especially when over 90% of all new shows fail on TV.
David Luner of Fremantle Media and Kris Soumas of A&E Television Networks addressed the other side of the argument, noting that shows are already expensive to produce, and advertising dollars are notoriously difficult to share amongst new vehicles such as interactive. However, with that being said, David’s team at Fremantle is a shining example of how to successfully extend interactivity around a show, as exemplified in the smash hit American Idol. In addition, David provided examples of how digital marketing was also successfully applied to other game shows, such as Family Feud. Kris also noted that both social games and the mobile platform are increasingly important in the mix of a successful show, noting the tactics used by Parking Wars.
Owais Farooqui of King.com provided an example of how to monetize games that consumers often expect to be free. Rovio’s Angry Birds, which recently received $42 million in Series A funding from Atomico, Accel and Felicas Ventures, actually makes more money on the free version of Angry Birds than the paid version because of advertising revenues and in-app purchases. Owais also talked of the impact of cross-promotion of online properties and the TV show to cross-pollinate the user base and provide uplift of traffic for both properties.
The discussion clearly picqued the interest of the audience as the line-up for questions exceeded the time left in the session. Moderator, Brad Stone of BusinessWeek/Bloomberg quipped that the panel was being Tweeted in several different languages as he watched the hashtag #GamesForTV appear on many Tweets during the session.
The conclusion of the panel is that transmedia strategies including social games and mobile experiences are increasingly critical in ensuring the ongoing success of TV properties, and need to be considered as part of the total brand so that the interactive component does not look “tacked on.”
Related articles
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- The Buzz on SXSW Interactive 2011 (360i.com)
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Tech Cocktail SXSW Presented by LiveShare from Cooliris
Cooliris is sponsoring this year’s must-go party at SXSW, the Tech Cocktail Kickoff on Sunday, March 13th. I’m looking forward to kicking up my heels in Austin!
Don’t forget to download the LiveShare by Cooliris app. If you do and show it at the event, you may win prizes throughout the night and will have access to all the fabulous photos from the party.
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King.com hosting SXSW panel featuring David Luner of Fremantle Media, Kris Soumas of A&E, producer/screenwriter/author Noah Hawley, King’s own Owais Farooqui, moderated by Brad Stone, BusinessWeek
- Why are TV networks leveraging games to extend their brands to fans?
- How are games enabling TV networks to extend their reach through global social networks like Facebook, Bebo, etc?
- How have online games faired so far for promoting and extending TV show brands and what other industries can/will this trend extend to?
- How have online games for TV shows affected the gaming industry?
- What’s the next development for the online games and TV network partnerships?
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This is your brain on a cell phone…
The image above shows what happened to test subjects when they were exposed to a cell phone receiving a call for 50 minutes. A portion of their brain became more active; burning more energy. What does this mean to us?
“We have no idea what this means yet or how it works,” said neuroscientist Nora Volkow of the National Institutes of Health. “But this is the first reliable study showing the brain is activated by exposure to cellphone radio frequencies.”
Hmm, that doesn’t sound reassuring. A few weeks ago, I was commuting on the SF to Larkspur Ferry and sat across from a lawyer who was working on a class-action lawsuit against cell phone providers to require them to disclose the amount of radiation we were exposed to on each phone. He said the iPhone was particularly dangerous, as the antennae issue meant that the phone was struggling to receive a signal more often than not, which meant it was working harder, which meant our gray matter was ingesting more radiation.
Brain imaging physicist Dardo Tomasi of Brookhaven National Laboratory, who co-authored the new brain-scan-based work, to be published Feb. 23 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed radiation emitted from a cellphone’s antenna during a call makes nearby brain tissue use 7 percent more energy. Apparently, that’s several times less activity than visual brain regions show during an engaging movie, but Mr. Tomasi goes on to state:
“The effect is very small, but it’s still unnatural. Nature didn’t prepare our brains for this.”
Sounds like a very good reason to invest in a headset to keep those rays further away from your brain, and while you’re at it, maybe it’s a good idea to occasionally unplug and put that thing into “airplane mode” at night to ensure your insides aren’t swaying to the sounds of the “dit ditta dit ditta dit” that you hear when you’re phone is next to radio.
Live long and prosper.
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