We are not sure how the thick Boston accents on those ubiquitous Dish Network “Hopper” commercials will pronounce “iPad app,” but they get their chance in coming weeks. The satellite TV company introduces today its Dish Explorer app for iPad, which interacts with the Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR video recording and sharing devices. The apps is devoted to helping customers discover new shows in the Dish ecosystem mainly by leveraging social network tools. The app makes show recommendations based on a combination of its own customer bases’ viewing habits as well as trending social media chatter around shows and events. The app also uses the “Thuz” ratings of hottest games being played now. The app includes familiar social TV or “second screen” functionality by allowing viewers to both engage and track Twitter and Facebook discussions around the shows being watched at the time. For sports programming, the app collects real-time stats and can identify games that are trending on social media and becoming must-see events. The app also connects to the owner’s family of Hopper boxes to act as both a remote control and a DVR management interface. Dish’s entry into the second-screen world appears more ambitious than some like Comcast/Xfinity. In most cases the MSO appears content using the app to control a cable box and promote/manage VOD content. Dish is moving more aggressively to capture some of the social TV behaviors that individual networks and third-party apps like Shazam and Zeebox are attempting to grab at the same time. While the share of TV viewers using second-screen apps remains unclear, those who do have a confusing array of options that range from show-specific apps such as TBS’s app for Conan, network-focused apps like CBS Connect and Syfy, check-in services such as GetGlue and Viggle, and robust second-screen experiences like Zeebox or Yahoo’s IntoNow.
Hundreds of companies will share their wares at the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 8, but a few trends and patterns have begun to emerge, such as brainwave technology that identifies intent before movement. Qualcomm filled the opening keynote, taking Microsoft's place this year, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff will attend the show for the first time to deliver the Brand Matters keynote interview, a sign that mobile and cloud computing will play a major role. Combining wireless with computing, Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor powers mobile devices supporting the ability to serve up content related to sports, entertainment and education and help developers create new technologies and connect devices. Paul Jacobs, CEO at Qualcomm, will talk about the future of smartphones and demand for data during the keynote. Smartphones become even smarter when connected to televisions and car entertainment systems that send and receive content through the cloud. Today, consumers use apps, but those will transform into intelligent agents that use signals to push information, based on location, preferences, calendar events and searches on engines across networks. Consumers will share content across screens and operating systems. Another prediction: eye tracking will become a consumer technology and sensors will begin capturing intent prior to movement, going beyond features in gadgets like Microsoft Kinect. IBM exec Kevin Brown predicted brainwave technology would become beneficial within five years. This year, Ariel Garten, Trevor Colemen and Chris Aimone -- co-founders of InteraXon and innovators of Muse -- will demonstrate at CES the potential of brainwave-sensing technology related to improving brain health, ADD/ADHD, entertainment, stress management, fitness training, gaming and studying aids. More than 1.9 million square feet of exhibitor space will bring significant innovation, from 3D screens that don't require glasses, to self-driving cars from Toyota and Audi. Google has been working on driverless cars. Now big automakers are getting serious, too. A video shows a Lexus LS, complete with driverless technology. "Brain Radar photo from Shutterstock"
Netflix continues to secure newer entertainment content -- now with more Warner Bros.-produced TV shows.The big subscription video-on-demand service has struck an eight-TV show deal with Warner Bros., including current first-year highly rated NBC show "Revolution," as well as SVOD rights to new USA Network show "Political Animals."Also included is "The Following," the upcoming Fox drama starring Kevin Bacon, which begins on Fox on Jan. 21. The deal also includes current Western drama "Longmire" running on A&E. Shows no longer on the air include "The West Wing," "Fringe," "Chuck" and ABC's cancelled supernatural drama "666 Park Avenue."As with other deals it has inked with TV producers and networks, Netflix customers will get to see previous seasons of shows. CW made an alliance with Netflix under similar arrangements. That network is co-owned by Warner Bros. and CBS Corp.Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix, stated: "Through deals like this, Netflix is making the production economics right for the continued creation of the kind of compelling serialized dramas and thrillers that our members love."His release also noted that these eight Warner Bros. shows -- as well as potential future shows -- will continue to be available to other distributors, via traditional syndication windows, electronic sell-through services and on a catch-up basis for recently aired episodes.Bruce Rosenblum, president of Warner Bros. Television Group, touting the Netflix arrangement, said: "We continue to adapt our business models to include SVOD when it makes sense for the long-term value of each show."Last month, Netflix moved further in acquiring fresher entertainment content -- movies -- striking an exclusive television deal with Walt Disney Company for live and animated films after their theatrical run starting in 2016.
Search startup blekko launched an app Friday called Izik (pronounced Isaac) designed for search on tablets. The app aims to take consumers from exploratory content in front of the television to task-oriented actions for everyday use. Izik's interface uses blekko's search technology to deliver that experience for Android and iOS devices, but it supports Windows 8 on convertible tablets, such as the Sony Duo. blekko's team began developing Izik as a combined tablet and mobile app, but decided to launch two different versions. The smartphone app will launch later this quarter. Izik will support image-text ads similar to those seen on Amazon.com or Google Product Listing Ads. Michael Markson, blekko vice president of marketing, said clearly identified ads will look similar to content, complete with pricing information. Initially, the company will tap into existing networks such as Amazon, but will eventually build out its own, Markson said. He expects the ads to perform "exceptionally" well based on a click model. NPD Display Search estimates that 80 million tablets will ship in North America this year. Some 25% of Americans ages 16 and older own a tablet such as iPad or Kindle Fire as of November 2012 -- up from 10% in late 2011, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Marketers focusing on content and images in 2013 will find the tablet app a strategic fit. Tying a query into the search box generates a list of categories and images that match specific keywords. The app provides a variety of results, similar to what someone searching would find on Google, Bing or Yahoo. The search engine, known for slashtag technology aimed at ridding spam from search query results, also launched the social site Rockzi in 2012, which supports the blekko search engine. Both support Izik, which will soon offer social sharing. Blekko's team supports the company with experience from Google, Netscape, and AOL. Aside from Ashton Kutcher, investors include Russian search engine Yandex, private equity and investment firms MLC Private Equities, U.S. Venture Partners, CMEA Capital, PivotNorth Capital, and Marc Andreessen, among others.
Smartphones may be growing in popularity, but the computer is still the primary device when it comes to researching and buying products online. According to a Harris Poll of more than 2,300 adults conducted in mid-November, an overwhelming majority of smartphone owners favored using a laptop or desktop for researching goods or services (81%, or the third-most reported activity, compared with 45% -- or the eighth-most popular activity -- for smartphones). A similar disparity arose when it came to purchasing products or services (78%/4th, compared with 23%/12th.) Smartphones, meanwhile, are the preferred devices for immediate communication such as texting or instant messaging and mapping/navigation services. “[Computers and smartphones] are still definitely used differently,” Regina Corso, a senior vice president with Harris Polling, tells Marketing Daily. “This is the first time we’ve asked this question. It does seem like there is a narrowing in that, in the not-so-distant future, we’re going to see smartphone usage outpace laptop and desktop usage in certain areas.” Already the two types of devices are approaching parity in certain areas such as social media, where they were both used with about the same frequency. Email, meanwhile, continues to be a highly utilized feature on smartphones, though users more often use their devices to read e-mails, rather than composing or responding to them. Understanding the different ways consumers use their devices is a key component in crafting marketing messages, Corso says. “Don’t worry so much about sending the text because the end-user is not there,” Corso advises. “They’re still using their computer to do the shopping and the researching. That’s going to be a longer switch.” The survey -- the first of its kind for Harris Interactive -- did not account for tablet usage, because the devices had not yet achieved a full enough penetration for measurement, Corso says. She expects future surveys, which will likely include tablet findings, to show even deeper usage results. “That’s definitely going to change results,” she says. “We’re going to see more people using tablets. They’ll take that out for certain things that they may use a laptop for.”
Newport Beach, Calif. had considered closing several physical libraries, turning the facility into a digital public library. Although I thought about missing the feeling and the smell of old decaying stacks of dusty paper bound in cardboard and string, searching for content online seems so much easier -- even down to the page. Most of us have experienced searching library content from a computer, but what about on a mobile device? A Pew Research Center project survey finds that 39% of Americans ages 16 and older have gone to a library Web site at one time or another -- and of them, 64% visited a library site in the previous 12 months. That means 25% of all Americans ages 16 and older visited a library Web site in the past year. The study also tells us that mobile connections to libraries continue to grow. PEW compares its recent number -- 13% of those ages 16 and older have visited library Web sites or accessed services by mobile device -- to the 6% in 2009, from the University of Washington. Women use libraries more than men -- at 16% versus 11%, respectively, according to the study. Some 17% are black, compared with 14% Hispanic and 12% Caucasian. About 16% earn more than $75,000 annually, compared with 15% between $50,000 and $74,999, and 14% between $30,000 and $49,999; 13% earn less than $30,000 annually. Google has been trying for years to digitize the world's books. They take up much less physical space, and require hard drive or cloud storage after purchase. Lovers of the written word also can check out a book from a library halfway around the world. The company worked with the Israel Antiquities Authority to launch the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library Web site, making accessible the collection of more than 5,000 images of Dead Sea Scrolls. It took two years using advanced technology first developed by NASA. It includes some 1,000 images of scroll fragments; 3,500 scans of negatives from the 1950s; a database documenting about 900 manuscripts, two thousand years old, comprising thousands of scroll fragments; and interactive content pages. The site displays infra-red and color images at a resolution of 1215 dpi, at a 1:1 scale, equivalent in quality to the original scrolls. As tablets become more accessible, we'll see many more digital libraries in addition to the Cambridge Digital Library, and the North Carolina Digital Library.
Mobile shoppers are expecting more from retailers according to a new study by Latitude, Next-Gen Retail: Mobile & Beyond. Smartphones and tablets aren’t just making shopping more convenient and real-time; they’re fundamentally changing how people think about shopping. Mobile shopping makes people feel more relaxed, productive and informed, as well as more open-minded and receptive to discovering new things, says the report. State of Mobile Shopping Expectations Next Two YearsMobile Expectation% of Respondents More shopping 63% No change 34 Less 3 Source: Latitude, December 2012 The multi-phase study included smartphone owners, ages 20-59, from the U.S. and the U.K. 65% also owned tablets, making them “dual owners.” Younger generations are leading the charge when it comes to transacting from their mobile devices. Smartphones are selected more often than laptops as a favorite purchasing platform by 20-29 year-olds. Situations Using Mobile Device To Shop or Purchase (% of Group) Mobile OwnershipUse SituationSmartphone owners using smartphoneDual owners using smartphoneDual owners using tablets At home 77% 62% 87% Watching TV 59 60 77 On-the-go 51 66 26 Commuting/traveling 45 68 42 In a store 36 65 21 At work 35 57 32 Source: Latitude, December 2012 Neela Sakaria, EVP of Latitude, says “... many people prefer using their mobile devices for shopping even while at home... mobile isn’t just about ‘on-the-go’ convenience when it comes to shopping... interesting possibilities for retailers to reach people in new, and perhaps more engaging, ways... ” While mobile information needs are highly situation-dependent, more people cite saving time over saving money as one reason to shop via mobile, regardless of income. (U.S. shoppers are more deal driven than those in the U.K.: 78% vs. 61%). Women are significantly more likely than men to go mobile because it eliminates waiting in line and because it’s something they can do while multi-tasking or accomplishing other things. On the other hand, men are attracted to mobile because it streamlines shopping by offering better curated options, which means fewer items to sift through, says the report. The Benefits Of Mobile ShoppingBenefit% of Respondents Saves time 73% Find best deals 69 Do on-the-go 69 Do while multitasking 63 No waiting in line 55 Source: Latitude, December 2012 The perks of mobile shopping extend beyond just retail experiences. The vast majority (88%) of people agree that having a mobile device with real-time information makes them more spontaneous with shopping and, in general, more open to discovering new things. Top Shopping Behaviors by Device (Owners of All three Devices) Device/Activity% of RespondentsSmartphone Locate a store 72% Look up/compare pricing 66 Look up product info 58 Desktop/Laptop Check out 72% Look up product info 66 Look up coupons/promotions 65 Tablet Look up product info 66% Look up/compare pricing 61 Check user ratings/reviews 57 Source: Latitude, December 2012 Shoppers have mastered “pulling” information from mobile, says the report, and now they’re looking for location- aware communications to reach them at the right times and places. More than half claim that a well-executed alert makes them more likely to visit the website or the store soon, while 1 in 5 say they’re more likely to make a purchase or to make a pit-stop at the store that day. Most likely response to location aware retailer communication: