There are some encounters with consumer brands that leave me wondering how disconnected corporate culture is with everyday Americans. Exactly how hard do some of these companies think we as consumers should work in order to satisfy their marketing goals? Who is working for whom?

I have been officially advised I am getting grumpy and need to lighten up. "Remember to eat and then sleep and breathe... you need those," my teen daughter advises her father by SMS. The permission Post-Its have evolved into life coach messages from my own kid. I've got my own little Deepak Chopra texting in life lessons. So what makes me smile? What makes me find bliss? Well, good mobile content, of course. Time for a brain dump.

The application economy has many things to offer the mobile content world. Not only is there a different distribution and monetization model here. The emerging app stores/worlds/markets also constitute a large media lab where the barrier to entry is low and the learnings can be high. We've already seen the application environment single-handedly reinvigorate the tired and struggling mobile game industry. The effect of the application environment on gaming has been so profound that even handheld giants Sony and Nintendo have started shifting their own models to digital downloads and smaller snackable titles. The other genre that desperately needs a …

Despite all of the usual weird scrutiny that accompanies any Apple presentation, there were a few pieces from Wednesday's event that slipped under most radar. When I fired up the on-deck App Store yesterday, I was surprised to find a new tab in the Top 25 directory listing for "Top Grossing" apps. From an industry insider's perspective, this is a nice addition. Developers, market watchers, marketers, et al now can get a handle on which apps and development houses actually make money in this ecosystem. Steve Jobs boasted yesterday that there are 75,000 apps in the store now, which reflects …

It is my understanding that we have raised the most consumer-conscious, marketing-averse, hard-to-reach generation in American history. So much tortured thinking goes into marketing to my daughter's generation, it is shocking to see her sheer gullibility when staring at a store shelf wall of video games. "Ooh, that looks good," she says as she grabs the most colorful, cartoonish Xbox 360 game box." She's never heard of the title. I have never heard of the title. But the box looks cool. I literally call in air support. Luckily, the video games media publisher IGN has a great iPhone app that …

My iPhone home pages are now ballooning with branded media apps, and I am starting to pay closer attention to personal news usage patterns on mobile. Is it enough to say that all of these apps really are just akin to Web browser bookmarks? Are any of these news sources able to distinguish themselves within the limitations that even the broader application canvas allows on a phone? I am sure there are rigorous market researchers hot on the trail of these questions, all armed with focus group samples and panel extrapolation algorithms. But until we start seeing the results of …

"What is it?" my partner asked as we stood this weekend before a large puke-green movie poster with only a single graphic, a big honkin' 2D scan code. That was it. No title for the film, just a fugly code that was supposed to engage our curiosity. >"It's a 2D code for your phone. It wants us to scan it." I already knew where this was going to go, but being the "mobile guinea pig" that I have become, there was no alternative but to chase yet another misguided campaign down its marketing rabbit hole

"You need a vacation, Dad," says my daughter. "Knock it off or I will write about you in the next column," I reply. "Fine," my daughter says. "And don't forget to tell them what a crank you are because you spent all summer down in that cave of yours writing about media and programming conferences where other people talk even more about media." Consider it done. Since I now have been sworn to a new resolution that summers must include a vacation, let's spread the joy around. The one thing I have learned after all of these months here in …

Trying to explain a Zippo lighter to a child born in 1992 is a bit like describing TV before cable and remote controls. She just doesn't understand how we did it. I was showing her the Zippo that mobile marketing company Moderati had sent me months ago as a reminder that its Virtual Zippo Lighter for the iPhone was the most successful branded app ever.

My daughter on the Palm Pre: "I don't know what to do with it. I can't figure it out." I can't tell if the new Palm is just inscrutable to her or if she is just being 17. I have been tossing new phones at this kid since she was 10. She essentially taught me how to use a cell phone. But one of the things she also taught me was that content matters first and foremost with the mobile generation.