MOpocket Authors Mordy and Justin are heading out to the Pepcom Holiday Spectacular event tonight to see what new technologies we are suppose to see. We will be trying out something new here… live streaming from my phone which can watched here or in the embed bellow.
I know I know, how good of a VP of Marketing can I be if I do not even write about the launch of my own product on my own blog. But the good news is that we have had such a great reaction that I have been swamped with work!
So here it is (check out the video bellow). The cat is out of the bag. The project startup that I joined and have been working on and off for the past year or so has finally come to fruition. I would like to belatedly announce to you all the launch of Flyscreen, Cellogic’s premier product.
We launched Flyscreen at the TechCrunch50 where we were selected to be in the demo pit. I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing the TC50 event was, not just for us but for all the companies. Even if you did not get selected as one of TechCrunch’s top 50 companies the attention we got just being in the demo pit was astounding. I have never been to a conference like this. The fact that no one pays to present really shows in who presented. Whether on stage or on a table TechCrunch50 had nothing but quality companies showing very very very innovative stuff.
So, about what we are doing. First lets end the confusion. The company is called Cellogic, the product is called Flyscreen.
Cellogic is a US and Israeli based startup founded by entrepreneurs (and my buddies) Itamar Weisbrod and Avi Elias, and backed by Israeli angel investor Yossi Vardi.
Flyscreen is a dynamic mobile platform that provides always on access and streaming content to the mobile phone’s sleep screen. Essentially, we let user put and use their favorite web services on their phones sleep screen to act as a kind of dynamic screen saver.
What does that mean? Oddly enough it appears to be hard to explain but once people see it in action they get it right away. The reaction is usually, “thats so obviously brilliant I cannot believe no one else is doing that.” Even Jason Calacanis who stopped by said he loved it and wanted it right away. Unfortunately we did not have his model phone ready.
The concept of the product is quite simple. When you are not using your phone the screen either turns blank or renders a dim image of the date and time. It probably looks something like this:
This screen is called the sleep screen or power save mode screen. Not to be confused with the idle screen, standby mode or home screen which looks like this blue home screen with the 12:52 time on it:
Many companies have tried to figure out what to do with the idle/home screen.
Flyscreen is not one of them. Simply put Flyscreen reinvents what happens on your phone while your not using it, while its sleeping. What was once a blank screen or dimmed image with the time and date is now a dynamic screen that renders constantly updating content that is relevant to you.
This puts the content that you want to see, such as weather, blog feeds, twitter or any RSS literally zero-clicks away. So, if you want to take a glance at your twitter feed all you have to do is pick up your phone and look at it. Wanna see the headline that everyone is talking talking about then just slide over to your TechCrunch widget. Thats it. We make getting your mobile content easy.
And the magic of the technology is that it does all this while remaining in power save mode. That means it does not effect the battery life (well, very minimally). How do I know? Well, for one thing, I helped build and test the product. For another thing it lasted three days of demo pit duty without a charge.
Users simply sign up at myflyscreen.com, choose which widgets and content they want, save, and then they next time Flyscreen updates on their phone they will be able to see what they want to see at an eyeball away.
Its also good for brands in that it help them leverage their mobile marketing experience on a valuable and untouched space of phone real-estate. Flyscreen is fully compatible with click to call, click to text, click to application and click to mobile web. In other words, with Flyscreen being the first thing people see on their screen, it can help drive a brands many other mobile marketing plays.
All in all its a pretty simple product made for a simple purpose, to make getting the stuff you want on your phone simpler. That’s a lot of simples!
Flyscreen is currently launched on Symbian so if you have an updated Symbian phone you can go to http://www.myflyscreen.com to get on the alpha invite list. If you use the code MOpocket we will speed your invite along.
If you do not have a Symbian phone do not worry! Other versions will be out shortly! Make sure you sign up for when Flyscreen will be ready on Blackberry, WIndows Mobile, Android and iPhone.
This coming Monday September 22nd. Mobile Monday New York is having a unique event. Titled Broadband Everywhere - The Mobile Opportunity the events hope to spark a serious discussion around the issue of 3G, 4G, Wifi and Wimax.
The panelist so far are stellar and it hopes to be a discussion on the impacts of mobile broadband on carriers, content providers, laptop manufacturers and infrastructure vendors. So If you are any of those you need to attend.
This weeks 141ist Carnival of the Mobilists is hosted by Chetan Sharma at Always On Real-Time Access, the Carnival showcases blog post gems from our industry’s busy week of events, including CTIA, TC50, DEMO, Mobile Web Strategies, and many others.
While the MOpocket article was not picked it is true, their are gems in this one.
For the past two years I have paneled a mobile technology panel around the issue of mobile technology and politics at the SXSW Festival in Austin texas.
Every year SXSW allows you to submit you panel which is then voted on by readers like you.
This year I have a panel on a different theme. Quite frankly I want to have a real discussion about Mobile Marketing and about whether its a purely organic structure or something that can be organized and created in a board room.
Since the iPhone it appears that America has begun to awaken to the power that is mobile technology. Since then there has been a lot of hype surrounding corporations, politics and marketing in terms of how to harness the mobile medium. This panel promises to avoid any hype talk and get nitty gritty with what the mobile medium is good for and what it is not good for with stellar examples from multiple industries. We will examine technical as well as anthropological and sociological issues.
It works differently this year in that panels are rated by stars so 5 stars would be nice!
Voting will end at 11:59 pm on Friday, August 29.
Also, if you are interested being on the panel let me know
Extra Note: A lot of the SXSW logo’s have been sporting a hand holding a calle phone. Is this the year of a mobile SXSW?
This upcoming Monday, July 16th Mobile Monday New York will be hosting a very innovative discussion of social networkings mashup with the mobile medium. It promises to be a lively discussion from a vast array of experience regarding this inevitable phenomenon.
Why do I say inevitable? Because what is a cell phone to begin with then a social media networking tool. What is your contact list of which you can choice to speak to, send messages or pictures and video to then your own social network down to its bare bone minimum.
Now add on top of this device its possible integration with the web and other social networking sites as well as Web 2.0 developments and you have something pretty spectacular in motion. What that is its to early to tell but the speakers at this conference should lead us in the right direction.
There will of course also be free food and drinks in the spirit of Mobile Monday.
Robert Samuals Director, Mobile Products
Mobile Web, Messaging, Games, Alternative Platforms at the New York Times (how does he fit all that on his card?)
Being the predictable Mobile Addict that I am, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to attend the SofCon 2008 convention in Santa Clara, California.
The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the future of Mobile Technology, and the panels of speakers were chosen for their relative expertise in this field.
Many of the panelists were celebrities in the Communication world, such as former Chief Technologist for the FCC Dave Farber, and Senior VP of Nokia SoftwareBob Iannucci.
The topics were interesting, the speakers often colorful, however the real fun began when the floor was opened up for questions and the panelists got to talk to each other.
I have to admit, there was a LOT I wanted to say at this event. Sometimes I felt that the information being discussed was flawed, sometimes the panelist didn’t understand the question, and sometimes I feel that the panelist was just plain not up to date. However, while the floor was open to questions, it was NOT open to comments. One person tried to make a comment during one of the Q&A sessions, but was met with an almost rude “Do you actually have a question?” before he could finish his statement.
I found myself whispering comments to the person next to me, but was often shushed by others sitting around us. There were so many things I would have liked to have added, but had to keep it inside.
Well, that is at least until now. Isn’t that the beauty of blogging? I get to decide what is allowed to say here. So, I’d like to share with you some of the highlights of this event, and perhaps some of my own opinions on it as well.
Apple Fanboys/Girls
At first I found myself presented with an abundance of iPhone fans. Most of the talking seemed to be about how Apple revolutionized the industry with its technical prowess and industry changing innovation.I’ll admit, the iPhone did break all kinds of new ground, but I wouldn’t say because of technical prowess. Rather, the iPhone is as news-worthy as it is because of the way Apple has become such an aggressive marketing machine. They continue to convince people that nothing like this has been done before, and that everything to come out after this point is just a carbon copy of their concepts. As someone who follows the industry, it bothers me immensely when people actually buy into that hype.
Madeline Duva, who is the president of 3rd Eye Consulting and a panelist at this event, mentioned that the iPhone caused more people to use the mobile internet today then ever before, and also caused the carriers to introduce flat-rate data plans, which apparently barely existed before its introduction according to her.
During the following Q&A session, someone asked why the iPhone isn’t as popular in Europe as it is here in the states. She answered “because of the lack of 3G networks here”. Overseas, she says, 3G is almost everywhere, whereas here in the US we’re just starting to see 3G data populate. So, if you’ve been using 3G data in Europe, a 2G iPhone isn’t as attractive as it is here.
At this point I found myself digging my fingernails into the tabletop. Sitting in the front row, at least I was able to make eye contact and cast her an glaring look. I think she may have noticed. But a glare alone could not possibly convey what I wished to share.
Mrs. Duva, I don’t even know where to begin. I’ll start with this, though: 1) Apple did not cause more flat rate data plans to emerge. Flat rate data plans have been around in the US for nearly as long as the mobile web has been. I know because I’ve had data from almost every carrier, and always had an affordable flat rate option. Almost a decade ago, even AT&T, who carries the iPhone, gave me a flat rate data plan for my Ericsson TDMA phone. In fact, I’ve NEVER had a metered data plan for as long as I’ve been using data in the United States. Europe, on the other hand, seems to be too squeamish to allow many unlimited data plans. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that people will actually use them more there. Most Americans are pretty clueless when it comes to mobile phone tech, and I’m going to go out on a limb and say that THAT’s why the iPhone is popular here. Apple targetted people who didn’t know how to use Symbian, or found Palm and Windows Mobile OS to be too complicated. I feel like in Europe and the rest of the world, people aren’t afraid to use a “real” smartphone, and thus there is very little appeal for the iPhone since it is severely limited in comparison.
2) 3G is alive and well in the US. In fact, the 2nd generation of 3G is already being rolled out, and 4G (WiMax?) is already in the works. I left T-mobile this past year because they seemed to be the last on the bandwagon for 3G data. With Sprint (who isn’t even considered a leader in wireless technology), I have a reliable EVDO signal almost everywhere I go, and often getting the even faster recently updated RevA when travelling to major cities, and only switch to the older 1x data when roaming on Verizon or someone who doesn’t have an EVDO roaming contract. Last I checked, AT&T was rolling out a solid 3G coverage map as well. I travel a lot from coast and coast, and I have yet to find any major area that lacks 3G coverage. Sure, there are places less densely populated that still lack 3G, but they also lack cell phone towers at all!
Many of the other panelists, including Stuart Card expressed agreement with Madeline’s view on the subject, and the iPhone continued to come up in general conversation.
The Apple Critics That’s not to say that everyone was an iPhone nut. A few people there did seem to see past all the hype, and were actually some of the more entertaining speakers at the event.
MIT’s Ted Selker (who is credited with inventing the Thinkpad’s pointing device among other things) brought some interesting inventions to show off to the crowd as examples of using sensors in unconventional ways. In fact, instead of using the regular microphones for the Q&A sessions afterwards, Ted threw me a beach ball (another perk of sitting in the front row) with a wireless mic embedded inside to talk into. Very entertaining to listen to, and very creative. I’ll share more about my conversation with him in a future post if I have time. My personal favorite line, however, was when he picked up his Nokia N95 and exclaimed “and by the way, this beats the pants off of any iPhone!”. There was a small applause at that point, which I think I may have started.
Another entertaining speaker was Funambol creator Fabrizio Capobianco who actually bought one of the first iPhones when they came out (I may have seen him in that line in front of AT&T in Palo Alto that friday evening actually). Fabrizio was refreshingly down-to-earth, very funny, and well, I’ve used Funambol myself so I must admit I’m a fan even before I met him. Funambol is multi-platform, and is actually credited as being one of the first solutions for iPhone users who wish to sync their PIM with other services, such as Outlook, Exchange Servers or the standard Linux SyncML system. Fabrizio, however, opened one of his statements with “the iPhone browsing experience sucks”, which was met with some murmuring since the moderator of his panel mentioned being an ipod-touch fan. When discussing the current state of the art, he mentioned that people like Funambol because it brings blackberry-style features to other devices, including standard phones. “People used to come to me with their Razr and Blackberry and say, can you converge this so I only need to carry one device?”. He then continued to say that nowadays, people come instead with an iPhone and a Blackberry and ask the same question, except now its worse because there is no keyboard on the iPhone. “They want an iphone with a keyboard, which just doesn’t make any sense at all”.
In case you’re wondering, I found out later Capobianco is currently using a Windows Mobile device.
As always, Apple fanboys, this is nothing personal. I just think that people give the iphone too much credit and its nice when people who know what they’re talking about seem to see through it.
Well, there’s much more to say, but I’m going to have to continue this in another post. Until next time…
If you are planning a summer holiday to Sweden, might I suggest heading on over to Stockholm June 11th-14th for the VON Europe Spring event.VON is about building communities to network and share strategies that result in invention, implementation and distribution of technology.
VON Europe Spring 2007 will bring over 3.000 senior executives from Europe’s leading fixed, mobile and broadband communications companies together in one place. Over 200 companies will be exhibiting at the VON Expo. Moreover, 250 of the ‘brightest minds’ in the business will be sharing their visions on the future of converging communications markets, technology and regulation.
But overshadowing all this talk of new music players and services is, of course, the magical combination of the iPhone and iTunes. Clearly there are a lot of music phones coming out but what is not clear to the consumers, namely because of the iPhone hype, is that these services exist and what they can or cannot do.
Take the following article on CNET that was posted today. According the report mobile music still has a long way to go, even when it comes to Apple.
There are still lots of issues that need to be worked out before mobile music can really live up to the hype, say experts. From their difficulties with incompatible digital rights management technology to their struggles with short battery lives and poor user interfaces, mobile operators and handset makers have a long way to go before the experience of purchasing and listening to music on mobile phones–even the ones made by Apple–lives up to consumer expectations.
I would also add to this fact the fact that the Apple phone will only be working on AT&T’s Edge network, not a very happy download user experience compared to, say, downloading music off of Sprints EVDO network. So agrees CNET
While new music-playing phones should spur excitement among consumers, there are still issues that need to be worked out. One of the major hurdles will be making sure people can buy and transfer music easily onto their wireless devices. The ability to download music over the air is seen as a crucial piece of this puzzle–and it’s something the iPhone can’t do.
Neverthless, the article points out, carriers and manufacturers are making it easier for people to “learn” or “realize” that there phone can replace their iPod.
Clearly the winner in this game will take a combination of carrier and handset relationship but will ultimately, in my opinion, rely on the ability to download music over the air. Perhaps companies will do it before the iPhone can and perhaps people wont care, perhaps they will side-install music until they can proactively get their music anytime any where… but perhaps they will realize the hype part of hype when it comes to the iPhone and thus, perhaps they go where the downloads can land.
But even in this area there are a bunch of kinks that need to be worked out. Songs purchased over a cellular network can be used only on specific handsets. The limitation is due in large part to the fact that mobile operators use different digital rights management technology to distribute copyrighted songs. Thats something people who are already using iPods are used to.
The real key, for many many reasons, is for the operators to “get together” and rally around some sort of DRM standard so there is interoperability among devices. But we know how hard it is to get competitors to get together on anything. Through Apple into the equation and there is a whole new loop in the game.
A couple of months ago I attended and spoke at the Mobile Persuasion conference at Stanford University. I spoke on the topic of using mobile phones for political campaigns, non-profits and its power of political persuasion. On my way out I was stopped for an interview. Click here to check it out
