This might be the BEST thing on Twitter.

In Sarnate, a small village on the west coast of Latvia, a group of people carefully grace a keyboard with a layer of unsalted fat and leave it outside in the garden.

The keyboard is connected to a computer which is connected to the internet and Twitter. Unbeknownst to the birds feeding on the fat, they are simultaneously sending out tweets under the username @hungry_birds.

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It’s been a while since I’ve wanted to explore what’s happening in the world of mHotels. That’s a term I pretty much made up to describe the intersection of mobile technology and the hotel industry.

Not to be confused with mobile hotels.

Those who know me well, know that I am fascinated (*ahem* obsessed) with the world of hotels. During my university years, I would tell my roommate that I was off to the gym (which was kind of true), except that I was actually going to go sit in the sauna at the Delta Hotel located 5 minutes away from the McGill Ghetto and read J Willard Marriott’s biography.

Since there are so many technological trends to cover and different phases of the hotel experience life cycle to explore, I’m breaking up the topic into series of X parts. I’m not going to spend too much time on how far we’ve come in finding and booking a hotel on a mobile phone because that is pretty much “old news”.

Did you know you can download an app to find and book a hotel? AMAZING. Not really. Ok, next:

RFID

Radio Frequency IDentification is a data collection technology that uses electronic tags for storing data. Traditionally, the RFID reader is a fixed machine and the tags are the moving parts. Mobile RFID is the other way around: the reader is installed on a mobile device (such as a phone) and the tags are usually fixed.

Aloft Hotels, which is part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc, has rolled out its Smart Check-In initiative (Checkinitative?). Starwood guests receive a branded RFID keycard which they keep. On the day of their stay, they receive a text message with their room number and the key will automatically unlock their designated room’s door. This completely eliminates the need to wait in the check-in line and interact with a human being. Score. Rumor has it that the keycard will eventually serve other purposes during the stay such as purchasing food and drinks from the hotel (not unlike what you find on cruise ships).

Cue cheesy video.

Nordic Choice Hotels in Scandinavia also launched a similar program with their OpenWays mobile key front-desk solutions, and the Hilton and InterContinental are testing OpenWays’ technology in select cities which allows doors to be unlocked by the mobile phone themselves (as opposed to a separate keycard as in Aloft’s case).

I’m fairly certain that using your cell phone as your all access pass to hotel stays (room key, quick payments, etc) will become the norm in the not so distant future.

How about when RFID becomes social?

Ibiza’s Ushuaia Beach Hotel recently launched a campaign to let their guests share their resort experiences on Facebook in a unique way. Guests receive a special wrist band when they check in which is linked to their Facebook profile. By swiping their wrist bands at assigned RFID points around the resort, they can tag photos, check in on Facebook Places, “like” and share their vacation activities.

Cue cheesy video #2.

RFID-equipped wristbands are a great idea for resorts as people do not really carry their cell phones around with them, or if they do, data access is limited. It’s also extremely fun for vacation resorts where locations and activities are “fixed” (in a time/location sense) but varied in type (different pools, beaches, sports activities, parties, bars, shows, etc). It’s data that people want to naturally share with their close friends, but couldn’t really before. Although you’d want to make sure those privacy settings are set correctly if you plan on swiping that wrist band on eight piña coladas and that hot German tourist.

RFID social sharing campaigns are starting to get picked up, another recent example being the waterpark at Great Wold Resorts which is genius because there is absolutely no way to carry a mobile phone around a waterpark. Other places this would work well: amusement parks, the zoo, ski resorts, Disney World, absolutely anywhere actually.

What would make hotel RFID data tracking even more fun is turning it into a game where users can unlock real rewards when they reach certain objectives and milestones.

To conclude, mobile RFID in the hotel industry has not only the potential to make existing processes more convenient (unlock door, checking out, ordering food, paying at the bar) but can enhance the experience by making it more interactive, incorporating things like social sharing (read: free marketing) and gaming elements.

To be continued…

In the spirit of New York Fashion Week, one can’t help but associate the words “supermodel” and “cell phone” with Naomi Campbell and her infamous incident(s).

Source: technorati.com

Back in 2000, she pleaded guilty to an assault where she allegedly attacked her assistant with her mobile phone, and then threatened to throw her out of a moving Peugot. She paid an undisclosed sum and agreed to attend anger management classes. But that wasn’t enough.

In 2005, she allegedly slapped another assistant and beat her on the head with a BlackBerry, amongst other miscellaneous assault claims. That still was not enough.

Just a year later, she was arrested again for allegedly assaulting her housekeeper, this time with a jewel-encrusted mobile phone which resulted in a bloody head that required several stitches. After not showing up for her scheduled court appearance date, she was finally sentenced to five days of community service and more anger management classes in 2007.

Clearly, some people just never learn. Jokes aside though, she isn’t the only one who takes joy out of throwing phones. In fact, it’s an official international sport.

Source: writingwhitepapers.com

Yes, the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships have been held annually in Finland since the year 2000 (which is incidentally the year of Naomi’s first attack – coincidence?).

It is exactly what it sounds like, in that participants throw mobile phones and are judged on distance or technique. The sport is usually separated into four categories. The traditional category is purely based on distance, in that the winner is the person who can throw the phone the furthest. In the freestyle category, players get points for aesthetics and creative choreography. In this latter one, overall appearance is crucial, for example if you dress like a clown or a zebra you will get more points.

Here’s a video of Taco Cohen, a past Netherlands winner, for his freestyle performance which incorporated juggling and acrobatics:

The other two categories are team original where three competitors have one throw each and their scores are added together, and junior which is for children under twelve years old.

Rules vary from competition to competition, but in general the basic ones hold true:

• You are not allowed to throw your own phone. You must used one provided by the event organizers (in most cases these are recycled phones).
• The phone must weigh at least 220 grams, but brands and models vary. Sometimes it’s up to the participant’s preference, while other times an event will choose one particular model for all.
• The battery must be included, and no additional weight may be added or subtracted from the handset.
• You can not cross the marked line.
• You can only use your hands to throw the phone.

There is still great debate amongst what type of phone has a better chance at winning. Some believe the heavier phone will go the furthest, while others believe the opposite. Aerodynamics of the handsets also surely plays a role.

There are several national championships that take place annually, in which the winners get entry to the world championships: the Savonlinna Festivals Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships.

Allow Markku to welcome you to Savonlinna and explain why Finland is so digi-digi-digital (really, you have to watch this one).

National events are especially quite popular in Europe, such as in Norway, Switzerland, Spain, Liechtenstein, and the UK. There is also one in the United States, which started in 2008 and takes place in Massachusetts. The event there is sponsored by Family Wireless.

According to the Mobile Phone Throwing Facebook fan page, these are the current (unofficial) world event records:

• Men’s Record at WORLD Event – 94.97m
• Woman’s Record at WORLD Event – 41.42m

So why throw mobile phones? Because you can. How many times have you been so frustrated with your phone that you literally wanted to throw it of the window? I’m sure engaging in this sport can prove to be extremely therapeutic and help relieve stress, and many of these events raise money for charity. It’s also a much better alternative to whacking it on your assistant’s head.

So finally, you might be wondering, what is the grand prize for the winner at the world championships? A brand new phone of course. Who knows, with the proliferation of mobile phones, perhaps one day the sport will make it to the Olympic games.

Source: Sepree.com

Is it a bird, is it a plane, is it a car?

Nope. It’s a cell phone.

Car Phones (1)

If you’re a car-fanatic tech-geek who’s also young at heart, you’ll be sure to enjoy these neat hybrids between automobiles and mobile phone handsets. One could say they are so “mobile” they even have their own set of wheels.

They make fantastic alternatives for those who are going through a mid-life crisis and can’t afford the real thing. The best part is they are all electrical-powered so great on the environment.

Ferrari

F1 Ferrari Car Phone

It’s a cool toy, but if you want something closer to the real deal, premium handset manufacturer Vertu offers the Ascent Ti Ferrari phone. It features a scaled-down copy of the Ferrari gas brake pedal in aluminimum on the back, as well as hand-stiched Ferrari leather identical to that used in the actual car. It’s rumoured to be priced at around $25,000.

Vertu Ascent Ti Ferrari

If the Vertu edition is still over your mid-life crisis budget, you can opt for more affordable models such as the Sony Ericsson K800i Ferrari,  the Motorola V9 Ferrari, or the Motorola Z8.

Motorola V9 Ferrari

Porsche

Porsche Car Style Phone

Porsche Design Mobile Phones

This last one is actually manufactured by Porsche Design themselves; and there is both a flip and a candy-bar model. Pre-loaded ringtones include the roaring engines of the 911 GT3 and Turbo, in addition to apparently some bad german techno. You can also unlock the phone through a fingerprint scanner.

Speaking about mobile phones and Porsches, does anybody remember the teenager who turned his cell phone into a Porsche by bartering on Craigslist? Long story short, a friend gave him his old phone which he listed on the site and traded it for another phone. He subsequently traded that one for an iPod Touch, which turned into a dirt bike, into a gear box, into a Macbook Pro, into a Toyota 4runner, into a tricked-out golf cart, into a series of cars, into a 1975 Ford Bronco, and finally into a 2000 Porsche Boxster S. (Nuts!).

Aston Martin


This Nokia 8800 Aston Martin Edition is made from its vehicle-worthy materials, including a stainless steel slider case and a special thoughened glass display. It also comes with Aston Martin screensavers, wallpapers, a Vantage V8 engine revving ringtone and a special short video documentary. It’s relatively more reasonably priced than the Ferrari, costing you only a cool $1,640.

Nokia 8800 Aston Martin Edition.

BMW


I just had to also mention the BMW phone because I am my mother’s daughter after all.

BMW Cell Phone

Car Phones (2)

Those fun car phones are not to be confused with the original car phones. It’s a little known fact (at least for my generation) that on the path to inventing the wireless phone as we know today (i.e. no wires), there was a short-lived yet popular trend for car phones.

The first car phone was invented in 1910 by a Swedish engineer named Lars Magnus Ericsson. He literally installed a phone in his car and drove around the country, connecting it to telephone poles along the road with a pair of long electrical wires. However this concept, surprisingly, was not so popular.

In the 1940’s and 1950’s, the development of cell towers being able to receive signals in three hexagonal directions led to car phones being installed in limousines and other vehicles. It truly was the first concept of being able to make a phone call “on the go”, but it was nevertheless attached to the car.

In the late 1980’s, the commercial availability of affordable mobile phones quickly eclipsed the need for car phones. But if you really want a car phone these days, there are a couple of handset manufacturers who continue to sell them. For example, there is the Motorola M800 and the Nokia 810. Keep in mind there are still some rural areas where digital signal is not available.

As some of you might know, the first cinematic reference to a mobile phone was Michael Douglas and the DynaTac in Wall Street. Well the first reference to a car phone was way before that in 1954’s Sabrina with Humphrey Bogart.

Even if talking on your cell phone while driving is now illegal in some countries, Bluetooth technology – whether integrated with the car or separately – solves the problem.

This segways nicely into the last item on the agenda.

Bluetooth Controlled Cars

James Bond fans might recall the car chase scene in the Tomorrow Never Dies movie where he controls the car using his cell phone.

Well apparently some guy from Nokia actually figured out how to do it in real life. Using Bluetooth technology and a mobile phone, he could control commands such as steering, brake and gas. It certainly brings a whole new meaning to “backseat driver”.

 

Conceptually cool yet potentially fatal.

For those who would not like to risk killing themselves, there are some toy remote controlled cars for which you can use your cell phone to drive.

The integration between cell phones and cars is quickly becoming a reality; it’s not in just James Bond movies anymore. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January 2010, General Motors announced that the upcoming Chevrolet Volt, an electric vehicle, will allow owners to control certain features through their smartphone, such as turning on climate control, checking the voltage at a charger and getting text notifications if there is a battery charge interruption. Other car companies are also planning similar roll-outs.

 

Boys will be boys, and boys sure love their toys. It’s interesting to see the overlaps between mobile technology development and the automobile industry, a new era dubbed Car 2.0.

Although technology’s primary purpose is to improve functionality and efficiency, sometimes it can just be for fun.

So, let’s all continue to play :)

There are a many different ways to search for a restaurant, and hundreds of mobile apps in market which focus just on that. This post however will focus on the dining experience itself, once the restaurant selection has already been made – i.e. from the time the customers gets there (and even before) to the moment they leave (and even after).

Waiting for your table

Everyone has experienced the following situation at least once. It’s a busy saturday night, the feeling is right, and you want to go to a very popular restaurant at the last minute and did not make a reservation – or perhaps the restaurant does not even take reservations. They hand you a funny looking pager which obnoxiously buzzes when your table is ready, allowing you to walk around so you don’t have to just stand there. Useful? Yes. Outdated? Definitely.

Now that almost everyone has a mobile phone, restaurants can phase out the anitquated pagers and leverage the customers’ phones for table notifications through a basic SMS interface. This is a solution that companies like Mobile Matradee offer. This way restaurants can save significant costs as an average restaurant will spend on average $3,500 for a pager system setup as well as nearly $2,000 a year for replacement costs.

Beyond the cost-saving factor, restaurants can go above and beyond by directing customers to a customized mobile site, either through a mobile-originated shortcode or a message push once their phone number has been disclosed (and permission given). The mobile site could have, for example, interesting trivia about the restaurant and the menu so diners can start thinking of what they’d like to order. Once their table is ready, they’ll simply receive a text.

It would be interesting to know if there’s been a correlation between customer satisfaction and smartphone adoption over the last few years. If you think about it, before customers would probably get fed up much more quickly waiting for a table because they were bored stiff. Now people can keep busy by browsing the web, Facebook, texting, listening to music, etc. on their phones. So a 30 minute wait might seem more bearable now than it was before, but then again our attention spans have significantly decreased so perhaps it all evens out.

Ordering your food

The launch of the iPad as given way to many new trends, and for the restaurant industry this includes iPad menus. The size, portability, and cost has made it feasible for certain restaurant owners to digitalize the menus.

For example, Australian restaurant Mundo Global Tapas has adopted iPad menus and New York City restaurant South Gate offers customers their wine selection on the device. The latter establishment has over 650 wines which makes the device an appropriate navigation tool since I doubt any human can possibly memorize all the information that can be associated with each wine. It uses the SmartCellar software which provides high-quality images of wine labels, the ability for restaurants to customize listings and their branding through a simple CMS interface, as well as an inventory check system so if a wine is sold out it will not appear on the menu.

It’s awesome. The iPad not only provides an entertaining and interactive experience, but it adds additional value by providing information that consumers would have had to previously ask for or guess. For example, they can see photos of what the dish looks like, browse the list of ingredients, see allergy warnings (is it gluten free?), get wine suggestions on what goes best with the dish, and even immediately place their order with the tap of a finger.

Restaurant owners can also potentially save costs in the long-run, and help the environment in the short one. No need to keep printing daily specials when it can be easily updated on the iPad, and staff can focus attention on non-tablet-replaceable activities such as filling up water and greeting guests. I still suggest that restaurants maintain traditional menus for the more tech-challenged clientele, but it is a neat novelty to have.

And it’s still early days. As other tablets enter the space and prices drop dramatically (as tech products invariably do) digital menus are only going to become more popular if not industry standard. Additional enhancements are yet to be envisioned, such as unique logins for regular customers that will store their favourites, suggest new items that they might like based on what they’ve eaten before, display comments and suggestions from friends, offer coupons and specials, and develop some type of loyalty program (e.g. “Congratulations, this is your 3rd visit, you get a 2-for-1 special on appetizers” or “It’s your birthday! Free cake on the house“).

Although the iPad menu concept is relatively new and best suited for higher-end restaurants, the concept or ordering food from your phone has been around for a couple years, and more so in the fast-food delivery and take-out industry.

Companies like GoMobo, Sundrop Mobile, Brygrid, orderTopia and Mobidines provide mobile ordering and m-commerce solutions to chains like Subway, Dominos Pizza, Pizza Hut, ColdStone Creamery, Burger King, Quiznos, as well as stand-alone restaurants.

Mobile ordering works in several ways. The customer can place order through SMS, a mobile website or a mobile application. Once the order is done, it can be sent to restaurants by either direct integration to the POS (e.g. Firefly, Par, etc.), email or even fax.

For example, orderTopia works by linking the order to the restaurant’s POS and charges a monthly fixed fee (starting at $35) as well as 2% on transactions. They can also create a branded iPhone app personalized for the restaurant in exchange for a higher monthly fee ($100), provide integration with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and have an open API which allows website owners to make money on transactions done through orderTopia widgets placed on their sites.

Mobile ordering is somewhat still in experimental stages, but test cases are showing very positive results. For example, Burger King partnered with GoMobo and PointAbout for an iPhone application which allows consumers to place orders and pay. Their findings showed that in-app purchases were 25% larger than in-store, customers that use the service increased the frequency of their visits by 42% and existing loyal customers increased their value by 75%.

There are also some mobile ordering apps that aggregate several restaurants such as GrubHub and CityMint, but they tend to focus on delivery and take-out places within a couple of selected cities.

Eating your food

There is currently no app that will eat your food for you (yet) – but if you’re watching your weight, perhaps a mobile calorie counter or nutritional guide app can be of assistance.

Paying for your food

Once you’ve ordered and eaten, it’s time to pay. The current and future landscape of mobile payments aside (warrants an entire post in itself), there are some handy mobile apps that will help you calculate tips and easily split the bill.

Beyond the dining experience…

For restaurants that have developed their own mobile application or website, there are post-dining opportunities to be leveraged such as conducting a mobile survey for customer feedback and creating mobile loyalty programs. Not only do you build a database of regular patrons, but you can use it to increase frequency of visits through special deals and promotions. Using LBS services can also allow you to target people of interest nearby and draw them in with dynamic offers.

Despite the fact that iPads are still an item of luxury, and mobile food ordering and payments have not quite yet reached mass adoption, restaurants today should be at minimum educating themselves about mobile, if not already implementing a wireless presence. It’s no longer a “in the future” concept, it’s here – and it’s now.

Restaurants should consider at least having a mobile website, in the same way having a website is now deemed essential. And depending on their clientele’s demographics, they might want to go further, and develop an application that would integrate features such as a restaurant locator, directions, menu items, opening hours, special deals or promotions and the ability to make reservations.

As for mobile ordering, busy downtown fast-food chains are definitely better candidates since a majority of the customers are on-the-go and saving 15 minutes on a lunch break is a big deal. Higher-end fine dining establishments are better off sticking to living and breathing human waiters as personal and exceptional service is part of the overall experience, but little extras like an iPad wine menu are definitely a nice touch…