Mobile
Tired of competing at high traffic places for mayor on FourSquare? Or tired of being mayor at your apartment and receiving no rewards? Places like Starbucks are now offering rewards for their mayors, but at such popular destinations, they are getting harder and harder to obtain. Most people, like me, are impatient and don’t have the time (or the money) to check into Starbucks four times a day. SCVNGR, a Boston-based mobile game company founded by Seth Priebatsch in 2008, is releasing its rewards program today and is knocking on FourSquare’s door with an iron fist. With the new rewards program, anyone can accumulate points to exchange for free items or discounts by completing simple challenges at the location. There are currently four types of challenges: check-in, social check-in (i.e. checking in with friends), picture taking, and spoken word.
Unlike FourSquare and Gowalla, SCVNGR users earn points by completing challenges around the city they live in, such as the “social check-in” at Upper Crust, which is worth 4 points or the “snap a picture” challenge at The Middle East, which is worth 2 points.
The new rewards program answers the question “what do I do with all these points?” according to Priebatsch. Users will now have the ability to redeem points at participating businesses for things like free coffee, a free burrito, or deals like buy one, get one free. And who doesn’t love free stuff, especially when rewards are so fun to earn?
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Tags: Foursquare, scvngr
Posted in Gaming, Mobile | View Comments
Although Apple’s App Store first opened its marketplace just over two years ago, some have already estimated mobile app piracy to be responsible for over $450 million in “stolen” revenues. And with iPhones flying off shelves faster than ever, piracy a growing concern for both Apple and the many app developers contributing to the App Store.
Cambridge-based mobile startup mtiks has a solution that protects apps from pirating and makes sure developers get paid for their work. Their framework (currently in private beta – see sign up instructions here) allows developers to install safeguards against unpaid downloads of their apps on jailbroken iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.
Jailbreaking is the process of altering an Apple iOS device to unlock new functionality and enable the installation of third-party applications without having to go through Apple’s tightly controlled App Store. Although there are some good reasons for jailbreaking (wifi tethering, increased customization, downloading apps rejected by Apple) many people do it to also access “cracked” or free versions of paid apps.
That’s where the anti-piracy solution mtiks is creating comes into play. Integrating with the mtiks framework allows developers to monitor unpaid downloads of their apps and take some control of what happens in the shady app markets of the wild. For instance, the technology is able to detect if someone is running a pirated version of the app and displays an option to buy it (via the legitimate iTunes App Store) when those users launch the app – a simple yet effective measure to recover some lost revenue. (more…)
Tags: apps, Company Profiles, Mobile, mtiks, piracy
Posted in Mobile | View Comments
Editor’s Note on 7/29/2010: PlanHawk was not available on the iTunes App Store for a short while, but it’s back and better than ever according to the developers at Kidoc.
On Thursday, July 22, Kidoc LLC announced an exciting new product for iPhone iOS4 users: PlanHawk.
This mobile app fixes a serious problem many iPhone users face on a monthly basis: Exceeding their data plan coverage.
With the new AT&T capped data plans, users face the problem of going over their limit, and being charged excessive fees. PlanHawk’s $.99 application monitors the phone’s data usage, allowing people to avoid steep charges.
This application is especially useful to iPhone 4 users, who now can use HD video and stream rich media. These new features eat up data at an alarming rate, and could force you way over your limit very quickly without you knowing.
And honestly, do you really know how much data certain applications and functions take up? There is no sign that says, “HD video will use 25 MB in 30 minutes.”
This is where PlanHawk can help you start to understand what takes up data. (more…)
Tags: Apple, AT&T, capped data plan, Company News, Company Profiles, data plan, data usage, iOS4, iPhone, iphone 4, iPhone3, iPhone4, Kidoc LLC, new AT&T data plan, PlanHawk
Posted in Mobile | View Comments
The local mobile scene is hot. Boston is constantly pushing the bounds of mobile innovation and is home to a growing number of mobile startups, organization, and events coordinators. Behind every company or gathering, you’ll find some smart, passionate people. Here’s a list of some of the individuals who are putting the Boston mobile scene on the map.
These are some of our top mobile technologists, entrepreneurs, and evangelists – the people bringing people together, creating buzz, and forcing mobile investors to think twice about Silicon Valley.
Here’s our list of Boston’s top mobile players — the people who are most active in the community and helping shape the future: (more…)
Tags: Drync, Hooken Mobile, Mobile Monday, Raizlabs, Rich Miner, Rocket Farm Studios, SkyHook, WHERE
Posted in Around the Hub, Mobile | View Comments
Cambridge-based mobile geo-gaming platform SCVNGR launched a brand new functionality this morning, which will allow SCVNGR users to perform a new kind of check-in currently unavailable on any other platform. Simply put, the “social check-in” could mean making social networking a whole lot more social in the traditional sense of the word.
“Checking-in is fun. And people check-in on SCVNGR all the time, everyday. And it’s great.” said SCVNGR CEO and “Chief Ninja” Seth Priebatsch in a press release. “But doing the social check-in on SCVNGR with others is way more fun. Because checking-in by yourself is kind of a solitary activity. In fact, if you think about it, all those people checking-in alone are really just playing with themselves.”
The new functionality works a little bit like the popular Bump application, but deploys a new technology SCVNGR have developed that utilizes “near-field device-to-device recognition.” Social check-ins on SCVNGR can connect an unlimited number of iPhones and Androids at a place – not just two.
Users are encouraged to bump phones with one another to successfully complete the social check-in together, kind of like you would bump glasses together for a “Cheers!” (more…)
Tags: Bostinno, Bostinnovation, Company News, Edu, Mobile Monday, scvngr, social check-in
Posted in Mobile | View Comments
Drync is a mobile application that allows users to search for, store, and even purchase wine. Brad Rosen, a serial entrepreneur and MIT-Sloan Business School grad, launched Drync in the fall of 2008 after spending a summer traveling in Italy with his friends and wife.
While there, they started taking photos of wine labels at restaurants and realized there was an interesting use case for the iPhone. When Rosen returned to the United States, he put together a team of friends and launched the application six months later.
“We were basically trying to be the Google for wine,” said Rosen of his Cambridge-based company.
Since then, the application has been in three Apple commercials, been named one of the top 5 wine applications for the iPhone by Paul Mabray of Vintank, and been downloaded by a quarter of a million users. This all with virtually no marketing money spent. (more…)
Tags: Company Profiles, Drync, Edu, Product Reviews, wine
Posted in Mobile | View Comments
Nu View = Wireless digital display + easy, real-time content
Isabella Products are taking their mobile-enabled digital photo frames into the realm of digital signage with the help of Nu Graphics, known for their innovative print communication solutions. Together, these companies are creating a new option for business owners looking to bring real-time digital messaging into stores.
The Vizit (shown left) marries the ease-of-use found in digital displays with the power of the mobile network to create a totally unique and award-winning piece of hardware. The first creation from Isabella Products, a new company based in Concord, Mass., the Vizit launched earlier this year and is changing the way people think about digital photo frames by offering a product that can be instantly updated with new image content remotely.
It does everything other digital displays do, only the mobile technology (operated by a proprietary service provider the company also owns) makes it way more useful. We showed you the Vizit back in March, when it launched as a consumer product. It’s still retailing for $279.99, but service costs as little as $6 per month, so if the company can reduce the manufacturing costs of the device itself, they might have something that really changes consumer habits.
But the creative minds behind the Vizit have other plans for it, as well. They recently announced a partnership with Nu Graphics, based in Woburn, Mass., which will mean way more functionality for businesses interested in on-location, customizable digital displays. Isabella’s CEO, Matthew Growney, hopes this will introduce the mobile world to the potential behind the products they’re developing. (more…)
Tags: Company News, Isabella Products, Nu Graphics, Vizit
Posted in Digital, Mobile | View Comments
The New England Patriots today announced the kick off of a brand new Alternate Reality Game (ARG) designed to give Pats fans a new way to connect with the team using technology developed by Boston-based startup SCVNGR. The ARG is called Help Vince!
The game will lead Patriots fans on a New England-wide SCVNGR trek to find Patriot’s defensive lineman Vince Wilfork’s “missing Super Bowl ring.” Of course, Wilfork hasn’t really lost his ring — the team is toying with transparency a little bit by deploying a hot new form of marketing known as an ARG. (We recently told you about an ARG hosted by local New Marketing trend-setters HubSpot, a Cambridge-based startup helping companies reach customers through Inbound Marketing.)
Marketing ARGs are games that encourage participants to engage with brands by following a series of clues to learn more about the brand and solve problems in pursuit of an end-goal revelation. That seems to be exactly what will happen with Help Vince!
We don’t know of any ARGs that have deployed geo-tagged mobile gaming, and given that SCVNGR is the only geo-location game that’s also a fully customizable game platform, we think this could open up a whole new world for ARG enthusiasts. Most ARGs send people to different locations on the internet, but this one will actually require Patriots fans to travel to geographical locations in order to compete. (more…)
Tags: Company News, New England Patriots, Patriots, scvngr, Vince Wilfork
Posted in Gaming, Mobile, New Marketing | View Comments
Mobile Marketing is exploding and MITX (the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange) is making sure that Boston’s marketers, technologists, and digital professionals are in-the-know and discussing what the future holds. As part of their Digital Strategy Event series, MITX gathered a panel of local mobile experts yesterday morning on the Northeastern University campus for Top 5 Mobile Application Strategies.
The five speakers on the panel came from a variety of companies and positions, so each of them brought a different perspective to the topics covered. The conversations ranged from the challenges and advantages of marketing with mobile apps to best practices and real-life experiences from both the panelists and attendees. Moderator AJ Gerritson of 451 Marketing got the talking started and introduced the panelists: (more…)
Tags: apps, MITX, mobile marketing, photos
Posted in Mobile | View Comments
Editor’s Note (7/15/2010): The Twitter hashtags for this event are #BeIn #BlockParty
BostInnovation and our good friends at Mobile Monday Boston are teaming up to throw you a Block Party!
That’s right, BostInnovators, this event is going to be a full-scale blowout in Downtown Crossing on the pedestrian Summer Street next to Macy’s — right down the street from the co-working space BostInno and Mobile Monday call home.
This event promises to be like many of the other events we’ve thrown in the past, only better! (more…)
Tags: Block Party, Bostinno, Bostinnovation, Cirque de Soleil, Company News, In Like Lions, Mobile Monday
Posted in Around the Hub, Mobile | View Comments
The Hatch Awards festivities kick off with a SCVNGR trek!
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Boston’s must-attend event for advertising creatives, The Ad Club’s Hatch Awards. Entries close today for the competition, which highlights the best of New England’s branding and advertising campaigns from over 1,200 submissions in over 40 categories.
In half a century, the event has evolved to reflect considerable changes in the advertising industry. Categories have expanded in recent years to include blogs, social media and mobile advertising campaigns, and experiential marketing. A “People’s Choice” award is decided by online poll (an ad for the Boston Bruins, by Boston-based agency Mullen, took home top honors in 2009). And in the run-up to this year’s gala event in October, the Ad Club recently announced a partnership with Cambridge-based geo-gaming startup SCVNGR.
On July 29, SCVNGR will be running a custom trek in which creative teams from agencies around the city will hunt for the Hatch judges along a series of featured sites in the city, strategizing and collecting points through challenges along the way. The trek will converge on a bar in downtown Boston, where the judges will be waiting, and members of the winning team will each receive an iPad.
SCVNGR founder Seth Priebatsch recently landed on the Ad Club’s “Big Orange Couch,” where he discussed the trek and the future of SCVNGR in an interview with the organization’s president, Kathy Kiely. (more…)
Tags: Ad Club, Company News, Hatch Awards, scvngr
Posted in Around the Hub, Mobile | View Comments
Boston-based geolocated gaming platform SCVNGR and The Boston Globe have launched a new set of Boston-based “treks,” and users participating will have the chance to win some pretty sweet stuff, according to SCVNGR “Chief Ninja” and CEO Seth Priebatsch.
SCVNGR users can participate for free, using their mobile phones to follow clues and complete “challenges” at various historic and noteworthy sites around Boston. Five different Globe journalists have worked with the company to pinpoint locations Bostonians and those visiting the city might find interesting in five different categories: Sports, Movies, Romance, Photography, and our favorite, Technology.
“Not everything on SCVNGR has prizes, but The Boston Globe was kind enough to put up some pretty incredible prizes for this one. The top scorers can get cool things like Red Sox Green Monster tickets,” said Priebatsch. “They’ve got a gondola ride for people doing the Romance challenges. They’ve got cinema tickets for people doing the (Movie) challenges, and an Apple gift card for people doing the (Technology) challenges. As you score points in each of the different segments, you’ll be in the running to win some pretty awesome prizes.”
According to Priebatsch, the final tallies to pinpoint top scorers in the game will be made on September 3, with winners being contacted via Email later that week. (more…)
Tags: Company News, scvngr
Posted in Around the Hub, Mobile | View Comments
Brainshark, a Waltham-based company that allows users to create and share multimedia presentations online, announced last week that they have expanded to mobile. This is exciting news for those of us who like to view presentations on the go or review them before a big meeting.
Multimedia presentations created on the site can now be converted into videos and can be streamed via the i-clan of devices (including iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch), as well as BlackBerry, Palm Pre, and Android.
“[Brainshark] is not really a landing destination. It’s more of an authoring environment people tend to use to produce content and then push it out through social media and other websites,” said Andy Zimmerman, Vice President and General Manager of myBrainshark. Last December, BostInnovation profiled them and since then, they have made a lot of progress.
Brainshark rolled out a mobile platform in response to high demand from its corporate users, who have responded with incredible enthusiasm. “We know a lot of content that prospects, customers, and employees access is on the go. It opens up the opportunity to get your message out more widely,” said Zimmerman. (more…)
Tags: Company News, Company Profiles
Posted in Mobile | View Comments
The Greater Boston Area has tons of awesome talent in the mobile space, but one question we get asked all-too-often is, “Do you know any good iPhone developers or where to find one?” Well, the simple response is yes. But if you’re serious about finding someone to help you build an app, here’s the more thought-out answer and list of resources:
Whether you’re with a company looking to expand their mobile presence or an individual with a novel idea, there are ways to get in touch with the right people to help you make your app a reality.
However, before reaching out to anyone about your project or idea or requesting a quote, it’s best to do some preliminary work and understand what your needs really are. (Asking someone how much a mobile app costs to develop is like asking how much a house costs to build. The answer is always, “It depends.”)
Are you looking for just an iPhone developer or one who knows Android and other platforms as well? Also, do you also need someone to help you with the design, strategy, and marketing of the app? Not all developers can help you with all of these so it’s important to do your homework before knowing exactly what you need. (more…)
Tags: Lists
Posted in Mobile | View Comments
A new must-have for iPhone-toting Bostionians is WBUR’s new public radio app, which hit the Apple App Store on Monday. WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station, launched their app in conjunction with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. According to WBUR’s HubBub blog, some of the hottest features include:
- Live Streaming
- Sharing the latest NPR and WBUR news
- 20+ on demand programs
- WBUR alarm clock (user submitted)
- Submit breaking news
- Member benefits
- Local search
The App was developed by Cambridge-based Public Radio Exchange (PRX), and according PRX team member Jake Shapiro in a blog post, “PRX plans to offer the resulting code under an open source license to enable other local stations to develop additional apps, and encourage a developer community to help improve and extend the app for subsequent versions.”
(more…)
Tags: NPR, WBUR
Posted in Mobile | View Comments
