The iPhone is a wonderful device. I use it so much throughout the day that sometimes I feel like is an extension of myself. Sadly the batteries don’t last longer than 3 hrs. Apple has a few recommendations on how to make the most out of it (http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html). Not enough if you ask me.

I’ve been reviewing a few options for extra power to use “on the go” that can keep me using my iPhone the whole day. While there are many options available in the market, I researched what I consider to be the best options based on price and performance:

Mophie juice pack air™ (yes the name is a reference to capitalize on Apple’s famous laptop): This puppy promise to double your life battery and protect your phone at the same time. Is the thinnest battery extension of it’s kind. Starting at 79.95EUR is not a bad deal. It comes with a feature called “Standby Mode” that lets you choose to either use the extra battery or just use it as a protective case. It also connects directly with USB cable so you can charge your phone and the case at the same time.
Since the mophie website doesn’t offer more than marketing jargon here is a small table to have an idea of what to expect in terms of battery life.

Standby Time: Up to 270 hours
Talk Time: Up to 4.5 hours (3G) Up to 9 hours (2G)
Internet Use: Up to 4.5 hours (3G) Up to 5.4 Hours (Wi-Fi)
Audio Playback: Up to 20 hours
Video Playback: Up to 6 hours

Website: http://www.mophie.com/product-p/1059_jpa-ip3g-blk.htm

SOLiCharger by Solight: “Summertime and the living’s easy…” Yup you guessed it “Solar power”. Take advantage of charging your iPhone while hiking, at the beach or simply at the Beergarden (those living in Munich) with the most abundant energy available on earth: the sun.

Starting at 39.90 EUR (I hate these prices by the way, as if we are complete morons and don’t see that is 40 bucks ) is a good offer. The adapter plugs underneath your iPhone and charges it in about 4 hrs of direct sunlight exposure. Alternatively, it can also be charged with the regular USB cable that comes with your iPhone. The phone can be used while the device is attached. If you don’t use it for a while, a built-in solar panel on the back will provide enough power to keep the SOLiCharger fully charged. However, if you are outside, why would you want to use the phone anyway.

Website: http://www.sollight.com/products/solicharger.cfm

Standby Time: Up to 270 hours
Talk Time: Up to 10 hours (3G) Up to 9 hours (2G)
Audio Playback: Up to 28 hours

Website: http://www.igo.com/Accessories/PowerXtender-Charger/invt/ps002640004

Website: http://greennpower.com/

I installed an TV from Telekom on my iPhone a few weeks ago. So far the only one watching the stuff is my 8 year old son. As it turned out, there are a couple of channels (like Cartoon Network) not available by our current cable provider. Honestly I installed the app just to test it, but I realized how handy it becomes on the train when I am embarking on long trips.

TV as we know it is dying. My son find it entertaining but at the end of the day, he wants interaction just like he does with his Playstation. The passive user type is an endangered specie in the realm of modern technology. TV will evolve for sure, I cannot wait for the era of the real converged media.

The service for having “Mobile TV” from Telekom is another 5 Euros a month on your bill. If you ask me is worth the money. At the same time it makes me realize that iPhone users or as I heard the other day “App Phone” users are the only one with a flat rate that allows this type of app. If you think about it, most people who can actually afford app phones grew up watching TV.

On my way to work I’ve seen people watching morning TV shows. I find it interesting because Germany is a country that is not very keen on “TV watching” lifestyle. It makes me wonder how it will be in USA…

So what is the use of having an iPhone that is completely useless outside your country? Apple has a problem of always complicating the most simple things. Tying up the iPhone with a particular mobile operator was certainly a smart business move, but a lousy branding exercise. Will there ever be a day when we can use our phones everywhere? I really hope so.

Happy slapping is nothing new. We’ve seen the documentaries, heard the stories and read the articles about it. What is surprising to me is how it keep spreading like a bad cancer among the young population around the world. Only a combined effort of equal intensity between citizens and organizations (governmental or not) will help find a solution for this criminal activity that is everything but happy.

According to the Times, it started in the London Borough of Lewisham around 2005, spreading to other countries faster than anyone could anticipate. Just like any other trend it was just a matter of time until we had the first cases here in Germany. According to the 2008 German study on mobile phones JIM, 28 percent of teenagers had at some point such videos in their mobile phones and shared them with others. “Lustiges Draufschlagen” or “Fröhliches Schlagen” is gradually becoming a real problem in playgrounds across German schools. In Bavaria, the police confiscated around 200 phones containing this sort of violent material from Teenagers ranging from 12 to 19 years old.

Handygewalt (Source: IZMF)

To counteract this stupid trend, the Informationszentrum Mobilfunk e.V. (IZMF) in cooperation with the Polizeilichen Kriminalprävention der Länder have created a short film called “Handygewalt” (translates something like mobile phone violence). Aimed directly to teenagers in school, the film portraits the consecuences for both the bully and the victim involved in the “happy slapping” (god I hate that name). The film is part of a group of a DVD set called “Abseits?!” touching on typical topics for teenagers. The plan as it now is to show the film to students in all German schools starting as soon as possible. Gemany hit the slappers back!

In case you are curious, there is an online version available. My son is eight and has a mobile phone, so he will be watching that film this weekend, no questions asked.

As a parent it is important to understand where this is going. While I am a sucker for technology, I came to realized that the social implications are yet to be further monitored and studied for a better understanding. The “Digital Natives” (everyone born during or after the 80′s) might had the luxury of being born in a time where technology grows exponentially, but just like everyone else, they can’t keep up with a such rapid pace. Happy Slapping is sadly a product partly created by the technology itself. Like media guru McLuhan predicted back in the day, the medium is the message.

Born Digital is one of the few books I’ve seen on the topic of understanding the impact of technology on the new generations. As a parent I’m glad a read the book. It made me ponder fundamental questions about my own life and the life I want for my son. While technology might be in part at fault, nothing beats good parenting. The game still the same, rules are just slightly different now.

Probably the toughest phone around, the S1 from Land rover. If Lara Croft, Rambo or Indiana Jones had a phone this would be it.

Leveraging from Land Rover’s brand values, the S1 promise to deliver the same experience. The perfect companion for those with an adventurous spirit. If you ever drove a Defender through the jungle, climbed a mountain with your bear hands or went to the Antarctica, you’ll know what I am talking about…. Yeah right!

What makes it tough
Fully submersible to up to 1 meter for 30 mins, water or mud is not going to ruin your phone. It also withstands temperatures between -20C to +60C and can be dropped from a height of up to 2 meters onto concrete and survive. The antiglare and shock resistant screen is petroleum, oil and crush puncture resistant.

OK, cool. What’s inside?…
You got a GPS, built in FM radio, 2GB expandable memory and of course the standard function of any regular mobile phone.

While the technology inside the phone is far from impressive, I still think is a better idea to leave your iPhone at home and bring this 350 euros phone on your next expedition to the remote places of earth.

Phones for Fashionistas
Fashion labels like Prada, DG, Gucci, Armani and even ELLE Magazine are well into the mobile game already. Producing their own “Glamphones” together with companies like LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Nokia and Motorola. Don’t be surprised if you find Kate Moss and the likes chatting away in style with their phones flashing some well-known fashion logos.

This fashion fever is been around ever since the now deceased Xelibri series from Siemens came out in 2003. The design of the Xelibri series broke every standard there was at the time, treating the phone purely as a sophisticated fashion accessory. From that point on the mobile phone evolved from a communication tool to an accessory, to a fashion statement to finally, a status symbol.

Pimp my phone
Fortunately there are options for the Fashion victims of the world. The company Fashion Cell Shop for example specializes in getting you a glamorized spark for your phone, offering a wide collection of covers, cases and accessories to choose from. If this is not enough, with Sparks by Stella is possible to add the extra “Bling” some people crave for.

But personalizing and customizing mobiles phones is nothing new (remember back in the day the a Nokia 2100 with interchangeable covers?) what I am still trying to understand is to why carriers and mobile phone companies refuse to pick up on it even more. Other companies like Reebok, Nike or Converse, let you design your trainers, share your design and later on buy it. All according to your specifications. What’s stopping mobile phone companies from letting us do the same with our phones?

Seasonal phones
I recently found a Nokia phone selling here in Munich, referencing the super hit series of Sex and the City. Probably, the latest marketing trick to get rid of the left over models that didn’t sale.

Funny enough, I don’t personally like any type of customization other than the way it comes from the factory. I don’t own a case, or a skin or even tried to customize the interface. Then again, I own an iPhone, which is a model from a company very conscious about industrial design, user experience and “Kansei” (japanese word for engineering our senses and perception into objects).

Our phones are so dear to us that the level of “Aichaku” (japanese word for love to objects and your relationship with them) towards them is getting stronger every day. It is then easy to understand and empathize with people who want to treat their phones like something special knowing that the lifecycle of the device won’t be longer than a year or two. But fashion is about the latest, the hottest and the trendiest. What is “in” today is “out” tomorrow. I guess that in the mobile arena there are no “old timers” worth keeping around.

After the recent elections fallout, the Iranian government has been trying to cut every possible way of communication to the outside world. Journalists are not allowed to enter Tehran and some Iranian officials are even accusing England of inciting the demonstrations taking place at the moment. Iran has turned into “I ran” the hell out of there before getting shot.

Historically Iran has been a country where freedom of speech is forbidden and media is controlled by the government. This time around, Iranian citizens have turned to the use of non-traditional media (blogs, twitter, youtube…etc) to broadcast the truth to the world. In this context the mobile phone has become an instrumental part for reporting events as citizens use it to take pictures and record videos that find their way to the internet in a matter of minutes. In the current climate it’s easier and safer to walk around with a mobile phone than with a camera. The broadcasting can take place on the go without the risk of doing it at home and get detained by the law enforcement (which would normally mean that your life is as valuable as a farm in the middle of the desert).

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) admitted selling a surveillance system for “lawful intercept functionality” to the Iranian government, powerful enough to pinpoint the exact location of every phone, listen to every call, read any SMS and watch every video or picture sent. Basically they have full access to any mobile phone operating within the country. Despite all that, new videos, posts and pictures are showing up every day for the world to see. After so many years of oppression Iranians are so fed up, that they’re willing to take the risk and show the world what is really happening in their country.

The sad part is that contrary to other concepts like the GoogleMap mashup Ushaidi monitoring the 2008 elections in Kenya or recent ones adopting the same model (Nigeria, Lebanon and Mexico for example), Iranians don’t have the chance to put their data in a central location. Some videos and short messages have made their way to YouTube and Twitter, but the rest are scattered around on the internet like a message in a bottle.

Once again the mobile phone has prove to be a powerful ally in the fight for social change. Allahu Akbar.

Proving that advertising is more about engaging people than click-through rates, the New york agency Ringleader developed an ad campaign using Click-to-Call to create some buzz for the horror film “The Signal“. The most notorious part of this film is a mysterius transmission sound that turns people into serial killers.  The campaign gave the option of clicking on a number to listen the distinctive horrific sound (of course the campaign was mixed with other elements like video and a mobile website to create the total experience).

Another good showcase for this technology was seen in the campaign developed for Nickelodeon’s go, Diego, go presentation at Rose Garden auditorium in Portland last year. The Click-to-Call was used in combination with a promotional code to receive a 3$ discount to see the show.

The Click-to-Call apps

Several apps are now dedicated exclusively to provide you with a large database of telephone numbers for you to call. Apps such as the Yellow Pages, German Telefonbuch, White Pages, Qype… available not only for the iPhone, but also for other platforms like the Blackberry, Android and hopefully the anticipated Palm Pre (though too early to say).

The most challenging aspect of Click-to-Call is not how many clicks you get or even how many calls, but how many of these calls will convert into actual sales. To measure this efficiently is at the moment is not very clear and from what I understood very expensive to correlate.  According to Richard Rosen – “Call measurement requires an investment in dedicated phone numbers and some type of usage charge in order to prove ROI to an advertiser. Pay per call requires an entrepreneurial investment by providers in the phone lines in hopes of generating a premium “per call” fee to recoup those costs”. Richard Rosen is the owner of the consulting firm Calling Strategies which specializes among other things in Call Tracking.

In the next post we’ll be talking about the use of video as an advertising tool on mobile devices.

In an industry dominated by SMS campaigns, MMS, shrunken banners mimicking the ones on internet, ring tones and some other primitive forms of marketing, mobile phone has acquired the reputation of been the underachiever of the media world. Undeniably, the introduction of the iPhone changed the way we think about mobile phones, the way we interact with them and what we expect from our devices. We are now living what is been called by some the “Post iPhone era” and every new smartphone that comes out in the market is expected to be better or at least have the same functionality. While innovative and cool, advertisers are worried that an offer that can be streamlined and sold by the pound is yet to emerge in this current innovative climate. Just like the early days of the internet a lot of experimenting is going on, but defined formats are not well established.

Branding and advertising go a lot deeper than just trying to trick or brainwash someone to buy a product with the typical no-brainer “Call to Action”(then again that is not the point of this post today). In this post we will focus on the devices and the different technical possibilities they offer. Here some of the most popular formats used for advertising on the smartphones:

Click-to-call: in this format while browsing the internet with a mobile phone, the user can click on a phone number just like it can click on a link and make a phone call. One significant benefit of click-to-call is that it allows companies to track when online visitors change from the website to a phone sales channel.

Video: many devices are able to play videos, which increases the chances of users to see the latest trailer, click on the number and book the tickets… There are currently many similar apps available including one official app from Sony.

Audio: with the introduction of radio on the mobile devices, traditional radio approach still a viable way of reaching consumers. Existing radio campaigns are pretty much alive. A more sophisticated model would be that of last.fm, pretty famous on the web already. They are a mix of radio and music store, offering a wide selection for free or introducing people to new music with a small preview. It gives the user the chance of buying the music online or download it directly to the phone via iTunes.

Location Based Services (LBS): uses the GPS feature of the phone to help people locate services in the area. Communities such as Qype include a combination of web2mobile where reviews about places can be easily found while on the go. Another good example of the usage of this feature was seen in the Virgin 1′s campaign “Terminate your Mate” made for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. You could send an SMS to your mates from a website requesting their position, soon after the user receives a terminator styled video telling them where they’ll be target for termination by no other than the Terminator himself.

Other applications include retails store locators and recently some “where-can-I-buy-this-product-around-here” from companies such as where2getit.com

Applications: My favorite out of the whole bunch. Finally companies are giving something in return instead of trying to compete for attention. Companies like NIKE have sucessfully combined  online communities of runners with mobile devices turning the brand into a meaningful experience. Another good example is CHANEL releasing one of the first iPhone apps to the market. It didn’t take too much time until others followed. Brands such as COCA COLA, STARBUCKS, RED BULL to mention a few, have their own apps ready to download for several different smartphones platforms.

QR-Code: every smartphone is able to scan these bad boys which can contain everything from a text message, a web address, phone number…You name it. Holding up to 4, 296 characters. Created in 1994 by Japanese automotive parts manufacturer Denso-Wave and called Quick Response (hence the name QR) to check their own inventories. In October 2008 MindMatics AG (now called CLANMO) launched the first European-wide campaign via Mobile QR Mosaic posters for the upcoming EA game, SPORE. Other have since followed.

Mobile Web: internet on the go. Basically all formats we find online with the exception of flash banners which are not supported by the iPhone yet. The Palm Pre will apparently be able to handle flash. The guys at AdMob seem to be the leader company in this type of advertising offering everything from mobile analytics, campaign management and mobile metrics, I also have to mention that they deliver on all formats I touch on in this post.

Blyk (We pay you to watch our ads model): Blyk is the first free mobile network funded solely by advertising and available only in the UK (for the moment anyway). The model is pretty easy, you tell them what you like and they send you advertising from several products in their portfolio. In exchange for you attention you can make free calls. Not such a bad deal.

In the next part, I’ll be talking more in-depth about each individual format and how they can be measured. In the meantime if you have any questions, please contact me or leave a comment.

Maverick(the company behind it) forecasts the revenue growth from current $150,000 to $ 10 million by year 2009 as device capabilities are expanding. MSM works on Symbian OS which is 70% of total mobile market.

Why is this interesting? Imagine the times you have lost or got your phone stolen…Now? Problem solved.
What I would really like to see is an Android and iPhone version of this product. I’ll be the first one to get it.