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Booyah Adds Location Based Ads to MyTown

Feb 25

Posted by Andrew Machado in Brand Advertising, Technology

I’m a huge fan of MyTown.  I’ve written previously about how fast the application feels when using it on my iPhone, but what I’ve discovered in their new 2.1 version of the product blew me away.

1.  Location Based Advertising

We’ve seen this before with FourSquare, but what makes MyTown special is they can offer the user special items and powerups in the game themed around the advertiser.  See the example below for H & M.

MyTown by Booyah H&M item

Notice the small Ad in the dialogue box for ‘The Blues’

2.  Dynamic advertisements mid game without affecting gameplay experience

If you click ‘The Blues’ button a dynamic ad slides nicely in from the bottom with a very clear close button.  It pops in at lightning speed which is imperative with advertising like this.

mytownhmclosebutton

Can’t wait to see what they do next.

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What I Expect From Apple Tomorrow…

Jan 26

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology

There is a lot of rumors going around about what Apple will launch tomorrow.  I think it is safe to say Apple will be launching a tablet device, but what kind of features will it have?

apple-latest-creation

1.  Extremely long battery life with 3G/CDMA disabled (more on that later)

Apple has been working on form fitting batteries for quite some time with the currently shipping MacBook Pros and Apple iPhones.  These batteries are custom made to fit inside these enclosures and are built into the design rather than making them removable.  This allows Apple to further think about packing more cells into a small space and not having to worry about designing a lock mechanism for batteries seen on other phones and laptops.  Sadly this means you have to take it to the genius bar to get it replaced.  That being said the Apple Tablet will be thin and contain a screen large enough that you have plenty of volume to pack a nice battery into.  If I had to peg a time on battery life I’ll say 8 to 10 hours of browsing time.

2.  Persistant Wireless Connection

I had previously written about the JooJoo explaining how it will fail with one reason being a lack of a persistent wireless connection.  We are in an age where if a device can not access the internet easily and consistently it fails.  Apple knows this and will bundle 802.11g/n on this device along with an optional data connection.  My prediction for this is a built in 3G connection and on revision two a 4g.  With 3g being a worldwide standard Apple could ship one standard model of device with unique firmware depending on the country its being sold in.  3G browsing is very expensive on battery life, I believe it uses nearly 40% more battery than browsing over 802.11 so expect Apple to make tweaks to the Operating System to quickly allow users to toggle between connections.

3.  Verizon

AT&T’s exclusive contract with the iPhone doesn’t run out till June, but that does not apply to this device.  Expect it to ship with a the dual band chip which isnt currently shipping, but will be by the time this device hits the market.  It allows Apple to get maximum distribution on every network possible and get this device everywhere.  Apple needs to bridge the gap until 4G is everywhere which wont be for 1 to 2 years.

4.  Video Conferencing

I previously covered this in my article about what is coming to the iPhone in 2010. Video conferencing will be on this device.  It will have enough power, cameras are small enough and cheap enough throwing them in is not expensive.  It also opens up opportunities in the UI to do some cool stuff such as Facial Log In, picture taking ability and even video recording.  Expect iChat to finally hit the iPhone OS with this announcement.

5.  Nvidia

Manufacturing GPUs is tough, its why Apple doesn’t get into this space when they design motherboards.  Nvidia will be coming back into the fold of Apple products after getting booted out of future MacBooks.  In this device will be a product of the Tegra chipset giving the tablet enough horsepower to handle Web Video and gaming without nuking the battery life.

6.  High Resolution

Sony has been shipping a laptop for awhile with a high res 10.1 inch screen.  I expect Apple to use this in their first model, its 1366 x 768 inside a 10 inch space.  Amazing.  It will allow the tablet to display 720 p video which lines up with their push on iTunes for HD video as well as YouTube HD content.

I can’t wait for tomorrow.

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How Important Speed is in Applications and the Web..

Jan 22

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology

Over the last few weeks we have been investigating speed at Apture. I’ve been most curious in the effects of speed when a user browses the web or interacts with applications. Today I wanted to focus on a few applications and sites I’ve noticed where speed makes me not only use the product more but really wonder how they did it.

1. Quora.com
Quora.com has the single fastest search engine I’ve ever seen. The way it recommends data in real time to me is astounding. I found myself typing random phrases into its system just to see it keep recommending topics. Let’s take a look at it.

Apture CEO Tristan Harris recently inquired on Quora’s site how they got the search engine so quick and accurate. Their response from Adam D’Angelo, Quora Founder “It’s a service written in C++ designed to be fast and designed for prefix matching. Normally autocomplete interfaces on websites are backed by database queries, or by search engines like Sphinx or Lucene that weren’t originally designed for prefix matching or designed for speed, which makes them slower. There’s a lot more that goes into the autocomplete results than just the query to our backend service though”

This type of speed and presentation makes the service feel so game like. It can not be understated how important it is.

2. MyTown (iPhone Application)
MyTown is an iPhone game with over 500,000 users. It is designed by ex-Blizzard employees and centers around Checking into venues ala foursquare or gowalla, but with a twist. You can buy the properties you often check into and get rewarded money and powerups as your level up and people check into your owned properties.

What made me fall in love with this app besides it being game like was the speed at which you could navigate the UI and quickly check into places. My friend Kirk recently completed the game over the last 3 days due to addictability, but without the speed at which he was able to navigate he wouldve given up.  With simple finger swipes you can navigate through properties, results for local business’ load quickly and the experience feels seamless.  The game has gotten so popular even TechCrunch covered it recently touting that Booyah’s game has received 31 million checkins to business’.  Amazing.

3.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2 recently topped $1 billion in sales equaling over 15 million copies.  Astounding.  What blows me away the most about this game from the fun combat, clever leveling system is the speed at which you can get into a game.  I dont just mean how fast from the title screen till when you are in the battlefield, but the speed at which the game boots up on my PlayStation 3.  I’ve never seen a game of this caliber with such speed from boot to playing.

Whats really impressed me is mind share wise I find myself when having a free 10 minutes convincing myself that I can get a game in because I know how fast the game boots and is ready for me.  This has lead me to put in over 40+ hours on this game since getting it in November.

Speed is imperative to consumer success.  Just ask Google.  In tests they conducted reducing the average search results by .400 ms caused a drop in searches of .6%.  You spread that number out of over time and it can matter. Speed changes how people think of your product.  Make sure you are quick.

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Sony’s PS3 Ad Campaign Not Working?

Dec 11

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology, Video Games

Sony has been running a lot of ads lately about the PlayStation 3.  They’ve covered everything from playing high resolution Blu-ray movies to playing exclusive games like Uncharted 2. Let’s quickly review a few of them.

1.  It Does Unbelievable HD Entertainment

2. It Only Does Blu-ray Movies

3. It Only Does Great Games

4. It Only Does Uncharted 2

One theme throughout these ads is very prevalent. The PlayStation 3 does everything but be a social gaming machine. No mention of Twitter nor their newly announced support for Facebook Connect. Now how important is Social Media to these gaming machines? My friend Ryan recently blogged about how 10% of the ENTIRE Xbox Live User Base registered their Facebook Account with the system in the first week.  Those kind of numbers can’t be ignored and sadly I think Sony is finally starting to pay the price.

Console Sales Numbers just released for November and Sony is back into third place of the major consoles.  In October Sony was sitting pretty with their recent price drop outselling the Xbox 360 by over 15%, but now the price point is even and Sony is back to what it knows Games and Blu-ray.  If I was Sony I would be very worried.

This was supposed to be Sony’s quarter to really dig into Nintendo and Microsoft’s lead in the console race and it has not happened nearly at the level it should’ve.  They’ve launched a plethora of Triple AAA titles such as Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted 2, and God of War Collection, but it just hasn’t moved the needle.  Exclusive titles nowadays are not so common due to development costs skyrocketing.  Companies like Take Two Interactive and Electronic Arts are having to make games for every platform to recoup development costs and to ensure as many units as possible go out the door.  That being said you have to distinguish your console and Sony has simply failed on all fronts.

But What About Blu-ray?

At $299 the PlayStation 3 is one heck of a Blu-ray player, but what stops a consumer from signing up for Netflix and watching HD movies on demand?  Though the quality is slightly less, it is high enough quality that 99% of consumers dont care. Microsoft knew this and signed NetFlix to an exclusive agreement with the online streaming limiting Sony to having to offer it’s consumer discs to stream movies.

But They Do Have Facebook Connect

Sure they do, but nobody knows this.  It’s not anywhere on the box.  It’s nowhere on TV.  Unlike Microsoft who is running constant ads during prime time featuring Facebook, Netflix and Twitter.




I’m a huge fan of Sony. I proudly show everyone my PlayStation 3 when they come to my home, but it’s hard to not be a little disheartened when your console is in a distance third, not outselling any of the major consoles at holiday with superior titles. Good luck Sony, I’m not even sure God of War III and Gran Turismo 5 can save you.

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