'Dorothy' Wearable Technology

This is a fun concept, and a good illustration of the sort of thing that wearable technology could do.

'Dorothy' is a device that can be operated by tapping you heels together 3 times (geddit?) to then perform a specific task in a 'if this then that' way.  For example calling your phone so that you can make an excuse to leave a bad date (we've all been there...), to text 3 friends with your location, and more.


More info here

The first ad on Snapchat

The first advert on Snapchat ran over the weekend of 18th & 19th October: a snap for upcoming horror film ‘Ouija’.

More info

App Integration - Apple Pay

Apple Pay, the seamless way to pay though an iPhone or iPad launched earlier this week.  Once set up, shoppers can use it to pay for things in-store with contactless payment terminals, and also through a set of 14 launch partner apps - shown below,

with more coming soon, including Starbucks, airbnb, Eventbrite, and Ticketmaster.

While the reviews say that payment in apps is not perfect yet - you can't add multiple things to a basket in some, for example, this is one area where the integration of one app into another (making apps less self-contained, and more linked, like the web) should really take off.

This is a screen grab of what it looks like within the Groupon app - just pay with one tap through Apple Pay:

& here's another - OpenTable and Apple Pay:

'How Google Works' on Slideshare

Slideshare is a great medium to use to promote a business book - I'm surprised it isn't used more often

How Google Works from Eric Schmidt

Pinterest's Handmade Halloween

The first of a series, I think

Scanning Photos

There's an interesting article today on Marketing about the work of Ditto Labs, who work with brands to identify logos in pictures.  A few years ago this would have been used to detect fake merchandise and improper use, but now more creative uses are emerging:

"It is already working with one of Coca-Cola’s US agencies, Nissan and Michael Kors. Rival Curalate operates in the same space, scanning Pinterest and Tumblr on behalf of brands such as Gap and Urban Outfitters.
"Brands are using this for three reasons," Rose told Marketing. "One reason is in the way brands would do a focus group, they want to see how their product is actually being used in the wild, who’s using it, where - they want to understand usage occasion.
"The second is being able to look at a competitive set; how often is my product being used, and where versus my competitors.""

A good example of how unlikely things can be measured, and this measurement turned into actionable insights

App Integration - HealthyNow

I wrote about app integrations a couple of weeks ago - how apps are able to deep link, and put buttons in other apps, making the app ecosystem more like the web.

The first example I showed was Uber, allowing people to order taxis in specific situations.  Now I've seen another which shows how apps can pass information to each other in the background.

HealthyNow, an app that tracks your health and sets goals, now integrates with HealthKit in iOS 8 to allow it to pull in data from other health and fitness apps to monitor a bigger picture of your health:

"Through HealthyNow’s intergration with HealthKit, iPhone and iPad touch users can gather the information they choose from various health apps and fitness devices. iOS 8 offers developers the ability for health and fitness apps to communicate with each other. With their permission, each app can use specific information from other apps to provide a more comprehensive way for users to manage their health and fitness.

“Cerner’s integration of HealthyNow with Apple HealthKit adds to an already impressive scale of functionality at the fingertips of our members and will keep Sharp Health Plan at the forefront of mobile health and wellness,” said Michael Byrd, Vice President, Chief Business Development Officer, Sharp Health Plan, which has more than 80,000 members in San Diego County. “Allowing our members’ health and fitness apps to work together and work harder for them in real time instead of after the fact is more convenient, more accurate and consistent with our broader mission to deliver our members’ best health, their way.”"

As I said before, I think this will change the way people think about apps, and also change how companies develop apps, needing partnerships with other apps for collaboration.

Update - here is a list of the apps that integrate with HealthKit

#ThatSongWhen for Spotify

A good new campaign, highlighting the significance certain songs have for people

For example



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"Girls Just Want to Have Fun" #thatsongwhen your singalong inspired countless karaoke nights. http://t.co/qdskkrhSUQ pic.twitter.com/3uJhR2VaCg
— Spotify (@Spotify) September 24, 2014

they've also got some influencers to get involved:



(Caption reads: Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" is #thatsongwhen I made my first very long journey in a 2CV just after passing my driving test! ( so chuffed to be collaborating with @spotify on this project. If you go to thatsongwhen.com you can share your song too 🎶 ))

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& there's a Spotify site where you can tell your own stories

I really like the tone - very celebratory.

More here