Archive for November, 2010

Posted on November 30, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

30 days of Movember photos and last chance to donate to TeamRDU

It’s November 30 and that mean it is the last day movember and thousands of men across the world have been walking around with crazy shaped mustaches to support men health. I’m fortunate enough to be on the awesome #TeamRDU lead by the one and only Gregory NG. We are currently $100 away from Greg’s team goal of raising $20,000 and I’m sitting at a measly $25.00 raised. (For the record, I’m bad at fund raising, I ate all the Krispy Kreme doughnuts when I was a kid). Regardless, I have enjoyed taking part in Movember 2010 even though it started off as an emotional journey by shaving off all of my facial hair. Here’s my month in movember photos.

It’s not to late to donate to help the cause. I want to say thanks Gregory NG for leading the team and my fellow #TeamRDU members for doing an awesome job!

The Mo, slang for moustache, and November come together each year for Movember.

Movember challenges men to change their appearance and the face of men’s health by growing a moustache. The rules are simple, start Movember 1st clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month. The moustache becomes the ribbon for men’s health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for cancers that affect men. Much like the commitment to run or walk for charity, the men of Movember commit to growing a moustache for 30 days.

The idea for Movember was sparked in 2003 over a few beers in Melbourne, Australia. The plan was simple – to bring the moustache back as a bit of a joke and do something for men’s health. No money was raised in 2003, but the guys behind the Mo realized the potential a moustache had in generating conversations about men’s health. Inspired by the women around them and all they had done for breast cancer, the Mo Bros set themselves on a course to create a global men’s health movement.

In 2004 the campaign evolved and focused on raising awareness and funds for the number one cancer affecting men – prostate cancer. 432 Mo Bros joined the movement that year, raising $55,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia – representing the single largest donation they had ever received.

The Movember moustache has continued to grow year after year, expanding to the US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, Spain, South Africa, the Netherlands and Finland.

In 2009, global participation of Mo Bros and Mo Sistas climbed to 255,755, with over one million donors raising $42 Million US equivalent dollars for Movember’s global beneficiary partners.

UPDATE: But still donate!

Posted on November 29, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

The 7 most popular photos on Instagram, there’s more than lol cats!

Instagram the fun easy iPhone photo sharing application is a hit for professional photographers, bloggers, and just about anyone who loves to take photos using their iPhone. I’ve been using it heavily over the past few months, but more often when I started posting movember photos. Since then my Instagram activity has increased tremendously and I’m enjoying seeing amazing photos from friends and others around the world.

Still, like any online or mobile community, after joining you will start to see a few trends. One trend for Instagram is cat photos but there are lot more than cats being posted. Here are the five popular photos you’ll find people sharing on Instagram.

1. City scenery

2. Babies

3. Food

4. Coffee cups

5. Cars

6. Dogs

7. Nature

8. Cats

There’s also a lot of face photos of mostly women that are show up fast on the popular photos section.

If you use Instagram what are some the photo trends that you have seen?

Instagram

Posted on November 29, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Samsung Galaxy Tab unboxing video makes my iPad sad. #galaxytab

Last week I was mailed a Samsung Galaxy Tab via @samsungmobileus to test and review mainly because of a tweet sent by @HarrietCammock asking would I recommend the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

My response at that time was from what I read about the Samsung Galaxy Tab it seems like a great device but I don’t think nothing can compete with the iPad do to the usability and the apps. Now after using the Samsung Galaxy Tab for a few days my opinion has changed. The Galaxy Tab being at 7 inches running Andriod 2.2 is a great device for reading, browsing the web, checking email and being productive on the go. In terms of the applications, it’s comes down to what is available on Apple’s iTunes app store vs Google’s growing Android Market place. There’s also the data coverage options and cost but I will leave that up to you and will stick to comparing the device.

I’m still getting use to the Samsung Galaxy Tab and will post more reviews about it over the next two weeks before I have to return the device to Samsung. In the mean time, here’s my Samsung Galaxy Tab unboxing video that makes my iPad sad.

Do you own a Samsung Galaxy Tab or another Android powered tablet? If so what are your favorite apps? Also if you have any questions about the Galaxy Tab let me know in the comments.

Posted on November 29, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Will Instagram become the next big mobile social network or just one awesome photo sharing app?

Instagram features:
If you own an iPhone, like to take photos and share them with your friends or send to multiple social networks then Instagram may become your favorite iPhone application. If you want to share photos with 50 of your closest friends, then Path may be the iPhone photo sharing application of choice, or you may want to try Burstn or picplz. I’ll blog more about Path, Burstn and picplz later but back to Instagram. I would describe Instagram as a mix of flickr, Twitter, ping.fm, Facebook and Foursquare all rolled into one with the context of content based around photos. The core features of Instagram are; upload or take a photo, name the photo or not, share your location of the photo using Foursquare or not, share your Instagram photo on Twitter, upload to Flickr, share on Facebook, or share on Tumblr. Prior to sharing your photo you have the option to pick between 11 unique filters to enhance your photos. The 11 Instagram filters are, X-Pro II, Lomo-fi, Earlybird, Lily, Poprocket, Inkwell, Apollo, Nashville, Gotham, 1977 and Lord Kelvin.

A simple photo mobile social networking application The social networking aspects of Instagram are simple and familiar if you’re a Twitter user. While looking at users profile you can see an Instagram username, their first name, how many photos they have uploaded, how many followers they have and how many people they are following. As an Instagram user you have four options to interact with other users. You can follow them, like a photo, leave a comment on a photo or flag a photo for review. Instagram embraced their inner Twitter by not only how user profiles are shown with the following and followers but if you leave a comment with @username on any photo you will receive push notification as well. Other Instagram push notifications are sent to your phone when someone likes your photo or follows you. Another social feature of the app is the “Popular” photos section which you could almost compared to the suggested users list or trending topics on Twitter. No, I’m not saying Instagram is a photo version of Twitter and please do not call it that, but the similarities are there. Two other social parts that I believe is a key to Instagram’s early success is the “Find More Friends” options where you can easily find other Instagram users via your contact list, Facebook friends or Twitter friends. There is even a news stream to keep you update on your Instagram likes, and new followers.

Instagram is not complex to use even with all of the features mentioned above. The founder of Instagram, Stanford University graduate, Kevin Systrom, a former intern at Odeo that later become Twitter and a former Google employee along with Mike Krieger who is a former Microsoft intern and Meebo employee before joining the Instagram team doing design & development built the app to allow users share photos and interact with others in seconds. The simplicity and usability of Instagram is smart and you can tell they followed the K.I.S.S. (Google it) rules. Along with the thought of enhancing your photos, the Instagram team has built a fun app with a growing interactive community with “likes” and comments.

Cats and Early Adopters
Speaking of community, the type of photos Instagram users are posting ranges from food, models, babies, sporting events, music concerts, holiday scenery, nature, pretty faces and animals. When it comes to animals, you may see a few dogs but as of right now cats rule Instagram. Along with cats you may find some of your favorite web “tech” personalities such as Chris Messina, Robert Scoble, Jenn Van Grove, Chris Rauschnot, Kevin Rose, Tristan Walker, Angela Benton, Dave Delaney, Tessa and John Gruber sharing their photos. A few of my North Carolina friends such as Abbyladybug, TyDowning, Jay Dolan, Mollybuckly, John Lane and GirlonCamera have started to use Instagram too making my experience even better by sharing photos from families places. Regardless of who is using Instagram make one thing clear, as of right now it is not another look at me app or see how many followers you have but Instagram is about sharing your experience via awesome photos. Still if the app continues to grow I’m sure the how to get more followers question will become an issue and a problem for early adopters who right now just love to post photos.

One Million users?
Last week it was rumored that Instagram has already passed the one million user mark which is truly impressive for the nine month old startup. If you are new to Instagram or never heard of it and asking yourself how do they have over one million users, it looks like Instagram is popular overseas. Having one million users is a marvellous achievement for any startup but to gain one million users in nine months, with 500k in funding, little press, an iPhone only app and no social networking website is amazing. Yesterday one Instagram user posted a screenshot saying the National Geographic has joined Instagram which cold be the beginning of leading social brands starting to use the service.

What’s Next for Instagram?
As for what’s next for Instagram, maybe an updated website, longer profile history, an Android version, search options, more notifications options to know if your photo is on the popular page, follow photos, like notifications tracking,leaderboards, profile badges and no startup would be complete without stickers and widgets. Regardless as Gina Bianchini stated in The Seven Principles You Need to Know to Build a Great Social Product TechCrunch post, “Create a party, not a museum.” As of today, Instagram is a party for sure.

Do you use Instagram? If not what mobile photo sharing application do you use?

Instagram

Posted on November 28, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton

Offline, Online Mobile Marketing experiment with Google Goggles and Brands

As we start to wrap up 2010, brands continue to experiment with technologies to bridge online, offline and mobile users to increase customer interactions. Last month Google along with T-Mobile, DIAGEO, Buick, Walt Disney Pictures, and Delta Airlines launched a new Google Goggles marketing experiment with the focus for people to explore the world using mobile devices. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement.

They have “Goggles-enabled” some of their print ads, movie posters and other media. When users take pictures of these with Google Goggles, they will be recognized by the app, and users will have the option of clicking-through directly to a mobile destination from the brand.

For a closer look at these specific campaigns, take a look at our video:

To read more about the Google Goggles marketing experiment read the blog post: Offline, meet online: a marketing experiment with Google Goggles

If you are not familiar with Google Goggles watch the Goggles video below from Google.

As some of you know I’m a big proponent of QR Codes over, Microsoft Tags, and even Google Goggles. Why? Because of the simplicity to create, measure and implement with your existing or new mobile marketing strategies. I’m not sure if or when Google will release a way for all businesses to use Google Goggles technologies in print ads or other marketing campaigns. Although I do see an advantage over using Google Googles being that if a mobile user scans a Goggle’s enabled print ad they may seen different content depending on the “goggled enabled” products in the ad versus a QR Code. For QR Codes it’s one scan then directed to mobile content of choice.

Have you scanned or seen Google Goggles marketing poster before?