Google Wallet and Offers, Make Mobile Payments

Written by Georg

“In the past few thousand years, the way we pay has changed just three times—from coins, to paper money, to plastic cards.

Now we’re on the brink of the next big shift.”

http://www.google.com/wallet/vision.html

It happened yesterday, the announcement of Google Wallet and Google Offers, but the spoiler arrived a day before yesterday from Google’s partner on this much expected mobile payments method.

“ViVOtech near field communication (NFC) software and systems enable rich mobile commerce solutions for in-store payment, loyalty, marketing, and merchandising.” This is what they write on their site. And they partnered with Google for this innovative next leap in electronic mobile payment systems.



It only takes you identify the right symbols at the checkout where you can tap your phone to pay with Citi, Master or the Gcard, a Google Prepaid Card. In the short and hasslefree tapping process, some vendors will make their check-in offers to your phone, along with other automated loyalty discounts loading to your smart phone, so you’re better off without leaflets, paper coupons or similar marketing stuff. A Google Wallet PIN, along with few extra security tokens will make your transactions as safe as reasonably possible.

From San Francisco, New York and Portland, where this new mobile payment technology is introduced this summer, the wave will arrive to your neck of the woods. Because for Google Wallet, the field trials began yesterday and it will be official out this summer. As expected, it will be using NFC technology. By 2014, 50 percent of smartphones will have NFC built into them, that’s 150 million devices.

Both 3G and Wi-Fi in One Kindle, with Ads

Written by Georg

Yes, the bad new first: it will display ads along with the ebook you want to read. And this is all about the bad news.

Now the good news: the new Kindle 3G with Special Offers sports a longer battery life and a brighter screen, for better reading in sunlight, yet the greatest hit is that it offers you 3G connectivity, along with Wi-Fi, for free, no anual contracts, no monthly fees! Sounds great, eh? Guess that’s why you gotta allow those ads. For the budget, it makes sense.

From its product page:

Introducing the Lowest Price 3G E-Reader – Kindle 3G with Special Offers for Only $164

Same features as latest-generation Kindle 3G – free 3G wireless, Pearl E Ink display, up to two months of battery life and more – plus sponsored screensavers and money-saving special offers

SEATTLE—May 24, 2011—(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Last month, Amazon.com introduced Kindle with Special Offers, a new member of the Kindle family that gives customers access to money-saving special offers. Just five weeks later, Kindle with Special Offers became the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S. Today, Amazon announced that it is now making special offers available for Kindle 3G. Kindle 3G with Special Offers is available starting today for only $164 and ships immediately. At just $164, Kindle 3G with Special Offers is the lowest price of any 3G e-reader, and includes the latest Pearl electronic ink display. Learn more about the entire Kindle family, including the $114 Kindle with Special Offers and the new $164 Kindle 3G with Special Offers, at www.amazon.com/kindle3G.

“Kindle is the bestselling e-reader in the world. It’s been just six weeks since we introduced the new $114 Kindle with Special Offers, and already customers have made it the bestselling member of the Kindle family,” said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. “In response to customer requests, we’re now making these money-saving special offers available for Kindle 3G. You will get all the features readers love about Kindle 3G – free 3G wireless, global wireless access, Pearl electronic ink display that’s easy to read even in bright sunlight, access to over 950,000 ‘Buy Once, Read Everywhere’ Kindle books – all for just $164 – the lowest price for any 3G e-reader.”

Special offers that will be available in the coming weeks include:
· $10 for a $20 Amazon.com Gift Card – customers loved this offer, so we’re making it available again in time for Father’s Day
· Save up to $500 off Amazon’s already low prices on HDTVs with a unique 20% discount on 200 HDTVs from brands including Sony, Panasonic, LG, and VIZIO
· $1 for a Kindle book, choose from thousands of books including Water for Elephants and the Hunger Games trilogy
· Spend $10 on Kindle books and get a free $10 Amazon.com Gift Card

Kindle 3G with Special Offers includes all the same features that helped make the third-generation Kindle the #1 bestselling product in the history of Amazon.com:

Free 3G wireless , no annual contracts, no monthly fees
Global 3G coverage means books in under 60 seconds in over 100 countries and territories
Paper-like Pearl electronic ink display, no glare even in bright sunlight
Lightweight 8.7 ounce body for hours of comfortable reading with one hand
Up to two months of battery life with wireless off eliminates battery anxiety
Kindle Store with over 950,000 books – largest selection of the most popular books
Seamless integration with free “Buy Once, Read Everywhere” Kindle apps for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry and Windows Phone

Kindle 3G with Special Offers is available for immediate shipment to customers in the U.S. at www.amazon.com/kindle3G.

SEO for Mobile Devices

Written by Georg

Mobile devices are the hip of the present and the most of the future. Your online marketing strategy, centered around your website, can’t ignore the mobile market. If you read this, then you definitely own a website of your own, promoting your small business or maybe just a blog, writing about events worth sharing.

Now, have you tried to see how your website looks on your Droid smart phone, or on an iPhone? Sure, it can’t display exactly as it does on your laptop or desktop, iPad or any decent tablet brand. Design optimization for mobile devices, like smart phones, is an aspect and there’s one more, no less important than your website’s design. This is the search engine optimization specially crafted for the phone with Android or the iPhone with iOS — in short your SEO for mobile devices.

Watch this movie with tips on the matter. Think global and act local!

Mobile Gaming, The Next Wii on iPad_2?

Written by Georg

What’s so different between an Apple iPad tablet and its successor the iPad 2? Lots of things, starting with the new and slicker design, that’s attracting the eyes in the first place, nope? Then the new set of more performant applications and also the neat accessories, which usually keep company to any kind of Apple device.

But there’s a seemingly serious gap between the processor powering the iPad and the new A5 processor which “reveals something quite different – an unprecedented leap in mobile games-playing power that could conceivably herald the arrival of a new home games console. This is a hardware design that is about so much more than just a revised form factor and a bunch of cameras. With iPad 2, Apple is laying the groundwork for the future of its gaming business.”

Under normal circumstances, aka. what a gamer is used to, the tablet, as a device, won’t replace the game console any time soon. Fair enough. Yet from a market perspective, there’s a majority of lite gamers, or casual gamers, out there, killing their time in waiting rooms or escaping the sound of commuting trains. And these people are a dominant market mass, not to be treated lightly.

The essential step has been achieved since the iPad 2 comes equipped with potent hardware, suitable to run a host of popular games. The juice is there so the developers can write new games, or rewrite old ones, for the iPad 2.

How to produce controls, like physical buttons, stick, mouse, similar to the gaming console? Not necessarily to approach this aspect with the “been there done that” concept. After all, it’s not what Apple did. How about docking the iPad to something groovy on the table, hooked to power, video and audio, put all needed controllers under bluetooth so you can travel and play the games you want, without the need of docking the iPad.

This might be the post-Wii mobile gaming console, by Apple, which console, the iPad, is at the same time a pretty good web browser, with Facebook, Gmail, Gmaps, a media player, etc. Clearly more capable than a Wii, and more versatile, the gaming tablet of the morrow.