I came across this app the other day: The Pokey Little Puppy. For those of you unfamiliar, The Pokey Little Puppy is one of the first Little Golden Books. It is not my favorite children’s book, however, my daughter does own a copy. I vaguely remember owning a copy. We buy most of our kids’ books second hand. At our favorite shop, there is probably thirty copies of this book. I don’t think it cost us more than $0.30 It’s one of those books you see everywhere.  So why then must we have an app for that? A $3.99 app for that, mind you.

I do have an iPhone and an iPad that my two year old uses with ease (she is much better at navigating everything on them than any of her grandparents). I should probably do a follow up post on her favorite apps for those aged under 4*.

But when I saw a Little Golden Book as an app it made me squirm.  (Unimportant side note: Our favorite is Two Little Gardeners)

Generations of children’s have grown up on Little Golden Books, and for a moment I envisioned a future where they were all electronic. No pages to rip with tiny, overexcited hands. No sparkly golden spines that stick out on the bookshelf. It’s not as though books are going away just yet, but I’m nervous at the thought.

I was an advocate for the physical book until recently. I watched my husband reading page after 10-word page on his iPhone in the dark and I’d say to him – “I’m never going to be able to do that – Read electronically.” But then I read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential on my iPhone to try it out. I couldn’t get The Help out of the library in time for bookclub, so I snagged a copy electronically and read it on my iPad’s iBooks App. A friend came to visit and brought her Kindle (which you can now buy an ad-based version! Yikes! but I digress…), and I was hooked.

I do miss the feel of the page turning when I’m reading electronically – and therefore I visit my local library weekly to get my fix – but it is easier, more instant and, dare I say it, “greener” to own it electronically. I also realize that I only miss turning the pages because I know it. But how long before a generation is born that doesn’t know it? My daughters have dozens upon dozens of books in their book shelves and we make it a point to  swap books with others whenever we can, so I can rest assured that they will grow up knowing the feel of turning a page, and that they too might someday miss it. But that brings up another point. Borrowing and swapping. In the age of electronic books, what happens to “I’ve got a copy, wanna borrow it?”

Oh well, who’s going to want a used up, drooled on,  electronic copy of The Pokey Little Puppy anyway.

*For those of you interested, here’s Clover’s current favorite apps.

iPad:

1. You Tube  2. Intro to Letters 3. Dora & Diego’s Vacation Adventure 4. Montessori Crosswords 5. Go George Go! 6. Monkey Preschool Lunchbox 7. La Gallina Rojo 8. Kid’s Keyboard

iPhone:

1. Sketchbook Mobile 2. Virtuoso Piano 3. Go Diego Go! Snowboard Rescue 4. Dora’s Ballet Adventure 5. You Tube 6. Talking Tom Cat  7. Sliding the screen all the way to the left and typing her name over and over again into the search screen

At 94% in just 4 minutes, SMS’ user response rate runs laps around every other form of advertising. Over 90% of theU.S.population has a cell phone and 91% of those individuals keep their phone within 3 feet of them 24 hours a day. As if those statistics weren’t something to get excited about get this; SMS marketing is actually extremely easy to use! The first step is to set your customers up with a keyword. They simply text that keyword to your 5 or 6 digit destination number, also known as a short code, and just like that your customers have opted in and your text message campaign is initiated. From there you can send exclusive offers or promote certain products or product launches. If you don’t have anything to promote, SMS marketing can simply be used as a way to keep your company name or brand fresh in their mind (without being too aggressive of course).

With smart phones and tablets on the upswing, SMS marketing is destined for rapid growth. Here at Strategis we have begun offering this new and exciting form of advertising to our clients. Give us a call or shoot us an e-mail with your inquiries and we’d be happy to get your business set up. It’s about time you ride the mobile marketing wave to increase your business!

For more information call (781) 297-9200 or e-mail George at girish@strategisadv.com

The reason why I am talking about this is that you will start seeing this technology starting early this October for about 5,000 yen which equals $65.50. I should be able to see its implementation in early next years starting with Smartphones & camera screens.

This product is combination Foursquare & Facebook Places into. It will allow you to see where your friends are right now. I know some of you are concerned about the privacy and being seen where you are but Google Latitude has that covered as well with their share, set, or hide your location at any time. I look forward to using yet another Google product and I hope you have fun with as I am.

You would have to have lived under a rock over the past few years not to have realized advertising has changed.  And it’s not just due to shrunken budgets.  With the advent of the internet and digital technology, clients can now customize their specific message to a specific person at a specific time.  There’s just one catch.   Figuring out how to do this is very complex.  Marketing and advertising has jumped form 6 channels to thousands which then often spawn other channels.  Likewise, consumer attention has never been so fragmented.  Think Ipads and mobile phones.  And as if this weren’t enough there is now real-time two way communication with consumers yielding significant might.  Think Yelp.  Gone forever are the days of one-way controlled messaging.

Alas, there is a silver lining in the chaos.   Smart and nimble agencies who understand, stay abreast, and dare I say, stay ahead of internet marketing and digital technology will thrive.  The one caveat is that agencies must be able to educate clients about the new realities of advertising.  Sure client can do it themselves.  But do they have the immense amount of time and energy necessary to acquire the expertise and stay abreast of the new marketing technologies and then implement them effectively and consistantly or do they want to run their companies?

To put it simply, simplicity is key. In my view, the whole appeal behind an App is to receive important information in a clear and simple format. If that’s not a priority, then you may as well be viewing your info in a 2G Blackberry Browser.

The App Store’s popularity goes unquestioned; having hit 1 billion downloads in April of 2009 and multiplying that number by 7 in just a year and a half. Apple (or I guess App developers) have worked hard to meet this demand, having created more than 300,000 Apps as of this past October. The release of the Mac App Store marks a major move in enabling consumers to streamline and synch Apps across multiple devices. In simple terms, it simplifies.

Personally, I have found it ridiculous that Apps have only been available on smaller devices (iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad). More frustratingly, as someone who researches apps for their job and enjoys browsing Apps as a consumer, the inability to access the App Store forces one to take extreme detours in accessing the needed information, again without using a smaller device.

The Mac App Store will once and for all allow the consumer to view all Apps on a full screen. Simple, right?

Facebook announced its plan to release the new “Facebook Messages” late Monday afternoon. CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted the need for an enhanced system with the mind-blowing statistic that more than 4 billion Facebook messages are sent each day. One can only imagine that number will continue to grow with the site.

Despite plans to distribute facebook.com email addresses allowing users to send emails from their accounts, Zuckerberg did clarify that this modern messaging system is not e-mail. The three part system of seamless messaging, cross-platform conversation history and the social inbox will center around the idea of user friendliness. “People should share however they want to share” says Facebook project leader Andrew Bosworth.

A key difference from e-mail is the absence of subject, CC and BCC lines, though this is also been the case with Facebook’s currently standing messaging system. It is the second time in less than 6 weeks that Facebook has made a major announcement about a service that they technically already offered, the first was Facebook Groups. The two features have however been significantly improved.

One of the breakthrough aspects to this feature is its platform-agnostic design which allows users to message through IM, Facebook or their mobile device. Finally, in typical Facebook fashion, this system will allow users to organize messages by people you care most about and minimize spam.

Though Zuckerberg has assured major e-mail competitors such as Gmail that “it’s not email”, that statement may leave many wondering if it will be something better.

For those of you unfamiliar with QR Codes (or Quick Response Codes) are those cryptogram images (typically black and white) that can be scanned to a smart phone. Scanning a QR code allows you to obtain instant answers and links you directly to whatever you may need. Embedded information on the code can include a URL, text, a phone number or an address and ready-to-send SMS message. QR scanner apps are available for installation on the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Nokia, Blackberry and other app-based phones with a built-in camera. You may find these codes in magazines, billboards (as depicted above), on buses, business cards or anywhere else a quick link is needed.

Now that we have established a basic understanding for the technology, the most recent news regarding the feature is that the popular URL shortening service, Bit.ly has recently enabled users to produce these codes. This ability to create your own code has been available for some time. However, the implementation to this popular site, and more importantly the timing of its release- just less than 2 weeks after Google’s URL shortener, Goo.gl made this feature available- should be noted.

This technology has been popular for years in Asia and Europe. But could the adoption of this feature by these two sites be the catalyst in making QR Codes more mainstream in the United States? Only time will tell but one thing that is for certain is that this avenue for instant information should not be overlooked.

As previously documented, Facebook has released its first ever location based service, Places, according to Mashable. This application is directly available on the iPhone only at the moment, though other smartphone users can access Places by using the touch.facebook.com site. Android and Blackberry editions will eventually be released though no set dates have been announced.

Facebook users will be able to share their location with friends, locate where other friends using Places are, and find new locations near them. Specifically, capabilities will include: adding places, checking in to existing locations, and tagging friends who you are with.

This service will be launched across the entire United States within a few days, though international launch dates have yet to be determined. Facebook plans on making data available for developers. Gowalla, Foursquare, and Booyah have been sited as applications who will load data back into Places.

Businesses have much to gain from this new feature by adding their location. Places may be claimed by official representatives only and will require and official document (business license or accreditation).

In terms of privacy, always a Facebook concern, CEO Mark Zuckerberg assured naysayers that it is designed to share places with friends, not the entire Facebook world. However, checkins will be displayed on your profile by default. Additionally, similar to being tagged in photos, friends have the capability to tag you without your permission. This can be disabled by adjustment within the “Customize settings” option. As with all profile content, users can decide who views their check ins.

The capability to report false information, abusive behavior, duplicate content or a closed business is also available through flagging content, though it will not be removed immediately.

Users should be sure to revisit their privacy settings before engaging in this new feature. Overall, Places will certainly provide a new outlook on how we can utilize this social network in the future.

“This changes everything. Again.”

During Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference held last week, Steve Jobs (re-)introduced the world to the new iPhone 4, set to be released on June 24, 2010. According to Jobs, the latest incarnation is ”the biggest leap since the original iPhone,” and with over 100 new features and an overwhelming number of new fans, this just might be true.

Arguably, The Top 5 new features on the iPhone 4:

• At a mere 9.3mm, it’s the thinnest smartphone ever.
• While the screen remains 3.5 inches long, iPhone 4 packs 4x as many pixels (960×640) as its predecessor. At 361dpi, it has a display denser than the human retina can distinguish at arms-length, thus Jobs dubbing it the “retina display.”
• iOS 4 = multi-tasking abilities. Many.
• A major camera upgrade: 5 megapixels, 5x digital zoom, backlighting, an LED flash (finally) and the coolest 2way camera concept ever…
• Front and back-facing camera lenses, allowing for the debut of Apple video calling, or “FaceTime”, which will run on Wi-Fi and allow everyone that calls you with an iPhone 4 to see you (through the front lens) or see what you are looking at (through the back.)

So how do you get your hands on one of these fabulous little gadgets? Good luck.

With pre-ordering opening to the public yesterday, June 15, Apple out did themselves yet again by selling a record breaking 600,000 iPhone 4′s in one day, subsequently selling out, and then shutting down. With debut pre-order sales reaching 10x what they did last year with the debut of the iPhone 3Gs, both Apple and AT&T have been forced to suspend pre-ordering indefinitely.

Check out this slideshow of the 14 best tweets about the iPhone 4 FAIL.