Bing Maps Augmented-Reality Demo on TED

In a demo that drew gasps at TED2010, Blaise Aguera y Arcas demos new augmented-reality mapping technology from Microsoft. He is the architect of Bing Maps at Microsoft, building augmented reality into searchable maps. He's also the co-creator of Photosynth, software that assembles static photos into a synergy of zoomable, navigatable spaces.

Camera Phones to Scan 2-D Mobile Codes

Camera phones combined with 2D codes in innovation that mobile users could take advantage of. The use of Mobile Codes is only limited by imagination. One possibility is innovative marketing:

When BMW launched the BMW 1 Series 3-door version last year, it was the first white car they had introduced in a long time. So they decided to produce their advertising campaigns in black and white.
“Because the campaign was black and white, we decided to combine it with 2D bar codes, which we wanted to test.” (2D bar codes, both Semacodes and QR Codes, are also black and white).

What are mobile codes?

'Mobile codes' are codes in the same way as ordinary barcodes are, but their matrix structure can hold more information. The codes are also mobile in the sense that the camera of mobile devices can be used to scan and decode them.

A web address (URL), a phone number, an email address or plain text can be converted into a mobile code. After scanning it their camera phone, people will have instant access to the encoded information straight on the display of their mobile device.

Mobile codes are increasing in popularity: as tags on flyers and posters; on business cards and CVs; in magazines and blogs; offline and online.

Mobile phones such as a Nokia N82, N93, N93i, N95, N95 8GB, E66, E71, E90 or 6220 Classic comes with the Nokia barcode reader preinstalled, ready to scan mobile codes.

How to Create Mobile Codes?

There are free easy to use tools to create Mobile Codes such as the Nokia Mobile Barcodes site. Once the mobile code has been generated scan, print or save it for sharing the way you want.

How to scan and decode Mobile Codes?

There are many other tools in addition to Nokia Barcode Reader such as

• NeoReader, by NeoMedia for the Apple iPhone
  
• I-nigma reader, by 3GVision
• Glass reader, by Active Print(HP) / Gavitec AG-mobile digit
• UpCode reader, by UPC
• Semacode reader, by Semacode
• QuickMark reader

Have fun and connect the real world and the virtual world with innovative mobile codes!

Mobile Broadband Usage Statistics by Nielsen

The mobile consumer spends $350B each year on connectivity, devices, and content.
Nielsen Mobile provides syndicated consumer research to the mobile media markets.

The latest Nielsen Mobile Insight Research Reports feature interesting topics such as

• iPhone 3G and Smartphone Statistics
• U.S. Mobile Advertising Market
• Entertainment Drives Mobile Internet Growth in BRIC Countries
• Mobile Gaming Statistics
• Increased Availability of GPS on Mobile Phones Drives Consumption of Navigation and other Location-Based Services
• Mobile Video Popularity Reaching New Heights with Triple-Digit Growth in Revenues and Subscribers
• Mobile Audio Media Study
• Critical Mass - The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web

Check out Nielsen Mobile's other Research Findings here.

Can GPS enabled phones deliver?

Google Maps looks stunning in this Apple iPhone Guided Tour Video. However there is no built-in GPS in iPhone. Why?

The Nokia N95 and the Blackberry 8800 Series have embedded GPS support but reviews are saying that they cannot deliver reliable positioning just yet.

Is seems that GPS enabled phones are not up to the challenge of replacing standalone GPS navigation devices. There’s no need to throw away your Garmin or Magellan just yet. If you are looking for a phone with built-in GPS that delivers reliable positioning you might need to wait a bit longer.

Social Search to Save Us from World Wide Irrelevance

How do we navigate in the Virtual World to find and discover relevant content and sites? Google is your friend. Despite the billions of pages indexed many search results are irrelevant.

Social search addresses relevance by using implicit and explicit user behaviors such as attention, social networks, presence and communities to rank results. Social search is using the wisdom of crowds to help people to find stuff.

Map of Online Communities

xkcd has a nice map of online communities where the geographic are represents estimated size of membership. It even features a compass for navigation!

Why does Google make so much money?

It turns out that owning the starting point on the Internet is really, really valuable. Check out this interesting post about Google and the Third Age of Computing at Skrentablog.

Google is indeed the start page for the internet. That is why some call them the Ultimate Money Making Machine.

Navigation is a great business in the Networked World. Search is one way to navigate. In my earlier post I wrote about other forms of navigation. Who will make money on those?

How to Visualize and Navigate the Virtual World?

Traditional ways to navigate in the virtual worlds are

• Hierarchical Directories
• Search Engines
• Hypertext / links (one way)

Additional ways can enhance the navigation experience in Web 2.0 by using:

• Geographical navigation and search (e.g. Google Maps and Google Earth)
• Personal relationships (e.g. Orkut and LinkedIn)
• Tagging (e.g. YouTube and MySpace)
• Recommendations (e.g. Digg, Amazon)
• Collections and Lists (e.g. BlinkList, Amazon)
• Event and Calendars (e.g. Upcoming.org)
• And even by the combination of these like Rollyo (Search Engines + Collections)

One especially nice and interesting way to navigate are Tag Clouds. Check out the Flickr Tag Cloud and a nice article.

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