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Dbrand skins add vinyl swagger to your favorite gadgets

Feb06
by on February 6, 2014 at 9:58 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets

ps4 dbrnad 1 520x245 Dbrand skins add vinyl swagger to your favorite gadgets

I’ve been curious about Dbrand’s 3M vinyl skins for a while now, but I could never get a solid sense of how they’d look in real life from just the images on the company’s website. After trying out sample skins for the PlayStation 4 and iPhone 5s, I have to say the results are impressive.

Dbrand’s texture choices include a carbon fiber weave, brushed titanium, leather, colorful powder-coated material and wood. We went with wood for the iPhone 5s and a gold and matte black combination for the PS4. We also tried out a white leather Moto X skin, but we don’t recommend it (more on that later).

Other devices you can outfit with vinyl include Nexus smartphones and tablets, iPads, the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation Vita, HTC One, BlackBerry Z10 and the Galaxy S4. A full PS4 set of skins cost $45, while the Moto X and iPhone 5s versions cost $16 and $24, respectively.

The other factor holding me back from buying skins for my devices is the fear that I’d mess up the application. It takes a rare combination of patience and coordination to apply a skin or a screen protector without a few blemishes or air bubbles in the process.

Dbrand has a helpful series of video and photo directions on their site. I still managed to screw things up a bit, but the material tended to be forgiving. I ended up having to unpeel and reapply several of the pieces, but the end result turned out okay. If you’re willing to spend the extra time to go slowly and carefully line everything up, the skin really does fit perfectly.

Once applied, the mahogany skin looked and felt fantastic on the iPhone. However, the edges of the skin felt a tad sharp on the device when handling it, and I was slightly disappointed by a slight gap on the frame pieces that the product photos on the website didn’t show. The extra vinyl material also made the power button lose some of its travel; it’s only a minor annoyance, but still worth noting.

I feel somewhat guilty putting faux-wood vinyl over Apple’s metal design, but that’s what makes it so cheeky. The look will get old after a while, but the $24 shouldn’t be too much of a setback if you’re the type of person who changes cases every few months.

Despite my fears that the gold PS4 would come across as over the top, it actually looked pretty good. Yes, it borders on ridiculous, but it does so with style. You can customize your color scheme for the top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right sections, as well as the controller. One caveat: I’d skip the gold-accented controller in the future, as it looked tacky and changed the feel of the controls .

As for the Moto X, I don’t see the point when you already have loads of color and accent options with the Moto Maker tool. The white leather skin turned out to be a poor choice, as it didn’t cover up the phone’s underlying color. The setup might look better on a plain-colored Moto X, but it just looked and felt tacky on mine.

motox dbrand 220x319 Dbrand skins add vinyl swagger to your favorite gadgets

From a product perspective, Dbrand’s skins live up to the hype. The company’s use of 3M’s vinyl makes it easy to handle, durable and it doesn’t leave a residue when you take it off.  However, when it comes to style, it’s up to you to pick the right one, as the results could turn out either awesome or awful.

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Innovate, don’t duplicate: Why the ‘me too’ mentality does nothing for your company

Feb06
by on February 6, 2014 at 9:45 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Design & Dev, Entrepreneur

copy machine 520x245 Innovate, dont duplicate: Why the me too mentality does nothing for your company

Tim Moore is the founder and CEO of Venture Glass, which creates wearable products and solutions, and was recently identified by Forbes as ”an emerging thought leader in wearable technology.”  Connect with him on Google+ and Twitter.

Late last month I was invited to attend ISPO in Munich, Germany. It is one of the largest sports business trade shows in the world, promising an opportunity to experience innovative brands, new business horizons, and ‘see the future.’

There was a lot to see; the conference boasted more than 180,000 meters of exhibition space and it was full, every inch of it. From global sporting brands to innovative startups, they must have all been here, and I was sure to find something truly inspiring.

Yet, through the massive areas of product and people, booth after booth of techno music and adrenaline-filled video demos, something was amiss. Yes, the atmosphere was exciting and felt like a perfect buying environment for a customer.

But when I assumed the character of buyer and looking closely at the offerings, I noticed three things that may be helpful for entrepreneurs and retailers.

1. Be a maverick

You didn’t have to go very far before some of the offerings began repeating themselves. I started to search more intently for innovative, smart fabrics, or cool connected items.. but I didn’t find them.

While Oakley sunglasses were there, there were also dozens of sunglasses companies, and they all looked the same. Although Nike was there with moisture wicking fabrics, I found many that looked about the same. And GoPro must have been proud, as there were probably 15 knockoffs, most of which were about the same size, price, and aesthetic.

At which point do maverick brands start partnering with or creating new services to set themselves apart?

For example, the GoPro knockoffs. Why not partner up with premium video editing software companies that an be all-done-on-device? And the ski accessories, why not include safety beacons inside them? How about all the Oakley competitors, why haven’t you jumped the fence and partnered with some smart glasses software to create a completely new product?

Create something new, something that excites us buyers. Don’t just duplicate or imitate others and improve the little specs – that’s boring and consumers are not buying boring. They settle when they have to, but it’s not by choice.

2. Take creative risks

Booth after booth, I saw improvements and seasonal refinements: The use of abstract color designs, very bright ones, were found everything from helmets, eyeglasses, shoes, roller skates, apparel.

ISPO munich 2014 730x424 Innovate, dont duplicate: Why the me too mentality does nothing for your company

Sun Yellow (the color of the year for the sports industry, I was told), intense lavenders, explosive oranges, blues, and greens were all out to grab your eyes’ attention. It’s stunning… but safe.

Buyers were currently still buying, so that’s a good thing. I had to wonder: How long before this trend becomes an old hat? Were buyers buying because this is all you offered?

There’s nothing new about shaving an ounce or two off of the weight, giving it a new name, or bizarrely bright color. As a businessperson, why are you looking around and seeing that your competitors look just like you? More importantly, why does this not make you extremely nervous?

If you don’t stand out from the crowd with some creativity, you are basically invisible.

3. Innovate or perish

Many of the products at ISPO looked great and seemed functional. The problem was that they were exactly like the items I saw in the 90′s (except for the neon shoe laces).

Unless you have deep pockets and major brand equity, you can’t stay competitively in business making newer versions of the same product, year after year. For today’s brands to secure a profitable future, you have to start innovating – revolutionizing!

Think way outside the box, refuse to keep up the battle with all your competitors whose products are eerily similar, which makes both of you invisible to the consumer. Stop duplicating them, stop duplicating what you have been doing, and start modernizing your offerings.

Ask us what we would like to see, what would make our life more convenient and comfortable, then do something about it. We the new connected consumers are standing by to reward brands who do take that risk with credit card, and Bitcoins, in hand.

Love this? Hate it? Start the conversation below – your comments might just be the helpful nudge to your favorite brand to create something that will amaze you.

Top image: Shutterstock/Lipik

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Facebook flaw allegedly prevents you from revoking app permissions on mobile

Feb06
by on February 6, 2014 at 9:21 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Mobile, Social Media

144134368 520x245 Facebook flaw allegedly prevents you from revoking app permissions on mobile

A new Facebook flaw reportedly allows a hacker to stop mobile users from being able to disconnect a mobile app connected to the social network. In other words, once you give a mobile app permission to access your information on Facebook, it is allegedly impossible for you to revoke those rights on your mobile device.

If you try via Facebook’s own app or the mobile website, you’ll be presented with one of two rather generic errors:

facebook mobile apps revoke permissions Facebook flaw allegedly prevents you from revoking app permissions on mobile

The issue was discovered by MyPermissions, a startup that helps you track which connected apps have access to your personal information on social networks and Web-based services. At first, MyPermissions co-founder and CEO Olivier Amar uncovered more than 15 apps that could not be disconnected or removed from Facebook mobile, but after digging deeper, he realized anyone could replicate run a script to replicate the problem.

The first question we asked Amar was whether an affected user could still remove the app on Facebook.com by going to Your Apps like so:

facebook permissions Facebook flaw allegedly prevents you from revoking app permissions on mobile

“Yes, there’s no question about it,” Amar said. It’s possible the vulnerability exists on the desktop as well, but if it does, it’s only limited to desktop apps. “We didn’t test if we could exploit the vulnerability on desktop,” Amar told TNW.

MyPermissions offers the following example of a scenario where this could be exploited:

Think about it like this: you download an app that promises to do one thing, but actually comes from a hacker who wants to seriously invade your privacy by mining your data. Given the right coding, this developer could trigger the same effect, basically making it impossible for a user to disconnect this malware app and revoke its permission to access your personal information.

Amar told us that MyPermissions stumbled on the vulnerability while stress testing a new version of its own app. He explained that anyone could exploit this particular flaw as it is relatively easy to do so.

“If the mobile app uses Facebook Connect, we were able to disable it,” Amar told TNW. “Doesn’t matter who wrote it. When we were testing, we could literally take down 250 apps at a time.”

So there are two problems here. Firstly, a hacker could create multiple malicious apps, convince users to install them and connect their Facebook account, after which they could then disable the permissions page. The second is that a hacker could target existing apps and make them impossible to remove. In either case though, users can still go to Facebook.com and revoke the permissions that way.

MyPermissions says this morning it reached out to Facebook, which is “taking care of this promptly.” Facebook told the startup to submit the flaw via its White Hat program, which Amar told us MyPermissions has already done.

We have also contacted Facebook for more information but the company declined to comment as the issue is currently under investigation. Facebook dill tell us, however, that it hasn’t been able to reproduce the behavior yet and is in contact with MyPermissions to investigate the claims. We will update this article based on the company’s findings.

Top Image Credit: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

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OpenTable begins testing mobile payments at restaurants

Feb06
by on February 6, 2014 at 7:42 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

opentable 220x113 OpenTable begins testing mobile payments at restaurantsOnline restaurant reservation service OpenTable has launched a pilot program for mobile payments that will allow users to skip the check when dining out and just pay from their phones.

The program currently includes a limited group of diners in San Francisco, but the company plans to send out more invites in the coming weeks. Details of OpenTable’s move into the space emerged last year after it purchased Just Chalo, which had been working on a mobile payment app.

Other startups such as Cover and Dash have already set their sights on solving the problem of getting the check at a restaurant, but OpenTable has a head start with the existing relationships it built through its reservation platform.

➤ Pay Your Check with OpenTable Mobile: Pilot Payment Program Launches in San Francisco

Image credit: Robert Scoble / Flickr

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How to prevent your app from getting too pushy with push notifications

Feb06
by on February 6, 2014 at 7:30 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Design & Dev, How-To's

smartphone alert push 520x245 How to prevent your app from getting too pushy with push notifications

Tim Pemberton is the Media Operations Director at Yodel Mobile,  a strategically-led full service agency that offers strategy, development and delivery for organizations looking to incorporate mobile successfully into their business.

Last year, Apple announced that it had passed its 50 billionth app download. With a larger installed user base, similar success is following from Android and the Google Play Store. Mobile app use increased 115 percent in 2013 according to Flurry Analytics, and the average smartphone user has 26 apps on their phone.

However, another study by the Pew Research Center found that despite the number of apps on their phone, 68 percent of users have just five or fewer apps that they actually use at least once a week.

In other words, mobile users are habituated to downloading apps, but not necessarily habituated to using all of them.

With the vast majority of app revenue growth coming from in-app purchases rather than paid downloads, it’s more important than ever to keep users engaged with your apps. But this disconnect between downloads and usage presents a challenge for marketers, running right to the heart of how to engage consumers and monetize the services of a mobile brand experience.

Alongside search and app store optimisation, there is a huge opportunity to capitalise on what is often an overlooked native function of all smartphones, mobile CRM and especially Push Notifications. Push delivers a message right to the home screen giving brands the ability to initiate a conversation with consumers so that they are motivated to continually engage with the brand’s app.

The key benefit is a sense of urgency to open an app once a push notification is received. It is also obvious that when a user downloads your app, they have already entered into a relationship with you by their own volition. It is now up to you to make that relationship work.

How a message is executed is the key to unlocking push as an effective marketing channel, in particular for app reengagement, geo-targeted messages, social alerts, offers, promotions, transactions and more.

When push comes to shove

Yodel’s own push campaigns marks the technique out as a highly effective way for brands to engage with consumers; we were able to more than double the app usage and engagement of opted-in (to push) users.

However, our own research tracked 20 travel apps over the Christmas period and early January (a time traditionally associated with summer holiday planning), and found that just one of the travel companies initiated an interaction with a single push message.

So why is push overlooked? Take a cursory look at a Twitter search on push notifications and the answer is obvious: it’s about relevancy – or lack thereof.

It is also easier to delete an app than switch off its push service.

Naturally marketers are cautious. Poorly executed push messaging has the potential to alienate users, so much so that they delete the app.

The difference between initiating a positive and negative brand experience can be paper thin.

5 push best practices

1. Relevancy

This should be the number one watch word when planning a push campaign. Marketers need to be upfront with their consumers by going deeper in to their notification preferences.

Ask them what subjects they would like to receive push notification on and how frequently they would like to receive them. By flipping what can be an annoyance (see CNN’s own goal, above) to a value-based service acting on customers’ preferences, you will achieve much more re-engagement.

2. Timeliness

Track your messaging campaigns and optimize against that data. For example, messaging in the evening may be more appropriate than a mid-day push on a leisure activity.

After the push, track behaviour beyond the message. What happened next? Did your message lead to a conversion, transaction or significant dwell time? By working out these and other parameters you will develop a useful engagement benchmark that will help you adjust your strategy as a campaign unfolds.

3. Integrate

Your messaging campaigns with other messaging platforms such as email marketing and SMS. Each platform is different. Push, for example, is far more appropriate for spontaneous in-the-moment interactivity.

On the other hand, email affords more time for a user to consider a more complex offer and follow a link.

4. Transparency

It’s vital to show consumers where the exits are by giving them a simple opt-out option. An opt-out at a general level is a complaint and needs to be dealt with.

It’s vital to take stock and analyse the types of messages that are initiating opt-out and then take action rather than continuing with a bad brand experience.

5. Make opt-in contextual

If you send users an opt-in message every time they open your app, ask yourself whether the user is actually in a position to make the decision?

It might be preferable to wait until the user is deeper into the app experience to send them an opt-in message contextually. For example, they may be viewing football scores – ask them if they would like to opt-in to receive sports updates based on that context. Consumers are far more likely to understand the value of opting-in when the context works for them..

At the industry level, if we don’t use push in the right way consumers will simply vote with their thumbs and switch notifications off. At the same time, consumers are savvy enough to understand that by downloading an app (especially if that app is free) then they are entering in to a value-exchange where their mobile behaviour is feeding a marketing industry that is based on their user data.

We need to use push responsibly, follow best practice and make consumers an equitable partner in this value exchange by using push to add consumer value.

Image credit: Shutterstock/bloomua

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