Probably late in the day, but I recently stumbled across the quite brilliant Hailo taxi app co-founded by three cabbies in London.  For those not familiar with this app, it allows you to select a black cab in the near vicinity, indicating how many minutes it will take to reach you and gives the taxi details to look out for when it arrives.

After arriving at your destination you can then automatically pay with your credit or debit card as the fare on the meter is charged straight to your account. Without any additional mark-ups and a copy of the receipt emailed directly after the journey I found it to be a joy in its simplicity and effectiveness – especially when using it for the first time on a late, wet and windy night. And of course the cabbies win too as they find more passengers on the street, with the added benefit of avoiding traffic on the way through an alert system.

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TwiIt seems so natural to many people now, that it’s a hazy memory of a time when it wasn’t possible to catch up on the latest news stories or updates from celebrities on your mobile, in the same amount of time it takes to step off the tube, jump on the escalator and order a latte in the coffee shop next door. In the modern world people want information quickly and in an easily digestible format, and this helps to explain the growth in popularity of Twitter since its inception six years ago. Read More »

A few weeks back everyone was talking about Highlight. A great networking tool that seems to have been the most talked about app at SXSW. (More on that later)

I’ve been playing with some Social Networking apps for a while and wanted to give some thoughts and show you some of the stand out ones.

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Please hold

Thanks to call centres the British people are a lot like Debbie Harry’s Blondie: ‘Hanging on the Telephone’.

According to a recent report, we typically waste around 45 hours each year waiting to be connected to a call centre representative.

This won’t be surprising to students of Behavioural Economics who know that – rather counter intuitively – people are more willing to hold on longer if told all lines are busy compared with being promised that their call will be answered soon. Why? The notion of having freely available operators suggests an unpopular service that is consequently not worth holding for. Whereas a message saying that all lines are busy and requesting people to hold or ring back later encourages them to stay holding in the queue longer as it suggests a popular service worth waiting for.

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Whilst online surveys often overstate the uptake of technology, Ipsos MediaCT’s offline Tech Tracker data tells us that just over four in ten GB adults now own a smartphone, representing an increase of roughly 30% in the last two years. The rise of the smartphone has coincided with the increased popularity, and normality, of social media usage. Arguably the two are connected, the modern mobile device being the ideal format for keeping up-to-date, and updating, as it means people are always online, even when on the move. Read More »

We’ve heard rumours in the past concerning the launch of a smaller iPad, and now an unnamed Samsung official has thrown more fuel on the fire. Asking not to be identified (fair enough in the circumstances), he or she told the Korea Times that Apple will launch a 7.85-inch iPad before 2012 is out. Read More »

In less than four years, an incredible 25 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple’s app store. That equates to roughly 80 apps for each of the 315 million iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices that the company has sold worldwide. With more than 550,000 apps available, and many free to download, it’s easy to see why the store has proven popular with consumers and developers alike.

However, other app stores are beginning to catch up. At this year’s Mobile World Congress, Google’s Andy Rubin revealed that there are now 450,000 apps available in the Google Play store (formerly known as the Android Market). That’s three times as many as there were just 12 months ago and only around 100,000 fewer than the Apple App Store. Read More »

UPDATE - There seems a growing controversy surrounding this with some arguing that the use of homeless people as wi-fi hotspots by BBH New York is a story about exploitation.

It isn’t hard to see a little of that position. After all, BBH gets all the publicity and these homeless guys get a few days of attention and cash and then they are back where they started. That said interesting interview here done with one of the homeless hotspots involved. However, take a listen to the Audio and YouTube interviews with the homeless guys concerned (below). Read More »

I want to saw you couldn’t make it up, but that it is patently not true.  You can and you do it by plugging in your Apple iPad and iPhone and together and you get a Futulele. No serious, it is a a virtual Ukulele or a Virtulele.

Why you would do this I don’t know as you can buy a Ukulele for £20 and the Apple version is worth £600 (price of the two devices). Take a look. Read More »