March-April - Viva Tysons Magazine

BigCommerce, let customers adapt to
mobile commerce almost instantly and
some don't even charge extra for the
service.
The editors of SmartMoney magazine say
even if m-commerce service costs more,
it might be worth it, especially to smaller
companies.
Smaller companies with a limited product
line are expected to compete well against
big retailers. Mobile phone users are
looking for easy, fast purchases and won't
want to navigate thousands of items on
their small phone screens.
Another advantage of dealing with
mobile phones: The GPS systems in most
smartphones can allow a business to send
a coupon or a discount offer to buyers
who are near its physical store.
Some restaurants and retail stores have
tweaked their websites so customers
can pay for their purchases or gift cards
through their smartphones.
One restaurateur reports that 20 percent
of his food orders are mobile.
Starbucks will soon allow
payment via smart phone
Starbucks announced in January that it is
taking another step away from cash. With
its great success of their Starbucks Card
(20% of transactions are via the card), it
will soon allow another cashless payment
method: your phone. The retailer is
launching a mobile payment system for its
nearly 7,000 company-owned stores and
their nearly 1,000 in-store Target locations.
The new Starbucks Card Mobile App can
be used with select BlackBerry smart
phones, as well as iPhone and iPod touch
systems. The app also allows customers to
manage a Starbucks Card account, check
a card balance or reload a card with any
major credit card. A store locator feature
helps find a nearby store.
In 2010, over $1.5 billion were loaded on
Starbucks cards. They anticipate the app
to be as successful.
New Product Rewards Kids
for Walking
There is a new idea to help the growing
problem of obesity in children. Rich and
Sheri Schmelzer and Alexandra O'Leary
have created GeoPalz pedometers, a fun
way to record how far children walk, and a
place they can then redeem their miles for
free prizes and awards on the company’s
website.
The newest model attaches to a child’s
shoelace or wrist. It records up to 21 days
of speed and distance data that can then
be inputted into the website. There is also
a wireless version that can track up to 20
devices for parents or teachers. The data
translates to how far the child walks in the
Geopalz World on the website. The further
they advance the more points they can
accumulate to win activity related prizes
such as Frisbee, Hacky Sacks, and other
sports equipment.
GeoPalz are available at various retailers,
or through the company website. The
original model sells for US$19.99, while
the shoe- and wrist-mounted version goes
for $24.99, plus $9.99 for a wrist bracelet.
www.geopalz.com
Web-mail declines mark
significant shift in web
behavior
Alex Mindlin of the New York Times
Reports:
The number of visitors to Web-based
e-mail sites, like Gmail and Yahoo mail,
declined 5.9 percent from November
2009 to November 2010, according to
comScore, a firm that tracks Internet
traffic. That decline reflects the spread of
mobile e-mail devices like iPhones, which
do not need to log onto the Web to see
messages; the number of people who
check e-mail almost daily on a mobile
device rose 40 percent in the same period.
But comScore’s numbers also confirm
that the youngest Internet users are
abandoning e-mail. Twenty-four percent
fewer people age 12 to 17 used Webbased
e-mail in November 2010 than did
in November 2009, even as the number of
users 55 and over continued to rise.
“Younger users have so many
communication channels that e-mail
isn’t their first option,”said Andrew
Lipsman, an analyst with comScore.“At
this stage in their life, many of them are
communicating through Facebook and
texting.”
High-end safety for
economy cars
Safety features just found in luxury cars
are moving down to economy models.
The 2011 Chevy Cruze, a General Motors
compact car, has 10 standard airbags,
including a set for the front passengers'
knees. It has electronic stability control, a
system that senses when the car is at risk
of rolling over, and another system that
automatically tightens the seat belts in
advance of a crash.
The Cruze airbag count is the same as that
of a Lexus GS sedan, priced at just under
$50,000, according to The Wall Street
Journal. The Cruze has a starting price of
$16,995.
Cars such as the Hyundai Elantra and Ford
Fiesta have a half dozen or more airbags,
and electronic stability control is more
common in subcompact cars.
Apple unveils New
Subscription Service
It has always been a problem to order
more than one issue at a time for
magazines and newspapers via the App
Store. With the launch of The Daily for the
iPad, Apple now is providing a venue to
content providers to offer subscriptions
via the App Store. For this service, Apple is
taking a 30% cut of the sales price, though
subscriptions purchased through the
providers website will allow the provider
to keep all the fee.
The fee charged to content providers
is not a huge issue. The problem for
many providers is that all the sales
data collected through subscriptions
purchased through the App Store stay
with Apple and Apple’s terms of service
state that it will not be released. This can
be a huge loss of marketing data to up-sell
existing customers who subscribe to their
products. As usual, Apple has control, and
providers have until June 30 to comply
with their new rules.
For users, it will mean increased simplicity
in purchasing content by subscription all
in one place.
vivatysons.com MARCH - APRIL 2011 | VivaTysons 31
TECHNOLOGY & YOU