Apple downsizes its mid-range iPod, but upsizes the awesomeness. At about half the size and weight of its predecessor, the iPod Nano 6 ($149-$179) shrinks down

and gets a new Multi-Touch display, a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with belt clip, and a built-in FM radio (with ability to pause and resume playing FM), a built-in pedometer, and support for Nike + iPod. Your choice 8GB or 16GB sizes in silver, graphite, blue, green, orange or pink.via uncrate.com

]]> http://www.thinkbigbebigentrepreneurs.com/2010/09/ipod-nano-6/feed/ 0 http://www.thinkbigbebigentrepreneurs.com/2010/08/iad-explained/ http://www.thinkbigbebigentrepreneurs.com/2010/08/iad-explained/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:00:06 +0000 Timothy Bosworth http://www.thinkbigbebigentrepreneurs.com/?p=2823

This post is for those of you who are perhaps not so up to speed with all the major developments that are going on in the mobile and technology space. A few months ago Steve Jobs introduced what he described as something that would be able to give you “The emotion of TV. The interactivity of the web. The power of mobility. Introducing iAd.”

It all sounds fantastic in principle.  Apple says that iAd gives brands what they’ve been waiting for.  What’s that I hear you ask? Well for a start, how about access to the global audience of iPhone and iPod touch users, enhanced targeting, premium creative and robust measurement.

That’s their words not ours.  You have to give Apple credit though in terms of going where the money is. And where’s that? Well it’s search at the moment.  However Jobs says that you may use search on your desktop now, however on mobile it’s all about apps. People are not searching on their mobiles, they are using apps like yelp or qype to get data. This he suggests is where the opportunity lies for publishers and developers.

The big issue however with this opportunity is one that is currently present for most brands and that is one of interruption marketing. TV does a good job of this. Will the iAd solve this problem? Well since it’s announcement, there have been mixed reviews in the press. Only time will tell, however what is true, is that whatever Jobs seems to puts his hands to normally turns to gold.

So how does it work?

To find out more, you can download this PDF on how you can promote your app

Interesting article from Nielsen about the state of mobile Apps.  They start with the familiar “There’s an app for that” which is Apple’s catch phrase to promote the literally thousands of applications that can be downloaded to an iPhone. Whether you want to check the weather or traffic, bide time playing a game, or study a new language, there is likely a free or paid application that you can access. While Apple may be best known for mobile apps, BlackBerry, Android and other devices also have a huge range of apps available in their stores, as well as in those operated by mobile service providers.

Key Stats 21% of American wireless subscribers have a smartphone at Q4 2009, up from 19% in the previous quarter and significantly higher than the 14% at the end of 2008 14% of mobile subscribers have downloaded an app in the last 30 days Average number of apps: Smartphone: 22, Feature phone: 10 BlackBerry: 10 iPhone:37 Android: 22 Palm: 14 Windows Mobile: 13

• Games are the most downloaded – both free and paid
• Facebook, Google Maps and Weather Channel are the most popular apps across smartphones
  • iPhones: Facebook (58%), iTunes (48%), Google Maps (47%)
  • Android: Google Maps (67%), Facebook (50%), Weather Channel (38%)
  • Blackberry: Facebook (51%), Google Maps(34%), Weather Channel (28%)

• Social Networking: Facebook clearly favorite app, but MySpace is hugely popular among teens; LinkedIn attracts adults 25-44
• News/weather: Weather Channel was used by 58%; age distribution across sites was similar, save for Time Mobile and Thomson Reuters
• Shopping: Amazon and eBay lead (57% and 41%)
• Search/Map: skew male, particularly Instamapper (80/20)
• Video/Movie: skewed towards males; Imeem and Moviefone show a higher proportion of young users
• Music: iTunes, Pandora, Sirius XM appeal more to males, while Yahoo Music almost evenly split (51/49)

View the rest of the article on The state of Mobile Apps

Blackberry Vs. iPhone [Infographic]. Finally, numbers & stats that pit the 2 smart phones up against each other. This should make your decision a bit easier. See below for full image.

Apple’s decision to block third-party toolkits and middleware — particularly Flash — from being used to develop iPhone and iPad apps has certainly prompted a fair amount of debate around the web, and now it sounds like Steve and the gang might face some even harsher scrutiny: a single-sourced piece in the New York Post reports that the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are currently tussling over which agency should be tasked with a potential antitrust inquiry into the matter. That would certainly make some noise in the industry, but it doesn’t mean much for those of us here in reality quite yet: assuming the report is true, an inquiry would still just be the very first step — whichever agency is ultimately put in charge would then have to launch a formal investigation and then finally file and win a lawsuit for any changes to occur. That’s a timeframe measured in months, if not years.

All that said, we can see why the feds are interested: Apple’s slowly moving into an ever-more dominant position in the mobile market, and forcing developers to make a hard choice about which platforms to target certainly puts the squeeze on competitors. We’ll be following this one closely — stay tuned. Original source via engaget.

As we come to the end of our 2nd month of the new decade it will be interesting to look at which brands will stand out from the rest at the end of the year.  When searching for great brands I came across adslogans who suggested that the following brands were good enough to enter the 2000 Advertising Slogan Hall of fame.

1. “We try Harder” – Avis”
2. “Go to work on an egg” Eggs marketing board
3. “Guinness is good for you.” Guinness
4. “Don’t be vague. Ask for Haig.” Haig Scotch Whisky
5. “Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet.” Hamlet
6. “Heineken refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach.” Heineken
7. “Beanz Meanz Heinz.” Heinz
8. “It is. Are you?” The Independent
9. “Just do it.” Nike
10. “Think small.” Volkswagen

Do you remembers this from Burger King?

Which brands do you think should be in the Advertising Slogan Hall of fame 2010

A new job posting on Apple’s site suggests that the company is preparing to add still and video camera capabilities to its iPad tablet device in the future. The position is for a quality assurance engineer in the Media Systems division of Apple’s broader Interactive Media Group and is specifically focused on the “iPad Media” segment of the division.

The Media Systems team is looking for a software quality engineer with a strong technical background to test still, video and audio capture and playback frameworks. Build on your QA experience and knowledge of digital camera technology (still and video) to develop and maintain testing frameworks for both capture and playback pipelines.

According to the job description, the employee will be responsible for assisting the development team by testing performance of their systems and developing appropriate tools for performing the testing.

Familiarity with and interest in photography, video as well as media file formats is highly desirable. Experience with tuning of and image pipeline, including, but not limited to AWB, Color Correction, AutoExposure, FrameRate adjustments is a plus.

The lack of a camera has been seen by many observers as a significant disappointment for the iPad. It does appear, however, that the iPad’s enclosure contains an empty space appropriate for a notebook-style iSight camera, and the resulting speculation has included thoughts that Apple had either planned to offer a camera in the iPad but pulled it for unknown reasons or is still planning to offer one in the shipping version but did not include discussion of it during the device’s introduction for similarly unknown reasons.

Source: macrumors.com

The Ap store some would argue is the perfect business model for revenue generation. As of today, nearly one billion apps have been downloaded around the globe.  The top 5  All-Time Free Apps include: Facebook, iPint, Google Earth, PAC-MAN Lite, & Touch Hockey FSS.

There is nothing intrinsingiy complex about each application, however what you will see is one fundemental pattern with all successful iphone applications and that is the simplicity of use.

The same rules should apply with your business. You should not try to complicate things beyond necessity.  If you want to succeed in business, I would suggest following an iphone App developers mindset, which is to keep your idea simple, make it accessable and above all, make it something that people will like to talk about.

Download the Top 20 All time Free Apps