As you may already be aware, the lovely people at Vodafone Foundation have set up the Smart Accessibility Awards http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/ which Mobile Monday London is actively supporting. To remind you quickly, these awards are to celebrate apps that help people in four key areas: Social participation, independent living, mobility and well-being.
As part of this initiative, we've teamed up with the ICT KTN http://www.ictktn.org.uk and Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards to bring you 4 half-day workshops looking at this area specifically which will run in September. We'll be running workshops with our sister Mobile Monday chapters in London (date tbc), Manchester (w/c 19 September), Edinburgh (16 September) and Belfast (26 September). There will also be workshops in Amsterdam, Madrid and Berlin in September. And we need your help please.
The goal of the workshops is to inspire and enable application developers to create useful tools for people who have visual, aural, cognitive or other impairments by helping them understand and empathize what life is like for people in this situation. This empathy and understanding is created by bringing together developers and accessibility advocates and people with impairments to exchange information, and allowing developers to experience simulations of being impaired.
App developers who have had the opportunity to experience as directly as possible, first or second-hand, what it means to live with specific impairments, and have been put in touch with the larger community around accessibility, create more effective apps to better the quality of life for everyone. The result not only helps people with major disabilities, but also people with minor or temporary impairments, for example due to ageing or illness.
The format of the workshops will be discussion based and there will be technical people on hand to answer specific questions related to Android, but there will be different speakers and contributors to reflect the local scene. That means we're on the hunt for speakers and contributors who have something to share in this topic area. Perhaps you have an impairment yourself and can tell us what the implications are for your mobile and digital life? Or maybe you've done research in this area? Perhaps you have a mobile product or service and you can share that case study? Perhaps you understand the commercial opportunity that this represents? Or perhaps you work in a relevant third sector organisation and can bring some insight? Or maybe you're an Android expert who really understands this accessibility question?
If you'd like to contribute, or can recommend someone you think would be a great contributor, please get in touch with Helen Keegan.
First up, we’re talking things geo-spatial with the folks at UCL. Maps and Mobile are natural bedfellows and have been part of the mobile landscape for quite a while whether that's using GPS or mobile technology to determine location co-ordinates. LBS has been touted as the next big thing for at least 10 years so is it already here? Are there really opportunities? And what do real people use this stuff for?
Kindly hosted by UCL as part of their Making Money in Mobile Apps Bootcamp, we'll be exploring the state of mobile geospatial. Does the arrival of GPS equipped tablets mean that the days of the dedicated SatNav/GPS are over? What's the relationship between Location Based Services, Augmented Reality and Maps? We'll be exploring all this, most likely we'll touch on open data and a whole lot more ...
We have speakers from Navteq, Ordnance Survey and UCL.The session will be chaired by Andrew Scott who founded Rummble and is the co-founder of Magical Jaguar. Andrew has been working in LBS for 10 years so knows a thing or two about this area.
If you have a demo in this space we'd love to hear from you - please let us know by filling in this form and we'll do our best to include you.
NB. The event will be held at UCL and NOT at our usual Centre Point Venue.
Please enter UCL via the Malet Place gate (opposite Waterstone’s bookshop in Torrington Place). The Roberts building is immediately on your left. Nearest Tube Stations: Goodge Street, Russell Square, Euston Square, Warren Street. More venue details http://momolo.org/venue.jsp?venue=24.
Agenda:
6.00 pm Arrival
6.30 pm Panel Session
7.30pm Demos
8.00 pm Networking
9.30 pm Close
Sponsors:
In association with Making Money in Mobile Apps Bootcamp, a 5 day bootcamp running from 16th to 22nd June for entrepreneurs to get to understand what it takes to develop and deploy iOS apps - at £250 this is a real bargain.
NB The event will be held at UCL and NOT at our usual Centre Point Venue. Address and directions here.
Kindly sponsored by RBS, Interreg and Capital Enterprise.
Sponsored by Blue Via, our July event is focussed on the state of the developer nation where we will have key players from within the developer ecosystem share their thoughts and experiences on the topic. The report: Developer Economics 2011 (free download) is the quintessential mobile developer research report. In this second annual report, we explore both what drives developer mindshare, and how brands are fast-forwarding into the world of mobile. It takes the reader across the entire developer journey, from the shift of mindshare and why "users can buy you love," to how money is made in mobile. It covers the hottest issues, from app design and promotion to monetisation and user support.
Speakers for the evening include Eli Camilleri and Andreas Constantinou from Vision Mobile, Tom Hume from Future Platforms, Simon Davis from Snaptu. Further speakers tbc.
Venue - CBI at Centrepoint. Please use the entrance at street level. Nearest tubes are Tottenham Court Road (Central Line only – Northern Line exit is closed until November) and Leicester Square (Northern and Piccadilly Lines).
What a great night. Loads of energy, a full-house, 16 demos, new devices to play with and free beer courtesy of IntelAppUp. What more could you ask for?!
Our regular columnist, Lauren McGregor has done a lovely round-up of the evening in case you missed it. Over to you Lauren…
Demo night graced us with its presence once again this Monday and it proved to not only be a popular one, but also one full of exciting new ventures. I have to admit that demo night is one of my favourites at Mobile Monday, an eclectic mix of start-ups and big mobile companies dabbling its toes in new and exciting areas. This week we had the very lovely Intel (also our sponsor for the night) telling us all about its app store, as well as some cool app developers and marketers delving in the world of NFC, geo-targeting, gaming, cloud computing and more. I have attached below a short summery of each of the three minute pitches, along with the all important links to their websites and the speakers details. As ever, if you have any questions send them over or post a comment and if you have any video clips then please let us know so we can see them.
Intel AppUphttp://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/join – it’s free to join and there are lots of benefits You are not anyone if you don't have an app store, or so it seems, and Intel are not one to be left out. Nena from Intel took to the stage to tell us a bit more. Intel's app store contains a core focus of apps, currently around 3,000, based around Windows architecture and directed towards netbooks/laptops and tablet devices. It contains many of the top charters including Tweetdeck and Angry Birds and developers enjoy a 70% revenue share and a less crowded app store. Intel has also a few partners within the OEM and retail space, including Dell, preloaded devices, and retailer Dixons, who co-market goods in-store, both in return for a revenue share. So what are the benefits to the consumers, well Intel allows its customers to download their apps on up to 5 devices, a try before you buy system and the security that comes with the brand.
Staying with Intel we had a brief intro to Meego from Sulamita, an open source Linux project sponsored by Intel. This multi-platform network allows developers create just one source of code. One of our audience members was quick to raise the question of Nokia's investment in this project (i.e. it's speculated they may not be very soon) and Intel jumped in and assured us that it is very focused on Meego.
Ribot, Anthony Ribot, co-founder. Ribot is all about customer experience and more specifically, the everyday customer, bringing them the small screen experience. Following research funded by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Ribot looked into needs for older generation and found that they in fact had just three core needs from a mobile device - independence, simplicity and connectivity. This led the team to develop the Threedom app, which contains these three needs via three on screen buttons. The app currently sits on Android, but the team are moving to multiple platforms and hope to partner with a handset manufacture to create a device based on Threedom - watch this space.
QRpedia and Terence Eden Mobile Monday regular Terence has teamed up with Wikipedia to create QRpedia - finally a QR code app that stands out from the crowd. Following a trip to the British Museum, Terence noticed that the information available on artefacts such as the Rosetta Stone where somewhat lacking in detail and left him with a thirst for more knowledge. So it came to him, if only there was a way of storing lots of information in a small space that can be transferred onto my mobile device….and so QRpedia was born. This mobile Wikipedia app, allows museum visitors to scan a QR code and receive full Wikipedia info on that item. It doesn't stop there though folks, the app also recognises the language of the phone and redirects to the correct Wikipedia page - thus no issues with tourists from multiple countries being able to use the app.
A member of the audience asked if NFC was on the roadmap to which Terence returned another question…How many of you own or think your next phone will have a camera? and; How many of you have a or think your next phone will have NFC? I think this visualised the answer well - NFC simply is not mass-market enough yet. Another question of roaming charges came up and Terence said that he hopes to work in conjunction with museums to provide wi-fi to alleviate any huge roaming bills.
You can see the video of Terence’s presentation here.
TouchType, SwiftKeyhttp://swiftkey.net/ and www.touchtype-online.com/apiJoe Braidwood, chief marketing officer. Swiftkey has for a while now provided Android smartphone owners with a predictive, personal and intelligent text service and the team came to tell us about the next step for SwiftKey. The version 2 scans your internet accounts (Facebook, email, tweets), analyses your conversations and uses this to provide advanced predictive capabilities for your message writing. They also announced that the service is coming to tablet devices soon and that advanced voice integration to the app is on the roadmap. The team is interested in tie-ups with OEMs and has opened up its APIs to other developers interested in taking advantage of the intelligent word prediction.
Poynthttp://www.poynt.com/ Poynt initially launched on BlackBerry App World and has since gone cross platform and boasts 7 million unique users, 1 billion interactions thus far and a growth rate of 30,000 users per day. Poynt provides local search functionality on your mobile device tightly linked to the users location, working with business and local amenities to provide special Groupon-esque deals on the go (soon to integrate Groupon and LivingSocial deals-of-the-day to location). The idea being, rather then having one search app for movies, one for restaurants and so on, you have all your searches in one app. Although the team is not looking at any check-in based integration, it does provide a share function for Facebook.
The Game Creatorshttp://www.thegamecreators.com/ with AppGameKit - Rick Vanner and Lee Bamber After 11 years working in the world of the PC, Rick and Lee decided it was time to move to mobile – and hence created the AppGameKit. During a very comical presentation the guys picked upon one of the most annoying parts of development - multiple platforms for your apps. Fear not, they said for they have a solution - write once and deploy anywhere with zero porting…too good to be true? After showing us a demo of a game written on this platform, Ninja Ski, on a netbook, iPhone, iPad and Nokia device, the audience was more convinced. The code is written once either in C++ or Basic and you need only deploy one time, any upgrades also sync across platform with no issues and changes sync across platform. It even automatically recognises the controller type e.g. your on an Xbox or a touchscreen tablet and reacts accordingly to your commands. The AppGameKit is to be released in June and free to try with various pricing models thereafter.
TweetaLondonCabhttp://tweetalondoncab.co.uk/default.aspx demonstrated by Richard Cudlip, a licensed cabbie. London cabbies have been using twitter to share information on traffic, jobs and general information for some time successfully, but the core idea behind TweetaLondonCab was to provide a real-time booking service via twitter. Now linked up with Taxi Spot, the team is looking to rollout a service where users can search on a map and view local cabs and be able to order the closest to them via twitter or the app. Behind the scenes there’s a complex system to manage the bookings and to allocate the right job to the right taxi driver. ‘Why not call a cab?’ asked one of the audience and the reply is that drivers are all self-employed and independent so this is a way of finding an independent black cab driver in your locality in London.
Local Social from Rococo http://www.rococosoft.com/, Sean O’Sullivan Rococo provides proximity marketing software using short-range location technologies like bluetooth, NFC and wifi to interact with its users - both person to person and person to business. It provides an open API and comes Android and J2ME supported, its partners create the apps and Rococo makes them ‘proximity aware’. Sean’s looking for partnerships that can make good use of their proximity aware technology.
Smart Wifi from Kinetohttp://www.kineto.com/, Mark Powell (co-founder) This app uses wifi to to run all your usual mobile functionality; calls, sms etc, - even when you don’t have your usual mobile signal. You also won't have to pay for roaming while you are abroad as you will use your home network on wifi and run your calls and messaging over this. The app is to come pre-loaded on all android T-Mobile (US and soon UK) and Orange (UK) - with more to be announced soon. It’s already preloaded on some devices and operators brand the name differently. From the operators perspective, it doesn't lose its customers due to lack of coverage and another huge plus is that it also alleviates capacity of data running on their networks. Impressive.
Nuance Mobilehttp://www.nuance.com/, Reimund Schmald Nuance gave us a quick intro to its latest creation Flex T9 – advanced text to speech with multi-lingual voice recognition (and Reimund proved this by speaking into various phones in various languages. Nuance is a large company and their system is already in use for games, coffee machines and cars. It is available to buy now in the Android Marketplace for £3.
Insiteohttp://www.insiteo.com/ , Tiago Mateus Insiteo is an indoor positioning system that incorporates dynamic mapping to guide users around for example a shopping centre, airport, hospital or an exhibition. The app works by triangulating the users position using wifi access points, with an impressive accuracy of 5m inside. The app can also deliver geo-targeted advertisements and is completely opt-in.
AiRaid – Rise of the Undead ,Keith Bauwise This Samsung Bada app is a first-person 360 degree augmented reality shooter game, there is just one goal to survive for a full 2 minutes - which is hard when ghosts are attacking you. The backdrop for the game is the area around you and so you can imagine people fighting imaginary ghouls with their phones thrust in front of them. The team has created a good online community of players sharing high scores and experiences. The game is open source to other developers and they are open for them to overlay graphics and expand on the app. In the future, the team is also looking at ways to integrate GPS to the game play.
NaturalMotion Games and, Torsten Reil, CEO and co-founder With a background in games and animation development (Grand Theft Auto, Backbreaker to name but a few), the team wanted to create a truly social game using the same realistic animation that drives their console games. They’ve now found a way to make that animation engine fast and responsive enough for mobile. And with this in mind they are working with game developers to do this. The Munkyfun app they demoed was one where you can own your own horse, feed it, play with it, tend to it, ride it and as one eagle eyed audience member spotted - it looks like race them too! Through the camera mode, you can view and interact with the horse and take pictures to share and these look incredibly life-like. The revenue streams are not just about paid-for downloads but also micro-transactions within the experience.
Torsten is a former Ted speaker so you might like to take a look at his video explaining how the study of biology can help make natural-looking animated people -- by building a human from the inside out, with bones, muscles and a nervous system.
Parcel Geniehttp://www.parcelgenie.com/, John Taylor CEO Parcel Genie claims to be the world’s first gift messaging service on mobile, you can send real little gifts without needing the recipients address. All gifts are below £5 for example a chocolate bar or a game and you can pay with either PayPal, premium SMS or a credit/debit card. The recipient receives a message asking where they would like their gift to be delivered and what it is. Once the location is confirmed (99% acceptance rate) the recipient receives the gift the next day with a personal message and the sender pays the P&P. The app is rolling out on Android and iPhone and is already available on Windows Phone 7.
Spark http://www.sparkinspires.com/ with Mindingshttp://www.mindings.com/main, Stuart Arnott The idea for this came up when Stuart’s mother was very ill. Stuart used to send her photos every day so that she didn’t miss out on seeing her new family and could keep her spirits up during a very difficult time. Sadly, Stuart’s Mum lost her life, but he thought that there must be a better way to do this. And as a geek, he was just the person to do this. And so he created version 1.0 of Mindings which was a picture frame with email upload. Next Stuart integrated flickr uploads for version 2. Now on version 3 the device adds captions for photographs, calendar integration iCal and Google Calendar for alerts, Facebook integration, medication reminders, in-built health devices e.g. blood, glucose, heart monitors. All this information is stored and can be shared with other family members/health care professionals remotely to monitor and interact with the user - a far cry from the original photo frame device. The cost of the device will be around £80 at launch (October 2011) and subscription to the services will cost an additional £5 per month.
LifeSort http://www.lifesort.com/, James Norris This cloud-based service offers one place to store, sort and share your documents within one unique infrastructure that is fully customisable giving more flexibility than the likes of Dropbox. The app can be viewed on an iPhone/iPad and via a desktop browser and all saved material is fully accessible across multiple devices and saved across device. As pointed out by an audience member, this does bear multiple similarities to Dropbox, but James assured us that it is different due to its unique infrastructure and customisation…we will have to try it for ourselves then, trials available.
We’re just experimenting with Lanyrd so if you’re on twitter and attended the event, feel free to add yourself. Equally, if you wrote a blogpost, took photos or video, or did an interview, please add it there too (and let us know in the comments). http://lanyrd.com/2011/momolo-april/ Thanks!
And finally, Daniel Appelquist took a whole bunch of photos on the evening which we’ve put into a slide show for your delectation.
A big thank you to IntelAppUp for sponsoring the event and thanks everyone for coming that made it such a success. Our next events are on 16 May (machine to machine and the internet of things) and 6 June (Web vs. Native debate). Register and RSVP at http://momolo.org
Yes! Demo Night is back at MoMoLondon, albeit a couple of weeks later than we’d originally planned.
We'll update the agenda once we know who's going to demo their wares on the night but expect an eclectic mix of mobile applications, products and services. Each presenter will get 3 minutes to demo and then there'll be time for questions and feedback from the audience. We’ll be split into two rooms so we can accommodate everyone without being too squashed up and each demo company will pitch twice – once in each room – so there’s no need for the audience to move around. It also means we’ll have a bit more space so hopefully we won’t have to turn people away because we’re full.
We have room for 12 or more demo companies to show their wares. You can be at prototype stage wanting some feedback, or you can be at fully-fledged service stage able to share insight about getting to market or somewhere in between. It really doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you’re interested to show us what you’re up to and share at least one insight during your three minutes (and yes, we have to be strict on time). We are platform and device agnostic and it would be great to see a wide range of platforms and devices covered. And it doesn’t have to be mobile internet or app driven either. Voice and SMS services are also relevant. Just fill in this form http://bit.ly/demorequest or email helen@mobilemonday.org.uk if you'd like to be considered for one of the slots. Don’t be shy. We’ll fit in as many as we can.
The Intel AppUp developer program provides developers with everything they need to easily develop and sell applications via the Intel AppUp Centre and affiliate app stores. The initial focus of the program is netbooks and tablets, but is soon expanding to include smartphones, consumer electronics, and other devices. The program supports C/C++, Adobe AIR, Java, Microsoft .NET, and Meego apps. The developer program provides easy to use SDKs, easy deployment and validation along with a vibrant community. In addition, the program provides developers with numerous monetisation opportunities through the AppUp centre, affiliate app stores, in-application advertising, and much more.
Venue and timing
We’ll be at the CBI at Centrepoint. Doors open at 6pm for a prompt 6.30pm start. The demos should be finished by about 8.15pm and then we'll have drinks and networking until 9.30pm. Please note that the Northern Line will not be stopping at Tottenham Court Road from April onwards whilst engineering works are happening. Please use Goodge Street or Leicester Square on the Northern Line, or come via Oxford Circus and get the Central Line to Tottenham Court Road as that’s working as normal.
Please RSVP at http://momolo.org/ if you'd like to attend this event. An RSVP on our Facebook event is not enough as we can't export the data to tally up numbers and create a registration list. Please note that registration details will be shared with the sponsor.
Registration will be open until Friday 15 April at midday or until we’re full up – whichever comes first.
It feels like it was ages ago, but it was in fact only a few weeks ago that we held one of our much loved MoMoLo Demo Nights – Autumn edition … a night of some of the best developments in mobile and it delivered! The app market is one of the most crowded and hard to get into in mobile and on the night we showcased some very interesting new-comers indeed. We had everything from security, to planning, to gaming … and as always some fantastic presenters.
Our sponsors for the evening were LUMU Invest who stepped in at the last minute to ensure that we were able to run the event. A very big thank you to Muriel Devillers for her support. LUMU Invest are part of the team behind EuropeMob and UKMob and so the evening began with a short introduction from Julien Fourgeaud from UKMob (or UK Mobile Association) to tell us all about it Julien introduced us to the mobile application landscape taking us on a journey through the many facets in developments across the consumer, governmental, corporate and hackers/developers ecosystem within the market. He stressed the need for this ecosystem to come together, as great ideas come from everywhere … from the student in their dorm room to the developer sat within a mobile operator. On this basis Julian and his colleagues decided to build an association to do just this, organising matchmaking, seminars and conferences to connect these very different people together.
Then we got straight into the demos …
Psonar. First to the start were the chaps behind Psonarhttp://www.psonar.com/, Martin Rigby (CEO) and Chris Moores – one of my favourite things about a new solution is that looks to resolve an issue that we have all experienced … that sad moment when we lose our mobile or have it stolen or it becomes damaged beyond repair, and (in some cases) it dawns on us that we have lost all the data on our phones. Psonar specifically addresses this issue of losing your music by creating a fully online and streamed music service with an additional social side too. The solution is accessed via the mobile phone web browser, using QuickTime, and includes features like playlists, artists, albums etc ... looking fairly similar to Apple iTunes interface. Touch gesture rearranges any of the tracks. What I liked about this solution is that being web based, there is no need to download anything from an app store. The obvious question of the legalities/rights of the music was raised and Psonar does not currently own a license from the publishers. However, Psonar offers music publishers an interesting new revenue stream via micro payments (partnered with Bango where they can build as a kind of 'eBay for music' - allowing users to sell their music. A very interesting proposition and one that we saw last year at Heroes of the Mobile Screen. It seems to have come on quite a bit since their pitch to the Teenage Heroes.
Roulette Cricket. Next up was Dave Tharp, from Roulette Cricket (they recently came second and won Euro 50k in this year’s Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition) who has created an ingenious application surrounding the game of cricket … The idea first came to Dave when he was at Lords and his group were deciding who was going to buy the next round of drinks. It is essentially a live games app played during a live game of cricket. Each match is segmented into 18 (hence Roulette) and displays interactive feeds of live cricket, where you can play for prizes and bet on matches .... the app is currently free to download and the play for prizes works out around £2 per month and the team take a small revenue from the (optional) betting. The game can be adapted to other sports – baseball, football, whatever. A lovely idea indeed and well executed. The rise in popularity of gaming is certainly going to work in this app’s favour. Currently available on iPhone. Other platforms coming soon.
Phil Woodward had a dream, a dream to connect the real world with online world and lo Hipsnip was born. This is a web based mobile app notepad, the key differentiator being that it is action orientated – for example the movie you want to see or the bottle of wine you want to remember to buy. You can enhance your notes with a social element, add geo tagging and even barcode scanning. The results are designed to be 'smart results' not static notes, for example if I was to make a note of something that I have seen that I wanted, like a new laptop, the note will be linked directly with say a review of it on CNET. You can view your notes in the form of ‘snips’ via a Twitter styled feed. As we are hearing more and more about tablet style devices like the iPad making waves in the business world, I am sure that the two would work well together. One to watch.
Toshl. Then next to take to the stage was the very charismatic, and I have to say one of Lauren’s favourite presenters of the evening, Andraz Logar, the CEO behind Toshl. The Slovenian based team, who had spent the weekend building stuff at Over The Air, has created the app to track spending and exposes your poor spending. Built for Android, Apple and Maemo based devices, you can add expenses and sync them all live via the cloud. The solution currently has an impressive 45,000 users, with 3000 expenses tracked every day. What makes this app stand out from the competition is that it does not attach to bank, so it can be used globally, including places where bank accounts are not the norm. Excitingly though the team is in negotiation with a UK bank, and the potential to white label its service makes it a potentially huge revenue generator from the team. Is this a rival to previous demo’ers, Ribot and their Little Spender service?
Travel Plan. Many of us have had to travel for work and it is not long before the novelty wears off and the need for a seamless trip becomes paramount. That is where Travel Plan comes into play, a name that you may well recognise as it is currently a successful desktop application that has been on the market for the last 12 years. Mark Melody demoed the mobile version (iPhone only for now) of the app, which is essentially an offline tracker for the frequent traveler. I like that it is offline as we do not always have WiFi available and the high cost of data roaming is an instant turn-off for us all. The application not only acts as a travel planner for you, but also allows you to check for fares and availability of flights offline and also works for hotels and car hire. You can send updates directly to email and even to your social network ... should you so wish.
Myappmarks. Self confessed newbie to the scene, Adrian Cuthbert, had one of the most interesting propositions on the night and one that certainly got the audience’s attention. His application, Myappmarks, is an intelligent way to bookmark the apps that you love and discover, via the cloud. Currently in beta and available on iPhone, the application searches your local area via your mobile and identifies say Foursquare and allows you to instantly check-in and/or download the app direct from the app store.
Milestone Planner.Social Optic'sBenjamin Ellis came to tell us about his Milestone planner (who were also shortlisted for the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition this year)- everyone needs a plan and plans all the time when shared. Everyone can update this shared plan from anywhere and it is previewed as a timeline including any key milestones ... for example, the next seven days. The solution includes full RSS and twitter integration, facilitating a discussion around the a plan. The team is looking into further device integration for e.g. Dell Streak. Another cool thing about this planner is that you can produce reports directly, this can be on a daily, weekly or any other basis. The app currently runs in a freemium model with paid for add-ons. One of the interesting things about this service is that it recognises that not all the people using your plan are linear thinkers and the way the app works means that it can accommodate that too.
Qootia.Tomaz Stolfa – Qootia - Tomaz began his demo with a video, which you can view on the website, and this describes his solution perfectly. Basically it is a real time game that the public can directly interact with via their mobile phone. The team first trialled the game during the World Cup and set up in 12 bars across 6 cities over a total of 45 matches. Users were encouraged to dial in to compete against other bars in a game of penalty shoot out. There were a number of innovative controls, but one that I thought was great, especially to get the crowd excited, was to scream down the phone to set the power of penalty shots. 95% of those that played did not opt out, which is phenomenal and has immediate implications for the gaming and advertising market. This is a lot of fun and had the audience playing very quickly to show how powerful this is as a concept. Based on voice technology, this isn’t about downloading an app or mobile web which means it’s ultimately accessible. Great to see old technology thought of in a new way.
Spodtronic. Mikko Linnamäki CEO - spodtronic.com - we all know about app store radio stations, in fact there are 480 apps for radios in the app stores currently. Mikko and his team decided to create one place for all these apps to live and generates income via advertising. This app would certainly be an attractive addition to the phone, giving you access to all the radio stations available via one single app. They have apps for most smartphone platforms and shared with us how important Nokia and Symbian were to them in terms of downloads and usage and showed a live waterfall infographic showing how many people were using their systems and on which platform. Nokia won hands down. IPhone obsessives – take note!
Next for the 'Over night hack-a-thon' winners from Over the Air ....
Robot love.Mobile Monday London regular, Adam Cohen Rose - won Best Hardware Hack and Best Use of Other Features. Adam has a thing for robots. He likes to build them and this year at Over The Air, he built a robot out of Lego and devised a way for it to follow him around using the iPhone 4's face recognition software. The robot has a light sensor that picks up square on the iPhone 4 when it identifies a face ... hilarious demo, with many of the audience trying to trick the robot into following their face and rather than Adam’s. It showed a very human side to technology and also was a glimpse into how we might be interacting with machines in the future.
Lobster. Audience Favourite and Most Cheeky App Award - well it had to go to the Lobster App, demoed by Tom Hannen - an iPhone app (not approved and/or submitted we might add as we don’t think TFL would like it) that simulates the oyster card beep (I guess the team call this the lobster app beep…) and as seen in the video they showed us (see below), fools the bus driver. Great fun and kudos to the team for the pre-planning that went into this so that they had the time to go and do the filming. Follow the team’s antics here @lobsterapp.
And last but not least, we had drama from Ewan Spence. He likes to go a little over the top at Over The Air each year, and this year was no exception. Ok, so we didn’t have Cyber Men or Daleks this year, but I think I liked the Drone much better anyway. It was an innovative use of using an iPhone or iPad as a remote control able assisted by Ewan’s great comic timing. Ewan's drone was controlled remotely by iPhone and iPad, it had an on board video camera, and was definitely a show stealer and well deserved the Best in Show Award. You can see them in action at Over The Air in the video below – it’s great fun and worth a peek.
So that’s another demo night over. A big thank you to LUMU Invest for sponsoring the event and for all the wonderful people who took the time to share with us what they’re up to. And a special thank you to the participants of the Over The Air overnight hackathon who suffered sleep deprivation in order to entertain and inform us.
Yes Demo Night is back at MoMoLondon! We'll update the agenda once we know who's going to demo their wares on the night but expect an eclectic mix of mobile applications, products and services. Each presenter will get 3 minutes to demo and then there'll be time for questions and feedback from the audience.
We hope to feature demos from some of the entrants of the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition as well as some of the hacks from this year's Over The Air http://overtheair.org/ . We have space for a few more as well. Just fill in this form http://bit.ly/demorequest if you'd like to be considered for one of the slots.
This event is kindly sponsored by LUMU Invest.
The goal of LUMU Invest team is to help startups in pursuing their plans. Our focus is seed and early stage financing and advisory for startups that have global ambitions. http://www.lumuinvest.com/
We are also still on the lookout for another sponsor to support the event so that we don't go short of beers for the networking afterwards. If you're interested, then please get in touch with Alex or Helen - alex@ or helen@ mobilemonday.org.uk
Doors open at 6pm for a prompt 6.30pm start. The demos should be finished by about 8.15pm and then we'll have drinks and networking until 9.30pm.
And you'll find us at the CBI at Centrepoint. Nearest tube is Tottenham Court Road. Please use the entrance at street level.
Please RSVP at http://momolo.org/ if you'd like to attend this event. An RSVP on our Facebook event is not enough as we can't export the data to tally up numbers and create a registration list.
Breaking News from Nokia HQ to invite MoMoLo members to attend the developer launch event for the Nokia N8 next Tuesday morning at the rather lovely Century Club on Shaftesbury Avenue. Yes, it’s all a bit short notice, as it often is with these things, but it looks really interesting whether you’re a seasoned developer or new to mobile. There are sessions geared around development, but I happen to know that Nokia is trying to make things easier for the less technical amongst us to join the apps party too and that’s where QT comes in. So if you’re interested in getting an app out there, but coding isn’t your strong suit, then you should consider coming along to this to find out more. I’m no coder, so that’s what I’ll be there to explore. Oh, and we also get to play with shiny new Nokia N8 handsets too.
So if you’d like to come – here are the details:
What is it: Nokia is hosting an exciting developer event for the N8 which will provide an introduction to QT and the Nokia N8 - complete with live developer workshops at all levels and an opportunity for some hands-on time with the device itself. It’s also a chance to network with your peers.
When is it: Tuesday 3rd August, 9am to 1pm
Where is it: The Century Club, 61 to 63 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6LD – nearest tube is Piccadilly but Leicester Square is nearby as well.
So in a little bit more detail, what are we talking about here? Well the Nokia people have sent me this:
The N8 wow-factor
The much anticipated Nokia N8, our latest smartphone, intuitively connects to the people, places and services that matter most.With the Nokia N8, people can create exciting content, connect to their favourite social networks, and enjoy on-demand Web TV programs and Ovi Store apps. The Nokia N8 introduces a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash, HD-quality video recording, film editing software and Dolby surround sound. All in a beautiful, aluminium design which you can see here.
The Nokia N8 is Nokia’s first device to be integrated with Qt, a software development environment that simplifies the development and makes it possible to build applications once and deploy across Symbian and other software platforms. Nokia has also made the powerful and simple to use Nokia Qt SDK available, in its initial beta, to enable developers to start realizing the potential of Qt.
Why you should attend?
Learn first-hand from Nokia’s experts and peers in the developer community – meanwhile we’ll introduce you to all the latest tools and technologies and everything you need to take advantage of the enormous opportunity that is presented by the N8. And rest assured: There won’t be any PowerPoint presentations during these sessions. And of course we’ll teach you how to make best use of the Ovi Store so that you can make your content available to millions of consumers from more than 180 countries around the world.
Who should attend?
Whether you’re new to Nokia, or a seasoned coding pro…
Whether you’re a web designer or a hard-core gamer…
Whether you’re a student or working at a technology start-up…
Whether you’re a biz-dev professional or a serial entrepreneur…
I shall be there. And I expect there’ll be a few familiar faces there. So if you’re interested in finding more about the opportunities with Nokia QT and have a play with the lovely, new, shiny N8 device and you’re free on Tuesday morning, why not put your name down and come along.
Yes, it seems to be in the air. Developer days coming thick and fast. Well, we’re particularly pleased to be supporting BlackBerry with their upcoming Developer Day in London next week because they’ll be sponsoring our next MoMoLo event on 19th July on the hot topic of how to market your mobile application. More details will be coming soon on that but in the meantime, let me tell you a bit about the upcoming BlackBerry Developer Day next week.
BlackBerry® Developer Day brings together experts and industry insiders to provide you with the latest news and opportunities in the world of apps. With in-depth technical sessions and expert advice you can soon be on the road to creating successful applications for BlackBerry® smartphone.
This event is perfect for anyone seriously interested in app development. Whether you're a business partner, content generator or developer, if you're looking to get the most effective and commercial results this is an event not to be missed.
With over 41 million subscribers in 180 countries, find out how you can profit from developing content and applications for BlackBerry smartphones.
BlackBerry has supported Mobile Monday London and Heroes of the Mobile Screen in the past and we’re delighted to have that support continue. We’re particularly interested in the ‘Super Apps’ concept which we learned a little about on our demo night back in March. And I’m quite sure you’ll be able to find out a lot more about that, and much more, at the Developer Day next week. Sadly, I won’t be in attendance since I shall be sitting in a field in Somerset listening to some music next week at some small, insignificant music event that no-one’s ever heard of. But if I wasn’t doing that, I’d definitely be there! Spaces are limited, so if you’d like to go, please do register to confirm your place.
We're very grateful to our sponsors Windows Phone for sponsoring and hosting our event last night ‘Living in a Multi-Platform World’. We’ll be doing a write-up of that in due course. But as part of that, I thought some of you might be interested in joining Microsoft's BizSparkCamp, a Technical Day focused on Building Apps in for Windows Phone 7, which will be launching towards the end of this year. There are 100 spots available and they will be holding it in the Microsoft Customer Centre in London (which folks who attended last night’s session will tell you it is very lovely indeed) and it is free to attend. A few of our MoMoLo regulars attended a similar session last year and it was very successful for them. See below for registration links / details. The entire Windows Phone 7 team will be there on the day, so you will have ample opportunity to network and have all your questions answered.
And yours truly will be there as I'm judging the pitch contest in the afternoon alongside a couple of VCs. Should be fun!
BizSparkCamp, A Technical Day focused on Windows Phone 7
June 22nd 2010, 9:30am – 5:30pm, followed by networking drinks
Windows Phone 7 is a different kind of phone, designed to bring together what you care about most. Its smart design lets you do more in fewer steps. Its intuitive Hubs, for People, Music + Videos, Pictures, Games and Office, means we bring things together for you so you can do what you need to do more quickly and easily. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7.
“Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future” (Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo)
Microsoft BizSparkCamp for Windows Phone 7 is a technical focused day designed to offer assistance to entrepreneurs, in particular, the CTOs and developers/architects within Technology Startups.
· Learn to build new applications on the Windows Phone 7 platform (via a series of technical briefings)
· Potential Nomination for BizSpark One (an invitation only program) for high potential startups
· Generate marketing buzz for your brand
We are inviting registrations from Startups interested in Windows Phone development. Register now for your chance to learn the latest development techniques with Windows Phone and your chance to win time in the Microsoft Labs to assist you in developing a Windows Phone 7 application in time for our launch later on this year.
Light breakfast and lunch included, followed by a networking reception at the end of the day.
The Microsoft BizSparkCamp for Windows Phone 7 will be held in our Microsoft Customer Centre, in the Microsoft offices, Cardinal Place, 100 Victoria Street, SW1E 5JL
This event consists of a morning of product and market overviews from the Windows Phone 7 team. The afternoon consists of a series of Deep Technical focused presentations, so you can gain a good insight into Windows Phone 7
We are ending the day with a pitch contest, where the Top 8 Applicants are able to pitch their mobile application to a panel of experts for a top prize. The prize will be quality time in our Microsoft Technology Centre labs, with the support of our Windows Phone Engineers and Experts, to help you design and build your Windows Phone Application in time for the product launch.
This event is completely *free* to attend, and the agenda (subject to slight changes) is below:
9:00 for 9:30 start Registration and breakfast
9:30 -- 9:45 Introduction and Welcome
Bindi Karia, VC / Emerging Business Lead, Microsoft UK (@bindik)
9:45 – 10:45 Introduction to Windows Phone 7, a different kind of phone:
Oded Ran, Head of Consumer Marketing, Windows Phone UK (@odedran)
10:45 - 11:45 Windows Phone 7 – It’s all about The Developer
Will Coleman, UK OS and Mobile Product Manager Lead (@will_coleman)
Find out how you can leverage your existing knowledge as well as built-in standardised access to web services and hardware capabilities to develop for Windows Phone 7
11:45 - 12:30 Lunch and networking
12:30 – 13:30 Mobile User Experience 101: a summary of designing for Windows Phone 7 and other touchscreen devices
Antony Ribot, Mobile UX designer/developer/entrepreneur. Co-founder of ribot (and Mobile Monday London regular) (@ribot)
Windows Phone 7 includes a new and industry-unique panoramic user interface with a new smart design system that enables developers and designers to create their own visually stunning applications and games based on Silverlight & XNA. Discover how to take advantage of this new user experience.
This session gives an overview of the functionality for Silverlight applications that is unique to the Windows Phone application platform; covering new input paradigms including multi-touch, software keyboard, accelerometer and microphone, as well as the APIs to leverage phone applications and the new application model, updated control templates and themes.
Get to grips with the XNA on Windows Phone 7. XNA THE game building platform extends its consistent framework and developer environment to Windows Phone 7 bringing the enormous world of indie games development to mobile. No more isolated gaming, mobile gaming is big, bold and connected. This session will detail how to use XNA to develop games for Windows Phone, with a special eye towards the characteristics of Windows Phone application platform.
15: 30 – 15: 45 Break
15: 45 – 16: 15 Windows Phone 7 Marketplace
Will Coleman, UK OS and Mobile Product Manager Lead (@will_coleman)
Gain insight as to how Microsoft will provide a single content focused Marketplace, allowing end users to discover, purchase and download applications, games and other content with confidence.
16:15 -17:30 Windows Phone 7 Pitch Contest
Watch your fellow Mobile startups pitch in front of a panel of expert judges
The prize will be quality time in our Microsoft Technology Centre labs, with the support of our Windows Phone Engineers and Experts, to help you design and build your Windows Phone Application in time for the product launch.
First up, we’re talking things geo-spatial with the folks at UCL. Maps and Mobile are natural bedfellows and have been part of the mobile landscape for quite a while whether that's using GPS or mobile technology to determine location co-ordinates. LBS has been touted as the next big thing for at least 10 years so is it already here? Are there really opportunities? And what do real people use this stuff for?
In association with 
