Redbox DVD Rental Integrates with Convenient Mobile Solution

Did you know that the Redbox $1 DVD rental kiosks in front of your Grocery Store (You know, the one next to the other Green Coinstar kiosk) is actually owned by Coinstar?  Did you also know that Redbox DVD rental service has evolved to a point where you can identify the location of a movie in a nearby Redbox and even reserve them online so that you can pick it up on your way home or to the Grocery store?

What is even more impressive is its mobile-app integration allowing customers to find a title by location and reserve and pay for it via mobile on the go.  Redbox App is now available on Android devices and iPhone giving customers access to real-time inventory to over 26,000+ Redbox locations.  The company took a basic kiosk-based solution and have taken it to new heights with a very strong internet/mobile integration.  It makes total sense and just seems like the smart thing to do.  Kudos to Coinstar!

PS. Last bit of fact, Did you know Redbox DVD rental takes coupons? You can sometimes find them on coupon sites for a free rental code.

TDAmeritrade App for iPhone, Android, BB and WM

Whats that old saying? When it rains, it pours.  Thats exactly how I felt when I noticed TDAmeritrade finally launched a mobile app for smartphone.  Make that four mobile apps, one for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Mobile.  I'm sure TDAmeritrade customers have been waiting for far too long for this day to arrive and been a little jealous of E*TRADE customer's years of mobile application access.  Jealous no more!  Also, an iPad version is on its way as well.  I'm always excited when financial institutions launch mobile services, its one of those tasks that people rely on their desktop/laptop machines and can now be empowered to carry out on the go.

If you are an iPhone user, I'm saving you a step, just click here to launch the iTunes link directly.

Recognizr: Face-Recognition Software for Android [Video]

Want an app that connects facial recognition to your social networking profiles and adds a dose of augmented reality in the mix? Enter Recognizr, an app created by The Astonishing Tribe and used to recognize a person simply by photographing it with the handset’s camera. Afterwards, the photo will be connected to the person’s social networking profiles.The image will also link to the contact’s

Google Shopper App

I played around with Google's newly released Shopper App on my NEXUS One today and have to say that Google is serioius when they say they are going after the product search/mobile shopping arena. The visual search is super fast, simply hover it over any CD, DVD or Book cover (even with a shaky hand) and it will retrieve the info of said item within 2 seconds. I took the opportunity to play with the voice search and was very pleased with how accurate the search query was translated and resultsa re displayed. Overall, the app itself doesn't do things that existing UPC or image scan apps already can do and I was a little disappointed that Google didn't roll out the ability to scan product images and search (safe bet to assume it will due in time); I'm putting money on that Google has big plans for this app as it will soon tie it up with all of its existing sevices to make product search tie to your Gmail, Calendar, YouTube accounts and more.

The mere fact that Google engineers know how to produce a high quality application isn't so shocking. The underlying significance here is that Google has been leveraging its Android OS Marketplace to attract mobile app ideas (developers flocked to Android because they resent Apple's way of running their app store); but as Google sits back and identifies an area for growth, it will enter the game and become a player with an unfair advantage against those app developers who came up with the idea in the first place. Given the way they've entered the hardware handset game (NEXUS One), the pattern is now clear.

Yelp iPhone App Rocks!

I've never been a huge fan of Yelp on the desktop, for a large part, living in the NYC area, there is no shortage of communities/websites/blogs to keep me informed of what my area has to offer (gothamist, NYmag, menupage, Village Voice, etc.) But what if I'm traveling outside of the city and removed from my laptop. This is where Yelp's various local community member kicks ass and the fact that they've got almost all forms of Mobile applications covered doesn't suck either!

Yelp Mobile coupled with a GPS-enabled phone is a match made in heaven; I rely on it so much as the voice to help me pick a restaurant nearby. While there are so many other categories to choose from, just picking from the highest rated food categories is enough to keep this mobile head happy. I often contribute to Yelp via Mobile taking a photo of the establishment if I like the restaurant.

Yelp Mobile Applications, don't leave home without it!

CoPilot Live Guided GPS App $19.99 Sale

Just in time for the holidays, CoPilot Live has a $19.99 sale for their GPS application for iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile devices. Considering most of the "other" solutions cost around 5x as much, this is a pretty good deal. Although given the competitive pressure from the native mobile OS (ie. Droid phones, etc...), voice guided navigation might become standard features soon. Until then, feel free to give this a try. A $19.99, its still a fraction of a stand alone GPS unit.

OpenTable Seats 1 Million Mobile Reservations!

Wow, the folks at OpenTable must have hit it off big with their mobile initiative. I've been told that they've been able to seat 1 million mobile reservations through mobile web, iPhone/Palm/BlackBerry/Android applications. Based on an average check of $50 per meal, we can back that number into $50M for the 11,000 restaurants who participate in the OpenTable network. Impressive!

Book: Android Wireless Application Development

Couple weeks ago, I made a bold statement to which I believe Google's Android will ultimately win out the mobile OS war; I still believe that statement which is why I think this book will help anyone who agrees with me to get a head start. Android Wireless Application Development is dubbed as "the start-to-finish guide to Android development–from concept to market!" Sounds like just the book to help anyone to get their hands wrapped around the hottest new mobile apps marketplace. The book is to be released tomorrow (8/27/2009) and retails for $45 ($30 shipped on Amazon).

The excerpt from Publisher:

Android Wireless Application Development combines all the reliable information, sample code, and best practices you need to build, distribute, and market successful Android mobile applications. Drawing on their extensive experience with mobile and wireless development, Shane Conder and Lauren Darcey cover everything you need to execute a successful Android project: from concept and design through coding, testing, packaging, and delivery.

Conder and Darcey explain how mobile development differs from conventional development, how Android differs from other mobile platforms, and how to take full advantage of Android’s unique features and capabilities. They present detailed, code-rich coverage of Android’s most important APIs, expert techniques for organizing development teams and managing Android projects, and dozens of time-saving tricks and pitfalls to avoid.

Mobile Web+iPhone+BlackBerry+Android=AMAZON Rocks!

Mobile Website + iPhone App + BlackBerry App + Android App = Amazon is probably the best eCommerce/mCommerce player in the world. I've personally placed several orders off of my iPhone Amazon App and I am just that impressed with their effort in rolling out an almost complete mobile shopping experience. I am willing to bet they are working on a Palm Pre app right now and maybe, just maybe, the Symbian and WM folks might just have a shot, until then, there is always the Mobile Web!

Review: Google Voice

There has been quite a bit of buzz lately about Google’s latest communication product, dubbed Google Voice. This handy little web application is obviously stirring up some emotions between Google, Apple and AT&T. It even got the attention of FCC to muddle the water. So what is Google Voice? For one, it is the evolution of a product once called Google Grand Central. I vaguely remember signing up to Google Grand Central account couple of years ago and shortly after it was closed to the public. After polishing Grand Central for some time, Google re-released it as Google Voice; again it’s limited to few beta invitees and legacy Grand Central enrollees only.

Google Voice’s main function is to be the hub of all your telephony needs. By assigning one new phone number to you, you can use Google Voice to manage all aspects of your communication needs (screening calls, block calls, call-forwarding, voicemail, SMS, visual voicemail, text transcript voicemail, cheap long distance dialing, conference calls and lots more). By creating a “Gmail” like UI, Google Voice opens up another dimension to the good ole’ phone number and allows you to be in full control of your calls with your keyboard and mouse. If you already have a well-organized Gmail account, the contacts/address book plugs in nicely as well.

The biggest convenience to Google Voice probably having one web-based application (for remote access) for all of your communications needs. Having a voicemail emailed via text to you can be really handy (for now, transcribing is English only, when I tested Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, it just made out some funny English terms). Having a screen to capture your voicemail and SMS is also handy. Setting up the account wasn’t difficult but it did take some time to make sense of it all. Once you have the account configured, things work pretty flawlessly. I tested some of its features like placing a call, VM, and SMS which all worked as promised.

Google Voice for Mobile
While Google Voice application for iPhone was mysteriously rejected by ___ (insert: AT&T or Apple), they have made a good effort in delivering a solid mobile experience to users. For starters, if you own an Android phone or BlackBerry, the good news is you have a native application to use which includes cool VOIP dialer functionality. For the rest of us (WM, Pre, iPhone folks), we can still access a mobile website at Google.com/voice/m and get majority of the functions. Stay tuned for followup blog entries on Google Voice for Android and BlackBerry phones.

Mobile App: Toilet Paper Edition

Okay, normally I'd chuck this over to my pal at KRAPPS.com but this one is just too interesting to pass up. Greenpeace has put its popular toilet paper guideline onto iPhone and Android mobile apps. In short, they have 3 criteria which makes selected toilet papers "green" with recycled content that are non-toxic to the environment. Read on to find out how you can take a crap next time and be more green to the environment at the same time.

[Read] [Press Release]