Tag Archives: Smartphone

Go Explore

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There are countless apps out there that offer great location-based services. Yelp and the recently redesigned Foursquare are two of the best out there when you are looking for something to do nearby. But one of the giants has entered the market and is poised to take them down.

Google announced a new feature for its Google Maps app for iOS and Android that allows you to explore your area. The feature offers you suggestions on what to do based on your location, the weather, and time of day. For example, by just tapping the explore button while at my desk in the morning, it suggests the best nearby coffee shops, but when I check it before I leave work it recommends restaurants, bars, and movie theaters instead. When it’s raining out, you can be sure it won’t recommend that you go to the nearest outdoor swimming pool. If you aren’t looking for something right now, you can easily just enter the time of day that you are looking to go and explore.

What Sparks our Fire: An easy way to explore your city.

What do you think of Google tackling the nearby recommendation category with this update?

Control Your Phone

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Wearables are popping up left and right as accessory devices to help interact with your phone better than you could before. But, not everyone wants to wear a smartwatch on their wrist in order to be further connected to their phone. Qblink is a remote control for your phone and raising money on Kickstarter now.

Misplace your phone? You can set off a ringing noise by pressing the device. By connecting to your phone over bluetooth it can also notify you of emails, text messages, and other alerts you receive to your phone by just blinking on this separate device. Through the Qblink app you can easily customize what each color light notification means. Additionally, it tells local temperature and the battery lasts up to a year.

What Sparks our Fire: Even better and simpler ways to interact with our smartphones

Would you use a remote for your phone?

Project Everything

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Today it seems like everyone is trying to “cut the cord” and get away from traditional television. With more and more internet TV providers, it’s becoming a much more viable option. But, the issue many people face is that they still need a TV to fill their big screen needs – because who wants to stare at their phone or laptop to binge watch a season of HBO’s Game of Thrones?

ODIN, a innovative projector that fits in your pocket and comes loaded with features, is currently fundraising on Kickstarter. It runs on the Android operating system, so it has easy access to many apps. It can also connect to your computer or phone to broadcast. Add in high quality speakers and this is truly a killer device.

Uses for this span beyond just broadcasting your TV shows, but it can also be used at work to project presentations onto any wall or screen. It operates with wi-fi connectivity and runs on a long lasting battery.

Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon FireTV all offer similar features, but must run through a TV. ODIN has developed a solution for those who want access to their internet shows without having to purchase an expensive large screen.

What Sparks our Fire: Another product that gives us even more of a reason to finally cut the cord with cable companies.

Is this the product you’ve been waiting for to help you cut the cord?

Google’s Newest Technology: Cardboard

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This week Google hosted their developers conference, Google I/O where the tech giant announced a variety of updates to their Android operating system. But, seemingly the coolest thing that Google did announce came as a gift to all attendees at the end of the conference – cardboard.

Being that this is Google we are talking about, the Cardboard device is much more than what you would image from a piece a cardboard. Instead it is a full on virtual reality headset, similar to the Oculus Rift, except made of cardboard.

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All users need to do is assemble one of these devices, which is not that difficult, place their phone into it and then they can enter an entirely virtual world. Currently there are only a few apps available in cardboard since it was just launched this week. But, we can only image where this will go as a very simple and easy entry into the world of virtual reality.

This is clearly a sign of things to come though in technology. It is time for us as advertisers to start imaging how we can get our foot in the door of virtual reality and really ride the wave of this new technology.

What Sparks our Fire: How Google is able to take the simplest of materials, and make it an amazing piece of technology.

What uses can you imagine for Google Cardboard?

Can You Spot Me $5?

Splitting a cab just got so much easier.

The app Venmo has grown rapidly in popularity over the past few years and is making waves in how we handle money between friends. For years we have been spotting our friends, and trusting they’ll pay us back. Now you don’t have to go through awkwardly reminding them they owe you $8 for the cab you split in the summer of ’13, and can simply charge them. The app allows you to connect to a bank, debit card, or credit card to then collect and charge your Facebook friends and email contacts.

As someone who prefers to pay for most things by card, I rarely carry cash on me. I’ve been using Venmo ever more frequently to help not only keep track of what I owe my friends, but to easily pay them back.

Not to mention, the comments provide much needed comic relief on a rainy day like today.

What Sparks Our Fire: A quick and easy way to spot our friends and get paid back.

Would you use Venmo to pay and charge your friends?