First the Android car, now this.

Swedish company People Of Lava (awesome name) will be the first manufacturer to sell an internet-connected, Android TV.

The set will be 42-inch HD LED screen and is due to start being tested this summer. Eventually 47 and 55-inch models will become available.

Of course you can expect the usual stuff like YouTube, Email and Google Maps to work out-of-the-box, but People Of Lava will also release their own app store bringing Facebook and Twitter applications into the mix. Can’t wait for notifications to interupt me whilst watching The Wire.

But! Think of the possibilities for mobile here, it will no doubt lead onto things like interactivity between your Android handset and the TV. Featuress like pushing/pulling content related to what you’re viewing, coupons while you watch an advert etc, could all happen.

Here’s what I wrote about the Samsung web-tv and I think it applies here:

Compare the adverts you sit through on TV to on the internet, I barely notice the ones online but on TV brands have the chance to really grab my attention. My attention is on the screen, I’ve probably got a packet of Pickled Onion Monster Munch in hand (get in), I ain’t moving. Then…wow the new Adidas Predator advert comes on, jeez I sure would like a pair of them, move my phone (open app, press button, whatever) to interact and BEEP BEEP > coupons, nearest store, content, catalogues, competitions, apps, the list could go on. The same applies during programs.

In the future we will no doubt see NFC interactivity between TVs and mobile phones like in this concept.

How will this change traditional TV advertising? Well Google would be able to serve banner ads into the interface of course, but did you know they could swap out regular TV adverts for more targeted ads based on your personal profile (male, female, age etc)? This is already possible on mobile TV because of the web-connection, it means less wasted money for advertisers and better ads for consumers.

As consumption habits change so will advertising, it’s amazing to think how far Google are ahead of the game. They launched TV Adwords yeeears ago, foreseeing the day when we buy targeted ad space on TV just like online :

Press release here.

[Via Gadget Lab]

The new functionality enables consumers to make payments by simply ‘bumping together’ two mobile phones (or compatible devices). Now at first you would think this works using some sort of NFC chip like the one within Oyster cards but amazingly it is done without any fancy new embedded technology.

It uses…the accelerometer. Yes, the sensors that are inside one third of phones and detect its position, like knowing whether the phone is landscape or portrait. Now here’s the amazingly clever bit:

When two people with the app bump phones, the sensor readings are sent to the Paypal servers where the algorithm listens to bumps happening all over the world and matches the two phones that felt the same movement.

Then various techniques are used to limit the pool of potential matches like location and characteristics of the bump. If lots of people in the same area are bumping, then they are simply asked to bump again to make sure.

The users have to agree the match is correct, then contact details and money is exchanged.

The bump feature is built on technology developed by US start-up Bump Technologies and will be available on Android soon.

Paypal adds Bump to its already well established  mobile payment solutions which include Paypal Mobile and Text-To-Buy which work great on any handset.

Can it compete with NFC?

Over at NFC World the post about the new Paypal feature poses the question “Could PayPal bump NFC’s P2P ambitions into touch?” and my answer would have to be…No.

I’m sure that if NFC is a success consumer-to-business then it will carry that success to peer-to-peer payments too.

Also the experience isn’t seemless like NFC. You have to open the application, press a button and then initiate the bump. With NFC you just have to touch to start the process.

Once NFC starts appearing on phones I’m sure that Paypal will take any opportunity to become a part of that. Then there would be no need to have the Bump app on a NFC phone if it already supported Paypal right?

Any physical retail ambitions for bump may need to be put on ice as payment terminals for retailers are dominated by banks and companies like Visa and Mastercard who are pushing NFC in a big way. Londoners might have noticed the changes at places like Pret A Manger and Coffee Republic already.

And when the iPhone gets NFC, what retailers will want to start supporting Paypal Bump?

It doesn’t really seem like Bump will rock the boat too much but it’s still amazing use of technology to provide payments.

Interestingly it can even be used for other things like transferring files and even Facebook friending!

[Via NFC World]

Caught this on Techcrunch today and it’s simply badass. Quite a nice follow up from the NFC-enabled iPhone news and shows the sort of creativity you can have with this technology.

The following is a product of the famous Facebook ‘24hr Hackathons‘ where everyone does an all-nighter to come up with new and wonderful things like Facebook Chat, webcam uploads and now….Keg Presence.

Keg Presence is an application especially for the staff at Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, CA which is hooked up to the office beer tap .

It notifies employees when the keg is empty or what type of beer is currently available.

But the really cool part is that employees swipe their RFID badge when they get there, triggering the camera on the iMac, which takes a photo of them pouring beer and updates their Facebook status (below).

Simple. Fun. Creative.

Let’s face it, there is only one manufacturer that can create mass adoption of NFC services and devices, they are called Apple.

The NFC market today is in its infancy, a few shops are installing terminals BUT I guarantee you that if the following patents filed by Apple are due to appear in the next iPhone, then we’ll see the rapid uptake of contactless technology by retailers, appliance manufacturers and rivals. This is going to be BIG.

We are talking about handset manufacturers redefining mobile advertising here.  What kind of things could happen?

• NFC enabled TVs – TV shows and adverts will become interactive. See a product you like? Just move your phone over the TV or remote and get more info/coupons/store directions right on your handset
• Apple enable mobile banners in Safari to have ‘Click to coupon’ functionality – meaning that offers and coupons from what you see online can go directly into your phones ‘wallet’ which can be redeemed at shops.

But forget payments for a moment, NFC allows you to do some incredible creative interactions with interfaces. Check out the patent diagrams that Apple have filed which show some cool executions:

• Using the accelerometer on the handset to change the orientation of what’s on the Macbook screen.
• Lock and unlock your Macbook using your iPhone.
• Unlock doors using iPhone as a keycard

And this is just tip of the iceberg stuff, can you imagine the ways developers and brands will use this? I previously thought this would feature in the iPhone in 2011, but if this happens in the summer it’s bloody exciting.

[Via ElectricPig] (Great blog)

Samsung have started adding Wi-Fi to their LED range of televisions. Not only can you use Twitter and Flickr from the on-screen widgets but you can also watch YouTube (which brings up questions about the future of traditional broadcasting just by itself).

The reason why this is important is because the TV can now send and receive information via the internet.  Add a NFC chip onto the television/remote control it then becomes a portal of unlimited opportunities.

Compare the adverts you sit through on TV to on the internet, I barely notice the ones online but on TV brands have the chance to really grab my attention. My attention is on the screen, I’ve probably got a packet of Pickled Onion Monster Munch in hand (get in), I ain’t moving. Then…wow the new Adidas Predator advert comes on, jeez I sure would like a pair of them, move my phone over the remote and BEEP BEEP > coupons, nearest store, catalogues, competitions, apps, the list could go on. The same applies during programs.

NFC is the technology for the true couch potato.

We’re currently at the very beginning of NFC, the technology will start being seen in a few half-decent phones this year, even Apple might dip their toe in one day according to this patent (that will be when it goes crazy). And just like anything, as time goes on the technology will become cheaper and more common.

If you haven’t heard of FourSquare it’s that social network that everyone who uses Twitter talks about – so in my case zero of my friends.

It involves you ‘checking in’ to places to notify friends of your whereabouts. When you check-in Foursquare will telling your network where they can find you and recommend places to go and things to do nearby. If you spend a lot of time in one place, for example the pub, you’ll become ‘the mayor’ until someone else steals it. Some businesses offer freebies and discounts to mayors like free food and drink. So there is some gaming aspect to it as well.

You can check in a number of different ways, mobile website, iPhone or Android App or SMS (texting in something like @ Ace Bar – enjoying happy hour).

The concept below by Dan W takes it a step further by seamlessly updating FourSquare automatically by swiping his Oyster Card. What’s interesting is how the automation of many of our social status updates will be performed with NFC gestures. When this technology moves onto phones there will be thousands of ways to interact with everyday objects and scenerios and automatically add them to your ‘life stream’.

Plus in weather like this you won’t even have to take your gloves off to update your Facebook or Twitter page outdoors, great.

FourTap – Checking in to Foursquare using an Oystercard from Dan W on Vimeo.

There is no doubt that the success of the iPhone has played a massive part in the development of touch interfaces. One of its greatest innovations is multi-touch, which is starting to appear everywhere, including the trackpads on new Mac laptops .

What’s going to be interesting is seeing how people utilise it in completely unique and exciting ways. This is one example which has impressed me recently.

The guys at Moto Labs have  developed a full-scale version of a Blackjack table with resistive multi-touch. The logic behind it goes like this:

Gaming is an ideal application for multi-touch screen technology. Replacing physical tokens, chips, cards, or game pieces with virtual items eliminates tedious setup, distribution, and cleanup tasks while increasing the efficiency and accuracy of gameplay.

So a touch screen gaming table might not sound bleeding edge, but check out the natural gestures for hiding your cards and dealing:

And what about the other opportunities for casinos?

It’s easy to go one simple step further and envision casinos adding RFID readers to these tables, enabling loyalty card usage and a bevy of targeted marketing opportunities.  Users could place drink orders, pay for food, buy tickets to the show their neighbor just talked up.

Remember that RFID (or NFC) is eventually going to feature on phones at some point in the future so waving your phone across the table could personalise your gaming experience. It could even bring online and offline worlds together.

Great stuff.

I’ve been keeping an eye out for developments with NFC after the TV and Radio advertising concept I sketched out a while back.

I think it’s going to take someone like Apple to get NFC maintstream, there is much talk of them sticking NFC capabilities in the next iPhone after they filed a patent for such a feature.

However in the meantime, here’s the first NFC peripheral called iCarte:

“iCarteTM is ideal for iPhone users who want to use their iPhones for fast and secure contactless payments, transit payments, loyalty rewards, checking balances, top-up, discovering new services from smart posters or kiosks and exchanging information with other NFC phones. Business iPhone users can use the iCarteTM for commercial applications such as asset tracking, document tracking, healthcare, security and access control.”

Although this is nice, I doubt if consumers are going to buy NFC adapters, this stuff really needs to be built in the phone itself to work.

[Via Touch]

Check out this great video from Touch showing the possibilities of using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags inside of physical objects to control media playback.

It gives you some fantastic insight on the tools brands, agencies and advertisers will have at their disposal in the future. That is of course providing NFC enabled phones actually take off, but all it takes is a handset like the iPhone to step in with it and change the market. According to this patent application by Apple, that might just happen.

The even bigger picture is using your phone to interact with everyday objects and devices (also the basis for my NFC concept). Explained simply in the picture below.

What is even more excitin is the exploration not only about the phone reacting as output for an object but also as the input.

Imagine waiting for a bus and the shelter has a digital displaying showing a advert your not interesting in. You simply swipe your phone over the display and it automatically sends your pre-set interests to the screen to show something that you are more likely to be interested in. Minority Report styyleee!

Ok more realistically imagine planning your route on Google Maps mobile then simply touching your car with the phone once you get in to input the journey into its satellite navigation system. Or maybe it could transfer over your Spotify playlist to be played over your in car entertainment system.

The possibilities are endless.

Here is another concept I found in my sketchbook, this time using NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. NFC is the technology behind cashless ticketing systems like the Oyster Card in London or contactless credit cards such a Visa Wave.

According to Juniper, NFC mobile payments will exceed $30 billion by 2012, this growth will be supported by marketing tools such as coupons and smart posters.

There are big expectations for NFC and mobile. The simplicity for the consumer is one of it’s biggest advantages, you simple need to move your NFC device near the transmitter to interact. Unlike Bluetooth or Wi-fi, there is no need to enter passwords or pair devices.

Mobiles will act differently to ticket and credit cards as they will display actions on the screen unique to whatever it is they are interacting with. For example a movie poster may show the options to buy a ticket, watch trailers or read reviews whereas a clothes brand will have nearest store, latest collections etc.

In theory this is how it should work but only time will tell how different manufacturers will implement NFC, hopefully standards will be made that makes the experience intuitive across all enabled handsets.  But that’s something for another post. One thing that is for certain, that is NFC will allow for receiving coupons and getting more information.

This idea is based around the vision that NFC will appear in many items that we have around the home today including TVs and Radios. This would offer some amazing possibilities for advertising.

Imagine seeing or hearing an advert on the TV or Radio and being able to simply wave your phone near the device to interact. Call to actions could be acted on instantly and products purchased right there and then.

It also adds another dimension for consumers and advertisers as NFC advertising becomes pull rather than push. This means that consumers have made the first move to engage and will be more receptive to what they get back, unlike Bluetooth Marketing which just sends out files to anyone who is near hence why many people complain about so called Bluetooth ‘spamming’.

Will TVs and Radios ship with NFC enabled chips? There would need to be enough devices on the market for this to happen and that could be a while. I’m certain we’ll see these electronics with Wi-Fi chips as standard way before NFC but hey, it would be pretty cool right?