Category: Percolate

Foursquare’s Passive Tracking

Posted on by Lab Team

Foursquare will now passively track your location without the need to “check-in,” using the new iOS 7 Refresh capabilities. The development powers Foursquare’s passive notifications which surfaces venue recommendations based on your full location history. The development increases Foursquare location data dramatically. Even the most active Foursquare users wouldn’t come close to sharing 10% of the actual locations they visited.

From an advertising angle, the passive tracking could provide more comprehensive ‘store visit’ data for ROI. Foursquare could be as attractive an analytics platform as a media play as brands could see consumer affinities, displaying which businesses Walmart shoppers also visit, for instance.  For the time being, Foursquare is courting advertisers, sharing the updates but have not made any indication that they would integrate these features into their ad products. At least for the time being.

The Virtual Reality Wars Are Officially Here

Posted on by Lab Team

The Avegant Glyph was introduced to the world today, and it means that the war for virtual reality supremacy is officially here. By now most people are at least tangentially familiar with the Oculus Rift, the headset that immerses users into the gaming experience with their dual screen. But it’s not quite ready for prime-time, and now Avegant is looking to beat them to the mainstream punch with their Glyph. Part headphone, part Rift, and part Google Glass, the idea is that the visual interface resides in the top portion of a traditional headphone, and would flip down over the users’ eyes. It also features a new display system: Virtual Retinal Display, which offers an advantage over Oculus and Glass insofar as the device actually projects light into users’ eyes, effectively tricking the body into actually seeing the image as opposed to looking at a screen – this also means that there no headaches or fatigued eyes. As well, the Glyph works with existing content out of the box; there’s no need to hack around gaming parameters to make it work. How comfortable people will be using this in public, though (see the awkwardness of wearing Google Glass in public as a reference point here) will, to a large extent, determine how successful the device will be.  

Smart Car Debuts Tweet A Selfie Campaign

Posted on by Lab Team

If you send Smart Car a selfie on Twitter, the company will dress the cars up like you. The campaign, called “Who Wore It Better?” has seen smartcars photoshopped with ties, polka dots, and even trees, in the case of one man who took a picture of himself in the forest. Smart Car has done Twitter campaigns effectively before, having answered the question of how many times a bird would have to poop on a car to total it. One thing is for sure: witty, catchy Twitter campaigns are here to stay, and they definitely drive awareness. 

Roku 3 Adds YouTube Channel

Posted on by Lab Team

As an addition to its already impressive stable of video services, Roku has finally added the grandaddy of all online video streaming services, YouTube, to its latest Roku 3 hardware.  The update is only available for users in US, UK, Canada, and Ireland, but it shows that Roku is keeping pace with competitors like Apple TV and gaming consoles like PlayStation and Xbox.  Still, Roku maintains a lead in the space for having over 750 “channels” of content including Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo, and Pandora, among others.

Pebble Donates Watches To Engineering Schools

Posted on by Lab Team

In an effort to expand the functionality of its smartwatch, Pebble announced its new project aimed at getting the watch and its SDK into the hands of engineering students by donating over 4,000 units to universities like Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Standford, Virginia Tech, and others.  Right now, the market for smartwatches is still made up of early adopters, but by encouraging development of apps via their official SDK, Pebble, a frontrunner in the space, could potentially make the watches attractive to a more mainstream audience.  Only time will tell what comes of increased developer traction for the platform, but Pebble is looking like a strong competitor.

Facebook Trials Autoplaying Video Ads

Posted on by Lab Team

It turns out that the rumors are indeed true: Facebook is bringing autoplaying ad units to News Feeds on mobile and desktop. According to the social network, previous trials have indicated that there’s great advertising value in autoplaying ad units, and that they generate an increase in viewer engagement of 10% over traditional, non-autoplaying video ads that debuted in September. In the face of news earlier this year from Ad Age that organic reach was on the downslide, Facebook is doing everything within its power to compete with Twitter and Pinterest, who continue to expand their advertising reach. 

Runnit App Rewards Users For Working Out

Posted on by Lab Team

There are no shortage of apps that track your workouts and update your progress towards physical goals, but Runnit, a new app for the iPhone, wants to reward users with discounts, free products, and exclusive content for your workouts. The user sets goals by choosing rewards from the store, and the app tracks your progress towards the reward. Depending on the reward, the level of workout will respectively vary. As you progress, the app encourages you to push onwards. It’s an interesting concept, and a new spin on what is now an established genre of app; how the app continues to function by offering promos without any demonstrated profitability, though, will be interesting. In that vein, if it proves successful it could be a proving ground for different forms of native advertising. 

Amazon To Shoot Originals In 4K

Posted on by Lab Team

Amazon is planning to shoot its original content in 4K, the ultra-HD format that will be the industry standard in the living room…eventually. For now, 4K is practically a proof-of-concept with the lack of 4K TVs on the market and even less content available. It’s a ‘chicken or the egg’ scenario as TV manufacturers require content and content creators require an audience. Nevertheless, Amazon is positioning themselves at the forefront of innovation and will unquestionably give 4K some much needed momentum.

Arctec Prints 3D Selfies

Posted on by Lab Team

3D printing services are coming for you.  Arctec, a manufacturer of 3D scanners is showing the capability of an easy-to-find off-the-shelf scanner with its new Shapify.me service, which uses the Microsoft Kinect camera to scan your entire body.  The service is somewhat imperfect, as lighting issues and the constant turning can create problems with the scan, but the scans appear to be useable.  At the end of the process, a user can download his or her scan or pay for a print for $59.  While this application is whimsical at best, it could represent how we use 3D scanning and printing in the future, by scanning with easy to use home-based hardware for off-site printing.

95% Of TV Conversations Happen On Twitter

Posted on by Lab Team

Twitter announced that 95 percent of online public conversations about TV take place on Twitter, and 60 percent of UK Twitter users are active on Twitter whilst watching TV. Moreover, 40 percent of all Twitter traffic around peak time is about TV. Not surprisingly, Twitter has launched a TV retargeting product called Twitter Amplify, integrated broadcasts into tweets and provided robust analytics service to corner the TV industry.