Let's Bump!

Thanks to the power of social networking and many other new technologies, forming relationships and meeting new people is a whole lot easier.

Now, thanks to Bump, it's even easier.

Bump is smartphone app that allows people to share a variety of information with each other simply by "bumping" their phones together.

Before bumping, users can choose exactly what they want to send and the other party confirms this information after the "bump." Once confirmed, the information is automatically stored in the phone. This application has continued to evolve and nowadays, users can even become Facebook friends with a simple touch.

Bump is a quick, easy, and efficient way to exchange information. Things that would normally have to be inserted manually can now be accessed in a couple of seconds through a simple movement. Bump did not change how people receive information, it simply made it easier.

Goodbye tediously keying in others' info. Hello, Bump.

[Contributed by Christine Byun]

Drive More Efficiently With Your Phone

With gas prices quickly approaching four dollars and automobiles still remaining people’s number one means of transportation, everyone could use a break with the escalating costs.

The good news is every driver can now be aware of how much gas they use. The Drivegain app for smartphones educates drivers on their driving habits in a manner that can improve fuel efficiency, which in turn decreases carbon dioxide emissions. It helps drivers change how they drive to save them money and become more environmentally aware.

Connect your phone to your car's IT system, set your phone in a holder on the dashboard, and it tells you all you need to know. The app can be personalized to specific cars, and go so far as to explain which gear you should be in if your car is manual to whether your cruise speed is ideal.

Being knowledgeable about how to save fuel can save drivers money and will essentially save toxic amounts of carbon dioxide from being transmitted into the atmosphere. As a description of the app puts it, “United States drivers could ultimately save up to two hundred dollars a year and reduce CO2 emissions by 66kg by abiding by the apps responses.”

Drivegain fits the category of really new media because it, once set up, it allows drivers to be more conscience and proactive towards a task we all participate in.

[Contributed by Gabriella Callaway]

Where's That Stinkin' Bus? Lemme Check My Phone

Students at many large colleges and universities rely on campus transportation to get to class. But, with just a few minutes between classes and crowded bus stops, it is often difficult for students to know which bus to catch to get to class on time.

Transloc is a new passenger information system that is available on many college campuses. Bus riders can use it to view a digital bus map that tracks a bus's exact location.

Through an app on their Blackberry, iPhone, or Android, students can see each bus moving along its route. In addition, each bus stop contains a screen that shows a digital bus map, allowing riders to know the exact location of the buses on that route.

Transloc turns bus routes into a virtual reality, making campus transportation more convenient.
And effective.

[contributed by Bliss McMichael]

Make It Fun to do the Right Thing

As a social-media contest on the heels of its successful agency-conceived efforts, Volkswagen conducted a contest in which the rest of us were asked for ideas about how to make doing the right thing fun.

It had already made taking the stairs and throwing away garbage fun, by using new technologies in new ways ("The World's Deepest Bin" ["garbage can" for you Americans]; "The Piano Staircase"; and "The Bottle Bank Arcade Machine"). Doing so suggests that doing "bad" isn't in our genes, but in our world.

Regular-guy Kevin Richardson sent in an idea about how to make obeying the speed limit fun, which has become known as "The Speed Camera Lottery."

Rather than a grumpy visit from an officer and a ticket for speeding, a speed camera photographs cars that do not exceed the speed limit. All owners are entered into a periodic lottery, with winners earning cash awards.

The Swedish National Society for Road Safety actually made this innovative idea a reality in Stockholm, Sweden.

Zzzzzz....

Been mighty quiet the past few weeks. Let's hope those creative minds get going.

See What Your Phone Can Do Now

See something in a store and want to find out more about it and where to get it cheaply?

If you have an iPhone or Android, the latest version of Google Goggles makes this a point-and-see operation.

As an app loaded onto your iPhone or Android, it decodes barcodes or even recognizes the actual product you're pointing your phone's camera at. Once recognized, the app connects your phone not only to the website of the manufacturer, but it also generates search results for where you can buy it and how much it'll cost.

As transparent and easy as show and tell--this is really new media in action.

Reading Will Never Be the Same

With all the ways that people can express their opinions through comments, post articles bashing other articles, and tell the world their preferences, the only escape from other people’s opinions has been reading a book. No longer.

Jason Johnson and Jason Illian have created a new mobile application called Social Books. Reader use it to leave comments on any paragraph, quote, or excerpt from a book, and even highlight their favorite parts, plus post it all to Facebook and Twitter.

Currently, the application is only available for books in the public domain such as The Great Gatsby. But this will likely soon change.

[Contributed by Hannah Greenberg]