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]

Keep Track

Facebook connects people all over the world as the biggest way of staying in touch with friends and family. Now, in addition to staying connected with others, you can use it to keep track of where your friends are.

Through its “Places” app, Facebook is taking advantage of GPS satellite tracking systems that are installed in phones to allow people to post their current location, which only their friends see.

This app takes keeping up with your friends and their hot spots to a new level. It takes away the hassle of having to call and see where your friends are hanging or also having to ask around to find the hot spots in town.

By using the GPS capabilities of phones that are so familiar to so many people, this app makes keeping track even easier.

[Contributed by Richard Samuel]

Group Gift-Giving Goes Social

Popular auction website eBay may be what you think of when considering a gift for a friend. But how about eBay to ask other friends to help you pay for it?

Facebook has recently partnered with eBay to allow users to share in the cost of buying an item from the fixed-price gift section. Using Facebook Connect, users can form groups, wait for enough money to be pooled between the friends within the group and, when the item’s value is reached, the gift will be mailed to the recipient.

As a great way to save money and to connect with friends, this innovation will change the way people buy gifts. As more and more big name companies jump on the social media bandwagon, eBay has found a new way in to the social-media market.

By linking friends, websites, and online shopping in a way never before seen or possible, Facebook and eBay have created a great example of really new media.

[Contributed by Paige Garson]

Virtually Experience Restaurants

Ever gone to a new restaurant and instantly wanted to leave? Whether due to menu selection, poor service, or décor, trying new restaurants is often a hit or miss. Even after reading reviews or hearing word-of-mouth recommendations from family or friends, nothing is as good as actually trying the restaurant for yourself.

Well, now you can, and without leaving the house or the office.

Everyscape Eats, a new app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users, lets diners explore local restaurants remotely. Use it to search for a restaurant based on cuisine or neighborhood, see the inside and outside of the restaurant with virtual 360-degree views, read menus and reviews, and call the restaurant directly from the app.

Restaurant not to your liking? Drag your screen outside, where neighboring restaurants are tagged and also available for a virtual look. Users can also share their restaurants with friends via email or Facebook.

While only diners in in Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco can use it, New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are in the works for next year.

Word of mouth? That’s so 20th century.

[Contributed by Taylor Henriquez]

New Ford Interface Mimics Phones and iPods

Recent market research conducted by Ford Motor Company has revealed that young buyers are more attached to their cell phones than to their cars.

This revelation has led Ford to create a design program that would evolve the dashboard controls of their vehicle models to mimic the design of popular cell phones and TV remote controls.

The program was called HAL, and Ford teamed up with the design consultancy Ideo, renowned for developing various electronics for major high-tech companies. Ideo applied the use of ethnographic research to help steer the design direction; they polled everyone from teenagers to airplane pilots. Ford and Ideo also utilized a driving simulator with a PlayStation 2 console and a dashboard of an older Ford Edge model.

The 2011 Ford Edge will be the first model that will feature the new redesigned dashboard controls. Some of the main features of the new dashboard design include the five-point controller on the steering wheel, which mimics a TV remote and an iPod.

A central screen is organized around four corners and four colors to differentiate phone, navigation, climate control and entertainment. The design concept is meant to be flexible, and designers have stated that the system could have a different look in various Ford models.

[Contributed by Daniel Rodriguez]

Jeep campaign integrates Foursquare to reward offroad drivers

There is a certain honor within the Jeep community: thumbs up to fellow drivers, the unspoken appreciation of every passing Liberty or Grand Cherokee, and the understanding by all that if one is a Jeep owner, he or she is by no means limited to traditional traveling. For every Jeep driver, there are also several Twitter accounts, one or two iPhones, and a countless amount of appreciation for social media.

Bring them together (as aspiring copywriter Clay Summers has done in this spec project) and you get a new spin on a traditional Jeep campaign, one that integrates Foursquare technology to bring recognition, a sense of community, and tangible rewards.

Foursquare, of course, allows users to "check in" to locations they frequent. Those who follow them on Twitter will receive updates such as "so-and-so is at Starbucks at 5th avenue," and once that so-and-so checks into that Starbucks enough times, they are presented with gifts and honor: either with gift cards, titles such as "mayor of Starbucks at 5th avenue," or both.

To run with the idea that drivers of their vehicles will be passing through uncharted territory that is not especially host to coffee shop check-in points, Jeep established its own set of locations using GPS navigation and physical landmarks that can be photographed with smartphones and sent directly to the app. Once a driver has passed through enough of these checkpoints, the Jeep Twitter account announces their dedication for all to see, and rewards them further with a free tank of gas for further rugged exploration.

This does not digitize or take away from the "real life" adventurous experience that a true Jeep owner allegedly seeks; it merely supplements it by providing the opportunity to Tweet on the road and receive a payoff for it. Jeep augments the image put forth by their campaign, Foursquare and Twitter are invited once again to the social media party, this time one hosted by the sort of clientele previously untapped to an extent, and Jeep owners get to tell the world just how spontaneous and off-road they are, all the while being reaping the gas-tank benefits.

[Contributed by Alina Yudkevich]

What color is that?

Paint maker Sherwin-Williams may not be on the tip of everyone's tongues when thinking about companies that blaze trails in new media--yet.

Its new mobile application relates colors in the world to colors you find in paint cans, making it point-and-click easy to color your world wherever it may be.

The remade ColorSnap application (launched February 2010) works on iPhones or Blackberries. Using the smartphone camera, users take a picture of a color they like, whether a leaf, a sky noonday or twilight, or a beach or forest trail. The application then identifies the closest match in Sherwin-Williams paint colors (1,500 of them). Of course, it also identifies the closest Sherwin-Williams retailer for those of us who have to have that color right now.

By linking the world's colors to those in a can through a device (smartphones) and activity (snapping a picture) already known and widely used, this is a great example of really new media thinking.