The World Summit Awards (WSA) for Mobile Content is one of the best, if not the best, of the many mobile awards of 2010. All the awards categories make sense. Entrants are nominated by an expert in each country, which ensures there is a perfect spread of the best in mobile from across the globe. For each winner, there is a description and a video (prepared by the WSA). It is impossible not to be educated and inspired by these winners – the vast majority of which are using mobile to make a real difference to people’s lives. It would have been good to have links to the winners, as we would have liked to have found out more about many, but that is a minor quibble. The WSA mobile awards sets the standard by which all other mobile awards ceremonies are judged, and gets a big thumbs up from mobiThinking.
Awards: World Summit Award (WSA) for Mobile Content
Founded: 2010.
Deadline for entries: September 30, 2010, apply to the expert in your country.
Winners announced: December 6, 2010, in Abu Dhabi.
Advantages: extremely well-organized mobile awards: great categories; high quality of winners; good variety and perfect spread of entrants from across the globe; for each winner there is a description and a video.
Disadvantages: only two minor quibbles – it would have been useful to have links to the winners’ websites; and while the majority of winners are cross-platform, we would query if apps that only work on one device can be considered inclusive or empowering for the general populace.
Related content:
• Guide to mobile awards • MMA Global Awards • EMMAs • Smaato Awards • Cannes Lions • Webby Awards • Meffy Awards.
• How to create an award-winning mobile campaign
World Summit Award (WSA) for Mobile Content
Categories and winners: at a glance
• m-Inclusion & Empowerment: Guatemalan Emergency Relay; Mobile Link; Dialog tradenet; My Handicap App; Mobile Voices
• m-Government & Participation:Bahrain Mobile Portal; Many to One SMS; Deutscher Bundestag; M-Post; Boston CitizensConnect
• m-Environment & Health: M-Mantra for Forest Management; Medica; WellDoc DiabetesManager; Te-Tol Mobile Portal; EMMA
• m-Learning & Education: BBC Janala; Grace App For Autism; Tickle Tap Apps; Hesabi – My Math; Drona Mobile Learning
• m-Business & Commerce: Marks & Spencer Mobile; Consumer Reports App; Eko m-banking; i-Vend Mobile Vending; DB Navigator
• m-Media & News: YouReporter; Guardian mobile site and app; Apontador Traffic; Newelo Need4Feed; ABC mobile app
• m-Tourism & Culture: Wikitude World Browser; SmartMuseum; Ligo Ligo App; WI-BIKE; Hungary Tourism App
• m-Entertainment & Lifestyle: Africam Safari´s Digital Guide; Angry Birds; The Hidden Park; Omlet.ru; Sekai Camera
m-Inclusion & Empowerment
Guatemalan Emergency Relay (Cadena de Emergencia de Guatemala)
Producer: TECH4MOBILE (Guatemala)
The Guatemalan Emergency Relay helps to reach remote communities in Guatemala at a very low cost, in seconds, using any cell phone. It connects a community by sharing critical information via SMS, integrated with a web-enabled system. In case of emergency, authorized users post information on the website. The entire community can access the information using any cell phone, by sending an SMS with the CODE assigned to that specific community and a short number. The information can be updated as it is needed, keeping everyone in the community on top of developments. When Guatemala was hit by the Pacaya volcano eruption on May 27, 2010, and by the Agatha storm on May 29, 2010, more than 10,000 people benefited from the services offered by the Guatemalan Emergency Relay.
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Mobile Voices (Voz Mob)
Producer: Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California – University of Southern California (USA)
Mobile Voices is a platform for low-wage immigrant and non-immigrant workers in Los Angeles to create stories about their lives and communities directly from cell phones, thus allowing greater participation in the digital public sphere. Workers send images, text, audio and video, to tell their own stories and write their own histories. In the mainstream media’s representation of reality, the lives and struggles of low-wage immigrant workers are often left out altogether, or, even worse, completely misrepresented.
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Mobile Link Service
Producer: Senior Citizen Home Safety Association, CSL Limited, mSolution Consultants Limited (Hong Kong)
The Mobile Link Service (MLS) is an innovative 24-hour outdoor emergency support and care service to enhance the social inclusion of seniors by empowering their independence and mobility in the community. Users press one button only to contact a 24-hour Care Service Centre for all kinds of timely assistance. When needed, the Centre can also help to connect the user to family and friends. The Centre can also identify the approximate location and path of the Mobile Link Device, upon receipt of a request and also consent from the service user or designated contact person.
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My Handicap App
Producer: Stiftung MyHandicap gemeinnützige| lb-lab (Germany)
Where do I find a specially designated parking lot or a restroom for persons with disabilities (PWD)? Which museums, libraries and restaurants are wheelchair-accessible or allow guide dogs? These and many more questions are met by MyHandicap’s new free iPhone app. The app targets PWDs who are dependent on accessibility information due to mobility restrictions. At present, the service is available in Germany and Switzerland.
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Dialog Tradenet
Producer: Dialog Mobile (Sri Lanka)
Dialog Tradenet helps communities at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Dialog Tradenet provides a multimodel information platform, a virtual marketplace, which enables dynamic matching of buyers and sellers, while also providing reference prices on demand. Dialog Tradenet supports the day-to-day work of any market segment and can be accessed by anyone in Sri Lanka in Tamil, Sinhalese or English. Dialog Tradenet uses SMS, voice, USSD and web, so does not require any new software installations or high-end handsets. Use of the service is free of charge (it is funded by Dialog Mobile), but call and SMS charges still apply.
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m-Government & Participation
Many to one SMS
Producer: Phoenix Software (India)
The “Many to one SMS” application helps government ministries in India monitor labor at National Rural Employment Government Scheme (NREGS) work sites, which help to guarantee a hundred days of wage employment per year for unskilled manual workers. Information pertaining to labor used to be collected in a time-consuming process of phone calls and emails. Now, on the first day of the week, the secretary of every “gram panchayat” (local village/town government) is required to send an SMS in a prescribed format to a designated telephone number for the local government HQ, where it is processed and published on a website that is accessible by mobile phone.
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Boston CitizensConnect
Producer: Boston City Hall (USA)
Boston CitizensConnect is a new tool for constituents to improve their neighborhoods and promote municipal development. CitizensConnect enables iPhone users to report service requests, such as pothole repair or graffiti clean-up, to the City of Boston. Using the free app, the constituent selects the issue, shoots a photograph and presses “submit”. Using the phone’s GPS, it routes the issue to the appropriate city work queue and adds it to the to-do list of city employees. When the work is completed, CitizensConnect provides the citizen with a text message from the city administration. If successful on iPhone, it will be expanded to other platforms.
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Mobile Portal – Kingdom of Bahrain
Producer: eGovernment Authority (Bahrain)
The Kingdom of Bahrain’s Mobile Portal includes over 45 e-Government services provided either over WAP or by SMS. All services are made available in Arabic, as well as in English. The services can be classified into three categories: 1) Information Services, such as e-Weather, doctor search, embassy contacts; 2) Interactive Services, such as mobile blogs or mobile polls; and 3) Transaction Services, such as paying electricity and water bills or traffic contraventions. The mobile portal is integrated with ministries and departments, communicating data and information to users. As mobile penetration in Bahrain is among the highest in the world, the Mobile Portal is expected to become the preferred channel by which clients and citizens access government services.
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M-Post
Producer: Tunisian Post
M-Post is a postal service facilitating money transfers, mailing and other postal transactions. When citizens transfer monies with M-Post, the beneficiaries receive the info and code by SMS, getting the funds in their account or at any postal desk within a minute. Postal account holders can see their account summaries and make transactions. Retired people receive social security pension payment info via SMS; students are informed of loan and scholarship support payment arrivals in the same way. Express mail senders can track and trace the delivery process; business customers receive notices to collect their ordered goods by SMS. M-Post also offers mobile payment services including money transfers and bill payments, as well as fixed and mobile phone top-ups.
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German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag)
Producer: Babiel GmbH
The German Parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) App provides iPhone users with access to the latest news from the German Parliament or allows them to find out quickly and easily about members of parliament and parliamentary committees, even when not connected to the internet. Version 1.1 also offers an option, during plenary sessions of the German Parliament, to listen to live audio streams of speeches by members of government.
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m-Environment & Health
M-Mantra for Forest and Wild Life Management
Producer: Madhya Pradesh Forest Department (India)
Since forests are primarily located in geographically impenetrable regions far beyond the reach of modern telecommunication facilities, a system like M-Mantra for Forest and Wild Life Management, enabling the organization, planning, implementation of related policies and effective monitoring of forests and wildlife is absolutely essential. Mobile information and communication technologies have been identified as a fitting tool for this purpose. Over 27,000 field officials in Madhya Pradesh state (India) are now connected to servers 24 hours per day using GPRS/EDGE/wireless broadband technology. As part of the M-Mantra for Forest and Wild Life Management program, several applications for personal digital assistants (PDAs) have been developed, including a Fire Alert Messaging System, a Forest Offence Management System, a Wild Life Alert Messaging System, a Tree Marking System, a Wild Life Management System, a Forest Dwellers Survey System, as well as systems for Forest Navigation, Forest Planning and Geo-mapping. The information originating in mobiles and computers is synchronized with a server farm through the communication network.
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Medica – Multimedia Prescriptions & Medication Reminder
Producer: IRWAA, LLC (Egypt)
Medica is a multimedia prescription manager and medication reminder. With Medica, users can store and manage as many prescriptions as they wish, each with multiple medications. The application also reminds patients to attend treatment sessions and follow-ups. Users can record audio messages from doctors and attach the audio to the prescription, so as to recall the doctor’s face-to-face instructions. Medication reminders are customizable in terms of tones, repetitions, vibrations and flashes. Medica is a Java mobile application that works on most feature phones and smartphones.
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Te-Tol Mobile Portal
Producer: Termoelektrarna Toplarna Ljubljana, Hardlab (Slovenia)
The Te-Tol mobile portal provides environmental information about electric power stations that use fossil fuel in the Ljubljana region. The innovation is part of the Te-Tol company’s goal to be a safe, reliable, economic and environmentally friendly manufacturer of heat and electrical energy. The system was initiated as an open, transparent and real-time tool to communicate with the inhabitants of Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, who are negatively influenced by air pollutants (SO2, NOx, CO and dust) from TE-TOL’s coal-based energy production. Furthermore, the Te-Tol mobile portal also caters to the needs of internal personnel and external deployment co-operators.
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Excellent Mobile Medical Application (EMMA)
Producer: Exthex GmbH (Austria)
EMMA is a tool for hospitals and health-care centers. Medical staff can view, add and change data without having to sit at a desk in front of a PC. Doctors can be alerted in case of critical events, thus making an immediate response possible. EMMA guarantees the highest level of data security and integration. Data is always up-to-date and sensitive patient data is protected in terms of privacy. The transmission of data is secured by cryptographic methods and end-to-end security. EMMA works with iPhone and Android phones, and is used in hospitals in Austria.
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WellDoc DiabetesManager System
Producer: WellDoc (USA)
The WellDoc DiabetesManager System helps patients with Type 2 diabetes to use their mobile phones to effectively track daily routines, including medications, exercise and nutrition. Based on blood glucose data, the WellDoc DiabetesManager System recommends real-time, evidence-based, automated education and behavioral coaching for patients on their cell phones. Physicians can access patient data using WellDoc, analyze it, tap into the expert system for care guidelines, and make adjustments in patient care.
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m-Learning & Education
BBC Janala
Producer: BBC World Service Trust (Bangladesh)
BBC Janala is a mobile service taking part in a nine-year English language education program called English in Action (EIA) helping 25 million people in Bangladesh develop their language skills. BBC Janala is multi-platform: television programs place English at the centre of young people’s learning; a website and social-networking tools create a country-wide community of learners; audio lessons and SMS services turn the mobile phone into a low-cost learning device for people previously denied the benefits of English-language education. This makes for a low-cost learning device and permits people previously denied the benefits of English-language education to learn. By simply dialing 3000, users gain access to hundreds of three-minute audio lessons, which range from “Essential English” to “English for Work”. The BBC Janala service is affordable with a tariff of just 1 Taka (1 pence) per minute. The lessons are free of charge online at bbcjanala.com and more than 100,000 audio lessons have been downloaded from the mobile internet site. BBC Janala could easily be replicated in other countries.
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Drona – Mobile Learning Management System
Producer: Deltecs Infotech (India)
Given that the penetration of broadband is poor in India, mobile phones have surfaced as a better mechanism for learning and collection of information. Drona is a mobile learning management system that provides not just an m-Learning environment, but also helps users to create their own mobile applications, as and when required. Drona comes as a desktop-based tool with an intuitive user interface specially designed for both trainers and teachers. It allows users to author content ranging from texts to images, audio and video. Different types of courses can be created, such as learning slides, multiple choice questions, multiple-response questions, true/false type assessment, surveys and feedback.
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Grace App for Autism
Producer: Grace App Communications (Ireland)
The Grace App for Autism helps autistic and other special-needs children to communicate effectively, by building semantic sequences from relevant images to form sentences. The app can be easily customized by using picture and photo vocabulary of your choice. The application works in real time and allows the user to select their preferences, and then rotate the device (for instance iPhone) to present a full-sized sentence to the listener – who will read it with them and respond to the request.
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Hesabi – My Maths
Producer: Flagship Projects (United Arab Emirates)
When launched, the Hesabi (My Maths) app shows a splash screen showing the three main parts of the app, along with extra settings and info views. By choosing the first part, children see a random number printed on the screen; when they type the corresponding number, they win applause – if they miss, they are encouraged to try again. The second part of the app teaches the child to draw the number indicated on the “board”. The child can choose the color and width of the pencil used – and even “clean” off an inaccurate drawing. The third part is the quiz, where the child chooses one of four mathematical operations. On completion of the quiz, users get a full report showing the number of answered questions and percentage of correct results. Hesabi lets children decide on the amount of questions and choose between Arabic and Hindi numbers.
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Tickle Tap Apps
Producer: Zinc Roe Inc. (Canada).
Tickle Tap Apps are educational games for preschool kids from three to five years of age. The games are designed for assisted learning and independent play; they are easy and intuitive, with simple controls for little hands. Tickle Tap Apps take full advantage of the iPhone platform in ways that make game play exciting. It is tactile, with easy-to-follow audio instructions and visual cues for non-readers.
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m-Business & Commerce
Marks & Spencer mobile commerce
Producer: Marks & Spencer (UK)
The Marks & Spencer mobile commerce website is one of the first mobile sites offered by a major UK high-street retailer. The site has been developed specifically to make searching, browsing and buying easy from any web-enabled mobile phone or device. The site is in sync with the main M&S website, so that customers can log into their regular web-account and manage their shopping basket from their mobile. There is no need to download an app or any software; users simply type m.marksandspencer.com into their phone’s internet browser. Using the Marks & Spencer mobile commerce website, customers can find over 24,000 products – including clothing, home furnishings and furniture, technology such as televisions and iPods, as well as gifts such as flowers and food hampers – with almost all of the functionality found on the main M&S website. The site had over 1.2 million visitors in the first 6 months and more than 10 million page views and 13,000 orders from the site.
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Mobile Vending – i-Vend
Producer: iFree (Russia)
iVend is a cost-effective and user-friendly technology to enable sales from vending machines across the Russian Federation using mobile payment via SMS, IVR, NFC or QR Code. The mobile technology can also be used to remotely audit and manage vending machines. Data is collected from all vending machines installed across a given city, even across the country, and sent to a repository to allow central management. Mobile Vending goes even further. It allows merchants to activate different kinds of loyalty schemes for customers and thus offers them a full functionality for mobile customer relationship management. The Mobile Vending solution is also simple and cost efficient: it comprises a GSM module installed in the vending machine and a server module administers the preset work sequence. • Watch video
Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper app
Producer: Consumers Union, KARGO (USA)
The Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper app for the iPhone, and soon for Android-based phones, brings 75 years of expert and unbiased product ratings and reviews to users where they need it most – at the point of purchase. The app provides the user with three different ways to get product information: by scanning a barcode, by trying a manual search or by browsing through the Consumer Reports’ catalogue of thousands of tested product models across Consumer Report’s signature franchises: appliances, electronics, home & garden, babies & children and cars. Once the product is determined, users will find expert buying advice, information on brand reliability and detailed user reviews, as well as the option of comparing a particular model to all others in that category. Following links from there, users can see all online sites that carry the product, as well as retail stores in their local area in real-time that currently carry it on their shelves. The features of the Consumer Reports Mobile Shopper app ensure that users find what they want for the best possible price. Users can also share information via email, Facebook and Twitter.
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Eko – Simplibank branchless financial services
Producer: Eko India Financial Services Private Limited (India)
EKO is pioneering a low-cost technology and distribution infrastructure for banks seeking to viably extend financial services to non-banking customers. EKO’s Simplibank platform connects a telecom infrastructure to the bank’s Core Banking System (CBS), leveraging a user’s cell-number as a unique identifier onto which the bank account number can be mapped. With the mobile as the medium for banking, financial transactions are possible anytime and anywhere. More than half of India’s population of over 500 million people has no bank account, due to the high cost of small value transactions. Delivering banking services through the mobile phone makes the cost of banking substantially cheaper and thus affordable for a broader population, simultaneously creating a viable business opportunity. EKO – Simplibank provides a platform for universal financial access and micro-transactions in developing countries like India.
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DB Navigator
Producer: DB Vertrieb GmbH (Germany)
With DB Navigator, German Railways Corporation (Deutsche Bahn) offers travelers a comprehensive information service for all modes of public transport in Germany. Using DB Navigator, Germans and tourists can access the relevant information pertaining to a journey on the go, including up-to-date itineraries, maps and real-time information. The service started in December 2009; by October 2010, it had 1 million downloads over the iTunes App Store, making it one of the top downloads in Germany. As an itinerary planner for public transport, DB Navigator provides access to the schedules of all public transport operators in Germany and all trains in Europe. It calculates optimal trips by train, bus, tram, subway and ship for you. Using GPS, all travelers need to do is to type in a destination – a station, street or point of interest – and the DB Navigator guides them from their actual position to their destination. In addition, paths on foot to stops and stations are laid out in the street maps, so travelers can find their way.
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m-Media & News
YouReporter
Producer: RIA Novosti (Russia)
YouReporter is a web portal for citizen journalists to publish multimedia news content (text plus video and/or photo). As well as fun stories, topics notably include the disclosure of corruption, abuse of power, poverty, etc. YouReporter gives a voice to anyone with a mobile phone, and thus a chance to shape society’s views on current issues. The stories are submitted to RIA Novosti directly from mobile phones or computers using MMS. Contributors must observe the terms and conditions of the service, as well as an ethics code. Over 700 stories – 7-25 stories daily – have been contributed by 520 users since the launch of YouReporter in April, 2010. The average monthly download figure is 550,000.
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Apontador Traffic (Apontador Trânsito)
Producer: Apontador (Brazil)
Sao Paulo is the third largest city in the world and more than 6 million vehicles occupy the city’s streets every day. Traffic jams are normal and it is not unusual that citizens spend more than 4 hours in traffic every day. Apontador Traffic was developed to provide real-time news about traffic, not only in the principal streets and avenues of Sao Paulo, but also of Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte. The app also allows the user to access images from traffic cameras and to receive traffic alerts pertaining to the user’s position (geo-localization). More than 100,000 drivers have downloaded Apontador Traffic to their iPhone, Windows Mobile or Android phone.
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Newelo Need4Feed
Producer: Newelo Oy (Finland)
Newelo Need4Feed is a flexible solution for mobile content creation and data-gathering for the media and publishing ecosystem. It can also satisfy the needs of NGOs and their communities. The Newelo Need4Feed service platform matches and delivers tasks, either to individuals or to a community, or to a set of proficient contributors. The contributors, e.g. freelancers, can carry out the tasks using their mobile devices or PCs.
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Guardian mobile site and mobile app
Producer: The Guardian (UK)
The Guardian iPhone app was one of the first paid-for news applications to arrive in the iTunes store and has now been downloaded 200,000 times at £2.39 each time to date, making it an important revenue stream for the corporation. The Guardian iPhone app makes it possible to consume Guardian content – including photo galleries and podcasts – on or offline, using a highly customizable, optimized interface. The ‘trending’ tab offers an at-a-glance list of the hottest subjects on guardian.co.uk, while the tags that lie at the heart of the app make it quick and easy to navigate to the subjects and columnists that matter to you.
The Guardian mobile site offers rapid access to the latest headlines across News, Sport, Culture and Business sections, as well as onward navigation, via a dropdown tab, to further areas of interest. Live football results, contextual attention data (in the form of ‘most read’ stories), photo galleries and access to Guardian Soul Mates and Guardian Jobs complete the package. The m.guardian.co.uk mobile website now has over 2.1 million unique monthly users. It is available free of charge on any handset, in any territory, and delivers a return through advertising and sponsorship.
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ABC iPhone app
Producer: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2ergo (Australia)
Unlike most applications which have a single purpose, the ABC iPhone app caters to a broad ABC audience base, with content coming from ABC radio, ABC TV and regularly updated ABC News stories. To date, the application has been downloaded more than 1 million times from the Australian iTunes App Store.
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• Read this profile of 2Ergo the mobile agency behind the Guardian and ABC mobile apps.
m-Tourism & Culture
SmartMuseum
Producer: SmartMuseum EU Project (Bulgaria)
With SmartMuseum, visitors of museums and special sites can register via their mobile devices and receive a full-featured audio-visual guided tour of the site on-the-go. The overall objective of the project is to develop a platform for innovative services, enhancing on-site personalized access to digital cultural heritage through adaptive and privacy preserving user profiling. Using on-site knowledge databases, global digital libraries and visitors’ experiential knowledge, SmartMuseum makes possible the creation of innovative multilingual services for increasing interaction between visitors and cultural heritage objects in a future-oriented smart museum environment which takes full advantage of digitized cultural information. Already implemented by the Museum of Valetta in Malta and a prominent Florentine museum, the application allows visitors to use their Smartphone or PDA in place of expensive audio tours on bespoken hardware.
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Hungary Tourism App
Producer: AFF Group (Alkalmazás Fejlesztési Fórum Kft) (Hungary)
Hungary Tourism allows users to browse among hotels, restaurants, museums, sights and spas using a mobile smartphone. The comprehensive database of 25,000 locations across Hungary provides a large choice of accommodations and leisure activities. Citizens and tourists can learn about the latest specials or use the map-based service guide to take you around the capital and also off the beaten track. Users can also easily access weather info, currency exchange rates and even some useful expressions with a talking dictionary.
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Wikitude World Browser
Producer: Mobilizy GmbH (Austria)
Wikitude World Browser is an augmented-reality browser for Android smartphone users. It provides a live direct or indirect view of the physical real-world environment which is augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. The Wikitude World Browser makes visible currently about 110 million points of information (POIs) all around the world. They are displayed on the smartphone’s screen, right where the real object is situated.
Wikitude Drive uses the browser to offer a new style of navigation system by overlaying the route one selected onto the live video stream of the present surroundings. The driver can thus easily recognize and follow the suggested route looking at the real world, not jut a map. Wikitude solves a key problem of those navigation systems that require drivers to take their eyes off the road in order to look at a map. By looking at a map screen for just one second when driving at 100 kmph (62 mph), the driver would be actually “blind” for 28 meters (92ft). Using Wikitude World Browser, drivers keep their eyes on the road seeing the live stream of the street overlaid with information on the right directions.
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Ligo Ligo App
Producer: CUBE (Latvia)
The Ligo (mid-summer solstice) festival is the most cherished tradition of Latvian calendar. The central ritual of this festival is the singing of traditional Ligo songs. The Ligo Ligo app includes more than 400 traditional Latvian Ligo folk songs, both the melody and several traditional instrumental samples. The app also lets one use iPhone/iPod Touch as a musical instrument and play along with the songs.
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WI-BIKE
Producer: IKON SRL (Italy)
Wi-Bike is an innovative interactive multimedia guide for bicycle touring. Integrating state-of-the-art mobile GPS technology and multimedia content, Wi-Bike provides travelers with a powerful and practical tool to fully understand and enjoy the space around them. It combines satellite navigation with a rich multimedia guide, all in the same device at one’s fingertips. It not only enables tourists to plan their route and be guided through the most interesting sites, but it also enriches their experience with specific multimedia information. Thanks to the device’s built-in GPS, on approaching a point of interest Wi-Bike automatically starts a multimedia presentation, including audio and video content, bringing highlights to provide more in-depth information about each location. Wi-Bike can work both on-line and off-line, and can be tailored for use not only for bike touring, but also walking, trekking and other purposes.
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m-Entertainment & Lifestyle
Omlet.ru
Producer: Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (Russia)
The Omlet Mobile site provides a unique combination of legally accessed quality content downloads, both free and paid, and these include music, films, TV programs, games, including some of the latest releases, together with the relevant entertainment community (fan clubs, homepages of numerous Russian stars, etc.).
In a country where buying content legally is still not the norm and iTunes is not available, many people use torrents. Omlet Mobile is trying to change people’s mindsets. It already has hundreds of thousands of users, growing rapidly every day. Omlet Mobile offers also a unique and universal billing system, a large content base and a multifunctional content delivery system. The mobile Omlet.ru was added to a content portal launched by MTS in the fall of 2009.
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Sekai Camera
Producer: Tonchidot Corporation (Japan)
Sekai Camera (World Camera) helps to experience a newly found connection between real and virtual worlds: it is a social augmented-reality location-based mobile service. The client-side software and web service enable camera-equipped mobile devices to access information and entertainment services by creating a “clickable world” via the use of augmented-reality hyper-tags. These user-clickable tags, which are called “air tags”, are location-based and mapped in the real world. Air tags can be seen and accessed through the camera viewfinder of mobile devices with Sekai Camera software. Users can freely create air tags at any geo-location with text, picture and voice, while enterprises can create their own unique graphics to stand out from the crowd, making Sekai Camera one of the first mobile augmented-reality apps to support user-generated content. Sekai Camera is available for iPhone and Android and in eight languages.
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The Hidden Park
Producer: Two Bulls (Australia)
The Hidden Park blends smartphone wizardry with the natural wonder of a local park. It is an adventure game created especially for young families. The application uses animations mapped over digital photographs to lead children into a fantasy world of trolls, fairies and tree genies. Played in their local park, the adventure begins when the children receive a video call from a troll named Trutton, head of the Magical Wildlife Protection Association. Kids collect evidence to prove the existence of magical animals in their park and navigate their way through the park by following a map that lets them know where the magical creatures live. Following Trutton’s directions, children take photos of various landmarks and solve puzzles and riddles on their way to the next destination. As if by magic, Trutton’s fantastical friends appear in the photos – sometimes right next to the children!
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Angry Birds
Producer: Rovio Mobile Ltd (Finland)
Angry Birds is an easily accessible mobile game downloadable from multiple sources and offered on a series of different devices. It is built as a physics-based game for touch-screen mobile devices. The touch screen enables intuitive controls and users do not need to go through long drawn-out tutorials. In the game, one uses a slingshot to launch “angry birds” at “green pigs”, who, in the story line of the game, stole the eggs from the birds’ nests. The goal is to clear out the ugly and mean pigs. Each of the 195 levels requires logic, skill and brute force to crush the enemy.
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Africam Safari´s Digital Guide (Guia Digital de Africam Safari)
Producer: Africam Safari, Soft Poppler, S.A. de C.V. (Mexico)
Africam Safari is a digital guide for visitors to one of the most important Wildlife Conservation Parks in Mexico and the world: Africam Safari, home to over 2,500 animals, from over 300 species. Families tour Africam Safari in their own cars, using a rented iPad device extending their experience in this Safari Adventure. While in the comfort of their cars, the “explorers” can hear the sounds of their favorite animals, get video information about that particular species or learn fun facts. Africam Safari´s Digital Guide takes complete advantage of multimedia capabilities, using full-screen animations. This user-friendly interface sets a new standard for mobile applications at entertainment venues to enhance visitor’s experiences.
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Comment below or email editor (at) mobiThinking.com
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