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Yesterday we looked at DASH7 , a wireless sensor networking standard that may play an important part in next generation mobile services – including location-based services, Internet of Things and social networking. In this post we analyze some use cases for DASH7, which also point to where the Mobile Web is heading. We’ll look at how location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla could evolve. Then we’ll explore the potential of long distance mobile advertising and mobile coupons. Sponsor Extending Location-Based App Functionality Given the growth of location-based apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla in 2010, it’s intriguing to think about what’s next for these services. According to an as yet unreleased white paper by the DASH7 Alliance , enhanced loyalty programs could be the next big thing. With a DASH7-enabled phone, the white paper states, “a user could set his or her preferences in the Foursquare or Gowalla application that would allow the user to be automatically “discovered” or “checked in” at the coffee shop/restaurant/gun store/etc. and thereby accrue loyalty points passively, i.e. by just being “in” the establishment, rather than requiring active/conscious user behavior to participate in the program.” Even more advanced services could offer customized promotions created “on the fly”, targeting a certain user’s preferences. Mobile Advertising From Long Distance and On-The-Go A long-held goal of the Mobile Web – at least for retailers – is using mobile phones for mobile advertising, loyalty programs, couponing, and other ‘personalized shopping’ experiences. Of course there are privacy issues with these things, but nevertheless these scenarios are (finally) coming soon. NFC-enabled phones have shown glimpses of this functionality, via smart posters, kiosks and billboards. As discussed in a previous post, NFC technology is limited to a 4 centimeter range – so the phone needs to be held close to the media asset in order to initiate the data transfer. Also it requires a tag reader application to be installed on your mobile phone. According to its white paper, the DASH7 Alliance thinks that “a far larger set of customers would be willing to execute the same applications provided that they were executable a) from a longer distance, b) while moving, and c) in some cases, passively/without any conscious initiation of their own.” DASH7 has a range of hundreds of meters and can be used while on the move. While point 3 might scare some privacy advocates, it’s very likely that customers would need to opt in before they “passively” received such advertising messages. If this is still too abstract for you, here’s a potential scenario: I’m driving down a street and I pass a smart poster pasted onto a building wall. This elicits a beep from my phone, because my phone has ‘passively’ scanned the poster and discovered something that I want to be notified about (I’ve opted into receiving notifications only about certain things). Because it’s against the law to check my mobile phone where I live, I wait till I’m parked and then I check what the beep was for. Turns out that one of my favorite bands is playing in the city tomorrow night! The smart poster I’d driven past was an advertisement for that band. So I then proceed to book a ticket, using my phone of course. Mobile Coupons Mobile coupons are a hot area of activity already, with Google and others offering them. However, currently mobile coupons are limited to short-range and active receiving. Soon we might have long-range couponing, real-time interaction and ‘passively’ receiving coupons. The DASH7 Alliance white paper offers a scenario of Paramount promoting its upcoming movie Iron Man 2, using a smart poster. In the NFC scenario, someone could walk past the Iron Man 2 poster and download a 2-for-1 coupon to see the movie. However, according to the DASH7 Alliance: “…a combination DASH7/NFC-enabled smartphone could still support the default NFC scenario, but could also provide for a) longer distance distribution of the coupon b) “passive” acquisition of coupons according to a user’s pre-defined “coupon acquisition criteria” (e.g. “auto-accept coupons for any movies starring Al Pacino” , and c) real-time interaction with the media asset (e.g. “answer the following three questions correctly and win a 2-for-1 coupon to see “Iron Man 2″.)” Those are just some of the next generation mobile services we can expect to see soon, thanks to wireless technologies like NFC and DASH7. Let us know in the comments if you have other potential use case ideas! Photo credits: David Berkowitz ; kengo Discuss

The IconNice website is a new resource that will allow any programmer to cross one item off his list: the process of actually designing icons. The site is nothing but a repository of icon and software interface designs, and these can be procured at a small fee. And some free icons are likewise listed, for you to put to good use straightaway. Read more Learn more about IconNice.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much IconNice.com is worth with Stimator.com

Check this site if you are a developer of apps, and wish to accelerate these parts of the process that sometimes end up being dragged for too long. This site will let you take care of one in particular: the admin and UI templates for your app. While that is something pivotal, it should not take an inordinate amount of time. Read more Learn more about AdminSquare.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much AdminSquare.com is worth with Stimator.com

Tellmewhere is a location-based iPhone and Android app that offers its users personalized recommendations for restaurants, bars, grocery stores and other local retailers. The service, which also offers a full set of location-based social networking features, is already very popular in Europe where it has about 500,000 users. With the release of its latest iPhone version, the company is now also trying to expand into the U.S. market. Tellmewhere offers a very solid set of standard location-based social networking tools, but it’s the service’s ability to give you personalized local recommendations that makes it stand out from the competition. Sponsor Personalized Recommendations: Making Check-Ins Useful As Tellmewhere’s CEO and co-founder Gilles Barbier told us when we met up during SXSW in Austin, TX last month, the company wants to offer a location-based service and social network that is more useful than most location-based social networks. Instead of just checking in, collecting badges and stalking your friends, Tellmewhere wants to make these check-ins more useful. Tellmewhere’s algorithms strive to tell you what the nearby restaurants, shops and spas are that your friends and other people like you would recommend. As you (and your friends and neighbors) use the mobile app, Tellmewhere learns about your preferences and compares them with those of people like you. Whenever you look at the venues around you, Tellmewhere will highlight the local restaurants and merchants around you that it thinks you will be most interested in. Because it isn’t focused on check-ins as much as services like Gowalla and Foursquare, you can also review venues that you are not currently visiting. It’s worth noting that the app doesn’t just learn from your friends. When you are traveling, for example, the service’s algorithm will look at recommendations from locals that are similar to you. More Features If you choose to do so, you can also broadcast your location on Facebook and Twitter, but to ensure your privacy, this option can be tweaked for every check-in or review. It’s also worth noting that you can use the service’s web site to browse recommendations and reviews. Tellmewhere uses Google Local as the back-end for its location database and Google Maps as its mapping provider. The team plans to monetize the app with a “special offers” model where local merchants can offer coupons to loyal customers. Within the U.S., the service obviously still needs a few more users to become really useful. Given that these are still the early days for location-based services, though, there is no reason to believe that Tellmewhere couldn’t replicate the success it has had in Europe here in the U.S. Discuss

It seems almost daily that we run across yet another friend who asks “So wait, what exactly is Twitter? What does it do? Why do I care?” Every time we get these questions, we have to pause, take a deep breath, and figure out why it is, exactly that this particular person would care. It looks like Twitter itself has started to tackle this issue too, with its Clever Twitter Accounts blog on Posterous . Sponsor Louis Gray first noticed the site , which he writes is “full of ‘Clever’ examples aimed to make you say, ‘Now I get it!’”. The site is put together by Sean Garrett , Twitter’s head of communications, and Jenna Sampson , a communications associate at Twitter. They have been posting different uses of Twitter since the beginning of the month, pretty much culling various media across the Internet looking for Twitter mentions, from the looks of it. The blog starts out with how people used Twitter in Chile to find missing persons and moves on to a San Francisco specific Twitter account meant to receive 311 complaints. Gray notes how most things Twitter does explode immediately in popularity, pointing to how many followers both @twitterapi and @twitter have, but so far @cleveraccounts , the account associated with the blog, hasn’t given us all that much to chew on quite yet. So, while getting a nod on the “Clever Twitter Accounts” blog isn’t likely to tip your follower scales the way the now-deceased Suggested User List would have, we’ll be keeping an eye on it to see if any new twists on Twitter use pop up. Maybe, the thing is, we already “get it”. If you have a friend who doesn’t appear to get it yet, though, send ‘em on over. Maybe they’ll be convinced by knowing they can follow the Japanese prime minister or navigate New York’s busy streets – all with the help of Twitter. Discuss