IanSchafer.com

How to Get Free Wi-Fi on Your iPhone at Starbucks.

It's about time.

If you've got an iPhone, you can now get free WiFi from AT&T at Starbucks. You also need to be able to follow these instructions:

**Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone

**Select "attwifi" from the list of available networks

**Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy. Tap 'continue'.

**You will receive a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. You will not be charged for the text message.

**The SMS link will only be valid for 24 hours at the location it was requested. Another request must be submitted when using another hotspot location.

**Open the text message and tap on the link for 24-hour access to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot

Google Earth Comes to the iPhone.

Google has officially released the Google Earth app for the iPhone, available now in the iTunes store, and it's beautiful.

Here's a video walkthrough from Peter Birch, Google Earth's project manager.

Click here to download the app for your iPhone from the iTunes App Store.

Reminder: Live @ WidgetWebExpo on Monday 6/16.

I'll be on what looks to be a great panel @ WidgetWebExpo on Monday, 6/16 in my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn, NY.

Here's the info:

3.15 - 3.45:

Micro Interactions: Can portable experiences go mainstream? (Panel)

Whether we call them widgets, modules, desktop applications or something else, we are increasingly seeing more interactions happen that are distributed, portable and yes—small. From rich interactive banners, to do-it-yourself Web widgets—the internet is more fragmented than ever before. Thanks to search engines, we know that your home page is less relevant than it used to be. And advanced interactions in small places like Apple’s iPhone have shown us that meaningful interactions can happen in small, portable chunks. The question is—will this all go mainstream? Join our panel of experts as we discuss how micro interactions may or may not change our digital behavior.

Chair: David Armano, VP, Critical Mass

David Malouf, Interaction Designer, Motorola Enterprise Mobility

Matt Dickman, Vice President, Digital Marketing, Fleishman-Hillard

Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital

Ian Schafer, CEO and Founder, Deep Focus

Stephanie Agresta, InternetGeekGirl.com

I plan on sharing some fairly strong opinions. See you there!

When ‘ Open ’ Isn ’ t Really ‘ Open ’ . The Battle to Own Your Code — And Your Creativity.

Oxford University Professor Jonathan Zittrain in his new book, The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It, according to NetworkWorld, states that:

...today’s Internet appliances such as the iPhone and Xbox hamper innovation. That’s because these locked-down devices prohibit the kind of tinkering by end users that made PCs and the Internet such a force of economic, political and artistic change.

Zittrain argues that if the cybersecurity situation doesn’t improve, we will migrate to a different kind of Internet. The new Internet will have as its endpoints tethered appliances such as iPhones, which are controlled by their manufacturers, instead of open, changeable PCs attached to an open network that can foster the next round of disruptive innovation.

A bold statement. And he's got a point.

Now these devices are innovations unto themselves, and some even are positioned as development platforms. Take the iPhone, for example. Apple just released the latest version of their Software Development Kit (SDK) and developers everywhere are coding away, looking to build the next great iPhone application.

But in classic Apple style (i.e. heavy DRM within iTunes), Apple remains the gatekeeper. Applications can only be distributed via their App Store, and will only be distributed if approved by Apple. Apple will explain that this is for security and quality-assurance reasons, but it still puts them in control of what's available, with the ability to shut an app off if they so desire. So yes, you can be as creative as you want on their platform, but it's up to Apple if anyone is going to see it at all, or in perpetuity.

There's a similar situation going on with Google's new App Engine (the preview version was launched on 4/8, then taken down on 4/9). Google's vision is that instead of freely building apps with their API, you can develop applications using their APIs and host them on their servers, free of charge. Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud and Salesforce's Appexchange are also providing similar opportunities for developers. Sounds great, right? But there's a catch, as ArsTechnica reports.

Perhaps the most blatant downside is being locked into Google's platform. Existing projects will have to be ported or written from scratch, and those that rely on traditional relational databases will probably have difficulty making the transition. Even more difficult would be transitioning your application to your own servers if you choose to leave Google's tender embrace. Once you've created an established application on top of Google's authentication service and stored all your data within the company's datastore, removing all this code and data and moving it to another location would appear to a be fairly onerous task.

Once again, applications -- and even more importantly, data -- are locked into someone else's platform. And this is precisely what Jonathan Zittrain is talking about.

This is a disturbing trend and runs afoul of what led to the creativity that yielded many of the most popular websites of the last few years. Imagine if Warhol was free to create any art he wanted, but someone else owned the canvases and could destroy or bury them at any point if his art offended someone? That's what's going on here.

It doesn't seem that this is a trend that will let up anytime soon as companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon have way too much to gain by housing and hosting application engines. Doesn't feel like 'do no evil' anymore does it? And a little more 'PC' than 'Mac', if you ask me.

Food for thought...

Reality Mining

MIT's Technology Review just published it's list of 10 Emerging Technologies for 2008. The one piece that resonated with me is Sandy Pentland's exploration into Reality Mining especially in relation to social networking, new media and interactive.

Reality mining "is all about paying attention to patterns in life and using that information to help [with] things like setting privacy patterns, sharing things with people, notifying people–basically, to help you live your life."

This becomes a hot topic for a few reasons. First and foremost is, once again, privacy issues. Data capture is part of our daily lives – credit card usage, cookies on sites, social network profiles, company swipe cards – and as technology continues to slowly infiltrate more of our lives, we become more tolerant and accepting of what information is divulged and distributed. Everyone has see the movies with the FBI trying to trace the criminals phone call with the criminal hanging up just before being caught. However, most people don't think about that even with mobile phones being on all the time A simple Google search on his/her name would surprise a lot of people.


Reality Mining has been a reality for years. And as mobile phones become more prevalent with WI-FI, Bluetooth and GPS-type systems (ala iPhone,) in addition to the laptops we carry around and use, the continual social network is our daily life. And as mobile technology advances, our blip on the grid becomes more prominent. The Human Cyborg ideal continues to press forward. Professor Kevin Warwick first started research into this in 1998 by planting microchips in his arm for recognition of systems in his lab.


The major benefit of Reality Mining is from an anthropological standpoint. How people interact, where they are and when they are. Tying this information into disease outbreaks, advertising models (when a person sees an ad, what do they do right afterwards?) and general healthcare and "human maintenance." Smartex in Italy is working on clothing that does just that.


It's a bit of the God factor (being omnipotent and omniscient) that is also fascinating. Knowing where your friends are at any time, knowing what they're doing, where to get the food your phone knows your craving. It's bringing the idea of Facebook, Google Maps, Dodgeball and other sites into the physical space. The ultimate social network. Maybe even a step closer to SkyNet.


Real-time in real-time. Very meta.

Google Putting the “ Heal ” Back in Healthcare?

Google's announcement last Thursday about their venture into online personal health records is a mixed blessing, but one that has been much needed for the healthcare industry. It's been a hot topic since the original announcement by Google in October. The biggest concern is that of privacy issues and, more so, data security. Microsoft and Google make assurances that data will be secure and privately controlled by individuals.


On the pro front, this announcement will open up the healthcare industry similar to how the iPhone has made carriers rethink their strategy of having strict control of what devices user get. Now patients should control where they take their ailments, rather than big healthcare saying what referrals you need and how to get care. Granted, this will take a while to see the full wave of this effect, but it's finally happened where there is the challenge to bringing control to the masses. A big idea of web 3.0.


The cons? Well, for one, people will have to be the keepers of their medical history. A lot of people will, a lot of people won't. Judging the way people can be cyberchondriacs with the likes of WebMD around, a social network space to post every symptom they may think they have would definitely need filtering and a professional opinion. But we've all been curious about what the doctor scribbles (yeah, they scribble) on that file. Just ask Elaine on a classic Seinfeld episode trying to see what's in that file.


But imagine if that information does become publicly searchable ("OMG! She had WHAT when we were dating?") or the movement into a medical social network (GooTube? Yuck.) It might lead to a new perspective on selective reproduction and a change in human evolution. Scientists are already theorizing on it. 


If the trial with the Cleveland Clinic is a success, we can see a big change in the way medicine and society interacts on that online space. I see it as a portal of innovation and communication – cancer survivors speaking about their therapies, treatments analyzed and discussed, ease of research and innovation – beyond their niche spaces on the web. The power of technology, the power of social media and the human element are enticing for this to work.

Googsturbation On the Rise.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 47% of US adult Internet users have Googled themselves this year, up from 22% in 2002, says Wired News.

Pew senior research specialist Mary Madden was surprised the growth wasn't higher, and I agree.

In an age where the web facilitates random acts of narcissism and vanity, not to mention violations of privacy, I'm surprised more people aren't searching for their names on the web more often.

So what of the remaining 53% of users that haven't searched for their names?

Here are my guesses as to what they are Googling:

1. porn
2. bush+[scandal]
3. ron paul
4. pr0n
5. [celebrity] sex tape
6. guitar hero III cheats
7. iPhone
8. wii
9. how to kill my [spouse]
10. google

Most Important News of the Year? Verizon Opens Its Network.

Do not underestimate this news.

Verizon Wireless will be opening its network to any phone or software application by the end of 2008. It will be the first carrier in the US to do this.

It will probably mean the other carriers will follow.

In simple terms, this means that technically, any mobile phone can be used on the Verizon Wireless network, as long as it is not locked by another carrier.

This is the move we've all been waiting for. We will begin to see tremendous leaps in innovation and software as a result of this. It will essentially remove the artificial limits placed on handset development by the tight self-regulation imposed upon manufacturers by the carriers.

And of course, this opens the door wide open for a Google mobile OS.

The iPhone is just the beginning folks. Start preparing for this NOW.

Next up? Set-top boxes. Trust me.

(news via MarketingVOX)

My Latest ClickZ Column: You ’ re a Dinosaur, and Your Creative ’ s Old Too

The rate of innovation is blinding if you stop and look at it. The problem is, in the ad industry, we spend too much time catching up to consumer behavior rather than getting out ahead of it. In my latest column for ClickZ, I talk a bit about rates of innovation, and a couple of things you can do to really be innovative -- not just say you are in a PowerPoint presentation.

Read it by clicking here.

Here's an excerpt:

If you're unfamiliar with Moore's Law, get acquainted.

Moore's Law states that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit increases exponentially, doubling approximately every two years.

How about Gilder's Law?

Gilder's Law, advanced by author George Gilder, states bandwidth grows at least three times faster than computer processing power. While computer processing power doubles approximately every two years (Moore's Law), communications power (or at least its potential) doubles every six months.

Does your head hurt yet? If computer processing power increases at an exponential rate, and bandwidth potential increases even more exponentially, how do you ensure that your advertising sees what's behind the technological corner before your consumers do?

Today, some large companies, mostly technology vendors, are reeling in Six Sigma practices and focusing more on innovation. While I wholeheartedly endorse measurement, optimization, tracking, and research practices for online advertising, nothing is as important in the long run as technology innovations.

Think of it this way. You didn't know Facebook existed 18 months ago. The iPhone was just a rumor 12 months ago. Things change so fast, a 25-year-old and 16-year-old likely have dissimilar online behaviors.

So what are you going to do about that, Mr. Advertiser or Monsieur Agency? What are you doing about that right now?

Here are three rules of thumb to ensure that you're not falling behind and not only succeeding today, but walking down the road ahead.

Rumor: Golly gPhone!

I'm seeing the rumor mill pick up some serious steam on the oft-talked-about gPhone (real name TBD) to (possibly) be released by the Google.

The Wired Blog Compiler has a nifty little post hinting that an official announcement may come as early as September. Here's what you need to know:

According to Rizzn's source at Google, the device runs a modified version of the Linux kernel and has GPS built in. The positioning system will be used to power a Google Maps application, and the phone will also have tight integration with other Google apps like Gmail, Calendar and Docs. The source for Rizzn's post notes that the company will announce the device in two weeks, and that a North American version will be available soon, possibly by the end of the year.

Rizzn also notes that Google's mobile device "is less about beating the iPhone and more about beating the $100 Laptop" made by the OLPC project. He speculates that Google will sell the phones for cheap and then reap ad revenue from targeted, text-based ads served to the phone. This isn't entirely new information, but it's interesting to hear the comparison with the OLPC -- at the least, we'll see an inexpensive, accessible device that uses open-source software.

Read the rest here.