If you have every walked, driven, biked or ran through Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, you have probably spotted those large groups of tourists being lead around by tour guides wearing straw hats and carrying signs. This is the Hahvahd  Tour, and now they can say, “There’s an app for that”.

Today, a new application that we created went live into the iTunes App Store. Trademark Tours Presents: Harvard University, is a campus tour application for the prestigious institution, and is filled to the brim with great, rich content.

Creature Features

• Integrated Google Maps and GPS
• “Live Tour” footage
• Bonus Content Galore!
• Streaming Audio
• Harvard Square Business Directory
• Free Souvenier Map
• Integrated video in the app, no buffering
• Ability to jump to a stop anytime you wish

Development Insight

This application was built using PhoneGap, an open source framework that allows for developing mobile applications natively using HTML/CSS and JavaScript. The benefit of using PhoneGap over Apple’s own XCode Environment and Objective C programming, is the portability to other devices such as Android OS and Blackberry Apps.  

When developing this way, you can easily develop lighter-weight “Web Apps” that actually just use the browser framework that is native to the platform, rather than writing a code base from scratch. This elevates errors, but is not without some higher performance drawbacks. While things can run incredibly smooth in the web framework of these mobile devices, any more advanced animations, gaming or hardware intense acceleration is better off inside the native language.

This app also uses JQuery along with PhoneGap to create animations and navigation. Video and audio are using HTML5 standards.

Mashable has released a story today that we have been waiting on for over 2 years. We first read (and watched) about flexible display technology a few years ago while investigating technologies for various user interface projects. We wanted a way to make any surface touch screen, like the mirror in your bathroom perhaps.

Displax has reportedly developed a multi-touch film that can be put on any non-metal surface. It responds to touch and air flow. Up to 16 points can be registered at one time. Nice!

This has huge potential in everything from coffee shops, to schools, to offices and designers. Speaking of designers, and the little boxes we use to make stuff, Google predicted last year that the idea of a desktop computer would soon phase into a more ubitquitus technology that could be integrated into your office or home. The problem was, and always is, the technology is a few years behind.

Adobe has had more trouble than ever with keeping up with the needs of creative types and, because of their pricey bundles, pirates for that matter. Their interfaces are deigned for these 16×9 boxes, and screen real-estate is shrinking. If Adobe was smart, they would sell more licenses at a smaller price, and take advantage of these new technologies that will turn small space, into infinite space.

I can just imagine going to Ikea and seeing a swiss designed multi-touch work table for sale with tilt and slide action.

About a month ago, we received a free $100 credit for Google Ads. We deposited our free coupon, and in return, have landed a client on the other side of the world.

These Google Ads are the ‘Sponsored Results’ that appear when you see search results, on the right side of the page. The way it works is quite simple. You decide what search phrases pertain to your business, and decide how much per day you would like to spend. The more you spend, the more visibility you have.

In our scenario, we decided to just try it out, and spend only $1.50 per day. So after about 60 days, our credit will have been spent. So far, we have only spend $45 out of the $100, and we have had some great results.

Pocket change in the world of advertising. We are planning to ramp up or daily allowances for Google Ads, to increase our visibility. Even if we deposit $1,000, it is still considerably more cost effective and efficient than taking out an ad in the newspaper or printed media.

The other upside to Gooogle vs. Printed Ads is the turnaround. It takes time to create and publish printed media, and the ads that live there. With Google, your ads are up in minuets, and tracking happens in less than 12 hours, with millions of potential clients to see your ad.

This method landed us an India based client, that found us via Google, and loved what they saw. We are currently working on a new website design / development, and a re-working of their branding elements.

This type of advertising is manageable and accessible from small to large businesses, placing many competitive businesses on the same playing field.

We can work out a strategy with you and your business to set up a Google based advertising model.

With headlines like “The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut the Boston Globe…”, and a stream of articles from The Huffington Post about the print media death watch:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/death-of-newspapers (A personal favorite is To Newspaper Moguls: You Blew It by Jeff Jarvis.), What can I say?

Google is not going away, aggregators are only going to get faster and more efficient / accessible. So the only advice to give is: Wake up and smell the ink-on-paper!”. Newspapers, you’ve had your time.

I wonder though, what is the solution for a medium that thrives on yesterdays news? There must be a solution to this! In a previous post, I talked about a theory for a new E-Paper device. Good idea, but the rate of closing newspapers is faster than the rate that the device could be distributed. Not to mention prototyping and research. A large E-paper device is just to satisfy the “ritual” of holding a newspaper as an object. Google has already proven that people will forgo the physical object if they can access more data faster. So is there a solution? Slim to none.

Our business is located in the heart of the Boston area. When we heard that the Boston Globe was given an ultimatum to find 20M, or face the reaper, it was an eye opener, but not un-expected. Boston is known for its twenty something college students. Sorry Boston Globe, in the life of a college town, Facebook and iPhones are king.