Big in Japan

ShopSavvy Commercial in UK!

T-Mobile started a viral YouTube video sensation in January with more than 6,000,000 views in the UK.  The idea was simple – a simulated flash mob in Liverpool.  Since then flash mob has been copied by Facebook users in the same Liverpool location and now other locations throughout London.  Then T-Mobile created a ShopSavvy commercial (shorter) made for television tied into the viral YouTube video.  Very cool.  Check it out:

Now check out the ShopSavvy T-Mobile Commercial (UK only):

Posted by admin | February 26, 2009 - 11:08am | 2 Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Social Media

ShopSavvy Version 3.3 – ‘Gigan’ (beta)

Want to try out the latest version of ShopSavvy?  Our Gigan release is in open beta, feel free to give it a spin.  Here is the sign up form: Gigan Beta. Gigan offers:

1. Skyhook integration (better and faster location)
2. Faster barcode scanning (new scanning library)
3. Stealth barcode scanning modes (beep, vibrate or silent)
4. Menu shortcuts (visual indicator to indicate Menu tab contains data)
5. Privacy settings (turn off location)
6. Sharing features including Twitter and Facebook

Gigan (????, Gaigan) is a daikaiju from the Godzilla series, introduced in the 1972 film Godzilla vs. Gigan. Gigan is a cybernetic monster sporting a buzzsaw weapon in its frontal abdominal region and large metallic hooks for hands. Gigan is sometimes considered Godzilla’s most brutal and violent opponent, and has a large fan following (including Godzilla: Final Wars director Ryuhei Kitamura) despite the generally perceived low quality of its first two films. Its new designs for the Millennium series was praised by many and ranked among fans as the best improvements to a daikaiju.

Posted by admin | February 26, 2009 - 8:31am | 4 Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Social Media

Big in Japan Publishing

Interested in having Big in Japan publish your application?

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Posted by admin | February 20, 2009 - 10:44pm | No Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Social Media

How about a GS1 standard for additional info?

GS1 is a global organization respsonsible for UPC/EAN codes for manufacturers.  We have been talking to various member organizations and there seems to be a desire for a standard for manufacturers to insert data into mobile applications like ShopSavvy based on barcodes.  Here is our idea:
It is our feeling that manufacturers might want to insert additional product information for use in mobile applications like our own ShopSavvy application.  We believe a simple API could be agreed on by all GS1 associations making it easy for all manufacturers to insert additional product data into mobile applications that return specific information about a particular product.

A REST API that could take a query with a UPC/EAN and return an XML formatted response.  ShopSavvy, and similar applications could make a simple HTTP request to the remote service and then parse the XML response on the device.

http://gr1.com/service/productquery.cgi?UPC=88222444448811

The XML feed could include:

<productinfo>
<partno>XX131</partno>
<title>Pink Widget</title>
<abstract/>The Pink Widget by ACME</abstract>
<text>This is some free form text. </text>
<url>http://www.acmecorp.com/</url>
<image> http://www.acmecorp.com/products/XX131/image.jpg</image>
<video>http://www.acmecorp.com/products/XX131/demo.mp4</video>
<audio>http://www.acmecorp.com/products/XX131/about.mp3</video>
<chat>http://jabber.acmecorp.com/products/XX131/chat</chat>
</productinfo>

In the case of the ShopSavvy application we would insert one or more of these NODES on our product information page.  Here is an example of the page:

If you haven’t seen ShopSavvy in action this video might help:

We would love to help you implement this idea as a standard for your member companies.  While it would be helpful to our application, we believe the entire industry would benefit from a standard XML format for manufacturer data relative to UPC information.  Please let me know who I might work with to move this idea forward.

Regards,
Alexander Muse
1+214.550.2003 office
1+214.558.1079 cell

http://www.biggu.com

amuse@biggu.com

Posted by admin | February 18, 2009 - 8:15pm | 6 Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Social Media

The official name of the Android is Mike!

Michael Martin asked me last week what the name of the Android ‘guy’ was – I told him we called him Mike.  He claimed the Google guys call him Droid or Bug Droid, but clearly he needs a name and since no one else came up with anything I am declaring his official name is now ‘Mike’.  Say hello Mike:

Posted by admin | February 17, 2009 - 2:59pm | No Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Social Media