September 2, 2010

Will Apple take a bite out of concert tickets, thanks to Ping?

As all of the world has reported, Apple yesterday announced Ping, it's new social feature within iTunes 10. Now I know not everybody is excited about it for various reasons, even one person saying that Ping is like "having a social network in prison."

But sharing your musical tastes and preferences in other social networks / media like Facebook and Twitter have been awkward. Blip.fm and other services are okay, but none are integrated well. Ping itself is a little quirky but those wrinkles will be ironed out. So I definitely think that it begins to fill a void.

But now that the void is being filled, what's next?

I would be shocked if Apple does not get into the concert ticket selling business. Not only could they bundle together concert tickets with albums or songs, but Ping would then allow users to share with their "friends" which shows they are going to. It seems to me (with no factual basing what so ever) that fewer and fewer people are attending concerts. This could change if these shows became more of a social community event than an individual fan's experience.

Within iTunes, there could even be a calendar feature built that would show you upcoming shows and which ones your friends are attending. And with certain artists already on Ping, it could explode pretty quickly. They could update fans on the tour, post pictures of previous shows, etc.

Right now, Ping is isolated solely to iTunes, but that's going to change for it to be successful. If a customer purchases a ticket, iTunes will have to allow them to share that message their friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. It would be to Apple's benefit. Eventbrite, an event registration site, already does a great job of letting users promote their registration so it's not groundbreaking territory at all.

And next imagine an integration with Foursquare to where you check in at the show and get special privileges or badges while there, which would be huge with big festivals.

So it's yet to be seen if Apple will begin selling tickets to concerts, but they've laid the groundwork to begin doing so. And I know that not everybody is a fan of Apple, but it's hard to argue with their success at integration.

Anybody have Steve Jobs' phone number?

November 2, 2009

Have H1N1? There's an app for that (@FastCompany)

Reports about the new swine flu surfaced last March. By April, there was an App for that. Now there are close to 30 swine flu-related Apps in Apple's Store, the most recent from Harvard Medical School.

The HMS Mobile Swine Flu Center, released October 22, aims to be a comprehensive source of credible information about the H1N1 virus. This is compared to, say, Ecoshop's Swine Flu Detector app, which "identifies whether you are in the room with someone carrying the virus" and comes with a "for entertainment purposes only" advisory.

Harvard's swine flu app features educational videos and a quick diagnostic questionnaire that tells users whether their symptoms are consistent with swine flu. (My favorite item on the symptom check list: "You feel confused, or others say you are confused.") There's also a business add-on for employers that contains office preparedness tips and a "Learn" section that allows users to submit flu-related questions to Harvard professors. All in all, a handy resource, but the $1.99 price tag seems a tad high.

Current Clinical Strategies Publishing released a similar application last spring that only costs $.99. Their H1N1 Swine Defender app includes a detailed "diagnosis evaluator" that allows users to email their results (to their doctors, presumably). But most of the information provided in this app, and Harvard's, is available for free online. Do you really need to pay $1 to learn that you should stay home if you have a fever, vomiting, and sore throat? And if you want to track H1N1 infections in your area, why not give Google Flu Trends or HealthMap a try? Both are free.