How mobile phones are saving local restaurants

At risk of losing their businesses in these tough economic times, some local restaurant owners have turned to mobile phones to find new life. In fact some struggling owners have turned, what looked like certain ruin, into thriving businesses with these simple yet ubiquitous devices.

Rosati's Pizza
Rosati's Pizza
Scott Fender, owner of a small business named , had been sending consumers in the area his menu and offers for over 5 years via a shared mailing campaign. However, as competition grew fiercer among restaurants in his market and as standard marketing methods grew more and more ineffective, he needed a new marketing channel to grow his business.

It was then that Mr. Fender started to solicit locals to get free coupons to his restaurant by signing up for his mobile phone list. According to ABC news, Rosati’s Pizza received hundreds of new customers after their first promotion.

Another local chain of donut shops sought to increase revenue by offering latte’s to customers. They also turned to mobile marketing and after their first campaign they reported a 21% increase in store traffic. However that wasn’t the most beneficial part of the campaign, the company boasted. They also reported that 17% of participants forwarded, or showed, the message to a friend. In research conducted after the campaign, 35% considered themselves more likely to buy lattes and coffee from them in the future.

What has most of these businesses shocked and delighted is the immediate growth that seems to follow these types of campaigns. For example, the Couch Tomato Café offered a valuable coupon, good for only seven days, to get new customers to subscribe to their mobile marketing list. That Friday they estimated that they “had about 70 extra orders compared to an average Friday.”

So what exactly are these local businesses doing? I’m sure you’ve seen advertised on television or heard radio companies asking you to text some word, or keyword, to a 6 digit number, or short code. The act of sending these keywords get you on a list that companies can then use to send you coupons through text messages.

In fact, some local restaurants have leveraged these lists in many other ways and have received spectacular results. One business disclosed that they use their mobile phone list to drum up business on slow nights or when they had tables that went unreserved. Others are holding weekly giveaways to keep customers interested and hopeful of winning prizes. They text out the winner each week and offer coupons to the rest. Some fast food establishments send out a coupon 30 minutes before lunch time. Others are allowing customers to text in their orders.

Perhaps the most creative use we came across is what one local business called “the customer is always right” poll. The owner sends a text to his list with a poll asking his customers what kind of specials or dishes they would like to see that week. He then takes that information and delivers what his customers want. “Polling customers this way is a brilliant maneuver,” says a local marketing expert “Not only does it deliver what the customers want but it gives them a sense of ownership and connection to the establishment. That kind of bond you just can’t buy.”

These mobile marketing tactics certainly haven’t been monopolized by small businesses. In fact, large corporations like Mc Donald’s, Pepsi, the Super Bowl, ELLE magazine, and many others have been employing these strategies for many years. We suspect that the recent development of low cost tools and services have fueled this expansion from large corporations to small businesses, like Rosati’s Pizza.

With the ever increasing popularity of mobile phones, and the recent explosion of smart phones like the iPhone and Droid, I’m sure we’ve just seen the beginning of this trend.

.

Sony Releases New Game Controller PlayStation Move

Sony's New Game Controller - PlayStation Move
Sony's New Game Controller - PlayStation Move

To catch up with the market’s leading game console Nintendo Wii, Sony has recently released its own contender PlayStation Move.

Several game consoles were showcased during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Among them, were the latest Nintendo’s Wand and Microsoft’s Natal game controllers.

After making the announcements, the spectators and press people were given the opportunity to try out PlayStation Move which slightly resembles Nintendo Wii’s wand, just a colored ball on top.

PlayStation Move is a magic wand-like game controller that uses motion detection controllers and an eye camera to follow body movements.

At the said Developer’s conference, Sony presented more games that the audience will be able to play using the PlayStation Move. The games included Move Party, Little Big Planet, and Sports Champions.

Being an entertainment giant, Sony has about 20 games in development and approximately 40 external partners publishers supporting the new device.

PlayStation Move will be out in the market in autumn and will optimally cost no greater than $100 (£47).

Click here to read more about PlayStation Move, Sony New Game Controller

.

Epson r2880 – Best Printer Review

Stylus-Photo-R2880

As a result of advancement of technology, Inkjet printers and other models of printers are widely commercialized in the market. In a computer, the one capable of producing hard copies from the computer is a task of a printer. From a wide selection or variety of printers from different brands or companies, the most recommended model of printer is the Epson r2880.

Epson r2880 has its trademark ability of precise color, in terms of pictures; it also has its Epson ultra chrome K3 trademark. The Epson r2880’s fine art canvass and roll or wide paper printing with its radiance technology that will give the picture smooth gradations is the particular competitive characteristic of this kind of printer.

The improved highlight and shadow effects or details of Epson r2880 is then newest feature it has among the other Epson printer products. Nevertheless the great thing about Epson r2880 is its ability to deliver a large quantity layout of photos, or those being used in the gallery displays.

Unlike other Epson series printers, the Epson r2880 is much more expensive than of the other Inkjet printers, however the quality of the pictures are all worth it, though you really need to spend much.

Click here to read more about Epson r2880, Latest Epson Printers

.

Lenovo LePhone-The Promising Best Handset

lenovo_lephone_official

Popular electronics company Lenovo announced, the Lenovo LePhone. A mobile phone initially intended to meet the needs of the fast growing Chinese market.

It is definitely attractive, with its 800 x 400 pixel resolution and its customized, Linux-based operating system, that it is currently the best handset in its category. The Lenovo LePhone is set to go head to head with iPhone. When it comes to the features, it has rear and front cameras, a removable battery and a 3.5 mm head phone jack located at the bottom of the handset.

Lenovo LePhone comes with a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. It has a surprisingly huge AMOLED touch screen display that measures 3.7 inches and has WVGA resolution. It also has Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth and has inherent support for WCDMA or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access 3G.

As you can see on the image above, the Snap-on accessory QWERTY keyboard has a centrally-positioned D-pad. There is a proprietary 9 pin socket for peripherals and for charging as well. The stacked buttons on the touch screen are very user friendly. At the bottom of the touch screen display is another touch panel instead of the usual physical controls.

Try the new lephone from lenovo for you to experience to power of this latest handset!

Click here to read more about Lenovo LePhone, New Lenovo Phone .

Talking Desktop- An Interactive Computer Speech Technology

This is Mary, a talking and listening desktop avatar which you can interact.
This is Mary, a talking and listening desktop avatar which you can interact.

I was fascinated with science fiction; especially those dealt with the future and portrayed how life on earth would probably be several decades down the road. The idea of robot-servants and of aerial vehicles that were the main means of transportation and that sent us on our way to work.

These days, talking desktop computers are so commonplace that they hardly elicit any reaction at all from consumers. They talk simply because they have software that converts text into speech through speakers or a headset.

The software system is called TTS or “text to speech.” The system has a front end and a back end. The front end is where the software received the input in the form of text and the back end takes these linguistic symbols and converts them into speech waveform that is heard from computer headset or speakers.

Two basic function of software front end, first is the function is the identification of numbers and abbreviations in the raw and assigns word equivalents.

Second, it assigns sound (known as phonetic descriptions) to the different words of the text, and then divides the text into phrases and sentences. To experience an interactive computer speech technology.

Click here to read more about Talking Desktop Computers, Talking Desktop Avatars

.