The Mobile Marketing Blog - TellMyCell

The Best LTE Phones on the Market

In the cell phone world, ‘LTE’ refers to Long Term Evolution, and is widely considered the heir to the current “generation” of UMTS 3G technology, based on WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, and HSPA. 4G LTE is essentially the smartphone standard, but which LTE phones are the best? Let’s check out a few of today’s frontrunners: 

Samsung Galaxy S4

A very popular device following its launch, the Samsung Galaxy S4 remains a top LTE choice. While not as fast as other models, its speed is still comparable, and it also supports HD voice. HD voice is carried over 3G/4G networks depending on your provider, meaning you’ll always enjoy the best clarity. 

Moto X

Advertised with 4G LTE, the Moto X features a variety of “clever” Motorola apps and enhancements, as well as all day battery and stock Android experience. However, its camera has been reviewed as “inconsistent,” and the phone does not include a 64GB option or removable storage. Several updates have improved the phone’s speed among other things. 

iPhone 5S

A fast phone with a fingertip reader and a new camera, additional features include 10-hour battery talk time, excellent screen resolution, 64 GB built-in memory, and dual-core. An expensive smartphone, the battery has been described as occasionally “suspect.” 

Motorola Droid Maxx

The Motorola Droid Maxx features efficient connectivity, as Verizon 4G LTE speeds are “pretty decent.” Celebrated for its “huge” battery, the smartphone also includes touchless control and hands-free features. The display isn’t terribly sharp, however, and the phone only works through Verizon.  

Nokia Lumia 1020 

Known for its sizable 41MP shooter, the Nokia Lumia 1020’s LTE speeds are decent, which includes browsing the web. The device supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC and LTE bands 2, 4, 5 and 17, and the camera is utterly fantastic. 

HTC Droid DNA

Another smartphone exclusive to Verizon Wireless, the HTC Droid DNA features a sharp screen reviewed as the “perfect complement” to Verizon’s lightning-quick LTE network. Download speeds are crazy-fast, as are upload speeds. It’s also a good price and includes an ah-mazing camera. 

iPhone 5 

The iPhone 5 LTE from AT&T is as “fast as advertised,” with downloads described as “blazingly” quick. Believed to be the best iPhone so far, it features a high-quality camera and interesting UI features. It’s also quite expensive and includes an aging OS. 

Blackberry Z10 

The Blackberry Z10’s “modest” 4.2-inch display makes it one of the more portable modern smartphones, and it includes NFC features, which makes it easy to wirelessly transfer content between handsets and other enabled devices without the need for a network connection.

The 3 Best Smartwatch Apps of 2014

 

Awear smartwatches are helping people achieve more with less effort. And that, after all, is what everyone wants out of a new gadget. Even if you’ve not jumped on the smartwatch bandwagon yourself, you’re probably aware of the main functions like delivering alerts straight to the wearers wrist. 

What you might not have heard about is the proliferation of smartwatch-specific apps that are being developed at a rate of knots by the global tech community. You can order food, call a cab and keep an eye on your fitness levels, all straight from your watch. If that feels pretty futuristic, consider this: we’re only at the beginning. The wearable tech boom is in its infancy. Think about that as you check out some of these pioneering apps and you can only wonder at what we might achieve in a decade or two.  

Lyft

The rain is bucketing down and you’re stuck outside a restaurant that’s closed for the evening. All your friends have gone home and you don’t even want to get your phone wet to call a car. Simply tap your watch face, swipe up and hit ‘Start’; next, hit the Lyft app and wait for that familiar fuzzy pink mustache to pick you up. All updates on your driver’s progress are delivered directly to the smartwatch. It hasn’t been quite the runaway success of Uber, but Lyft is available in 64 U.S. cities and isn’t going anywhere. If you own a smartwatch, this app comes highly recommended.

Duolingo

Taking much of the stress out of learning a new language, Duolingo uses flashcards to keep you constantly supplied with unfamiliar words whilst balancing that against positive reinforcement for the words you do know. Images and audio work together to help people learn (to date) one of the following languages: Italian, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. Ideal for honing your skills on the move or in a crowded public place where holding a phone isn’t always practical, this is one of our very favorite smartwatch apps.

The Coffee App

A simple title for a simple messaging app, it orders your contacts according to who you communicate with most frequently. When you want to send a message, tap on a picture of that person and the app will list some of the most common messages you send to that individual. If you’ve had a history of showing up late for meetings, it may say ‘I’m running late’ (or else it’ll list whatever excuses you’ve concocted in the past for said lateness - also very useful!). You can resend or adjust one of those messages, and it’ll even prompt you to choose how late you will be. 

Best of all, the app works on a wide variety of devices, including smartwatches by Samsung, Asus and Motorola. With a few swipes, you can quickly send generic messages that won’t keep you tied up, hunched over a phone for minutes at a time. Simply glance at your wrist and swipe a few times until you’ve got what you need; by using intelligent message hierarchy technology, the app predicts what kinds of message you want to send with an accuracy that can be alarming.

Hip-hopify Your Text Messages

 

Replying to a question with a song lyric is a practice as old as songs or questions, whichever came first. Our brains are associative, and if a particular line of conversation brings to mind an appropriate couplet, it’s hard to resist using it in place of something more prosaic. And why even try to resist? 

This reference-happy attitude is what makes RapKey so satisfying. Designed by Babson student Jonah Kaner, it turns your drab, functional SMS responses into something a little hip-hoppier. 

Kaner has form in the rap world. A former digital strategist for some big-name artists (who remain nameless), the developer was familiar enough with the hip-hop lexicon that he would often send rap lyrics to friends as a way of making his texts more interesting. Realizing how easy it would be to automate the process, he teamed up with Ativ Patel and developed the first incarnation of RapKey in a matter of days. 

The turnaround was so fast because the app is devastatingly simple. All you need do is install the RapKey keyboard as an optional interface (after the QWERTY and Emoji keyboards that come as standard), scroll through a list of pre-loaded lyrics and select the most apt response to whatever you’ve just been asked. The message field will automatically populate and you can simply hit ‘send’. 

All messages are divided into categories. One category contains a collection of words that are entertaining and - vaguely - sensible responses to the question ‘where are you?’; another contains suggested ripostes to ‘what are you doing?’. Other categories include talking to your bae and money-related lyrics. Users can even submit their own suggestions for future iterations of the app.

Text messages and rap already had a burgeoning relationship before RapKey came along. Artists are finding it to be the best way of staying in touch with fans, another way of bypassing the traditional business hierarchy and a logical continuation of hip-hop's tendency to transcend norms. The two dialects - rap and textspeak - even share many commonalities, each favoring speed, slang and phonetics over standard English. They are a match made in heaven - a fact clearly not lost on the developers of RapKey.

And yet, by their own admission, the designers of RapKey have bigga fish to fry, yo. Not content with hip-hop lyrics, Kaner sees the potential for other musical genres, and even TV shows and movies that have their own standalone keyboard.

How to Prevent Apple Devices Sharing Everything

 

So you’re running the new iOS 8 on your iPhone. You’ve also got an iPad and an iPod touch, plus a Mac installed with Yosemite. You like the fact that each device can communicate – especially the fact you can let your iPhone ring through to other devices. Or at least, you liked it. Until the various ringtones going off on each device started to drive you crazy.

Luckily there are ways to stop such incessant device shaking and bleeping. If you want to stop your Apple devices from forwarding calls entirely, simply tap ‘Settings’ on the phone, then ‘FaceTime’ and flick the iPhone Cellular Calls to ‘off’. Should you change your mind later you can always enable it again in the same way.

Just want to disable the capability on one specific device? Simple. In order to prevent a call being passed to another iOS device, pick the device up, tap ‘Settings’ > ‘FaceTime’ and disable the switch next to the iPhone Cellular Calls entry. This will prevent that device from receiving calls picked up by your iPhone (as well as stopping you from making calls from that device via your phone).

Stopping call sharing is just as straightforward on Apple’s desktop devices. On the Mac, launch FaceTime and open the preferences. In the ‘Settings’ tab, disable the iPhone Cellular Calls option. As with an iOS device, this will prevent your Mac from making and receiving calls.

So how about Text Message Forwarding? It’s annoying when SMS messages get shunted from phone to laptop too right? This is the feature on iOS 8.1 that lets text messages received on your iPhone be passed to another Apple device. This particular feature is more configurable than iPhone call forwarding. To configure it, tap ‘Settings’ on your iPhone and then hit ‘Messages’. Next, tap the Text Message Forwarding icon and you should be able to see a list of devices linked to your Apple ID. Every device capable of receiving forwarded messages will be listed here. Simply enable the switch next to each device that you want to share SMS messages with – and disable those you do not.

The Lamborghini of Smartphones... by Lamborghini

 

Lamborghini has expanded its role in the world of tech with...a new smartphone? Believe it or not, the legendary luxury car company has created the Tonino Lamborghini Tauri 88, a smartphone with the premium materials, excellent specifications and Italian design synonymous with the Lamborghini brand. 

Steel and Leather

The Lamborghini smartphone is comprised of steel and leather, with choices including gold, black and plain, and blue, black, orange and brown, respectively. This mix of leather and steel is meant to pay homage to the luxury brand’s automobile origins. Designed in Italy (naturally), the leather includes beautiful stitching and the iconic raging bull logo, which was inspired by the Taurus constellation.

 

Tech Stuff

The phone’s technical specifications include a 5" screen with 1080p resolution, 64GB of built-in expandable storage, a Snapdragon 801 chipset with 3GB of RAM, and a 3,400mAh battery featuring some 35 hours of 3G talk time. The back of the Tauri features a 20MP camera, while the front includes an 8MP camera. In other words, the possibility for selfies is endless—there’s even the opportunity of posting on Instagram using the hashtag #TheLavishSelfie.

 

The Price

Lamborghini is planning to manufacture a mere 1,947 phones as a tribute to Antonio "Tonino" Lamborghini, the son of Lamborghini’s founder, who was born in 1947. Each phone costs $6,000, making it just a tad more expensive than other smartphone options.

 

Is It Worth It?

The Tauri is indeed a luxurious smartphone with a number of fantastic features in addition to the overall design. Yet as with most luxury brands, owning the phone is more about the name than anything else. Whether the phone will live up to its technological promises is yet to be seen, but at $6K a pop, it had better do all that and more. Indeed, Lamborghini is leading the way in terms of luxury smartphones, which used to be more about brand and appearance than what features the phone actually had. 

Sales begin late December 2014, just in time for last minute Christmas shopping. Gifting the Tonino Lamborghini Tauri 88 is one heck of a “last minute” gift, and one that many would be thrilled to take with them into the New Year.

Will the Tonino Lamborghini Tauri 88 appeal to consumers on both aesthetic and technological levels? Is it truly worth the hefty price tag? Time (and the holiday season) will tell.

Forwarding Text Messages from iPhone to iPad

 

OS X Yosemite isn’t a new-fangled name for Yosemite National Park, but rather the newest version of Mac’s operating system. Besides featuring a new look, the system offers a plethora of special features, including iCloud Drive file storage, streamlined design for Safari, an expanded notification system with widgets, mail and message enhancements, and more. Immediately available to all Mac users for no cost as of October 16, 2014, Apple is improving continuity between devices with this new system (although not, as a number of defectors have discovered, between Apple and Android devices...)

The new set of continuity features connect iOS devices to the Mac several ways, including allowing users to make and answer calls with Macs and iPads when such devices are forwarded through their iPhones. Macs and iPads are now able to receive SMS messages, including those sent from non-iOS devices. Before OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1 launched, iPads and Macs could only receive iMessages, which are part of the company’s proprietary messaging system designed for the iPad, iPhone and Mac.

SMS messages, usually intended for mobile phone communications only, are getting their turn thanks to OS X Yosemite, as users can send texts to any device via Macs and iPads. Now known as “Text Message Forwarding” in the Settings app, it was originally called “SMS Relay” before the launch of iOS 8.1. Being able to answer SMS messages and calls on a Mac is highly convenient, especially when a phone is charging or otherwise unavailable. 

iOS 8.1 and OS X Yosemite is required to forward messages and phone calls from an iPhone to a Mac or iPad. The Mac and iPhone also must be logged into the same iCloud account, and the WiFi feature needs to be off to allow for call forwarding.

Separate steps are (obviously) required to enable text message and phone call forwarding. For text message forwarding, users must turn on their Mac and iPhone’s WiFi. Note that SMS forwarding works even if each device is logged into a different WiFi system. The next step is to open the Messages app on the Mac and scroll to Menu Bar -> Messages -> Preferences -> Accounts -> Click on iMessage account -> and then check the boxes next to phone and email. If the email is not already listed, the user needs to click Add Email and enter an address. 

The email address is subsequently added to iMessage on the iPhone via Settings -> Messages -> Send & Receive. Note a registered email is necessary for enabling text message forwarding. To turn on Text Message Forwarding on the iPhone, the user needs to go to  Settings -> Messages -> Text Message Forwarding -> Turn Text Message Forwarding On. This results in a prompt requesting an activation code, which will appear in the Mac’s Messages app. The code is entered into the iPhone, and is required for every device the user wants included in the messaging service.

Any incoming message can now be answered on the Mac, and iPhone will automatically appear as a push notification on the Mac in the upper-right corner. Click ‘reply’ to answer a text, with messages also appearing in the Mac’s Messages app.

 

Marriot Appeals to Millennials with Mobile App

 

In most industries, trying to appeal to millennials occupies a lot of marketing resources. The hospitality world is no exception. If you assume the under-30s don’t pack enough of a financial clout to much concern hoteliers, think again: according to a recent Forbes article, millennials make up 50% of all hotel bookings. 

Even more surprisingly, they average twice the number of business trips as colleagues over 45, and they’re much more likely to order room service and take advantage of other perks (whether that spending should be attributed to the millennial whose name is on the card or the Gen X-er who’s probably footing the bill is another debate!).

According to Forbes, Millennials are not spendthrifts – but they are approaching the hotel experience from a different direction, and the big chains are doing their best to tune into this attitude. Marriott Hotels are leading the charge, tapping into – and in some ways helping to create – the idealistic Generation Y tourist. Their 2013 campaign ‘Travel Brilliantly’ fielded ideas about the future of travel from young people. Some of their suggestions have even been implemented.

The most notable of these millennial proposals to have reached fruition is the new Marriott Mobile app. It allows guests to check in and check out using their smartphones, and select which guest services they’d like to use during their stay. Marriott has also begun testing healthier vending machines. Partnering with Farmer’s Fridge, a Chicago startup, the hotel giants have installed a vending machine in the Windy City’s O’Hare branch. Instead of the usual array of candy bars and sodas, guests can grab a kale and quinoa salad, or fruit and yoghurt. Time will tell if healthier vending machines have a life beyond Chicago.

It’s not just regular guests that are benefitting from mobile apps. Business conventions who use the Marriott can now take advantage of Red Coat Direct, a meeting services app that allows event planners to change room temperature, order food and drinks, and request other amenities – all without leaving the meeting. It’s an executive butler service on a smartphone.

These changes are indicative of a hotel culture that’s evolving with the times. If you work in the hospitality industry and you haven’t yet taken advantage of the technology that’s helping the huge international chains grow bigger, it’s worth investing in a solid mobile campaign and a few bells and whistles of your own.

Wiper: The App that Lets You Delete Sent Messages

Privacy is a very big deal in the mobile age. All mobile devices are connected with the World Wide Web, and anyone using a cell phone with a data plan is subject to the prying eyes of the digital world.  Activities are tracked by businesses for advertising purposes, and everyone nowadays must consider that their actions may be viewed by government agencies – or worse, malevolent hackers. But there is a bit of hope, and its name is Wiper.

Wiper is an app that provides its users with the ability to delete unwanted text messages. This app is not the same as Slingshot or Snapchat, which simply make your messages disappear after an allotted period. With Wiper, everything in a given text, including photos, can be eliminated. Your sent messages, your received messages, even the text messages that were sent and received on other people’s devices. If you were in the conversation, you have the right to get rid of it with Wiper. The service they provide is exhaustive: they remove all evidence of your digital conversation, even from their own servers.

Wiper is simple. It functions like any other messaging system, allowing users to send and receive messages, photos, and videos. The Wiper app can also call the conversant, right from the text messaging console. It’s got a few fun features too. For example: since it’s automatically connected to YouTube, you can share videos just by clicking on them, right from the app. (Also, when and if you decide to “Wipe” a conversation, it gives you a warning – the app asks you to confirm that you want to delete everything.) 

The app was created by Manlio Carrelli, when he realized that consumers have little control over their data once it’s out in the cloud. Claiming that we don’t have much say over how long service providers retain our information, Carrelli set out to invent a service that gives that control back to the consumer. And Wiper does just that: with the push of a button, any text conversation you want to delete will vanish into thin air. 

The only caveat to Wiper is that it cannot prevent someone from trying to take a snapshot of the text messages. The developers at Wiper have been working to solve this too: users are alerted anytime someone attempts to take a screenshot of the conversation.

So if you’re the type of person to regret that 4 a.m. text, then consider the Wiper app. It’ll give you back the privacy you deserve.

How to Use the New iPhone Message Features

 

It’s a few weeks since the latest iteration of the iPhone landed on shelves (before promptly flying off them). Apple customers are still getting to grips with iOS 8’s raft of new features. The biggest talking point is the overhaul of Apple’s text message service. It’s much nicer to use – once you’ve adapted to the modifications. With that in mind, here’s our guide to getting the most out of the new Messages features: 

Quick Reply

Before iOS 8, text message recipients had to enter the Messages app to reply. The new quick reply feature lets users swipe down on an SMS notification.

Share Location

This one’s a beauty. If you want to let one of your contacts know where you are, simply tap ‘details’ in a message thread and hit ‘send my current location’. This will send a link to Apple Maps showing your current location. You can even set a time limit on sharing your current location. To switch it off, just head back into ‘details’ and select ‘turn off share my location’.

Share Multiple Photos

The Messages app now lets you send multiple photos simultaneously. Tap the camera icon and you can see up to 20 recent pictures. Just tap the ones you want to send.

This Video Will Self Destruct

If you like to send multimedia content without saving it, iOS 8 has that capability. To send a time-limited video file, just hold down the camera icon in Messages and record. To send audio, hold the microphone icon. The content will remain on each device for two minutes. This feature represents Apple’s nod to the popularity of Snapchat, but bear in mind that recipients can keep your content if they tap ‘keep’, so it’s a different beast and not to be used if you want deletion guaranteed.

Leave Group Messages

This is one of the features a lot of Apple users have been waiting for. Simply scroll to the bottom of the ‘details’ screen and tap ‘leave this conversation.’

Name Threads

To help you keep track of different conversations, it’s now possible to name group threads. In the message thread, just tap ‘details’ and swipe down to reveal a ‘subject’ section. Enter the name of the thread and away you go.

3 Geo-Targeting Techniques

 

The brave new world of geo-targeting opens up a wealth of creative possibilities for mobile marketers. This technology allows businesses to target audiences according to city, state, country, ZIP code or designated market area.

Geo-targeting is not just about locating the whereabouts of a specific device. Web searchers who type in a specific location can receive highly relevant information about that location, even if they’re thousands of miles away. If you’re researching specific regions for relocation purposes, this is obviously very useful indeed.

For marketers new to the geo-location game, getting to grips with the nuances can be daunting. Here, we look at three geo-targeting techniques that are effective and relatively easy to implement. Use these techniques as part of your AdWords campaign and your ROI will almost certainly improve. 

Bid Adjustments

Adjusting bids according to location is a surefire way to make your ad dollars go further. How does it work? Let’s say you run an events management company that hosts attendees from all over the United States. Calculate the percentage of attendees from each state, city or region. Use the EC % bid adjustments to match the list of attendees. Click here for more details on how bid adjustments work.

Keyword Only Geo-Targeting

Whether by design or necessity, many types of business don’t need to target an audience according to location settings – simply targeting the right keywords will suffice. For instance, a grocery delivery service may create separate keyword campaigns for different areas by targeting ‘grocery delivery Santa Barbara’ or ‘grocery delivery Reno’. This tactic works especially well for businesses that consumers know are limited to certain areas. In those instances, people are more likely to include a geo-modifier as part of their query. The beauty of this technique – as opposed to other forms of geo-targeting – is that no consent is required. With a strong SEO strategy, keyword targeting lets the customer come to you.

Lose the Chaff

By definition, geo-targeting specific locations also means excluding others. With AdWords, you can exclude areas that are a dead-end, business-wise. Retailers might choose to exclude towns where they don’t have a store. Exclusion is really about honing your campaign into a lean, mean, marketing machine with an optimal ROI. To execute a tight exclusion program, run an analytics report to see where most of your clicks are coming from, sort the locations by quality and conversion rate, and either exclude them or use the aforementioned bid adjustment method.