Author: Brian Lee

Review of StockTouch app

Posted on by Brian Lee

The folks at Visible Market invited me to try their new app called StockTouch, available for $4.99 in the Apple App Store. Its unique premise is that it “brings the power of data visualization and financial information together.”

I myself use E-Trade not only to buy, but for research. E-Trade gets the job done for the latter point, but StockTouch takes it to the next level.

From its graphic interface, you can see how the top 100 US and Global companies are doing in nine sectors (e.g. health, tech, etc.) over any given period of time (e.g. one day to five years).

I tested the app on an iPod Touch. I venture to guess that the interface would be better had I used an iPad, which I don’t own. For example, the main screen shows all nine sectors. After you tap on one of the sectors, that sector itself takes up the whole screen, but to show all of the companies at once (represented by little rectangles), each one is very small. If you have larger fingers or don’t have a stylus, you may find it hard to choose the company you want.

Still, the display is what makes StockTouch a keeper. I can’t think of a better way to quickly see how a stock is doing in the market. The color-coded system (green=gains, red=losses) shows you how a stock is doing based on its price, volume, against the S&P 500 or against its peers.

As weird as this sounds, I actually felt smarter using the app. It’s wonderful to be able to interpolate and even extrapolate trends in a stock’s performance. Plus, you can get all the latest news about the stock.

One other thing: you can also mark stocks as favorites, so that they are highlighted in each sector. In a future update, I’m hoping that you can just view all your favorites together at once.

Here’s a video from the StockTouch website:

Starbucks’ “Magic Cup” is Back

Posted on by Brian Lee

This past November Starbucks launched its first large-scale augmented reality ad campaign. It released an app called “Magic Cup” that allowed users to point their smartphone’s camera at images on Starbucks’ holiday-themed cups. The images then came to life on users’ phones as animations that could be interacted with. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Starbucks has released an updated Magic Cup app to go along with their Valentine’s Day-themed cups. Click here for a youtube video demonstration of how the app works.

I’m not much of a Starbucks fan but when I read about the Magic Cup app on a marketing blog back in December, I decided that I needed to check it out. I brought my Starbucks cup home, downloaded the app, and focused my iPhone’s camera on the image of a boy on a sled on the cup. After a bit of adjustment, an animation of the boy riding down a hill on his sled appeared on my screen. I was also able to interact with the image by touching the sledder to make him do flips.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the Magic Cup app. I thought it was a great way for Starbucks to bring a bit of holiday cheer to their customers, and for customers to interact with the brand in an unconventional way. I’m happy Starbucks has decided to expand its Magic Cup ad campaign to include Valentine’s Day. Hopefully it’ll continue to think of creative and possibly more useful ways to integrate augmented reality into its products and marketing.

Interested in how other companies are utilizing augmented reality to interact with their customers? Check out Mashable’s “10 Awesome Uses of Augmented Reality Marketing.”

Lonely heart-shaped pizzas club

Posted on by Brian Lee

There is no way I am not going to come off bitter right now.  But Valentine’s Day is the worst.  I know; a single girl hating Valentine’s is so original.  But even if I was currently attached to another person I’d stand firm with my assessment. It’s the worst, breeding nothing but disappointment.

I won’t say something cliched like Valentine’s is a made-up holiday meant to encourage consumers to spend.  I don’t think that is such a bad thing?  First of all, aren’t all holidays inherently “made-up?” We have to choose to observe something as a holiday; so we have to make it up. And secondly, as far as I am concerned, the only interesting thing left about Valentine’s is the commercialism.

Unlike other holidays, nothing seems to be off limits with Valentine’s Day.  Advertisers can tie any product into the season by shaping it like heart, painting it red, and slipping in the word love.  Valentine’s advertising is a fantastic train wreck of sentimental and tacky.  Everyone seems to try out a V-Day special, ranging from the obvious jewelry stores and chocolatiers to the absurd fast food chains and credit unions. Because nothing says I love you like heart-shaped pizzas or interest rates.

Now that I think about it, I’m not bitter about not having a Valentine at all!  I am actually a little relieved. At least I know I won’t be surprised like with this Pizza Hut proposal.  If my hypothetical boyfriend ever thought having Pizza Hut furnish our engagement, I’d have to seriously reevaluate my life decisions. Instead, the only decisions I have to think about are what I am going do for the next holiday, St. Patty’s Day! And unlike Valentine’s Day, it never disappoints!