We’ve just opened a new – very large and fast – server that will handle all our mobile site traffic. We’ve moved all the databases including customer stats over to the new servers and it’s all up and running.

How does this affect you?

• The customer hub won’t be available until the end of the weekend
• We have a lot of capacity so things should be faster than ever (and they were pretty fast before)
• We have a lot more layers of redundancy built into this server _and_ we have a backup server just in case so we’re covering for bad case scenarios

Everything else should remain the same — you don’t have to make any changes at this point but expect us to be asking you to change some IP addresses in the next few months.

Day Exclusions

DAM software has long accept a “day exclusion” date field, which allows events to be declared as only happening on a certain day of the week. For example, you may have a “Celebrate Mobile Apps” event (why not!) that runs from Jan 1 through Dec 31, 2011 but only happens on Wednesday or Fridays.

In previous versions of our software, we’d display that the event only happens on Wednesdays and Fridays, but we wouldn’t prevent the event from showing up as today.

We’ve now fixed that and future versions of all apps (and all current .mobi and BlackBerry apps have it) will properly respect the day exclusion rule: if it’s Thursday, that event will list as starting Friday (tomorrow) and never as today.

.Mobi Date

The Mobile (and BlackBerry) events calendar now break up the events calendar by day with headers. For example: San Luis Obispo County’s Farmer Market Calendar (also showing date exclusions).

Here’s the latest on our Events Calendar feature. In particular, check our our new date selector feature for our iPhone apps. If you’re already deployed with us and would like to upgrade, send us a note.

We’ve added a few more pages around the web that you may be interested in:

• Our Tumblr Page
• Our Facebook Page

You can see our Facebook Page there on the sidebar – while you’re there, make sure to Like It so you can follow updates.

This blog post will appear when we’ve switched over to our new website server.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Discover Anywhere Mobile to all our friends and customers across Canada and the United States. May your 2011 be prosperous and exciting.

David
Joanne
Julie
Jen
Tim

One feature we’ve been asked for more and more recently is a way to take “top level” tabs and place them all a subtab. For example, take all the social media tabs (Share My Trip, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook & Foursquare) and put them all in a single “Social Media” tab. The reason for this is to reduce clutter on the home page of an application.

Well, it’s done. This:

Becomes this:

This feature is available only on the iPhone right now, but we’ll be moving it to the .mobi, BlackBerry and Android versions soon.

We’re added a new Setting to our iPhone application – Update via WiFi-only.

When this setting is turned “on”, the application will only download data updates when the user is connected to a WiFi network. This isn’t so important for domestic visitors, but international visitors will appreciate being able to keep their roaming charges down. By default, the app ships with this option off but we can selectively turn this on for any destination.

This feature is only available on the iPhone version, but we’ll be moving it to the Android and iPad applications soon.

There’s an interesting article in Mashable about using QR Codes with small businesses. A few excerpts:

Here are a few ways that you can use QR codes to spruce up your small business marketing strategies.

On business cards: …
On marketing materials: …
In storefront windows: …
For freebies: …

Things to Remember
If you’re going to use QR codes for small business marketing, you’ll want to keep in mind that QR codes — and the apps that scan them — are still foreign to most people.

Yes, more and more people are starting to associate the codes with action, but never assume your customers will know what to do. Make it a point to spell out how to scan the QR code, and help instruct customers on where they can grab scanner apps.

Go read the whole thing – I’ve cut a lot there.

Stay informed of new products, clients, and other areas of interest through our online publication, delivered to your inbox each month.  In this issue, we introduce you to our new trip planning and kiosk product for the iPad and talk about how to get your visitors to your Apps.  To view the newsletter, please click here.

We’ll be providing a subscription form for this on the sidebar very shortly, but in the meantime if you want to be on the list, contact us in the usual way!

There’s a lengthy and informative article online at the CBC about QR Codes:

Mosaics of black-and-white squares, like tiny crossword puzzles, seem to have cropped up everywhere, from bus stop ads to newspapers to stickers on bananas.

The two-dimensional matrix codes are a way to encode information in print in a way that can be quickly scanned by a computer. The codes come in various forms, most of them using black and white squares, but some using hexagons or multi-coloured triangles.

One of the most popular is the QR Code, distinguished by the large squares in three of the code’s corners.

[...]

The most common use is to encode the address of a website in print so that cellphone users can quickly visit the site without typing in a complicated URL.

A QR Code used in this way becomes, in essence, a real-world hyperlink, a way to connect physical space to the virtual one. Tech giant Google has embraced the technology andFacebook has begun experimenting with using the codes as a way to link to user profiles.

The codes are especially popular in Japan where they’re often used in advertising — in magazines, on posters and even billboards — so consumers can learn more about a product or enter a contest. A movie poster might have a code that links to the movie’s trailer, for example. A for-sale sign on a house could link to its online listing.

Mail-order catalogues include codes for individual items, so customers can quickly order them through their phones. QR Codes on McDonald’s hamburger wrappers and soft drink cups link to nutritional information.

If you’re interested in QR Codes (and you probably should be), go read the whole thing.

Our iPhone and Android application can now import and display your destination’s YouTube channel. Clicking on the entries in the lists below will start the videos playing. If you’d like to add your channel to your applications, contact us through the usual channels.

Listing status reports from your destination’s Twitter accounts and Twitter Lists is now a “first class” operation on our Android version, bringing it up to speed with our iPhone and .mobi versions. All existing Android apps will be updated shortly with this improved feature.

Once you’ve created apps for your destination, it’s important that your visitors be able to find and download them! There are several paths through which your visitors can be directed to your apps:

• Automatic redirection from your website to your apps – a fully functional example with code of how to do that is on tools.discoveranywheremobile.com.
• QR Codes allows visitors to scan directly to your apps – more about this from Discover Anywhere soon.
• Links on your website inviting visitors to download your apps.
• Visitor Center posters/promotional material with straightforward instructions on how to download your apps.
• Star burst stickers highlighting apps in your current brochures, inviting visitors to download the apps; think environmentally – no need to print current offers/information; it’s right there in the palm of your visitor’s hand. For your next brochure run, highlight app downloading information.
• Issue press releases through your normal channels.
• Contact local newspapers, radio stations and television stations to disseminate promotional information.
• Create posters/promotional materials with app information for member locations (especially hotels). Go one step further – invite hotel concierge and front desk staff to a free information seminar that will turn them into app experts.
• Launch a campaign inviting local residents to download and rate your app on the iTunes store to create hype and boost your download numbers. Suggest that they use the apps social media functions (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to spread the word. Offer a prize for the best tweet of the week regarding one of your members or one of your events, and watch the buzz work for you.

Overnight we replaced all the software (except Apache) that’s running our client’s servers, to have the very latest and best of everything. If we did everything correctly, nothing has changed!

TUAW reports:

Blogger asymco did a little calculating from last week’s announcement numbers, and has hammered out a rough estimate of just how many of each iDevice are floating around the world today. According to Steve at last week’s event, there are 120 million iDevices total in the world, and we already knew from SEC filings that 59.6 million of those were iPhones. The current number of iPads in the hands of customers around world is 3.2 million, which (with estimates for the past month on both of those devices added in), means that there are likely 45.2 million iPod touches around. That’s 37.7% of iOS devices at large — not as big as it used to be, as the iPad’s arrival shook things up a bit, but still a very significant total.

Your apps need to work without a network connection, or you’re missing almost 40% of the iOS handheld market.

The same way you (probably) do on your “normal” website: Google Analytics.

Your mobile website is – in some fundamental sense – just another website and thus can support Google Analytics. You should probably create a new “website profile” on Google to ensure your mobile site analytics are independently tracked. Note that a few older mobile phones – especially BlackBerries – don’t have JavaScript turned on and thus won’t be reported in your results. So it goes.

For your apps, Google provides Google Analytics for Mobile. The reporting in mobile analytics is radically different from website reporting, being based on “events” which are essentially “stuff the user did in the application” – looking at the events calendar, looking at a particular listing, dialing a number (from within your app), etc..

Note that ongoing disputes between Apple and Google may mean use of mobile analytics may be curtailed at some point in the future – or it may not be.

There are other mobile analytics packages available, though at this point we have heard no compelling reasons for learning a new reporting system. Please send us an email if you’ve had a different experience.

A proper mobile website is all about getting visitors the information the need when the need it – in your destination. They’re looking for:

• listing information – hotels, restaurants, sites to see, etc.,
• event information – things to do right now, and
• coupons & special offers.

If your destination is big enough for a brochure, it’s probably big enough for a mobile website. People are going to be looking for information on the mobile web; it’s your job to make sure they get that information.

The reasons you should do an app also?

• it’s generally only a small incremental cost difference to do both,
• the experience of an app is way beyond what can be offered by a mobile website, and
• having an app provides additional marketing features, not the least of which is “buzz”.

“Why do I need an app, or a specialized mobile website – why not just make my current website friendlier for mobile users?”

Note: by “mobilizing your website”, we mean making your current website “look good” on mobile web browsers.

You should mobilize your current website – there is a chance someone is going to need to use your current website from a mobile phone. In fact, if your website is of a modern “correct” design, this can probably be done for a few hundred dollars simply by introducing an additional “CSS” file — ask your web designer.

However – and this is a big however – you really should create a proper mobile website. Why? Because your “normal” website is primarily for people wanting to find out about your destination, your “proper” mobile website is primarily for people who are in your destination.

When people are in your destination and looking for something to do, they don’t need to be sold on coming there – they’re there! Instead they need to get (from your “proper” mobile website):

• listing information – hotels, restaurants, sites to see, etc.,
• event information – things to do right now, and
• coupons & special offers.

Because they’re on a small mobile phone, they don’t have the time or patience to explore your site (even if it’s “mobilized”) to find this information – it needs to be front a center.

From Mobile Manifesto – we’ve quoted almost all of this article and highlighted the key phrases – although this is about the retail space, almost everything you’re reading here is applicable to the travel / tourism / hospitality sector also.

At eTail in Baltimore today, Abhi Dhar, CTO Walgreens provoked the crowd saying, “Consumers have changed because of mobile. Deal with it.”

[...]Retailer after retailer asked the question, “Should I do mobile web or native apps?” It was deja vu all over again. It’s the same debate mobile bankers had early last year. Abhi Dahl said “BOTH are very important.” I agree.

In mobile banking, we’ve found that banks must offer all three technologies: Mobile web, SMS, and native applications. Many retailers are still resisting hoping to avoid the fragmentation bankers have resigned themselves to.

David Siegel of 1-800-FLOWERS said, “Don’t try to change customer behavior, market to where they are.”

Customers look for brands using their mobile browser. Retailers should have a mobile site. Customers look for brands in their phone’s app store. Brands should have an app.

Companies resisting building a strategy addressing channel fragmentation are just wasting time and ceding market share to their competitors. Many retailers, including 1-800-FLOWERS said that mobile web accounted for over half their mobile sales. The many mobile web proponents I spoke with seemed to consider this evidence that mobile web is the “right” way to do mobile.

My opinion on this stat is that companies only offering mobile web are potentially missing out on 50% of mobile sales. Maybe these users would buy on mobile web if the native app weren’t available. Maybe. Remember, Apple had to create the App Store in response to overwhelming jailbreaking of the iPhone because Apple insisted mobile web was all we needed.

[...]As Jeff Dennes of USAA said, “If you don’t have enough [mobile] budget, get a bigger budget.”

Now is the time for companies to aggressively commit to mobile and emerge the market leader.

Customers are making decisions using their mobile phone. It’s up to retailers to decide to serve their customers.

“Why aren’t there more photos on my mobile site? Can’t we have interactive Google Maps on my mobile site?”

Your mobile site should be designed to be as usable as possible – it’s for people that are in the destination, not for people planning to visit your destination (that’s what your “normal” mobile site is for).

Because of the poor quality and slow speeds of mobile networks around the United States (and generally elsewhere), your primary design consideration must be getting data to users as quick as possible, and this means keeping things as small as possible by cutting out everything but the most critical data.

A secondary but important criteria is making sure your site runs on as many types of phones as possible, which means avoiding using advanced features of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This need will fade over the next few years as greater numbers of people transition from simple feature phones to advanced smartphones.

Finally: as a rule of thumb, if your mobile site “looks amazing” on a normal desktop browser, it’s probably a lousy mobile site.

No.

If you do charge for your app, do realize that sales for “paid” apps are only a fraction of free apps. Since every visitor using your app is more likely to spend money in your destination (and in particular more money on your members), that’s where the money is to be made.

If revenue generation is required to pay for the app, consider premium placements within the app, banner ads, and charging for access to features such as Twitter.

“If I create an app, how will people know it even exists?”

People will find your app – and your mobile website – through several different ways:

• they’ll find it in the “app store” via search. This means that not only should the name of your app has to be descriptive, but that you should also take advantage of keywords that people may using to find the types of experience your destination offers. If you use general keywords, there’s a lot more potential hits but there’s less likelyhood they’re looking for what you have to offer and there’ll also be many more apps competing for attention. The more specific the keyword, the less search hits you’ll get but the quality of those hits are likely to improve
• they’ll find it via your website. Make sure you mention your apps and mobile enable sites on your homepage (it’s amazing how many people don’t do this). If they’re coming from a smartphone, redirect them to your mobile website if you have one. If they’re coming from an iPhone, BlackBerry or Android and you have an app for these – make sure they’re told about this first!
• do press releases and normal marketing things to mention you have an app
• mention your app in brochures and visitors centres

Some useful advice for travelers, from the National Post:

If you go away on holiday this year, don’t end up like Calgary resident Jason Boutang. He used an application on his phone to translate phrases into French when he visited France last month. He also streamed a Calgary radio station for five hours.

The result? A cellphone bill of $7,763.70, according to [the] telecomblog.com. It’s easy to rack up huge roaming fees when you travel overseas because cellphone companies charge astronomical surcharges just to cross the border. But if you make a few preparations before you leave, you can keep your costs at a reasonable level.

“I recommend that if you go away and you want to use your phone, that you call your cell provider and get a travel package,” said Stephen Joyce, the CEO of the tourism technology company Rezgo.com.

Travel packages are a relatively new feature offered by cellphone companies. They charge different rates depending on the region. While the per-minute rate is still significantly higher than using your phone locally, it will offer travellers some savings. Otherwise, it could cost as much as $4 per minute for calls and $50 per megabyte for data usage, depending on where in the world you are. Text messages are also more expensive overseas, at about 60 cents per message.

Via story-mentioned @stephenjoyce and this topic has been previously covered here. Just as a general rule, even if you have a roaming package, don’t do streaming radio, watch videos and other bandwidth-intensive things on your smartphone unless you’re really sure you’re not going to be paying through the nose for it.

Unfortunately, this is an incredibly difficult – and expensive – question to answer, as not only are the numbers constantly changing, they’re only really known at a national level, generally months after the fact.

We do know however that tens of millions of iPhones, Android and BlackBerry smartphones are being used in United States, that sales are not only strong but increasing almost 20% every quarter, and that the demographics of smartphone owners skew wealthy and travel friendly.

From there you’ll have to extrapolate from the general population to who’s visiting your destination.