An interesting (slightly geeky in parts) analysis of the current state of iOS and Android - not just mobile but lots of interesting thoughts:
http://stevecheney.com/on-the-future-of-ios-and-android/
In particular I thought 7 and 8 - the stuff about iBeacon (in short: a kind of hyper-local, internal location-based technology) and Bluetooth 4 were particularly interesting to museums and museumy technologists. iBeacon is described on Apple Insider (http://bit.ly/11YVOlI) like this:
"Essentially, rather than using satellite signals to locate a device anywhere on Earth as GPS does, BLE can enable a mobile user to navigate and interact with specific regions geofenced by low cost signal emitters that can be placed anywhere, including indoors, and even on moving targets. Additionally, it appears iOS devices can also act as an iBeacon...
…acting as iBeacon, a user with an iOS 7 device in hand could trigger events around them, allowing them to, for example, turn on lights and unlock and open doors simply by signaling the user's proximity to devices listening for it via BLE"
Although a company called Adomaly (https://adomaly.com/) see a kind of ad-based Minority Report world (no, ta) I can imagine lots of exciting opportunities to use similar technologies to push on-gallery content to users as they wander our great institutions…
ttfn
Mike
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Mike Ellis
Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency: http://thirty8.co.uk
* My book: http://heritageweb.co.uk *
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