Car insurance based on driving style

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The “StreetOwl” mobile app, developed by the American company of the same name, enables drivers to match their car insurance to the way they drive and save themselves some money.

First of all, the app gives drivers some feedback on their current driving style and measures the risk factors. For every drive, the latest figures are recorded, a score is calculated and suggestions for improvements are made. As soon as drivers reach their targets, they can use the app to find the right and potentially most cost-effective insurance policies.

Source: streetwohl.com

Initiator: StreetOwl Inc., USA

Apps pay for themselves through location data

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The Seattle-based company Placed specialises in location-based analysis and has just launched “Placed Affiliate” to enable developers to make money from their apps even without advertising. Users of participating apps are asked to anonymously share their current location.

This information is then sold for a fee to partner companies for market research purposes. Whether or not the apps pass through the program depends on the quality of the shared data, which is evaluated in both a 7-day and a 30-day plan. In a pilot project, as many as 30 million locations were measured.

Source: placed.com
Initiator: Placed Inc., USA

Music Recognition Service identifies Fashion

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The music identification service Shazam has been updated to include a feature called “Shazam for TV”, which enables users not just to read cast biographies and trivia about TV shows, but also to access information about the clothes they wear. Shazam achieves this by working directly with TV channels. Viewers can thus record audio samples of participating shows on their smartphones to get information on specific scenes. If desired, the app can forward users to an online store where they can purchase the items they’re interested in.

Source: shazam.com
Initiator: Shazam Entertainment Ltd., USA

Adverts in tumblr microblogs

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Users of the photo blog platform Tumblr will soon have mobile advertisements inserted into their updates, and they will largely look like normal posts.

Users of smartphone apps will first see up to four spots per day, and the ads will also be displayed on PCs shortly afterwards. Participating partners are obliged to design their content in high optical quality, as simple ads are not required.

Parts of film trailers can be seen as GIF animations, while General Electric’s first ad features an animated GIF of a jet engine.

Source: staff.tumblr.com
Initiator: Tumblr Inc., USA