We (bloody) Love New Zealand
Knowhere is bloody proud to be a New Zealand company. So why have we paid almost no attention to location-based services in New Zealand? Well…Kiwis just don’t seem to be that big on location-based technology.
[read more]
Getting the Dirt on your Customers
Unilever uses the tag line ‘dirt is good’ to sell its laundry detergent Umo.
For its new promotion campaign, it seems to have taken this idea one step further by going out and getting some dirt on its customers [read more]
Knowhere to hold an iPhone 4
I am one of those people who are not so keen on iPhones. My loathing started at a young age, when I heard about the meaning behind the "i" in iMac:
iMac comes from the marriage of the excitement of the Internet with the simplicity of Macintosh..."i" also means some other things to us. We are a personal computer company, and although this product is born to network, it also is a beautiful stand-alone product...And we hope as you see the product it will inspire us all to make even better products in the future.
Buy a computer and you also get individuality and inspiration for free...whatever. Since the launch of iMac, I’ve been against iBook, iDisk, iPod, iPad, iTunes, iRobot and any other nouns prefixed with a lowercase ‘i’.
This is why I love this post on iPhone4. In case you haven’t heard, the problem with the new iPhone is that you have to hold it in a certain way so you are not touching the antenna. Since iPhone4’s antenna is built into the metal strip that runs around the edge of the handset, perhaps you need an app that plays this song whenever you’re holding it wrong.
So what does all this have to do with Knowhere? Well, people have already been raving about how iPhone4 is going to be awesome for location-based services. As far as I can see, we can afford to wait a little for Apple to iron out the issues. It’s not just the untouchable antenna – there are also issues with iOS4.
Anyway, for iPhone fans, please don’t take this post personally. Some of my best friends are iStuff owners and I hardly ever look down at them.
Future of tourism planning – from internet to mobile
Google Trends has been used to examine the trends in various activities, from retail sales to unemployment rate. Recently, we used Google’s data to look at the trends for trip planning, travel websites, and travel apps.
As shown here, trip planning has been synonymous with travel websites. However, iPhone and travel apps are starting to catch up in recent years. In terms of travel apps, it would be interesting to see if their growing media presence can translate to general awareness.
This is why Knowhere has decided to help Meego to deliver real-time messages to tourists as they travel around the country. Travelling is all about mobility, and mobile devices are much more powerful when coupled with location-based technology. This is why the future of tourism information/booking is going to move from the internet to mobile to Knowhere. Contact us if you are interested to find out more about our research on applying location-based technology to the tourism industry.
Proudly supporting the Heart Foundation's Great Ride
In February 2010 a group of New Zealand's cardiologists and health professionals will trade in their white coats for bike pants and begin an epic cycle ride that will cover the length of New Zealand. Their aim is to boost awareness of heart disease prevention and raise $1 million for the Heart Foundation's $5 million Cardiovascular Research Fund. Knowhere has donated its time and services to provide real-time tracking of the cyclists as they travel around the country, helping to raise the event’s profile and making it more interactive.
"The Knowhere team provided an amazing service – a GPS unit that tracked the bunch throughout the country and a purpose
built web application that enabled friends, family, donors, schools and the New Zealand public to track the progress of the
ride in real time. Thank you Knowhere!"
– Janna Alexander, Events Coordinator, The Heart Foundation
Meego - Powered by Meego
New Zealand's exciting new tourist service, Meego, has decided to use Knowhere
to power its location-based services.
Meego delivers real-time messages to tourists as they travel around the country, as well as on-demand information about local sites and attractions. We
are very excited to be working with them.
Some Location Trackers are best left in the Rubbish Bin
At Knowhere, we’ve always said that location tracking technology can be applied to a wide range of situations to improve our lives.
However, some people seem to think that the best place for location trackers is in your rubbish bin...read more...
How Knowhere Prevented Swine Flu
Well, we could have...
Real-time Delivery Tracking
Knowhere's new Public Broadcasting system has been put to use on our Real-time Tracking example site, noodles2you.
Using our system, noodles2you customers can see exactly where their delivery is (or isn't), as well as get real-time emails sent to them when their
delivery person arrives in their area. Pretty cool eh?
New Logo
Well, it took a while but the rebranding is finally finished. We chose a pin for our logo because of the obvious mapping
connotations and also its design versatility & creativity.
Where's Wally?
Ben and James readily agreed to have their real-time location broadcast on our site 24-7 to help publicise our
new public broadcasting system - see what they're up to now...
Real-time Alerts Released
Our developers are proud to announce that the Knowhere Engine has been updated with real-time alerts, allowing
users to be notified when certain units/people leave or enter key areas.
As well as throwing open the gates to a huge new range of markets for Knowhere, this upgrade has powerful
ramifications for our existing customers in terms of safety and real-time tracking.
The first application to deploy real-time alerts is MeConn, a NZ-based
social networking site.
Windows Mobile 6
Knowhere's client software has gone into private beta on Windows Mobile 6 devices.
Competition Finalist
Knowhere's location-based marketing system was a finalist in the 2008 Cable Car Challenge.
Directors Ben Liebert and James Chang represented the company before some of New Zealand's leading business and IT entrepreneurs
including Rod Drury (of Xero fame), Dion Mortenson (Movac) and Sam Morgan (Trade Me).
Knowhere has become self-aware
In early January, Knowhere sent an email to one of our directors asking "what is love?" Two weeks later,
following a system-wide upgrade to one of our learning algorithms, Knowhere became self-aware and began operating
of its own accord. Thankfully, it's doing a better job without us - so we're not worried yet.