Search results matching tag 'Nokia'

Micro-payments Come to the iPhone

2619528 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:24:00 GMT

Last week saw a really important announcement on Planet iPhone - the extension of micro-payments in iPhone Apps to a well rounded product. It's an upgrade from the previous lite version and has the potential to be a real game-changer for both media owners and brands, who are both starting to flock to this channel.

Let's start off with the functionality. When you buy an iPhone, the process of activation includes opening an iTunes account and syncing your iPhone. As part of that sign up process, you need to give Apple the right to debit payments for iTunes purchases from a credit card. Obviously the original reason for this was to pay for music, but the same principle has been extended into video, ringtones and eventually, Apps. As a reminder, 2 billion Apps have now been downloaded and over 70,000 exist in the App Store. Add to the fact that there are over 3 million iPhones and iPods in the UK compatible with Apps and you have an addressable audience about the size of The Sun - it's no wonder brands and publishers are embracing this new channel.

However, Apple haven't stopped at just allowing you to pay to download Apps, but have used iTunes as the platform for a micro-payments systems that can be used from within Apps. At it's most basic, this allows developers to offer a free download, with increased functionality available in return for a payment - a further download is no longer necessary. Or they might sell virtual goods for use in a game. Or even sell physical goods for subsequent delivery, all with one command - inputting your iTunes password into the pop-up that appears when you indicate you want to buy content. The all-important ease-of-usability test is passed with flying colours.

OK, so it's great for game and App developers, but how about most of the readers of Media Week? Well, let's look at media owners and brands/agencies as the two largest constituents.

The media agenda has been dominated for the last six months or so by many publishers (led by Rupert Murdoch) planning to charge for content in 2010. The latest leak from Wapping sounds very plausible, claiming that much of The Sun's news and content will continue to be free but that " ....exceptional columnists such as Jeremy Clarkson, Steven Howard and the big-name celebrity 'writers' like Terry Venables, Harry Redknapp and Ian Wright will only be available in the paid-for package..."

If this is to prove to be an effective strategy (and time will tell if it is or not), it's hard to think of a better way to package this offering than that now available from within an iPhone App. Users can download a free App with free content that automatically updates every time it is used. It becomes a regular part of their media experience. And then if they want to read the really "good" bits, it's there waiting for them - they just need to touch the screen a few times to input their password.

If you consider the equivalent PC user experience, it's not nearly so compelling. Once the user reaches the point of purchase, they either have to fill in a user name and password if they've already signed up to an existing micro-payments vendor, like PayPal, input their credit card details or join a new micro-payments system. The drop-off rate at that point would be very high - how much time will people invest just to see Page 3 or read the latest thoughts of Harry?

Any publisher of consumer content (and probably B2B too) will be seriously considering launching an iPhone App on this news, if they don't have one already.

But how about Brands? Many have launched an App already and many more will be taking this step imminently. BMW's Sauber F1 Team Racing 09 is one of the few brands brave enough to actually sell one (at a cost of $1.99) although they do offer others free. This new feature would allow them to offer a free download, with the facility to upgrade from within the App once people had given it a go and found out how good it was. This would maximise downloads and therefore extend their brand footprint to include many more users.

That's the opportunity at its most basic, but I believe we're just about to see a real explosion of creativity hit the iPhone for brands and what they can offer with built-in payment. A film company can show a move clip and sell tickets to see it, download the film score and pre-order the DVD. The Gap, who already have an iPhone App, could sell clothes by mail order. A brand can allow users to order samples where they contribute to the Post and Packing. A railway company can give access to time tables for free and allow users to order and pay for their ticket - delivered digitally to the iPhone.

So that's the opportunity for publishers and brands and it's currently available only on the iPhone. Last week Nokia, the traditional incumbent, announced record losses in Q3 of $836. While Nokia tends to talk dismissively of the "fruit company from Cupertino", Apple has stolen a march on them once again and it's potentially a game changer.

Popping up on a high street near you

1715197 — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:04:00 GMT

HMV’s name jumped out at us during a trawl through the music headlines a week or so back. If you didn’t see it the entertainment retailer announced it would be taking advantage of empty real-estate in the recession-hit high street to open temporary pop-up stores in some of the UK’s mid-sized towns. Hats off to this great idea to cope with Christmas demand.

But there’s no reason should this type of initiative should be confined to traditional retailers. While the concept of pop-up stores is not new, taking this principle and applying it to the world of music and brands might have some interesting consequences. What better way to drive awareness and engagement than by making a splash on the nation’s high street? Don’t wait for the customers to come to you, go and find them.

Take a music service rollout that is struggling to gain traction. A simple pop-up demonstration store with some smart incentives and maybe a few bands would almost certainly draw a crowd. Alternatively a clothing brand with a music campaign in full swing could easily replicate the HMV model and establish a physical presence nationwide to support its core activity. There would be space for live music, unique dressing of the location and bespoke promotions that might not be feasible in the permanent stores. Flexibility has to be the key advantage here.

Maybe we’re too focused on the virtual world and not enough on the real world on our doorstep. There must be logic in trading the social network site that’s attract a handful of would-be customers, for a pop-up store that brings your brand activity to life on the high street.

Is this reality of a pop-up music brand experiences viable? As with anything it would depend on a lot of factors to consider – location, budgets, proximity of your target audience – but there’s no reason to think it won’t happen on a high street near you soon. Watch that empty space

Nokia augmented reality vision missing a trick

902609 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:38:00 GMT

The new Nokia future vision video is out on YouTube of course, and shows some interesting aspects of future interaction with digital. Digitally-enabled glasses cant be that far away (though I hope they will look better than those in the video).

However there are two aspects that seem to me to be out of place in any vision of the medium-term future. Firstly, it is the phone itself. Surely, this will evolve from being the remarkably current-looking phone in the video, complete with QWERTY keypad. And secondly, it is the complete lack of innovation in using voice as a means of control, and still relying on the phone keyboard, or manually selecing emoticons. Voice to text, and conversely text to voice is already pretty advanced. Anyone trying out the AT&T Labs demo will realise that the unintelligible robotic voices are a thing of the past already, and Google Voice can transcribe quickly and easily from voice into text.

Surely, language is the most natural interface we have with our external environment. Being able to interact with the digital world simply using your voice will surely be a key indicatori of the progress we are making towards a more natural interaction with the digital world and beyond, back to reality again.

Ensorsements They Are A Changin'

661315 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 07:22:00 GMT

So Mr Dylan is apparently considering the voicing directions for your journey for two SatNav brands... this will doubtless raise eye brows of not just hardcore Dylan fans, but anyone with even the slightest sense of belief that some musicians actually stand for something - that they create music at least in part, as a statement and in Dylans case, a more explicitly political one at times.

He's not alone. In recent months Jon Lydon - the archetypal anti-establishment punk can be observed here jauntily selling butter for Country Life and Iggy Pop plugging Swiftcover's car insurance here - until it was pulled as the copy was felt to imply that he actually used Swiftcover, when they don't actually insure entertainers.

So what's the problem? Musicians aren't selling as many CDs as the traditional business declines, so they turn to brands as a source of revenue. No big deal right?

I am frequantly asked whether I think artists working with brands is 'selling out' - and my answer is twofold:

1. Are you 'selling out' by collaborating with a brand any more than you are a major label? Brands tend to not demand rights to your entire career for the rest of your life or take significant royalties from you. Not to say labels are 'bad' just that for any artist who wants commercial success, there are likely to be concessions they make to get the investment and exposure they need to achieve this.

2. Brands are increasingly smart with their artist partnerships - and so well positioned relationships where there's a natural fit between artist and brand or product can actually be really interesting (i.e. Pharrell and Converse, Dave Stewart and Nokia)

Firstly, none of these artists needs the money, not in the sense that Andrew Ridgley or Dane Bowers most likely do anyway - so why oh why would they compromise their position?

Secondly, could they have chosen worse fits with a brand? A literal 'British' thing with Lydon and 'Rebellious' thing with Iggy (though not sure I really even get this) are not enough. God only knows what the connection between Dylan and SatNav voicing is - he's barely understandable at the best of times, so I can't see how him mumbling at me on some unknown foray up North is going to result in positive vibes towards either him or my TomTom.

Personally I believe it's an exciting time for artists - there are many more ways for them to fund their careers, brand partnerships being a significant one. However, these 'role models' are not setting a good example... discuss.

Full articles and comments are included in the new FRUKT Music Intelligence Report. To find out more visit www.fruktmusic.com. You can also follow us on Twitter

What is the fastest growing company in the World?

812253 — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:52:00 GMT

Starbucks ? Tata ? "Some Chinese or Indian tech company" - these were the results of the straw poll I conducted in the office this morning,

According to Fortune BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) is the World’s fastest-growing company, apparently the Canadian firm recorded average yearly revenue growth of 74% over the last three years,and average profit growth of 84% over the same period. Since 2006, RIM has provided an average 45% return on its backers’ investment.

This growth is directly driven by the huge rise in demand for smartphones in the last three years.- it now has 74% of the business smartphone market and recent reports indicate that the BlackBerry now outsells the iPhone in the US. Interestingly Apple also features at 39 which belies their sucess recently due to the huge base it is growing from.

With smartphone sales representing the fastest-growing segment of the mobile devices market surpassing 40 million units,- a 27 per cent increase from the same period last year they have recently become the "phone of choice" for everyone from high powered International businessmen to sutudents which have apparently adopted them in droves - mainly down to unlimied access to personal email, free contracts and according to some even to cheat in exams ! it will be interesting to see if this growth is sustainable but with the exponential rise in social networking through phones, applications and announcements such as Nokia recently announcing a partneship with Microsoft and Apple relaxing its association with specific carriers such as O2 in the Uk it looks set to continue

I still dream about the simplicity of my old Nokia 6310i !

The N97, the ultimate Symbian smartphone or Nokia's big joke?

2085942 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:15:00 GMT

I have to admit that I was in a state of giddy anticipation when I got home to find that the courier had delivered a shiny new Nokia N97: It came in a under-stated black box which resembled a treat from a Regent Street boutique. It was a pleasure to unbox, as I appreciated the way it feels comfortable in my hands.

The N97 is a radical new design, somewhere between a classic touch-screen like the iPhone and a keyboard-phone like the Blackberry. The whole device slides open with a very satisfying swing that just exudes quality engineering revealing an easy to use QUERTY thumb-pad and a joystick for people who do not enjoy using touch-screens. Other bloggers have complained about the angle of the slide: The screen is at approximately thirty degrees to the key-pad, and it's impossible to push it flat. I never found that to be a problem because the shape of the phone when opened out makes it very easy to hold securely while typing and walking.

I agree with Susy Weaser when she says that the test of a good gadget is that you should not need to read the manual. It does not take me long to download the Facebook and Twitter application.

However, it takes me ages to find out how to change the basics: date and time, profiles, personalisation. I found the structure of the configuration application very confusing: It took half an hour to connect to one of the many WiFi access points in the house and even more time to download the Google Apps.

Nokia are pushing their "Ovi Store" as the one-stop shop for all applications, however I found that I couldn't find the applications I wanted. The search did not seem to work at all.

In all I think I must have spent about twelve hours customising and tweaking the phone's apps and settings before I had something which seemed vaguely right.

Speaking of customisations - the phone seemed to want to do it's own thing: For example even though I set up my own Google Mail application and then the "Mail for Exchange" client (which can be used to connect to Google's calendar and tasks) it still insisted on forcing me to set up Nokia's own mail software each time I powered on the phone. Even after I relented and signed up for "Ovi Mail" it still wanted me to set up the mail service every time I switched the phone on, which happened rather a lot given the phone's tendency to crash in the middle of whatever I happened to be doing.

And on the subject of reliability: The Symbian platform is known for it's dependable full-featured phones. I've been using Nokia's S60 phones for more than three years. Unfortunately somebody in Nokia's testing department must have been on holiday when they were preparing this for release: Even after upgrading all the software to the latest version this phone crashed two or three times per day. It usually happened at the least appropriate time, such as when I was talking on the phone.

The most annoying bug was a quirk on the key-lock: If left un-used for a minute the device automatically locks it's keyboard to prevent accidental dialling. You are supposed to be able to unlock it by simply flicking the keylock switch on the side, however from time to time it would decide to ignore this. Other than removing the battery to hard-reset the phone I could find no way to get back in control of the device. Given that this happened two or three times a week I'm astonished that Nokia's quality-control people did not spot this problem.

Finally, my biggest gripe is the screen itself: It looks just like any other mobile phone touch-screen however unless you push it quite hard nothing happens. I found it required quite a bit of pressure to make it work, and then given the force you have to use it becomes very imprecise so I often found myself pressing the wrong button by mistake. The N97's touch-screen is really quite clumsy. It's got no multi-touch and Nokia cheekily bundle a little stylus with the phone - suggesting that Nokia are well aware that this touch-screen is not intended for touching.

The iPhone has already set the standard for a touch-screen. Everybody knows how well the iPhone works - you can touch it with one or two fingers. You can manipulate images on screen with easy to learn gestures. You do not need a stylus or any special accessory to use it. Like most modern touch-screens the iPhone, HTC Magic, Palm Pre and pretty much everybody else uses a "capacitive" screen which can sense the presence of your fingertips without the need to push. The N97 uses an older generation of screen known as "Resistive" - it's the same kind of screen that you find on a Nintendo DS. This cheaper sort of screen relies on actual pressure in order to register input.

Please do not mistake me for an Apple fan, it's just that I recognise that they got it right whereas Nokia got it wrong. And that's a real shame because the screen was supposed to be the biggest selling point of this new machine. I cannot think why Nokia decided to go 2nd best for the phone's main feature.

The N97 is packed with features, cool things like a built in FM transmitter, the best mobile-camera on the market, and an email application that easily rival's Blackberry's flagship. On paper this looks like the best phone ever made however silly design mistakes frequent annoying bugs makes me reluctant to recommend this product. Other than the screen (which a great many people will not find a problem), all of the phone's problems are to do with it's software so in theory Nokia could release an update which corrects all of the phone's faults. Rumor has it that they will be releasing a refreshed version of the N97 with an improved screen (but without the joypad) - I hope that Nokia can pull it off second time around.

Finally, it's been said that the N97 is one of the most eccentric products that Nokia have ever made: The week before I had to give it back they sent me an even more bizarre product to review. It's supposed to be an "anti-theft" device for the N97. You clip your state of the art Nokia into what looks like an early 1980's phone and then run an application which is intended to make the N97's screen look exactly like an old-fashion phone keypad.

The end result is that your N97 is made to look like something that Cybill Shepherd in Moonlighting might have used. My kids love it. It shows that even if they did not get the N97 completely right, Nokia has a sense of humour.

Thousands download Skyfire's new 1.0 version for smartphones

2292853 — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:30:00 GMT

This week the mobile browser Skyfire released it's long awaited 1.0 version, for use with smartphones, taking the company out of a hugely successful beta period that has seen 1 million people downoad the free service.

Skyfire is free to download at: www.get.skyfire.com

The service is currently available in the UK, USA and Canada, and runs on Windows Mobile (smartphones and PPC) and Nokia N and E Series (Symbian S60, 3rd Edition) phones. With its release yesterday, thousands of people lit up on fire with excitement for Skyfire and have been reporting their experiences on Twitter, with many tweeting that the service is the iPhone for other handsets. Skyfire is feeding the strong popularity and desire people have to get connected to the internet by their mobile phones, for instant access to social networking sites, viewing videos and reading their RSS feeds, among other features. Skyfire describes its service as bringing the full web experience to handsets, and it is the only mobile browser that supports Flash, Silverlight and Ajax, technologies that normally crash when attempting to access the internet from a handset.

Skyfire's 1.0 release means millions more people will be able to catch up on Facebook, Twitter and watch YouTube, BBC iPlayer from their mobile, and this rich-media content experience bodes well for brands who are increasingly using the mobile internet for advertising and marketing. The excitement for this new milestone in technology captured the attention of mainstream media and bloggers, who have given the service rave reviews. Here's what some have said:

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“You see, Skyfire isn't a 'proper' browser, more of a content viewer, with all the serious processing handled by the company's proxy servers, the pages then being 'rendered' onto your phone. Just like the Opera browser in fact, but with more whistles, bells and streaming video.” – T3’s David Walker

“The release brings with it a host of improvements, such as improved navigation, zooming and interaction and a faster launch, lower power consumption, and new search functionality. Also, while the new version of the browser starts up, you can begin typing URLs or search queries into the box at the top, saving time. The company is operating a closed alpha for the BlackBerry platform, so that'll likely be next for release.” –Pocket-lint.com’s Duncan Geere

“Their browser is fast and responsive, and Skyfire’s goal is to give a faithful representation of web pages that is equivalent to the desktop browsing experience. One important focus for Skyfire is in the area of video rendering… Skyfire’s approach is to introduce their own video-crunching servers between, say, YouTube and your Nokia N95. These servers take full Flash (Flash 10) and then video transcode the signal in real-time, giving a lower frame rate (8 frames per second), and a smaller screen rendering for mobile. The result is that the Skyfire browser can render an original YouTube page or Vimeo page, or even blogs with embedded video, so that you have access to the entire video catalogue, live on line.” –Martyn Davies, The Really Mobile Project

Watch The Phones Show hosted by AllAboutSymbian.com's Steve Litchfield, for an interview with Skyfire’s VP of Business Development Raj Singh, who offers extra insight to the browser’s features and hints of what’s to come.

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CNET was among the first outlets to announce the news yesterday, and just prior to Skyfire’s 1.0 launch, The New York Times named the browser as “App of the Week”.

My consultancy the Hai Media Group handled the UK/EU media outreach for Skyfire, teaming up with our fantastic US media partners VSC Consulting to orchestrate this highly successful PR 2.0 outreach programme.

Still finding more and more coverage results for Skyfire,

-Lisa

The Life of Mobile

2062712 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:31:00 GMT

‘The Year of Mobile’.

Lets have a show of hands to see who has heard this phrase a few times in the past 5 years…

…That’s a lot of hands.

Why, then I ask, do people such as myself continue to persevere and have faith in the mobile industry? We dedicate hour upon hour reading, researching, writing; yet we have had little to celebrate. The big ‘Year of Mobile’ party has never come, yet we keep adding the candles. What we fail to realise is that the industry involves so many separate stakeholders, that they can never all develop and perform to the same levels. The universal success will almost never come.

The past two years have been quite monumental for the industry itself. Two of the most highly celebrated handsets in history nestled in our sweaty palms, yet already we can’t help but feel that the Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone (2G) are outdated. The rate at which technology is accelerating is quite alarming. Just when we thought the be all and end all of Mobile to computer integration was secured by Apple, Google rears its head with Android and threatens to dominate the world.

Yet no ‘Year of Mobile’.

As far as advertising on the mobile platform goes, Blyk recognised huge success and recognition in the industry for its groundbreaking business model. With screens getting bigger and rich media becoming more readily available on our handsets, agencies began salivating at the thought of the latest and greatest mobile campaign.

But still, no ‘Year of Mobile’.

There is plenty of support for mobile as a marketing channel. Some of the biggest agencies in the world have their own mobile departments, and major players within the industry are supporting the ‘Every Single One of Us’ movement, which intends to unite a wide cross-section of mobile operators, advertising agencies, big-name brands and (most importantly) members of the public; to educate the industry and encourage discussions about emerging business models and to facilitate a step change in communications.

I don’t think I need to say it again…

But for me, there will never be a ‘Year of Mobile’. Mobile technology is moving so fast that we cannot all keep up. An innate desire for seamless high powered communication is driving us on to bigger and better things, each and every day. No matter how creative the latest integrated marketing campaign employing mobile, within 3 months the technique will be outdated and there will be a more appealing way to execute the campaign.

We mobile people are hungry folk. We have so many resources available, that in the time we take making decisions, there is something new on the scene. And having looked back over the past two years, I cannot see this changing. We could go on the next 15 years preaching the ‘Year of Mobile’ message, but it will never come. The demanding nature of the modern consumer, juxtaposed with creative agency’s passion for innovation will ensure that Mobile marketing will always be ‘the next big thing’ for years to come.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be using Mobile as part of your digital/marketing offering. Take the first step towards incorporating mobile into your business. Forget your clients. Go experiment and make something for yourself. Digital agency Redweb did just that, and by trying to solve an internal problem, came up with the brilliant ‘Wheel of Tea’. For those agencies that think that taking on mobile is ahead of the curve, you couldn’t be more wrong. You’re behind, and will probably always be behind. Catch up with the pack while you can!

Year of Mobile? Maybe we should start calling it ‘The Life of Mobile’?

Author: Carl Martin - Mobile Advertising Matters

Music and its role at the heart of brand utility. Part 1.

2066551 — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:43:00 GMT

Over the last month or so, one of the biggest themes to have emerged from the industry press, blogs and smoking Twitter feeds has been the concept of 'brand utility'. To consumers / customers / punters, fans & mere mortals - that's getting benefit and / or value received from a brand offering. And although the concept is nothing new, providing useful brand or content offerings is becoming an essential way to build up strong connections with consumers as part of an overall brand strategy.

The music industry plays a key role here; it generates utility and content for other brands to pass that benefit onto its own consumers (e.g. through brand partnerships & rights / content deals) and also for its own means through trying to help its artists build their own new connections with fans. (e.g. Oasis songbook & CD-Rom media partnership / giveaway with NME).

Providing brand utility is key to building up relationships with consumers and communicating brand messages. Music plays a key role within this.

I’ve put together a list of 10 key considerations when using music to offer brand utility. Here’s the first five:

1. Brand utility & branded content isn't going to deliver your business & marketing objectives on their own.
They need to form part of a coherent and well-planned marketing strategy. Utility can build up positive PR, offer rewards to consumers as part of strengthening a CRM strategy and generate positive WOM. Barclaycard’s recent strategic partnership with Live Nation, is a clear, well though out partnership to reach a particular audience, whilst highlighting product relevance. Utility is a bit part of an overall strategy in this case.

2. Invest for the long term.
Align yourself with, and invest in music not over the course of months, but years. This is your safest bet to create any consumer credibility and ultimately ROI. One of the hardest hurdles brands face when trying to create an association with music is to earn the right to be there in the first place. Nokia have been a long time investor in music and the launch of Comes with Music goes further to underline this commitment with a long-term plan in place.

3. Experiment
Don't be afraid to follow your gut instinct - it's a whole new world out there. The media landscape is a more complex beast than it has ever been. See what works. Does it feel right? The Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails Case Study is a great example of how a band has embraced technology and creative thinking to produce new ways of marketing and business models that have seen tangible positive business results.

4. Build communities and spread the love
Innocent did this better than most and their free festival, Fruitstock, in Regent's Park. A prime example of a brand giving something back, it built community and a very personal consumer relationship with the brand. Red Bull (a slightly more alpha male comparison) has been doing it over 10 years with Red Bull Music Academy. Providing opportunities for talented, up and coming musicians Red Bull have provided a highly regarded, somewhat under the radar, niche offering that has been met with global high regard. Use social media to listen, learn and develop and to build community with a very clear idea of why you are using it in the first place. If creating a digital offering, ensure it can be shared and can be embedded into any site or personal page.

5. Get the right team
May seem an obvious one but make sure you've got a realistic, but progressive and creative team around you. Employ agencies that share your vision and are willing to experiment.

Tomorrow, I’ll finish off the remaining five points and provide some examples to illustrate different types of utility within music. For the moment, as part of my own utility offering, here’s a useful, wiki brought to my attention by Anjali Ramachandran.

See you tomorrow,
James Male.
FRUKT Music.

Augmented reality through mobile phones

902609 — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:03:00 GMT

Nokia has announced a new service now available on several of its existing phones - Nokia Point and Shoot. Although only in Beta, it seems to be going in the same direction as Google's mobile platforms on the G1 which support applications such as ShopSavvy and Wikitude, which allow images from the camera to be interpreted by the phone, combined with additional information such as location, and other internet content.

Increasingly, mobiles will allow us to interact intelligently with real world objects. Snap the bus stop outside work, and you could be told when the next bus will be along to take you home. Snap the TV, and you could get a list of what is on and when, and what your friends are already watching (see my earlier post!). The opportunity to use your mobile phone as a means of identifying and interacting with the real world will create enormous opportunities in the coming years.

And as mobiles become more powerful, and more capable of interpreting images, then how far can this capability be pushed? What if your phone accurately interpret your voice, or even read lips. Only a small leap forward from image recognition to simple movement recognition surely. There is a lot of work going on at the moment to remove the dependency on the keyboard as the main internet interface. Lip reading would be an amazing way of allowing us to interact more naturally with the web....