LocoMatrix - Use your Cell Phone and a GPSr to Play Games

When Swirl was in development, we started to build out a Bluetooth games platform. The idea was that games would have an organizer and use specially encoded phones that would record times and locations of the players in proximity. We could then build games like hide and seek and capture the flag on this platform. We ended up confusing just about everyone we presented the idea to, so we abandoned the idea, but you can still see remnants of some of that work in Swirl Connect.

That’s why LocoMatrix caught my eye. Using a compatible cell phone (newer Nokias and Sony-Ericssons) coupled with a GPS receiver, you can play location-based games that are not location-dependent. This was one of the big hurdles we had with Swirl, and why we were going to require an organizer. In LocoMatrix’s Fruit Farmer game, you have a game board that adapts to your environment. The fruit you collect is virtual, and you collect it by just being in a location — what makes it even more interesting is when you add players, the first person to a position collects the fruit, and it disappears from the game board on your phone.

After a while you’d begin to recognize the pattern, and just move to the appropriate position without even using your phone, right? Then build your own game board. There are multiple levels of difficulty available, and it looks like a good number of folks have designed their own boards for use.

LocoMatrix is in its infancy, and I would expect some rough patches on both their web site and with their software, but it looks like fun! I ordered my GPS receiver 5 minutes ago — though I won’t be surprised if the order is rejected 5GBP for shipping to the USA must be a mistake!

If you decide to try it out, I’d love to hear your feedback.

Modu: Genuinely interesting and slick mobile phone / gadget

Modu is a tiny, credit card-sized, powerful mobile phone. Slip the modu into one of many very well-designed “jackets” to give it a new look and new functionality. These modular components remind me of the concept behind Buglabs, but whereas Buglabs had more geek appeal, with open source hardware and software, modu has much more chic appeal. These things look slick.

When is a phone not a phone? When it has “mates,” which morph the modu into various consumer electronic devices. All modu jackets are universally interchangeable, allowing you to swap modu jackets at any time, and according to the web site, with anyone. It also sounds as if some of these modu’s will be artist-branded and come pre-loaded with applications and music. I couldn’t find any price estimates to speak of, but product is supposed to ship at the end of 2008.

Photos can’t do the concept justice. Check out the Flash intro to see how these work.

Pumbby: get paid for watching ads on your mobile phone

This is a new delivery twist on an existing concept. Pumbby pays users EUR 0.44 for each ad they view, up to a maximum of 10 a day. When you create your account, you specify how many ads you’re willing to receive per day, and they arrive as text messages. Click the link to open your WAP browser and view what amounts to a full-screen banner ad.

At the current exchange rate, that’s roughly US$6.50 per day if you elect to receive all 10 messages, and I expect, if they have a large enough ad inventory to serve you 300 ads per month. That would certainly pay for that unlimited data bundle, and even justify that purchase of an iPhone.

Alas, Pumbby is only available on a limited number of networks, and apparently my phone can’t be pumbed. Pumbby is based in Brussels, which I had hoped would uncover some clues as to what the root “pumb” meant, as it seems to be used rather impartially as a noun, verb, and an adjective.

Hopefully Pumbby will soon hire a professional translator to clean up some of these gems:

• “For each visualized advertizing, you receive 44 €. You accept to receive advertizing and no advertizing messages on your mobile phone and, to thank you , you will receive money you can manage. “
• “to pumbb ? You would like to pumbb your mobile, very easy register you and discover how its walk! “

Somebody set us up the bomb, indeed!

Check out Pumbby