Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Do you know what augmented reality apps are really good at? Directing you to new things they don’t directly point at. It’s a whole new world of discovery.

Nokia’s just unleashed its City Lens app for Lumia smartphones. And while the new augmented reality app could easily be mistaken for a bloatware version of the many AR apps we’ve seen before, it’s really Nokia’s attempt to associate its Windows smartphones with an alluring sense of discovery.

While the app actually points you conveniently to a restaurant, a bar, a store or a tourist attraction, it’s actually likely to lead you to discover whole new areas of the city to investigate once you’ve finished your business with the first place you visit.

Look at it like this: Once you’ve used City Lens to take you to a post office to send a postcard home, wouldn’t you perhaps consider visiting a nearby cafe to grab a drink and a bite to eat–one you’d never otherwise have found? Or how about if you follow the app’s advice when you’re visiting Paris and instead of eating in your usual touristy haunts in the Left Bank it takes you to a place to eat in the Marais … where you discover a whole new nightlife you didn’t know about before.

It’s the same sort of magic that made Groupon such a hot commodity. Ad partners often use Groupon just once and don’t return to use it again. That’s because Groupon isn’t really a coupon service, it’s actually a discovery service. If the coupon helps many new clients “discover” a new place to get their fingernails painted, and some of them choose to stay with that business instead of using their habitual one then the “discovered” merchant wins … it’s an indirect benefit, just like the surprise discovery of nearby places offered by City Lens.

For now the emphasis with City Lens and it’s ilk is on the tech rather than the discovery. But as AR takes off into the mainstream (which may happen only after wearable AR systems like Google Glass become popular) it’s not going to be enough to sell gizmos on the strenght of a tech that’s becoming uqiquitous. Rather, the value lies in the discovery it helps enable–and monetize. Paid-for ads like “have you considered this nearby French restaurant?” may pop up after you’ve AR-navigated to a particular patisserie recommended to you somehow. And that’s just the very tip of the location-based AR iceberg–most of the delightul, freaky, clever ways this system will be used probably can’t be imagined yet, just as noone could’ve imagined Instagram’s existence at the dawn of the Net.

Image: Flickr user data_op

NASA astronauts and SpaceX engineers check out the seating inside the Dragon spacecraft. Photo: SpaceX

With the cargo version of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft waiting patiently at Cape Canaveral for its scheduled launch on May 19, its astronaut-carrying sibling received a thumbs up from NASA.

“This milestone demonstrated the layout of the crew cabin supports critical tasks,” said SpaceX Commercial Crew Development Manager – and former astronaut – Garrett Reisman. “It also demonstrated the Dragon interior has been designed to maximize the ability of the seven-member crew to do their job as effectively as possible.”

The latest step for the manned Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX centered around the size and layout inside the capsule. The seven seat vehicle was deemed acceptable after NASA astronauts and engineers evaluated the Dragon, including entering and exiting under normal and emergency scenarios, as well as reach and visibility tests.

SpaceX’s achievement was reached as concerns at NASA grow regarding lawmakers efforts to stop the NASA sponsored competition to develop a replacement for the space shuttle program.

The evaluation is part of the second round of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev). The prototype of the Dragon had a functioning interior including seats, lights and life support systems as well as cargo racks and controls.

SpaceX is working closely with NASA on the development of the Dragon, something reflected in comments from the agency’s commercial crew program manager Ed Mango, “as an anchor customer for commercial transportation services, we are happy to provide SpaceX with knowledge and lessons learned from our 50 years of human spaceflight.”

Mango was one of the NASA managers who spoke out last week regarding the future of the CCDev program and its cargo equivalent, the Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS). Both programs include multiple private companies receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in development funding from NASA to design, build and test spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to low earth orbit.

The goal of the competition has been to reduce the cost of delivering supplies and people to the International Space Station. With the retirement of the space shuttle orbiters, NASA currently pays more than $60 million a seat to hitch a ride on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

The current plan calls for NASA to continue the competition between several different private companies, each receiving between $300 million and $500 million during the next phase. SpaceX, along with Orbital Sciences are the two remaining companies working on the COTS cargo program, and SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corporation, Blue Origin and Boeing are currently funded through the CCDev program.

A budget bill currently working its way through the House of Representatives would direct NASA to instead immediately choose a single commercial provider for the CCDev program while reducing the overall funding level according to Spaceflightnow.com.

Mango said going with a single company now dramatically increase the cost of the program in the long run.

“We need competition as long as possible. The price to go with one starting today, and then all the way through certification and into services, is at least twice what it would be if you had competition at least as long as possible,” Mango told a NASA committee last week.

Other NASA officials emphasized the need for continued competition saying it has already fostered innovative new approaches for space travel.

SpaceX’s next CCDev milestones for the Dragon include the further development of its pusher launch abort system. Compared with the traditional “tractor” type launch abort system that uses a small rocket to pull the crew to safety in the event of a launch or ascent emergency, SpaceX’s unique approach is to use the small rockets built into the Dragon for orbital maneuvering to push the vehicle clear of the rocket in an emergency. Assuming no emergency occurs, these rocket engines can also be used for a controlled, pinpoint landing in the future.

NEW ORLEANS – Speaking during a keynote session at CTIA Wireless on Tuesday, AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega said Facebook is good for his company’s business.

“I think that social networking is going to be a major force in this industry for years to come,” says Vega. “I think it helps people communicate. That’s what we do.”

T-Mobile CEO Philipp Humm agreed, adding that Facebook’s social networking app was his company’s “number one app right now” and has customers “picking up their phone 150 times a day.”

When asked if Facebook was worth the same as Verizon, Verizon CEO Dan Mead said “our market value is very solid,” and that he would leave commenting on Facebook to the experts.

The CEOs of all four major carriers participated in a keynote session at CTIA entitled “Beyond LTE – Carrier Innovations.” Each CEO was given the opportunity to talk on a topic of their choice. Mead spoke on the need for spectrum.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said “it has never been more important for the industry to gain the public’s trust, ” adding that even cable and oil companies currently rate higher with consumers than mobile carriers.

Hunn talked about the need for intelligent unlimited data plans, while Vega showed off some of AT&T’s plans for home automation. He demonstrated how your smartphone can lock your doors, let you know what your kids are doing at home, and monitor energy use.

What effect do you think social networking has on mobile carriers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana – The XTS is arguably the most important vehicle launch from Cadillac in the last few years, and to help owners get acclimated to its features – including the all-new CUE infotainment system – Caddy is providing owners of the 2013 model with an Apple iPad.

The inclusion of the iPad is part of a larger launch strategy by Cadillac to reassert itself as the world leader in luxury, and part of that is getting owners familiar with the range of new technologies incorporated into its largest sedan.

Speaking with Wired at the CTIA Wireless show in New Orleans, Mark Harland, Cadillac’s head of customer experience sets a lofty goal for the all-American luxury brand, saying, “We want to be the leader in customer experience.”

To that end, Cadillac is rolling out a series of online and dealership-based educational initiatives to help new XTS owners learn the ins and outs of their new sedan.

“The moment you pull away from the dealership,” says Harland, “there’s this kind of black hole for 90 days,” during which the owner has little to no contact with the dealer.

Cadillac’s new owner-education program aims to change that, beginning with 25 new “connected consumer specialists” Cadillac parent General Motors is hiring to get dealers up to speed on the XTS’ range of infotainment and safety systems. Each of the 700 or so Cadillac dealerships in the United States are required to have two “certified technology experts” on hand and trained by the XTS tech pros. Additionally, Cadillac is setting up a call center dedicated to CUE education and if customers still have issues, rather than trekking to the dealer, a specialist will come directly to their home.

“We need to think about helping owners with the learning curve,” Harland tells Wired. “Even if you get a walk-through at the dealership, you’re going to forget about a lot of the features. And we want the customer to learn about CUE on their own time.”

That’s where the iPad comes in.

Each Apple tablet given to XTS owners will come preloaded with OnStar RemoteLink, MyCadillac and an app that simulates the CUE user experience, allowing owners to familiarize themselves with all the functionality of the new infotainment system from the comfort of their couch.

Going even further, the CUE team will be scouring Cadillac forums, social media and other community sites to answer questions, solve issues and provide a level of support heretofore unheard of in the luxury automotive space.

“We always said that the customer is important,” Harland admits, “but there was no real strategy.” This is that new strategy and expect it to filter down throughout the ranks of Cadillac products in the very near future.

Bing has been reinvented, offering enhanced search results that tap into the power of social media. Microsoft has done this by pulling people out of search results and putting them in their place: A right-hand social column that will eventually include Facebook, Twitter, Google+ Quora and LinkedIn integration, as well as people who may know something about your most recent Bing query. It even offers a way to ask questions on your favorite social network, directly through Bing.

It’s something of an about-face for the Number 2 search engine, which up until earlier this year has been slowly but surely integrating Facebook information (like “Likes”) directly into Bing Search results. This update is actually Phase 2 of a major overhaul. Bing quietly rolled out the first part last week. It stripped away the right column of results information (leaving a large white well) and moved a more concise “Related Searches” to a small middle column. Facebook Likes results integration remained, but appeared as a more subtle, gray thumbs-up next to the result, and there was a lot of white space on the right.

Starting today, some of Bing’s reported network of 100 million users will see a new column filling that space: The “What Your Friends May Know” social sidebar. For now, the sidebar only works with Facebook, but even with just that one network, the level of integration is quite intense. To see the new pane at work, you have to sign into Facebook and install the Bing App in Facebook. With that done, your social pane will be filled with recent Bing activity that’s also been shared on Facebook. When you enter a search query in the Bing interface on the left, the pane will also display a list of Facebook friends, and topic experts who might be able to assist with your query.

Bing Exec Derrick Connell told me the goal of the new Bing is to “surface people, not web pages.”

In the social pane, there’s also an “Ask friends…” with a small Facebook icon next to it. Here, you type a question possibly related to your search. When you click within the field, a link icon appears next to your search results on the left; click any of them to add them to your Facebook posts. You can also ask those experts and friends to assist in your search. A tiny person-plus icon appears next to each of them. Click one (or more) and they will get a notification about your query.

How does Bing build these “Friends Who Might Know” lists? Microsoft execs explained they’re leveraging as much publicly available data as possible from Facebook (for now) and soon Twitter and other networks. Inclusion in the list is not necessarily based on something you posted about the topic. The sidebar includes people you know through your social networks that have, say, posted a photo about the topic, liked a certain relevant topic or searched for a similar topic in Bing, and people you don’t know, who are, for example, known Topic Experts and Enthusiasts (identified by Bing). All of them could be considered helpful in your quest for knowledge. Conversations revolving around a query topic are viewable through the social pane — you just hover over the activity and a small box will slide out to the left with the original post. You can add comments in any conversation in the activity pane or see the conversation in the slideout.

Not all public posts on these social networks can be scrapped in, so Microsoft turned, first, to its close friend Facebook. Thanks to that close relationship, Microsoft gets “a set of public data that’s part of the fire hose deal with Facebook,” Microsoft’s Connell told me. In fact, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was, according to Microsoft, shown the project and liked it. He was even happy to see the other social networks in the mix.

Eventually the Social Sidebar will add Twitter data. Microsoft says it has access to at least 6 months of publicly-available posts.

Google+ content should make an appearance, too, though it will only be what Microsoft can scrap in. It’s unlikely Google will ever agree to share its private network data with Microsoft. Google is heavily invested in deep integration between Google+ and its own search engine, having launched Search plus Your World earlier this year.

Despite all the new guidance from friends and experts, Bing still wants to help search users with more-targeted results. So it’s taking that somewhat sparse second column and introducing “What Bing Knows” or snapshot (Get it? The first column is “What the Web Knows,” The second column is “What Bing Knows” and the third is “What Your Friends Know”). This well won’t fill up for every search — instead, Microsoft identified four key areas of where it can help: Restaurants, Hotels, Movies and Events and People. The results in this area will include action items like restaurant and hotel reservations. In People, Bing will search across multiple social networks help you find the right person. These features were not available to test at press time.

Microsoft’s goal with all these changes? One, to clean up Bing. The company admits the page was getting too cluttered — it had assumed Web pages would be getting taller and thinner, when in fact, everything is getting shorter and wider. However, one of the key reasons for the change was to “stop corrupting the search experience with people,” said a Bing exec. That might also be a subtle dig at Google and its people-populated Search plus Your World. Bing execs also repeatedly said they think users want people — not Web pages — to help them.

There was also some direct criticism of Google. Microsoft execs said the difference between Bing and Google is Microsoft’s product is open while Google’s is closed. When Google’s “Search Plus Your World” Launched, Google faced some criticism for not surfacing Twitter and Facebook results. Bolstered by Bing’s 300 million entities in its database, Microsoft execs contend that its approach is more valuable than Google’s “pure semantic-based model” because it offers pure search information, letting users get info from topic experts. Additionally, Microsoft includes structured data around core topics that are of interest to the broadest set of people.

I’ve been running the new Bing for a few days now and can report that it more or less works as advertised. First of all, the search results interface is the cleanest I’ve seen it in years. Yes, it looks almost Google-like. I tried a bunch of searches like “Barcelona,” “Tesla,” and “Broadway.” In each case, my “Friends Who Might Know” field in the Social pane filled up with people who had, for instance, posted photos of Nicola Tesla, or “Liked” the “Broadway League.” I was able to blend links and questions in the open field above and then post directly to my Facebook page, along with notifications to my individual friends and experts. No one has answered yet, but those seeing these queries were part of a fairly small beta group.

I noticed, by the way, that when I put in multi-word queries, I got few, if any, “Friends Who Might Know” results.

In Facebook, I did have to install the Bing App. It defaults to sharing your posts with Everyone. If you do a lot of searching, you may want to dial that down a bit.

If you’re usually logged into Facebook and often turn to friends for, say, travel or buying advice, this could be a useful tool for you. Microsoft contends that this is a natural way to find answers. They do not want to reinvent the web, Bing execs explained, “We don’t have to own it to surface it. The beauty of the Internet is you don’t have to be a social network to surface people, you don’t have to be a hotel to surface reservations.”

You may not see the What Your Friends Know or Social Sidebar in Bing for a while — Microsoft said it’ll be rolling this out slowly — but starting today you can visit http://www.bing.com/new to sign up for availability notification.

With this update, the competing search philosophies are clearer than ever. Google sees the world as a deep blend of data, people and activities, all of which can be mined simultaneously for a rich and useful experience. Bing sees a more structured world, where social interactions, while extremely helpful, are kept a safe distance from the core results you desire. Which approach is right? Let us know what you think in the comments.

For more details, check out the video where Microsoft explains the Bing update.

Super-syncing smart watches are so hot right now, but Bradley Price is banking on the appeal of an entirely different kind of timepiece. The industrial designer (and avid auto enthusiast) launched Autodromo last November, and the company’s growing collection of driving watches is meant to evoke cloudless days hugging curves on Italian roadways with the wind blowing in your hair. No, they won’t remind you to pick up milk at the grocery store–but that’s also kind of the point.

“They’re emotional touchstones that remind you of driving, even when you are doing something mundane, like sitting in a meeting,” Price tells Co.Design. “The same can be said of aviation or diving watches. Most people are not pilots or deep-sea divers, yet they wear these watches because it speaks to their inner fantasies. For some of us, spirited motoring is just as potent a thrill as either of those more exotic pursuits.”

The only thing dying is the watch as commodity item. The watch as talisman object is thriving.

Price, who has previously worked on the award-winning HomeHero Fire Extinguisher and Skiff Reader, named the latest series Vallelunga after a particularly tough road circuit in Italy, and actually creating the chronographs came along with its own set of challenges. “The subdials and calendar wheel are in fixed locations, so you have to design the rest of the dial around those constraints and make the proportions work,” Price explains. While most mass-produced watches are made with an aesthetic eye to the face alone, Price approached his pieces with equal attention to all sides. “Our proprietary stainless steel case is a smooth, pebble-like form with flush caseback: no sharp edges that can dig into you, and no crevices where lint and stuff can collect. I think it looks just as good from the back as from the front,” he says. As an added bonus for easy upkeep, a small screwdriver can change the battery without the need for a specialized watchmaker tool.

Not quite sure if the look will suit? Print out the clever to-scale PDF on Autodromo’s Try One On page, cut out your favorite, and wrap it around your wrist. “You can even see how the watch will look under the cuff of your favorite shirts,” Price notes. And while chances are slim–sadly–that after you close up your laptop today you’ll pull on some leather gloves, slip into the front seat of a sweet roadster, and speed off for a super-stylish commute home, that needn’t stop you from making a fashion statement. “The ubiquity of technology in our lives has freed the wristwatch from its basic functional purpose, so it’s become a vessel for personal expression,” Price says. “Even very sophisticated watches, at the end of the day, are collected and worn for emotional reasons. People talk about the death of the wristwatch, but I’d say it’s alive and well. The only thing dying is the watch as commodity item. The watch as talisman object is thriving.”

The media, forever a navel-gazing industry, worked itself into a fever earlier this week after evidence emerged that usage of Facebook’s social reader apps is declining.

In an article designed to further dramatize The Washington Post‘s recent tension between its editorial and financial divisions, Jeff Bercovici at Forbes pulled up a chart from AppData illustrating a falloff in the number of monthly average users of the Washington Post Social Reader app.

John Hermann at Buzzfeed quickly pointed out that usage of social reader apps was down for many news publications, not just The Washington Post.

Why the dropoff? Herrman blames the apps themselves, which he calls annoying. He writes:

“Social Readers always seemed a little too share-y, even for Facebook; they felt more like the kind of cold, descriptive, invisible and yet mandatory services we’re used to seeing from Google rather than genuinely new and useful tools for spreading information. And they feel, I don’t know, kind of broken right now? My brain already associates those little blocks of auto-fed stories with second-class content. I mean, I know my friends didn’t really mean to show to it to me. Why would I click? And god, why would I sign up for the thing that seems to have tricked its way into my timeline? It’s an app that broadcasts Internet illiteracy for everyone to see.”

I see his point — but Facebook doesn’t. A spokesperson tells me that although the number of people using social reader apps has fallen at some publications, engagement levels are up as the company introduces new tools and adjusts its algorithms to display more relevant content to users.

“We’re trying to get the right content in front of people, to up the signal to noise ratio,” the spokesperson explained.

The Facebook representative added that although some apps have seen “short-term traffic swings,” which is typical in the ongoing development of any online product, Facebook is committed to the long-term evolution of these apps “to create a good social news experience.”

User numbers are also up for The Huffington Post‘s, MTV’s and ESPN’s apps, the spokesperson noted.

Social reader apps were first introduced in September. Through the apps, which are built on Facebook’s Open Graph, publications like The Washington Post and The Guardian are able to serve users a mix of content based on the information they’ve shared with Facebook, including their interests, “likes” and stories that are trending among their friends. Those stories are displayed in the apps and make frequent appearances in the Newsfeed.

The numbers may be up for debate, but there was some surprising consensus among media critics — like Herrman, above — about the poor user experience offered by social reader apps. We’re curious: Do you use any of these apps? What do you like or dislike about them?

Front page thumbnail courtesy of iStockphoto, -Oxford-

Women dominate social networks, according to the latest Nielsen report. This is not news. Women have been ruling social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and social gaming platforms for the past few years. Women also bring in half or more of the income in 55% of U.S. households. And women ages 50 and older control a net worth of $19 trillion and own more than three-fourths of the nation’s financial wealth, according to MassMutual Financial Group. Simply put, women are influential and drive the economy.

Yet when it comes to the boards of directors of companies like Adobe, Facebook, Zynga, and Pandora, women have been excluded, despite the fact that a significant segment of these companies’ user base is women. While some companies don’t think that diversifying their all white-dude boards will make a difference on fostering innovation, a business case can be made as to why having women at the boardroom table or as executives can significantly increase companies’ profits.

Facebook has become much more profitable and innovative since Mark Zuckerberg brought COO Sheryl Sandberg on board. Sandberg brings a diverse perspective outside of the all white-dude mind frame that previously dominated Facebook’s senior leadership. Despite Sandberg’s successes as COO, Zuckerberg has chosen to exclude women from Facebook’s board. So the questions stands: Will Facebook be able to continue to innovate with zero women at the boardroom table, when its demographics are composed of 55% women?

According to the Catalyst report, The Bottom Line, Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on boards, Fortune 500 companies that had at least three women boards of directors saw on average:

• Return on equity increase by at least 53%.

• Return on sales increase by at least 42%.

• Return on invested capital increase by at least 66%. Diversifying boards also brings different perspectives to companies’ big picture objectives, product development, and problem solving. Companies can’t continue to innovate without diverse leaders at the table.

And yet, the boards of one in 10 Fortune 500 companies include no women.

“Beyond that well-worn statistic that women control household spending on everything from cleansers to cars to computers, it’s incumbent on tech companies to remember that women also make up more than half of Internet users and drive the majority of engagement and activity for social media and networking apps/sites/tools,” said Elisa Camahort Page, cofounder of BlogHer, who will be speaking at the virtual Women Who Tech Telesummit on May 23rd. “That certainly speaks to the need for diversity on development and user experience teams, but since the data also shows that companies with more diversity at the very top achieve better financial results, it’s just as important to bring diverse perspectives to the entire chain of command. It’s good business from every angle.”

While Facebook and other tech/social media companies’ decisions to exclude women from the boardroom is disappointing and a setback, take a look again at the stats cited above. Women rule not just on social networks, but are highly influential in business’ bottom lines. They fuel the economy. And while we certainly haven’t reached gender parity in the tech and startup world yet (not to mention other sectors), we’ve got some wins to celebrate.

“Last year, fewer women sought angel financing than the previous year (12% vs. 21% respectively), but a much high percentage of them actually received financing (20.5% vs. 13%),” said Geri Stengel over on Forbes.

But just because fewer women are going out for angel funding, that doesn’t mean fewer women are launching businesses and startups.

Kay Koplovitz, who chairs Springboard Enterprises, says, “with lower costs of technology, many women entrepreneurs in digital media and e-commerce prefer to self-fund. Companies can start up with a minimal investment and wait longer until they need to seek outside funding.”

Check out the infographic below showing how women are breaking down some doors. Key highlights include:

Over 400 women-led companies in the Springboard portfolio:

• Have raised $5 billion in equity financing.
• 10 are IPOs.
• 80% are still in business, generating $4 billion in revenues and creating tens of thousands of new jobs.

The fourth-largest angel investment group in the U.S. is Golden Seeds, which supports women-led startups.

Women are starting businesses at a rate of 1.5 times the national average, which is a 20% increase over the last decade. 187 million women worldwide are currently starting or running a business enterprise (although a recent look a the 2012 Fortune 500 list shows that only 3.6% of Fortune 500 companies are led by female CEOs).

Bottom line? Women dominate the social media markets, drive the economy, and women at the table increase business profits. If companies want to succeed, the Zuckerbergs of the world should start taking these facts more seriously.

Allyson Kapin is the founder of Rad Campaign, a web agency that provides web design, web development online marketing, and social media strategy to nonprofit organizations and political campaigns. She is also the founder of Women Who Tech.

Image: Flickr user Hector Parayuelos