Inflated snow reports flattened by iphone

BBC news has really been cranking up the snow news today, live reports from every inch of the country, stories of road ‘misery’ and ‘a few hardy souls’ venturing out on the high street to get their shopping (while someone walks past quite normally with a hat on).

While they fluff up the snow reports here, proof that ski resorts have actually been inflating their snow levels has emerged in the US. A Dartmouth College study ‘Wintertime for Deceptive Advertising’ has found that while resorts routinely report 23% deeper snow at weekends, US government weather research show there is no such pattern.

Suspicions of opportunism grow when it’s revealed that it’s the ski resorts without money back guarantees but with local customers that are the worst offenders, rather than resorts whose customers fly in and take a punt on there being lots of the fluffy stuff about. More »

paying by iphone for your Starbucks sir?

In their latest marketing offensive against dwindling sales, Starbucks has announced an iphone application with a barcode feature enabling iphone owning coffee fans to pay with their handset.

It won’t make much impact in the UK just yet as it’s on trial at just 16 stores in Seattle and Silicon Valley, but boy the headlines, 93 stories on UK Google already. This begs the question, should the money for iphone app development really come out of the PR budget?

Such is media interest in iphone applications and Twitter, More »