Electronic Proof of Insurance

Posted by Cindy McAdam on August 28, 2012

In an earlier post, we looked at California’s improvements to its driver licenses and ID cards to make these critical identification documents more secure.  With these steps, California is helping to make the wallet safer.  Now the state is looking to make other improvements that will help anyone who carries a wallet In California, as in most states, drivers are required to show financial responsibility for their vehicle.  Importantly, drivers must carry proof of insurance and present this to a police officer when requested.  Last week, the state legislature sent a bill to the governor for signature that would enable drivers in the state to show proof of financial responsibility [...]

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Phone? Wallet? Both!

Posted by Cindy McAdam on August 10, 2012

In our recent infographic, we looked at whether smartphones are replacing physical wallets.  A lot of things are moving out of your overstuffed physical wallet and onto your smartphone.  Banking, payments, and financial management are among a few of the compelling apps starting to appear on smartphones. With banking, moving it a smartphone app means you can do far more than you can with your physical wallet.  In the old days, you could take store your ATM card in your wallet.  But unless you were in front of an ATM machine, you couldn’t do much with it.  Now, banking apps let you check your balance, transfer money, deposit checks and even [...]

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Infographic: Are Smartphones Replacing Our Wallets?

Posted by Matthew Murphy on August 3, 2012

A debate has grown in recent years about whether or not smartphones are replacing our wallets. With the rise of mobile payment services and banking apps, it’s becoming less and less necessary to use cash or even credit cards to manage our money. But does a rise in tech-based transactions mean that commerce as we know it is changing forever?

We examine the current consensus of technology experts – as well as mobile banking trends from the last 6 to 12 months – to seek an answer.

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Tackling Mobile Phone Typing

Posted by Cindy McAdam on July 10, 2012

We’ve been looking at the  experiment by our CEO, Wences, to use only mobile devices (and not a computer) for a year.  Previously, I looked at what devices he’s actually using and why.  Then I covered the battery issues he’s faced while trying to stay mobile.   In this post, I wanted to explore the other big problem he’s faced — it’s another one that’s related to the mobile phone design itself.  This time, we tackle typing. Typing on a mobile device has long been a challenge.    Many phone manufacturers initially addressed this with physical (albeit tiny) keyboards.  The newest generation of phones generally has “soft” keyboards.  That is, [...]

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A Not-So-Mobile Phone?

Posted by Cindy McAdam on July 2, 2012

In a few past posts, I’ve talked about the experiment by our CEO, Wences Casares, to use only mobile devices for a year.  In the last post, I looked at what devices he’s actually using and why.  In this post, I wanted to look at one of the biggest challenges he’s faced:  battery power. We’ve previously talked about how a lot of mobile apps seem like they were designed with a computer user in mind.  But in practice, these poorly designed apps have proven to be mostly just a minor inconvenience for Wences. The real problems he’s faced relate to the actual design of the mobile phone itself.  In using [...]

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Infographic: Are you a connected consumer?

Posted by Matthew Murphy on June 27, 2012

The Internet has made it easier than ever to be a smart, connected consumer. But what does being a connected consumer actually mean? In a 2012 survey, publishing software company Zmags looked not only at how consumers are using technologies like tablets, smartphones, and social media, but how that usage changes across different retail categories.

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The Year of Mobile Living

Posted by Cindy McAdam on June 25, 2012

I’ve previously mentioned the effort by Wences, Lemon’s founder and CEO, to use only mobile devices for a year (meaning no computer).  He’s nearly 4 months in, so I wanted to check his progress. First, some background on what he’s doing.  In February, he officially renounced his MacBook Pro and tweeted a picture of his new desk set-up.  He uses a bunch of different devices now, but he relies mostly on a Samsung tablet (running the Gingerbread version of Android) and a Samsung Nexus Galaxy phone (running the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android).  He also has access to other devices we use at Lemon, including an iPhone, an iPad, [...]

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Mobile First

Posted by Cindy McAdam on May 29, 2012

If you use a smartphone, you may feel like your phone is making you smarter.  The reality is that smartphones are becoming ubiquitous. Earlier this year, Nielsen reported that among US mobile phone subscribers nearly 50% own a smartphone, an increase of almost 40% over last year.  This points to an amazing fact:  smartphones are one of the most rapidly adopted consumer technologies of all time.  Now that we’re nearing adoption of 50%, the next question is when will we hit 80%, which is considered by some to be a saturation point.  A recent study examined how quickly other technologies reached that saturation point, and it offers fascinating insights. But if [...]

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Smartphones Make You Smarter

Posted by Mary Chan on November 2, 2011

Mobile phones are changing a lot of the things we do.   Of course, mobile phones have changed where we communicate — no longer tethered to our home or office, we can take calls wherever we are.   Smartphones are now changing everything else.  According to a recent Nielsen report, it is estimated that by the end of 2011, smartphones will overtake “regular” mobile phones in the U.S. Smartphones have transformed the ways we communicate and share (think text, email, Facebook and Twitter), they give us instant access to information, and they’ve transformed personal finances.  Honestly, I don’t even remember how I lived without a smartphone.  Juggling work and family, I can [...]

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