Zenitum Blog

Seoul, Korea – Zenitum, Inc. announced its first iPhone mobile augmented reality application, iNeedCoffee on January 18th. Using iNeedCoffee, users can use augmented reality to find the nearest Starbucks, Tom ‘n Toms, Ediya or other coffee shop.

Users select a search range of up to 3 km (roughly 1.9 miles). Users are also able to choose favorite coffee brands. In AR mode, coffee shop blimps indicate the actual locations right on the camera preview. Users can also search and find the same shops on a 2D map by selecting map mode.

The current version only allows users to browse for coffee shops, but future versions will also allow users to add new local coffee houses for sharing among the users. At the moment, it covers Korea’s two largest cities, Seoul and Busan. Albert Kim, CEO of Zenitum, mentioned that “iNeedCoffee will soon cover most of the cities around the world, helping coffee addicts like himself get their fix with social networking features like sharing, ranking and messaging.” International versions for both the iPhone and Android are forthcomin

About Zenitum – Since its inception in 2004 as a Seoul-based corporation, Zenitum has been focusing on augmented reality. In 2009, Zenitum was awarded a KT Venture Award for Android application development for an early prototype of iNeedCoffee. Zenitum’s ongoing focus in augmented reality is grounded in advanced vision-based technologies, taking augmented reality beyond the limitations of purely GPS-based AR.

davidyhlee General Android, App Store, AR, augmented reality, Coffee, GPS, iNeedCoffee, iPhone

Wow.  Thank you everyone for your support in nominating Wetoku for Mashable’s Open Web Awards.  A tweet by @melbuckpitt let us know that we’re in the Top 10 in the Social Media Gadget category!  This post at Mashable has the details.

Mashable's Open Web Awards

The flurry of nominations we’ve seen for Wetoku has been fantastic.  We’re humbled by the company we’re in… the other “Social Media Gadget” contestants are some very interesting and helpful sites.  Here are the top 10:

• Wetoku
• Digsby
• AddThis
• ShareThis
• AddToAny
• Property-Bee
• Tigerbow
• SocialGo
• Yoono
• WiseStamp

davidyhlee wetoku

Zenitum’s Augmented Reality development team brings home the cheddar by placing Top 3 in the 2009 KT Venture Awards.

Way to go Jusung for your hard work on iNeedCoffee!

By placing in the Top 3, Jusung & co. earned us a 5 million krw reward.  Here’s Jusung posing with Zenitum CEO & Founder Albert Kim.

Jusung posing with his prize from the KT Venture Awards, with Zenitum CEO Albert Kim

davidyhlee Uncategorized AR, augmented reality, iNeedCoffee, KT Venture Awards

Seth Godin was interviewed by Technorati for the 2009 State of the Blogosphere. As a best-selling author and contemporary modern guru that has helped shape many an entrepreneur’s understanding of how to effectively and meaningfully engage a market, he was a particularly important voice to be heard for this report on the current state of the world of blogging.

Eric Olsen from Technorati says that, ‘Godin addresses the war between the marketers and the “unique voices,” the importance of “consistent generosity,” and blogging as a tool “like a megaphone combined with a telephone.”‘

davidyhlee wetoku

Technorati & Blogcritics Publisher Eric Olsen recently interviewed Alex Santoso of Neatorama and Henry Copeland of BlogAds for the 2009 State of the Blogosphere report.

WOW.

Richard Jalichandra, CEO of Technorati, opened his State of the Blogosphere keynote speech at Blogworld & New Media Expo 2009 by saying, “The state of the blogosphere is strong.” In the report, Technorati uncovered a number of gems in the interviews they conducted… a testament to the dramatically evolved (and rapidly evolving) blogosphere, and the ability of Team Technorati to zero in on the key points and trends that matter to bloggers and those who follow the blogosphere.

In Alex Santoso’s interview regarding his Neatorama blog, he talks about how he diversified away from ad revenue and towards a healthy blend of ad revenue and e-commerce revenue.  Alex’s blog now derives 50% of its revenue from sales of products related to its blog entries!  Way to go Alex, you’re a brilliant executive with foresight and the courage it takes to make bold decisions.

In Henry Copeland’s interview regarding his company, BlogAds – which was one of, if not the first blog ad network – he talks about the drastically different climate in which blogs operate today.  Back in 2003, it was laughable to propose advertising on blogs.  Henry knows this, because he suggested it at a conference back then — and his remark generated laughter and ridicule.  Who’s laughing now?  It’s Henry, the blog ad networks and the advertisers who get great ROI out of blog advertising… all the (virtual) way to the bank.

Thank you, Technorati (and Eric Olsen in particular!), for letting us be a part of your must-read report, the 2009 State of the Blogosphere.

davidyhlee wetoku

This show rocks! Thanks @blogworld for bringing together the awesomest crowd of bloggers.

Live from BlogWorld Expo

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Hello world!

First of all, I’d like to extend a sincere thank you to all of the wonderful private beta testers who helped make Wetoku possible.

Wetoku is now in public beta!

I’d also extend special thanks to @jolieodell & @marshallk of ReadWriteWeb, @timmyjohnboy of MakeUseOf, Syed Abbas of Tnerd, and all of the others who took the time to review Wetoku.

Now that we’re in public beta, anyone can register at http://wetoku.com.  Please tell your friends to try out Wetoku to record & embed a video chat!

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Many bloggers who are using Wetoku to make premium video content themselves are using macs.

Macs, which have multiple camera drivers:

List of webcams in Mac OS X

Unless you have an external camera connected to your computer, both DV Camera and IIDC FireWire Video won’t work — all you’ll see is a blank box where your head is supposed to be.  The built-in iSight camera for your Macbook, iMac or Mac Cinema Display is listed here as USB Video Class Video.  Not very descriptive, eh?

To make Wetoku easier to use for our Mac users, we now detect your operating system… and if you’re using Mac OS X, we automatically make your default camera “USB Video Class Video”.

Default camera setting for Mac users

Happy Wetoku-ing!

-Wetoku Dave

davidyhlee wetoku

Just a few moments ago, I finished speaking with @aaronaiken from Weekly Application Review.  Using Wetoku, Aaron was able to reach out to me in Seoul from Pennsylvania to conduct a global interview that he recorded in video.  He mentioned how easy it was to set things up, and within minutes we were recording our live conversation.

It was a real pleasure speaking with Aaron.

davidyhlee wetoku

I was doing some random blog-hoppin’ and Google blog searching, when I came across a Wetoku interview that talked about how to do a good interview, done by @docrock with @lanaithdj.  In it, Lanai reveals that, in an interview, he managed to get Vana White to talk about where she lost her virginity. (Hint: On the green.)

These two have been doing interviews for a while — and it shows!  One of Lanai’s tips that I thought was especially important was “do not answer your own question.”  For example, “How long have you been in the business?  9, 10 years?”

I hope to hear more from these two in the future!

davidyhlee wetoku