Virtual grocery stores won customers over in Philadelphia and Seoul, but the newest Chicago iteration has yet to catch on with commuters.
Online grocer Peapod is test-driving a program in Chicago, allowing subway commuters to shop at a virtual store with their smartphones. The walls have pictures representing items like bananas and milk, and users can download an app to scan the items they want, which Peapod delivers to their homes shortly afterwards.
Peapod unveiled a similar store on multiple train platforms in Philadelphia, and reported a bump in mobile orders.
A similar bump in mobile orders may not happen in Chicago. The virtual store, in the northeast tunnel at the city's State and Lake red line station, is in an inconvenient spot outside of the area where people wait for trains. Commuters eager to catch a ride cannot use the virtual store without risking missing the train, because it is not within the ticketed area.
Over a four-hour period a few days after it launched, no one walking through the subway tunnel used the program, or even considered using the program. Most people ignored the store or looked at it with mild interest before continuing on their way.
Keith Brown, 41, noticed it only after it was pointed out, and said his mother often used Peapod. "She is way too old to come to the subway, though, so she wouldn't use this," he noted.
"I like the idea, and I'm comfortable with mobile payments in general, but I don't feel like I need this," Chicagoan commuter Amie Kesler, 27, explained.
Dan Thorpe, 24, echoed Kesler's sentiments, saying "I have a grocery store around the corner, and I'm going to stick with that," but he was enthusiastic about this project's potential.
Why did virtual shopping find more success in the subway stations of Seoul and Philadelphia? It's simple: location and exposure.
In Seoul, Tesco's Home Plus tested virtual stores inside the waiting area for trains, meaning commuters could browse while waiting for an incoming train. Home Plus is the second-most popular grocery store in Korea, so everyone was familiar with the store's products, and Home Plus rolled out virtual stores throughout Seoul, including locations at bus stops.
While South Korea's virtual store has a some differences with Chicago's version, Peapod's based its virtual stores in Philadelphia on similar concepts, just a different city. Peapod reported a boost in online sales in Philadelphia, but the reception in Chicago is chilly thus far, even though the Windy City has more product options.
One main difference between the two locations is Philadelphia's virtual stores are in the area where commuters wait for a train, whereas Chicago's store is in a tunnel leading into and out of the subway station. Because commuters are still rushing to their destination, they are not as likely to take a moment and look at the virtual store, let alone order groceries from it.
The experiment in Chicago underscores potential difficulties for mobile-based shopping. It is not enough to compete on the novelty and convenience of purchasing goods and services via smartphone: businesses hoping to boost sales through mobile payment methods must still think strategically about audiences, placement, marketing and differentiation. In other words, services like Peapod's must meet consumers where they already are, rather than hope to change their lifestyle and daily routines.
If Peapod wants a successful Chicago test run, it should consider changing its virtual store's location to make it more convenient for shoppers. Even though people are growing comfortable with the concept of mobile payments and smartphone shopping, companies looking to expand in this area will not see significant growth unless they make the experience preferable to the other alternatives.
Mobile technology's role as a protest tool is sparking debate in Chicago, as an alderman seeks to protect freedom of speech by ensuring the right to access Facebook and Twitter during this spring's NATO/G8 Summit.
Chicago Alderman Ricardo Munoz wants to make sure police don't interfere with mobile phone reception to ensure protesters' rights to demonstrate when the city hosts the summits. The city council expects protests during the high-profile meetings and Munoz worries the police will resort to measures blocking cell reception to interfere with protestors organizing via texting and social media.
"We're putting down a marker and saying, this has happened in other places and we don't even want it considered here," Munoz explained, supporting the protestors' right to organize by making sure law enforcement doesn't block cell reception to thwart their efforts.
Munoz's proposal speaks to social media and mobile technology's growing roles in political demonstrations and protests. Organizers readying for the Chicago protests depend on Twitter, Facebook, SMS and other mobile technology to communicate, just as activists and protestors used these platforms to organize during the Arab spring, the London riots and the Occupy movement.
Protests can grow violent and law enforcement officials must navigate the difficult path between ensuring citizens' rights and preventing dangerous behavior. This challenge, however, grows problematic, as mobile communication, which the greater population relies on as well, is now a cornerstone in organizing and coordinating social protest.
Some cities seek to police the connection between mobile technology and dissent, even by shutting it down, but Munoz believes suppressing phone reception is akin to blocking protestors' First Amendment rights. Munoz wants to avoid an incident like San Francisco's BART episode, where authorities drew fire for shutting off mobile reception on public transit during protests.
The public transit team successfully prevented the protest, but it endured heavy criticism and retaliation from hacktivist group Anonymous afterwards. Following the controversy, San Francisco's public transportation officials drafted a proposal limiting future network cut-offs, a move designed to appease angry activists and prevent other incidents.
Other cities plan to use San Francisco's proposal as a guideline, as it recommends shutting off cell reception only in the event of an extreme terrorist attack, but Chicago police themselves want to retain the right to decide when to pull the plug, despite Munoz's push. Chicago's law enforcement do not want any sweeping measures taking away options to control potentially violent crowds.
"I'm just concerned about officer safety and citizen safety," said Mike Shields, head of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police. "If we have to take this action, if it's within the framework of the Constitution, then we have to consider it."
Social media and mobile communication, however, are increasingly considered rights, not privileges. As these tools grow more crucial to the right to organize, governments are likely to struggle for more control over them.
Chicago police have a difficult history with protestors, dating back to the disastrous Democratic National Convention in 1969. If law enforcement officials choose to interfere with cell reception, they risk certain backlash but as they consider their strategy to balance protests with security during this important event, they are facing pressure from city officials like Munoz.
There will likely be demonstrations no matter what and the choice may come down to whether police want to deal with a full-fledged G8 protests or criticism over blocked cell phone service to thwart protesters at the high-profile, potentially incendiary event.
AT&T quietly launched its 4G LTE network in the Chicago area, beginning to catch up with rivals in the race for high-speed data capabilities.
The Dallas, Texas-based carrier has yet to announce the availability of LTE service, but according to BGR, speed tests have been impressive. Screenshots from speed tests obtained by the website show download speeds of 13Mbps and upload speeds of 2Mbps.
AT&T 4G LTE service will likely be available only intermittently during testing, though Chicago's network may have been soft-launched following the launch of AT&T's first two 4G LTE devices last week.
The rollout of a 4G LTE network marks the carrier's first steps in high-speed wireless service. The company initially promised to launch its LTE network this summer, beginning with Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Chicago, Illinois.
The move will help the company match speed with rivals that have already begun with rollouts of their own high-speed services. As consumers shift to smartphones like Apple's iPhone and Google's Android devices, these products, which take advantage of online services and apps, require customers to consume increasing amounts of data.
Carriers are in a race for this emerging stream of revenue as data needs heat up, especially as traditional services like voice and text begin to level off.
AT&T's introduction of 4G is part of a larger seven-year roadmap to consolidate voice and data to a more efficient technology. AT&T will shut down its aging slower-speed networks once the high-speed upgrade is finished.
However, the operator has a lot of ground to make up as rivals have already embarked on their own 4G rollouts. Verizon has ramped up the pace in launching its 4G network this year, and now covers about one-half of U.S. subscribers.
Sprint, which already has a higher-speed network in place, will reveal its next-generation 4G plans this fall and may partner with LightSquared.
T-Mobile also recently upgraded its 4G network, although the carrier is being acquired by AT&T, pending approval by regulatory bodies.
AT&T will likely officially announce more cities as it gears up to launch its 4G network, but other carriers will keep up the pace as the race gains momentum.
Chicago nightowls track his every movements on Twitter, all in a quest for the perfect, hot tamale.
Is This Thing On?, or ITTO, is our Wednesday column showing how everyday people use technology in unexpected ways.
Twitter is part of a Paul Revere-type phenomenon in some of Chicago?s hippest neighborhoods, but instead of warning that the British are coming, this social network innovation tracks the movements of a single person, whose late night sightings at crowded drinking establishments like Lemmings in Bucktown and the Rainbo Club in Ukrainian Village is coveted information.
He is known simply as "The Tamale Guy" and his whereabouts are signaled not by a lantern, but by a mobile phone. Instead of wearing a blue uniform, he carries a red cooler, packed with homemade tamales whose deliciousness and unpredictability prompted a group of young fans to create the Twitter Tamale Tracker to follow this urban legend and hunt down his hot, fresh tamales -- universally acknowledged as the perfect late night snack to accompany an evening of drinking and carousing.
Several years before the prevalence of Twitter, word of mouth was the only way to find the Tamale Guy as he strolled the city streets selling slightly salty corn tortillas stuffed with cheese, chicken and pork.
In the beginning, it was shouted from beer gardens and across alleys that he was at a pub in Lakeview. Later residents would whip out cell phones to call friends when he was spotted at a bar in Wicker Park, but with the emergence of social media, his loyal customers created a Twitter tracker. A couple lines of code and a willing community later, and news of his rounds began being transmitted to subscribers? phones directly.
Today, a growing number of local establishment patrons send a @reply to @tamaletracker on Twitter when they see the Tamale Guy, a scheduled listening service fires off every five minutes looking for replies, and re-tweets the message when it picks up a new tweet. Those in the bar-hopping set can also chose to receive text messages of the Tamale Guy?s location at twitter.com/tamaletracker to better plan their evening escapades.
There have been 2,400 subscribers following the authentic icon of Chicago nightlife.
Most of the tweets are posted just after the bars begin to get crowded, around 9 p.m., build to a near frenzy around 11 p.m., aided by closing kitchens and increased alcohol consumption, and still, the Tamale Guy keeps on, in all kinds of weather, until he runs out, usually after 2 a.m.
Online guide Yelp has nearly 240 reviews of the Tamale Guy?s offerings, giving them a four and one-half star rating, photos to authenticate that the person selling tamales is the Tamale Guy, and some hilarious praise and anecdotes about encounters with the culinary legend while out and about in Chicago.
And, to round out his online profile, there is also a Facebook page for The Tamale Guy, which, last check listed over 11,700 friends, many of them posting their gratitude or Cinco de Mayo messages to him.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then a humble, late-night craving for that certain something may be the catalyst for this urban phenomenon who continues to grow in popularity, adapt to available technology, and delight thousands.
A Chicago motorist is facing a wrongful death lawsuit after fatally hitting a pedestrian while allegedly updating her Facebook status from her phone, fueling the debate over distracted driving.
Araceli Beas, 21, allegedly struck and killed Raymond Veloz, 70, last December. At the time of the collision, Beas told police she was temporarily blinded by the sun and didn't see Veloz. She was subsequently ticketed for striking a pedestrian.
But earlier this week, Veloz's daughter, Regina Cabrales, filed suit, claiming Beas posted to Facebook at exactly the same time Veloz's cell phone records report a call being made to 911.
Should it proceed, the case is almost certain to be mired in logistical and technological details. Beas's mother, for instance, asserts that her daughter was on Facebook while warming up her car a few minutes before the accident, not while she was driving. Veloz, meanwhile, had a minor altercation with another motorist prior to the fatal crash. The first driver also blamed the accident on poor vision on account of the sun.
The incident is a high-profile entry in the emerging debate around distracted driving, especially as mobile technology finds its way into all aspects of life. Several wireless carriers, led by T-Mobile, are responding to increasing concerns about distracted driving by bringing to market technology that automatically blocks calls and texts when a phone is in a moving car.
Federal regulators are also considering mandating such technology in cars, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has devoted much energy to the issue. Studies have increasingly shown that communicating via phone while driving quadruples the risk of an accident, making it on par with driving drunk.
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