New iPhone App Locates Products in Aisles at Stores

aisle411 is today launching its iPhone application for locating products in specific aisles and sections at retails stores. The application works at more than 600 stores in the U.S. and is meant to serve as a faster, more convenient way for shoppers to search and find items at stores.

Application users can type in product search queries or use the voice recognition technology, powered by Nuance, to search at participating stores. For each supported store, aisle411 also includes a comprehensive store map and store info, and UPC barcode scanning to pull up user-generated product reviews.

Generic product searches — double sided tape, for instance — will return search results that specify available types and brands. App users can then glance the section and aisle number for each result, select to map a product for navigational assistance or choose to add it to a shopping list.

Participating stores may also opt to include coupons and offers. The application surfaces Coupons.com offers available at stores, and highlights them in the offers portion of the app.

The service even includes a now ubiquitous checkin feature, so users can check in to stores, share their location with friends via TwitterTwitter and FacebookFacebook and earn badges and titles for their behaviors — think becoming the “Captain” of a particular store. These features seem a bit tired and unnecessary; if there’s a voice search or barcode scan, then there should be sufficient information for the service to automatically recognize that you’re at a particular venue.

aisle411 currently works at locations such as Home Depot, Schnucks Market drug stores and at Shop’n Save’s grocery chain. Obviously, the application is limited by the fact that its application only works at participating retailers.

The idea certainly has traction, apart from the copycat checkin features. We’ve already seen applications and services tackle location-based rewards and in-store barcode scans (Shopkick and Checkpoints come to mind), but solving the problem of locating products in stores feels fresh and will certainly be useful to lost shoppers.

aisle411 was founded in 2008. The company works with partner retailers to provide the in-store product search and offer experience; more retailers are said to be signing on with the startup on a daily basis. The aisle411 app is currently for iPhone only, but similar applications for AndroidAndroid and BlackBerry will be released in 2011.

Image courtesy of FlickrFlickr, Gavin St. Ours

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Internet TV Network Revision3 Wants You To Lean Back And Watch … On Your TV

Internet TV network Revision3 is today formally debuting a new TV-optimized website and bringing its full catalog of online content to multiple platforms including Google TV, Yahoo! Connected TV, Windows Media Center, AppleTV, Boxee and Roku.

Revision3, which was founded by Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson and David Prager, is porting its full line-up of more than 20 programs to the television screen, including shows like Tekzilla, Diggnation, AppJudgment, Dan 3.0 and Film Riot.

You can use either customized applications for the various Internet-enabled television sets or combos, or you can simply visit TV.revision3.com to watch the shows.

The application’s user interface was designed to make finding content simple, according to the company, as it sorts shows by name, category, featured content and most recent episodes. Viewers are also able to manually search for their favorite episodes and “lean back and watch” fresh content.

Will you be tuning in to the no-longer-strictly-Web-only Internet TV network from your TV?

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NAVTEQ Study: Worst Traffic In U.S. On New York City Freeways

NAVTEQ— the digital map, traffic and location data company— released a study today via its Traffic.com site and service naming New York City and its freeways as the most congested and traffic-delayed in North America.

Freeways in Montreal, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston and Toronto cracked the top ten on this dubious list as well. Following New York on NAVTEQ Traffic.com’s ranking of cities with the worst rush hour are: Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Atlanta, Houston and Denver.

This Thanksgiving holiday (Wednesday, November 24th to Sunday, November 28th) the American Automobile Association (AAA) and IHS Global Insight predict that the number of Americans traveling will increase 11.4 percent versus 2009, with approximately 42.2 million travelers overall and 39.7 million of them reaching their destination by vehicle.

Vehicles account for at least 25 percent of air-polluting emissions domestically, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports. Numerous studies have linked traffic and related emissions to health problems that range from childhood asthma to higher risk of sudden heart attacks for people living within 300 to 500 meters from a highway or major road most effected by traffic. According to the Health Effects Institute in Boston, 30-45% of people in large North American cities live within such zones.

Stop and start driving causes vehicles from diesel buses to typical family cars to emit more particles including black carbon and volatile organic compounds, scientists at Queensland University of Technology in Australia found. That’s one reason air quality declines around traffic-congested areas.

In New York, areas with the greatest traffic density suffer three times the concentration of the pollutant nitric oxide, and twice the concentration of nitrogen dioxide, compared to areas with the lowest traffic density, according to the 2010 New York City Community Air Survey.

Drivers who avoid the most congested routes, roads with lots of stop signs and traffic lights, and who drive during off-peak hours hopefully with carpoolers can curb their impact on air quality, and the overall amount of fuel or energy they consume while traveling.

From the NAVTEQ Traffic.com study:

Freeways with the Slowest Typical Rush Hour

1. New York City – Brooklyn Battery TUNL NB
2. New York City – Washington BRG EB
3. Montreal – AUT-15EB
4. Philadelphia – US-202 SB
5. Montreal – RTE-138 WB
6. New York City – Washington BRG WB
7. Los Angeles – 1-10EB
8. Boston – US-1 NB
9. Dallas – TX-366 EB
10. Toronto – Don Valley PKWY NB

Cities with the Worst Rush Hours

1. New York
2. Washington D.C.
3. San Francisco
4. Los Angeles
5. Philadelphia
6. Chicago
7. Dallas – Ft. Worth
8. Atlanta
9. Houston
10. Denver

Image via Ryan Vaarsi

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Dell Inspiron Duo and speaker dock up for pre-order at Microsoft Store now, no clue when they'll ship out

The Dell-Microsoft symbiotic relationship continues where it left off with the Venue Pro, as another highly desirable piece of hardware has been made available at a Microsoft Store ahead of Dell: the transforming Inspiron Duo and its JBL-powered speaker dock. That's actually in your favor this time, however, as you won't have to trek across the countryside to one of Microsoft's seven brick-and-mortar stores, but rather grab the $549 convertible at Microsoft's website, and you can even get $50 off the audio station's typical $99 price. That said, these are most definitely pre-orders we're dealing with here and there's no expected shipping date on the site, so it's hard to tell if you're actually securing yourself the first spot in that "first week of December" line. They won't charge you until it ships, though, so if you're not willing to wait for our full review to see if that slick spinning screen is up to snuff, now is probably the time.

[Thanks, Joe]

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This Morning’s Top 3 Stories in Tech and Mobile

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

iOS 4.2 Brings Multitasking & Wireless Printing to iPad

The new version of Apple’s mobile platform, iOS 4.2, is available today for the iPad, iPhone & iPod touch. iPads received the most new features, including support for multitasking, wireless printing, app folders, a unified inbox and access to Game Center, among other things.

Apple also announced that its Find My iPhone application is now available to all users for free, sans a subscription to MobileMeMobileMe.

WikiLeaksWikileaks: Next Release Is 7x Size of Iraq War Logs

WikiLeaks tweeted that its next release (date TBA) will be seven times bigger than the size of the Iraq war logs, which are widely considered to be the biggest military leak in history.

eBay Releases All-in-One Buying, Selling & Scanning iPhone App

eBay has released version 2.0 of its primary Phone app, which enables users to buy and sell on eBay’s flagship auction site, as well as scan product barcodes for comparison shopping.

Further News

Image courtesy of iStockphotoiStockphoto, DNY59

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Verizon launching LTE network in December 2010 (video)

Verizon's been talking details on LTE deployment for some time now, but even at CTIA earlier in the year, the carrier insisted that it would be the first half of 2011 before the next-gen network was active in the US of A. Now, it looks as if the engineers have been working triple-time in order to get Long Term Evolution live in the States under Big Red's branding, as a new VZW commercial (embedded after the break) has affirmed that the first LTE waves will go public here in December 2010. Yeah, next month. Granted, there's no information beyond the date, but at least we shouldn't have to ponder long which devices will be first out of the gate. Here's hoping Santa's wish list has room for one more thing. See more video at our hub!

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Fangirl Oprah Says The iPad Is Her All-Time “Favorite Thing”

For those of you who have never watched Oprah’s “favorite things” episodes of her show, the talk show host airs an annual segment each holiday where she lists her most desired products and subsequently gifts these things to her studio audience. As this is the last season for her show, this year’s segment (she held two in honor of the occasion), Oprah has made this year’s “favorite things” one to remember. First off, she announced that the iPad is her “number one favorite thing ever.”

She says about the device, “words cannot describe how I feel for this device.” She added that one her favorite apps for the iPad (besides her own app of course) is Scrabble. She then gifted each member of the audience an iPad (it’s unclear how many people were in the audience but it is generally in the hundreds). We’re also not sure what type of iPad she’s giving her audience but because Oprah’s such a generous gal, we’re assuming it’s the $829 64GB with Wifi and 3G).

Of course, it’s not a surprise that Oprah loves the device. She has been “gushing” about the iPad since Steve Jobs first revealed the device earlier this year. And she gave all of her O Magazine staffers an iPad this year in honor of the publication’s 10th anniversary.

Other technology gadgets and gifts that made this year’s ultimate favorite things episodes include a five-year Netflix subscription, a Sony 3-D television, a Sony Blu-Ray Player and a Kiva-Groupon partnership. Microsoft’s Bing also got a shoutout, giving the audience gift cards to donate money with.

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