Order food from KRUSH Brands companies in UAE using what3words

What3words, the location technology company that enables people around the world to identify and share any precise location using just three words, is teaming up with Freedom Pizza, a KRUSH Brands company, for its first UAE-based food delivery partnership. This allows customers to have Freedom Pizza delivered to a specific 3 m square without the need for additional directions.

Street addresses across the UAE can be inaccurate: pins can drop in the centre of the buildings, leaving riders struggling to find the correct door or access point and searching through large areas. The what3words addresses are more accurate than postal addresses, the company said. It is also the first addressing system entirely optimised for voice, and available in over 45 languages.

The what3words model is based on a grid of 3 m squares mapped onto the globe. Each one has a unique what3words address, made of three words from the dictionary. KRUSH Brands riders can then deliver anywhere across Dubai with the right words. For example, the front door to Freedom Pizza's Downtown location can be found at '///flicked.host.officers'.

KRUSH Brands has introduced the technology across their portfolio of locally-born companies, including Wildflower Poke & More, Coco Yogo Vegan Kitchen, Salad Jar along with foodpreneur partners Jet Lagged Chef and Viking Bageri.

To find the what3words address for a specific location, KRUSH Brands customers can visit what3words.com or download the free what3words app, then select where they would like to receive their delivery, after which they will see its easy-to-remember what3words address. They can then log in to any of the KRUSH Brands websites or applications to add their precise what3words address to their profile.

KRUSH Brands has a database of over 350,000 customers, with 60% of all orders coming directly on the brand platforms built by their in-house tech team. At least 95% of the orders received will be for delivery which equates to about 10,000+ deliveries per week for the KRUSH Brands delivery team to fulfil. Integrating what3words with their existing addressing system ensures speed, precision and reliability in a hyper-competitive market and allows KRUSH to maintain its 23 minutes average delivery time as demand increases.

KRUSH Brands Founder & CEO, Ian Ohan said: "We are super excited to partner with what3words to provide our customers with easy to use and more accurate and fast delivery. Whether you are at home, the beach, in the desert or one of the UAE's amazing parks, we will find you with what3words. We love its simplicity and believe it is the future of global addressing in the region and internationally. Good ideas matter and what3words is a great one.

"The benefit of what3words for food deliveries are clear. Providing three simple words in your online checkout means no more lost or cold pizza," added Chris Sheldrick, CEO and co-founder of what3words.

"We are really excited to partner with KRUSH Brands in Dubai to give customers a more accurate and seamless delivery experience anywhere, anytime".

In Dubai, Makani numbers help taxi drivers reach customers

Source: RTA. Cabs in Dubai are now linked to Dubai city via Makani.

The Dubai RTA’s Public Transport Agency has completed linking 4,500 taxis from franchise companies operating under the RTA with the Dubai Municipality's Makani System. The system uses unique coordinates, or Makani numbers, to locate buildings.

Adel Shakri, Director of Transportation Systems, RTA’s Public Transport Agency, said: “Thanks to the sharp accuracy and the easy use of the Makani System as well as its 100% coverage of (the) Dubai Emirate, the system has played a vital role in executing booking and despatch orders by cab drivers. It has made it easy for clients to reach to their intended destinations in Dubai, thanks to its highly accurate positioning feature using interactive e-maps."

Benefits of the new arrangement include being able to make a taxi booking with a Makani number through a call to the Booking & Dispatch Center. The Booking & Dispatch Center can now communicate between the customer and the taxi, receiving booking requests and forwarding them to taxi drivers.

“This initiative brings back multiple benefits to RTA’s Booking & Dispatch System. It facilitates the dispatch of taxicabs to clients using Makani number, and eases the booking process for customers by just citing Makani number. It also reduces the number of complaints related to taxis and cab drivers such as the late arrival, and the poor knowledge of Dubai geographical zones on the part of drivers,” Shakri noted.

“The coverage of (the) Makani System of Dubai Municipality spans the entire Emirate of Dubai. About 137,000 addresses have been registered in the Booking & Dispatch System of taxis and 4,500 taxi cabs have been linked to the system.”

Qatar Airways will be first in the world to know where its planes are, minute by minute

Qatar Airways will be the global launch customer of GlobalBeacon, a technology solution by Aireon and FlightAware that is designed to provide up-to-the minute global tracking of all aircraft equipped with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) in 2018, approximately three years before the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) recommendation for compliance by 2021.

Source: Qatar Airways. Plane in Qatar Airways livery in action.

GlobalBeacon combines FlightAware’s worldwide flight tracking information, including origin, destination, flight plan route, position, and estimated time of arrival with data from Aireon’s space-based ADS-B aircraft surveillance system, due to be operational in 2018. The solution will provide Qatar Airways with state-of-the-art technology to meet and exceed Global Aeronautical Distress Safety System (GADSS) requirements and recommendations.

In addition to aircraft tracking and location reporting requirements, GADSS requires aircraft to provide immediate notification of abnormal events, regardless of air traffic unit boundaries and without a degradation of baseline search and rescue services. Further, distressed aircraft status tracking under GADSS can be activated by the pilot, automatically by the aircraft and remotely by the operations control centre.

Announced by ICAO in March of 2016, the GADSS was created to help improve the ability to detect commercial aircraft in remote locations. The key components of GADSS recommend that aircraft report their position to the airline’s operations centre at a minimum of once every 15 minutes under normal flight circumstances. However, if an aircraft should become in distress, position reports are then to be provided every minute. GlobalBeacon will provide a permanent minute-by-minute reporting capability, exceeding the ICAO recommendation.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, HE Akbar Al Baker, said: “As one of the fastest growing airlines in the world, both our needs, and our drive to deliver the very best services for our global passengers, are continually evolving. GlobalBeacon will seamlessly integrate with our existing ICAO 2018 compliant flight watch technology (Total Operations System), and further enhance our fleet management by providing updates every minute.

“I am proud of Qatar Airways’ leadership in this vital area of aviation safety and awareness. We will be the first airline in the world to have the capability to use worldwide satellite air surveillance to support our airline operations and to achieve the highest level of flight tracking standards ahead of the ICAO 2021 mandate.”

“Qatar Airways is a leader in the aviation industry, and their proactive approach to implementing the GADSS recommendations reinforces that point,” said Aireon CEO, Don Thoma. “With a modern fleet of 190 aircraft flying all over the world, across remote and oceanic airspace, Qatar Airways and GlobalBeacon are an ideal match and no new avionics will be required. We’re excited to welcome them as a partner.”

“With GlobalBeacon, Qatar Airways is getting the most state-of-the-art solution to meet GADSS recommendations in the industry,” said FlightAware CEO, Daniel Baker. “The adoption of this solution shows their commitment to their customers, employees and international community to help improve airlines and aviation stakeholder’s ability to locate aircraft in distress and improve search and rescue capabilities.”

TomTom unveils help for speed cameras, jams

Source: Android Play website.

TomTom is introducing TomTom Jam Ahead Warnings¹ which are now available on the free² TomTom Speed Cameras app for Android.

TomTom Jam Ahead Warnings visually and audibly alert drivers to rapidly slowing, or stationary, traffic on the highway ahead, giving the driver the opportunity to brake smoothly, and in time.

Corinne Vigreux, co-founder and MD, TomTom, said: “We’re constantly striving to make the driving experience safer and more relaxed. TomTom Jam Ahead Warnings is a powerful example of this approach.”

The TomTom Speed Cameras app is already available in 16 countries³, and today launches in a further 26⁴. Drivers around the world rely on the app to deliver highly accurate fixed and mobile camera alerts in real time, as well as average speed checks for average speed cameras.

The locations of fixed cameras are provided by TomTom’s database, and verified by a TomTom moderation team, while mobile speed cameras are reported and verified by a community of over 5 million drivers.

Interested?

The TomTom Speed Camera app for Android is available as a free download on the Google Play store. The full list of countries supported is listed in the app description.

1 The TomTom Jam Ahead Warnings feature is not available in selected European countries.

2 A mobile data connection is required

3 Existing countries in Asia Pacific available include Australia.

4 New countries and territories include: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

posted from Bloggeroid

The more targeted the mobile advertisement, the more it earns

Smaato has found that in China, the advertising is most successful in the shopping, e-commerce, communication and technology categories, which boasted eCPM* highs of US$0.30 in Q1. 

In terms of mobile real-time bidding (RTB) ad spend, entertainment (30%) and games (22%) emerged as the top two categories in the country for the first quarter.

Smaato Chief Strategy Officer Ajitpal Pannu shared that monetisation and brand spend were driven higher when key parameters were passed globally to advertising partners.
 
eCPMs increased by up to 321% when location and device ID are included in a bid request, and increased more than 150% when gender and age range data were included.

According to Gartner**, global mobile advertising spending is forecast to reach US$18 billion in 2014, up from an estimated US$13.1 billion in 2013. Asia Pacific markets  have been generally receptive to mobile advertising – nine in 10 of smartphone users in China and 87% of smartphone owners in India have clicked on mobile advertisements in December 2013***. 

Source: Smaato Ad Exchange Global Mobile RTB Insights Q1 2014

*eCPM is a performance measure for advertisements that is calculated by dividing total earnings by the total number of impressions, multiplied by 1,000. 

**Gartner says mobile advertising spending will reach $18 Billion in 2014, January 21 2014

***The Asian Mobile Consumer Decoded