May 31, 2005

Hotel Kiosk Growing Pains

New York Times writer serves up current hotel check-in kiosks. He finds reliability to be a major issue. Employees refer to the units as dust collectors. One guess is that the sheer exposure and publicity angle of it all degraded...



May 27, 2005

Kiosk Software Company Releases Latest Version

Netkey announced at Retail Systems their latest version, Netkey 6.5, is now available. Netkey 6.5 is complete platform supporting development, deployment and operation of retail applications and store technologies including kiosks, digital signs, handheld devices, POS systems, and employee workstations....



May 26, 2005

McDonalds Blaze Net in Chicago with Music Kiosks

A chicago writer makes the trip to the local test McDonalds and writes up the latest kiosk techonology test by McDonalds. This is the US test with the previous one done in Germany rumors have it. The best guess...



Online Photofinishing Price War Escalates

In the digital photo world the price war has escalated with Snapfish (owned by HP) offering prints for 12 cents (4x6). The industry average is 22 cents according to the PMA. Snapfish is #3 behind #2 Shutterfly and #1 Kodak...



Xbox Kiosk

Interesting photo has been born. This one is apparently the gaming kiosk that will be in game stores across the world so that people can get their free play on. According to the kiosk picture below it will allow gamers...



Georgia credit-card holders first to use 'blink' technology

ATLANTA - About 400,000 credit-card holders in Georgia will be the first in the country to use a new technology that allows them to pay for items by waving their card near a terminal instead of swiping it through...



May 25, 2005

Financial Services to Grocers and C-Stores

Convenience and grocery stores are in trouble. Long-standing revenue streams like cigarettes are disappearing in a puff of smoke. Intense pricing pressure from Wal-Mart has flattened margins for the foreseeable future. An aging store asset portfolio drains available working capital....



Napster Sells 100,000 Ringtones in One Month

Since opening its ringtone store, Napstertones, last month, Napster has sold over 100,000 of the song clips. Most tones are priced at $1.99. The service interface is clean, easily navigable, and helps users determine what�s available for their phones. Cingular...



May 24, 2005

WiFi Digital Camera Delayed

In photo kiosk related news, Kodak announced that the new EasyShare camera with WiFi won't be available until October (in time for holiday season though..).The idea of the camera is to have customers shoot and then upload to the Kodak...



Crime Maps and ATMs

Chicago crime map | chicagocrime.org Interesting use of Google Maps. Select ATM and give it a minute to update and wala, you have ATM crimes in Chicago....



Followup to Ed Christman Billboard article

Last week we posted nice article by Ed Christman on music kiosk business. Within the billboard article were two sidebars which did not show up in the electronic logs....



Acquisitions in Music

InternetRetailer.com - Daily News for Friday, May 20, 2005 Muze was bought today by Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. Muze has one of the largest repositories of music metadata of anyone. Enterprise plans to aggresively expand Muze's market in retail websites,...



May 23, 2005

Trends with Camera Phones by PMA

PMA today released some data about camera phone users and how they behave as far as printing pictures. All of which has ramifications for the photo kiosk and kiosks in general. According to Fotolia it would appear that image...



May 21, 2005

Internet Kiosk in Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City currently has 2,017 Internet service kiosks, announced the municipal Culture and Information Department on May 18. To help the service develop on the right track, Ho Chi Minh City has asked these Internet booths to strictly...



May 20, 2005

Contactless Card Momentum Goes Blink

JP Morgan announces it is going to issue millions of contactless cards in an effort to jumpstart the market in the US. Visa launched its own contactless system in the US market in February this year, although at the...



May 19, 2005

Visa and Pin Entry Devices Update for ATM and Kiosks

Visa PED update May 17: They announced the compliance date for newly deployed Encrypting PIN pads (EPP): Effective 01 October 2005, all newly deployed EPPs, including replacements or those in newly deployed ATMs, must have passed testing by a PCI-recognized...



May 18, 2005

Self-service Scorecard

The Allen Bonde Group announces their awards for self-service portals such as Broadvision, KANA, Siebel and others. The consulting group does quote some kiosk statistics for check-in and for photo kiosks and even defines self-service in the general sense. It...



May 17, 2005

Photo Contract for Army and Air Force

Kiosk Exchange (Robert Pratt, Bob Gallner)announced a big win for photo kiosks for the US Military. The contract calls for the deployment of 118 digital photo units in 115 Army and Air Force installations in the U.S., including Hawaii, Alaska...



May 16, 2005

Acquisitions in Self-Service Kiosk

NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) today announced that it has acquired InfoAmerica, a privately held company and leading provider of self-service solutions for the quick-service restaurant industry. link to press release...



Customer Survey Kiosk Start-Up

THE CHALLENGE: Building a successful business by connecting retailers with their customers. THE STRATEGY: Place touchscreen terminals and kiosks in public spaces to gather feedback and e-mail addresses from consumers....



Reuters Feature on CD Burning Kiosks

Feature on how red tape and the music labels are making it hard for CD burning kiosks to succeed. The labels all have their different requirements. The growing trend for independent music and more relaxed requirements from smaller labels is...



In the year 2014, along comes Googlezon

Interesting 8 minute movie on the future of information. EPIC, or the evolving personalized information construct, is unleashed by Googlezon. Robin Sloan looks into the future of digital media and participatory click here to view movie...



May 13, 2005

7-Eleven Transforming Technology

7-Eleven is transforming itself into the JetBlue of the convenience store industry. With an imaginative assortment of fresh foods and a cache of financial and tech-savvy services that belie its low prices, 7-Eleven is emerging as the industry�s cheap-chic...



Interview with VISA

Contactless News does nice interview with Visa. Main questions: (1) Can contactless technology transcend the early hype and establish itself as a viable payment tool? And (2) Where the heck is Visa? story link...



May 12, 2005

Digitizing Home Depot

Interview on CIO Today with Bob DeRodes of Home Depot on digitizing Home Depot... "There are other human use issues for us to consider as well. For example, one of our biggest challenges is where to put kiosks and other...



May 11, 2005

KIosk and ATM Fraud

Greg Swistak, Executive Director of the Kiosk.org Association (KOA), a trade group representing the interests of self-service providers, said the problem is not with the machines, but rather with a few of the people who sell them and create industry-wide...



Yahoo Music Goes Live

Yahoo today launched an early version of a new music service (rumors about which were circulating in March) in an effort to take on Apple's dominant iTunes and capture a good chunk of the online music market, writes CNET. The...



Xbox Live Gaming Kiosk

EB Games customers looking for the latest Xbox Live games can now sample the online service. Microsoft and EB Games have partnered to deliver new Xbox Live kiosks to 25 EB Games locations. The new program, called "EB Games goes...



May 10, 2005

ExxonMobil Financial Service Kiosks

Charlotte-area ExxonMobils are getting new financial service kiosks installed. The E-Wiz terminals by Info Touch (and Kiosk Information Systems) provide customers with convenient access to a wide variety of services, including but not limited to, bill payment, money transfer, pre-paid...



May 09, 2005

Tesco UK Movie Download Move

Tesco is planning to launch a film downloading service to complement its music download service in the UK according to an interview with the high street retailer and the BBC....



May 08, 2005

News Releases By Kiosk Information Systems

Kiosk Information Systems has three new news releases posted on the site. Kiosk Information Systems Takes Home Most Awards at Industry Show Click here for "KioskCom Excellence Awards" Samsung Laser Printers Chosen By Kiosk Information Systems Click here for "Kiosk...



May 06, 2005

DVD Content Indexing

In their attempts to make the content of digital video and television searchable, search engines are increasingly racing to form partnerships with content providers and to bolster their indexes of video content. Yahoo Inc. joined the partnership race on...



EMI signs with Snocap

Shawn Fannings new company just signed EMI as one of its labels. He already has Universal and Sony BMG. Snocap, headed by Napster founder Shawn Fanning, identifies songs by their digital "fingerprints" and determines how copyright holders want them...



May 05, 2005

Gates Interview with Engadget

Terrific interview with Bill Gates by Engadget. There are some good insight on the HD-DVD and Blu-ray track (which will affect kiosks) as well as how the tablets are progressing. Part I Part II...



Billpayment and QuickTrip

New Bill Payment and Check Cashing Kiosk Expected to Drive Increased Store Traffic and Sales; QuikTrip and CashWorks Team to Rollout New Easy-to-Use Kiosk. Research shows 65 million underserved Americans lack fundamental financial services. Read More...



May 03, 2005

Universal Music Revenues

Universal Music has revealed that it made $52mn from downloads sales in the first quarter of 2005. The world's biggest record label, with 25 per cent of the global market, saw downloads contribute four per cent of its total revenue....