This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

Women play the games and use the gadgets to transform their lives, so why is the technology industry still marketing to them as if they slept with fuchsia-clad, faux-diamond-studded Barbie dolls tucked under their arms?

Women are smart, economically powerful and increasingly active in the way they look to technology to enhance their lives. This isn’t my opinion, it’s fact. Look at the figures: according to research we conducted with Forrester, over half of women attempting to make technological purchases walk out of shops (Source: Forrester Research 2010) because they simply can’t find what they are looking for. The missed opportunity here is calculated at £0.6 billion per year in the UK alone (Source: Forrester Research, 2010)

The more you look at women’s market share, the more baffling the industry’s approach becomes. Out of every 10 gadgets, four are bought by women, and we’re talking high-end consoles and digital cameras, not steam irons or hair curlers! Furthermore, in the 25-34 age bracket, women make up the lion’s share of all gamers at over 50% (Source: YouGov/Lady Geek Feb 2011). So the question remains, why is the industry still trying to palm them off with patronizing, dumbed-down products?

This question is particularly relevant given the lessons that ought to have been learnt from Dell’s disastrous Della website (a site that gave you recipe tips with email suggestions). After all, money always talks, and with such a cash cow waiting to be milked, millions must surely have been spent on expert consultants examining just what it is that “women really want.”

Sadly wherever the money’s been spent, it hasn’t made any marked impact on the products themselves, where stereotype continues to prevail. Take HTC’s new Bliss phone, with its calming wallpapers, calorie counter, shopping apps and irritating ‘charm indicator’ that flashes when you get a message. When this was being designed, someone really should have taken a step back and asked just who really wants a Barbie charm hanging off their phone.

Compare this to the eminently masculine stylings of the Motorola Droid 3 phone and its “it’s not a princess, it’s a robot” tagline, and you get the picture. Instead of marketing to women (and men) as the complex, informed and fundamentally varied customers they really are, the battle lines have been set out from a 1970s template, with Android “dudes” on one side, and glitz-fed bauble babes on the other.

To frame a complex issue in the simplest of terms, women want smart devices that enhance their lives. They don’t want to be bamboozled by jargon but nor do they respond favorably to being marketed to like pre-teens cooing at the latest Justin Bieber add-on. Frankly, the current approach smacks of marketing so lazy it needs its pulse checked.

To end on a bitter-sweet note, consider the iPhone PMS SOS Betty Crocker app, which sought to cure pre-menstrual tension through cocoa-laden product vouchers. What we are witnessing here is a marketing approach that is perilously hard to swallow, and that is a reality the industry is simply going to have to digest.

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As an American living in London, the riots and now looting that has spread over the past nights evoked comparisons to the Rodney King uprising. A glaring difference to the 1992 event’s media coverage is the role of social media. On Monday, Twitter saw the largest ever spike in UK traffic with 3.4 million visits.  Newspaper headlines scream “Nail the Twitter Rioters” and “Looters co-ordinate raids via Twitter and BlackBerry as messages of rage spread like wildfire”. How accurate are these claims, can we really blame social media as the fire behind the looters? Is technology facilitating violence?

There is no doubt social media is having a role mobilising violence and a portion of the community, and that BBM appears to be the medium of choice. Messages have included specifics like “Everyone in edmonton enfield wood green everywhere in north link up at enfield town station at 4 o clock sharp!” and the sensational, “if you see a fed… SHOOT”. This is troubling. But the power of social media has shed some light on London’s situation in ways that are inspiring. The idea that a simple hashtag or a Facebook page can build solidarity among thousands (or more) of people is the light at the end of this scary tunnel. Rather than see social media platforms as independent, each with their own function, this outpouring of community support for London has inundated a myriad of sites.

@Riotcleanup, a Twitter account to help mobilise efforts to clean up the destruction left behind, already has over 85,000 followers (and growing rapidly). Their tagline is “Clean up OUR communities”. A Tumblr called “Catch a Looter” has been set up to help identify those involved. Even the Metropolitan Police has set up “London Disorder – Operation Withern”, a Flickr account that posts pictures of looters. #Tweetalooter and #Catchalooter have become popular hashtags. #Riotwombles has also become a popular Twitter topic and aims to keep track of cleanup locations and how to get involved. The Facebook page “Post riot clean-up: let’s help London” has over 18,000 likes.

To call technology the fuel to the fire of violence in London is a dangerously sweeping claim. Social media and instant messaging have had multiple roles, but their force for good is not to be overlooked. London’s response to the riots exemplify the positive power of social networking.

When Dell first invited me to their Female Entrepreneurial Conference (DWEN)- I was filled with trepidation.  An all women conference?  This was something I had not encountered before.  Would it be discussing maternity leave and flexibility at work?

It was nothing of the sort.  The purpose of the conference is to support women CEO’s/founders of small and medium size businesses by showcasing inspirational speakers and giving them a platform and a voice to discuss the next stages of growth of their businesses.

Last year DWEN took place in Shanghai and discussed everything from how to scale your business to how to manage your talent through to advice on acquiring funding.  Practical inspirational information jammed pack in a 2 day conference with plenty of cocktails in between.

Its an amazing conference with some of the most inspiring women I have ever met focusing on real business issues facing women like me.  A year on and I am still in contact with many of the women I met.  I get asked to go to lots of networking events, the majority I turn down, but I make time for this one due to the calibre of the women and the attention to detail by the organisers and sponsors.

This year- its in Rio on the 6th & 7th June.  Other than being a superb location (I know its a tough life), but on a more serious note, Brazil provides the ideal setting as nearly half of the country’s entrepreneurs are women and has made its way onto the world stage in the last decade as the world’s fifth largest country and eighth largest economy.  Not to mention being under the leadership of the country’s first woman president, Dilma Rousseff.

Above is a video of some of the amazing women I met.  Judith Clegg, CEO, Venturing Unlimited.  Joana Picq, COO, Thenextwomen, Helen Ridgway, Co-founder of Axicom, Helen Gorringe, Wiggly Wigglers.

You can join the DWEN linked in group and be part of the debate here. Content about the event can be found on Twitter via @DellBizWomen and by following #dwen.

I hope to see you there or if you can’t be there, please get involved in the debate.

Belinda

Mums represent $1.7 Trillion of the consumer market annually. 80% of the purchases decisions for the home are made by the mum.  68% of mums use their smartphone while shopping.  Its official- Mum is the CEO of the household.

Yet despite these powerful statistics, mums are often ignored and misrepresented when it comes to technology. The way most tech companies communicate to mums is as if they are still Betty Draper, the 1960s housebound housewife, whose soul purpose in life is to look after her children, dote upon her husband- thankfully we are not expected to smoke endless cigarettes in the process.

Nowadays, the expectations on mums could not be bigger.  Mums are expected to be at their whim of their boss 24/7, be at the doctors when their children are sick, cook fabulous culinary treats for their husband work colleagues and have a washboard stomach whilst performing all of the above-which lets face is is pretty darn impossible post babies (unless of course you subject yourself to eating just mung beans for the rest of eternity).

Technology can play a vital role for many mums.  My mum friends want to use technology but only to help them cope with what family life throws at them on a daily basis.  My friends are not interested in the difference between a megabyte and terabyte- they want technology to protect their kids from harm and keep track of what they are up to.  Mums want to be the emotional umbrella of the family.   Mums want technology to help them be not just the CEO, but the Chief Technical Officer as well.  And lets face it, mums are the gatekeeper to the home and ultimately they decide what’s allowed in.

The new campaign from Three is a good attempt to connect with mums. Their campaign is called “On the Go”.

Denise van Outen, is the face of the campaign and does a good job in sharing her experiences as a mother and describes how technology can help her navigate through motherhood.  The tone is not patronising  (it is a little Day Break though), but all in all its a well executed idea.  Our Lady Geek Mum panel said they would prefer a more ‘everyday mum’- despite this we think its a good step in the right direction.

Lets hope this is the first of many campaigns giving mums a voice and making their lives just that little bit easier with technology.

For any Brit or foreigner alike, this is an in-depth Royal Wedding package. Complete with satellite views of the procession, as well as several downloadable maps of different key areas of their royal promenade through London, this app from Appstillery Ltd. and MakkaMappa promises easy access to the entire procession. As well as following the procession you can track your own location, helping you to find the perfect spot to wave to the Royal couple as they pass.

iDo also includes a scheduled itinerary of the day to ensure you know where to be at the right time, whether it’s Kate leaving Buckingham Palace or the married couple departing Westminster Abby.

Unlike all the other Royal Wedding apps, this app is actually pretty useful if you are planning on going to see the procession. However, an annoying feature on this app is the necessity to separately download the maps onto the App. It’s not too slow but seeing as it’s described as a virtual map app, you’d expect them to be preloaded onto the app.

A final feature of the app is the ability to follow royal wedding tweets and post comments on Facebook, keeping you connected to the royal wedding community.

Available on: the iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Price 59p

Believe it or not, women are gamers: Gamers with a load of purchase power. Women don’t give videogame advertising a second glance, and only 4% of game developers in the UK are women. But when it comes to women, we’ve found that casual gaming is anything but casual. There has to be some way to connect the clueless marketers, the under-developing gaming industry, and the countless women interested in gaming.

Find out more on 31^st March at 7:00 PM at the Apple Store on Regent Street.  Topics will include the many myths of women and gaming, and how to better market and develop products to target an untapped source of millions of pounds. A panel of experts will include: Belinda Parmar @BelindaParmar, Founder of Lady Geek, Ian Livingstone @Ian_Livingstone, Life President of Eidos, Paulina Bozek @Paulinabees, CEO of INENSU, Siobhan Reddy, Studio Director at Media Molecule, Renate Nyborg @Reante, Head of Business Development, A&N Mobile & TV, and Catharina Lavers Mallet, Senior Producer of Playfish.

This event is free of charge.

I’m beginning to worry about the welfare of my future children. I’m questioning whether I even
want children anymore. My maternal instincts have been pulled left and right and are now in tatters.
This is all down to a game, of course. Player beware: Tiki Towers will ruin you.

On the face of it, this is a nice little game with no cause for emotional concern. You build towers
and bridges from a supply of bamboo in order to get your monkey troupe from their box to their
goal, enabling them each to pick up a banana en route. If you’re not careful with your construction
work, the bridge will collapse as the monkeys swing and jump and hang on it. They don’t care how
carefully you have placed each piece of bamboo, how much thought has gone into making sure that
last banana is reached. They don’t care that if they would just walk in an orderly fashion it wouldn’t
matter that there isn’t quite enough support at the end of the bridge. If there is any faulty design,
the monkeys will discover and destroy it.

I am aware of the difference between monkeys and children. Number 1: Children are not monkeys.
Number 2: Monkeys are not children. But as I finish building my first tower and open the box
(Number 3: Monkeys can be kept in boxes; children shouldn’t be kept in boxes? ) to set the monkeys
free, I think of my nephew. He has just turned 2 and loves destroying things. Auntie Annie builds a
LEGO house; Archie pulls it apart. Auntie Annie builds a brick tower; Archie knocks it down. It’s a
bit annoying (the LEGO house was so good I was going to put it on Right Move) but look how much
fun Archie’s having! Finally free from their box, the monkeys seem to be having a lovely time too.
Oh no. I have created an attachment to a bunch of cartoon monkeys. And this is where the trouble
begins.

One structure I build has a weak connection. It breaks as my monkeys are mid-climb and they fall
down, down, down: gone. Two monkey skulls appear in the line-up. I am an unfit monkey mother!

One island (you unlock new islands if you progress well) has a lot of lava about. I should probably try
to keep my monkeys out of the lava, I think. The game agrees and tells me: Monkeys + lava = no-no.
I put my hand on my hip, metaphorically. Don’t you tell me how to look after my monkeys! I know
what’s best for them! The game obviously remembers my earlier double monkey murder.

I don’t expect everyone will get as emotionally involved with Tiki Towers as I did. Without that it
is still a fun game of logic, trial and error, and bananas. Hopefully it has taught me enough about
rudimentary bamboo construction that if I do have children, and they do need me to build them a
bridge, I’ll be able to get them to the other side without causing too much harm.

Tiki Towers has most recently been made available on Windows Phone 7, but is also available on
Android, iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad and WiiWare.

Fed up with useless apps such as iburb and ifart? Think your
smartphone should have smart apps? Lady Geek is on hand to sift out
five apps that might just actually enhance your life…

(Also appeared in Company magazine- March edition)

1) Spotify
Now available on Ovi, Spotify’s gargantuan jukebox and offline
playlists make this app all the more irresistible. A word of warning,
however; publicising your playlists can make for ritualistic
humiliation if your guilty pleasures stretch to Manilow, Right Said
Fred or the Hoff.

Platform: Android, Ovi, Apple
Price: 9.99 a month for premium version (mobile & PC)
www.spotify.com

2) 3G Watchdog
My mum used to curtail my teenage phone-athons with a timely
unplugging of the cable, and this App is very much a third-generation
‘rental, tracking the data traffic sent over your phone’s mobile
network, and vibrating when you exceed your limit. And now it’s you
paying the bill, you might take more notice!

Platform: Android
Price: free/ Pro version for £2
http://www.androlib.com/android.application.net-rgruet-android-g3watchdog-zzA.aspx

3) Cut the rope
Chillingo’s latest multi-million selling app involves feeding a green
monster with candy, via a series of ever-increasingly complex
obstacles. This description may not seem much of a hard sell, but this
app has the dual benefits of simplicity and an addictive appeal.

Platform: iPhone
Price: £0.59
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cut-the-rope/id380293530?mt=8

4) Google Translate.
Don’t cancel the Mandarin lessons quite yet, but you might consider
replacing your phrasebook with this versatile translator. Type or
speak your phrase and it will translate it into 50 languages (the
voice recognition is actually surprisingly good), speaking it back to
you in a tone that will command respect in restaurants across the
globe. Could work on boyfriends, too…

Platform: Android
Price: free.
http://translate.google.com/#

5) Nokia’s Ovi Maps.
This free app provides walk and drive navigation for over 70 countries
worldwide, with pre-loaded maps and updated third-party content. Using
your phone’s GPS chip to work at where you are, the app provides
timely (ie not as you drive past the turn-off in question!)
instructions for those whose map and compass skills are, quite
literally, a lost cause.

Platfrom: Ovi
Price: free
http://maps.ovi.com/

“Would you like some pepper?” asks the waiter. I stare at him. All of my concentration, every bit of will power I have ever possessed, is going into not shouting “TWIST IT!” in his face. I have not lost my mind, I promise.



Let me explain myself: I arrive very early for meeting a friend. The suggested pub is shut and it’s raining outside so I find a restaurant nearby, get a table and order a drink. I appear to have found a nice restaurant. There are tablecloths and olives. People are celebrating things. I am going to eat food I have trouble pronouncing. A nice restaurant.

I have 30 minutes until my friend arrives. I get out my iPhone and flick through some games. I’m looking for something discrete, something befitting of the ambiance, something that might look like I’m checking my emails when the waiter comes back. Bop It! That seems about right.

I don’t whip out the much loved plastic audio toy and pass it round my fellow diners, clapping as they PULL IT!, FLICK IT!, and BOP IT!. That would be ridiculous. I begin to play a solo round of the game as designed for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The game follows the same principle as its parent game. A demanding American man shouts at you to complete actions using the onscreen icons, instructing you at ever increasing speeds while some delightfully annoying music plays in the background.

You can play the game in a variety of modes: As a solo player you can play in classic mode, with the three original bop, twist and pull icons, basic mode with one icon at a time, extreme mode with up to six icons on the screen at one time, or play against the clock in blitz mode.

If you do feel the need to get the whole restaurant involved and pass the game around in multi player with basic, extreme and blitz modes, or you can play head to head with one other player. I am tempted to ask the waiter.

During the game you are able to unlock trophies and, if you feel the need to boast about your Bop It! prowess, you can share your scores on Facebook.

There are also a variety of settings that are very important to consider when playing in public. You can receive the commands through speech (shouting), sound effects or text, decide if you want to switch banter on or off (request setting transferal to the group celebrating – their banter is getting dangerous), and, most importantly, the one setting I failed to pay proper attention to – ‘Shout It’.

One of the icons that appears is a microphone and you are requested to SHOUT IT!. That can either be done by tapping the microphone (Shout It off) or shouting YEAH! at the screen (Shout It on). As I sit in the nice restaurant by myself a microphone appears and I have Shout It on. Oh well, at least I unlocked the ‘Yeah! Shout’ trophy.

The mobile version of Bop It! is exactly as enjoyable, annoying and frustrating as the original. It’s easy to play and the graphics are cartoony and colourful. I guess the most important information I can pass on is this: No matter how much you like Bop It!, there is a time and a place; and when the waiter approaches with a giant pepper grinder, the response should never be “TWIST IT!”.

You can download Bop IT here.

Ann Scantlebury is the accomplished actress and co-presenter of the award winning game show One Life Left.   Ann is a regular contributor to Lady Geek.