Mobile Marketer has reported that the December issue of Esquire Magazine will be entirely interactive with a mobile device.  They are lauding the fact that this is going to be made possible without the use of either QR Codes or digital water marks.  In order to interact with the magazine the reader will have to be using a Netpage app.  The user will have a variety of ways to experience the magazine.  Users can be directed directly to a site where they can purchase featured item, be directed to a video interview with Bradley Cooper who will be gracing the cover of the magazine, and even the advertisements will be interactive - one Lexus ad will have the car drive off.

Papa Johns restaurant chain is facing a class action lawsuit that can cost them as much as $250 million, due to a failed SMS campaign.  The suit alleges that 500,000 text messages were illegally sent to Papa John's customers across the country.  The Papa John's camp is reporting that the messages were actually sent by a third-party vendor hired by some Papa John's franchises.  The vendor that was hired was OnTime4U.  Allegedly, the company told the Papa John's franchises that it was legal to send text messages to customers without their consent since there was an existing buyer/seller relationship there.  Papa John's then proceeded to give OnTime4U a list of their customers their cell phone numbers.  The company sent out text messages on behalf of Papa John's and now here they are in this sticky situation.  

Mobile Marketer is reporting that a new report by Urban Airship and Wave Collapse suggests push messages really help app retention rates and engagement.  They reviewed 360 apps' push messaging systems and were able to conclude that alone can help retention rates.  Push messages are usually highly relevant to the user and can really help to drive consumers to the app.  The report classified push messaging practices as high quality, average,  or low. The results show that apps that received a "high" are retained at more than double the rate of opted-out users.  Even practices that received a "low" still showed a significant difference in retention rates.  
This study seems to suggest that if your app is not quite up to speed or not implementing push messages into its practices there is a major opportunity being missed there.  Any app is pretty much useless if there is nobody actually visiting it and using it.  Relevant push messages increase engagement by 388% for opt in users.  With numbers like that it would be extremely hard to attempt to debunk them.  Even low quality push messages are effective, do not miss out on that train.