Audi celebrates innovation with a new kind of car photo calendar – one with no photos of cars.
At least, none at first glance …
You have to download an iPhone app to get the full picture, and capture the beauty of mechanical innovation.
Each month, you get not just a pretty picture, but an intriguing blend of communication technologies and augmented reality (AR), a technique that combines a real-world environment with virtual imagery.
It is recording a real image, in real time, and then using technical wizardry to add virtual objects to the scene. A real-world positioning sensor allows the virtual objects to be manipulated via computer to create an image that unites the real video with the virtual — fixing the virtual objects in the real landscape.
It’s a small but revolutionary advance for architecture, industry, defense, cinema, leisure…
Here is one of many examples:
Philips recently launched a revolutionary Cinema 21:9 format LCD TV called the Carousel. To promote it, the brand created a great buzz by commissioning Danish director Adam Berg to create an amazing short film (just 2 minutes, 9 seconds long) that immerses the viewer in a 3D hold-up scene inspired by the last Batman film, The Dark Knight. http://www.dailymotion.com/videox916h9
The video is available on a factual minisite, in high definition and interactive. It’s worth seeing!
Microblogging and Twitter.com explained in a playful video. Recommended to everyone who wants to understand what microblogging is without, having to experience it.
But then, come on, try it, it’s so easy…. to become a microblogging addict!
This year the fifth annual Deutsche Welle International Weblog Awards – The BOBs – were celebrated.
More than 8,500 blogs from all over the world were nominated for the BOBs (the blog equivalent of the Oscars).The public can cast their votes for the best weblogs, videoblogs, and podcasts in 11 languages on www.thebobs.com to help choose who wins the people’s choice award in each of the 16 different categories. Once the online votes closed to the public, the international jury of bloggers, media experts, and journalists meets to determine who deserves to be the ‘best of the blogs’.
This year, users from all over the world contributed more than 8,500 nominations for the BOBs – a 20% increase from last year – and the jury narrowed the selection to the best 11 candidates in each category. In the ever-expanding global blogosphere, the BOBs are unique in its inclusion of so many languages. The competition recognizes blogs and podcasts produced in Arabic, Chinese, German, English, French, Dutch, Farsi, Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
The winners were announced at an awards ceremony on November 27, 2008 at the Museum for Communication in Berlin.
Yoani Sánchez from Cuba won the award for the best Weblog with her blog called “Generación Y”.
To find out more on the winners in each category and on this internationally renowned awards ceremony for Blogs, go to http://www.thebobs.com
Interesting other piece of information too, The BOBs 2008 were supported by Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Freecom, O’Reilly and Sevenload.
Sharing storage space on the internet for free was recently introduced to the public by Wuala: wua.la
This allows distributed storage for your own files, making them available any time via the Web, even if you are nowhere near your PC or if your PC is switched off!
Although the principle seems simple, the great challenge is to minimize the number of copies of the same file. This can be done with the complex Mathematical trick known as the Reed-Solomon error correction (currently used to interpret data on DVDs).
Most commercial online-storage services use centralised servers, that are generally reliable, but as we know they do sometimes fail. Though some may feel hesitant about their data protection Wuala is built to handle concerns about the illegal distribution of copyrighted or “inappropriate” content.
Asus, a leading Taiwanese company in the new digital area, designed the first concept notebook (EcoBook) using bamboo paneling. This material is ultra-resistant and light, leading to a notebook that is partially biodegradable. Thanks to its new technology power consumption of the battery can be 35% to 70% more efficient.
The green alternative is now at hand!
Measuring the effectiveness of Web campaigns has usually meant measuring click-through rates – until now. As click-through rates fall, agencies understand that alternative ways of engaging customers needs to be explored.
Instant messaging functionalities, video, interactive games and other types of customer interactivity provide great opportunities to engage customers actively in a brand. By pushing content directly to the customers, they allow more constructive data to be collected.
The key for agencies that develop push-marketing initiatives is to do the following: clearly identify the brand campaign objectives; define the deliverables that allow the objectives of the campaign to be reached; and above all spark engagement with the deliverables in a meaningful, and cohesive manner.
The benefits of these new tracking methods are undeniable. For example, with conversion tracking, third-party ad servers are able to track a users’ path from the time an ad is first encountered until the time they make their transaction. Conversion tracking drives sales and also clarifies the roles that different publishers and channels play in those sales.
SONY recently launched its new Reader in Europe. Weighing no more than a standard paperback book, it can hold up to 7,500 pages of reading equivalent to approximately 160 standard paperback books. It has a 6” display with the new Ink® technology that makes reading possible on its display even in bright sunshine. In addition, its screen allows for high contrast and high resolution, with a near 180° viewing angle. The text can be changed between three different font sizes and connection to the internet from this device is also possible. It costs between $300 and $400 depending on the country of sale. It will be interesting to see if and how this new digital e-book device can change the reading experience, and if institutions such as libraries and book stores will forever be changed.
A group of former Google employees has set up a new search engine called Cuil. Even though this new search engine promises better results by scouring a larger index of web pages than Google, experts are cautious about its prospects. Cuil has compiled an index three times as large as Google’s as it searches for results across 120 billion web pages, compared with Google’s index of 40 billion pages. Rather than displaying results in a list, like Google, Cuil shows them on a page which has a magazine-like feel. Each result has a greater amount of text alongside it, and sometimes an image as well.
Its success will be determined by how quickly Cuil can get fresh content and breaking news into the search results; and how it deals with spam, where websites try to trick search engines into thinking they are more relevant than a competitor site. The site was launched on July 28th; however, its usability has been sporadic.
Advertgames (advertising games) creates an engaging and branded interactive entertainment experience that generates buzz and keep consumers coming back for more. Older technology, such as TV commercials, are becoming less successful, web banner are not generateing much traffic, and web pop-ups are just ignored.
The idea is simple: Advertgames allows companies to dissimulate their branded products in an entertaining content highlighting the scope and the values of the company. This new interactive communication tool, very popular in the U.S, is growing in Europe and is already used by major companies like Nike, Kellogg, General Mills, Pepsi, Kodak, and Volvo.
Advergames delivers a powerful promotional platform that enables valuable CRM efforts. It’s an attractive interactive solution generating buzz.
CuteCircuit is the first company to merge wearable products and telecommunication technology to create emotionally rich experiences for consumers in the fashion, sport, and communication markets.
They develop wearable technologies and smart textile-based intelligent garments based on what is known as interaction design. Interaction Design consists in the development of interfaces that focus on responding to the user’s experience, also known as user centered design. It is widely recognized by companies such as Apple, Adidas, Nike, Hitachi, Canon, Sony, Ideo who apply it to new product development to enrich the experience. A few of their star products include:
The Hug Shirt is a wearable Bluetooth accessory for your mobile phone. The Hug Shirt allows exchanging the physical sensation of being hugged over distance through telecommunication networks.
The KineticDress is part of the Transfor-Me collection developed for the NEMO Science museum in Amsterdam. The KineticDress changes color and pattern depending on the activity of the wearer.
The Accessory Nerve is a Bluetooth wearable accessory for mobile phones. When the Accessory Nerve receives an incoming call the fabric pleats on the sleeve change pattern.
Check out their web site:
http://www.cutecircuit.com/projects/wearables/
