DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

socialmedia

Creativing :: Tweet of the Week, Fake Steve Jobs on the iPad, and Seth Godin taking his own medicine

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What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Tweet of the Week

I like to imagine Jonathan Ive and James Dyson — tank-topped, schnapps-drunk, and enthusiastically slap-fighting over who’s fancier.

Official Google Blog: Search is getting more social

Sometimes a video is worth 1,000 blog posts. This one does a great job explaining the immediate appeal and potential power of their social search. In personal tests, I didn’t find it all that, but then neither was YouTube on day one. But the potential is screaming obvious. And I found it a glaring reminder of how far ahead of everyone Google is in search. Tried Facebook search lately? It feels like you’re dealing with a big, dumb, AI terminal. As my network and the topics it covers expands, this could be a remarkably powerful focal point for searches across anything from a restaurant to a good doctor. Google’s biggest obstacle here is Facebook blocking their content from Google search. If I were to pick a winner at this point, I’d say Google because this is far more advanced search-wise, and I like the idea of the net they’re casting going well outside one site (although Facebook Connect could be just as effective).

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : Tablet Part Two: The true significance of the Tablet

The blend of humor and insight at Fake Steve Jobs never fails to inform and entertain. It’s been said before that the iPad is the newspaper industries last hope for survival. And this post delves into how Jobs wants to redefine the multimedia experience. I also like his unrestrained assault on the Kindle. I’ve always been a big fan, but this week has really exposed it’s vulnerability, imo.

The iPad’s Threat to Advertising – IABlog

Think iPad will save the publishing and ad industries? Here’s a good contrarian viewpoint.

Unhappy Hipsters

The captions Dwell Magazine never published. Funny parody.

Has Twitter peaked? – CNN.com

If I owned Twitter, I’d be far more interested in the overall usage stats than just uniques. I understand the importance of uniques for overall growth, but reading most of the complaints, it’s not that the service offers no value, but rather it’s the perceived lack of filtering. People will eventually figure out lists, and other ways of filtering the data. And Twitter’s open source approach should continue to ensure that a very large community of developers and entrepreneurs will continue to find new ways of expanding Twitter’s utility. That said, you never want to see your unique’s dropping 😐

CQ: The Test Of Your Potential For Cross-Cultural Success – Forbes.com

On the surface, this may seem like one more way to have to compare yourself to others. But I definitely think multi-culturalism is pretty lost on much of the US. Even in the advertising world — where we tend to think of ourselves as pretty open and aware — we’ve seen enormous blowups from ads where no one bothered to consider that anyone outside of their own cultural boundary could have access to the communications. This is worth a read.

Seth’s Blog: Why write a book?

Seth Godin certainly takes his own medicine. This is the announcement on his blog for his latest book. Not crazy hype. Not even a small cover shot of the book. Just an intriguing headline — which surely stopped a good percentage of those who’ve ever thought about writing a book — followed by his usual thoughtful way of viewing things below the surface that stops most people. And all very consistent with his brand.

Vanishing Point motion artwork | The Glue Pot

Motion artwork video from visual artist Takuya Hosogane. There isn’t much info here or on his site about the methodology, so I’m assuming it’s all directly his design work, and not generated algorithmically through the sounds.

Charlie Simpson, 7-Year-Old, Raises $160,000 For Haiti

Shows that you don’t have to be a major corporation to generate buzz in social media. You just need a great story.

Creativing :: Holiday shopping madness video, social media gains advocates, and iPhone news

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What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Chaos inside Walmart during Black Friday 2009 [VIDEO]

Absurd chaos going on here. You’d think a gun was fired. People in some parts of the world must see this and think this entire country is insane.

Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman Mashup Creates Controversey

The video this references to has been pulled. What I like here is that the mashup was done by CBS. That means that CBS was mashing up artwork they didn’t have the rights to? And the networks are trying to put a stop to YouTube? At least for a brief moment it seems they stopped acting like legal bots and started acting like real human beings.

AT&T CEO Wants iPhone Users to Limit Usage

This is little short of mind-boggling. Just as the mobile industry a really taking off, AT&T’s De la Vega steps in and tries to threaten everyone with tiered pricing. He should read his history. The Web tried this very unsuccessfully in it’s early days. Consumers heavily restricted their use out of concern for unexpected high monthly charges. More than anything, I’m surprised that he can’t see how anyone in the mobile space should benefit from increased usage. That data they point to is interesting though: Their 3% smart phone users consume 40% of the data. I just don’t like their solution of punishing their best customers. What other industry does that (besides the music industry)?

Chrome Extensions for Mac Coming Soon

I just installed Chrome on my MacBook Pro, and am very impressed with the speed over Firefox. Extremely noticeable. But I do miss the ability to have plugins — something I used a lot on Firefrox. So this is good news to me. If you haven’t tried Chrome for Mac, though, i’d definitely give it a spin

Twitter Bombs and the Real Time Tweets on Google Results Page

I, like many others, have noticed a lot more Google Alerts search traffic. And much of it is from Twitter activity. This report could certainly explain why that’s happening. It could also be pushing up posters who happen to use a common Google search term. I can’t imagine this will last long. Way to easy for brands to drop the Twitter bomb. And you know they will. In fact, I’m sure the marketer behind the shaking belly ads is at work on that right now.

It’s Official: Auto Ads are Shifting Online

Some pretty convincing data on the increasing use of social media by the auto industry. What I find most interesting is that it’s the dealers, at the local level, that are really taking advantage of this. Here’s a great stat from a Nielsen report: “Auto dealerships dropped their overall ad budgets 27%, but increased internet ad spends 45% in the first three quarters of 2009, compared to the same time period in 2008.”

Social Media Influencing 28% of Shoppers

An early indicator of the influence of social media on consumer shopping behavior. And while I agree this is real, I’m surprised that the gap between those who say they check product reviews and those who say they are affected by social media activity is as narrow as it is. Really, I thought the majority of people would be regularly checking product reviews on sites like Amazon. Interesting that only 13% of people claim to make use of that information to inform their purchasing decision. Maybe it’s the lower price point merchandise they’re not so concerned with.

Seth’s Blog: The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations

Social media is a process, not an event. This is a big distinction, and actually something I addressed earlier this week at the iMedia Summit. So I couldn’t agree more. And company’s that want to treat social media and branding like an event, or a product, are in for an unpleasant surprise.

Top 10 Internet Marketing Strategies of 2009

What I like in this article is how they emphasize the mediums that establish credibility. This is a principle concept that’s coming up a lot in branding. And whether they refer to it as credibility, authenticity, or being genuine, it’s the same principle. You can’t just shout messages at people the way you once could. They mention these trends were big in 2009, and should be for 2010 as well. I’d say they can extend it out a lot longer than that for many of these mediums.

iPhone App Lets You IMDb on the Go

A good review of the iPhone app on Mashable. This is probably one of the most logical apps you could want, as especially among young people, a lot of movie-going decisions are out-of-home.

Creativing :: Futbal Hero video, Facebook’s latest marketing strategy, and Sony goes hunting for game spammers

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What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

YouTube – Kasabian Football Hero

It’s always great when a cool video is accompanied by a good song. While more documentary than music video, this is a fun riff on the Guitar Hero user interface, despite actually using open source version Frets on Fire.

Map View from AirSage

Mobile-based location and motion data. They use mobile phone data from individual handsets to predict things like traffic and general movement patters of people throughout the US. They have agreements with both carriers and manufacturers, and are a sort of white label for traffic information. They claim to be able to provide this coverage for 127 markets that cover 85% of the population. There are a lot of campaign applications for this data.

Beastman

Fun, simple street art style from an Australian artist.

Kill Your Idols

Skate culture art style with a rock and roll theme. Can’t go wrong with that.

5 Must Read Social Media Marketing Studies

Some good research and projections on social media. Highlights include a report that American’s spend 17% of their online time on social media sites, and businesses reporting that blogs have the highest social media ROI.

Tobold’s MMORPG Blog: Facebook games: Scam or useful tool?

Good assessment of the four critical components for how Facebook games hook people and pull them in to a deeper experience. Definitely reinforces why so many Facebook games feel so formulaic.

The Myth of Usability Testing

Usability testing isn’t the most exciting subject I’ve ever written on, but I’ll certainly concede it’s value, when used correctly. And that’s what this article delves into. Pitfalls and solutions for good testing methods. One interesting note is how many usability tests are given to existing users of a bad interface, and they compare those results to the same group using a new interface. Of course, given their familiarity with the bad interface, they find that one easier to use. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Facebook’s ‘Reconnect’ Strategy is Brilliant

You’ve probably seen random people popping up on the right column on Facebook, under the title ‘Suggestions’. These are friends of yours Facebook has identified as relatively inactive on Facebook. And they’re encouraging you to reach out and get them participating. Facebook’s explosive growth is starting to flatten out. And now they need to figure out other ways to grow their business. Typically, companies tackle this by increasing usage among current users. Facebook’s approach to that — getting users to connect amongst themselves — is both genuine and cost effective. And while the term CRM isn’t mentioned anywhere in this article, it’s a blend of that, permission marketing, and user generated marketing. Pretty savvy.

Sony creates online detectives targeting ingame spammers

According to this article, Sony’s 9-member detective team has already shut down 295,000 spammer subscription accounts. And I thought my inbox got a lot of spam.

5 Fresh & Innovative Collaboration Platforms For The Creative Community

Looking to reach out and connect with other creatives? Here are some good places to do so.

Creativing :: Another reason not to count clicks, video monitor in a print mag, and Jack Daniel’s raises a glass

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My weekly update of what’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Study: Half Of Ad Impressions, 95 Percent Of Clicks Fraudulent

This sounds pretty alarming at first, but for those using legitimate campaign evaluation methods, they’ll be able to identify the fraudsters quickly and cost effectively. It’s all about using the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). If you haven’t heard by now, forget clicks. Click’s aren’t even last week. They’re last century. Focus on metrics that can’t be gamed near as easily by a bot. The major KPIs include: Visit rates – how has the campaign effected your overall site traffic? Engagement rates – are people actually finding your site relevant to your marketing messages? Conversion rates – are visitors actually doing something to impact your bottom line? The deeper you look, the harder it is for scammers to skew your results.

Timing Is Crucial To Maximize Exposure With Social Media

Timing in social media is key from a cultural point of view, but also tactically in terms of what time of the day or day of the week you launch the campaign. And while much of this focuses on what I consider digital PR rather than social media, the principles apply on a broad scale.

Google’s Ad Exchange Honcho Joins “Real-Time Advertising” Startup

When I saw this headline, I immediately thought of what Doug Weaver from Upstream has been writing about for the past several years. That the process of buying and selling media is due for a major streamlining. The Cliff Notes version of this is to think of Google Adwords for display advertising, industry-wide. And potentially video units, as well. As a creative, I generally favor anything that streamlines the non-creative department part of the business, because it tends to shift emphasis to the process of creating the ads. Of course, the challenge for creatives will be the overall commodotization of the advertising business. To date, when one part of the business reduces friction, it affects the whole industry. As an example, when media buying became detached from creative and handled by separate agencies, there were cost savings for clients. But there was also a struggle to get the two groups working together conceptually. And the creative process became more akin to filling out a job order.

Evolving Beyond The Banner Ad – Digg’s new ad unit

Speaking of ad units, this is interesting, if not clearly overdue. In social media, why not let the community evaluate the advertising the same way they evaluate the content? That’s what Digg is doing. And this could be great for your Nike’s, beers, and on Digg, Ron Paul. The big question is, What about the brands that don’t have lifestyle cache or emotional relevance to the audience evaluating them? And if that can’t be created in all brands, which I think is a challenge, then how will Digg be able to sell ads to those companies?

Really great Demo of new experiment from Mozilla

A good, early stage peak into the future of the semantic web. And, unlike so many concepts in beta, this one’s ready to go.

Technology to run video ads in print magazines

This is certainly attention-getting, and at this point anything that gives that advantage to magazine advertising will probably help them sell ads. But print publications are going to need to become a lot more than low-grade video display units. Instead of feeling like a print breakthrough, this feels more like an obvious indicator that all content will soon be digital. What this misses is the idea that the online video content experience is so much richer than just a page with video. There’s sharing, favoriting, commenting, etc. If anything, viewing these small screens only makes me realize how much better the experience would be online. So hopefully they can use this to sell some ads, but I don’t think it’s even close to a long term solution for print publishing.

Twelp Is On The Way!

A good breakout of Best Buy’s Twelpforce, and how the real power of this is not just being on the latest new media bandwagon, but about taking thousands of employees and making them feel like a bigger part of the brand story.

Jack Daniel’s ‘Toast’ Application Going Strong

This is a great campaign idea – send a toast to your friends. And it’s pulling strong results early on. But having tried it, I’m surprised that it isn’t easier to select a single friend to toast, versus the system’s recommendation engine. Secondly, I can’t figure out why they wouldn’t prominently promote this on either the default page of their Facebook Fan page, or their website.

Ford’s Fiesta to Party on — Without the Fiesta

I really liked this campaign when it came out. Take 100 top YouTube video stars, and give them the new Fiesta and a gas card, with an agreed number of blog posts they’ll write about their experience with the car. And some of the bloggers actually exceeded the minimum posting requirements, partly because they found their posts about the vehicle were getting more views than their regularly-scheduled content. That speaks volumes about the effectiveness of social media and sponsored blogging. But they ran the campaign a full year prior to the vehicle’s availability in the US. And now there’s a time gap in which they have to maintain momentum. My only guess to this is that they were afraid the social media campaign might not work, or even have a backlash, and by running it so far in advance, everyone would forget about it by the time the car launched. Any better theories?

Burglar leaves his Facebook page on victims computer – gets busted

One of those stories almost too good to be true. I’ve read of burglars doing all sorts of things during their robberies. Napping. Fixing themselves a snack. Watching TV. But this trumps them all.

Creativing : Air Jordan flies again, trends in social media, and a nice mobile campaign

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My weekly update of what’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Jordan’s History of flight

A stylish, hip run-through of the various shoes he wore throughout his career, as well as the continuing line of Air Jordans. While Jordan’s skills were undeniable, he also made an enormous impact on the fashions of the game. And of course, wearing a uniform of not much fabric, the fashion statements ultimately came down to the shoes (later to be overtaken by tats, perhaps). At any rate, a fun recap of his career, and introduction to the latest line of Air Jordans.

Top Consumer Trends: Trust, Control, … Playfulness?

I like where consumer’s heads are, at least according to this survey. Basically, it looks like consumers are running everything through one big BS filter. But interestingly, they’re not against having a little fun. What these five trends say to me is, consumers are looking for straight-shooting companies that aren’t trying to sell them on traditional marketing tactics like bandwagon and products with bloated feature sets. In exchange for that dose of reality, they’re willing to engage and participate in a little fun. Oh, and if they don’t get this from their current brands, they’re ready to jump ship.

What Execs Are Thinking About The Social Media Channel

After reviewing what consumers are thinking, it’s interesting to see how the views of marketing execs compare. For the marketers who get social media, it looks like they’re on the right track. Emphasis is on building better relationships and extending their brand awareness. For those who aren’t interested, it’s typically because of low ROI tracking, and a lack of control over their precious brands. And from what consumers are saying, if that’s their mindset, they’re probably not going to succeed in social media anyway. Once again, it looks like the marketing industry is going to offer big rewards to early adopters.

Basics Of Social Media Roi

A good breakdown of how to apply some traditional marketing evaluation metrics to social media, and move a little bit closer to the holy grail of marketing. Perfect data. However, this will probably never address the issues of the ROI-bent marketers surveyed above, and they’ll likely sit on the sidelines until they’re well behind in the game.

I am T-Pain Autotune App for iPhone

Saddled with the ignominy of auto-tuning, T-Pain comes back like a great social marketer should. He takes the criticism head-on, and even turns it into a point of engagement that he can profit from. An auto-tuner iPhone app. And with the app, he’ll likely demonstrate that even with auto-tune, you still need some skills to sell a million songs. Or ringtones.

MockFlow – Easy Wireframing for Software and Websites

My new fave method for tossing together a quick sketch of a site layout. This is almost as fast as drawing on paper. (Especially when I have to spend so much time explaining what I’ve drawn.)

Moviegoers Protest ‘The Cove’

Great premise behind a campaign for what’s being touted as a very good movie. As the movie ends, theater goers are ENCOURAGED to turn on their cell phones and send a text to stop the killing of dolphins in The Cove, the subject of the movie. Cool way of turning a taboo into a call to action.

Burning Man 2009 Photos

What’s certainly one of the most photogenic events anywhere is captured with beautiful interpretation of the desolation of the environment combined with the inspiring transformation it goes through every year.

Creating Free Websites

I haven’t really dug into exploring this yet, but on the surface it looks impressive. Build good looking flash sites in a flash. With optional e-commerce shopping carts, and other advanced features like auto-coding Google Analytics. It’s remarkable where templatized site building is going.

Circular Website Navigation

Check out the nav on this site.

Creativing :: The IRS and LAPD give social media the stamp of approval

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My weekly update of what’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Scale: The Importance of Cafe-Shaped Experiences

A good excerpt from Chris Brogan’s new book “Trust Agents”. It speaks to how the scope of much product development and it’s related marketing is downsizing, or going niche. And with both products and marketing going less mass, it requires a more personal touch. That effects profitability for sales and cost-effectiveness for marketing. The challenge of doing more for less is all-too-familiar in marketing circles today. This article is a bet that won’t be changing any time soon. It’s an interesting dilemma, because the big question many marketers have for social media is its scalability. Companies accustomed to running national mass media campaigns who then try social media as a more personal approach to marketing often report the lack of a blip on the radar screen of sales or traffic. Perhaps the mass media model will need to take further hits in acceptance or credibility for this trend to completely play out. Or, maybe social media will find new ways to scale the impact of more personal conversations. Whatever the case, a more personalized approach takes time and diligence. And companies accustomed to mass media who try to bring that mindset to social media are likely in for a difficult transition.

Apple – Movie Trailers – Art & Copy

I’ve seen this going around the web, and apparently it opens today in a few small markets. While Mad Men will broaden the appeal of this, it’s still likely to be a special interest movie. I’m curious how soon films like this will go straight to online viewing. If they could get 5% of the ad industry to see it for $2, I can’t imagine there aren’t profits to be had.

New Site for CMO’s

CMO.com. Curious what they paid for the URL. Launched by Omniture, they’re accepting content submissions, but seem to be mostly aggregating at the moment.

New Facebook Privacy Policies Will Have A Significant Impact On Platform Applications

I’ve been writing a lot on privacy issues lately, which is odd for a creative guy. But I’m confident these issues are going to have a strong bearing on creative capabilities, particularly in social media, over the next several years. Seriously, most people have no idea what information is out there on them, and how easily it can be dug up. Facebook seems to be taking the self-regulatory approach that the alcohol and tobacco industries have taken for years. But they have their challenges. Reading Facebook’s Privacy Settings section reads like the Ts and Cs of most websites. So I’m not expecting people to really take this over for themselves. Facebook in general isn’t known for it’s great user interface, so I’m curious how they’ll handle such a complex issue with a mass audience in time before this blows up.

Is ‘Friending’ in Your Future? Better Pay Your Taxes First

On the subject of Privacy, you may be surprised to know that the IRS is hanging out on social media sites, looking for confirmation or contradiction of your latest filing. Seems like small potatoes stuff, but tax revenues for the government are at devastatingly low numbers due to the economy. They’re looking behind the sofa cushions for loose change.

LAPD releases security cam vid of break-in at Lindsey Lohan’s house

Speaking of government agencies using social media, LAPD released this break-in video. On YouTube. While this makes sense, I think the big story is, the IRS and now LAPD are both using social media to improve their performance. Yet as recent surveys have shown, there are still CMOs of major corporations that aren’t convinced that social media has a role to play in their marketing efforts. Interesting.

New campaign for CWs “The Vampire Diaries”: Tying cause marketing with for-profit business objectives

Not every marketing story can have an ‘green’ or ‘socially conscious’ angle to it. But here’s a TV show tying into the Red Cross as a way to promote both. I like this as a way of bringing a heightened social awareness to the campaign, which feels compassionate and relevant in troubled times like this.

Justin (shitmydadsays) on Twitter

A pretty good story. A simple daily Tweet of what a 28 year old overhears from his 73 year old dad. And the growth has been remarkable. I first noted this last Tuesday, when ‘Justin’ had 53,000 followers. Earlier this morning, it was at 149,000. It’s now over 151k. Like Daily Candy, it’s simple in structure — just one posting a day. A good reminder that an impacting message doesn’t have to have large budgets or extensive production timelines. There was a rumor that this was tied to V Australia, which I’ve not been able to confirm. However, if this does turn out to be marketer-driven, I’ll be curious to see both a) Who it’s for, and b) How people will react.

Cheese and Burger Society

Fun site from the Wisconsin Cheese council. I’m always up for a new burger or sandwich recipe. I do think there’s a lot more they could have done in the way of social interactions around this site, though. But good content all the same.

Photoshop Artworks

Striking photoshopping applied to portrait photography.

Creativing :: Social media strengths and embarrassments, mobile takes off in a million directions, and a Michael Jackson tribute video worth watching

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My weekly update of what’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

90% of Consumers Trust Opinions of Friends

That shouldn’t shock anyone. But it really gains impact when compared to other information sources, especially paid media. The idea of knowing what our friends are doing, and having that steer our own behaviors, is what social media marketing is all about.

Can You Be Friends With Your Mom … On Facebook?

A funny scenario in which a woman struggles with the pros and cons of bringing mom into her Facebook fold, yet a very real situation for many people. As Facebook continues to push for growth and more and more people file in, many are going to be asking how great of a communication tool it is when they’re seemingly communicating with virtually everyone they know at the same time. Sure you can individualize settings for everyone. How many of you have done that? And how long did it take? These are openings for the next Facebook, or Facebooks, serving niches that were lost in Facebook’s growth.

The Facebook Doctrine: Gaming And The Future

I’d normally never post an article this long for a group of marketing people. But it’s a far-reaching discussion with Facebook’s platform manager — one of the main guys making decisions about what Facebook will and won’t be doing, technologically. Social gaming, considered by many as the most exciting thing on gaming’s horizon, is perfectly suited for Facebook’s friendship network. And Facebook Connect simply extends that to experiences to all 3 screens: Computer, TV, and mobile.

British spy chief’s cover blown on Facebook by Reuters

The wife of the head of the British MI6, their secret service, divulged WAY too much family information on Facebook. Incidents like this make me think that there are a lot of people out there who just don’t don’t get what social media is all about. And per above, with more and more ‘older’ people pouring onto Facebook, it’s a bit like running a media gauntlet. It also seem to set the stage for a backlash based around privacy concerns, although in this case, I think it’s just someone who didn’t get the memo on the social aspect of social media.

The Social Media Underground

One of the least-discussed benefits of a great social media campaign is the SEO rewards. There are 3 pillars to SEO: Content, architecture, and links. The link component is often the weakest. And that’s where great social media creative can knock it out of the park. Because good social media is shared. And often that sharing points back to an experience somewhere on the brand site. Each of those inbound links gives a boost to the brand’s Google rankings. As social media matures, more and more companies are going to be trying to generate this type of content. And that’s where creative agencies that understand the medium are going to have an enormous impact on things way beyond brand awareness, the aspect of social media most focused on at the moment.

Viral customer complaint

I love this. A band is flying to a gig on United, and at a stopover in Chicago, they look out the window and to their horror see their instruments being tossed around like a hacky sack. (Just to have a shot of their faces would have been plenty of entertainment for me.) They complain to the flight attendants. It’s ignored. They get to their destination and the lead guitarist finds his $3,500 guitar destroyed. They complain again, and United ignores them. So what do they do? Sit down with their patched-together instruments and write a little ditty about the whole experience. When it went viral, THAT got United’s attention. Watch the music video of their song.

Mobile Media Usage Soars, Opens New Vistas for Marketers

More evidence that mobile’s day is (finally) here.

SMS Money Transfers with Africa’s M-PESA MobileBehavior

What I love about the mobile revolution is the myriad areas it’s impacting. From entertaining content to gaming to personal communication. This article describes how mobile phones are being used to exchange money via SMS texting in areas of rural Africa that lie well outside the traditional banking world.

First music video shot on iPhone 3GS? Reyna Perez, “Love Love Love.”

This was as inevitable as daybreak, but still worth a view. Add another item to the long list of examples of how production of content is being commoditized by technology.

The Future of the iPhone: Intelligent Object Recognition

I generally don’t like far-flung projections about the future. They’re usually way off. But with iPhone, it’s a different story. The technology at hand is Object Recognition, and its potential is laid out here in two examples. One, say you’re at the Eiffel Tower and point the phone’s camera at it, and up pops all sorts of contextual information. That’s because the Tower was identified as an object, causing related database links to bring up various info about it. The second example is face recognition. Imagine the same thing, but only pointing the phone at someone’s face, and it bringing up info about them. Most remarkable is perhaps that all this is in the latest patent filing by Apple.

Eternal moonwalk – A tribute to Michael Jackson.

Did you hear Michael Jackson died? Despite the overwhelming coverage, this is both an inspiring tribute and a great use of the technology.

Hilarious Family Guy bit about those annoying TV show promos that pop up during shows