Cool hunting
For a country I’ve never visited, Japan has certainly made me smile a lot. It seems only they could somehow make combing the land for treasure as cool as this: Akai Tori
For those of you without a working knowledge of Japanese you’re going to have to trust me when I tell you that Akai Tori quest is a mixed reality treasure hunt intended to boost tourism on the small Japanese island of Enoshima. Using a free piece of Nintendo DS software, users visiting the island can interact with one another as well as with the island through their DS’ Bluetooth connection…
Which is, frankly, just much more excellent than searching for real treasure with metal detectors ever will be.
Posted by: Simeon at sugar rush time on Thursday, 7th February 2008
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Listen up Shoreditch
If there was one stock answer of what I thought would make any client job better, I’d undoubtedly say digital outdoor (proof here). And I’ve long gotten quite excited about this whole ‘hyperconnectivity’ [define] notion. In fact, I still vividly remember the pain I felt when the last O’Neill limited edition solar backpack sold to the customer a few people in front of me in the queue.
Despite such early backpack traumas though, I still feel a little uncomfortable with clothes being designed to react to our moods. I’d far rather people did that. And as for clothes that evolve to suit our environment? Well I’d sooner just buy a few different outfits than entrust all judgements of social etiquette to a dress.
Not that I wear dresses, of course…
Posted by: Simeon at make mine a cider on Friday, 30th November 2007
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Step away from your computer
Not many things irk me, but the perceived belief that ‘digital’ means ‘websites’ is one of them. Digital, to my mind, simply means something that is controlled by a computer – and more often than not, these ‘things’ help connect people in ways that until the advent of digital remained impossible. So now that everybody’s connected via the web, it’s time to really shift focus to creating innovative, playful real life experiences that cut through the marketing clutter and give people something to remember and talk about. Some excellent examples here: Snap shot city, Dexia towers and this quite amazing interactive supermodel hologram.
Posted by: Simeon at aspirin time on Friday, 26th October 2007
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I, Player
When the BBC iPlayer was announced (back in 2003), it seemed revolutionary: any telly you like, on your
PC. Fast forward through 4 slow years of development, increasingly negative PR coverage & the appearance of Joost, 4OD ‘n’ the like and it’s launch felt more damp squib than big bang.
Still: the beta version is here now, and you can submit details to get an invite; to save time, The Guardian have thoughtfully given it a roadtest, along with a bit of kicking. The iPlayer is not perfect, but combine the breadth of BBC content with appearance of the multitude of other content viewing opportunities & it’s clear that the consumption of TV is now truly changing.
Posted by: Tom at sometime on Friday, 27th July 2007
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Back to the future
RealNetworks, maker of the Real Player, recently announced an innovatio
n for the latest upgrade of their product: the ability to record an online video stream.
In essence the feature will prevent content owners from content owners from allowing their content to be viewed but not stored by the user.
Inevitably it has led to something of a tizz. The boss of IPTV player Brightcove has condemned the feature for encouraging ‘illegal piracy’ (as opposed to ‘legal piracy’?)
In the 70s Disney and Universal sued Sony after the introduction of the Betamax on the grounds that the video recorder would also lead to piracy. The content owners lost. Will there be a similar battle this time?
Via Cinematech.
Posted by: Sam at mid-avo on Friday, 29th June 2007
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