Ferrari is launching the new Ferrari GT in a few days. Now this is not something I would follow normally, but the teaser campaign site is interesting. Simple but pretty execution where Ferrari for once uses it’s typical engine sound to promote one of their cars.
Well I liked it, still short of cash to buy one though.
In times when every single blog around the globe feels the need to think of some joke to post on April Fools Day, there was actually only one post that made me smile today. Lifehacker Gina Trapani posted a top 10 of harmless geek pranks and they look like pretty good office fun indeed.
Whether you install the Blue Screen Of Death screensaver on a colleague’s pc, replace the desktop with a fake version or rather customize the printer’s console message this is a post you should bookmark for whenever you’re up for some geek fun.
During the pre-conference we had at MIX08 there was also a presentation from one of the guys that works on the Surface team. To give an introduction of the Surface for those who wouldn’t have seen it he showed a video about it. The funny thing though was that he didn’t show the original video, but a spoof made by SarcasticGamer.com. Apparantly it’s around for a while but I hadn’t seen it before. Kudos to the guys who created it and also to the Surface team for using it in their own presentation!
Although it seems like this is pretty much a creative idea, and nothing quite real today, I like it immediately. Good out-the-box thinking from the researchers at the BBC. Imagine how this could bring a totally immersed movie experience into your living room. Or think about gaming, COD4 to name a one for instance, now that would be absolutely amazing.
[Via David Bausola]
Sometimes I think I live on mobile. If there’s a device I really couldn’t miss it’s my mobile phone. Ask my wife, if on occasion I don’t take my mobile phone with me, she’ll wonder how it’s possible I forgot it. It’s just too odd for me to be without. According to my mom, it’ll grow on my ears one day. Whatever ;)
Anyway, it’s true that mobile is important for me, ever since I got my first mobile phone some 10 years ago. Every year I hope that mobile will really breakthrough, but unfortunately also this year won’t be the year of mobile, just like 2007, 2006 nor 2005 were the year of mobile. It’s that one prediction that I wish it were through, but you know it won’t be.
It’s not even in our hands. I think the devices are there, thinking of the N95, the iPhone and some Windows Mobile devices that are all capable of doing amazing things for such a small device. The iPhone has the interface to love, my HTC is less slick but comes with 3G, built in GPS and all the power of Office and Exchange on mobile. Or the N95 with it’s superb camera. And now I’m not mentioning a ton of other great features these phones have.
Apart from all that greatness, I’ve been a very active user of the mobile web for the last 6 years or so as well. First on WAP on my old Nokia 6310i for instance, later on Vodafone Live with a Sharp GX30. Back then I was still working on Kinepolis‘ new media strategy and we invested in this back then already. Today Kinepolis is still one of the very few Belgian companies with a decent mobile site, for which you got to give them credit. But even outside Belgium, there aren’t many mobile specific sites, which already resulted in a shout-out more than a year ago.
The mobile sites I currently use are: BBC, Bloglines, Gmail, Hotmail, Messenger, Dopplr, Facebook, Google Reader, Live Search, Kinepolis, MSN, Twitter, Technorati, Wapedia, Flickr, Yahoo and WordPress. I don’t really know many more that are of use to me, or that aren’t in a walled garden like Vodafone Live.
I also use client versions like Live Messenger (which you can download for all kinds of devices), the Live Search client as well as the Google Maps client, Yahoo!Go, … as well as apps that run in the Java environment on mobile like Gmail and Opera Mini. On the N95 I also tried the Widsets, but whatever the phone, the browse services still top them all.
Today, with the iPhone’s browsing capabilities, or other mobile browsers that enable better viewing of ‘normal websites’ on mobile we will probably skip the further development of mobile specific sites. With Skyfire for instance (see announcement) or Deepfish I expect to see more ‘regular’ browsing in the future.
Still, the problem remains, now even more than ever I guess. We will have access to every site we want, with great browsers but at what cost? There’s a good explanation why I use so much mobile: I can use it obviously but more important is that I don’t have to pay for it. The day I have to pay for it, I’ll cut back for sure, need or no need. How much I love the Wifi on these phones, that’s not truly mobile for me. It’s when in a taxi, or before checking in a plane, while waiting on someone, … that I love to use all my catching up. Not only in my sofa at home for instance.
So unless operators change their models on data costs, mobile will never really breakthrough and that’s sad. And yes you can discuss devices etc aren’t ready yet either, allow me to say they’re well ahead of the game when you compare them to operator attitudes. And I’m afraid they won’t change that soon either. There’s too much money to be made with TXT messages to allow you to use IM on mobile instead for instance. What’s your take?
PS: Also check out the upcoming FF for Mobile now we’re at it ;)
PPS: And Twitter, for god’s sake, at least add a replies tab to m.twitter.com will ya!
A good friend of mine, Matth, just sent me this video over IM. It’s about a guy who did some cool development for the Wii:
“Using the infrared camera in the Wii remote and a head mounted sensor bar (two IR LEDs), you can accurately track the location of your head and render view dependent images on the screen. This effectively transforms your display into a portal to a virtual environment. The display properly reacts to head and body movement as if it were a real window creating a realistic illusion of depth and space. By Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University. For more information and software visit http://johnnylee.net“
But you know what, just watch the video instead ;)
Imagine how this could be used in gaming, I really hope some game developers do answers Johnny Lee’s request and use this. This is the consumer 2.0 - taking the product further…
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You got to admire it when a man can make a bit of fun of himself, don’t you think? You might have seen it already as it has been all around the web, but here’s a little video of Bill Gates’ last day as showed during his CES keynote this weekend in Vegas. Especially the work-out scenes were hilarious (at least that’s what I found).
Both Engadget and Gizmodo also have interviews up with the man that are good to watch/read. They talk about the historic sit-down with Steve Jobs (remember?), the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, differences between Apple and MSFT as well as Gates’ changing public image. Whether you like Microsoft or not, you got to admire what the man has accomplished.
(disclaimer: I work for Microsoft)
Contagious magazine just released it’s ‘most contagious’ overview for 2007 which you can get here (in PDF), and which is “a round-up of the most intriguing, effective, and downright exciting happenings of the past year from landmarks to gaming, from design to social media”. In the report you’ll find Facebook, the iPhone but also Photosynth, Halo3 and ‘The Bomchickawahwahs’ and much more. Enjoy the read.
Last week I spent a couple of hours at Microsoft’s European Innovation Day. Apart from the presentations, there was a whole ‘trade show’ of companies from all over Europe showing innovative technology, all somehow based on Microsoft technology. Some if we already knew like Microsoft HD view with their ‘gigapixel panoramas’, Skinkers with LiveStation (new version coming soon), etc.
There were also some cool things that I had never seen before like the 3D flatscreen for instance. I have no imagery here unfortunately, but I just kept staring. Another very cool thing, distributed by the same company was this ‘virtual lego’ thingy. It had nothing to do with Lego, they just used it to show the capability of their software.
It’s quite tough to explain, maybe Luc who I joined at the event can do better then me, or Miel who filmed this. Look at the empty Lego box and how they add a 3D object to this on screen. Cooler even is it detects which Lego object is on the box which defines the 3D object they show (note: the 3D objects where created in advance). Anyway, too hard to explain, just give it this a look and let me know what you think.
Think about what this technology can do for the traditional ’shop window’ ;)
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