(non) smoking hot

I smoked – like post of my people my age, when I grew up cigarette advertising was everywhere and you could buy a 10 pack of cigies for about $2.50. I was smart enough (no offence to any smokers out there) to give up many years ago, but for those trying to kick the habit, it could be as easy as playing a game.

A new game being launched for the DS based on "Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking" method (which reportedly has apparently helped more than 10 million smokers to quick) is set to be released by Ubisoft in November.

The game requires players to enter a short history about their smoking habits and then choose a personal “coach” to guide them through the process of quitting. The game includes elements to "dispel the illusions about nicotine addiction" and would-be-quitters can track their progress using the "Path to Freedom" meter.

MyTake – Gaming is becoming a bigger part of everyday life and is breaking out of the basement, into the living room and through to other parts of our lives – such as fitness and now, self help. The other interesting is that playing the game gives you something to do with your hands, something that many quitters say is one of the most difficult aspects of the quitting process. I remember my mum telling me how her father, my grandad Freddie Capper, actually ordered a fake cigarette to have something to do with his hands. We’ve got it a lot easier these days, I wonder what he’d say if I told him all the different aids that people have to help them quit – including a game. Well, I pretty much know what he’d say.

Scream if you want to go faster

When I was a kid, holograms were to be found on collectible cards such as the panini cards of your favourite football player and the most famous "hologram" was the bloke on the British Sci-fi sitcom, Red Dwarf. Boy, have things changed.

Yesterday, Australian telco Telstra transmitted a 3D holographic image of its chief technology officer Hugh Bradlow to a conference it was holding in Adelaide while he was in Melbourne. He/the hologram talked and interacted with the audience for about a quarter of an hour and the company said it was a demonstration of the sort of high speed transmission of huge data that was now possible.

MyTake - In my lifetime, I've seen the phone move from a little table in the hallway to the car, to your pocket. I've also seen the computer become an integral part of everyday life for not just business, but also personal use. As a British ex-pat living in Australia, it's fantastic to have the opportunity to talk to my parents who live in France and my partners parents that live in Sweden - all using iChat or Skype. The idea, that sometime soon, we could have 3D holograms of each other in our lounge rooms is phenomenal. My Dad tells me when he was young, you'd have to "book" a phone call to another country and now we are talking about holograms. Scream if you want to go faster.

Impatient, we're not impatient!

We're all getting a bit more selfish on the web these days, at least that's what the annual report into web habits by web expert Jakob Nielsen says. Apparently, instead of spending time surfing pages, we are getting more strict about our time on the web and want to get straight to what we want.

The report shows that about 75 per cent of people on the web achieve what they set out to do, compared to 60 per cent in 1999. Neilsen says there are two reasons for this, the first is that designs have gotten better and that we are more used to the interactive environment online and can better navigate it.

He also says that we are consumers are becoming less patient with web sites that don't immediately get to the point, and designers need to sit up and take notice. Perhaps an even more interesting observation (and an indication that the web really is mainstream) is that people are becoming suspicious of promotions that try to keep them on a page.

MyTake - We are all busy, busy people and when you have a resource like the Internet that offers you the world on a plate, it's up to you to decide where you go and how fast you get there. In addition, I wonder if the use of the word surfing will change, after all it has fairly leisurely connotations that perhaps don't really describe what users are doing online. What I am saying is that there are times we surf, take our time and meander around, but other times we're straight-in and straight out. What would you call that?

Who said games weren’t for adults

A company that makes pole dancing equipment is set to produce a game for the Wii. The company called Peekaboo is apparently in talks to produce a game for “that meets mainstream demand for the fun and fitness benefits of pole dancing.”

The company is already a fair way down the track when it comes to taking pole dancing into the home with a range of products called “Electra”, which (you’ve guessed it) are inspired and endorsed by former Playboy model Carmen Electra, though she will apparently not be involved with the Wii game….shame, I'm sure the kids would have had a lot of fun.

According to the company, they are aiming to follow in the tracks of Guitar Hero and carve out a niche in the gaming industry. More interestingly, the company suggested that men would also be a target with the statement "Men and women of all shapes and sizes will be encouraged to work on improving their skills”.

MyTake – It’s a craze that is catching on all over the world, you only have to go down your local gym and you’ll be able to sign-up to a pole dancing class. Bringing it to the Wii is either a genius idea or monumental waste of time and money – do people really want to pole dance in their living room? The cross over between physical activity and gaming seems to be centred on the Wii, which is essentially what is setting it apart from the pack.

iBand: Revisited

I posted about this a while ago, but I recently been seeing a few more articles on them so I’ve decided to revisit the phenomenon that is iBand. The trio are actually from Austria and decided to form the band based on a hunch and a whim, which I have decided to call a “whunch”. Like most people with an iPhone, they imported them as soon as they were released in the US and in their case, they have been tinkering around with them ever since.

The three musicians – Seb, Roger and Marina - have gone form a YouTube flavour of the day to being interviewed on TV and releasing a single. What next for these iphone-lovers on the bleeding edge of music? "We're not looking to make money off of our services," said Marina. Although not yet signed-up to a record label, the band writing a number of songs and plans some public performances that according to Seb "will not be conventional concerts.”



MyTake – Will we ever really see an act pawned by YouTube last the test of time? We’ve had people such as MC Lars that have had a fair bit of success and more recently Tay Zonday and his Chocolate Rain who, let’s face it, has been the butt of too many a joke. Will iBand last? Probably not, but what they have done is show the rest of the world what’s possible and maybe even set the tone of the next generation of musicians. After all, do you reckon the first bloke to pick up the guitar would have been any good next to Hendrix?

You looking at me

According to a Canadian research firm called ZINC Research, most Facebookers are happy to let their employers look at their profile. Almost half of those questioned in a recent survey said they would be OK connecting with their employer via Facebook and two in five also said that they would be fine with prospective employers looking at their profile.

While there are some companies embracing Facebook, there are others that have blocked access, but with these kind of stats, can then afford to? According to the research firm "the platform represents many opportunities..... and its strength is in its connection and engagement that can be used to attract and retain talent and build a vibrant company culture".

MyTake - There are so many opportunities on Facebook and we've only scratched the surface. I have seen firsthand what it can do to the working culture - it can unite and it can create a sense of community. If companies can help create that community for their employees and act as the facilitator, the culture will only go from strength to strength. 

Gadgets make you stupid.... apparently

First off - sorry it's been a week since I last posted, I'm afraid it's been one of those weeks.  But, on my way home today I happened to read an article claiming that gadgets such as Blackberrys, Xboxes and iPhones threaten to "unravel decades of innovation that helped build the Internet."

According to Oxford professor Jonathan Zittrain, the afore mentioned devices stifle creativity and don't allow the kind of collaboration offered by your home PC, which he (old Johnny) reckons leads towards technological advances. 

MyTake - It's OK to be alone every now and then and I don't think for a second that we are going to forget about the wonders of the web.  Also, if we look back at the development of the PC I don't think that was what I would call a "collaborative" device in its early days, but it is now thanks to human endeavour.  It's not the device that dictates the use, it's the person behind in....SMS...I rest my case

Please Tweet on arrival

Following on from my post about James Buck, I received a newsletter from the Twitter team talking about his story and also another trend that they had seen - Moms and dads tweeting the exact time that their babies are born.

Now I'm a Dad and I remember when my daughter was born and it was very early in the morning here in Australia, but me and Malin (the beautiful other half.. hope she's reading) are from Europe with family all over. Her parents live in the north of Sweden, her sister in Holland, my parents live in the south of France, my sister in the north of France, my bother in London and other extended family throughout the UK.....I get exhausted just writing it.

So, you'd probably guess that the idea of Tweeting when your child enters the world would be an awesome idea to people like us. The extended network can then help pass on the message to other family members and with Tweet Pic, they can even have an instant picture to pass round - all with just one tweet.

MyTake - We're not far away from Twitter going mainstream and when it does, we are going to see a whole host of cool apps developed and a whole host of new and wacky ideas to use it. We talk about information being bit sized already - I think we need a new term when this crashes through the tipping point.