Video of the week: 28:11:08

Another new idea for the blog: Video of the week. Again, through a variety of social networks, email forwards and pure boredom, I come across a lot of videos that tickle my fancy.

The first is a viral entitled "Hatfield Hotdog Launcher Documentary" which immediately made me think of my friend Ed ...mainly because he's American and wears white socks with his sneakers.....and deep down even though he's very well educated, smart and sophisticated I know he'd be standing in the crowd screaming for a hotdog with a target painted on his T-shirt.....It's the white socks, see, they just give it away. Anyway, enjoy

Tinternet treats: 28:11:08

Today we have everything from Gizmodo’s gadget gallery, which will apparently feature the Flux Capacitor – you guessed rights kids, the one from Back to the future - right through to a food preparing robot featured on Pink Tentacle. My other two picks – Engadget’s “crap gadgets” selection which will help us avoid putting a few duds in the stocking this Christmas and last but not least, Lexy Klain’s post on the links between social media and emos – not Nemo or Elmo.. though I'm sure they are both avid Facebookers

1) Gizmodo:
Reader Meetup and a Back To the Future Delorean
2) Engadget:
Crapgadget: thanks for nothing edition
3) Pink tentacle:
Motoman industrial robot cooks okonomiyaki
4) Lexy Klain:

Is social media responsible for the emo movement?

Heading home

Apparently July 31 2005 was a pretty cold day in Sydney, but for a Pom that had just got here (Australia) from the UK, I thought it was practically a heat wave. My mate picked me and my partner Malin up from the airport and took us for a tour of Sydney – the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, Kirribilli and Bondi…. I’d never seen a beach like it in my life. Over the past (almost) four years, we have fallen in love with Australia, even got into Rugby League and developed a bit of an Aussie twang. So, it’ll come as a surprise to some that me and Malin have decided to head back to Europe.

What’s behind this decision then? Well, we have decided to expand our family and after having one kid in Australia on our own, we thought we might need a little bit more support this time around. To put this in perspective, in the two and a half years since we’ve had Freja, me and Malin have had a total of one night off as parents, now we love our little bundle of joy, but the odd grandparent’s baby sitting session wouldn’t go a miss! And that’s the other big thing, being so far away from our families.

We’re heading off at the end of the month and it’ll be both a happy and a sad moment for us, Australia has given us so much – especially our little girl Freja. My friend Ed, who also recently left Australia to return home (to America) has inspired my to post this on the blog and I’ll probably be adding a few more posts like this over the coming weeks as the clock count down – things I love about Australia and will miss. So, for the first one – State of Origin. Now, as a Pom I have been spoilt with the English Premier League and the soccer World Cup, but I can hand on heart say that I have never seen a more emotional, intense rivalry in any sporting event. Despite living in NSW for my entire time in Australia, most of my friends are from Queensland and the friend that picked me up from the airport is a born-and-breed Brisbane boy, so from the start I backed Queensland – and thank God! It’s not often that a pom backs a winner!

People like surfing the web on their mobile...this surprises some people

They first started talking about this when I was still at University, they called in WAP…but WAP was CRAP. Fast forward ten years and we finally have a device and an interface that is capable of providing us with a positive mobile Internet experience…. even if we don’t have the data plans in some countries….big island in the southern hemisphere *cough*

But, news is that mobile Internet use is going through the roof while traditional PC access is slowing, at least that’s what the guys and gals at Nielsen say. I think this is UK data, but according to the findings over 7 million people jumped online using their mobiles during the latter half of 2008, representing an increase of 25 per cent for mobiles compared to a teeny-tiny 3 per cent increase for PC access. Another interesting fact is that 25 per cent of mobile surfers are aged 15-24, while the same age group accessing the web via a PC is just 16 per cent.

MyTake – is this really surprising? No. I remember wanted to surf the net in the WAP days, but found it excruciatingly painful, so I gave up. Then again when 3G was launched, but the limitations around the browsing capabilities again put me off. Having seen the likes of the iPhone, it’s a much more positive experience that doesn’t have the drawbacks of its not-quite-there predecessors. This is exactly what people want and they are taking to it in droves.

Tinternet treats: 27:11:08

I've decided to introduce a new idea (for me) to the blog. OK, it's not a new idea, but I come across so many things on the "tinternet" that I think are cool that I have decided to share the best of them on (an almost) daily basis. So, here's today's offerings:

1) Engadget:

Digital sales overtake CDs at Atlantic Records, music pie in general shrinks

2) Gizmodo:

Optima Prime T-Shirt, Font Transformed

3) Lost at e minor:

Fuel Cell Stickers

4) Cool and Stuff:

Like cup cakes? Got an iPhone?

Facebook turns ornithologist...finds whale

News is that Facebook is interested in a little birdie….Twitter. There a lot of news doing the rounds out there and the apparent valuation on Twitter is US$500 million, but Biz Stone has refused to comment on the issue so far which would add more fuel to the acquisition fire. The most reputable source so far is the Financial Times in the UK, who have apparently got confirmation from two separate sources.

There’s been chatter about this proposed tie-up for a while now, so the Twitterati won’t be surprised by this talk. What is surprising are the values being placed on companies such as Facebook and Twitter, with the former having a rather lofty valuation slapped on it when Microsoft acquired a part of them earlier in the year. What will happen to our little birdie pal should Facebook snap it up, more importantly – what will happen to the Fail Whale? Well, rest assured my fellow Tweeters, the one thing that Biz Stone did say is that they want to remain an independent messaging service.

MyTake – this is probably going to happen, there are obvious synergies between the two companies and Twitter is approaching the tipping point, so Facebook will want to catch it just before. Living in Australia, Twitter has yet to get the same kind of following it enjoys in the rest of the world, mostly due to the way the telcos charge us for our mobile plans, but it’s still popular and I could see a move like this thrusting it into the limelight.

Earth is....connected

When I started school, we had those old Victorian style wooden desks with the lift-up lids and holes for ink wells – I’m not kidding. It wasn’t long after that it was out with the old and in with the new (plastic) and progress was being made. Another thing that we didn’t have when I started school was computers. Sure, we had an old Atari at home and a BBC Micro machine, but IT wasn’t being taught at school until I got to secondary school (12 – 18). When I got to University, we were all still on dial-up connections that would work on the odd occasion that it felt like it and the most you could do was check your email.

When I finally got to work I experienced the wonder of high-speed Internet and proper email, but still the majority of our communication was done through fax and phone. So, when I saw this new video from Facebook today, It really made me stop and think how fair we’ve come in such as short space of time, after all, I am still relatively young….cough….

The video features a program that actually visualizes the activity taking place on the Facebook network including everything from status updates, friend requests, pokes, posted links and so on. Named Project Palantir, the program displays the activity on a 3D globe complete with a sun and was developed at Facebook Hackathon XI by a Facebook engineer.

MyTake – What a thing of beauty, to be able to see something like that demonstrates how connected we are all. Go back to 2000 and remember how worried we were about the Y2K bug, or accessing the net using dial-up and now think of this, eight short years and we can map the connected state of the world through a social network. Brilliant

MySpace gives us Chinese Democracy

I’m back, I’ve been “sicky-woo” for the past week, but unlike our bumbling Facebook friend, I actually was ill with tonsillitis. Now, reviewing music is really not my thing, I tend to leave that to my mate Mat and his crew over at I’m with the band. Having said that, two things have led to this post, the first is my childhood infatuation with Guns N Roses and the second is the fact after 14 years in the making, their new album Chinese Democracy is now available and is streaming on their MySpace page. Another reason is the fact that the Chinese government is offended at the title and will probably block Chinese web users from logging on to listen, but anyway….

As I already mentioned, reviewing music is really not my thing as I tend to be somebody that hears something on radio and takes a liking to it – sorry Mat, I’ve let you down, I know. Having said that, I did have a listen to the album on the band’s MySpace page and thought I’d post up a little review. So here goes. Overall I thought that there was some really good stuff there and the Guns N Roses sound is still there, especially Axl’s vocals.



It’s a bit hard to pass judgment on an album that has been this long in the making after listening to it through a pair or PSP earphones via my PC (nothing wrong with PSP earphones or PCs – I love you both) but I will say that my favourites out of the bunch include: Better, Street of Dreams, Catcher in the Rye and Prostitute. One thing I thought it lacked though, was a kick-ass G’N’R anthem, you know the likes of Sweet Child O Mine, Paradise City, Live and Let Die or November Rain. But, having said that, maybe I just need to buy the album and listen to it really loud on a kick-ass stereo like the old days

MyTake – This is either going to be an act of genius by one of the most prolific song writers in the world, or it’s going to be an unfortunate foot note in an otherwise glittering career. I think that I am going to grow to love this album and like most average punters, as soon as I hear one of the tunes on the radio I’ll love it. Great move by the G’N’R boys for streaming it on their MySpace site, can’t wait for the promotional band wagon to role out the rest of the party

Super Obama World... just like Mario, but without Mario

Gaming is more often than not about doing things you normally wouldn’t be able to do, like fighting aliens, scoring a goal against Man U or, in this case winning the US presidential election. A new game by ZenSoft called “Super Obama World”, which is based on a certain old school game staring an Italian plumber, is available online now for Obama fans to play. The game is apparently going to be released in installments, with the first chapter seeing President-Elect Obama taking on Sarah Palin in the ever-charming state of Alaska.

Imaginative is too poor a word to describe the enemies in this game, with foes such as hockey moms, Russian soldiers and pitbulls with lipstick….Genius. But it doesn’t stop there. The game also features the stores where Palin went on her questionable shopping sprees and you also have to avoid being run over by Palin on a snowmobile. For the icing on the cake, once you’ve completed a level you get congratulated with a screen proclaiming "Level completion we can believe in!"



MyTake – Brilliant, I thought that all the online fun was going to dry up after the election but then this comes along. I have had a quick play of the game and it’s very funny. It’s interesting to see that the “victory dance” of the online generation manifests itself as a game. But then again, they had a lot of material to work with, didn’t they. My mate Ed should play this game, he'd love it

Fake New York Times hits New York....Real New York Times decides it's a fake....

It’s not often that traditional print media is current, in fact the majority of time it’s already out of date by the time it hits the stands. However, the residents of New York got a rare “glimpse” into the future when they picked up a copy of what they thought was The New York Times, with the headline on the front reading “Iraq War Ends”. Other stories included "Public Universities To Be Free", the catch? They were spoofs.

The “special edition” paper was dated July 4 2009 and was actually an elaborate stunt by a group called The Yes Men.According to reports out there, up to 1.2 million copies of the newspaper were distributed with a website also promoted. The stunt was organised via the web and most of the people involved were volunteers. The Yes Men had wanted their involvement to remain secret, but a few emails that have surfaced appear to prove they are behind this (genius) stunt. I particularly like the quote from a New York Times spokesperson: “This is obviously a fake issue” – ya think, genius!

MyTake – Clever stuff and it must have taken a hell of a lot of organization. My interpretation of this is that the old establishments such as the New York Times are never going to be able to cover the news as fast as their online cousins, and the raw truth is that online has been telling print what to write for about ten years now. Great stunt, got me talking about.

Google comes to the video chat party…..forgets to bring nibbles

That’s right, Gmail (which I think is still in beta) has a brand new party outfit – video chat. I remember signing up for Gmail about five years ago mainly because of the huge amount of storage space it offered at the time. For a while, it was my preferred email host until I discovered the wonders of a combined .Mac email, iChat and .Mac page (now MobileMe) and I’ve hardly used. But, will this make me take a second look?

The one big thing that the Gmail version has over its competitors is that it doesn’t require any additional software, running alongside the Gmail web app. Another big plus, it works on both PC and Mac. As with iChat and Skype, users can chat via video and instant message each other at the same time….not sure why you’d do that, but hey.

MyTake – I’ve used the MSN version, Skype and iChat and I have to say, iChat wins hands-down. I haven’t seen this of course, but it’s going to have to do a lot of hard work to beat the boys from Apple. Being late to the party is not good for Team Google, especially as the verb has been taken – “shall we Skype?” Also, not everything has to be a web app – a little bit of software is good. Having said all this, how many things has Google got wrong? Check it out, I’m going to.

Let me entertain...me

According to analyst reports out last week, people are starting to think about games in a whole new light. So much so that gaming will become the most popular form of entertainment in the UKover the coming year. The boffins are predicting that games sales will rise by a whopping 42 per cent to the dizzying heights of £4.64bn. Compare that to the total predicted sales for music AND video at £4.46bn and I think you’ll find that we have a new king of the castle.

Now, I love music, but I also love gaming (probably love gaming more) so I don’t want to be giving the music industry a hard time – but the figures don’t lie. Apparently the video games industry has more than doubled in the last 5 years while music sales have struggled. You might be thinking that the ongoing issue of online downloads has caused problems for the music industry, but the same figures show that downloads only represent 4 per cent of totals sales. Want to know what the big growth area for the music and video industry has been? Online sales of DVDs and CDs – go figure.

MyTake – Video games aren’t cheap, costing you around about 3 or 4 times the amount that a CD would cost you, so the more popular gaming becomes the more substantial the sales figures will be. But, you can’t take this achievement away from the gaming industry, it’s been in the pipeline for a long time. The interesting space to watch is what the “multitasking entertainer” is going to be doing in the coming years. We may only have one set of “eyeballs”, but we’re consuming up to 3 different types of entertainment at one time and that’s probably going to get even more intense.

The sweet sounds of a Smule

Most of the big gadget blogs have covered this today, but it’s so cool that I had to do a post myself. You may have seen my posts on the iBand, a group of musicians that turned their iPod touches, iPhones and a Nintendo DS into a band….well, hold on to your pants because here comes another addition to the iPhone instrument collection – the digital Ocarina from Smule. 

What’s different about this then? Well, this is just out there and all kinds of crazy, which is what makes it so cool. Think of it as the recorder (as in the musical instrument they make every kid in primary school play) of the iPhone world. Some boffin has developed an app that lets you blow into your iPhone mic then play a tune using the touch screen. Check out the video below.

MyTake – What will they think of next? But seriously, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, opening up the iPhone to third party developers is the smartest thing Apple have done. The PR value alone has to be worth thousands. How do you keep a product interesting and newsworthy – give it to the community and let them reinvent it every month. 

Cometh the hour...

What's that saying? Cometh the hour, cometh the man..... It's never been truer than it is right now as the U.S. sits on the eve of history either way. I written a fair few posts on the online campaigns from both parties, but more on the Obama campaign's efforts as they seem to be doing more.

But it's not over yet, you may remember the iPhone apps story that I posted sometime ago - that'll be in full swing right now. Also, people logging on to Facebook today will have a nice little reminder to go and vote and guess which campaign uses Facebook the most...yep, you've guessed it. Looking at the Facebook updates from my friends, there seems to be such a buzz with people organising to go to parties, making sure their friends have voted...I for one am very excited and can't wait to see the results. If you want to read more from a U.S. perspective, check out my friend Ed's blog - a Washington based PR.

MyTake - I have said is before and I'll say it again - they are going to talk about this campaign for years to come and from an online perspective, they are going to teach this stuff in colleges and universities around the world. Will we see something similar from the next UK elections? Probably not, but it's nice to dream...