Thursday, January 28, 2010 Charlie Brooker explains how to 'do' news

Genius.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 Apple Tablet - Jason Calacanis tells all

Jason Calacanis, Founder of Weblogs, Inc, is a big cheese in Silicon Valley. So much so, that three Apple reps dropped off his Apple tablet personally over week ago.

He's filled us in on the good stuff on Twitter (click to zoom):

Two cameras, fingerprint security and a solar panel?

Monday, January 25, 2010 Massive Attack is back

Excited that Massive Attack's new album is out on February 8th. Check out this animation that was commissioned to go with one of the tracks, United Snakes. Amazing work...

Thursday, January 21, 2010 Thoughts on Windows 7 and the hardware / software balance

(I admit in advance that this post is an excuse to try blogging from a Windows 7 desktop gadget.)

I'm approaching the end of my third month back on a PC at work. With Microsoft as one of Waggener Edstrom's clients, it was natural that my PC was already Windows 7-based when I started. So what's it like being back? And what is MS' much-lauded new OS all about?

Firstly, I never used Vista. I didn't even touch it once. It completely passed me by during the MacBook years. I think that's important to note, based on how 7 was supposed to be its antithesis. And my netbook is based on XP, which feels comfortable and, well, normal.

Windows 7 feels normal too. It doesn't do anything unexpected. It doesn't show off. It looks nice and friendly. It's as quick as XP, if not quicker. It needs, like the ads say, less steps to do things. Still not as few as it takes on Apple's OSX, but it's similar, and just as intuitive.

The main thing about 7, in my view, is the lightness. The need and desire for PC power is diminishing. It's all about form factor nowadays (that's size and shape to you and me). Smaller PCs and usable tablets are driving gadget design. Hardware is shaping software again.

It is at that moment, in my view, when things get cool. Remember the explosion in gaming consoles, when the original Sony PSP and Nintendo DS launched? The innovations that happened then were because people wanted home-quality gaming, and they wanted it on the bus. Hardware desire gave software development a kick up the arse, and the result was a leap forward.

Thanks to the big companies seeing how real people have changed, we're about to see the same in the e-reader / tablet / netbook space.

Computing is stll at the beginning of its journey back to basics, and the results are going to be fun to watch.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 Ten signs that say you're addicted to foursquare

1. You nearly blurted out "But I'm the Mayor!" when your local coffee shop screwed up your order.

2. You've started using 'check in' instead of 'visit', 'go', or 'see'.

3. You desperately hope to see someone else using it in public (but haven't).

4. Your iPhone battery lasts three hours.

5. You've checked in from a toilet.

6. You visit new places solely for the rush you get from '+5 points'.

7. You've vowed to have more of a life this year.

8. You know the exact location of a person you've never met at all times.

9. Someone that doesn't know you knows your exact location at all times.

10. The last time you were this excited about badges, you were 8.

Any more?

Monday, January 18, 2010 iPhone 4G hype gets a reality boost

It happened with the iSlate and now the iPhone 4G. I just *love* how people are starting to take the various rumours surrounding new devices and turn them into photos. With so much focus on details, surely these pics must contain some kind of crowdsourced truth?

Sunday, January 17, 2010 Is this really the iSlate in action?

I vote no.

Saturday, January 16, 2010 The London Short Film Festival: highlights

Saw some amazing work at the London Short Film Festival's music screening today. We were there to see Dan Shipton's video for The Slips' single '303', featuring graphics by Joe Cripps.

There was also standout film work from Mysterious Al, incredible animation from Jane Ashby and Max Hattler, and a very funny Film About Poo. Go check 'em out.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 I got a bit dizzy in Foyles...

Because my friend Simon's first novel has just arrived there. And it's a highlight!

I bought two (one for reading, one for posterity).

What makes emos and Avatar do a Wii?

According to the print edition of today's Metro - a story under the rather lovely headline 'Are you feeling blue?' and taking up all of page 3) - Avatar's utopian fantasy world is so perfect it's making people hate the real one.

"On the fan forum... a topic thread entitled 'Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible' has received more than 1,000 posts," says the piece.

This is a standard press trick when faced with something that seems to tick so many boxes for greatness that it deserves to be taken down a peg or two.

Is it new? Yes.
Is it popular? Yes.
Does it contain a positive social message? Yes.
Hmm. This won't sell papers.
Have any of the cast or production crew been arrested? Well, no.
So it makes you want to kill yourself then? Er, sure!

The same happened Nintendo's Wii. Then the 'sinister teen craze' of being an emo. Now it's Avatar. Wasn't branding it racist and offensive enough?

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 All you need to know: Apple 'iSlate' tablet

Apparently, Apple will be releasing a tablet computer (you know, just a screen) on January 27th, called the iSlate.



(That's almost certainly fake pic.) Nevertheless, the media hype is in overdrive, signalling a growing impatience for the next piece of truly game-changing tech (ie. not Google's Nexus One phone) and some clever Apple marketing (ie. leaking stuff to take the focus off competing launches at CES).

I thought I'd summarise what everyone's banging on about. Note, this could all be wrong. But that's hype for you.

• 7.1-inch or 10.1-inch screen, or both (two devices)
• 120GB hard drive
• Built-in camera
• Built-in 3G
• OLED touchscreen
• 2.26Ghz Intel Core Duo
• 2GB RAM
• Mac OSX 10.7 (Clouded Leopard)
• Aluminium casing
  
• Cost $1000

Here are some of the key leaks and rumours so far:

Orange France exec 'confirming' the launch.

Developers told to tweak apps for new format.
Wall Street Journal specs and launch 'leak'.
'Internal' Apple spec sheet.
The 'iSlate.com' registration form.

Screens 'sold out across Asia'.

Fingerworks site is 'taken down'.

If the above is correct, or even close, the gadget space is about to get... Interesting.

So would you buy one?

Sunday, January 10, 2010 Is Ugg's PR leaving customers out in the cold?

Getting people to queue up outside your shop is a great PR trick. Not only is it good marketing for the passing trade ("Wow! That shop must be amazing!") but it's effective in winning press attention for your opening, sale or new product.

Just think - riots at Primark Topshop as people fight over Kate Moss clothes, bouncers on the doors of Hollister, people camping overnight to be first in the queue for the Apple iToilet... And somehow the press is always there.

Some shops, like Ugg in Covent Garden, don't just keep the 'PR queue' for special occasions. It has a permanent bouncer-operated red rope at the door, only allowing a few people in at a time. I'm sure they say it's to keep the browsing experience positive for people in the store. I reckon it's for the reasons in paragraph one.

So when I saw about 20 people queuing in the snow on Saturday, being held back by that red rope, I had a peek in. There were about the same amount of people inside the cozy shop. They were trying on cozy boots and looking all cozy.

Is it me or is this utterly ridiculous? I had gone to Covent Garden specifically to buy a pair of Ugg boots for someone. Between getting off the Tube and Ugg's premium position on Longacre, I'd had to dive into numerous shops to warm up. This made me feel good about those retailers and even resulted in a few spontaneous purchases.

But there was no way I was queuing to get into a shop - a shop which could easily have contained ten times more people - was appropriate. It was freezing cold, and snowing hard. Ugg was taking the piss out of these people, all in the name of marketing.

Needless to say I didn't buy any Ugg boots. And until they stop treating their customers with contempt, I'm going to recommend to the intended recipient that they choose something else.

Perhaps Ugg's time would be better spent dealing with the scammers who flooded the 'net with fake sites this Christmas, rather than waste all that effort keeping people out of their shops?

Update: I got this email from Ugg in Australia:

Dear Jon,

Thank you for your email. At this time, while you have requested to post any views I will have to decline at this time.

If you are needing any further assistance, please contact us at 888-432-8530.

Marion Tibbs

Customer Service Representative

UGG AUSTRALIA

Oh well.

Picture courtesy of Kai Hendry. Thanks to Laura Tosney for the correction.

Thursday, January 07, 2010 'We're not selling' says Mashable founder

Pete Cashmore has posted a flat denial - just about - of the alleged sale of Mashable to AOL.

Here's the text.

While commenting on speculation isn’t something I’ve done in the past, I think it would be nice to keep our community in the loop as much as we can on recent Mashable-related rumors. And with our writers on the ground at CES this week, I think it’s especially important to keep our focus on the real news.

We’re very open to partnerships and always talk with those that get in touch. We’ve certainly spoken to lots of potential partners, some of those conversations more significant than others. But I don’t feel that any of those conversations reached a point at which Mashable is likely to cease being independent.

—Pete

Nasa's pic of the UK under snow is... Incredible

The link appears to be down (too many hits?) so here's the Nasa pic that's whizzing around Twitter right now. One word: Brrr.


Pic: NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response

Hard drives are a girl's best friend

Just saw this brilliant message from a journalist on a well-known lads' mag to the PR community (via the messaging system Response Source):

---------------

Please, PR world, 'call off the hounds' on my previous response source asking for Valentines gift ideas for girlfriends. My inbox is now officially crashed under the weight of hi-res imagery.

Also, when a writers inbox is full, it's never a good idea to start emailing busy designers asking them to forward emails on. As one of our more polite designers put it, she is not my secretary.

Thank you all for the ideas though, and we have everything we need now.

Please, Schtop!

ps. Would any of you honestly give a hard drive to a woman for Valentines Day?!

They say romance is dead.

---------------

Hilarious, fair and nowhere near the public PR-bashing of other messages we've seen this week. It sums up how the PR / journo relationship should be.

But who really forwards press releases to magazine designers and asks them to forward them to the journalist? That's just odd. And a touch desperate.

AOL to make a bid for Mashable?

There's chatter out there on the internets that Mashable is set to be sold to AOL.

My thoughts? Mashable’s Pete Cashmore is happy to be interviewed, media-savvy and promotes bias-free, albeit less-than-edgy content on his site. He’s a popular guy.

TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington and, to an extent, TechCrunch Europe’s Mike Butcher, take a different tack. They prefer irreverence, and the scandal, gossip and scoops that go with it.

While they are often spoken about in the same breath, it’s no surprise which one is allegedly about to be sold to a big, established portal player first.

Can you even *imagine* a joint press conference, post purchase, with Arrington and a company like AOL saying nice things about each other?

There's more discussion happening over at WE's Thinkers and Doers blog.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010 Avatar and McDonald's campaign proves AR still BS

Augmented Reality, or AR, is quite the darling of the tech and marketing press at the moment. And I lost count of how many people included it in their top tips for 2010 ages ago.

The ability to augment campaigns with digital effects that interact with the real world is certainly a cool idea, but most of the hottest are in mobile - whether it's apps to find the nearest Tube station or operate remote control spyplanes.

But for online marketing, it has so far sucked. Badly.

Take this hugely elaborate Avatar / McDonald's tie-up [music added for emphasis]:



So, let's get this straight. In order to see a jerky animation of Sully wandering around lighting up mushrooms (one of my favourite parts of the film, and certainly one with huge 3D wow factor) that does the actual experience no favours at all, all I have to do is...

1. Visit the McDonald's Avatar microsite
2. Launch the AR 'experience'
3. Download the McDVision (!) plugin
4. Install the McDVision (!!) plugin
5. Give it permission to access my webcam (if I have one)
6. Go buy a webcam (see above)
   
7. Cut out a piece of cardboard from my burger box
8. Print something out if I don't have a burger box
9. Wave it in front of my PC
10. Marvel at the mid-90s graphics experience

Phew, that took ages. Now what do I do? Go see the film? No thanks - if the graphics are as bad as this microsite I won't bother. Buy a burger? No - I've either already had one, or I'm at home. And it's not worth me going into town to get a burger because I've seen how rubbish those graphics are and I can't be bothered.

I'm not saying AR is a waste of time. I've been frantically printing out AR codes and demonstrating this stuff to people, often while jumping up and down with excitement. The applications of the technology are limitless, mindblowing and run extremely deep for the future of the web, marketing and technology. (Particularly when you start thinking where Google might go next - perhaps when the Nexus One gets to iteration, I don't know, six?)

But the question I always get at the end of my demonstrations is "What's the point?". And when faced with executions like the above, I just don't have an answer.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010 A PR stunt that plays a beautiful game

What do you do if you're a Danish dating site, committed to causing a buzz with your rather specific joining requirements that exclude 'ugly people'?

You ban 5,000 members by accusing them of gaining weight over Christmas, that's what.

In a stunt that shuns fairness for aggressive digital PR, BeautifulPeople.com yesterday did exactly that, releasing a statement to the press that said: "Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded."

While the move has sparked outrage, it also sparked around 150 online news stories and 300 blog posts - all pointing their outrage, and people's browsers, to the site.

If you hadn't heard of them before, I'm pretty sure they popped into your consciousness at some point yesterday thanks to articles in outlets such as the BBC, The Huffington Post, CNN, The Money Times and CNET.

The stunt may be unfair. It has no doubt upset some people. But when it comes to building awareness, search ranking and traffic, it has set the bar (high or low - you choose) for online PR in 2010.