The SPOKE Daily » Technology

From Class to Crass; Final High/Lo lights from SXSW

Rachel Noonan — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:55:56 +0000

Music is coming to SXSW. It starts slowly; the hair gets longer, the button downs are now distressed vintage t’s, and the beards multiply. Before you know it the geekfest turns into a city wide rock concert. Bands are performing in every nook and cranny throughout the city. Music is spilling into the streets from all different directions. People are jumping on trucks, sleeping on the street and looking to do two things; drink and vibe. It was kind of weird thinking of nature vs nurture paired with the juxtaposition of the Interactive, Film and Music crowds. How people communicate and why. From a hyper tuned in group of over communicators to another group who communicate through instruments and song lyrics, it made me wonder who is getting their message across in the most effective way. Then I remembered interactive is about connecting and music is about feeling. We can’t really exist without both. Well, we could, but it would be a pretty boring. I know I will be swallowed soon by the rock locks and dirty bass lines. In an attempt to create some space in my brain I took a mental look back for my final SX highlights.. What were the awesome new discoveries? The inspiring talks? The newly created connections with the international “Futures Community” (I just made that up and will now create a wiki page for it)? Perhaps the next level bionic style partying that took place? Here are the top 10, in no particular order: HIGHLIGHTS Crowdtap Party. Good product. Good people. The most amazing chocolate fountain EVER. FROG Design. AWESOME. Joseph Kahn’s new Movie Detention. He did a bunch of Britney’s vids. Detention is a real-time pop culture satire time travel horror comedy. The script was crazy tight, the story was funny and the pop culture references were plentiful. Stylistically it felt like a series of single shots. The music video DNA is embedded in Kahn. He made no apologies for it in the Q&A. He does what he does and knows his audience. Talk with Pete Cashmore and David Crowley from Four Square. Crowley did some serious tap dancing around Cashmore’s pointed questions about selling foursquare. Chevy making life a little easier with 30 cars providing complimentary rides throughout the city. They also created the best photo experience I’ve ever seen in the history of photo experiences! Check it: http://social-gen.com/sxsw11/index-v.php?u=eC6. Checked out their new electric car, VOLT. It’s nice to see a “Dinosaur” surprise the scene with a product the future gen may actually like. Feel free to judge me on this, I don’t care. Mashable events. You could tell they cared and they worked really hard to make it fun. They were missing their actual content integrated into the activities, which was a bit of a bummer. GE’s Carosolar. A beautiful use of solar energy. A white on white old era carousel outfitted with slick neon lighting sat in a large parking lot inviting people to take a ride. Powered by solar energy, the carousel moves around and around, throwing people back to a time of fun and magic. Beyond the slick activation, this new solar technology seems to have legs. I’ve been trying to decide what to invest in. Something that’s part of today while constantly evolving to reflect new technologies, the environment and our constantly decreasing shared space. GE’s new solar technology is IT. Andrew WK talked. It was inspiring. I wish he was my big brother. Check out the venue Santos he opened with some friends in Manhattan. PARTY HARD. Artists you have to hear; Sheepdogs, Cold War Kids, Dikta from Iceland, The Kills, Kawarka, Malajube, Defences, Does it offend you, Yeah?, The Naked and the Famous, Phantogram In closing; SXSW Interactive was has the largest concentration of the most amazing thought leaders, trend setters and visionaries I have ever come across. SXSW Film was good, wish I had seen more. They need to separate film from Interactive. SXSW Music is dirty, loud and one of a kind. SPOKE will be back in 2012 ready to learn, play and connect. SIDE NOTE: For the ladies who are reading: Geeks are hotter than music dudes.

Noonan @ SXSW: Day 2

Rachel Noonan — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 21:51:47 +0000

I start today’s SXSW blog with a musical reference. Day two was like the Beth Ditto song ”I wrote the Book“. Fast paced, interpretive and tons of fun. Highlights include an interactive session on Visual Storytelling for the Deaf. It was interesting to see how beautifully animated people can be with sign language and the use of visuals to tell a story. They went through some examples of deaf people jokes, the benefits of being deaf and a really cool music video. Check this out (http://d-pan.org/index.php/this-is-d-pan/who-are). Amazing content. My only challenge with the session was ALL of the stories in every form were about deaf issues. It would have been nice to see a story about families, love or teenage issues in an everyday life setting. Onto film; Pen to Paper – Creating Conceptual Marketing Campaigns . Charlie Loft from All City from the UK lead the charge. It was awesome. The whole room worked together to make two movie posters for a thriller. A conceptual poster and one for the hollywood market. We talked about Black Swan and their campaign using both conceptual (link conceptual poster to: http://www.designworklife.com/2010/12/06/black-swan-posters/ ) and mass market creative. Someone in the audience said ” we never saw the conceptual art in the US, I guess it’s because the UK is perceived as a more intelligent audience”. Wow, I wonder why that may be? Watching Loft go through his creative process was fun, unfortunately random people kept killing the flow with really junior league questions. Come on guys, ask those questions on blogs where you can be both lame and anonymous. Next: Keynote. SCVNGR inventor Seth Priebatsch (http://www.scvngr.com/about/team). He talked about how the foundations of gaming can rule the world. Think Groupon, Fab Find, Foursquare, etc. Using time mechanics, group participation. He is on point and quite entertaining with his ever present and unnecessary Oakley Glasses and cartoon like shiny face. Did I mention he is 21 and raised the first million in capital for SCVNGR on his own. Insane. Next was a little comedy repose. I”m not making this up. We saw Dave Foley, Kevin Pollack, Michael Ian Black, Howard Kramer and Brett Gelman all on one stage. INSANE and amazing. Geek jokes were flying! Ok, now party time. We hit a record number of parties, but will only mention two because they ruled. FROG DESIGN hit it out of the park…..OUT OF THE PARK and Syncapse took SXSW party sophistication to a new level with a killer photo booth, custom branded everything and an amazing drink menu. My eyes were bleeding by Syncapse, so I crawled home to grab a few hours before going back into the fray.

Sega Toylets

Karen Lo — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:46:14 +0000

One motion, four games. For the month of January, Sega will be test running their groundbreaking urinal console, Toylets, in four Tokyo metro locations, including Akihabara, Soga and Ikebukuro. Player aims at the pressure sensor installed in the urinal and use their maximum power to play the four available mini-games. 1. Mannekin Pis Measures how hard you can pee. 2. Graffiti Eraser Remove paint by pointing a hose in different directions. The harder you pee, the easier it is to remove the stains. 3. The Northern Wind, The Sun and Me You play as the wind trying to blow a girl’s skirt up, and the harder you pee, the harder the wind blows. 4. Battle! Milk From Nose A competitive game where you try to out-pee the person who last used the urinal. Use your maximum peeing strength to help your Sumo wrestler shoot out milk from his nose to knock the opponent out of the ring.

BMW: Getting Inside Heads

Jeff Greenspoon — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:12:46 +0000

How BMW used basic science to get inside the minds of consumers, without actually showing them anything.

Hatsune Miku – Holographic Concert

Karen Lo — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:18:59 +0000

She is one pop star who will never be confronted with bad plastic surgery, rehabs, and scandals. Meet Hatsune Miku, the latest J-Pop sensation. Miku started as just a voice in Yamaha’s Vocaloid synthesizing technology developed by Crypton Future Media. The consumer software has gained so much popularity since its release in August 2007 that Miku was able to hold her first concert in March this year in Tokyo – in the form of a dynamic hologram. Thousands of enthusiastic fans came out and sang along to the digital vocalist. Unlike the Gorillaz 2005 MTV Awards performance, this holographic animation was 3-dimensional, as opposed to being a back screen projection. With this holographic technology on the rise, I wouldn’t be surprised if a holographic broadway show is on its way, and I just can’t wait to see it.

Ask Ting Ting

Karen Lo — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:25:49 +0000

In a fast-paced metropolis, convenience plays a vital role in its daily operations. This is why Mobile Guide (HK) Limited is introducing Ask Ting Ting, the most comprehensive and practical guide to help travelers discover the best of Hong Kong. Ask Ting Ting, due to launch this coming August, functions both as an electronic city guide and mobile device that contains over 40 video tours and a database of recommended destinations from historic sites to limelight districts. Ask Ting Ting is available across all premium hotels in Hong Kong and comes with a local SIM card – essential to avoid any occurrence of data roaming fees. Users can also enjoy free local calls and unlimited Internet and email access. A built-in camera allows instant sharing of snapshots and its web-based content management system allows instant news feed on the latest attractions and events. Ting Ting is brought to live by the charming actress/celebrity host, Sarah Lian. Always perfectly attired in wardrobe sponsored by Shanghai Tang, Ting Ting will inform users with fun facts and cultural trivia as she explores the city’s hotspots. The Dim Sum guide is one of the highlighted features which shows photos of menu items with captions in English and Chinese to familiarize users with Hong Kong’s world-famous brunch cuisine. Other thoughtful features include the GPS maps and the ‘Take Me Home’ feature that provides users with the most direct route from their current position to their hotel. Addresses are displayed in English and Chinese to facilitate local taxi drivers. Get the preview here! Check out this article for more detail on Ask Ting Ting.

HOW TO: Use QR Codes for Small Business Marketing

Rachel Noonan — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:25:16 +0000

A Quick Response (QR) code is a two-dimensional code that can be scanned by smartphone cameras to automatically pull up text, photos, videos, music and URLs.

These codes have become mobile-friendly ways to point people in the offline space to online resources. Check out the article that talks about QR Codes in Marketing.

http://www.nextmedia-source.com/frame.php?id=466549

TOSHIBA LAUNCHES A 3D LAPTOP

Rachel Noonan — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 21:03:02 +0000

Do these glasses make me look like a nerd?

Last week Toshiba launched their consumer 3D laptop. They had three units set up, each profiling various shoot-em up games, racing games and enhanced music watching experience. The newly designed 3D Glasses are decent looking, but don’t work with traditional theatre 3D because it’s a different technology. FAIL. Attempting to train your hands to navigate the game using the keyboard proved quite challenging. I lasted 30 seconds playing the Batman game. I either kept punching myself in the face or moving into corners looking like I was getting ready to hibernate in my Batcape for the summer. I am not their target market!

Toshiba represented some past technological milestones by displaying older desktops, laptops and tablets for guests. When I asked the rep why they weren’t actually working, I got a blank stare. I went on to tell him about how I went to “another” tech brand event where they were featuring some old models that were plugged in and ready to rock. To truly get perspective on how EPIC the evolution is, seeing a game of PONG in action in contrast to the spectacular lighting effects of the Toshiba 3D laptop experience can really hammer it home. I personally don’t think the 3D Laptops will be commercially viable, but neither was the APPLE II back in 1977. What it did do, was allow for innovation to take another step towards larger adoption rates. With each prototype or new innovative model created, we learn more about user experience, how to better market a product and how to integrate the product into people’s lives, making it an essential part of our every day. Go Toshiba, keep ‘em coming.

http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/qosmio

Back in the day....

R.I.P. IE6

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:23:44 +0000

So, I walked into the office today and to my most pleasurable surprise, I found an invitation sitting in my inbox to the official funeral of Internet Explorer Six, better known to us Interactive folk as IE6. Apparently, this long-time Internet resident had passed away on the morning of March 1, 2010 due to workplace injuries sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. The official invitation can be viewed here: http://ie6funeral.com/ I will most definitely be celebrating this momentous departure of a near and not so dear friend. Over the 8 long years that this browser has hung like a black ominous cloud over my head, there has never been a day that I have dreamt more about than this one. A tad bit exaggerated and slightly morbid, but ask any designer/developer/project manager that has ever battled with cross-browser testing and they will most definitely echo my sentiment. At many points in my career, my colleagues and I have contemplated how we could avoid the headaches and long nights spent maintaining the integrity of our beautiful online designs when viewed with IE6. It was like being in a virtual fun house, but the reflections were never funny. IE6 was a true rebel, rendering things to it’s own liking, never conforming to the rules and regulations of typical web standards. All jokes aside, you would be surprised at how many high-profile brands and Fortune 500 companies still use IE6 as their main Internet browser. Therefore, any attempt to avoid doing business for companies that still worked on this ancient browser could have been the death of all our careers. It wasn’t a chance we were willing to take. And now we won’t have to make that compromise. May you rest in peace IE6, alongside our other dearly departed friends, MS-DOS, floppy drive, dot matrix and all the other obsolete, BSOD-inducing technologies of the world. Good-bye and good riddance.

Brilliant Mapping by Elastic Space

Kai Exos — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:11:49 +0000

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited this makes me. Back in December, I was invited into George Brown School of Design to mentor the post-grad students on their final projects. One of those bright, young stars had an idea to improve the wayfinding at Union Station. It would be incredible if an individual user could access Timo’s idea independently from another user. Then ‘outsiders’ who weren’t using the system would avoid confusion. But then again, they’d be confused anyway.

Map/Territory from timo on Vimeo.