Via, originally uploaded by renaissancechambara.
The Singer Company - Made in Great Britain, originally uploaded by renaissancechambara.
When you think green, you think hemp clothing, the Toyota Prius and save the whale stickers. That’s where environmentalists have got it wrong for a long time. There is no appeal to a self-interest apart from a vague abstract ‘global warming’ which is as meaningful to many consumers as ‘life after death’.
I was looking at my Mum and Dads mid-1960s Singer sewing machine with its cast metal chassis and thought that if the environmentalists could get on their hobby horse instead about quality, then they could dramatically reduce consumption and raise consumers quality of life. But that would be too easy wouldn’t it?
I went to MiniBar the other Friday with my old Yahoo! buddy Chieu and started discussing the whys and wherefores of augmented technology. We met up with Zack who was a former engineer at Yahoo! and carried on the discussion at Sichuan restaurant Barshu in Soho. The food was great.
Firstly, on the surface the technology is already there in a lot of respects: the computational power of the latest smartphones are capable of tremendous things. Sensor technology has moved on a lot and GPS chips are proving to be ubiquitous in mobile devices including phones and sat nav devices, but also getting into other consumer electronics including cameras for geo-tagging photos.
Location is part of the challenge. We have data formats and standards coming out of our ears. APIs from location databases based on wi-fi nodes, train and airline data, cellphone towers, GPS data, hCard addresses, maps and geo-codes on photos. Then there is the unstructured data like your location field on Twitter. Interpreting unstructured location data is a major challenge mainly because there isn’t adequate intuitive APIs and data formats for consumers.
All that computational power which finds your location and provides a slick interface whilst keeping up to date with your emails sucks power with a unique capacity. The problem is that battery technology has not moved at any where near the pace of computing technology, which is the reason why electric cars a still a disappointment and a heavily used iPhone battery can last as little as an afternoon.
This means that at the moment devices rely on active consumer-managed power management. Using applications carefully and only for just enough time: working out when to downgrade from using the 3G mobile network to a slower but more power efficient 2 - 2.5G connection, altering settings to dim the backlight and closing applications that you are not using.
We have large screens on smartphones that give a nice big picture but they also make it obvious that you have a smartphone and are using it: dork factor of a form factor. Science fiction writers get this which is the reason you tend to see glasses-type viewers turning up in their work as displays a la Minority Report or Neuromancer.
But the important question in all this is not what you can do, but how would you use it?
Earlier in the evening I had my ear talked off by a former accountant who was convinced that a Second Life-type metaverse was the future of local news media and advertising. Local media is partly about being part of a community, metaverse tend to be about escaping real-life. Obviously, he had thought about what could be done, but had given no serious thought to how consumers would use the service and fit into their lives.
Its a trap that the best of us can fall into: Zack, Chieu and I were talking about augmented reality and dating. Rather than just Googling a date: Kroll-ing a date; pulling up all the relevant information you could want (education, profession, income bracket, current marital status etc) using real-time facial recognition. That’s a bit of a double-edged sword so we started thinking about a real-time social messaging platform in a club, but you can do that via a dongle, a laptop and a big-ass display.
And then someone pipes up what if you want to communicate directly with someone. Well technology will only get you so far, sometimes you just have to man up and do it in the real-world. But for a moment we’d made the classic mistake of assuming that indirect machine-mediated communications is best.
So what, evidence in terms of consumer trends do we have to go on:
Matt Simmons: The Oil & Water Mix - nice statistics about potable water, metals recycling and the oil industry
Microsoft Talks Google’s Privacy “Fails” at SXSW | WebProNews
Leaked UK record industry memo sets out plans for breaking UK copyright - Boing Boing - WTF. The BPI-authored changes the effect of which was that “the security services concerns were not being met” and then goes on to talk about the irony that the Open Rights Group and the Security Services being on the same side as if it validates his standpoint
Excel Cheatsheet - handy set of Excel commands including VBA scripts
China Mobile Confirms Acquisition Of 20% Stake In Shanghai Pudong Development Bank - ChinaTechNews.com - interesting move to position itself well for m-commerce and mobile banking
Mobile operators make service pledge
Mini cheerleaders spread sakura support - really nice take on a Japanese tradition by Mini
Nokia Expands Est On ‘09 Market Size; But With Lower Share - Barrons.com
The Case for Innovation: FTC, NY State, EU v. Intel - NVIDIA attack sit, not nearly as good or as credible as GrokLaw
Tories will halt IT procurement and try to stop contracts over £100m | Pinsent Masons LLP
Nominet plans release of super-short domain names | Pinsent Masons LLP
Breaking Into a Conversation Gracefully - Harvard Business Review
UK Telecom Industry attacks Digital Economy Bill amendment | Benton Foundation
The Pitch HK: Celebrating Hong Kong’s creative talent - interesting move by Hong Kong to cement its place as a creative powerhouse
AOL Lifestream - pretty good product, will it be enough to make AOL relevant again?
Chinese Consumers Complain About HP’s Products - ChinaTechNews.com - H-P undergoing its own version of Dell Hell in China “HP was also publicly discriminating against Chinese consumers by offering them maintenance services different from those provided to consumers in the United States.”
According to the March 12, 2010 (issue 489) of Popbitch, UK politicians visits to the troops serving in Afghanistan are known by HM Forces personnel as combat tourism.
I spent a bit of this afternoon getting to grips with the just-published Conservative technology manifesto. This also meant having a read of James Dyson’s report Ingenious Britain: Making the UK the leading high tech exporter in Europe as this is referenced to, and borrowed from by the manifesto. The results of this quick download are over at Left Foot Forward.
What I found most dispiriting about the whole exercise is that it was obvious that whilst the UK has become a post-industrial digital country, policy making across all the parties is mired in analogue thinking and doesn’t demonstrate the kind of innovation and risk-taking which politicians would like to inspire in hi-tech entrepreneurs.
Social media may be used by the political parties, but digital issues are noticeable by their absence. Geeks and netizens are not being courted at the ballot box, but instead have been vilified and shunned by current and prospective elected representatives.
Take a Virtual Walk Through Hong Kong With Google Street View - really nicely done
Hi-tech governments growing keener on snooping, says report | Pinsent Masons LLP - criticising other governments for online rights and freedoms isn’t so clear-cut any more
Buddy Media - Facebook page management and creation
NAACP History page - big shout out to my colleagues in New York who made this site and got to put Morpheus back in the Matrix
WPP starts hiring again- with a digital focus - there’s this thing called the internet that Sir Martin Sorrell read about in this new book called The Road Ahead by this geeky chap called Bill, apparently its going to be huge [irony overload]
Pentax 645D Gets 40MP, May Release Date…In Japan - Pentax reenters the medium format market with an interesting digital camera.
Google: We’ll ‘probably never’ build enterprise-only apps | VentureBeat - because consumers are the early corporate adopters anyway and small businesses are 80 per cent of the business market
Why do we ignore ‘real-time’ results from Google search? | Technology | guardian.co.ukApple talks tough to handset makers - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Brainstorm Tech - patent war. Microsoft innovation is easier to compete against than Google? Or Google needs to get serious on patents
Your Nixie Clock Headquarters - this is the coolest.
The Conservative Party | News | News | Dyson sets out plans to boost high tech industry - nothing terribly surprising as Dyson has said much of this for years but the statistics are great. Please can you make the download as PDF more obvious though Conservative webpeople ^_^
New Media Knowledge - The Essential Guide to Link Building
FMCG, retail giants still focused on the downturn - Warc - because that’s where consumers heads are at
Mobile marketing gains ground in Europe, APAC - Warc - but this time its really gaining ground
PepsiCo looks to co-creation in India - Warc News - Warc
Audi predicts China could beat German sales - Warc - disclaimer, my colleagues in China have been doing social media work to help make this happen
U.K. to Regulate Social Network Marketing - ClickZ
Foursquare, Google Maps & Sysomos social media monitoring | FreshNetworks Blog - nicely done mash-up
1000heads :: Nokia’s commitment to conversation - James flagged this up to me this morning and I need to spend more time on it to give it the analysis that it deserves
I have been noticing graphic ads appearing in my RSS feeds recently. The advert pictured that really caught my eye seems to be being served by Google, but I am sure that these adverts are appearing via other advertising networks as well.
A quick search online shows the legal issues that eBay has had with a range of companies over the sale of fake goods: L’Oreal, LVMH (Louis Vuitton) and Tiffany to name but a few. Beyond short-termist thinking of profits why would advertising networks want to sell inventory to counterfeiters?
What surprised me was a couple of things:
Dry Planet - Products: Purchase Waterpebble - really nice green design idea
Former CEO of Fujitsu Nozoe Kuniaki (野副州旦) - blackmail forced his resignation | Japan: Stippy - interesting story of boardroom intrigue.
Relakks - Surf anonymously with VPN and proxy
Online Video’s Rapid Growth Hits a Speed Bump [STATS]
In UK Search, Everyone’s Miles Behind Google, Bing’s Overtaking Yahoo | paidContent
A Closer Look at Sony’s New Skin for Android Phones | Gadget Lab | Wired.com - assumes always on data, ie no roaming
Apple, Google are “most admired” companies - Warc News - Warc
Eric Schmidt Google Keynote at Mobile World Congress | Jonathan MacDonald
Microsoft ad chief quits ahead of Bing campaign - Brand Republic
Audio killed the video game… just ask Papa Sangre | raxraxrax.com
Chinese luxury market set for further growth - Warc
Unilever looks to the internet in India - Warc
Social Media Today | Optimizing Brands for Social Search
Asiajin » CyberAgent Exports Social Avatar Community To English, Ameba Pico
Keep Your Passwords Safe on a Piece of Paper
Create Your Own Data Visualization With Google - PSFK
UBM CEO Levin: Print’s Just A Sliver, And E-Readers Are Experimental | paidContent:UK
Younger Shoppers Buy More, Less Often - interesting consumer data. Is it binge shopping?
Warby Parker - really nice site and really nicely designed glasses
Five common SEO mistakes made by e-commerce sites | Econsultancy
AlertRank: Google Alerts on Steroids | Search Engine Journal - great free tool
75 PR/Article Submission Sites to Generate Inbound Links | Search Engine Journal
Music Biz Hopes To End Piracy By Tempting ISPs With Millions | TorrentFreak
Google’s Search Engine Getting Too Personal? : NPR - check out this Danny Sullivan interview
O’Brien: Public speaking, the new geek sport in Silicon Valley - SiliconValley.com - Ignite ‘methodology’
Robert Cialdini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - hadn’t looked at this since I did org.behaviour module back at college
Marketing With Social Media? Try Some Local European Networks - whilst Facebook is getting bigger, it isn’t the be-all and end-all
Apple’s New Stance On ‘Cookie Cutter’ Apps: Add More Features Or Perish
Like the Irish, immigration is part of the Chinese psyche. Reading an article in Sina.com, I was reminded of one particular tranche of Chinese immigration: prior to, and during the handover of Hong Kong; a number of families chose to move to Canada and other countries. The families lived in places with large existing Chinese communities like Vancouver and the patriarch would often commute to do business back in Hong Kong. These commuters were nicknamed astronauts because they spent so much time in the air.
A trend for the families of Chinese officials to conduct a similar kind of transplanted lifestyle has spawned a new term of ‘naked official‘. A number of officials whose families had emigrated abroad (presumably beyond the reach of the state) were subsequently convicted of charges relating to them abusing their position. They are considered to be suspicious of preparing a bolt-hole abroad.
Kudos to Xinhua via Sina.com: China keeps a watchful eye on officials with family members living abroad
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