Can touch this?

As an adaptation of MC Hammer's smash hit Can't touch this runs through my head... I'm still wowed by this incredible advancement of technology.... touch.

Since I am not very good at computers - in fact on any given day you may hear me mutter "computers hate me!" in utter frustration - I am easily impressed by new technology - and this one really had me going.

My first intro to touch programs was actually in high school. My calculus teacher had something called a SMART Board. It was basically a touch sensitive blackboard hooked up to his computer. He used it much like a blackboard to draw functions, derive equations and pull up last class's notes. It was incredibly useful for learning, we could easily get electronic copies of notes we did in class, pull up old problems and look things up on the web.

Here is a youtube video about how to use it (warning, it's a smidgen blah...)



So flash forward a couple of years and Apple introduces the iPod touch and iPhone. Again... I'm impressed and when given the chance to hold one, proceed to play with all the "buttons" - even to this day.

However, when I saw a video about a touch table, my mind exploded.

Check out this news clip:



The table is completely touch sensitive and that's just the start. You could order pizzas on it, take pictures and without cables download the pictures directly to the table! WHAT?! Just as I had collected myself (and my jaw from the floor) I looked at the date of posting.... 2007. Two years ago?! How is it that two years later I haven't seen any of these tables commercially? Technology is adapting and being refined so quickly and prices normally drop within the first couple of years, I would've have assumed that I would've seen this somewhere already.

Here's another clip of the table that explores more of the nuts and bolts:




Has anyone seen them? Does anyone have one?

Also if we have devises that we can hear, see and touch... what's next? An iPod we can taste? Maybe an online menu we can smell?

Your Facebook and your Mom....

If you're like me and you had a friend request from your mom to be your Facebook friend, you may have put it off for a little while as you debated the thought of letting your mother in on your "personal life". If you're still like me a "while" would be approximately 6 months until she asked you point blank why you won't be her friend and in a well played guilt trip you give in and accept.

Now your mom is on your Facebook. Shit.... I mean... shoot.

I've always thought of Facebook as a place for my friends, never a place for my parents to creep around and ask "what happened to you last night?".... eek. I had pictures, posts, interests and favourite quotes - some I'm sure wouldn't garner the highest favour from my mother. Then I thought "Great now I have to think about my status updates... did I swear?"

After some thought, I realized that my "personal life" was in reality a "public life" and if I don't want my mother to see it, chances are, I probably don't want the majority of the world seeing it either. Recently, I've had more and more conversations with people about the privacy of online social media networking sites and the general consensus is that there isn't any. Once something has been posted on the internet, it's there for good and anyone can see it. We're still relatively new at this interweb thing and there's so much more to learn and discover. (If you have the time, there is an awesome video on www.ted.com about the first and next 5000 days of the internet.)



So, anyway, in my brief moment of insight, I didn't put my mother on limited profile.

It's been about another 6 months of my mother being my friend and nothing has really changed. I may one of the few lucky ones though....

Check out this funny site for some of the not-so-lucky ones:
http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com/

And just for good measure check out the top 4 awkward Facebook likes (including one from a mom) on College Humor:
http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1791517

Happy people when markets are down?

First there was the "Naked News", then there was the recession. Naturally everyone would think "why not put them together?"... duh.

Well, Puma had that thought and created an iPhone app that tracks the major markets around the world and assigns a female/male model to each. The application is easy - when the markets go down, so do the pants. When the markets go up, so do the pants.

Puma has taken a really interesting approach to the relatively gloomy stock market by creating its own silver lining but will people really be happy to see the indexes go down? Doubtful... but maybe with a little pg13 entertainment it won't hurt so much?

Some may argue that this new app is taking sex too far and to leave it out of the markets. Maybe sex shouldn't sell everything - but I'm sure others that would argue a little bit of sunshine is just what the broker ordered.

One thing is for sure, it's probably in your best interest to check these markets at home.

Video streaming goes online, then to print?!

So this is what was next? Wowzers.

TV ads are everywhere it seems: online video streaming, movie theaters, magazines, billboards.... hold on.... magazines? Yes. Currently, CBS and Pepsi are teaming up to bring the first ever video advertisement in a magazine.

The Sept 18th edition of Entertainment Weekly will have a super-thin video player embedded in its pages. When readers flip to the page they can choose (yes, CHOOSE) to watch a preview for How I Met Your Mother or Accidentally on Purpose and before each video an ad for Pepsi Max will run.

If you're like me you might still be thinking "... I'm sorry... what?!" but it's real alright!

Now we've seen print online and tv in print, heads up - here comes the future!

I can only imagine the cost to produce and insert that ad/technology in a magazine.

Check out the article in the globe and mail online:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/beats-a-perfume-strip/article1259523/

Bringing page to life

Nike Lunarglide+ "Actually, it is rocket science"

The plain (almost boring) Nike print ad I found on the back of my Women's Health mag instructed me head on over to nikirunning.com to experience it in 3D.... Naturally, I was curious as to how an ad in a magazine could be 3D. Once there I was told to hold the page to my webcam, hesitantly (and in the privacy of my home so as to not incite thoughts of insanity from my peers) I lifted the page to my screen. Instantly the image jumped to life in 3D and could be rotated, split apart and switched from men's to women's. Pretty neat for a plain ol' print ad!

Bringing this page to life meant I stayed on the Nike site for much longer than I intended and searched through other pages to see what other tricks they might have hiding under their laces!

Even though I didn't purchase anything from them that day they were still, in a way, successful. I, the consumer, saw their ad and was intrigued enough to followed it online. Once there I was happily entertained through clever online technology and decided to spend even more time with their brand! So, no I didn't buy anything, BUT yes, I did build a deeper connection with their brand and have passed what I saw on to you.

If you want to check it out online there is a how-to video on nikerunning.com that shows a demonstration: http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/products/lunarglide?blogSource=en_US#/experience

And from a consumer's perspective, here's what I found on youtube:


Pretty neat way of bringing print to life and driving online traffic ... so what's next?

Blondes have all the fun...

I am a firm believer that blondes do have the most fun. I'm also a big believer that blondes are some of the smartest people in the business.

Posting interesting, thought provoking, you-must-be-joking news from around the world.

Here's the eCommerce world topped off with a little sunshine.

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