Great social graphics from David Armano

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7855449@N02/sets/72157606844282993/

Don't forget to credit the man if you use them!

OH YEAH- BRING ON THE G1 - the google phone

No More Speculation - This is the G1 from T-Mobile

Thanks Androidguys: Written by AndroidGuys • Aug 26th, 2008 •

AND: click here for a list of the 50 apps that won the developer challenge

AND: click here for one cool as hell one that didn't - ENKIN

Update: Since we published this article, we’ve received some specs from a few people/places. Click here to see a compiled list of the inner beauty.

It’s time to put this rumor to bed once and for all. We’ve seen a handful of mockups online these last few weeks guessing as to what the first Android handset is going to look like. We even saw a video that divided many fanboys, including us AndroidGuys. Well, thanks to a trusted source claiming to be close to one of the three parties involved, we’re here to show you officially what the G1 is going to look like and it’s very similar to what you guys have been seeing lately. There are only a couple of things to this design that we didn’t see coming.

Click here for higher resolution image. One noticeable difference is the slight tilt to the bottom of the handset where the trackball is located. Although it’s a small change, it’s worth noting. We love the 5 row QWERTY keyboard with the spaced out buttons, reminiscent of recent Sidekick devices. We’re curious to see what that “menu” button is for as well. Obviously, we think we know what it’s for, but with this thing

Check out the back of the device where it shows “With Google” on it. It tells us that T-Mobile and HTC are using the brand recognition to help sell the handset. It’s also nice to see HTC’s name on the back as this will put them on the map in a major way. They deserve to see a little love for all the other handsets they’ve been pumping out over the years.

The more we see this thing, the more it’s growing on us. A black version of this handset will look very sharp, with brown and white iterations likely pulling in some fans too.

TV's Future Looks Like Web's Present

Thanks Adweek: Forrester says targeted ads and a portal-like menu of options are coming to your set

Aug 27, 2008 -By Brian Morrissey

Forrester: The shift will help TV remain the dominant advertising medium.

NEW YORK TV advertising is poised to change dramatically over the next decade, embracing the kind of targeting and user control already common on the Web, according to a new report by Forrester Research.

Forrester lays out a decade-long evolution that will ultimately result in most programming delivered on-demand with targeted ad messages based on location and behavior, along with community functions.

This "Personal TV," as Forrester calls it, would also deliver a Web-like experience for consumers, with a portal-like menu of programming options and search functions.

Forrester sees this shift giving TV an opportunity to remain the dominant ad medium it is today. While a personalized offering would seem geared toward further audience fragmentation, Forrester anticipates systems that would allow advertisers to reach mass audiences in a targeted manner. What's more, cable companies, with subscribers' billing histories, know more about users than Web companies. Ultimately, TV will work like the Web, enabling viewers to interact with ads up to the point of purchase.

"The players here are the people who own the popular programs and then the distributors who have digital systems capable of serving programs into set top boxes," said David Graves, the report's author.

That hasn't stopped Web giants such as Google and Microsoft from trying to break into the medium and extend their reach across TV advertising. Google is placing ads through Echostar's Dish Network and Microsoft has plans to build an ad network after buying Navic Networks.

In the near term, Forrester expects experimentation in video on-demand offerings by cable companies, like CBS's CSI on Comcast that includes ads that cannot be skipped.

Forrester predicts that in 2010, targeting and on-demand programming systems will be up and running, before the big industry-wide shift takes place from 2012-18.

What's taken so long? Forrester spreads the blame across the TV landscape. Cable companies didn't build-out video on-demand as an ad-supported platform, networks protected the lucrative status quo and agencies didn't push for innovation.

cool interfaces - oh yeah, this is cool shit with holograms and interactive interfaces

lifeviNe: Automatic, Geo-tagged Lifetracking

Thanks PSFK and Christine Huang for this note on a cool new tool for tracking your own every move.

LifeviNe, which will be making its beta debut in the next few weeks via Nokia’s Beta Labs, is a mobile lifetracking application that lets users geotag every step they make - and the photos, music, and audio clips that go along with the journey. Similar to their Sports Tracker app, LifeviNe offers users a way to map, timestamp, share and tag their day-to-day activities on their phones and the web. As explained in Nokia Conversations:

As well as tagging all your media’s locations the app will track where you’ve been (so you need to be careful when you have it switched on!), and plot your journey on the web based map when you sync it at the end of the day. Uploading is a cinch too, as lifeviNe can be set to automatically upload whenever you’re in a trusted wireless zone.

Online you can look at and share your journeys, filtering by user, place or time. There’s also an online widget which you can place on your blog or Facebook page, allowing others to see what you’ve been up to.

We don’t think lifeviNe is the sort of thing most people would use everyday, but it could be a useful tool for people who likes to keep track of and share what they’ve done/seen (perhaps traveling) but don’t want to stop to write it down.

And no, we don’t get the capital “N” either.

Nokia Conversations: Keeping Track of Life

In-store ads change in response to shoppers behaviour & even features

Thanks EMILY STEEL at WSJ online for this update on some exciting new developments in in-store digital August 21, 2008; Page B7

Digital Screens Could Adjust Messages Based on Features

Ad targeting is coming to a store near you.

In the latest effort to tailor ads to specific consumers, marketers are starting to personalize in-store promotions based on products the consumer recently picked off a shelf or purchased -- and in the near future, based on what the shopper looks like.

Dunkin' Donuts is among the first marketers in the U.S. to begin testing the technologies, at two locations in Buffalo, N.Y. People ordering a coffee in the morning can see ads at the cash register promoting the chain's hash browns or breakfast sandwiches. At the pick-up counter, customers see ads prompting them to return for a coffee break in the afternoon and try an oven-toasted pizza.

YCD Multimedia

Dunkin' Donuts is among the retailers tailoring ads to consumers on in-store digital screens based on items that the customers have purchased.

In a separate test, Procter & Gamble is placing radio-frequency identification tags on products at a Metro Extra retail store in Germany so that when a customer pulls the product off the shelf, a digital screen at eye level changes its message. When a consumer picks out a shampoo for a particular type of hair, for instance, the screen recommends the most appropriate conditioner or other hair products, says John Paulson, president of G2 Interactive, a digital-marketing arm of WPP Group's G2 Network.

This comes as advertisers are spending more of their ad dollars on in-store marketing. Audience fragmentation and the waning power of television ads are forcing marketers to make their pitches and tout their brands when and where consumers are closer to making a purchase: in the store.

Most of the experimentation by marketers is being done with the new digital screens that are appearing next to cash registers and in store aisles. Because cameras are embedded in many of these digital screens displaying the ads, marketers are hoping to serve up ads based on the consumer's appearance.

Many of the in-store targeted-advertising efforts are still in the early stages of development. Marketing executives say that much research still needs to be done to evaluate the best types of ads to display and the way consumers respond to messages. Some fear that the proliferation of screens makes it more likely that they will be ignored.

"I'm a skeptic on technology in the shopping environment," says Andy Murray, chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi X, the Publicis Groupe agency that focuses on in-store marketing. Screens need to be useful to get people to pay attention, and if stores are just using them to sell products, shoppers won't be receptive, he says.

The company powering the screens for Dunkin', YCD Multimedia, is in the midst of deploying facial-recognition technologies that can classify people into certain demographic groups by identifying their approximate age and their sex.

Companies in the securities industries have been experimenting with facial-recognition technologies for some time. The technology often works by capturing an image of a person and using sophisticated algorithms to analyze features like the size and shape of the nose, eyes, cheekbones and jaw line -- against databases of face information. At the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, Fla., for instance, security officials used facial-recognition technologies to scan for terrorists and known criminals.

Only recently has the price for digital screens dropped enough that retailers could afford to put the screens in stores. Even now, the digital signs operate on a delay in some places, so that marketers have to program their commercials days in advance -- which rules out changing the ads on the fly, based on the characteristics of a given the shopper.

At the 1,400 eight- and nine-foot-tall plasma screens in 105 malls across the U.S. operated by Adspace Networks, there is roughly a two-hour delay between the time an ad is downloaded and its appearance on the screens. In some cases, these ads have achieved their mission of spurring sales too well. When inventories of the advertised products have become depleted, the ads haven't changed to reflect that reality. "One of the issues we have is that we run out of stock," says Adspace Chief Executive Dominick Porco.

New technologies are helping some marketers address that problem. Aroma Espresso Bar, an Israeli café chain that also operates stores in New York and Canada, is testing YCD systems that automatically change the ads people see at the cash register as a way of managing inventory better. If there is a large amount of pastries that will go stale that night, for instance, a manager will switch ads on the screen to promote them, says Gali Goldwaser, marketing manager for Aroma.

Technology firms hope to ward off any potential privacy issues by not capturing and storing any personally identifiable information about consumers.

Liquid space

Diesel’s Spring/Summer 08 catwalk show, staged a few days ago at the Pitti Immagine Uomo fair in Florence, was nothing short of stunning. While regular human models paced up and down the runway, a host of polyp-like CGI characters appeared in mid-air to interact with them within an underwater landscape. And in a unique twist, these animated holograms were entirely viewable from both sides of the stage. But this was no Paul Daniels Magic Show trickery – more a perfect blend of cutting edge digital art and performance.

Diesel explain how some of this technology works:

“The visuals are projected through a series of ‘foils’ into mid air, so you see the images in mid-air. The models can then interact with them and walk through them. We used plastic foils placed at 45 degree angles so that the projected light from the ceiling goes onto a foil, is reflected on to another and then into the air.

We worked it so it had a real catwalk feel and so that you could view it from both sides: you can see the models, the holograms and the public from both sides. It’s never been used this way before as the technology has just been used in the corporate world before, for sales presentations, and the visuals have always just been viewed from one side. So we set up two rigs instead.

The animations were done with standard CGI animation software but were made for a 15m by 2.5m screen. It’s all rendered in HD, too, so was quite demanding as it’s 30 frames per second. We worked on the whole thing, from storyboard through to the final render in just two and a half months. Bringing together Dvein and Vizoo gave us this unique, truly holographic, 3D motion graphic experience.”

Window shopping

A new spin on the UK's 'Argos' shopping concept. This is an idea where customers can browse a catalogue from an interactive store window display and go inside to purchase it from in-store screens. Products are chosen and payment is made by swiping your credit card, purchases are then collected from the back of the store.
Not a new business model but interesting to replace in-store catalogue browsing with touchscreens.

Magic mirrors

Interactive mirror subtracting the real background and replacing it with a virtual one

In the frame of a marketing campaign for a travel agency, UbachsWisbrun/JWT, a large communication group in the Netherlands, has asked Bartpproject to develop an interactive mirror.
The installation allows each person passing by the shop window to have a taste of holiday atmosphere, thanks to an interactive experience.

A big LCD screen covered by a way mirror is placed in the shop window: when nobody is in front of it, the screen looks like a normal mirror.
As soon as a person stops in front of the screen, the real background behind him/her is subtracted, and replaced by exotic backgrounds, changing randomly.

The technology behind this installation is complex: the background is constantly changing, so in this context standard background subtraction techniques are not helpful.
We developed a stereo camera system that, by means of a triangulation algorithm, allows the detection of a foreground object.

Window shopping

As interactive windows are becoming part of the future of retail, why not shop directly from them?
In the same way that e-commerce works, this store in Paris has an intercative window display in line with their seasonal sale. Essentially an online catalogue it allows you to choose items and reserve them for future purchase and collection.

Dell’s Social Media Experiment Aims to Capture the Digital Nomad

Thanks Mashable

While the actual term “digital nomad” has been around for a little while, it usually seems to fall under the shadow of the more expansive term of telecommuting. The fact is that really they are two different ideas altogether.

The idea of telecommuting has been around for almost as long as computers have been able to talk to each over a copper wire. I remember back in the days of bulletin board services (BBS) the idea of people being able to work from home was beginning to take shape. At the time, the big drawback was that the technology hadn’t advanced to the point where it was really feasible, not to mention the fact that employers were almost wholly unified against the idea.

Then along came the internet and with it increasing access speeds and more powerful machines that could handle what was needed for telecommuting to work. At the same time though, another phenomena was occurring that made the idea of telecommuting seem old fashion even before it really took off. Laptops started becoming primary machines as they started equaling everything that could be found in a desktop computer. Laptop reviews

Tied in with that was the arrival of Web 2.0 and the idea that with nothing less than an idea and a laptop with access to the internet you could start your own web business. You could hold meetings either in a boardroom or remotely and you could then get together with your coding teams at coffee bars anywhere in the world as long as they had Internet access.

No more were you tied down to a single location if you didn’t want to be, no more did your development or business team all have to be in the same place. The days of the digital nomads had arrived and they were proving more and more that good ideas didn’t need four walls and an expensive address in order to get off the ground. Among the first to really discover this freedom of a nomadic working life probably had to be bloggers as they sat in Starbucks posting the hottest news or posting a Qik video interview they had with some young CEO over coffee. Starbucks

With the rise of these digital nomads there were plenty of blogs talking about the concept, talking about living the lifestyle or how to deal with companies who weren’t use to this new style of doing things. What there wasn’t though was a service or meeting place on the Web where these digital nomads could virtually congregate and learn from each others’ experiences. Recently though this has changed, and while some might suggest it was done strictly for marketing purposes, Dell launched the new Digital Nomads community website.

There is no denying that Dell has a vested interest in launching a site like this and trying to attract all those digital nomads roaming out there, but when you actually visit the site you see very little overt Dell product tie-ins. Yes, there is the obligatory sidebar ad promoting one of the laptops but even the video in the sidebar isn’t a pushing heavy market speak production – rather it is an examination of how the workspace has changed and what these new workers are looking for in their tools. The idea here seems to truly provide these digital nomads with helpful information about their new lifestyle and reap any indirect benefits they can from the site. As Hugh MacLeod said when he wrote about the site:

The Digital Nomads blog is what I call "indirect marketing". People aren’t supposed to read it and go, "My, what a lovely blog. I think I’ll go out and buy me a couple of brand new Dell laptops". This is more of an "Alignment" play. In other words, by "aligning" themselves more with the digital-nomad crowd, they hope it’ll help them in time to create products that are more compelling and relevant to them. If you were in the computer business, you’d want to have the same alignment. "The Porous Membrane" etc. The good news is, Alignment plays can be extremely effective. The bad news is, they take FOREVER to gather momentum.

Even sampling some of the newest posts on the site and you can see that the focus is on the people rather than the product:

The Rise of the Digital Nomad – Jay White

Being a Digital Nomad used to mean either a traveling salesperson or perhaps the occasional work-at-home employee. Today, it means all of the above, but it adds a caveat that includes capitalizing on connectivity and opportunity regardless of your location. Who can respond to multiple conversations the fastest and who can create solutions and opportunity for less.

For example, today’s internet (a term I dislike) allows anyone to create the relationships needed to produce better products or services, for less. Younger generations realize this. If you and I can assemble a team, regardless of the location of its pieces, that can design, manufacture, and distribute a better widget, we’re in business. You are no longer looking local for help, you are looking in India, China, Russia – everywhere. Why work for a corporation right away when I can build one or perhaps build a niche that supports one?

12 Essential Services for the Digital Nomad – Chanpory Rith

• Gmail Webmail doesn’t get any better than Gmail. It’s free and includes mobile access, POP/IMAP functionality, junk mail filtering, and oodles of space. It’ll even work with your own domain name. Each account also gets you access to Google Docs, a Web-based suite of word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications.
• Earth Class Mail But what about your snail mail? If you’re never home, Earth Class Mail can scan your postal mail so you can view them online anywhere. Addresses are available in 20 cities including New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.
• A Mailbox from The UPS Store If missing package deliveries is the problem, then you can get a real street address from The UPS store. Unlike a PO Box, they’ll accept packages as well as snail mail. The UPS Store won’t scan your mail like Earth Class Mail, but you get a much greater choice of addresses.

Mark’em, back’em up, encrpyt’em… Do it or lose it – Philip Torrone

My laptop “sleeve” is often made from a dirty t-shirt, or if you’re hardcore… old underwear. That’s right, no thief poking around in your bag when you’re not looking is going to want to wade through what seems to be a dirty laundry collection.

Laptop bondage… I once saw someone try and steal someone’s laptop at a bar, it was in their laptop bag and when the thief tried to make off with the bag it tugged the fellow having a beer. It ended quickly, words were exchanged, large men were involved. The fellow said that he always loops the laptop bag strap around his chair or leg wherever he goes, I’ve done that ever since.

So while this might strike the more cynical bunch out there who think that a company never does anything for the good of a community the fact is that I think in this case Dell is proving them wrong. I’m not sure how this project from Dell will work out over time, but I think that if more and more digital nomads make it a go-to resource it has a good chance of succeeding.

What do you think – marketing ploy or an honest effort to provide a valuable service to a growing segment of the workforce?

Location-Tracking Startup Sense Networks Emerges from Stealth To Answer the Question: Where Is Everybody?

Thanks techcrunch

by Erick Schonfeld on June 9, 2008

What if you could look at your cell phone and see a heat map of where everybody in the city was at that very moment? The more people at any given location, the redder it would appear on the map. That’s what Citysense does. It is a mobile application that is supposed to help you figure out where the hottest clubs and night spots are so you can go there (or avoid them, depending on your preference).

It senses where the most popular places are based on the location information emitted by everyone’s cell phones, shows the places with the most activity, and then links into Yelp or Google to help you find out what is at that location. Over time, it learns about where you like to go (fancy restaurants or punk rock clubs) and shows you other people like you, and where they are—right now. And it does all of this anonymously. (You can’t see your where your actual friends are). Citysense only works in San Francisco right now. It is available as a mobile download for the Blackberry and soon for the iPhone as well.

The application is essentially a demonstration for a startup called Sense Networks that is emerging from stealth mode today. Citysense is built on top of the company’s main technology platform, Macrosense. The company ingests billions of data points about people’s location from cell phones, GPS devices, WiFi, and even taxis. The company also collects geo-location data from everyone who downloads Citysense, or any future app (although, the company considers the data to be yours, and you can delete it from the database at any time).

Using machine-learning algorithms, it then indexes all of this location data and ranks places in the real world much like a search engine ranks Websites. But instead of looking at Web links, it looks at how much data (i.e., people) are moving between locations. The company makes money by selling this data in the aggregate to professional investors and financial institutions, who are keen to find out things like where people are shopping.

Sense Networks was founded by MIT computer scientist Alex Pentland and Columbia computer scientist Tony Jebara back in May, 2003. But it remained pretty much a research project until the company was incorporated in 2006. In April, 2008 it raised an A round from hedge funds (including Passport Capital, Drobny Global Asset Management and the Challenge Funds) and angel investors. The amount was not disclosed, but VentureWire reports that it was $3 million.

AdAge's Digital A list for 2008

Digital A-List 2008: No.1, Unilever

Digital Marketer of the Year Scores by Making Web Tactics Part of Its Mainstream Marketing Plans

Here's the funny thing about Unilever being Digital Marketer of the Year: It doesn't really do digital campaigns.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 2, AKQA

Ad Age's Digital Agency of the Year Is Actually in the Business of Product Innovation

Fourteen years after it started as a boutique in London, AKQA has become a global powerhouse. In 2007, the San Francisco-based agency reached nearly 700 employees; revenue was up about 40% to $99 million; and new-client wins included Kraft Foods, Unilever, Cadbury Schweppes and Motorola, adding to a roster that already included Nike, Visa, McDonald's Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Coca-Cola Co.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 3, Google

Search Giant Strikes Deal With Publicis, and Doesn't Lose Share Upgrading Rivals

Convincing ad agencies that it was friend, not foe, was imperative for Google if it wanted to start snagging the big-brand budgets major agencies control, and the barely 10-year-old company was effective enough in that campaign that it struck a deal with Publicis Groupe to share ideas, co-develop products and exchange employees.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 4, NYTimes.com

Ending an Unpopular Experiment to Capture Circ Revenue Has Paid Off

When The New York Times' website demolished the pay walls that had separated its columns and other premium content from the freeloading hoi polloi, it sealed a spot on the Digital A-List.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 5, Apple's iPhone

Changed Consumers' Perception of the Mobile Phone

No doubt Apple's sleek touch-screen iPhone is changing the look and feel of mobile phones. But more important, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has given mobile marketing a major boost with his iPhone.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 6, Digitas

Agency's Acquisition by Publicis Has Helped Shop Think Big Picture

Digitas continues to move beyond its roots as a direct-marketing agency to becoming a strong full-service digital partner that engages marketers building brands and businesses.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 7, J&J's BabyCenter

E-commerce Site Is Dominating Digital Mommyhood

Johnson & Johnson's BabyCenter is aiming for global domination and to follow moms beyond the confines of its website.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 8, Baidu

The 'Google of China' Is Moving Past Text-Based Search to Video, IM

Baidu.com is known as the "Google of China," the world's second-largest online market. Baidu has a dominant 62% share of China's search-engine market, according to China IntelliConsulting Corp. Google is the No. 2 player, with a 22.7% share, followed by Yahoo at 10.8%.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 9, ESPN

Its First-Round Knockdown at the Hands of Mobile Led to a Surprising Comeback

Keeping ahead of the game has been ESPN's signature play through the evolution of media, from its traditional TV base to print to its newer digital efforts.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 10, 'Cloverfield'

A Chancy Experiment Created an Immersive Online Marketing Experience

The J.J. Abrams-produced horror movie "Cloverfield" played hard to get through the late summer and fall of 2007. A mysterious online movement was a key ingredient in the run-up to the movie.

Digital A-List 2008: Next in Line

From Rising Star Tribal DDb to ... 'Whopper Freakout'?

In the end, we chose 10. But there was plenty of debate over who should make this year's A-List. Maybe it's no surprise that a burgeoning global power like Tribal DDB would come close, but a purveyor of flame-broiled burgers? These players' remarkable forays in the digital realm show new media's not just for tech companies.

Digital A-List 2008 Executive of the Year: Brian McAndrews

As Microsoft's Ad-Solutions VP, He Is Helping Map the Giant's Online Future

While many industry watchers have proclaimed the wisdom of Microsoft's Brian McAndrews, it's less his willingness to tackle the unproven path ahead and more the foresight in his past at aQuantive -- and that whopping exit strategy -- that makes him Ad Age's Digital Executive of the Year.

For the Future of Digital, Get Your Head in the Cloud

Thanks Steve Ruble at AdAge for this

One of the biggest trends shaping technology is cloud computing. Consumers and businesses are moving more of their data off computers and into rich internet applications available everywhere, such as Yahoo Mail, Google Docs, Salesforce.com and Mint.com.

While geeks have been gushing about web-based software for years, average consumers have been slower to adopt it. That said, given the huge popularity of web e-mail, it's only a matter of time before they use the web for more complex tasks. Here are three ramifications to watch.

Photo: JC Bourcart

Steve Rubel is a marketing strategist and blogger. He is senior VP in Edelman's Me2Revolution practice.

LESS IS MORE

Your next computer could be a sub-$500 netbook -- a light, low-powered laptop with a small screen that relies on the internet for most tasks. According to Google Trends, netbook searches are up four times this year, and IDC sees sales topping 9 million in 2012. As netbooks rise, thin will be in. These computers are low-powered by design, and the consumers who use them will eschew complicated, 3-D or processor-intense experiences in favor of interfaces that are easy and formatted for a 10-inch screen.

WEB-APP ADS

Many online applications are free. Others, such as mapping tool MindMeister, operate under a freemium model, where the basics are free but advanced features cost a premium. Most so far are devoid of ads.

Web e-mail has displayed ads since its earliest days. Others such as IMeebo, a universal IM service, are taking this a step further by creating immersive brand experiences. That's just the beginning. The rise of web apps will unleash innovation. Online photo editors such as Picnik could serve ads for how-to photography books to consumers who spend an extensive amount of time tinkering.

MOBILE FIRST, NOT LAST

Too often mobile is an afterthought rather than a focal point. Some executives I know leave their laptops at home when traveling on business since their smart-phones carry the load. In 10 years this will be the norm, as mobile devices, powered by cloud computing, wirelessly connect to keyboards, mice and monitors and offer as rich an experience as today's computers do. This trend toward one device that does it all will be a catalyst for mobile marketing.