Apple. Inside the App Store’s Rejection Department.

Januar 29th, 2010 • Comments Mobile, Tech
Tags: Apple, Apps, Cool, Funny, Ideas, iPad, iPhone, Mobile, Truth

The unparalleled freedom of Web 2.0 can nowhere be witnessed as fully as in Apple’s App Store. Well, of course there is criteria to become part of this exclusive digital warehouse – clear, transparent criteria to leave no room for speculation how to get in there. And in order to stop everyone with bad or fake ideas to take advantage of them, Apple, and you, the user, Apple has now opened the doors to its App Store Rejection Department. Thanks to Chris for this link.

Digital Magazines. Another future for print.

Dezember 18th, 2009 • Comments Ideas, Tech
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Future, Ideas, Prediction, Presentation, Print, Tech, Trends, UX, visual, We like, World

Is print dead? If you read my own headlines you will find out that I am undecided as well. I am sure that the majority of mainstream print media nowadays is doomed. But, I think that some traditional print media products might reinvent themselves. Lately Outsider Magazine and Esquire came up with remarkable experiments in this sector.

Publishing thinktank Bonnier plus its partner Berg London have come up with this cool vision of how magazine UX might evolve. It’s a concept video and does not exist yet. But the concept convincingly uses digital media to create a rich and meaningful experience, while maintaining the relaxed and curated features of printed magazines. It illustrates one possible vision for digital magazines in the near future.

Razorfish. Emerging Experiences launches Razorfone.

November 23rd, 2009 • Comments Experimental, Tech, Trends
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Ideas, Mobile, Razorfish, Retail, Tech, Tools, Touch, visual, We like

My colleagues from Razorfish’s Emerging Experience team have come up with a new application which furthermore eases shopping processes. Razorfone is a prototype application which simplifies buying processes using the means of touchscreens. Razorfish Emerging Experiences has come up with a lot of innovative touch applications lately. Do also check out the configurator they made for Audi and their Razorfashion application.

Razorfone Interactive Retail Experience from Razorfish – Emerging Experiences on Vimeo.

SixthSense. Redefining Man-Machine-Interaction.

November 18th, 2009 • Comments Experimental, Tech, Tools
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Gesture, innovation, Interfaces, Interview, Prediction, Presentation, Tech, TED, Touch, Trends, World

The latest series of Ted takes us to India. Pranav Mistry is a student at the notorious innovation factory M.I.T and inventor of SixthSense, a wearable device that enables new interactions between the real world and the world of data. In this demo he explains this new type of men-machine interaction – including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.” In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all. Fantastic stuff.

Nokia. N900 goes Maemo.

November 12th, 2009 • Comments Mobile, Tech
Tags: Ads, Brands, Business, Cool, Lifestyle, Linux, Maemo, Mobile, Strategy, Tech

Today Nokia will bring out its latest handset, the Nokia N900. For the Finish brand it is not just another smartphone. In fact, it’s it first handset with the latest Linux OS. Maemo 5 renders it one of the first smartphones to have true PC-like multitasking and not only lets it run “dozens” of app windows at once but gives it a simple, large dashboard for switching and closing apps. Of course the pretty idiotic term ‘iPhone killer’ was used here again. But whatever the phone does. The first clip to promote it is pretty cool (won’t use the word viral).

Hirngespinster. Giving life to a story.

Oktober 12th, 2009 • Comments Experimental, Ideas, Surface, Tech
Tags: Art, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Hirngespinster, Media, Motion, Print, Surface, Tech, Tools, visual, We like, World

Hirngespinster is the final project of Tristan Hohne to graduate from University of Applied Sciences Dortmund in Germany. Tristan describes it as a tangible user interface which combines the analogue book with the digital world. Hirngespinst is one of those German words which might make it into an English dictionary one day. I would roughly translate it as phantasy-driven fixation.

And as Tristan’s Hirngespinste find their way into your head, he shows a nice way to make print and digital interact – whenever Hirngespinster are seen on a book page, the viewer can interact by catching them. Once caught, an animation lets you get an inside look from the affected point of view.

Nice one, Tristan (thx Helge for the link).

Hirngespinster from Tristan Hohne on Vimeo.

Facebook Connect. #OMFG.

Oktober 3rd, 2009 • Comments Tech, Tools
Tags: Diy, Facebook, Facebook Connect, Fail, Tools

I finally made it into white & nerdy paradise. I just wrote a Blog article about Facebook Connect not working well with Wordpress. I promise to return to more important topics. But I still hope rants like that are being monitored and help to improve things. So here we go.

Deep in my heart I know Facebook Connect is the big thing. I am absolutely convinced of the idea of decentralizing stuff, no matter what that stuff is. I think content should follow me not the other way around. So, Facebook: Yay! Actually.

For a couple of months now I have tried to install Facebook Connect on my blog. I know that when it works, Facebook Connect adds about 15-20% readers to your Blog, it leverages conversations and it makes a lot more stuff possible. So, let’s go for Connect.

No developer = No Facebook Connect

Problem is I have a creative background. I used to be a copywriter, not a coder. I know a couple of lines of HTML but that’s basically it. Everything else should be self-explanatory, friends help me…or whatever. Frankly, Facebook Connect was a challenge for me!

By today Facebook has only managed to come up with a couple of third party Wordpress plugins. None of them worked out fine. The so called Sociable plugin didn’t have any reasonable functionality while Adam Hupp’s plugin was the one I should finally be able to use (but I didn’t know at that time). Fact was when I installed the plugin it generated a king size error and nothing worked -> Deinstall.

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