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Brands & Marketing

The Computer Says No… So Do I

I’ve just spent an hour on the phone with Barclays Bank and I accomplished nothing, except making my mind up to change banks.

I won’t go into details, except to say that in May last year I applied to have a couple of ISA’s transferred from Barclays to Santander. It’s now February and Barclays have only managed to do one of them (although not until November!), but only after my chasing them repeatedly, as to the other one, as it’s been so long, I now have to start the process again and reapply!

But that’s not all, I’ve been paying monthly for a Barclays Premier account for over 10 years, (that adds up to about £1,500) and not seen a single benefit of having had it, so I want to downgrade my account, or create a new one with my standing orders, direct debits etc remaining in place. But to do so I have to go into a branch! why? You’ll love this… because I’ve been with Barclays too long?!?!?!?

Yep you heard right, I’ve been with them too long… I opened the original account in 1985, so I cannot downgrade it, as it’s an account that Barclays no longer offers… create a new one you suggest… not as simple as you’d expect, to create a new account I have to go into a highstreet branch with photo ID?

I’ve had a Barclays account for more than 25years, if anyone knows who I am, my income, my buying practices, where I live, my lifestyle, it’s Barclays… yet I have to go into a branch to prove who I am, and ironically, probably to a customer service agent that is younger than my account!

Yet I can call Santander’s transfer team and do the entire thing over the phone, automatically including all my direct debits etc, without once stepping into a branch!

So I put the question to the guy from Barclays, “I’ve been with you for 25 years, I have several personal accounts plus 2 business accounts, yet to create a new account I have to go to a branch with a passport to prove who I am? yet I can call Santander right after this call and have one created in minutes… now, which one do you think I’m going to do?”

“I assume you will call Santander”

“You’re right”

and I did

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TYAQ0JWBzE]

you should follow me on twitter here

Tech Stuff

2 Million Users in 4 Months = $7m Investment!

instagr.am have announced that they’ve reached almost 2millions users in only 4 months of launching their app for the iPhone, but not only that, they’ve secured themselves $7m in funding! Hipstamatic must be kicking themselves.

But instagr.am weren’t the first to have this idea, Picplz beat them to it and have released their software on both the iOS and Android (instagram is only on iOS), although instagram have now released an API so it probably won’t be long before someone writes an Android app for them. PicPlz also has Creative Commons integration and built in analytics, but does it have $7m in it’s back pocket and the likes of Jack Dorsey (twitter founder) and Adam D’Angelo (ex CTO at Facebook, co-founder of Quora) sitting on it’s board now? no it doesn’t!

plus here’s a post by AppBoy back in October: Five things instagr.am got right

Instagr.am Press announcement

Brands & Marketing

Is 2011 The New 1984?

It was broadcast just once during the 1984 Super Bowl, but that’s all it needed, as when Ridley Scott directed Apple’s iconic and multi-award winning 1984 advert, he created an advert that captured the very essence of what Apple was at that time. The underdog, fighting against the tyranny of the corporate machine, hoping to bring choice to the consumer. Jump forward 27yrs, the tables have turned, Apple have without doubt become their nemesis of years gone by (they are now the world’s 2nd largest company in value terms!)

I’ve been an Apple user for 25yrs (since 1986), I’ve bought more Macs than I care to remember (probably more than a 100 if I include my businesses and employees), yes I’ve got several iPods laying around the house on shelves and in drawers, Time Capsules, an Air Express connected to my music centre, a Mac Mini under my TV (no Apple TV), a couple of iPhones and of course an iPad… so yes I’ve bought heavily into the Apple eco-system over the years. I’m not one of those Mac is better than PC bores, each to their own is what I say, I’ve made my choice… the better informed one of course.

Although they’re not the first to do so, even Apple did it themselves by adding an iPod to the woman to launch the iPod, plus see DoubleTwist’s Choice video below… but Motorola’s Xoom advert that aired during yesterdays’ Super Bowl and parodies Apple’s 1984 advert, by turning it on Apple becoming the very thing they poked fun at originally, is very clever, or is it? As a longstanding Apple user, yes I understand the sad truth that Apple has changed, and not for the better… plus I’ve seen the original advert, but most of the white ear bud wearing iDrones won’t have, these guys are blindly buying into the iOS platform (you only have to see the last video below for a parody of that), these guys will likely miss the subtlety of the advert, or worse still, they may take offence at being portrayed as iDrones?

Either way, it made me smile when I saw the advert, but it won’t make me run out to buy a Xoom

Original Apple Advert
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8]

Motorola Xoom
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BPFODsob1I]

iPod Version
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zew1bb5Sxk4]

DoubleTwist Parody announcing Choice
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdVzboF2E2Q]

iPhone 4 vs HTC Evo AKA I would like an iPhone 4
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg]

no paper

eBooks Outselling Paperbacks

Last week Amazon announced that it is now selling more eBooks than paperbacks (already 3x as many hardbacks). Amazon predicted this would happen in Q2 of 2011, but sales are obviously wildly beyond Amazon’s own predictions!

Amazon.com is now selling more Kindle books than paperback books. Since the beginning of the year, for every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the Company has sold 115 Kindle books. Additionally, during this same time period the Company has sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books. This is across Amazon.com’s entire U.S. book business and includes sales of books where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the numbers even higher… and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales.

The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 810,000 books including New Releases and 107 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers. Over 670,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 74 New York Times Bestsellers. Millions of free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle.

Amazon Press Release

no paper

The Insanity of Book Publishers

Einstein’s definition of insanity is “Doing the same thing again and again, but expecting different results”

I read this morning on the National Post that Canada’s largest book distributor (HB Fenn and company) has declared bankruptcy proceedings.

In the statement, H.B. Fenn blamed “the loss of distribution lines, shrinking margins and the significant shift to e-books” for their financial difficulties. The company lost a major source of revenue last year, after Hachette Book Group moved control of Canadian sales and distribution of its titles to their U.S. offices. “I think this situation was enormously affected by the departure of one very large client,” said Carolyn Wood, executive director of the Association of Canadian Publishers.

It’s incredulous that they blame a rise in eBooks as a factor in their demise? They’re distributors, they’re experts at it, so why didn’t they move their operation into eBook distribution? As they say, they saw it as a growing market… they have all the contacts in place with the authors and publishing houses, they understand the complexities of the publishing business, they were in an incredible position, so why didn’t they leverage that knowledge base?

The real difference for them between eBooks and paper books was the distribution network, all they had to do was get cosy with a technology company that could handle the eBooks and the technology, while they maintained those all important and very valuable relationships (now all going to waste).

But that doesn’t seem to be the case, they appear to have continued with the business model that allowed them to become the largest distributor in Canada, but when demand and the distribution network changed, they didn’t, that’s insane!

Original article

Drivel

Park Chan-wook is Hooked on iPhone 4

I’m a fan of Park Chan-wook work, I think his vengeance trilogy of “Sympathy for Mr Vengeance”, “Old Boy” & “Lady Vengeance” are fantastic films, I appreciate they’re not to everbody’s taste, they are very dark in nature, but they certainly make you sit up and think.

Now he’s done something rather different, well for a professional and highly respected movie director that is. He’s shot his latest film, entitled “Paranmanjang” (Night Fishing), on several iPhones with special lenses attached (something I’ve discussed before here, here and here).

Of course he’s not the first to make a film using an iPhone (apparently this is the first music video filmed using an iPhone 4), but it looks like he’s the first professional Director create and release a film to the general public, the movie will screen in South Korea this weekend.

Shot on a budget of only £85k, the film is 30mins long and tells the story of a man that hooks a mysterious dead woman on his line while night fishing, but if that’s not strange enough, things take another twist as she wakes up and attacks him!

I can’t help but be reminded of David Lynch’s YouTube video, where he complains that people watching movies on an mobile phone are missing the point, he must be kicking himself now, as he never thought about doing it the other way around.

Trailer
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdDXiYuolMA]

David Lynch
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKiIroiCvZ0]

no paper

Digital Magazine Sales Dropping on iPad

Continued from a previous post… Why are digital magazines on the iPad already in decline, after the initial gold rush users are losing interest in the digital versions. Wired, which sold 100K issues of it’s first iPad release, then managed to sell an average of 31K in the following months, with only 23K for October and 22K for November (for comparison they sold 130k printed versions in Oct-Nov).

Why is this happening?

It’s too early to say for sure (this is a very new market space), but general consensus is that Apple’s lack of subscription based payment is a major reason, meaning users have to manually purchase individual magazines rather than automated payments, plus these work out being more expensive. There’s rumours that Apple are about to roll out subscription based payments, hopefully it won’t be too little too late.

But will it be the answer, possibly, but I believe magazines and news networks need to look at the iPad and tablets in an entirely different way, rather than simply a medium for them to spout out digital versions of their print publications.

I’ve read numerous blogs and reports saying print is dead, but there’s new print magazines being released every week, so that doesn’t seem to ring true to me. Consumers still wish to consume, but the way they consume information is different now, it’s available instantaneously from so many sources and with social networks that information is becoming more and more driven by their friends, associates and their own likes and dislikes.

Flipboard on the iPad is a wonderful example of this, never before has my Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds looked so good, and been so engaging. Now if I could subscribe to several news networks, magazines etc all within a single app, and micro pay for each article as I read it, I’d be happy, as I only pay for the articles that grabbed my eye and interested me, and the software would automatically highlight related articles from all my subscribed sources and suggest new ones from other popular sources I may not have heard about and would have never found on my own.

Hands up who has ever read an entire newspaper or magazine, cover to cover? Precisely, so why pay for the whole thing when you only read a fraction of it? So rather than getting what you pay for, how about only paying for what you want? Who wouldn’t pay a penny or a cent or two per news item or magazine article that they read, as long as the payment part was transparent and managed for them, most people would give this a go, especially if they knew they could set a cap, or would have access to the whole issue if they went over a certain percentage of articles. Adverts can still be utilised, they could even be used against payment, watch an ad, get the article for free or at a reduced rate.

The technology is certainly there, the main thing holding it up, is publishers being scared to give it go through fear of losing control of their content and user base, but if they don’t do it soon willingly, then their hands will be forced by market forces, and they’re have less room to negotiate!

Who could pull this off, Apple, Amazon, Google, they could all do it, although I feel Apple is best placed for the micropayments, plus by utilising the iPad and the iOS platform, far more engaging advertising can be achieved than on a Kindle. Google just don’t have the payment side worked out properly. Apple on the other hand do, they have iTunes, ease of use and making micropayments is already there. I’ve read often that micropayments won’t work as users are put off by the fear of accumulating enormous bills at the end of the month, but the success of the App Store squashes that claim, often I’ve purchased apps at £0.59 (the minimum charge), for Apps I know nothing about, or will only use for a day or so.

With rumours of the next iPhone and iPad finally having Near Field chips, Apple are in a prime position to take on the big credit card companies that have been dragging their heels on NF for years.

An application that fuses Flipboard and Apple’s iBook into a magazine / news RSS reader, come social app linked to your Twitter and Facebook accounts, that microcharges you for articles as and when you read them, embedded with iAds, all linked back to your iTunes account, would be a very powerful and profitable application, and would be the perfect way for Apple to build it’s own social network (which it’s hungry to do), and utilise it’s new cloud data centre.

Brands & Marketing

Digital Adverts More Effective Than Static Print Adverts

No real surprises there, but it’s good to have some data to back up the claim… Now here’s a title that just rolls off the tongue! Digital Ad Engagement: Perceived Interactivity as a Driver of Advertising Effectiveness snappy eh?

Apart from the title, the PDF is worth a read (if you’re into advertising and marketing that is), but if you prefer something a little shorter, or even a short video that explains the PDF, have a look at the article on the Adobe Digital Publishing Blog.

An incredible sound bite from the video starting at 1 min 30 secs, “every advertiser experienced an increase in brand awareness, with several advertisers seeing percentage increases of 3-4 times!” a 300-400% increase, now that’s impressive!

But it’s not all rosy, as digital magazines on the iPad are already in decline, after the initial gold rush users are losing interest in the digital versions. Wired, which sold 100K issues of it’s first iPad release, then managed to sell an average of 31K in the following months, with only 23K for October and 22K for November (for comparison they sold 130k printed versions in Oct-Nov). Reasons why I believe this happening continued in a separate post

Obviously this increased brand awareness is only an advantage to advertisers if magazines can retain digital user numbers, and that unfortunately is where they’re still getting it wrong!

Brands & Marketing

The Verizon Waltz

It wasn’t long ago that Verizon were parodying Apple’s “There’s an App for That” adverts, in order to gain subscribers from AT&T to their own network, but it appears the two network giants have made up and become friends in their latest joint advert! Or maybe they’re both worried about the latest T-Mobile advert, which highlights how both of their networks are somewhat lacklustre in comparison!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOyO-Q3jImU]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pb9-LbxFeU]

Drivel

What is Being Creative?

[vimeo 18079655]

creativity is no longer a word reserved for the musician or artist
it’s something you can find in anyone
it’s the ability and urge to make something of value
it can be big
it can be small
but making something new
something different
something that surprises
something that makes you think
something that makes you smile
it’s making something beautiful
it’s telling a story
it’s telling your story
expressing yourself
it’s about being passionate
it’s creating something that other people can use
sharing your creativity
it’s realising that there isn’t always a right way or a wrong way of doing things
and that there’s not always a correct answer
only the answers that we create
but common for creativity is that is comes from inspiration
inspiration found in the world that we live in
and the people we live with
it’s found in what we share with them
building on what’s given from the diversity of people’s thoughts and perspectives
so try and drop the assumption that you know how to do things
and already know the solution
stray away from the direct path
take risks
don’t be afraid to make mistakes
because it’s only from the mistakes that we learn
and it’s from the mistakes that the really interesting things happen
we may not always create or invent
but we always learn when we try

Kristian Larson

Tech Stuff

Instagr.am

A while back I waxed lyrical about a fantastic Photography iPhone App named Hipstamatic, which I use almost daily and used extensively on my recent trip to Cambodia. Well I’ve just stumbled across another App named Instragram (a mash up of Instant and Telegram).

Unlike Hipstamatic which adds the effects to your photo as you take it (you have to wait as it does it, which can be frustrating as you may miss another photo opportunity) Instagram can add the effects after you’ve taken the photo, so you can use the built in iPhone camera app then add the effects afterwards. This is a very handy feature which I wish Hipstamatic would allow, or at least release another app that did this.

Anyway this is about Instagram, they’ve only been going three months and they’ve got over a million users already, impressive I hear you say, but what’s also impressive is that the App is FREE!! So you have nothing to lose by downloading it and trying it out for yourself.

But the thing that really sets Instagram apart (and something I think Hipstamatic should learn from), is the online community built right into the App… Instagram’s not just about taking cool photos and storing them for later, it’s about sharing your cool photos with your friends and the wider community right now, either on Instagram’s own network or on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Flickr, Posterous or Tumblr.

I’ve only been playing with Instagram for less than an hour, but it looks like fun, I admit it’s effects don’t appear as wild and as experimental as they are in Hipstamatic, but maybe that’s a good thing, depending on your way of doing things and the look you want to achieve.

http://instagr.am

Brands & Marketing

If Ad Agencies Did Birthdays

Getting your message across in an engaging and amusing way, especially when making fun of yourself is a great approach, the agency John St, have done just that. They’ve managed in a subtle way to show that they know what they’re talking about and how with their approach they can help future clients achieve the same results, but rather than showcasing a large campaign, they’re created a client case study of a child’s birthday party!

And of course, the proof is in the pudding, the video is itself becoming viral, genius!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRDhx8Lo37E]

I first saw this in Phil’s Unionversity site.

no paper

The End of the Paper Notepad is Nigh!

I appreciate this is a concept rendering, but if the NoteSlate uses the Kent Display technology, then the promised sub $100 price point should be achievable, after all, the BoogieBoard, which uses the same screen technology retails for only $40… although the lack of a save function on the BoogieBoard is a major drawback, but at that price you can’t exactly complain, it does what it says on the tin, it replaces small white boards or that notepad beside your phone.

But the NoteSlate is proposing more than that, it’s trying to replace the notepad once and for all… and there’s a good chance it could succeed.

It offers a 180 hr battery (that’s over a week of continual use! So a month of practical use between charges), unlike the BoogieBoard it can save multiple notes, has a USB, an SD card slot, a 3.5 jack for audio playback and even WIFI. A promised future (free) firmware update will allow PDF viewing.

They’re also planning to roll out a coloured version (although limited to a few basic colours, but useful for highlighting sketches)

I think being able to erase parts of a drawing, thus editing mistakes and allowing development of an idea or drawing, would be a major add on, making the use of the NoteSlate more akin to using paper and pencil, rather than paper and pen.

But the real killer add on would be being able to record audio while making notes! That would make the NoteSlate the perfect boardroom and meeting device!

At under $100 a piece, I can’t see a facility offering conference or meeting services, or a live events organiser not wanting or having these sitting in every meeting, breakout or symposium room, not to mention too numerous other sectors or industries. Plus if they offered an automated centralised storage system locked down by device MAC address they’d be no stopping them (of course we may be able to help them there!).

So are we closer to the day of no paper notepads, absolutely!

NoteSlate
BoogieBoard

Drivel

Twixtor

A friend posted the BMX video below on Facebook yesterday, all shot with a Canon 7D at 30fps, but with clever use of After Effects, notably the Twixtor plugin and a little 3D particle animation, this guy has created something incredible. I looked up the slo-mo filter he used and found numerous examples, but one I really liked was the music video by Autozamm for their track “You Don’t Know Me”

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/17439665]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj-EMtLIdPk]

Drivel

It’s Not Just a Matter of Perspective

Usually when entrepreneurs start a business, they’re careful when it comes to expanding and appointing new employees, everything is risky, money is probably tight, but the workload is becoming too much, how do they decide when to employ someone else. Friends and families often help out to start, but eventually these favours can no longer be asked, so the entrepreneur has to take that next step. They look at all the stuff the new employee can help with, they check they have enough revenue to employ them and they go for it. They continue to do this until that ideal nirvana state is reached, when the company is so large or is growing at a rate that hiring new employees becomes an almost automated and necessary requirement.

But then something happens, usually brought on by external market forces, ie a downturn in the market, a merger between companies, or the orginal company founders no longer have the same vision or are so removed from the day to day running of the business that their ethos has been lost within the structure of “The Company”.

This is when employees and customers are no longer viewed as assets or investments, people that can expand and drive the company forward, instead they become a cost, a cash cow, an overhead that needs to be streamlined and made as efficient as possible. When this mindset takes place (it doesn’t happen over night), companies are on shaky ground, in the long run productivity actually drops as employee morale reaches new lows, employee churn increases as employees loyalty decreases so they leave and HR costs increase. The share price can drop too, as the company Brand can be damaged through employee/customer dissatisfaction being aired online, through strikes and walkouts or felt via customer/employee interaction.

While a company that never loses sight that without their employees and customers, they wouldn’t have a business, they respect and continue to invest in them through training and career advancement, engage them in decisions and make them integral parts of the business, recruitment and HR costs lessen as people want to work at these places (who wouldn’t), customer Brand loyalty increases as employee/customer engagement is positive… these companies will continue to thrive, even if the market turns against them, as their employees/customers are incredibly loyal and stick with the company through the hard times.

Tech Stuff

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

It would appear my previous post about 20 tablets so far being announced at CES was premature, apparently there’s been over 200 so far! So there’s no doubting that 2011 will be the year of the tablet, but what isn’t clear just yet, is who will be the winners and who will be the losers (The Motorola Xoom looks like this years Tablet to watch).

What is clear however, is Google have invested a huge amount of resources and thinking into the next version of Android, plus their Open Source approach is paying huge dividends, it’s obvious they will win no matter which hardware manufacturer wins or loses, as their OS takes the lion’s share of upcoming tablets. As you can see from the video, Android 3.0 is a radical redesign and will propel the OS popularity even further.

A big question circulating at the moment is what will Apple do in response with the iPad to all these new tablets? Unfortunately my guess is, not much right now. It’s not like they didn’t expect to see a huge range of tablets being announced at CES this year, but Apple aren’t know to make knee jerk reactions, they will continue with their meticulously planned iPad 2 release in a month or so and it will be seen by many as safe yet lacklustre upgrade, both in hardware and software (unlikely to have any major OS updates, just functionality and apps, ie camera app etc). iOS is great on phones, but already it’s looking a bit cumbersome, even Microsoft’s Windows Mobile has the edge in many respects, so iOS on the iPad, while functional, is hardly showing the hardware and the platform off to it’s full, there’s so much more Apple could and should be doing. Their desktop OSX has always been their crown jewels and was always years ahead of the competition, but the last couple of updates have lacked any huge innovations, and the competition has caught up.

Apple are of course hugely successful and make incredibly robust and well integrated hardware and software solutions, but they really need to pull the rabbit out of the hat with the next major iOS update, otherwise within a couple of years, their dominance of the tablet and smart phone markets will have all but disappeared.

Android Honeycomb Showcased at CES [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YiXlkiq8Y0]

interview with Matias Duarte (Director, Android User Experience) [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcuDQd8SejM]

Drivel

Hey Man, You Wanna Buy Some Tabs?

Is there a single large electronics company NOT announcing a Tablet at CES this year? I’ve read about 20 so far and the numbers keep growing! There’s dual screens (NEC Cloud Communicator, not good), one with a coloured e-ink display (Pocket Book Mirasol, I’m really interested in that one!), one using a LED / eInk Display (Notion Ink Adam, really neat idea, and finally announced!), plus numerous other me toos… but thankfully at least one of them doesn’t look like an iPad clone (I mean in the hardware design department, although it’s still pretty similar)… plus it’s the one that’s been eagerly awaited by the tech industry and I’ve been really interested in seeing, Blackberry’s Playbook (personally I don’t think it’s the best name for a Tablet that will be purchased predominantly within the business sector, but what do I know).

Regardless of the name, it looks like Blackberry have been working hard at creating a pretty slick Tablet, that’s feature rich, responsive, comfortable in the hand and is likely to sell very very well when it’s finally released in the coming months. It’s most similar competitor and undoubtedly main rival after the iPad, is Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, which has been out a few months already and has been selling well (thankfully that’s another manufacturer that decided to differentiate itself from the iPad a bit, by adding a white backside). I’ve played around with a Galaxy Tab and it seemed pretty nice, although I found the UI a little frustrating at times, but I’m sure after a few hours I’d get used to it.

Also Google unveiled it’s latest upcoming release, Android 3.0, Honeycomb, designed specifically for Tablets, as the review and video shows, this looks nothing like previous versions of Android for mobile phones… so I’m not sure what the UI of the next release of Android for mobile phones will look like, but keeping the Android UI consistent will be on everyones mind, let’s hope it’s on Googles too.

Neither of these would make me want to part with my iPad, I’ve invested way too many years in Apple and it’s eco-system for me to change now, but new uses without a legacy will find them worthy competitors and on a hardware only comparison, way ahead on features to the current iPad. Although Steve Jobs would disagree entirely, I feel these smaller sized Tablets are an ideal compromise of portability and function.

My iPad is great, often I’ve carried it instead of my MacBook for meetings and presentations, it’s great for recording and taking notes and the screen is an ideal size to show video and slides etc, but it’s too big to carry all the time. I didn’t bring my iPad with me on a recent backpacking trip to Cambodia, as it’s just too big and heavy (although I packed my Kindle!), plus even when I do have it with me on the underground, I don’t feel comfortable using it for reading or catching up on stuff, but with a 7″ version I would. Steve’s argument that a 7″ screen is too small for a tablet to be a useful touchscreen device is flawed, he only has to reach into his pocket and pull out his own iPhone to realise that, yes I agree the larger screen on the current iPad is great when you’re in the office, or at home, but out and about it’s a little cumbersome.

Of course Steve won’t be seen to go back on his word, sadly there won’t be a 7″ iPad anytime soon, if ever (shame as I would have bought one, another 10″ screen with a speed bump and cameras will not be enough incentive for me to purchase a new one)… although of course he never said there wouldn’t be a new 7″ iPod Touch! we live in hope

Engadget Blackberry Play Book review
Samsung Galaxy Tab website
Android 3.0 Honeycomb video

Drivel

Homeless Guy with Golden Voice

I saw this video on Phil’s Unionversity website yesterday and was blown away by this guys voice, the voice just doesn’t go with what you’re seeing, he’s amazing! Drugs and alcohol have taken their toll on his life and he’s fallen on hard times, but the social web has shown it’s a force for good again, as within a day or so of this video being posted on YouTube, it’s received almost 10million views and has lead to radio stations fighting over him, we’ll undoubtedly see or hear more from Ted Williams in the near future. The second video is an interview with him on the Early Show, warning, it will choke you up, but do watch it.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTysXITBCmk]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE4X3FIoDcE]

Drivel

2010 in review

I doubt you’ve missed me, but I’ve spent the last month backpacking around Cambodia (I shall blog about that soon)

I received an email from WordPress a few days ago summarizing my blog for 2010 (below), but upon further investigation what I found interesting was that my page impressions remained the same even when I hadn’t posted anything in the past month!

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 3 fully loaded ships.

In 2010, there were 105 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 282 posts. There were 44 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 4mb. That’s about 4 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was April 23rd with 492 views.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Standard Blog Icon
21 comments

2

Sheep Shearing April 2010

3

Which Came First the egg of the credit card?
3 comments

4


Practise what you tweet

5


what’s the f’in diffference

Wize Wordz

Going, Going, Gone

A stockbroker is someone that looks after your money until it’s all gone
Woody Allen

Brands & Marketing

Who Trusts You With Their Name

This was originally written Wednesday 1st December.

I’m currently on my way to Heathrow Airport… I received a phone 4hrs ago, I had no idea at the time that it would result in my being in Lisbon this evening.

I won’t go into details, suffice to say, a colleague I’ve not seen in ages, has an unexpected problem, caused by the adverse weather conditions across Europe. He needs a solution, he needs it quickly and he doesn’t have the opportunity to deal with it himself… The pressure is on and he needs someone he knows he can trust… so he made the call.

I’m not saying I’m the A Team, or that he couldn’t have turned somewhere else, I myself have a select few friends and colleagues I know I can turn to, people I’ve worked with for years , people I trust 100%, with whom I don’t have a split second of hesitation putting forward or trusting my name or reputation… but it’s comforting to know that when his reputation is in the mix and he needs to reach out in a hurry, he knows there’s someone he can turn to.

Drivel

A Bitter Pill

A week ago I purchased Malaria tablets online, unfortunately my GP got the amounts wrong on the prescription, he made it out for 24 tablets but I need 36, so he made an additional prescription today for 12 tablets, but I’m flying this evening, so there’s not enough time to order more online. So I dropped into a local pharmacy, 12 Malarone tablets £38! I bought twice as many online for only £52… how can a local pharmacy justify charging me 35% more!

I’m all for purchasing things from the little guy, keeping them in business when the large chain stores and brands come into town, but there’s a difference between bending backwards and bending over, if you take advantage of your customer base when they have no alternative, don’t expect them to be loyal to you, when they can choose a competitor.

Drivel

Linked In or Locked Out?

I’m not a regular user of Linked in, but I decided to update my profile a couple of days ago and use the service to see if I could find some old contacts I’ve not been in touch with for ages by importing my various address books, 5 minutes later I had 300 plus recommendations, but a large chunk of these were people I’m never likely to interactive with again, so I opted to filter out the noise and only chose those I’m likely to contact in the future.

While trawling through the list and clicking on various contacts I was intrigued how some unlikely connections started to appear between friends, work colleagues and business associates that I would have never thought likely, crossing business sectors, industries and even continents. But when I clicked on some contacts I found their contacts were hidden from view… this is something I can’t fathom, why hide your contacts? the name of the service is a bit of a give away, doesn’t it tell you something, it’s all about being “linked in”… is there some sort of competitive advantage to hiding your contacts? unlikely, as personally I think it could work against you, as by not seeing your contacts I’m less likely to build a good picture of who you really are and who your business associates are… as they say, you can a tell a person by the company they keep. Is it a privacy thing? are you trying to stop me getting spam and requests from unwanted contacts? If so, why bother, I’m more than capable of ignoring requests and filtering linked in emails.

Actually I think it’s a more fundamental than that, I don’t wish to offend anyone by saying this, but I believe it’s something to do with age, (I’m no spring chicken myself I should add), let me explain.

First I’ll use Facebook and my own family as an example, choosing 4 of my relatives at random, ranging in age from 13-25, they have friend and tagged photo totals of
13yr 625 friends, 667 photos
22yr 490 friends, 287 photos
23yr  768 friends, 1,052 photos
25yr 825 friends, 3,61 photos

averaging 677 friends and 1,419 photos, but it’s not just the number of ‘friends’ and photos they have, they also display their dates of birth, their email addresses etc

If I take a look family and friends in the age range of 35-50, myself included, I get averages of 190 friends and 163 photos, quite a marked difference. And this isn’t just a Facebook phenomenon, it’s happens across all social networks, is it because the younger generation are more social, or that they’re using and relying on these systems more, partly yes, but it’s also a markedly different take on privacy, they’ve accepted and in some way embraced the fact that privacy isn’t something you have or something they should concern themselves with in this digital age, it’s not their problem. The more places they have their name, email, age, location, likes, dislikes plastered across the digital domain, the easier life become, choices and recommendations are made for them, friends and families have no problem finding them (they never lose touch in the first place), searching and finding things becomes easier, there’s so much on tap that they spend most of their time filtering what’s pushed at them rather than looking for new things, but again that filtering is done for them the more personal information they put out there, the better the filters work. Firefox announced a few days ago how it’s hoping websites will honour it’s users wishes who switch on their new “Don’t track me” feature in their preferences, hoping to avoid advertisers and online retailers from targeting them and building personalised demographics. This is unlikely to work as it requires the retailers to opt in to the users that opt out, most won’t.

To an older demographic this may sound horrific, they’re giving away too much freedom, we have to stop this happening, it’s as if 1984 is coming to fruition! but hang on a minute, these guys weren’t even born in 1984!

I read all the time bloggers bemoaning the loss of privacy, how we have information overload with too many choices, so we graze snippets of information, rather than sit down for a big meal, that transient use of social networks aren’t an adequate replacement for deeper more substantial real world interactions. I’ve been known to say that a measure of a real vs virtual friend is someone you know you can ask for £50 and they have no problem dipping into their pocket to help you out, try doing that with a 1,000 Facebook friends or Twitter followers, although not impossible.

But what about identity theft? The onus is shifting, it’s down to the banks to come up with more secure ways to protect our money and assets, as they’re liable, using a password, my date of birth or my mothers maiden name is no longer an adequate way to identify me, this information can be easily tapped online, often in the one place, take Facebook as a perfect example, your birthday is likely displayed, if not references and pictures of your birthday will be there… mothers maiden name? again you if you’re linked to your mother, she will likely use her married name, but your uncle (her brother) will be linked to her, plus if she divorced or wants old school friends to track her down, she likely has her maiden name displayed on her profile.

As the recent Wikileaks scandal has highlighted, privacy is dead, once you transpose something digitally, no matter how personal, off the record or secret you think it is, it’s public. Upload something to a website or a blog, then have second thoughts and delete it, you need to accept it’s not really gone, it’s still sitting on a server somewhere and Google is likely caching it too (and yes it will still appear in a search).

The next generation isn’t giving up it’s liberty, they’re not ignorant to it’s importance, they accept this flow of personal information isn’t something to worry about, or a hinderance, it’s quite the opposite, it has it’s advantages, being open and transparent works

no paper

Google Editions

Although 6 months behind schedule it appears that Google are about to roll out their commercial eBook store Google Editions. As promised, unlike other stores that tie you into using a single eReader platform ie eBooks purchased on Amazon only work on a Kindle, B&N only on a Nook, Apple only on an iPad etc (although Apple do sell non-DRM ePub docs as well, so technically eReader agnostic, but personally I’ve never got them to work properly on anything than other an iPad), Google Editions however, will allow your purchases to be read on most, if not all, eReaders… although don’t hold your breath that they will work on a Kindle!

You will access your purchased eBooks and subscriptions via a Google Editions account, Google will have a store of it’s own, but it’s planning to offer it’s Editions versions on Independent book sellers websites. The way Google plan to achieve this, is having a browser based eReader, plus native device based eReader software, but it’s the browser based eReader that concerns me, just how good a reading experience will you have using a browser based application? Plus that doesn’t sound like a practical option for e-Ink based eReaders.

I appreciate we live in a connected world, but quite often when I’m reading an eBook I’m not connected to the web, with my Kindle offline for days if not weeks at a time, of course Editions books will be cached in your browser’s memory, but it still seems a little flakey to me. The real gripe though is yet another format, Google talk the talk of being open etc, yet Google Editions will not be in any sort of  transferable format, you can’t simply download a book you’ve purchased and put it on your eReader of choice (in fact you can’t exactly download a book!), this is a major drawback of nearly all eBook platforms, and a major hurdle to the uptake by new users and the continued expansion of the market. It’s high time the likes of Amazon, B&N, Apple, Sony & Google agree to play nicely and stop trying to control a market by continually fragmenting it. Standards win in the end, think email, SMS, HTML, until there’s a truly open format (and I mean really OPEN), new adopters will continue to be confused and frustrated with their choices and purchases.

Buying an eBook should have advantages over a physical purchase, but you know when you purchase a paper book, it’s yours to keep, you can lend it to a friend and they won’t run into any compatibility problems when it comes to reading it. Will consumers have the final say on this, will the social media revolution really give users a voice and enough clout to eventually force the big guys into open standards? it will be interesting to see how it pans out, it will probably take a few class action legal cases to rock the boat enough that legislation forces them to adhere to users having the right to transfer and truly own their digital purchases (if you’ve ever bought anything for the Kindle, look in the T&C’s and notice that you don’t actually own your purchases, they’re merely on loan to you from Amazon, and they have the right to stop you accessing them anytime they want!)

Anyway I’m veering off subject, Google Editions will be available in the US in the coming weeks and Europe Q1 2011

Google Editions
Interesting PC World Article
An Authors Perspective

no paper

Project iPad

Rupert Murdoch is probably pretty pissed off at Richard Branson right now, as he’s just released the first daily magazine for the iPad, named Project, months ahead of Murdoch’s very own daily, to be named The Daily

You can download the app for free today, then pay a monthly subscription of £1.79 / £$2.99, for continual updates, so far the content looks pretty good, although I feel the approach to navigation isn’t right. It follows the same approach akin to Wired magazine, taking a print layout analogy and transposing it to the iPad. You may think, so what, it makes sense to me, and you’re right it does, until you look at the different approach used in say Inkling (although Inkling no longer works on my iPad, since I updated it to 4.2), they approach the navigation in a totally new way, which makes perfect sense, but rather than spell it out here, try it for yourself or look at the video on the Inkling homepage. Granted their GUI is designed for books not magazines, but it’s so logical once you start using it.

Anyway I’m sure Project will be a hit and will attract plenty of press coverage in the coming weeks, it will be interesting to see if it makes and appearance on the NookColor.

Project Mag
iTunes download

no paper

The Barnes and Noble RootColor

That didn’t take long

I jokingly surmised a few weeks ago that the NookColor could become the Android hack platform of choice, after all it is a very affordable 7″ LCD touch screen Android device for only $250, well it looks like the Dev community at NookDevs now have root access to the device! If you are unaware of what the NookColor is, here’s a great review by Engadget

NookDevs

Fun

Bailout Karma

It is a slow day in a little Irish town, the rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs…

The hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.
The guy at the Farmers’ Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub.
The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him “services” on credit.
The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.
The hotelier then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how a bailout package works!

Drivel

Can’t Find the Right Word? No Excuse Anymore

I have to admit that I’m a bit of a word nerd… I love discovering the origination of words of the English language, so there’s an advantage of being a native speaker of the world’s largest vocabulary, there’s over 600,000 words in English, to put that in perspective, there’s just over 100,000 in French! Some words have strange and unusual beginnings, while others are obvious when you think about them, as an example “Freelancer”, a commonly used word nowadays, but it’s only when you break the word down to Free and Lancer, that you appreciate that an original freelancer was a hired swordsman, that’s right a Medieval Mercenary!

So it was a pleasure to learn this morning that the Oxford English Dictionary have announced a major overhaul of their website, updating the linking between the main Dictionary, their Thesaurus  and external reference websites. Unfortunately since the announcement the website has been offline as it’s been inundated with visitors this morning, so I’ve not had a chance to play with it yet

Oxford English Dictionary and Oxford Dictionaries

Drivel

Dude Where’s My Bike… erm… Up There

As someone that loves to ride my bike around London, although a bit nippy at the mo… plus hesitant to leave my classic 18 year old Marin chained to a fence somewhere in case some little Tea Leaf takes a shine to it and wants to take it home, I just love this idea! THe video is in German, but you don’t need to understand German to appreciate the concept and delight in the video… it will make you smile I promise

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvc0A_cWUCU]

You gotta love those crazy Germanz yah http://www.conrad.de

Drivel

Air BnB

I was in Boston for a Medical Conference last week, but I wanted to stay on for a few days as I’d not been in Boston for almost 15 years, but I’m not a great fan of faceless hotel chains, so jumped on Google to see what I could find, then I stumbled on AirBnB, if you’re looking for somewhere to stay, or have a place of your own you want to rent out, this site is great!

The concept is simple “We connect people who have space to spare with those who are looking for a place to stay. Guests can build real connections with their hosts, gain access to distinctive spaces, and immerse themselves in the culture of their destinations. Whether it’s an urban apartment or countryside castle, Airbnb makes it effortless to showcase your space to an audience of millions, and to find the right space at any price point, anywhere.”

The site is effortless to use, simply enter your dates and destination and it displays the results ranked on price / location / reviews etc. Make your selection, enter your payment details and that’s it. They even have a newly launched iPhone app, which is excellent.

I stayed at Terry Heinen’s place, aptly named Hotel Alternative, it was a great place and Terry was very welcoming, highly recommend it if you happen to be in Boston

AirBnB

Future

The 50 Best Inventions of 2010

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,2029497,00.html

Drivel

The Boston Beer Party

I’m sorry America, I owe you an apology (but it’s one I’m happy to give)

I’ve been back and forth to the States for more years than I care to remember, but it wasn’t until 3 or 4 years ago when I was in Washington and I had the good fortune to knock back a Sam Adams Seasonal beer that I discovered that our buddies across the pond might actually know how to brew beer after all.

But one beer cannot make up for the atrocities that are Budweiser, Miller Lite, Coors plus numerous others of the (how can I say this delicately) ‘knat’s piss’ variety of beer so commonly exported from the US.

But tonight I take it back, as tonight I was introduced to Allagash and Blue Hill’s Dunkelweizen at Bukowski’s bar in Boston (I should add I also discovered Blue Moon at Cheers last night, yes that Cheers, well I am officially a tourist as worked finished 3 hours ago!)

These are beers that not only taste great, you also feel them slowly working away at you, they’re 7% and above… they even have the delightfully named Harpoon Chocolate Stout which is 10% (but I’ll leave that for another day!) So I’m glad to report that things at the bars in the states are looking up at long last… Now Mr bartender let’s see what else you can recommend…

Another day another great beer… I sampled a Smutty Nose and I was happy to have some more, but the barmaid suggested BBC (Berkshire Brewing Company), and once my taste buds took a swig of that, there was no turning back! What’s next? Who knows, still half a pint of BBC in front of me, but not for long! I eventually sampled the Harpoon Chocolate Stout, which was nice, but I guess it’s an acquired taste, I couldn’t drink a pint of it, it was like drinking a combination of Baileys and lager, very strange! In the end I settled for that Smuttynose Star Island Single.

I liked the sound of Lagunitas Little Sumpin Wild Ale, but I thought better of it for now, as today I hired a bike to explore Boston, it’s getting late and I have to ride back to my hotel, too many strong beers might make that a little tricky, especially as I don’t have any lights!!!!

Oh well the lack of lights didn’t stop me, decided to visit “The Field” on prospect street, well I was passing… It’s Irish and so am I, so I thought it rude to simply pass on by… didn’t fancy a Guinness (unlike the Irish, Guinness doesn’t travel that well), it’s never as good in foreign lands no matter what you’ve heard. So another Blue Moon it was, although having a beer with a slice of orange dropped in it takes a bit of getting used to… but I guess I’m a quick learner!

Drivel

8Bit Halloween Costume

I know Halloween has been and gone, but what a brilliant DIY costume!

more info

Tech Stuff

CNN Augmented Reality & iPads

Noticed this on the Engadget website… CNN using Augmented Reality to present statistics of the recent midterm elections… it’s a little information overload, but it’s interesting to see the compare using an iPad to pull up data on screen as he speaks.

Video on engadget

other posts about Augmented Reality
AR in Magazines
AR Business Cards
AR iPhone Apps

Fun

The New iPhone 42 (that’s 42 inches!)

I’ve seen some DIY iPhone tables before, but this is the best yet!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbSwOgNzZg]

http://tableconnect.co.cc

Drivel

Facebook Mobile Event

So what will MZ of Facebook be announcing in less than an hour?  Hopefully an iPhone app that’s worth using!

no paper

James Bond Novels Go Digital

It’s not the only time this has happened in recent months, but this time it’s a high profile brand, James Bond.

The Ian Fleming estate has announced that it are releasing all 18 Bond titles as eBooks this week on Amazon and Waterstones, but they won’t be released through their current print publisher Penguin (as they never signed for the digital rights), they will be released by themselves under the name of Ian Fleming Publishing.

Of course the publishing houses are up in arms, hitting out at the online retailers and complaining the authors have no loyalty, but they only have themselves to blame. If instead of complaining they offered equivalent royalties to their authors, then they’d retain their custom, but as long as authors can sign better deals elsewhere, then they will continue to do so.

As this article in the Telegraph highlights, JK Rowling has not signed away the digital rights of Harry Potter and is assessing their options.

“The books industry could lose out on millions of pounds because publishers have failed to sign up the digital rights to authors, who are expected to bypass traditional publishing houses in favour of Amazon or Google.”

As I’ve said before on the no paper blog, publishing houses have had a monopoly for far too long, they need to understand that it’s no longer the case, they need to embrace the sea change not fight it, as the potential eBook market is enormous… plus they should stop trying to make an outdated, centuries old business model work in a modern environment that is quickly leaving them behind, they should be jumping all over this opportunity not running from it!

Brands & Marketing

Smell Like a Monster

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkd5dJIVjgM]

if you have no idea what this is about then watch the video below

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE&NR]

Drivel

David Hockney iPad Sketches Exhibition

David Hockney has been a fan of the iPhone and iPad for sometime, having replaced his paper sketch pad with them. Over the past year Hockney has produced over 300 sketches, some of which will be on display at his Flesh Flowers exhibition in Paris.

“The great thing about it, is the distribution of the image, that is profoundly new… the fact that I could make a drawing of the sunrise at 6am and at 7am send it out to 20 people… and remember, If I just had a pencil and paper beside my bed, the sunrise wouldn’t be that interesting” David Hockney

BBC article ironically the embedded video is in Flash so doesn’t play on an iPhone or iPad! (well done BBC)

no paper

Is The Times Paywall Paying Off?

Just how good are the Times and the Sunday Times online figures? Here’s what’s on offer Online access at £1 for a single day or £2 for a week, £10 for a month using the iPad app, if you’re a weekly paper subscriber you get online access for free.

Going by the figures released, 100k users are already weekly paper subscribers that have signed up for the free online offer, with 105k additional users, 50k of which have an online subscription.

In all honesty you can ignore the first 100k as who wouldn’t take advantage of the online version when it’s free with your paper subscription. Of the remaining 105k only 50% of them are subscribers with the remainder buying daily access. They also state that their unique monthly visitors dropped from 21m before the pay wall to 2.7m last month. But what does 2.7m unique visitors actually mean?

After all there can only be a maximum of 205k unique visitors, as that’s the maximum paying customers, so let’s divide 2.7m / 30 days = 90k per day. Compare that to their height of 21m / 30 days and you get 700k per day

Advertisers would rather have 700k pairs of eyeballs a day compared to 90k, but I guess the Times would rather have loyal paying subscribers than be at the mercy of advertisers.

As to revenues, I’m making huge assumptions here, but allowing a 50% split of weekly subscribers and daily users, that’s £2x50k (subscribers) + £1x50k (daily) = £150k a week, so not much for an organisation the size of the Times, plus how that would stack up against advertising revenues for a site with 700k visitors is anyones guess

Wize Wordz

Don’t always give them what they want!

If I I’d asked people what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse
Henry Ford

Future

NookColor will it become the Netbook of eReaders

The rumours were correct Barnes and Noble just unveiled the NookColor, a 7′ 1024×600 coloured LCD touchscreen, Wifi (no 3G)… I won’t go into the full specs, there’s plenty of websites that have that covered.

So how successful will it be? only time will tell, but with the addition of their Nook Kids platform, which is due to have titles available in the next couple of weeks, a colored touchscreen Nook was essential. While there are numerous interactive childrens books available for the Apple AppStore with new ones appearing daily, parents are unlikely to handover their expensive iPads or iPhones to their kids for long, although an iPod Touch isn’t so heart stopping, so makes a popular alternative. It fits in the pocket, can be stuffed full of children’s music, films, TV shows and of course books, so great for long car journeys or days out.

With Amazon sticking to their mantra of, legibility and highest possible quality screen technology first and foremost, LCD is not an option, e-ink only for Kindles, no touchscreen layer either, plus 3G and 1 month battery (although I find mine lasts 16-17 days max).

So B&N are stepping into new territory, with a device that is a cross between an eReader and an iPad (and lets face it, everyone is going to make that comparison even if it is unfair). Could the NookColor fall into the same trap that the NetBook has, that middle ground where it’s useful, but it doesn’t excel at anything. It won’t have a battery life that is anywhere near a Kindle, it’s screen will be very difficult to read in bright sunlight and it doesn’t have 3G, so as an eReader it falls short of it’s main rival.

Then there’s the iPad, it won’t have anywhere near the same level of functionality, or the plethora of Apps, it does have a web browser, but it too won’t support flash, which would have been a major plus if it did. I know it’s unfair to compare it to the iPad, after all it’s half the size and half the price, but that’s what consumers and the market will do.

So the nookcolor to me is in a bit of a no mans land, although there’s nothing wrong with that, if they etch out a big enough niche that leads the way and shows other eReader manufacturers that there’s a demand for this type of device, then maybe it will excel, but it has a tough job on it’s hand… but who knows, maybe it will become the hardware of choice for Android hacks!

more info nookcolor

Drivel

That’s Brevity With An i

Today, the publisher of the national newspaper The Independent launched a newspaper named “i”, retailing for a mere 20p (The Independent costs £1). This is the first national newspaper to launch in the UK in 24 years (the last being The Independent in 1986).

What’s interesting is how the marketing and PR reiterates that the i is a “concise, quality daily paper”, it’s also aimed squarely at lapsed readers, and readers in their 20’s. Readership of The Independent, and all newspapers for that matter have been in decline for years, with the % age of readers increasing. On paper (sorry couldn’t resist that) this is a good idea, as I don’t know anyone that could serious read everything that’s in a quality daily newspaper, they’re too big, they’re aimed at too broad a demographic, they’re expensive, and no one has time to read them from cover to cover. So the customer feels they’re not getting value for money, they’re paying too much for a bloated oversized daily of which they only read a small percentage.

The answer is to be more niche, but newspaper have a problem, they’re in the physical world, they’re made out of paper, so they’ll never be able to compete with niche blogs, websites or newsfeeds. It’s no longer a case of quality either, online material can be very high quality, it’s very current and up to date plus you can share it with others and expand the network to colleagues and friends at the touch of a button… another drawback of printed papers is that you can’t archive them (not in a practical way), online stories are always available, if you’ve missed a story develop you can quickly be brought up to spread by reading related articles and links. That would be a great thing for printed papers to emulate, start archiving their own back catalogues and offer them online, what a wealth of information they must be sitting on!

So will the i work? depends where and how, in London, with the Evening Standard (from the same publisher) becoming a free daily a year ago, it virtually wiped out the competition of free dailies, with the Metro being the only one that still has a large readership. So the i will be competing with it’s own free newspaper! Not to mention it’s big brother The Independent, which at £1 a pop, that 5 i readers!?!

Do those in their 20’s read newspapers anyway, ones they have to pay for that is… why would they, when they already get all the latest information they need online in an instant? I’m not so sure about this, I’m in my 40’s and I’ve never bought a newspaper in my life! I admit I’m a rarity in my demographic, but within the 20 something demographic, there’s a greater number that would go online before they’d purchase anything in print, especially as it suffers the same problem every printed newspaper has, it’s yesterday’s news!

I know I’m a little biased, I’m not that enamoured seeing another newspaper in print, but one possible saving grace, is if for every additional i reader there is one less Independent reader that will be a good thing, as the i is half the size of the Independent, so uses far less paper!

Drivel

RBTP Font

Great looking font by George Strouzas

Drivel

DVD Zero, Downloads One

Apple today showed off their latest bit of techno-lust, the MacBook Air and I must say it’s rather gorgeous. It’s lighter, slimmer and more powerful than ever, and it even costs less! Also worth noting is that they no longer give you the option replacing the harddrive with a flash drive, as flash drives now come as standard! So all in all a fantastic piece of kit… but it doesn’t end there, as with previous models the MacBook Air doesn’t come with an optical drive built in, but it did come with an installer DVDROM should you need to re-install the OS (which you did by sticking the DVDROM in another Mac on your network). But that was never an elegant solution, not up to scratch with Apple’s usual ease of use. So this time Apple have replaced the DVDROM with a USB flash stick! Which I might add, happens to be one of the best looking USB sticks I’ve ever seen!

But it doesn’t end there either… Apple also updated their iLife suite but they didn’t include iDVD in their updates, it’s not even on the DVD, although you can still get the old version off their website as a download.

but of course this is Apple, so there’s one more thing!

Apple gave a sneak peak of Lion, it’s next OSX 10.7, but what they also previewed was their new Mac App Store, not to be confused with their App Store (which sells apps for iOS devices, like the iPhone, iPod and iPad)… oh no, this new store sells software for your Macintosh.

So how long before Apple no longer supplies, or start limiting supplies of it’s software on physical media such as DVD’s? This is many advantages, for both Apple and the consumers, limits piracy, and allows the user easier updates and installation. It won’t be long before you can purchase all of your Mac software this way. Note Apple are about to complete building their $1bn data centre, just outside silicon valley.

When Apple released the iMac without a floppy drive the press went crazy, saying Apple was mad, but of course they were bang on the money, (Shift Happens are you ready for it?) then they went after the audio CD with iTunes and the iPod, they’re after the movie industry and DVDs with downloaded movies, direct to your iOS devices and iTunes, plus their hobby the Apple TV (plus it’s worth mentioning they’ve never included any sort of BluRay drive or playback on the Mac)… and now they’re after the software industry and DVDROM. They may not have given the DVDROM a good kicking just yet, but they’ve got their sights on it, and going by past experience, they’re probably succeed.

Brand Building

Practise What You Tweet

I read this article yesterday about Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, and how he rarely tweets, sure enough he only has 128 tweets! which was a little surprising, especially as he’s now head of product development… but as he says he uses Twitter for consumption not broadcasting… although he follows just 1,284 users, while he has 1,257,315 followers (that’s almost a 1,000 to 1 ratio).

As the post highlights, a lack of engagement or passion in another of Evan’s earlier startups Odeo, doomed it from day 1, even though he was able to source funding, he just didn’t appear compelled or interested enough in it to keep it going. I have no doubt Twitter will continue to thrive with or without Evan’s tweets, but it is interesting nonetheless.

To build a company you really have to believe in it and use it’s services. The same is true when building your brand, you have to live and breath your ethos. I posted a few days ago, that you have to be authentic, if you’re not, and you can’t convince yourself, how will you ever convince those you connect with or your customers!

I’m in the early stages of building and launching a new company named no paper onto the world, as the name implies, we don’t use paper. I live and breath this ideology, I only purchase eBooks, no paper books, I have Kindles, Sony eReaders, iPads, iPhones, laptops all choc full of eBooks. Our iPads and iPhones are our daily notebooks (FYI there’s a no paper iApp coming soon). We have a no paper office policy, no printer, no fax machines, no paper notepads in meetings or on people’s desks. Paper invoices are ignored and go unpaid until we receive an electronic version, we do not accept cheques only bank transfers for payment, most if not all business is handled electronically. That may sound draconian at first, but when you adhere to the rules not because you have to, but because you want to, you realise they weren’t rules, they were advice. Then a wonderful thing starts to happen, you become emotionally engaged in the ethos, it becomes visceral (more on that by Anne), you start putting forward your own suggestions, it’s no longer just part of your life, you become part of it. This harks back to the definition of leadership

At home I don’t send letters, birthday or xmas cards and my family and friends know not to send them to me either (I’d rather a phone call or text, costs less and I find it’s more engaging and personal), all my utilities, bills and bank statements are electronic or online, I’m converting all my old paper bank statements, utility bills, insurance records etc into electronic versions (and experimenting in the best way to reference and store them, again something we’re working on at no paper), I refuse to have junk mail and freebie newspapers pushed through my letterbox… I could go on, but you get the idea, I live and breath the brand values of my business… as the saying goes, “If you truly want to understand something, try changing it” but that also works in reverse, “If you truly want to change something, try understanding it!” the only way I can truly understand a life with no paper is to live one… if I can do it, then hopefully I can encourage others to do the same, then in turn they will encourage others.

Brands & Marketing

The First Car Recycling Drop Box

Here’s a terrific idea by Volkwagen’s to market their Polo

“Our task was to tell people that the new Polo is produced out of 95% recyclable materials. People in Germany are used to recycled glass, paper and plates. So we just had to expand this matter of course for the new Polo.”

Source Design Made in Germany

Brands & Marketing

Tiny Ant People Build City

Jay’s done it again, he just sent me another amazing looking video. The way this has been achieved is by using high vantage points with a shif-tilt lens, which gives the impression of the whole thing being a model with the people ant sized… but it’s all life size!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb5GpV_LUuU]

more info at Coachella

here’s some other examples

Brands & Marketing

Behavioural Dynamics Methodology Explained

Here’s a great video explanation of Behavioural Dynamics given by Nigel Oakes

“The BDI Methodology was originally developed in response to the need for an empirically-founded and demonstrably effective model of communication. The resulting Methodology takes a behavioural approach which focuses on influencing groups.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB28IJbvbe0]

Behavioural Dynamics Institute

Animation by Cognitive Media

Brand Building

The Name Game

I’ve previously posted with best practices for naming your company, but I just stumbled across this article on Startups.com with 17 (18 actually!) suggestions of things to bear in mind when naming your company, definitely a good read if you’re in the market for naming a product or company

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Brendan Mitchell
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