FCC Approves the First Android Enabled Phone
// August 19th, 2008 // No Comments » // Emerging Trends
It’s official, HTC (they make smartphones) has been approved by the FCC for using Android; Google’s answer to the iPhone. What does this mean for Mobile Web? Hopefully a lot of fun stuff… Provided Apple and Google can convince Adobe to get a proper version of Flash to work on mobile devices without blowing them up or burning the battery out in 10 minutes.
Here’s the demo:
<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->
For Those that Need Yet Another Reason to Switch to Mac
// August 12th, 2008 // No Comments » // User Experience
Those who know me at Momentum are well aware of my affinity for my Macbook Pro, no matter what happens to it. In this year alone I’ve managed to bend it at a 45 degree angle, break the keyboard twice, and find numerous faults in it’s power management. So for those that keep asking me why they should buy a Mac beyond the obvious aesthetic qualities, here is a top ten list from Smashing Magazine along the lines of greater usability.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/08/12/top-10-usability-highs-of-the…
Design Float: Digg for Designers
// July 25th, 2008 // No Comments » // Design, Social Media
DesignFloat is basically Digg for designers, a social link roll where people float up or down links to stories, articles, etc. on design. Pretty cool site and great place to get inspiration and find some awesome stuff.
The community isn’t as large as Digg’s, so not a lot of voting going on. But that’s good ‘cuz that means the community’s “voice” hasn’t crystalized yet, so the quality and subject matter of the posts will be pretty diverse.
Google Launches New Virtual World
// July 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Emerging Trends, Social Media
Google has released their “Virtual World”, dubbed “Lively,” into beta. I took some time to play with it today and figure it out. Essentially it functions as a series of chat rooms with 3D engagement. Not unlike Second Life, Meebo or Habbo Hotel. You can chat with friends, make new ones, etc.
The key differentiator between Lively and the others is in its ability to live within a webpage. You can embed a room within a blog like so:
Lively currently won’t work on non-Windows platforms, and like many other betas, it is lacking certain elements like a more robust list of furniture, clothes, etc. But there’s good news. It’s completely free… So far.
iPhone Hits Rogers Outlets… And a Few People Are None Too Happy
// July 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Advertising
I just got off the phone with a former Momentum guy who claims he stood on line at a Rogers store from 6:30 am until they finally allowed people to come in to get their iPhone at 10:00 am. So imagine the dismay as he’s told that due to the system overload, of all the people trying to buy iPhones, he can buy his phone, but won’t be able to actually HAVE it for a while.
Of the line up of eager purchasers, he was second in line, and secured the second of four 16GB iPhones. That particular store only had two in black, and two in white. Naturally, he went for the black one…
Anyway, to make a long story short about a product we all want but probably won’t have for a while, Rogers’ sales tool “SalesCentral” simply couldn’t handle the pressure and crashed. Leaving even the people who had previously purchased iPhones out to dry, and more importantly, bricked.
Good luck to the lot of you, I’m keeping my Blackberry… It has a keyboard 
Cheers,
Jon
Teenagers + Facebook = Depression?
// July 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Social Media
As part of my daily trolling through Digg, I found this article from the BBC News Health section titled “Mental risk of Facebook Teens”. I want to tell you that it’s an interesting read… But it’s not. The article is quite simple in stating that the teen audience is becoming accustomed to a false reality where you can live your whole social life online and therefore believe that you can simply delete your profile if something goes horribly wrong, or you can simply delete people out of your life.
Granted there’s SOME merit to what is written in the article, but let’s be honest with ourselves as to the reality of social networking sites. You don’t simply create an account and magically conjure up a friends list (unless you’re a sociopath). Your friends list (at least on Facebook… I can’t speak for MySpace as it disrupts my point) is initially generated via friends that you know in real life. You can see this whenever a new friend has joined up to Facebook, and their status update shows 20 friends that you probably also know.
Being new to a social networking site, you typically don’t just randomly look for people. There are trust metrics and friendship linkages that allow for relationships to build without that creepiness factor. The obvious anomalies within this case are when you DO get the people that you’ve never met before “trying” to add you, to which the logical move is to hit my favourite button… “Ignore”.
As far as the young’uns go, parents should be educating their children to simply “stop talking to strangers”. It worked for us in the eighties… Should still hold true today.
As far as depression goes, you can try to blame social networking sites for a so-called existentialism quandary, but at the end of the day, these sites simply function as accelerated tools for teenagers to communicate.
When I was a teenager we had similar tools, however not as usable. It still meant that I could talk to friends for hours without leaving my house, and I think we all came out fairly well.
Believe it or not, we may not have had World of Warcraft to be addicted to, but we DID have Ultima Online, which was just as engaging and addictive. It just didn’t have the same critical mass of audience, and you know what, my parents would kick my ass out of the computer chair if they felt I was spending too much time on it.
If there was a tool available when I was 16 that allowed me to get party invites, check out who was coming into town, and know who was dating whom on a per second basis, maybe my social life would have been richer, maybe I would have made more friends, who knows. I guess my point is that these sites are all tools. Stop looking for problems in video games, websites and a lack of extra-curricular activities. There are plenty of teenagers who still get outside, and if they’re not, somebody should invite them. Yes, there’s a whole world out there, but if anything, Facebook is probably advocating many of those outer-world activities. God knows it’s responsible for figuring out what club I go to on the weekends.
I’m wondering if there are any parents out there that would like to comment,
Jon
Get the link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7487723.stm
Cisco Plots Out Predictions of Bandwidth Consumption Worldwide From ‘08 to ‘09
// June 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // Emerging Trends
For the full article, check out http://gigaom.com/2008/06/16/big-growth-for-internet-to-continue-cisco-p…
Need a 24/7 Live Support/Chat Window for Cheap?
// June 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // Design
Hey service industry! Are you currently wasting valuable marketing dollars for a live chat service you barely use anyways? Well, stop wasting your money! For half the cost you are currently paying, you can have the same level of customer service with a minimal outlay of funds. Our counter interactive chat-disabled GIF comes in a number of colours to make sure that even though no one is online to talk to your customers, you have a cohesive and unified brand message.
Not convinced? Here are some companies that could start saving right now:
www.cedant.com
www.sportmart.ca
Get started right now! Copy the following code to your website. Then mail me a cheque.
<img src=”http://physics.momentum.com/sites/default/files/live_support.jpg”
Google Street View: Toyota Gets a Ticket
// June 17th, 2008 // No Comments » // Advertising
Post found here: http://sfcitizen.com/blog/2008/06/16/the-united-states-park-police-vs-th…
Your Kid’s Next Science Experiment Will Be Found on YouTube
// June 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Social Media
For those who remember the Diet Coke + Mentos videos on YouTube, we now have scientific reason for exactly why that happens, and the reason is… Bubbles.
“Water molecules like to be next to other water molecules, so basically anything that you drop into the soda that disrupts the network of water molecules can act as a growth site for bubbles,” Coffey told New Scientist. “And if you have rough candy with a high ratio of surface area to volume, then there’s more places for the bubbles to go.” - ABC News
The famous Diet Coke + Mentos video:
Apparently, this recent finding has given children a fun new way to experiment with chemistry. Funny what one viral video on YouTube can lead to.
