What the F**k is Social Media NOW?
Digital Spillage #DigitalSpillage
Something that I have been thinking about for a while is the shift in ‘Digital’ or ‘The Internet’ from being confined to the screen. It is now penetrating the real world and adding value to it via mobile, outdoor installations and touch screens etc. It has been a common topic of conversation that ‘The Internet’ has made people less social… hermits.
With the rise of geo-bassed services enabling users to tell friends where they are and what they are doing, ‘The Internet’ is now driving people together socially rather than creating more basement loving individuals. At the end of the day humans are social. The June Trend Watching briefing was a piece on ‘Mass Mingling’, which detailed how and why technology was bringing people together.
On Saturday I went to ‘The Creators Project‘ which was an exhibition of technology/art/films/music/installations/panel discussions. Joachim Sauter from Art+Com was speaking at the event and had quite a few interesting things to say about technology in space. His company recently created the concept behing the new BMW ad (which was actually created for a museum installation not an ad, but was ‘used’ by their ad agency). One of the many things I took from his talk was ‘How can technology become part of a real space and add to it, not become an eyesore’. All of his work was there to add value in some way, to help tell a story, not technology for the sake of.
Mobile internet is a massive force behind this shift and spillage, for instance out of the 400 million (500 this week apparently) 100 million people are accessing Facebook through their mobile. The iPhone and other smartphone devices have contributed to the massive growth, feeding the habit of the hyper connected.
This natural spillage from the screen to reality is opening up more and more opportunities for brands to communicate with people. Uploaded 10 months ago by OneDotZero, this video shows an interactive mobile piece that was created for Nokia. Chris Allen who was also a panelist at The Creators Project spoke about a piece of work that he has just finished named ‘LDN24‘. This is another good example of how digital can be integrated into the real world. This piece pulls in live stats, tweets and info from live database sources.
Digital is in the real world… it is not separate… it is part of it. Integrated. Not a silo. How can we use digital and technology to add some value, to connect with our audience?
They are not ‘Fans’ so what now?! Likers? #Facebook #Likers
A little while ago Facebook changed the language they were using from ‘Become a fan’ to ‘Like’ on pages. Since this happened there has been no real standard in defining what these people are now called. Any ideas? Do we call them ‘Likers’?! Or are we sticking with ‘Fans’?
The state of the internet
JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.
Obligatory #iPhone4 Post
So yesterday the new iPhone named the iPhone 4 was announced by Mr Jobs himself. As you would expect it is trending on Twitter (Under a number of hash tags and keywords).
So what is all the fuss about? What is new about this iPhone?
A summary if what has been announced:
1. New Design – 9.33mm thick. 24% thinner than iPhone 3GS. Micro sim tray. Front facing camera. Camera and LED Flash on the back. Antennas integrated into steel structure. Scratch resistant glass.
2. Display – Retina display which has 326 pixels per inch. 3.5 inch screen.
3. Chip & Specs – New A4 chip designed and made by a Apple. Battery is bigger, with up to 6 hours 3G browsing and 10 hours Wi-Fi. 10 Hours video, 40 hours music and 300 hours standby. Up to 32GB of storage.
4. Data Speed – Quad band HSPDA/HSUPA. 7.2mbps down. 5.8 up. 802.11n
5. 3-Axis Gyro – Pitch and roll. New motion APIs
6. Camera – 5 Megapixel camera. Record HD video at 720p and 30fps. iMovie for iPhone
7. iPhone OS 4 – Renamed to iOS 4
8. iBooks – Same features that are available on the iPhone.
9. iAds – “You will be able to add iAds to your app in an afternoon” said Steve Jobs. Advertisers get 60% of the revenue. Clients already include: Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Campbell’s, Sears, JC Penny, Target, Best Buy, Direct TV, TBS, Disney. iAds will be online from 1st July.
10. FaceTime – Videochat app for the iPhone 4… only for iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 calls. Also only enabled over Wi-fi to start with, 3G coming next year if they are ale to broker a deal with the networks.
What do you think is the most interesting new feature? Last night on Twitter there was already talk about how the video conferencing feature was going to revolutionise the porn industry… errmmmm Is that the first thought people have? Really? I think you may be missing a few points…
If you want the watch the whole thing… check out the keynote on YouTube.
Source of much information The Apple Blog