It’s that never-ending question that I always try to figure out. Do I go Macguyver-style and carry nothing but a swiss-army knife and some duct-tape? or do I go the other end and carry every gadget known in a bag that I could practically fit in? When phones have cameras and mp3 players and pocket knives have usb flash drives, one has to wonder how necessary all of these accoutrements really are? It’s interesting to see that some people are still going down the route of simplicity, harkening back to the days when a phone truly was a phone - not a calendar, camera, video-camera, and mp3 player. Check out the Eclipse Design Phone below
In today’s world, it’s all about political correctness, aparently. Even in downtown San Francisco, an area generally fairly accepting, political correctness rears its ugly head. The sign (above) outside of the menorah in Union Square barely makes sense - it’s trying so hard. It seems like clarity and impact are greatly sacrificed in the name of being correct - and this is happeing more and more.
There are a ton of new watches floating around out there that are non-tratiditonal - for a lack of a better way to describe them. While different than traditional analog and digital watches, these are a different way of looking at time. Confusing for many, it just forces people to look at things in a different light. Different isn’t necessarily bad. It worked pretty well for some people.
I finally figured it out. Christmas is really just about making it as difficult as possible for the red/green-color blind people of the world. Red. Green. Red. Green. Red. I think i’m going to sharpie my eyeballs red and green. just for fun. Everything is red and green this Christmas - even more than usual. On the off chance that you haven’t seen it, even LG is making this season even more Red and Green. I’ve had enough already. Only one more week.
Sitting in Banh Cuon Tinh Danh (highly recommended) enjoying some of the best Bo’ Kho I’ve ever had, I turn my head slighty to attempt to isolate the music in the air from the loud yet surprisingly pleasing sounds of pots-and-pans, Vietnamese conversations, and an abnormally loud hvac system when I hear something familiar. My mind searches the tens of thousands of songs that are partially embedded in my brain when I realized what my brain was trying to extract from my ears. It’s a modern Vietnamese cover of “I Got You Babe,” complete with male and female vocals, and that same unsettling refrain. And it is bizarre. Yet in the atmosphere of Tinh Danh, it seems subtly perfect.
You? or Me? Either way, the millions of people on this so-called “edge” are kind of making it more like a rolling hill than an actual edge. I’m not really certain how I feel about the whole “person of the year” thing anyway… it’s just an easy and striking cover. Not my cup of tea. Here’ a link the the story. And another link, just for kicks. So there it is. or there something is - I can’t really put my finger on “it” anymore. It’s more confusing than usual this year. but then again, what isn’t?
So Verizon, who will begin offering YouTube service on their phones, so to announce the new service, Verizon did what most other large corporations are doing these days: they tried to make a YouTube video, one which they seem to hope will attract the attention of the YouTube generation. All the worst web 2.0 video trends with which I can live without have been cramed together in one longer-than-necessary video. To top it off, it’s got painfully repetitive “music “which, after about ten seconds, makes me want to stuff those Verizon cellphones in my ear holes.
Last I checked, it had a rating of 1 1/2 stars and about 300,000 views due almost entirely to the fact that the video often appears on the YouTube homepage. This seems like a fairly good example of the way in which YouTube shouldn’t be used. Who cares if they’ve got a cool/gimmicky technique? It’s kind of like when my grandpa showed up in a giant hoodie and timberlands hoping to beatbox. It just doesn’t work.
I spent a summer learning and living beer advertising. The horizon looked less than promising as far as mass produced beer beverages were concerned. Then stuff like this comes along and completely changes my mind. This is definitely up there in my personal top ten greatest beer advertising concepts/executions. So not beer. So much more. But still the focus on the beer. Brilliant. Get the details here (from Shedwa).
I’ve been following Pandora closely since I first discovered it early last summer, while I was interning at MomentumWW in St. Louis. I discovered very quickly that Washington University (where I lodged - a great place, by the way) is very strict and particular on all types of P2P apps, making music exploration very difficult. Anyway, I fell in love with Pandora, and have been watching, using, and enjoying the experience since then.
Lately, I’ve found the trend in their advertising fairly interesting. Programmer/blogger Majordojo has some interesting things to say about the marketing/programming side of things. It seems to have become the new “thing” to include predefined Pandora Stations associated with your product, whether it’s a moto-x video game or Nike+ (if you don’t understand Pandora Stations, you really need to join and explore).
Anyway, I like the idea of providing pre-defined stations, but I want them to be better. I want a better reason to be given a station that simply that I’m already listening to Pandora. If the stations were provided by an athlete or an artist or something along those lines, it might be interesting. But right now, there’s still a disconect. The Nike+ is a great idea. But why are they giving me Pandora stations? It goes against what Nike+ is about. You can’t take Pandora music with you on your run, nor can you download the music (easily, at least). I understand that it’s possible to find the links on pandora to purchase the tracks you’re listening to through itunes, etc, but it just seems like a stretch to me. More work than it’s really worth. I want the benefit of a Nike+ to be more direct, more apparent, and more up-front. It can be. and it should be. That would be incredible.
