one part truth, two parts mixer

Smell-o-vision

Just read an interesting example in this year's Trendwatching:

"Cinescent has successfully tested its scented-ad technology in German theatres for Nivea, with 60-second ads showing a sunny beach scene while the aroma of Nivea sun cream permeated the theatre. Exit polls showed a 515% rise in recall for the Nivea ad when compared to moviegoers who saw the spot without the scent.

Smells are pumped through the cinema's air conditioning system in a way that minimizes the allergy and irritation problems associated with previous attempts to dispense aromas via boxes places among the audience."

Martin Lindstrom was right!

The city speaks

Adam Greenfield's talk at dconstruct was interesting because he was talking about a lot of things that I've been thinking about generally. His talk was about the networked city, where objects talk to each other.

One point he made was that 'urban savoir faire' - the ability to be a 'power user' of the city because of specialist knowledge gained by discovery - is under threat from search. I think this could be a good thing because it makes good local businesses easier to find, and therefore more profitable, less likely to close. There is a part of me that doesn't want these hidden finds to become busier, but if this is what is needed to save them from the inexorable march of homogenity, then I'm all for it.

And those that still seek the satisfying feeling that discovery brings can just opt out of 'search urbanism' by turning off their phone. When we were in Moscow, I forced Jas to go on a pilgrimage of all the spots in the Master and Margarita, and we chanced upon loads of cool boutiques. When I worked in Adidas Originals, I remember them saying they purposely put the shops off the beaten track to make the shoppers feel like they'd discovered them. Actually the whole merchandising idea was built around some weird flea market idea, but ended up looking like a clinical interrogation room (those lights were bright!). 

Photo by Henry, hope he doesn't mind me using it

You know by now how much I love buzzwords (ugh, trends what have you done to me?!) and so I obviously lapped up 'wayshowing' (although it maybe doesn't top 'dimensional synesthesia' by Ben Cerveny). If Wayfinding is about us looking up things digitally, wayshowing is about digital showing us the way. The Microsoft concept video that August de los Reyes showed us what that might look like, with our tablet/phone/mental thing guiding us through life. While all this stuff does make our lives easier, it also robs us of the skills to survive alone, but more importantly trains us not to enjoy discovery.

Set you free

I've been testing a phone for 3 as part of the new campaign - all about setting phones/contracts free with free Skype to Skype calls. I remember when the ad was first aired, I didn't really see how it was such a big deal, but Scouse made the point that they are the first company to offer a deal which doesn't rely on you using their network - quite radical. 

For me personally, I never pay for actual call minutes because I never go over my limits. Thinking about it, there are probably lots of people who actually have to pay for minutes every month. This would really benefit them.

 

So this little cage arrived at my work, with a phone to test it on for a couple of weeks. By the by, the phone, a Sony Ericsson C905 is quite sweet. But to the matter at hand, the reality of Skype calling at the moment is usually this:

When I think of how I use Skype, it's usually to my family abroad or to make a comedy video call to my mum, but this is probably because I don't have a minutes issue. I also always use my computer. I guess it's the same for most people, because there was rearely anyone on Skype to call, not even the other people on the trial. Still though, there's definitely promise for the future. Like take up of anything, we need a bit of critical mass.

Manual/automatic

While I was brushing my teeth this morning I thought about how most of the responsbility has been assigned to my toothbrush. It tells me when to move to a different section of my mouth, when to stop, if I'm brushing too hard. I don't know if I could actually brush my teeth correctly in manual. Ah, the rise of the machines.

The healer

I've been in Wales over the Easter break kids, have you missed me? Just catching up on some light reading. Saw a really interesting article in Fast Company about self-healing paint. I don't know why stuff like that excites me, but the idea of inanimate, manmade items having organic qualities and well, just getting on and doing stuff, should have some impressive implications for the future. The fraudcaster in me still lives.

The iShift

Armano wrote  a post a while ago about how having an iPhone had shifted the way he treated phones as objects, i.e. from careless to careful. I quote: "Steve Jobs and his merry band of desingers, engineers and marketers had given me not only a product, but practically a new member of the family.  In fact, I have only dropped my iPhone once and I still feel badly about it." That's quite a feat, but then it's quite a phone.

Scouse and I noticed another shift in behaviour that the iPhone has bought about. Phones used to be an expression of your self-image, in a Hebdige kind of way. If someone in your social circle got the same phone as you and you'd got it first, that would be kind of lame of them. Having a different phone to your friends used to give kudos, but now having the same phone is more important. It might not seem like a big thing, but it's pretty interesting how products can shift our behaviour en masse.

You've got to be amazed at Apple's total takeover of the mainstream, first through music and now in telephony. We're now individuals through different iterations of Apple product. Crazy.

In other news, I desperately need a new phone, but am having dilemma. Any suggestions? My dream combination would be a StarTac and a Peek, but you can only get Peeks in America.

The format war

More randomness that I never got round to posting. It would be quite interesting to see what stuff other people have got hidden in the draft folder.

Mac vs. PC. Passionate advocates on both side. Me? I use a Mac. But once upon a time, I used to use a PC and I actually quite liked it. Until Windows bought out XP that is. What made Windows (3.11, 98, ME) good was the fact that you could find EVERYTHING. Your computer wasn't programmed to keep secrets from you. Windows Explorer gave me confidence with computers because it allowed you to use common sense to figure things out.

I used Vista the other day and was shocked at how Mac-like it is. Why didn't Windows stick to being Windows? Surely making it more similar to Mac makes it easier for PC users to make the switch?

The future is games

Useful presentation about gaming. The first lot of slides aren't that helpful, but there are some good examples later on. I mainly like it because it's well presented, ugly slides get no attention from me.

Video Gaming Trends
Made by Jérome Sudan, found via Future-making Serious Games

Judged by email

I'm always surprised when people have email accounts at Hotmail. I associate Hotmail with being a teenager and getting lots of spam. I still have an account with them, but I only use it in places where I think I'll get spammed.

I wonder, is the choice of email provider as conscious a choice as which trainers, or which car. Does having a .mac account say the same things about you as owning an Apple computer? By using Gmail, do you say you are forward thinking or happy to give over your data? Does having a Gmail account say less now that everyone can have it? Rather sadly, I'm glad that I got my Gmail account before it became GoogleMail, because it looks nicer written down.

Or do people use the first webmail they come into contact with and keep using it? And does no one except me look at your mail provider and form an assumption about you?

What's dried on paper?

Last week you may have seen pictures of this invite over the blogosphere:

Picture nicked from Jamie

There was a lot of curiosity as to what it might be - all we had to go on was the web address driedonpaper.org which didn't really reveal too much. On Thursday night at Shoreditch Studios all was revealed. The launch was for the new INQ1 ('ink', dried on paper, geddit?) phone available on 3. So now you know!

I didn't get a chance to have a proper play with the handset but one of the INQ1 helpers did show me what it can do. Basically the phone is set up so you can have access to social media programmes such as Twitter, last.fm and Facebook at one touch. It looks pretty sweet - a bit teenage for my tastes maybe, but I'd want to have some time alone with the phone before I passed judgement on anything else.

Is there really a need for a phone like this? Does it really do anything more than the iPhone? Anyway, the party was good and the drink was flowing, so thumbs up!

More photos here