search that listens to you
Siri is a new search and "getting things done" tool for your magical iPhone. Whatever you need, just say it outloud, and Siri gets you on your way.
Like a personal assistant in your pocket. Not sure if "fill out my expense reports" will work, but if it involves search, Siri is there for you. From @mtlb & @thebeancast
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:44 AM
0 comments
Friday, March 05, 2010
it's friday. your boss doesn't really expect productivity today anyway.
I am guessing that if you download this app today, you will get nothing done all day, AND be a big hit at your office. Just a suggestion.
Labels: creativeinspiration, iphone, productivity
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:11 AM
0 comments
Friday, February 05, 2010
need a new name? there's an app for that.
We all know that every possible cool url is pretty much taken, so if you want to create a new brand or company, often the best tactic is to invent your own word.
The Brand Generator is a tool that makes up new words for you based on some basic direction that you supply. And it's an iPhone app, so you can generate names on the move. Because that's how you roll.
Not as fun as the pirate name generator, but maybe more useful.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:39 AM
2 comments
Friday, January 22, 2010
the social network for when you poo
It's the ultimate social network to check into from the toilet!
The iPoo iPhone application lets you check in with others or are performing the same activity at the same time, plot them on a map, see them on handy info charts, and so much more awesome poo fun.
You'll never be bored on the toilet again. From Jay Neff.
Labels: iphone, social media
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:10 AM
1 comments
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
your cell phone could shoot 2012 II
Holy crap. Proof the iPhone is worthy of the title "magic phone." From @tsand
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:33 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
add a little apple store style to your retail experience
Square Up looks like an awesome credit card payment solution for retail. It's a credit card processing system that works with mobile phones. Scan credit cards for payment. Get photo verification of your customers. Send receipts via email rather than paper.
Seems like a sweet way for small business to add a great service, and look cool in the process. The next best thing to being the apple store. From @miconian
Labels: apple, iphone, mobile, retail, technology
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:43 AM
1 comments
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
apps: your new ad campaign
Ben Kunz points out a terrific way to view the ever growing popularity of apps. There's loads of data that illustrates how people don't use most apps past the first day after download. Some may say that's reason to reconsider your app development budget.
Ben Kunz suggests just the opposite. Go app wild. If new, cool apps are always the new, cool thing that become a part of our conversation, why not allow your brand to be a part of it? Rather than attempt to produce the end-all, best-and-only-app-you-ever-need, create a hundred apps. Create two hundred apps. Think of them as individual components to your ad campaign.
We agree. Not just because that kind of thinking brings us loads of business, but it's an approach that's utilizing the media in a way that the audience has already decided to use it. Hooray. Increase your app spend now.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:45 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
puma makes stock market hot
Puma has created a new iPhone app that helps you feel better when the stock market is tanking. As the stock market falls, the Puma models strips her clothing. If the market goes up, she puts on more sweet Puma gear.
If you're thinking "well that sucks, I don't have an iPhone," not to worry - they've even prepared a video so that you can see some of the hot stock action. Prefer men? They have models from both genders and tie to worldwide stock markets, so everyone can sex it up, Puma style.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:22 AM
1 comments
Monday, August 24, 2009
apple engineers: you need this guy
BrandFlakes friend Lee Washington shows us a most awesome invention: a product design for iPod headphones that don't tangle.
Apple: please give this man a million dollars and get me these headphones. Mine are a tangled mess.
Labels: apple, iphone, productdesign
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:27 AM
3 comments
Thursday, July 16, 2009
an actual useful augmented reality app
Here's an augmented reality app for your iPhone that helps you locate the nearest subway station. Cool. Useful. Not a total waste of a download.
It's great that augmented reality is growing out of the novelty stage and into the useful stage. From Waxy.
Labels: apps, augmented reality, gps, iphone, newyork
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:20 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
music video shot with iphone video
Check it out - an entire music video shot with nothing but the new 3GS iPhone. Proof that you don't need a film budget to produce a music video. Although a stellar production team, director, studio and killer editing can't hurt, of course.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:16 AM
0 comments
Monday, June 15, 2009
you don't need an iphone app in your new campaign
Before you approve that budget for the iPhone app that seems absolute necessary right now, consider these numbers regarding their actual usage:
+ Minutes per use: 9.6 (Greystripe)
+ Uses per user: 19.9 (Greystripe)
+ Only 20% of users return to use the app after the first day (Pinch Media)
+ After a month, this number drops to 5% (Pinch Media)
On the flip side - you could say the same thing about videos and internet sites intended to go viral. (When was the last time you watched the Nike car jumping ad?) Short user spikes don't mean that this wasn't effective - it's just not necessarily a long term device.
As with everything, the answer to whether or not your marketing plan needs an iPhone app may indeed rest with your overall marketing strategy plan. There. I said it. Strategy rocks.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:30 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
cover of the new yorker: produced on an iphone.
If you haven't seen this already, it's worthy of 30 seconds from your morning:
The cover of this month's New Yorker was painted by Jorge Columbo. On his iPhone.
Labels: art, iphone, newyork, publishing
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:37 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
that's stuff "for you kids"
You have to read the exchange between Nick Kinney at American Copywriter and his mom.
You'll find this absolutely hilarious, and likely completely indicative of the battle you're fighting in your own organization. Trying to get the company old schoolers to understand and embrace new internet tools and ways. Even when they know they have value. "That's for you kids."
When will the curmudgeons just leave?
Labels: apple, apps, iphone, pop culture, trends
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:42 AM
0 comments
Monday, March 23, 2009
how the iphone will create its own economy
This is a little scary, because it reminds me of similar stories about the micro economies within Second Life during its peak. Mashable has an excellent post on how the new iPhone capabilities could indeed launch a new mobile economy. But at least people are using their iPhones.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:57 AM
0 comments
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
people staring at their phones aren't tweeting
Check out the paintings that Jorge Colombo has produced on his iPhone. While you probably thought he was tweeting.
Labels: art, creativeinspiration, iphone, mobile
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:42 AM
0 comments
Monday, July 14, 2008
think iphone apps are just for the big guys?
LifeHacker posts that Australian bank ANZ has produced an iPhone version of their site, along with a trading application that users can install on their phones.
Proof that even localized businesses can create tools for their users, that work on the tools that their users are using. That's lots of tools and users speak.
What could you be doing on an iPhone? (Thanks, Justus!)
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:49 AM
2 comments
Thursday, July 10, 2008
where will you be tomorrow morning?
In line for the new iPhone? Possibly nothing compares to the iPhone devotion (or nutiness) of Twitter buddies Brad and Joe.
Brad has been without an iPhone for 26 days.
Joe is traveling halfway across the country to wait in line with Brad so they can both buy the new iPhone.
Why? Because the iPhones that they sell in Indiana are so much better than the ones in the northeast. Or maybe Joe really wants an Indiana area code, for "cool factor." Or because Joe really supports his buddy's struggle without an iPhone for 26 days. Or maybe it's just that Joe's travel schedule had him in Indiana tomorrow. Clearly, someone needs to produce a documentary to answer these questions.
Happy iPhone eve.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:05 AM
1 comments
Friday, March 07, 2008
this week at Plaid
Here's what happened this week at the world's most 'don't mess with Texas' design and branding firm:
Today was Matt's birthday. I don't know how old he is, but he's freaking young, so he's got nothing to worry about. At Plaid, we love our birthday cake. Mmmmm. Some of the team is at SXSW, so we setup an ooVoo chat (pictured above), so that David, Rob and myself could sing the birthday song along with the rest of the crew. I'm sure that Matt's saving us each a piece of sweet cake.
So David, Rob and I are rocking out at SXSW. What an awesome time. (If you don't count the closing of Dallas airport, and the breaking of the iPhone.)
We found out that a poster David designed for Westport Playhouse is going to be used as a prop in a movie, A Kiss at Midnight with Annabella Sciorra. They actually sought out the poster, after seeing it, and wanted to feature it. I fully expect David to win an Oscar for this.
We began beta testing the most awesome project for Segway. Lots more on this one, soon.
We're interviewing like mad for a couple of positions, and should be narrowing the field down a bit next week. Can't wait to get new fresh faces at Plaid. We're all getting a little tired looking at Dave's ugly mug.
Stay tuned with what's happening at SXSW over at our SXSW Edition of BrandFlakes. David, Rob and I will be posting to the blog, and our individual Tumblr pages. Here's links to the Tumblrs, which are lots of fun:
Darryl Ohrt
David Plain
Rob Biddiscombe
Have a great weekend. If you're in Austin, please connect with us. There's still some Texas beer left in town, and we're not leaving till it's dry.
Labels: iphone, sxsw, thisweekatPlaid
posted by darryl ohrt @ 11:18 PM
2 comments
Friday, February 15, 2008
people are really using iphones
Google sees 50 times more searches from the iPhone than any other mobile handset.
“We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again,” says Vic Gundotra, head of Google’s mobile operations. (Yeah, like Google can make mistakes.)
This is an important trend. Not that you aren't already sick of hearing how 'mobile is the future.' But here's tangible evidence that users are actually using. As the Financial Times points out, when other manufacturers make the internet as easy as Apple, this will be huge. Internet. Maybe this thing is catching on.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:39 AM
0 comments
Monday, January 21, 2008
how to beat the iphone: watch nokia
Nokia's on fire. They've got sweet product placement in Cloverfield. They've got new web2.0 services like Qik practically dependent on them. And they've got something the iPhone doesn't have: video.
You can trick your iPhone into recording video. And some future software release (or the next iPhone) will surely include this. But for now - Nokia's taking advantage of the situation. They're even (supposedly) putting together a nice deal with Facebook. They've found features and benefits that offer something the iPhone can't - and are doing everything they can to make you want them. That's marketing. Awesome.
Labels: hacks, iphone, marketing, technology, video
posted by darryl ohrt @ 9:37 AM
3 comments
Thursday, October 18, 2007
sacre bleu! france gets unlocked iphone
Aside from the possibility of running into Johnny Depp at a Paris cafe, there is really little reason to move to France, unless of course you want an unlocked iPhone. Its as if Steve Jobs WANTS you to hate him. Enjoy your new freedom phone France.
posted by Wilson Cleveland @ 9:01 AM
2 comments
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
insight into iphone interface design
Excellent observation over at 37 Signals about the placement of the new iPhone icon, and how the design puts context over consistency. Nice design lesson that could apply to so many of the things we use (or see) every day.
(Note how many i's that i squeezed into that headline.)
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:32 AM
1 comments
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
how to compete with the iphone
Saw this on BoingBoing yesterday, and thought it was a smart strategy. Don't get me wrong - I still believe in the power and magic of the almighty iPhone - I just think that a lot of competitors lost their vision for marketing when the iPhone arrived. Rather than play on their own product/service strengths, they tried to attack with half-hearted truths.
HP is being smart, with their iPaq. They've realized that the iPhone (for now) doesn't record audio. (or video.) And they've sponsored an audio blog post on one of the most famous blogs in all of the land. That's an excellent way to demo your product's unique features, AND get a product endorsement. Nice marketing.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:04 AM
0 comments
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
cool idea for a promo giveaway
iphone give-aways already blend in like wallpaper. But what about lime green iPhones? Or iPhones themed to your brand's color scheme? Cool idea for your upcoming trade show. From Macenstein.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:19 AM
0 comments
Monday, July 23, 2007
drinking fanta in russia is like drinking acid
To hell with Fanta girls. With the Russian version of Fanta, you can control a party like it's an iPhone. I want some of this Russian juice. Found on Lee Washington's blog.
posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:16 AM
0 comments
Friday, July 06, 2007
more people have iphones than are in SL right now
More people have iPhones than are currently logged into Second Life. A LOT more. What is your brand creating for them? There's a massive opportunity here for branded applications, games, and even simple things like wallpapers. iPhone wallpaper above is from one of my favorite artists, COOP.
Labels: apple, branding, iphone, technology
posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:32 AM
1 comments
