Thursday, March 18, 2010
i know your face



Just as I'm posting about the end of business cards, @paulmcenany tweets about Recognizr, a new mobile app that uses facial recognition and augmented reality to connect the people that you meet with the social networks that you use.

Right now, the user has to opt in before they'll be recognized, but surely sometime in the future, we'll give up all privacy and go all in. And I'll snap a photo of you from across the street and immediately become your friend. Or you'll just wear a mask, and avoid contact, because you're anti-social like that.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:46 AM   0 comments



Friday, March 05, 2010
in the future, we'll work naked at the office



Forget touch screens. Touch skin is all the rage in device design. You need this, all over your body.

Next, we need the ability to "mute" people with a single touch to the forehead.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:51 AM   0 comments



Friday, February 26, 2010
control the world with your eyes



Well, maybe not the world. Or even your car. Yet. But a company in Japan has developed headphones that sense your eye movement, and let you control your iPod.

Babies with Laser eyes cannot be too far behind.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:26 AM   1 comments



Thursday, February 18, 2010
how google goggles can help you eat



Did you ever order dinner while at a restaurant in a foreign country, and make your best guess on what the translation for "chicken" is? And then your meal arrives, and you learn that you've ordered cow stomach?

This genius Google scientist shows the near future of Google Goggles on your Android. You'll never eat cow stomach again. Holy smoke.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:38 AM   0 comments



Monday, February 15, 2010
it's like winter olympics for geeks and creatives.



If you haven't been keeping up with the TED conference, you'll want to begin checking it out. You can start with this melt your eyes augmented reality demonstration that took place last week. Beats people in sequins dancing on ice, any day.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:14 AM   0 comments



Friday, February 12, 2010
you should get this for your office



Wow. Here's what you can do with eight monitors, eight machines, google earth and the internet. (If you had a couple of world-class Google engineers at your disposal.)

From @getshust

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:25 AM   0 comments



Thursday, February 11, 2010
where geeks and princesses converge



Fairytale Fashion is a vidcast that melds the geekiness of technology with the cuteness of fashion design. Like a purse made from a mobius strip.

If this is your kind of wonderous geek fashion fantasy, then you're definitely going to want to see the Fairytale Fashion Show happening next week at Eyebeam. (Limited number of RSVPs here.)

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:34 AM   0 comments



Friday, February 05, 2010
welcome to your augmented reality future



In the future, everything will be augmented reality and plastered with banner ads. And making tea will never be easier. Thanks, Casey!

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:29 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, January 26, 2010
a social network for...your gadgets.



GDGT is a social network for and about gadgets. Here's a place where you can show the world what gadgets you own, what stuff you want to own, and share facts, reviews and loads of other information about the tools toys that make our lives exciting.

At first this might just seem like a place where users brag about their obsession with electronic wonder toys. When you dig deeper, you'll see that it's also a killer researh tool for gadgetry.

Shopping for something? Check here first. See who owns it, who wants to own it, discussions about the product, tips & tricks about the product, price comparisons and more. Cool. From @cjibo.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:52 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, January 19, 2010
sure, google wave is confusing, but how does it stack up to other tools?



You've played with Google Wave, but maybe you're still unsure about how it sits in comparison to other more established tools like email, IM, forums and wikis.

Here's a handy reference graphic that answers all of your questions, while illustrating the power of the wave. Add this to your next PowerPoint to the board, and they'll think you're the smartest person ever.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:51 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, December 29, 2009
the future of magazines



Maybe you're already on the edge of your seat waiting for the Apple tablet, rumored to be coming out in 2010. But even if you're not a gadget freak, you'll want to check out this prototype from Bonnier, the publisher of Popular Science and other magazines.

You're going to want one tomorrow, and will instantly realize how the publishing industry will soon be changed forever.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:07 AM   2 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

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:43 AM   1 comments



Wednesday, November 25, 2009
the future is going to be unbelievable



Just start watching at 6:24, and you'll wish that you had a time machine that could take you to the Apple store that sells this technology some time in the future. (Actually, the open source software may be available as soon as next month.) Whoah.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:15 AM   1 comments



Tuesday, November 24, 2009
gather the kids around the computer



As your family gathers around the Thanksgiving dinner table later this week, Blackberries and iPhones in hand, remember that families have a long history of gathering around the computer.

Technologizer has compiled a wonderful collection of ads proving this point, and celebrating everything that is family. And technology. And a time when all ads featured 12 paragraphs of body copy. Enjoy. From @bakertweets.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:28 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, November 03, 2009
forget 2012. the internet will be closed in 2010.



This is a fun scarepost that reports how the internet is about to run out of domain names. It's true - it could happen in 2010, but as the Mashable post explains, as soon as everyone converts to a new internet protocol, everything will be just fine.

In the meantime, you could use this information to scare everyone in your firm. Start a series of meetings and committees to tackle the "2010 domain problem." You like meetings, right?

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:26 AM   1 comments



Monday, October 19, 2009
lifestreaming made easy



There's a new hot camera about to hit the market that should have lifestreamers wetting their pants.

It's worn around your neck, and snaps photos automatically about every 30 seconds. It even has an accelerometer and light sensors to snap images when you enter a new environment, and an infrared sensor that senses body heat when someone is in front of you.

The camera was originally developed for patients with Alzheimer's, but now there's a planned consumer release for 2010. Get ready to document, tweet and share everything. From Loic.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM   0 comments



Wednesday, October 14, 2009
spend your day creating buildings and wondering about the google future



There's a couple of amazing Googleicious developments that you're going to want to wrap your head around.

First, Google Building Maker. Google is crowd sourcing the 3D building creation for Google Earth. And they've made a tool that makes it easy and fun. What an incredible project for classrooms, architectural learning, or anyone bored with their everyday stuff.

Next, check out what the Georgia Institute of Technology created: a fusion of Google Maps and live security cams. Imagine a world that you can explore in real time. As Thought Gadgets points out, this is the future, and the possibilities are mind-blowing.

In Google we trust.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:01 AM   1 comments




in the future, you'll use all of your fingers



Some really smart dude has invented what he calls 10/GUI, which is a touch screen interface that utilizes three dimensions and all of your fingers so that you can become the uber computer superstar that you yearn to be.

Watch the video, and you'll see why this dude will get bought up by Apple, Microsoft or some other empire. And say goodbye to your mouse. Just assume that by the time this comes to fruition, you'll be old, your kids will master it, and you'll be all "why can't I just use my mouse??" The future is grand, rest assured.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:40 AM   0 comments



Thursday, October 01, 2009
tv spots too loud? the cure for what ails ya



SRS Labs has create a device that sits between the cable box and the tv. The voodoo magic box monitors the volume, and kills the difference between regular programming and annoyingly loud tv commercials.

It's already being included in some Samsung and Vizio tv's. Pure tv magic.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:24 AM   0 comments



Thursday, September 17, 2009
that computer in your pocket has magnificent powers



You'll have to take four minutes and watch this wonderful video from our friends at XPlane.

Four minutes that will help you realize what an amazing time we're living in and how the possibilities for awesomeness are being multiplied by a hundred every day.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:42 AM   0 comments



Monday, September 14, 2009
"20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minutes."



Just another useless fact that gives me an excuse to embed the video above featuring Kanye West, interrupting the President.

If you like spouting lots of impressive stats with numbers in them, or just need some good filler to make your PowerPoint deck a little thicker, then today's your lucky day. Steve Rubel found Google Internet Stats. It's mostly UK based, but a lot of the info features global numbers. Impress your friends.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:08 AM   0 comments



Thursday, August 06, 2009
the history of rounded rectangles



I love this post on UI&us - not for the discussion of more efficient graphical user interfaces, but for the history of the rounded rectangle.

It's cool to see how the digital concept of rounded edges was born - and how they're all around us in life, protecting us from sharp edges or a good poke in the arm. Thanks, Steve Jobs.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:44 AM   1 comments



Wednesday, July 22, 2009
parents, you can stop paying for singing lessons



Someone has auto-tuned the news. The technology for manipulating video is getting freaky easy; in a few years, animated characters that look like real people may be here, like this Heavy Rain game trailer, and then you won't have to play with any prior recordings but can simply create your own.

What will the world look like when we can't believe anything we see or hear on video? Oh, yes. FoxNews.

Via Canadian coolhunter Andy Jukes.

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posted by Ben Kunz @ 7:11 AM   0 comments



Wednesday, July 15, 2009
buddha inspired phones. for when karma calls.



Check out this Buddhalicious collection of phones featured on If It's Hip It's Here.

And these aren't just novelty phones. One comes with TWO cameras - one on the front and one on the back, with two SIM cards. Apple - time for some spirituality?

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:05 AM   1 comments



Wednesday, June 17, 2009
what's a browser?



Google asks 50 random pedestrians in New York City what a browser is. No surprise - only 8% actually got the answer right.

Ironically, many people thought that Google was a browser. And they weren't talking about Chrome.

This reminds me of the time I heard a client ask a co-worker "do I have the Google on my computer?" Remember this, the next time you're trying to explain Twitter to your boss.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:01 AM   3 comments



Tuesday, June 16, 2009
ibm says it's ok to use the cloud



If you work in the type of corporate environment controlled by an old school IT department that won't allow new technology until everyone else has moved onto something else, today may be your day.

IBM just announced that it's ok to use cloud computing.

That's kind of like the Gap selling skinny jeans and cool t-shirts. Or McDonalds selling the most delicious cupcakes. Rejoice cubicle drones, a new world is upon us. This internet thing is really going to catch on. From When More PR?

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:57 AM   0 comments



Monday, June 15, 2009
wifi for your camera



Soon, we'll shoot photos and they'll go directly to the internet.

In the meantime, the folks at Eye-Fi have invented a cool device that is part memory card, part wifi card. The device connects to 25 online sharing sites, including Flickr. Sounds like something you need.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:45 AM   2 comments



Friday, June 12, 2009
bringing movie posters to life



There's a bunch of buzz about this new hot digital video camera, the Red One, invented by the billionaire founder of Oakley. The short: this is a video camera that has a resolution that rivals 35MM film. It's super hot in the film and video community, and the resolution is so good that you can use a single frame of video as a high resolution photograph.

Which...opens up some amazing opportunities. Check out the video clip above, which details the making of a movie poster that comes to life. The future is awesome, isn't it?

Thanks, Justus!

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:38 AM   1 comments



Monday, June 08, 2009
augmented reality with an actual purpose



There's a lot of chitter chatter about augmented reality, and some even compare it to the hype of Second Life.

It's true that most of the uses of this new technology have been solely to show the tool itself - adding wow factor to an audience of people who haven't experienced it yet. This of course gets tired, kind of like using a brand new font in a design because it's new - not because it's the right choice for the task.

Now Adverblog has found someone using augmented reality in a way that adds value to their customers. And it's not from a bleeding edge internet company. Or a sneaker brand. Or a new film. It's the post office. Yep - you can now utilize augmented reality to check and see what size box you need for Priority Mail packages. Awesomeness.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:47 AM   3 comments



Friday, May 29, 2009
google is reinventing email



Google is rethinking what's possible within the inbox. In short, you'll be able to do so much more from inside the GMail inbox. From WebMonkey:

Most of us use e-mail, just addressing a new message to a bunch of people. This starts a thread, which eventually gets twisted and fragmented into side conversations and becomes more and more confusing.

So - imagine if all of those threaded conversations, real-time chat, nested comments, media sharing, and wiki-style collaborations were all available inside the inbox?? Pure awesomeness. Or Googleness.

It's currently in private developer beta mode, but will be released to the public in the next few months. Found on YesButNoButYes.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:48 AM   0 comments



Wednesday, May 20, 2009
bringing the video screen to the mailbox



Wow. Direct mail with embedded video. I can think of about a hundred and seventy eight cool ideas for utilizing this. Let's talk.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:58 AM   1 comments



Tuesday, May 05, 2009
a game changer in search



If you haven't already checked it out thanks to the buzz on Twitter and tech blogs, you'll want to keep an eye on Wolfram.

What sounds like the name of a zombie-producing weapon from an 80's scifi movie is actually a technology that could change everything on the internet.

What will Wolfram do, exactly? It seems to be a search engine that puts together real answers to requests, in an artificial intelligence kind of way. Let's say that you wanted to know what the weather was like on the day that JFK was assassinated in Texas. With current search technology, you can pull together the date and location and then search weather history, and pull the answer together. Wolfram will apparently do this for you, at the first request.

It's launching...soon. In the future, when the world is taken over by search engine spiders and they eat humans for food, don't say that we didn't warn you.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:09 AM   1 comments



Tuesday, April 21, 2009
why so serious?



Philips gets serious about the clarity of their Philips CINEMA 21:9 Television by taking you for a ride inside a scene. This is a pretty freaking impressive piece. They've re-created an entire scene from Dark Knight, and walked you through to inspect the details.

And there's a campaign site, too, where you can explore more interactive versions of the clip. Joker/Batman/big screen TV fans, rejoice.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:01 AM   0 comments




r/ga is up to something.



This is what real internet geeks do for fun, when they're not at the office:

R/GA Creative Director Richard Ting is experimenting with RFID tags and a bar code reader. He's hooked everything up so that his 20 month old daughter can swipe tags with a scanner, and it automatically sends a tweet.

This is cool. This may provide endless opportunities.
+ Runners could swipe at mile markers in races, and auto tweet their position in a race.
+ Kids could swipe when at school/at class
+ Party attendees could swipe and auto announce "I'm here. Let's drink beer."
+ Your package could tweet that it just arrived on the UPS truck
+ Think of the countless opportunities where an easy swipe could send a tweet to let your family/friends/world know what's happening.

Time to head to Radio Shack, for parts.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:30 AM   0 comments



Monday, April 20, 2009
send this to the computer nerd in your company



They'll love you more than they ever did before. Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody performed entirely on old computer things. Like a geek cupcake with extra icing.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:02 AM   0 comments




slo mo that looks totally hot



The latest video to hit "viral" status doesn't include anyone farting. Or jumping over a car on fire. Or hot girls doing sexy things.

Just the most wonderfully shot imagery in the highest definition you've ever seen on video. Mesmerizing. From charlie @ curve.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:21 AM   0 comments



Friday, April 03, 2009
diggers will love this



Digg, the popular news sharing site, is launching a new toolbar that's available to you wherever you are on the web, completely independent of the browser you're using.

Just type digg.com/ in front of the url you're visiting (once the toolbar in installed), and it automatically launches the bar. Pretty cool. If you digg those types of things.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:26 AM   0 comments



Wednesday, April 01, 2009
tweet your energy usage



This involves science, math, and electrical engineering, so don't expect any creative explanation from me...but the people at The Green Thing are tweeting their electricity usage for events.

If it were really possible to utilize a "twitter plug," this would be a cool idea for events to feature a badge on their website, showcasing actual energy usage for the event. A clear announcement that they care, and are taking steps to reduce usage, with a live read on what's actually happening.

Is this what the kids did in science, while we were in art class?

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:48 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, March 31, 2009
if you could see wireless, what would it look like?



News from the Herd points to a super cool visualization study showing the countless wireless signals that surround us everyday.

This is an eye opening visualization that showcases just how prevalent these networks are among us. I wonder if someone could do the same study showing what it would be like if you could see dead people.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:59 AM   0 comments



Monday, March 23, 2009
news alarm. for when the aliens take over.



In the old days, news was delivered across AP machines. Like fax machines on a continuous roll of paper, spewing the news. They had alarms on them, so if there were a national emergency, someone in the newsroom might notice.

Artist/hacker Jer Thorp has created just such a device to alert him of important news. And he's done it all with a smoke alarm and RSS feeds. Amazing.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:48 AM   0 comments



Friday, March 20, 2009
everything's coming together now



One of the more exciting things that we learned about while attending SXSW this year was Facebook's announcement about their Facebook Connect product.

With the latest version of Facebook Connect, developers can produce iPhone applications that utilize Facebook logins and allow users to share experiences, information and actions with their Facebook friends. Additionally, Facebook Connect has now made it easier than ever to integrate their login into nearly any internet application.

One cool example: Twitter users who are tweeting with Tweetdeck can now send a tweet and decide to publish to their Twitter stream, their Facebook newsfeed, or both. You can also receive your friends status updates in Tweetdeck - so you can magically keep up with everything in one snazzy dashboard.

This has agencies like us pretty pumped. Think about the 175 million Facebook users. And know that more than half of all mobile web traffic is now coming from iPhones.

We see practical uses for nearly all of our clients. iPhone applications that let users play games together. Blog comments that are shared across a user's Facebook news feed. There are countless opportunities, possibilities and solutions. Let's chat. Let's get started.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:47 AM   1 comments



Thursday, March 19, 2009
that garbage can is texting you



Now garbage cans can send text messages. Soon, they'll be blogging, tweeting and podcasting. And then, they'll become social media experts.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:16 AM   1 comments



Monday, March 16, 2009
send large files super easy



Need to send a large file to a client or vendor, but don't have access to FTP? Confused by FTP, or not even sure what the heck it is? Not to worry.

Senduit allows you to upload a file, send a private link to your recipient, and give it a deadline. Like that. Simple. Easy. Awesome.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:06 AM   0 comments



Wednesday, March 11, 2009
send this to your IT person



How do you convince tech people that the Samsung SSD hard drives are super, super fast? You build a super, super fast computer. If you appreciate processing power or run a bunch of applications at the same time, you'll love this. (Otherwise, you'll just wonder what all the fuss is about.)

An excellent example of an uber targeted message produced in a fun, reasonable budget kind of way.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:24 AM   0 comments



Friday, March 06, 2009
computer geeks, unite



Likewise makes Open and Enterprise software products that enable organizations to integrate multiple operating systems into a Microsoft Active Directory environment.

If you're an IT geek you probably just wet your pants. Because apparently, that's a pretty big deal to pull off on Linux, Unix, Mac, and Windows.

To promote the line of IT goodness, Likewise launched an End the Platform War, where they're selling t-shirts that suggest that we all just get along. (And just to be cool, they're giving the proceeds to charity.) Support Peace. And multiple platforms.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:21 AM   0 comments



Thursday, February 26, 2009
how to turn your twitter stream into a waterfall



Remember the days before the internet, or Twitter, where you would go outdoors? And maybe you would even take a hike, and view a beautiful waterfall?

Well, worry no more. Now you can turn your twitter stream into a waterfall, and never leave your computer. A waterfall of tweets.

Thanks to Twitterfall, you can now picnic in front of a constantly flowing fall of data. I imagine people getting married in front of it, and people putting their tweets in barrels. Awesome.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:34 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, February 24, 2009
the government is not watching you.



Or, at least not from your cable box. There's been a conspiracy theory going around that the government is putting cameras in the DTV converters that they're giving away as a part of the DTV switch.

Software Engineer Adam Chronister decided to have a little fun with that, and made a video "exposing" the camera. As you might imagine, it quickly went viral and fueled the conspiracy theories. He's since come out with his story - which you can now read at Wired.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:38 AM   4 comments



Thursday, February 19, 2009
how cute animals might use your cell phone



Samsung has a new phone with a big, sweet screen. What better way to demonstrate its awesomeness than with a video devoted to how 38 cute animals might utilize such a screen of wonder?

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:31 AM   1 comments



Friday, February 06, 2009
microsoft surface, in the wild



Now you don't have to be Wolf Blitzer to play around with Microsoft Surface. You only need to go to Vegas. Rio Hotel and Casino has installed Microsoft Surface tables at their iBar. It's a reason to visit sin city that won't cost you quarters. Or dollars. Or fifties, depending on how you roll.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:42 AM   0 comments



Thursday, February 05, 2009
google knows you're at the beach



Google just launched Latitude, their new tool that tracks your and your friends locations. Keep track of your husband, your kids or your neighbors. Or follow them around while never leaving your desk.

It works from most mobile devices or your desktop, and has loads of possibilities for marketing promotions, location based promotions or treasure hunts.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 6:55 AM   3 comments



Wednesday, January 28, 2009
drawing on the internet with your voice



Ze Frank is some sort of internet genius. As if he needed to prove that, he created this fun tool that lets you draw pictures with the sound of your voice.

It's harder than it looks, and I couldn't draw anything close to the Ze Frank illustration above. But then again, I'm not an internet genius. Fun for the whole family!

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:14 AM   4 comments



Thursday, January 22, 2009
if twitter were a printer



Tom Taylor rigged up a receipt printer as his personal micro-printer. What a cool idea. You could print notable tweets. Or text directions. Or anything that you might normally fit on an iPhone screen but want on a slip of paper, instead.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:16 AM   3 comments



Tuesday, January 20, 2009
projectable bike paths



Somebody has dreamed up a projectable bike lane. So there's a lane of safety wherever you ride. Of course, we need this for runners, too. But what about marketers? This could be an awesome tool for street teams - on bikes or on foot. Messages displayed on streets ahead of, or behind their senders.

This is not a product that's available today - but certainly all they need is some sweet startup money from you to make it happen. What are you waiting for? Ideas are ready.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM   0 comments



Monday, January 12, 2009
CES. more than big ass flat screen tv's.



Tired of the CES coverage that's limited to just flat screen tv's and mobile phones? NOTCOT has covered the other side of CES. Actually, the other side of Vegas.

Be sure to check out their visit to Alien Fresh Jerky or The Griffin when you're in the humdrum "I'm bored" part of your day today.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:38 AM   0 comments



Friday, January 09, 2009
Introducing friday flakes



We're going to try this podcast thing. Here's our goal:
+ A quick ten minute-ish clip from the makers of Brand Flakes for Breakfast.
+ Hosted each week by two Plaid employees, and posted every Friday.
+ A little bit about the industry, cool stuff we've noticed, and life at Plaid.
+ Un-rehearsed, quick and dirty, no editing, just sit down and chat.

Our first episode is above. This week, we talk about:
+ Returning from a long, long holiday break.
+ CES and MacWorld
+ Robert Scoble stuck on a bus.
+ David Armano makes social media magic.

And we highlight three posts we thought were interesting this week:
- A cool way to do testimonials
- Some new thinking on "free"
- How not to be a tweetscumbag

We've already torn the first episode to pieces and know what we'll do better next week. This is absolutely a work in progress. But what about you? What should we do more of? Less of? Get better at?

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 2:05 PM   7 comments



Monday, December 08, 2008
the cool bloggers have pop up stores



Popular tech blog Gizmodo setup a pop up space in New York, to showcase some of the most awesome gadgets in the history of gadgetry.

Part art, part promotion, part "this has got to be more fun than Christmas shopping", the event took place Thursday through Sunday, so you've missed it. (Yeah, only the cool people made it to the show.) The rest of us can check out the pics here.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:25 AM   0 comments




poken: different than poking someone on facebook



And it's not like Pokemon, either. Poken is this new device that lets you trade your social media contact info with other Poken users through electronic transfer. You just touch your Poken to their Poken (yeah, I know how that sounds) and the magic stuff happens. Then you plug your Poken into your computer, and get all of your contact's details.

This would be really cool if everyone that was anyone already had a Poken. But can you imagine being the only guy at the party with a Poken? Excuse me, would you like to touch my Poken?

Idea: Give them to every registrant at SXSW. If they have any chance of taking off, that's the crowd. That's the place. That's the time.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:20 AM   2 comments



Monday, December 01, 2008
stop stepping all over my email



Ringo is a sweet new interface design concept by Ivan Tihienko.

We hope that by now, someone with a load of cash has paid mcmillions to Ivan, and he's developing this. Because I really, really, really want an arrow to follow me around wherever I go, like a personal GPS. And I'd like to setup my entire desktop in the parking lot of a big retail store, and call it my office. C'mon let's get going on this.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:49 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, November 25, 2008
put video in the surfaces within your video.



Ummm...this is just utterly amazing. Insert ads - or any kind of content that you want - into any surface in any existing video. The possibilities are beyond ridiculously exciting.

Watch the clip above to be blown away by the technology as well as the dude's cool accent where he says 'advertisments' in a totally awesome way.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:26 AM   2 comments



Friday, November 21, 2008
let's reinvent television, ok?



Super nice guy/boy genius - Brian Shaler has been working on a pretty awesome project.

BitGravity just released the killerest video application that allows up to six different synchronized high definition video streams at once. Viewers can switch between views, and the audio is synchronized.

Ohhhhh, the possibilities. We could produce magnificently creative wonder productions that will make you look at your tv and laugh out loud, saying "one screen?? Puhleeze."

Watch a demo here. We're chomping at the bit to produce for this, and can't wait to see it in action.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:47 AM   2 comments



Tuesday, November 18, 2008
what your neighbors are doing on youtube



Thanks to YouTube's new geolocation feature, you can now search videos by the location from where they were uploaded. Curious about what the next door neighbor is doing on video?

There's a rough demo of the technology (you'll need to install Google Gears), and it works pretty well.

This creates some really fun promotional opportunities. Contests, treasure hunts, the possibilities are endless. (And snooping on your neighbors is always cool, too.) Thanks Giuli!!

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:14 AM   2 comments




the cool bloggers have camera eyes



An artist in San Francisco who lost her eye a few years ago has put out a call to engineers to help design a new camera eye replacement. She's working with her doctor, and has some pretty aggressive specs/requirements for the camera eye.

Soon, everyone will have them, and will be streaming live. Maybe your coworkers already have them. Or that lady at Starbucks this morning. They're watching. Recording. And blogging.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:12 AM   1 comments



Tuesday, November 11, 2008
finally a car that you can take naps in. while driving.



Volkswagen has launched a new campaign, and the accompanying site will tell you all about some sweet new features in the latest models.

By far the best technology ever invented has to be Lane Assist. Some Volkswagen magic that keeps your car on the road and in the proper lane. So now you can finally catch up on that much needed sleep time, while heading home after a long day. From Adverblog.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:49 AM   1 comments



Thursday, November 06, 2008
star wars is here



There's something that's been the topic of every conversation in every workplace the last couple of days. Something that millions of people watched live on Tuesday night. Of course, we're talking about the holographic reporters on CNN.

If you didn't see them, imagine that Star Wars technology exists. And that Wolf Blitzer is Luke Skywalker. (And if that's true, then Larry King is definitely Darth Vader.)

Anyway, Wired has an excellent rundown on all of the amazing television political graphics witnessed during Election 2008, and the technology that makes them possible.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:33 AM   0 comments




get lost in nyc



To many, a 5000 foot maze in the middle of a warehouse in NYC just reads "fire trap." But since everything they do over at Eyebeam generally rocks, we trust that the Underground Mixer this weekend will be a safe, fun place to meet cool people and see some great art/performance/technology. All in one friendly place.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:20 AM   0 comments



Monday, November 03, 2008
video displays that are almost paper



These would be sweeeet at retail, in store displays, at the gas pump, and a marketer's delight. Imagine retail shelf talkers coming to life, point of purchase displays animating and marketers rejoicing.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:36 AM   0 comments



Monday, October 27, 2008
location based social networking just got better



BrightKite, the location based social network just launched two handy new features: a wall that allows you to monitor anything happening around a specific place or event (this opens up some really cool promotional opportunities), and an iPhone application!

Check it out. Unless your life is like mine, and your BrightKite stream would read:
Home, breakfast
Office
Office, lunch
Office
Office
Office
Home, dinner
Home

But your brand is more exciting than that. What events could you be sharing, or pulling people together for, or connecting in new ways? Where are you??

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:05 AM   1 comments




everything's changing and design is important



Not only is this a most beautious presentation, it's right on the mark, too. Nice work by Chris Wilson and the crew at Hester Designs.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:00 AM   2 comments



Tuesday, September 16, 2008
lite brite 2.0



You'd think that Lite Brite couldn't possibly be made better. But what if you increased the resolution? (By adding more pegs.) What if you added animated LED light sequences?

This is the Lite Brite that your parents never had. If you can't afford the roughly $100 price tag of the new awesome brite, I suggest that you just play this video at full volume from your cube today. Play it over and over and over again, until your coworkers begin to feel sorry for you, and want to put you out of your misery.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:31 AM   0 comments



Monday, September 15, 2008
tech crunch 50. the yammering starts now.



Now that TechCrunch 50 is over, it's time to review the list and see what's hot, what's happening and what works.

The big winner in the bunch is Yammer - a Twitterish tool made just for the people within your company. This has got to be a wonderous tool for big companies, but we think it has value for small firms, too. We're using it to share quick ideas, thoughts and stuff that might not be worthy of a group email, but worthy of discussion or chat. Other firms seem to be doing the same.

We've done a quick review (meaning we looked at the descriptions and clicked through to the sites) of the other TechCrunch 50 companies, and here's the stuff we like:

Schryk
LiveHit
Devunity
OtherInBox
Me-trics
iCharts
Dropbox
Closet Couture
TrueCar

Want to learn more? Watch all of the videos. It's the next best thing to being there. Interesting side note: All the good urls are gone. If you're starting a brand, it's almost a necessity to invent a word, or have a url that's a string of words.

What are you loving from the fab 50?

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:46 AM   0 comments



Wednesday, September 10, 2008
shopping robots are here!



Uniqlo, my favorite store in the world, is getting robots. Not t-shirts with robots. Not cardboard cutouts of robots. But real-life shopping robots. They're coming to the Uniqlo Soho NYC store this fall.

While I'm more stoked than ever to see robots in retail, it poses many questions. Won't they require handlers? And then, what's the difference between a robot and a Disney character? If they don't have handlers, what's to prevent funny hyjinx like someone putting pants over the robot's head? Not that I would pull such a hilarious stunt, but I'm just wondering.

See you at Uniqlo.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:05 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, September 09, 2008
esquire and ford get electric



Just in case you don't pay attention to paper based products, or visit a newstand, Esquire did something pretty awesome yesterday. They've released the first ever digital ink magazine. And it features the very first e-ink ad - for the Ford Flex.

They've utilized the same e-ink technology as the Amazon Kindle. Wired doesn't like it. (Jealous?) They do have one point though - People who actually subscribe to Esquire won't be getting the light-up-my-life cover. (Way to punish your fans.)

It's getting massive buzz and water cooler chat, which probably makes it all worthwhile for Esquire and Ford. There are only 100K copies - so you'd better hurry if you want one. What could you be doing with e-ink?

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:16 AM   0 comments



Monday, September 08, 2008
what the cool geeks are doing this week




TechCrunch50 kicks off today, and for the next couple of days attendees will see presentations from 50 of the potentially hottest companies in the business.

This is where the up and comers go to get noticed. This is where a bunch of venture capitalists go and throw money. This is where deals are made and relationships are formed.

At least, that's what I'm lead to believe from all of the hype, the website, the blog and the friends/clients that we know on their way there. If you're too lame to score tickets (like me), no worries. uStream will cover everything that you need to see, live.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:41 AM   0 comments



Thursday, August 21, 2008
turning the unbox into an event



If you can't make a phone that competes with the iPhone, perhaps you can make an unboxing experience that competes with the iPhone.

Here's the unboxing of the Samsung Omnia phone that's making the rounds. From Screwdriver, via Twitter.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:13 AM   0 comments



Tuesday, August 19, 2008
is that a cell phone in your pocket?



Aram Bartholl is starting a new line of vintage style jeans. Showing their cell phone 'memories'.

What a cool way to illustrate mobile history. Imagine a shot of a vintage shop, with a rack of vintage jeans, all sporting their cell phone history. Of course if baggy jeans come back in style, they'll have to feature images of those lunchbox size 1987 cell phones on them. That would be hot.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:31 AM   0 comments



Thursday, August 14, 2008
self destructing notes. the opposite of viral.



Bub.blicio.us has found a cool tool that will appeal to the secret agent inside you.

With Privnote, you can write a note, send it to your friend, and it will automatically self destruct after they've read it.

What a cool idea to incorporate this into a promotion. Create something special and unique for the user, while encouraging quick action because they'll never ever see the message again. So many possibilities.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:44 AM   0 comments



Thursday, August 07, 2008
cell phones: not what you think they're for.



You might be surprised at what the most used features on cell phones are. Not sure what the source for this information is (or the demographics surveyed), but it's interesting nonetheless. Calling is out. Calculating is in.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:07 AM   0 comments



Wednesday, August 06, 2008
tweet your bank account



Here's an innovative use of Twitter - by the financial industry.

Wesabe, a financial planning/organizational tool now allows you to tweet your Wesabe account, and record notes about transactions. Just bought lunch with a client? Tweet "add to business expense" and you'll be able to sort it all out later. From best Twitter friend Ben Kunz.

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posted by darryl ohrt @ 8:21 AM   1 comments







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