Sunday, April 15, 2007

Mobile - Text a book!



Wattpad is all about reading and sharing stories on your mobile phone. You can upload whatever you want to share - a story, an essay or a joke, and then read it on your phone or send it to your friends via SMS.

The service is available in multiple languages, but I haven't tested it yet to see if it supports the UAE carriers - I like it anyway.

http://www.wattpad.com

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Mobile - Youtube goes mobile!



GiigagOM posted a couple of weeks back that YouTube will launch its mobile website in May 2007 for the European users, and in June for the U.S. users.

"YouTube ToGo will go live once the exclusivity clause on the company’s mobile video deal with Verizon Wireless expires. YouTube has been already working closely with mobile carriers, and handset makers such as Nokia on the mobile version of their video service... The mobile site when it goes live will have around 800 “editorial picks” of videos to choose from."

http://gigaom.com/2007/03/27/mobile-youtube/

Web - Coke sues Coke zero



Here's a new microsite for Coca-Cola Zero, brought to you by the Crispin Porter + Bogusky agency. The idea behind the site is that Coca-cola is suing Coca-Cola Zero because "it tastes the same". The videos are great, so spend some time watching them. And if you can't crack the code to unlock the safe, you can sue a friend for stealing your taste!

Very well done and entertaining.

http://www.cocacolazero.com

Random - Cassette



As described on the Fred & friends site:
"Time to unwind and rewind with this low-tech cassette tote bag. Full-color printed flexible plastic, complete with handles that look like the tape is unraveling"

The price is unfortunately not listed (or i just didn't look for it enough), but I want one anyway.

http://www.worldwidefred.com/fredlife.htm

Mobile - Museums on the go



A number of museums have teamed up to create Museum On The Go. The site offers images of famous works of art, photographs of historic personalities, sound recordings (and more) for download to mobile devices.

Some of the participating museums are the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Leopold Museum, Sigmund Freud Museum, Austrian Mediathek, Erich Lessing Archive, all based in Vienna.

I can't do anything but smile when I read these names, since I had the chance to visit most of them back in December. Check out the work of Egon Schile.

http://www.museumonthego.com

Buzz - Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968)




Thanks to Google, I learnt today that it was on April 12 1961 that Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2.

According to Wikipedia, Gagarin famously whistled during his flight the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows". He became an instant celebrity, and toured widely around the world to promote the Soviet achievement.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Web - Webby awards nominees



Webby Nominees are officially listed, and the winners will be announced on May 1, 2007. I haven't had the chance to go through all the entries yet, but what I saw so far was quite good.

http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=11

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Web - Rent a wife




Rent a wife (for a better life) is an online rental service recently launched in Belgium. There are different options you can choose from and when you click to go, you’ll end up on... the subscribtion page of an online DVD rental service!

Brilliant concept.

http://www.rentawife.be/fr_home.html

Web - Stripe generator 2.0



The Stripe Generator is a tool for "web 2.0 designers" who want to... generate stripes! Set the spacing, colors, size, background and orientation, then download your pattern to use wherever you want.

Whatever.

http://www.stripegenerator.com

Monday, April 9, 2007

Random - Easter bunny



You could have been a Ninja Easter bunny (for 30$).
Maybe next year...

http://bunnywarez.com/catalog/index.php/cPath/21_30

Random - Night tennis




Play tennis at night with Sony Ericsson!
It's not an advergame, or a website as such, but it's a funky party concept they've replicated in Miami after launching it last year in Spain.

It consists of a tennis court transformed into a night-club (or the other way around): fluo lines, and two tennis players who try to hit the ball in the dark while Paul Oakenfold plays the music! The balls, court, player’s shirts, skirts and shoes are fully UV reactive, and each game is highlighted by light shows.

Sports, clubbin & technology... A perfect combination to hit their hip target audience.

Google - Goog 411



GigaOm reports that Google announced a free 411 service.

"Google Voice Local Search is an experiment on Google Labs that offers free 411-like service. With Google Voice Local Search, you get fully-automated, fast access to same local-business information you would find on Google.com. But you can access it from any phone, anywhere, at anytime.
The local-business information used by Google Voice Local Search is the same as that on Google Maps."

http://labs.google.com/goog411/faq.html

Thoughts - Google idea & frustrations

I'm about to shoot myself, but it's probably not worth it.
On february 12th, I submitted an idea to Google (ha ha ha): Voogle, or Voice Google, to simplify it.

The plan is the following (in a nutshell): you call an 800-Google number, and ask to search for something on the go (another way for people who do not have a wap/gprs connection to find what they are looking for when they are away from their PC).

I'll skip the boring business part that covers hearing advertising to make sure the call is free and the link to the user's google account (the mobile number automatically recognises the user profile and the "voice search" history is updated on the account with links to for more details on the initial query once the user connects).

Receipt number: [#112126502] BizDev Contact Form.

Goog-411 is not quite the same thing, but it just makes me think I might have been on the right track - might.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Random - Office fish tank



If I had a fish, I'd definitely get one of these for 24$...

http://www.redenvelope.com

Monday, April 2, 2007

Random - Office stickers



No comment necessary, except that I'm thinking of ordering some.
http://www.perpetualkid.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2200

Web - Made of Japan


Onitsuka Tiger has recently launched a weird site: a mosaic shoe made of tiny images. When the users click on the images, they are taken to one of the 150 Japan related websites crawled by the site spider (the links are updated every hour, and compose everytime a different shoe model which changes in the color palette depending on the content)

It's not Made in Japan, but made "of" Japan. Good concept (by StrawberryFrog), extremely simple and nicely developed. For all the Japan freaks out there, it's the perfect way to dig into the culture in a fun way.

www.madeofjapan.com

Mobile - Andy Warhol phone



Very exciting news:

"In the continued spirit of celebration of pop culture artist Andy Warhol, Cingular and Nokia have announced the launch of a limited edition Andy Warhol branded camera phone, to be released this summer.

The phone will feature a 3.2 megapixel camera with a zoom for portrait taking and will instantly upload photos to an online gallery, where they will be "warholized".
The cylindric shaped cell phone will be multicolored, reminiscent of his famous Campbell soup can renderings and will come pre-loaded with an image gallery of some his most famous paintings as well as a ringtone that will say in his own voice: "In the future everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes.”

It will be packaged with a numbered print of his "cell phones" painting.
Retail price is expected at $1,500."

Can't wait to see it!

Web - Nikon's Universcale



Nikon's Universcale web application puts the entire universe into proportion, from the smallest particle to the largest measurements of space (it spans 40 magnitudes of measurement).

if you want to feel really, really small, check it out! It's mind blowing.

http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/eng/feelnikon/discovery/universcale/index_f.htm

Web - On Toyota's mind



If you are wondering what's on Toyota's mind or just curious about what goes on in the world of Toyota, then check their new brilliant Swedish website. The information is brought to you through a very entertaining way - and the graphics are gorgeous (done by NorthKingdom, Sweden).

The site is in Swedish, with English translation.
Definitely worth a look!

http://demo.northkingdom.com/ihuvudetpatoyota/index_en.html

Thoughts - Back on track

I've been slacking lately... But I have a good excuse. It was Ezzat's bday, and I was busy concentrating on him as opposed to the rest of the virtual world :)
Anyway, it's all good now. I'm back into fulfilling my mission!