Random Culture

TiVo Redesign

After starting work at the end of last year, the agency I work for (Click Here, the interactive arm of The Richards Group) has just launched a redesigned TiVo.com. It's an honor to work on such a great product and with a great client. Our team here at the agency, as well as the client-side team worked very hard... kudos to everyone!

Friday Fun: Cadbury vs. Sony

It seems that the Cadbury drumming gorilla isn't the only musical monkey. Check out this great ad from 1987 for Sony in Japan...

Link via Hi-Res.

Sony Bravia Play-Doh Ad Released

As a follow-up to the original post, the Sony Bravia Play-Doh ad has been released! Watch it below.

Sony Bravia | Play-Doh
Uploaded by YforYerom

Henry Needle & Sons

Who doesn't want giant pockets to carry around all your gadgets? Henry Needle & Sons has the fashion solution for you... Can you guess what gadget company this microsite has been created for?

Link via Threeminds @ Organic.

Nokia 6133: Which Hand Will Win?

Nokia in Canada has released a nice site for the Nokia 6133. The site revolves around the eternal struggle between the left and right hand over who gets the mobile phone. It includes some fun games pitting one hand against the other. Worth checking out, and make sure you watch the intro video.

The Stupidist Product Ever Made... Ever

Yikes... this is perhaps the strangest commercial ever made, for what can only be described as the stupidest, creepiest, weirdest product ever invented. The WowWee Alive Robotic Chimpanzee Head... Watch the commercial here.

And yes, folks, you can actually buy this thing.

Casio G'zOne

The agency I work for, Click Here, has just launched a website for the new Casio G'zOne phone in the US. If you're not familiar with the phone, it's a waterproof, shockproof phone built to suit the needs of outdoor enthusiasts, or anyone who needs a phone that can take some punishment. Dig around the site to learn a bit more about the phone... look for some hidden easter eggs!

New Bravia Ad: Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek video of the new Sony Bravia ad. The full ad will be launching soon, and when it does, you can find it here. So what's it all about? Well, the video gives you a hint, but AdLand clues us into some of the details:

"They used 70,000 litres of paint, 358 single bottle bombs, 33 sextuple air cluster bombs, 22 Triple hung cluster bombs, 268 mortars, 33 Triple Mortars, 22 Double mortars,358 meters of weld, 330 meters of steel pipe and 57 km of copper wire."

Sony Launches Blog for Bravia Ad

I think this is the first time I've heard of a blog being created for an ad. On the heels of the viral success of their Bravia ad, Sony has launched a blog to track news and updates on the Bravia ad campaign.

Link via Influx Insights.

HP Personal Again

HP has launched a microsite that allows users to upload pictures of themselves that are automatically inserted into a video about HP's "personal" computers. I had some problems uploading a few photos, they were too dark or not the right angle... but the results were good. Many of the other things like this I've seen involve too much editing. This was a simple upload, and nothing else. That was nice, but I still feel like this comes off as a novelty more than anything else. And the videos aren't that interesting.

Try it yourself by visiting the HP Personal Again microsite.

Wheelvertising 2.0

Forget generic images on the hubcabs of taxi cabs as advertising... there's something even better now. The "pimp star" from Dub Wheels is a new wheel with LEDs that allows you to load images on your wheels as you drive down the street. Learn more about it at Customwheel.com. According to the site:

"With the PimpStar's built-in full color LED lights, microprocessor and wireless modem, you can display virtually any image, including text, graphics, logos, and even digital photos!"

Make sure you check out this video of them in action. Pretty impressive, but they'll cost you.

Philips Viral: Ambilight

Philips in the UK has launched a site ala "subservient chicken" to promote its "Ambilight" series of TVs. They're the flat screens that emit ambient light, using a color similar to the image being shown onscreen. For this viral initiative, Philips gives the TV a "sexy lady" personality, and you have to "seduce" her by answering 4 questions, after which you're prompted to give an email address and name to find out if you're the proud winner of your own Ambilight TV.

I was pretty disappointed with the site. The questions are irrelevant, and other than some very basic logic, the answers you get seem as if they ignored what you typed in.

Link via Adrants.

The Samsung D600 Mystery

Samsung has launched a new site for the D600. It's a great looking site that's got good interactivity as well. Users must solve a mystery, and at the same time learn about the features of the phone. And it looks like a pretty nice phone. Oh yeah, this site is NOT for the faint of bandwidth.

Site by Perfect Fools, out of Stockholm. You may recognize some of their other work.

Sony Bravia Advert

You may have seen or heard about the behind-the-scenes photos of thousands of multi-colored rubber bouncing balls being dropped down a street in San Francisco for the making of a commercial....

Well now you can see the finished product from Sony.

CNET Free Online Courses

CNET is now offering free online courses through Help.com. The first course is to help people learn all about HDTV. Upcoming courses include Photoshop, Powerpoint, plasma tvs, building a gaming computer, and much more.

HP's Fake TV Blog

Oh man... HP has launched a blog for their TV efforts, ilovemyhptv.com.

It's a great looking blog, but sadly, HP has taken the low road and opted for creating a "fake" blog. Does HP expect that people will really believe this a blog being written by "Ted - HPTV Aficionado?" I hope not.

For example... how plausible is the following statement: "...this is my blog. I’m going to tell you all about my experiences shopping, buying, and getting my new HP TV delivered straight to my den."

Really Ted? I don't believe you.

If the writing isn't enough to convince you, then notice that EVERY link off the site points to an HP property. Why does HP feel like they can't just have an honest conversation with the consumer about their product?

Dell Viral: DellDitty.com

Dell has launched a new site, DellDitty.com, to promote their MP3 player. The site features "instructional" videos from a character named "Mitch Ferrence." He's basically your annoying, clueless run of the mill viral character... They're kind of funny, and the site is well done, but I'm not sure what this really does for Dell.

Link via AdFreak.

CVS Camcorder Hacking

Enterprising users are already figuring out how to hack the "disposable" camcorder from CVS. That didn't take long.

Link via MAKE: Blog.

Printf() and DAT Politics

Printf() is, according to the site:

"a recently formed organization whose goal is to bring electronic musicians and new media artists to perform, exhibit, and lecture in Dallas, Texas."

The first performance is happening this Thursday, and will feature "French Laptop Trio" DAT Politics, and Tree Wave, a similar local music project. This looks to be a pretty interesting event.

In addition, on the Printf() site, they link to a video for DAT Politics that is a must see... Really catchy music, absurd visuals... what more could you ask for? Watch the DAT Politics video here.

Link via Dave.

Apple Notebooks to Include GPS, Eventually

This Slashdot article mentions the possibility of Apple eventually including a tiny pencil eraser-sized GPS tracker in their laptops.

Using a very simple user interface, you can define locations. Sitting at your desk, you tell your laptop to refer to that location as "work." Any file created within a 100-yard radius of that location will be returned in a search for "work." On your couch you define a location called "home." Sitting at the coffee shop you define a location called "Starbucks." And so on.

Now your computer knows not only when you modified that file, it knows where you were when you did it. That's all metadata you can use for searching.

Okay, it's about time for me to trade in my monolithic PC laptop for greener lap-pastures.  All those creepy pictures I drew while stalking around Cameron Diaz' house could have been tagged as "Cam's House" and would be easily searchable.

I can imagine some hackers making some pretty great little toys with an embedded GPS in the laptops.  For example, how about a little app that sends Cameron Diaz "I'm in your neighborhood and I thought I'd drop by" emails every time I'm near "Cam's House."  Of course this is all assuming Apple exposes those GPS APIs, and they seem to be pretty good about that stuff.

Maeda: Consumer Infotronics

John Maeda has a great post on his SIMPLICITY blog about what he's calling "consumer infotronics." Basically, it's the software in consumer electronic devices. It's not just about making a pretty device, which is about as far as companies like Sony have progressed. This is a great read, and hints at what we might expect from some consumer electronics companies in the future... Here's a short excerpt:

"Apple's a software company. They had the lucky accident of a consumer electronics device that glommed into the rich and luscious matrix of Apple's clever backend computing infrastructure. Apple people love good software. Sony and other companies in the consumer electronics category have yet to feel the love for software. They are all stuck in the age of consumer electronics, and haven't made it to the new era of consumer infotronics."