Stay Hungry , Stay Foolish!!

Brilliant example of how Air China used Social Media in Sweden

2012-01-22T23:04:00.001+05:30

A brilliant example of a campaign by Air China which demonstrates how to raise awareness, peak interest and prompt engagement with the 'Air China' brand in Sweden.

Check in with Air China - Case Movie from Rodolfo on Vimeo.

Aam aadmi ka 'Mango' phone :P

2012-01-15T20:17:00.001+05:30

Since my old warhorse (Sony Ericsson) was ageing I thought of buying a smartphone.

My range was very clear that it was not going to be anywhere over 20K so started exploring, to be honest I was really bored with what was on offer in Android. So I thought of trying the soon to launched Windows Phone Mango based smart-phones, had heard rave reviews of the display and the new Metro UI.

I checked out the Lumia 800 and 710 (This one was in my range :P ) but kind of felt that the 710 was quite a lot of plastic so thought waiting for the Samsung Omnia W. My wait ended on the first day of 2012 with my Impulse getting the better out of me and I bought one.

Needless to say I am a bit surprised with the feature packed phone and pissed with some features of it :)

Samsung Omnia W

Display and UI : Well the Metro UI is a refreshing change form the routine :) 10 / 10 from me. Also the Super AMOLED is at par with Nokia Lumia 800. The keyboard and predictive text is better than Android 2.3

Games: A host of Free and Paid games on the Windows Marketplace the Xbox Live Companion and games like Breeze and Shuffle look quite cool.

Browsing: I feel that though we have moved on to Chrome on Desktops. IE 9 on WP7 is one of the brightest spots simply AWESOME !! It also offers you both the Normal and Mobile mode so you can save on your data plans accordingly :)

Marketplace: Its got mostly what you need, my personal favorites are Tango, Foursquare (Its way better than BB and Android), Microsoft Research Apps (Academic assistant and Face Swap), and IMDB. Still the marketplace is way way behind Apple and Android, will surely improve over time.

MS Office: Good for viewing and editing documents :)

Skydrive: 25GB of free storage, its awesome.

People Hub & Groups: Its one of the major highlights everywhere and one of the best features of this version of Windows Mango. The groups let you arrange all your contact in a fantastic manner.

Battery: Really sucks! Have heard of an update coming out in late Jan 2012 which will improve the same. The only respite is its battery saver option :(

Camera: I found the Omnia's camera packing quite a punch!! The pics and videos :)

Bing Search and Maps: Lets be honest you can't expect it to be better than Google, but the search feature is quite good. Bing Maps on the other hand are simply pathetic, same is true for the voice search where it is only able to detect words like 'Help' and 'New York'. The only positive highlight here is the Bing Vision which is an Integrated Text , Barcode and QR Code scanner. I must admit that Bing vision packs a punch !!

Music Sync: It is done using Zune and I have mixed feelings for it :/ It crashed my computer quite often has some very cool Sync Options. I found the Wireless Sync very cool !!

I would rate the phone and Windows Mango as 8/10.

Images to Enjoy :)

My Workstation

Audi Football Summit 2012

And there is a Video too !

Here is a much detailed review of the same, from Phonearena.com :)

Augmented Reality & Social Media

2011-12-15T15:37:00.001+05:30

A look at some of the successful attempts:

NGC Augmented Reality: http://player.vimeo.com/video/31479392?autoplay=1

Mickey Mouse:

AXA Insurance AR:

Ice Cream :: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2010/06/21/Unilever-Smile-Happy-Ice-Cream-Promo.aspx

Goodbuzz Case Studies: http://mygoodbuzz.blogspot.com/2011/11/increasing-value-of-augmented-reality.html

Ebay Christmas App: !

App Shaker :: https://www.facebook.com/appshakerUK?sk=friendactivity

Some more Case Studies: http://www.invokemedia.com/augmented-reality-better-than-regular-reality/

One more Video: http://player.vimeo.com/video/30432530?autoplay=1

Stock Trading & Social Media

2011-11-28T14:47:00.001+05:30

http://mashable.com/2009/09/11/banks-social-media/

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/investment-banks-profit-from-social-media-bonanza-2011-05-19

http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/170115/Social-Media-for-Investment-Banking-and-wealth-managers---BNY-Mellon

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/features/investment-world/market-strategy/article2642618.ece

http://www.titantrading.com/in-the-news/110504-wall-street-traders-mine-tweets-to-gain-a-trading-edge.html

http://mashable.com/2011/04/27/wall-street-social-media/

Best Sm Campaigns of 2011

2011-11-28T00:02:00.001+05:30

Events, Trading & Social Media

2011-11-27T23:17:00.001+05:30

http://mashable.com/2010/02/09/promote-offline-event/

http://mashable.com/2009/12/09/5-tips-online-friendships/

http://www.eventmanagerblog.com/marketing/successful-events-promotion

http://inklingmedia.net/2010/03/05/12-tips-on-promoting-events-via-social-media/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Shopping_Festival

http://www.valuenotes.com/ [Finance Trading]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_market

http://www.angelcommodities.com/

Interesting Bookmarks for Augmented Reality & SMO

2011-11-24T18:35:00.001+05:30

Book Marks :

http://www.toputop.com/

http://www.kiranvoleti.com/

http://www.realareal.com/kinect-platform-augmented-reality-shopping-experience

http://labs.laan.com/

http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/04/kinect-ipad-combo-takes-augmented-reality-to-th...

Cycling Route

2011-09-30T15:25:00.000+05:30

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Xbox 360 & Media Sharing on a WiFi Network

2011-09-25T23:31:00.000+05:30

[Note: This is not a regular walkthrough of the process, anyways its very simple :) If you face a problem get in touch or visit xbox.com/pcsetup ]

I was sort of bored of playing games on my Xbox when I thought of trying out connecting the console with my Laptop so that I could listen my favorite songs and of course watch a whole set of my favorite documentaries on the Big Screen :)

Windows Media Center

To connect a Xbox 360 you just need to follow the following simple steps:

Create a Ad-hoc wireless network
Join the Ad-hoc network.
Now on the Xbox dashboard go to the media center option.
Now enter the 8 digit code (This needs to be entered on the computer you are trying to connect with)
Complete the extender setup.
Tadaa !! The files are shared, also you can access all media files on your computer.

You can also refer here:

xBox 360 Unleashed :)

2011-07-29T17:29:00.000+05:30

Clickcraft Photo Meetup :)

2011-07-22T11:52:00.001+05:30

View Larger Map

Check out here : http://www.facebook.com/clickcraft

Tweet Tweet :)

2011-07-20T17:02:00.000+05:30

Latest Strip ... Ooops COmic Strip !!

2011-07-14T13:53:00.001+05:30

Awesome comic strips @XKCD

2011-07-14T12:31:00.001+05:30

The Big Fight: Facebook vs Google+

2011-07-07T22:38:00.000+05:30

This screen-cast shows how to use the sparkling new Facebook video chat where its taking on Google+ Hangout !

BrandBashing 101

2011-07-05T20:20:00.000+05:30

Now this comes at a time when I am truly frustrated with the support and work ethics of communication companies like Reliance and Airtel. It seems the only work which these guys have is to dupe and make a mockery of hardworking people.

I have shifted to my new house in Dwarka, New Delhi and am not able to even have a descent broadband connection. I mean can it be so tough to get an unlimited download pack !!

The story of my horrible experience started on 1st June when I applied for transferring my then Airtel broadband connection , and still continues as now Reliance Communication has taken lead and shown why they love to dupe customers and dupe people of their money.

More to come shortly as I explore why communication companies are not able communicate !

But Till Then Beware : Reliance Wimax is not dependable at all ! Surely when it comes from the petty sales guys.

Once Upon a Time in Jaipur :)

2011-06-28T16:35:00.002+05:30

Xbox 360 is coming.... :)

2011-06-12T20:44:00.001+05:30

My much awaited Xbox 360 will be coming this week :) I am really excited, Really tempted to buy the kinect too :P Should I ? Should I Not !!

Prakash Jha is back with his latest .... Aarakshan

2011-06-10T13:22:00.002+05:30

Prakash Jha's Aarakshan is the story of Prabhakar Anand (Amitabh Bachchan), the legendary idealistic principal of a college that he has single-handedly turned into the state’s best. It is the story of his loyal disciple, Deepak Kumar (Saif Ali Khan) who will do anything for his Sir. Of Deepak’s love for Prabhakar’s daughter, Poorbi (Deepika Padukone), of his friendship with Sushant (Prateik). It is the story of their love, their lively friendship, their zest for life, and of their dreams for the future.

Sure Looks an interesting Movie ... Here's the trailer..

Dumb The "Firness" Cream

2011-05-11T14:45:00.000+05:30

Awesome spoof on the Dove fairness advertisments :) Must watch.

Dark 'Spoof' Knight

2011-05-09T13:03:00.000+05:30

Some ~~cool~~ cult spoofed Youtube videos for Dark Knight :)

This one's ~~great~~ awesome !!

2011-05-06T12:47:00.003+05:30

The Daily Show - To Kill a Mockingturd - Pervez Musharraf Lies About Osama bin Laden
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

State of Internet

2011-04-28T23:33:00.000+05:30

Source:http://leaflette.org/2010/06/79-totally-awesome-infographics-creative/

Dog: Man’s Best Facebook Friend, Too?

2011-04-03T20:39:00.002+05:30

Found out a pretty cool infographic on Mashable which explores the relationship between Facebook, dogs, and those who love them. Enjoy the infographic :)

[Source: http://mashable.com/2011/03/05/facebook-dogs/]

Plug-and-Play Social Rewards to your Portal

2011-03-25T15:59:00.001+05:30

Quick Pitch: Badgeville is a social rewards and analytics platform designed to increase, maintain and influence loyalty for online publishers.

Genius Idea: Applications and web services that reward users through activity-based bonuses like badges and reputation tokens are very trendy right now. These game mechanics encourage repeat behavior, inspire user engagement and reward loyalty.

Badgeville was built to be a plug-and-play solution for publishers wishing to add these social rewards to their services without the heavy lifting.

Badgeville is a just-add-water way to reward your app users or site visitors for their actions. Publishers can define the user behaviors they want to reward and attach points, badges, trophies, levels, status and other forms of reputation to these behaviors.

Badgeville :)

Should a user “unlock” an achievement, those tokens can be shared to Facebook and Twitter, and users can earn more points in the process. Publishers can also highlight user behaviors through real-time activity streams, leaderboards or friends graphs that rank users against their friends. There’s also a Badgeville API for deeper site or app integration.

Obviously, the idea is to use Badgeville’s platform to motivate users to take additional actions and spread the word about products or services as they level up or earn elevated status. As a user, these additional elements may turn an otherwise stale experience into a competitive sport. So users can prove their ultimate fan status for a blog, website or application they love and get digital rewards in the process. Who doesn’t appreciate a little recognition from time to time?

Badgeville is fresh on the scene but has $250,000 in seed funding and a client list that includes SlideShare, Comcast Sports and Philly.com. We find the idea to be promising, but we also see the potential for badges, reputation and rewards to lose their luster once they become commonplace.

Online designer fashion retailer Bluefly has partnered with social rewards startup Badgeville to add social gaming into its website experience.

Bluefly will be rewarding customers for onsite shopping behaviors including watching videos, reading blog posts, writing reviews or creating wishlists. The idea is to turn shoppers into Bluefly-engaged fashion gamers.
“Players” will earn badges, based on their behaviors, that highlight their various fashion credentials. The more badges earned, and the higher quality, the better chance the Bluefly shopper will have at unlocking tangible rewards that come in the form of early access to products, badge-holder specials and discounts.
“At Bluefly, our customers are highly engaged in the world of fashion. They are voting on celebrity styles; they are talking with each other on our site to discuss outfits. Our goal is to look for innovative ways to foster that passion and to create opportunities for interaction,” says Bluefly CEO Melissa Payner. “The partnership with Badgeville is a great addition to our site because social games incentivize our customers for their interactions — interactions which we see as a key component of growing and strengthening the Bluefly community.”
While its unknown how shoppers will react to the new system, Bluefly, if successful in converting its customers into more engaged shoppers, has an opportunity to be a trendsetter among its fashion retail competitors.
The deal is also a win for Badgeville; the young startup already has competitors such as Bunchball in the white label social gaming space. This particular partnership should help Badgeville stand out and attract more top-tier clientele.

Both Bluefly and Badgeville are mum on whether money exchanged hands as the partnership was formed.

References:
1) Mashable