Rick's shared items in Google Reader

HTML5's Brave New Web Coming Soon, When Browsers Improve

2009-11-17T18:37:00Z

According to Philippe Le Hegaret, head of the HTML5 Working Group at the W3C, challenges relating to video, animation and adoption across all browsers means we may not see HTML5 adopted on a wide scale until 2011.

Citibank Launches Dedicated iPhone Application

2009-03-02T22:52:34Z

Earlier today, Citibank launched a dedicated iPhone app (iTunes link) powered by mFoundry. Previously, certain Citi cardholders could use the Firethorn iPhone app, but there was no App Store listing under the Citi brand.

The app, which is free to download, is currently number 10 in the App Store Finance (free) category. It will likely rise to the top, at least briefly, as Citi customers download the app.

The app is featured on the Citi homepage today (see first screenshot below) and is front and center on the Citi Mobile landing page (second screenshot below). The bank has also posted a nine-screen demo of the app here (see inset).

Anyone that's ever used a mobile website will appreciate the Citi login screen (see inset below). A jumbo-sized numerical keypad is included below the signin area to make typing the PIN easier on the small screen.

The Citi application does the usual four functions:

check balances
transfer funds
pay bills
find Citi branches and ATMs

The bank wisely informs users that their iPhone access can be deactivated immediately in the event of a lost or stolen phone by calling its toll-free number.

With this launch, four of the 10 largest U.S. consumer banks have a dedicated presence in the Apple App Store: Bank of America, Chase, and PNC Bank.

Citibank homepage features the iPhone app (2 March 2009)

Left: Landing page for Citi Mobile (link, 2 March 2009)

The Citibank application page in the iTunes App Store (link, 2 March 2009)

Note:
1. See our Online Banking Report on Mobile Banking for more information on the market.

100 Minutes Of Havana

2009-03-02T22:32:23Z

If the Sharks and the Jets had been armed with paintbrushes, they may have ended up in a battle like 100 Minutes Of Havana, an art duel at Village Underground that pits two teams of acclaimed artists against each other in race to see who can create the best wall mural in 100 minutes.

Sponsored by Havana Club rum, the beguiling competition is set in motion by design studio Intercity and Secret Wars art battle proponent Monorex. Equipped with nothing more than colored acrylics and Edding pens, the artists will show their skills as they celebrate Cuban culture and street art on the 40ft wide wall.

A projection of the above logo will be used as the timer, with each circle representing one minute. The end results will be judged by a panel of experts in addition to the crowd vote, which will be a measurement of decibels. Both murals will be on display at the East London venue from 5-10 March, alongside key pieces from the 100 Pieces of Havana exhibition.

100 Minutes of Havana
Village Underground
4 March 2009, 7pm
London EC2A 3PQ map
tel. +44 0207 426 0616

The Internet of Things in 2020

2009-02-22T12:37:42Z

In February 2008, the European Commission and an European industry working group (EPoSS) held a workshop on the Internet of Things, involving more than 80 experts from universities, research centres and private companies such as France Telecom, Hitachi, Lufthansa, Philips Research, and Telenor.

A report, published in September 2008, draws the conclusions of the workshop and incorporates the views and opinions of many experts who were consulted over the six months that followed the workshop.

I was only made aware of the report last week when one of the editors - Alessandro Bassi of Hitachi Europe - presented its insights during a European Commission Info Day on Internet of Things research that I attended [and that Experientia is keen on participating in]. Now having read it, I can highly recommend this short, well-written document as quite a good introduction to the current state of affairs (even though it is meanwhile five months old).

Starting off with an overview of the technological issues themselves, the report immediately points out the barriers (absence of governance, privacy and security) before even highlighting its possible applications. The final chapters are again devoted to societal issues, with an emphasis on policy, people and environmental aspects.

Executive summary (excerpt)

There will be no limit to the actions and operations these smart “things” will be able to perform: for instance, devices will be able to direct their transport, adapt to their respective environments, self-configure, self-maintain, self-repair, and eventually even play an active role in their own disposal.

To reach such a level of ambient intelligence, however, major technological innovations and developments will need to take place. Governance, standardisation and interoperability are absolute necessities on the path towards the vision of things able to communicate with each other. In this respect, new power efficient, security centred and fully global communication protocols and sustainable standards must be developed, allowing vast amount of information to be shared amongst things and people. The ability of the smart devices to withstand any kind of harsh environment and harvest energy from their surroundings becomes crucial. Furthermore, a major research issue will be to enable device adaptation, autonomous behaviour, intelligence, robustness, and reliability. The general organisational architecture of intelligent “things” will be of fundamental importance: whether it should be centralised or totally distributed.

Another central issue of the Internet of Things will be related to trust, privacy and security, not only for what concerns the technological aspects, but also for the education of the people at large. The growing data demand and higher data transfer rates will require stronger security models employing context related security, which in return will help the citizens to build trust and confidence in these novel technologies rather than increasing fears of total surveillance scenarios. The dissemination of the benefits that these technologies can bring to the general public will also be essential for the success of this technology on the market. The real advantages of the IoT have to be shown convincingly, all citizens’ concerns must be addressed and taken into account when developing innovative solutions and proposals.

Download report

danah boyd's dissertation on social networks and the American teen

2009-01-19T18:34:30Z

an essential read, she interviewed and observed hundreds of teens across 16 states, tracking the rise of Myspace and Facebook in the process

Choccywoccydoodah Chocolatier

2009-01-08T23:21:56Z

On a recent trip to London we felt the beach calling and headed south to Brighton, where we discovered Choccywoccydoodah. Meandering the streets of the seaside town, we came upon a shop with strange sculptures in the window and it took a minute to sort out that the shining Victorian skull wasn't in fact made of porcelain, it was 100% Belgian chocolate.

Known as the couturiers of chocolate, Choccywoccydoodah creates bespoke wedding cakes using a secret recipe passed down three generations and one-off sculptured fantasies, adorned with chocolate flowers comprised of nothing but chocolate, unlike most places who use fondant or glycerine. For sillier moments, they also make chocolate covered popcorn lollipops and naughty-inspired chocolate bars, perfect for birthday parties or gag gifts—all designed and handmade in their studio in Brighton.

A classy way to experience the chocolate bohemia is at their choccywoccyboudoir, where you can hole up with nine of your friends and intimately gorge yourselves on pure hot chocolate, chocolate cakes, milkshakes, truffles, Turkish delight and more.

What we love most about the free spirited chocolatiers is their commitment to quality and innovation, always seeking out new processes and inspiration in order to keep things exciting in the shop and in your mouth.

Stop by their shop or their bar du chocolate in Brighton, or check out their selection of goodies at Liberty in London.

(Exclusive) Uniqlo - Ask your customers !

2009-01-09T00:11:00Z

After winning the Cannes Lions Titanium award in 2008, I have been keeping an eye on Japanese clothing company Uniqlo.

Uniqlo’s latest web site is technically and strategically inspiring. They have asked 343 of their customers about their likes and dislikes in general, and specifically about bra tops. As you watch the site, the video thumbnails of 343 woman fly around the screen, forming patterns and images, as zoomed-in videos of different woman answer questions on the screen, such as “How much do you spend on clothes?”, What is your favourite magazine?” and “Where do you wear bra tops?”.

The site can be viewed in Japanese and English, and allows you so focus on women of specific body shapes or age.

Focusing a site on Uniqlo’s customers, their habits and likes, creates a community. Anyone watching it immediately feels part of the Uniqlo tribe. As with past Uniqlo promotions the site does not directly sell the product on the site – rather it creates interest to then seek out the online shop. Clever.

Website : http://www.uniqlo.com/try/

[tankstudio]

CES: Ford Sync, a Ford feature with lots of local hands involved (Benjamin J. Romano/Microsoft Pri0)

2009-01-09T09:50:04Z

Benjamin J. Romano / Microsoft Pri0:
CES: Ford Sync, a Ford feature with lots of local hands involved — LAS VEGAS — The Sync in-vehicle information and entertainment is one thing that's gone right for Ford as automakers have struggled mightily with the recession. The company is rolling out a third generation of Sync …

Marketing, Media & Holograms

2008-11-29T11:34:21Z

The future is virtual

Usability presentation for iPhone apps and store

2008-11-10T15:00:10Z

Usability notes from iPhone apps
I found these interesting notes on how people use the iPhone, mostly usability-oriented, focused on a couple key applications and areas. It’s useful info for anyone who is building on the iPhone platform, which has some very unique interactions that even expert users have a tough time mastering.

The presentation covers the following apps:

browsing
time/calendar/alarm
maps
youtube
downloaded apps: air hockey, koi pond, labyrinth
iphone store (including pricing, reviews, etc.)

Then there’s a nice wrap-up of best practices for iPhone app usability, which is always nice.

Here’s the full presentation - you’ll have to click through the link if you are reading this in an RSS reader:

How people really use the iPhone

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: development interaction)

Facebook’s Big Bet

2008-11-07T17:39:54Z

Yesterday at Web 2.0 Summit, Mark Zuckerberg sat on stage and told John Battelle that the future of Facebook lies in advertising, when responding to the question of how Facebook is going to make money from Connect. In other words, Facebook has a future in advertising outside of their “walled garden” and will eventually place ads on other pages.

This isn’t really news but it’s the first time that Zuckerberg has publicly stated their intention to move beyond the site for advertising purposes. Last October I wrote that Facebook had tested a cookie-based system for generating external advertisements. The quickest path to integrating Facebook Ads beyond the Facebook website is through Connect which makes a user’s data accessible on other websites.

Facebook Wants To Be the Standard

One thing that Mark Zuckerberg emphasized on stage yesterday was that Facebook still has a shot at becoming the standard. At the UX Summit in October, Facebook was on hand to tell the open source group about their experience with building Connect. One of the key takeaways for John McCrea was that open source products need to look good.

Facebook Connect is far along in the process of being able to roll out the service entirely and at this point it is a race against those trying to develop the “open stack”. When I reference the “open stack” I am referring to the one which John McCrea and many other portable identity evangelists describe (and is pictured below thanks to John’s flickr album). The “open stack” includes Open ID, XRDS, OAuth, a PortableContacts layer, and OpenSocial.

For those that are less technical, it’s not really important to know how these technologies interact. It is just important to know that this is what Facebook Connect is competing with to become the primary identity standard on the web.

Where’s Facebook’s Value?

As Mark Zuckerberg said on stage, Facebook is an advertising business. I would argue that Facebook is furthest along in developing a simple platform for creating ads that target users based on a variety of demographic factors including gender, age, location, and interests. While MySpace has launched their own self-serve advertising platform, the targeting capabilities are not as advanced as Facebook’s and ads are currently limited to the United States.

In the future, visitors to websites won’t be just a number in our analytics services. Instead, we will have access to incredible identity information and Facebook is positioning themselves as the primary identity provider. They are focused on developing the most advanced targeting system to leverage the data made available. This is going to be one of their core competencies and this could eventually become one of the largest (if not the largest) advertising solutions on the web.

Who wants to compete with Facebook in this space? Well aside from MySpace who is already working on rolling out an external facing service, Google.

If Facebook Loses As A Standard

There is no doubt that Google is actively working on developing the algorithm that optimizes advertisements based on granular demographic data. As this information becomes increasingly ubiquitous through Facebook Connect or the “Open Stack”, companies will compete to provide the best targeted advertisements.

While Facebook is properly positioned to benefit from this, the success of Facebook Connect is a relatively critical component of the company’s future success. If Facebook Connect succeeds, the primary advertising platform that will be able to leverage Facebook’s data is of course Facebook. So what if Connect doesn’t win as a standard?

Well, you can guarantee that Google, MySpace, and others are going to rush in to seize the unfulfilled monetization opportunity. While Facebook could succeed in a world of open standards, it’s a much friendlier environment to play in when you’ve defined the standard. Facebook is betting big on the success of Connect and if it fails to become the standard, I would argue that Facebook is going to have a lot more competition when it comes to targeted advertisements.

Lessons Learned While Building an iPhone Site

2008-11-07T17:47:50Z

Ross Harmes from Flickr on the lessons they learned developing their outstanding iPhone-optimized web site.

★

The Internet As A Force In Politics: "Obama Would Not Have Won Without The Internet" (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch)

2008-11-07T21:05:04Z

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Internet As A Force In Politics: “Obama Would Not Have Won Without The Internet” — New York Magazine's John Heilemann is leading a panel at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this morning on “The Web and Politics.” Joining him is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Arianna Huffington and Joe Trippi.

Game Developer Switches to Flash as Java's Audience Dwindles

2008-11-07T20:00:00Z

A small company that produces web-based games makes the switch from Java to Flash. Citing growing user displeasure with Java and the imminent arrival of Flash on the iPhone and Android-powered mobiles, the company decides its future is in Flash.

MS Paint Adventures

2008-11-08T00:24:43Z

interactive games where the artist acts as parser, drawing the results of the community's actions [via]

Abandoned Blogs

2008-11-07T22:14:53Z

Just posted this to HolyCrapFacts as well, but thought it interesting enough to post here: According to the Technorati 2008 State of the Blogosphere, of the 133 million blogs the site tracks only 7.4 million have been updated in the last 120 days. (For those that don't feel like doing the math, that's 125.6 million abandoned or at least unloved blogs.)

Nick Carr offers up an explanation: Blogging is the new amateur radio. Basically he argues that while the long-term impact of amateurs will be remembered, the big players will continue to get sucked in to larger sites or turn into businesses.

I don't think I agree, but I haven't quite figured out why.

COMMENTS OPEN

User-driven innovation in the Nordic region

2008-11-08T07:06:15Z

The Nordic Innovation Centre recently published a report on user-driven innovation in the Nordic region.

The 137 page report describes in detail what user-driven innovation actually is, outlines the current state of affairs in each of the five countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden), showcases what companies are doing through a number of case studies, and sets out what the public sector can do to support these activities.

The case studies in particular describe some of the most important companies in the region, including Danfoss and DSB in Denmark, Outotec in Finland, CCP in Iceland, Tine in Norway, and Electrolux in Sweden.

Interestingly, the report also features two international company cases to illustrate non-Nordic examples of systematic user-involvement in concept innovation: Intel and Valve.

Abstract

The nature of innovation is changing. An increasingly globalized society, enabled by information and communication technologies (ICT), has changed the process of value creation and shifted the balance of power between firms and individual consumers – or users. Companies can no longer rely solely on operational efficiency or technological superiority in order to create a competitive advantage.

Today, companies must also find ways to define and deliver unique experiences, together with users, in order to survive. However, this requires a paradigm shift – both a change in mindset and adjustments to current working practices.

In this report, the process of defining unique experiences together with users is referred to as user-driven innovation. User-driven innovation encompasses both an understanding of true user needs and a systematic involvement of users in the innovation process.

The report explains a number of market forces and academic underpinnings, and presents an overview of the context regarding user-driven innovation in each of the five Nordic countries. The report also presents concrete examples of how companies employ user-driven innovation processes.

Finally, the report suggests a number of policy-level activities which could be undertaken to strengthen both the understanding and practical competencies related to user-driven innovation.

Download report

First Branded Facebook Event Advertisement Spotted

2008-11-03T15:24:28Z

Last week I reported that Facebook had begun testing a new form of sponsored event ads. Today the first branded Facebook event appeared on the site homepage. This event was for Starbucks’ election day free coffee offering. The event has so far attracted close to 38,000 users and it continues to grow.

As I wrote when this new form of advertisement was first spotted, this is a substantial revenue opportunity for Facebook. Why? Well Facebook events are one of the most viral components of their site. I took a look through my newsfeed and ironically, the Starbucks event had already hit enough of my friends to show up in my newsfeed (as pictured below).

This wasn’t sponsored distribution, it was simply free distribution because the event had attracted so many of my friends to the event. It also appears that events rank highly in Facbeook’s news feed algorithm. Once a few of your friends attend the same event, you will regularly see a notification confirming their attendance.

The company clearly continues to test out new forms of advertising and honestly I think this form is one of the most powerful ones offered. Imagine the promotional budgets of large festivals and concerts and how this new form of advertising could practically transform the industry. While this is an early proof of concept, it’s exciting to see Facebook continuing to test new forms of advertising.

PHOTO: ffp-comparison-2._V261895878_.jpg

2008-11-03T15:52:01Z

Shared by Rick
genius

Amazon launched “Frustration-Free Packaging,” a new initiative designed to make it easier for customers to liberate products from their packages. The initial focus is on hard plastic cases (“clamshells”) and those secured with a large number of plastic-coated wire ties, commonly used in toy packaging. (Disclosure: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is an investor in 37signals.)

This initiative oughta make David Pogue happy: “Over the years, these sharp-edged, steely-hardened acrylic crypts have broken countless scissors, ripped flesh and wasted ridiculous amounts of people’s time.”

PHOTO: ffp-comparison-2._V261895878_.jpg

2008-11-03T15:03:00Z