Microsoft sent invitations Wednesday for a press event at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The unveiling is scheduled for May 21, with the headline, “A New Generation Revealed”.

Similar to Sony’s recent announcement of the PS4, Microsoft’s event will be live streamed so fans can watch online – Twitter is sure to be a flurry. The event begins May 21, starting at 10 a.m. PDT. While the rumors continue to fly and many still speculate as to what the new Xbox will feature, (Kinect 2, improved speech recognition and tracking, Blu-Ray, AMD, Kinect glasses, crazy awesome improvements to their online entertainment selection and so on) fans will be treated to the truth on May 21. Stay tuned!

What features do you hope to see on the new Xbox?

The post The New Xbox Is On Its Way appeared first on PMG.

Scientists at The Smithsonian were able to convert high-resolution optical scans of the discs into a digital audio format, allowing us to hear Mr. Graham Bell’s voice for the first time.

In an age where audio technology plays such large role, it seems more than a little ironic that the voice of one of the men who helped bring us here had been lost to history. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, but he studied and experimented with all forms of acoustics for much of his life. At the age of 12, his mother began to lose her hearing. Her gradual deafness affected the young Graham Bell deeply. He even developed a finger language so that he could hold his mother’s hand and tap out the conversations happening around them. This relationship lead him into the study of acoustics.

Alexander Graham Bell is widely regarded as one of the most influential inventors in modern history, often thrown in with the likes of Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, and Nikola Tesla. This short clip below is from the Smithsonian discs. All you’ll hear, through some considerable static, is:

“Hear my voice — Alexander Graham Bell.”

Part of me does kind of wish he did something a little more fun – like pretending to call a game between the Boston Beaneaters and the Philadelphia Quakers, but I guess we’ll just have to settle for an historic recording for its own sake.

The post Hear the Voice of Alexander Graham Bell appeared first on PMG.

CharityBuzz.com Auction for Coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook

As it turns out, there is a CharityBuzz.com auction to have coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook. After 81 bids, the current bid is $580,000. As a fan of Apple products and as a person who knows a ton of Mac fanboys, I’m not surprised that so many people want to have coffee with Tim Cook. However, in my opinion, the bidding has skyrocketed way past the point of typical Apple fandom. We are now at a level of absurdity.

The irony here is that this is exactly the kind of thing I believe people should spend their money on: making memories.

Each year, when 2-3 new Apple products are released, Apple fans line up to basically upgrade their current products, which – by the way – are most likely still working fine. But they just have to have the newest and coolest Apple gadget. As a marketer, I love how Apple has been able to essentially create fans/customers for life. But in my opinion, having the latest gadget doesn’t necessarily add anything extra to your life.

You know what type of thing has the potential to add something much more memorable to your life? Meeting someone like Tim Cook for coffee at Apple Headquarters. So while I think the current bid is utterly ridiculous, I am really glad that someone will get to do something really cool rather than buy something really cool.

BTW I wonder how much coffee you could buy with $580,000. Maybe you could start a new coffee company. Or maybe you could buy a successful, established local coffee shop.

The post Would You Pay $500,000 to Have Coffee with Apple CEO Tim Cook? appeared first on PMG.

According to peekanalytics, I should fit right in at SXSW. The core audience is middle aged men from Texas.  Ha! I will have an opportunity to watch over 1900 officially scheduled bands and over 1000 street shows, impromptu gigs, secret sets & line up surprises. The rumors today included Prince & Radiohead. I’ll see an estimated 45-55 shows. That’s more shows than I would normally see in a year. I’ll discover new acts as well as established bands that are looking to re-ignite their sound. I’ll be surrounded by geeks wearing google glass, an appearance by grumpy cat, and I might even run into Elon Musk before he dies on Mars!

A lot of data is being gathered at the festival. I’m not sure if I will get to use any homeless hot spots like last year so I can connect & collect that data. There will be some relevant people and some, well, dumb.

To help keep me inspired and moving around the city quickly, I will be riding around on a foldable Tern p9 bicycle. Tern will be hosting the annual SXSW Tern bike share. All in all it should be a good time and it will help get me inspired to move forward creatively when I get back to pmg. Wish me luck.

The post Finding Inspiration at SXSW 2013 appeared first on PMG.

Well, it looks like Grumpy Cat is at SXSW 2013

Get to all the shows in this Games of Thrones inspired Pedicab

And here’s a homeless hipster at SXSW 2013 holding a sign with a QR code…

The signs at SXSW 2013 in Austin, TX are there to give us fashion advice.

NASA has a lifesize James Webb Space Telescope at SXSW 2013! So cool!

Memes collide at SXSW 2013: Grumpy Cat meets Scumbag Steve

This is how most Austinites feel every year when SXSW rolls around.

The post Just Some Pics from SXSW 2013 appeared first on PMG.

As seen at SXSW 2013: Google’s Modified Adidas ‘Talking Shoe’

Here we go again, folks. Now we’re talking about a Google Shoe. But not just any shoe – a Talking Shoe! And guess what – they go perfect with your Google glasses!

Here is the a copy point from the video ad (released by Google): “A connected sneaker that can share its story on the web.”

So this Google shoe pretty much talks to you while you’re wearing it…inspiring and motivating you to get up and do stuff. And then it shares your activities on the web. I don’t know about you, but no shoe is going to boss me around.

Here is a pretty realistic scene of what it’s like to wear these Google talking shoes:

Well, it’s realistic in some ways. I can’t dunk a basketball. So that part doesn’t apply to me. But hey – it’s still an interesting video.

And here is a review from Engadget. Of course Engadget has a review.

Thanks, Engadget. With the additional review over at Yahoo News, now I know that this Google talking shoe is not really a thing. Rather, these shoes appear to be an experiment-turned-marketing-device for Google’s “Art, Copy & Code” campaign. And ultimately, this talking shoe is just a series of If/Then statements that are designed to yell at you if you aren’t moving.

I think I’ll pass on this one, Google. If I need something to yell at me for being lazy, I’ll just program some If/Then statements into Excel – all by myself.

Google is “connecting shoe to phone”

The post Google Debuts ‘Talking Shoe’ at SXSW 2013 appeared first on PMG.

“I was wearing smart glasses before they were cool.” – Geordi La Forge, futuristic hipster

It’s official: I’m old. 34 is the new 80. Technology is freaking me out. For example, let’s take Google Glass. Supposedly, it’s all futuristic and stuff. But it’s not the future I was promised by Marty McFly. Nope. *That* future was all about hoverboards and flying cars. Not some voice-controlled glasses that connect to the Internet and take pictures and record videos from my point of view. Nope. That just sounds kinda dumb. You kids with your camera glasses. #GetOffMyLawn!

Here are 5 reasons that the Google Glasses freak me out:

1. It will freak me out when everyone is wearing them.
Make no mistake – in the future, we will all be walking around with these stupid glasses. It’s bound to happen. At that point, we will never truly be able to unplug from the Internet. But my guess is that people are not going to care. We love cameras. We love the Internet. We’re addicted to the Internet. We’re addicted to Liking and tweeting and instagram’ing, etc… And we’re addicted to photographing everything. It plays so much on our egos. I think it’s here to stay. So you might as well get ready to wear some Google glasses. And the fact that I can predict the future – it’s freaking me out, man!

2. It will freak me out when people can’t go anywhere without them.
I remember a time in my life where I didn’t have a login. I didn’t have any passwords. I didn’t even have a pin number for a bank card. I long for those days. Today, I’m addicted to my smart phone. I’m all over Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, etc… In fact, on most social sites, I have multiple profiles. And I can’t go anywhere without my phone. It bothers me that companies have created a product that I have a hard time detaching from. In the near future, I can see Google glasses becoming another device I can’t live without. And in the distant future, when these smart glasses replace smart phones altogether, I’ll still have a tough time detaching from Google glasses. That freaks me out!

Some dude from Google wearing Google glasses.

3. It will freak me out to talk with someone who is wearing them.
I like to talk to people.  I like to meet people. It’s very common for me to spark up conversations with total strangers. I bet I talk to 2-3 people every day that I don’t know. But if I happened to meet someone who wears Google glasses, I would probably freak out a little. Because: 1) I don’t know if they are recording me or taking pictures of me and 2) I don’t know if Google and/or the Government is also watching (#ConspiracyTheoristsUnite!). It just freaks me out.

4. It will freak me out because people will drive while wearing them.
Sometimes I wonder what it must have been like to drive a car in the 1970′s and 1980′s. There was nothing to do but drive. Sure, maybe you were switching out an 8-track or turning the radio to a different station. But I bet at least 95% of your attention was on the road in front of you. People certainly weren’t texting and driving. Or watching movies and driving. And they sure as heck were not telling their glasses to take a picture and send it to a friend or tweet it or post it on Instagram. So what happens when people add these Google glasses to the mix? We’ll be texting AND looking up maps on that little window in the Google glasses. What we really need is a third eye to watch the road. And third eyes really freak me out!

5. It will freak me out when they become ‘Google Lens’.
To be honest, I’m not too impressed with Google Glass. Hey Google – let me know when you find a way to embed all the Google Glass technology into an undetectable contact lens. No one will be able to tell who is wearing one. And THAT is when I will really get freaked out.

The post 5 Reasons Why Google Glass Freaks Me Out appeared first on PMG.

Would you like your developer to fix those bugs? Read on.

1. Screenshot the Issue

This is important. Screen shot what’s going on in your browser window. Screenshots eliminate a lot of confusion and will show exactly what the issue it. You can even go one step further and highlight the issue sections with a little [insert microsoft paint-like software here] magic.

Just to review, you can screen shot on Windows (and most Linux machines) with the Print Screen button. You may need to paste the image copied with print screen into your favorite image editor then save it. On a mac, you can use Cmd + Shift + 3 to capture the entire active screen or Cmd + Shift + 4 to grab part of it.

2. Describe the Expected or Desired Behavior

So somethings wrong, we know what it is and can see it (see step one). What was supposed to happen? What was it supposed to look like?

Include that information. This is important. Your idea as an end user might not be something your developer(s) accounted for. So include what you expected to happen or how you expected the page to look.

3. Include the Relevant Browser and Operating System Info

In your bug report include the browser (or email client, depending on the project) that you’re using along with its version. Also include what operating system you’re using and its version (eg. Windows 7 SP1, OSX 10.8.2, or iOS 6). These help developers reproduce the bug with is extremely important to finding a solution to the issue.

The post How to File a Cross-Browser Compatibility Bug Report that Gets Taken Seriously appeared first on PMG.

The post Best Gift Ever appeared first on PMG.

Let’s break it down:

Color
The key to vintage color schemes is warmth. Very rarely do you find sharp, intense colors in vintage packaging. Even in the age of state-of-the-art photography, there is Instagram (or other similar apps), which puts your images through various filters, blocking out harsh lighting, muting over-bright colors, accentuating undertones. The colors of yesteryear seem to be more connected with Nature, itself. There isn’t any over-saturation of pigments; there are pastels, earth tones, and jewel tones, all of which can be found outside, in the sky, in fields, and in gardens.

Type
Vintage typefaces are truly beautiful to behold. My theory on this is that designers of the past were just as much, if not more so, concerned with the design of their typeface as they were with the product, itself. They are works of art all on their own. Designers were not afraid to mix and match types and weights; scripts got just as much action as serifs. Font was the representative of the product, and oftentimes font is the first thing that the consumer associates with it. Take Coca-Cola, for instance. Even before you think of the fizzy, brown liquid (Let’s face it: Coke isn’t the most appetizing-looking thing out there. If I were a Martian, I’d be skeptical of drinking a glass of the brown bubbly stuff), you think of its red and white curlicues. Products of the past didn’t use font simply as a mode of communication; it was part of the experience of using the product.

Focus
Modern marketing has lost its imagination. In fact, I’d venture to say that it has lost faith in the average consumer’s intelligence…and understandably so. Packages from the golden years told you, in text, what you were buying, because they were just plain smarter than we are. You had to actually read it the box. Education has changed considerably in many different ways, but behind the world of education between 1900-1950, there was always a war or a depression looming. Many people nowadays don’t read simply because they don’t want to. The laziness of the 21st century manifests in its advertisements and packaging: we can’t be bothered to even read a few lines. After all, If I want coffee, there’d better be a cup of it on the front! How else am I supposed to figure this out?!  On other packaging, there are entire scenes, where the product is simply implied, or makes a very small appearance. The design focus in vintage packaging isn’t on the obvious– doesn’t it feel good not to read a picture book everywhere you go?

Economics
Somebody once said, “It’s all about the money.” A whole lot of people have said that, actually. (That’s how we know it’s true.) The depressing fact is that the US Piggybank isn’t as full as it once was. The vast majority of working people out there are being more careful with their dimes and nickels than they ever had to be before. Our parents and grandparents remember times of widespread poverty; they also remember times of widespread prosperity. They remember times of simplicity, when there weren’t so many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. Vintage reminds us of those simpler times, and it is comforting to know that there are still remnants of the glory days out there just waiting to be found.

The post What’s so great about vintage? appeared first on PMG.