Diesel Kick Ass Sneakers Countryside

Diesel have released their new Fall / Winter 2010 Sneakers range. Their tag is simple - "Not made for running. Great for kicking asses." This is their ad.... brilliant!

Embedding Location Into Everything, Everywhere

I was asked today whether I thought geo-location social media activities will catch on - would everyone really be checking into everywhere they go during the day. I thought about for less then a second and said, without doubt, yes. To be clear though, I don't think this will mean that you'll walk around 'checking in' on your phone as you might do now.

Think back to when Flickr introduced the functionality to view photos on a map. This was done using EXIF data but it quickly grew in popularity and use and soon digital cameras and image devices began including positioning chips to embed geo-tags directly into photos. As people began moving from photo-hosting sites such as Flickr to Social Networks, for their photo storage, even the most basic of images started having location metadata included manually.

The next step in all of this was the explosion of Social Networks like Foursquare and Gowalla. These platforms have created a market for location check-ins and the uptake of many businesses use of location-based promotions. With the emergence of Facebook Places geo-location has now very much opened up to a mainstream audience. This doesn't even take into account that Twitter has been allowing location metadata for some time.

Beyond all of this, however, the holy grail of location=based functionality will very much be pre-emptive alerts for users about things or people nearby that may be of interest. This will be based on not having to check-in to a place to see if your friends are nearby or if there are any interesting offers. This will all happen via automatic location monitoring and users allowing their friends to see where they are whenever they choose.

Exciting times!

Uniqlo Lucky Machine

The Japanese fashion folk Uniqlo have relaunched in the UK with yet another example of web brilliance, the Lucky Machine. This pinball game offers UK customers have the chance to win a £1,000 cash prize, as well as instant online discount vouchers from £5 up to £100.

With three stages of play each customer is given three balls but with the option to get more balls by inviting their friends to play the game via Facebook or Twitter. So the more friends you invite the more chances you have at winning! As with all the Uniqlo promotions and activities to date, this is a breath of fresh air both from a mechanic and a design point of view. Hat tip to chaps involved, very nice work. Check out this video, it pretty much explains all...

The So Coal Network

I posted previously about the upcoming Facebook / Mark Zuckerberg movie, The Social Network. As I said then, and as I would still say now, I reckon it looks pretty good - I can't wait to see it. However, Greenpeace have just launched a campaign playing on that upcoming release that I think everyone should consider.

Greenpeace are calling on everyone to consider Mark's current relationship. They point out that while his Facebook profile doesn’t list him as being in a relationship, "it might say 'in a relationship with coal'". You see Greenpeace's campaign is all about the relationship that they say Facebook has with fossil fuel. Specifically this is to do with Mark's January announcement that Facebook would be building a new datacentre in Prineville, Oregon, that would be powered by coal. He then subsequently announced that the size of the storage facility would be doubling, also therefore its dependence on coal would also double.

Greenpeace say that it was Mark’s decision to go with with coal instead of one of the renewable options open to Facebook has driven them to create this campaign. In an open letter to Mark on the 1st September, Greenpeace’s Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo, said:

"No global business leader, particularly not one who reaches so many people daily, could deny that in this time it is both a threat to a company’s reputation and financial health risk to ignore their company’s environmental impacts."

The following video was created by Greenpeace for this campaign:

The World`s First "Intelligent Stamp" for Royal Mail

I've mentioned this to a few people recently and found that a lot of folks missed the story. I'll admit that this is probably news that boarders precariously between nerdy and geeky but nonetheless I'm happy to say I thought it was pretty cool and worth a mention.

With the launch of the Royal Mail`s new Great British Railway Special Stamp collection, they decided to do something a little bit different and a little bit exciting. The Royal Mail teamed up with Junaio to create a Royal Mail channel on their platform and to provide online content via smartphones and augmented reality.

By simply pointing your smartphone`s camera onto the stamp when in the junaio application, the online content on the stamp`s theme, which below is a reciting of the "Night Mail" poem by Bernard Cribbins, will automatically launch. RBIT Limited, working with m2end and junaio, has provided a whole new way of interacting with the world of stamps on mobile phones. Following other recent work around smart packaging and the talking magazine, the intelligent stamp is another cool use of the junaio platform to "glue" digital (3D or multimedia) information onto real-world objects.

Philip Parker, Head of Stamp Strategy, Royal Mail, said: "This is the first time a national postal service has used this kind of technology on their stamps and we`re very excited to be bringing intelligent stamps to the nation`s post". He added: "Through Intelligent Stamp technology, our stamps will open up to a whole new world of information, interest and fun to collectors and the millions of people who will receive them on letters in the coming months alike."