25 Jun 2010 : The iPhone 4, a few thoughts
My mobile contract expired last month, I'd seen the leaked iPhone 4 pics through Gawker, and was pretty convinced my next phone would be the HTC Desire. So why did I find myself outside the Kilburn branch of O2 at 8.00 in the morning awaiting the iPhone 4?
I've never queued for a product launch before, and to be fair I didn't this time. The queue was well established, 30 or so hardy soles patiently awaiting the 8.02 opening time.
I thought "bugger this" and went to work.
At work I was asked, "What is it that's so great about the new iPhone?", I floundered, "Erm, its got a better screen, and its erm just better." It was at this point I realised I'd been sucked in by the Apple marketing machine.
You can say what you like about Apple products but they certainly know how to market them and build up media frenzy. I'm sure its no coincidence either that there's never enough product on launch day, as noted in this hilarious post.
I have to say of all the various Apple products I've owned over the years, the iPhone has been my favourite (my MacBook Pro the least, broken graphics card, broken fan, broken battery…). Your mobile phone is something that you carry around wherever you go, you form more of an attachment to it than say a tv, so its probably not surprising I temporarily forgot the most important rule about buying Apple hardware:
Never buy the first generation of anything. EVER.
There's always problems, which are invariably solved by generation two, leading to a much better product. This time around the guinea pigs (sorry, paying customers) are complaining about lack of reception, the external antenna (which forms part of the case) is affected by people, shock horror, holding the phone.
Apple seem to be aware of this, as they've produced a special case to hold the phone (they usually leave cases and other crap to 3rd parties).
Me? Well i'll be waiting a couple of months for them to iron out that particular problem before I upgrade… Or maybe i'll finally join the ever growing numbers of android users….
15 Jun 2010 : Submit your celebrity images to iPap.me
We've been hard at work rolling out some updates to our celebrity spotting site iPap. Users can now add images of any celebrities they've spotted, as well as giving the gossip on what they're up to. On the picture front we've hit the giddy (and slightly comical) heights of Vanessa Feltz in a boat, though its fair to say we're hoping to catch some bigger fish....
10 Apr 2010 : Celebrity spotting website ipap.me launches
ipap.me is a celebrity spotting website, and after a good 5 months of work we've finally opened it up to the general public. iPap's mission is to record where celebrities are, and what they're up to. Users go to ipap.me on their mobile and record an iPap whenever they see someone famous. The mobile website, which is optimised for iPhone and Android devices, uses geolocation methods to record the position of the iPap, which is then displayed on the website and mobile site, as well as posted to the twitter account @ipapme. Of course if users don't have one of these devices they're still able to post iPaps through the website.
One of the key aspects of the site is that its not just about the celebrities, its about the people doing the spotting as well, so there's a scoring system and various top 10 lists. You also score more points if somebody else spots the same celeb at the same location within a couple of hours of your spot.
Its very early days for the site, but initial feedback has been great and as we continue development hopefully the user base will begin to expand, which is crucial if the project is to realise its potential.
19 Mar 2009 : Nano:ztag small, cute, smart
Its been a big week, Apple have announced a raft of fixes enhancements for the iphone, (copy and paste!). Google have launched street view vomit , but best of all the Nano:ztag has arrived!
For those not in the know the Nabaztag is a wi-fi enabled rabbit, Nano:ztag is his smaller RFID enabled friend. The Nabaztag brand is a great example of how tecchy things don't have to be tecchy, there's so much character, personality and fun running through everything they do.
Their Mir:ror product looks interesting too, using an RFID enabled coffee mug to sign into facebook, though I suspect (like the Nabaztag) the novelty will wear off. Our Nabaztag, whilst extremely cherished, has been inactive for a while now, though it might be time to fire him up again....
17 Oct 2008 : Biometrics makes the 2008 D&AD Annual
The Welcome Trust's Biometrics installation, which I worked on the concepts for, has made it into 2008's D&AD Annual, there's a nice video of Alex from Ico playing interacting with the finished exhibit here.
