16 Dec 2011
Weekly Newsletter
This week we have:
News: Obama holds a Hangout
Insights: Brands are still underinvesting in mobile in a big way
Ones To Watch: Technicolour brings the action to your living room
Cloud Loves: Apps, HTML5, data visualization and more…
The News:
Obama holds a virtual Hangout on Google+
Obama has once again turned to social media to help him fight his corner in the run up to the Election Day. So far so good – during the show Obama managed to convert a Republican questioner, 29 yr old, Jennifer Wedel, who said she now felt a greater connection with the President since chatting with him on the Hangout. Those hoping to question Obama about the legalization of marijuana were not so happy however as this topic did not seem to be of any interest to the President. Obama is definitely looking for new and interesting ways to interact and connect with Americans and so far I believe his efforts have been quite impressive. He must work hard to act upon these interactions both in the short term and long term, so that they do not soon start to feel like superficial stunts. If he was to stay in office, maybe he should consider holding similar Hangouts on a more regular basis.
http://www.youtube.com/whitehouse?feature=etp-od-SOU-05
Facebook lays the groundwork for the largest stock market float ever to come out of Silicon Valley.
At some point we’ve all wondered what Facebook is worth and now we know. Between a modest $80 billion and $100 billion, making Zuckerberg the world’s 23rd richest man. Along the way, Facebook’s stock market debut is also set to make around another 1000 millionaires, including one lucky artist who was paid in shares to paint their California offices.
Facebook’s floatation means the pressure is now on to turn personal data into profit. So what’s next for Facebook? Will it go down Google’s route and look for profit in ‘Search’ or will it continue to focus on targeted advertising? Either way, it must be careful not to infringe on people’s privacy too much, otherwise people might just start to look elsewhere.
Insights:
A huge number of brands are still underinvesting in mobile.
There are now over 1.2 billion mobile web users worldwide and in the US alone, 25% of these are mobile only, meaning they never or very rarely access the web via laptops or other devices. It is shocking then that the mobile presence of 44% of global brands has been labeled as ‘feeble’ in the new report by L2. Paypal is expecting to see $7 billion of mobile payment in 2012 and eBay expects customers to buy $8 billion worth of merchandise via mobile this year. There is no longer any excuse for brands not to grow this area of there business, with all signs pointing to the fact that this industry is going to continue to grow at great speed in 2012. Once they dip their toes in, it will also become clear that the platform can offer many other fantastic opportunities in the form of apps, geolocation and search.
Ones To Watch:
Technicolour – Taking you closer to the action, without having to move from your sofa
Technicolour have come up with a concept that could revolutionise the way you watch sport. Viewers could have a similar experience to being at the live event, without actually having to leave their home. The Personalized Content Rendering technology uses a number of cameras allowing viewers to enjoy an interactive, panoramic view of the pitch. Viewers would be able to take complete control of their own viewing experience, even zooming in and out when they wanted to. Sounds exciting and it is very refreshing to see something that stands out from all the other TV announcements at this year’s CES. The big question: Who gets the remote?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dYBteuyqb4&feature=player_embedded
Li Fi – Could it be the answer to our ever looming capacity problem?
Still only a prototype, Casio has created something that, in principle, could completely change the way we exchange data with one another. The big idea is ‘light’. At this year’s CES, Casio showed off two smartphones, which, by varying the amount of light being given off through their screens could share data with one another up to 10metres apart. Obviously the idea is still a relatively long way off, but if the concept was to develop properly, it could go a long way to solving the looming capacity problem we now have. At the moment we are using radio frequency signals to exchange data with one another, but there isn’t an endless amount of radio-frequency bandwidth available. As more and more devices connect to the Internet and transmit data, the issue of space could soon become a very real problem. Using Li Fi would solve this, be much faster than existing WiFi and could also be used in places WiFi is not currently available, such as under water.
Cloud Loves: A few things that stood out this week…
Soul Reaper reinvented as a HTML5 Scroll book
Schweppes predicts your future with their latest Facebook app
http://www.unexpectedfuture.com/
Very useful presentation: A short history of location-based services – Provides context
http://www.slideshare.net/technokitten/a-short-history-of-locationbased-services
Nice real time data visualisation by Honda Japan
http://www.thefwa.com/site/dots-by-internavi
Arrivals for Foursquare
http://www.iamdanw.com/wrote/arrivals-for-foursquare/
Honda bring back Ferris Bueller for this weekend’s Super Bowl
