Posts from ‘Web News’
Xbox Kinect
Formally Project Natal, this new feature has been eagerly awaited by the gaming and in-home entertainment market for some time now and is set for a release November 2010 in the UK.
This fantastic piece of hardware will position you (the player) as the controller. Think of Nintendo Wii, but with better graphics, better response time and NO controllers…
This is astonishing equipment, and a leap forwards in entertainment towards virtual reality.
You can tell from the clips that this is more targeted towards friends and family use, but regardless of this it is still going to be an essential purchase for the gaming market.
This is the first time a console has made the step away from a controller. Using a motion sensitive camera on the Kinect device, it can track your entire movements throughout a room and even interact back with you through voice commands.
What I particularly like about the Kinect is the voice commands. When I was younger I always thought it was spectacularly impressive when a person talked to a computer in a film or something, and it responded…..you can do this now! So mix that all in with the fact that your entire body is now the controller and you have an absolute winning formula.
I think this will shoot the Nintendo Wii straight out the water, people will be trading it in like its nobody’s business and there will be a dramatic shift over to Xbox 360 as the console of choice. Nintendo really need to step up, because they are really being left in the shadows – more so than ever if Xbox take away their younger/family audience with Kinect.
PS3 will no doubt do something similar in the future, but I think the next big platform for the entertainment industry is 3D consoles….watch this space
Is Social Media a fad?
Thats the interesting question posed at the start of this clip from 2009. I wanted to put it up to show you how it has answered that question so much more over the past 12 months.
Produced by the author of “Socialnomics” this video throws powerful statistics at you that are very difficult to ignore. Whilst these stats are more than interesting, the problem still remains for a lot of companies – How do we get on board with this revolution?
As I mentioned in my previous post “YouTube turns 5″, it is still a difficult formula to get right from a business perspective. Invading peoples social space is a problem. However engaging with them in a social and viral way is often the route to their communities.
Take a look at the video, the statistics will really get you excited about the potential of online for your business.
As YouTube enters its 5th year of existence I wanted to briefly look back at how much it has changed not only the Internet in those 5 years, but also people in the offline world.
I don’t think “transformation” comes anywhere close to how YouTube and video sharing sites alike have shaped the current use of the internet. “Evolved” is much more fitting and justified considering how much people can now share with the entire world with the help of a video camera and an internet connection to upload to the hungry masses.
It really is phenomenal how involved the world is getting with this evolution of the internet, which I genuinely believe was massively enhanced by video sharing websites, in particular YouTube. More people become involved each and every day.Even offline, people talk about it as if its a fundamental part of their social lives and interactions. Its a huge success for the younger generations that is expanding its possibilities and capabilities for older generations, and even businesses.
As a shift to online TV is beginning to occur in an almost revolutionary format, companies are trying to get involved and get in front of their ideal target audience with powerful messages that deliver responsive and accurate analytics to the effect of their viral campaigns. The “buzz” that comes as a result is an incredibly effective tool that allows viewers to share what they have seen to their communities in a powerful and traditional marketing technique, word of mouth, passing on the message to others.
Whilst this cannot work for every business out there, it has astonishing results for the ones it can help. A viral cannot work by simply being an advert you would see on TV, which is pushed on to the world, hoping the online masses will lap it up and take in the message and brand. The new generation expects more, it needs to be attracted to a viral, to hear from others that its “worth a watch”, and has pre-built buzz about it. This way they are pulled into the concept of it and encouraged to share it on with their communities, both online and offline.
It is an exciting (r)evolution that is still in its earlier phases, but nonetheless it is in active and in place. How the future will play out is ever changing. Attempts to find the perfect formula for this change is a exhilarating prospect indeed.
For what has started though, I personally thank the likes of YouTube and Facebook.
Happy Birthday YouTube.
This is definitely not a promotion attempt, but nonetheless is one of the most shared videos of the moment and has rocketed its way to the top of the viral charts.
Please note if you have not seen this yet, its not funny, and its not clever. In fact its quite disturbing. (Although bizarrely the kid looks like an absolute pro)
As the title suggests, this is about an Indonesian baby who is addicted to 40 cigarettes a day. The 2 year old suffers severe tantrums and withdrawal symptoms is he does not get his 2 packs a day.
Some of you will laugh at the fact that this 2 year old is smoking in the first place and others will be outraged, but just remember how uneducated and poor the area is – you wouldn’t want your son or little brother to be doing this at the end of the day.
As Seen On…
