Archive for February 2005

A report by researcher Michael Hume about our relationship with mobile phones suggests that we’re moving towards a real time of dependency, where if we lose our mobile we begin to feel cut off from our network of friends, cut off from our contacts, and absolutely disabled.

Also, the mobile is very much a device of control. We are using it to control our relationships with others, how others contact us, and increasingly to control information.

As new entertainment and services work their way onto our phone, it is becoming a tool which we use simply to get away from it all. Michael Hume says part of the reason why the mobile is so successful is that it takes us away from where we are.

But, the BBC reports, with many applications being very complicated, or even downright unnecessary, often it is not simply a question of engaging, and more a question of being able to use them at all.

BBC Article

Nintendo is claiming that the release of its Nintendo DS in Australia has been more successful than any other system debut. Retailers have been providing feedback that suggests the first twelve hours on sale have been the strongest ever, although firm sales figures have yet to be released.

Cubed 3 asks,

"Could this set a new trend for Nintendo in the territory where it has repeatedly fallen down over the past few years? With the PSP not confirmed for any PAL territories yet, it certainly gives Nintendo an opening to do so."

Cubed3 Article

Ring tone rage - surely it’s happened to us all?  There’s only so much you can take of those frustrating tones playing parts of some of the most annoying tunes in the charts.

Well - there’s a new tone in town.   Recall back a few years to a certain scene in the movie - When Harry Met Sally - where Meg Ryan’s character starts moaning.

And now - bring on the ‘Moan Tone‘

Former porn star Jenna Jameson, star of such ‘hits‘ as Cheery Pie and Blue Movie is currently trying to launch her own ring tone.  The venture that goes by the name of (ahem) ‘Moan Tones‘ and launched by Wicked Wireless are expected to sell for $2.50 a download. 

Users can choose from a menu of moans, grunts and other noises from Jameson.  You can also have it that she talks dirty to you when the phone rings in either English or Spanish.

The service is currently being downloaded in Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, and soon in Mexico to Uruguay. No wireless carrier is currently offering the service in Central America.

In Jenna’s priceless words, 

“We’ll provide Moan Tones in the universal language of sexy sighs recognized around the world but with our own personal touch. The technology is way beyond most of us, but the bottom line is that you’ll able to hear the other Jenna’s Web Girls moan and me when your phone starts to ring. We’ll also provide audio content in Spanish plus photos and text features.”

PSFK Reminder - if you go to church on Sunday - best you remember to turn that cell off!

Wicked Wireless News

Shawn Fanning, founder of Napster is back with a new company to make moves in the Digital Music arena.

Snocap is aimed at legitimizing peer to peer, end to end music distribution through networks sanctioned by music labels.

Once songs have been registered and copyright information has been placed in to Snocap’s database, the labels themselves are able to manage the P2P distribution of content by establishing business rules for individual tracks. There are other companies currently providing similar services but no doubt Fanning will receive a wealth of support through this due his former founding - Napster.

Snocap has signed an agreement with Universal Music Group to provide distribution of its full catalogue.

Snocap is set to go live later this year.

Snocap

As I went for a stroll along Bondi this morning I noticed something very odd.  I saw not one, not two but three dogs (separately owned) with some rather nifty shades covering their eyes.

I laughed as I believed it was the owner dressing up their pooch to fall in line with the current trends.

It was only when one of the dogs (a Boxer) actually came over to me that I realised what they were. 

DOGGLES!

Yes, that’s right - goggles for dogs.  And why not I thought?  I asked the  owner where he purchased them and he informed me of the brand name and how his dog loves the water but suffers from getting too much of it in his eyes.  Not only that - because of the UV rays in the sun on this side of the world - national campaigns are abundant telling us to wear shades - this goes for dogs too.

I couldn’t help but laugh as the owner told me of his dog’s eyewear whilst his dog sat their looking extremely cool getting more looks from the ladies than either of us.

It was as that point that he informed me his dog was also wearing the latest  in pet sunscreen - of course protecting his skin from the sun and any form of  cancer.

Doggles also sell K9 clothes, caps, prescription lenses for dogs with poor  eyesight and even black inserts for blind dogs.

If you want a pair of Doggles for your dog, or - if it takes your fancy - for yourself (?!) then visit the website and locate your nearest stockist.

Doggles: ‘Protecting the world…One dog at a time’

Walking in Chicago’s rapidly gentrifying Whicker Park neighborhood this weekend I noticed something new. We have all seen the work of taggers. Hastily scrawled symbols, names, and highly stylized words are common. The usual tags are done in paint, shoe-polish, markers, wax, and even soap. It
was rainy so I was ducking under awnings where I found myself up close and
personal with some recent tags. I had assumed the white smear of a name was
maybe from a large paint marker or something. As it turned out the window had
been permanently defaced by an etching compound.

One likely product is called Armor Etch. It is not all that commonly
known but is available in most hobby stores. Usually it is used to make
permanent decorative etching on glass. It is very easy to apply with brushes or
anything else a person could dab or smear with. Apparently someone has found a
new use for it. This may have been going on for a while without notice since in
passing it looks like a less permanent tag. One shop worker said the tag on her
store “had been there at least six months or so.” That might put that tag in last summer’s
crop. She thought most of the ones like it had shown up about the same time.
From the looks of them these tags came from number of individuals who at least
knew each other or used similar styles and techniques. Many of them looked like
plane old vandalism without art, message or form. Maybe this was an
experimental run. It is hard to tell due to the permanence of the etching.

The impact could be huge. These tags cannot be scrubbed, scraped or in any way removed. Since it is the glass of the storefront the options are just leaving it or replacing the glass. Not happy options for the likes of trendy shoe stores, upscale salons and anyone relying on window displays to draw customers. This is far more serious than the already expensive to fix forms of graffiti which can often simply, if annoyingly, be painted over or scrubbed off.

I spoke with Dina King of Art + Science, a
hip salon on North Milwaukee. I asked her how she felt
about the tag on her shop window. She was surprisingly ok with it. Not that she
preferred or condoned it but in a way felt it added, “a little character because
of the neighborhood.” She said they are everywhere and that the tags on their
windows were fairly small compared to others. She also said that she was afraid
if they somehow removed them it would just happen again. She said they might
think differently if it had been worse or there was a cheap way to remove the
tags. She also said that if it had been in another location it would have been
much more upsetting. It was a pretty progressive outlook. Others in the
neighborhood, some who had been harder hit, were less understanding. One
developer, who wanted to remain anonymous, was very worried that the irreparable tagging would lead to vacant and less valuable properties.

Taggers and other street artists have a hard time convincing people that graffiti is an art form. If this new form becomes more common it could make even harder to tolerate. Love it or hate it, efforts of civil authorities to stop graffiti vandals and the severity of punishments related to graffiti are both sure to increase if things like this continue.

**Appendum as of 11:45pm 2/27/05: Through feedback there are a couple things that I have been encouraged to address. First, an expert source that whished to remain private informed me that to some extent glass could be buffed to remove the etching. The source said they had seen etching removed from windows. I have not been able to confirm this and other sources regarding glass I talked to say that option is problematic and costly. They would not recommend it but it is possible to some degree with highly skilled glass technicians possessing the right equipment.

Second, more than one respondent has pointed out the extremely caustic nature of the etching compound and expressed concern for the safety of anyone using or coming into contact with it in this manner. It would also appear that the etching has been going on for quite some time and is not really news in the graffiti world. Public or common knowledge of it remains limited at best.

Written and contributed by JT Barnhart, PSFK Joinee.

CheapTickets has decided that Gawker’s new travel blog, Gridskipper, is too racy in tone and has pulled its sponsorship off the site. With a rough and ready (Gawkery) point of view, PSFK thinks that Gridskipper is shaping up to be a nice little blog - just give it a little more time to bake with some more content and voila: world (travel) domination.

Nick Denton, Gawker’s publisher, maintains that it’s their loss and told PR Week:

"We’d rather lose the occasional advertiser than the character that
attracts the audience in the first place. If an advertiser wants a safe
environment, there are thousands of tired media outlets to choose from.

"Weblogs are supposed to be unexpected and wincingly frank.
That’s an essential part of the appeal to a generation that’s turning
away from network television and print media. We had a million visitors
to our sites on Tuesday alone."

Well done Nick!

PR Week Article
Gridskipper
Nick Denton
via Business Blog Consulting

Atlanta subways are introducing TV screens on their trains showing local programming. By spring, 115 cars will each have five 15-inch televisions aboard for passengers to watch while traveling. Each television will be tuned to news programming from Atlanta’s WSB-TV. Eventually, all the authority’s 300 rail cars will have televisions.

Audio for the newscasts will be available through wireless headphones (through an FM radio channel) in English or Spanish. And, if riders don’t feel like watching, they can tune in to one of three on-train music channels!

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority will get a cut of the revenue from the advertising on the televisions and the on-train music channels.

Atlanta Business Chronicle
MARTA Site

In David Card’s self described "N-Thousandth Post On iPod", he gives a very interesting viewpoint about why HDTV, which he argues should be just as exciting as the little white box, has not achieved the iPod boom:

What’s different about HDTV, which has just about the same single-digit US household penetration rate as disk-based MP3 players? How come no one’s jazzed about HD? Here’s a few things that make iPods different:

• One company, one coolness. You don’t see Sony crowing about MP3 players replacing Walkmen.
• New consumption mode of existing content. Carry your whole collection with you. (Buying DVDs of movies and TV shows is like this; HDTV is not.)
• Existing installed base of content. See playing MP3s above.
• Initiator is from outside traditional industry. See Sony comment above.

David Card of Jupiter Research ‘N-Thousandth iPod Post’

Related PSFK Articles
Europe To Join Rest Of World By Ignoring HDTV