August 30, 2007

Skype Spam
Not too sure how I got this as my Skype number is a little more private than my email but I got hit with Skype Spam for the first time this afternoon. It’s interesting how a lot of people were hit at the same time - and that if you were online you’d all be present at the time - everyone had to leave the chat room to ignore the spammer.

Niku Banaie on 25 Ideas For Change at the PSFK Conference London
In this video taken at the PSFK Conference London 2007, Niku Banaie from Naked Comminications talks about how an understanding of the basic human needs can keep your employees, customers and friends happier, fresher and healthier. There’s a nice intro on the man who created the penny-archade too.
Come get more inspiration in LA on Sept 18 at the PSFK Conference Los Angeles

Wireless iTunes
While we’re trying to ignore the gossip that a range of new iPods will be launched on September 5th (the 2 year anniversary of the Nano), one whisper that really caught our attention is the idea that iTunes (the store) will soon be wireless. You can buy tracks anytime anywhere from your iPhone (or your wireless iPod). MacDaily news comments:
Apple will debut “wireless-capable iPods” next Wednesday along with “wireless iTunes Store sales,” enabling users to buy content “directly from iPod, iPhone,” a single source often familiar with Apple’s digital content plans tells MacDailyNews.

Consumption Is Killing Us
Treehugger points us to a study in Australia that suggests that the environmental impact of shopping far outweighs any efforts to save water and power in the home. For every additional dollar (Aus?) of consumption we make, we are responsible for 720 grams of greenhouse gas emissions and 28 liters of water.
More in the Sydney Morning Herald
Related PSFK Articles
2007 Trends - Brand Abstinence

iFashion: Virtual Shopping in South Korea
South Korea’s Shinsegae Department Store is planning on opening the world’s first “advanced virtual reality fashion store,” where customers will be able to use a smart card holding an avatar of themselves (with their real dimensions) that can be used to try on items in the virtual shop and even get them custom-fit. According to iFashion, the virtual store and fitting room site, the joint project between the Clothing Technical Centre at Konkuk University and clothing manufacturer FnC Kolon Corp with support from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy aims to revolutionize virtual and online shopping. Jung Dong-chang, head of the Ministry’s textile industry team, claims that “anyone with this card will be able to easily try on and buy clothes using mobile phones and computers,” and that people with access to others’ smart cards could easily gift their loved ones with clothing without having to worry they’ll be the wrong fit. The project is still in the experimental stage, according to iFashion, but FnC Kolon hopes to have its virtual shop open by November.

Phaidon’s Ice Cream: 100 of the Coolest Artists
Phaidon’s recent release Ice Cream, following its earlier collections Cream (1998), Fresh Cream (2000), and Cream 3 (2003), showcases a selection of works from 100 of the most significant up-and-coming artists working today. Ten famed curators selected the works to go into Ice Cream, which calls itself “an exhibition-in-a-book” that will serve as “an expert guide to the trends of tomorrow”. The book is not exactly subway reading material, hard-cover and a hefty 448 pages thick, but its a delectable addition to your library, filled with 700-plus images sure to entertain, provoke, and maybe inspire you for a good while.
[via JoshSpear]

A Vision of the (Still Theoretical) iCar
The blogosphere’s been abuzz about a potential teaming up of Apple and Volkswagen to create an iCar, the rumor originating from a report in German Magazine Capital. Supposedly, the two companies are in the beginning stages of planning a line of concept vehicles that would integrate Apple’s features and designs with VW’s. Engadget directed us to ChrisD’s imagining of what the vehicle might like, a sort of old-school color iMac/VW Beetle hybrid. If the whispers hold any truth, we’re hoping they’ll offer a sporty line to match Apple’s new iMac aesthetic as well.

Eulogy for the Compact Disc
Last Friday was the 25th anniversary of the Compact Disc. Rather than a celebration, however, I think a Eulogy is in order. In only 25 short years, the format is on the verge of extinction. You know the culprit.
The first commercial CD rolled off the production line on August 17, 1982 in a Phillips factory near Hanover, Germany. It took almost 6 years for CDs to begin outselling vinyl records, but the format would only shine for around a decade more, with the launch of Napster in 1999 signaling a change in the future of music consumption. According to CNN, sales of CDs peaked in 2001 and have declined nearly 22% to date.
Perhaps the fate of the cassette tape can offer some insight into where CD sales will stand in 10 years. According to the LATimes, sales of cassette tapes dwindled from 442 million in 1990 to 700,000 last year. I know what you’re thinking… who in the heck bought those 700,000 cassette tapes this year?
Why not embrace the death of the CD? Certainly all those compact discs being thrown away can’t be good for the environment. With the growth of hard drive capacity and online storage, we don’t need them anyways. The automotive industry seems to share this opinion. According to a Detroit News article from June 17th of this year, CDs may be gone from the dashboard as early as 2012. In fact, DaimlerChrysler already introduced MyGiG in 2006, a system that allows you to save your music on a 20GB hard drive. Countless other auto manufacturers are allowing portable music players to integrate with stereo systems.
Soon enough, we will file away the memory of the compact disc with the likes of the LP and the cassette tape. Until then, we’ll just have to let them take up space.

David Rosenberg on Gaming Trends at PSFK Conference New York

David Rosenberg is the Director of Emerging Media at JWT in New York. Currently at JWT for almost two years, David’s group focuses on gaming, mobile and social media programs that utilize new media technologies to deliver strategic branding solutions for clients. This talk given at the PSFK Conference New York 2007 describes what’s driving the widespread adoption of video gaming and online worlds and what cultural shift video gaming was defining. (The sound is a not so hot in this video - but it does pep up after Piers Fawkes’ intro)!
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