In the movie above – made possible by Verizon in order to sell their broadband products – me, myself and I are the hero. Oh, and some aliens also… By uploading a simple portrait (made by cellphone, on the fly) I was able to star in a self-assembled movie. Picking storylines, scripts, props and speech snippets, the movie was made for me. When done, I received a link to watch the movie. A nice example of personalization. Not by name, but by face. And yes, I can use a hairdo! But don’t you like the car? I wonder if Aston Martin paid for this in-script sponsoring…
With the Internet as global, 24×7, connective medium around, pitches will never be the same. SitePoint – an Australian company – is offering business design-contests where talented (and would-be talents) can participate in contests for the design of, say, a website, a corporate logo, a complete stationary… The winner gets the job and gets paid. All the other participants get… Well, nothing? SitePoint is calling this form of ‘outsourcing’ crowdsourcing because of the huge amount of people who participate in these contests. Real talent will surface. The question is: will REAL talent participate. Everything has it’s price and when you’re a gifted designer, would you compete with thousands of not-so-gifted designers who will do the job for a fraction of the price you are working for? SitePoint is rather realistic about the quality however, hence this quote:
The Design Contests are not suitable for people who expect to walk away with the perfect design every time. Sure, you might get lucky, but often what happens is you come away with a good design that needs a few finishing touches.
Apple is blocking the MySpace-website in their stores. Up until now there was no official statement made, but the problems in the stores were growing. So, what’s the big deal? Well, Apple’s famous ‘try-and-play’ approach in the stores, makes it possible for everyone to try out Apple-products. A lot of people however, are using this possibility to pimp up their MySpace-pages. While a lot of Apple computers have a webcam build in, it is rather easy to make a picture of yourself. And with the convenient broadband connections in the stores, you can put it on your MySapce-page in a sec.
The problem is the amount of MySpace-users that was blocking the Macs for other people to play with. So, Apple now officially banned access to MySpace from its stores.
I think this act is not in line with Apple’s brand positioning. In their advertising they stimulate people to be creative and express themselves. Now they are in fact blocking this expression. It is wiser to open up one Mac in each store for the MySpace-junkies. Or: make an event out of it! Every wednesday afternoon is MySpace-day at the Apple stores. Employees help you out with putting your face in your MySpace-page. Thus demonstrating the possibilities of a Mac!
BrandBlog- New report: E-reader ownership doubles in six months, while tablet ownership grows more slowly
- Apple store employe Cory Moll is working to form "Apple Retail Workers Union"
- How I Learned to Live Google-free: A quest to quit the most pervasive company on the Web
- Several features announced by Apple this week threaten the existence of many developers, whose App creations are set to be built into the iOS
- Navy Fights DISNEY for SEAL Team 6 Trademark...