Now of course this is a proof of concept and not actually “real” just yet, but what Bonnier have realized is something of marvel. With all the buzz about the soon to come Apple Tablet, concepts like this have been popping up everywhere in the search of what the perfect magazine publishing format and experience should be on reading devices of the near future.
Forget the Kindle, Nook or any other gen 1 handheld e-reader – I’m pretty sure my iPhone or any smartphone for that matter could do just a good job or displaying black text on a white background – what I’m more interested in will be the next phase of publishing on handheld devices…Bonnier thank you showing us a glimpse of what’s to come.
With all the Apple hoopla happening today, thought I would take the time to take a tangent from all the tweets and blog posts about the bright future of that company in Cupertino (it is bright, don’t get me wrong). Instead let me take a tangent and take this moment to confess my love and admiration for the soon to be released Nokia N900.
As some of you may now, I have an extreme problem holding onto the same handset for more than a month. I tend to sport the wandering eye to all the bright new shiny objects I see coming down the pipeline, but the one that has my absolute attention now is N900 or Rover as I used to know it. I’m not going to spend the time to break it down to granular details until I get it in my hands, BUT ditching Symbian for Maemo, Linux powered, hardware QWERTY, 32GB storage (expandable to 48GB), ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics, 800X480 resolution, 5 megapixel camera, flash 9 enabled etc. are all reasons for me to believe that this is a device for me. You will be able to download movies with a torrent client and watch your 1.3gig 720p divx movies all straight from the device…nothing but applause here.
Yes it’s a bit pudgy and a bit of a brick, but that’s the price you pay for having a cpu in your pocket. I’ve had the luxury of holding and playing around with the device a bit to put it through some quick tests, and I have to say that the easiest way to explain the N900 to the N97 is to look at it as the evil twin. Both are convergent devices, but with a different makeup.
N97 = Spiderman, N900 = Venom.
One is the hero, while the other is the villain. You wont see any big ad campaigns for the N900 (although W+K and one dot zero did something pretty spectacular using the N900 – breakdown here) and unlike all the PR and buzz around the N97, I’m sure the silent, but deadly N900 will like it this way.
What’s most interesting about the device is that you get a glimpse into the future of Nokia and where I believe they will be putting most of their chips – will this be the slow death to Symbian over time, or will they continue to create different product streams for the next 5 years? My guess is that that while the N97 is the pinnacle of what is possible with Symbian, that the future with Maemo will be very bright indeed for Nokia – now if only the company could put the pedal to the metal and be swifter to adapt and change with the speed of light. While Nokia is the clear cut leader catering to emerging markets and mid-range devices, there is only a matter of time when Apple will introduce the cheaper price point iPhone Nano to go for the jugular beyond the high-end affluent consumer.
I was just having a discussion with some good people about how it seems that the “scavenger hunt” has become one of those mandatory boxes that every marketer and brand needs to tick when launching a full campaign. Call it an alternate reality game, scavenger hunt, or a massive waste of time – does the amount of PR and engagement you get with such a small amount of fans actually add up?
Slashfilm has a good breakdown of what transpired at Comi-Con in what was called “The Hunt for Flynn’s Arcade”.
Everyone’s favorite Twitter app comes to the iPhone. I haven’t tested it out yet, but I will…that is once I get back onto my iPhone and test out 3.0 which should be coming out in the next few hours. I’m currently on the Nokia N97, it’s pretty great besides the obvious bugs with the unofficial software – will do a review once it’s more stable. If you happen to need a twitter app for Symbian S60 5th edition devices – Gravity is by far the best choice at the moment.
I was indeed excited about upgrading to the new 3GS, but after the fireworks and dry ice faded away – I’m still left with this feeling of uncertainty as to whether its worth it at all.
Bahhh, who am I kidding! Of course I’ll end up springing for it…another sucker born every minute.
Nothing like a good mobile AR shooter on a saturday afternoon. A collaboration between Georgia Tech, SCAD (Savannah School of Art and Design) with the help of Nvidia, this truly takes augmented reality into a space that I feel will get really interesting in the near future.
For the record, I’m not a huge fan of AR ideas where you need to print out a piece of paper and put it in front of a webcam on your computer. Who would do this? I work in advertising and research lots of different techniques and mechanics for delivering ideas and even I can’t be bothered to try most of them out – novelties only last so long. The only way AR will become a success and become ubiquitous is through integration with mobile- if you’re able to look at a marker in a store on a piece of packaging with your phone, then I can see the value of what that could bring to a consumer.
What’s great about this besides the obvious fact that its a mobile AR game, is the level of detail and gameplay that I’ve never seen before. The video does a pretty good job of explaining the in’s and out’s of the game, but the thing that it doesn’t touch on is the notion of how great this could be as a multiplayer experience using the one big marker as a map. 5 phones, millions of zombies…all good fun.
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