Stop the presses.
Microsoft finally produce a good advert for a great product!

Credit were credit is due I think, Kinect is pretty amazing (it sold twice as fast as the iPod when launched) and since being hacked is being used for some amazing things way out of the gaming sphere.

Check out kinecthacks.net to see how people are pushing the technology.

The above is a trailer for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by ex-Pixar animator William Joyce. It looks amazing with loads of interaction throughout the app and really rich animation and graphics. Check out Moonbot Studios as well.

I know what I’ll be purchasing and playing with tonight!

A very nice infographic to start the week off!

I have discussed the rise of mobile platforms before on this blog (A mobile future) and this infographic takes a look at all the major digital networks and their current mobile user base. View more from JESS3 the original creators.

I have been researching mobile platform penetration for a couple of projects and pitches I have recently been working on. This also forms part of a series of future thought pieces I am creating concerning the development of the online experience that is evolving beyond the notion of a web site or single destination to include multiple touchpoints.

Here’s a couple of interesting points I have recently found:
• According to eMarketer the tablet market will grow 400% by 2012
• Mobile internet devices out sold computers in 2009 by 144 million units*
• It is predicted by 2012 more smartphones will be shipped than PC’s
• There are around 650 million 3G/3.5G subscribers worldwide**
• By 2013, people using their mobile device to search the Internet will overtake desktop Internet users for the first time

What does this mean?

Well, as consumers continue to expand their media consumption across a variety of devices and platforms marketers and advertisers will need to rethink measurement approaches and marketing strategies in order to engage with different audiences and deliver on their needs and behaviours.

* Source: Gartner, Jan 2010. Information week Dec 2009.
** Source: ChinaCCM.com

Continuing this weeks theme of interesting info graphics, here are some revealing numbers for Apple’s iPad looking back over the past 12 months. An incredible sales prediction for 2014 if you take into consideration every other major manufacturer will have a tablet in the marketplace.

Originally created by OnSwipe.

Have I just experienced the future of media and the internet?
Am I getting a bit over excited about something I know has been coming for years?
Is it really as good as I think it is or am I being blinded by how much I like ‘The Dude’?

I’m not sure, but what I do know is the whole reason why I invested in an iPad and why I am getting pretty excited about the next few years in digital is for things like PROJECT magazine.

Ok so before I go too far in proclaiming this is the future of everything I obviously understand that it’s not. However smart mobile handsets and tablet devices are really having an impact on how people like to experience, consume and interact with different types of media and content.

I guess what really gets me excited is not what’s happening right now but that the possibilities for this are infinite and mind blowing. When this becomes more personalised, relevant, tailored, and real time we will really see the persuasive power of digital media.

It is also the blend of static & motion graphics, video, editorial layout and interactive design that really interests me as a designer.

I’ll post more when I have spent a bit more time browsing and hopefully done some comparison tests. If anyone out there knows of any other similar ‘digital magazines’ then please let me know.

The Minority Report gesture browsing style gets a step closer!
Students at MIT have developed DepthJS which is a web browser extension that allows any web page to interact with the Microsoft Kinect via Javascript.

Kinect + Computer Vision + Javascript = Very Cool

Get the code and more at depthjs.media.mit.edu

Have just seen this Kinect puppet prototype on the Creative Review blog. I wondered how quickly we’d see people from outside the gaming industry using this technology. Really nice application, this is going to open up a whole new world of possibilities.

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people hack systems, release drivers and a raft of open source code and share all their brilliant hard work. Oh it’s all getting very exciting out there in digital world.

Well it finally made an appearance yesterday!

A brilliant quote to start the proceedings by The Wall Street Journal “Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it.”

It was obviously one of the best leaked or worst kept secrets ever. The best description I have heard of the iPad is that it’s basically an iPhone on steroids.

I think that Apple have found themselves in a difficult situation with the iPad, if it did too much (multitasking as everyone presumed) then they would have potentially wiped out demand for their MacBook range and possibly the MacBook Air.

The biggest revolution with a screen of this size and resolution must be how we’re going to be able to consume more effective rich media. Newspapers and magazines will become far better engaging experiences and with Apple’s desirability factor making their products mainstream could this be the biggest opportunity for brands to push personalised content and advertising based on profiling?

This collaboration between The Wonderfactory and Time, Inc. is an example of how people have been pushing the engagement levels of the digital versions of magazines.

The worst thing about the iPad – still no support for Flash?

Steve really mustn’t like someone at Adobe.

Well the day has finally arrived!

For lovers of all things shiny that come out of Apple, 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino this has the promise of being one of the biggest events ever. The rumour mills have been in overdrive lately with talk of a revolutionary tablet, with blogs and forums posting supposed leaked photo’s, url registration forms, patent applications etc.

The event kicks off at 6pm GMT so lets see if there’s enough bandwidth to watch!

A distinct lack of posts reflects how hectic the end of ’09 was, the world of marketing appeared to start to shake off the worst effects of the downturn and it has been a rather crazy few months. Hopefully 2010 will be much more positive for everyone.

Well I did expect the most desirable object of the start of 2010 to be the Google Nexus One, but already in my eyes this has been beaten by the unbelievable Parrot AR.Drone. To say that I want one is an understatement.

The AR.Drone is a helicopter that features within two augmented reality games. The helicopter is controlled via Wi-Fi by either iPhone or iPod Touch and uses the accelerometer and touchscreen as controls. The helicopter boasts a camera so that you can see what’s going on through your iPhone or iPod Touch’s display.

One word: Awesome