Five things on Friday #41

Things of note for the week ending October 12th, 2012

Untitled

1. Awesome birdhouses
From the stylish to the down right scary, these incredible birdhouses have been made specifically to raise money for charity (which is doubly awesome). The whole set is quite fantastic and the one I’ve used above does nothing to illustrate how artistic the creators get…  it just really makes me laugh.

via

2. Blogger Engagement
A good piece of blogger engagement goes a long way. This is not news admittedly and there’s probably enough in this to warrant another blog post for another day (note to self: start this draft). But for now, let’s talk about some great pieces that have happened lately.

First, from the lovely chaps looking after social media for Tsingtao Beer. I’m not a huge Tsingtao drinker but, after some great banter with the aforementioned digital team – I know I’m going to order it next time I’m out for Chinese, certainly. I’m also going to vote* in the Tsingtao Beer ‘Legacy of Taste‘ competition, which is the search to find Britain’s favourite Chinese restaurant. You should vote too.

Second, Motorola announced their brand new Motorola RAZR i the other week and, in all fairness, I rarely take notice of anything Motorola do as I’ve never used any of their devices and it’s not a brand that’s ever interested me. However, after a delightful email from their representatives here in Europe, not only have I LIKED THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE but I’ve also mentioned the phone a couple of times on the podcast AND I’m also looking forward to actually getting my hands on one and having a play.

That’s all down to decent blogger engagement.

Look, I know this all sounds incredibly pompous but I collect blogger engagement. When I was engagement director at the ‘heads I made it my job to constantly review with the way we engaged with different communities; I have given entire presentations (internally, of course) based around bad engagement copy. It’s a habit I’ve kept since leaving and well, blogger engagement done well should be applauded more often.

So, Christine at Edelman and Tom/Robbie at McCann, if you’re reading this – good work.

3. BMX Boy
This is four year old Malcolm, out BMX-ing/Mountain-biking with his dad. It’s nine minutes of smiling from ear to ear.

My dad and I used to go scrambling around tracks like that. I miss it.

4. The Mayor of Mars
The Mars Curiosity Rover is using Foursquare to track its progress across that reddest of planets and, just last week, it became the Mayor of the Gale Crater.

I love love love the way that the team at NASA are using social media tor drive interest around this most awesome of human exploratory missions. And big up to the Foursquare team who are helping them do just that. Well done.

5. Stupid stuff
My girlfriend sent me this during the week and for some reason it makes me crack up just looking at it/him –

I’m laughing right now. Hahahaha… the artist behind this masterpiece is one Natalie Dee.

Go seek her out.

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Bonuses this week: a 15min speech from the Australian Prime Minister labelling the leader of the opposition a hyprocritcal misogynist is absolutely fantastic (seriously, watch it); a blog post entitled ‘the most interesting underpants in London‘ really does live up to its name; and finally, this is probably the best volcano video you’ve ever seen – hit HD, make it full screen and ENJOY.

 

*If you’re interested, Royal China got my vote. 

Lumia 800 spotted in The Wolverine?

Yeah, I think so –

Wolverine 2, aka ‘The Wolverine‘, is coming / rising soon. Filming is underway right now and slowly but surely set photos are leaking their way onto the internet. So far, we’ve only seen snaps of our eponymous hero but today, we got a peek at the two main villains he’ll be facing up against: Silver Samurai and Viper.

The really interesting thing is that the latter of the two has been spotted sporting what seems to be the Nokia Lumia 800.

Take a look –

That certainly looks like a Cyan(?) Lumia 800 to me. The flash is in the wrong place to be anything else.

But why?

Nokia has previous when it comes to placement in superhero films (trust me, I know), and it works best when it’s actually part and parcel of the film’s storyline as opposed to being fudged in at the last minute. Fortunately it’s looking very much like the former here – which is ace.

However, all I’m left wondering is: why the Lumia 800 and not the Lumia 820, or the 920 for that matter?

If I were a bad-ass super villain, I don’t think I’d settle for WP7.8.

 

#justsayin

Trimming in Public – Part 5

Cleaning out my RSS, ten feeds at a time –

James Whatley / BW

Background.

Let’s do this –

blending the mix
The blog of northern digital/social specialist, Paul Fabretti – I think this may have been one of the first/earliest subscriptions back in the day and I’ve also had a the good fortune of getting to meet Paul from time to time too. He doesn’t blog that often (he’s a busy boy), but when he does – I always read it. If you’re into social media / digital and want to keep an eye on people doing things differently, Paul’s blog is one to read.
Decision: Keep 

Blog O HAI
I met Mark Burstiner at the Web 2.0 Expo in New York City about four years ago. We hit it off right away and basically had a blast the entire time we hung out. Back when I was ‘that Brit doing social media’, word got ’round pretty quick and a couple of days later, when Mark and I ran into each other again (this time at the Blog World Expo in Vegas) he made sure that I got to meet everyone and anyone he could introduce me to. From Gary V and Brett Petersel through Pistachio and Pete Cashmore, Mark intro’d me to them all - and it was awesome.

Back to the blogging bit – of late Mark has been working his ass off getting his (quite frankly, brilliant) gaming-based start up, ‘FTW‘,  off the ground so blogging hasn’t been his number one priority. Look, we chat enough over Twitter and Xbox mail as it is.
Decision: Remove

Brandflakes for Breakfast
Top five all time number one blogs to read for keeping up to date with the latest advertising, creative, innovation and online (viral) video. If you’re in the industry, you should be reading this. And if you’re launching something cool and you want the industry to know about, you should let these guys know too.
Decision: Keep

Brown Cardigan
There are a few things on this list that I have no explanation for. Brown Cardigan is one of them. It publishes far too much for my normal RSS reader liking, and by rights I should remove it. BUT… it’s everything that’s good and bad about the internet all together in one place and it’s where I go to LAUGH MY FACE OFF – and y’know what? I make no apologies for it. You have been warned. It’s staying because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the faces of the people on the tube in the mornings who happen to catch it over my shoulder.
Decision: Keep

Campaign Against Living Miserably
Suicide is the biggest killer of young men under 35 in the UK today. C.A.L.M. is a charity that’s been set up to help reduce that staggering statistic. Go. Read. Be inspired.
Decision: Keep

Chris Funderburg’s Place
I spoke about Chris back in part one. This blog isn’t around anymore, but the one in part one is. So that’s all decided then.
Decision: Remove

chrisbrogan.com
A great blogger and a great guy, if you’re thinking about doing anything blog related, be it business or personal, you could do a lot worse than spending a couple of days routing around in Chris’ archives. One of the good guys, I’ve always got time for Chris.
Decision: Keep

Ciaran’s Blog
God knows when Ciaran last blogged. It certainly wasn’t recently. I guess, being CTO of Skimlinks doesn’t allow for that kind of thing much these days. Damn shame. Still, lovely guy. Follow him on Twitter instead.
Decision: Remove

Colin Mercer On The Inter-Web
Used to work with Colin back at the ‘heads. He blogs fairly infrequently about Oxford Digital life and cricket. Two things that I don’t have much opinion on. If I’m being harsh on topics, I should remove… BUT he hasn’t blogged since June so that also weighs in against him too.
Decision: Remove

copy©**ts
A fairly NSFW blog setup for the sole purpose of naming and shaming advertising ‘creatives’ who serve up yesterday’s YouTube fodder as tomorrow’s ‘big idea’. Honestly, it has to be seen to be believed. I love it, and it really doesn’t publish enough.
Decision: Keep

 

Part 6 when I get ’round to it.

 

Five things on Friday #40

Things of note for the week ending October 5th, 2012

1. The Penis Blouse

That’s a penis, on a blouse. Brought to you by those lovely people at ASOS. Spotted it a couple of days ago and within 24 hours it was all over the place. ASOS are clearly onto a winner; everyone loves a penis blouse.

2. Statigram
Statigram is a web interface for Instagram. Given that Instagram is mobile-only, this is actually quite a useful tool. What’s really useful however is the super-cool stats (see what they did there) it pulls out of your Instagram activity.

eg: my most popular pics

Lovely stuff. On Instagram? Go have a play.

3. Dog shirts
Exactly what is says on the tin.

I bought one of these for Robbie last week (it was his birthday, we don’t just buy each other gifts for no reason – well, we do but that’s not for now), AND THEY ARE AMAZING.

4. 4G Networks
At long last, 4G is scheduled to launch here in the UK on October 30th. Well I say networks I mean network (singular, not plural) this is because of a whole bunch of reasons most of which are covered off in this rather informative article on The Register as well as this week’s episode of The Voicemail (I may have had a rant).

In summary: 4G is coming from network this year, but from everyone else in 2013. Rubbish.

5. Choons
This is the best thing I’ve listened to all week.

_____

Bonuses this week: FIFA have somewhat incredibly re-badged and relaunched FIFA 12 as FIFA 13; this article about how Nokia keeps its maps up to date by using UPS and Fedex van delivery data is quite the eye-opener; and finally, Snoop Dogg is voting for Obama. Wanna know why?

– Whatley out.

Scottevest FTW

Meet Scott Jordan –

Scott Jordan - aka @scottevest

I was first introduced to Scott way back when I was just about to embark upon my Lucozade Energy Challenges…

No. Wait.

First you need to know what the hell a ‘Scottevest‘ is.

Well, the best way to describe it would be to call it ‘tech-enabled clothing’ for the tech-travelling geek. Imagine a really nice/well-made jacket for example, that can carry all of your tech.

You’re a blogger, geek, tech-head. You’re carrying an iPad, a phone (or three), a USB cable (or seven). You don’t want to carry a bag because you always carry a bag. Well, what if you didn’t have to? What if you could wear a jacket, or a fleece, or a pair of trousers that could carry all that for you - in comfort.

Well that’s Scottevest.

And it is awesome.

Example?

Let me get back to my story, back when I was about to embark upon my Lucozade trip of epicness, fellow video-blogging buddy Christian Payne – aka @Documentally – reached out to Scott and asked him to send me some stuff to use while I was away – ‘He’ll do something cool,’ he said. In return I told Christian I’d give Scott the rights to use any photography that I took while away…

And that’s exactly what I did.

Like a pro...

Sandboarding in Namibia, head to toe in Scottevest gear, natch.

Turns into: free photos of yours truly with any Scottevest purchase! 😉

Whatleydude, on a sandboard, wearing Scottevest

Throw in a bit of climbing, some mountain trekking and a spot of safari too, and you have yourself quite a nice selection of Scottevest-in-action poses!

Anyway, for the past three years Scott and I have been following each other on Twitter and last night was the first time we got a chance to meet… and what a genuinely nice guy he is! Filled with stories and laughter, he was a great host for a lovely evening of tech geekery and smart clothing (not a combination you hear every day).

Seriously, follow him on Twitter [and tell him I said hi] and perhaps, this Christmas, you might want to gift your favourite geek with some badass Scottevest gear for his/her tech.

Oh, and as a final FYI – for my fellow Brits – Scott was in town last night to tell both a) catch up with his UK friends and b) give us a sneak preview of new and upcoming products.

That blue shirt he’s wearing above is on my shopping list already and, when it launches, Scott’ll be putting everything on Amazon.co.uk too – making it all much easier to purchase.

Win!

 

Panda Style!

So, this happened –

The chaps at work are looking after the Cheng Du Pambassador programme and well, when you leave a panda outfit laying around the office, mad things are bound to happen.

Love. Love. Love.

Moreso because I both know a fair few peeps in the video as well I know exactly what bits were left on the cutting room floor (perhaps they’ll get leaked a tt later date) .

For now, go Tweet and Share the hell out of this video – the WORLD needs to see it!

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Yeah yeah, two panda posts in one week. It’s not like I’m influenced by anyone who loves pandas or anything…

 

Want a Lumia 920 on Vodafone?

UPDATE: AS OF DECEMBER 19th – IT’S COMING! 

It ain’t gonna happen…

 

Lumia and Vodafone? NO.

The Nokia Lumia 920 is the latest (and greatest?) Nokia flagship phone. It was announced on September 5th, 2012 and sources are placing its release at around the middle of November somewhere.

I like the look of it and, since knowing mobile tech the way I do, I gave it the fairly highly-regarded label of ‘My Next Phone‘.

But there’s a problem. This morning this happened –

Dan Bowsher is one of the super-smart social media chaps at Vodafone and, as managing editor of the Vodafone UK blog, it’s kind of his job to be on the button with stuff like this – so I appreciate the heads up, Dan, thank you.

The ironic thing is, the same episode of The Voicemail that Dan is talking about is also the exact same one where I name-check Vodafone as being one service that I could not live without.

But now, I am in a quandary –

I’ve been a Vodafone customer for nigh on 16yrs. I honestly can’t think what kind of data they have on record or how much customer equity I’ve built up over that time.

And they’re not going to range the one phone that I really, really want.

My options are as follows

  1. Buy the Lumia 920 SIM-free (not ideal).
    –
  2. Leave Vodafone and join a network like EE (who are not only ranging the Lumia 920 but also launching with the first 4G network)?
    –
  3. Ignore the Lumia 920 and perhaps consider a different handset – like the new HTC Windows phones or in fact, an iPhone 5 (which is genuinely a serious option)?

 

Opinions please.

UPDATE: Vodafone have published a blog post confirming the above Windows Phone 8 device strategy 

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THE PANDA MADE ME DO IT

It really did - 

2012-09-27-0793

I LOVE THIS TEE.

Last week, whilst in attendance at the Social@Ogilvy Spin event over in Shoreditch, I ran into Ade Cockle, Digital Innovation Manager for the World Wildlife Fund.

He and I have chatted over Twitter a fair bit and we’ve also shared a table at various IAB Social Media Council meetings together too but the other night was the first time we’d actually met and spoken properly.

The first words out of my mouth?

“Ade! What do I have to do to get my hands on one of those awesome Panda shirts?!”

How did I know about them? I saw this video –

Lovely, right?

Anyway, the next thing I know Ade magics the above t-shirt out of his bag and thrusts it into my hands! Amazing.

What did I do in response? I gave him a massive hug, and then I GOT INVOLVED.

You should too.

 

 

 

Review: LOOPER

No spoilers…

Via

These days it’s nigh-on impossible to go to the cinema without at least some awareness of what it is you’re about to sit down and experience. When it came to LOOPER, I did my utmost to achieve that.

It wasn’t easy.

After reading the first synopsis and then seeing the first trailer, I decided: no more. And OPERATION: AVOID ALL INFORMATION ABOUT LOOPER was in full effect.

So if, like me, you’re out to keep as much detail about this film out of and away from your film-going psyche before going to see it*, then this simplistic review is just for you.

Ready? Here we go –

What LOOPER is:

– A brilliant vision of the future
– A masterclass in character study and story-telling
– A modern classic that’ll be studied and revered for years to come

What LOOPER isn’t:

– The film you’re expecting
– An easy watch
– Predictable

———

To say anymore would be to ruin it beyond all recognition. Even if I told you what films it echoed, for me at least, I think that would take something away from it too.

Book your tickets.

See this film.

 

—Big love to Stella Artois and Little White Lies for organising last night’s preview—

—

*WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?

 

Five things on Friday #39

Things of note for the week ending September 28th

1. Tree Music
This is quite beautiful, and just in time for autumn too. Just below a giant chestnut tree in Berlin’s Montbijoupark, these green polymer membranes have been set out to create music whenever a chestnut falls on them.

Stunning.

The meaning behind this work is worth looking into… so’s the video (at the same link).

2. You’re Doing it Wrong
I lost about half an hour reading this page on metafilter last weekend. It’s amazing – and you’ll lose time too.

Trust me, you’ve been doing it wrong.

3. Ella Henderson
This, from last weekend’s X-Factor, is breathtaking.

It’s my blog, I’ll do what I want –
I mean, it could’ve been worse, I could’ve blogged about this.

4. New MySpace
It’s coming and it looks a bit gorge –

5. Resident Evil 6 Review of win
This is quite possibly one of the best video game reviews I’ve ever seen.

A fairly video heavy episode this week, but hey – who cares?

I’m out…