”When we start mourning technocrats as idols, we cheapen the lives of those who have sacrificed more for their fellow man.”
The PlayStation Web App – Video Unlimited
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/09/27/video-unlimited-preview-coming-to-playstation-3/
“Starting today, finding the right movie or TV show on the PlayStation Network is easier and more fun than ever before.
We’re unveiling a whole new way to explore the library of more than 40,000 movies and TV episodes… discover everything from the latest blockbusters and popular sitcoms, to old classics and the next big TV series – it’s simple, fun, and intuitive.
Our new “Video Unlimited – preview” application, which can be downloaded later today if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, makes it easier and more visual to browse, discover, and search for movies and TV shows from your favorite actors, directors, and genres. While mirroring content found on the existing video section of the PlayStation Store, the new preview application gives you a fresh experience by providing endless related search results via a whole new way to find content. Check out the video to see how this all works and why we’re so excited about it.”
Artists’ Digital Masks Move With Your Face [VIDEO]
http://mashable.com/2011/09/26/artists-digital-masks-move-with-your-face-video/
Artists Kyle McDonald and Arturo Castro have created a face-substitution program that makes it look like your face has morphed into someone else’s. Far from just pasting a static mask onto your image, the program preserves your facial and bodily movements. It looks uncanny, if not entirely real.
4 Successful and Creative Facebook Contests
http://mashable.com/2011/09/11/successful-facebook-contests/
1. Contiki Vacations’ “Get on the Bus” Promotion – Contiki, a travel firm that caters to the 18-35 year-old demo, dropped a promotion in mid-February that let winter-weary web surfers imagine their perfect vacation. The winner got one of eight vacations worth around $25,000. The promotion harkened back to Contiki’s roots — in 1961, a young New Zealander named John Anderson arrived in London for a European journey. Lacking money and friends, he came up with a clever plan: He put a deposit on a minibus and found a group of people to travel with him. After the trip was over, Anderson tried to sell the minibus, but no one wanted to buy it, so he advertised the European trip again and Contiki Holidays was born.
Accordingly, the “Get on the Bus” promo challenged fans to get a crew with four friends together, choose a trip and then try to get as many votes as possible in order to win. Yes, that’s right, votes not Likes. Bob Troia, CEO of Affinitive, the agency that created the promo, says just as the program was launching, Facebook changed its policy about the use of Likes, which prompted the use of votes instead. Nevertheless, the effort, which ran from February 23 through March 31, garnered 8,000 Likes for Contiki and generated more than 10 million ad impressions through Facebook shares, Likes, tweets and blog coverage. One reason for the success was a feature that let users and their friends create a bus, which incorporated music, movies, Likes and interests that users had in common via their Facebook profiles.
2. Maybelline’s “Show Us Your Red Lips” – Maybelline New York ran a promo for its Super Stay24h lipstick in Switzerland that offered the chance to be the face of the product on the Facebook Page in Switzerland. Despite that modest payoff, the promotion got 183 responses in three weeks. Part of the reason was that the contest was pretty easy to enter: All you had to do was take a picture of your lips. A lot more people — 9,000 — voted in the contest than entered it, leading to a dramatic jump in the product’s Facebook fans. Before the contest, the Page had 3,000 fans, but when it was over, there were 13,000.
3. Coca-Cola’s “The Recycling King” – For whatever reason, Israel seems to be on the cutting edge of location-based Facebook promotions. First there was the Coca-Cola Amusement Park promo in Israel last summer that let kids “like” park attractions by checking in using RFID-enabled bracelets, and now there’s the Recycling King program. Give Coke and agency Publicis E-Dologic an A for effort: The two tracked down every recycling bin in the country (there are 10,000 or so) and registered them on Facebook Places. Users them competed to see who was the “Recycling King,” by checking in to the most bins. The program proved to be popular. Users uploaded more than 26,000 pictures of themselves recycling, and there were more than 250,000 checkins.
4. Blocket.se’s “The Funniest Classified Ad on Blocket” – apparently, the Swedish populace likes a joke as much as, say, the Finns. Realizing this, Blocket.se, the Craigslist of Sweden, ran a contest for “The funniest classified ad on Blocket.” The contest sought real ads, which users could submit by uploading an image. Blocket’s jury chose 20 finalists, and then Facebook users could vote for their favorite among the list and follow the results.
Thanks to the rib-tickling stunt, the site received 31,000 new fans in 18 days, and 34,000 people installed the Blocket app.
http://mashable.com/2011/09/11/successful-facebook-contests/
Why SpongeBob is a bad influence
“A research study has found that watching even nine minutes of the fast-paced cartoon can have immediate negative effects on a preschooler’s brain function.
Compared with children who watched a sleepier cartoon or children who watched none, four-year-olds who watched the frenetic show did significantly worse on a series of tests measuring the brain’s executive function, the umbrella term for the collection of skills including attention, working memory and self-regulation that are strongly associated with academic success.”
New social networks offer ‘training wheels’ for young users
“It’s a virtual jungle out there, especially for the young, with cyberbullies, online predators, smut and targeted advertising lurking around every corner it seems. Even those ubiquitous social networking sites are a worry for parents, who sometimes react by trying to keep their children from interacting online. But there are sites offering social networking services specifically designed for kids. And their creators of such say they offer a safer, more age-appropriate opportunity for children to interact online and prepare to be good digital citizens…”
Willie Nelson sings for social good
“prime examples of how social media can be used for social good … The subject of the animated YouTube video is food: where it comes from and how it’s made. More specifically, it’s the story of a farmer who turns his organic farm into an industrial pig factory. Despite promises of profit, he realizes that he made a mistake and reverts back to a more sustainable future.
Cheer Detergent Music Video Lets You Click To Win Prizes
“Cheer detergent is rolling out what it claims is an industry first: A clickable YouTube video that takes you to a non-YouTube site.
The music video, for the song “Climbing Walls” from Strange Talk, has colorful objects, which viewers can click to be entered to win them. Those prizes include socks, dresses and a Fender Stratocaster, among other items. Jason Wiedemann, brand manager for the Procter & Gamble detergent brand, says although other YouTube videos have included such “hot spots” before, those linked to another YouTube site. The Cheer video leads to a Facebook app for Cheer where you can register for the item you “dug.” YouTube reps could not be reached for comment on Wiedermann’s claim.
The unique approach underscores the brand’s attempt to woo a young, digitally savvy audience. The brand’s marketing budget is now 100% digital, Wiedemann says, and the brand is being positioned to appeal to consumers who want to express their individuality. (Tagline: “We dig color.”)”
Wal-Mart, Amazon bypass Apple’s App Store with new sites
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday revealed new video and book-reading services that are designed for the iPad but bypass Apple Inc.’s fees on content sales. Wal-Mart started to stream video from its Vudu service to the iPad’s Web browser, and Amazon announced the Kindle Cloud Reader, which lets users read e-books.
Amazon, the leading seller of e-books, has a Kindle app for the iPad. However, Apple recently forced it to remove a button that launches Amazon’s Kindle website, where users buy books. Apple wants companies to sell their content through its iTunes system, where it gets a 30 per cent cut.
Media companies are finding Apple’s fees hard to accept. So they are getting around that by avoiding apps that must be distributed through Apple’s App Store, where Apple’s fee policies apply. Earlier this summer, The Financial Times created an app-like website for its newspaper to avoid Apple’s fees.
CPPS 