We are off for a brand new year and this one, like the one before, has been up for great surprises and adventures... and just like so, I found this video today and thought it might as well be the best way to start the year off... let this be a happy new year for all!
I've been reading a few books lately on entrepreneurship and a recurrent topic on them is how important it is to plant the seed of exploration in our kids and nurture that feeling as they get older.
Now more than ever this exploration is needed to move the world forward and even though there is a lot of artificial buzz been created around the myth of becoming a millionaire from one day to the other, the truth is that if we want to advance as a society we need to do so in the collective of great ideas... owned by many.
This little video here represents that and I am thankful to this TED talk from Cameron Harold on how to teach kids to be entrepreneurs. This is not only a call to action for today's parents or soon to be ones, this is a call for the humanity.
A few days back, I shared with you a new AR assisted experience LEGO put out for kids and grownups to play along this holidays season, today I want you to explore a more of a group-oriented, public interactive experience.
Recently, National Geographic peered up with London studio Appshaker to create a new way for people to interact and discover content from the network's collection of amazing footage.
In order to do so, appshaker came out with a public AR experience that let thousands of people to interact with everything from a T-Rex to Dolphins swiming around you to even a playfull cheetah.
Take a look yourself in the video above. Look at how, both the people that step up to the markers and the people around the mall experience the display. It is in showcases like this that not only brands get something to show for but the society gets the chance to start seeing what the future is going to look like. It prepare themselves for what's around the corner and gives creatives new grounds to explore.
Immagine what would happen if you add a kinect camera into the mix, if you have smart enough movements into the characters that could let people interact with the animals like if they were there, imagine what if you could dress the people with new clothes and take them into a new journey.
Academics: get the ball going, take your research outside, it's time to take all of those experiences out of the lab and into the world!!
sometimes you have to test stuff yourself just to see how grant it is... this has happened to me in a couple of ocacions before: when I got my first iphone, when I got my first retina-enabled iPod touch and now I can add a third... and it's from Microsoft!
The Photosynth App just works as advertized, the app sports Microsoft's Metro look and feel that, to say the least, it feels fresh on a device that is all but different (is it that a good thing?!) but that's just icyng on the cake... you have to tap start and just go flashing away those pictures... it's amazing!
Mobile photography really won't be the same after you test this app.
Kudos to Blaise and his team of researchers... this trully is a step closer to the future!
PS. Care to know where did all this came from? then check out Blaise demoing Seadragon and Photosynth and the future of Augmented Reality Maps at TED and then follow on dreaming!
Update: better yet... skip those videos and watch them later and just jump straight to Blaise's account of the app experience.
A few years back I had the chance to collaborate reviewing the book Reality Check by Startup Legendary, Guy Kawasaki. That book changed the way I looked at startup formation and made it spark the fire of entrepreneur in me... in a lot of ways this book was the reason that made me resign to my status in the industry and head across the world to Korea to restart, and as result Discovr Places was born.
Now, 2 years later, a new book comes from the vault of his ideas and with Enchanted, Guy tries to show us the value of soft skills in practice. Something that, in my personal opinion, is key to succeed as a leader, regardless of your industry, in what you do or have to offer.
I just bought the book today and from the early look at it I believe it will become a most read for explorers, for those early stage startup CEO's, that just as technology savvy, it's expected of them to become enchanters in their practice and as service providers.
The info-graphic below is a guide to the book, something you can print and hang in your wall or just around the office so you and your peers can be reminded of those little things that can make a difference in the way you can be perceived. Take a look.
I like the way Guy writes, it's just like having a pal over for drinks and tell you stories that work. I hope you guys find as much motiviation in his ideas as I've done, and don't worry, be happy and trust you can do a great change in the world by enchanting others.
Cheers!
With only a couple of days into February and the diversity of slate offerings is just starting to spice up and with that the diversification of offerings, flavors and most importantly, experiences start their lineup to bloom.
So what's in for us? Let's just take a look at the infographic above which pairs up some of the known offerings available until now; as for concerns in design and implementation the lesser common denominator for all of them comes to be Webkit, which means that more and more HTML5 will become the de-facto technology we will catered to if we want to target all them as one as we wait to see how they penetrate in the consumer world individually.
These are interesting times and I'm exited to see how the slate market will evolve. Android is probably the platform with the biggest opportunity to make a dent in Apple's reign, specially given Apple's almost dictatorial behavior as of late and Google's non-stop grow in mobile.
In the mean time Google has a lot to catch up to in terms of facilitating the making money process to developers, if they expect more and more developers to make the jump, which as of now has remained below expectations.
The show is not over and the war of slates will just get hotter as the days advance, next week HP is set to unveil their line up of WebOS based devices, which has been creating a lot of expectation lately, same goes for the iPad 2 whose announcement is eminent and as for Microsoft, well... we'll have to see what MIX '11 has to offer in this arena, since their strategy is still quite vague.
The pastures for us creators is greener than ever, imagination is at bloom and the displays are opening up... democratization for content, experiences and more is becoming reality one bit and pixel at the time... at a very fast rate.
Exited?
I came across this project just a few days back and today it came the chance to put it to use.
Honestly I'm amazed at the level of quality and variety of icons available, it's just amazing!
The project’s mission is to collect, organize and make available an extensive library of free pictograms/icons for common nouns and concepts that make up the universal visual language, and best of all, all icons are guaranteed to be free.
Wether you are working on a new project or thinking in redesigning your current project, take a look and if you use what it's there remember to donate a couple of bucks!
this is to remind me of the path that both of us have walked and how... thru the experiences of our life, we have come to be one. love you H.
we live in a world that has never been as connected as now... the internet of things keep growing... our world becomes dummer and starter and thru a few key players and some happy API's our happenings are, simply put, collective.
this project I found today explore the idea of augmenting our surroundings with even more data... analog, digital and open spaces come together in a way that even if you don't own a piece of silicon... you still get experienced.
interesting concepts and look forward for more from this creative british agency... who knows maybe we do are living in the future.
