The husband ponders the wife's shopping bill

An utterly fantastic video from 1966 that speculates on what life will be like in 1999… so I thought I’d upload it to celebrate 2009! Unlike most videos from the past that speculated on flying cars and robots doing all our chores, this one went for the ‘home shopping’ angle, bank account unification and a way to send letters electronically all over the world… It is so funny the way they talk about ‘the wife’ and her shopping with ‘the husband’ picking up the bill. Aw, nuclear families.

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EC5sbdvnvQM]

whilst looking at the iphone screen, the WWExpo designer had a great idea for a logo...

Hooray! Widget Web Expo is coming to town (London)! The future of the web is widgets – in fact, the present of the web is widgets too. Long time associate and thoroughly nice bloke Ivan Pope (Mr Widget) is chairing the WidgetWebExpo 6-7th October, in Covent Garden, London. It should be a great event and you should really make it one of the things for you to do in October. I’ll be down with some of the team and maybe a few clients, so let me know if you want to come along – it will definitely be a chance to put you ahead of your competitors.

Wondering what a Widget is? The simplest explanation is 90% of the elements that make up your Facebook profile are widgets. It’s a loose term for little applications or interfaces which let you stream video, bid on ebay, upload docs – pretty much do anything you can already do on the web! The other great thing about widgets is the way users can incorporate them to their own environments or behaviour. This presents great opportunities to communicate brand messages and experiences in a way that engages the audience.

New research by the IPA has shown that almost a third of people between the age of 15 to 25 have watched TV via the internet. And around 18% of people aged between 25 and 64 (a very broad ‘old people’ category or what?!) had too.

The IPA Touchpoints report surveyed over 5,000 people and also looked at mobile behaviour. It was found that 30% of 15 to 24 year olds watch video clips on their phones, with 13% of all mobile users doing so.

Jim Marshall, chairman of the IPA Media Futures Group, said, ” the young are still driving the take-up and use of digital media and new technology, however, the older age groups are also moving steadily towards greater adoption.” Personally, I would have thought that more than a third of 15 to 25 year olds would have watched TV online, but I suppose if this statistic was expressed as a number than a percentage it would seem greater.

Just as an extra update – overall broadband penetration now stands at 73% of all UK adults, with internet usage at an average of 45 minutes on weekdays and just over an hour at weekends.

The core idea is that you download a small application onto your phone, sign up to qik.com and then simply stream whatever you fancy direct to the Internet. Videos can be watched live or at a later date via qik.com.

To make it happen you’ll need a pretty modern phone though. Windows Mobile and iPhone support has just been added to Symbian OS, covering many modern handsets, but still leaving many needing an upgrade (like myself).  Qik also advise that you get yourself an unlimited data plan.  I imagine this is a wise step.  Qik is probably the sort of app that would ruin someone on pay-as-you-go fairly swiftly.

Right now it all seems pretty fresh.  The website looks sparkly and web 2.0 enough, but the videos seem to show people dipping their toes into the service.  There are lots of short clips of people videoing their computers / desks / the ceiling etc..!

The functionality is all there, however, and well layered. There isn’t that feeling of being overwhelmed that you sometimes get when confronted with just too much functionality. Most of this is through the clever use of tabs and a well laid out, crisp design.

It has all the syndication features you’d expect from a descent app. You can access user’s video feeds via RSS.  You can even make Qik update your Twitter feed every time you post a video!

Fresh from securing $3 million in funding, Qik seems to be securing it’s status as the market leader in live video streaming direct from mobile phones.  It will be interesting to see how the service grows and blossoms as it moves beyond the early-adopter phase.

PS: Benn can I have an iPhone please so I can play with Qik?

BBC1 has just announced that within the next year, all of its programmes will be simulcast as a live video stream on the internet. This makes it the first of BBC’s analogue TV channels to be aired on the web – ITV has already been simulcasting ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4 for a year.

The channel will be available via their website, bbc.co.uk, which is being relaunched with improved listings and programme information. BBC Director, Mark Thompson, said that “building on the success of the iPlayer, we want to develop bbc.co.uk to include a broad range of the BBC’s broadcast content, as well as new and interactive forms of media that enable audiences to interact with and contribute to the website.”

Despite the fact that we no longer need a TV to watch BBC1, they are still going to make us pay the licence fee: “You need a TV licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, set-top box, video or DVD recorder, computer or mobile phone to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV.”

For the full article, visit: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jun/04/bbc.television2

We have just delivered a customised version of our new ChatBox application for Sony Ericsson, which enabled their Head of Region CEEMEA and over 400 employees across 104 countries to hold a 60 minute live chat session over the internet and mobile phones.

The chat session had a high engagement rate with Sony Ericsson’s key staff and we delivered a transcript of the entire chat session to Sony Ericsson’s PR agency Brando, for internal PR use.

ChatBox is our unique online ‘chat’ platform which enables brands to hold live, interactive and moderated chats with their employees, consumers or anyone they want to talk to! To request information on ChatBox or find out what ChatBox can do for your brand, contact Benn or Laura.

Lycos Europe, one of the dominating search giants of the 90s, is now up for auction. Unable to compete with Google’s power, the search engine ran into net losses of EUR 5.9 million for the first quarter this year, according to PaidContent.

Dresdner Kleinwort is now Lycos’ advisor in its bid to find a new strategy – which should clearly start with trimming their fat. They don’t need to be so big to be competitive. Small and flexible teams are really successful today, because they can react quickly to the frequent changes in the Internet world – something that Lycos has not done.

However, this may be difficult for Lycos. There have already been a number of cost-cutting measures undertaken at Lycos Europe recently, eliminating around EUR 6.2 million. But there were still losses.

Good luck to whoever takes Lycos on…

According to WSJ, Adobe are going to develop Flash for the iPhone. And they’re not just going to use the existing Flash Lite – they’re going to develop a new version (or tweak the existing one) especially for the iPhone.

Adobe’s CEO, Shantanu Narayen had said: “We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone…We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves.”

It seems Adobe’s on a roll. First, they signed a deal with Microsoft, who licensed Flash for Windows Mobile-sporting phones. Then, they posted fantastic financial results for the year. And now, they’re probably going to conquer this last, crucially significant, corner of the smartphone market.

Recently, there was an interesting bit of collateral damage noted in the ongoing war between Scientology and the Internet, but Scientology’s war on the Internet has been raging since long before the battle plans of the RIAA and Lars Ulrich were even gleams in their eyes.

Rather than continue to carpet-bomb those with dissenting opinions with lawsuits and schemes of institutionalization, they have instead turned to propaganda. In a memo to the press, the Church of Scientology called attention to the video channel’s 82 videos containing almost 3 hours of content, providing “an overview of the basic beliefs and practices of the religion, as well as information on the many humanitarian programs sponsored by the Church–programs addressing drug abuse, illiteracy, human rights and disaster relief.”

The online channel has been launched without Tom Cruise, but none of their videos are as entertaining as the leaked Tom Cruise Scientology videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0

Web creator, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has told the BBC that he is against web tracking systems, and he would change his ISP if they introduced it. He believes that consumers need to be protected against systems which can track their activity on the Internet.

Recently, plans by leading ISPs to use Phorm, a company which tracks web activity to create personalised adverts, have sparked controversy. Like Sir Tim,  many people agree that their web history and data belongs to them, and no one should be able to have access to this without permission.

Talk Talk has said its customers will have to opt-in to use Phorm, while BT and Virgin, the two other companies which have signed up are still considering both opt-in and opt-out options.

Sir Tim thinks that the use of such private data could have negative effects for consumers : “I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of cancer that that’s not going to get to my insurance company and I’m going to find my insurance premium is going to go up by 5% because they’ve figured I’m looking at those books”.

Phorm however, has said that its system offers benefits for consumers, including security benefits which will warn users about potential phishing sites, which attempt to con users into handing over personal data.