Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Viral marketing done well - Uniqlo Japan

I saw a recent episode of BBC Click and they presented this Japanese viral website uniqlo. Uniqlo is a Japanese clothing chain and created a very clever screensaver / flash time clock.






src="http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/swf/blog_large.swf?user_id=SH6rPbdTjiFJVtFq" width="424" height="278" allowScriptAccess="always" base = "." quality="high" wmode="transparent" />

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Schmedley and G.ho.st - an evolution for web applications

Everyone has heard of cloud computing ... applications moving to the WEB and beyond. Google and Microsoft are doing it with their office suites and Chrome, Google's browser wasn't developed to provide "yet another one". Considering how fast everyone is moving from local applications to WEB based services, we can expect a new operating system. In the next ten years. I have used two of the better web based OS environments ... Schmedley and G.ho.st. both described as your complete Virtual Computer (VC) in the browser.



Your free G.ho.st ("ghost") Virtual Computer (VC) includes a desktop, file storage and applications. Your VC lives securely in the internet cloud and is accessible from any computer or mobile phone in the world via this Web page




When people consider good looking operating systems they usually think og Mac OS X or Microsoft Vista. Schmedley has a Mac style dock, and I think even my mother could use it without getting a headache. In the end, that's where we should arrive one day - using a computer should be as easy like using a hammer, but without any painful outcomes, of course!

Why should you set Schmedley? Google Chrome ... YouTube, Google, RSS feeds, sticky notes, Amazon search, and the chance to create new tabs to populate whatever you like. If we have to choose between widgets on the desktop and on my virtual desktop, you will always choose the later - its like having a roaming profile available across the internet.

I won't get much into this, since you can take advantage of the Schmedley private Beta invitations we got from Dustin(thank you very much!) just for you, and try this online gem for yourselves.

Some new features that we would like to see included are ... a bookmark manager / integration with delicious and a way of exchanging data with your browser, as well as opening files from your hard drive(for example, using Schmedley to open a text file and place it on your virtual desktop as a sticky note), a widget for file uploads, just like the one leading to Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Ghost has more advanced features but with that comes an overhead. It is slower to load and feels less like a set of browser "applets". I am not saying this is a good or bad thing, just different.

For now, we're still talking about a Gamma version (pre BETA), so some problems may still turn up, but that's what makes it interesting.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Apples new productivity suite - iWorks 09 (documents, spreadsheets presentations)


Apple's iWork '09 is a great suite for Mac users who are after a well designed and easy to use productivity suite. iWork doesn't offer an integrated business e-mail solution like Microsoft Outlook, it does include a core group of applications; Keynote, Numbers, and Pages . The number of intuitive features is impressive, including things like interoperability across apps to make that absence easy to overlook. Apple has significantly updated all three products to enhance and streamline workflow with numerous interface tweaks and feature enhancements. iWork files are fully compatible with its Microsoft Office counterparts looking after the Windows / Mac interchange.

Cool Benefits


This software is very flashy, making it very easy to create eye-catching presentations. The iWork suite play well together with added interoperability across all applications. Intuitive interface design and easy access to useful features make iWork the best office suite choice on the Mac. Though it lacks some of Microsoft Office's advanced options, iWork '09 is an emerging powerhouse in its own right.

I have my own copy of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac and I know I will be using both product suites. The fact that they file formats are interchangeable is good news.

Hardware Requirements


OS Required - Apple MacOS X 10.4.11 , Apple MacOS X 10.5.6 or later
Software Requirements - QuickTime 7.5.5 or later
Minimum Processor - Intel Power PC G4 , Intel Power PC G4 Power PC G5 - 500 MHz
Peripheral / Interface Devices - DVD-ROM
System Requirements - Apple MacOS X 10.4.11 - PowerPC G4 - RAM 512 MB - HD 1.2 GB