Ed's Yarn Engine

1. Intel Museum of Me

http://www.intel.com/museumofme

Terrific idea from Intel, around the idea of ‘visualising yourself’. Cunning way of appealing to vanity, and then – with the final sequence of fading out so that you’re just a node in a (Intel) network – making you feel kinda little and humble. Clever way to mix up my emotions, Intel. 

2. Google Wallet: Keeping your money where your mouth is 

http://www.revenews.com/barrysilverstein/google-wallet-timely-or-ahead-of-its-time/   

The latest in mobile payment technologies. Why do we reckon this take off? Because the amount of money being invested by the banks and credit card companies to get buyers to adopt ‘Tap N Go” technologies. Combine this with the ubiquity of mobile phones and the fact you don’t need to physically attach a device (a la ‘Square’), and you have a winner… my bet is it’ll be 2 year before its commonly accepted.

3. Cascade shows the flow

http://www.nytlabs.com/projects/cascade.html

“This tool links browsing behavior on a site to sharing activity to construct a detailed picture of how information propagates through the social media space. While initially applied to New York Times stories and information, the tool and its underlying logic may be applied to any publisher or brand interested in understanding how its messages are shared.”

A downpayment on insights for news organisations: Particularly interesting as the future frontlines of Aussie news form, as The Australian slips behind a paywall from today, and Fairfax’s iPad app hits the market.

2. Play games on your Facebook Wall

Arkadium, the casual and social game developer, is announcing today the release of theArkadium Stadium, a suite of 12 Flash-based games that users can post and play right from their Facebook walls. This functionality  allows you to quickly publish the game app to your profile, or your friends’ profiles and play right there. Link.

3. Why Twitter and Facebook are addictive 

Dopamine (what was previously known as the ‘pleasure’ chemical in the brain) is stimulated by unpredictability. When something happens that is not exactly predictable, that stimulates the dopamine system. Think about these electronic gadgets and devices. Our emails and twitters and texts show up, but we don’t know exactly when they will or who they will be from. It’s unpredictable. This is exactly what stimulates the dopamine system. Link.

2. Geolocation: Whether you like it or not

Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.

The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.

For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.

(Via Dan Calladine newsletter)

3. Using an iPad: a ‘digital milestone’ in kids’ lives

 Pre-teen and even pre-school children are key drivers for adoption of the iPad and other tablet computers, and a substantial number of kids, including two in five 11 and 12 year olds, now regularly use social networks even though they’re technically not allowed, according to the LMX Family study conducted in early February by Ipsos OTX.

Ipsos also found pre-schoolers adopting digital habits or being exposed to new devices even faster than tweens, a sign of the speed with which digital technology is reshaping media and marketing habits for the youngest children. 

(Via AdAge Digital)

Let the games begin…

(Source: nickholmes)