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News, insight and tips from the social web.
The Hoop blog covers the evolving digital landscape, social media, mobile communications, content marketing and also includes 5 top finds and Fish on Friday. Feel free to make comments.
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5 top finds #33 »
A balancing dog, an entrepreneurial young Londoner, snowboarding in the dark, iPad 3 rumours hot up and an Easter egg hunt hits central London. It's 5 top finds...
1. Maddie the dog (who likes balancing on things)
Tumblr's quite an interesting social network, with some lovely and sometimes rather strange content. Case in point; today's discovery of Maddie the Coonhound. Maddie's an American hunting dog, who seems to like balancing on things (or rather, her owner likes her balancing on things). Bizarre (but quite cute)!
2. The teenage entrepreneur and his six figure round of funding
It's not often you hear of a 15 year old budding entrepreneur, even less so of one who develops a technology that receives a significant amount of funding before said entrepreneur's 16th birthday. Mike Butcher over at TechCrunch EU has the info on Nick D'Aloisio and his Summly startup [iTunes].
3. Snowboarding (in the dark )
Remember when skiing with lighted torches seemed pretty cool? Fashion photographer and film maker Jacob Sutton and profession snowboarder William Hughes have wiped that from the collective memory with the 'L.E.D. Surfer' – which sees "Hughes light up the snow-covered French hills in a bespoke L.E.D.-enveloped suit". Worth a watch, not worth trying with a boiler suit and some taped on torches.
4. iPad 3 rumours
The rumour mill for the impending launch of Apple's iPad 3 is gearing up – as the release is expected in just over two weeks. What can we expect from the new device? A new and improved camera, retina (HD) display as per the iPhone 4/ 4s and faster processor(s) all seem likely. We'll have to wait until March 7th (the rumoured launch date) to find out for certain though...
5. Massive eggs. In London. Today.
London is welcoming 200 fibreglass eggs to the city this morning, having launched at 7.30am in Trafalgar Square. Participants of The Big Egg Hunt will be given a map and app to track down the eggs, each of which will contain a code that could help entrants win a £100,000 Fabergé egg. At the end of the month-long exhibition, the eggs will be auctioned to raise money for the charities Action for Children and Elephant Family. Awesome!
Categories: 5 top finds
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5 top finds - number 30! »
It's the 30th 5 top finds in the series, and we're celebrating with the new EU directive on cookies, Google's descent in the popularity rankings, pure internet gold(fish), the save Herne Hill velodrome campaign and web addiction is bad for you shock.
1. (Un-edible) cookies (with an illogical direction)
If you've not heard the EU directive (and now UK law) that's made the majority of websites in Europe illegal, don't worry. You've got until May 2012 to comply with what is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous laws ever. As of May last year, all European websites have to...
"gain consent for the use of cookies or similar technologies to comply with the law."
Or face a fine of up to half a million pounds. Wonderful!
To explain what a cookie is and why the law is entirely flawed (you can't track that a user has requested your website to not use cookies without using cookies), we thoroughly recommend watching the entertaining video above.
2. Google face a bit of an uproar with Search+
If you've not been following the repercussions of Google's announcement about integrating content from (only) Google+ into search results, it's worth reading through some of the responses.
Ex-TechCrunch boss Michael Arrington writes of how Search+ is reminiscent of Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows (which led to antritrust lawsuits) in the 90s; Harvard advertising law specialist Ben Edelman writes about the (il)legal implications of Google's initiative and "search engine guru" Danny Sullivan explains what's wrong with Search+. All well worth a read.
3. Goldfish, but not as you think they are
We like fish (if you hadn't noticed) here at Hoop – so when we saw the video above we knew it'd somehow end up on the Hoop blog. Truly amazing stuff from Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori.
4. Save Herne Hill velodrome
As well as liking fish, you may have noticed us Hoopsters are pretty keen on bikes. When we spotted this post on the Brooks blog, about 91 year old (1948 Olympic medallist) Tommy Godwin returning to Herne Hill velodrome and riding the race-winning bike again we then discovered an audio interview with Tommy on the Guardian travel section. Both are well worth reading!
5. Addicted to the internet
Ever struggled stealing yourself from reading updates on Facebook or staying on top of the latest tweets? According to preliminary research from Chinese scientists; there may be such a thing as 'web addiction'. The sample size is tiny (only 17 addicts sampled) but this research could potentially pave the way for treatment for those of us who just can't get off Facebook.
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: Bikes, facebook, Fish on Fridays, Google, Google+, SEO, Social search, User Experience
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5 top finds #22 »
This week's 5 top finds sees Google update their mobile advertising, Steve Jobs narrating an Apple advert, a Dropbox profile in Forbes, farting fish and a nice animated video about bikes.
1. Mobile search advertising gets a facelift
Mobile is the future. We weren't surprised when we heard that mobile advertisers will have spent over $1bn by the end of this year, a trait that's set to rise to $4.4bn by 2015. Google rolled out their latest range of mobile search adverts this week – head over to the Google blog to find out more.
2. "Here's to the crazy ones..."
With news that Steve Jobs may have designed the iPhone 5 "from concept to final design", we might not have seen his final contribution to society through technology. Which is a nice thought.
Until we do see the launch of the latest iteration of the world's most popular smartphone, here's the only Apple advert he ever narrated – which was never broadcast. You can watch it on YouTube.
3. Dropbox and Forbes
The two founders of Dropbox, one of the most useful tools we use here at Hoop, were recently interviewed for a fantastic piece in Forbes magazine. You can read the article in its entirety on the Forbes website.
4. Flatulent fish
A truly bizarre headline – but a true one according to the National Geographic. Well worth a read, even if for the odd factor!
5. Serenity
We're big fans of bicycles here at Hoop – as their frequent inclusion on the Hoop blog may suggest. We also love a nice bit of animation, so we thought this lovely Belleville Rendezvous-esque advert for Hutchinson's new tyre (although we're not sure the 'Serenity' will protect you from charging antelopes), courtesy of French creatives Fortiche, was a perfect combination. You can watch the 'Serenity' video on Vimeo here.
Categories: 5 top finds
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5 top finds #17 »
We thought we'd make your Friday a bit more enjoyable, so here's this week's 5 top finds. A new animation from Wallace & Gromit's makers, a discussion on beautiful web design, being asked for money by the American Government, growing your own bike and an innovative marketing ploy to get a job at Google.
1. The world's largest stop motion animation, shot entirely on a mobile phone
Do you remember Dot? We wrote about her a few months back, and today her makers are again getting some love on the Hoop blog. Aardman and Nokia again join forces to produce the world's largest stop motion animation, "Gulp", shot over five days on the Welsh coast using the Nokia N8. You can see the video here but it's the "Making of" that really blows us away. Superb stuff.
2. An insightful editorial on web design
We were impressed by this TechCrunch article, entitled "The Beautiful Internet". Whilst we agree with most of what Devin Coldewey (rather brilliantly says), we were a little concerned about his point about getting "the great unwashed" from their older browser versions. Which was wonderfully summarised in this piece from Isolani.
Web development isn't about getting everyone on the newest browser iteration, it's about catering to your target audiences' needs.
3. Apple has more money than the US Government
We followed the US Government's wheeling and dealing to raise the debt ceiling with baited breath last week. When it was announced that Apple had more cash in the bank than the 50 states of America, our jaws hit the floor.
But we knew things were really bad when the US Government gave us a ring and asked for our money.
4. Bamboo bikes
We've featured wooden bikes on the Hoop blog before, but none as innovative as this one. The above trike wasn't built into the above shape, the bamboo was grown (yes grown!) by its builder Alexander Vittouris as an entry for a competition run by Good Design Australia. Amazing!
5. Google, hire m.e
We've all been there, finding the perfect job but not quite knowing how to apply. If you're Matthew Epstein, you spend $1,200 on a moustache, a website and a video and you end up getting phonecalls from Microsoft, Google and Amazon three days after launching your "employ me please, Google" marketing strategy. Kudos to the guy, we're impressed!
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: Apple, Bikes, Design, Digital strategy, Google, Mobile, Sculpture, Twitter
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5 top finds #13 »
This week sees us journey to Cupertino, CA for a short discussion about Apple, the new tech startup support venture from Mashable and PepsiCo, some pretty amazing paper sculptures, a look behind the doors of startup funding company Y Combinator and how to respond to getting a ticket from the NYPD. Yes, it's 5 top finds...
1. WWDC 2011 and a rather nice new Apple campus
At the 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference this week, Apple previewed (amongst other things) the two new updates for their operating systems; iOS 5 for the iDevices and Lion OSX for the desktop Macs. If you missed the keynote you can watch it on the Apple website - or read Engadget's iOS 5 summary and Apple's Lion OSX coverage. Whilst we can't wait to get our hands on Lion/ iOS 5, we were interested to see what effects these updates would have on third party/ pre-existing software. Mashable's got an interesting breakdown of who or what Apple are challenging.
Two days later, Apple CEO Steve Jobs pitched a new Apple campus to the Cupertino City Council. The fuzzy picture above is a screengrab of what they want it to look like - a huge doughnut shaped, 4-floored glass building with its own power source, parking, gym, R&D facilities and not to mention enough space to house 13,000 employees. You can see the presentation in full by watching it on YouTube.
2. Y Combinator
Ever wondered what goes on behind the closed doors of startup funding company Y Combinator? They've funded quite a few noticeable startups since 2005; Reddit, Scribd, Xobni, Songkick, Disqus, Dropbox, ZumoDrive, Heroku, Posterous, Airbnb, Heyzap, Cloudkick, DailyBooth, and Bump to name just a few.
Wired.co.uk have an exclusive look at what goes throughout the three month "bootcamp" process which makes for a fascinating read.
3. Paper sculptures
We spotted these amazing paper sculptures from Canadian artist Calvin Nicholls over on Dude Craft the other day. Truly awesome! Visit Dude Craft to see a selection of the sculptures.
4. PepsiCo10
Our friends over at PepsiCo have teamed up with Mashable for this year's PepsiCo10. They're looking for promising European startups within the areas of social media, mobile marketing, location-based technology, digital video, gaming and learning technologies. You can find out more by watching the PepsiCo10 video on YouTube.
5. Riding the bike lanes in NYC
And finally, because it's Friday, here's an example of what lengths you could go to to prove a point. This video from Casey Neistat is more than a little silly but has many laugh out loud moments. You can watch the video on YouTube.
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: Apple, Bikes, PepsiCo10, Sculpture, Y Combinator
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5 top finds #12 »
This week sees another amazing bike (this time from Austria), a Facebook book, a free filesharing tool with up to 9GB per upload (yes, it's really free), the latest round of social integration buttons and a rather awesome infographic. Yes, it's 5 top finds...
1. BOICUT x Fixdich hand painted track bike
We're big fans of beautiful bicycles here at Hoop (if you hadn't guessed that already). We're even bigger fans of hand-painted track bikes - which is where Austrian illustrator BOICUT comes in. BOICUT customised a carbon Courima Cougar track frame, which was then built up by the people at Austrian bike shop fixdich.
You can see the stunning result on the BOICUT blog. If you're really keen on what you see the BOICUT x fixdich bike is for sale, just pop BOICUT an email!
2. The Facebook book
You're active on Facebook, with hundreds of friends, lots of photos but you can't help wanting something a bit more physical - something you can read before you go to bed at night. Well, if that is you there's an app for that. Social Memories (DHL's latest social venture) mines your Facebook content and for just €19 you can get "your social activity on Facebook, analyzed and commemorated in twenty eight elegant pages".
We can't help feel that Social Memories rather defeats the purpose of a digital profile - you can't look at a book whenever you want unless you always have it with you - but we think it's a lovely idea nonetheless.
See the Social Memories video here and find the Facebook app here.
3. Fyels
We're always on the look out for easy ways of sending and receiving big files online. Brisbane-based 'digital solutions' company Omnissient seem to have answered our prayers with their new Twitter-linked free file sharing service called Fyels. With an upload limit of 9gb and an unlimited amount of storage the service is already proving extremely popular!
Create your free Fyels account today, and whilst you're at it why not follow Hoop on Twitter!
4. Google at D9 and the +1
It's an interesting time for Internet giants Google. Their CEO, Eric Schmidt, recently spoke at the media and technology conference D9 in California - making some interesting admissions (which have been skillfully translated and interpreted on GigaOM). Google have also just released their version of the hugely popular Facebook 'Like' button; the Google +1.
It's extremely early days yet but we're not sure if it'll have the same effect as the 'Like' button has had on the web - we'll have to see whether it's embraced as fully but we like the idea.
See the Google +1 video here and see Mashable's reaction here.
5. Got an awesome idea for a website?
We know it's Friday, but if you can face following this amusing web development flowchart all the way through we think it's more than worth it. Awesome skills from the creatives over at Vitamin Talent!
See the flowchart in all its glory here.
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: Bikes, Digital strategy, facebook, file sharing, Google+, User Interface Design
