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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 #42 »
Hoop's Dr Jim O'Donnell at Ignite, a nifty Instragram camera, TED talk on viral videos, a 'heavy' stop motion music video and a spray to waterproof everything! It's the end of the week so that means one thing: our 5 top finds.
1. Hoopster at Ignite
Hoop's very own Dr Jim O'Donnell gave a presentation about the sun at this years Ignite, hosted at 93 Feet East. In only 5 minutes - an Ignite rule - Jim prominences his knowledge (see what we did there) about earth's closest star and it's Coronal Mass Ejections (which are seriously cool).
In typical Jim style, he doesn't just talk the talk, he puts it online as he then goes on to talk about Solar Stormwatch (Twitter), a website he worked on that crowd sources data about solar activity. Your participation could actually help warn astronauts of impending doom.
A genuine Doctor of Astronomy, Jim is also the author of the much read Eat Your Greens Blog and an organiser for the popular London Web Standards(Twitter) event. Find him on Twitter.
2. Concept Instagram camera
Facebook buying Intsagram for $1billion (we have a feeling the meeting went down like this) was front page news. However, little has happened since then. Instagram has continued as normal, as has Facebook. That hasn't stopped people imagining, though. Experienced graphic designer Antonio De Rosa has created a concept design for the first Instagram camera, packed with features.
[Image from ADR Studio]
- 16 GB mass storage
- Wifi and Bluetooth
- 4:3 touchscreen
- 2 main lenses: first for capture, second for 3D filters, webcam applications and QR Code capturing
- Optical zoom
- LED Flash
- Internal printer to make your Instagram photos real
- Paper cartridge with Instagram Paper Sheets
- Dedicated 4 colors ink tanks
- InstaOS 1.0, the operating system built by Facebook and InstagramWhile it is only a concept - unless Antonio can raise some money on his Indeigogo - it is still incredibly cool, truly merging vintage, digital and social media in the physical world.
3. Why videos go viral
Viral video marketing can blow up a brand like nothing else. YouTube has helped give huge exposure for Old Spice, Rick Astley and Taz Zonday (Chocolate Rain). But how does it happen? Youtube's trends manager (job of the century?) Kevin Allocca spoke to the TEDYouth crowd on the four reasons a video goes viral.
We won't give you all four reasons but the most noticeable mention was the influence of 'tastemakers'. With a simple Tweet, celebrities like Jimmy Kimmel can turn a semi-watched video about a double rainbow into the most must see piece of film on the planet. Even this infographic by Online Schools shows how Oprah helped boost Kony 2012 from thousands of views to 9 million... in a day!
4. This stop motion video is heavy
Speaking of viral, this awesome stop motion video by Ian Robertson for Delta Heavy's 'Get By' has racked up over 1million views in three days. What could be considered quite a dark video - especially for fans of such retro, pre-iPhone games - Robertson hacks away at Rubik's cubes, Hungry Hungry Hippos and the original Finger Flick Footballers to create a vinyl record.
Maybe it is a reference to how the modern age is killing all the old games we used to love, or maybe it was just a lot of fun. Whatever the concept behind it is, we can't help but enjoy it. Out of curiosity, we had a quick look to see what 'tastemakers' made this video viral, finding out WiredInsider gave it a helping tweet.
5. Waterproof your life... without a tacky rubber casing
Water damage has ended the life for countless pieces of technology and devistatingly it isn't covered by your warranty. This can be painful when you have no idea how your digital device got water damage in the first place.
The only real option available is wrapping your device in a waterproof case that can look like it's about to go diving with James Cameron.
However, that all looks set to change thanks to a magical new spray called NeverWet. The spray, which works using "hydrophobic" nanotechnology, can waterproof your phone without a cover at all. The applications go beyond digital as spraying anything, from walls to clothes to books, will be waterproofed. We can't wait.
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: 5 top finds, Ignite, Instagram, iPhone, Waterproof, YouTube
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Top 5 finds #38 »
Smartphone gaming with a twist, tiny treats for your necklace, interactive video calls, fantastic tree inspired chair and Walk Off The Earth's Little Boxes. It's this weeks fantastic top 5 finds.
1. Spaceship Pilot
As we know here at Hoop, mobile is the future (or more accurately, the present... but that's another conversation we'll save for later). However, we also know that doesn't mean the end of desktop browsing and when the two work together we get excited.
Spaceship Pilot gets you to scan their QR code with your iOS device, which then launches a mini site on your iPhone/iPad and uses its accelerometers to control a space ship on your browser. Whilst it can often lose connection and getting past level two is a huge achievement, it is a lot of fun.
2. Miniature Food
[Image from The Wondrous]
A whole table full of Mexican delights but this supper won't fill you up more than a single olive as you notice that the only 'real' thing on that table is the match. Amazingly, Israeli artists Shay Aaron [Etsy] has created these tiny miniature food jewellery - so no, it is not edible.
Originally, we thought that Shay Aaron's tiny tasters were a one off. However, after finding the Mini Food Blog, we discovered that there's a whole market out there for miniature food. Not actual stuff you can eat, but beautifully hand made designs of steaks, burgers, pies, vegetables, eggs and pretty much anything you can think of.
3. Galileo - making communication interactive
Thanks to services such as Skype and Facetime, communicating with colleagues and loved ones miles away has never been so easy. However, Josh Guyot decided that, when Skyping with his son, the lack of control over where he could look made him feel even more disconnected.
With the support of Kickstarter, Guyot is now able to control where he can see and, if his son walks out of view again, he can follow thanks to his company's new piece of kit, Galileo. The iOS-controlled robotic iPhone device means you can remotely spin your recipient's iPhone to where you want to look, meaning people don't have to bunch in to fit the camera's vision. The device can be applied to more than just video calling however, as it also has benefits for photographers, demonstrated in the video.
4. GVAL chair by OOO My Design
[Image from OOO My Design]
According the OOO My Design website, the GVAL chair "pays homage to the most archetypical of all production materials, wood, in its most natural form: a tree." The tribute is attained by the shape of the chair and the texture of the plywood, taking inspiration from the pattern of tree rings, commonly considered it's memory.
Designed by Vanesa Moreno, Gustavo Reboredo, Louis Sicard & Nenad Katic, the smooth, sleek and modern design is not only pleasant to look at, it also packs an ergonomic punch as the lighter insides pull out to either make a foot-rest or, if you put both together, form another chair entirely!
The GVAL chair won first prize for the Making Chairs category in the international competition, Art On Chairs, awarded by the Paredes Center of Furniture Design. See, we aren't the only ones who like it.
5. Little Boxes performed with little boxes.
The incredibly talented Canadian five piece Walk Off The Earth have followed up their internet sensation cover of Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know (where all five members performed the whole song on one guitar, racking up over 80million views so far!) with another video viral delight.
Little Boxes, a cover of the 1962 hit by Malvina Reynolds, has only been uploaded for a couple of week and has already hit over 1million views. The best thing about the video however is that it performed using instruments made of boxes or tubes, with the added delight of long haired singer/guitarist opening and closing his guitar box to add to the beat. Creativity, musicianship and viral marketing (for O2) fused brilliantly.
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: Design, HTML5, iPhone, Kickstarter, Photography
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5 top finds #37 »
Ecotricity blows up cool anthropomorphic cooling towers, NASA explore the universe, disguise your iPhone as a vintage book, lunch bag illustration and the hottest sci-fi short on the internet. It's this week's 5 top finds...
1.Collapsing cooling towers
Our first top find this week is a great advert for Ecotricity's campaign to "dump the big six", which is actually quite cute in a sadistic way.
When our Kate found this video, we fell in love with it as the classical music, anthropomorphised cooling towers mixed in with absolute destruction had us giggling away. A great find and a great way to kick of this week's picks.
2. Discover the Cosmos with Nasa
[Image from Nasa]
If you have ever wondered how big the universe is, or if how small the tiniest microbe can be, then this flash animation on the Nasa site created by HTwins, has the answers. By being able to zoom in and out, you will be surprised by the scales of our universe.
After having a quick play, we learnt that one of the Martian moons, Phobos (which is the larger one), was smaller than Rhode Island. Try not to go on it at work though as a couple of hours will fly by.
3. Genius iPhone case
[Image from Twelve South]
iPhone theft is, unfortunately, a concern. Many people who have just been on their way to work, home or for a night out have had their iPhone ripped from their hands.
So what can you do? You could try and stop using your phone in public but that somehow defeats the point of a portable device. You could however, go to the guys at Twelve South who have designed an iPhone/iPad/Macbook cover that makes it look like you haven't upgraded since the 19th century. Introducing, the BookBook, a smart case that will hold your iPhone, cards and give you a sophisticated scholar look all at the same time.
4. Lunch bag art
[Image from Lunch Bag Art]
This incredibly creative blog by a dad drawing on his kids' lunch bags has exploded in popularity these last few days.
Rather than just giving his children a bland brown paper bag for their lunches at school, this dad creates beautiful works of art, usually based on computer games, comics and cartoons. Probably making his children the most popular kids in school, the father works on these bags during his own lunch break.
5. Ruin: The new sci-fi animated short film from Wes Ball
This graphically stunning short animation by Wes Ball is sure to blow you away. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Ruin is packed with enough beautiful scenery, adrenaline fuelled action and fear of Big Brother, that it will excite you as much as a full length Hollywood blockbuster.
It also features a pretty cool looking mobile device which, of course, we love at Hoop.
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: iPhone, lunch bag art, NASA, Ruin
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5 top finds #28 »
Social sharing trends from 2011, Google Street View tours Japan after the tsunami, Ice Cube discusses LA's architecture, a success story on Kickstarter and a delay to Google's Motorola Mobility takeover. It's 5 top finds...
1. Social sharing trends from 2011
Given we're winding 2011 down and gearing up for 2012, now's the time when all the interesting analysis from the year starts surfacing. We spotted an awesome infographic the other day, courtesy of AddThis and Clearspring;
AddThis, a sharing platform, and Clearspring, a social data aggregator, present the sharing trends of 2011. With over 1.2 Billion users analyzed, this may be one of the most comprehensive sets of data available about online sharing.
You can read the article on TheNextWeb and see the full infographic on Flickr.
2. Tsunami streetview
It's hard to believe but the earthquake and subsequent horrific tsunami that destroyed the coast of Japan was in March.
A virtual tour via Street View profoundly illustrates how much these natural disasters have transformed these communities. If you start inland and venture out toward the coast, you'll see the idyllic countryside change dramatically, becoming cluttered with mountains of rubble and debris as you get closer to the ocean. In the cities, buildings that once stood proud are now empty spaces.
In the 10 months since, the country has gone some way to rebuilding itself but, as Google's 'Memories for the Future' Street View project shows, there is still a huge amount of work to do.
3. Talking buildings with Ice Cube
Did you know Ice Cube studied architectural drafting before pioneering gangster rap with N.W.A.?
No, we didn't either.
But, according to the man himself, it's the gospel truth. We spotted Cube discussing the Eames' house in Los Angeles over on Creative Review. Well worth a watch.
4. The 'Cadillac of iPhone docks'
We're always impressed by the ingenuity of people advertising products on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.
Nine times out of ten, we've found that iPhone docks are more hassle than they're worth. It seems Casey from Portland's industrial design Elevation Lab agrees with us. He posted a Kickstarter project yesterday afternoon asking for funding for his (CNC'd block of aircraft-grade aluminium) dock, and 15 hours later the project has $110,570 (almost $36,000 over the project's goal) worth of funding from 1,200 backers.
We'll hopefully be seeing the Elevation Dock here in the UK one day; they look awesome!
5. The European Commission presses pause
Remember when Google tried to purchase Motorola Mobility back in August? It seems the EU Commission isn't happy with the proposed deal and has delayed the proposed takeover on antitrust grounds.
Among key questions that it has already tried to tease out are whether Google would favour Motorola over other hardware manufacturers which license Google's Android software for mobile phones and tablets. Google has repeatedly insisted that it would not.
The Guardian's Technology blog has the details.
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: Apple, Design, Environment, Ice Cube, Infographic, iPhone, Kickstarter, Memories for the Future
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Startups of the week #6.2 »
As we said yesterday, we're now posting about a startup every day of the week. We'll then post a roundup piece (like we have done for the past 5 weeks) on Friday!
2. Path
There's only ever been one major digital social network. Think about that bold statement for a second; pre-2007/8 had Myspace, the then most-visited online social network in the world. The post-Myspace era has Facebook marching towards an IPO in early 2012, accompanied by an astounding $100bn valuation and its 850+m userbase. There are, and always have been, alternatives to these social behemoths – but it's rare to find one special enough to to tempt users away from their 130 "friends" posting an endless stream of cat videos.
Path is one of those rarities. Path's astoundingly stunning iOS and Android app (no web integration; Path is purely mobile) is designed to enable its users to share their lives in a digital journal with 150 of their closest friends (Path pitch themselves as a "Personal Network"). If you do have an urge to share your life publicly (some people do); Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr connectivity will allow you to do so.
Founded in 2010 by the co-founders of Napster, Facebook Platform/ Connect and Macster, Path are a remarkable success story waiting to happen. Their first iteration, based around documenting your life with photos, caught Google's eye at the start of 2011. Google tried to buy the company with a rumoured $100m. Path turned Google down, welcomed a new round of investment, hit their first million users in October (up from 500,000 in June) and launched the updated 'Path 2' a fortnight ago.
So if you're on an Android or iOS device (a tablet app is on its way) and your nearest and dearest are too, download Path from iTunes or the Android store. Start sharing your path and you won't look back.
Categories: Startups of the week
Tags: Digital strategy, facebook, Google, iPhone, Mobile First
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5 top finds #26 »
A new logo for London 2012, Facebook's mobile phone is apparently a failure (and it's not even finished yet), Google's take on iTunes, i(can't)Message, chasing deer and chasing investment. It's 5 top finds...
1. 2012 gets a facelift
There was quite a bit of consternation when Wolff Olin's logo for London 2012(™) was unveiled in 2007. We were a little surprised to see the consternation continuing – with an alternative logo being submitted to Logo Design Love just last week (with an accompanying dig at Wolff Olin's attempt). venturethree's version is actually rather good!
2. Poor Buffy's not doing so well
There have been rumours drifting around the internet for years about the possibility of Facebook producing a phone. Or rather Facebook writing the software and partnering with a hardware producer like HTC or Samsung to produce a mobile.
Tech blog AllThingsD recently published a story revealing that FB are actually in the process of producing such a phone running on a HTC handset with souped-up Android. Apparently, according to Inside Mobile Apps, things haven't been going smoothly...
But, on a more positive note, all is apparently not lost. The Wall Street Journal is reporting Facebook are looking into filing their elusive IPO "targeting a time frame of April to June 2012 for an initial public offering, said people familiar with the matter" – in which the company is looking to raise $10bn.
Which would value the company at around $100bn...
3. Spinning in control (as long as you live in America)
Google launched their attempt to steal the digital music crown from iTunes (Match) last week. The imaginatively titled (but rather awesome) 'Google Music' lets you upload up to 20,000 of your own tracks to the cloud (for easy listening on any device), share your music tastes via Google+, access your music anywhere and discover new music via the Google Music recommendation system.
Which all sounds great, but it's as of yet unavailable in the UK...
4. To iMessage or not to iMessage
When Apple announced iMessage, their version of Blackberry's BBM service, back at WWDC in June, we all jumped for joy at what we thought would be a (free and) fantastic, SMS-killing service.
But, as is often the way, all is not as magical as first advertised. Entrepreneur Matt Galligan eloquently described what we couldn't. Well worth a read.
5. Chasing deer and rapping for investment
We've two videos in this week's 5 top finds:
1) Benton (no relation to the author, for those of you who were about to ask; who the Sun is reporting is actually called 'Fenton') being admonished – but taking no notice – for taking an afternoon jog with a herd of deer.
2) An intriguing way of marketing your startup and asking for angel investment (but it seems to work).
Categories: 5 top finds
Tags: Apple, #Benton, Buffy, facebook, Google+, iMessage, iPhone, London 2012, Mobile, Music
