What is WiGig you are asking? WiGig is an alliance that completed a multi-gigabit 60Ghz wireless specification.

It means that WiGig enables wireless transfer rates more than ten times faster than today’s fastest wireless LAN, and it’s completely backward compatible with existing WiFi devices.

Panasonic is now in the process of jamming the functionality into SD cards set to arrive next year and they already have a working prototype that they showed off at DigInfo.

Photos and videos were effortlessly send to secondary displays and played without any glitches. According to them a whole DVD can be transferred in under a minute.

But check it out in action here and be surprised by how much it looks like Amnesia Connect

@maniac13

Adobe released a sneak peek video of Photoshop CS6 on YouTube and it showed off a dark UI similar to Lightroom and After Effects.

Lots of customizations are now possible simply by context clicking and the rich cursor support is something that I have been waiting for a long time.

I definitely like it, so check it out in the video below:

PS: the Camera Raw 7 product looks quite nice too.

@maniac13

Researchers in Germany, Canada and the US may have come up with an elegant solution that can work with any smartphone and an external display: virtual projection.

The system works by using a central server that constantly takes screenshots of the external display and compares them with the images from the phone’s camera to track its location.

It then replicates what’s on the handset’s screen, while allowing you to add multiple image windows and position and rotate them.

Additionally, multiple users can collaborate and virtually project pictures or videos onscreen at the same time.

Personally I think your battery life will suffer the most, but in general it is a cool idea.

check it out in action below:

@maniac13

German Photographer Marcus Reugels takes pictures of water droplets refracting an image behind them, making them each appear to contain a world or Batman or Spiderman.

How he says on his website, every droplet is a unique piece of art. Pretty amazing

Check out his other work, which he says was not manipulated with Photoshop at all.

@maniac13

Being a gamer myself there is always that point where I could go and do exercise or I could finish that next level and then usually I end up not going to the gym.

Now there is a solution for my first world problem. BitGym has created a control system for playing iOS games while you are on your favourite exercise equipment. Right now it is a racer (that looks a lot like Outrun) and you control the cars steering with you head and your acceleration is based on your exercise rate.

Check out the video:

nifty little tool, but I am not sure if the movements you have to do to get through the game are good for your posture

@maniac13

CES in Las Vegas is on and like every year I am jealous of everybody who can go to it.

But nevertheless I still get to see all the cool new gadgets and while I have seen prototypes of this before, but this seems to be ready to be installed in my house.

The Samsung Smart Window – a transparent display that is touch enabled and a one sided pane which means people on the outside can’t see what you are seeing.

here are some videos of it in action:

I love the blinds, also word on the street is that mass production is starting in the next few month, but no word on price yet.

@maniac13

We are now recruiting for a Business Unit Director to own the relationship with our clients. You will be managing across functional teams (including strategy, creative, media, web development, and more). A Business Unit Director at Amnesia Razorfish is more than just an account lead; you are a strategic partner that our clients turn to for guidance in all things digital.

Core Duties / Responsibilities

-       Manage Senior/mid level client and industry relationships

-       Ability to sell full suite of all Amnesia Razorfish services

-       Own senior level client relationships and works to contribute strategic value beyond day-to-day campaign tactics

-       Share responsibility for 100% client retention by proactively identifying client risks or opportunities and managing his/her client teams to effectively respond to these client needs

-       Develop a broader industry network of clients and contacts through speaking and publishing

-       Provide thought leadership to help guide clients in the digital space

-       Acquire and develop long-term relationships with strategic clients

-       Successfully manage the master service agreement (MSA), statement of work (SOW) and change requests

• Full P&L Ownership

-       Consistent monitoring of costs and revenue to achieve agreed profit goals across all clients

-       Work with their team to establish effective pricing and staffing levels for each client; monitors P&L fluctuations to proactively identify risks and opportunities

-       Orchestrate cross functional teams to achieve strong client results

-       Accountable for integrated client results across all relevant products/services

-       Responsible for completing successful contract negotiations

• Management

Internal management activities:

-       Mentor team and champion continuous improvement throughout the organisation; achieves recognisable improvements in the skill level and P&L performance of his/her team

-       Drive the success of all performance management initiatives and programs with emphasis on the successful completion of all performance review processes

-       Lead highly skilled client delivery teams to enhance and deepen client relationships

-       Work with the sr. management team on strategic business and employee initiatives

-       Manage resource management matters to the best interest of the client and office

I am very excited about the forthcoming Windows 8 and I have been playing around with it since the Developer Preview was released.

We have a big touchscreen in the office here so it is perfect for the Metro UI, but I have to say that the mouse interaction on a laptop without a touchscreen is very average.

Along came Tobii and at first you think it is just another gimmick, but everybody on the net who has actually tried it is blown away by it.

Tobii comes with an eye control device, a rectangular glass obilisk that is attached to the hinge of the laptop. It requires a personal calibration and off you go. It also controls all the swipe gestures available in Windows 8.

But enough said, check it out in the video.

and another video of it in action

can’t wait to try it out

@maniac13

We have seen some cool stuff in the past that could bring us closer to the Star Trek HoloDeck, e.g. the HoloDesk

And now Microsoft Research has pushed a little further and gives us a 3D hologram that is floating in mid air at 15 frames per second and is viewable from 192 different points at a time.

reminds me of Star Wars

Of course Kinect is involved here and the depth sensor makes it possible to interact with the hologram – you can basically touch it.

It is still a long way off from 3D hologram telephony or a full size HoloDeck, but for now this is pretty cool.

check out the video:

@maniac13



*Quick pop quiz…

1. How many hours of video were uploaded to YouTube in 2010?

2. What percentage of smartphone owners, use their device while shopping?

3. What Australian state most frequently searches for the weather forecast?

As a planner, I’m always chasing that one research tool to bring them all together, and while Think Insights with Google attempts to do just that, it does fall short in a few areas. It’s missing the core search functionality that is the cornerstone of Google’s business… after all, the nirvana of a planner research tool would provide just that, a simple way to intelligently search and prioritise, facts, stats and behavioural trends based on a simple question, such as: ‘How many Australian’s use their laptop in the kitchen while cooking?’

On the flip side, this is a good resource if you are looking for general information on search and mobile related topics, particularly for Google brand related products. And, it does include over 100 custom reports, so you can certainly pop it on the list of go-to resources for all things digital.

My personal favourite resources on the site are: Our Mobile Planet tool (though the data is a little shady for the emerging markets such as India and China) and the Research Library finder.

Ultimately, Think Insights with Google is the perfect tool for media planners, and a useful resource for digital strategists too. Despite it’s downfalls it is one of the best free resources that I have found.

@mariagioffre

*Answers

1. 13 million hours

2. 70%

3. Victoria

We have seen a lot of different uses for Kinect and more and more useful things have slowly come around (e.g. this mobile armchair )

Now there is another way of using Kinect – this time to track your customers in a retail environment. It’s called Shopper Tracker

The sensor sits on top of the shelf and tracks the shopping behaviour of the customers underneath. It then creates a heat map of the shelf so you can tell what your best selling items are. As far as I can tell it is not commercially available yet and no price has been announced, but that might change soon.

Check out their video below.

maniac13

or in the case of the French bottled water company Contrex a fun ad campaign using a Neon Male Stripper.

This ad was broadcasted in October and it features pink exercise bikes in front of a, what seems to be, historic building in Paris and when some curious ladies start pedalling Neon lights come to life and reveal a male stripper starting to undress.

At the end the girls are told that they just burnt 2000 calories which falls in line with Contrex “My Contrexperience” digital campaign which says that we all would lose more weight if the process was funnier and these ladies definitely look like they had a good time.

Interestingly there are a few rumours online that claim that this is fake as nobody recognizes the building and citizens of Paris claim they never heard of it.

I think it is still a great campaign – tell me what you think in the comments.

@maniac13

Not sure if this a PR effort to promote the Sony Xperia play or the new album of Kasabian, but nevertheless it is a pretty awesome execution and a lot of effort would have gone into it.

2 “users” control real life football players by selecting commands on their Sony handsets that are then send to the players who are wearing ear pieces.

I like how the headband lights up when a player gets selected!

It seems a bit lagging at times, but it is a pretty impressive attempt

Check out the video:

@maniac13

Amnesia was awarded a silver last week at the ADMA awards for Amnesia Connect in the Apps and New Development category.

The finalists are below and well done to TBWA for Gold on Pedigree in the same category.

Big effort from Iain, Heiko, Stephan and Dan for the work.

If you have not seen connect before you may well of been hiding under a rock so here it is in action.

Great result and hopefully next year we win gold.

@maniac13

Lexus – the future of performance is clear

The Lexus LFA is the new limited edition supercar that came to Australia just a few month ago and was showcased at the Lexus stand at the Melbourne International Motor show 2011.

George P. Johnson came to us to create an interactive way to showcase the car that you can’t touch.

Straight away a few ideas popped into our heads and after presenting to the client we went with this:

The idea was simple:

We gave out a see through brochure to visitors of the motor show that will generate intrigue and drive them to Lexus stand to see what the completely clear brochure was all about.
The brochure then came to life when it was placed on the Microsoft Surface table, launching an app that gave them an interactive way to learn about and experience this amazing $750 000 car without actually touching it.

Lexus was the only stand at the motor show with a Microsoft Surface table and people from all over Australia got to experience the app and were blown away by it. On the app itself you could explore Images of the car, videos of it in action, a time line of its development and a section where you could “drive” a virtual LFA yourself. The competition gave everyone the chance to win a once of a life time experience where 1 lucky winner could drive in the LFA with a professional race driver.

Additionally we incorporated a separate section called “The Extraordinary Way” where Lexus showed off their way of developing cars to show that all the effort and research that went into the LFA is also used in all their other cars.

Check out our video below:

The results speak for themselves:

1502 people took the brochure to the table
4312 unique content views
1487 went to the competition
the virtual LFA was driven 1972.6km (that is 1472.6km more than the real LFA at that time)

@maniac13