In-game advertising is no different than slapping a 6 sheet on a bus shelter. No smarter, and no more effective. The same rules apply - make it add value or it’ll be filtered out as peripheral wallpaper.

Same goes for in-game product placement, surely? Like movie product placement real-world consumables can add authenticity, but nobody’s going to be bored enough to want to really interact with real world products, no?

Well not if you’re EA, who are launching The Sims 3 early 09 and are exploring brand partnerships. read full post »

Buying a piece of tech these days can take a fair bit of research. Not only are there dozens of models to choose from, there’s a list of technical specifications as long as your arm.

But, do the numbers really add up or are the brands just blinding us with science? read full post »

Below are 8 sites I thought worth sharing, they’re some of the most talked about sites at the moment. Interestingly, it looks like the sites making all the waves are those seeking to filter and sort the web, to make it more useful and relevant for me and you. In short, we built the web, we filled it with lots of stuff, people started to feel overwhelmed by too much stuff and now the people who built it are trying to organise it better. read full post »

I like maps. I even read maps. If Tive goes quiet in the back of the car don’t worry, he hasn’t fallen through the armrest, he’s just reading a map. Thankfully reading maps is normal behaviour for the bored. It won’t beat MarioKart but it keeps boredom at bay in traffic jams. Luckily for me, and the rest of you closet map lovers, there are a multitude of map oriented services and applications. Some of them are even quite useful…

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NASA is spending a small fortune on missions to Mars and we all know space travel is an expensive luxury. Therefore, acquiring revenue from other sources has to be an option. So how long before we see brands in space? read full post »

Artist Erik Nordenankar has drawn a huge self-portrait using the power of Global Positioning Satellites. He put a GPS tracker into a flightcase with an extended battery and got DHL to ship it to specific locations.

When he got it home, 55 days later, he downloaded the data of where it had been and plotted it on a map to ‘draw’ the portrait.

Great advert for DHL who did the transportation to very specific lattitudes and longitudes…

for video … read full post »

A decent mp3 player doesn’t just depend on the hardware. Having simple and easy access to good content is a big part of it too … that’s why the iTunes music store was the true genius behind the success of the iPod.

So who’s the new kid on the block giving Apple a run for their money … Microsoft, Sony? How about Tesco? read full post »

So we know that the UK spends more on CCTV cameras per capita of any country in Europe. But, have you heard the latest way the authorities are going to use them? Brands beware …

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It’s very interesting watching the way brands and their products evolve … todays cutting edge is yesterdays brick. And what about tomorrows technology? Can gadgets really continue to get faster, smaller and more powerful?

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The average age of a gamer is 31.  The increasing age of gamers has served to make gaming a mass market pass time.  Gaming is now a channel through which any age audience can be reached - Adults play casual games, young kids are playing on their DS, and families use the Wii.  But what of the teen generation?  For teens, new consoles are still expensive but their old consoles (PS2 / original Xbox) are too out of date to be of interest.  So, what are they playing?  Is gaming still a way to reach them too?  You’ll be surprised…

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