Apple, Google and Microsoft moved into Nokia’s crosshairs yesterday as the Finnish company bought Symbian, the major threat to the iPhone and Android SDK’s and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS. read full post »

Why are brands so strict with their logos? The logo Larry and Sergey are holding is not the constant unchanging logo most brands know. Sometimes it changes on a day by day basis. But it is still recognised. And still manages to keep its single identity. Whilst most brands would be happy to slap an “extra 20% free” flash all over their packaging, they would never dare breach the sacred brand guidelines in order to touch the logo. Rightly or wrongly, does digital let us play differently?

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If I had a crystal ball in the shape of a phone I would look into it every so often and try to gauge what the next great ‘thing’ in mobile will be. For a while now it feels like there’s been a lack of exciting new developments on the scene but is that all about to change? read full post »

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 »

Yesterday Google launched its online health service, Google Health. But seeing as Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, do you really want to give them all your personal medical records?

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Could Google possibly be doing ‘bad things’ … with a company motto like ‘Don’t be evil’ you’d hope not. But there are people on the world wide web who have other ideas … read full post »

The .com top-level domain was (and still is) meant to be for US businesses only but has become synonymous with being the standard web address. In fact, many people have no idea other top-level domains even exist so don’t even consider organisations may use .org, or UK companies may use .uk.com. (One exception in the UK is .co.uk which maintains its profile but no-one thinks it’s for UK businesses only). Plus, many people assume that “www.” must always be in front of the domain name too. Could this be putting the future of the address bar and even domain names into jeopardy…?

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I’ve just received an email post from our ‘man in the field’, Peter Sells, Knitware’s very own mobile phone expert. He’s currently wandering the halls of this years (2008) Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona. Over to you Peter…

Day 1 - The iPhone effect.

Hall 8 is the handset hall, a cathedral dedicated to the god of convergence. We are most definitely in the Post iPhone age. Samsung, LG Sony Ericsson are all touting touchscreen media devices that attempt to mimic - whilst being careful not to fully replicate - Apple’s seductive UI. Perhaps Apple should be flattered by this homage, but really they should be worried. Samsung can knock these babies out way cheaper than Team Jobs. Soon, or at least “quarter 2″, I can buy a device without the commitment, without subsiding the handset, that easily runs all the 3rd party software, and is nearly, but not quite, as sexy as the iPhone.
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Isn’t it interesting how the results differ when you type the same search in Flickr as Google Images?  Google Images throws up the most obvious commercial images, whereas Flickr tends to throw up much more interesting creative work.

 Try “cat plush” in Google Images and you get this. Lots of cheap, cheesy toy cats. The sort they sell in Toys R Us.

Try “cat plush”  in Flickr and you get this. Really fresh, cool looking, quirky toy cats. The sort they sell in Habitat. 

 Amateur content really can be better than professional stuff

(Weird how Google Images doesn’t see into Flickr - I guess because it’s owned by Yahoo! If you know more than that,do let us know.)

One of the things i really like about Google is that they’re always trying out new stuff. Check … Google Experimental Search … five new ways to improve their search features. Choose one you like the look of and join in the experiment.

Doc Rogers