Apple just released all the details of their new tablet computer called the iPad. The short of it is its a 9.7 inch LED multi-touch screen computer, great for browsing, email, photos, video, music, games and eBooks. The iPad can run all the existing iPhone apps full screen and apps are being developed as we speak for its launch (Estimated 1st April in USA for WiFi version and 1st May for 3G version).

The iPad 3G is unlocked to any network and includes a deal in the USA for unlimited web use for $29.99 (offers are expected to be arranged for other countries in the future). Battery life is 10 hours and the iPad comes complete with built in speakers and mic as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack and 3 USB sockets.

Prices are as follows:

iPad

16GB

32GB

64GB

WiFi

$499

$599

$699

3G

$629

$729

$829

For pictures look below (click to zoom in). For full specs visit http://www.apple.com/ipad

         Sony Ericsson very kindly lent me their new Entertainment Unlimited branded phone called the Aino over the festive season and so I thought I would finally share with you my thoughts on it. To make things simple I have broken it down into my likes and dislikes. Likes: Firstly the Aino has a fab 3” hi-res touch screen, when the slider is closed the touch screen works very well allowing you to easily browse pictures, music, movies or radio. The keyboard and user interface are up the usual easy and logical to use Sony Ericsson standards. The phone also comes with a nice built in 8GB  Micro SD card, great Bluetooth headphones (great speakerphone too) and a very neat charging dock. It was also very easy to connect up to my laptop and sync all the contacts as well as working great as a mobile modem (wireless or wired took only a few minutes to set up). I didn’t get a chance to try out the Playstation 3 remote play feature, I’m more of an Xbox chap, but this feature allows you to stream music and films stored on your PS3 wirelessly to your Aino anywhere in the world !. Finally the Aino is also remarkably durable, after a couple of months heavy use it doesn’t even have a scratch on it.  Dislikes: The only slight problem with this phone is that the touch screen is for some reason deactivated when you slide out the keypad. Every person I showed it to tried to use the touch screen to navigate from around the menu, including me the first time. I guess once you know though you soon forget about it, but still think its a bit odd. The only other problem was when I first had the phone the software was very buggy, however after a week I updated it and now it’s been behaving nicely. Overall: A great phone if you want to get a touch screen / number keypad smart cellphone. The camera works well (see pics above) and as an entertainment unlimited phone I can honestly say its lives up to its name. More apps are constantly being released and the phone comes pre-loaded with facebook, Google maps and a nice selection of games. For full stats see below: Aino Touch Phone Specs

• 3 inch widescreen 16:9 touch screen and slide out Keypad
• 8.1 megapixel camera with Photo flash and intuitive touch focus, Video VGA 25fps
• Bluetooth™ stereo A2DP portable headphones included with docking base for phone/headphones
• 55MB Phone memory and 8GB MicroSD memory card included
• Remote Play for PLAYSTATION®3, Exchange ActiveSync®
• A-GPS with Google Maps™
• 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi, (Quad-band GPRS/EDGE and tri-band HSDPA)
• Talk Time: 13 hours, Standby time: 380 hours
• Dimensions: 104 x 50 x 15.5 mm, Weight: 134.0g
• PlayNow™ arena and Track id, Built in Step Counter and GPS tracker
• DLNA Certified™ (connect wirelessly to other electronic devices via Wi-Fi. i.e: See your photos on your TV)
• Media Go: Transfer your files from PC to phone wirelessly & automatically when docked (using Wi-Fi)

Happy New Year and hope you all had a fabulous Christmas. Have been off on holiday for a few weeks so apologise for the lack of regular posts. 2010 looks set to be an exiting one in the digital marketing realm, budgets are on the up and are predicted to rise by over 12% in the Digital sector alone.

To help get things off to a good start for the year I thought I would share with you 21 great social media tracking tools available to use for free. The list comes from friends at McCann, London. Some of them are more helpful than others, and even if you’re not interested in tracking campaigns and brands great fun can still be had from sites like http://www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net (Try typing in Hitler!).

Wishing you all a wonderful 2010 and thanks for helping to make this site the success it is.

Chris

1. Collecta – http://www.collecta.com/
Enter a word/phrase to see live mentions of the search term captured from blog posts, articles, updates (eg. Twitter, Jaiku, Identica), photos (eg. Flickr, TwitPic, yFrog), and videos (eg. YouTube, Ustream). Entered terms are saved and live mentions can be viewed for each. Click on any entry to view more detail within the same screen.
2. CrowdEye- http://www.crowdeye.com/
Enter a word/phrase to view information gathered from Twitter sorted into various groups (includes option to filter within the word/phrase). 1. Graph: trend in volume of tweets containing the word/phrase (last 12 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days) 2. Popular Links: most popular links to pages containing the word/phrase. 3. Tweets: most recent tweets containing the word/phrase 4. Word Cloud: showing most associated words to the word/phrase. 5. Top Hash Tags 6. Top Words.
3. Twitter Spectrum – http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterSpectrum/TwitterSpectrum.html
Enter two words/phrases to compare Twitter word clouds for each – one coloured red and the other blue – including overlapping words. See which brand is achieving larger numbers of tweets for which word associations and how brands differ in what people say about them.
4. Happn.in – http://www.happn.in/
Enter a word/phrase to see popular phrases that include the word/phrase used on Twitter within 20 miles of major cities around the world.
5. Spezify – http://www.spezify.com/
Enter a word/phrase to see images (photos and text) captured from web pages containing the word/phrase. Images are shown on a timeline – click and hold the mouse to drag the images timeline left or right or up or down. Click on an image to zoom in, view the source URL, and then click the link to visit the page containing the word/phrase.
6. Quarkbase- http://www.quarkbase.com/
Enter a website URL to view a wide variety of information about the site/brand/company under the following headings: Introduction (various info about the brand/company), Social Popularity (number of links to the site, popular pages, top feeds) Traffic (volume graph, volume by country, reach graph, page views graph), People (eg. key company staff), Spotlight (links to URL/brand/company in Twitter, Blogs, News, Get Satisfaction), Company (address, headquarters, employees etc.)
7. BlogPulse – http://www.blogpulse.com/
Enter a word/phrase or a URL to view blog comments containing the word/phrase/URL for any date range over the last 6 months. View volume trend graph comparing up to three words/phrases/URLs. Click anywhere on the volume lines to see the blog entries for that word/phrase/URL at that point in time. Track conversations
8. Adonomics – http://adonomics.com/
Enter up to three Facebook applications to view user volume and sale valuation trend graphs over varying time periods.
9. Twitratr- http://twitrratr.com/
Enter a word/phrase to view recent tweets containing the word/phrase grouped into positive, neutral, and negative columns, with a count and % for each sentiment column.
10. Twitter StreamGraphs – http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterStreamGraphs/view.php
Enter a word/phrase to view a ‘data visualisation’ graph of the last 1,000 tweets containing the word/phrase showing usage over time for the words most highly associated with the word/phrase. The graph is a timeline, showing relative volume over time of associated words.
11. Twitseeker – http://twitseeker.com/
Enter a word/phrase to see a list of people ranked by the number of times they have posted tweets containing the word/phrase. Use to identify “alpha” tweeters for a brand/company.
12. What Does The Internet Think – http://www.whatdoestheinternetthink.net
Enter a word/phrase to view a negative/positive/don’t care graph of content across Google, Yahoo! and Bing.
13. Social Mention – http://socialmention.com/
Enter a word/phrase to see a) recent content (from various social media sources) that includes the word/phrase b) measures of ’strength’, ’sentiment’, ‘passion’, and ‘reach’ c) automated sentiment graph showing positive, neutral and negative volumes (click to see positive/negative content) d) top 10 keywords associated with word/phrase (click to view content for each) e) top 10 users (click to view) f) top hashtags (click to view) g) top sources (click to view). View content for varying periods up to the last month. Sort content by date or by source. View content from blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, video, audio. Advanced search option. Use “Preferences” option to search in a specific language (most languages are available). Receive emails alerts of latest social media results containing word/phrase.
14. Twist – http://twist.flaptor.com/
Enter multiple words/phrases to compare volume lines of tweets containing the words/phrases for the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days. View current tweets for each word/phrase or click anywhere on the volume lines to see the tweets for that word/phrase at that point in time.
15. Twendz – http://twendz.waggeneredstrom.com/
Enter a word/phrase to see a) up to 70 of the most recent tweets containing the word/phrase b) automated sentiment graphs showing positive, neutral and negative % of tweets overall and for top five topics (click on graphs to see positive/negative tweets). c) a word cloud showing which words are most associated with the entered word/phrase.
16. HowSociable – http://www.howsociable.com/
Enter a word/phrase to see a “visibility score” and the number of times the word/phrase appears in various social media sites including: Technorati, Facebook Groups, Facebook Events, Twitter, Photobucket, MySpace, YouTube Videos, YouTube Channels, Google Blogs, Ning, Upcoming Events, Flickr, Google Images, Bebo, Vimeo, Delicious, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Magnolia, Google Pages. Click on each to view results. Enter email address to receive a monthly email with latest visibility score results for the word/phrase.
17. Topsy – http://topsy.com/
Groups Twitter conversations based on an entered word/phrase, ranking conversations based on topics that are most associated with the word/phrase. Click on topics to view all tweets within that topic. Possible to view topic ranks by most recent hour, day, week, month, all. Separate ranking of Twitter authors who are using the word/phrase (click to see their tweets).
18. Monitter – http://monitter.com/
Enter up to three words/phrases (eg. three brands) and Monitter starts live streaming of tweets that include the words/phrases. Can limit tracking to a particular area/city.
19. Twitscoop – http://www.twitscoop.com/
Click on the “Search” option at the top of the page. Enter a word/phrase to see live streaming of tweets containing the word/phrase. Click on “Graph” (beside the search box) to view a graph of the volume of tweets containing the word/phrase within the last 6 hours, 1 day or 3 days.
20. SiteVolume – http://www.sitevolume.com/
Enter up to five words/phrases to compare total volumes for each word/phrase in five social media sites: Digg, Myspace, Youtube, Flickr, Twitter
21. Keotag – http://www.keotag.com
Enter a word/phrase and then select from a long list of social media sources (eg. Twitter etc.) to see recent posts for that word/phrase within selected social media source. View photos from Flickr relating to the word/phrase.

The wonderful people at LimelightPR just sent me a fantastic new new augmented reality iphone application from Acrossair for Stella Artois called “Le Bar Guide”. The app works similar to Layar, using your iPhone’s GPS, camera, accelerometer and magnetometer to pick up where you are, and which direction you are looking at, allowing you to see through your camera screen the exact location / distance of bars nearby. You can then click on the venue for more info and directions using Google maps, you can also filter the bars shown by atmosphere type, ratings etc.  When you are at a listed bar you can also leave messages under that venue name for other users, rate it, or send the details to friends. The app even allows you to easily find and call taxis in your area ! Look at the video above to see the app in action, I especially like the way you can point your phone towards the ground and see arrowed directions to the nearest bars on the ground. At the moment the application is being launched for free initially to the US market, but there is a comprehensive global roll out planned in the New Year – with the UK top of the list. Great to see Stella taking the initiative and pushing the boundaries. At present the app is not live but it will be later today so will pop up the link as soon as its available.

Just got sent this nice new campaign idea from Stella Artois using Augmented Reality tags to send Christmas eCards. I have a bit of a penchant for AR at the moment and can see some great uses for it in the near future (I’m even working on one myself right now with Saatchi). This campaign allows you to send an AR eCard to a friend who will see a festive scene with a greeting on the screen, if you blow into your mic you can even make the snow move. They have also kindly promised to save one million rainforest trees via the World Land Trust once one million Stella Artois Christmas e-cards have been sent around the world. That’s all great but I’m a bit curious about the fact they are trying to save trees by less paper being used, yet the AR tag is a 2 page print out document !, and the tag is huge so go easy if your low on ink. Nice idea but not sure they thought this through 100%. At least they tried though, and love the snow blowing through the microphone part. To make your own Stella Artois eCard click here.

UK agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine have created a fab little iPhone app called iLingual for Emirates. The app helps you speak in different languages (French, German and Arabic ). All you need to do is take a picture of your mouth, the app then uses the picture and animates it so that when you get the app to say the phrase needed you can hold your iPhone / iPod touch in front of your real face and let the phone do the talking for you.

Really like the positioning of this for Emirates and the fact they are simply using innovation to help make travel better.

To try it out for yourself for free click here

This almost literally blew my mind, hands down best use of augmented reality tags I have seen so far. In the above clip Esquire editor David Granger demos the interactive magazine.

The Augmented reality sections of the magazine have been developed with digital-services firm The Barbarian Group. “We wanted to create something that wasn’t just about showing off the technology but actually adds value to the story,” said Barbarian CEO Benjamin Palmer. The magazine features six different interactive sections: A 3D cover (featuring Robert Downey Jr), a weather-changing fashion portfolio, a time-sensitive Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman (Gillian Jacobs) , plus a song, a photo slideshow, and an ad from Lexus.

If you manage to get your hands on the latest Augmented reality Esquire edition (USA only at present) go to http://www.esquire.com/the-side/augmented-reality to download the software (a 69MB zipped file !)and start experiencing the entertainment for yourself.
*****If you’re not in the USA I have made a PDF copy of the covers AR code so you can still try it out. Click here to download the PDF and just print it out.*****

Great creative work from Saatchi & Saatchi LA for the Toyota Prius. Using the new Prius iPhone App, users could see their drawings created on the iPhone displayed on the Reuters digital billboard in Times Square from October 26 to 28. The Prius Experience App has four modes — including "Draw," the one showcased in the above clip. (via Uwe Gutschow, Saatchi & Saatchi interactive)

Always nice to see what types of innovation digital agencies are getting up to around the world. This latest one from Ogilvy comes from a great chap called Giles Rhys Jones who is Director of Interactive marketing at OgilvyOne, London. Would love to see more info on the touch sensitive screens and floor sensors at work. Looking forward to seeing some great innovations coming from the incredible talent over at local 24Labs.

Following on from the #ukhols Map, Vodafone UK has released another great little twitter tie in app, this time called Real-Time Top 40. Vodafone enlisted the help of Ben Marsh again (the man behind the #UKhols site) and they created a live top 40 chart of what people are listening to on Twitter, to promote the Vodafone Music Store.  Real-Time Top 40 is driven by people voting for music on Twitter, using the hashtag #RealTimeTop40 followed by the name of the artist and song they are listening to.

The site also includes some nice little digital media sharing and aggregations tools allowing you to share the site easily and see more of what Vodafone are up to online.

Check out http://www.realtimetop40.com/ to see it for yourself.

Love this little spot for Sprint’s new MiFi device. Its a neat little pocket friendly size gadget that takes a 3G signal and turns it into a mini WiFi transmitter allowing up to 5 people within a 30ft area to log on and surf the web. Great little devise, to read more on it click here. (Ad credit goes to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners)

Really enjoyed these spots for Windows Live Photo Gallery. In this ad we see a 7 year old vs a 70 year old in a timed contest to see who can perform a photo stitch and print it the fastest. Great work from Crispin Porter + Bogusky. You can also see an 8 year old vs an 80 year old and even a  9 year old vs a 90 year old. They also have some fun “I’m a PC” spots from little peeps aged 4, 5, 7 and 8 (Just click on the links to view the other ads). Click on this link to get Windows Live Photo Gallery for yourself, its free. I’m a PC too by the way.