Microsoft: New Kin Phones Info, Specs and Pics

Chris 2 Comments

Yesterday Microsoft announced the release of two new phones aimed at online social network addicts. The range is called “KIN” (See pics below) and consists of the Kin 1, and the Kin 2.studio_1_web

The Kin 1 has a 20×240 screen, 5 megapixel camera, VGA video recording and 4GB of non-expandable storage. The Kin 2 is larger and has a 480×320 screen, 8 megapixel camera, 720p video recording, and 8GB non-expandable storage. Both are touch phones and contain the Zune software to handle music and video. They both have Facebook, Twitter and Myspace built into their cores to make sharing and networking as easy as possible. The Kin’s also have a cloud based website called the Studio where all contacts, music, pictures and social network updates are synced and kept up to date !

To read more on the phones go to www.kin.com. The KIN will be available from @Verizon in the US this spring & from @VodafoneUK in the UK, Germany, Spain & Italy by autumn 2010. (Prices TBC)

To launch the phones Microsoft and Agency Two Fifteen have set out to answer the question “Are your friends really your friends?”. To find this out they found a young, non actress,  lady called Rosa.

Rosa has 824 friends on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace and has been sent across the states to visit her social network in person. A film crew will be following her as she sets out to meet the so-called “friends” in her online social media circle.

The first episode will go live on the 3rd May. Visit the dedicated Kin Facebook, twitter and YouTube pages to stay up to date as Rosa’s journey continues.

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Nitro Boats: Whiney Girlfriend Ejection

Chris 3 Comments

Nitro boats recently released this rather fun commercial for their Z series fishing boats. The ad features an annoying  yappy young girl on the phone, her boyfriend soon has enough and takes decisive action, laughter ensues.

No idea who made the commercial, leave a comment if you know please.

TomTom: Go750 GPS Review

Chris 2 Comments

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For the last few weeks TomTom have kindly let me try out one of their new GPS devices called the Go750. Normally I carry around a Garmin, so it was interesting to see the differences between the two major brands.

There are a several things I really like about the Go750 that I will miss when I have to give it back.DSC00527

  • The first and main advantage is that it takes about 5-10 seconds to lock onto a GPS signal.
  • I have no idea how, but the TomTom started giving me much better short cuts to my destinations, in one case the time saving on a local route was over 5 minutes compared to the Garmin route I was given.
  • Bluetooth integration worked very well. I tried with a Nokia X6 and Sony Ericsson Aino, and X10, each time the phone paired easily and offered to import all my contacts. The speaker is incredible but you sometimes have to speak very close to the microphone for callers to hear you.
  • The Go750 has over 140 voice commands available; in addition to navigating to an address you can also avoid a roadblock, zoom in and out of the map, increase the volume, or even call a number if you have your phone paired with it.

Overall the TomTom was very logical to use, the suction dock worked much better than other GPS docks I have tried, and it looked very nice in the Audi R8 V10 I got to take out the other day too. It certainly helped me with the built in speed camera maps, not that I would ever speed in a car that does 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds and then goes up to 197mph !. TomTom have also told me they will shortly be releasing IQ Routes™ in SA, basically this will take the time of day and common traffic areas in to account, so that you can be routed more efficiently at all times.Taste

TomTom by default have to be one of my favorite brands at the moment, recently the wonderful Avish from TomTom South Africa (See picture to the right) very kindly gave me two VIP tickets to the Taste of Cape Town event. What followed was a night of excessive fine food and wine consumption, I especially loved the VIP tent, complete with free bar all night and a great mix of people.

Thank you TomTom, I love you 🙂

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Nike: The Secret Behind Nike Air (+ That Tiger Woods ad)

Chris 1 Comment

Loved this new classic ad from Nike and Wieden + Kennedy for Nike Air shoes.

David Koechner tells us the secret that the air used in Nike Air products, is in fact, air collected by Nike from their world wide super star athletes. I particularly love the bit with super hot tennis player Maria Sharapova, who’s air has to be harnessed specially to stop the screaming. Some of the other superstars featured are John McEnroe,  Carl Lewis, Paula Radcliffe  and Troy Palumalu. (Huge hat tip to Steve Clayton for the find)

In other news Nike did a rather tasteless (in my mind) ad featuring Tiger Woods that has a lot of people talking as it features the voice clip of his late father Earl Woods. See clip below and have your say.

Sony Ericsson New Touch Phone: Xperia X10 Trial

Chris 6 Comments

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For the last week Sony Ericsson made one of my wishes come true and lent me one of their first production model new Xperia X10 touch phones. I last wrote about this phone when it was announced last November and finally its here.XperiaTM_X10_PP_Sensuous_Black_40

This in my view is the best phone Sony Ericsson have come up with yet. The basics are that its a full touch screen Google android based phone, with a host of clever custom SE software such as Timescape™ and Mediascape. The main gist of these software enhancements are to bring all your social networks together and make them work together in harmony, saving you time and keeping you up to date with what’s happening. With this I can say they have succeeded, in no small way thanks to the built in 1ghz processor (only a few years ago that was great for a PC !). Go to the X10’s home page to check out a demo for yourself here.

My highlights have been the following:

  • Twitter and Facebook aggregating to phone contacts (i.e. When I look up a contact it shows me all their status updates, photo’s and events in one place)
  • The 8.1mp Camera: This is a great camera, as well as taking great pictures it also picks up peoples faces and allows you to tag them to contacts right away
  • Android marketplace: Much better that I expected, tones of games and other tools and gadgets to keep me happy.
  • The design and screen: The phone’s screen looks great, and with the rubber textured back it’s very ergonomically friendly.
  • USB charging, and easy syncing with your computer works great. Contacts can be backed up online and synced with facebook, Google, and outlook.
  • Battery life is good for a handset of this type, think 2 days of normal use and 1 day of heavy online use (WiFi, bluetooth, & 3G data transfers drain it).
  • Contrary to what I have read on other sites the touch keyboard works great (with the feedback enabled it makes it even better). I can only assume the other test handsets had pre-production software.

XperiaTM_X10_PP_Sensuous_Black_01To sum it up if you’re in the market for a new intelligent phone handset that does it all, the X10 is worth a serious look. Email, photos, social networking, and lest we forget making calls are all a pleasure with the new Sony Ericsson X10.

For full specs go to the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 page here.

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Domino’s Pizza: Pizza Holdouts Case Study

Chris 1 Comment

Loved this short case study look at Crispin Porter + Bogusky’s new campaign for Domino’s Pizza called“"Pizza Holdouts."

CP+B and Domino’s set out to find people that didn’t eat Domino’s pizza and harass them (in a fun way) till they made the call and tried their new pizza’s. To accomplish this they set about subjecting the candidates to a variety of marketing tactics such as poster ads, billboards, radio ads, and even airplane banners !. Check out the video above to see how they got along, or visit the micro site at www.pizzaholdouts.com.

In other news Domino’s recently reported doubling its profits last quarter to $23.6 million !

Subway: Sub For That

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The chaps at Subway and McCann Erickson, London have been busy recently. The above new spot features traditional food ad traits with a comical twist. The Campaign draws attention to the fact all subway subs are fully customizable, no matter what combination of ingredients you want.

For all the ads in the series and more, check out their YouTube page by clicking here.

Nissan: Sentra RC car (Drift)

Chris 2 Comments

Nissan Canada and ad agency TBWA, Toronto, have teamed up to make what I think is one the best ads of the year so far called "Drift,".

To bypass some of the car ad laws Nissan & TBWA used a 1/10 scale remote control (RC)model of the new Nissan Sentra SE-R . The epic ad even futures film footage from another RC car and an RC helicopter !

I love the drifting and blatant piss take of the usual car ad scenes, this is one shoot I would have loved to be present at. Watch the making of below to see how it all came together.

Stella Artois: Cannes Film festival prize (Jacques d’Azur)

Chris 1 Comment

If movies, expensive hotels, and hobnobbing with celebrities are your kind of thing, then this new marketing drive from my favorite beer, Stella Artois (aka wife beater), will be right up your alley.

Stella is giving away VIP tickets for you and a friend to attend the Cannes Film Festival 2010 for 2 days.The prize includes business class travel from the winner’s nearest airport, a helicopter transfer from the airport, a luxury hotel stay, entry to a VIP screening event as well as entrance to the after-party.

Stella Artois 4% have put all the entry details up at www.stellaartois.com. The flash site can take a while to load but  when you watch the video clip it uses your facebook account to grab a picture of you and a couple of your friends and inserts it into the video in a very believable way. Check out my one here if you can’t be bothered to do your own: http://www.stellaartois.com/?key=696485603

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5 Alive: Dancing Dodo

Chris 16 Comments

UK juice company 5 Alive have just launched a fantastic campaign called “Dancing Dodo”. Surprisingly the new TV commercial above features, yes you’ve guessed it, a dancing Dodo !

If only 5 Alive could really bring back the Dodo, instead for now they have settled on creating a dedicated facebook page, featuring some user generated video clips fitting with the “Come alive with 5 Alive” mantra. They also made a dedicated YouTube page if that’s more your thing. Congrats on the great work VCCP. If you’re wondering what the music is for the 5 Alive ad is it’s “I’m Alive” by Don Fardon.

Happy Easter everyone and enjoy the long weekend

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