8th October 2015
1) Inside the world of Audio Branding with Skype’s new pings, bounces, and pops. ‘Sound Decision’.
‘For the overwhelming majority of humanity’s existence, the tools we’ve used have come with their own set of audio signals, often unintentional ones. Hammers aren’t designed to give acoustic feedback, but we can hear when we hit a nail squarely. An axe is a rudimentary object, but its aural cues tell us not only whether it’s successfully biting into a tree, but how deep it’s going, and how close it is to striking through.’
2) The Good Ol’ (Reading) Days? Waterstones is to stop selling Kindles as book sales surge.
‘Bezos is always keen to repeat the line that Amazon has sold ”tens of millions“ of each (product), but never keen to get drawn into any detail of exactly how many of each have been sold. He is often spotted in front of graphs, absent of axis information or figures, in order to dramatically illustrate the growth Amazon is seeing’.
…and on this subject, from Aeon – ‘Digital books stagnate in closed, dull systems, while printed books are shareable, lovely and enduring. What comes next?’
3) Another old school piece? @motherboard are killing off comments at the bottom of articles as a way of getting to smarter interactions. Could be time for a return to Letters to the Editor?
4) Under Armour’s boss: We will beat Apple and Samsung to smart clothing. ‘Under Armour is hoping to become the Facebook of fitness, working on a social fitness dashboard that works agnostically with any fitness device, be it an Apple Watch, Jawbone band or Fitbit bracelet.’
5) Here is a theory and phrase that is often misappropriated. Perhaps the source concept itself was in fact misguided? ‘Is the Theory of Disruption, Dead Wrong?’
6) The importance of demanding compliments from friends and colleagues. A Harvard Business School working paper, found that praise from friends, family, and colleagues creates “best-self activation,” which leads people to perform at their best.
7) From Marketing Magazine – Top branded Vines of the month:McDonalds, Hewlett-Packard & DiGiorno.
8) Great Idea. Dating app Happn matches lonely hearts with…dead artists. A charity,The Art Fund, is behind the stunt, partnering with Happn to hijack profiles as part of an awareness-raising campaign. Those who ‘connect” with their unusual matches are in with a chance of winning free and discounted entry to galleries and museums.
9) Could well be the best movie mash-up ever? Hell’s Club – where all fictional characters meet.
10) …and finally, we love a bit of drone action…don’t we? Here is beautiful footage of whales swimming near tiny a human.