sinéad's lifestream

Non-digital brands offering free iPhone apps isn’t something new. Back in November I posted a short “homage” to the Denny iFry (2.5 stars), and I’ve tried out quite a few of these, like the Magic Coke Bottle (2.5 stars) or Lightsaber Unleashed (2.5 stars). All of these free apps are novelty at best, as you can see by their user ratings. Personally I don’t like to clutter my iPhone with apps I don’t regularly use, so these novelty apps are usually downloaded and played with for a week, maybe less.

I would argue that the key to using free iPhone apps as an effective brand awareness exercise, or as a way to drive physical sales, is not novelty usage.

Take for example the new app from the photography accessories company Joby, who primarily sell Gorillapods – flexible tripods for cameras. They now offer these tripods for mobile devices and with the launch of their new range they’ve made a free app to accompany these accessories. The Gorillacam app has an array of features you’d expect to pay for. It’s certainly not a one trick pony. It has a shot timer, time lapse, rapid-shot mode and a bubble level. There’s this great “press anywhere” mode too, that lets you press the touchscreen anywhere in order to take a photo. This app makes self portraits and photos with your friends really easy, something that’s virtually impossible with the standard iPhone camera app.

I can see myself using the Gorillacam app over and over again. I’ve already placed it beside my other camera apps – apps which I willingly paid for. I would have paid for the GorillaCam app too. I didn’t have to pay for it and in exchange I’ll be seeing the brandname Joby over and over again. I’ll also be constantly reminded of how if I bought a Gorillapod for my iPhone, I could fully utilize the brilliant features of this free app.

I may have initially been triggered with a desire for a sausage sandwich or a can of Coke, but with no motivation to use either app over and over again, the trigger was never reinforced again. With Gorillacam, I’ll be reminded of my interest in their products every time I happily use that free app.

Now that is an effective free, branded, iPhone app.

I’ve been a daily user of Google Reader for the past year, using it to keep track of all the blogs I read. Daily use has meant that I’ve been acutely aware of each new feature that has been gradually added over the last few months. Usually these are welcome, but as Google attempts to add more social features I fear they are reducing the ability of authors and readers to follow conversations spawned from blog posts – which is considered a traditional and necessary feature of the blogosphere. That’s not to say that Google are the only ones doing this, both Facebook and Twitter have elements to them that is contributing to this.

For a long time Google Reader has allowed users to share blog posts of interest to friends  that were also using GR and slowly but surely I am starting to build up a list of friends that I share with and they reciprocate in kind. This is a form of social bookmarking, but unlike sites like Digg the author of the blog post cannot track how many times their work is shared, or by whom. GR also now features the ability to leave comments on blog posts and – at least from a blog author’s perspective – is unwelcome, because these conversations are kept private. Private social bookmarking and private blog commenting has negative implications because trackbacks and blog comments are an integral part of the blogging experience and can reinforce an author’s motivation and drive to continue writing.

Facebook and Twitter also provide you with the ability to social bookmark and comment, but again without  direct trackback links, so a blog author can never tell who is linking to their work, and misses out on many of the conversations spawned.

The lack of trackbacks and private blog comment conversations on Google Reader, Facebook and Twitter is  completely irresponsible but is in no way the fault of the reader. Google and Facebook especially understand the value of user generated content, today the most prolific of which is the simple conversation – as demonstrated by the rise of Twitter. By poaching blog comments and putting them behind private walls they are of course trying to keep their users within their own walled networks, which in the long run, could discourage bloggers from continuing to write.

Yes some of us write for ourselves, but many write for an audience, and it would be tragic for a blogger to stop writing because their audience had started privately, rather than publically, encouraging them.

I’m tired of reading and hearing so many criticisms about the Bodies exhibition from anyone with a loud enough mouth to get heard. No, it’s not art. It is Science wrapped in a publicly accessible package, that in order to survive is required to market itself. Yes, it is entertainment. This is necessary in order to engage with people that have never had an interest in Biology, or any kind of Science before. It succeeds where the Science museums fail because it engages your curiosity, appeals to your intellect and forces you to have emotional reactions.

The use of real bodies is paramount to contextualising what you are seeing. For example, the initial displays, in the first room of the exhibition are just fragments of bone and flesh, parts of bodies in glass display cases. More like a “real” museum than anywhere else. One of the largest of these  displays is a pair of legs, with the muscles prominent and labelled  – but without the context of the full body the display just ends up looking like meat, like a large ham at Christmas time.

Adding even more context is the fact that they are posed, which is something that has been heavily criticised, clearly by individuals that haven’t visited the exhibition. The poses represent physical actions, and the parts of the body highlighted match this. They truly help you understand what you are seeing. For example, the cadaver pictured has all it’s individual muscles peeled away from the skeleton, posed as if about to kick something – illustrating how the body’s 650 or so muscles work together for motion or to create force.

I was surprised there weren’t more children at the exhibition when Darragh, Jen and myself went. For anyone that has fears that their child might be afraid or disguisted… all children are naturally curious, and they will only have these reactions if you have them too. The messages it teaches are important for everyone, not just to adults, or to the geeks and nerds that would usually frequent museums.

The exhibition describes how inside we are all the same, that we are not invincible and tries to make you understand the complexity and fragility of how we function. Just because it succeeds in doing this by luring you in with the promise of the macabre doesn’t make it any less valid, or any less educational.

The Irish Times reports today that €252 million euro will be available to schools in Ireland over the next 5 years for computer equipment (link). The National Centre for Technology in Education claims that this is an inadequate fund and it will not be enough to bring schools towards the EU average level. A draft copy of a report questioning this €252 million euro ICT fund makes a number of recommendations that in my opinion are completely disingenuous. Peter Mac Menamin the general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland points out that thousands of teachers had gone to the trouble of getting ICT training but that the lack of commitment to ICT means that…

“It is like learning to drive – and then sitting into a car with no wheels.”

Essentially the argument is that the lack of high-speed internet connections and modern computer equipment has stopped these thousands of teachers being capable of correctly teaching this subject.

However, even if half the computers in Irish schools are over 4 years old (the Irish Times article points out), this could not possibly stop someone from teaching basic practical computer skills. You also do not need a high-speed Internet connection to teach ICT, yes it would be preferable, but there are plenty of music teachers and language teachers in Irish schools that would greatly benefit from having modern audio equipment, but are more than capable of continuing to teach their classes with the equipment provided to them (i.e. a piano or a tape recorder).

“The Republic has one of the lowest rates of ICT usage in education in the developed world”

Does the report point out the fact that the ICT training provided to teachers is possibly inadequate? That ICT is still not a Junior or Leaving Certificate subject? (Interestingly enough, Greek, Hebrew and Classical Studies continue to be). As ICT is not a subject at either Junior or Leaving Cert. examination level, there is no need to be qualified in the field. If you want to teach English, Irish, French, Maths etc., you must first have your primary degree in these topics and this is not the case with ICT. Yet, it is a topic that is difficult to teach and requires plenty of experience. Otherwise you end up teaching a class of students irrelevant information, rather than the practical ICT skills needed in a modern workplace. Yes, there is the Junior Certificate cycle subject “Technology” but this seems to be a mixed bag of technical drawing and some kind of model making and electronics.

Why can’t part of this €252 million euro be used to provide schools with 1 full-time ICT teacher? Why not allow I.T graduates to get their Higher Diploma in Education and then employee them full-time. They would also be able to provide much needed technical support and ICT consultation, ultimately saving schools money as they would no longer have to pay unnecessary fees to outside firms when a computer crashes or a piece of software needed updating. I.T graduates could also save schools money by implementing the open source software initiative.

I would argue that it is not like sitting in a car with no wheels. It is more like taking a short course in French, and then being asked to teach it to a mixed class of students who already speak it fluently, and those who only know how to say…

“Il est sur ma page de Bebo.”

Take, for example, my own experience with ICT in secondary school. Yes, we were lucky enough to be provided with two computer rooms with rows upon rows of computers, an adequate Internet connection (that sometimes worked) and a couple of the math and science teachers were sent on ICT skills training. The actual ICT classes we received taught some basic typing skills, using Microsoft Word to create an assortment of projects, the ins and outs of computer hardware and how to use “skoool.ie”. Not exactly the most practical set of skills.

However, as lucky as we were, the teachers that had been sent on these ICT courses were usually too busy with their main classes to actually teach us and we’d be left in a room full of computers with nothing but mischief to get up to. Even when a teacher was present, they were completely unaware of the fact that I had taught the class not only how to write and reply to the boys from the local boy’s secondary school, but also how to make sure the teachers didn’t find out about it.

According to my younger brother, still in secondary school, not much has changed since I’ve left school. Just like me before him, he gains nothing from these ICT classes and has instead channeled his boredom into finding plenty of non-Bebo methods of sending “innocent” messages across the Internet to other secondary school classes, albeit classes full of teenage girls.

I’ve been following the “Big Four vs Eircom” story today and getting very annoyed over the whole thing. Coincidentally, this month the MP3 Player is 10 years old, and 10 years ago the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) tried to ban the sale of the first mass-market MP3 player (Diamond Multimedia’s Rio PMP300). Diamond countersued, and won, claiming that the RIAA’s actions were an attempt to impede the growth of a market (digital music), which it didn’t control.

Rumour has it that in the late 90′s Sony were in the process of developing a hard drive based MP3 player, but pressure from Sony Records (members of the RIAA, and were obviously anti-MP3) meant the project was shut down. Then Apple came along in 2001, launching the iPod, thus reaping the oh-so-many benefits. 

Clearly the music industry bosses are just bitter.

They can’t keep up with the market and they certainly can’t control illegal downloading. There is no technical solution to filtering and banning peer-to-peer file transfers and Eircom can’t and won’t do it. There’s no point in trying to control the digital music black market, it will always exist and always HAS existed. What the music industry needs to start doing is offering consumers better value for money and incentives to start buying CDs again.

I mean, for god’s sake, they’ve had the last 10 years to think about it.

Over the last few years I’ve seen some fairly awful attempts to engage the consumer for example: full albums available on 64mb SD or MiniSD cards, access to secret sections of an artist’s website only if you purchase the CD, “bonus” DVDs that are really just teasers/trailers, etc.

I honestly don’t understand why I can’t just walk into HMV and connect my MP3 player via USB and pay to instantly download a full album that comes with a nice little book full of lyrics and artwork. I like lyrics and artwork. Yet, so many bands neglect to include lyrics in the album sleeves. So, why would I bother buying the CD if it doesn’t offer me anything extra, except for being another plastic dust collector on my shelf?

Today is another day I breathe a sign of relief that I BACKUP my work. My second USB memory key in the last 6 months has become corrupt. Half of my files either don’t function (if they are media based) or are completely goobildy-gook (if they are text). The first USB key - at least I suspected - had become corrupt due to the plastic housing on the key breaking. Damm you college computers for having USB ports at the exact same height as my KNEES!

The second USB key has become corrupt, but totally out of the blue! That’s what I get for buying cheap (bargain?) memory, from Hong Kong, on eBay. I wonder how long my 2-week-old 2GB of laptop memory is going to last? *cries*

I had a lazy moment on Sunday where I ended up watching the first two episodes of the new series of America’s Next Top Model. If it weren’t for my reality-tv-obsessed younger sister my comfortable-shoe-wearing self wouldn’t be seen dead watching anything Tyra Banks related. But, I cannot possibly deny the marvel of watching pretty young girls bullying each other into submission until they’re all crying (does crying shed pounds?), fumbling, wrecks.

Last night, as I tried to relax after a rather unpleasant dentist visit, I had the choice between a new episode of the above, or watching Life in Cold Blood (which I had caught last week and thoroughly enjoyed). I chose the later because, well, I love David Attenbourgh far more than any skinny girl who-has-had-the-worst-life competition. I’m sincerely glad that I did and was “rewarded” with an extremely vivid dream involving the ownership of two pet frogs that I was determined to keep wet (although there was no water available) or they would die.

What made a big impression on me last night was the news that amphibians the world over are being threatened by a highly contagious fungus. Also, according to many biologists we are entering the sixth mass extinction, but amphibians in particular are declining at a far greater pace than any other species. Personally I think that amphibians are one of the most fascinating species on the planet – their reproductive cycles are remarkable in complexity (which at this point is probably their greatest downfall) and they are so incredibly adaptable and diverse in nature. It is a pity that in such a short period of time there may no longer be any amphibians left in the wild.

There is a somewhat depressing and yet fascinating article about this issue on the Open University website.

I came across a link on Facebook’s Marketplace for a movie called “The Hunger” by Michael Creagh, curiosity made me click the link.

It seems this “advertising creative” (creative what though?) has spent 4 years working on a script for a movie loosely based around the Irish Famine, which apparently has always been known as “The Hunger”, which to me sounds more like the title of one of those woeful Sarah Michelle Geller attempts at a horror movie.

“Having committed to the famine and done my research, I was still missing a story. What kind of story could best communicate the tragedy of the Famine in film language? One day I came across an old passage in a book that described the relationship between Ireland and England as a love affair between a vulnerable passionate woman and a strong but neglectful man. It was then that I realized that the story of the Great Hunger must be told through the age old medium of the love story.” – Michael Creagh

Heartbreaking, isn’t it? I wonder if he can get Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet involved somehow. Or better yet! Ben Affleck.

Of course only someone that calls themselves a “advertising creative” could employ such a blatant Hollywood device on a topic so sensitive for many. Rather than take a historical event and producing a movie that encourages debate and learning they’d rather manipulate you with Notebook-esque characters. It’s almost as if the massive loss of life and suffering simply isn’t enough to draw the audiences in.

“The Irish Famine was one of the most formative catastrophes, not just in Irish history, but in World history. Yet, 160 years on, it still has not found it’s place on the silver screen. We believe a market exists for this movie among the huge diaspora in the USA, Europe and Australia who claim descent from Famine survivors.” – Michael Creagh

So his motivation to attempt, yes attempt, to make this movie is because “a market exists”. A market in emotional manipulation perhaps?

The famine is an extremely sensitive chapter in Irish history that I really do not think will benefit from a Hollywood make-over that would do nothing more than stir anti-English sentiments that have more recently been absent.

A thought provoking, intelligent movie that would aim to teach a lesson from history (rather than capitalise and exploit) would be much more appreciated by the “huge diaspora”.

Thankfully, this is only a script, for now. Let’s keep it that way.

It was an easy prediction for me to make (even back in January) that the iPhone would (eventually) launch in Ireland on the O2 Network. Seeing as the iPhone is launching in the U.K in November exclusively on O2, it’s an even easier prediction to make now. But O2′s data packages are very expensive – ask anyone who ever attempted to use their ill-fated iMode to do anything productive. For instance 25MB of data is currently €19.99! To put this into perspective, 1MB is approximately 20 webpages. Not websites, pages. So much for that “mobile internet device” we’ve been promised.

Speaking of which – I’ve finally hit the 1GB download allowance (a.k.a fair usage policy) on the Three Network. Considering its taken me 6 months to do so, and at only €20 for the privilege, I’m very impressed. 1GB went a very long way – from checking my email every available second using the fantastic Gmail Java Application, to looking up cinema times, browsing Bebo and even the occasional “attempt” at cheating in quizzes. If I was on O2, this would have cost me over €800.

I’m uncertain as to whether my next Internet bundle purchase will last as long, as they are supposed to expire after the allowed 1 month but if my previous experience is anything to go by it should be fine. This is just another fuel to my disappointed over the iPhone being released without 3G capabilities. Not only would have it been cheaper to run (on the Three Network at least), it would have made my mobile browsing a much more enjoyable experience.

Using EDGE technology is slow and O2 are quoted as having only 30% coverage in Europe. In the UK, O2 have attempted to overlook this issue by offering free access to over 7,000 wifi hotspots. I can’t imagine them being able to pull off a similar deal in Ireland – especially when the major wifi hotspot provider is Eircom.

All usability studies show that fast response times are essential for web usability. The lesson from this? If you want Internet on the move that is actually usable rather than frustrating, don’t even bother with an iPhone – it’s a glorified widescreen iPod, overpriced and over-hyped. I’m not slating the device itself, as it does boast a very user centred design. The user interface is beautiful and intuitive. A list of its strengths and weaknesses can be found here. (It does fail to mention the lack of multimedia messaging (MMS) capabilities though). Also check out “Living with the iPhone” over on Infosync.

My advice to you, prospective Irish iPhone buyer – try to get an unlocked one online, choose whatever network you want for voice and txt, then forget about connecting to the Internet unless you’re at home in your own personal wifi network, otherwise this thing will cost you a fortune in monthly voice, text and data from O2. And no, there won’t be any pay-as-you-go iPhone out there.

Or, you could just buy an iPod Touch. It’ll definitely work out cheaper.

Google has paid out $900 million to provide search results and ad listings on MySpace.com (read more…). Basically, this means that MySpace users will be able to use Google Search without having to leave www.myspace.com – entering any term into the search box directs myspace users to a page similar to this one, the Google ads appear in the form of sponsored listings in the search results. This will be of major benefit to Google as an additional source of traffic and ad revenue. Almost 100 million MySpace members will access Google’s search tool from the network, thus viewing ads relevant to their search terms.

Google will also provide contextually targeted placements on MySpace pages. Unlike the search box functionality, this has yet to be implemented. Considering Google’s policies on not administering pop-up advertisements (and the Google Toolbar that actually attempts to blocks pop-ups – emphasis on the attempt, as my own Google Toolbar still allows Dell ads from MySpace to appear) this suggests an end to pop-ups on MySpace.

Personally, I’m hoping it is also an end to “interesting” animated banner and skyscraper ads for online dating websites – for example this monstrosity. Also, ads that are misleading and direct the user to install rogue anti-spyware/adware/malware products. Currently, these ads still exisit on MySpace. Just recently Google has started warning people when search results could potentially lead them to malicious code, if these ads continue to appear on MySpace, perhaps these warning signs should be displayed when your search term is “myspace”.