DIY Hack
Last week, Gizmodo showed us how to hack together a brilliant solution to getting your front door buzzer to ring up your (and your roommate’s) mobile using Google Voice. The best application of this hack is calling yourself to let yourself in the door. Whoa, nice! You’ve just created a mobile phone apartment-remote-control. Too bad the article glosses over the Achilles’ heel of this scheme: “Once you’ve got a Google Voice number, give it to your landlord/super to program into your building’s buzzer system.” Uh, yeah, right. Your landlord will get to that right after she replaces the water heater.
Pass the Popcorn
HTML 5 makes more tech headlines. This time it’s thanks to Mozilla’s new Popcorn.js framework for amping-up video with… Twitter? Flickr? Stats? Something like that. We’re sure there are some interesting collaborations and ideas in the wings. No, seriously. We’re actually kind of interested in this one.
PROTECT IP
Also, there was a rather ominous opinion piece (also from Gizmodo) on some proposed Internet copyright law changes in the US. Should these changes come to pass, we shudder to think of the consequences.
Hot Design Interface
Finally, one of the leading minds behind the iPod takes his passion for innovation and usability to one of the most stubbornly-entrenched interfaces of our daily living experience: the thermostat. We’re totally excited about the possibilities, and it seems our Twitter followers were keen, too.
Welcome to Pine Point wins a Gold at the 2011 COPAwards for Best Video or Multimedia Feature.
Curating the Internet fire hose this past week has brought forth some really titillating clues to what the near future might hold for design, culture and technology. Here are some of the more popular links, as voted on by our follower’s clicks.
52×52
Here’s an interesting project that explores a fresh fund-raising model. It helps you use your “social influence” and put your money where your mouth is. Google-Docs-powered, Twitter-integrated, and dead-simple, this lovely site heralds the New Philanthropy: decentralized, faith-neutral and grass roots. Will it work? Well, it’s already collected nearly $100,000 in pledges. But does it have long-term promise? Who knows. Even if it doesn’t last, it’s certainly an experiment worth experimenting with.
Ice Cream Sandwich
No, not the popular cold treat. But Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was a real treat for developers and technology speculators when they got to see some of the new features unveiled. Our take? A lot of great stuff here, if you’re a power user or developer. But Android still feels like it’s trying to play catch-up with iOS devices (especially in the consumer-desirability department). Is cramming in more features really the way to go? Some of the more mom-friendly features are going in the right direction: Face Unlock (assuming it “just works”), Talk-to-Text, some nifty Camera improvements. But we have yet to see real leadership in vision in the Android interface and feature base.
Lady Gaga vs. Moshi Monsters
It seems there’s a fine line between parody and infringement, especially where kids (and super-powered pop stars) are concerned. The British High Court has favoured Gaga’s request for injunction against Mind Candy, the creators of the popular kid’s social network Moshi Monsters, from using Gaga’s likeness in the character of Lady Goo Goo. What do you think? Will kids have a hard time telling the difference between Lady Gaga and Lady Goo Goo? :/
Animated History of the iPhone
The Steve Jobs tributes just keep on coming, and this one weaves in the story of the iPhone, from its predecessors to its design to the hardware. You’ll want to hit the pause often as facts fly by with nary a second to ponder. It’s certainly well worth the look. Our favourite part is the comparisons of Jony Ive’s forms to the seminal work done by Dieter Rams. Design nerds will appreciate the wink and nod.
Hipster Holiday wins a W3 Silver award in the Self-Promotion category.
Welcome to Pine Point wins an Applied Arts Interactive award in the Entertainment, Arts & Tourism category.
The BC Maritime Employers Association has a story and they want YOU to hear it. We worked with Bigsnit Media Consulting and the BCMEA to get their message across with maximum impact. We think the images and numbers speak for themselves. Check it out!
An article in The Vancouver Sun takes a closer look at the inspiration behind Welcome to Pine Point.
The story behind Welcome to Pine Point: an article in FWA. From the article:
“…there is a lot of sophisticated programming and creative/technical solutions that the very excellent Mod7 (the Flash team) and the NFB’s own technical team helped us come up with.”
Better Together and the Hands-On Cook-Off Contest are featured in an article in The Burnaby Now.
“Families, start your ovens and get cooking”,
Burnaby Now, July 26, 2011
Better Together is bringing back the Hands-On Cook-Off Contest for a second year. Entrants submit cooking videos for a chance to win some pretty cool prizes.
On top of the site design and build, mod7 created a stop-motion piece in the spirit of the contest to inspire potential entrants. Can’t go wrong with yarn and pom-poms!
