It’s been a long time coming, but Geosmart and the AA will start transmitting traffic data via coded FM radio messages from next week. NBR has some details, but basically any device capable of receiving the signals (and licensed to do so) can tell you what the traffic is like nearby.
The first device out of the block will be from Navman. I’ve had, just politely, mixed experience with Navman, but have been told that the new batch is greatly improved.
I’m really interested to know if the system will use the NZTA’s new occupancy sensors. If you’re observant (like me), you’ll have noticed inductance loops buried every km or so all over Auckland’s motorways. Look carefully next time: they look like a grid of cuts in the road, and are often connected to a little junction box sitting on top of the median barrier. These sensors will give awesome, granular info on every part of the motorway system. Unfortunately I’m guessing they’re not ready to go yet.
If you’re a codemonkey, you might be interested to know that NZTA plans to create an open API for the sensor information once it is up and running. Data mashups ahoy!
It’s amazing that Apple have got as far as they have with the App Store. Looking back now, I wonder if it was more about the lack of decent competition rather than some massive Jobsian mind trick. Look, the iPhone is hands-down the most wonderfully designed and usable smart phone on the market – no doubt about it. You guys saying your Nokia 3110 is “better” can bugger off. People claiming the N97 or HTC Magic have a better user experience are on crack.
The App Store is amazing because Apple treat their developers like lepers. I’ve experienced the process of submitting an app first-hand, and completely concur with PolarBearFarm that the experience is appalling.
I’ve also long since given up any benefit of the doubt regarding their banning of selected apps. If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s banned because it’s not an Apple duck. It’s not because Apple is trying to shield the world from the horrors of ducks. It’s flat out anti-competitive.
Yet they keep saying non-Apple ducks are dangerous. Apple keep saying that people mustn’t be allowed full access to their device because they’ll blow up cell towers or some other madness. This is such total, unadulterated birdshit. It makes me angry. People have been walking around for years with mallards on their Windows Mobile phones and geese on Symbian. I don’t see AT&T or Vodafone constantly rebuilding cell towers on the molten wrecks of previous ones.
But lo! What is this: Apple seem to be doing quite well at completely knackering their own devices by allowing nefarious code to run.
Glass houses. Put your stones down Apple, then come out and play.
I had a really interesting time on the panel for a PRiNZ Event last night. We were discussing the challenges and opportunities in social media for marketing and PR, and what PR professionals can do to participate. One could easily just laugh off the efforts of corporates and PR professionals trying to monetize social media. I’m a lot more sanguine. Like it or not, wherever people are talking about brands online, PR will be in there seeking to control the message.
Tim Nichols from 2Degrees talked about their strategy, commenting on the fact that they are rooted in social media, living and dying by the sword. One comment resonated with me: he said that they have “set up camp” on Twitter and Facebook. Marketers see social media as alien and perhaps even hostile, so setting up camp is a nice metaphor. They’re in there early and often, learning the language and meeting the locals. They still risk a backlash and eviction, but the chances are hugely reduced by their authentic and thorough participation.
On the other hand, you have your streakers. Marketing and PR experts preparing their strategy outside the territory, making a master plan like mini-generals. Then they drop their trousers and go charging right through the middle of the game.
Sure, at best you’re going to get some attention. People will point and laugh (some might appreciate your assets). At worst you’re going to raise the ire of a crowd of angry natives, seeking to skin you alive.
I wish I could have explained this better last night, but here’s what I’m saying to PR and marketing types seeking to understand social media: don’t be a streaker. Instead, sit with the crowd for a bit. Listen, cheer, chat about that great defence by McCaw, or wicked googly by Warney.
Then maybe you can tell the guys sitting nearby about your great brand experience, and watch the message propagate like a Mexican wave.
Giving away an LG HFB-500 Bluetooth hands-free kit
Noisy and fast gadgets for Fathers’ day.
A new daughter.
…and more.
On the personal front, I’m speaking at the PRiNZ Northern networking event tonight, and attending Vodafone’s mid-winter christmas dinner on Friday. It’s a hard life!
The Nintendo Wii is a polarising device. Ask a gamer, and most of them will agree that the PS3 is overpriced, and the XBox 360 is unreliable. These are facts. The Wii on the other hand polarises people between love and meh. The graphics are decidedly last-gen, and the controller is either miraculous or just a pointless add-on, depending on who you ask.
MotionPlus, with and without the silicone case.
I owned a Wii for a while when it first came out, but eventually sold it for a 360 when I realised that (a) none of the “major” franchises that I enjoy would ever come out for the Wii; (b) I can’t watch videos from my PC with the Wii; (c) the Wii wouldn’t drive my HD TV at decent resolutions; and (d) the waggly controller is fun for about 3 months.
None of this has stopped Nintendo from making the Wii more … waggly I guess. The engineers have engineered a new add-on for the Wiimote. This comes in the form of a small extension that you attach to the bottom of the controller. It incorporates a tuning fork angular rate sensor, but that doesn’t sound sexy so: MotionPlus. Apparently the MotionPlus increases the accuracy of motion, and enables new styles of gameplay. The MotionPlus also removes any doubt that Nintendo were serious about the padded silicone case for the Wiimote. The plug comes embedded in a silicone case with room for the Wiimote to slot in above it, forming one complete, padded unit.
Does it work? To be brutally honest, unless you play regular Wii Sports then Wii Sports Resort with MotionPlus one after the other, I’m not sure you’re going to tell the difference. There’s still no force feedback, so you’re left with a reasonable simulcra of the sporting motions required, but none of the feeling.
Wii Sports Resort comes with some improved and some brand new sports that ostensibly benefit from MotionPlus. A quick rundown of how I felt after a week with the console:
I’d say golf is slightly improved – it feels like you have a little bit more control over the hook/slice mechanic.
Swordplay is a better mano-a-mano option than boxing ever was, with a more satisfying strike and block system. Speedslice makes you feel like a total samurai, slicing sushi and flowerpots and … umm… giant pencils.
Bowling is almost identical in mechanic. They have changed my favourite “Power Bowling” to a full multiplayer game of 100-pin bowling, which is remarkably satisfying. It’s like a combination of dominos and bowling.
Frisbee is alright, perhaps better called golf-lite?
Wakeboarding is a little frustrating. It’s hard to work out what makes you land correctly and what makes you nosedive.
Canoeing appears to be designed as the optimal way to show just how frustrating a lack of force-feedback can be in a game.
But it all comes down to this: you get out what you put in. Watch any newbie using a Wii (or a promotional video), and you’ll see people thrashing about like epileptic cats, thrusting and swiping and poking with their full range of motion. Watch someone who has used a Wii for more than a few days, and you’ll find them sitting on a couch barely moving their wrist. Sure the Wiimote and MotionPlus will mirror your gigantic Tiger Woods golf swing, but it will just as happily register the same movement using a wrist-flick.
Ultimately, I think the Wii (with or without MotionPlus) has lasting appeal only for kids, and gamers who need their Mario and/or Zelda fix. This is not a Bad Thing.
Here’s a little video to illustrate, with compulsory Yakety Sax. In the final scene we’re having an epic sword battle, can you tell?:
I had a really interesting time on the panel for a 
Recent Comments