OK - so that's a reference to the "perfect pour" temperature of Coke - 37 degrees Fahrenheit - that optimizes the drinking experience to the point you have to sit down to drink it or your brain will explode with pleasure. And frankly, that'd be a mess, what with the bubbles and all.
I know that because (disclaimer) I have the pleasure to work with Coke.
Read about Coke's "interactive fountain" in Fast Company today. Touch screen + 46-ounce concentrated flavor cartridge = your perfect Coke. That in and of itself is pretty neat.
But I like it for two reasons - one that was stated in the article, one that wasn't:
(1) According to the article, "Another perk is the business data the dispenser sends back to Coke's headquarters in Atlanta. The machines upload data about beverage consumption, peak times, and popular locations. Coke can also talk back to the machine, letting it know if a particular flavor needs to be discontinued or recalled and causing it to stop serving the drink immediately." This is FANTASTIC. The machines become real-time focus groups and interactive sales terminals. As long as the info generated isn't left in the hands of the inventory department but rather feeds the broader marketing organization, this has significant implications.
(2) This machine will feed a fundamental behavior intrinsic to Coke's target audience - sharing. you can't create a witch's brew flavor without the friend next to you asking for "just a sip" to compare to their concoction - and you'll probably see an uptick in sales as people 'experiment' with different flavors. Expect different flavor combinations (the more esoteric the better) to form fan groups and passion communities online. Expect #Coke flavored hashtags cropping up on Twitter, etc. etc. etc.
The machines don't just mix flavors, they start conversations. probably not unlike the ones that mmay have happened at soda fountains. Even better? Good-natured arguments. And THAT is cool.
Kudos to Coke for harnessing a technology that speaks to both their heritage (the soda fountain) and their future. And for turning their product into a participatory experience.
Win.
Human tech-hacking: Jeremy Wood creates art "drawing" with his GPS data contrail.
Wood's GPS drawing gallery:
Advertising agencies used to have an ad as the end prodcut of their efforts. Mobile phone manufacturers had a...well, a phone.
Today we'll talk a little about Nokia. Because Nokia's been moving FAST. 7/9 word leaks on MOSH. 7/24 Nokia acquires Twango. 8/29 N-Gage relaunches. 8/30 Nokia Music.
Some history...back when the video iPod came out, I remember thinking "wow, game changer." Not because it was a portable video player, but because at its core, the video iPod was a portable hard drive. A massive multi-gig storage device. with a USB cord. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
And I got salivating imagining a future in which we'd walk around with our media libraries in our backpockets. And when it was (as I hoped) wirelessly enabled, we'd head to our friends house with '300' merrily downloading to our backpocket via WiMax while we stocked up on big slurpies and red vines (= crazy delicious). When we got to our friend's place, we'd jack in (or not, since they'd have an 'airport') and we'd watch the hi-def gore on our monster-ass-big, wall-mounted, flat screen plasma fusion video playback unit (alright, dammit, TV)...
That was before we heard rumors about Google's not quite yet materialized GDrive and with unlimited gigs of tasty storage space floating in an awe-inspiring, cross-tabbed, ad sense enabled data cloud...but that's another story.
So now, before Apple could do it, Nokia throws down, pulling an Apple on Apple.
"Nokia said on Wednesday that it would soon introduce its own digital music service, along with an easier-to-use Apple-style mobile interface and an Apple-style touchscreen handset.
The Nokia Music Store, to open this year, will let users download songs from the Internet to their computers or directly to mobile phones over wireless networks, which Apple’s recently released iPhone cannot do.
In offering direct downloads, the Nokia Music Store goes beyond iTunes, which requires users to download songs to their personal computers before transferring them to an iPod, music player or an iPhone.
The music store also potentially puts Nokia into conflict with operators of mobile networks, which in many cases have developed music services of their own.
“Now Nokia is saying, ‘You guys had your chance to run music stores, or whatever, and it didn’t work, so now we’re going to give consumers what they want,’ ” said Paul Jackson, an analyst at Forrester Research.
And folks were wondering what they were up to when Nokia acquired Loud Eye? OOOOOOOOOOohhh. It's ON.
As an OEM, Nokia's been working to develop software and services accessible outside Carriers' walled gardens for some time. Which those carriers haven't appreciated. Unsurprisingly, those carriers like owning their customers and charging everyone a toll to access them. And some have tried to slap around Nokia for its efforts.
But is a smackdown in the wind? Nokia's ex-president is part of a management team piloting a project in Europe under the name of Blyk, which is effectively an ad subsidized FREE mobile carrier targeting 16-24 year olds. Here's what Business Week had to say about Blyk:
"If the company's approach proves successful, it could dramatically affect the mobile phone industry and pose a serious threat to existing operators."
"It's going to change the business model for mobile telephony in a big way." says Falk Müller-Veerse, managing partner at Cartagena Capital, a Munich-based boutique investment bank specializing in the mobile phone industry.
Oh, and did someone say "Gaming"? heeeeeeeeeeeeeere's N-Gage! It's back, and it's better - much better. More than a device, its a system playing across N-series ass-kickers starting in November and rolling out to S60's...well...not soon enough, but it'll be worth the wait. EA has already said they are in for this one, so expect this to get interesting.
In an impressive feat of corporate transformation enacted on a global scale, Nokia is becoming more than a manufacturer. It's a data company. A company about mobile software and services.
A device has gone from being an end point to being the start of a beautiful relationship.
And you can put that in your pocket.
Can't get enough of that Digital OOH? here's one for you from PDX's fresh Tenny P: TXTual healing
http://www.txtualhealing.com/action.html per Tenny, "It's basically an interactive form of graffiti based on SMS text messaging. Maybe not as visually intriguing as laser tagging, but the mobile aspect of it is pretty cool, since so many teens and young adults already know how to text." The simple explanation is: users sends SMS message by cellphone, receiving computer converts it through to mobile projector that beams image. The whole system is mobile and with the right projector/beamer, quite bright. Here's a shot of how it looked in NY - users could populate the text balloons.
Here's a video that demonstrates the process of posting to the bubbles. You send a text message from your mobile to a mobile paired to a computer. It's all autotmatic and there's no filter.
Comprehensive DIY instructions on mobile projecting.
That crazy Wii seems to draw a crowd...
WiiTube’s name should be self-explanatory: it’s a niche video site for Wii videos. Not to be confused with WiiToob, which launched a few weeks back and offers a big interface for interacting with YouTube videos on your Wii, WiiTube is a brand new site that’s more concerned with videos about the Wii than providing a bigger interface for viewing on a console.
WiiTube is a particularly nice attempt - it includes ratings, tags, profile pages, commenting and special sections for cheats, clips of your awesome Wii skills and trailers of upcoming games. Videos aren’t uploaded to Wiitube, though - instead, you just add the embed code from YouTube, Google Video, Break.com, Metacafe and other popular sites.
In some ways, sites that do this (Flixya is another one) are leeching bandwidth but keeping the ad revenue - if they’re using Adsense, then perhaps GoogTube isn’t too worried, though.
Within the next 10 years, defense contractors expect to be able to a solid state laser mounted on a Hummer that can put a hole in a sheet of metal from several miles away. Dutch graffiti writers got the jump on them with this Hymermobil-mounted L.A.S.E.R. Tagging system. See it in action, and get your socks knocked off by clicking here. Drive-In GIF Theater in Rotterdam
Produced by the GRL. Here's over sixty uncurated 22 x 41 pixel animations submitted via email from writers, artists, activists, jokers, lunatics and 13 year-olds.
click here for the feature presentation
