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Source: Sensimed

Next-gen iPads & iPhones can be your payment system for things in the real world. Apple’s place in our lives may be on the verge of changing dramatically.

Smart contact-lenses with heads-up LED iris displays. Welcome to the world of augmented vision.

Former black Sheep Ben Malbon went to Tokyo on business and made this fantastic instagram album of his trip.

“We’re so eager to describe the web in utopian or dystopian terms.” NYT’s review of Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together book.

Social Media Week is a global event from 2/7 – 2/11 with a number of incredible, free events worth attending.

A second worthy bit (& piece) from the Malbon family. Tim Malbon of Made by Many rants on participation requests from brands (read the comments too).

BMW is making films again, but this time they’re documentaries about mobility. They had us at ‘jet packs.’

A collection of brilliant quotes from startups that deliver incredible wisdom in just a few characters.

We loved (and almost solved) this visual puzzle of 20 things that happened on the Internet in 2010.

TED launches TEDBooks & hot off the press, @brainpicker takes a look at the launch proposition and first titles.

“The best camera is the one you have with you.” (Chase Jarvis, see: http://j.mp/ad29YM)

Powerful technologies and tools for creativity and filmmaking used to be exclusively in the hands of professionals. The cost of entry was high and the learning curve steep. With the recent launch of Apple’s 4th generation iPhone, consumers can now carry in their pockets a device fully capable of capturing, editing and publishing HD videos. This is an exciting prospect – no more grainy, pixelated, thumbnail-sized videos of our funniest or most beloved moments or the latest breaking news story.

Imagine what Gordon Gekko could achieve with this.

Only a few short days after iPhone 4 hit the marketplace, an exceptionally impressive example of the film-making potential of the device surfaced. This film, “Apple of My Eye” directed by Michael Koerbel, was shot and edited entirely on an iPhone 4 in under 48 hours.

“Apple of My Eye” – an iPhone 4 film – UPDATE: Behind the scenes footage included from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.

The gap between professional and consumer production quality is narrowing and we’re excited to see what people will create with these new tools. Even just a week after the new iPhone4 launched we’d started to notice a new strand of film-making emerging using the new technology. Following a quick Twitter exchange between Craig Elimeliah at Freedom & Partners, Ben Malbon and myself, F&P were able to quickly design and develop a platform to showcase our appreciation for the power and creativity that the iPhone4 offers in the area of movie-making.

We’re calling it The iOScars.

In the spirit of leading by example, here’s one I shot during a weekend trip.

So do you have an iPhone 4 and a story to tell? Let’s see what you can do.

http://www.theiOScars.com

@TheiOScars

CREDITS

Craig Elimeliah (@craigelimeliah)

Seth Weisfeld (@seth_weisfeld)

Ben Malbon (@malbonnington)

Rina Miele (@honeydesign)

Brian Kadar (@briankadar)

This is a mock-up, clearly, but @Schatz & I been trying to work out what technology would allow the iPhone (say) to know when the page was turned; this would ensure a more immersive & richer experience.

Two thoughts come to mind:

One, use headphones controls to hack some kind of next page function from the next track control.

Two, shake and turn (bit random with kids in charge)

Any other ideas?

More details here: http://www.mobileart.jp/phonebook.html

Thanks to Alex Rainert – @arainert – for the original link on his excellent blog: http://www.everydayux.com/

We spend a lot of time thinking about how now you can do things when you step away from the confines of your desk — tweeting in the supermarket, replying to email on the escalator. But what about when you are sitting in one of those comfy sofa’s or ergonomic Steel Case chairs? How does mobility come into play when you are in a fixed location?

I recently started using Apple’s Magic Mouse and have found myself leaning back in my chair and just using the touch functions to navigate. It’s an oddly liberating feeling to move your hand and mouse away from the desk and still be in control.

I have also spent the week with the Motorola Droid and by far my favorite feature is the dock that sits on my bedside table. I am no longer fumbling for my iPhone to check the weather in the morning to decide what to wear before I get up. I can now retreat back under the covers for a few extra minutes of sleep as, right there in my peripheral view, I can see that it’s “56 degrees and cloudy”.

And, right now I am sitting with my headphones on as I write this, but I would much prefer to be untethered and have a sound laser wrap the sound around my space rather than having a device wrapped around my head–allowing me to move slightly to hear the conversation rather than removing an object from my body.

Mobile phones have untethered us from objects plugged into walls and wires so we can run jump and call at the same time, but we do live and work in a society where people sit in single locations for large amounts of time. I like to think of the new technology as a way to enable 7.1 Dolby Surround… for everything. Surround screens, surround data, surround interaction.

Micro mobility requires design for all our senses and subtle changes in the environment, rather than distinct I/O control giving people a new type of freedom in the locations they spend most of their time.

If you could unhook or liberate one thing that is sitting close to you right now, what would it be?

We spotted this simple, still slightly rough-looking, but potentially amazing app for the iPhone, which works off the phone’s video function. Currently only available for the London Underground, and for those lucky enough to have a 3GS, but follow-up apps across broader geographies and platforms can’t be far behind.

When you load the app, holding it flat, all 13 lines of the London underground are displayed in coloured arrows. By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many kilometres and miles away they are and what tube lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons.

Geo applications and brand experience-based applications seem to be emerging as two of the most interesting playgrounds for AR – we’ve certainly started putting our heads together on a couple of the brands we work with. Watch this space.

(For some existing BBH work that uses AR, see BBH Asia-Pacific’s work for WWF).

Thanks to Tim Bradshaw (@Tim) for bringing this to our attention this morning.