Read along with Google Home Mini and Disney’s Little Golden Books

A new Google and Disney partnership has brought Disney Storybooks to life. The next time you read out loud select Disney Little Golden Books, your Google Home will add sound effects and soundtracks to accompany the story as it is read aloud.

This new feature uses voice recognition to be able to tell when a reader has skipped ahead or gone back, and adjusts the sound effects accordingly. If the user pauses reading, ambient music will play until the user begins reading again. This feature works on Google Home, Home Mini, and Home Max speakers in the US. To activate the action, just say, “Hey Google, let’s read along with Disney.”

During the story, unlike with other typical commands, the smart speaker’s microphone will stay on so the device can follow along and add sound effects. To address privacy concerns, Google says it does not store the audio data after the story has been completed.

Pizza Hut lets you order pizza from your shoes

Pizza Hut is the official pizza of the NCAA, a men’s basketball tournament known informally as March Madness and played each spring in the United States.

For last years tournament Pizza Hut created the world’s first shoe that ordered a pizza. Now to celeberate their second year as the official pizza of the NCAA, Pizza Hut, Droga5 and the Shoe Surgeon launched Pie Tops II, a limited-edition high top shoes that not only utilized your geolocation to order the current Pizza Hut deal at the press of a button, but also allowed users to pause the game while they received their delivery.

A TV ad has also been released to highlight the new pause feature of these newly relaunched Pie Top shoes…

The Kentucky Flying Object

In its latest marketing effort to appear hip and tech savvy, India’s Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) created the “Kentucky Flying Object” a.k.a. “KPO” that could be created from select boxes of the chain’s newly announced Smoky Grilled Wings.

The limited edition boxes are available in ten selected cities from today 25th January to tomorrow 26th January. Every customer who orders the Smoky Grilled Wings, will not only get their spicy chicken wings, but also a fully functioning mini-drone.

Lucky customers who receive the special boxes can look up the instructions to assemble the drone at www.kfodrone.com.

Voice Chocolate

In the last 15 years, voice communication traffic has fallen by about half, mainly due to the impact of messaging apps. Docomo, Japan’s largest mobile phone company, sought a way to remind people of the wonder of communicating by voice. So with their agency Hakuhodo, Docomo came up with a new way to reacquaint people with voice communication.

On Valentine’s Day they enabled women in Japan to use their smartphones to record their voices and transform their message into chocolate patterns. Then with the help of Mont St. Clair, the most famous patisserie in Japan, they delivered the custom chocolates to the men they love. Recipients in turn could then use a special app that recognized the AR markers in the chocolate to play back the voice message from their smartphone.

BMW Christmas Safety Card

To wish their customers a new year of safe driving, BMW together with ad agency AIR and electronics company Selectron created a Christmas card that was meant to be hung in the car.

A micro sensor was built into the card to measure the driving behavior and react with a spoken message (Ho! Ho! Hooo! Just like Santa!) when the car was driven unsafely. The sensor measured the G-forces and reacted when the car accelerated too much, or when it braked or drove too quickly through bends.

These limited-edition Christmas cards were sent to members of the BMW M League who recently bought their car and participated in the BMW Track Days.

The Nike NBA Connected Jersey

To provide a radical new fan experience, Nike and the NBA have unveiled the Nike NBA Connected Jersey, that via an iOS NikeConnect app provides the wearer an all-access pass into the world of their favorite team and players.

To enable this new exprience each adult-sized Nike NBA Connected Jersey will now come with an embedded NFC chip that will launch real-time team and player content such as pregame arrival footage, highlight packages and top players favorite music playlists – all on the jersey owner’s mobile device. Additionally during the season, a wealth of exclusive offers and experiences will also bring fans closer to the game they love.

Tostitos Party Safe Bag

According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 45 people were killed in drunk driving crashes on Super Bowl Sunday 2015. This was nearly half of all traffic fatalities that day. So for the 2017 Super Bowl Sunday, Tostitos launched a limited-edition “Party Safe” bag that could tell when you’ve been drinking, and then assist you to get home safely from the party.

The special bag was created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners and came equipped with a sensor that was connected to a microcontroller calibrated to detect traces of alcohol on a person’s breath. If any alcohol was detected, the sensor would turn red and form the image of a steering wheel. The bag of chips would also give the user a $10 off Uber code along with a “Don’t drink and drive” message. Users with a NFC enabled smartphone could also tap the bag to call for an Uber.

Crafted By My Heart

“Crafted By My Heart” is an app launched by DDB Group Hong Kong that lets you customise jewellery with your own heartbeat. Using the flash and camera on the smartphone, the app detects changes in the coloration of your finger, which it then uses to measure the heartbeat. The intensity and rhythm of the heartbeat is then translated into a unique digital rendering which is then eventually used to create a one of a kind ring.

The app offers a choice of two base designs i.e. Surge and Sierra along with three different finishes i.e. gold, silver or black silver. Depending on the finish, rings cost between HK$1,198 and HK$1,588 (US$155 and US$205), and take around 15 to 20 working days to complete.

For more infos visit www.craftedbymyheart.com.

Coca-Cola Wish in a Bottle

Working with Gefen Team and Qdigital, Coca-Cola showed off special bottles during Coca-Cola Summer Love 2015, a camp-like event for teenagers held each year in Ganei Huga, Israel. Opening a bottle sent a Wi-Fi signal to one of three drones programmed to fly up to a height of 1,000 feet and release a firework resembling a shooting star.

Happy Goggles

Today’s generation of kids are growing up in a world where smartphones and tablets are a part of their everday lifes. So to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Happy Meal, McDonald’s in Sweden decided to move with the times. This however did not require them to make radical changes. With a bit of ripping, folding and sliding they created the Happy Goggles – a unique VR viewer made from an ordinary Happy Meal box.

The limited edition Happy Goggles will be available from March 5th along with a virtual reality skiing game called “Slope Stars” [Download Link]. The game has been endorsed by the Swedish National Ski Team and provides a 360° ski experience, allowing the kids to open doors to a world of fantasy and fun, while learning how to stay safe on the ski slopes.