Coca-Cola Interactive Mini Bottles

Coca-Cola has recently launched 20 special edition mini bottles to get fans around the world excited about the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in Brazil from June 12th to July 13th.

The bottles come wrapped in flags of countries that have hosted the World Cup previously i.e. Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, USA, England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, Japan and South Korea, as well as the three upcoming host countries Brazil, Russia and Qatar – plus two special Coca-Cola editions.

Coca-Cola fans can also create and send special messages and avatars to other bottle owners through Facebook and iPhone or Android apps. In addition, special markers on the bottles activate augmented reality animations when held up to a smartphone camera.

Smart Apps

Here are two mobile apps that recently caught my eye…

Audi Start-Stop App

The Audi start-stop system turns off the engine when the car stops at a traffic light and turns it on again when the car starts. Using the same principle Audi along with DDB Spain created an Android app that detects which applications have been open longest without being used and sends an alert to the user to close them. Thus saving battery and making the phone a more efficient tool.

Reborn Apps

Many events create their own smartphone apps. But when the event is over, the apps lose their usefulness and are then hardly used. To give these apps a second life, Duval Guillaume got various Belgium organisations to push out an update which turned their event apps into a registration medium for organ donation.

Life of George

Its an exciting time for 12 year olds as they witness the first wave of electronic gaming i.e. digital-to-physical gameplay. Last year Disney announced a new line of toys called Disney Appmates that worked in tandem with the iPad. Now with “Life of George”, Lego has combined real Lego bricks with an app for your iOS and select Android devices.

In the game George shows you a picture from his travels and asks you to recreate it using Legos. You have to dig around in your box of 144 pieces to recreate the image and then take a picture of it on the dotted playmat. The app also has a brick recognition system that awards you points for speed and accuracy.

The game is pretty useful as kids don’t need to lug their entire Lego collection around. While for parents the game helps in teaching counting and hand-eye coordination as you need to find blocks as quickly as possible and then put them together.