With HomeKit on iOS 8, Apple has made its move into the smart home space. But as we still wait for them to announce HomeKit accessories of their own, others at the ongoing CES 2015 consumer electronics and consumer technology tradeshow are already ready to demo such products.
Switch from iDevices, is the world’s first HomeKit enabled connected plug that allows any electronic device to be plugged into it and then be controlled from a custom app or Siri while being at home or away.
Now following the announcement of the iPhone 5S, he once again set out to prove that still most people in America can’t tell the difference between an old and new iPhone. 😆
Unsuspecting people on Hollywood Boulevard were shown an iPad mini and were told that this was the new iPhone 5S. The results…
Now there is an app that lets parachutists “check in” on Facebook as they free fall through the sky. 😎
Parachuting specialists Sky Company, wanted to promote their Facebook fan page. So with ageisobar Brazil they developed the Air Check-in app [iTunes Link] that allowed users to take pictures during their jump while recording their height. Then based on their 3G reception at the altitude post the details on the users Facebook timeline or store the check-in for later.
The check-in posts made by the app had a link to Sky Company’s Facebook fan page. So this not only helped boost their fan count on Facebook, but also helped increase the number of jumps with their team by 26%.
The above app also brought back memories of another parachuting campaign that was done by hotels.com in September 2011. This time the campaign was centered around the company’s high-speed mobile booking application, which allowed users to book rooms at its network of almost 140,000 hotels worldwide.
To promote their smart phone app they teamed up with extreme athlete and stuntman, JT Holmes, for a wild and exciting digital demonstration to prove just how easy it was to book a room while “on the fly”. 🙂
The iPhone 5 still has some weeks to go before its officially available. But this little detail did not stop talk show host Jimmy Kimmel from giving random people on the streets of America a chance to test the iPhone 5…which actually was just an iPhone 4S. 😆
Is the end near for the QR code? It has been put to good use in countless innovative projects, but recently I am starting to see a drift towards technology that can produce similar results without the codes.
French company Capturio, lets users turn their t-shirts into a business card! Now Blippar in UK is creating augmented reality effects from printed images without any activation from a QR code. All the users needs to do is:
download a custom app…in this case its from Blippar
scan a Blippar enabled printed image (identifiable by a small Blippar logo) with their iPhone, iPad or Android device
and begin interaction with the augmented reality 3D overlay seen on the screen…
In India I have seen Telibrahma using the same technology to increase the experiential engagements of brands via traditional mediums i.e. newspapers, posters etc.
For the last two years in a row, SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) has won the award for being Europe’s most punctual airline. With their ad agency SWE Advertising Stockholm, they created a great little time wasting utility app that isn’t actually made for its loyal customers, but for their competitor airline customers. 😎
The idea was to poke a little fun at SAS’ competitor airlines by suggesting to their customers that they’ll need this app from SAS because chances are, their flight will be delayed and they will need something to kill their time with…
The Buffer Busters are the new Ghost Busters from Vodafone Germany. The telecom giant has launched an augmented reality mobile application that transforms German cities into a video game arena!
Starting from the brief “Vodafone is the fastest mobile network in Germany”, ad agency North Kingdom Stockholm has created a digital story revolving around so-called Buffer Monsters that represent everything slow in our everyday surroundings.
Users who play the game have to capture these monsters by using their iPhone or Android smart phones. When 50 monsters have been captured, the user needs to visit a near by Vodafone Store to dump them and continue playing. The best Buffer Busters will win a lifetime plan from Vodafone! 😎
The TVC supporting the initiative is also very well done…
People are getting antsy for the iPhone 5, some even agitated. All the anticipation is building the mythical gadget into something greater than it may eventually end up being. Videos like the one below don’t help either, but of course they are totally irresistible.
In the below video, Aatma Studio presents a computer generated concept of the iPhone 5 which is an exponential leap with features like an ultra-thin design, a laser keyboard, and a holographic display! 😎
Additionally, here is the rumor roundup video of iPhone 5 from NowhereElse. It also fits well with the craze on hand. 😉
The Golf Cabriolet is back after 9 years of absence, since production was stopped in 2002. Volkswagen together with Paris based agency ‘Agency.V.’ have come up with the worlds first augmented reality car showroom app for the iPad2, iPhone and Android.
The app lets you explore the vehicle and play with it’s features like opening the soft-top roof, rotating the car, checking the vehicle’s details, changing the body colour or the style of the rims. You can even take a picture of yourself with the virtual car and share each step of this experience through your social networks.
iPhone and iPad 2 users can download the app from the French iTunes Store. Android users can do the same at the Android market.
Ogilvy Interactive has developed a “Singles Finder App” for Zonacitas.com, a major Argentinian dating portal. Their concept was simple…”Love is out there. If we get organized, there’s plenty for all”.
With Buenos Aires being one of the cities with the best nightlife in the world, having thousands of bars, discos and pubs to choose from can be a problem. All these options make it difficult to find and meet single men and women. With the “Singles Finder”, a free Smartphone App for the iPhone, users were able to get the exact amount of single prospects in each location. The best part was that they knew where to go well before.
