Sorry for the prolonged silence. Deadlines! Writing this week from Dallas. I’m on the road for user-testing.

Back at it with a Picture of the Week. I shot this in the stairwell of the parking garage across from the NGAGE offices. Very compelling and interesting. Compositionally, it’s quite nice, but content is king on this one.

The image begs a TON of questions ::

What happened to cause the bloodshed? Who’s blood is it? Who was involved — More than one person? Just one? What events led here? Drugs? Conflict? … Tons of questions.

I also thought it felt like a cool book jacket. I’ve shown both the original image and a QUICK sketch of a version as a book jacket.

I just found it interesting.

The original ::

The book jacket ::

Just found it interesting.

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Se ha lanzado oficialmente la tienda OVI para los poseedores de un móvil con plataforma Ngage.

En ella, no solo se recogen todos los juegos de Ngage, sino que también están los últimos tonos para móvil, fondos de pantalla, vídeos y aplicaciones, para hacer más ameno su uso.

El registro es gratuito y se puede realizar desde este enlace: REGISTRO

Hace un año la compañia sueca A different Game ganó el primer premio al juego más innovador en el concurso organizado por Nokia. A Different Game empezó como un intento de los cuatro componentes, Tom Söderlund, Martin Forsling, Anders Bergman y Martin Ohlsson, de crear juegos realizados a su manera. Sin mirar a lo que el mercado quiere tener, solo enfocados en lo que ellos creen que es emocionante e innovativo.

Ahora parece que su gusto y enfoque se encuentran dentro de lo que el mercado quiere. Con su juego Ghostwire, A Different Game consiguió un inversor americano, Majesco, y saldrá al mercado en el 2010 para la Nintendo DSi. Suena un poco ilógico ya que ganó 400 000 euro por el mejor juego innovador para la plataforma de juegos de Nokia Ngage. Parece que Nokia cambió su estrategia en torno al desarrollo de juegos y el Nokia perdió interés por Ghostwire. Söderlund comentó para IT 24:

-Estuvimos mirando desarrollar el juego para el Iphone, pero no fue posible porque la plataforma no podía ejecutar las cosas técnicas tan avanzadas que queríamos hacer. Cuando vimos la plataforma de Nintendo DSi, sabíamos que era perfecta para nuestro juego.

Ghostwire es un juego de cazafantasmas. Se buscan los fantasmas a través de la cámara de la DSi y las fotos de los fantasmas se superponen a la imagen de la cámara.

-Aunque es un juego, recuerda más a una  nueva función. Ghostwire funciona como una aplicación que ayuda a encontrar fantasmas que se hallan alrededor nuestro.

El interés por el juego es muy grande, comenta Tom Söderlund.

-Si, ha sido increible. He trabajado 10 años en el sector y nunca he visto algo parecido. Queremos mantener vivo este interés para que sea algo realmente grande y de éxito.

Además existen planes para desarrollar Ghostwire en otras plataformas, entre otras la nueva y más potente Iphone 3Gs. A Different Game es propietaria de su propia marca, Majesco tiene sólo acuerdos para el juego de DSi.

Ghostwire se lanzará en la segunda mitad de 2010.

Para seguir el desarrollo: Ghostwire

Fuente: IT24

Nokia, oh great Nokia, ruler of the mobile phone world has just lost a rib. A rib that has been a bother even in times of joy: when it was all profit that is.
N-gage, poor N-gage even your dad’s riches could not keep you going and going and eventually daddy has had enough. N-gage a step-child Nokia wanted to be recognized as an heir of the gaming world could not stand on its own two or four or eight legs however many it had.
Well I stand here today to announce that N-gage is being taken from among the children to be made a servant to Nokia’s babies. N-gage’s services will be seen at Ovi store scattered in a section called games.
N-gage is dead you guys, N-gage was dead! Oh N-gage rest in perfect peace! Competition was never your game so Ovi is clearly great for you. Looking forward to seeing your handiwork at the Ovi store- Akanman

Posted by Wordmobi

sangat mencintai N-Gage ku ini. huuufffttt semalem ahire rusak juga di bantai sama virus sialan [sality]. mulai dari sms, aplikasi,  contact phone dan setting HP nya mesti hilang tak berbekas. ohh goD satu saja sms yang sudah berbulan-bulan tersimpan rapat kenapa mesti hilang????? akhir dari segalanya…[hope not]

memory card yang udah terinfeksi virus dari laptop ku ternyata dengan cepat menyebar ke memory HP. terlambat aku mengatasi keganasan worm yang satu ini. sebenarnya bisa terdeteksi dengan antivir terbaru [sebenarnya] namun ga bisa scan virus yang di HP. MMC seh udah suci dari virus…….

yaweslah.hari ini semuanya menjadi 0 [nol] lagi. HP ku suci lagi dan mengaawali semuanya dengan niatan baik. [bismillah]

Astound Sound is a company dedicated to bringing the best in “psycho acoustics” to the marketplace. What does that mean? Well, it means better, more real sound for your movies, games and music. My designs for the site reflect both the progressive nature of the product but also the attitude of the target audience here — young, savvy male audiophiles. Drawing on design cues from the luxury audio component and import tuner automotive sectors, the look and feel here puts a laser point on the mood and target for these products. Based on these initial designs, Rob Hutti flowed out the rest of the site and other marketing materials for the project. Here, I am showing the 2 final initial designs as well as two other initial concepts ::

Home Page ::
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Level 2 ::
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Additional Concept 01 ::
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Additional Concept 02 ::
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These designs for a Missouri water conservation initiative never made it to production, but I liked them and thought I would add them to the portfolio. Both are very progressive and imersive and strike a balance we often try to at NGAGE :: totally progressive, engaging design that is also very tech-savvy and digital-marketing-friendly. I think these are a great illustration of that balance.

Concept 01 ::
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Concept 02 ::
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Welcome to the new NGAGE site. Check it out…

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http://www.ngagenow.com
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In all, more flexible and grown up. I’m pleased with where I landed with the design here. Props to all who helped with the site! Visit the site and let me know what you think.

THANKS for looking!

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Ephphatha is Aramaic and whose meaning is  “Be opened”

This word was recently used in a religious context and immediately resonated with me on several levels.  I am almost a tortured soul as it relates to opening my mind to see the world (my business in particular) from all possible vantage points.  Knowing that our future depends on escaping the grips of our own comfort zones and instead depends much more on pointing our ship towards those waters that could very well (at times) be uncomfortable. Yes, I will work diligently this coming week (after a relaxing Labor Day weekend) on being “open” to those people/places/things that can be transformational.  I imagine that such behavior will involve (require) more listening on my part than the requisite CEO talk and pontificating.

I wonder if I will “hear” what I need to hear?

Ephphatha!

It seems that Sony Ericsson’s adoption of the make.believe tag line has prompted at least some commentators to call again for it to release a PSP Phone:

But Sony Ericsson’s only real hope for the long-term may be a PSP-branded phone that leverages Sony’s traction in the video game space. While the market for gaming-centric phones is questionable — see Nokia’s history with the Ngage — such a device could prove popular with a young, data-hungry mobile set. And it would be a better investment than a branding facelift.

There’s clearly potential, as one of my colleagues, Brad Hagedorn noted a couple of months ago:

The potential for a PSP phone is clear when we compare the iPhone & iPod Touch’s growth with early sales of the PSP

Global growth of the iPhone, iPod Touch and PSP

Calling the iPod Touch a comparable, if less gaming centric, match to the PSP we see that their early growth is quite similar.  What is interesting though, is the gap between iPod Touch and iPhone + iPod Touch sales, which represents sales of iPhones.  Since the iPhone is essentially a Touch with phone capabilities, this gap is the oppotunity that Sony may be missing out by having a PSP, without having a PSP phone.

In the higher end mobile race, Nokia has made its way. The entry of Nokia has begun with Nokia N86; it is an 8-Megapixel camera and joins the N-series mobile phone category. This new model is available in Indian market as it is the second country to have biggest population in the world. Besides, additional features of this mobile are Flash lite 3.1, USB charging with simultaneous data transfer, UPnP and TV out. It is able to support WCDMA frequencies depends upon the region where the phone is available. The Nokia N86 runs on the open source operating Symbian (S60) system.N86 has a dual slide design and that is optimized to take photographs of fast-moving targets with its Automatic Motion Blur Reduction feature.

Click to know about World’s smallest mobile phone

The internal memory of the device is 8GB and it supports WiFi-, GPS-, HSDPA and Bluetooth (2.0. Moreover, it has been equipped with a gaming keyboard and CMOS sensor along with an in-built compass to support an integrated FM Transmitter. The selling price of the mobile is 27,359 INR, approximately $567.

[ More ]

I know I will be one of millions to do this, but being a Rochester, New York native, I feel I have to. 

Kodak has announced that it is retiring its wonderful Kodachrome film after 74 years. How sad. I work with technology every day and have tried to embrace it with arms wide open, but I do hate to see these ties to the past fade and die off.

Digital photography is cool and I have really had a ton of fun with it. It’s very convenient. However, it’s just not the same.  There’s something about finding a box of old, oversaturated snapshots that is so amazing, like finding buried treasure. The richness of film and the precious nature of having just that single photo is something that we have lost. I know that concept will be very difficult for my 7 year old daughter to grasp in this “just print another one” time we live in. 

This may not seem related, but it is…

At NGAGE, the digital agency I work for, we have an old turntable of mine hooked up. It’s been so fun for me to work with vinyl again — volatile, unreliable and limited as a medium but so rich and warm. The experience of slowly lowering that needle down onto that shiny,black,waxy surface is just plain cool. I want a set up at home now. It has the same quality as film.

For Christmas a couple of years ago, I bought my wife a Holga camera, the Russian toy camera that has won so many hearts in the photography field. It’s time to bring that out and give it center stage in my photography. I will likely still shoot digital as well, but I don’t want to lose sight of that traditional process. I still want to hold on.

Here’s a video that someone made to Paul Simon’s classic Kodachrome with pictures they took.  I think the simple act of sharing their pics, some artistic, some candid, all genuine and fun perfectly captures the spirit of the song and the film it pays tribute to:

Here’s to you Kodak. You gave a lot to my hometown and to the world — “They give us those nice bright colors. They give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day.” Kodachrome, you will be missed.

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AMF Bowling: Pinbuster este un joc de bowling distractiv, intalnit si pe platformele Wii si Nintendo DS. Jocul se evidentiaza prin atmosfera sa, luminoasa, colorata si stralucitoare. Veti avea la dispozitie mai multe moduri de a juca si 12 jucatori din care sa alegeti, fiecare cu stil propriu. Puteti de asemenea sa va comparati scorurile cu ceilalti jucatori pe N-Gage Arena. Pentru a lua jocul, deschideti aplicatia N-Gage a telefonului vostru, mergeti la fereastra Showroom, selectati “Options”, apoi “Update Now”.

Spore Origins N-Gage: new Game Release for N-Gage Game Preview Go online and download from the N-Gage Game Preview (SDSE) System “The Game Preview Release below will be available for you to download from your SDSe account for 90 days only. This Game Preview Release is scheduled to be removed from your account on September 1, 2009″.

Un sito cinese pubblica un video che vede la piattaforma N-Gage in esecuzione su N97 con il gioco Asphalt. Se da una parte ben venga che le jeux sont faits (stasera sono proprio cretino con questi giochi di parole), dall’altra forse lascia un po’ di stucco notare che la giocabilità è avviabile con aspetto 4:3, invece che 16:9 a sfruttare in pieno le caratteristiche dello schermo. Sarà sempre così?

Fonte: The Symbian Blog

Via concurrent Twitter announcements, Hughes, a leading brand intelligence agency and NGAGE Digital, the award winning interactive and social media agency, announced their merger today. The combined company will use the HUGHES name.

Commenting on the transaction, Bill Hughes, Partner, said:

“This merger brings together two innovative companies, one whose expertise is focused on brand strategy and intelligence and the other whose core competencies are in the digital space. This merger combines world class branding services with exceptional digital know how. This merger represents much more than off- line meets on-line, we are truly laying the foundation for a new breed of agency.”

Dan Curran, Partner, said:

“The new HUGHES is uniquely qualified to help our clients manage profitable growth in a complex digital environment.  Hughes provides the global reach we needed with their exclusive affiliation with MAGNET, a collaborative network of the world’s top marketing and advertising agencies. By combining NGAGE’s emerging media solutions with the Hughes brand advertising reputation and MAGNET association, we no doubt have an agency model built for the 2.0 world and beyond.”

The combined company will provide a broad range of digital and brand marketing services: market research and intelligence, a large public relations and social media practice, usability expertise, search, e-commerce, e-mail and a sizable media team.

Eric Karlovic, Partner also shared:

“The merger with NGAGE increases our intellectual capital and brings our customers the latest in integrated advertising solutions. Our customers are demanding innovative solutions that focus on delivering results. This merger delivers not only what our clients need today, but what they will certainly demand tomorrow.  The combination of Hughes and NGAGE ensures that we are positioned to continue to provide best in class solutions for our clients.”

The combined operation now employs more than 50 full time and 15 contract employees. Clients include Scottrade, Subway, Hanes, Bissingers, Enterprise and AstoundSound.

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