Pac-Man iPhone Wallpaper

When Google transformed their homepage into a playable version of the classic video game Pac-Man, we were all hooked. In fact it’s estimated that the game resulted in $120m in lost productivity as workers spent much longer on the page than the usual 11 seconds it takes the average user to search.

A Japanese company has now developed a nice Pac-Man wallpaper for the iPhone – OS 4 only. It lines us perfectly with your rows of apps.

The only problem is that it’s a static image so it doesn’t have the movement that most people would expect. ‘In your face Apple’ says Google whose Android phone allows for animated wallpapers.

Will the @earlybird Catch the Advertising Worm?

Twitter is about to launch another brand-friendly revenue stream…a shopping twitter channel.

The site had given people raised eyebrows in the past as people wondered how they planned to bring in any money! Earlier this year, Twitter began to answer that question by launching ‘promoted tweets’ and ‘sponsored trending topics’.

Now they’re is upping the ante, according to Read Write Web, and have created a new account – @earlybird – that will carry brand promotional messages and special offers for those brands paying to feature on the channel.

Personally I hate being spammed on Twitter – mention a brand name and before you blink you have twenty spam followers offering you everything from inner peace to a vibrator. Biz Stone, the company’s founder, has said in the past that the company “resisted introducing a traditional web advertising model because we wanted to optimise for value before profit” and they seem to be staying true to this belief. This approach to online advertising ticks all the boxes as it’s an unobtrusive, opt-in service i.e. you have the choice as to whether you follow the channel or not. This allows Twitter to maintain the integrity of the site and avoid irritating loyal users.

It will be interesting to see how Twitter handles this shopping tweet stream. Will they divide the promotional offers by category e.g. sports offers, music offers, etc or create different accounts for different offer types? Will they target promo tweets based on keywords and users tweet history to ensure relevance? Will they present users with deals based on location? Given that there are still relatively few Twitter users in Ireland (recently estimated to be around 150,000), it’s likely that many of these promo tweets will be irrelevant otherwise.

At the time of writing this the @earlybird profile has 256 followers. Definitely one to watch.

The Internet is Like MTV….WTF?!

Why are you here? Don’t you know the internet is ‘over’!? So says Prince anyway so it must be true.

Singer-songwriter Prince is on the publicity trail as he’s about to release his latest album “20Ten” as a freebie with European newspapers and magazines. In the UK, fans will be able to get their hands one of 2.5millions CDs on July 10th when they buy their copy of the Daily Mirror or the Scottish paper, the Daily Record. Concert tickets will also be given away in competitions in those papers.

In Prince’s first UK newspaper interview in over 10 years and a “World exclusive” with the Daily Mirror, he said:

“The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.

The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.”

As a result Prince’s album won’t be released via download on iTunes, you won’t get any official videos on YouTube and the eccentric singer has even closed down his official website.

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Restaurant Uses iPads as Menus

Not coming to a McDonalds near you…A restaurant in Sydney has managed to put itself well and truly on the map by swapping its dog eared menus for Apple iPads.

‘Global Mundo Tapas’ developed a menu app for the iPad which displays a menu with pictures of each dish (which can be changed daily if required), sends your order direct to the kitchen and can even make recommendations based on your mood or the weather!

If they let you keep the menu it would be definitely worth a visit!

Check out the MenuPad at work:

Social Media: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Many companies today are keen to plunge their brand/service into the potentially murky waters of social media. They take a cursory look and see other well known faces splashing around, creating waves on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, and dive straight in without bothering to learn to swim first.

I spotted two presentations this week that I’d recommend anyone considering embarking on a social media campaign take the time to watch.

The first is a video laden with snappy facts which does a great job of emphasising why it’s essential that your company/brand has an online presence and highlights the power of social media.

The second is a presentation (spotted here) which throws a shovel load of salt on your expectations and should ensure that you don’t embark on your digital campaign certain that you’re going to have a viral phenomenon on your hands.