The Witness: The First Movie in the Outernet

This is really clever…in Germany, to promote the relaunch of the crime drama 13th Street Universal, the promoters wanted to get people ‘interested in the genre thriller/crime like never before‘. So NBC Universal created ‘the first movie in the outernet‘ -- essentially an interactive game based around the film. People applied online to be a ‘witness’ to a crime and were brought to the crime scene where they become part of the drama.

The smartphone essentially becomes their key to the sordid world of the Russian mafia. The augmented reality game sees people watching video clues on an iPhone as they stand in the location the video was shot, giving them the sense that they are really part of the scene.

Using the phone’s GPS the players have to travel around Berlin on an intricate scavenger hunt. They check-in using location-based technology at various places around the city, collecting clues by scanning QR codes in order to save the day.

Check out this video which explains the promotional campaign…

I Need an iPhone 4 but Don’t Know Why

I’ve watched this video a few times now and the nerd in me had a good ol’ snort each time. A clever video which highlights the power of brand ‘iPhone’ and the Apple marketing machine:

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.