The Emerging Times

Cool Stuff I Found in Japan

Cool Stuff I Found in Japan

I recently went to Tokyo and Nagoya for a wedding and met with my great friend, and creative partner, Yutaka Tsujino, founder of The Traveling Office. On my trip I collected a few cool gadgets, novelties, and memories. I hope you find them super-cool.

Clockwise from upper-left: Subway Card (they're all touch-and-go), Coins (yen), iPhone Speakerphone (around $19.99), Japanese Wood Inlay Box, Gift from the Saatchi's father (wedding bride), Space Shuttle from Muji ($7.99), Solar-powered smartphone charger ($19.99).

 

 

 

 

 

Unwire what is wired

Here's a free, 15 minute podcast from Sara Green from HBR and Gregory Burns, a Distinguished Chair of Neuroeconomics at Emory. Yes, Neuroeconomics. He's also the author of Iconoclast. Not only is it great, but it costs about $11 on Amazon. That's less than that fancy drink at your local bar—so just get it already. It's a real building block of knowledge, and a priceless read.

Here's his free interview podcast within the Harvard Business IdeaCast series. It's a nice way to refuel your thinking through this intelligent, simple breakdown on how and why we make the decisions we do—and how those decisions effect our decisions both as business people and as creative-types.

In fact, you should subscribe to the entire Harvard podcast series. It's intelligent, topical and insightful. Digital gems.

Click here to link, listen, download, save it. Or, grab it and play it for later. (Gregory's podcast is #4)

Droid Retrains Our Brains

Droid Retrains Our Brains

The path we took
The last decade of personal computing in the Unites States brought forth a unique situation where everyone eventually owned a laptop by the end of 2010. (That is a very broad consumer generalization. I hope you don't mind.) And as computers made it into almost every classroom, homes and businesses across America were wired or in some cases re-wired for high speed internet.

At around 2003, while we were playing with wires and laptops, a wireless revolution was happening in areas like the UK, Australia, and South America. Want to know what exactly happened? Generally speaking, while the US simply upgraded their cable technology with fiber optics, the world was taking-more to satellite technology. We didn't necessarily 'miss the boat', but rather we got on a different boat all together.

These countries, and their consumers, have been emailing and surfing the web at 3G speeds, taking 10+ mega-pixel photos, and watching videos from their "phone" twice as long as the US consumer market today. Some would even say that mobile in these markets has even matured already. They got a big head start on mobile computing while we we're plugging into high-speed lines while the wireless routers got installed.

Building the perception of tiny-little machines
Now think about this. Imagine your a teenager in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and your first interaction with the internet, your first video, your first digital photo, and your first email are all made possible by a tiny little computer you hold in your hand. Would you call it a phone if you knew it did all these other things? Most likely not. You'd perceive it much more as a machine than you would a phone.

Most average, middle-class homes outside of America had homes that shared one computer. In fact, most countries didn't get the laptop boom nearly as big as we did. So as we started to carrying laptops around everywhere as our preferred on-the-go tool while countries like the UK and that teenager I mentioned we're doing their mobile computing wirelessly their mobile device. Sure it wasn't as pretty. No it didn't have amazing flash animations. But what it also had that people really liked was the entertainment factor. It has the video camera, the digital camera, the email, the music player and the games all put inside of one small device.

In markets outside of the United States consumers generally buy less (shocker huh). Computer and consumer electronics companies are challenged with putting everything into one. Companies like SonyEricsson obviously have had the opportunity to learn directly from the Japanese hotbed of Mobile culture. They very much understand consumers in these fast developing mobile markets.

Altering consumer perception
Changing consumer behavior. Re-developing the products we make. What Droid does is attempt to establish an accurate portrayal of what these perfect little machines actually are—tiny computers made for creating and consuming media and messages. And furthermore, does it really make a lot of sense to buy so many devices? A digital camera, a cellphone, a laptop, and a desktop computer? I didn't think so.

Hopefully you can see where I've been going with this topic of analysis.

At the end of the day, companies, manufacturers and marketers of cellphones, computers, camera lenses, CCD chips, SD cards and the internet and cellular service providers have to somehow work together in as we approach this convergence. The all-in-one mobile consumer mindset will certainly arrive this decade, and using a name like Droid is a fun first step.

C'mon. Who doesn't like an androids?

{ My post today may have touched on a few points that need further explanation which I expect to deliver over the course of this week— so If you liked this article then come back tomorrow for more goodies specifically on mobile culture, advertising and media. }

Do you know what a Droid is? You should.

Do you know what a Droid is? You should.

If you don't know what a Droid phone is then you might not be paying quite enough attention to the ever-growing mobile movement. I promise that no matter who you are, whether your an account person, a designer, a CEO, or a screenwriter—you need to know that a droid phone is. It's a mini robot. An 'Android'. Think C3P0. Simply put, think of it as the world's first mini-computer (that fits into your pocket).

In the upcoming weeks I plan on going deep on mobile and discussing the basic differences between droid, iPhone, and Blackberry owners and also discuss the overall and growing impact mobile is having on our culture and the entire advertising and marketing community.

For now I hope you enjoy this top-level instructional video. It's about the Google Nexus One Droid mini computer (and phone:) It's just one of many droids in the marketplace. Perhaps you'll consider learning more about droid phones by searching Google and you can always read a few articles to get you caught up. But the suggestion I have for you is to go buy an android phone—today. It just might be one of the smartest decisions of your career.

Why? Because by the time these little androids catch on you'll be a native. It's always smart to adopt things early and get ahead.

Good Intentions

Good Intentions

I recently discovered a great idea called Loveland.

Does anyone remember the Million Dollar Homepage in 2005? Here's a recap: a teenage kid makes over $1,037,100 in gross income by selling virtual real estate (pixels) on his 1-page website homepage. Insane idea. But it worked. Wondering why? The idea (especially for a young kid) was genius and his intent was honorable.

This was his pitch: "Pay for my college—one pixel at a time". The other reason it was successful is because it is real—meaning it involved helping someone succeed. It spread organically. People subscribed to it.

Now in 2010, we have Makeloveland.com. A very similar, but even more honorable idea. The idea: Help rebuild Downtown Detroit—one inch at a time. How they're doing it: purchase actual micro real estate that buys you an inch of land in an old (yet now expanding) studio space in Detroit. I feel the intent here has even better intentions and it will have a much larger social effect.

Sure, to some people, these ideas might seen novel, or just plain dumb. But I want you to know that I think both of these ideas have some brilliance to them.

Having good intentions is an honorable thing. A thing that a lot of us like to subscribe to. Even if it's an inch in Detroit. It won't necessarily be successful, but it may at least get people to listen.

(Watch a creative video of from Loveland)

Honda's Living With Robots—Marketing Futurism

Honda's Living With Robots shows how
dreams can make brilliant and engaging content.
I hope you enjoy this short film from Honda. It provides inspiring ideas and intelligent insights into the human perception hurdles when integrating people with robots.

iPhone or mobile readers you can view the short film here: Love Robots

Nerd Alert: 5 Ways Nerds Impact Culture

Nerd Alert: 5 Ways Nerds are Impacting Culture
—The emerging impact nerds are making on the world, your business, and pop culture.

    1. Nerds are the new entertainers. You know being a nerd is cool when celebrities
        dress like them (Ugly Betty, ABC's The Big Bang Theory, Nerd/Farell, Kanye).
        So in fact, Nerd is the new celebrity.

    2. In a decade of invention nerds will find the cure. From Green to H1N1.
        Nerds will also be the heroes.

    3. Nerds don't throw punches when they fight they use computer viruses while
        nerds on the other side fend them off.

    4. Nerds will continue to become CEOs of tomorrow's best companies. Companies
        like Intel will lead the way. Oh wait, they call themselves geeks—Intel should go nerd.

    5. They love building games, and starting companies like Mythic, and Blizzard Entertainment,
        and yes, nerds made the Nintendo Wii and XBOX's Project Natal.

I work with a lot of nerds. I have a ton of nerd friends. Recently we've been discussing the possibility to create a new consumer category and a new term called a "Technographic". Its somewhere in between a psychographic and a demographic that accounts for a person's informational or technical aptitudes. The nerds say they would be at the top of the list.

We all need to hire more nerds and really start listening to the nerds.

Nerds pick up on technology and new data very quickly. And as more and more technology and devices come onto the market it's important to interact with them, even if it is for a couple of hours. And if your not in-tune with the technology, make friends with a nerd—they just might be able to help you decipher what's going on and get you to that big idea you've been looking for (or your client is demanding).

*Please note that I used the singular form of the word nerd precisely 6 times in this entry and that obviously didn't include the plural form of the word—Nerds, because if it did it did, it would be a total of 6 uses of the word nerd plus the 9 uses of the word nerds making a grand total of 15 combined uses of the singular and plural form of the word.

Chances are, you'd already know that if you we're a nerd.