hope you like it.

The iPad is a hit… if over 90,000 orders in the first day when pre-ordering began is not a hit then Titanic is not one of the highest grossing movies of all time… the uses of the device, or rather – the concept device seems to stretch further than expected. I had talked about iPad being a nice portfolio tool but I never thought of using it as a make shift sketchbook. the first thought that comes to mind is, was it deliberate? Possibly… It is defintely interesting to see how much prductivity seems to increase just with a larger screen-size (insert giant iPod touch joke here).

The program ALSO intends to distribute 13-inch macbooks to all incoming freshmen. The trade-off? there is a 500$ increase on the student fee. but hey, in return for the increase, the student are also getting:

completely wireless campus, quadrupled bandwith, and faculty training in advanced technologies.

As predicted, textbooks are now going digital… Now I might like the feel of paper on my finger but I am excited about this major upgrade books are getting. Just think about it, textbooks with embedded media content – video, flash animations and perhaps a collaborative feature to discuss the contents with people in your network… or more likely, social network.

I know just one university is too small to make a generalization, but the digital conversion might be hitting us sooner that we had imagined.

The speakers were talking about how networking has moved totally online and ‘online is the new marketplace’. RC Concepcion cited how he sold a significant portion of his fine art work through twitter. I sat in his online portfolio classes and I was amazed at the social media tools he used to design his website. Specially online photo sharing sites such as flickr and photoshop.com which provide professional quality storage and sharing in a simple package.

The discussion truly was energizing and made one wonder about how the digital marketplace continues to change real world business. It is imparitive to make a vibrant online presense in order to sell services while a simple three page website used to be enough during internet’s infancy. The communal aspect of the web can propell someone’s work to the limelight but it is important that we engage in the community rather than stand apart from it. The biggest mistake companies do is to setup a internet presense but only use it as a one-way communication channel; if one wants to succeed in the web playground, interaction is a must.

Now the question is, will this begin shaping design decisions and product manufacturing decision for larger companies? If you ask Apple, then the answer would be a straight “NO”, companies have their own working process and to cater to each and every consumer is probably improbable. However, one does get some ideas when a ompany like Nokia goes ahead and does something like this.

The website is supposedly an ‘exercise in collaboration’. Personally, I don’t know what to make of it as there is a disclaimer at the very end of the introduction saying:

And no, the plan isn’t to actually make the product – this is about creating a concept (we can’t aim to better the might of the Nokia design team – their knowledge runs far, far deeper than ours). This is an exercise in collaboration sprinkled with some future thinking.

So Nokia wants to know what kind of a phone the’democratic’ approach may create without creating the phone? Ah well, the result is not that important… what it important is the concept of manufacturers listening to the consumers and applying a more integrated approach to their design process. The most remote example of this approach that I can find is Video Game publishers pooling responses from their official online community members. A big reason for the high grossing video-game Street Fighter IV’s existence is repeated fan appeals. Publishers of Street fighter – CAPCOM has been lauded in the online community for actually listening to their community of fans.

It may take time but perhaps we will see community response being added as a sprocket in the product development cycle in the future.

PS> have you guys seen this fan-made mock-up design of the iPad? Apple should hire this dude.

After Alice in wonderland the next movie I found utilizing facebook was ‘She’s out of my league’ and ‘Iron Man 2′. In the ‘earlier days’ of facebook, there was a ‘superhero anonymous’ app designed to promote the movie ‘Hancock’.

Social Network is the new playground for advertising. Plant a leak here, some sneak previews there and the hype about a movie can grow like wildfire. ‘Tropic Thunder’ did it with a completely viral video that had nothing to do with the movie but generated overnight buzz about the project.

‘The Dark Knight’ was perhaps the best well thought out internet campaign for a movie (that I have seen till now). Granted it may not have used the traditional social media tools like twitter and facebook (which were not as widely popular at the time) but putting hidden clues in websites, having an automated phone service call viewers who were getting closer to the puzzle’s solution… The Dark Knight definitely was the hallmark of viral marketing.

With internet and social media, its cheap and extremely effective to reach audiences. We can only wait and see what new ways will we see movies being marketed in the future.

Because I like to mix things up a bit, I took the always trustworthy (and maybe a little unhealthy) Maruchan Ramen and the tastily oriental Tofu Miso Soup and mixed them together. Why this amazing mix you ask? Well I was feeling a bit adventurous. That and I wanted something quick and easy. (hey don’t judge, starving college student here.)

The fruit of my labor was, I’m glad to say, a pretty Awesome meal: