pepperpout - a pinch is all it takes

English ramblings of a Hungarian communicator living in Sweden.

[pepperpout]

why i love/hate my phone

It’s been a while, I know, I know. Lots of things have happened in gadget-world: new iPhones, new iPads, new smartwatches, a hilarious Ikea or Death viral site popping up on every screen I know (if you haven’t seen it yet, check it out here) – and yet, the only thing currently on my mind is my stupid darling phone. For those of you not in the know, I purchased a Nokia Lumia 920 a couple of months ago, as a) I did not like iOS 6 and hated waiting iOS 7 b) despite enticing product release titles, Strawberry Flavoured Chocolate Coated Android just isn’t pretty enough to tempt me. I hunted down a red model on the internet, played around with a demo version at a local phone store, and then took the leap. Dah-dah-daaaah.

The following months were like a typical high school relationship (I use the phrase “typical” loosely, as both MY high school romances turned out quite atypically dull, but I digress): at first, I couldn’t keep my hands off my Lumia. I luuuurved how it was glossy red, how the crisp screen gave a whole new meaning to “black”, how the UI wooshed here and there, how I could customize all the itty-bitty tiles etc., etc. I would bore my friends solid extolling the many advantages of the underdog Windows Phone ecosystem as opposed to bland iOS and boring Android, all the while cradling my phone adoringly in my hands.

Then, slowly but surely, something changed.

To pre-clarify: I am still a big believer of Windows Phone in general and Nokia in particular. And while the majority of WP opposition cites the lack of a bajillion app ecosystem as the main reason why not to switch, I have to say that app-wise, I’m actually okay with what I’m presented with. (Then again, I’d gone off Instagram before I got the phone. And Instagram is coming soon anyway. And Vine. And Flipboard. Again, digression.)

However, now that I’ve hit and ran the three month mark, the pink clouds around my head have slowly evaporated and I’ve had to acknowledge some uncomfortable truths.

Like the fact that the otherwise brilliant Nokia Music app regularly crashes and burns. (As a daily commuter, this is kind of a biggie.)

Or that the UI response time is a bit sluggish, especially when backing out of apps.

Or that battery life has become slightly unpredictable: the same amount of use which normally lets me last a day sometimes kills the phone after 6-7 hours.

Or that Skype just... doesn’t work. Sometimes. (As an expat with family and friends on the other side of Europe, again, biggie.)

Or that I can’t exit browsers properly. Correction: I can’t exit the PRE-INSTALLED Internet Explorer browser properly.

... and the list is lengthening each day.

Now, the Nokia World event in Abu Dhabi was just held.two days ago. As promised earlier, two new Lumias and (drumroll) a shiny new Lumia tablet were all announced amid fanfares and red velvet curtains. The thing is, while I was in my honeymoon phase, I couldn't imagine purchasing any other tablet than the introduced Lumia 2520 (in glossy red to match the phone, natch). But now, I'm not so sure. Yes, it's pretty, and would turn a lot of heads, especially here in Sweden (a.k.a Home of Everything Apple), but on the other hand - meh. I want a longer honeymoon phase. And some kissy-cuddly fun for years after.

[pepperpout]

action-reaction

I crossed a personal Rubicon the other day. After reading on WPCentral that there is actually an option to vote on Pinterest’s Help Centre for an official WP8 Pinterest app (there’s a convoluted sentence for you), I actually up and did so. Then some time after that, I was reading an article on HelloGiggles, where the topic interested me so much that for the first time in my life, I felt a tingling inclination in my fingertips to post a comment and thus participate in the ongoing online discussion about it.

See? Definitely on the other side of the Rubicon.

Historically famous rivers aside, this got me thinking about internet activity vs. passivity in general. Coming from a culture where passivity is practically a social prerequisite, I’ve never really considered dipping my toe in the tumultuous river of online conversations flowing by – which was especially ironic during my time as an online journalist, when part of my job was to get users like me to not only dip toes, but jump into the water enthusiastically. Theoretically, I knew how to encourage user interaction, but practically, I was the most phlegmatic of them all. Funny how life works, isn’t it?

After the Rubicon incident, I tried to look back and pinpoint what changed. Swapping cultures (Hungarian to Swedish) definitely helped, as did my getting a job with a notoriously “flat” organization; what helped most was, however, the enterprise social media tool Yammer, and the good experiences I soon had there. Yammer is barely past its roll-out phase in my company, and awareness isn’t that great, which naturally results in a chosen few (called, fittingly enough, Yambassadors) being exceptionally active on the platform, trying to spread the word to as many co-workers as possible. This in turn means that whenever I timidly post something on the platform, or perform any miniscule action like liking an image or commenting on a topic, I typically receive some type of positive reaction within 24 hours or so. Pretty neat, huh?

This in turn creates warm, fuzzy feelings in my hollow tin chest and motivates me towards actively participating on other platforms (Twitter, Pinterest, itty-bitty blogs) as well. And the overpopulated World Wide Web has another gasping tenant. Good for me.

You'd think that I have some deep and meaningful conclusion related to digital media and user behaviour in general. The truth is, I have no such thing. While I can imagine that several people had their own gateway drug to online activity, others may have a wholly dissimilar approach to the topic in general. What I merely wanted to point out was that I took the plunge and came out the better for it. So to my fellow onlookers, I can only quote the words of the immortal sports brand: Just Do It. Be an angel among all the trolls. And take the reactions in stride.

[pepperpout]

microinteractions

I read an interesting review of Dan Saffer’s latest book recently. Apparently, Saffer is a famous perpetrator of Interaction Design, the up-and-coming science concerned with human interactions with digital, and more recently, other types of interfaces. (Sidenote: my hubby is completing his Interaction Design MA right now, and whenever I talk to anyone about ID, he immediately adds a humongous, “that’s not the only thing it is” caveat. I’ve included this comment here for the sake of scientific validity. If there even is such a thing anymore.)

Anyway, this book is about the so-called microinteractions we have with digital interfaces every day, like the “ping” noise when an email arrives, or the clicking sound when you unlock one of your devices. These two examples happen to be audio, but obviously you can transfer this to any type of really, really small interaction you happen to have with something. The point Saffer makes is that these microinteractions go a long way in defining your overall relationship, or to put it more professionally, user experience with the interface in question.

Though I try to avoid thinking about ID too much (and stepping on some family toes in the process), this theory intrigued me slightly. Think about it: isn’t this one of the governing design principles in the Apple software ecosystem? (Or used to be, anyhow.) You could also explain the bloatware on flagship smartphones with the same analogy: every itty-bitty command your phone camera does, for instance, incrementally enhances/destroys your relationship with your phone.

Personally, I feel that Microsoft is paying more and more attention to software design on a micro level as well. A small anecdote: I bought a Windows Phone 8-running Nokia Lumia 920 recently, for the reasons listed here. Upon setting it up, it (i.e. the phone) asked me if I wanted it to pull photos from my Facebook account onto my lockscreen – fairly basic, I know, like a dumbed-down version of Facebook Home; still, I set it to “yes”. As a result, whenever I touched my phone to light up the lockscreen in the following weeks, I always smiled as I saw friends and family in various forgotten and embarrassing poses appear on my phone’s screen. That, for me, is a microinteraction with my device which ties me to it deeply, despite other, maybe gaping software flaws.

That user experience depends on such miniscule interactions is definitely not a brand new idea, as far as I’ve seen and heard. The impact of these interactions may, however, be much larger than thought previously. I haven’t read Saffer’s book yet, but definitely want to. And I wonder if I’ll be satisfied with the way the pages turn in my hand. Or other micro things.

[pepperpout]

how i use pinterest

First things first: whoever hasn’t heard of Pinterest in the past year or so is a) a man b) extremely uninterested in digital media. Given that I am neither, it should come as no surprise that me and Pinterest, we’re buds. Friends. Soulmates, even. Pinterest shows me interesting things, which I then pin, ahem, put aside for later, in return for which I spend a lot of quality time with Pinterest, so that Pinterest knows I appreciate it and want to keep on meeting up.

Okay, this is becoming a mixed metaphor.

What I want to say is that Pinterest, apart from being extremely entertaining, is a true treasure trove of information organized into a neat grid-based structure of pretty pictures. Yes, it does seem to speak to the feminine side of the brain in a slightly more explicit way – all the same, I maintain that Pinterest is useful tool for all, business users and recreational pinaholics alike.

(Even if it hasn’t found a sufficient monetization model yet. AND they don’t have an official Windows Phone app. Ah well, you can’t have everything in this sad, sad world.)

Recently though, amidst my weekly pinning frenzy – my job and commute and THE ABSENCE OF AN APP having cut down drastically on my pinning time – I stopped to think about my usage pattern of Pinterest. Leaving frequency out of the equasion, I had to realise that I am a most definitely passive user of the platform, in the sense that I always, always stay within the platform itself, not even pinning, just re-pinning what others have pinned before me. Of course, to do this, I had to follow lots of active and valuable pinners in the first place, but the point is: I’m not doing the thing which Pinterest is supposedly built for, which is guiding users to interesting content via visual stimulation. The only exception to this is, of necessity, the recipe genre. Apart from that, on Pinterest I stay.

Naturally, I have a Pinterest widget in my browser to enable my pinning from other sites to my profile. However, I (barely) never use it, as I find it much more tedious than simply logging onto a site and marking what I like. Also, I can’t help thinking that several of Pinterest’s millions of users do the same, essentially becoming editors of their own and others’ experience instead of content/link creators – how else would I receive 400 followers (and counting, woohoo!) by merely repining what others have pre-pinned?

And here lies the conundrum of the afore-mentioned monetization problem. If users don’t actually “click through” to brand pages and consumer sites, and by extension, ads, what’s the point (or more professionally, value proposition) of the whole pinning malarkey?

I really hope Pinterest will find a unique and creative solution to sort this out, as I would hate to see ugly ads clogging up the platform where today I’m free to see lavender ice cream and infographics about coffee to my heart’s (and eye’s) content, out of pure, unadulterated voyeurism. If it means I have to become a more active user, than so be it. Just don’t try to sell me the ice cream. I enjoy seeing it instead.  

[pepperpout]

we three queens

Reading some more about how “innovative-my-ass” Apple’s new flat design is the other day, I slowly noticed something. The speakers at the hyper-hyped WWDC keynote speech some weeks ago included Sir Jony Ive (of course) and Tim Cook (naturellement) with other laid back gentlemen, or should I say, gentleMEN. Not a woman in sight on stage. Now, without wanting to seem a foaming mouthed feminist, this kind of struck a nerve with me. So, instead of going on about the brand new design and UFO-seeming new Mac Pros, I want to give a shout out to three women who I look up to without embarrassment and who I would absolutely adore seeing give a keynote speech. Or a lecture. Or a cocktail party.

marissa mayer

I’ve talked about her previously, so I won’t go into details here. Suffice it to say that under her management, an old fuddy-duddy of a company recently got so much new life injected into it that they’ve actually won an Apple Design Award for one of their apps recently. Oh, and there’s an opportunity to bid on a lunch with Marissa at Yahoo! HQ for charity. If only I were a tech-crazy millionaire with time on my hands…

tina fey

I’m not alone with this one, I know. Apart from looking up to her because she can roll out jokes in three seconds or less – whereas I often need several hours and an internet connection to come up with a humourous  repartee – what I really admire in Ms Fey is what she has achieved in the past years, both personally and professionally. This mother of two wrote and starred in SNL for several years before moving on to her “TV baby” 30 Rock, carving out a nice little film career for herself in the process. But the reason why she’s a queen of mine is more because of her current, pro-female take on life in general and in particular; in Bossypants, she writes of the difficulties of being in the comedy industry as a woman, hitting just the right note between irony and LOL, but maintaining a level of intelligence throughout which you seldom see in celebrities. She’s also unafraid to make fun of her herself in the most embarrassing ways possible (the Tom Selleck episode in 30 Rock, anyone?), looks more amazing every year, and is a testament to those of us who kept waiting for The One well into our twenties. Ms Fey, I salute you.

gwyneth paltrow

This lady has had her fair share of abuse in the last decade or so. When she won an Oscar, it was a travesty; when she went organic, it was a fad; when she married Coldplay’s Chris Martin, it was a hoax. And while she admittedly has a few quirks (particularly in the organic department), I would still pick her as a mentor for brand management and public image training in a heartbeat. I firmly believe that Gwyneth Paltrow is a businesswoman-cum-mother first, second and third, with everything else – like that recurring stint in the Iron Man franchise – coming in afterwards. With her website goop, she successfully reaches out to an audience who are first enticed by her fame and fortune (and several endorsements), then stay because of the genuinely interesting content. Often criticized as targeting the ultra-rich, I have to defend goop by admitting that I have found helpful tips and tricks applicable to my own, decidedly middle class life several times. Add to this some cookbooks, a Hollywood career, flawless Spanish fluency and a family which is still whole (knowing today’s PR machines, I daren’t say more than that), and you’ve got yourself a decidedly enviable mix. Did I mention that at forty-something, she’s also People’s most beautiful woman of 2013?

These women come from different industries – tech, comedy, entertainment/business – yet all share one defining quality. They shine at, and are acknowledged by what they do. What more would you want from a true queen?

[pepperpout]

i would never have thought windows will get me excited...

... let alone about a developer's conference.

But it has. (Even if the broadcast sucks.)

[pepperpout]

what phones say - a subjective and empirical review

Living in a land where having an iPhone means "you're one of us" - for those of you who don't know, I'm talking about sweet, simple Sweden - got me thinking about the contested subtext of phonedom. I know there have been multiple posts (and comics) devoting themselves to this subject already, however, new players in the phone market necessarily diversify the mix'n'match messages our handsets send out about us, the consumers who knowingly chose them to have and to hold until death (i.e. contract expiration) do us part.

Take the afore-mentioned iPhone, for instance. Where I live, iPhones are the accepted phone of choice. You have more chance of seeing an iPhone in someone's hand than a cigarette or chapstick. So for me, it seems an iPhone symbolizes both cultural assimilation and material stability in a society which particularly prizes these two attributes.

On the other hand, more and more Samsung Galaxy models keep cropping up, typically in the hands of tech-savvy men (although I do have one female colleague who sports an S3). Again, the message seems simple: I value tech specs, especially customizability and large screen size, over implicit acculturation any day. Sidenote: you know how they say that size matters, especially when feeling, ahem, underequipped? Bear that in mind next time you see a humungous phone cradled tenderly in mid-size male hands.

Now for the interesting part: the afore-mentioned new players, specifically the Sony Experia Z, the two new Blackberry phones, the Nokia Lumia series and the HTC One. 

First off, I have to admit to having no opinion about the first two whatsoever. Not only have I not seen them in anyone's hands yet (and I commute 4 hours per day!), I have heard next to nothing about the Blackberry handsets, even though I'm in the market for a new phone and doing extensive research into the field. The Sony Xperia Z, on the other hand, has several reviews praising its trustworthy hardware and water resistant casing - still, the ability to drop a phone into the toilet without collateral damage, while potentially useful, especially for me, is not the first thing I'd look for in my new digital companion. So I guess it does send out a message for me after all: I'm the phone you can do all kinds of wacky sh*t with. Hmmmm.

The Nokia Lumia, on the other hand, is a tricky one to define. I’m thinking more about the 920 and 925 models here, by the way – my friend bought a 620 recently and is miserable with it. (Of course, she’s been a BB convert since the stone age, so that may have something to do with it. Anyway.) Seeing a Lumia in someone’s hands suggests that this particular someone is a) a died-in-the-wool PC fan b) a forward thinker / inherent believer in grid-based flat design (think interactive Pinterest tiles) c) likes funky colours. Translate that to character traits and you’ve got yourself a paradoxical personality who either can’t get rid of the old (PC) or can’t resist the new (design).

Save the best for last. The HTC One, this aluminium-cased underdog of the flagship phone wars raging above our heads and in our pockets. This phone has it all, absolutely everything, except the reputation: whenever I see it being handled, I think of someone valuing tech specs more than a Samsung user, originality (think Zoe) at least as much as a Lumia fan, and luxurious design just like an iPhone fanatic. Also, someone who does NOT care about rumours of inner turmoil over at HTC HQ, so maybe add a little pig-headedness/optimism into the mix.

So which of these people do I want to be? I'll let you decide for now.

(And yes, I know about the Nexus - but that's too much bloody subtext. Even for me.)

[pepperpout]

my one and only sailor moon

I’ve been in kind of a nineties rut lately, listening to music I have long outgrown (Backstreet Boys, I’m looking at you) and trying to re-capture the essence of that wonderful decade when fashion was terrible and mobile phones ginormous. Which is why I recently re-watched the entire Sailor Moon series (twice).

I’m not going to hide anymore. I’m a Sailor Moon fan. So there. In the name of the moon. And other stuff.

… And what better time to come out with this declaration than after the official tweet (sidenote: is there such a thing as an official tweet?...) of the producer helming the imminent Sailor Moon reboot saying that the new series is postponed indefinitely, but at least until 2014? As the news sunk in, my anime-infected soul started weeping and laughing at the same time. On the one hand, I. Cannot. Wait. For the new series. The glorious old episodes of Sailor Moon always left me wanting more, not in the “I’m an anime specialist and I read the manga too and the mistakes were this and that” way, but the slightly more embarrassing “Ooooh, Usagi and Mamoru! Will they get married? What about Seiya? What about Chibiusa and Pegasus?” way, and I was really hoping the reboot would provide some new perspective on the existing material.

On the other hand, I was slightly relieved. My husband – a big-time anime geek – took it upon himself to introduce me to some newer anime a while ago (let’s not forget that Sailor Moon was early nineties material and that computers have long since become our overlords), pointing out how much more sophisticated and modern the artwork is, how plot material has evolved since then etc. I was not amused. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that anime of all kinds – from Cowboy Bebop to Princess Mononoke – has its absolute merits. But even while watching the exquisitely formed figures of these animasterpieces, I kept on wishing for the over-simplified, slightly fuzzy characters in sailor suits I had grown obsessed with both as an eight year old and in my mid-twenties.

(And yes, I know about the manga too and have actually found a scanned copy on the internet and it looks lovely and everything. Still, same problem. Nostalgia will cloud my taste forever on this one.)

The bottom line is, I want Sailor Moon in my life. As a reincarnated, iPhone-clutching, SnapChatting, busty come-hither-eyed sailor heiress of the Moon kingdom? Sure, why not. But I’d take the dumpling-guzzling nineties cry-baby with the dreamy prince lover over her anytime.  

[pepperpout]

why i'm STILL pro-marissa mayer

The first time I heard about her, I wanted to be her. The 37-year old woman who got hired while she was pregnant, had her baby, then came back to helm a Fortune 500 company which promised more challenges than eighty-six snarky years of high school.

The second time I heard about her, I admired her. She had just banned working from home for Yahoo employees, igniting a heated debate on working rights in general and female working rights in particular. Still, she didn't step back, and held fast to her coviction that to reform a company, severe reformations have to be made. I am convinced that, on a personal level, she must have had a few sleepless nights. But the outside world only saw the "ruthless" CEO who, after adding Silicon Valley-esque perks to the company culture, actually dared bring a measure of efficiency to the office.

And I just kept on hearing about her after that, most recently this morning, after a WIRED Business Conference talk where she admitted to having her husband sometimes compile and edit a summary about internet reactions to her most daring moves in the past 12 months. (Sidenote: I do that too. See, Marissa? We're more alike than you would think. Even if I don't have half the world after my guts.) And I still think she's doing exactly what she has to. 

Story-time (from a user's perspective): my internet career started with Yahoo. I loved it. The email interface was cool (for me), I liked the news popping up about celebrities and politics, and I even used it as a search engine for a couple of years. My Gmail account was created only as a back-up plan, and looked really ugly. Then after a while spamming started, security issues cropped up, Google got better and better, while Yahoo became more and more outdated and "buggish". I switched to full-time Gmail about 7 years ago, when I finally had enough of my husband-to-be's emails to me becoming literally unreadable because of some UNICODE error within the Yahoo system. And I haven't looked back since.

The moral of this story is: Yahoo needed the change. The flow of blood, the strict work ethic, the CEO who sacrificed her own maternity leave to put the company first. I wouldn't want to be her anymore, mind you. But I sure as hell support her all the way. 

[pepperpout]

why i actually enjoyed iron man 3

Box office records have been crashing left, right and centre since Robert Downey Jr. put on his well-known armour for the third, or actually fourth time running: it seems like noone can get enough of the witty, reformedish billionaire playboy philanthropist whizzing across the skyline in hot pursuit of yet another bad-ass baddie. 

And while traditionally, movie franchises are never admitted to having any actual cinematic value, I hereby admit that I liked Iron Man 3 much, much more than the oh-so-revered Silver Linings Playbook or even the epic Les Mis-extravaganza. (Side-note: I would have loved to mention Argo as an example here, but the truth is, I haven't even seen it yet, it looked so unappealing. For me. Apologies to all and sundry.)

But why would anyone honestly enjoy such a sequelly sequel, you might ask. Well, here's what I think:

1. Robert Downey Jr. I mean, look at him - physically he's the antithesis of a superhero, and still every guy (i.e. my husband) wants to be like him. And this time around, he's even received some emotional depth! Thor who? 

2. An uneven script. Yes, this is a good thing - asides from giving critics the opportunity to start lamenting the previously mentioned loss of major cinama magic, it reminds me that yes, Joss Whedon really does know something others don't. (If you didn't get that reference, go watch the Avengers IMMEDIATELY.)

3. Jarvis. I adore Paul Bettany's pseudo-character, and frequently toy with the idea of bringing him to life in my own home, just to answer my mindless queries about cooking and making the bed. Mmmm.

4. Ben Kingsley's accent (SPOILER). It's not Kingsley's fault that his character became the victim of a stupid writer's game. He truly brouht out the best of the material, and the moment when he starts speaking with a British accent? Fantastic.

5. Boy/Girl interest rate. I do love me a film which gives me an opportunity to root for the romance one minute, then hang on for dear life to my unsuspecting husband for the following twenty, while he tries to enjoy the CGI wonders of the Marvel-universe.

... I could go on and on, about Pepper's sizzling sports bra or the cute Tennessee kid playing the guilt trip (I know, I know, spoilers-spoiler-spoilers, but chances are you're going to see it anyway, no?), but suffice it to say: IM3's good. Really good. And I don't care about the haters - Jarvis will protect me, I know it. 

[pepperpout]

look out, people - pepper's back.

While I gave up posting on this blog because of a) time issues and b) feeling much more at peace with the world and thus eliminating the need to vent via verbally sneezing at other people, I have to admit that I felt a slight sense of loss after a time. Which is why I've decided to reinstate this shining gem of blog culture and give it a makeover (of sorts).

Actions speak louder than words, so I won't go into detailed explanations of intent and research methods right-here-right-now - let's just say that this reincarnation of PP will be more positive, more varied, and most certainly more intriguing than before. Hence the new tagline: "a pinch is all it takes".

Because that's about it, really.

[pepperpout]

with a bow

After muchos-muchos trepidation, I have decided to transfer my energies elsewhere from my dear old Pepper. The sad state is that I am not so peppery anymore: life is good, and I do not feel the need to snap sneeze so much anymore. If this changes, believe me, you will be the first to know. Adieu, old friends, adieu.

[pepperpout]

when marriage and british humour collide

Marriage is a tricky thing, I guess. Especially today, as divorce rates climb higher and higher into the resigned skies above. It's funny, but the last (overly) mainstream film I actually remember taking on the everyday obligations of a relatively fresh marriage was the colossally boring SATC2, where Big eventually proposed a weekly "holiday" from his marriage to Carrie to keep things fresh. The film being the massive flop it became is basically the reason why I appreciate this film - or what I've seen from it in the trailer - so very very much. A fresh take on newlyweds in today's temptation-infused era could not come a better time.

I Give It A Year looks to be an above-average British comedy about the ups and downs of a young married couple before and after confronting their exes, and through them, their underlying relationship problems. The amazingly talented Rose Byrne and Anna Faris together with Minnie Driver present an exceptionally promising female dimension to a film which could easily be about no more than the painful process of becoming overy familiar with your spouse's disgusting demoralizing habits (like Paul Rudd's anal examination in This Is 40. Another gem, BTW.)

And as regards to the trailer itself, hats of to the producers. They had me at the first wordplay: "Fornication. I'll read that again. For-an-occasion." Viva la England!

[pepperpout]

apologies to all and sundry

"To challenge is to admit the possibility of defeat."

Someone must have said that once.

I think.

At any rate, I have no rights or responsibilities towards the sentence/sentiment/cliché/random quote shown above. And I accept that.

What I am responsible for, on the other hand, is the miserable failure of my attempt to write about digital media for 30 days running. To be clear, this happened through no fault of digital media per se. Digital media is cool. And fascinating. And fast. I, on the other hand, suddenly had a myriad of duties which prevented me from commenting on the many wonders of this digital era, for which I am utterly remorseful. 

Ah well. C'est la vie. 

Trailers next!

[pepperpout]

Day 3: LXD - Lovely, Extreme, Digital

I read an article on Mashable today, curated by Jon M. Chu, about the biggest innovations in the entertainment industry this year. And while everything mentioned by Master Chu had its own definitive value, the titbit that captured my attention was the fact that Chu's web series, Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (LXD) has apparently been called "the most beautifully filmed [...] web series in the history of the medium". And I have to say I agree.

For me, the genre of the "web series" is still quite a new one. The presence of dance in media, however, is anything but. From Dirty Dancing or Save The Last Dance to Chu's very own Step Up-franchise or even the new dance reality shows, the moves of the human body to rhythm and music have always proved mesmerising to a mass audience. Which is exactly why the significance of LXD becoming such a pioneer in this digital field is something most definitely praiseworthy.

As this is not a PR article, I won't try to persuade anyone to watch the series. If, however, you would like to watch a series which is exquisitely shot and makes full use of the key characteristics of "webisodes" - shorter timeframes and outstanding audiovisual effects, just to name the basics - look no further. Digitalia and dance... A match made in heaven. 

[pepperpout]

Day 2: Ellen and Google

This kind of sums up what I mean by pop culture and digita media mashing. Add a touch of suits-and-sneakers, a blonde lady in a studio and you get this: Ellen DeGeneres doing a monologue on Google.

[pepperpout]

Day 1: Meet A Zillion Stars... And Their Windows Phones.

It's been a while, but I still can't get my head around the bajillions of celebrities who've signed up for the Windows Phone train-ride. Don't get me wrong: I actually think the Windows Phone can become a valid competitor in today's smartphone market, albeit its slightly weak initial impact in this iOS and Android-governed meta-universe. But the primary reaction I had upon seeing Will Arnett, Gwen Stefani and co self-narrate The Wonder That Is WP in oh-so-many ads was that of disgust, not consumer lust.  

I guess it's a similar tactic to what Google is still trying to pull with Google+: even so, promotion in overly huge quantities can easily get people's backs up rather than set pulses racing and fingers itching towards wallets. But it seems the digital world is about to become a vehicle for stars-of-the-now in much the same way as the high-end perfume market did a few years ago. The moment Justin Bieber came out with a fragrance, celebrity agents probably knew they'd have to find something else. Only this time around, the blatancy of self-promotion is slightly higher on the digital end. And the stars get to keep their clothes on.

I wonder how much more of these ads it will take, or alternatively, who could be the biggest name to sign on and thus influence millions of customers to switch to Windows? I mean, okay, Oprah is pretty big. Then again, the way she endorsed Windows Surface through an iPad is a pretty big fail. Who else have you got up your sleeve, Mr. Ballmer? Britney? The Queen? Santa Claus?

We'll just have to wait and see...