Brown Is The New Nano Teacher

The last thing I thought you'd hear me say is "oh you should go to the UPS site it some great little chunks of intel' there." But indeed that is what I'm about to tell you. UPS has partnered with credible companies such as Mashable, TechDirt, VentureBeat & Small Business Trends to put together a great little video series called "Seizing Opportunites Videos" – Andy Azula might have been better to ask on the name but I digress. Check it out!

Obey The Frozen Head Of Mobility!

If you’re under 18, get your parent’s permission first. It reads at the bottom of a brief statement on the company blog for Walt Disney World theme parks. The company today is releasing screen shots of their new Smart Phone application. It will initially be – bringing attraction wait times, FASTPASS return times, extensive information on character locations and more for Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks to your Verizon Wireless phone.

Other funcationality of note will be rich GPS enabled maps of the parks. Based on what I can see there's nothing new to this content that's not being done in a mapping capacity. The power will be the integration within their queue-line setup to determine and dynamically feed wait-times.

Here's the knife in the devil's throat: "If you are not a Verizon Wireless subscriber, you can still use your mobile phone to access select information via text and on the Disney Parks Mobile Web site. It’s just better from our friends at Verizon Wireless." Nothing cracks me up more than Thomas Smith, Social Media Director, Disney Parks giving a wink to the vendor, while Steve Jobs sits on the steering committee at Pixar. Seconds after the post to be followed by these comments:

For Disney's sake I hope they're listening. I'm an iPhone/Apple/Beer/... snob. Additionally, I love the brand! I'm like most everyone in Orlando, I love all the parks! Especially as a new father I can actually see what joy they can bring. Even with that said it's simply beyond shortsighted for them to overlook such a appropriate demographic as iPhone users. Bare in mind there are other mobile apps, released prior that is making Disney now fight for the "me too" spot.

The icing on the top of the capitalistic cake however is this: I was told this mobile application is available for download and purchase beginning in November for $9.99 for six months of service! YAY! While most apps are a couple of bucks and updates are free, Disney is herding you into the Cool-aid line for cash? It's IMHO that they just go this one wrong. There's plenty of time to fix the "ID-10-T" error here, a one time app charge will fix this issue.

I see pay website content coming for Disney's future and I think it's fine. Taking on the Club Penguin genre with a monthly subscription fee for a safe place for our children to have fun online – I'm a believer. With that said you cannot just break the mold for mobile applications and expect zero backlash. Maybe Disney's brand can afford the impact, but I cannot see why you'd be willing to take the hit when you don't have to.

5 Insights From The Years

"Renowned graphic designer Michael Bierut claims that he's not creative. Instead, he likens his job to that of a doctor who tends to patients  – "the sicker, the better." Digging into the 86 notebooks he's kept over the course of his career, Bierut walks us through 5 projects – from original conception to final execution – extracting a handful of simple lessons (e.g. the problem contains the solution; don't avoid the obvious) at the foundation of brilliant design solutions."

Mozilla's Raindrop - The Calm Before The Storm?

Calling all web professionals! Mozilla wants your world-class thinking, for free of course. But seriously Mozilla Labs just released a prototype application that might have some real merit – sorting your digital communications. View the clip below, and while a bit low-tech in the Prezi, Keynote and PowerPoint ridden world, it does take you through the basics of what their attempting to create. As outlined it does make a case for the need to sort and refine all our communications outlets, such as email and Twitter.

Raindrop UX Design and Demo from Mozilla Messaging on Vimeo.

"Get Involved

Mozilla Labs is a virtual lab where people come together online to create, experiment and play with Web innovations for the public benefit. The Raindrop exploration is still in its infancy and just getting started.

All of the source code underlying the Raindrop exploration & prototype is being released as open source software under the the MPL.

There are many ways to join the team and get involved:

• Ask questions and contribute ideas at our GetSatisfaction community.

• Upload a mock-up or design to the Raindrop Design group on Flickr.

• Pull the source code and start hacking.

• Join us in our chat room.

We’ll also be using the #raindrop hashtag on twitter.  Our community page has more details about these and other ways to connect.

– Andy Chung, Bryan Clark, Dan Mosedale, David Ascher, Mark Hammond, and James Burke on behalf of the Raindrop development team"

"Google Audio" Is Plugging In This Wednesday

It's not like I didn't see it before but it seems that Microsoft isn't the only one using Apple as their R&D department. Google seems to be on their own "embrace and extend" model to scoop up the small firms that have reasonably good thinking and see how they can all fit together. I'm not sure however that this is the best idea for Google. I'd think silent partner would be a better return, but then they wouldn't get their pretty logo on it.

They web as we know it, this week, is breaking into more and more of a finite medium. People seek out a specific interests, and then within that a sub-interest and within that they usually plant a seed as the expert deep within that chosen niche. Smart web offerings aren't coming in as the 'all for one' model anymore because frankly, companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple simply have too much fiscal control.

Back Google Audio, it seems a little strange to me that Google would enter this extremely over saturated market but who am I to say what a multi-billion dollar conglomerate should do – I mean they never call ; ) But Google

"Google will announce a new playable-music search service next Wednesday, creating a special box in search results with links to songs to stream and download, multiple sources familiar with the situation told Wired.com. The service — likely called Google Audio — will be powered in part with streaming music from LaLa and recommendations from iLike, the sources said."

A Photo, Stop Motion Knifefight

Bruno Levy took thousands of photographs in Patan, Nepal over the course of a week using flashlights and long exposures. After getting the nod from Modeselektor and BPtich Control, he created a stop-motion narrative synched to Deboutonner. Reffering to it as "Live Video Painting" its effect is a mesmorizing as fire. Enjoy.