Diesel makes Facebook look like Excel with its slacker app

It’s another cool social media campaign from Diesel and while it won’t appeal to everyone it is definitely worth a look.

Diesel of lovely jeans fame has created this downloadable application for Macs and PCs that makes Facebook look like an Excel Spreadsheet. It is part of Diesel’s “stupid” campaign and its your chance to be “stupid” at work.

So you can like stuff and chat right under the nose of your boss and they will never know. It is a great little idea. They are calling it Excelbook. If Facebook is banned where you work then this really won’t help, but if not, you can download the application right here .

I love how innovative Diesel is when it comes to digital media and it is really going for this whole stupid thing. In March Diesel invited people to join the “stupid society” on fantasy island.

Not all its stupid campaign has worked. Last year its ‘Stupid’ ads were banned by ASA. Last year we also saw Diesel bring Facebook to life in its stores with Diesel Cam.




Source: The Wall

An app for instant idea evaluation

Creatives always have the same problem: is an idea any good? With this app we can apparently get an instant evaluation. You record your idea into your iPhone and then hold the phone over your head. After a few seconds of "processing" you either get a bright lit light bulb (a good idea) or an unlit lightbulb (a bad idea).

More of a fun app then a serious one methinks...

Download it here.

Apple opens doors to Mac App Store

Apple has today (6 January) launched the Mac App Store, which offers more than 1,000 paid and free apps for Mac computers, as it looks to replicate the success of its original iPhone outlet.

The new store, which has rolled out across 90 countries, is similar to the app store for the iPhone and iPad and requiries an iTunes account to make purchases.

It contains more than 1,000 apps at launch, and Apple has also created apps for popular, existing software, such as iPhoto and GarageBand.

Now Amazon is planning to launch its own app store for Android apps. Earlier this week, the online retailer rolled out its ‘Appstore Developer Portal,’ which allows developers to submit android apps ahead of the Amazon Appstore's launch.

Source: Brand Republic

App of the week: Word Lens is awesome.

Did you know that Adobe Photoshop do a free mobile App version that you can download for free from iTunes?

Who better to offer photo-processing software than the makers of Photoshop? Adobe's free Photoshop.com Mobile app offers the following basic features with a simple swipe of the finger:

Basics: Crop, Straighten, Rotate, Flip

Colour: Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black and White, Contrast

Filters: Sketch, Soft Focus, Sharpen
Effects: Pop, Vibrant, Border, Vignette Blur, Warm Vintage, Rainbow, White Glow, Soft Black and White

Borders: Rectangle, Rounded, Oval, Soft Edge, Vignette, Rough Edge, Halftone, Film Emulsion

But that's not all. Photoshop.com users have access to 2GB worth of photos and videos that can be viewed within the app from wherever you are.

Fab free app for all creatives. More info and link to download on iTunes here.

App of the week: Dragon Dictation

Dragon Dictation is a voice recognition application that allows you to speak and then instantly see your text or email messages. I've just downloaded it and it's brilliant - a real time-saver. Find it here.

Apple’s Amazing “Hyperwall” of 10,800 Apps

If you want to understand just how huge Apple’s app store ecosystem really is, look no further than the Apple App Store “Hyperwall.”

At WWDC in San Francisco, Apple erected a video wall demonstrating the reach of the App Store. It contains 30 synchronized 24-inch LED screens that display the top 50,000 apps as they are being downloaded. In just a few minutes, the entire walls gets filled up with with 10,800 downloaded apps from around the world.

Source: Mashable

WorkSnug: Find Places to Work With Your iPhone

If you don't already know about it, WorkSnug is a fantastic website and iPhone app that allows you to find wifi locations available nearby from Starbucks to independent cafes, to libraries and shared offices, complete with reviews describing the atmosphere, power situation and coffee quality.

The idea behind WorkSnug is to build a community of mobile workers who can add reviews and tips about their favourite places to work when out and about. Just what you might have dreamed about as a mobile worker (and that’s everybody now, right?).



Two especially nice features in the WorkSnug Pro iPhone app are:

1. It uses 'augmented reality' to show nearby workspaces. What that means is, it uses your iPhone's camera to show your current surroundings, and its internal compass to overlays that live picture with pop-up information in the right places. A bit like Arnie's vision in the Terminator films!

2. It includes a decibel meter, so you can take noise readings, view and share them with other users. By doing this, WorkSnug are building up a noise-level history to help you choose the right workspace for you.

WorkSnug currently covers London, Barcelona, Madrid, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Leiden and Brighton.

www.worksnug.com

Google has made its first ever UK acquisition buying the startup, Plink

The acquisition follows chief executive Eric Schmidt's statement that Google is aiming to acquire at least one company each month – as well as recruit more staff – as it expands the company post-recession.

Founded by PhD students Mark Cummins and James Philbin, Plink's first product was PlinkArt, a visual recognition app for mobile that analyses pictures of well-known artworks and paintings and identifies them. Users can then share the photo with friends and also click through to buy a poster version.

The developers claim the app was downloaded more than 50,000 times in the six weeks following launch, and Plink have also held discussions with galleries including the Tate over potential partnerships.

The two founders will work on Google Goggles, the search giant's visual search project.

Cummins and Philbin founded Plink nearly two year ago while PhD students at the University of Oxford's mobile robotics and visual geometry groups in the department of engineering.

The app was brought to Google's attention during the Android Develop Challenge in December last year, an initiative to promote innovative new applications for Google's mobile platform, when the pair won $100,000 – Plink's sole funding to date.
James Philbin explained how Plink's technology works: "It picks out repeatable elements from the image you take and comes out with a statistical representation of them." That process works even at different angles and different lighting conditions.

"We found our way into art almost by accident, because we were really interested in visual search. But art is compelling space because it is so empty. There isn't even a definitive site for art," said Philbin.

Cummins said the two had the classic startup dilemma of deciding whether to accept Google's offer – or to acknowledge that endorsement of the product and keep developing independently. But they opted instead to accept Google's offer and become the first UK startup to be bought by the technology giant.

"It feels good, yeah," said Philbin. "I'm not complaining."

Gap rolls out iPad e-commerce app

Gap's free-of-charge app, called The 1969 Stream, is designed to promote the brand's 1969 Premium Jeans range, and has been created by digital agency AKQA.

It features exclusive content from Gap designers, musicians, and fashion experts, including a music video from US country rock group Truth & Salvage Co.

Additionaly, the app will include photographs of celebrities wearing Gap clothing and a Twitter feed from the brand's creative director Patrick Robinson.

A number of media brands, including the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Lonely Planet, and Condé Nast titles Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour, have each launched apps for the iPad and I can't wait to see how the new iPad format has inspired the very latest digital apps. Roll on late April and the UK launch of the iPad!

Meanwhile have any of our American friends played with an iPad yet? Let us know about your experiences!