i referred to google’s influence on the information age landscape earlier and stumbled over john arlidge’s article in the times online this weekend in my feedreader – good writing and absolutely worth reading.

“in the blissed-out california sunshine, the glistening glass-and- steel curves of the googleplex seem to sweep you up off the pavement with the promise of a glimpse into the future

german toom hardware store just released a new commercial starring a suburb do-it-yourselfer promoting toom’s raffle about do-it-yourself ideas you can send in. the homeowner got annoyed by speeding cars in front of his driveway and built his very own speed bumps …

more information regarding this promotion and the spot here

(thanks to ingo for the hint)

[tags: toom, baumarkt, toom baumarkt, commercial, bumper, selbstbauidee]

following my most favorite ad – the sony bravia bouncy balls – and their paint ad, here comes the third sony bravia spot – rabbit stop-motion in play-doh.

“the third commercial for bravia is the most ambitious piece of stop-motion animation ever undertaken. devised by fallon and shot over three weeks in new york, the commercial employed over 40 animators from passion and used 2.5 tonnes of plasticine”

worth watching and a great piece of art but i’m still more into the bouncy balls.

(via frederik at advertising/design goodness)

[tags: sony, bravia, commercial, ad, fallon, play-doh, rabbits, stop-motion]

“international bloggers are preparing an action to support the peaceful revolution in burma. we want to set a sign for freedom and show our sympathy for these people who are fighting their cruel regime without weapons.”

find some more information on www.free-burma.org

(via philipp götzinger, initiated by robert basic and others)

[tags: free burma, burma, petition, peaceful revolution, robert basic]

i’ve been with jajah for quite a while now and very happy to be part of this amazing international team. i rarely blog about our own services but we are launching jajah buttons these days and i have to share this with you.

jajah buttons finally realize free and seamless voice communication in online communities and email, it is one-click calling out of e-mails, websites, blogs or any social network profile – the first personal, truly global toll-free click-to-call service.

my friends and family can now call me by simply typing in their phone number into my button at absolutely no cost, i can add the button to my blog or email signature making it easy to stay in touch.

initiating a call through a jajah button is as easy as entering your very own phone number and clicking ‘call’. the buttons are completely customizable (size, color, style) and you can you set the time when you are free to accept phone calls, they are available as a flash widget (see below), click-to-call buttons (see my sidebar) or a simple plain text link like http://www.jajah.com/netzkobold.

as a business it is the quickest, cheapest way to a very own toll-free number and the easiest way for their customers to call them at absolutely no cost to them. this is adding the voice layer on any existing web property out there while protecting your privacy, your phone number will not be revealed.

more information visit www.jajahbuttons.com

[tags: jajah, jajah buttons, flash, widget, web 2.0, voice 2.0, telephony]

today my friends pat phelan and sean o’mahony presented their recent brainchild at the techcrunch40 conference – the maxroam sim card.

“we are an innovative global communications company focused on introducing simple, high quality and high value telecommunications services. our core target market is aggrieved customers across the globe who don’t understand why they can’t get value for money when making international calls and roaming.”

the maxroam sim card virtually eliminating outrageous roaming charges.

“maxroam is our brand new mobile roaming product. if you put a maxroam sim in any standard gsm mobile phone, it will allow you to reduce your mobile phone bill by as much as 80% when you are traveling. our customers can use their mobile phones exactly as they do now. nothing to download, nothing to install, no internet connection required. if you talk to anyone anywhere who has ever traveled with their mobile phone, every single one of them will tell you that the most frustrating thing is to get home and receive an outrageous bill from their mobile operator the next month. if you want to get cheaper rates from your mobile operator, you have to jump through all sorts of hoops. if you are from north america, some of you cannot roam with your mobile phone even if you want to. maxroam is the world’s first truly borderless sim.”

it’s late now and i will give you some more insights on this wicked cool product later on, for now please check out the cubic telecom and maxroam site for further details and pls take a second to vote for my friends.

i put up some pictures on flickr, if you want to meet me there, give me a call.

[tags: cubic telecom, maxroam, roaming, sim, pat phelan, sean o'mahony]

while checking my facebook messages on the apple iphone i clicked on this link from roland over at the werbeblogger.

“the current version of the flash plugin is too old. you currently have version 0.0.0 but you need at least 9.0.0 to view this plugin. we suggest that you upgrade flash to the latest version. to upgrade please click here“

ha, flash version 0.0.0 installed!? whatever … have a great weekend.

[tags: apple, iphone, adobe, flash, version, flash 0.0.0, plugin, werbeblogger]

don sent me the link to this article at electronista stating the apple iphone launch in germany for november 12th 2007 and revealing some more details.

“apple may launch its iphone campaign in europe with a 3g-capable iphone with enhanced storage, according to what appears to be a leaked ad from t-mobile germany. the ad promises a version of the handset with support for 3g-level cellular internet [...] it also suggests that the device will carry 16gb of memory, representing the first storage upgrade to the device since its us launch in june 2007. visual voicemail and the 2-megapixel camera would remain the same as for the us version [...] t-mobile itself hasn’t officially confirmed its selection as germany’s exclusive carrier but has already been caught preparing support materials for the iphone, in one case hosting images for the product on its own website.”

“t-mobile’s reported ad would also be the first to commit to a definitive release date for the iphone outside of the us, slating the handset for a release with the carrier on november 12th 2007. apple has already promised a fourth-quarter release for the iphone in europe but has yet to formally announce a timetable for the launch. the california firm is expected to accompany the german introduction with an o2 version in the uk and an orange version for france.

i still think this might be a hoax, but you never know …

(via macbidouille and electronista)

[tags: apple, iphone, t-mobile, germany, europe, launch, november 12th]