Cheese & Burger society
http://www.cheeseandburger.com/
“We believe that cheese is the Grand Poo-bah of every cheese-burger… Not just any cheese, but the one and only Wisconsin Cheese”

Wilkinson Sword: Quattro Titanium
http://www.quattro-titanium.no
This is a stunning example of a site that utilises 3D perfectly for a product presentation. Animations are rich and interactive but kept to a descrete size to avoid any unwanted lengthy loading times. This is a case study on how to simply and very effectively show off features and benefits. For the rest of us it may also be a chance to learn some Norwegian

Packland
http://sc.landsend.com/packland/
Packland- giving kids a fun-filled, imaginative way to design their ultimate fantasy backpack.

Amnesty: Protect the Human
http://www.protectthehuman.com
When it comes to good causes and the tireless struggle to make the lives of those less fortunate just a little bit better, Amnesty stand out as an example to all of us. This superb site draws the user in, enagaes them across a number of interactive areas, and then pushes its content out through Social Media integrated channels (excellent use of Facebook Connect!). As charity sites go, this is how it should be done.

With each passing month the public uptake of Social Media increases steadily. It is not uncommon to hear people talking about older relatives having joined Facebook, or to have started Tweeting. Social Media is simply a part of our lives. Hand in hand with that, people have become aware of the ‘digital shadow’ that they create. Many people take it as standard that the Social Media channels they use should be set to private. Many on the other hand don’t even think twice about it.

For those people, there may be bad news on the horizon. It looks as though certain users of Social Media sites may face higher insurance premiums due to the level of information they divulge. Consider how often you see tweets or status updates about your friends’ holiday plans. For those with open profiles this is a possible invitation to burglars that your home is free to raid.

According to Legal & General, “Status updates and tweets about upcoming holidays act as an open invitation to thieves, who scour social networking sites and use the information to ransack empty houses”. Malcolm Cooper, director of pricing and underwriting at Legal & General, commented, “It’s a challenging one for the insurance industry. Just because someone is burgled, you can’t prove that it’s down to details posted on Facebook. However, the Daily Mail reported that homeowners could see an increase in their insurance rates if anyone in the household uses Social Media.

All this speculation and talk has sprung up after the recent release of the Digital Criminal report. The report, commissioned by Legal & General and Michael Fraser of the BBC‘s ‘Beat The Burglar‘ programme, surveyed 2,000 Social Media users and found that 40% had posted details of their holiday plans. 1 in 7 users also allowed access to their home address by users who were not their ‘friends’.

Fraser, who is a reformed thief, said “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that burglars are using social networks to identify likely targets. They gain confidence by learning more about them, what they are likely to own and when they are likely to be out of the house. I call it ‘internet shopping for burglars’. It is incredibly easy to use social networking sites to target people, and then scope out more information on their actual home using other internet sites like Google Street View, all from the comfort of the sofa.”

Have you ever thought about who could access your comments about going on holidays?

As reported earlier this week, 7 time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong has been in town for the last week to attend the Global Cancer Summit, which the Livestrong Foundation hosted in Dublin this week, and to take part in the Tour of Ireland.

Lance’s participation in the tour of Ireland drew massive crowds of support along the entire route. The the race featured two Irish Teams – the An Post Sean Kelly Team and an Ireland Team. As previously mentioned, Lance has embraced digital in a big way (he currently has 1.8m followers on Twitter) and has continued to use Twitter to engage with his fans.

Following on from his recent Scottish ‘afternoon cycle’, yesterday morning Lance issued an invite to his followers to join him for a spin in the Park. As it turned out, close to 1,000 fans descended on The Phoenix Park yesterday evening for a great 40k training spin.

Following our recent encounter with the Google Street View car, there has been a lot of speculation in the office as to when the Irish version will go live. In fact, dare we say it, there has been quite a bit of excitement in the office around the launch of the Irish Street View. So when we saw that a Swiss government official is demanding that Google immediately remove all Street View images of Switzerland, we were a little lost for words.

The issue lies with the Swiss privacy rights regulator. Hanspeter Thuer, the Swiss federal data protection commissioner, has said that Google Street View violates Switzerland’s strict privacy laws by failing to obscure people’s identities properly.

Herr Thuer said, “Numerous faces and license numbers weren’t blurred or were done so inadequately”, adding “[we demand] that Google Inc. immediately take its Google Street View online service off the Internet until it can ensure that public images respect Swiss law”.

This is not the first time that Google Street View has run into difficulty. Most recently, Greece’s Data Protection Authority prevented Google access to film Greek streets with their vehicle mounted cameras. Other examples have included the US government stopping Google from photographing U.S. military bases, and the Japanese government insisting that the height at which the camera records was lowered by 40cm. In a civil act of protest, residents of an English village formed a human chain back in April to prevent the entry of Google’s camera car.

Google has said that it will hold further discussions with the Swiss federal data protection commissioner to “demonstrate our industry-leading applications for protecting the private sphere”, while confirming that “since the launch last week the product has proven to be very popular with the Swiss people. Google Maps had an 80 percent increase in volume and only a small number of requests to erase pictures.”

Google’s Swiss spokesman, Matthias Meyer, said “In cases where a deletion or further blending was demanded, we have shown that our technology works very effectively. In most cases, the pictures are deleted within hours.”

Since its launch back in 2007, Google Street View has grown to cover more than 100 cities worldwide. Goggle currently have no plans of slowing the service’s expansion.

Following competing in the Tour of Ireland, Lance Armstrong opened The Livestrong Global Cancer Summit at the RDS in Dublin this morning. The summit, which is running from 24th – 26th August, is being attended by over 500 delegates from 65 countries around the world. Livestrong is an arm of the Lance Armstrong Foundation which was set up in 1997 following the cyclist’s recovery from cancer.

Livestrong is widely known throughout the world through its Yellow Wristband – 70 million of which have been sold since they were launched in 2004. The summit can be viewed via a live stream on the Livestrong Facebook page (click on the Live tab) or on the website.

The global fashion retailer has announced a bold change to its forthcoming advertising schedule. Gap, who are famous for their TV ads that have featured stars like Audrey Hepburn, Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler, will be scrapping them and focusing all their attention on social media.

Their latest campaign will promote their new line of denim wear with the creative ‘Born to Fit’. The campaign will put Facebook at the centre of a digital campaign aimed at targeting web-savvy fashionistas that are using the Internet as their primary point of research and discussion. The ‘Born to Fit’ campaign will see all cinema, print and outdoor ads driving consumers to a branded Facebook page, which will feature a video of Rada Shadick, Gap’s ‘fit engineer,’ explaining how the new denim line has been designed.

Consumers will also be asked to upload photos and videos of their own ‘born to’ statements.

In an interesting move, the campaign will feature customised banner ads running on a selection of different blogs. Each banner gives the blog a ‘born to’ badge that has been tailored just for them. For example the ads on glam.com say ‘Born to set Trends’ and the ads on popsugar.com say ‘Born to strategise’.

Mustang 2010: Customizer
http://www.fordvehicles.com/the2010mustang/?id=/customizer
Whether you’re a car fanatic or harbour ambitions of design greatness, Mustang 2010 offers you the chance to fully customise a Mustang in whatever way you think looks best. From choosing your rims to modifying the body kit, this cool site lets you tailor your dream muscle car down to the smallest detail. Pink slips at the ready!

Toyota Screensaver
http://brandstudio.ru/works/screensaver/
In 2008 Toyota became the world’s top-selling car manufacturer. Download this special screen-saver to celebrate this magnificent achievement.

IKEA: Dorm Room Planner
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/rooms_ideas/youth/index.html
There’s nothing worse then trying to figure out what will work best in your room as you stare at flat pack furnishings on the shelf. So those clever people at IKEA have created an online room that you can furnish as you like before heading off to your local store. Smart, and slightly addictive!

Taser x3
http://taserx3.com/
A revolutionary, new multi-shot ECD TASER gun from TASER international, let morbid curiosity take over…

So, you’re a proven digital marketer who fancies working on one the world’s biggest brands at Ireland’s leading digital marketing agency?

We are looking to recruit a world class Digital Account Manager to work on one of our largest accounts. Check it out for yourself here.

Following a single stage competition, Dublin City Council and Point Village Limited announced earlier this month that the winner of Dublin’s Parlour Design Competition was LiD Architecture. The competition called for proposals for the redevelopment of the new civic space adjacent to the Point Village that would create “strong social, cultural and environmental character and a countrywide profile for holding an intense and varied programme of music and other outdoor events including markets and monster céilís”.

LiD’s winning proposal, entitled ’125 Containers’, aims to connect the new Docklands Development, the Point Village and Dublin Point. The firm decided that the shipping container, a recognised symbol of global commerce, was the perfect building material to solve the various issues presented by the brief, as well as creating a clear foundation of environmental renewal.

The competition assessors described LiD’s design as a “simple, strong, clear idea” that “effortlessly addressed the brief”. Overall it was felt that the solution “displayed high levels of flexibility, adaptability and toughness in use, that resonates powerfully with docklands and embraces the temporary nature of the challenge”.

The competition was run on behalf of Point Village Limited by the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland. All in all there were 46 responses to the brief.

It is interesting to note that a similar waterfront redevelopment in New York City also saw designers proposing to utilise shipping containers. Although the NYC project is of a much larger scale, it is a clear indication of the interest there is in recycling and environmentally sound building techniques. 4xdp2rn6b3

To date the Apple iTunes Store has approved over 67,000 iPhone Apps, and driven more then 1.5 billion downloads. There is little doubt that this figure will break the 70,00 mark before the end of the year and push total downloads to the region of 1.7 billion. The stats speak for themselves, the rise of the iPhone is unquestionable. Just as the iPod swept into the consumer electronics market and secured dommanence seemingly overnight, the iPhone is rapidly becoming the must have modern lifestyle tool for both the rich & famous, and hard working masses.

In contrast, however, to the massive number of successful and popular downloads that iPhone users have added to their iPhones, it’s almost more interesting to consider the apps that didn’t make it. Gareth Jones has written a fantastic article on revolutionmagazine.com, documenting the top ten banned iPhone apps:

1. Baby Shaker
This app allowed users to silence the cries of an imaginary baby by shaking the phone until the child appeared to be dead. The description read: ‘See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!’ Apple banned the app in April 2009 follows criticism from child protection groups.

2. iBoobs
The clue’s in the name with this app, which allowed users to jiggle a pair of almost life-like breasts, just for fun. Since iBoobs was banned, an app called Wobble has emerged enabling iPhone users to do the same but with real pictures.

3. Me so Holy
This app would have allowed you to put your face on an image of Jesus, but was rejected by Apple on the grounds of being ‘potentially offensive’. The app developer hit back at Apple via a blog entry, saying it was ‘disappointed that this otherwise creative, freethinking company would reject such a positive and fun application’.

4. Slasher
The app featured a picture of a knife and played the Psycho theme tune when the iPhone was shaken. The app was due to be released in August 2008 but was pulled after just one day following heavy criticism.

5. South Park
This app, which featured clips from the cartoon and film was pulled in February 2009 for being ‘potentially offensive’. Apple came under fire for banning the app due to the fact that it sells the South Park TV series via iTunes.

6. Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus, which allows people to read classic books on their iPhones, was initially rejected in May 2009 because users were able to download a copy of the Kama Sutra. However, Apple reversed its decision a few days later allowing the app without censorship.

7. Google Latitude
Google Latitude gives users a GPS-enabled map to see where their friends are located. Despite its many potential uses, Google claims Apple asked for the app to be removed because it would cause confusion with Google Maps

8. Google Voice
Apple recently began pulling all Google Voice-enabled apps from the App Store, claiming they ‘duplicate features that come with the iPhone’. The move has prompted considerable backlash from iPhone users, many of which have cancelled their contracts.

9. I am Rich
The sole purpose of this app was to let people know that you’re loaded. iPhone users were charging $999 for a screen that showed a glowing gem. Eight users purchased the virtual gem before Apple pulled it in August 2008.

10. My Shoe
This app allowed the user to play the role of the Iraqi shoe-tossing journalist and hurl footwear at former President George W. Bush. It was rejected for defaming a public figure, but was later reworked so users can toss a shoe at anyone they like by uploading a photo of them.