SOBE
www.sobe.com/
Check out this refreshing new site launch for Sobe Lifewater, asking real people one simple question: “What do you think?”.

Verbatim Championship
www.verbatim.jp/
Create your own ‘media monster’ and take part in this online fighting game to celebrate the launch of a Japanese branch of the American media company ‘Verbatim’.

Royal Australian Navy Submariners: Ocean Recon
www.defencejobs.gov.au/
Explore the Australian Navy’s Collin’s Class Submarine, and see what goes on inside one of the world’s most powerful vessles. This is a slick site with nice graphics and great interactives.

The Meta Project
themetaproject.com/
Sometimes the realisation of artistic ideas is difficult and perhaps frustrating. Metaproject is an agency who create new communications through artistic endeavours. A lot of ‘wow’ stuff here!

It was less than a month ago that the entire world was on tenterhooks for the announcement of Google’s competitor to the iPhone: the Nexus One. What unfolded was a less then exciting affair which saw Google extol upon the masses a phone to compete with the iPhone. Unfortunately it is yet to make any major dent in Apple’s market grip. The Nexus One does do many things the iPhone does, but don’t get caught up in the hype! The Nexus One has functionality that the iPhone had when it was launched over a year and a half ago.

While software innovation may be Google’s forte, it is hardware innovation where Apple are the master craftsmen. First came the clickwheel on the ipod gen 1, then video and photos landed on gen 4 ipod, then after the world held its breath, Steve Jobs launched the iPhone, which in turn has changed our world and left Apple’s competitors fumbling in its wake.

Now unless you have been living under a rock or just blissfully ignorant, Apple have a new creation due to be unveiled today in San Francisco. Time for Apple to show the world its latest hardware masterpiece. At this stage it wouldn’t be giving much away to say that the new creation is going to be Apple’s tablet computer – The iSlate. As usual, secrecy is paramount, with all employees, vendors and stakeholders being forced to sign legally binding non disclosure agreements. However, with such hype being built up (even by Apple themselves), glimmers of light have emerged as to what Apple are planning.

A series of conspiracy’s have been circling the web for many months now debating the specs of the new Tablet. Without fuelling speculation on these, we think its best to let Mr Jobs tell us about the goodies at 6PM GMT. One thing is certain however, after a series of underwhelming tech unveiling’s, this one is sure not to disappoint. Are Apple about to turn the world on its head again as they did with the iPhone? Here’s hoping they do!

Credit cards at the ready, roll on 6 PM, and just be here!

It’s not often that you’ll find a CEO as powerful as Steve Jobs, who’s willing to put there neck out there with such a bold statement, but sure enough multiple sources have reported that Steve Jobs has referred to the forthcoming new Apple product as the “most important thing I’ve ever done.”

For quite sometime rumours have been rife that Apple are about to unveil their Apple Tablet. Tomorrow, Wednesday 27th January, Apple are due to present their Q1 earnings and unleash something on the world. Jobs said, “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

The strange thing about this press release is that Jobs would even mention new products in a release about the last quarters earnings. So what are we to think? Is Jobs simply that “excited”?

Further to this, during Apple’s earnings call on Sunday, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer took a question about unannounced products and their effect on Q2 earnings with, “I think you’re alluding to our event on Wednesday.” Although from there he simple said to “stay tuned”, the fact that he would randomly bring up tomorrow’s event would suggest it is worth paying attention to.

Finally, during the same call Apple COO Tim Cook, when presented with a direct question on a new product unveiling, answered with “I wouldn’t want to take away your joy of surprise on Wednesday when you see our latest creation.”

So what can we expect tomorrow, what do Apple have in store for us?

One thing’s for certain, the number of iPhones sold in Q4 2009 doubled in one year to 8.7 million units while Apple’s net income of $3.38bn (£2.08bn), was a growth of nearly 50%. That represents a quarterly revenue increase of 32% to $15.68bn. So Apple are clearly doing something right, despite the current economic climate.

Unfortunately for now, as Apple would say, stay tuned…

It’s that time of the year again, and although slightly later then their usual February slot, the Irish Blog Awards are upon us. Taking place this year on the 27th March, the awards will be held in the beautiful city of Galway, at the Radisson Blu Hotel. Nominations are already open, so if you haven’t nominated your favourite blogs already, don’t waste any time. Nominations will close on the 5th of February at 3pm.

While it may be old hat in the US that sports franchises ban their players and coaches from using Social Media platforms, it now seems that the UK is following suit. Last week Manchester United announced that it had banned its players from using social networking sites. With immediate effect this saw the closure of Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs Twitter accounts.

The official Manchester United statement that was posted to their site read:”The club wishes to make it clear that no Manchester United players maintain personal profiles on social networking websites. Fans encountering any web pages purporting to be written by United players should treat them with extreme scepticism. Any official news relating to Manchester United or its players will be communicated via ManUtd.com.”

Many US Football and Soccer clubs have introduced similar bans as far back as May of last year. The general reasoning being given that unguided and unapproved commentary on the clubs or club’s management, were undermining the authority of those in charge to conduct their business. With clubs trying to closely manage their communications with their stars, their fans and other third parties such as rival clubs or sponsors, comments made on the spur of the moment were leading to sensitive informations leaking into the public domain.

A prime example from the beginning of the week was Liverpool‘s Ryan Babel, who complained on Twitter about a potential loan agreement that would see him going to Sunderland. In a series of tweets, he wrote: “The boss left me out the squad. No explanation. I never had a fight with the manager. I always kept quiet. Where did it go wrong? You have people who support me and don’t support me and one day, you will see what I’m capable of. Will it be at LFC or somewhere else – I have faith.”

While it may seem that banning the use of Social Media platforms is a very harsh step to take, it is understandable. If professional athletes were writing to newspapers and discussing their clubs business there would be no question that they would be in the wrong. However, you’d imagine that there must be some degree of trust that can be placed on these professionals? Would it not be enough to just heed a few simple rules? We always find that the best advice when it comes to Social Media is to consider this before you hit ‘post’: would you be happy to have your mum, your partner, your future children and your boss, read what you just wrote. If you can safely say ‘yes’ then you should be fine.

Starbucks Love Project
www.starbucksloveproject.com
Promotional website for Starbucks and Project (Red) which features a crowd-sourced mash-up inspired by the Beatles song “All you need is Love.” All contributions help to raise awareness and fight AIDS in Africa.

Finger Industries LTD
www.fingerindustries.co.uk
Beta version portfolio site of Finger Industries LTD based in the U.K. Beautiful illustration and animation.

Summit on the Summit
www.summitonthesummit.com
Virtually follow the climbers journey up Mount Kilimanjaro as they embark on their summit to raise awareness for the global clean water crisis.

Diesel: Be Stupid
www.diesel.com/
If for nothing else other then an outrageous call to action, Diesel’s latest campaign captures your attention and forces you to stop and take notice. It’s not just a call to action though. This is a slick, minimalist campaign that captures the imagination. Bravo.

We’re getting very excited about the upcoming RBS 6 Nations here in Cybercom and we’re really proud to announce that we’ve launched an iPhone app on the App Store today for Guinness Rugby!

The Guinness Rugby Area 22 app takes feeds from several top sites including Planet Rugby, RTE.ie, IrishRugby.ie, LeinsterRugby.ie, MunsterRubgy.ie, Belfast Telegraph, Irish Examiner BreakingNews.ie and Independent.ie. It’s also got a cool kicking game to test your skills against wind and varying angles which we’re sure will keep you entertained on the train/bus/couch. The Away Match Pubfinder uses Google Maps to bring you 15 pubs in London and Paris to enjoy a great pint before the match if you’re lucky enough to be travelling to the games. So if you’re heading along, or singing away from your local or your couch, we’ve included the words to all of the anthems you’ll be hearing over the coming weeks.

More updates on the app to come, check it out on the app store here.

We’d love to know what you think after you’ve had a look, please drop us a comment with any feedback.

Bring on the back to back Grand Slams!

The BBC and British Museum have announced the launch of a “digital museum” as part of their promotional activity for the upcoming BBC Radio 4 series “A History of the World in 100 Objects”. The new site, “History of the World”, will showcase an ‘interactive’ selection of the artefacts that will feature on the radio series.

While the series itself is drawing on a multitude of different objects, brought together from over 350 local and regional museums, the campaign will offers users the ability to upload their own objects that they think add to the story of the history of the world.

This will also be one of the first sites to demonstrate the BBC’s new Forge platform.

The Trivial Pursuit experiment
www.trivialpursuitexperiment.com
The game you love to hate is now online as a battle of the sexes– will you do your team proud?

Lasse Pedersen hair and make-up
http://lassepedersen.biz
Attractive, smooth, user-friendly portfolio site from award winning hair and make-up artist Lasse Pedersen.

Garia
www.garia.com
Check out this full-screen video experience of the Garia Golf Car and design your own customised version.

3D World by Sony
www.sony.co.jp/united/3d
A custom, full-screen flash site with an interesting papervision interface. Our Japanese is a little rusty, but we’re guessing it’s to promote 3D home entertainment!

With an abundance of social data at our fingertips, the question is what can digital marketers do with it to leverage and enhance online campaigns?

We’ve already seen campaigns utilising Facebook Connect to grab photos from the profile of unsuspecting users in interesting ways, however one recent campaign from Orange, by Fallon, raises the bar when it comes to enriching the creative idea and user experience with interactive personalisation.

The Orange ‘friend-o-meter’ is an online quiz which rates your ‘best friend’ status. It pulls in detailed information about your friends by tapping into their Facebook, Twitter and/or MySpace accounts and turns this information into a series of questions. What’s unique about the friend-o-meter is that it combines data from different social networks into one comprehensive custom quiz, with some of the questions giving a pensive indication of how data-rich most profiles are.

Take the quiz to discover your ‘best friend’ ranking!