She calls clicking a “public act” that each of us can choose to do or not do to somehow shape what information gets the attention and form the media landscape. She says “Everything we blog, everything we tweet, and everything we click is a public act of making media”, drawing to the point that the Media is no longer controlled by a few powerful elites but by everybody; We are the editors.

In this digital age where everybody gets access to the web, people can choose to be a passive or an assertive contributor. It’s now up to you decide what action you want to take.

Think before you click,
Brio Team

While most of these social networking channels still maintain their top rank in the game, a new social networking site called Ello has been gaining some buzz recently.

Say hello to Ello!

Unlike most social networking sites that sell ads or user information to third party advertisers, Ello boasts as being completely ad-free with a strict ‘no-ad and no-data-mining’ policy. Better still, they give you the opportunity to opt out in sharing any information if requested.

Seems interesting right? But one has to wonder how the site will support itself in lieu of advertisers.

Ello’s answer to this is providing special features through a user pays system. As special features are introduced, users can add it to their account by paying a small fee which is then activated on their account forever.

This approach seemed odd to me at first, but when I though about it, it’s kind of like paying for an upgrade, or like buying another accessory to your camera like a lens that has a different function.

The way to join this social network is by invitation; you just need to go to their website, enter your email to request an invite and then wait for their response.

With this out of the box structure and security promise, can this social network rise against other social media giants out there? Only time will tell.

Yours in social networking,
Brio Team

Among all the submissions that they have received, 40 were picked as semi finalists in July this  year. By mid August, these semi finalists were whittled down to a final 10 entrants, including concepts for wearable cameras, low cost bionics and a bionic mattress.

The finalist will be pitching their Ideas on front of a panel of judges on November 2, 2014 and the winner will be announced on November 11, 2014.

Make it Wearable is a part of The Creators Project, an initiative that encourages and fosters creative expression, pushing the boundaries of design and technology to find new and innovative opportunities for how and why we use tech in the future.

Yours in Wearable Technology,
Brio Team

Finalists:

BABYBE – Emotional Prosthetics
Team
Raphael PM Lang (Captain)
Member:
Camilo Anabalon

First V1sion – Player Perspective
Team
Jose Ildefonso (Captian)
Members:
Angeliki Terezaki
Roger Antunez
Anastasia Pistofidou

Nixie – Flyable & Wearable Camera
Team
Christoph Kohstall (Captain)
Members:
Jelena Jovanovic
Michael Niedermayr

vumbl – Sports and Activity Necklace
Team
Tom Shrive (Captain)
Members:
James Price
Mark Siddorn
Samuel Tassell

Open Bionics – Low-Cost Robotic Hand
Team
Joel Gibbard (Captain)
Member:
Sammy Payne

Wristify – Cooling or Warming Refresh
Team
Matthew Smith (Captain)
Members:
Sam Shames
Megha Jain
David Cohen-Tanugi

Snowcookie – Skiing 6th Sense
Team
Martin Kawalski (Captain)
Members:
Zbigniew Nawrat
Piotr Lukasik
Ewa Waliczek

BabyGuard – Smart Healthcare
Team
Xiaoshan Huang (Captain)
Members:
Shuai Ye
Chen Guo

ProGlove – Production Tool
Team
Paul Günther (Captain)
Members:
Jonas Girardet
Thomas Kirchner
Alexander Grots

BLOCKS – Snapable Platform
Team
Serge Vasylechko (Captain)
Members:
Hakeem Javaid
Omer Al Fakir

Fans scurried their way through stores to claim “first to try”, “first to buy” or “first to have” the newest iPhone in the market.

What is it that made us really excited with the release of iPhone6?
Well, let’s have a recap shall we?

From our August Phablet Race post, we looked at some of the rumours and expectations for the new iPhone. Now that it’s released, let’s see if rumours are true or if they misled us.

 Rumoured Release Date: Probably September 9
The release did in fact happen on it’s set day, September 9, 2014.

 Cost: starts at around AU$1006|$944
A source we found say that the pricing are as follows:
16GB – AU$869
64GB – AU$999
128GB – AU$1129
Being only $7 out from the mid-range option is pretty close and a good indicator.

The target sale date in Australia is September 19, but pre-orders are open from the 12th. Here’s what the launch told us about the new iPhone.

 What to expect: major revisions, including design
Apple definitely delivered because it’s bigger and definitely better.

Dimension:
iPhone6: 138.1x67x6.9
iPhone6 Plus: 158.1×77.8×7.1
To make the device bigger without the having the uncomfortable feeling when you use it, they have made a noticeable revision on the design making the sides rounded for a smooth handling and looking a lot more slick.

Display:
iPhone6: 4.7 inches
iPhone6 Plus: 5.5 inches
Both using Retina HD Display

To compare to the current iPhone 5S, its display is 4 inches, with the iPad Mini being 7.9 inches.

 Coolest Rumour: addition of NFC
We are giving a soft check on this as well, as this functionality is not yet available and will be coming in this October.

But that doesn’t mean we can leave this off, this makes us all the more excited as this will change the way on how we do transactions. Apple Pay is a technology that provides a security feature built in you device so you can use your iPhone to pay in a hassle free way.

Apple has maintained the cool feature of iPhone6’s predecessors, improved other features and introduces other features. What to say what they’re going to do next. Only time will tell.

Even if you don’t plan on picking up the iPhone6 straight away, don’t forget to download the new iOS 8, available from September 17.

Yours in current trends,
Brio Team

Enjoy watching their reactions…

Instead of accepting money as payment, the high-tech ticket machine only accepted exercise. Riders could receive a free ticket by standing in front of the machine’s camera, and performing 30 squats. The idea is to get people active and amped for the games.

If you could do a little bit of exercise in exchange for a train ticket, would you?

We love a good success story and this is one from a Melbourne based business who has teamed product with a good cause. Posting their clever video on Indiegogo, an international crowdfunding site, they set a goal to raise $50K but instead raised $66,548. Not bad!

Their secret – using good humour, a professional video and a well thought out campaign including supporting merchandise, they told the views a story that they could easily become a part of. What we like about this campaign is the clever link to the social channels with a $5 donation scoring you a personal thank you note written on a piece of toilet paper sent out through twitter.

Who gives a crap?  It turns out many people do and we want to congratulate Simon and his team on an excellent example of what is possible with Crowdsourcing.

See more on their campaign here.

Belinda

Now, more than ever, government organisations and businesses, need to look at how their target audience communicates and ask themselves “is our message being heard? or is it falling on deaf ears?”

Yours in effective communication,
Andrea.

Setting up a company page on LinkedIn allows another avenue for you to represent your company culture and employee brand. Once that presence is set up and running, you are already in a prime position to reach out to the employees that are already attracted to you and want to work with you. Having team members on board who actually want to work with you in your business because they have been following what you do makes everything so much easier and cheaper in the recruitment process.

One of the best things about attracting team through LinkedIn is you can see the details and interactions of potential candidates also. And if they are already ‘linked’ to your company page you have an opportunity to even choose someone to chase after before there has even been any advertising of positions. So there’s another clue for candidates, follow the companies you want to work for!

Don’t get me wrong, using LinkedIn will not magically solve your recruitment and employee branding overnight. There will still be the need for screening, phone calls, handshakes and interviews but it will make a noticeable difference to the way you ‘used’ to do recruiting.

So what do you need to do?

First step: Learn what LinkedIn is:

Second step: Create a Company Page

Third step: Visit http://talent.linkedin.com/ to see how you can best use LinkedIn to attract the right people.

Yours in recruiting,

Paul Vesey-Brown