The past few months have brought much speculation about the name, with rumours of Lemon Meringue Pie, Lemonade, Licorice and more.

As we now know, Android L is now officially known as Lollypop.

Giovannio Calabrese, creator of the Andriod sculptures for the Google HQ Android lawn, was very tight-lipped about this project, but has been teasing us since early October on his Google+ account.

From announcing his travel to Google HQ for a fresh coat of paint for the previous sculptures to going gaga about Licorice all over his Google+ page, he even called out volunteers for his ‘secret surprise project’.

On 15 October, spectators gathered from all over to be at Google HQ, receiving free lollipops to celebrate the sculpture and launch of the new operating system.

Official Video from Android’s YouTube channel.

Yours in Sweet Surprise,
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

I was reading updates from TechRadar the other day and rumours are rife about the release date of the new Phablets from Apple (iPhone6) and Samsung (Samsung Galaxy Note 4).

iOS and Android fans alike, we are excited for the first glimpse of these new gadgets and how they will differ from their predecessors.

Juicy Tidbits

On iPhone6

Rumoured Release Date: probably September 9
Cost: starts at around AU$1006 / $944
What to expect: major revisions, including design.
Coolest Rumour: addition of NFC

On Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Rumoured Release Date: probably September 3
Cost: starts at around $800
What to expect: Samsung’s 4th generation Phablet.
Coolest Rumour: flexible display (three-sided screen)

Yours in mobile trend,
Brio team

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.

Social media was a primary source of communication following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. In disaster situations, after survival, there is a human need to connect. Conventional telephone lines often go down, or are overwhelmed, whilst internet connections are still active and usable. Thus people found they could use networks like twitter or facebook to send warnings, relay and receive information and news updates, ask for help and let friends and family know they were safe.

As a result, many international organisations are now implementing social strategies into emergency management plans. A great example is American Red Cross who have recently partnered with Dell to build a Digital Operations Center. During emergency and disaster situations, the center will analyse and use social conversation to make decisions and organise relief efforts.

One of social media’s greatest strengths is in the ease and speed that information can be disseminated. There is great potential for Government, council and humanitarian organisations to use it to connect with and build resilient communities.

Yours in realising potential,
Andrea

The social-media landscape has grown since last year with an additional 5 more communities/platforms added and a quite a few of  them are already booming. So, which social media tools and channels will work best for your business?

This years largest growing community is Pintrest, which reached 10 million monthly visitors in less time than Facebook or Twitter did. It’s demographics include mostly women and it is quite popular in the Midwest. The concept behind Pintrest is that members can post images of whatever is of interest to them. From there, followers can then ‘like’, or ‘repin’ those images, which is then pushed out to their followers. Pintrest is a bit different as it offers a way to reach a group that is not usually considered a part of the ‘digerati’ and can be most useful for brand exposure and driving traffic to your site if your material gets ‘pinned’ by others.

This year, Google launched Google+, which offers some unique ways to interact, including Circles and Hangouts (group video chats) which make customer communication a breeze. Unlike Facebook ‘Likes’, positive ratings on Google+ can influence your brand’s search ranking. This channel has become a “must have” for social marketers, as it has more than 90 million users (though, there are questions about how active they are).

Three other communities that have recently been added to the social media pool are  SlideShare, Quora and Instagram.

SlideShare is similar to YouTube for slide shows. It is a great way to promote your brand / products and communicate with customers, however it is pretty much a one way conversation at this stage.

Quora was founded by two former Facebooker’s and is based on questions for community members to answer. It’s an ideal place to share your expertise as it is a perfect addition to your content marketing efforts.

Instagram is an iPhone app that lets you take photo’s of your products or services, apply interesting effects and share them, which can also be pushed out to your Facebook page and Twitter.

Is it time for you to re-evaluate which social media tools could work for you? Gone are the days where having a Facebook page is the only option. There is a continuing amount of other channels that have different capabilities and purpose, and used together can connect with a massive amount of people. For an analysis of which social medial tools are the latest and greatest, CMO have, for the third consecutive year, turned to 97th Floor, an SEO and Social Media Firm for their perspective of the different social media channels and ones that could definitely be worth your time.

You can view 97th Floors take on 10 Social Network Choices on 2012 CMO’s Guide To The Social Landscape.

Yours in Social Media

Angie Rapisarda

Has our technology — our cell phones and iPods and cameras — stopped us from dreaming? Young artist Shilo Shiv Suleman says no, as she demos “Khoya,” her new storybook for iPad, which floats us through a magical world in 7 minutes of pure creativity. I found this very interesting.

Shilo Shiv Suleman is an illustrator, storyteller and iPad book creator.

Yours in Magical Storybook Creation
Angie Rapisarda

I was however taken with the reality of an augmented reality business card. These cards can provide a wealth of information including additional text, images and even video just by holding the card up to a webcam. When done right, it yields quite impressive results.

An example of this is shown in the video below, from advertising agency JWT London. They have successfully created a unique and innovative augmented reality business card. They have used image-recognition app Blippar. This app brings real-world images to life with augmented reality to provide overlaid digital information or interactive experiences for the user. By using the app to “blipp” the back of JWT London’s card, you can watch the agency’s showreel on your smartphone and also use the device’s GPS to bring up a map that provides the route to JWT’s office.

Watch the video to see it in action and let us know what you think.

I for one think this is a great use of technology that takes the ordinary business card to a new level of communication. It’s still small and fits in someone’s wallet or back pocket, but shares more information in an interactive and fun way.

Yours in design technology,
Dawn