Spotify arrives on the iPhone

Spotify has developed an iPhone application, allowing users to have the same experience on their mobile as when using Spotify on the web.

It was only a matter of time before Spotify tailored the service for mobile, however it is currently only available for premium subscribers, i.e. those who pay £9.99 per month.

The application, which will apparently be available from the App Store shortly, enables users to listen to tracks even when they are not connected to the network, so still functions on the underground or when in airplane mode.

It’s unclear whether the app will one day be ad-funded and therefore made available for free - something which would undoubtedly prove popular with music fans.

- Sam

Turn a Car into a Stylus?

Stuck for ideas in how to market an automobile? Two designers from Brussels threw out the rulebook and decided to find an innovative new way to promote the latest model from Toyota (Toyota iQ) by using the car itself to create a new font. By using the car as a stylus, the shapes and lines created by the car’s motions were a neat way of demonstrating the car’s agility, and make for a memorable, relevant campaign.

The various shapes and lines were tracked with four large coloured dots, a camera and custom motion tracking software called Open Frameworks.

The shapes created by the car were turned into a font called iQ font, downloadable from www.iqfont.com.

- Sam

The Role of Traditional Media Metrics in Online

Check out this interesting post on the Microsoft advertising blog which opens up the argument of traditional vs. digital media metrics in online advertising. Advocates tend to love digital advertising as it is so measurable, and this article takes a look at the role traditional media metrics can play in this area.

- Sam

Google to Launch Open Sourced Operating System

Google announced yesterday on its blog it will be launching an open-sourced operating system, Google Chrome OS. Hotting up the race for first place with Microsoft, it’s a direct challenge to the dominant Windows OS.

Google Chrome OS will be separate to Google’s existing mobile operating system, Android, and will be based off Google’s web browser, Chrome, which is regularly used by 30 million people after only nine months.
The system, which is launching later next year, will initially launch with netbooks, and after that the code will be open-sourced, with Google leveraging the knowledge and ideas of the developer community.

Google’s aim is to create a simple, fresh operating system tailored for the internet age, with most of the user experience being based on the web. Ambitious as ever, it states “we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

Being web based, information will be accessible to users wherever they are. Google claims the new OS will also do away with users having to worry about backing up their files or updating their software, making for an all-round improved computing experience, something which is certainly appealing to computer users of all levels of knowledge.

Watch this space.

- Sam

Google Wave - coming soon

Google is in the throws of developing what looks set to be a very useful tool for online collaboration and communication. Browser-based “Google Wave” allows people to communicate with each other while working together on documents, incorporating text, photos, videos, maps and more.

Wave is ‘live,’ meaning users will be able to see their conversation (in the style of messenger) while interacting and editing in real-time. As well as being embeddable in websites, allowing sites to become more collaborative, Wave will be open sourced, encouraging developers to contribute to the product’s evolving functionality.

Upon launch later this year, Wave promises to impact greatly on how, for example, we interact with colleagues across markets, or even in the next office. Imagine being able to do away with the endless to-ing and fro-ing of documents, updated using the untidy-looking ’tracked changes.’ This is something that will surely be useful for those working on documents which require a large number of edits and approvals.

However as it is browser-based, Google will perhaps have to work hard to convince users of the tool’s security.

- Sam