iPhone 4 Will Change Communications Forever, Forever
How will iPhone 4 change communications? Simple. Apple’s new ‘Face Time’ feature coming out with the new iPhone, set to be released on June 24, 2010, will for the first time ever provide a viable real-time mobile video chat option. With the addition of a forward facing camera, iPhone 4 users will be able to connect visually with each other no matter where in the world they are, as long as there is a Wi-Fi network to join. According to Apple, “People have been dreaming about video calling for decades. iPhone 4 makes it a reality. With the tap of a button, you can wave hello to your kids, share a smile from across the globe, or watch your best friend laugh at your stories. No other phone makes staying in touch this much fun.”
Let’s not get caught up in this one feature though, Apple is finally bringing Multitasking to the iOS 4 firmware upgrade, what does this mean? It means you no longer will have to exit out of your favorite app to make a phone call or change your music playlist. By allowing third-party apps to now continue to run in the background iOS 4 
means you can keep you Tom Tom GPS app running all the way from Michigan to Missouri and not miss a beat. Phone call? No problem. Update your Twitter status (Hey! Look at me, multitasking on my iPhone without getting lost on a road trip.)? No problem.
So the new iPhone will be out at the end of June 2010, and it is the second drastic redesign from the original iPhone, it is now more sleek and powerful than ever before. With a sleek new stainless steal frame that acts as an antenna to improve call quality and durability. Another great new feature is a new technique called Retina Display, everything you see and do on iPhone 4 looks amazing. Text in books, web pages, and email is crisp at any size. Images in movies and photos are stunning at almost any angle. That’s because the Retina display’s pixel density is so high, your eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels.
Aside from the biggies (Multitasking, Face Time and Retina Display), Apple is adding or upgrading a slew of
new features. Features like Folders, where you can stack your apps into one folder that the iPhone will name based on the types of apps in the folders. The camera was upgraded to 5 mega pixels with an LED flash, and can now shoot video in HD. With all of the new features, Apple keeps refining the iPhone into an indispensable tool, both personal and professional.
The iPhone 4 from Apple will be release in the United States on June 24, 2010, with the iOS 4 firmware upgrade coming three days earlier on June 21, 2010 for existing iPhone 3G and iPhone 3Gs owners.
- brian tudor
follow @briantudor on twitter
Introducing Boot Camp Digital’s Video Podcast – First episode: FourSquare Part I
In Boot Camp Digital’s first-ever video Podcast, CEO Krista Neher discusses the popular location-based social media service, FourSquare.
Be sure to subscribe the Podcast through the Apple iTunes Store very soon.
Brands get in on the Flash Mob Game
According to Wikipedia, a flash mob (or flashmob)[1] is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.[2][3][4][5][6][7] The term is generally not applied to events organized by public relations firms, protests, and publicity stunts.[4][8]
Flash mobs started in 2003 in New York and caught on quickly.
A new trend with FlashMobs has started – brands are creating their own Flash Mobs to take advantage of this trend and get some of the ever elusive viral buzz.
Is it working?
Sometimes.
T-Mobile = Success
The T-Mobile Dance got over 17 million views and “The Making of” video even has over a million views. They also posted other videos including rehearsals and even an instructional video where you can learn the T-Mobile dance. They also replicated the T-Mobile Dance in other cities across the UK.
The video is also really engaging to watch (which is why it has so many views).
What T-Mobile did right was play off the original Flash Mob concept – they shocked people in a public venue. There was also brand relevance as they showed people taking photos and videos with their cell phones.
Trident Single Ladies = Eh
The video has had almost 4 million views as the Trident Single Ladies performed in Piccadilly Circus.
The dance routine is very entertaining (although I wonder why they did it in Black and White) and ties in to the brand promotion with a Beyonce concert. The relevance ties to an offline campaign and they have callouts during and after the video to drive action.
This is probably more of a PR stunt vs. legitimate Flash Mob since it lacked the spontaneous element and didn’t include a lot of reactions. That being said, it did get them 4 million impressions.
Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund = Success
The Cincinnati Fine Arts fund capitalized on this trend by staging Flash Mobs in Findlay Market and Fountain Square (unfortunately it was raining that day). They also used music from local artists.
This was a great effort since it clearly ties back to the arts and helps build awareness for Cincinnati Arts. Great idea and execution. They also posted learning videos so you can learn the dances at home.
There are only 27k views, but for a local effort, with a small budget, I would say this was a success.
Scope = Failure (at least so far)
When Procter and Gamble brands start to participate you know the trend has jumped the shark. Scope recently launched a Flash Dance for Scope to the song Kiss Me. You can definitely see the brand relevance in this video (kissing + scope) and they clearly tie the brand in (although somewhat awkwardly) with the T-Shirt at the end and the Scope Bottle Juggling guy.
The video is currently 10 days old and only has 80k views (and it is being promoted by Ryan SeaCrest). In my opinion the whole thing is a little too corporate, which is partly why it didn’t spread. Compare the impact of the scope video to TMobile and it is obvious.
They are also offering to donate $$ to charity if it gets a certain # of views. Also kinda lame. Donate to charity anyways. Do it because it is the right thing to do. Not as an incentive for people to watch your commercial. If the video was better they would easily get millions of views. If you have a great idea you don’t need to do force it.
Don’t they need Model Releases?
The initial Flash Mob movement wasn’t commercial – nobody was making money, do they could record reactions of people and post them since it was a non-commercial effort. I’m not a lawyer, but I would think that the brands doing flash mob videos would need signed model releases from the people in the audience that they film if they are identifiable. This probably somewhat limits what brands can do.
Special Thanks to Matthew Dooley for pointing me towards some of these videos.
