I love animation but you always hear about how complex and slow it is. What I love about Ricky's work is he shows attention to detail but gives a little freedom for anomaly's allowing him to progress nice and fast. A lot to be learnt

I worked on the RaboDirect project in Ireland when it was initiated in Ireland some time ago. Here is another clever idea from the team.

You’ve probably heard the expression, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Well in Australia, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In May, RaboDirect conducted an unusual social experiment to see how Aussies would react when presented with a tree full of money. The bank placed a tree full of $5 notes in Syndey’s Fleet Park, then used hidden cameras to record people’s reactions.

At first, people passed the tree without noticing. Then passers-by simply ignored the cash, while a few took pictures of it. But after a slow start, the tree was stripped bare in under three hours. Opportunists worked together and employed various means to maximize their haul.

 

 

 

The ability to pay for purchases by mobile phone may be common in some parts of the world, but it's by no means ubiquitous. Similar to the way RideCharge lets consumers book a taxi and pay their fare by phone, TabbedOut lets them open a tab at their favourite bar and then close it out by phone when they're ready to go.

The brainchild of Texas-based ATX Innovation, TabbedOut is available as a free app for both iPhone and Android; Blackberry support is coming soon, the company says. Currently, consumers in Austin and Dallas as well as Chico, Calif., can use the app to manage their bar tabs at participating venues. They begin by downloading and setting up the application, including entering account information for one or more credit or debit cards; once stored, those accounts are displayed only via the last four digits. Next, when they're ready to visit a bar, they can use the app to see which ones near them are linked with TabbedOut. The software is integrated directly with participating restaurants and bars so as to allow consumers to open and view a tab directly from the point-of-sale system. Opening a tab with TabbedOut essentially provides the bar with the consumer's stored payment information up front; in return, he or she is given a code that the bartender uses to keep track of each drink. When it's time to go, the consumer simply opens the app, enters a tip and selects “pay.” TabbedOut can send a copy of the receipt via email; it also archives the information for later use in expense reports, for example. ATX charges consumers 99 cents for each tab paid using TabbedOut.

Aiming for a nationwide expansion, ATX is currently seeking strategic partnerships with POS providers, resellers and hospitality vendors; one to get in on early...?

Website: www.tabbedout.com
Contact: info@tabbedout.com

Flipboard Another day, another new app that seems hellbent on proving once again why you dropped $500+ on that shiny new iPad. Flipboard (Free) is a new "social magazine" application that grabs info from your Facebook and Twitter feeds, as well as from other sources around the web, and presents them in a magazine-like layout, complete with large images, clean typefaces, and a general panache that goes well beyond the average client — which is making our standalone social apps more than a little nervous. Jack the founder of twitter has invested in this application (10million and 20 staff). Notice the similarity between Jacks own start up promo video for Square up that we posted about here and the one for Flipboard. http://bit.ly/dqLr70

Well put together tutorial on how to build clickable links in google maps. Something we're planing on using in our new sport booking websites that's just being prototyped now. More to follow on that. Thanks to Marc Grabanski for this post http://marcgrabanski.com

India has come up with the world's cheapest "laptop", a touchscreen computing device that costs $35 (£23). India's human resource development minister, Kapil Sibal, this week unveiled the low-cost computing device that is designed for students, saying his department had started talks with global manufacturers to start mass production. "We have reached a [developmental] stage that today, the motherboard, its chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around $35, including memory, display, everything," he told a news conference in New Delhi. He said the touchscreen gadget was packed with web browers, PDF reader and video conferencing facilities, and its hardware was created with sufficient flexibility to incorporate new components according to user requirement. Sibal said the Linux-based device was expected to be introduced to higher education institutions from 2011 and the aim was to drop the price further to $20, and ultimately to $10. The device was developed by research teams at India's premier technological institutes, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science. India spends about 3% of its annual budget on school education and has improved its literacy rates to over 64% of its population of 1.2 billion. However, studies have shown many students can barely read or write and most state-run schools have inadequate facilities.

When you have looked at your website so many times either during development of it or after it’s gone live you get so used to looking at it you don’t see the obvious problems. So getting a fresh pair of eyes to look at it can be quite useful. However, you generally don’t get an honest opinion. You ask someone if they like it and they tell you that they do, however, if you mention that you don’t like it then all of a sudden they come up with a load of problems. I’m sure you’ve noticed this before! We recently replaced our website and wanted some independent eyes on it. Some people that weren’t our friends and didn’t care if we didn’t like their opinion. So we first of all tried out 5 second test. As the site says it’s simple instant feedback on our design. You get a free option where you provide a screen shot of a page and they get 5 random people to view the page and you can decide if they should locate specific elements within the page or remember specific elements. On a web page it needs to be really clear what the user should do. If you want them to book an appointment that better be the thing that sticks out on a page or they won’t do it! So that gives you some feedback on your landing page. But, what if you wanted feedback on your site, was the site useful, did the user find what they want, why did they come here in the first place. This is all valuable information but how do you collect it? One free tool which we used and found to be very good was iperceptions. This tool allows you to add a piece of code to a web page and when people come to your site they are asked if they want to participate in a survey when they leave the site. If they agree then they are asked the questions when they leave. You can set up your own questions such as – Did you find what you wanted, why did you come to the website in the first place etc etc. And yes, it’s FREE.

I love this style of video

Levi's Our fully-functional house of print is up and running in San Francisco's
Mission District. Where it goes from here is largely up to you- our
fans, neighbors, supporters, friends and fellow workers. Check out the
Workshop blog for more information! http://bit.ly/deIGro

Visual Website Optimizer, with its dead-simple test designer, step-by-step wizards and a super-sexy interface will make you fall in love with A/B split testing. No matter if you are new to A/B testing or have years of testing experience, you are definitely going to love our innovative approach to optimization:

Saw this on uncart http://bit.ly/dz3pqy and thought what a clever product this is. Carry heavy stuff on a bike is a pain.

How to get 37signals to promote your product - promote theirs Taken from this link I then went to the site and saw the client was giving away 50 copies of his book. Cheap way of getting 37signals to sell your product in their network.

16 July, 2010 - 00:03

Ireland prepares for payments overhaul

The Irish government has agreed to the creation of a high level group that will establish a National Payments Implementation Plan (NPIP) designed to wean the country off its dependence on paper-based cash and cheques.

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The bank-backed Irish Payments Services Organisation (Ipso) says cheques and cash usage dropped dramatically in 2009, but remain way above EU norms.

The year saw an 11.5% drop in the value of cash withdrawn from ATMs and a 13% decline in the volume of cheques.

Despite this, Irish citizens recorded an average sum of €5,644 in cash withdrawals per annum per person - the highest cash figure in the EU and more than double the European average.

And while cheque volumes have declined, cheques still account for 66% of the value of all noncash payments in Ireland versus an EU average of only three percent.

As a proportion of all payments, electronic alternatives to the cheque, such as credits and direct debits, now account for about 41% of all non-cash payments. However, in value terms these electronic payments account for only 30%. This compares poorly against EU averages which, in 2008, were 54% of volume and 96% of value.

Pat McLoughlin, chief executive, IPSO says the drafting of a national strategy to move away from cash and cheques is essential if Ireland is to remain competitive with its EU counterparts.

A special NPIP Advisory Group made its final report to the Minister for Finance in 2009 in which the establishment of a high level group to prepare and implement a National Payments Plan was recommended. The Minister accepted the recommendation and it is expected that the group will be established and the National Payments Plan will be prepared and agreed in 2010.

Says McLoughlin: "Businesses now have to plan and prepare to update legacy, cheque-based accounting processes with electronic ones. Apart from being faster, more secure and more cost-effective, modern, electronic payment systems give the beneficiary certainty of payment, particularly important in these difficult, economic times."

 

http://www.axure.com/portal/licenses.aspx Rabobank Ireland plc Tavh9SCMdOhsMHRK/pAyoOxwqEZZcXJWdMq0D0fpq4ULBYid4Ol+nFQSDkNipZ6i Peter Connor 3vubuUOxKXYR31nHIWTxrhmSQ6YWjJa+WxgtHsZe8DhUzClmv+31du3nGAM5NoBO

Interesting to note here the car barley features in the advert

The Dog ad was developed at Agence H, Suresnes, France, and Euro RSCG Milano, Italy, by chief creative officer Gilber Scher, creative director/copywriter Marco Venturelli, creative director/art director Luca Cinquepalmi, agency producer Christopher Thiery, advertiser’s supervisor Catherine Habib Deloncle, account supervisor Eric Britton.

Filming was shot by director Sebastien Strasser via Wanda Productions, Paris, with producer Jerome Denis.

Post production was done at Mikros Image, Paris, by client handler Jean Lin Roig, project manager Sarah Cauchois, CGI superviser Manuel Souillac, Flame artists Laurent Creusot and Tarik Belarbi, researcher Alexandre Sauthier, Modeler/texture designer Daniel Guimard, trackers Yvan Galtie and Stéphane Richez, animators Anne Chatelain, Morgan Sagel, Michael Nauzin, Grégory Mougne, Cédric Nicolas, renderers Daniel Guimard and Nicolas Bruchet, and compositor Julien Dias.

Music is “Somebody Come and Play”, by Joseph G Raposo, edited by Jonico Music Inc.