Originally published on the Blue Hive blog as part of Digital Honey.

We got in touch with our inner fashionista this week and took a look at the brilliant Westfield Fashion Detector. Have you ever been browsing Facebook photos, jealously eying up your friend’s new jacket? Or been walking down the street and spotted your perfect party dress? The Fashion Detector is for you.

The Fashion Detector web plugin allows you to select a photo, highlight that jacket and quickly search for it across all the Westfield shops. Pretty clever, the mobile app is where it gets genius though. The app let’s you snap a photo of anyone and search Westfield for that dress. Creepy?! Well, yes, a little, but this is the Internet!

The Westfield Fashion Detector app

The idea is certainly genius. It’s sure to drive sales and boost the brand, but its brilliance is in answering that problem we’ve all felt; “oh, that’s nice, I want it!” The problem is…it doesn’t exist. Yep, it’s just a concept put together by students at Miami Ad School. The technology isn’t there yet, in fact it’s not even close, such complex image recognition would be required that it’ll be a long time coming.

So we’re consigning this one to the growing pile of apps in the ‘wouldn’t that be cool, one day maybe’ category. Oh well, a girl can dream.

The Decode exhibit (V&A museum until 11th April) is a wondrous collection of interactive and visually stunning exhibits. Sold as a showcase of “the latest developments in digital and interactive design” it’s full of beautiful, immersive installations.

The exhibition features some of the world’s premiere ‘interactive artists’, including Golan Levin and Aaron Koblin, and it has certainly attracted a lot of attention. I went along to check out what all the fuss was about. These are my favourites.

Body paint

Mehmet Akten’s virtual painting installation is unlike any painting you will have ever attempted before. The piece works by sensing motion allowing intrepid artists to splatter, smear and spray paint over the large virtual canvas. The result is inevitably a messy smear of vivid colours but that doesn’t matter; it’s the interaction that counts.

Body Paint (via Ben J Gibbs)

The real-time tie between the user and the canvas is fascinating, with a flick or the wrist you can spray a flurry of pink up the canvas. It’s like begin child with poster paints again, except this time you can do it all day without any mess and still claim artistic integrity.

Dandelion

The concept here is pure simplicity; allowing users to blow away the seed of a dandelion. This being a virtual interactive piece however both the dandelion, and the wind which affects it, are virtual.

The installation was created by Sennep; a London-based design studio specialising in creating digital experiences. It’s another child-like activity brought into the virtual world as an adult’s plaything, but it’s that simplicity which makes it so delightfully engrossing.

Dandelion (via Pixelthing)

Exquisite clock

This piece, created by the Italian group Fabrica, is one of the only exhibits to allow participation from the wider world (rather than just the viewer). The piece is a clock, but of course it’s interactive! For months anonymous online visitors have been able to add their images on the exquisite clock website, each user adding a photograph of (or representing) a number, thereby building a database full of number images. This database is then plumbed by a live updating clock displaying each digit as a different image.

The beauty in this piece is that it can really be contributed to by anyone, it’s a truly crowd-sourced application reliant on willing users. A live updating version of the clock can actually be seen on the website. Why not submit an image yourself and wait to see if it comes around?

There were of course many more amazing pieces in the exhibit, from a virtual (but real) tree to an interactive wall of bubbles. The whole exhibit was great fun, I’d thoroughly recommend a trip to see it before it closes. For more information and tickets visit the V&A museum website.

We’re seeing the slow and inevitable death of IE6. At last. Latest figures put it at an ever decreasing 20% market share. It’s got us a long way but the new kids on the block need to take over now. We need a web full of modern browsers, HTML5 and CSS3 compliance is the future, a web where simplicity and data are the driving forces is what we need to strive for.

The faster our browser usage evolves the better, there are some ways you can help as well:

1. Install a new browser and ditch IE yourself;
2. Pester your work’s IT guys to install one;
3. Stop supporting IE6 when you develop;
4. If you develop anything do it with the modern web in mind.

That last one is the most important. We need the web to move on, but we can’t do that when we’re still developing for technology that’s 5 years old. With every new thing we build we need to try and push the advances of the modern web. Use HTML5, ditch Flash, expose your data, syndicate, mash up, utilise real-time content. It’s not about the browsers really, they’re just a little thing holding us back, it’s about achieving a more integrated, simplistic, beautiful web.

So the next time you have an opportunity to make something, don’t do the same old, make something different; innovate.

The Tories released an iPhone app this week, snappily named The Conservative Party General Election App (App Store link). It’s the first part of a push into digital for their General Election campaign. I’m far from being a supporter (more through apathy than morality) but this is an interesting development.

The app uses the not quite original ‘Year For Change’ slogan and light blue colour scheme and, on launch, presents you with five options:

1. Where we stand – policies broken down by different areas
2. Latest news – blog post style news snippets
3. Call a friend – phone someone in your address book
4. Swing-o-meter – a visual representation of the possible election results
5. Donate – links to donate over the phone or online

There are also buttons that link out for you to follow their profiles on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The swing-o-meter functionality is actually pretty cool. It makes use of the accelerometer; you tilt the phone to show the different percentage swings in parliament towards a Conservative majority, it even promises live election results come the big day. A clever use of the tech!

But the ‘call a friend’ functionality is a little disturbing. The premise is this; you call someone from your address book (displayed in the app), chat with them about politics and the Conservatives (yawn!) then report back to the app their name, address and voting intention. All this data collected is then used by the Tories for local campaigning. It’s a bit big brother if you ask me!

This app might be the start of a digital revolution in politics, try it out but remember; vote your own mind!

Listen up London, you’re doing it wrong. You have the privilege of a world-class mass transit system and you can’t use it right. Shame on you, here are the rules.

The Tube (via realSMILEY)

1. Let me off first. Don’t be the dick blocking the door and don’t even think about getting on before everyone is off. My elbows are pointy.
2. Hold on to the nearest handrail. Don’t reach across my face. If you do fall over; don’t expect any help.
3. You’re not getting my seat unless you’re definitely, 100%, disabled. Being fat doesn’t count, nor do mental disabilities (I’m talking to you Mr starey), and if you’re pregnant I may ask for proof.
4. What’s with the cross over? If you’re to the left of the doors stay left when you board, learn your lane discipline! Do I need to remind you about the elbows?
5. I won’t move if you stare at me. I won’t move if you shove me. You can ask, but the answer is no.
6. Dash through closing doors at your own risk. Count yourself lucky not to be openly mocked if you fall, help is out of the question.
7. Stand on the right. Walk on the right too, you’re moving so slowly you barely count as moving anyway.

Break the rules and suffer my English scorn (a stare and a sigh). I’ll deal with you tourists later.

Released just over a year ago, Chrome is fairly new on the browser scene. It’s a rethink of how browsers work and in typical Google style it’s upset the entire market, having already overtaken Apple’s Safari. Google are obviously pushing Chrome with a big campaign, and well they should. For the world’s biggest Internet company there are a lot of advantages to having their own browser.

Chrome is built to work flawlessly with all Google services, automatically extending their hold on the web ecosystem to users’ desktops. But, maybe more importantly, the high profile of Chrome pushes progress on greater standards compliance in all browsers. Something that can only be good for a company whose business is building for the web.

Demonstrating Chrome’s advanced features with simple animations

Google also recently introduced Goggles; their visual search technology. The tech here is stunningly clever (another Google tradition), allowing you to search based on images and locations instead of typing in text. Just imagine going shopping with a whole Internet of price comparisons available to you at the click of a shutter!

With Google virtually owning the index to the Internet they’re the gatekeepers of this kind of technology. This is enormous power when you think about the potential nefarious applications for visual search tech.

Introducing Google Goggles: a visual search application for Android phones

It seems like day by day Google is slowly taking over the world, everything they touch turns to gold and every market they enter is shaken up. But should we worry about the power that such a fast growing company wields? Or should we trust Google and their corporate motto; “don’t be evil”?

I’ve been looking for a new stereo for a couple of years, it’s not that I’m fussy, just…particular. It had to have an auxiliary in and DAB radio, but above all it had to look great. So it was with great delight that I found the Revo Heritage.

The Revo Heritage grille

Described as a ‘deluxe table radio’ the Heritage really looks the part. With a styling that echoes classic 60s designs but finished in aluminium, rubber and a walnut veneer it’s a looker. It’s not just a pretty face either, with more modes than you can shake a stick at:

• DAB radio
• FM radio
• Internet radio (11,000 stations)
• USB input
• 3.5mm aux input
• Wireless UPnP audio streaming
• iPod docking
• Last.fm integration

Sure, there’s no CD player, but when was the last time you used one of those old plastic discs anyway?

Now, back to the outside. The control system is based around a surprisingly intuitive joystick with added buttons for presets, modes, sleep alarm and play controls. There’s also a wonderfully tactile rubber volume knob. The front panel is set with a frankly stunning white on black OLED display (which dims when the unit is powered down). The sound is good as well, it’s not as room filling a sound as you would undoubtedly get from a Hi-Fi separates or mini system but for a bedroom it’s perfectly adequate.

The OLED display

There are a couple of minor improvements I would make, these are all small gripes in a great system though. While optical out is provided there’s no optical in, this would be a great touch. There’s no mute button, a petty quibble I admit but I’d use it. Full iPhone compatibility and control would be lovely, although I understand why it’s lacking (there is standard compatibility, of course). More alarms please, it only has two.

With so many options I’m finally listening to music I like and discovering new stuff too. I charge my iPhone over night, wake up to DAB radio, stream Spotify for a quick fix of something specific, and use the Last.fm connectivity to search out new music. And when I glance over it still looks great.

You may have heard that Apple announced a new product last night – the iPad. While it was heavily rumoured before the event we weren’t sure exactly what Apple wanted the device to be.

The Apple iPad

Well, now it’s announced this is what we know:

• It’s a touchscreen tablet device with an LCD colour display. It doesn’t have the e-ink display used in many eBook readers which provides a reading experience close to paper and better battery life.
• It’s based on the iPhone operating system, this means it’s not a computer in its own right and still syncs with your main computer just like an iPod or iPhone.
• All current iPhone applications will work but they’ll be double sized to fit the screen, developers are able to create or adapt apps specifically for the iPad though. It also uses the same App store.
• One of the standard apps will be iBooks where you are able to download and read books. They’re partnering with various publishers and offering books in the store using the same micro-payment system that iTunes uses.

More interesting though is what it doesn’t do:

• There’s no multitasking. Just like the iPhone it can only do one thing at a time so you can’t have email open, last.fm playing in the background and your browser loading a page.
• No support for Flash. This means no web video, no Flash websites.
• No camera. Given that every other Apple device has a camera this is a strange thing to leave out.
• No GPS, no HDMI out, no USB.
• 1024×178 display. This isn’t widescreen (so you get black bar on movies) and isn’t HD. This doesn’t make it great for watching video, one of the things showed off by Apple.

No Flash on the Apple iPad

So what uses does the iPad have? Well it’s not intended to replace a laptop or a phone, but instead to exist in addition to these. I can see the iPad being a casual home device; something you have lying about the house to read books on, surf the web in front of the TV, and watch the occasional video. I don’t think it’s going to be great as a computer-like device, it’s not versatile and able to ‘do anything’ like a laptop or desktop.

As one commenter put it; “Apple has basically moved into the bedtime reading market today.”

I want an Apple tablet so bad!

We’re pretty sure the ‘iSlate’ is coming and as with any yet to be released Apple product I want one already. But I’ve got to ask; where does the tablet fit in?

The new Apple tablet has arrived (via Rego Korosi)

We know it’s going to be bigger than a phone (a 10 inch screen is rumoured) and that it’s not going to have a hardware keyboard. So, we’re going to have a portable that won’t fit in your pocket but is still as impractical for serious use as the iPhone. That seems like an uncomfortable fit between a phone and a laptop, and I already have both of those. It just breaks out of the three screen model:

• Entertainment. The sit back, relax, big screen.
• Work. The lean forward, concentrate, medium screen.
• Mobile. The on-the-go, always-on, small screen.

The lines have been blurring though, we enjoy more entertainment on-the-go today and we’re now always connected to the office. So maybe it’s time for Apple to revolutionise another market, even if it’s one they’ve had a shot at before (with the Newton) and one that others have consistently failed in.

Are we looking at a product which will be your ‘one device’? An easy on-the-go computer, an entertainment device, a phone (with headset of course) and something that’s powerful enough to be a desktop replacement when docked? Well, actually, that sounds awesome. As I said; I want an Apple tablet so bad!

Christmas is coming and the digital marketing industry is getting into the Christmas spirit (thanks to all the cherry brandy liqueurs), so here’s what every geek wants in their stocking…

Elf Yourself is back for Christmas 2009 and now it connects with Facebook to save you some of the pain of finding photos. They’ve also added new tools to better fit faces to elves and even more dance and music styles.

Ogilvy have created (possibly) the first ever agency Christmas iPhone app (slightly less imaginatively) called White Xmas (iTunes store link). With the tag line “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”, the app allows you to snap a photo which it then sprinkles with computer-generated snow. A neat idea, wonderfully atmospheric and pretty innovative.

AIS have been warming their vocal chords with a Christmas sing-along. Choose a song and control the good people of AIS while they sing it for you! The controls are a little hard to get a hang of but those with nimble fingers will be able to produce a good tune.

Elfquilibrium is an addictive little Christmas game. Guide Santa along a precarious rooftop by helping him balance out his somewhat drunken gait. But keep on your toes, you’ve got to deliver presents down all the chimneys, too.

YouTube are running a YouTube Carolling competition in the US this year. People can record their rendition of a choice of 4 carols (2 traditional, 2 original) and upload their video. There are $100 gift cards for 15 runners-up and the overall winner gets the $5,000 grand prize! There are some frankly ridiculous entries so far, this being my favourite by far.

What’s your favourite bit of seasonal digital?
Merry Christmas!