Pepper Digital - Peptalk

Free wifi for areas around London

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:12:57 +0000

It seems that the best things in life are really free (well for a while anyway) thanks to Westminster City Council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the network operator O2.

As the build up to the London 2012 Olympic ensues O2 have announced the installation of free wireless networks throughout the Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea area. The new free wifi zones have been set up to ensure visitors coming to the city during the Olympics “have the best experience possible and can make the most of what London has to offer”.

O2 have said they will be installing wireless networks on “street furniture”. (I'm guessing they mean something a little more robust than the odd park bench or a red telephone box!)

Lets hope more free wifi stations start popping up throughout London so residents can benefit too! I for one will be interested to see what will happen once the Olympics is over, will the people of London thrive from all the new initiatives put in place or will there simply be too much clutter and chaos for the average Londoner?

For now though, this initiative will provide a greater dialogue platform for tourists and local people to talk about all things Olympics.

O2 plan to start their wifi installation this month. To read more about their plans take a look at the official press release.

Humdinger

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:32:31 +0000

Now I'm sure everyone will agree that Shazam is a bloomin' marvelous app, allowing users to identify music by simple click of the record button.

However, if you're anything like me, identifying a song is not usually so simple.

Do you ever get a tune stuck going round and round in your head, but can't for the life of you remember who sung it, not to mention any of the actual words? Well I do, and quite frankly I'm counting my Christmas blessings that SoundHound have come up with the world's only viable singing and humming search app.

All users have to do is belt out their song (whether that be in a humming or singing format) and within a matter of seconds SoundHound gets to work finding the song and it's info. Quite rightly so, the app has already been a No. 1 ranking music app for Apple, the Android Marketplace and the Amazon Appstore.

SoundHound does some other cool stuff too, so check it out.

Twit-twoo

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:19:40 +0000

Twitter is following in Google+ and Facebook’s footsteps after announcing the launch of their new Twitter brand pages.

It’s no surprise that Coca-Cola, Pixar and Disney, to name a few, have already snapped up the opportunity to bag themselves a new brand page; Twitter have incorporated a range of new features allowing brands to further customise the look and feel of their own pages.

Deviating from Twitter’s standard page format, brands will be able to focus and tailor certain elements of their pages including: the ability to show embedded multimedia, attach photos to tweets, use the “Featured Tweet” setting where brands can increase the longevity of a tweet through the existing hashtag feature, and the “Discover Feature” highlights content based on a Twitterers interests and location.

Perhaps one of the most helpful Twitter developments is the separation of @replied, from @mentions. This decreases the amount of visual noise, putting across a clearer marketing message, a very valuable proposition indeed.

Although not widely available until 2012, the branded pages have been tipped to be a more “compelling destination” for brands.

That bog’s not standard

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 17:43:58 +0000

The gaming world has once again broken the barrier, providing male urinal users in Balham with an alternative to their usual essential relief ritual.

Captive Media has built upon the concept of wireless gaming to create a game that men can control using their own organic yellow cable.

Games can be streamed such as multiple-choice pub quiz, you can go off piste skiing, and even put out fires.

Once the game flow has come to an end, players can enter their score online to see where they measure up next to other w/c warriors.

The system has already been backed by the Drinkaware charity and is proving to be an effective new medium in which to target socialising males with captive advertising messages.

But sit tight girls, Captive Media have reassured us that they are due to install in ladies’ loos soon too.

Men: pop down to The Exhibit in Balham to see if urine with a chance of winning!

Character heaven

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:05:06 +0000

If like me you're forever forgetting shortcuts and needing that copyright symbol © or some other obscure character then there is a site ready to solve this problem... copypastecharacter.com

You can dive into the entire collection here

One the best I've come across recently is the interrobang ‽ - I mean how cool is that‽

Black Friday

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 17:15:04 +0000

Amazon’s Black Friday is back in town or should I say online, for another November. (I'd go as far as to say this is probably one of the greatest Fridays for a long time, although Rebecca Black does make my Friday that little more enjoyable).

Amazon, today and all this week have treated online shoppers to a variety of discounts on certain purchases. The discounts known as Lightning Deals have been popping up on Amazon throughout the day, lasting only for a limited amount of time. In fact, customers have to join a queue in order to be in with a chance of receiving their discount.

Originating from the US, Black Friday, the day after Thanks Giving marks the start of the Christmas shopping period where thousands of shopaholics take to the shops in search of the best deals and discounts.

Judging by the Black Friday images taken in the US, I’d much prefer to sit with my finger poised ready to bid on discounted wonders that suddenly become items I've always wanted!

Damn those discounted backscratchers!

Coughs and sneezes spread joy!

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:46:03 +0000

If someone asked you to name a company who’ve produced a clever print advert, my guess is that a nasal spray manufacturer wouldn’t be top of the list!

Since advertising for Otrivine has cropped up on tubes all around London, they have made it onto my 'jolly good advert' list.

Not only is the ad relative to the daily commute, but the quirky station stop names such as Sniffinham and Blowing Green add a humorous ingredient to the daily commute.

Super Mario vs PETA

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:13:29 +0000

Who doesn't love the Super Mario Brothers games, and their fat, Italian protagonist? Mario's quests to save the Princess have thrilled kids and adults alike since the 1970s, but it would seem all isn't well in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Animal rights organisation PETA have decided that as Mario likes to dress up as animals, he must first rip their bodies apart with his bare hands to acquire the costume. They have even taken the time to create a game entitled 'Mario Kills Tanooki' where you can take on the role of a Tanuki (some sort of raccoon dog, apparently) and embark on a quest to retrieve said fur from everyones favourite moustachioed (and now heavily blood soaked) plumber.

It's interesting how PETA have arrived at this bizarre conclusion, whilst completely overlooking the number of turtles, beetles, fish and moles (to name but a few) that Mario has stomped, shot or burned to death during his travels.

Flash vs HTML5

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:06:34 +0000

The growth of flash for our mobiles was last week questioned after Adobe announced they would be ending the development of Flash Player for major mobile devices, concentrating instead on HTML5.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Adobe's Vice President and General Manager of Interactive Development at Adobe, Danny Winokur stated that, “HTML5 [is] the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms…as HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices.”

Despite this news, Adobe will still continue to support its current Flash plug-ins and “future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores."

So it seems that even after the untimely passing of one of the world’s most influential technology pioneers, Steve jobs is still influencing the world from beyond the grave.

Read the full news story on the Adobe blog

Space invaders

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:42:06 +0000

As if Google wasn’t invading our streets enough, the time has come for the internet giant to probe deeper into our oh so innocent lives.

Businesses can now choose to circum to the prying eyes of their nosey global neighbours by allowing Google to preview a 360-degree view of their store/office, just like their current street view setting.

A (rather messy) comic book store in, California has been one of the first businesses to activate their interior view.

Just like our recently blogged Street view shocker, could this step capture more than businesses and the public bargained for?