A week on the web #14
Posted by Lauren and Hannah, July 30 2010 at 11:35A smoother stroll down your virtual street
‘Hyper-perspective view’- now there’s a term you don’t hear everyday, but it best describes Microsoft’s new street level imaging system ‘Street Slide,’ an enhancement of their Streetside offering. Google Street View and Bing Maps Streetside users, will recognise the jumpy transition as you navigate along the street, caused by moving from one ‘bubble’ to the next – Street Slide eradicates this by overlaying perspective projections of the bubble images, which display sideways along the street. Dubbed by Microsoft as being ‘As perspective as possible’ there are many user benefits outside of the smoother transition such as making it easier for people to find and recognise places quickly and easily by creating a more true to life perspective. Navigation is impressive too, achieved by either ‘smooth scrolling sideways’ (see video), widening the field of view once you find something you’re interested in, 360 degree view turn and a simple icon to flip to the opposite side of the street. Its good news for advertisers too as the wider space is engineered to display company logos or even the inclusion of social information, such as the location of friends – if linked up to a social network. It’s really kind of cool, but don’t take our word for it, check out the above demo video and see for yourself.
Gorillaz in the mist, and on your iPhone
The Gorillaz have launched a game for the iPhone and iPad. The game is based on the artwork for Plastic Beach, Damon Albarn’s bands latest album, tipped for a Mercury music prize this year. ‘Escape to Plastic Beach’ features 8 levels, with the cartoon members of the band represented in 3D animation. With visuals taken from designer Jamie Hewlett’s illustrations and the soundtrack from the album, this looks like a great fantasy land to ease the commute to work.
Virgin Media ramps up cross-platform strategy
Virgin Media have rolled out a Beta version of their new TV-on-demand service online to subscribers of its XL TV package, with plans to roll out to other subscription packages after the initial trial period. The move comes as competition in the sector is hotting up with imminent launches of Sky’s Anytime+ and Project Canvas. So what will it take to gain crucial advantage in the battle of VOD when long-form video content is readily available from a multitude of places? Perhaps as Nic Howell puts it, the issue issue boils down to a question of what matters more: content or convenience? “Virgin has more than 4,600 hours of on-demand content, but its challenge is to combine nice-to-have features with must-have content – exclusive content you really can’t get elsewhere. Anything else risks being incremental rather than game-changing.”
Amazon e-readers saving the Amazon
You didn’t know you needed one, but you do, so save the trees and cram all your books into one dinky palm sized device. Amazon have launched two new and improved versions of the Kindle, their e-book reader. The new model has 50% better contrast, is 21% smaller and 15% lighter and weighs less than 250 grams. Its battery will now last for a month on a single charge if the wireless connectivity is switched off. The 6 inch display device comes with free 3G, Wi-Fi and will hold up to 3,500 books, magazines, newspapers and blogs which you can download wirelessly from Amazon directly to the Kindle. Amazon have been secretive about exactly how many Kindle’s have been sold but boast that the Kindle has been their number one best selling item for two years running and has the most 5-star reviews of any of the products they sell and insist that it serves a different market to the popular iPad. This week Stieg Larsson, author of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, became the first writer to sell one million e-books in the Kindle store and Amazon announced that it is now selling more e-books than hard backs.
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