An archive of my writings from 2007 till 2011. If you're interested in the recent stuff, visit my Tumblr at dvirreznik.com.
If any of you had a doubt that mobile is already changing the way we live, comes Word Lens (iPhone, free demo, 4.99US$ full) and puts another nail (or click) to strengthen that statement.
Very simple – point your iPhone on any word, and receive an immediate translation on the screen. Currently support English and Spanish only, but additional languages are in the works.
First seen at Appboy (by Hillel Fuld).
We’re closing in on the YE, and the summations/reviews/top-10 lists are already underway.
Zeitgeist (The spirit of the times) is the Google way of telling the world what happened (methodology), by looking into top searches, fastest rising and fastest falling, filtered by country/industry. Interesting to see what different countries are searching for – ‘פייסבוק‘ (facebook in Hebrew) was the #1 search term in Israel, with Youtube clinching the #3 spot. The US was most interested in iPad (fastest rising) and the tragic oil spill (fastest rising in News).
For those in a hurry, here’s the 3min summary of the Google Zeitgeist 2010:
LOTS of data can be found in the Google list, and plenty of insight is available on each search query. There’s also an interactive map where you can zoom in, change timeline and compare events – feel free to explore for yourselves.
Thursday, Dec. 2nd, will be declared a National Day of Mourning in Israel, to commemorate one of the toughest disasters in our country’s history – The Carmel Wildfire (still raging). Emergency forces are describing the fire using war terms, and many agree that, excluding the wars – this disaster is the biggest and most complicated Israel has ever faced.
Carmel Fire, Thursday night (Dec. 2nd), at Tirat Hacarmel. By Niv Calderon
Starting small near the Village of Nucleus (also see Google Map below) on Thursday at 10:45am, the wildfire picked up with the winds, changed direction west to road 721, and trapped a bus conveying 40 Prison Guards on route to evacuate a nearby detention facility. 37 died on the bus, 3 escaped, presumed dead.
The remains of the prison guards' bus, Carmel Fire. By Niv Calderon
Pictures by Niv Calderon. Additional pictures from the disaster area at facebook.com/nowIamHere.
View שריפה בכרמל – חדשות 2 באינטרנט in a larger map
The fire burst on the 2nd day of Hannuka, a Jewish holiday celebrating the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, marking the rededicating of the Temple in Jerusalem (Second Temple). The olive oil in the temple’s eternal fire was enough for one day, but miraculously it burned for 8 days – exactly the time needed to prepare fresh olive oil.
Carmel Fire, captured by The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. Click image for original
My heart goes out to the families who have lost their loved ones and to the emergency forces working around the clock to extinguish the fire. Special thanks to Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Britain and Russia for sending their fire-fighting aircrafts to assist.
Season 8 of Israel’s leading comedy/late-night show, Eretz Nehederet (A Wonderful Country), starts shooting soon, and in the meantime they started publishing short clips online.
The latest one is a parody on the world’s famous mobile game – Angry Birds, with a Middle-eastern twist 🙂 The English version was published 4 days after the Hebrew one and already surpassed it by # of views. Even received a share from Jeremiah Owyang on facebook.
Enjoy!
If you’re reading my blog long enough you know I have a soft spot for crowdsourcing/digital and how brands are leveraging these technologies and platforms to boost sales, strengthen customer loyalty or create demand.
T-Mobile UK is one of the companies who are doing an excellent work online, and in my opinion can be credited with the flash mob phenomenon.
At the end of October they shot another flash mob video, this time at Heathrow Airport, International Arrivals Terminal 5. Watch and learn.
