Kookmeyer Institute

Telling kids what they can’t do must be a tough job, so kudos to JWT Sydney for dreaming up this iPhone app.
It’s a racing game hijacked by a phone call that warns against the use of mobiles while driving. I had a better idea – simply raise the legal driving age to 23 – but I don’t think anyone was listening.

I’m a sucker for big picture backgrounds plus video content. And this site for Mercedes has both in spades. If I was being fussy, I’d argue some of the interactive prompts, such as those encountered in the test drive, don’t feel very natural or entirely convincing. We can be so desperate to engage users that we don’t see how it can get in the way of enjoying content. Still, a pretty good effort. There’s also an iPhone app that lets you race through tunnels like the one in the shoot.

Well that’s it! I’m off to find my riches writing keitai (or cellphone) novels for the Japanese teen market – just like this 15 year old, Bunny (an alias, not her real name). Quoting the LA Times: “The size of the keitai novel market is unclear, but Maho i-Land Co., one of the largest keitai novel content providers, boasts 1 million online book titles and 6 million users.” I actually find the whole spirit of cooperation within the keitai movement quite amazing. Quoting again: “Most writers upload the content as they finish so they get instant feedback from the readers, who access the stories on the website and click through the pages. Authors respond to readers by correcting errors and, in some cases, altering story lines.” Critics with their noses turned strictly upwards are unlikely to nominate Bunny any time soon for a Booker Prize but who really cares when she’s creaming it to the tune of $611,000 (I take that to be US dollars) for one three-volume novel?

Did you know more people in the US have iPhones than Twitter accounts? I digress because this mobile application for Lynx was actually created in London by BBH London. It’s the unexpected twist at the end that made it my favourite (see also, ‘Spin the Bottle‘ and ‘Perfect Man Revealed‘). I just wonder if the agency could have gone a little more raw than ‘addy’ in the execution, given it is meant to be viral.

Becks is giving away beer on Facebook. Nice. I wonder how many punters will be converted to the brand. Either way it looks like a good money spinner for bars – two of us spent $30 on finger food at La Zeppa. The only downer with the mobile vouchers is the fact most cash registers aren’t bluetooth enabled, so the poor old barman has to key the 16-digit code into the eftpos terminal every time.

Not exactly a new concept but the first I’ve seen as an iPhone application. Maybe it’s something the guys at Movember could latch on to for their next promotion.

Attention all iPhone geeks: just when you thought you were down with all the widgets and applications a clip like this comes along…