The sun is finally out in Britain, people! I have personally been like a lizard trying to catch as much Vitamin D as possible by getting a seat on the sunny side of the train, walking on the sunny side of the street and having (a mildly extended) lunch outside.
Now, the week has been yet another political rollercoaster, with a side of DARK comedy. Britain is fast becoming the butt of international joke, so please pitch me your countries as potential new homes in an orderly fashion.
Whilst you work on that, let’s hash out the mash!
Pokemon Metro
Now, if you haven’t come across some sort of mention of Pokemon Go this week: a) lucky you! b) where the devil have you been (and can I go there)? Everyone is standing to attention and in awe of the popularity of the game that is pretty much redefining the term “viral”.
Over in LA, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has joined the craze and created a bespoke Twitter account for players. The account, @PokemonGOMetro, tweets tips on where to capture Pokemon at metro stops, or inside trains. The account also helps with mapping out “Pokestops,” where the keen players can pick up the virtual equipment used in the game.
Anna Chen, public information officer for Metro, said it took the weekend for Metro’s social media team to create account and join the “Pokemon Go” party.
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https://twitter.com/PokemonGOMetro/status/753266669720481792
https://twitter.com/PokemonGOMetro/status/753509850454175745
https://twitter.com/Trollacharya/status/753435803532034048
“Pokemon was an interest of my own childhood,” Chen said.
[quote]We want to crowd source as many photos as possible. We want to see what weird and wacky things people are seeing and to share them with us. People are having a lot of fun with it. With the Twitter account, our goal is to provide people with a form of entertainment.[/quote]
Metro is apparently focusing on creating a map, not too different to Google Maps, where players who ride Metro can see where the nearest Pokestops or gyms are in relation to Metro bus and rail. The account has already amassed over 500 Followers. Wonder if London Underground will follow suit? I hope not! Imagine the tube on a Pokemon rush… OMG.
What’s In A (Filter) Name?
Ever wondered how those Instagram filters got their names? Wonder no longer! Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom spoke to The Hollywood Reporter this week about how his love of a certain cocktails inspired one name, while the company’s San Francisco roots motivated the naming of another.
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Let’s face it, back in 2010 when Instagram first popped into our lives, the iPhone wasn’t exactly state of the art photographic material. But the Instagram filters gave everyone the tools to turn their snaps into appealing, shareable posts. Systrom calls Instagram’s combination of filters and social “the magical combination” that helped the app take off.
The filters have become such a key part of our lives that he remembers how angry people got when he decided to discontinue the Gotham filter, which was the company’s least-used filter at the time. “I remember walking down the street in San Francisco and people being like, ‘Bring back Gotham.’”
Today, Instagram has 23 filters, all named following an internal voting process. Back in 2010 however, naming was all about “random associations.”
Here is the full meaning behind some of those game changing early filters:
Hefe — “I think I was at a bar with a friend, working on the filter and I was drinking a Hefeweizen.”
Amaro – “It’s a type of Italian liquor, and my co-founder and I were really into cocktails at that time,” Systrom explains. “There were all these speakeasies that were opening. So we named it Amaro.”
Brandon – Before Instagram was sold to Facebook in 2012, it was headquartered in San Francisco. Brandon was the name of the street their office was on.
Valencia – Systrom says it’s named after Valencia Street, which runs through the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District.
Clarendon – Named for the Clarendon Heights neighborhood south of Golden Gate Park where Systrom walks the family dog, Dolly. She is in fact quite famous in her own right, with 19,000 Instagram followers.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDvp_o5Ptcs/?taken-by=dolly
Snapchat Recognition
Clearly not wanting to be outdone by Pokemon Go or anyone, EVER, Snapchat seems to be working on a new advertising option that would use image recognition to pick out real-world objects in a user’s snaps to offer up related filters, ads, and coupons.
This patent published by the United States Patent and Trademark office on Thursday, and first filed in January 2015, shows how the system would work. Someone taking a photo of The Empire State building could be offered a fun filter of King Kong for instance.
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In the patent application, someone taking a photo of the south side of the building could be served a filter of King Kong’s back, while someone over on the north face of the building “might see King Kong’s face looking at you.” According to this patent, filters could even include audio and visual effects, meaning the filters could be animated or play a theme tune.
Snapchat is of course thinking of a way to monetize this new tech. A person who has just taken a snap of a cup of coffee could be offered a coupon to redeem in store.
Meanwhile, a photo containing an object recognised within a restaurant, could trigger filters of that restaurant’s menu. A snap of a certain food type could offer up filters with nutritional information. The possibilities here are endless, with gamification and rewards an appealing and likely very popular avenue.
Hopefully this actually makes it into the app. Many times, companies will file these patents and then never actually put the tech into practice. Something tells me that as long as it makes them more money, Snapchat will!
Right, I’m off to back in the sun whilst it lasts. Have a good one!
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