HyperQuake

Out to Launch, a blog I subscribe to, posts a Random iPhone App of the week. This week: Cheese or Font? The game presents the player with a word, say “Tetilla,” and the player is to guess if the word is type of cheese or a type of font. It’s a cheese, by the way.

You can download the app for free at the APP Store, and, lucky for me and all of the other iPhone-less people in the world, you can also play the game online. None the less, it’s a great game for foodies and font-ies (?) alike.

Enjoy

Red Bull has been working on a little project we hear, called the Red Bull Stratos Project. What’s it involve you ask? Well, a guy, Felix Baumgartner, will be jumping out of a weather balloon 23 miles above the earth. For any non-science geeks out there, that’s the edge of space. Yep, you read that right.

It’s an important jump because it’ll be the highest free-fall ever, and the hopes are that it’s going to yield lots of data that scientists will use relative to developing advanced life support systems for future pilots, astronauts, and space tourists (yep, you read that right). Tickets go on sale immediately following the jump, I hear.

So, Mr. Baumgartner is going to fall to the earth at speeds of over 760 mph, which means he’ll be breaking the sound barrier. As such, he needs a suit that can handle those kind of numbers. Enter the David Clark Company who are designing the test suit and the real suit for the actual jump. No report on cost, but I think it’s safe to say they cost a lot. The ins and outs of the design on this suit are intense. Sure, it’s got the typical Red Bull branding that comes with an event of this nature, but the true design and development of the suit is just crazy. I.E. Pressurized gas layer. Check out the story for more specs.

It’s unbelievable to imagine a jump like this is going to happen, but really cool to imagine what will come out of it. In addition to the story, you can check out a photo gallery with detailed images of the suit.

Everyone knows that at Burger King, you can “Have It Your Way” way when it comes to the flame-broiled goodness that is your hamburger. The King and his team of merry men have worked extremely hard to instill this message in the minds of beef eaters and fast food lovers everywhere, but for all that work, there was always one part missing.

Sure, you could get your burger without mayo, or with 4 extra patties of meat, or with 2.5 slices of smaller tomatoes instead of 1, but there was always something missing, it just never really was “your” burger.

Well, BK and the King have changed that, at least they did for a little bit (in Brazil), by embarking on a unique little campaign where they show customers what ‘Made to Order’ really means.

As someone who isn’t a huge fast food eater/supporter, even I thought this a unique way of personalizing the dining experience and building some additional brand affinity. You can already see from the video that camera phones were a-snappin’ which inevitably means Twitter posts and Facebook status updates that probably generated some positive chatter about the brand.

All in all, a unique and quirky idea, that showed a true connection of the dots when it comes to the idea of “Have It Your Way.” Not sure how much longevity it has after the initial novelty would wear off, but it’s still a rather cool and smart approach on a one-off level.

Traditional advertising gets a little less traditional. Learn More

Google TV Ads is a flexible, all-digital system for buying more accountable and measurable TV advertising. Using the familiar AdWords interface, you can launch a TV advertising campaign in minutes.

Check out this great video on Slate V testing out this new service.

HQ wanted to know: can physics be simple and fun? OhmartVEGA, a manufacturing company specializing in sophisticated measuring devices, came to HQ requiring a simplified tool to easily and accurately configure their products. A manual and time-intensive quoting process (requiring advanced mathematics and hand calculations) was preventing their global sales and engineering teams from quickly and accurately turning around customized quotes for their clients.

To alleviate this issue, HyperQuake developed a fully customized application for OhmartVEGA called ProSize. HQ designed the user interface for ProSize with a flexible graphics library and a real-time drag-and-drop drawing module. The application was created entirely in Adobe Air, leveraging Flex as the development framework to produce a user-friendly, portable desktop application. The project also showcases our in-house familiarity of advanced trigonometry and geometry to deliver accurate field calculations.

HQ successfully transformed what was once a complex process into a user-friendly, globally-distributed application for the OhmartVEGA sales force. ProSize delivers an endless array of customized product configurations that can be shared with the Engineering teams as well as with customers. A clean, easy-to-understand report, along with flexible project files, can be outputted from the program and shared among the various stakeholders throughout the process, saving OhmartVEGA time and money.

We all know that movie releases are big business, and that social media has moved to the center of all things marketing-related, thus how social media is handled by movie studios is a core component to a modern film’s success. But let’s face it, it’s annoying to have to go to the movie’s microsite AND Facebook AND YouTube AND Twitter etc etc for your movie info. Total ugh, amiright? Not to mention it is also annoying and expensive for studios to build all that for every movie. It is this exact issue that Lionsgate Films, partnered with online media firm ThisMoment, aim to address in promotion of LG’s new film, Kick-Ass.

ThisMoment has developed the Distributed Engagement Channel, which essentially aggregates all of a movie’s social media stuff (Twitter/Myspace/Facebook/YouTube comments and ability to friend/follow/subscribe in those channels), and all of the movie’s official stuff (videos, downloads, contests etc.) into one place, which is THEN posted up onto Myspace, Facebook and YouTube in theoretical-lieu of a custom microsite/branding for each of those sites. (Although they HAVE covered all their bases with a traditional movie website as well in this case. Baby steps.)

The advantage to users and fans is obvious (so convenient!), but less apparent is the advantage afforded to Lionsgate in this move. The Distributed Engagement Channel technology is controlled by one single CMS system, allowing LG to manage their content on all the social channels at once (except Twitter, alas!) and providing consolidated metrics all in one place. Simplicity FTW!

There is a pretty confusing article on Ad Age about it, I recommend reading through the comments, there is a great dialogue going on between commenters and representatives from ThisMoment.

Thanks to Chris Strong for the tip.

YouTube music video darlings OK Go have done it again, but this time they’ve traded the treadmills for a warehouse in which they have built a wonderful, wonderful Rube Goldberg Machine. Don’t miss this one.

BONUS: The answer to the question, ‘will the band make out with the machine’? Find out below!

In the case that you’re not satisfied with the amount of personal information already shared on the Internet, head on over to formspring.me.

Formspring.me is a social networking site in which people anonymously pose questions to one another. Responses can also be posted to your other networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

Twitter users will probably find the functionality and aesthetic to be quite familiar, although it’s not overly complicated to begin with. As far as I can tell, the network hasn’t quite caught on yet, but if it does turn into a site similar to Twitter – full of celebrities and their fans -  I could see it taking off. I mean, I’d be curious to find out what superpower Ocho Cinco wished he had.

Imagine yourself naked and cold, with only a tiny bicycle to help you navigate a post-apocalyptic world, and you have the excellently stylish Flash game Icycle.

“The next ice age has arrived and the world as we know it has peacefully frozen in time, but to one naked survivor it’s cold and lonely as hell!

If only dying was this much fun in life!”

About all I can say here is, NICE!!! Someone has finally created a functional jet pack (check out the video gallery.) Not just any jet pack, a $100,000 jet pack that you don’t even need a license for. Let’s review the specs, shall we, to fully understand why this is so awesome:

Engine: 2.0L producing 200HP (You are wearing this!!!!)
Travel: 31.5 miles or up to 8,000 ft!!!
Safety features: Built in parachute (completely unnecessary, why would you ever want to come down?)
Gadgets and Gizmos: Blue Tooth Helmet

The only thing this is missing is a built in video monitor in the helmet so you can watch Disney’s “The Rocketeer” while you are flying.

Did I mention you don’t need a license for this?

Anyone interested in going in on a timeshare set up with me on one of these things, feel free to drop me a line.