Archive for November, 2009

#LDNnudeTech calendar unveiled!

Last night was the unveiling of London’s very first Nude Tech Calendar - all in the name of charity, of course!

Ever since the project got underway in October this year, the launch has been a highly-anticipated event within London’s tech scene. The calender features 12 men and women – all volunteers – in tastefully naked poses including our own Miss Hermione Way!

The leader of the pack – Milo Yiannopoulos – hosted the evening, and introduced Lucian Tarnowski from Take Heart India, who explained how all proceeds raised will go towards the youth charity which sets up IT projects in India.

We all gathered around the LCD TV screen – drink in hand – and waited to get a sneak peek of the calendar in all its glory! As the screen virtually flicked through the pages – from Mr and Mrs January to Mr and Mrs December -the crowd spun around to clap and cheer for the model and give their support to the cause.

It was an eclectic mix of images which represented the individual in their ”zone”. The series included arty, unfocused black and white shots to more quirky images which used inanimate objects such as laptops and guitars to cover their modesty.

If you would like to view all the images, then you can pre-order the calender exclusively at firebox.com. It only costs £10 and it would definitely be a unique stocking filler for Christmas this year!

Finally, a big congratulations to everyone involved in this initiative! I think it’s a very brave thing to do. Let’s hope it raises lots of money and awareness for Take Heart India. You can check out some of the pictures from the event below:

Scenes from the #LDNnudetech Launch

Techfluff.tv friends get a 50% discount off 140 Characters Conference:London next week with Stephen Fry!

The who whos of the real-time web will be at Jeff Pulver’s 140 Character Conference in London next week. If you want to know who are the movers and shakers of social media and real-time web in Europe, you simply can’t miss this opportunity to meet Jeff who has been busy organizing 140 Character Conferences all over the world, including 140 Character Conference LA which was held at the Kodak Theater in LA – home of the OSCARS!

The event is being held next week, Tue the 17th at the 02 and Twitter lover Stephen Fry is speaking along with other gurus of real-time web.For a full list of speakers check out the schedule here.

The hash tag for the event is #140conf- Jeff has given friends of Techfluff.tv get a very special discount- one that offers 50% to our
viewers to attend- thanks Jeff!

You can use the link -
http://www.amiando.com/140London.html?discountCode=techfluff to save
50% on delegate registrations :)

Here’s a video from #140conf LA

Flash Mob – OZ style! Bondi Beach Gets Flipped!

Being Australian, I just wanted to share with you European techies how we do it Down Under…

To promote the Flip camera, who are also our lovely sponsors, hundreds of Aussies gather at Bondi Beach in Sydney to part take in a little ‘towel surfing’ and dance the day away! Enjoy!

Launch48 :Building and launching a web app in 48 hours

A couple of week’s ago we were at the PayPal offices at Launch48 2009-An event where over 100 people got together to build and launch a web app in 48 hours. The UK’s answer to Ycombinator.

About 30 people pitched their ideas to the group on the Friday night. The group voted for the six best by a show of hands- They then divided the group into six teams to work on building the web apps over 48 hours.

You can see read about the six finalists over on Techcrunch and here’s Techfluff.tv’s video:

Thanks to business social network Viadeo for sponsoring the video -Interestingly  Viadeo has more members than LinkedIn in China – emerging market – win win-  Check out their site for more info!

I did it! My iPod advert Halloween costume

After seeing this post in the Huffington Post of the geekiest Halloween costumes, I was determined to go to Halloween as either an iPod advert or a YouTube video – I decided on the former because Alex Tew of Popjam had already gone to a party as a YouTube video a few months before.

The whole outfit cost £10 and consisted of a peice of card and two bits of flourecent paper – bargin!

4063238662_bea963205b

4062492263_9084b7d3ca

Selling in a digital age- Internet Retailing Conference 2009

The Techfluff.tv team were at the Internet Retailing Conference 2009 where some of the biggest players in the industry got together to talk about the challenges and issues facing the industry.

One thing I found particularly interesting was the notion of cross-channel marketing – So basically retailers online strategy  in sync with with their off line strategy giving consumers a more coherent shopping experience.

One guy I interviewed said that in future you will be able to buy something online and if it doesn’t fit take it back offline to the shop -another example he made was browsing online and picking purchases up in the store – saving the time it takes to deliver.

For me that’s the main problem with shopping online – I live such a fast paced life I can’t wait for the item to be delivered – If i go shopping its usually for an occasion that day or week so I need to be able to have the item straight away- If I could browse online with an avatar shaped like me to see how the clothes fit,  and then,  pick it up straight away from the store- I would do more shopping online.

Oh and John Lewis was a name that kept cropping up as doing things right. Check out the event’s site for more up to date news in the online retailing sector.

The future of augmented reality – an interview with Claire Boonstra, Layar

Hello TF readers! Our lovely Techfluff.tv correspondent, Isabelle O’Kane, attended the eComm conference in Amsterdam last week and wanted to share with you all her interview with Claire Boonstra from Layar. Claire discussed the latest developments in augmented reality and even gave Isabelle a quick demo. This is what she had to say…

Hey guys, it’s Isabelle reporting from Amsterdam and as promised I have the interview with Layar for you. For those of you unfamiliar with Layar they develop augmented reality browsers for mobile. The technology uses GPS to understand where the camera is pointing and then overlays graphics within the phone’s camera viewfinder to enable the user to receive geo-specific information, a simple example – where is the nearest restaurant or petrol station. The user is then given further options such as to call the restaurant or car dealer or petrol station or to review more information etc.

Soon to be released is Layar 3.0 – which is a 3D version – as Claire talks about in this clip below.

Students! UK-wide competition to find the next Bill Gates

The Next Bill Gates search is being launched by IT provider, XMA who currently supply IT solutions and systems to Higher Education institutions and public sector organisations in the UK. With sponsorship from their partner Toshiba, the company has launched a new nationwide competition open to anyone, of any age, who is starting University in 2010 and considers themselves to be an IT pro – is that you? Or someone you know?

If you think you have what it takes or know someone who does, make sure to get you entries in fast by visiting www.thenextbillgates.co.uk and submitting your 100 word application. You can also upload a video entry! Here’s a little promo we made for the comp: