Great idea… very much like an idea I have been mulling over regarding social recommendations and reviews. In the Domino’s Pizza example above, you sign up as an ‘affiliate’, download the widget (with your unique ID embedded) and share it wherever you can. Anyone who orders a Dominos Pizza through YOUR widget earns you a commission.

Hat’s off to the BLM Quantum and  Oosocial guys. Nice, simple idea, simply made.

Now order a pizza from my widget goddamnit. Imagine how rich I will be if I can somehow top the 3p a day I get from my YouTube Adsense revenue.

Tuesday was a big day for me. About a year ago I doodled a concept on a notepad and took it into Digital Outlook. For those that don’t know, the agency I work for is also passionate about developing new characters and concepts from the ground up.

My scribbled idea started with the notion of “where do computer viruses eat and drink in such a harsh digital world?”. A quick look around the room later… bubblejet printer ink! I loved the idea that these devices act as savana-style watering holes for online lifeforms. What if you could tell when a critter was visiting your house and could do battle with it? What if you beat it and it fell under the printer’s rollers and out popped a printed sheet complete with squashed critter.

As they say… Zoikz was born (after the usual URL check!)

Then comes the Digital Outlook magic. With the idea whipped into shape with Angus Fletcher, RDF, Miniclip and Egmont all wanted in. For our part, launching it was simple. Zoikz was mainly targetted at 8-12yr old boys so a game on Miniclip would be a fantastic launch strategy to start building awareness. Egmont are the worlds largest publisher and also publish Toxic magazine targetted at 6-12yr old boys. Wouldn’t it be amazing if they ran a full page add on the same day as Miniclip launched a Zoikz game? Wouldn’t it be even more awesome if they ran a full page for the first 6 weeks then published a proper Zoikz cartoon? Well, that’s exactly why Tuesday was a big day… as that’s what happened!

I’m currently away from my PC and only have a restricted iPhone browser (insert rant about Apple / Flash here) so I haven’t actually seen it. Very annoying but very cool at the same time.

PLAY IT on Miniclip here.
Print out your cheat sheet then visit the minisite to see a Zoik in Augmented Reality 3D on Zoikz.com.
VISIT the microsite here.

Check out the article in NMA for a bit of name-checking.

Please DO let me know what you think. It’s really at its initial phase and although we have ideas, I would love to hear where you would like it to go.

So the CS5 launch is on Monday (it’s the Thursday before) and the developer jungle drums are awash with disgusted / aghast people surprised that Apple may be waging war on any Flash originated apps that dare to be submitted. It seems to be (or may not be) down to a change in the Terms for the iPhone developer, as spotted here.

It all boils down to this paragraph.

3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).

What it is saying, at length is that you must use the ‘proper way’ to make apps. The coder way. Not some easy ‘just drag stuff on and press go’ Flash way. That would be too easy. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a company forcing developers to develop in a certain way, especially when the ONLY way is to use Apple’s own Xcode development platform.

It’s not just Flash that may fall foul of this, there are many other ways to ‘compile’ an app without going near the Xcode development platform such as AppBreeder, SwebApps or GameSalad. Only time will tell whether these (up until now) legit platforms will become outlawed in the collateral fallout from the Adobe Apple willy swinging war.

I’ve had a few views on this before [The real reason your iPhone will NEVER get Flash] but I really am disappointed with Apple’s behavior of late. I know Steve Jobs was a bit ill and I know he’s not as involved in the strategic direction as much as he used to be but this is old Microsoft cold war stuff from 2002. Money and control seem to be the guiding lights at Apple at the moment and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

So what can I do? Am I going to sell my iMac? No. Am I going to give up my iPhone for an Android phone? Well, maybe. Ok, no. Unfortunately I am now going to treat everything Apple do with suspicion, which is a real shame. They are not whiter than white, in fact Apple is very dirty at the moment. As Nestle will attest, products are easy to fix but reputations almost never recover.

Let the battle commence.