Yes folks, it’s finally gone live! Those that know the in’s and out’s of this one will know what I mean.

If you’re a fan of the ’80s A-Team then this is for you. It was created to raise awareness of the A-team TV episodes that are available on iTunes.

So download it NOW, IT’S FREE!!! Then get to work creating your backing sound effects, shaking your iPhone to make machine gun sounds and ‘lobbing it’ to make a grenade. There are a bunch of voice samples and the original ’80s intro sequence from the TV show as a bonus.

I love it when a plan comes together!

I’m in day 1 of what’s turning into a very painful process with O2’s insurance sub-contracted call-centre, The Listening Company. The irony of their name will become apparent. I also note with irony O2′s new ‘PR’ campaign “Banishing the Narks and Niggles”… doing away with underhanded practices and cheating customers. Oh dear…

So, a short history. I’m a business customer with O2. I swapped from Vodafone to get an iPhone early 2009. My iPhone appeared with a big crack one day, March time maybe. I keep it in my back pocket and must have sat on and cracked it… or it was in bag and got trodden on. Either way, it didn’t look good. The metal rim split and the screen popped off. I snapped it back in and soldiered on with fluff a crumbs accumulating under the touch screen for a few months until  I figured enough is enough, let’s try that expensive insurance and get this sorted. At this point I should say I’ve been paying for insurance since 1997 and never claimed a penny. So this was my first time.

I call O2. All good. They transfer me to The Listening Company. 45 mins later, still on hold, now 6.25pm I give up.

Next day, I call O2. They put me through to The Listening Company. 25 Minutes later, “Fatima” picks up the call.

It went something like this:

Fatima: Did you drop your phone?

Me: Nope

Fatima: How it is damaged?

Me: It has a big crack in the case and the screen pops out

Fatima: How did this happen?

Me: I’m not sure exactly, it must have been in my pocket and I sat on it and has been getting worse over the last 4 months.

Fatima: Ok, so I’ve rejected your claim due to wear and tear. There is a plan you can buy…

No matter how much I questioned her on her reasoning for this wear and tear decision out of the blue, she wouldn’t give any information. I was expecting to have a few more questions, maybe even give a detailed description of what was wrong. But the “computer says no” Fatima had ruled. It seems “damage” automatically becomes “wear and tear” if you don’t do anything about it at the time. Clearly bonkers but the key point is that as soon a Fatima pressed the “no” button, that was it. She wasn’t authorised to unpress it. That was that. Doesn’t matter if you subsequently clear up the confusion… it’s done. On your file. Case closed.

I asked to speak to a manager. Fatima assured me there wasn’t one. After a little back and forth, she said, “If you don’t agree, you’ll have to take it up with my manager, I’ll go and get him”… silence… Me: “So you lied to me?”… Fatima : “No I didn’t. Please hold while I get him”.

So I speak to the manager who was perfectly civil and I explain what a model employee Fatima was but that I didn’t think she was helping the company’s image much. Manager explains that he will review the recorded call and let me know later in the afternoon.

Yep, you guessed it. Nothing happens..

Later that day, I call O2. They put me through to The Listening Company. 35 Minutes later, still on hold, I give up.

I’ll will update this post as and when it happens.

However, in the meantime, I thought I’d share some tips on what I’ve learnt during my first claim, other than never use O2′s insurance…
So, assuming you have insurance…

• The insurance is dealt with by a separate company whose sole job is seemingly to not pay out a claim wherever possible. The ‘wear and tear” clause seems to be their best friend.
• First, remember all calls are recorded and are used to settle disputes, so be nice but annoyingly specific when needed.
• Before you start the conversation, I’d suggest you agree very specifically that you want the operator to summarise the entire claim evidence verbally before they make an assessment to double-check that you are happy that the evidence you have given is complete.
• Once they press the ‘computer says no’ button, this can’t be undone and I assume the record stays on your file. Hence why it’s important to feel you had the chance to say EVERYTHING you felt was appropriate and they have repeated it back to you.
• Assuming your was dropped and cracked… if they ask you ‘did you drop it’, say yes. Go straight to claim.
• If they ask you how it got damaged, give it both barrels. Don’t give them any cause to try and call it wear and tear. Don’t lie (obviously) but it seems you have to be as blunt and dramatic as possible of jolt them out of automatically classing it as wear and tear. I.e. “It fell off the table and smashed”. DON’T say “I’m not sure exactly when it happened, I only noticed it last week, I think I may have knocked it but I do it so often, it’s hard to tell what actually cracked it”. You may be describing the same incident, but one will get a much easier path the other they will try and claim that as ‘wear and tear’ to get out of the claim.
• Don’t dither about the timing. It seems this is one of the main contributing factors to the ‘wear and tear’ ruling. So phone up as soon as it happens to avoid being suckered.

As I say, this is my first experience so maybe this is just how it is. Heaven knows how much I’ve paid for insurance over the years and it’s dawning on me just why the insurance sector is so well paid.

It seems I’m not alone either… oh dear. Average of 1.3 out of 5.

Still, look on the positive side, I did learn something today. The Listening Company is an oxymoron.

BOLA SOCIAL SOCCER on Facebook

I didn’t really do the Farmville thing. Loved the game structure and concept, just found the idea of town-based digital types ‘playing’ at being a farmer rather lame. Clearly I’m in the minority but my farming family background just won’t let me do it.

I’m also not that keen of football. And it’s probably the only genre of game that I can’t play either. Never really got past the first few seconds of any console football game. Kinda surprised in Bola though. It has all the hallmarks of something I should hate. Football, management game and a mini-football game to play too. Yet it’s brilliant. It’s very Farming in feel but clearly is trying to tap into the world’s most popular ‘real-world’ game.

Why is this interesting? Well all the people who have been addicted to Farmville just aren’t picking this up. They’re ‘Farmvilled out’. They’ve reached that cliff where they suddenly realise “Hang on, this is absolutely pointless!”… and they go about their normal lives actually talking to real people and who knows, doing real gardening. All the people that stood, dazed at the side line of Farmville tutting seem to welcome Bola. It’s like a ‘Thank god, a game that doesn’t make me look lame” moment. Ding, ding, social gaming round two…

I also notice they are now the 3rd most popular app this month on Facebook. Now there’s your business model…

PLAY IT here.

Split/Second on Facebook

This is the Split/Second Facebook app to help promote the console game. First up I have to confess, I helped make this but what struck me was the simplicity of the game and the power of several robust game principles when they come together in the right mix:

1) Game trailer are the best thing to sell games. Why not use the trailer AS the game.

2) Keep it simple, it’s Facebook!

3) Make the scoring mechanism granular enough to generate varied scores

4) Show your friends in a leader board – this REALLY hikes the replay factor

5) Create a game where YOU fail because of YOUR skills. You are compelled to prove yourself.

6) Stick it on Facebook, the biggest community on the web.

Several people have figured out a way of boosting your scores by gambling everything on guessing the next sequence. It’s infuriating simple but has so many ways to go from hero to zero.

PLAY IT here… my current high score is 8268 btw

Panfu virtual world

I only mention Panfu as it was the first site my daughter (9) actively recommended to me. Her friend had mentioned it at school and she’s seen a few adverts on TV. So I took a sneak peek to see what it was all about. In a nutshell, Club Penguin with Pandas… but not quite so good. The clincher for my daughter was the panda factor, nothing more.

Curious to see what becomes of it. Whether it gains traction and gets better or becomes abandoned. I only met 2 other pandas when I roamed around for 10 minutes or so. Watch this space kids!

Our fledgling LA office is paying dividends already. A few days after the US launch of the iPad, we had one brought back to the UK office to fiddle with. Clearly I wanted a go and managed to ‘borrow’ it, take it home, show it to my kids and generally pretend it was mine with the aim of answering the $1million question… is there room in my life for one?

First 10 minutes… meh! It’s just a big iPod.

Then I take it home. The vision I have is of a device that sits on the arm of my sofa, neither iPhone nor desktop computer, but somewhere nicely in-between.

First, the good points:

1) It has a big screen

2) The battery lasts longer than I expected. Maybe a day of moderate use when compared to the iPhone 4-6 hours.

3) The kids like it. But they like their DS’s and my iPhone too… and the Xbox 360 and the Wii. To them it’s a chance to play with a gadget when I’ve already told them to switch off the TV and do something more useful. None of them really grasped what the iPad was for though. My son had it about right with “that massive iPhone thing”.

And then the bad points:

1) It’s heavy. Heavier than I imagined. Especially for kids to hold, so games that need accelerometers to control lead to a fair bit of fatigue in small arms.

2) It’s sharp and hurts. The iPhone is rounded and smooth. The iPad has sharp beveled aluminium edges making it feel like a cheap aluminium foldout tray on an economy flight. It’s also partly dur to the small recessed groove around the screen catching your nails or finger joints. Really not much fun after 30 mins or so.

3) It’s hard to hold. Put points 1 and 2 together and pretty soon you figure out it’s hard to hold with one hand. Really not ideal if you have an app that requires typing or screen pressing (like most of them) and you don’t have a flat surface.

4) It spins. The back may be nicely curved but this has a really annoying side-effect. Assuming you have the iPad on a flat, smooth surface, swiping down one side of the screen caused the device to spin. This was really noticeable when my daughter and I played 2 player Air Hockey, one of us had to hold the iPad still. The same was true for drawing applications, requiring delicate strokes nearer the edgest to stop the momentum spinning the iPad around. Likewise, it rocks if you click the screen near the edges.

5) It’s symmetrical and confusing to know which way up it is. Ok, so the screen changes orientation to match but when you need to hit the main menu button, there aren’t enough visual cues to instantly show where the menu button is. You find yourself scrabbling for the volume controls only to find they are on the other corner as you have the iPad upside down. Not a biggie, bit it it annoying.

6) It’s not stereo. For a device with such a beautiful screen for watching movies, bit of a shame.

7) It takes AGES to recharge. Maybe I needed a special iPad charger. Maybe the iPhone charger isn’t beefy enough. But 6 hours? That’s mad. Even then it only got to 85% and I got fed up waiting.

8 ) It has flaky Wifi. Or at least the WiFi re-connection is flaky. My iPhone (and every other device from Nokia N95 to Blackberry) has no problem. So far I’ve had to manually re-connect the WiFi via the Settings menu 3-4 times a day. Curious and irritating in equal measures.

9) It looks obvious. You just can’t get the thing out on the Underground. You’d get mugged the minute you got off the train. Or worse, you’d look like a complete ponce. Either way, not worth the hassle. Obviously it will become less ‘look at me’ as people get used to it but after 7 years, I still have the same feeling with a Sony PSP.

10) It doesn’t play Flash, so ‘browsing the BBC website over breakfast’ (one of my visions of the future) is met by constant “You don’t have flash” warnings. Same with loads of sites. Apple is very vocal about flash. Nice for them, really bad for everyone else. It seems silly that such a capable machine is restricted to the internet we had in the late 1990′s. HTML with stuff in squares. Not ideal.

11) It crashes. It may just be the ‘first release’ HD apps or it may be the older iPhone apps dealing with the on-the-fly rescaling, but some of the apps (mainly games) crash more often than the iPhone. Maybe once every 20 launches. My kids know by habit to hit the round button on the iPad. That’s how often it happens. It hasn’t needed a restart though, which suggests the apps are doing it, but it also happens to the Apple-made apps so it can’t be dismissed as bad app development.

12) The menu is too airy. I want either more icons in the grid or bigger icons. If the iPhone if accurate enough to have them next to each other, why do I need 1inch gaps on the iPad? There’s nothing in the settings that I can find. Just seems pointless to be forced to go through 2 screens when you can fit all the icons on one.

14) The keyboard tries too hard. Now this one got my design / functionality heckles up. The keyboard. Two things. First, look at your keyboard. See those bumps on the F and J keys to help touch-typists and visually impaired people ‘locate’ the keys? Yep, the on-screen keyboard has those. Of course, they are just graphics so are completely useless. An example where attention to detail can be a bad thing. Secondly, you can’t ‘rest’ on the keyboard. On an iPhone, you tend to ‘peck’ at the keyboard. The iPad invites ‘proper typing’ but only as long as you hover above the keys when not typing. Quite a skill.

15) It has no Word Processor. Now you have the new keyboard at your disposal, it’s time to get writing those long Word docs right? Ok, Word = Microsoft so no. Ok, Apple Pages ten. Nope. You get the same basic boy-scout notepad you get with the iPhone. A little restricting.

16) It has no cover. You have to carry a padded envelope with you everywhere to stop it getting scratched (more then the swirly ones on the back from point 4). I can see why Steve Jobs was testing out that prototype envelope at the launch of the MacBook Air.

17) It’s not so portable. You stick an iPhone in your pocket. A laptop goes in its bag with its lid down to protect it. The iPad is in limbo. Too big to go into a pocket (and too heavy) and too exposed to put in something else like a bag with cables and pens. Even carrying it upstairs to put it on charge, you hold the iPad and one other thing, maybe a cup of coffee. It’s a little selfish in that respect.

18) It doesn’t have a stand. So reading the New York Times app (for instance) at the breakfast table requires either an orange placed behind the iPad or the iPad to be laid flat. All content therefore has to be consumed at 45 degrees to your eyes… or you have to lean over the iPad… you have to hold it in one hand (see point 2). Even charging it takes a lot of space as it has to lay on a surface. My bedside cabinet ‘charge station’ looks a bit cramped now.

19) It has no camera. And therefore not even a forward facing webcam. It would be great to sit on the sofa and chill out on a video call with your relatives in Australia or take snaps to put into the Photo app. Currently you have to sync your photos to see them… it’s like having an iPod Photo all over again. Missing a big trick there.

20) It’s not so new. And finally, after following Apple’s recent hard-line strategies on everything from mobile chipset takeovers, lawsuits, patent challenges, forcing developers to use their APIs, changing Terms at the last minute to undermine the Adobe CS5 launch, refusing to allow plugins on their iPhone-based products… I can’t help wanting to take a step back and reassess the Apple bandwagon. I get an uneasy feeling it’s a case of the Emperors New Clothes.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the iPad. It’s sort of nice. But my iPhone made an instant impact. It was a game changer. The iPad seems simply to be a bigger iPod marketed as something truly miraculous. I can’t see past the thought that it’s just an iPod HD upgrade. Like the Nintendo DSi XL is to the DSi.  Not sure a larger screen qualifies it as a revolution just yet. I’ll wait for iPad 2 maybe. The one with the rubber back, a stand, a camera, soft sides and hinge in the middle so I can carry it.

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.

Just got back from the London Premiere or Kickass. No real reason for this post other than to say how brilliant the movie is. Sounds wanky, but I’ve been to a fair few premieres, enough to know when the movie really, well, kicks ass. When you walk up the stairs after Brad Pitt and narrowly avoid treading on Claudia Schiffer’s shoes, you know it’s going to be a good one.

Thanks to the horrendously slow camera on my iPhone and the assumption that seeing a phone at apremiere will set off all sorts of alarms, I didn’t manage to get any pics. Hopefully I’ll turn up in the back of some of those Brad and Claudia photos to prove it. I do have the ticket I guess…

However, the icing on the cake was a ‘fan’ out the back of the cinema when we left. Slightly short, chubby bloke wearing a batman mask in an attempt to look like Big Daddy character. His weapon of choice? The bazooka of course… clearly an old rolled up yoga mat. Good work fella’! We salute you!

So in short, Kickass is fantastic. Chloe Moretz rocked. Nic Cage was brilliant (surprisingly brilliant), Aaron Johnson stole the show but best of all, Matthew Vaughn directed a masterpiece. Definitely my favourite movie from the last 3 years.

Now all I have to do is wait for Tron Legacy…

Shameless plug alert.

Digital Outlook London have some pretty funky jobs up for grabs. And the best bit is, you get to work with me!If that doesn’t swing it… we also have great benefits, multi-coloured beanbags, a room with fake grass, an indoor bike rack, the full Xbox Rock Band setup, table football, an inflatable moose head, an office in LA and free beer. What’s not to like?

The jobs are…

• Creative Developer
• Senior Designer
• Art Director
• Junior Designer
• Microsoft Xbox Social Media Editor

Creative developer will be Flash based, working on games, funky stuff, Unity 3D, microsites and even iPhone content if you’re up for it. You’ll be sat right in among the designers and other devs so it’ll be a good giggle. So if you’re sparky, want to get lots of training, work on really cool content and are looking for the next step, drop me an email and I’ll do the rest.

Senior designer will be working on all the cool stuff we do at Digital Outlook; Disney, Pixar, Xbox, Mr. Men, iTunes, Universal, Miniclip, games, Facebook and all that. really looking for a bright designer. Someone who isn’t satisfied doing the usual banking, corporate nonsense and wants to roll their sleeves up and make a difference. You’ll be passionate about your craft, games, entertainment, movies and especially the kids and teen audience. Also, if you’re quiet, don’t like a laugh or shy away from karaoke, look away. If you’re still here, contact me!

Art Director is essentially the same as the above but with a fair bit of experience under their belt and someone looking to make Creative Director in a company that will actively help you achieve your dreams. You’ll have been there and done that but will also be sensitive to those that haven’t… including the clients, who will look up to you to hold their hand and inspire them. Yes you can wear a funky shirt. Yes you can lead brainstorms. You can even hang up an inflatable gorilla head to go with the inflatable moose we already have. The role is yours to shape. You guessed it, if it sounds interesting, let me know.

Junior Designer will probably be a year out of Uni… straight out of Uni but has a dose of reality already… or someone who’s never been to Uni but really want to climb the ladder, experience one of the cooler companies in the industry and develop their skills in an area that has soul. If you’re into games, love Photoshop, like Flash, fiddle with After Effects or get off on coming up with bonkers ideas for willing clients… Digital Outlook has a Mac and a nice seat with your name on it. We have PC’s too if you prefer.

Social Media Editor will help deliver and develop Xbox’s social media strategy across loads of social media platforms, as well as doing all the editorial and content updates, user engagement, moderation, and reporting. It’s 3-5 days a week, based in the Microsoft HQ in central London and obviously would be perfect for anyone into social content, gaming, writing and working in a job that would make your mates properly jealous. This one is time sensitive though so if you’re interested, get a shift on and let me know.

Check out the Digital Outlook site for a basic overview of what we do and if you like what you see, just drop me a line (and ideally a CV) and if the planets align, an interview awaits! It may be the best thing you do in the next 5 years.

Some of the jobs are here too. http://www.digital-outlook.com/jobs but we’ll hopefully update that in the next few days.

There’s all sorts of things wrong with the control and physics (the car wheelies like a mad thing and rolls over at the merest whiff of steering angle) but I’m very impressed how easy it is to put something like this together from scratch! Like, 1.5 hours thanks to a few hints here. Very cool.

More to come!

Click the image to launch the demo. You’ll need to install the Unity player, but it’s pretty seamless.