TPPA could turn the clock back

30.11.2010/05.32

During the campaign trail, people tended to ask me if I was left or right. While I cheekily said, ‘Forward,’ many a time (and had at least one imitator), there’s something to be said for abandoning what are, effectively, nineteenth-century constructs. And unless you are DI Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes, you need […]

Putting a full site feed on a Facebook fan page is not a good idea

29.11.2010/11.54

Even though more young women are spending time on Facebook at the exclusion of other sites, last night I decided to stop connecting the Lucire RSS feed in to its Facebook fan page. We began the fan page very late, having relied on using a Facebook group. And even then, these were promoted half-heartedly. […]

Retro moment: the ﬁrst American Ford Granada

28.11.2010/09.31

Above: The US Ford Granada in a contemporary advertisement, as posted at americangranada.com. Not the European car, but the American one of the same name: the Ford Granada was marketed as a US alternative to a Mercedes-Benz. Not as overstyled as, say, the Ford Maverick, this was an extremely heavy car, and Ford’s marketing […]

Amazon begins charging dormant-account fee

25.11.2010/12.25

Here’s a new clause in the Amazon Associates’ contract that I never spotted before, which is available publicly for viewing. European countries have a similar one, with differences in the currency. If you have not earned any advertising fees in the 3 years prior to any given calendar month, then on the first day of […]

Doctor Who’s Christmas ’10 special: US trailer

20.11.2010/02.52

Matt Smith completes his ﬁrst calendar year as the Doctor with a Christmas special, inspired by Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Michael Gambon! Best guest star since Bill Nighy. And if that’s Katherine Jenkins, that’s an extra reason to watch this. (Hope she sings, and not the Singing Detective.) You may also like Funny how […]

An ideal surﬁng camera, and why we love the Saab 9-4X more

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My friend Gareth Rowson is now review editor for WideWorldMag.com (alongside his design practice). Here is his test of the waterproof Oregon Scientiﬁc ATC9K Action Camera, ﬁlmed while surﬁng at Vazon in Guernsey. I thought this was very nicely shot. Less well shot, but signiﬁcant, is the ofﬁcial video from Saab USA about its […]

Replacing a social network near you: real life

19.07.2010/12.33

As news emerges that teenagers have spent less time on Facebook, and there are more proﬁles getting closed on the social network, Sony has released its newest trailer for The Social Network. After 9-11, it’s time to tell the “other” story of the ’noughties. And if Facebook is the topic of a Hollywood ﬁlm, then […]

Chevrolet doesn’t understand branding

11.06.2010/11.55

After the chaps at Autocar began following me on Twitter yesterday—after all, I had been reading the magazine since it was part of the Ministry of Magazines, in the post-Iliffe days—I noticed a Tweet about Chevrolet asking its dealers to not refer to the brand as Chevy. What? According to Autocar: A leaked […]

Volvo Cars, a unit of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.

31.03.2010/11.37

I haven’t missed the sale of Volvo to Geely, but it wasn’t as momentous as the rebirth of Saab. We knew the deal was coming and the rest were formalities. The company has said there will be no Geelys badged as Volvos and vice versa. It recognizes the Volvo brand is too valuable to […]

Metro gives thumbs-up to Stefan Engeseth’s Unplugged Speeches

21.03.2010/03.20

This is rather heartening to see, from the Metro freebie in Stockholm (the below is copied from the online edition): What’s in: Stefan Engeseth’s Unplugged Speeches series at the Regina Stockholms Operamathus (where yours truly gave the ﬁrst edition). What’s out: the growing mounds of paper (rather appropriate in an eco-conscious nation). […]