In the last couple of weeks I’ve downloaded a couple of iPhone apps that have seriously blown me away. And I thought it might be a good idea to share them.

The first is TiltShiftGen. It automatically creates beautiful TiltShift miniaturisations that look incredible. It doesn’t feel like your usual iPhone app – it feels a lot more professional. The interface is lovely and really easy to use.  And as a poor example of what it can do, here’s a shot of my twitter alterego @ImLondonBridge:

If this is the kind of thing you’d like to play with, you can get it here for a measly 59 pence. And you can see better shots on Nathan’s blog here.

The second app that I’m loving big time is Sketchbook Mobile. It’s an iPhone version of Autodesk’s Sketchbook Pro application and it’s just incredible. It’s got layers, can integrate photography and seems to have the uncanny ability to make you draw better than you can with actual pen and paper. Here’s a 3 minute self portrait I did when I was testing it out:

There’s a free version of this to try out first. But for a paltry £1.79 I recommend upgrading to the full version. You can get it here.

This stuff has excited me because it feels as if the iPhone is moving from just games and simple widgety things to running full-on applications. I’m looking forward to seeing what other wonderful things pop up in the next few months.

Oh dear.

Our British TVs have been kept clear of product placement for years. But that’s all about to change. Broadcasters (except the BBC) are being given the go-ahead to make money out of putting products in shot.

The good news is that it means our broadcasters will be able to raise more money for their programming. The bad news is that some of them are so desperate they’ll probably go overboard in an attempt to bring in the cash. Fortunately I don’t really watch the goggle box very much.

Read more about it here.

I don’t know if any of you have been following my Twitter experiment @ImLondonBridge. Probably not, because I’ve not really announced it on the blog. In fact, I’ve not really said anything on the blog for the last couple of months.

Sorry about that. I’ve been a bit busy!

So, anyway, I started up a Twitter account for London Bridge to compete with Tower Bridge’s automated tweets. In the last couple of months it’s kind of taken on a life of its own and it’s taught me a good few lessons about social media. I think I’ll share some of those lessons in a later post but I felt I should tell you about it now that it’s hit the mainstream media.

Read about what’s been happening in the Telegraph.

Last night I watched a whole bunch of TED films to make a dull train journey go faster. And this film astounded me. Woody Norris demonstrates a whole new way of dealing with sound. Instead of using a speaker cone to push air molecules around in an unfocused way, he uses predictable disturbances in the air to deal with sound in a very focused way. He’s a bit mad and unfocused himself – but what he demonstrates is quite astounding. Especially for a former sound engineer like myself. Have a look:

I know. ‘Digisphere’. I just made that up. Crap, isn’t it?

But if you want good stuff, have a look at the Cannes Cyberlions finalists. There’s a lot of stuff in there that I wish I’d done. And not enough that I did do. Very inspiring. And unfortunately I’m not there to share champagne with the winners.

Go look! Click on the image below:

(Good luck with Balloonacy Poke!)

Wow! This video was sooooo simple to do. I just took the film, trimmed a crappy bit off the end, and clicked a button to upload it directly to YouTube. That was it. I’m kind of stunned at how well it worked (and a bit embarrassed that I’m putting up a video of me!)

I love this un-website by BooneOakley. They’ve simply used the interactivity of YouTube to make a very sweet online home for their agency. I bet it’s going to attract lots of copyists. They must be chuffed to bits with all the comments of praise beneath the videos. Well done folks!

My fellow Ogilvanian, Colin Nimick, pointed me towards this ad a couple of days ago. (It was apparently on the front page of Campaign and I’d missed it because I’m so vain and self-interested that I skipped straight to the article about me!) This is a peculiar ad because it’s an ad about ads. It’s there to tell people how great TV advertising is. However, it seems to say how great TV advertising was. I don’t think there’s anything in there from this side of the millenium. And I can’t think of many recent ads that will have the same kind of cultural impact. However, still a nice piece of film to watch. Enjoy!

Wii started it all by making the movement of a controller within an environment a way of controlling the action. Now Xbox are taking it one step further by doing away with the need for a controller completely. The stuff in here seems pretty fictional but the principal looks good. Keep your eye on this one.

Thanks to Leighton

Another fantastic film from TED on how people make decisions. A must watch for all copywriters, I reckon.