Posts from the “Creativity & content” Category

Storage not design will return Flickr to number 1

Posted on 21 May 2013

Overnight (Australian time) Yahoo! announced a design revamp of their tried and true photo sharing platform, Flickr. One of the oldest photo social networks—and certainly one of the most well known—the Flickr brand still commands a high level of respect but with the emergence of more agile photo services like Instagram the platform had begun to lose ground. While a new design, new storage, new apps and new Pro options are nice, it’s the 1 terrabyte of free storage per user that will return Flickr to its golden age. A simple and cunning plan: lure people back with the combo of lots of space to host full resolution photos and a new design that’s up with current trends. The new flickr.com has massively increased the size of photos;…

Categories: Creativity & content, Desktops & devices, Internetz & the social web

Tagged: Adam Cahan (Yahoo!), Flickr, Flickr Android app, Flickr Blog, Flickr iOS app, Instagram, photos, yahoo

Facebook Home(sick)

Posted on 8 April 2013

On 4 April Facebook announced Facebook Home, a Facebook-focused skin for existing Android devices. The biggest thing to realise is that it is not a new operating system but rather a new UI that wraps over the top of the existing Android OS on a device to replace the native home screen. While launchers are nothing new, this one takes things a little further (and not just because it is coming out of the largest social media platform in the world). The Facebook Home user experience interface is primarily composed of three features: Cover Feed—Replaces your home screen wallpaper with full-screen content from your Facebook News Feed. It draws in content posted by your friends on Facebook onto the background of your home screen, making Cover…

Categories: Creativity & content, Desktops & devices, Internetz & the social web

Tagged: Facebook, Facebook (Android app), Facebook Home, Facebook Home (Android app), Facebook Inc, Facebook Messenger (Android app), HTC First (smart device), HTC One (smart device), HTC One X (smart device), Samsung Galaxy Note II (smart device), Samsung Galaxy S III (smart device), Samsung Galaxy S4 (smart device)

Crux of Crean’s Creative Australia is to cut the cultural cringe

Posted on 13 March 2013

Today the Honourable Simon Crean MP, Minister for the Arts, released Australia’s first national cultural policy in almost 20 years. There’s plenty of commentary about it, much of which, like me, is excited and impressed by it’s vision and it’s genuine relevance. But what I’ve read so far seems to miss an important point about this policy, which has prompted me to add my 2 cents. At it’s crux, Crean’s Creative Australia cuts through arts policy wonk and social stigma alike revealing the truth about the arts that those of us in the sector have long known: that the arts is a dynamic and vibrant part of Australian social and economic endeavour. For fear of wonking myself, let me explain what I mean. The…

Categories: Creativity & content, Desktops & devices, Ideas & big thinking, Internetz & the social web, Money & economics, People & place, Politics & policy

Tagged: arts, arts policy, Australia Council for the Arts, Australia in the Asian Century (white paper), Hon Simon Crean MP, National Broadband Network, National Cultural Policy (Australia), National Curriculum (Australia), Office for the Arts (Australia)