each and every day the Bing homepage features a new, gorgeous photo. and those squares you can see? hover over them, and it gives you fascinating little nuggets of information about the picture you’re looking at.

on this basis alone, Bing.com is now my homepage. and thus, when i load my browser, my search engine of choice.

the interesting thing about that? it has nothing to do with its core functionality. i haven’t chosen bing because it’s better than google at finding what i want. i have chosen it because of the design, the appearance, the aesthetics (and the nice associated little tidbits).

the lesson here? sometimes it’s not your raison d’être that wins you a customer/client/user. sometimes it’s not your core functionality that draws someone to you. think outside the box. do something different, interesting, beautiful or new, and it can be a far more powerful attraction tool.

many others argue that it is a ‘pointless’ technology, or at best, there is not yet a killer use for it.

holding your phone over bridges and watching move scenes play out over them is pretty cool, as is being able to bring your brand’s logo to life - but there is nothing (yet) that has really catapulted AR into the mainstream.

that is, until AR sat-navs come along.

imagine… instead of simultaneously looking at a little screen (your sat-nav) and the road, the interior of your windscreen IS the screen.

your route, speed cameras, upcoming turns etc are all superimposed on your view as you drive along. it would be brilliant. and a lot safer.

it’s not within our ken; but whoever does it, royalties please.

Our new ‘Weekend In…’ travel guides handpick only the places you MUST go in destinations including Barcelona, Las Vegas, London, Moscow, New York, Rome, and Sao Paolo.

If you are time-poor but want an experience rich weekend, we’ve chosen the creme de la creme for you.

Sections include Where to Stay, Where to Eat, Where to Visit, Where to Go Out, Where to Relax, and Practicalities (all the useful things you’d never think to ask).

‘A Weekend In…’ is the update to our popular Destination Guides app, and include new entries, more images, and a rebranding/redesign.

Below are some images from our Barcelona guide to give you an idea of what to expect.

You can download ‘A Weekend In…’ for free now in iTunes by clicking here.

aside from the fact he is pursuing a class action of $5m for $200, it’s difficult to feel too much sympathy because a. you can turn off in app purchases in the settings AND they are password protected anyway, b. you sign a terms of service agreement when you register for iTunes (nobody reads it but that’s not really the point) and c. if you give a young child a device with full, unfettered, unmonitored and unmetered internet access with direct access to payment then you deserve to be punished.

there may be an argument that apple is trying to get money from customers ‘on the sly’ – by giving them seemingly free apps that require further payment to pay properly – and perhaps worryingly for apple case reports note (from the above article):

The judge said that even if parents had given their children passwords, many parents were misled by Apple’s presentation of these “freemium” games as free and that Apple didn’t adequately inform consumers about the potential costs. Judge Davila has allowed the case to continue.

we’ll see what happens…

We’re pleased to announce that the updated version of iVIP, iVIP 2.1, is now available in iTunes.

There are updates available for all editions of iVIP; Red, Blue, City, and iVIP Black, the ‘Millionaires’ App’.

What’s New in Version 2.1 (as evident in the image above):

- Better, more exciting VIP Treatment and partner offers including priority ticketing, VIP shopping experiences, and a new integrated concierge partner
- Updated, increased, and improved partner database
- Localisation
- Design amendments and improvements

We are currently developing iVIP on other platforms and it will be imminently available on both Android and Windows Mobile.

Don’t forget also, that you can sign up to iVIP online here.

Click here to see iVIP in iTunes.

You can see the original post here.

london underground claim that their escalators (409 of them) do the equivalent of 50k miles (two round the world trips) each every week.

that shouldn’t be something to boast about, surely?

considering they (particularly the down escalators) are empty a lot of the time, only taking passengers as and when there are trains, this continuous loop must cost tfl a fortune.

not to mention being very far from ‘green’.

it would make far more sense if, rather than running them constantly, the escalators were motion or weight sensitive, so as to come on and go off as and when needed.

these exist elsewhere in the world; with the load on london’s transport network increasing dramatically it would pay in the long term for tfl to invest, or at least trial, these now.

presumably the prohibitive cost is what is stopping them.

if it’s not, but rather the lack of a suitably effective and economic product, then escalator experts – get inventing.

the iVIP application is now available to license as a customer, client or employee engagement and/or retention tool. available on iOS and imminently Android and Windows, there are a variety of options and solutions to improve and enhance your relationships internally and externally, utilising the nascent appeal of the booming app market.

you can find out more by clicking here.

http://www.appannie.com/blog/infographic-rise/

http://www.fastcompany.com/tag/facebook-ipo-players-club