Archive for the ‘Bluetooth’ Category

Yay! (yep, I picked up that disturbingly vocal thingy as well) We earned a Certificate of Finalist Recognition in the category Communications Campaign of the Year in Europe in The 2009 International Business Awards (aka the Stevie Awards).  Basically, our communication approach and execution of celebrating 10 years of Bluetooth™ wireless technology was selected from more than 1,700 entries received from organizations and individuals in more than 30 countries.  

It feels extremely good to feel the work recognized, and see that the integrated communication mix ranging from viral tactics, social networks, event support and more traditional die hard PR execution did not go unnoticed.

No communication strategy can be pulled off without a client believing in us. Kudo´s to Mike Foley, PhD., Executive Director of the Bluetooth SIG and Anders Edlund, Marketing Director and their team for having faith and keeping us sharp.

Thanks also to Marta Majewska and Dirk Bosmans, for great work, creative thinking and going the extra mile (and knowing Bluetooth better than a camel sand…)

For the yearly Bluetooth gift guide event, we geared up our trusted cars again. The Lotus Elise packed with new goodies, and  Felix, our Landrover Lightweight armed to the teeth with wireless Bluetooth systems. London, here we come!

Ever since I read Isaac Asimov’s novels on robots I wanted one. But, unfortunately these tall handy positronic brained metal men take way longer to hit consumer markets then I had anticipated. Here I am, in the twilight of almost 40 and still no Robot. Deep Sigh.

Luckily there is Lego. Their Mindstorm series allow for the building of extremely complicated (that is for a 39 year old. My young nephews prove way smarter builders) robots with a plethora of sensing devices, programmable and remote-controllable through Bluetooth wireless technology.

If you are up to building a good old R’Bot, with nightvision, motion detection radar and the like, you should  quickly visit http://www.bluetooth.com/Bluetooth/Products/Signature/Robot.htm and build and enter your Robot. Nice thingies to win.

My colleague Dirk and I will build a docile, beer fetching, bottle opening, pizza ordering  buddy Bot. We’ll call him BlueBot. And you?

Luckily Stefaan was able to get the wipers going again, so moral went up. We met lots of beautiful cars on the road. A classic rally Aberdeen to Le Mans featured Jaguars, Lotus, Aston Martins, etc. But ours do not look bad either!

Rain, rain, rain… 200 klicks of pouring. Nothing but water. Ideal when you are driving three convertibles.  One of them (the one I’m driving L) thought this would be an ideal moment to shut down  the screen wipers. Can’t see. A Thing. 200 klicks to go. Who came up with this idea any way?

We did not catch a lot of sleep lately, and Stefaan from SD motors has not seen his bed for ages… but our Landrover Lightweight is ready in time for our viral trip to France.   It’s equipped with a multitude of Bluetooth enabled devices and features a sound system that would freak out many a DJ J. We decided to call this black panther like demo car “Felix”.  

On Thursday morning we leave for our Bluetooth SIG viral tour. First assignment: discover the beautiful beaches of Northern France, from Boulogne up to the well known Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno and Gold beaches in Normandy. We will stop, show the endless hordes of tourists what Bluetooth wireless technology can do, and move on.

Apotheosis is a couple of visits to Rouen, where the most magnificent sailing ships of the planet gathered together before majestically sailing down the Seine on Monday 14^th . With a forecasted reach of over 10 million people, a hell of an event. J

Our trusted Bluetooth SIG Lotus, and Parrots 1952 MG TF will be joined by a paratrooper Landrover Lightweight. Three more days. And this is what the car looks like right now. Don’t panic.

Finnish Bluetooth peripheral company Iqua has an extremely nice Bluetooth headset, the Smartbadge. If you spend way too much time at tradeshows, it is good to have a decent badge holder (God, do I HATE commercial lanyards!). Iqua provides one that doubles as a headset. Battery goes on forever.

Found a viral movie featuring the Smartbadge. It is –of course- politically incorrect. J

Now I’ve been known to be reasonably creative as to how you can throw a car into a consumer communication mix J. Ok, you can do press relations, invest in a nice booth on some tradeshows, launch some nice viral movies on the net, populate a blog. But a flashy car doing the right things can just as easily reach to a broad audience and leave a long lasting impression.

And then, in the middle of the Arizona desert, I met about the biggest car I’ve ever seen. Politically very incorrect, probably contributing more to global warming than joggers (the CO² that these runners generate: you have NO idea J). But just very impressive. 3 tons of pure marketing power on wheels. Now there is a thought…

This week, I am visiting the Bluetooth All Hands meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. Every time I come to this desert state, I get under its spell. Endless blue skies, burning sun, the real-cowboy-cactus, the wild hills. Just sitting here on my balcony and sucking in the vast scenery makes me very happy. Maybe I am a sunshine boy after all…

Now you can have all the words in the world, all the social influence tools, all the data mining software available… nothing can describe the sun sinking behind the mountains in this desert. It is gorgeous.

I just posted something on you yesterday. Not that you read it, you probably have other things on your mind. Top Gear stuff. When to test the new Ferrari. How to go faster through the Hammerhead. But today, you’re big news. Some Mirror reader called Adam claims his girlfriend saw you dashing down the M40, doing 70mph, holding a mobile phone against your ear. You were driving your V8 Mercedes.  Nice car, by the way.

I know this cannot be true. First of all, no one can do 70 on the M40, it’s way too blocked with people who clearly have no clue how to drive. And if by any chance there was no traffic, you would surely be doing more than 70 with that car, I hope.  Secondly, between us, it was a reader of the Mirror. And you have a column with one of their biggest competitors. I can safely state most Mirror readers do not like you very much. Thirdly, ever tried to get a non fuzzy picture with a mobile phone? Ever tried it from a moving car, aiming to shoot a car doing 70, after you identified the driver? Good luck!  (And by the way the picture in the Mirror can only be taken from the driver seat, and that ain’t legal too, Mr. Adam!  ) 

And last but not least… surely you are smart enough to enjoy driving to its fullest extent, using a Bluetooth headset, or a Bluetooth handsfree kit? Bring one to your next Top Gear shoot.

Show the people that you have one, that you know how to use one. Show them wrong.  Yours sincerely, Me. 

We demo a full range of Sony Ericsson products in the Lotus. I’m very fond of the W910 Walkman phone. Its internet connection is really fast, and the music features are good: simple, and easy. The way I like it J. Still think that switching songs by just shaking the phone is kinda cool. The Bluetooth features of the phone are good as well… it connects just with about anything I have.

Those who know me a bit better, are aware of my little addiction to watches. Heck, now I have found in the MBW-150 a watch that is Bluetooth enabled. I can control a plethora of features of my phone via my watch. Watch display gives me caller ID, and MP3 tags.  Kinda James Bond-y, but: me like!

Yep. That can count as a baseline, not? Stefaan from SD-motors managed to get the Lotus repaired in a record time (ever tried ordering a piece @ Lotus? J ), so on Sunday we will be on our way to the Geneva car show where we will give demos of the newest Sony Ericsson  peripherals to the journalists attending the event.  Bluetooth enabled watches, stereo headsets, streaming audio devices, FM transmitters, cool W910i walkman phones (the faces of these poor iPhone users when I switch the song by just shaking the phone. Touchscreens seem sooooo 1990 these days, vivat gravitron sensors!)… you name it, we have it.

And with all that gear to play with, we don’t mind a traffic jam… or two     

Dirk did his first TV interview with a Canadian crew, but the first “moving” coverage of our Bluetooth enabled Lotus in Barcelona came over Italian web television. Www.tecnozoom.it  is a very popular web portal in Italy. It is a complete guide into the news regarding hi-tech products such as: digital cameras, mobile phones, MP3 players, notebooks, laptops, accessories for mobile phones and many other devices.

Sunny Dirk in the Barcelona sun showing an Iqua solar powered Bluetooth headset. It is a hard  life….

In hall 2 of the Mobile World Congress, you better secure your business before 17:00. Then the two swinging Deejays of Parrot start a grooving party. Their beats are superbly relayed by the Parrot Boombox. And that one is wireless, of course. What were we thinking J.  

The Bluetooth SIG announced at the Mobile World Congress that Bluetooth wireless technology will expand its reach in two directions. Ultra low power Bluetooth technology will open the doors to new industries: medical, health, fitness and adventure. The SIG announced a new flavor on the other side of the spectrum: high speed Bluetooth connections using 802.11. This will enable fast data swapping, synchronization, and applications asking for higher data throughput.

Showstoppers found an ideal spot in the Mobile World Congress programming: the Sunday evening. Around six, close to 200 journalists showed up for a quick speed connection with 16 companies. An ideal way to start off a hectic week of press interviews, briefings, keynote sessions, presentations, and… With some drinks and some finger food, messages appeared to get in rather smoothly J.

Trust me. Building in a Parrot Bluetooth car kit is simple. Any decent car nut can do it. It comes with crystal-clear instructions. In multiple languages. Matter of a screwdriver, some grey matter and a couple of minutes. Heck, even I can do it, it took me less than a quarter of an hour. In a normal car, that is….

Poor Stefaan had to install a MK6100 in the really confined cockpit of our new Elise. And that is good for about two hours heads down, legs up fun, in the middle of the night… close to our deadline. But hey, it works! As a charm. Barcelona, here we come!

I know, that really does sound like a romantic fairytale, what you? After two years of loyal, faithful services, we decided to say goodbye to our yellow demo-Lotus. We dragged the poor thing from Barcelona, over Paris to Copenhagen, from Dublin, over London to Vienna… and showed it in, on, or around every tradeshow worth that name. Journalists drove it, Bluetooth demos were given in a plethora of countries and languages. But Chiquita collected miles and scratches, and after an over eager salesman stupidly slammed into her tender backside, we decided to let her go on a well-earned retirement.   But next week, we need wheels. Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is coming up, and we need to show the newest cool Bluetooth products. So we need a car that is up to the usual standards. Something funky, cool, convertible and fast. Indeed. A Lotus J.

Stefaan, our trusted grease monkey from SD-motors is building us one. Building it up to spec, with the usual strobe lights, blue leds, demo neons, and smoke generators; but also with the widest range of Bluetooth equipment.  It is Aspen white. We will call it Snowwhite. We’re not panicking (yet): Stefaan has 48 hours to finish it. No pressure….

I was two days at the ISPO Munich this week. A bit out of my hum, out of sync and out of place I must say. While I feel as a fish in the nerdy waters of tech shows all around the globe, here I was confronted with the health and fitness nuts of the adventure and outdoor sports industry. Yep. My kinda show. Most people walking around seemed to spend more time working out, than I work in a week. Girls walked in expensive (trust me…) jumpsuits, accompanied by guys who could probably climb Mount Kangchenjunga using only their fingernails. Disgusting.

It was difficult to survive two days. Drinks offered ranged from bio-nade (you really do not want to know); over banana-kiwi and strawberry-litchi shakes, to bionic and bontanic water. I feel extremely healthy now. And depressed. Thank you.

I chaired a panel this week @ ISPO Munich, on ultra low power Bluetooth technology.  Nokia, Nordic, Polar, Texsys and the Bluetooth SIG participated in an animated discussion on the future implementation of the low power version of Bluetooth technology. All participants saw a huge potential market in the fitness, adventure and health industry, where multiple sensor devices crave easy and power friendly connections with mobile phones and computers.

I guess not everybody loves technology. Fair enough. Some people are not thrilled, some people could not care less… but apparently there are some vultures of the darkness that vehemently hate it. Hm. I came across a mammoth of a guy in the Vegas Fashion Mall with a very wireless-unfriendly attitude, eloquently translated on his T-shirt.

I was not brave enough to tell him he was walking around with a serious brand violation, and that Bluetooth should never be used as a noun. If you want to protect yourself against this predator, you can have a look at some good advice from Mike Foley.

Paris based Parrot won the Best of CES Music award yesterday. This prestigious award is issued by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group during the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to highlight the hottest, most innovative and consumer friendly Bluetooth enabled products.  The Bluetooth SIG carefully tested each product and judged them on a variety of criteria, including compliance with Bluetooth SIG qualification standards, ease-of-use, look and feel and overall usability of the product as expected by the average consumer.  The Parrot DS1120 Bluetooth Speakers (what is in a name J) proved best-of-class.

Bluetooth^® technology, the global standard for short range wireless communications, turns 10 years old this week. And it was marking its birthday appropriately at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, with a party in the trendy Tao. While the idea of Bluetooth technology was born over a decade ago, the first products didn’t hit the shelves until the year 2000. In eight years 1.5 billion Bluetooth enabled devices have been shipped, and the organization behind the technology, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, has grown from a handful of companies to 10,000 members. “The first ten years of Bluetooth development has been amazing to watch,” said Michael Foley, executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. “No other consumer technology has grown as fast in such a short period of time.”

The BBC-driven tv-program Click produced an 8-minute feature (click here), made during the Holiday Gift Guide Event in London. It features products of several  Bluetooth members present at the event, Mike Foley talking about v2.1 and me, myself and I driving the Lotus. The program was shown on BBC World and BBC 2 , BBC News 24 and on BBC Online.