Another neat technique in the vein of SnOil, a physical display Based on ferrofluid that reacts to magnetism. Shade Pixel is a type of physical display that uses deformable skin to represent information.

It is very pretty, the dots on the white looks like steps in the snow. Notice how the sound from the solenoid works really well with the “clock” idea! A nice trick to deal with noisy technology. You can see a video about Shade Pixel here:

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

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Do you do any sort of PPC for the online travel vertical? I recently attended a Google Webinar about online travel trends which they based on a ComScore study of 50,000 UK web users. Our Google rep, Marie, sent me a copy of the ComScore study which I have used to bring you my top ten useful tips for running a travel ppc campaign.

• Nearly half of all travel searches are brand related; can you afford to miss out on all this traffic? 36% of people who buy holidays use a brand search first and use a brand search immediately before purchasing so bid on branded keywords in your PPC campaigns
• Use day parting for PPC; people are 30% more likely to purchase a holiday on a Monday or Tuesday. Increase your bids then to capture this traffic and lower them at the weekend. Only 7% of purchasers buy a holiday on a Saturday.
• Get them early; 15.9% of purchasers buy their holiday from the first site they visit. Only 1.6% will buy immediately, but around 14.3% will return at some point for a conversion. Forget what you’ve learnt about the buying cycle; bidding on keywords that customers use in the research phase can get you a 15.9% conversion rate!
• Make sure your URL’s are memorable; 35% of transactions occur without a search on the same day. These people must’ve seen something they liked then gone away to think about it. Make sure they can remember where they were.
• Destinations aren’t as important as you think. 45% of online travel purchases are made without a destination search. Of course this means that 55% do use a destination related search term but I used to think that just about everybody would search for their destination at some point.
• Save some money for January. For the last few years there has been a massive peak in travel searches every January. Look on Google Trends with the travel query of your choice. Or don’t; trust me, there will be a peak in January.
• Ad variations are always a bit of a mystery. Test everything. Once I misspelled “hotels” as “hotsel” is an ad which turned out to have a (statistically) significantly better CTR. I thought I’d found something great so I rolled similar variations out across other ad groups. A few weeks later I checked to see what was going on, using splittester to judge which results were significant. Some ad groups it was better, some ad groups it was worse. I have no idea why. Test everything all the time.
• Most purchasers will visit your site at least twice before purchasing; make repeat visits more likely by including new and interesting content for them.
• Be patient. You’ve made all these changes, but on average it takes 29 days between first search and transaction for a holiday buyer. 30% of purchases occur more than 6 weeks after the initial search.
• Don’t want to be patient? Want to get the 17% of users who purchase after only one search? Then ideally you’re from easyjet, ryanair or some other well known airline. Branded searches tend to convert quicker (63% of single search transactions are branded) so build your brand if you want the shortest gap between click and conversion

I only got to look at the study this week so there hasn’t been time to see if all of these tips really work. I’ll let you know if any big surprises come along as I get more data from our travel clients.

Copyright SEOptimise. Original article from our SEO Blog - Search Engine Marketing Services

Travel PPC: 10 Ways to Improve Your Campaign.

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Filed under: Trophies

Some publishers know exactly how important Trophies are. One of them is EastAsiaSoft, who wasn’t shy about revealing a list of Trophies to their upcoming PSN title Soldner-X: Himmelsstürmer on their official website. Since we are suckers for side-scrolling shooters, things like the 1080p resolution and Trophies are really just icing on the cake. Check out our previous post for more information on Soldner-X.

Bronze Trophies:

* Kettenfahrzeug destroyed — Complete the first world
* Windgeist defeated — Complete the fourth world
* Top Scorer — Reach a score of 2,000,000
* Combo Mania — Complete an accumulated total of 3,000 chains
* Master the Menace — Complete the second world on Rank “S”
* Destroyer — Kill an accumulated total of 50,000 enemies
* Hidden Passage — Collect at least four keys in each world
* Fierce Fighter — Play for five minutes without losing any health

[Via PS3Trophies.co.uk — thanks, Jon K.!]

Continue reading Trophies: Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer

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Filed under: Dinner, Restaurants, Barbecuing, Raves & Reviews, America

“Who doesn’t love Wii?” says the manager I spoke with at Wildwood BBQ, a restaurant on Park Avenue at 18th Street in Manhattan.

Every Tuesday night since August, Wildwood BBQ, a classy new ribs joint off Union Square, has hosted Wii Boxing with cheap beer and big prizes. There’s a pre-tournament warm up at 8:00pm, when anyone can play, then signup for the tournament begins at 8:30. Sixteen guests can play for a chance to win $100 gift certificates good at any of BR Guest’s restaurants.

Sign up at the 50-foot bar for a chance to play, and starting at 9:30 pick up a $12 pitcher of Cold Ass beer (pardon my English; that’s really what it’s called).

Rumor has it that some undisclosed celebrities may be stepping into the ring one of these weeks! Get there if you can.

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Filed under: Tastings, Parties, Wine, Vodka, Champagne, Cocktails, Raves & Reviews, Spirits, Liqueurs, Celebrations, Holidays

It’s pink, it sparkles, and it comes in a fancy bottle. It’s Nuvo!

Nuvo is the world’s first sparkling liqueur, made with vodka and French sparkling wine. None of that, in theory, would make it pink. But, it’s pink. Magic! (additives!)

It is definitely best enjoyed very cold, and is meant to be served in champagne flutes over ice.

The flavor and aroma are delicate; you can definitely taste the wines used (very fruity). There is a strength to it, though. The best way I can find to describe it is to say it tastes like sparkling white zinfandel with a ridiculously high alcohol content…and frankly, it’s not bad!

Nuvo, in it’s signature bottle, makes a great gift and looks chic when served at parties. Its classy pink color makes it feel just a little bit more special than champagne or any of your usual liqueurs. Add more vodka to it to make a sparkling pink cosmopolitan! We approve.

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All hype no show – Wish I could give this one line review of Drona. Disappointing fare from Goldie Behl.
Like all super hero films the story is simple – Hero fights to save the world from a villain who wants to be immortal. The only difference being, that this superhero is straight out of Indian […]

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Motorola has rolled out a new model of the industrial CPC VC6096 Personal Digital Assistant that is powered by Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, making this one hardcore PDA device. It is insulated to stand up against external shocks and doubles up as a mobile computer that can be used in virtually any industrial situation without suffering wear and tear that normal handsets would after a short while. Some of the features and specifications include :-

• External 65-key QWERTY keyboard
• 6.5″ color touch screen display at VGA resolution


• Two USB 1.1 ports


• 10/100 Base-T Ethernet


• SD memory card slot


• XScale PXA270 624MHz processor


• 128 MB SDRAM


• 256 MB flash memory


• GSM/HSDPA networks


• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity


• SiRF Star III GPS chipset

Add a comment | From: Motorola Industrial PDA Hits The Market | Visit Ubergizmo | Good deals

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Filed under: Gaming

The last time we saw NeuroSky’s MindSet brainwave-controlled gaming headset, the company was partnering with Sega — now the peripheral-maker has teamed with Square Enix to produce what we hope will be a “mind-blowing” (groan) demo at this year’s Tokyo Game Show. If you’ll recall, NeuroSky has been pushing its unique brand of mind-controlled gaming since way back in 2005, but it appears the technology has become increasingly attractive to notable game-makers as of late. On Thursday, the two companies plan a demonstration of the in-game powers of relaxation at TGS in what appears to be a perfect example of Neo-like godliness. The whole thing goes down October 9th, so be there or be Square. Enix.

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Filed under: Action, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Disney, Fandom, Tech Stuff, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels

The geek cred of Jeff Bridges has skyrocketed this year. I can’t really think of a time when he wasn’t adored by film fans, but he’s got a special place with the fanboys these days thanks to his turn as Obadiah Stane in Iron Man. I was present for the Tron 2/Tr2n (do I really have to spell it that way?) footage at ComicCon this year — and it was one of those moments that will forever hold a place in nerd legend; the first glimpse of Bridges’ face caused the walls of Hall H to shake with howls of glee. And that was just a teaser filmed purely for the convention — heaven knows what emotions the actual trailer will prompt.

The Guardian had the chance to sit down with Bridges, who happily chatted about revisiting his Tron role — and the uncertain possibility of having to don a “neon mankini” again. (”Ah, the G-string. You’ve got to love it. I’m wearing one now!”) But despite the potential for skimpy underthings, Bridges felt the chance of doing a new Tron movie was too good to pass up. “[It’s] another unique, wild experience that was too good to turn down. Engaging in that world again feels just like it did all that time ago. Basically, I’m still a child, I love being childlike, and here was another chance to play with these crazy toys. And the cutting-edge technology makes it exciting. Doing the teaser trailer for Comic-Con, I had my first experience of motion capture. And that’s turning the industry on its head. It’s amazing being part of that.”

Continue reading Jeff Bridges Talks About the Cutting Edge of ‘Tron 2′

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Filed under: Celebrities, Dancing With The Stars, Episode Reviews

(S07E07) Things were a little different for the results show this week. The unfortunate injury that forced Misty May-Treanor out of the competition left the producers in a quandary. If they were to eliminate another team, they would be a week short for the planned season. Personally, I would have rather seen an elimination tonight and an extra week tacked on somewhere down the line. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Much like what we saw when Sara Evans quit the show, they stretched, and stretched, before getting to the announcement. Along with that slow coming revelation, they also managed to have the best collection of music and dance of the season so far.

Continue reading Dancing With The Stars: Week 3 Results

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