Focus: Latest

Focus

Transparency and honesty from 'charity: water'

In just five years, New York-based charity: water has raised nearly $50m. This has been achieved by emphasising transparency; 100% of donations go directly towards projects, and donors can track exactly where their money is going.

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CashStar: digital gift cards and mobile giving

In societies that are cash-rich but time-poor, gift cards have emerged as a popular solution. The gift card market in the UK alone is currently worth £4bn; and with smartphone penetration rising, gift cards are becoming digital.

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48: conquering the youth mobile market

How do you attract a notoriously fickle youth demographic to a new mobile phone network in an already saturated marketplace? Easy: you give them an exclusive, members-only deal which makes all other networks appear, well, a little bit lame.

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Beautiful and Bald Barbie

Sexy and smart, Barbie is the 'perfect woman'; some might say a little too perfect. Can you ever remember seeing her facing any serious adversity? Well, in 2013, after a Facebook campaign, Barbie will find out her friend has cancer.

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Karma: the gift of convenience

Karma is a mobile app that allows you to send thoughtful gifts to your friends and family based on what’s going on in their lives. The app connects to Facebook to encourage you to order a gift for them via text anywhere, at any time.

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MTV Under The Thumb: making television social

MTV has launched a new app which grants smartphone and tablet users on-demand access to the full range of its television shows. Importantly, it also includes a built-in feature which allows users to chat with friends online while they watch.

Focus

Shanzhai phones: authentically fake

Mobile phone imitations in China are a response to the massive local demand for cheap mobile functionality. This lucrative market is called ‘shanzhai’, and has resulted in brands such as as Nkia, Blockberry and Svmsung.

Focus

#PunkMoney: trading promises on Twitter

#PunkMoney is a 'promise currency' which allows Twitter users to turn an empty promise into redeemable action. While it is only intended for casual use, it represents a significant movement in a time of low attention and floundering intimacy.

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Pair: an app for couples

Pair is a mobile app built just for couples. The 'social network for two' enables instant access to your partner through myriad communication channels, from video calling to photo sharing and instant messaging.

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Hai Di Lao: eating together, apart

The Hai Di Lao restaurant in China has tapped into people's desire for visual communication with the launch of a virtual dining concept that allows diners 1,200km apart to come together and eat in one space via LCD screens.

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Tokkster: meet strangers on the same page as you

Tokkster's goal is to turn the entire internet into one big frictionless chatroom. Browsers can interact on the same site in real time – providing opportunities for serendipitous encounters and meaningful engagement around a brand.

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Loosecubes: the future of workplaces?

Sharing office space with other independent professionals is already a familiar concept to many freelancers. Loosecubes is a New-York based online database of co-working spaces which hopes to take the trend mainstream.

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VMware: work, text and play

Employees are increasingly insisting on using their personal smartphones as work tools. To deal with this, a new mobile virtualisation platform lets consumers run two phones – one work and one personal – on the same device.

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Kidz Bop: entertaining Gen Z

Today's children are arguably more media-savvy than their parents, and are demanding products that reflect this. In light of this, US music brand Kidz Bop has teamed up with SiriusXM to launch a radio show that is made “by kids, for kids.”

Focus

Aesir: luxury in simplicity

Danish brand Aesir has created a mobile phone that is so painstakingly crafted that its simplicity is a virtue in itself. Yves Behar, who designed the handset, says “I wanted to focus on the idea of voice, clarity and simplicity.”

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Sony SmartTags: smarter smartphones

Smartphones with endless features and settings require constant reconfiguring from users, which can be somewhat tiresome. Sony's SmartTags attempt to eliminate this through the use of NFC technology which adjusts the phone to its environment.

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Carling Black Label: Be the Coach

On 24 May 2011, the South African football fraternity celebrated the launch of the Carling Black Label Cup. In this one-off battle, fans were allowed to pick their teams and strategies for the match using their mobile phones.

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SuperFan

SuperFan, from the person behind SingStar, hopes to build new experiences (and revenues) that will replace those lost from the digitisation of the music industry by enabling fans to connect to their idols as well as their peers.

Focus

Mini Getaway: Tokyo

After an immensely successful trial run in Stockholm, Mini has demonstrated that its simple location-based mobile game Getaway is a truly global idea by taking it to a playing field 32 times larger: Tokyo.

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Converse Made By

Converse is launching an app which will let fans design and sell their own trainers to their friends and families through Facebook. And if they are able to shift enough units, they will be rewarded with a free pair for themselves.