20th Century Fox takes Angry Birds to Rio

Marketers want you using their app, they want you to engage with their brand and build a stronger connection with whatever they’re selling; They’re also starting to realise that just because they can build an app which showcases their latest advert and directs you to the nearest store doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll download, use it or say something polite in the reviews section.

That’s why Rovio’s announcement today that they’ll be making a special version of Angry Birds starring characters from the film Rio is such a key trend to watch in 2011: advertisers want to play with you. No one can ignore the phenomenal success of standout mobile gaming titles such as the Birds, Cut the Rope or Doodle Jump (which too has just announced a brand tie-up) and as most brand attempts to beat them have failed except to see a lot more simply joining in.

If that means fun additional, high quality games, in many cases for free, I don’t expect many people will mind - but there’s a fine line to tread in terms of how in your face developers can allow the brand presence to be, no one will want to be asked to book tickets to Rio everytime they start a new level.

Sony makes clever use of Google Demoslam and Maria Sharapova to promote it’s Xperia range of Android phones.

A Preview of Android 3.0 Honeycomb - Google’s proper attempt at empowering an iPad rival

“Honeycomb is the next version of the Android platform, designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. We’ve spent a lot of time refining the user experience in Honeycomb, and we’ve developed a brand new, truly virtual and holographic user interface. Many of Android’s existing features will really shine on Honeycomb: refined multi-tasking, elegant notifications, access to over 100,000 apps on Android Market, home screen customization with a new 3D experience and redesigned widgets that are richer and more interactive. We’ve also made some powerful upgrades to the web browser, including tabbed browsing, form auto-fill, syncing with your Google Chrome bookmarks, and incognito mode for private browsing.

Honeycomb also features the latest Google Mobile innovations including Google Maps 5 with 3D interactions and offline reliability, access to over 3 million Google eBooks, and Google Talk, which now allows you to video and voice chat with any other Google Talk enabled device (PC, tablet, etc).”

(Source: googlemobile.blogspot.com)

Are you ready for Near Field Communication?

Google is hoping to bring the technology mainstream in their updated Nexus phone.