Ordering Big Mac by RFID

via Springwise
Working with SK Telecom, McDonald's in Korea is testing food ordering by RFID (radio-frequency identification). A pilot program in Seoul's Shinchon neighbourhood lets customers place an order by pointing their cell phone at the items they want. Actually, it's not quite that simple—they first need to download software to their phone and then, seated at their McDonald's table, plug an RFID reader into the phone and aim their handset at a menu with built-in RFID chips. Items are automatically charged to their cell phone bill. As soon an order is ready, a message is sent to the customer's cell phone, letting them know that they can pick up their tray at the counter.

According to SK Telecom, McDonald's "Touch Order" system is the first in the world that lets customers use RFID to place orders at a restaurant. Like GoMobo, the company that enables members to order food by text message at a growing number of US restaurants, Touch Order allows customers to avoid queues, making the buying process faster and more convenient for both the restaurant and its patrons. One to watch if you're in mobile commerce or the fast food business!

真藝英雄 Who moved our art

昨天訪問了關尚智和麥海珊 (阿晨)，兩位香港重要的藝術家，一個傾向為藝術而藝術，另一個更多為人人。兩位談與財團合作、不能合作的拉扯成為咋晚的引子。究竟藝術與商業間是矛盾和審查，還是可以cross over，將這場權力縣殊的遊戲變成賣座保証，誰的策略更出色？誰是真英雄？誰是假？ 幾個星期前放了Anson在you tube 的天星video，今次聽到阿智話一代普普藝術大師Andy Warhol對他影嚮深遠，所以還是要在you tube 找華荷video。BBC這個節目關於真假華荷的評審機器實是不能錯過的回應。

imagine...andy warhol denied part 1-6/7

Dead in the wave of Web 2.0

Another one comes into the deadzone in techcrunch.
Yahoo Mixd, which launched in November 2006, closed down on February 25 (although nobody noticed until today).

Mixd competed with several group SMS services such as Zemble, Dodgeball, and Twitter. The last, Twitter, has recently stolen the bulk of media and blogger attention.

You Must Be Streaming

In a sudden reversal of fortune, newspapers have taken to online video and might just beat TV news at its own game.

W e think we know that the professional news media, especially newspapers, are obsolete, that the future is all about (excuse the expression) you—media created by amateurs. But such PowerPoint distillation tends to overlook the fact that mainstream media are not all simply shriveling and dying but in some instances actually evolving. And in evolution, there are always fascinating transitional iterations along the way. Such as newspapers’ suddenly proliferating forays into online video. (And now magazines: Time Inc. just announced a new “studio” to develop Web video.)

Whereas the YouTube paradigm is amateurs doing interesting things with cameras, the newspapers’ Web videos are professional journalists operating like amateurs in the best old-fashioned sense. One of the Times’s new Web-video stars, David Carr (as the jolly-noir, movie-tasked Carpetbagger), recalls that when the Times’ video operation started fifteen months ago, his bosses said, “ ‘Let’s give it a whirl.’ Which is the exact opposite of the Times’ usual DNA. ‘Let’s give it a whirl’—that’s not something that comes up a lot.”......................

NY magazine