• Ocado to launch ‘virtual shop window’ for Apple iPhone users – Telegraph – Hot on the heels of Tesco's Korean subway proof-of-concept, this digital interactive display is a bit of a stunt for just a week, but a sign of something that we'll take for granted within two years.
• Fostex AR-4i turns iPhone 4 into handheld stereo HD video powerhouse –
• A Store With Only 3 Products And Other Cases For Simplicity | Fast Company – Taking 'selectivity' in merchandising to a new level. Interesting thought when compared with the "more is more – just filter and sort" approach.
• Apple’s Designers Work Towards Storefront Symmetry –
• Internet Retailing » Call for PubQuizzers – 23 November, 3rd InternetRetailingBeringerTameAnnualCharityeCommercePubQuiz… – Do not miss out on our third competitive extravaganza! An informal 'industry event'.

Anyway, the event was held at the rather spectacular Congress Hall and upon entering I realised both that is was a great presentation venue, and that 350 marketers is quite some audience

There were some spectacular and energetic speakers (Jonathan MacDonald in particular), and two sessions that interested me in particular on digital publishing and ecommerce in retail.

The presentation went well and I used the time to reprise themes from previous FODM presentations, wander into the realms of Augmented Reality, build on some KPI discussions I’d been having with Michael “KPI” Ross and finally introduce the “Obama-Preedy Pricing Principle” (the result of a beer-supported discussion with Tony Preedy on how discounts and promotions should be related to a specific place, time and – increasingly – appropriate behaviours). Maybe it should have been the Pavlov-Preedy Principle??

You can see all of the presentations on the Econsultancy page (you need to be a subscriber), or you can see my presentation via the Slideshare link:

Google’s Mobile App is a step closer.

I won’t rehash the explanatory video – it’s, er, self-explanatory – but the really interesting part for me isn’t the voice recognition but rather the emerging “common sense” in the google results. Note that there’s now an interpretive layer that’s interception calculations, directory-type enquiries (eg film listings, nearby restaurants) and informational or evaluative requests.

This is a major step forward for something that we tend to think of as a text-indexing service.

I’m a great fan of knowledge systems like TrueKnowledge (that has an inference engine built upon structured facts, questions and relationships – wonderful) – but it seems that Google’s slowly but surely adding equivalent capabilities by stealth and in parts.

Let’s start counting the days until this is seen as “just normal”…

UPDATE: been playing this morning at a client’s (different voices, male/female, Northern, Welsh, Australian) and we’re getting a one in five success rate. Still, that it even works 20% of the time is amazing and I’m sure it’ll train me to get clearer