"The customer is always right." This may always have been true but you wouldn't know it from the experience most have had before the days of social networking. Rest assure, that in this connected age we as consumers are much more empowered.

The trend of social shopping has been growing now for several years but the timing for this community is perfect. With smart phones gaining popularity, the masses are arming themselves with portable knowledge, equipped with several means of communication, high quality cameras, and social networking apps, retailers need to be aware that the consumer has evolved. Beware the multi-tasking consumer.

Here are a list of some social shopping sites:

Stylehive http://www.stylehive.com/

Jelly Fish http://www.jellyfish.com/

Crowdstorm http://www.crowdstorm.com/

This Next http://www.thisnext.com/

Wist http://wists.com/

Shop Wiki http://www.shopwiki.com/

Kaboodle http://www.kaboodle.com/

It's nice to see that mother nature intelligence is inspiring the world that we create around us. [Business Week]

Great article today in the Globe and Mail about a nine-year-old from Singapore who wrote his own iPhone app. Unlike the typical forth graders who doodles with crayons, Lim Ding Wen writes code that allows you to doodle on an iPhone. His creation is called Doodle Kids and you can download the free app on iTunes. [via Globe and Mail]

The trend towards "connected tv's" and devices is a sign that people more and more want to enjoy the convenience of being connected without being chained to a desk. Laptops are becoming the norm as prices fall, next-gen kids are growing up not even having used a desktop computer, and smartphones are becoming more accessible and user friendly. So what does all this mean? Well, I hope it means that we've reached the stage where technology is finally adapting to us and not only facilitating but simplifying our connected lifestyle.

ABI Research released a study which included over 1,000 households, and found that the younger consumers want to interact with their friends online and watch tv simultaneously. Yahoo! is on top of this movement with their tv widgets, and have partnered with some of the larger electronics company to stream flikr, news, and weather to your livingroom via the internet.  So can we expect channels/widgets for Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter in the near future? I don't know about you but I already use my TV for online content, listening to Last.fm and Twittering. So I welcome a more user friendly interface so I can continue to do these things but on the comfort of my couch and a remote control. [via cnet news]

There is no doubt that modern day advances in computing has enabled hollywood to not only bring to life some amazing characters in the superhero, comic book, and sci-fi genre, but also cash in on them too. The blockbuster success of X-MEN, Batman and the Spiderman franchises have really opened the floodgates in this genre. Look out for huge budget, big action, mind blowing effects on the big screen in 2009.

Star Trek

There's a good article today in the Wall Street Journal called "Out of Office: Job Loss in the Age of Blogs and Twitter". There a lot of people these days that have been laid off, looking for work, or retiring. For some it can be quite a bleak and lonely road ahead. Thankfully, the internet has really become a source of all things, ranging from entertainment to social facilitator. The article points out that online gaming, social networking and movie rentals are on the rise as people are heading online to escape this doom and gloom economy.For the recently laid off or those looking for work in a downturn economy, the internet has been a great resource and support network. The days of veggin' on the couch flipping channels have been substituted by interacting online: searching job sites, participating in support forums, networking with friends, playing games, watching movies, and other time-wasters that are available online 24/7. 

If you haven't already visited Crackle.com then you're in for a nice surprise. Previously known as Grouper a user-generated video portal like YouTube that was purchased by Sony Picture Entertainment for a reported $65 million back in 2006. It failed to take on YouTube's rising star back in the day and was reincarnated as Crackle.com in 2007. SPE re-branded Crackle as it's ready-made network for distributing it's original digital content in short form as well as full length programming from it's vast library of content.

This streaming channel has some of the best shows you'll never see on TV...well at least not yet. The short form content is specifically created for your online pleasure with most of their series' running anywhere from 2-10 min episodes. Don't be mistaken here, web content doesn't necessarily mean basement productions, the content on Crackle has high production value on a budget. The writing/editting is tight, actors are recognizable, and most importantly it's bite size and entertaining.

Here's a list of my picks:

The Line: Two best friends, armed with one change of clothes and one simple mission: get tickets to the world premiere of Future Space. They march to the front spot on line and brace themselves for one of the toughest trials of their lives.

The Writersroom: is a black comedy about the trials and tribulations of writing for a Kevin Pollack-hosted late-night talk show. Neurotic scribes squabble and worry about jokes, food, and health care plans.

My Long Distance Relationship: Follow Sam and Samantha, college freshman and high school sweethearts, who with the help of modern technology struggle continue their relationship from Far West University in Oregon and South Southern East State in Florida: as far apart as two people can get.

Star-ving: "Married with Children's" Bud Bundy, David Faustino, is back and bare-assed! David & his whacked out side kick, Corin Nemec of "Parker Lewis Can't Lose", will do anything to get back on top.  Nobody ever said that being a short, broke, alcoholic, sex maniac, ex-child actor was easy.

We've definitely come along way from the days of the calculator watches and the gaming watches of the 80's. working unlocked mobile watch phone while scrubbing through YouTube for the latest in mobile phone watches. There seems to be a flood of products like this available online and in the works from many of the large electronic companies. LG showed off their watch phone at this years CES show, you can see the video demo here.

I've yet to see any watch phones being sold by local retailers in my hood, but if you're really eager to get one they seems they are readily available on EBay by sellers TradePlanet24 and Go2Gold.

Hmmm, leaving security for a huge event like the Super Bowl in the hands of Microsoft software...is that such a good idea? Let's just cross our fingers and hope there isn't any emergency and they've updated all the necessary security updates, because this just looks like  a hackers dream come true.

And can someone explain to me why the camera person shooting this video is only shooting the other camera person and not the actual screen?? 

Looks like YouTube wants to be a player in the Hollywood scene.

Documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit whose last film about a font face, Helvetica, got rave reviews and a ton of media attention in the 2007 festival circuit. His latest project explores the world of industrial design and the people who create the  objects that we surround ourselves with daily. Objectified is scheduled to premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in the springtime. You can view the trailer for Objectified here.

One of my biggest pet peeves has to be "Geo-Targeting", according to Wikipedia this method is used to determine your geo-location so that a website visitor is delivered content most relevant to them. In practice, they are road blocks to stop you from viewing content based on your region, in my case Canada. So if you are outside of the U.S, and want access to sites like Hulu.com, MTV.com, TheWB.com, etc...download Hotspot Shield. Hotspot Shield hides your IP address so geo-targeting sites don't know where you are coming from. You should now be able to enjoy all the content you want without encountering road blocks!

After reading an article about Boxee in The New York Times this past weekend, I decided to download the software and try it out for myself. Wow, was I ever pleasantly surprised, in fact I spent the majority of the weekend streaming videos and music on my TV. I've had my Mac mini  connected to my 40" LCD TV for a while now but using a wireless mouse and keyboard just doesn't allow for a smooth experience. Boxee does away with browsers and makes accessing media from the internet seamless.Boxee is a startup trying to break new ground in the way you will consume digital media. I think they are definitely on the right path. Once you install the software (50mb download), currently only available for Mac, Linux, and Apple TV (though a PC version is being tested), it allows you to access, as well as stream media from multiple sources, such as your computer, LAN, and the internet (Hulu, Youtube, Netflix, CBS, Last.FM, Flikr, etc).

My favourite new discovery is the streaming "Animated Music Video" channel on Crackle.com. Sony Picture's next-gen entertainment site. Crackle also offers lots of other great original content as well which I will cover in a future post, so enjoy this for now.