Happy Friday!!
We have great news to share with you all this week!
Rerun has been nominated for 'Best Digital & Tech Blog' category for this year’s Blog Awards 🎉 🎉
Thank you to all of our readers for the continued support!
Let the scrolling begin!
Top Pick
Chinese retailer JD.com launches e-commerce blockchain platform for business and enterprise
As the number of providers and suppliers in the e-commerce market-space proliferates, how do vendors ensure the end-to-end integrity of their customer's purchases?
Chinese megalith JD.com Inc is rolling out an innovative blockchain platform aiming to solve this very issue.
Offering blockchain as a service, JD.com's platform will help businesses to improve integrity and consumer visibility around things like the movement of goods, charity donations, digital copyright and authenticity certification.
This year we've started to see blockchain move outside its traditional fintech domain and begin to be used for novel applications such as distributed video encoding, and now e-commerce. It's a technology that as consumers we might feel we don't fully understand just yet. But, then again, this writer doesn't fully understand the thermo-nuclear machinations taking place on the Sun right now but I'm sure glad they're doing their thing.
And a bit like the sun, blockchain is here to stay, bringing with it a layer of trust and authenticity currently absent from our digital spaces.
Future of TV
Retailers are marketing directly to kids shopping on their smartphones
Gone are the days of having to go into busy shopping malls to buy your school uniform, shoes, books and bags.
The new norm is to order as much as possible online to escape the hustle and bustle of a busy store. It is reported to cost $645 to send a child to school in the US. The Washington Post take a look at how retailers are marketing directly to kids through smartphones.
Children aged 11 or younger chat with friends and brands like Vans, Hollister and Michael Kors on Snapchat. It's reported that an extra 130 million hours of usage clocked up during the back to school season.
Amazon allow children as young as 13 to create their own account, with parents either able to set a spending cap, or ask for approval on purchases.
“I still have to beg my mom and dad for stuff, but now it’s at home instead of at the store...“It’s kind of easier this way.” Isabella, aged 9.
Netflix start 'testing ads'
Netflix is facing the wrath of its users on Twitter over one of its new feature tests. They're trying out a new kind of "recommendation". Unsolicited content previews, appearing between episodes.
So, basically a commercial for their content. Sure, it's skippable, but that's not stopping users taking to Twitter with their displeasure. Many claim they'll delete their accounts if this becomes a thing. Do you think they will?
Virtual Reality
How the Smithsonian is turning its art exhibitions into virtual reality experiences
One of the best uses of VR technology we’ve seen at Rerun HQ, is giving people close-up access to works of art, and history.
The Smithsonian in Washington D.C. has taken this one step further. With the help of Intel, and Linden Lab, they have recreated exhibitions in a virtual space. Anyone with a VR headset can explore, either alone, or with a guide from the Smithsonian. When the exhibitions ends at the real world museum, it persists in the virtual world for years to come.
'Our curator, Nora Atkinson, has been giving virtual tours in Sansar, and she just loves the fact that she can go into this space and walk people around, even if those people are in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or some other city, and connect with them in real time with the stories behind the pieces in an interactive way.'
How Two Bit Circus is turning its 21st century carnival into a giant game
Ladies and Gentlemen, step right up!
Two Bit Circus’ micro-amusement park combines VR, escape rooms, and carnival games to create a grand, playable adventure.
Co-founders Brent Bushnell and Eric Gradman have worked on many whimsical creations together. For example, the Rube Goldberg machine in OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass” video. The duo created Two Bit Circus in 2012. The team has worked with The NBA, Disney, and Google. They've created experiential marketing activations that combine virtual reality and physical elements.
With location-based entertainment centres on the rise in the U.S. and Europe, a new kind of circus may roll into your town soon.
Biz Bits
Tastemade Launches First-Ever Content + Commerce Program with REI
Tastemade has partnered up with REI to develop and launch “Foraged & Found,” a short-form series that combines content and commerce.
The first episode follows printmaker Sunny Mullarkey taking inspiration from the surrounding nature to paint and carve beautiful art. With great content and the new commerce elements from REI, this partnership could be a big win for everyone.
Hands-on with the bizarrely fascinating Looking Glass volumetric display
A startup in the middle of a new crowdfunding campaign have created 'The Looking Glass'. A new display experimenting with various forms of volumetric and lightfield imaging in pursuit of real-world holograms. The display beams 45 views of an object, and has the potential to help 3D artists, product designers, and architects but most of all looks amazing!
We predict it could replace fish bowls in homes of the future!
That's all from the Rerun team at Axonista. We look forward to sharing more news from the future of TV and interactive video next week.