Happy Easter - Where An Emoji Meme Gets A Rite Of Spring Makeover

Emojis come to be iconic when they establish themselves quickly and without much fanfare. This particular shape, with eyes and a smile, may have originally been created to represent chocolate ice cream, but was doomed from the start for many obvious reasons. Not the least of which is found in the coarseness of Social Media communications posturing. This arena has always been the Wild West. Image Credit: Emojipedia via Business Insider (2015)

Happy Easter - Where An Emoji Meme Gets A Rite-Of-Spring Makeover

YES! It was a peg wall full of hang tag packaging Pile Of Poo 3-D emojis marked as FILLABLE EGGS in an assortment of Easter Egg colors (thank the stars none were brown).

Banner labeling marked as "Fillable Eggs" just under a pair of bunny ears to the left side of the label. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Seasons and celebrations come and go throughout our lives. The ebb and flow of our family and social experiences allow us to have a life filled with the excitement of anticipation.

On a recent trip to a local 99 Cents Only Stores, the seasonal aisles, which were previously filled with the red and green colors of the Christmas season, sported the rich red of Valentines Day cards and decorations as well the beginnings of the muted pinks, blues, purples, greens and yellows of Easter.

Once confronted with these displays one is drawn to the typical fare such as cards, centerpieces, and candy gift enclosures of the season ... like eggs, fillable eggs.

Typical plastic eggs folks use to hide candy and gifts in during Easter. Image Credit: Busy Body Kids

Being early into the Easter season, heck, Fat Tuesday hasn't even taken place, the selection was not as robust as one might anticipate.

One hang tag packaging section was quite attention getting, in that, it featured something that was, at once, current in shape, but just a bit odd. This is not an everyday egg!

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Lest one think this might be inappropriate messaging for outside of the common Social Media platforms where we all may be exposed to this kind of light-hearted coarseness, consider that Apple Corporation has recently been airing a commercial in heavy rotation using a song by SOFI TUKKER titled Best Friend (click link) that features, momentarily, this same Pile Of Poo emoji.

Apple's Pile Of Poo emoji as it appears in Apple's commercial introducing the new iPhone X to the world. Image Credit: Apple Corporation via YouTube (2017)

One can almost imagine the discussions in the product planning boardrooms ... in China. Can anyone sense the disconnect here?

A glasses festooned face with a tooth style grin. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Then now, after the decision had been made to develop a product to be sold during the Easter celebration season in the West, the order goes down to the modeling department to create a mold that would be the right size, to be split in half, so that a parent, grandparent, friend would be able to insert an inclusion, a candy or other small object, for gifting purposes.

What goes on in the mind of a person with the engineering degree/training and crafts background to create such a thing so it would become ... a THING?

A laughing expression with drool coming out of one side. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Meeting after meeting, where the tests prove that this is now a product, until the next step where the other decisions have been made on differentiation, such as color(s), screened graphic faces, packaging considerations are applied.

A surprise "Oh!" expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Small groups of graphic designers come up with an assortment of face configurations. Each by each are approved and moved forward into the production process.

Faces include a surprise "Oh!" expression, a laughing expression with drool coming out of one side, a glasses festooned face with a tooth style grin similar to a Bugs Bunny (apologies to Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Mel Blanc) graphic, each coming to being approved and moved forward.

A squinty eyed, raspberry tongue expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Some of these screened faces are quite sophisticated requiring more than just one pass due to color and other considerations. Each face being applied, some with color first then the final pass of black.

A sad, "Woe is me!" style expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Each face having to go through a final inspection to make sure the registration of the application met minimum standards of graphic representation. Does the face impart the emotion it was originally designed to achieve?

A happy smile-faced wink expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

Through all of the process of preparing the product for sale and ... profit. The culture continues to shape the environment socially and politically.

Here in America, we have been confronted just this past week with an account of communication and expression found in our political discourse that boiled down to just one word ... s***hole. This word, similar in meaning to fecal-cavity, was picked up and used during the course of one full day of broadcasting by a cable news service about 195 times.

The term was used to describe countries that clearly operated politically and culturally with a complete lack of standards in cleanliness, building codes and aspiration to become operating at a higher level of standard through individual, family, and political governance conviction.

A bookworm-style pile of poo in shock expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

This may be a clue how this product, which was designed, developed, and finally produced for sale to a needy public, ended up at a close-out lots merchandising king, the 99 Cent Only retail store chain.

A Mmmmm, yum, yum expression with tongue. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018)

All Symblogogy can surmise, with the production and sale of this rather odd display, once we bring these Pile Of Poo emoji memes home, fill them with treats to celebrate Easter, when given out and used as intended - does this act make us participants in a cultural rite-of-spring ... Turd-World Country?

Jus' askin'!



TAGS: Pile Of Poo, Emoji, Easter Egg, Easter, Egg, Rite-Of-Spring, SOFI TUKKER, Apple, iPhone X, Emojipedia, China, Shithole, 99 Cents Only Stores, Symblogogy

What Girls Want - The Form Factor Of New Media

Jeff Moriarty, Intel’s Mobility Community Manager (center, left) leads a discussion on mobile internet devices and their form factor/function. Image Credit: Intel

What Girls Want - The Form Factor Of New Media

Cellphone technology and computers are rapidly morphing into each other giving rise and attention to the questions, “what form factor will the next generation of mobile internet device (MID – all-in-one portable for personal use) take and what factors other than just form need to be considered?"

In a recent brainstorm session at Intel, a group of industry professionals began a casual conversation about the iPhone impact on function and form factor, and what else can be put forward to improve a pure touchscreen function and form that would make a MID tool more accomidating and useful.

This video discussion is informative and opens up the discussion along gender lines as to what is more important to a woman in a mobile communications, New Media world.

Video Here (Ctrl-Click to launch) Image Credit: Intel

This excerpted and edited from a corporate blog site at Intel -

Chicks Dig MIDs - What devices do you like and why?
By Jeff Moriarty (Intel) (25 posts) on September 10, 2008 at 1:30 pm

What do women like in their gadgets?

This question came up at IDF as a bunch of gadgeteers sat around comparing some of the existing and newly unveiled devices. Kiesha Cochrane asked the inevitable question about why anyone would trade in an iPhone for any of the other options available, sparking a debate on the pros and cons of each form factor. It turned out several of the women keyed onto different devices from the men, so we decided to grab a camera and a big pile of devices and film the discussion.

Small form factor PC has intuitive advantages over a MID brick. Image Credit: Intel

What is that special "something" that makes devices like the iPhone so attractive? Is it the same for men and women? What device(s) would you pick for yourself and why?


Kiesha Cochrane, Intel's Consumer and Social Relations Manager points out the inherient problems with a too smart design in a streamlined brick form factor. Image Credit: Intel

The result not only taught me quite a bit about the different way people view these devices, but also ended up rather entertaining. Steve Paine from UMPCPortal was one of the participants, and already has a discussion going about the video.
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Public Relations consultant, Christine Ngo likes the "slide form factor with keyboard and full web capability over Blackberry and iPhone ... "In White". Image Credit: Intel

When we are all done one of the female participants provided the video title, and there you have it.
Reference Here>>

Worthy takeaways are issues that confront us all:

Do we keep cellphones as phones without the smarts? That is, have a smaller but functional internet access device (mini internet PC) and a dedicated phone.

Do we prefer an all-in-one device and have trade offs to deal with such as size, function, and form factor?

Is there really a gender component in all of this ... does small size matter (it's not what you may think - hint ... purses)?

Software Option Doors Thrown Open By Cellphone Hardware Giant

Smartphones as represented by the Nokia "N" series pictured here, are getting a software structural boost with the formation of an "open-source" foundation based on the Symbian OS software platform. Image Credit: Nokia via BusinessWeek

Software Option Doors Thrown Open By Cellphone Hardware Giant

In a move that will become the sea change for an industry that had been largely controlled here in North America by consumer level distributors, the world’s largest cellphone handset manufacturer buys the software operating system and plans to make the code available to developers.

By releasing the operating system to other developers, any manufacturer of a cellphone handset could adopt the software for use on its hardware platform and thereby “spread the wealth” of the development of programs that people use to get more function out of there daily mobility devices.

This move is 180 degrees from the way the recent development and release of Apple’s popular iPhone. All hardware and software comes from and can only be approved for use in the iPhone by Apple and its willing marketing partner, AT&T.

With Nokia’s ownership of the Symbian operating system software, and the decision to release the ability to use this operating system on any other manufacturers’ hardware, will naturally lead to the development of programs that can be used on many types of phones anyone purchases.

This ability for the software to work on many manufacturers’ phones will increase the competition for the more popular software applications that will get things done better, faster, and at a lower cost. An explosion of development will ensue to meet the demand for an application starved marketplace based upon the improved intelligence of the new generation of handsets.

Apple, however, will remain Apple.

Vodafone to offer 10 3G handsets including two megapixel camera phone. The headsets to be offered are: Sharp 802, Sharp 902, Motorola E1000, Motorola C980, Motorola V980, EC's Vodafone 802N, Sony Ericsson V800, Nokia 6630, Samsung Z110V and Samsung Z107V. Image Credit: wirelessmoment.com

This excerpted and edited from BusinessWeek -

Nokia Throws Open Mobile Software
Buying Symbian and making its mobile operating-system software open source should keep the likes of Apple and Microsoft on their toes
by Jennifer L. Schenker (With Mark Scott in London) – BusinessWeek,Technology (Paris) - June 24, 2008, 2:16PM EST

Few companies have the heft to take on Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT)—much less all three at the same time. But Nokia (NOK), the world's largest handset maker, made it clear on June 24 that it does not intend to cede its ground in mobile-phone software to gate-crashing U.S. tech giants.

The Finnish company announced a plan to buy the 52.1% of shares it doesn't already own in London-based Symbian, the leading maker of operating system software for advanced mobile phones. In an industry-shifting move, Nokia will merge the company with parts of its own organization and then create an open-source foundation that will give away the resulting software for free to other handset makers.

Until now, Symbian has been owned by a consortium of rivals including Nokia, Sony (SNE), Ericsson (ERIC), Panasonic (MC), Siemens (SI), and Samsung. The company was set up a decade ago to develop an independent software platform for smartphones. And indeed, Symbian software is now used in more than half of all such devices, relegating rivals such as Microsoft's pint-size Windows Mobile to a thin slice of the market.

But in the past year, the complexion of the industry has shifted as a new crop of rivals, most using open-source Linux software, have barged in. Nokia and the newcomers are now locked in a high-stakes battle whose outcome could shape the future of mobile communication—and by extension, of the Internet, as a growing number of consumers around the world access the Web from handheld devices (BusinessWeek.com, 2/12/08).
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But there's more to it than that. In an era of emerging wireless applications, a platform is merely the jumping-off point. The real focus in the industry is shifting from what's inside the phone to the snazzy online stuff a handset can access over the air—from mobile music and photo sharing to GPS and location-based services.
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Before Nokia can convert millions of customers to wireless Web services, though, it has to give many more phones the capability found in its high-end N-Series models or the trendsetting Apple iPhone. That's where Symbian comes in: Today it's used mostly for top-of-the-line devices, but Nokia and others want to see it move down into mass-market products (known in industry jargon as "feature phones").

Today, such phones tend to use inflexible, homegrown software that's nightmarishly hard for handset makers and mobile operators to modify, limiting the opportunity for economies of scale possible if phones from many makers shared common software. Closed systems also make life more difficult for operators and suppliers of mobile software and services.
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Can the new Symbian Foundation really be open and independent when Nokia has such a vested interest in its software? That's one reason so many big players in the mobile and tech industries continue to spread their bets.
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In the end, it's unlikely any one operating system will prevail in handsets, as happened with Windows on personal computers. And for all its efforts to remain in the lead, Symbian could stumble if the rival initiatives do a better job of recruiting handset makers, independent software developers, service providers—and end users.

"This is a difficult industry," says Colly Myers, a former CEO of Symbian. "Part of it is technology; part of it is fashion; and part of it is consumer." As with anything tied to trends, he notes, "today's hero is tomorrow's fallen idol."
Reference Here>>

The big question here is will Symbian software development begin to tackle business development and mobility applications just as PALM attempted to do in its relationship with Motorola (Symbol Technologies) and JANAM ... or will this application segment become a backwater development eddy as it had for both of these business efforts ... who are left with a graduating path to the more capable linux OS for the future?

At the very least, consumers will win through a broader access to applications for use on a greater choice of devices that will provide full computer functionality, aided with access to the internet via WiFi or cell tower on an anytime, anywhere basis.

Welcome to the new emerging and open world of personal computer/phone mobility!

Solid State LapTop Delivers Linux Mobility Option

From the center ... out - a Sony VAIO UX490 on top of a Asus Eee PC 4G - Galaxy 7" PC Mobile Internet Device on top of a 15" Apple MacBook PRO. Image Credit: Glenn Reynolds/Popular Mechanics

Solid State LapTop Delivers Linux Mobility Option

Enterprise mobility devices take on many forms, WiFi enabled handheld datacollectors, smart PDA cellphones, and adapted laptop computers.

The problem with many computer systems that are programmed for deployment throughout an enterprise application (sales force management, route accounting, jobber automation, web 2.0 application development, and etc.) generally just comes with the choice of form factor and operating system.

Enter the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award - Asus EEEPC 4G - Galaxy 7" PC Mobile Internet Device (512 MB RAM, 4 GB Hard Drive, Webcam, Linux Preloaded).

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks/Asus Website

This edited from Popular Mechanics –

Top 20 Products at CES 2008
By The Technology Editors - Published on: January 7, 2008

Asus EEE WiMax PC

How it works: The EEEPC is a full-fledged computer in a tiny package. Costs stay low by integrating a free, Linux-based operating system that includes everything from Web-browsing software to sophisticated productivity applications such as a word processor and spreadsheet program.

It's a great little machine, but it's going to get a whole lot better: This year, Asus plans to integrate a WiMAX card, which will offer multi-megabit per second bandwidth that rivals current cable Internet connections.

Why it matters: Asus has already shrunk both the form-factor and the price of laptops with its $400 EEEPC, a 2-pound mini laptop that runs on the Linux OS and foregoes a hard drive with 4GB of solid-state flash memory. Now they're on the forefront of a wireless revolution.

This year, Asus will launch the EEEPC with an integrated WiMAX card, giving people real citywide wireless broadband Internet service on Sprint's new Xhom service.
Reference Here>>

Top 20 Products at CES 2008: PM Editor's Choice Awards - Asus EEE WiMax PC - Image Credit: Popular Mechanics

This review excerpted and edited from Popular Mechanics -

Asus Eee Is a Tiny PC That Hits the Mark: Hands-on Blogger Review
By Glenn Reynolds for Popular Mechanics – Jan. 30, 2008

Earlier this month, I reviewed two tiny PCs and concluded that neither was quite on the mark as a go-anywhere Web surfing and e-mail tool. ----So I kept hearing and reading about the Asus, and I finally just ordered one myself—at $399 it wasn't going to break the bank.

I've had it for a couple of weeks now, and I think it fills my need for an inexpensive tool for surfing, blogging and reading e-mail. It's cheap, fun and surprisingly full-featured.

There's no hard drive—4 GB of flash memory is standard, but you can upgrade, or just plug an SD card into the memory card slot and use that as a second hard drive. ----The Asus has a real, if diminutive, keyboard. Though the keys are small, it's pretty easy to hit the correct one without thinking—except for the right shift key, which is tiny and dangerously close to the up arrow (There's also no CAPS LOCK light, which is occasionally irritating). Still, it's easy to type on—I'm writing this review on it—in a way that the slide-out keypads on the Sony and Nokia [reviewed earlier] are not.

The screen is also tiny but, at 7.5 in., much bigger than those of the Sony and Nokia. I find it easy to read and navigate pretty much any Web page, and videos from YouTube play well. Plus, the speakers are surprisingly good for a laptop.

The Asus comes preloaded with a customized Linux operating system and some basic applications—word processing, photo editing, music management—but it's primarily an Internet tool.

The one thing it's missing is some sort of WWAN (i.e., a wireless wide area network such as EVDO from Sprint or Verizon or HSDPA from AT&T) functionality. It works fine with Wi-Fi, but without WWAN access you're limited to hot spots, though those are plentiful nowadays—and there's that version coming this year with an integrated WiMAX card to work with Sprint's super-speedy Xohm network).

For now, you could probably use a USB-based AirCard—the Asus comes with a generous three USB ports (more than the MacBook Air, but I haven't tried that yet). A look at the Verizon Web site shows that its software doesn't work with Linux, so any work arounds would be strictly home-brew. (Asus tells me there's no driver yet and won't be for at least a couple of months.)

Alternatively, it's possible to put Windows XP on the Eee PC, though you'd have to buy a copy, for a substantial chunk of the laptop's total price. The Eee PC also has an Ethernet port and a VGA out. So you get a lot of computer for the money, and it's also surprisingly chic—when I've pulled it out in public it's drawn a crowd.

Women, in particular, seem to like that it will easily fit in an ordinary-size purse.

Is it perfect? No. But for $399 it's pretty close.
Reference Here>>

Depending on type of enterprise mobility application and deployment, this laptop may be the best choice for size (a good bridge), durability (solid state hard drive), functionality (ample size QWERTY keyboard), open source (Linux OS for application development), road warrior (enough ports for any group of applications), and cost!
(HT: Instapundit)