…or something like that.
It’s all gone a bit crazy since the Twettle post got picked up by Wired magazine, suddenly there were hordes of journalists and bloggers asking for images of the kettle, some even wanted pictures of me and Ben.
Sadly no one wanted to send a photographer to Sydney to snap me so Ben got all the glory in last weeks Metro (above, click to enlarge), he’s even been interviewed on BBC Radio 1.
Following the conversations on Twitter, it looks like there’s over 1000 mentions and it’s showing as 46,000 results on Google, up from oooh about 50. It’s actually gone as far as this (translation anyone?):
The coverage has brought many questions to the surface – Why do so many people like it? Why do so many people hate it? How has every publication and blogger managed to spell my name wrong? And who the hell just purchased Twettle.com, .net and .co.uk?
It’s been a bit crazy over the last week, the Twettle concept that me and Ben put together went worldwide (Wired, PSFK, BBC China, Gizmodo etc) and generated a heap of positive and negative reactions as expected.
In the criticism, many people seemed to have overlooked the potential of a Wi-Fi connected device that can automatically update Twitter (or any social network), there are endless ways to creatively apply those capabilities. And here’s one lovely execution.
Baker Tweet is perfectly described as “a beautiful collision of the social network with good old-fashioned golden bakery goodness”. The device is installed at bakeries, allowing businesses to tell Twitter followers when something hot and fresh has come out of the oven by simply turning the dial and hitting a button.
Update: The Twettle has gone global! Click here to read more.
The following post is a blow-by-blow account of our mission to design and manufacture a socially networked kettle that can update to Twitter/Facebook. It’s a bit lengthy, for those of you who can’t be bothered to read it all and just want to look at the pictures, head to the bottom 
How it started
Six months ago myself and good friend Ben Perman (3D designer @Me Him & Her) were out in Clapham, trying to get drunk in the wonderful chain bar Vodka Revolution on the high street. Unfortunately our attempts were disrupted by a barman who had never served a drink or given the correct change to anyone in his entire life before that day.
During the 40 minute wait for the creation of 3 drinks and a shot, we began a conversation about how we could make some Google-style moneyz, or at least enough to buy a boat and a few steak dinners. After several ridiculous (and slightly illegal) ideas, I suggested to Ben that we needed to exploit some trends while we had the chance, number one on the list – Twitter.
Sadly like 95% of my friends, Ben did not use Twitter. This presented quite a challenge considering I was asking him to put his time and money into an idea based around a service he barely knew. If I could sell the concept to Ben, then surely I could win over the Twitter massive?
One of my strongest predictions for the near future is that we’ll start using devices and services that automatically contribute to our ‘life stream’ more and more. Whether it’s updating your Foursquare account whenever you use your Oyster Card or the TV remote that updates Twitter to tell followers what you’re watching – it’s clear that we’re going to need help constantly telling others what we’re doing.
But how could we jump on this bandwagon? I started to like the sound of Twittering hardware, if we could cheaply and effectively produce the tech that enabled any manufacturers device to seamlessly ‘talk’ to open APIs (i.e Twitter, Facebook and more) then we would be onto something.
However making a circuit board with some fancy firmware wasn’t very exciting, both me and Ben come from creative backgrounds and wanted to get our teeth stuck into this a bit more. This technology needed to come to life within a working product. Something we could design, play with and eventually sell in shops.
Is it me or does Twitter just feel like another way of big brands and companies pumping out the crap in their email newsletter?
Even though I don’t follow brands I do send them a lot of ‘@’ messages, whether it’s a question, feedback, or mostly when I’m pissed off at their service/product. What I’ve noticed is that out of 50 big brand messages I’ve had 2 replies, one was a week later by Dell and the other was 2 days later by First Direct (although they ignored my reply after that).
Is it too much to expect such a easy way to communicate with a brand to be rewarding?
What’s your experience?
UPDATE 11.30pm GMT : It has now topped $4 million in 36 hours
Twitter and Facebook proving they can actually be used to save the world.
The American Red Cross have been raising money for the earthquake disaster in Haiti and the tweet above has just been put out by the State Department member Jared Cohen.
The New York Times have just said that Facebook is reporting 1500 status updates PER minute containing the word Haiti.
Have you ever wanted to send a parcel to someone but didn’t know their address? You’d probably be like most people and just ask for it, but what if you only knew their Twitter username or email address? (cue Psycho shower scene music)
SendSocial allows you to send parcels without the recipient disclosing their address. It works by letting the recipient know via Twitter or email that someone wants to send them something. They then have the choice to either accept or decline, if they accept, SendSocial will request their details and address.
The sender is then given a barcode to print out which the courier (fulfilled by MyHermes) scans on pickup to identify where it needs to delivered. This keeps the receipients address hidden. Read More
Orange UK customers can now upload their pictures to their Twitter stream by simply sending them to 86444.
The service is run through a photo site called Snapshot which is run by Orange, and it all works pretty seemlessly too. I tried it out today and you just send your first MMS and get a SMS back which links you to a Twitter authorisation page. Read More
Caught wind of this very cool use of Twitter by Stylish Goods, the online electrical store.
Blogger and Twitter user Phil Hancox had tweeted in the early hours of the morning that he had broken his kettle and was in a bit of distress about no longer being able to make tea. See below:
Upon walking up in the morning Phil had these two replies from Stylish Goods directing him to their store:
Great bit of targeting by Stylish Goods. Not only did they address Phil’s need of a urgent tea fix by mentioning super-fast delivery times but also added incentive with the 5% discount.
It would definitely grab my attention and make me visit the site, even if I didn’t make a purchase, that bit of marketing cost Stylish Goods absolutely nothing. I might even remember to use them the next time I need something electrical. Read More
Twitter is getting a huge amount of coverage at the moment, it’s been touted as the next big thing and apparently we’ll all be tweeting away in the very near future.
Hitwise reported last week that Twitter finally got more visits than Myspace for the very first time. Twitter accounted for 2.21% of websites visited in the UK in August. Facebook however received 47.50% of website visits making it the number one visited site.
The funny thing is that as Myspace is crashing out in a big way and Twitter is on the way up, I can’t help but notice the similarities between how my friends have adopted the two services.
Around 3 to 4 years ago when Myspace was hitting it’s peak in the UK I set up an account. After getting my real life friend list to about 20 it became apparent after 18 months that none of my other friends were getting involved and the ones that did initially hadn’t logged on for a long long time. Eventually I just ended up accepting random friend requests but got bored of engaging with people I didn’t know.
Then Facebook came about and within a year I had all my friends on my account and everyone was interacting on regular basis with status updates, comments, photos and wall posts.
Now fast forward to Twitter and I’m seeing the same thing happen as Myspace, friends joining up to see what the fuss is about and not really getting it, then never going back. Read More
I worked in conjunction with the extremely talented Designer/Illustrator Leigh Pearce to create some Twitter icons that represent the 3 basic types of update you can do i.e From Web, From Mobile Web and From Txt.
Feel free to use them on your blog or web app. Read More
If you spend a bit of time on Twitter you’ve probably noticed some nauseating self-important tweets from people you’re following. Ever wanted to shame them publicly? Well now you can.
Tweeting Too Hard allows you to submit and vote on these shameless, bragging tweets Digg style. The worst of Twitter is there for all to see, and it’s pretty funny too, although I’m slightly worried that these people exist.
Here are some of my favourite picks:
Girl at the gym was checking me out, I could tell she wanted me. A Philly 8, but she had sweaty arm pits. I don’t date girls that sweat.
I love how some dudes hate me for dating their fantasy girl, as if they were going to if I hadn’t.
i think i have honestly decided that i am far too intellectual for most of the people who want to sleep with me. what a disappointment.
It’s Car crash stuff, check it out.
