July 2008 Newsletter

Welcome to the Design for Sport newsletter. We hope you enjoy it and feel able to contribute to future editions - our aim is to showcase the role of innovation and great design.

News

The Apple iPhone 3G is out on the 11th July. "So what?" you say - well, here at least we think the future for sports and the iPhone is rosy and important to the communications, sports, sponsorship and technology industries.

Firstly the iPhone includes an accelerometer that senses which way up it is for landscape or portrait browsing. But this is the same technology that the Nintendo Wii uses for its controller. See the possibilities?

Secondly its seamless and simple integration of browsing and mail mean that marketing and linking of events to games and competitions is more inclusive than ever.

Finally the new GPS feature means that it knows where it is. Link that to Facebook or other networking sites and you've got a fantastic way of organising games, events, features etc.

If you're as interested as us, drop us a line and let's see where we can go.

Innovation

This is a beautiful and functional use of carbon fibre in bicycle manufacture, the integration of shapes and surfaces contribute to a fabulous aesthetic but also increase the strength and stiffness in the right areas.

Olympic News

Oscar Pistorius is causing a great deal of discussion with his attempts to be included in the Olympics. Of course, there are many issues here:

Does he gain a competitive advantage from his blades? What if he wins? How can his performance be assessed compared to 'able bodied' athletes?

We applaud his endeavour without prejudice, he has pushed through many barriers that others would fail at, but his inclusion would make it difficult to assess the crossover between human athletic ability and engineering. Sadly we would have to support his ban. If you think differently, please drop us a line.