Luxury brands like Lamborghini, Porsche, and Prada have put their marks on mobile phones, so why not Puma – a company that pitches itself as "the creative leader in Sportlifestyle." The Puma phone will launch in about ten days and it is likely to cause a stir.

The Why? For one thing, the Puma phone has a large solar cell that provides its power. For another, Puma is positioning the phone as a "sports phone" designed for an active lifestyle. It has a touchscreen, video recording and playback capability, and music. For the sports enthusiast, it includes a GPS tracker, stopwatch, and pedometer – and, more importantly, one-button access to the "Puma World Portal," a sports-rich website with all sorts of Puma content, as well as entry points to various social networks.

This latest brand extension for Puma provides more evidence that mobile phones have become more than communication devices – they are fashion accessories and symbols of a lifestyle. For fans of the Puma brand, the new mobile phone offers a more rugged, gritty, and green option in a category dominated by glitzier and sleeker mobile phones branded around technology more than compatibility with sweat and nature.

Cisco, the newly minted owner of the mini Flip video camera, is encouraging consumers to create 10-second homemade videos for a new contest. This request comes only one year after Cisco purchased Pure Digital Technologies, the Flip's creator.

The promotion officially began in November with celebrity-endorsed commercials and charity donations, but Cisco's most recent effort consists of a push for Flip owners to use their cameras in a fun and challenging way, while also promoting the product among amateur filmgoers – and hopefully inspiring them to purchase their own. The campaign represents a solid effort to garner more attention for the product, which launched three years ago.Continue reading...

A case in a European court pitting LVMH, the owner of the Louis Vuitton brand, against Google, as reported by brandchannel, has been decided in favor of Google.

The case involved LVMH's claim that, by selling the Louis Vuitton brand name to anyone as a search term, Google was infringing on its trademark and promoting the online sale of counterfeit products.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg "ruled that Google isn't liable for trademark infringement when it sells linked ads to a brand's competitor" because Google is only a host for ads. But "the court opened the door for brands to demand that Google take down ads that confuse consumers." All 27 member countries of the European Union are affected by the ruling, which applies to all search engines.Continue reading...

Pages, remember those? Paper sheets affixed one after the other, covered with various information organized in even more various ways. Those days are over.

Clearly, the modern age of the iPad and Kindle is not one of pages. So Yellow Pages, the well-known telephone and address directory, is changing its logo to reflect substantial changes within its brand.Continue reading...

If you or someone you know is one of the estimated 25.2 million adult Americans who "have trouble" seeing, even with glasses or contact lenses, or are blind or unable to see at all, technology has leaped forward with a visionary app for you. And the branding industry – from makers of digital devices to design and packaging experts – may also be seeing the light as apps are changing the way people shop.

LookTel is an app for the visually impaired and the blind. Combining “artificial vision” software and Smartphone technology, LookTel can scan and identify objects as varied as medicine bottles, money, physical locations, DVD’s and packaged goods. The user points the hand-held device’s camera at an object or place and the response is an audio prompt in common speech.Continue reading...

No surprise – kids between the ages of 2-11 were the fastest growing cohort of mobile and computer screens users over the past five years. Nielsen data reports a 63 percent jump in time spent online for this group since 2005. And both parents and brands are taking notice. Enter KidZui.

KidZui is a web browser built for kids that lets them navigate only to pre-screened and approved web destinations and content. On March 23, KidZui received an additional $4M in Series C funding, bringing the total to date to $14 million.

KidZui 5.0 has taken a digital step forward by enabling an unprecedented online dialogue between kids and their parents. The latest release allows parents' Facebook friends to connect their kids as KidZui friends through "KidConnect." The site now boasts more than 2 million teacher and parent approved kid-safe videos, games, photos, and websites.Continue reading...

Localbacon, a 2009 TechCrunch50 winner, has relaunched as Jibe. The revamped site unveils a private beta site today – and the first 200 users who enter the code “Techcrunch,” will be invited to join. Jibe calls it the first “Employment Networking Platform,” and offers feedback capabilities and transparency new to the job-seeking/recruiting category.

The original site, a job board for college grads, charged 99 cents per job application. The new site still charges for applications, but via a credit system which links to social networks and "broadcasts" a job search across multiple networks. Profiles can be updated, personal messages sent and received, and credits purchased – $5 buys you 500 credits.Continue reading...

Digital invitations take two steps forward and one step back – to a place and time in history where invitations were things of beauty and taste.

Paperless Post is taking on the veteran leader Evite, and others in the category, and returning the art of the invite to personalized stationery – ink and paper online.

Founded by a brother and sister team, both in their twenties, Paperless Post does not accept advertising. James and Alexa Hirschfeld, as though schooled in the Jane Austen era, believe that advertising, in the invitation business, is interference.  “An ad interposes itself in what should be a purely interpersonal communication,” says James.

Paperless Post’s business model is based on digital “stamps.” Twenty stamps are twenty cents apiece – 300 stamps and above, five cents each. One stamp for one invitation. Inserting an envelope liner or photograph requires extra postage.Continue reading...