Yahoo! has launched a new site entitled Yahoo! Tech, a channel for non-techies who struggle with new gadgets. The community site has shopping, search and online forums in addition to content culled from Consumer Reports and the like. Four Tech gurus will each helm blogs catering to the different demos including the Mom, the Boomer, the Working Guy and the Techie Diva. Signed so far are advertisers HP and Panasonic. More heavily involved is Verizon Wireless. The brand will sponsor a weekly, online show on Yahoo! Tech entitled Hook Me Up, slated to launch on May 15. The reality-style show features regular folks undergoing a technical makeover. Verizon Wireless’ products will also be making a cameo appearance within the show.
A new Mission: Impossible III promo bombed last week in L.A. A coin vending machine housing the Los Angeles Times was blown up by the L.A. County’s bomb squad after reports by paper buyers claiming they saw a red plastic box with wires inside. The red box is actually a digital music gadget that would play the Mission: Impossible III theme when the rack door was opened. The promo is slated to last through May 7. And in yet another Tom Cruise-related innovation, the large, touch-screen interfaces used in the futuristic world of Minority Report is coming to Chicago’s O’Hare airport. L.A.-based agency Schematic will be creating the screens as a branded promo for consulting firm Accenture. The wall-sized interactive screens will allow travelers to access info such as stocks, news, sports updates and the like. The screens are visible to the user as well as to viewers farther away. New York’s JFK will also be getting the screens.
