Strange and even stranger things

Emojis but not as you know them, a house made of Lego, AI and how it could help gauge effective creativity and the long-awaited return of the Demogorgon.

14 Fridays until Christmas. Don’t panic. John Lewis have it covered, don’t they?

Unless you’ve been living in a sound-proof bunker at the centre of the earth this week, you may have noticed the new iPhone is here. And with Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror creepily predicting the newest animated animoji feature, the impending next series can surely only allude to more disconcertingly accurate forecasts.

Much like Brooker’s predictions, Ed Sheeran’s 2011 poppy-chart-topper, Lego House may have also alluded to the unforeseen… You guessed it, a Lego House. Thanks Mr Sheeran. Built in the motherland of building blocks, Denmark – the creation consists of 21 large white blocks, stacked on top of one another and is a new educational space, in support of the brand’s continual quest to support ‘Learning Through Play.’

Film. Unprecedented levels of quirkiness, highly saturated colour palettes - and Bill Murray. It can only be the new Wes Anderson trailer.

Meanwhile in Croatia, a little goes a long way. Just ask Melina Trump.

In the world of tech; Uber loses its licence to operate in London after growing speculation that the app could be banned, leaving some 3.5 million users questioning their journeys home this weekend.

Following the release of UPS’ survey revealing that 95% of companies are concerned about the impact of urbanization – the brand is doing its own part towards mobility solutions, with everything from VR to drones.

Could artificial intelligence make awards judging fairer in the future? The answer is here – and it’s only mildly terrifying. Introducing Pearl. A product of the Belgian MIXX awards, Pearl is the first artificial intelligence jury president, designed to look to the future of awards as technology takes on the capabilities of judging creativity.

This is it, the uprising.

Well, not quite. Despite using state of the art technology, Pearl hasn’t quite mastered the state of consciousness, or anywhere near it for that matter. Fed case studies and given time to analyse, the system makes links between narrative styles and awards, so far reaching an accuracy level of about 76% - impressive, yes – but still leaving us with the question of whether creative ideas can be scientifically measured, and what is more, whether they should be?

MRM Meteorite chief, Nicky Bullard certainly has some firm reservations about AI and its shots at replacing the human mind.

If the children, are as they say, the future, then it looks like Vodafone might be on to something. Launching their sub-brand, VOXI earlier this month with the aim of appealing to a younger demographic, VOXI offers consumers under 25 three SIM-only mobile plans, with free data for social media apps such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. But is this segmentation necessary?

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, hath the Demogorgon returned? For those of you who don’t know what that means, educate yourselves immediately. For those of you that do, Eleven and the gang are back in Netflix’s Stranger Things season two trailer and it really is a good’un.