Geekchic: 4 March 2012

Talk about petty playground fights. I spotted an embarrassing photograph from this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which showcases the latest cellphone technology.

It was a snapshot of a presentation by HTC showing the difference between an image taken by one of their new models versus an image shot on the iPhone 4S.

The high dynamic range image was better, no doubt, but was it really necessary to compare itself to its biggest rival to prove this? It ends up looking a bit childish.

In fact, the entire conference, and others, seem to be a drive for "iPhone killers" by rival companies, although the Apple product is not even a favourite of mass consumers.

Comparing and trying to beat the iPhone only lets us know how much the product intimidates the rest. And it hypes the "coolness" factor that Apple thrives on.

The same theory applies to Standard Bank's declaration of a "twar", or Twitter war, on FNB.

If you hadn't heard, on Thursday last week Standard Bank announced that it was taking FNB to the Advertising Standards Authority to challenge its "Steve" ads.

Steve is a fictional telesales person from a rival bank, concocted by FNB, who tries to sell products from "beep" bank to FNB clients.

The response is always that Steve's bank is outdated, expensive and late compared to FNB.

The adverts are popular because they are witty, which consumers love. But Standard Bank says FNB's print advert asking consumers if their "beep" bank offers all FNB's innovative products was inaccurate, unfair and just not nice, darn it. They had some of those first, it pouted.

Judging from the slew of negative responses from former customers and loyal FNB clients, Standard Bank is probably regretting ever thinking of taking the attack online.

Consumers said it was petty and, actually, could it concentrate on innovation, as FNB has done in recent months, with great success?

Worse still was the lack of response from FNB, which said it was too busy helping clients to get into the sandpit spat.

Those brands engaging in corporate warfare should not forget that consumers are watching and we want to support a brand that is good, but that has backbone, too.

Cool to have :

Rumour has it that Google glasses are right in front of our noses. By the end of 2012, we will be able to blink, nod or tilt our heads to access a wireless connection to the internet on a pair of Google Android-based goggles. Navigate by nodding and bobbing your head - just don't do it while driving, walking or anything else that requires eyesight. Also coming soon is data on a contact lens. It has already been proved to work on rabbits. We could soon display short e-mails and messages, for our eyes only.

Last Byte:

For post-Oscars funnies, check out a YouTube video of poncy host Ryan Seacrest being doused in the "ashes of Kim Jong Il" as part of a spoof by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, and the hilarious Twitter profile, @angiesrightleg, created after Angelina Jolie "leg-bombed" the show. The leg went viral minutes after Jolie revealed her skinny pin. It has more than 20000 followers, and has been superimposed onto the Statue of Liberty as well as pictures of the first moon landing and the Last Supper.

• Shanthini is ShantzN on Twitter