Drive-by Light Show

Watch out, the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, sounds like a the kind of place I'd hate, too much Math(s) and hard thought. However, a chap called Katrin Klimat and his pals have come up with something far more funky. The only description i can come up with is 'drive-by light graffiti' which doesn't do it justice at all. For automotive companies and the like, it would be a killer advertising ap, plus it made me feel a little like i was in Tron.... I'm beginning to show my age i think.

Check out the video below, if i can find any more info on it, I'll keep you posted. I also found this fantastic image of Light Graffiti too. More pics over at colourlovers.com.

Flat Pack Boom Box

This i love. It's a cardboard Boom Box for your iPod, it comes flat packed, and after 5 mins of folding and glueing, you too can stroll down the 'sidewalk' throwing out some heavy beats, 'Why Don't You' would be proud.

Also available for the more religious of us, is a faux leather Bible case, protecting your iPods screen not only from scratches but the devils music too, i'm sure.

Check out www.suck.uk.com for more of the same.

Like an iPhone would you? That'll be £1000 please.

According to Times-online, Apple fans had better start saving up if they fancy an iPhone when it's released on Nov 9th this year. The UK price will be a not so tasty £269, £69 more expensive than it is in the states (hands up who's surprised), this plus the fact that you'll have to sign up for an 18 month contract at a minimum of £35, adding up to a hefty total of £899 (£1,259 if you go for the top tariff).

At first glance that's pricey, I'm already cheesed off at constantly being charged more than the yanks, (more to the point, we moan about it and then we pay it anyway....arrrgh), Apple seem to think we're made of cash, their Apple TV is nearly twice the price per download. However, if you consider that you HAVE to pay a monthly tariff, and that you'd pay £100 for a 8 gig Nano, the combined price isn't quite so crazy, even if it is an expensive outlay.

The phone wont be available in 16 gig mode, just the 8 for us jolly old Brits and it wont have 3G either, plus, after the recent price drop in the states (by nearly $200) will the UK consumer be so keen to jump on the iPhone bandwagon?

Mirror mirror on the wall....

You may or may not have read a recent blog of mine about Aleph's interactive mirror display, made up from car wing mirrors. Well Daniel Rozin has gone one better and made interactive mirrors and displays from anything he can lay his hands on, including rubbish .

'As an interactive artist Rozin creates installations and sculptures that have the unique ability to change and respond to the presence and point of view of the viewer. In many cases the viewer becomes the contents of the piece and in others the viewer is invited to take an active role in the creation of the piece. Even though computers are often used in Rozin's work, they are seldom visible.'

One of Daniels mirrors is made from a collection of discs, each disc has a radial gradient of black and white on it. The display recognises what is in front of it via a digital camera, mapping each pixel of the image onto an individual disc. The discs rotate independently to recreate the dark/light parts of the image, by rotating accordingly. Check out the vid...

Apple customers non plussed at being ripped off...

Engadget have had a poll running on peoples reactions to Apple reducing the iPhones price by $200 so soon after it's initial release. Bizarrely enough, the ratio of OK vs annoyed is only 48/52, which i find staggering, considering that the most negative comments are coming from people who don't actually own the phone... WEIRD!

I'm not sure how Apple get away with this, what is it that they do, that makes their customers love them so? Maybe i should buy an iPod to find out.

Any thoughts out there...?

How d’ya like them Apples?

Apple Keynote September 2007

With almost 110 million iPods sold to date, September 5^th 2007 marked Steve Jobs unveiling of a new/ revamped iPod range said to be the best ever. Well they were always going to better their predecessors but to what degree?

Hold up folks, before we get to that, Jobs wants to talk about ringtones for the iPhone. Oh no, Apple’s gone all Jamster. I can’t stand them at the best of times and certainly don’t want to pay an extra 50p on top of the 79p I just shelled out for a track. Not only that but surely the whole concept of buying ringtones is not only established but perhaps more crucially soon to be redundant as many people have turned to creating their own.

With the shuffle having no more than a lick of paint the first in the new range to be announced is the new iPod video or ‘Classic’ as it is now called. This variation on the established video iPod boasts up to an impressive 160GB capacity but not the widescreen display many were hoping for. Fear not for the unveiling of the ‘Touch’ with 1/10th of the Classics storage. Yes ladies and gents that’s 16 GB enabling you to store, well, I suppose a fair bit of your music collection and maybe a couple of episodes of Family Guy. I think they said something about a Safari web browser, Wi-Fi and a nice widescreen display but all I heard was 16 GBs. Looking to replace my 3 year old player I was logically hoping to better not only its looks, but storage too. In short it could prove to be a revolutionary new product but not in its current state.

As for the collaboration between Starbucks and Apple; I’ve already got access to iTunes music store as part of my Wi-Fi enabled iPod Touch, so why then do I need a Starbucks logo to point me in the direction of that McCartney number they have on a loop each and every time I pop in for a chai tea latte? It’s for that very reason I’m listening to my iPod in the first place.

Arguably most tempting of the range is the revised nano which now incorporates video on its dazzling 2 inch screen, an intuitive cover flow interface and according to the Keynote more storage? Long story short, it doesn't, which is a shame.

The presentation concluded with a $200 decrease in the price of the iPhone. Surely this is all good for the consumer, no? Well you try telling that to the million odd people who already shelled out for one in the first two months of sale. Well, funnily enough this is exactly what Steve Jobs has tried to address on the apple website by offering a $100 credit voucher to existing iPhone customers. Albeit a nice gesture it’s one they shouldn't have had to make. Still, did I mention you can get ringtones for these things now?!

M Fowler

Multi Finger Touch Screen

I like touch screens and not just because they make me feel like I'm in Minority Report. I think that by bypassing a keyboard or remote, the user is far more involved and for technophobes such as my mum, it lets them get to grips with entertainment and services that they may have previously stayed away from.

This new one made by a company called NEXTRAX is multi-finger touch communication tool, meaning it recognises more than one place of contact, allowing for more advanced options and menus etc. As you can see in the film, it's fairly intuitive and allows for a great amount of info to be accessed with ease. The version being used below is a history programme, allowing users to explore an interactive Inuyama Castle. The most interesting part is being able to explore a particular area and overlay current satellite maps over the top to see how it has altered.