Kyle Wiens, the CEO of iFixit, is launching an online community focused on fixing high-tech products rather than throwing them away.
Best known for its awesome teardowns, the Mac-oriented repair company iFixit is launching a online community devoted to fixing high-tech products, rather than tossing them away.
“The world has a problem with rapidly consuming devices and tossing them aside, ignoring long-term environmental impact,” said iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens on the company’s blog. “With your help, we are going to change that. I’m confident that we can change our culture of ephemeral ownership.”
Currently in private beta, iFixit Answers looks like a cross between a forum and a wiki. In a blog post announcing the launch, Wiens outlines four points that should be of interest to all publishers focused on building productive online communities:
It’s important that posts get more useful over time. It’s not uncommon for a traditional repair forum response to become the canonical source for an answer to a problem, only to get outdated and stagnant as technology changes.
It’s important that we recognize expertise. It matters if the author of an answer is a professional technician, or has helped 200 people fix their problems.
It’s important to make helping people fun. There’s a rush that comes from helping someone solve a tricky problem, being recognized by people for the research you put into a question before asking it, or testing your hardware diagnosis mettle against others.
And most important, we need to close the feedback loop between the people answering questions and those asking them. Repairing things is uniquely tangible — when you use a solution proposed by someone, you know for a fact whether or not it worked. Finding out that the answer you gave someone actually fixed their problem is one of the greatest feelings in the world.
It’ll be very interesting how iFixit makes good on these points. The future on online publishing is nurturing community, and Wiens has nailed some of the key points. We’ll be keeping a close on the project.
Among the many dozens (hundreds?) of companies in the cottage industry that makes cases and other protective doo dads for your iPhone, Totonto-based Gelaskins probably produces the most arresting and beautiful of them all.
Actually, just saying they produce protective devices for the iPhone is selling the company way short since they adapt fine art from a deep roster of global artists working in a broad range of styles, putting photo quality prints on thin, but tough, scratch-resistant polymer with a patented 3M adhesive, allowing you to personalize and protect everything from iPhone to the full range of Apple iPods and laptops.
The iPhone covers go for about $15, while iPod protection runs a little less and laptop protective art will set you back about $30. Not that Apple’s industrial design isn’t beautiful itself, but all the Gelaskins art is distinctive – and any of it is guaranteed to make your device stand out from the crowd.
Hit the jump for a gallery of 10 of the newest designs that we think are among the coolest.
What it is: The developers at Jump Associates – creators of the highly regarded iPhone photo application Pix Remix – have created a free version of the app, called Pix Remix Lite, that blows the doors off of any free photo manipulation software on the App Store.
Why it’s cool:Back in July, we wrote about Pix Remix, the very cool photo transformation application that allows users to easily combine a group of photos with captions into an animated collage or documentary-style narrative show within minutes – and share with friends and family easily via email or posting to Facebook and Twitter.
The free Pix Remix Lite has all the basic features of the highly acclaimed original software, plus some new features that have also been incorporated into an updated version of the 99¢ paid version, making Pix Remix a must-have tool for anyone who likes to share photos from their iPhone.
New features available in both versions let users remix shows others have sent to them, upload photos to a Facebook gallery while posting a show, and embed shows in any blog or webpage.
The paid version of Pix Remix now also lets users save shows locally on their device, export a collage as a high-res JPG (up to 1024×682), and use Copy and Paste to add photos to a show. Users can also save individual photos from a show (one they have created or one they have received) to the iPhone’s Photo Library, allowing for easy syncing with a computer.
Pix Remix Lite limits collages and shows to 5 images, while the paid version supports up to 10 images in a single collage or show.
Apple Corps Ltd and EMI music announced Tuesday the impending release of newly re-mastered versions of every song in The Beatles’ original catalogue. The worldwide CD release is scheduled for September 9, and could be one part of a marketing trifecta that coincides with both the release of “The Beatles: Rock Band” video game and a special keynote event scheduled for the same day by Apple, Inc.
A team of engineers working with state-of-the-art digital recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment labored the past four years at Abbey Road Studios in London to create the first digital re-masters of all twelve original Beatles albums in stereo, as well as the collections “Past Masters Vol. I and II, and all of the band’s recordings that were mixed for mono release.
The two boxed sets will comprise 28 compact discs and feature artwork as originally released in the UK with CD replicas of the original sleeves, and all original inserts and label designs.
Apple, Inc. has invited a number of music industry professionals and press to a keynote event on the same date as the Beatles’ music and video game releases, though there is no official word on what will be on tap from the company behind iTunes and the iPod.
Speculation has centered on the possibility Apple would release its long-awaited Tablet product, though chances of that happening appear to be on the wane. Observers now are looking for updates to the iPod line and possibly for the release of the next iteration of iTunes.
Given recent news that one out of four songs are purchased now on iTunes, it may well be The Beatles and EMI have got a good reason for letting Apple distribute the band’s catalogue.
Hit the jump for the full press release and list of albums/songs included in the release.
Apple is developing a new media file format to deliver digital music along with collateral material such as artwork, lyrics, liner notes, songs, videos, and images all from a centralized album launch page, according to a report Monday at The AppleBlog.
Citing “various whispers and rumbling around the web,” the report said the new file format is code-named “Cocktail” for the variety of ingredients it will bring to the user experience.
Apparently, major music labels including Sony, Warner, Universal, and EMI are also spearheading their own version of an enhanced file format in the hope of not being outdone by what amounts to a significant potential upgrade for iTunes.
Apple is considered by many to have effectively “saved” the music industry by inventing the iPod and iTunes, with the major labels having resented the company’s pricing power and ability to dictate distribution terms ever since.
If true, the rumored new file format could make for nice end-user eye candy while providing entertainment for those amused by the ongoing struggle for world domination among Apple and the major media distributors.
Porno director Matt Morningwood sent us some video and stills from the first XXX adult movie scene shot using an iPhone 3GS. I’ve posted them after the jump. Be warned, they are definitely not safe for work (NSFW).
Shot for porno publisher Pink Visual, the scene features “popular cougars” Lexi LaMour and Diamond Foxxx, plus a pizza delivery guy. It will be first published as a webisode on MilfSeeker.com (NSFW).
In the scene, LaMour and Foxxx order a pizza — “extra sausage” of course — before getting busy with the pizza boy.
The video quality is pretty good. Morningwood shot the video “tallscreen” — IE. in portrait format.
“As an iPhone user myself, I really like watching the footage on my phone and would think other users would too,” says Morningwood. “So yeah, we plan on doing it again… even if it’s just for my own enjoyment. We’ll still shoot with our normal HD gear, the iPhone would be in addition.”
Apple’s iPhone has recently become the most popular camera on Flickr, one of the Internet’s most well-regarded photo sharing social media sites.
Expressed in “percent of members” terms, the iPhone has lately bested two models of Canon’s EOS Digital Rebel, of which the XTi had long been the clear favorite choice of Flickr members.
UPDATE: Since this post was originally published, the Flickr site’s graph has been changed, and now shows the iPhone is the #2 camera among Flickr members, resting just behind the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi, which has apparently enjoyed a bump in popularity for which the previously published graph did not account.
[Thanks Rafael, for the heads-up on the graph change!]
Among popular camera phones, the iPhone has outdistanced its rivals since its release two years ago and recently widened the gap between its nearest competitor, the Nokia N95, by a huge margin.
The data is to be taken with a grain of salt as anecdotal and largely unscientific, but it is interesting to note such graphic evidence of popularity for a phone camera that had been denigrated by many as one of the most pitiable features of Apple’s popular smartphone.
Apple recently upgraded the specs on the iPhone camera, giving it a boost in pixel capacity and adding both variable focus and video capabilities, which should only increase its attractiveness going forward.
Welcome to Macintosh, the feature length documentary that explores the many ways Apple, Inc. has changed the world, jumped from the international, independent film festival circuit to pay-per-view cable TV Wednesday.
The film, which relies on notable personalities associated in one way or another with Apple, such as Andy Hertzfeld, co-creator of the original Macintosh, and long-time Mac evangelist Guy Kawasaki, tells the inside story of what makes Apple different and will now be available to over 20 million subscribers to the Comcast cable network in both the Pay-Per-View section and the “Movie” section of Comcast’s On Demand service.
“The goal was to make a film that you can show to anyone, even someone that has never used a computer, and have them understand why so many people love Macintosh,” says Josh Rizzo, Co-Director. “Availability to all US Comcast customers goes a long way toward completing that goal.”
If you’ve seen it, you know Welcome to Macintosh is really a love song to Apple and though the film is in no way authorized, sponsored or otherwise approved by the company, it’s a good bet there will be cheering in Cupertino once the ancillary sales begin to roll in from people who come to Apple through having seen the film.
Congratulations are in order to the winners announced Tuesday among the more than 2500 entrants to Fuze Meeting’s recent “Tell a Story” contest for designers and other creative users of Fuze and the web-based presentation sharing site Slide Share.
The $5,000 Grand Prize went to SlideShare user “slides2407” for the presentation “Drunkenomics – The Story of Bar Stool Economics”, while four additional category winners, including the makers of “Super Cool Dudes” (embedded above), who won for Best Design, collected iPhones and $100 iTunes Gift Cards.
SlideShare supports Keynote, PowerPoint, OpenOffice and PDF presentation formats and is one of the fastest-growing communities of presentation-sharing ideas on the web.
The contest was judged by a panel of business and technology luminaries including
♦ Don Tapscott – author or co-author of 13 widely read books, including Wikinomics, the best selling management book in the United States in 2007;
♦ Pete Cashmore – CEO of Mashable and a Top 25 Forbes Web Celeb in 2007;
♦ Tony Hsieh – CEO of Zappos, an online show retailer with merchandise sales over $1 billion in 2008 by focusing relentlessly on customer service;
♦ Ann Handley – chief content officer of MarketingProfs and the MarketingProfs Daily Fix; and
♦ Om Malik – journalist with over 15 years experience covering technology and business; founder and senior writer of gigaom.com
The Apple blogosphere percolated with spitting and popping yesterday after Daring Fireball reported that iPhone and iPod Touch users might find reasons to be excited about the impending release of QuickTime X in Snow Leopard.
The possibility of native .flv file support in QuickTime X meant that support for Flash video – probably the biggest item remaining on many people’s wish-list for iPhone – could soon be a reality for Apple’s mobile device users. The story was picked up by TechCrunch and we were off to the races.
Turns out to have been a false alarm, triggered by an over-eager post at Cateto blog, occasioned by a bit of software confusion, but still…
The point here is that with Perian, a free open source plug-in for QuickTime, Flash on the iPhone and iPod Touch would be conceivable, no matter the difficulty of Apple and Adobe executives and legal departments finding a way to get on the same page about it all.
It looks like somebody may have purposely arranged these two magazines in a retail rack to make a point, but credit Flickr user Nep Smith for ferreting out an interesting symbiosis between issues of PC World and Macworld back in October of 2006.
Given the growth Apple has seen since then, it would appear plenty of others may have noticed the writing on the wall as well.
The first round of Palm Pre reviews are in — and they are generally very positive. The iPhone has a real contender, especially if the Pre comes to Verizon in a few months — a good smartphone on a good network.
The big three gadget reviewers — Walt Mossberg, David Pogue and Ed Baig — all give the Pre very positive reviews, with a few reservations.
Pogue is the most excited. ”One of the world’s best phones,” Pogue says in his enthusiastic New York Times review. Pogue is very positive about the Pre, saying it’s a worthy iPhone contender, despite noting drawbacks like the lack of apps and poor battery life.
Ed Baig of USA Today also gives the Pre a thumbs up, but also notes the lack of apps and battery life. Nonetheless, he says the Pre “stacks up well against Apple’s blockbuster device, and in some ways even surpasses it… Palm has delivered a device that will keep it in the game and give it a chance to star in it.”
“The Pre is a smart, sophisticated product that will have particular appeal for those who want a physical keyboard,” says Mossberg. “It is thoughtfully designed, works well and could give the iPhone and BlackBerry strong competition — but only if it fixes its app store and can attract third-party developers.”
Hulu’s newly released Desktop application may or may not put Boxee on the ropes, but it could end up being the best thing that ever happened to the Mac mini.
Released Thursday by the popular television content aggregator whose major partners also happen to be some of the biggest Hollywood content producers, Hulu Desktop signals a major move away from the “online only” model that once served as a thin veneer of protection against the ire of cable companies that pay good money to get content from Hulu’s partners.
Still trying to have it both ways, Hulu issued comical Terms of Service with the desktop product that purport to prevent users from using the software on “Prohibited Devices,” to whit:
“You may not download, install or use the Hulu Software on any device other than a Personal Computer including without limitation digital media receiver devices (such as Apple TV), mobile devices (such as a cell phone device, mobile handheld device or a PDA), network devices or CE devices (collectively “Prohibited Devices”).”
In the real world, however, don’t be surprised to see news of an AppleTV hack by this weekend (if not before); and Mac mini users who employ that device’s excellent media server capabilities with a connection to plasma screens in their living rooms should be sitting pretty, too.
Will you use Hulu Desktop or stick with your web browser? Will you keep the content on your computer screen or take it into the living room? Let us know in comments below.
The cover of the June 1, 2009 edition of the New Yorker magazine will feature art composed completely on an iPhone for the 1st time, according to multiple reports Monday.
Artist Jorge Columbo used the iPhone app Brushes to “fingerpaint” a street scene of people gathered by one of the city’s iconic hot dog & pretzel carts, elevating art on the iPhone to yet one more level of acceptance few could have imagined when Apple’s mobile device first came to market less than two years ago.
Hit the jump for a video made with the Brushes companion app Brushes Viewer showing just how Columbo used Brushes to create his work.
