Nicole Martinelli - page 42

Publishing house Simon & Schuster  just launched a new product dubbed “vook,”  a dumb name for what sounds like a smart video book.

The idea? Vooks blend text and video into a reading and viewing experience, so the next time you’re not really getting a sense of place from a novel, or want to see how exercises are done you can watch a video. It’s also got all of the social media trappings, so you can discuss, rant etc. about the vook, (pronounced to ryhme with book), too.

The first four titles, available for $4.99  each on iTunes, are workout book “The 90-Second Fitness Revolution,” a book of DIY spa treatments called “Return to Beauty,” a thriller by Richard Doetsch called “Embassy” and romance novella “Promises.”

This an ad mock-up from Moscow agency Doberman Studio has me plenty confused.  Sure,  the sleek, round lines of the Mac Mighty Mouse might induce one to think it feminine.

Or is it some kind of commentary on gay marriage — i.e. did Mickey fall for the cartoon Mighty Mouse?

In the second version, cartoon mouse Jerry also falls prey to the seductive powers of the Mighty Mouse.

Europe’s Alpine glaciers are going fast — some reports have them washed away by 2050.

To stop them, some Alpine regions have tried gimmicks like heat-reflecting blankets, but the Swiss region of Jungfrau is banking on an iPhone app to raise awareness.

Developed by the University of Berne’s Institute for Climate Change, the Jungfrau Climate Guide app, also available on iTunes, shows hikers where the effects of climate change are already visible and what scientists know about the subject.

Processed food mongers Kraft thought they might cop some of Apple’s cool by sticking an “i” in front of a new product.

Meet iSnack 2.0. It’s Vegemite (for the uninitiated, concentrated yeast extract) plus cream cheese. In one handy jar.

(Forgive me Australians: it sounds like it should’ve been directly marketed as an emetic.)

The new Apple-esque name was chosen from 48,000 entries in a contest. The winning entry was coined by 27-year-old Dean Robbins,  who, we’re guessing because he’s also a web designer, is probably also a Mac user.

After a 15-year hiatus, Apple has taken Newton Tablet developer Michael Tchao back into the fold.

Tchao, once part of the original Newton team,  will now be a vice president of product marketing.

Steve Dowling, the Apple spokesman who confirmed the hire did not say exactly what the man who helped create the grandfather of PDAs will be doing in Cupertino.

The NYT speculates that he’ll be helping define the market  for an Apple tablet; though they can’t resist calling the Newton a “groundbreaking but failed personal digital assistant. ” (Most other takes, including ours, say the product was axed when Steve Jobs returned.)

It’s not such a big jump from the Apple tablet to Tchao’s most recent gig, serving as general manager of Nike Techlab,  which designed armbands and running shoes to integrate with  iPods.
It’s just as easy, for now at least, to speculate he’ll be doing more in-house integration with these devices.

Via Mediabistro

Maybe James Bond will finally get an iPhone, now that it has driven his iconic Aston Martin out of the top spot of cool brands for the UK market.

The iPhone was neck and neck with the high-end car maker, coming in second last year. After being in the top spot for four years in a row, the Aston is surrounded by Apple electronics.

The top four spots in the annual Cool Brands list are iPhone, then Aston Martin, Apple and the iPod. (Nintendo rounds out the top five. Other car makers like Ferrari and Mini placed 15 and 17 respectively.)

It’s an interesting victory of relatively affordable personal electronics over luxury — in the top 20, Apple also triumphed over Dom Perignon, Rolex and Vivienne Westwood.

Aston Martin, however, hasn’t quite lost its cachet, if the rumors are true that iPod designer Jonathan Ives drives this sleek little number (check out the Bond-related plates) we spotted parked outside Apple’s Rock n’ Roll event.

Via Telegraph

Laura Brunow Miner took this nice series of snaps with her iPhone capturing the view from one bench in San Francisco’s Dolores Park.

Interesting to see how different the bench looks on foggy days, bright days, and with couples, old people and tattooed hipsters sitting on it.

Check out the gallery on her site, there are 27 park bench pics so far, it’s a good reminder of what you can do with a point-and-shoot cam in everyday settings.

If you’ve done a similar project with your iPhone, write in or let us know in the comments, we’d love to see ’em.
Via CBS 5

AT&T announced via its Facebook page that you will be able to send MMS from your device, sometime Friday.  (Rather coyly, the message says “Late morning, Pacific Time.”)

You’ll have to download the carrier settings update (.ipcc) from iTunes before you can start clogging up the network with multimedia messages, though. The FB page will disclose all details when MMS launches.

Meh. The first gen Nokia smartphone I’ve got has MMS, I’ve probably used it less than five times in about three years.

So are you counting the seconds or couldn’t care less about MMS?

And, more importantly, what are you going to send and to whom?

Dublin launched a bike sharing scheme on Sept. 15. Sponsored by French ad giant JC Decaux, locals can pick up the bikes around town, then leave them at one of 40 stations. The first half hour is free.

The trouble? Firm Fusio thought it’d be nice to have an iPhone app, available gratis on iTunes, telling would-be cyclists which stations had bikes available and how many. The Dublinbikes app used a mashup of Google Maps and data from the official Dublinbikes Website.

JC Decaux sent a nastygram to Fusio threatening legal action, and the App was pulled Sept. 23 from iTunes.

The story sounds depressingly similar to StationStops, the app that ran into trouble with NY transport authorities by publishing available public schedules.

It may not be over yet, however: politician Paschal Donohoe, a declared iPhone user, called on Dublin City Council to intervene.

“The new bike scheme will depend on bikes being available, when and where people need them,” he said in a statement on his website.  “A new application for iPhones provided this up-to-the minute information on where the bikes were located.”

“We should be encouraging innovation for the sake of the economy, not stamping it out.”
In the meantime,  there are already a couple of mobile web alternatives to the killed bike sharing app.

Via Wap Review

This prototype iPhone nav system mounts on standard bike helmets to help get cyclists where they’re going.  Devised by Tokyo iPhone app developers  Ubiquitous Entertainment, it runs on an original app that in addition to using the iPhone’s compass and GPS maps can also receive push notifications from Twitter (via TwitBird Pro) or phone calls with A2DP.

The head mounted device (HMD) is retractable, and as you might expect, the screen is a little jiggly during ride. Test cyclist Sho checked out the map while stopped or at traffic lights, not while pedaling. The HMD was so light it was secured with scotch tape; in later trials the iPhone was stuck in a pocket to avoid potential tumbles from the helmet.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1AzailvJB0
As an urban biker sick of pulling out maps or trying to check Google maps on my phone, I love this idea,  though I would stick to keeping the phone in a pocket to avoid worry about someone snatching it and the perils of sudden showers.

Via Make

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oWWt_L-qeo

To help launch Windows 7, Microsoft is enlisting PC people to hold house parties to promote the new operating system.

For the October 22 launch date, Microsoft enthusiasts around the world just got selected to show off their new software at home with parties, sort of Tupperware style.

Naturally, the company has a few ideas of how these launch parties should go. A short sample party agenda, from the above talking heads: first, have a drink and mingle. Then shoot 20 or so photos. “Then when everyone was settled, I showed them my favorite features from the new Windows 7.”

“It only took like 10 minutes. Everyone just crowded around the computer in the kitchen.”

Andrew Coates, developer evangelist for Microsoft, told the Sydney Morning Herald the idea behind Windows 7 was to bring back the “sense of mastery” to software users.

“We have done a lot of work around why people weren’t feeling comfortable with software any more. People felt like they weren’t in control.”

Party hosts also have “a good chance” of winning a Windows PC worth $750, according to Microsoft.

“In a lot of ways, you’re just throwing a house party with Windows 7 as an honored guest,” says one of the actors in the video.  “Sounds easy and it is.”

Whatever they’re smoking in the Microsoft marketing department, I’ll have some.

Via Sidney Morning Herald, hat tip to CoM reader Brett McCurdy.

Your kids won’t remember the day you made them wear the “cheese” body suit instead of the one with the cute felt Mac on it,  but if you work it out right, a happy face photo in the Mac version and a stroppy pout in the cheese may hang around long enough to traumatize them.

Imagine the fun if you have twins: you could spark lifelong arguments about which one you have favored since infancy.

Handmade felt designs on 100% cotton, available in black, white or red.
$36 for the pair on Etsy.

The impulse to immortalize locker room nudity or wiggly-jiggly at the gym is leading at least one large gym chain to limit use of the new iPod Nano over privacy issues.

Health club chain Life Time Fitness has restricted use of the new Nano in its 84 facilities in 19 states, saying that it fears gym goers may shoot videos of people working out or in locker rooms.

The chain also forbids cell phone use in locker rooms to avoid nude or compromising shots of patrons making their way to the Internets.

Spokesman Jason Thunstrom admitted that discerning whether someone is taking video or just fiddling with a playlist can be difficult.

Gym goers at Life Time can still use their iPod Nanos in the work out room, however, as long as no one catches them capturing fellow participants grimacing through that last squat or revealing an eyeful of cottage cheese bottom.

It’ll be interesting to see how they manage to enforce it as video and photos become more common features; the same gym chain reported a couple of years ago that 60% of gym members used iPods or MP3 players to work out.

My gym would face a revolt if it tried to ban cell phones — more or less a permanent appendage in the locker room and weight room and most of those phones now have video and photo capabilities, so it seems a little harsh to single out the iPod.

Via Twin Cities

“Art in the Time of the iPhone” is one-man show by artist Matthew Watkins, on now at Apple reseller C &C in Bari, Italy until September 25.

Watkins, who hails from England and lived in Canada before moving to Italy, shows just how versatile an artist can get by letting his fingers do the talking on the touchscreen.

His mainstay is the Brushes app,  out of which he transferred the works to forex, paper — and even had two rugs made in Katmandu (see above) from designs made with his iPhone.

Hit the jump for a Q&A on how Watkins got the iPhone art from his phone to a gallery and for a gander at more of his work.

Apple can keep the porn off iTunes, but it may be having a harder time keeping Apple retail stores smut free.

A 10-year-old girl was dragged, bug-eyed, out of the Apple store in Lakeside after her mom found her looking at porn on one of the iPod demo models.

“I called to complain and was told matter of factly by staff this happens a lot as people come in and download it for a laugh,” mom Helen Goodman told website the Echo.

“I don’t find it funny and all my friends think it’s disgusting, but Apple say there is nothing they can do to stop it.”

C’mon. There has to be a way to make the Apple store kiddy-safe — or maybe there’s something else behind the looks of wonder on those retail store field trips?

Via the Echo

Brit pop man-of-the moment Gary Go calls his iPhone the “fifth member of his band”  and was the first musician to rock out on the device in front of 70,000 fans.

Go was on our radar last spring, when it was announced that he’d be using his iPhone to accompany his opening act, along with a four member human band, for boy band veterans Take That at London’s Wembley Stadium.

More on facing fans armed with an iPhone and the video after the jump.

McDonald’s Italy just launched a new, limited-edition hamburger called the Mac. It boasts “stone baked bread, Emmental cheese, choice beef, tomato and lettuce.”

The tag line above says “Discover our new creation available from September 16.”

Don’t tell Apple, they might not like that “il Mac,” as it’s called in Italian in exactly the same way as the computer, is ready for speedy, cheap consumption.

Tasty.

Freelance journalist and Mac fanatic Domenico Panacea wanted to get his hands on this Philips Lumalive t-shirt with an integrated LED screen.

“Wanted” is perhaps an understatement: Panacea forked over €900 euros (about $1,300)  to spend a month with the scintillant shirt.

Normally used for publicity stunts — like this one where pretty young women attract attention for an ice cream in Istanbul — the shirts have 128MB of memory that can blink out 10 minutes of text, images and animations at 40 fps. They glow for four hours at a time before needing a recharge.

(More pics and video after the jump.)

If you follow the Apple rumor mill, you know that most of the interesting leads come from China or Taiwan where case and parts manufacturers are way ahead of the game.

Here’s another one: Taiwan Economics News, a website specialized in giving the skinny on who is making what in Taiwan, reports that a couple of PC parts and component suppliers have won the Apple tablet contract.

What will they be making?

A tablet PC with a 9.6-inch screen, finger-touch function and built-in HSPDA (high speed download packet access) module with a a P.A. SEMI processor chip and long lasting battery pack, selling for between US$799 and US$999.

Apple insider speculates that HSDPA means the device would work with the AT&T 3G network in the U.S., much like the current iPhone, debunking earlier speculation that the device would run on Verizon’s network.

I dunno. Having once worked as an entertainment reporter, gossip can be fun for awhile, but show me the tablet, people.

A man describing himself as an “82-year-old antique” is putting a relatively young 32-year-old Apple I for sale on eBay in the next few weeks.

One of 200 computers hand made by Steve Wozniak, somewhere between 30 and 50 are thought to be still around. (If you’re more interested in seeing one than buying one, the Smithsonian has an Apple I on display as it’s being presented to the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto).

Back in July 1976, the Apple I sold for $666.66.  The computers, sold in a kit,  came with 4KB standard memory, that you could bump up to 8KB or 48KB with expansion cards. You had to add your own case, keyboard and display.

Guesstimates say the computer could fetch between $14,000 and $16,000.

The seller wrote in to San Francisco Chronicle tech columnist David Einstein about how he might get publicity for the sale.

Einstein replied, “I don’t think your computer is valuable enough to spark much general media interest before you sell it.”

Alas, he underestimated the Cult of Mac.  Mr. Antique, we want to hear from you!

This print and fold iPhone stand looks like something from Muji: chic, simple and functional.

It’s the handiwork of French industrial designer Julien Madérou, who kindly provided a downloadable template.

If you’ve got dexterous hands (or just the patience to watch the instructional video) and some heavy paper (270 gsm or 100 lb. cover), you can do it yourself.

Via Make

Forget those old tape recorders in the language lab: one school district is handing out iPods for students learning English as a second language.

Five schools in Beaufort County, South Carolina are equipping kids with limited English skills with iPod Touches to get them up to speed.

The iPods take the place of the language lab of yesteryear — students listen to stories on them as part of a fluency program designed to develop vocabulary, improve pronunciation and emphasize important words and concepts. They also watch videos on the iPod  for grammar and reading exercises.

“If you don’t understand the story, you can listen to it,” seventh-grader Alex Sanchez told the Beaufort Gazette. “When I read, if I then hear the story, it sometimes makes more sense.”

The schools paid about $200 for each device. Apple provided teacher training and docking stations that can charge and sync 20 iPods at once. The ESL iPod program launched in one middle school last year and expanded to another four schools in the district this year.

Right now, the MP3 players go to kids who need to learn English but the school district is considering using them for students of foreign languages like French and Spanish.

I love this idea. An Italian friend of mine started using her commute time to listen to ESL podcasts — of which there are a ton — and found that in a couple of months she had learned more than at a class she paid for.

Via The State

Welcome the iSteam Mac, the latest Apple device to get the Leonardo da Vinci treatment from the guys at Exploded.

Available as a poster or a tee, this inside look at Mac 128K by artist Kevin Tong follows the iSteam Phone and exploded iPhone, plus the exploded Mac (this in a non-Da Vinci code version.)

The American Apparel t-shirt costs $20, the poster $15.

Can the exploded iPod be far behind?

Whether you were disappointed or elated with the new products and services on Tuesday’s Rock n’ Roll event, you have to admit there was a lot of stuff going on.

One small, almost overlooked new-ish item: “Mayhem”  the first standalone digital book is for sale on iTunes 9.  (Fortune’s Jon Fortt ran into singer/actor Tyrese Gibson who produced it at the event, or he says he might have missed it, too.)

Although there are plenty of comic book apps and magazines on iTunes, this one is different.
Mayhem is more like a book on steroids. For the $1.99 purchase price, you get the comic book,  an iTunes LP with an exclusive track, plus storyboards, a making-of video and two freebie comic books.

This is the first digital book that Apple had a hand in designing and it shows — reports say the interface is versatile enough to work as well on a touch-screen as it does on a full-size screen.

The Mayhem iTunes LP was designed by Sam Herz, one of Apple’s user interface engineers for  iTunes, and Barry Munsterteiger, creative director for rich media and Internet technologies.

After the event, Steve Jobs once again stated that Apple won’t be trying to encroach on Amazon’s territory any time soon — should we believe him?

Via Fortune

When it comes to mobile banking, iPhone users are way ahead of the curve.

While half of iPhone users already check in with their bank from their smart phone, it’ll take another five years until other kinds of cell phone owners do the same, a study said.

The 2009 Mobile-Banking and Smartphone Forecast by San Francisco-based Javelin Strategy & Research found that although half of all current cell phone owners have access to some form of mobile banking, it’s only caught on with iPhone owners. (No doubt the app plays a big part in the revolution — one US bank recently developed one to allow customers to photograph their checks and deposit them via iPhone.)

The firm expects it’ll take until 2014 for 45% of non-iPhone owners to connect with the bank via phone.

iPhones gave AT&T the highest number of mobile bankers, while Verizon Wireless has the lowest penetration for banking on-the-go among major U.S. carriers.

“Just as the iPod changed the music industry and their business models, our data shows that iPhone users are changing the banking industry by leading the way in monitoring and managing finances through mobile devices,” said Mark Schwanhausser,  a Javelin analyst.