Nicole Martinelli - page 52

Not content to diddle around on the iPod touch screen, David Lasnier made a stylus that he uses to draw with the Brushes app, producing results like his cat skull sketch above.

His first attempt involved an Allen key with a sponge tip (far left) but Lasnier hit on using the knife blade holder (center) sans knife, stuffed with a sponge. The resulting brush is very precise because the head is clean and firm. He dubbed it the “Free Capacitive Stylus, ” for  instructions, see Flickr.

As Lasnier told Cult of Mac: “I loaded a painting app for my iPod touch because I draw a lot. It was more out of curiosity than with a real project in mind. One day I made a little stylus while at my day job, and eventually, one small object at time, began to do it seriously. In a month I made 40 little paintings.”

Lasnier has taken inspiration from what surrounds him at said day job, including staple removers, an iPod jack and pencils.

All images copyright David Lasnier, used with permission.

Hat tip to Studio Tota

Jonathan Zdziarski, creator of the first iPhone forensics toolkit,  has developed a new iPhone app called AMBER alert, aimed at helping find kidnapped children in the US.

These alerts are issued when missing child cases are granted Amber status —  kidnappings of children under age 17 who police believe to be in danger of  bodily harm or death.

Zdziarski’s  iPhone application will provide a real-time feed of recent alerts including victim photos and information, suspect photos and descriptions, vehicle photos and descriptions and a reporting mechanism allowing users to report sightings.

The Amber Alert program was created in 1996 after the kidnapping and killing of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman from Arlington, Texas.

The free app is pending approval by Apple.

Via MacNN

Wired founder Louis Rossetto’s new business, artisan chocolate company TCHO (technology + chocolate) lives up to its name.
The San Francisco chocolate plant is full of industrial hacks, including common kitchen gadgets, like turkey roasters and curry mixers,  a $40 space heater from Walgreens and a dryer duct. (Take a peek inside the chocolate works with a video).

Where does the iPhone come in? Tcho founders commissioned an automation software to allow for 3-D monitoring of the labs from the device.

They’ll be checking on a new kind of fermentaria, boxes used to naturally ferment cacao, developed by former Nasa scientist Timothy Childs.

“In Peru, we’re setting up weather and fermentation monitoring and sensory analysis. We are putting temperature probes in the middle of fermentation boxes,” said Childs.  “We are creating a baseline of data. We are telling farmers to charge us more for beans when they get it right. We are saying, ‘If you go from 60 percent fermentation to 72 percent, we will pay more.’ We want better uniformity in fermentation.”

More details as we get them…

Via SF Chronicle

These simple, sleek iPod touch custodians made of wood also double as stands.

These Dutch-designed cases are called iWood Touch (what else?) they’ll set you back about $100 (€80).  Miniot offers them  in four different types of wood ( cherry, oak, padouk – the reddish Asian wood pictured above — and walnut) for first gen iPod touches and two for second gen (just padouk and walnut). They’re a little pricey, but have the advantage of looking  enough  like an eyeglass case that they might  thwart a thief or two. Your monogram or short message of love are carved into the case as part of the price.

If you find wood is good, new two-tone versions of their iPhone covers are also available, though these do seem to clunk up the design of the device a bit.

Images courtesy Miniot,  iLounge

Via Care2

There are many co-workers who would be wise to read this message before approaching, just wonder if over time, they’d start pretending you hadn’t declared yourself the resident grouch.

Available for $6 on Etsy

Not too surprising that nearly 70-year-old Sir Tom Jones doesn’t “do” technology.
Hey, he’s a sex bomb, not a geek, ok?

Jones has an iPod with trendy music —  Kings Of Leon and The Ting Tings — but someone else has to load up the device  for him.

“I am useless at the internet and I have never owned a computer,”  Jones told tab The Sun. “I have an iPod but I don’t load it up myself.”

“I don’t get any pleasure from that sort of thing. I have never seen a text message – what’s the point? Why not ring someone up?”

In other, unrelated Jones news, the Welsh crooner has finally decided to give up the Grecian formula and show his gray hair. If he ditches the fake tan, I’m in the front row.

Via the  Sun

Two teens were shot after they refused to give up their iPods to a group of boys, some believed as young as 13.

Two brothers, aged 18 and 19,  were hanging out with friends outside a McDonald’s in Neasden, north west London, on Saturday night.  They were surrounded by a group of five boys, who demanded their iPods and cell phones.

Then police say one suspect took out a handgun and fired several shots at the victims from a close range. All five suspects then took off, two on bicycles, one of which is described as a “red BMX-style” bike.

One of the brothers was hit in the stomach, leg, groin and arm and the other was wounded in the chest and stomach, police said. They are both in serious but stable condition.

Two suspects are in custody, police are still searching for the other three.

If police nab them and they are minors, should they be tried as adults as per the Ottawa murder case?

Via the Independent

If you’ve spent any time around wee ones lately,  you know toy manufacturers seem to be challenging each other to see who can devise the most annoying, ear-wormy tinny electronic jingle to fart out whenever your kid interacts with it in some way.

Hail the Combi Bouncer, the killer app for baby bouncers. You can plug in the music from your iPod and a vibration unit driven by the music sends them into cooing cuteness or sleep faster. Sound controls are on the back,  so the baby is not disturbed when you turn down the “Cradle Song.”

It can hold babies up to 25 lbs and comes with a removable collapsible canopy, toy bar with wooden toys and an adjustable hammock-style seat design.

$79.99 USD on Think Geek

Via Softpedia

Geting creative with a slow news day, NPR convinced classical music expert Miles Hoffman to create an iPod playlist for Honest Abe in honor of President’s Day.

Hoffman’s picks include:

Friedrich von Flotow: “Ach so fromm” from Martha, a love song from an opera that Lincoln liked.

Louis Moreau Gottschalk: The Union, a Fantasy on Patriotic Airs,

Traditional Scottish: “Annie Laurie”

“I Wish I Was in Dixie’s Land” (Bob ‘n’ John Minstrels)

If “Dixie” comes as a surprise, Hoffman says it shouldn’t: “It had already been a popular song before the Civil War and came from a minstrel show.”

Lincoln had been quoted as saying, ‘I have always thought “Dixie” one of the best tunes I have ever heard.’ ”

“After the war,” Hoffman adds, “Lincoln is reported to have said, ‘That tune is now federal property, and it is good to show the rebels that, with us in power, they will be free to hear it again.’ ”

Check out the podcast to hear them all.

Via NPR

Casinos in Nevada were warned by gambling regulators to keep an eye out for a card-counting program that runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch that illegally helps players beat the house in blackjack.

Card counting itself is not illegal under Nevada gambling laws, but getting electronic help to count cards is a felony.

In blackjack, card counting techniques help players determine when they are likely to win a hand and adjust their bets accordingly.
Casinos were warned last week by the Nevada Gaming Control Board in a memo (pdf). Nevada learned of the program from gambling regulators in California, where officials at an Indian casino found customers using it and tipped state authorities.

The memo says the app is called Blackjack Card Counting program and describes how it works: “The program calculates the “True Count” and does it significantly more accurately. The card counting program uses a choice
of four (4) card counting strategies. For each strategy the user presses the button that contains the face cards as they are drawn from the deck. Depending on the strategy and on the value of the card the button will
either add or subtract 1 or 2 from the “Running Count.” It can also be used in “stealth mode.”

A quick search of  the iTunes store for “card count,”  showed several card counting apps, it’s not clear which one the casinos were warned about.

It looks like to live the 21 story, you don’t even have to be a card-counting geek…

Image used with Creative Commons license, thanks to nataliehg on flickr.

Via AP

This mixed media work by South African artist Nicholas Hlobo has iPod earbuds stitched on to what looks like a series of knotty scars.  It’s on show at London’s Tate Modern until March 1, 2009.

Called “Phulaphulani,” or ‘to listen,’ the title of the work derives from the root phula, ‘to break.’ Hlobo says “to listen is to break down or process multiple sounds so that meaning can be understood and in turn passed on.” The work combines ribbon, rubber, thread, fabric and iPod earphones on Fabriano paper.

The friend who told me about it says the work comes together live much more than in a photo… Hlobo explains the work in a video here, also take a gander at the background image on the Tate site.

If you check it out, let me know what you think.

Image courtesy Tate Modern © Nicholas Hlobo. Photo: Mario Todeschini

Tweaking for the iPod was blamed by the sound engineer for ruining their last album, but Metallica are about to release their complete discography on iTunes.

From their official website, they announce you can “Fill Up Your iPod With Metallica”
from March 31,  when   “The Complete Metallica,” a 163-track collection launches on iTunes.

In addition to studio albums that came out when Walkmans were the thing (and didn’t distort their music into meaningless clatter)  the collection includes a double live album, a double covers album and bonus live tracks.

No price information yet.

Via EarthTimes

19-year-old Shawn McKenzie has been found guilty of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of Michael Oatway over an iPod.

Oatway, 23, refused to give the iPod he’d borrowed from his girlfriend to McKenzie while the two were on an Ottawa bus in September 2006. McKenzie stabbed him once in the heart, then fled.  He was arrested the next day.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Maranger sentenced McKenzie to life in prison. The judge tried the 19-year-old as an adult, finding that a youth sentence would not be sufficient to hold him accountable for his actions. He will not be eligible for parole for 10 years.

Via National Post

Score one for Ashton Kutcher. Tired of being baited by paparazzi, Kutcher used his jailbroken iPhone 3G with live video streaming service Qik to immortalize the nastiness he and wife Demi Moore endure as they try to get through the airport.

You can see Kutcher’s video here, about 36 seconds into the rough, on-the-fly account, a cameraman calls Moore a “crazy little bitch.”

Somebody at the hospital was bored. In a good way, though. Since 2007, the Radiology Art project has been putting everyday objects under a CT scan, then turning them into art with the help of an iMac.

Here’s an iPhone. (You’re invited to contact them if you can help identify the components).

and an iPod.

What you see in the iPod:  “The LCD screen is in pink. Behind the screen and to the most cephalic extreme of the body, a gray battery pack can be seen. Various other electronic components can be visualized including the control sensor array which is arranged in a circle below the LCD screen. Note the headphone jack in the upper right part of the image proximal to the battery pack.”
How do they do it?

After using GE CT scanner,  they process the images in Osirix software on an iMac. Colors are assigned based on the varying densities of materials present in the object. Depending on the spread of densities within a particular subject, black or white backgrounds are chosen.

There’s a gallery of all the objects scanned so far, some of them can be bought as prints, the toys are especially cool.

Ted Nugent wants to put a little “Love Grenade” into your iPod on Valentine’s day. There are three of his tracks on the V-day list, along with a little obligatory Otis.

The Motor City madman says: “Picking the right mood songs and placing them in proper order could change your destiny, and set your ship of life sailing on that stormy sea known as matrimony.”

Here’s The Nuge’s V-Day Playlist:

1. “Wang Dan Doodle” — Howlin’ Wolf
2. “The Flame” — Cheap Trick
3. “Whole Lotta Rosie” — AC/DC
4. “Wango Tango” — Ted Nugent
5. “When A Man Loves A Woman” — Percy Sledge
6. “I’ve Been Lovin’ You Too Long” — Otis Redding
7. “Feels Like The First Time” — Foreigner
8. “My Love Is Like A Tire Iron” — Ted Nugent
9. “Brown Sugar” — The Rolling Stones
10. “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang” — Ted Nugent

There are relationships where saying “Wang dang, what a sweet poontang a shakin’ my thang as a rang-a-dang-dang in the bell” says it all…

Nugent is also promoting a “Valentine’s Couple Hunt” where you and your sweetheart can spend February 14 stalking wild boar or exotic rams “using guns or the preferred method of the god of love.”

Via Idolator

A few Apple fans have turned their love for the company, mixed with moments of frustration, into a (distracting?) hobby with cross-stitch projects.

One crafty fellow, who goes by the name Benjibot, started when his 4G iPod conked out. He needled out his pain by creating the following “dead iPod” cross stitch.

He has a few other clever Mac-related projects for sale in frames on Etsy that highlight some of the more ominous icons, including the bomb.

Or maybe it doesn’t, but I got a laugh out of this banner for jailbreaking iPhone software which I first read as “uncoking software.”

British thriller/crime novelist Christopher Fowler (“Psychoville,” “Disturbia”) claims he doesn’t even know what a PC is, he’s so in love with his “awesomely cool MacBook Air.” Fowler’s been using his MacBook to upload clues in a treasure hunt in London for signed first-editions of his books.

More from his love letter to Apple:

How has the MacBook improved your life?
It’s super-light, fast, and I always have it with me so that I can blog via my local Wi-Fi coffee shops. Except it means I drink waaaay too much coffee.

What additional features would you add if you could?
A push-down track-pad, like on the Pro. Easier uploading of video footage from my mobile, cross-region DVD functionality, and someone to sort out the Blu-Ray mess. Nobody knows what plays where.

What piece of technology would you most like to own?
A good eReader that looks cool (so, not the Kindle, then).

Via The Guardian

Fully aware that this probably maxes out the cute quotient for the week (at least), but these iPhone, iPod clickwheel designs for kids onesies and T-shirts are, well, adorable.

You can get them at an all-Apple baby apparel store, or if you’re feeling a little more crafty, make them using a iron-on transfers like one Japanese Apple Fan did.

If you have to dress up your kid in Apple gear, these are probably preferable to the other, more scatological ones we’ve written about in the past.

Via Blog! NOBON

Have been looking for an easy way to adjust the iPod with gloves after nearly getting myself killed on the way to work driving my bike with one hand, glove in mouth, as I tried to lower the volume. This is an easy solution that doesn’t take too much skill…

You’ll need:

– A pair of gloves
– Needle (medium or heavy weight, depending on thickness, fabric of gloves )
– Conductive thread (the only drawback is that a quick search for spools seems to turn out a cost of about $20 each, though you can also make a bunch for your friends…)
– Fabric pen or marker

How-to
1. Put on gloves, mark the location of where your fingers touch your screen with the fabric pen or marker for your center mark.

2. Take off the gloves and thread your needle with conductive thread (tie a knot at the end)

3. Using the dot as your center mark, sew about a 1/4″ square with horizontal stitches. The size depends on the size of your finger. Pull the thread all the way through to the inside of the gloves — to work, the thread has to touch your fingers on the inside of your gloves when you have them on.

4. Sew another square of vertical stitches on top of that one, tie it off and cut the excess thread.

This handy idea comes from a book called “Switch Craft: Battery Powered Crafts to Make and Sew.”

Via iheartswitch

You’re only supposed to use it to make jokey text messages from famous people or, according to the people who made it , “spook friends pretending to get texts from their parents or girlfriend/boyfriend” (it’s apparently aimed at 12-year-olds), but this iPhone app could become the cheater or slacker’s best friend.

It’s easy to imagine using Fake Text app to head out early for cocktails or a Playstation tournament knowing you have a text message from your boss or spouse as back up.

At $.99, it’s a steal.

Via Textually

A teen landed in the hospital with cuts, a black eye and broken vertebrae after being attacked by a trio of girls for her iPod.

In Salem, Oregon at about 6:30 pm in a neighborhood described as “quiet,” police said the victim was walking home from school, listening to her iPod when three girls confronted her and demanded she hand over her MP3 player.

She refused, then the trio attacked her and ran, police said. She was taken to a local hospital where doctors found that she had a fractured vertebra.

Police are still trying to find attackers they described as a white girl with shoulder-length brown hair and two Hispanic girls with dark brown hair.

Via KPTV

It’s the app that’s launched, whatever, a lot of downloads. iFart Mobile lead developer Joel Comm elaborated about the beginnings of the talked-about app in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel.

If you have not downloaded the app and have been wondering exactly why anyone would pay $.99 for a souped-up electronic Whoopee cushion, here’s what it does:

Q: What is the iFart Mobile iPhone application that you created?

Answer: It’s an electronic entertainment or sound machine. It produces flatulence noises. There are a number you can select from. Each has their own name and you push the button to fart now and it makes the sound. We built in a few other interesting features like the sneak attack which you can set to go off after a certain number of seconds or minutes. And the security fart, which when you put the phone down after five seconds, it goes into alarm mode and if anybody picks the phone up, and it detects motion, then it lets off the designated sound. We also included fart a friend, which lets you e-mail a selected sound to another e-mail address. And then there is the ‘record a fart,’ which lets you add a custom sound to the selection wheel.

Q: Why did you make it?

This isn’t your gran’s sideboard: a sleek, minimalist iBoard provides a dock for your iPod or iPhone, functioning as a de facto stereo with a sound range of up to 100 meters.

From Swiss company Schubinger Möbel, the iBoard (plexiglass case not included, though if you want to keep sticky mitts off the device, it’s not a horrible idea) sends 2.4 GHz radio signal to a loudspeaker system that can handle a full audio range including an 8-inch subwoofer and four loudspeakers, and a 100-watt digital amplifier for  quality sound.

Price not listed, for more info Schubinger Möbel

Via Born Rich