The iconic HOPE poster of Barack Obama by the artist Sheppard Fairey has inspired a slew of knockoffs and imitators, many of which have been collected at Rene Wanner’s poster page.
I took a shot at it using a widely known Steve Jobs portrait and the how-to tutorial from Vectortuts, and invite Cult of Mac readers to do the same.
Send us your Fairey treatments of Jobs, or Jony Ive, Phil Schiller, Tim Cook or any of your favorite Apple luminaries, and we’ll feature the best here on the site.
To kick start your inspiration, here’s a gallery of some we like from Wanner’s page:
Steve Jobs' health is a topic of concern for the Apple community -- and for Wall Street. Photo: Apple
In the Cold War era, a cottage industry was created around determining the geopolitical significance of Khrushchev or Brezhnev not appearing at the May Day reviewing stand. For silicon valley, it is Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Tuesday’s new product announcement.
Was Tuesday’s announcement of new MacBooks a cryptic message to investors worried about Jobs’ health? We all remember the dive Apple’s stock took when a rumor (which turned out to be false) spread that the Apple leader had been rushed to the hospital for heart trouble.
So, when Jobs shared the stage with Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook and Senior Vice-President of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive, speculation began that Apple was sending a message to Wall Street: don’t worry, we have a plan.
Bubble Telescope, by Ciro Marchetti Epilogue, by Chet Phillips
Digital artists of all backgrounds are invited to submit original works of art created or enhanced using Mac hardware or software tools for a chance to be exhibited at the Macworld Conference & Expo January 5 – 9, 2009. Thirty selected images will be displayed to thousands of Macworld attendees at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center and will also be presented in the Digital Art Gallery section of the Macworld Conference & Expo website.
All submissions will be reviewed by a distinguished panel of industry luminaries including: Rudolf Frieling, Media Arts Curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder; Pop artist icon Peter Max; and Nathan Moroney, Principal Scientist, HP Labs. Judges will determine the top thirty works to be showcased during the event.
Artists must be 18 years of age or older, and must reside in the United States. There is a $20.00 entry fee and a 3-image submission limit. Each winning image will be printed on the new HP Designjet Z3200 Photo Printer for exhibition in the conference hall. The deadline to enter is Friday, October 31, 2008.
Early reviews on Google’s Android smartphone indicate the Mountain View-based company may not knock Apple’s iPhone out of the ring, but Blackberry could soon look like an afterthought.
Walt Mossberg, the Dean of Technology writers, says Android is in the same class as iPhone, but allows the two devices will probably attract different types of users. For him, the physical keyboard is the notable differentiator, but he finds the T-Mobile G1 – Android’s lead-off batter, set to debut October 22nd – “only fair…with keys that are too flat and that can be hard to see in bright light.” Mossberg says the G1’s touch interface is “slick, clever…fast and smooth” and provides “much more flexibility in organizing your desktop than on the iPhone,” and he notes it includes some key features omitted on the Apple phone. The G1’s limited copy and paste functionality, and the ability to send photos via MMS may not convert the Apple faithful, but unlike AT&T, T-Mobile will allow users to legally unlock the phone after 90 days and start using it on another carrier, with a hefty early-termination fee.
Rachel Metz, writing for Associated Press, says the Android is “smart” but it needs work. She found the phone’s built-in support for YouTube “underwhelming” and complains that video and song playback is hampered by “a major hardware shortcoming”: no standard headphone jack. The G1’s earbud headset plugs into the same mini USB port used to charge the phone, which poses several problems for Metz, “as you can’t use your favorite headphones without an adapter and it’s impossible to charge the G1 while listening to music or watching videos, unless you want to use the included speaker.”
Tech Radar notes the G1 has a “kill switch” similar to the iPhone and is impressed that it is explained openly in the terms and conditions. They also like the fact that if you don’t like an app you’ve downloaded, “Google kindly lets you refund your money within 24 hours of purchase, which means you can try all the probably rubbish location based ‘find your friend’ apps without worry.”
T-Mobile has reportedly sold 1.5 million of the Android G1’s by pre-order, but buyers may be surprised that when they open up their boxes they will be getting what BusinessWeek writer Stephen H. Wildstrom calls “a developers’ release: a preliminary, unfinished version of a program that lets engineers kick the tires and gauge its potential.”
To mark the one-month anniversary of launching HD sales at its iTunes Store, Apple announced it will offer more than 70 episodes of Fall prime-time hits from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and cable.
Among the HD episodes are ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Eli Stone.” CBS shows include “CSI,” CSI: New York, “CSI” Miami” and “Numb3rs.” NBC show in HD on iTunes include “30 Rock,” Heroes,” “The Office” and “Law and Order: SUV.”
Apple said it has also sold 200 million television episodes and 1 million HD episodes. The HD episodes from ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox cost $2.99 a piece while each regular episode from the iTunes Store carry a $1.99 price tag.
In September, Apple kicked-off HD sales, offering 12 high-definition NBC episodes for free. The announcement coincided with the release of iTunes 8 and the return of NBC, which left the iTunes Store in August 2007, following a dispute over pricing of its television shows.
Reaction is still coming in from analysts on Apple’s decision to drop the price of its plastic entry-level MacBook. While ThinkPanure and others believe the sub-$1,000 notebook isn’t enough to attract worried consumers, some onlookers told Cult of Mac the move was a good beginning.
“They’ve never done cheap well – but the $999 MacBook is a good start,” Piper Jaffray analyst Andrew Murphy e-mailed Wednesday.
Murphy said Apple is positioning Mac sales for a long economic slowdown. Wednesday, JPMorgan said Apple had “meaningful buffers” that could allow the company to ride out any initial impact. Analyst Mark Moskowitz pointed to the value of Cupertino’s brand and iPhone revenue expected later in 2009.
Although the price cut affects a legacy plastic MacBook, more than half of the consumers considering the $999 plastic MacBook will opt for the newly-unveiled $1,299 aluminum unibody design, Murphy wrote.
The upshot of Tuesday’s new products: a slight or no impact on Apple margins. The company is expected to announce third quarter numbers later this month.
James Wages is a man on a mission. Where you and I might see a tired old computer that’s not much use to anyone anymore, he sees a decent machine with plenty of potential.
The results of his tinkering are spectacular; this ancient SE/30 is in regular use by the Wages family, for writing things, drawing things, and (most impressively, I think) getting online.
This little puppy is as maxed out as an SE/30 can get. These machines originally appeared in 1989, running System 6 and costing only $6,500. Blimey. Now you can pick them up for nothing – or even cheaper – and if you’re prepared to put the work in, maybe you can get yours doing all the stuff James has got his doing.
This machine was built before the web was invented, but he’s got it surfing quite satisfactorily. How did he do it?
Apple introduced a trio of new notebook computers and a new 24″ LCD display monitor yesterday, and judging by reader reactions in the Apple blogosphere, the company kept alive its multiyear, unbroken streak of failing to be all things to all people.
Steve Jobs gave ample stage time to Apple design chief Jony Ive, who pulled back the curtain on the company’s design and manufacturing processes to try and impress the assembled media with Apple’s industry-leading, visionary thinking about laptop design and production.
Much of the discussion at the event centered around “under-the-hood” improvements to the new Macs’ graphic display processors (Nvidia GeForce 9400M and 9600M) and to the increasingly fine distinctions between Apple’s “Pro” line of MacBooks and those geared toward average consumers. In a nutshell, consumers are expected to make do with smaller display screens and no Firewire.
Toward the end of the event, Jobs showed an illustrative documentary about the new manufacturing and machining processes, which build the notebook cases out of solid blocks of “environmentally responsible” aluminum in a manner that VP of Product Design Dan Riccio described as “kinda like how you make pasta.”
In all, the presentation seemed designed to let people know, in Ive’s words, “how much we care.”
But do Apple’s customers care how much the company cares? Follow the jump for some choice user comments on the company’s latest offerings.
JPMorgan Wednesday upgraded Apple to Overweight from Neutral, arguing the company is protected from the cold winds of a consumer downturn.
“We think that Apple’s brand and market share momentum offer meaningful buffers” despite 70-75 percent of Cupertino’s sales relying on the consumer, analyst Mark Moskowitz told investors this morning.
Acknowledging even Apple won’t come away unscathed from the current slowdown in spending, Moskowitz wrote “Apple likely has a backstop beyond the first round.”
Apple’s share of the PC market reached nearly 10 percent during the third quarter. Although Cupertino retained the third position in U.S. shipments, Apple posted 29 percent growth, outstripped all other computer makers.
Gartner announced Apple controlled 9.5 percent of domestic PC sales, up from 7.7 percent a year ago. In stark contrast to Dell and HP which had 6 percent and 4 percent growth respectively, Apple had a more than 29 percent increase during the third quarter of 2008.
Apple sold 1.6 million Macs during the third quarter, up from 1.2 million shipped the previous year.
Tuesday, Apple unveiled a lower-priced entry MacBook onlookers saw as a response to concerns of slowing consumer spending. The company has set Oct. 21 to release third quarter sales figures.
You know what it’s like when you’re strolling around looking for networks. They’re all the same. They’re all called “belkin54” or “NETGEAR” or “BTHomeHub”. So generic. So default.
What we really need is networks with imaginative names. Names like “Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem”, as screenshotted here by Flickr user Ingridesign.
I’m now inspired to change my network name from the stupendously dull “16spring” to “The Network That Performs Somersaults”.
Is your network called something interesting? Something better than “Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem”? Do share.
Oh, and another thing: apparently someone announced some new laptops yesterday. You might want to look that up if you’re interested.
Steve Jobs and company introduced us to a bevy of new products today, and though it’s not hard to find pictures of them all over the web and at the Apple website, for your convenience we’ve gathered some images here.
Before the QA at Tuesday’s MacBook rollout, Steve Jobs said there’s a few things he wouldn’t talk about: Apple’s latest quarter, the global financial meltdown, and his health.
With that he put up a slide showing his blood pressure: a healthy 110/70.
“This is all I’m going to talk about on my health today,” he said.
New laptops weren’t the only thing Jobs unveiled today—Apple’s also finally provided a new external display. And it’s a strange one.
More information’s available at Apple’s website, but the gist of it is this: the 24″ display is super-thin, uses advanced LED technology, has integrated power with easy connectivity, and includes an iSight, microphone and speakers. All this for the same price as the existing, aging 23″ Cinema Display.
That sounds great until you dig and think a little more. $899 is hardly great value for a 24″ display these days. The display is gloss-only, which will make pros flee. And those that won’t had better have laptops, since unless I’m very much mistaken, this display requires one of Apple’s new laptops to work—it needs a machine with a Mini DisplayPort. So you guys who just dropped $2799 on a new Mac Pro had better look elsewhere.
Apple’s a great company, an innovator that goes where few others dare to tread. But flashes of the old sneak through now and again, and only Apple would dare release a nine-hundred dollar MacBook accessory in the middle of global economic turmoil.
The gathering of the tribe has begun at Apple HQ in Cupertino this morning, where, in 30 minutes or so, the company will turn the spotlight on its line of notebook computers. I’ll be updating this post with relevant details of the pronouncements from the Town Hall stage during the event, so refresh the post to keep in the news and check back later today for Cult of Mac reaction to and analysis of all the new gear.
The Apple Store has gone off-line in preparation for the stocking of new inventory; no doubt the company’s server array will get a workout in the next 24 hours.
The LA Times, nothing if not the newspaper of hard knocks, offers this feature of best tunes for the economic blues, assuming you haven’t “pawned your iPod weeks ago.”
Picks include:
The Clash, “Career Opportunities”
Crystal Waters, “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless)”
Bob Marley “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)”
Still working out whether this is supposed to be funny. And wondering why “Working in a Coal Mine” (Devo’s version especially) and “Hard Candy Christmas” didn’t make the cut.
After talking up the benefits of a sub-$1,000 notebook, the rumor mill is now soft-peddling the idea as everyone waits for Cupertino’s notebook event slated for 10 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. ET).
In a post claiming what will and won’t appear, Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber calls analyst speculation of $800 notebooks so much “jackassery” leading up to Tuesday’s unveiling.
Gruber and others are talking of Apple lowering to $999 the price of the 2.1 GHz MacBook which had cost $1,099. In addition, two new MacBook Pros and MacBooks will be introduced. Also rumored: a glass trackpad that also acts as a trackpad button and the replacement of Intel’s graphics chipset for NVIDIA.
“We would be surprised if they didn’t have a $999 MacBook option” for investors, Piper Jaffray Apple hardware analyst Andrew Murphy told Cult of Mac Tuesday.
“If not, (Apple) has some explaining to do,” Murphy said.
He bases his belief on Apple’s prior statements of a “product transition” prompting lower margins.
Monday, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimated Apple could gain up to 69 percent in potential revenue if a sub-$1,000 notebook is released.
The App Store just gets weirder with every passing day. To celebrate, consider this the first in an occasional series of posts looking at the weirder stuff that’s popping up there.
10 seconds ago is a strange audio widget that records the ambient sounds coming in through the mic, delays them by, um, ten seconds, and plays them out through the speaker. Or, as the app’s maker puts it:
“When you try, don’t you think your vision sometimes hinders your concentration on the sound? If so, then try this tiny app.”
Couldn’t have explained it better myself. (There’s a pro version too, sonic delay fans.)
Maybe this one was upset by the number of files stored on the desktop. Whatever the cause, I think “DesktopImpazzito!” is the perfect reaction, even though I haven’t the faintest idea what it means.
(Image used under Creative Commons license. Thanks to Lozofun on Flickr.)
The creators of Where To, one of the more successful iPhone applications to appear in Apple’s AppStore since its launch in July, have decided to divide their company (tap tap tap) and its assets, and to continue on separate creative and business paths.
tap tap tap co-founder John Casasanta detailed circumstances underlying the split in a blog posting today, indicating the success of his venture with Sophia Teutschler had led to insurmountable differences between them about everything from advertising and marketing expenditures to design decisions.
Under the terms of their agreement to move forward, Teutschler will get the iPhone app Tipulator and two apps-in-progress, I’m Here and Groceries. She will publish the apps under her Sophiestication brand. Casasanta said, “[Sophia] is a good UI designer and I have faith that she’ll put out a great app even if the direction she takes it isn’t exactly where I would’ve gone with it.”
Casasanta will retain the tap tap tap brand with apps the company had in early development but had not yet announced. A previously assembled design team will remain with tap tap tap and Casasanta expects to name two new programmers to develop both current and future projects.
The fate of the drinking and dining guide whose success prefigured the split, Where To, remains up in the air. With gross sales of around $200,000 in the three months it was available on the App Store, according to Casasanta, he and Teutschler decided to pull it from the App Store pending resolution of their differences. Casasanta reports they will seek a buyer for Where To and its assets via sale by auction, and that he and Teutschler will split the proceeds of any sale.
“I’m going to put out a post in the next couple of days detailing our plans to sell it off,” Casasanta wrote in his blog posting today, saying, “full details will be coming soon along with complete financials for it including the marketing costs, etc.”
Wow, it doesn’t get much more thrilling than this: I’m announcing the winner of the first contest-with-Wine-Gums-as-a-prize ever here on the Cult, and probably on any other US-based Mac-centric blogs! Incredible!
We asked you to caption a funny picture of a G5 Mac on a street corner, and loads of you chipped in with witty responses. HUGE thanks to everyone who contributed, what a gorgeous bunch you are.
The winner of the packet of Wine Gums is…
Andy, with his caption: “I’m just waiting for the front side bus.”
Strong contenders for the prize were John Handelaar for “To avoid benzene hazard, keep in a well-ventilated area,” and El Vez for “Will compile for food”.
Giant discount chain Wal-Mart in November may become the second retailer to sell Apple’s iPhone, a report said Monday.
Wal-Mart, which already sells a huge number of iPods, could announce a deal Nov. 15, just two weeks before the retail sector’s “Black Monday,” according to the Boy Genius Report website.
In September, electronics retailer Best Buy began selling iPhones, making it the first third-party retailer to offer the Apple handset.
Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney told Cult of Mac if the report is true, the addition of Wal-Mart with its 3,500 stores, would be a good move.
“Problem is that Wal-Mart shoppers are on budgets and the iPhone is expensive for them both in device cost and service,” Dulaney wrote in an e-mail.
As we await Apple’s Tuesday notebook announcement, one analyst says offering a sub-$1,000 notebook could increase Apple’s potential revenue by up to 69 percent.
If Apple unveils a $900 laptop, the move would increase Apple’s potential revenue by 50 percent, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a Monday note to investors.
If rumors are true and the Cupertino, Calif. company rolls out an $800 laptop, the news could boost Apple revenue by 69 percent.
