Cult of Mac

Much has been said about the super-handy Flip digital video cameras. These well-designed, inexpensive cams have gotten plenty of favorable reviews.

But the question is whether they’re worth having when the iPod gets video capability.

The Flip model we tested is ripe for iPod comparison: the 8G UltraHD records two hours of video and is slightly cheaper than an 8G iPod Touch, with a price tag of $199. It shoots 720p (1,280×720) high-definition video.

So, should you wait to see what’s behind door no. 2 or stick with the Flip HD?

Full review after the jump.

An authorized Apple reseller in Portugal has started selling new cases for the upcoming, camera-equipped iPod Touch and iPod Nano.

Promai’s Jivo TPA cases look for the most part like the new cases out of China, but for one important detail: the placement of the headphone jack on the iPod Touch.

Look carefully at the Portuguese pix, and you’ll see the headphone jack has moved to the top, like the iPhone’s. But in the Chinese cases, the headphone jack is at the bottom, like current models. I’m inclined to put more faith in the Chinese cases, whose makers say they have good intelligence about Apple’s new offerings.

Hot off the Chinese forums are three new pictures of a prototype iPod Touch — or are they?

Certain details do look right. The iPod Touch has a metal backplate, like its predecessor. And the camera on the back is in the center of the device, not offset to one side like the iPhone’s — a detail first reported by Cultofmac.com.

However, there’s no microphone next to the camera — a feature indicated by the new cases Chinese manufacturers are already making for the device.  Also, the Touch is pretty beaten up for a new device, even if it is a prototype.

Fake or not, something very like this is just a couple of weeks away. A new iPod Touch and iPod Nano, both with cameras, will likely be released at an Apple press event on September 8, and will cost $199/$299/S399 for 16/32/64 GB models.

As well as pictures, the new iPods will also likely be able to capture and edit video, and send clips via email, Mobile Me and YouTube.

All the forum pictures after the jump.

Today’s daily deals include a 2.26GHz Intel Mac mini for $649, a 75% “blowout” on Mac gear, an 8GB iPod touch for just $160 and many more.

Details on these and other bargains can be found on the CoM “Daily Deals” page.

It’s Friday and it’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

APP OF THE WEEK

QuadCamera: Top serial-shots ‘toy’ camera with vivid effects and various layouts. Would like higher output res. 5/5 $1.99 http://is.gd/2bzLs

iPolygon: Top-notch twist-based Breakout, played from within a polygonal shape. Three different modes. 5/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2afgK

Whoiser: Efficient client for accessing whois info. Spindly font, but good landscape view & mail ability. 3/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2atfA

OldCamera: Mono camera effects. Great results, but prefs a bit awkward & you can’t use pics from Photos app. 4/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2bAet

ToyCamera: Like OldCamera but with vintage/saturation colour effects. Randomiser a nice touch. 3/5 $1.99 https://is.gd/2bAFr

Critter Crunch: Action puzzler, resembling a souped-up single-player Magical Drop. Fun & plenty of depth. 4/5 $1.99 https://is.gd/2fk82

DrawRace: Top-down racer. Draw racing lines before races start. Good concept/multiplayer; frustrates quickly. 3/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2gGGE

Although some people still stamp their angry little feet while moaning that Apple handhelds aren’t ‘proper’ games consoles, developers don’t care. Most complaints seem to stem from the lack of tactile controls, but this week’s batch of games shows how a decent developer can get around such perceived shortcomings.

iPolygon is essentially Breakout, but played from inside polygonal shapes, and the twist-based mechanic is more fun and makes for more frantic gaming than the typical approach seen in most clones and evolutions of Atari’s ancient coin-op. Similarly, DrawRace takes Super Sprint and makes you draw your route before the race starts and then watch the outcome. I found it pretty frustrating in terms of difficulty, but there’s no getting away from the innovative nature of the app.

However, my favourite apps of the week instead deal with another iPhone shortcoming: the rubbish camera. I’m stuck with a 3G for now, and the camera isn’t great. But with some apps installed, it becomes an interesting ‘toy’ camera, along the lines of a Lomo. Of this week’s trio of apps, all from Takayuki Fukatsu, QuadCamera is my pick. The app takes four to eight shots in quick succession, applying user-defined effects while it does so, and although output resolution is lower than I’d like, there’s no denying how much fun the app is. (Long-time Cult of Mac readers will know that Giles agrees.)

I suspect that even when I get my mitts on a 3GS with its video capabilities, I’ll still be drawn to the low-tech charm of QuadCamera.

Follow iPhoneTiny on Twitter, or visit iPhoneTiny.com

Apple’s Board of Directors is meeting next Tuesday to discuss possible replacements for Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Schmidt resigned two weeks ago because of increased competition between Google and Apple. One of the leading candidates to replace him is Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who has acted as CEO during Steve Jobs’s medical leave. Cook has ben praised for Apple’s performance during Jobs’s absence, and is tipped as his successor. But as the Journal notes:

The board has been criticized for a lack of independence from Mr. Jobs. Half of the company’s six outside directors have served for at least a decade, which some governance experts say is too long to maintain their independence from the CEO of a company.

“The biggest danger is that the board will be unable to truly take the perspective of the shareholder and will feel beholden to the CEO or unwilling to confront the CEO,” says David Nadler, a corporate governance specialist with Oliver Wyman Consulting.

Independence from the CEO has not been one of the characteristics of Apple’s board in recent history. Jobs had most of the board replaced shortly after he returned to the company in 1997, and since then has recruited friends and allies like former vice president Al Gore or Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

Whoever the board chooses to replace Schmidt, it is not going to be someone antagonistic to Jobs.

As CoM’s Pete Mortensen has noted, the current board is light on tech folks, but because of Apple’s wide-ranging businesses interests (from cell phones to online media), there’s not a lot of people in the Valley Apple’s not in competition with. Pete likes John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems. “He’s an incredibly bright guy, a brilliant manager, and he really gets tech and telecommunications without being an Apple competitor in any meaningful sense. Additionally, he has a reputation for remarkable ethics, both personally and across his organization — Cisco was one of the only organizations in Silicon Valley that didn’t have stock backdating issues a few years back. He also gets business customers in a big way.”

Multimedia designer Federico Mauro‘s got Mac on the brain: his Flickr stream is a constant source of quirky, Mac-related designs and spoofed ad campaigns.

His vision of what’s really inside your Mac Pro includes a feet-on-the-desk work environment that includes a mini-golf area, plus Apple logo topiary in the garden and a well-populated pool, where a couple of those bathing beauties appear topless.

Hit the jump for more of his designs — including the modern designer’s workbench and a game of Tetris played with Macs — plus few words about why he does it.

Google Chrome 4.0 Beta  is the fastest webrowser on the planet, CNet claims.

In benchmark tests, the new Chrome beta smoked Safari, rendering JavaScript 34% percent faster.

“It completed the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark in just 657ms. Only 4 per cent faster than its PC brother, sure, but 34 per cent faster than Safari 4.0.3, which scored 886ms on the same 2.0GHz Intel MacBook.”

In the same test, Firefox version 3.5.2 on OS X scored 1,508ms and Opera 10 beta 3 scored 5,958ms, CNet says.

JavaScript rendering is important because developers are using it more and more to add bells and whistles to websites. CNet cautions though that the software is alpha, and will be retested against Safari when the final version ships in several months.

And while speed is important, the browser is nowhere ready for public consumption. “Chrome for Mac is still riddled with bugs,” says CNet. “Big ones, like those spiders in Eight Legged Freaks, only even more hellacious.”

Apple is planning a special media event for the week of September 7, MediaMemo reports, citing “multiple music industry sources.”

But Apple won’t tell anyone exactly when the event is. Apple always holds keynote presentations on Tuesdays, so the likeliest date is September 8.

Apple has held a keynote event every September for the last four years to introduce its consumer-focused holiday offerings, typically new iPods and new versions of iTunes.

At this event though, Apple could be introducing several things:

* Cocktail: The presence of multiple music execs suggests a music focus. Apple’s rumored Cocktail project is a secret skunkworks rethink of the LP for the digital age. But it is rumored to be part of the secret tablet project though…

* The Tablet: Many expect the fabled Apple tablet as early as September.

* New iPods: New iPod Nano and iPod Touch with cameras. This seems the most likely.

* iTunes 9: The next version of iTunes is tipped to get Blu-ray, social software support and iPhone app organization. Also seems likely.

* Steve Jobs: Will Jobs make his first public appearance since returning from medical leave?

Maybe all of the above?

Gizmodo’s Brian Lam talked to a high level source who claims to have seen and handled prototypes of Apple’s upcoming tablet.

* The tablet is real (we already knew this though — CoM’s sources have also confirmed it).

* 10-inch screen.

* Looks like a giant iPhone with the same Home button and a shiny black plastic back.

* Two editions: One with a webcam and one for education.

* Will sit between iPod/iPhone and a MacBook, costing $700 to $900.

* Will also function as a secondary screen and/or a touchpad for iMacs and MacBooks, like this 7-inch external USB monitor form MiMo.

* It’s been under development in one form or another for six years, but the first prototype was built at end of 2008. Time to market is 6-9 months, pegging the device’s release date this holiday season.

But just as Lam — who is a great reporter and a straight-shooter – was was about to get to the juicy bit — what OS the tablet will run — his iPhone dropped the call. Classic!

Writes Lam: “My call dropped on some windy road off Skyline Drive. Fucking AT&T.”

UPDATE: I contacted Lam, who said his source didn’t know the tablet’s OS. It’s the biggest secret surrounding the device, he says. Entrepreneur and ugly dog-lover Jason Calacanis just tweeted it runs a modified version of the iPhone OS, citing a developer. Maybe. Here at CoM, we like the idea it’ll run Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Outlook is coming to the Mac, Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit said on Thursday. The next version of Office for Mac will replace Entourage for Mac with a new application – Outlook for Mac.

Is this good news or bad? I hate Entourage, but I hated Outlook on Windows even more when I had to use a PC. In fact, Outlook is my second-most hated program of all time, right behind Lotus Notes.

Outlook for Mac will be included in Office 2010 for Mac, which Microsoft said will be ready for the holidays next year. (Apple has promised better Exchange support in Snow Leopard. It’s likely that Microsoft announced Outlook so far in advance to discourage current Entourage users from switching to the new Exchange-compatible version of Apple Mail coming in Snow Leopard).

It will include:

* A new database and Exchange protocol. Database supports Time Machine backups and Spotlight searching — finally!!!!

* Better cross-platform collaboration and calendering.

* Built from the ground up in Cocoa to offer better performance, better OS X integration, and get this, “make Outlook beautiful,” said said Eric Wilfrid, general manager for the MacBU.

No word on whether Outlook for Mac will be compatible with PST files exported from Windows versions of Outlook, which are a bear to import into other email programs.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is reducing the number of versions of Office it offers from three to two. Alongside the Standard Edition, it is now offering Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition, which bundles Entourage Web Services Edition and Microsoft Document Connection for Mac.

It will be sold alongside the current Standard Edition for the same price: $399, or $239 to upgrade. It is available to some customers today as a download or on Sept. 15. in shrinkwrap.

Link to Microsoft’s press release.

Today’s gadgets seem perfect for any iCowboy (or iCowgirl) lookin’ to rustle up some deals on Apple gear. For those packin’ an iPhone, we have a leather iPhone holster. If you need some accompaniment on those long cattle drives, there is a $40 deal on iPod speakers from Logitech. Finally, it gets dusty out on the range, so we also have 60 percent off on screen protectors.

For details on these and many other bargains (maybe even a cowboy dictionary) you can belly-up to the CoM Daily Deals page.

There’s a pair of great but fake videos making the rounds of the Apple tablet. Two videos posted to YouTube supposedly show the tablet running the iPhone OS on some kind of development hardware. The hardware controls — volume, the home button — are on a separate hardware box wired to a large touchscreen screen. So it’s not the genuine hardware, but something like a breadboard.

It looks great. The device can run multiple Apps simultaneously. App windows are tiled on top of each other and can be moved around on the touchscreen. The App bar runs the full length of the screen at the bottom like the Dock in OS X.

But unfortunately it looks totally fake to me. The up-close, grainy video just seems too constrained. Whoever shot the video doesn’t want to show too much — just enough to tease the viewer. If it were a real spy video it’d be much less Blair Witch.

UPDATE: As reader Gene points out in the comments, it’s interesting because it shows how the tablet might run current iPhone/iPod apps: “Fake, but gives us a good idea for dealing with the fixed size of iPhone apps on a larger screen: basically, every app becomes a dashboard widget. Simple, and apps don’t have to be resized!”

Also, after the jump, screenshots of the same device have been posted to the MacRumors forums. One of the screenshots shows the “About” screen. The device runs OS 3.0 and has a memory capacity of 120GB. The model number is N/A and the serial number: W8922DP91SO.

I ran the serial number through Chipmunk International’s serial number tool, which returns details of the hardware’s specs, manufacture date, the factory it was made in, and so on. This serial number wasn’t found in the database.

Apple’s been getting a lot of flak lately for its heavy-handed App Store policies – a direct consequence of its new-found status as a market leader, says author Graham Bower.

For years, Apple capitalized on its underdog status, able to skirt the rules because it was always coming in second.

But now that it dominates with products like the iPod and iPhone, it’s getting the same kind of grief that dogged Microsoft for years.

Bower, who lives in London, has just published a fascinating new book called Secondonomics: How Coming Second Can Be a Winning Strategy, which is about the advantages of coming second. Contrary to popular belief, winner doesn’t take all. Take for example what happens to the first penguin into the water versus the second. Which one gets eaten?

Apple figures large in Secondonomics. Bower argues that Apple has gotten a lot of passes because of its underdog status.

“The Mac has a big advantage over Windows because it’s the second most popular desktop OS,” says Bower. “It’s not targeted for viruses as much, and it’s not targeted for anti-trust cases. Can you imagine Microsoft getting away with hooking something like MobileMe so tightly into their OS?”

Hit the jump for a fascinating IM interview with Bower, who’s a smart cookie. Bower has a lot of insight into Apple, coming second, the challenges Apple faces as it becomes bigger, and Steve Jobs’s psychological need to be an underdog.

After Canada’s Rogers Wireless told Gizmodo “There is no 8GB 3GS iPhone,” the website has turned up a photo of the company’s internal sales system showing that low-and-behold, there is an 8GB iPhone 3GS after all.

Reportedly sent by a Rogers’ employee, the photo of the system shows an 8GB 3GS priced at $74 — the same price as the current iPhone 3G that it will likely replace ($99 – $25 customer discount).

Earlier this week, Rogers told Gizmodo that a webpage showing the new phone was a “mistake.” Gizmodo now suspects it was lied to.

“This is the second such internal reference to a 8GB 3GS to come from Rogers in as many weeks, not to mention their recent website fiasco, where an 8GB 3GS was listed in a feature comparison chart, then deleted as ‘a mistake,'” says Giz. “None of these leaks stand alone as totally convincing, but three unconnected reports? That’s a little too much to ignore, even for a skeptic.”

Apple is getting serious about getting green.

To make sure that its massive new data-center is energy efficient, Apple has just hired a top eBay executive and leading expert in the “greening” of cloud computing facilities.

Apple has picked up Olivier Sanche, eBay’s Senior Director Data Centers Services and Strategy, according to the Green Data Center Blog.

Based in San Francisco, Sanche has helped make eBay’s massive global operations carbon neutral since 2007. Most recently, he helped oversee the construction of eBay’s newest data-center, which will meet the highest green standards when it goes online in 2010.

“This new center is built to meet LEED Gold standards,” Sanche writes on his LinkedIn profile. “We broke ground in late-2008 and we are on track to deliver state-of-the-art efficiencies in cooling and power management.”

It looks like Apple needs someone of Sanche’s stature for its fast-growing cloud computing operations.

Apple is building its own huge data-center in North Carolina. The billion-dollar facility will reportedly be 500,000-square-feet and will serve as Apple’s primary East Coast data-center. In 2006, Apple bought a giant 107,000-square-foot facility data-center on the West Coast, in Newark, Calif. The new North Carolina facility will be nearly five times the size of Newark operation. Ground is expected to be broken later this month.

Data-centers are huge power hogs. Google puts its data-centers as close to power plants as possible, just like Las Vegas is next to the Hoover Dam. McKinsey has projected that data center emissions will overtake those of the world’s airlines by 2020.

At eBay, Sanche helped to green a massive data-center operation. The auction company runs more than 15,000 servers worldwide to support of 84 million eBay users. Sanche says the company has been carbon neutral since 2007 thanks to a combination of conservation, solar energy, facilities management and a high-quality carbon offset program.

Sanche is also Vice Chair of the advisory council for The Green Grid, an industry consortium that promotes energy efficiency.

Via 9to5Mac.

Philip Schiller, Apple senior vice president and recently the company’s public face at product launch events and conference keynotes, is on a roll. In fact, some might conclude he’s replaced a significant portion of Apple’s PR department, given the press he’s received lately for personally addressing issues with the much-maligned iTunes App Store.

First, of course, came his extensively re-printed email reply to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, setting the blogger straight on the chain of events surrounding the iPhone dictionary app Ninjawords’ path to App Store approval.

And while Schiller did not — so far as we know — personally respond to Tech Crunch writer Michael Arrington’s very public abandonment of the iPhone, he did reach out personally to Steven Frank, the highly regarded developer and co-founder of Panic, who had previously made his own frustrations with Apple and the App Store publicly known.

Back when he was The Man at Apple, Steve Jobs was known to send people personal email from time to time, with such mail inevitably making its way to public attention and, more often than not, garnering Jobs and Apple invaluable attention and promotional good will. It was one method by which the company grew into its current status as one of technology’s two or three biggest powerhouse brands while maintaining a sense of being smaller than it really was, of being personal and approachable even when, in fact, it was neither.

Schiller’s carrying on of the strategy should be seen, in any case, as a good sign, an indication that, as he put it in his email to Frank, “we’re listening to your feedback”. And while, as Frank wrote about his exchange with Schiller, “technically, nothing specific has actually visibly changed,” the goodwill Apple cultivates is invaluable when a senior vice president reaches out personally to people who publicly complain about the company.

The last, best words in the matter may also be Frank’s: “communication will solve this problem — not silence.”

If you’ve been inspired by David Hockney’s iPhone paintings or the New Yorker cover, you know that doodling on your device can be more difficult than it looks.

At least if you want results that don’t completely suck.

Enter a blog called fingerpainted.it, headed by freelance web designer Benjamin Rabe. He and a band of 11 creatives, including prolific iPhone artist Matthew Watkins, share tips, artwork and tutorials.

The how-tos show just how much dexterity and thought go into these mini-masterpieces; Luis Peso’s demonstrative cat sketch in the above Layers app tutorial has about seven steps.

A lot of the art is done with the Brushes app, but artists use a variety of tools including Layers, Jackson Pollock, Kandinsky Lite, Photofx. The tutorials show you how to start with Kandinsky, move to Pollock and end up with something entirely different, like this vibrant iPhone work by Patricio Villarroel.

While there are plenty of places to ogle iPhone art — flickr groups especially — fingerpainted seems to give the most info on how to get from art-icapped to art.

Amid tight security, Apple shot a TV advert for an unreleased product at Jax Truckee Diner on Tuesday afternoon.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures or even a description of the mystery product. Because of the security, no photographers or reporters were allowed on set. Filming took place on Tuesday afternoon.

“Apple found us, they’re trying to show us as a hip and cool spot for the 20-something crowd,” Jax on the Tracks owner Bud Haley told the Sierra Sun newspaper.

Of course, rumors that Apple is about to release a Web tablet are reaching fever pitch. Many think the tablet will be announced next month in time for the holiday season; but conflicting reports say the tablet will be launched early next year.

But if Apple is already shooting ads for the new product, chances are its release is imminent. After all, the probability of leaks are much greater when products are sent to outside partners like advertising agencies.

Jax Truckee Diner is a classic 1940s-style diner next to the railroad tracks in downtown Truckee, California.

The question is, why would Apple put a Web tablet in a diner? Perhaps to show a crowd of hip 20-somethings sitting around a booth, playing digital 45s before watching a streaming MTV video and then ordering waffles over WiFi?

UPDATE: I called Bud Haley, owner of the diner, who in a roundabout way confirmed the shoot, and said it was “exciting.” Unfortunately, Apple has him tied up in a confidentiality agreement, and he couldn’t/wouldn’t say if the ad was for a new product or an existing one.

“As you can imagine, I’ve got to be careful and confidential,” he said. “I can’t say anything about it, I’m afraid. I’d love to give you more info, but I can’t. No comment is the best comment.”

Asked if his afternoon yesterday was exciting (I was desperate), Haley said: “Obviously, anything where Apple is involved is exciting. But I still can’t tell you anything. Sorry.” Haley has taken several calls from reporters and was very patient and gracious. He’s a good sport and is handling the nosy questions very well.

Here’s what Jax looks like inside:

iPod/iPhone fans are always in search of the perfect speakers to blast their favorite tunes in the most comfortable, affordable and longest-lasting way. While the search for that holy grail continues, Logitech early this morning provided two new entrants – one boast near ’round the clock music and another promising portability but with booming bass.

Today’s daily deals are perfect for the back-to-school crowd, or anyone looking to own a Mac without breaking their bank account. Remember the iconic CRT iMacs – you can own a piece of the past for $60. Love the sleek lines of a MacBook Air but the price tag disrupted your daydreams – now just $999. Looking for an iPod Video but want some spare change, too? Snag an iPod Video for just $140.

Details of these and many other deals can be found in CoM’s Daily Deals page.

After our post on yesterday’s en masse binning of hundreds of working Macs from a “PC only” school district in Florida, a reader who wished to remain anonymous sent us pics of those computers destined by that school for the trash. We also received comment from a school administrator.

First things first: here they are, stacks of laptops and neat rows of Macs destined for the rubbish heap. Our tipster says more than 208 perfectly good Macs are headed for the dump.

As many of you pointed out in the comments of yesterday’s piece, even if the school district didn’t want to use the Macs, they could’ve sold them and used the money — or given them away instead of just dumping them.

More pics of the great Florida Mac massacre & commentary after the jump.

iHome Audio has unveiled its iP1 high-end portable stereo for the iPhone or iPod. The $299 iP1 features the company’s Bongiovi Acoustics’ Digital Power Station (DPS), touted to create richer sound without bigger speakers. The iP1 includes a dock for the iPhone, or iPod, plus a 3.5-inch auxiliary input.

Although not available until October, iHome is taking pre-orders for the stereo. The stereo includes two 40W 4-inch woofers and two 10W 1-inch tweeters.

Along with the iPhone/iPod dock, the iP1 also includes a remote for iPod menu navigation.

[Via iPodNN and iHome Audio]

Sling Media has submitted an update to its groovy SlingPlayer Mobile app for iPhone that promises, among other things, true 16:9 widescreen support and, in markets not saddled with an exclusive AT&T service provider’s agreement, TV streaming over 3G.

Slingbox owners with DISH Network will also be able to navigate using a touch-supported native browser, instead of pushing through the TV-standard browsing screen being streamed in by the current version of the app.

Of course, the upgrade must first be approved by the App Store review overlords, and by now it’s well known what a capricious bet that can be. Sling Media has submitted a version for use outside of the US that would allow for streaming over a 3G connection, according to reports, and it’s no certainty Apple will approve such functionality for its customers abroad, either.

What is certain is that, regardless what Apple may feel about streaming TV over 3G, the specter of AT&T’s exclusive service agreement in the iPhone’s largest market effectively prevents US consumers from realizing the full potential of Apple’s inventiveness.

I am a sad panda today. As you may or may not have noticed, three quarters of my big post on Apple vanished when I fixed a typo.

Why? Because I was using Blogpress, an iPhone blogging app that I had been enjoying. Here’s the thing: Blogpress has a show-stopping bug. It doesn’t correctly interpret the tags we use for jumps.

Which is pretty inexcusable. But rather than talk about how Blogpress is deeply frustrating and ruined my morning, I thought I’d make this a positive thing. Tell us what the best iPhone blog apps are. Whichever we like best will get some positive coverage, and we might even document the whole bake-off process. Developers with promo codes, bring it on.

Here are the requirements for the app:
— WordPress compatible
— Landscape keyboard
— Can edit in HTML and WYSIWYG
— Recognizes tags
— Handles categories and post management

And a little flair never hurt anyone, either.

One more thing, my parting words to Blogpress:

(Picture from D Squared in Germany)
— Post From Blogpress