Cult of Mac

Cartoonist Fred Seibert, the brains behind a string of hits on Nickelodeon, including number one show The Fairly Oddparents, has launched his own cartoon network for the video iPod — no network or cable required.

Channel Frederator offers a handful of short animations every week as a video podcast. Billed as “Straight from the interweb,” and formatted for the PSP as well as iPod, the site says:

“We really love cartoons and the people who make them. Because of our day job, we see lots of excellent stuff that never gets seen by most people. Channel Frederator gives all cartoons a shot at being shown to the wired world’s masses. And if we can spread the love – or at least spread something – then we will. ”

I watched a podcast and thought it pretty good. The first cartoon was charmingly inscrutable and the second boasted great production values, fast-paced storytelling and a Shrek-like wit. The third, well, er…

In the world of Japanese anime, Central Park Media is podcasting anime trailers and full episodes (promised “soon”) for the iPod and PSP.

Every year Forbes pokes fun at captains of industry by turning them into Halloween masks. This year, Steve Jobs is cast as Darth Vader because of his recent turn to “the dark side.”

Steve Jobs as Darth Vader. Net worth: $3.3 billion. Source of wealth: Apple Computer and Pixar. Steve Jobs was the chosen one who promised to make things right in the computing world. But as time passed, his hunger for power took over, leading him to sue hapless bloggers and embrace dark arts, like digital-rights management.

Over in the comments section of my other blog, reader Lone Star kindly posted the five steps needed to configure your illegally pirated copy of FrontRow, including a keyboard shortcut to launch it.

Click the link for Lone Star’s tutorial. Be warned, I haven’t tested it.

Apple’s PowerBooks and iBooks are generally well-made, value-for-money machines, but they suffer from a critical design flaw — the tip of the AC power adapter is prone to breaking off inside the power port.

It’s a costly and time-consuming repair, and it’s almost impossible for owners to fix themselves. I know, because it’s happened to me three times in the last three years.

The last time was just last week, and the story of how I fixed it is a saga you can read after the jump. Long story short: I finally dug it out in a frenzy of rage and frustration that almost ruined a $2,500 computer.

Apple’s FrontRow and PhotoBooth software are both available on BitTorrent, even though they’re supposed to be restricted to the new iMac.

It took about two minutes to find and download PhotoBooth. Thirty seconds later I was snapping fun pics with the kids using a PowerBook and an iSight camera.

FrontRow, which allows you to control your music, photos, and DVDs from the couch, has been hacked so that it doesn’t look for the iMac remote control it is supposed to ship with. Instead, the hacked version works with any keyboard. I got it running on the PowerBook and a Power Mac G5.

In fact, FrontRow is pretty useless without a remote, but I hooked it to an old Keyspan external USB remote-control, and it works perfectly, though it is slow to load the music and video libraries.

There are also reports of it working with bluetooth keyboards and the free Romeo remote-control software (which is compatible with a limited selection of Sony Ericsson phones and the Nokia 3650).

Update: The DVD player in the hacked FrontRow doesn’t work — at least not for me. Too bad.

Designer Scott Wilson, the brains behind the $13 iBelieve iPod-crucifix-lanyard, said it celebrates both Jesus and the iPod.

Asked if it was genuinely Christian, or a comment on the popularity of ipods, Wilson replied:

“It is both. People will see what they want in it. They may want to visibly show their faith in a more fashionable way. The intertwined meaning is what is interesting. I think we are obsessed with objects today and none more than maybe the iPod. The idea was too funny, controversial, sad, not to visualize.”

See IPod is Bigger Than Jesus?

Left: Lugz; Right: Apple.

The growing spat over Apple’s new Eminem iPod ad, which appears to have been ripped-off from a 2002 spot for Lugz footwear, may result in legal action, according to the New York Times.

“We’re going to take all the steps we need to protect our rights,” a Lugz spokesman told the Times.

“We’re very upset,” Larry Schwartz, executive vice president and principal at Lugz in New York, said in an interview. “The look and feel are awfully similar.”

“We think very highly of Apple,” Mr. Schwartz said. “We don’t understand how this could have happened.”

In response, Apple’s ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, has issued its first statement about the ad.

In the statement from TBWA/Chiat/Day, part of the TBWA Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group, the agency described itself as “dedicated to creating original ideas.”

“We do not plagiarize, borrow, or steal them, and have a strict policy of not accepting third-party ideas in our creative process,” the statement read. The agency’s Playa del Rey, Calif., office has long created campaigns for Apple including award-winning ads that carried the theme “Think different.”

… But in its statement, TBWA/Chiat/Day said, “We can assure you that the ‘Detroit’ spot was created without any reference by TBWA/Chiat/Day to the ‘Arrow’ spot.”

“Our intention was to develop a campaign that was a natural and independent evolution of the ‘Silhouettes’ campaign,” the statement read. “Any similarities between the two spots are regrettable.”

Tomi, the Lego-loving artist behind the PodBrix mini-figures, is selling a Lego case for the iPod Shuffle. He writes:

“We are just about to release a new product called the BrixPod Classic. Obviously I’m looking to promote it.

It’s a LEGO® iPod shuffle case that gives the effect of a full-sized functional LEGO® iPod. It will be released this Thursday at 9:00pm EST for $49.99.

The limited edition run will be 300, but we are releasing 150 units first, then 150 units in about 3 weeks.”

The iBelieve is a $13 cap and lanyard for the iPod shuffle that turns the player into a cross when hung around your neck.

The site, which is very slick, appears to be genuine — at first glance. But there’s something fishy about it. First off, the site says:

“Inspired by the world’s obsession and devotion to the iPod, iBelieve is a replacement lanyard for your Shuffle. It is a social commentary on the fastest growing religion in the world.”

This clearly refers to the iPod — the iPod is the fastest growing religion in the world.

Then there’s the “biblical” quote in the upper right corner, taken from “2 Jobs 3:15.” It reads:

“But now bring me a man who plays music. And when the man played music, the groove came upon them.”

According to BibleGateway, the quote is a version of 2 Kings 3:15, which says: “‘But now bring me a man who plays music.’ And when the man played music, the power of the Lord came upon Elisha.”

A quick Whois search reveals the iBelieve site is registered to Scott Wilson of Portland, Oregon, who happens to be an award-winning designer. Wilson currently works at Nike, was formerly at IDEO, and is founder of design shop MOD.

So is the iBelieve lanyard real? It seems to be. The shopping mechanism works, and transports you to PayPal when you place an order.

I’ve e-mailed Scott and will post his response here if/when I get a reply.

Update: I blogged this as I figured it out, but a bit of digging around first would have made things a lot easier. It is in fact by Scott Wilson, who first sent notice of the iBelieve to MoCo Loco, from whence it spread around the blogosphere.

A smattering of movies and TV shows formatted for the iPod are starting to show up on BitTorrent — all unofficial, of course.

They include recent(ish) releases like Sin City and Amityville Horror, and edisodes of TV shows, including Lost, Nip/Tuck, Xena and World Series of Poker.

But there’s also unexpected oddities like Metropolis, Battle of the Bulge and Reefer Madness, which were all uploaded by the same person, and downloaded by none.

“Drown out annoying roommates and co-workers today!” says the developer of Noise, a handy little ap for generating pink noise.

“Also known as a signal with even power distribution on a logarithmic frequency scale, pink noise masks background noise to help you concentrate.”

(Via MacFeber)

The problem with having yuppie customers is they are so quick to sue. The class-action lawsuit against Apple over scratched nanos strikes me as petty and greedy — even though I own a nano (scratched, natch) and am probably eligible to join.

Digital-Lifestyles has a summary of the suit:

More details about Jason Tomczak’s class action against Apple for releasing defective iPod Nanos have emerged on The Inquirer’s site.In the action, started in a San Jose district court, Tomczak alleges that the iPod Nano’s easily-scratched screen renders the display unreadable and thus breaches state consumer protection statutes.

Tomczak alleges that Apple kept on shifting the Nanos even when they knew that there were problems with the design and by failing to recall the MP3 players, the company “passed the expense, hassle and frustration of replacing the defectively designed Nanos along to class members.”

The plaintiff alleges that with Steve Jobs whipping the Nano out of his pocket in a TV advert, Apple led consumers to believe the machine was durable.Tomczak argues that even this simple act could lead to a scratched screen, claiming that the resin used in the product was not as thick and strong as in previous iPods.

The plaintiff wraps up his case by alleging that Apple knew about the dodgy quality problems before release but, “fierce competition on the digital music industry” compelled them to release it anyway.

From the heart of Japan’s youth culture — Tokyo’s trendy Shibuya district — Flickr user Purpin describes how Apple is advertising the iPod nano:

As part of their rather unique advertising campaign, huge iPod nano posters now adorn the platform walls of Toyoko Line Shibuya Station.

As you depart the train you’ll be faced with a stream after stream of 1:1 iPod nano cutouts, in which you can pull off and take home. Obviously, I helped myself to a few as well.

Needless to say, with its tens of thousands of people passing through Shibuya station daily, those iPod cutouts won’t last very long.

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to be able to catch a glimpse of the staff furiously “refilling” the empty spaces with new cutouts in between the waves of departing passengers (I took the pictures after the evening rush. I can only imagine how busy these guys can be during rush hour!).

Much to my suprise, I later realised that these cutouts weren’t made of cardboard but of plastic, and are very rigidly built too. On the reverse side were the URL and QR Codes of a site where you can download iPod nano wallpapers for your mobile phone.

Having living somewhere way out from Tokyo, I was very lucky to be able to get my hands on these cutouts AND witness those “refillers” in action. Hats off to Apple and their wonderful advertising.

Update: Apple Japan has more pix of the nano promotion, which give a good idea of its placement in the subway.

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Yahooligan and occassional-OS-X-critic Russell Beattie bought a new video iPod, and he absolutely loves it. Russell’s no slouch. He’s one of the sharpest observers of tech and Silicon Valley. He writes:

I got the new 30GB White iPod yesterday and it completely rocks. Apple did a great job with this gadget. Much thinner than previous iPods, super-fast syncing over USB, and the screen is *great*. Anyone who complains about the screen size is either 1) blind 2) a whining tempermental jerk 3) someone who hasn’t actually seen the screen. It’s beautiful.

I’m telling you right now, Video Podcasts are going to be huge. HUUUUGE… Making it so easy to rip or download new music and sync it to your device made the iPod what it is today. The same functionality for Videos is what is going to make the new iPod the standard bearer for portable video as well, even though it has a much smaller screen than the PSP.

…I can’t wait for iFilm and AtomFilms and JibJab and all the rest to start creating content for my iPod and other devices as well, available via an RSS feed (do they already?). And I can’t wait for the Podcast guys to start ramping up their content like RocketBoom and Mobuzz have as well.

…It’s all related, can you see it? Portable video is really here at least… and it’s going to be huuuuge!

Via Fscklog, a slow-loading video of the world’s longest startup sound. The anticitpation is funnier than the payoff, but worth a look.

Suicide Girls, the popular grunge porn site, has launched “SGTV,” a video podcasting service that promisies to offer free “sexy videos” for the iPod every week.

“Show your friends, your mom, the girl next to you on the bus…” the site teases.

“New episodes profiling one of the nearly 1,000 SuicideGirls currently active in the community will be posted weekly,” Suicide Girls said in a press release. “The episodes will feature video sets, interviews and candid moments available for free download.”

So far there are 10 videos on the site for download, featuring “Stormy,” “Pearl,” “Regan” and others. The videos will also be available as a video podcast (here’s the RSS), which will be updated every Thursday.

The New York Post notes the similarities between Eminem’s new iPod ad and a 2002 spot for Lugz footwear.

(Like the ads, the Post story bears a similarity to my blog post here on Monday).

Anyway, according to the Post, the Lugz ad was created by New York animation house Psyop on behalf of unnamed ad agency. The Eminem ad was made by TBWA, Apple’s longtime agency.

The Post reports:

“Justin Booth-Clibborn, executive producer for Psyop, said his firm has endured its share of copycats and there are no plans to “make waves.” Still, he admits that even he was struck by the similarities.

“Of all the times that things look like our work, it is the most strikingly similar,” he said.

A posse sticker of your favorite CEO, courtesy of Victor Agreda.

Apple’s at it again. New pro lineup:

Power Mac: Dual-core PowerPC chips across line. Two models: Dual and Quad, which features two dual-core processors, up to 2.5GHz per core. Four PCI Express slots, and “wicked-fast workstation graphics” that can power up to eight Cinema Displasy! Eight! Starts at $2,000; top-of-the-line starts at $3,200.

PowerBooks: Higher res displays (1440-by-960 on the 15″), longer battery life and SuperDrives as standard. $1,400-$2,500.

Aperture: Pro touch-up and archive photo tool. Supports RAW. $500. Not really a Photoshop killer; more like iPhoto on steroids. Get this — it requires Dual 2GHz G5 or faster, 2GB of RAM, 5GB of HD space for ap and tutorials (not counting giant RAW files), and ATI Radeon X800 XT card or better! No worries about it getting pirated: who has the hardware to run such a beast?

I actually don’t like product announcements like this. It makes my 18-month-old PowerBook and G5 look feeble and decrepit. Damn Apple!

“This is my brand new handmade (my wife made it) mac sweater!” writes Sigalakos
on Flickr. “Based on the previous sweater featured here in flickr (sorry i can’t find a link to that). This is a more indie approach with short sleeves.”

The previous Happy/Sad Mac sweater Sigalakos refers to seems to have been removed, but there’s a pic and some details on TUAW.

If you’ve got an iPod nano, you also have a free case for it — the plastic wrapper it came in.

I’ve been using the see-through poly wrapper for a week or two and it’s proven quite functional. It covers both the scroll-wheel and screen, but is thin enough to use the scroll-wheel without taking it off. It protects from scratches, and the glue that holds it together is still sticky.

The only drawback is having to remove the wrapper to plug in the dock connector. Plus it looks kinda mental, like people who leave plastic wrappers on car seats.

What’s really needed is a bit of mental toughness; an acceptance of the fact that the nano will get scratched, and it matters naught.

(Picture lifted from WR276’s Flickr photostream).

“Is that an iPod in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” asks the press release I just received from PovPod.com, a site offering”point-of-view” porn for the new iPod.

On the site, which is definitely not work safe, there’s some “handy” instructions:

Step 1 Download our Videos to your iPod through itunes 6

Step 2 Hold iPod at crotch level

Step 3 Watch our point-of-view (POV) video and feel like you’re there!

The release continues:

“Isn’t it funny how Smut Peddlers seem to be the first to develop new uses for technology? Well, just when you thought there were enough ways to furtively enjoy pornography, a newcomer emerges.

Hot on the heels of Apple’s introduction of its latest hit MP3 player, povPod.com has announced the launch of a new site offering “Point of View” (POV) adult video content, formatted for – you guessed it – the iPod video.

This new, mobile porn adventure brings portable adult entertainment to the mainstream. With PovPod.com just download videos to your iPod and go. The new apple iPod – with support for up to 140 hours of digital video – is an exciting new solution for people who want their porn to-go.”

The new iPod ad starring Eminem bears an uncanny resemblance to a 2002 ad for Lugz, a brand of hip hop footwear.

The two ads share the same concept and execution, the same color palette, and the same graffiti-style motion graphics superimposed over the live action.

Coincidence? Or same advertising company?

A new Automator action converts video for the new iPod in one easy step — much easier than most of the other convoluted techniques out there.

It converts .mov and .dv files, and requires Quicktime Pro ($30).

(Via Jim Heid)

Motorola’s Rokr is a stinkr, according to Mobile Tracker.

“One of the first things I noticed about the ROKR E1 was that it is very slow when iTunes is playing music. This holds true if you’re inside iTunes or if it is hidden. For a phone with music features being so central, this is a fatal flaw. My unit couln’t even keep the play time counter working smoothly (see video). When iTunes is playing a song menus are also slow and I easily typed faster than it could keep up with. Navigating through menus is also painful–count on a second or two after you touch a button for it to respond.

… I’m happy to report some good news though, the speakers on the ROKR E1 sound amazing. Great quality and even bass (it has a bit of rumble when you hold it). Everyone I showed the E1 off to was impressed by the built-in speakers. The idea of stereo speakers on a device this small should be ridiculous, but they sound great. Of course you’ll run through the battery faster using the speakers, but this is one thing that even the iPod cannot do.”