Jasper Goodall’s “Poster Girl” series, on show in London, like his “Liquid Peril” work above, takes liberal inspiration from Apple’s iconic iPod ads.

A freelance illustrator, Goodall has worked for MTV, Gucci, Adidas, Coca-Cola and BMW.

Goodall describes his work as: “sexual, fantastical, dreamy. Basically, contemporary fantasy art.”
You can see more of his work from the show here, some are borderline NSFW.

The show’s has been held over until March 12 at the Electric Blue Gallery.

Via The Mirror

Soundwalk is a vest with two speakers in the shoulders to blast your iPod tunes out as you ride around.

Developed by a Korean company, the vest speakers run on two AAA batteries, the iPod plugs into a front pocket (though there don’t seem to be pics showing where, exactly).  Soundwalk costs £39.99 (roughly $55) and the makers boast that “the astonishing surround sound from speakers (pictured below) which can compete with a live performance.”

Even on the model, however, the vest is a bit on the fugly side.

Better sound than sorry?

Via the Telegraph

Watchmen, the just-released film adaptation of the dramatic and incredibly detailed graphic novel by the same title, is set in an alternate version of 1984 and 1985 America. Not all of the details of America have changed though, and most importantly, the Mac is still present. As the film neared its climax during the midnight showing I attended, a friend elbowed me vigorously to point out this key snippet: 

There comes a point in the film where one of the characters is viewing a bank of monitors. The camera shows a close shot of the character and just a couple of the monitors. In one monitor on his right, you’ll recognize Apple’s 1984 Macintosh ad being played.

That should make it relatively easy to find the Apple-centric easter egg without revealing the plot. Good luck finding the video of Big Brother’s defeat in Watchmen!

Nothing like a little creativity in the face of frustration: San Francisco PR guy Derek Brookmeyer’s iPhone kept crashing and giving him error messages so many times that he decided to save the screens and count them.

His blog has a collage of 15 of these error screens, mostly related to Internet browsing, along with a letter to his crash-happy iPhone, that starts:

“Dear iPhone,
You are starting to drive me nuts. You are slower than ever, freeze up constantly and give me error messages like it’s your job…”

Via Could I Have Been

At least three new online stores selling applications to run on Apple mobile devices will soon be open for business, taking aim at capturing a piece of the projected $800 million market for iPhone and iPod Touch applications, according to a report at The Wall Street Journal online.

Jay Freeman, a 27-year-old computer science doctoral student who says his “jailbreaking” software has been installed on nearly 2 million iPhones, is opening the Cydia Store to create a vehicle for himself, and developers like him, to capitalize on their efforts to develop software built outside the tightly controlled parameters of Apple’s iPhone SDK. Freeman says he will collect the same sales commission from 3rd party developers on his site that Apple collects from developers whose wares sell on the iTunes AppStore.

Two other “renegade” application marketplaces are planned, according to the Journal report – Rock Your Phone, for iPhone users who have not yet modified their devices to download unauthorized applications, and a thid online store specializing in selling adult games for the iPhone.

While Apple has yet to indicate any action to try and prevent the online stores from opening, Freeman has nonetheless hired legal counsel to press his case, should it come to that. “The overworking goal is to provide choice,” he says. “It’s understandable the [Apple] wants to control things, but it has been very limiting for developers and users.”

Via WSJ

Image: Claude Estèbe

Japanese women between 20 – 26 awarded Apple products 4 out of the top 5 spots in a survey of their thoughts on superior design commissioned by Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization and published at the online site What Japan Thinks.

Asked “Amongst stuff you have never owned, what do you feel has superior design?” the women named Apple’s iPods first. Second place went to the Apple iPhone, with Plus-Minus Zero humidifiers (?) coming in third. In Fourth and fifth places were Apple’s desktop computers and notebooks, respectively.

The survey of 1,102 young women distributed among Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, also had respondents rank companies in general, asking “Amongst stuff you do own or have owned, what do you feel has superior design?” Apple came in first place, followed by Sharp, Sony, NEC, Muji Ryohin [a Japanese retail design company, literally named “no brand quality goods”], Panasonic, Franc Franc [a Japanese Ikea], and Nintendo. Results of the same question directed to stuff they “have never owned” again placed Apple first, and with respect to overall brand image (not tied to any specific products), Apple came in second only to SONY.

Results of the survey are enlightening, coming in the wake of the brouha-ha that grew from a recent Wired article suggesting that Japanese “hate” the iPhone.

Via AppleInsider

Will RIM’s just-introduced BlackBerry App World become the business-class version of Apple’s more consumer-oriented iPhone App Store? That’s the question being asked as the Canadian phone maker prices BlackBerry applications starting at $2.99.

Unlike iPhone applications that can be purchased for as little as $0.99 each, a multi-tiered price system for BlackBerry users ranges from $2.99 all the way up to $9.99 per app.

RIM’s departure is viewed as an acknowledgment of growing resentment by some iPhone developers at App Store pricing.

We’ve previously shown some of the musical amazements made possible with the iPhone and Smule’s Ocarina, and we’ve talked about the incredible, inventive Stanford Laptop Orchestra, but check out this video of The Mentalists playing a fully arranged pop tune using nothing more than their Apple mobile devices and software downloaded from the iTunes AppStore.

The truly paradigm-shifting import of the creative doors opened by Apple’s breakthrough mobile operating system are only just beginning to surface.

Via Edible Apple

Apple maintains an average five day inventory on products, with Cupertino outdistancing its PC rivals, an analyst said Thursday.

Financial analysis firm UBS said Dell was the closest PC maker, keeping inventory in stock for just a week, according to checks during the December quarter.

While China’s Lenovo maintained a 15-day inventory average, top PC maker HP had stock sitting an average of 32 days, according to UBS. Chip-making giant Intel turned-over inventory in 89 days. The record went to D-Link with 131 days of inventory.

If the 25 year anniversary of the Mac has you feeling nostalgic, you might want to check out the wares at this memorabilia sale.

There’s a little bit of everything, (including a Hoyle deck of cards with the Apple logo), but some of the best pieces are from the ’80s, including the original Mac brochure, the user manual and the first four issues of Macworld magazine.

The seller is parting with the collection to get together money for medical care and hopes you’ll take good care of his Mac stuff…

Via MacNN

A feature called “Now Playing,”  launched in  fall 2007,  allowed latte-sippers to wander into a Starbucks, log onto the iTunes Store with a laptop, iPod Touch or iPhone and instantly see what song was playing in-store, plus browse and buy music on iTunes.

Unwired View found a patent Apple filed for a similar feature.
The basic idea: place a local cache of iTunes media store server at a retail location and follow the music played from that cache. The associated info is beamed to iPhones and Macbooks via local Wi-Fi network.

Apple envisions lots of in-store tie-ins and cross selling thanks to the feature.

From the patent application:
“One advantage of the invention is that patrons of establishments can dynamically receive store-based information while at the establishments. Store-based information facilitates user experience and can also facilitate locating associated media content from an online media store.

In store-based information can be displayed on a patron’s portable electronic device while the patron in the store… The online media store can coordinate with central management to make store-based information centrally stored and accessible…”

Via Unwired View

Showtime is stumping for votes for its programs up for Emmy awards by making them available on the iPhone and iPod Touch to TV Academy voters.

Emmy voters with Apple mobile devices can screen full episodes of Showtime series including “Dexter,” “Weeds” and “United States of Tara” by entering a password.

The move is expected to save Showtime some money, a spokesperson told Variety that shelving DVD screeners last year by partnering with Internet video provider Brightcove to post its Emmy hopefuls online saved “tens of thousands of dollars.” The Brightcove option will be available again this year for Apple-less Academy members.

Via Textually

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmE1PbeOYVE

This video from the Blogger team at Google isn’t new, but it did teach me a few things I didn’t know before. Sending stuff to a Blogger account from your iPhone is very simple, even if you don’t already have a Blogger account.

First, that Blogger allows anyone to create a blog instantly via email (or SMS message) by simply sending a first post to [email protected] (or to 256447 for US SMS messages). Just like the widely-admired Posterous service, there’s no need to sign up for anything in advance.

Second, and this is the clever bit, is that you can upload content to Blogger.com this way and then when you claim the post from your desktop computer, you can associate that content with any *existing* blog you have.

I know Blogger isn’t fashionable as a blogging platform these days, but I’m rather fond of its simplicity and ease of use. Evan Williams was right about those templates, though. Come on, guys: new templates? Much to ask?

If Apple’s mobile handsets are destined to become world-class gaming devices, one supposes this kind of thing is to be expected. Somehow, though, the Racing Wheel for iPod Touch showcased by Hama at CeBIT09 seems over the line, doesn’t it?

Then again, I’m not a gamer, so maybe I’m just driving outside my engine qualification.

How about it Cult gamers?

Via Engadget

Digital media company Mosaic Legends and San Francisco rock photographer Jay Blakesburgh have created a limited edition interactive app and eBook titled, simply, Grateful Dead, avialable now for $6 on the iTunes AppStore, that appears to be a template for more titles to come.

But who better to start a long, strange trip with than Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead?

Focused around a stunning Photomosaic of the Dead’s iconic guitarist, comprised of nearly 450 individual photographic “tiles” that users can double-tap and pinch their way into, down to full-res views of single photographs, the app also includes photographer’s notes on each photo, additional history of the band, built-in capability to comment on and share photographs with other app users, and a link to the Mosaic Legends store, where users can preview and purchase photographic Glicées and limited edition large prints.

If this AppStore offering takes off among the Dead’s famously loyal and devoted community, look for the idea to be reprised as a marketing vehicle in many additional incarnations.

Via MP3 Insider

The Z-bar, from Zillion TV is a compact set-top box that pulls HDTV signals from your broadband connection to offer you ad-supported HDTV shows and pay on demand.

The service is currently in beta, but when it’s available later in the year, you will be able to view shows for free with advertising attached, or buy them to watch ad-free shows.

Some big names are attached, too, such as NBC Universal, Disney, 20th Century Fox Television, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution.

Zillion TV claims 15,000 titles in the current library and by launch they say they’ll have more. Is this the future of TV in your home?

Via Crave

We’ve featured the stunning Apple-inspired creativity of artist Kyle Buckner before in these pages, from his woodworked iPhone pedestal to a custom plexiglass Apple clock.

Today the Virgina-based artist is at it again with pics of his inspired iPod Nano-Chromatic sculpture.

Buckner’s newest work is wood and plexiglass and includes a motorized Genius logo, as well some other prety cool things. The iPods at the top are made out of plexi, to which he attached a graphic from behind with transparent, double-stick film.

The iPods are on a seperate piece which spins when the Genius logo does, but they can also be made to remain stationary. The Apple logo at the top stays still. Buckner has also built in a potentiometer to control the speed of the motorized parts.

The artist tells Cult of Mac, “I planned on adding a few things to it, and just never got around to it, and still haven’t… but I really dont know if I’ll ever get time to do so. I’m constantly starting more projects and commissions.”

To which we say, Bravo, Kyle. Keep on creating…

You just might find out about layoffs at your company on the way to work, if a new iPhone app dedicated to cutbacks and hires does its job.

The layoff and hiring news app receives real-time data feeds from website layoffdaily.com.
Info includes today’s layoffs news (at this writing, those cuts include from “Chicken Soup For the Soul” to Lamborghini and Utah State University), plus previous two day’s layoffs and, to balance things out a little, a section dedicated to news about which companies are hiring (American Welders Society, call centers and Six Flags New England.

It’ll set you back $1.99, but may prove vital.

Via Mac World

Freshman “Late Night” host Jimmy Fallon started off this week with a joke that patted Apple on the back  and a Mac on his host desk.

Fallon, who is trying to fill the mighty big shoes of David Letterman (and the slightly less large shoes of  Conan O’Brien  took a pot shot at Microsoft during his opening monologue of the second first episode:

“Despite the recession, Microsoft is planning to open stores to compete with Apple.  They’ll be just like the Apple stores, except the staff will freeze when you ask them a question.”

Then Fallon sat down to welcome guests including Tina Fey, followed up by Robert De Niro and Justin Timberlake from behind a desk with a Mac laptop  (a MacBook Pro?)  on it, next to a mug with pencils, though he never opened it. (Apologies for the grainy pic, outside the US, NBC  blocks the episodes).

Before the show debuted, Fallon was called the Mac of hosts, compared his “PC” competition Jay Leno.

Is this the first time a Mac figures as a prop on a late-night talk show?

It’s no secret President Obama and much of his team are big Mac fans, or that some of their more publicized frustrations with the transition to power in DC have come with confronting the challenges posed by outdated Windows technology and requirements to meet legal guidelines for security and archiving of official communications.

Perhaps readers will recall, as well, Obama’s stated desire to continue using his Blackberry in office and the various and sundry security concerns that have arisen around that issue.

News Wednesday is that Waltham, Mass.-based Onset Technologies may be working on technology that could allow the President to use an iPhone, should that desire strike the Commander in Chief.

Many high profile government groups, including the US House of Representatives, the Senate and NASA, use Onset’s METAmessage ACT to secure correspondence on mobile devices, as do many private businesses. The technology can scan, block and archive all wireless communication on a device that uses it and keeps companies compliant with regulations like SEC, NASD, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, FINRA and the latest Privacy Act.

While Blackberry maker Research in Motion is Onset’s most high-profile partner to date, the company’s solutions are available on all the major US carriers and it is looking to expand its reach.

Onset expects to release new versions of METAmessage ACT for Windows Mobile and Symbian soon and yes, even hopes to make a version for the Apple iPhone.

Via VentureBeat

Apple denied it had fired 50 salespeople, refuting a report the Cupertino, Calif.-based company had joined the growing number of tech companies forced to lay-off employees.

“An Apple spokesperson says Gawker’s report that 50 salespeople were laid off yesterday is not true,” Silicon Alley Insider reported Wednesday.

Tuesday, Silicon Valley rumor site Valleywag claimed a “tipster” said “major layoffs” of Apple salespeople were underway. The site later claimed to have “confirmed” the rumor after talking to “a source in Apple’s enterprise group.”