Thanks to an iPhone app called Stereoscope, iPhone users will be able watch a giant interactive art show played across the façade of Toronto’s City Hall buildings this week.

A free download, Stereoscope is an amazingly fluid 3D rendering of the Toronto City Hall’s two curved, opposing façades. With your fingers, you can zoom in and out and move around the giant buildings, Matrix-style, on your iPhone’s screen.

And starting October 4th, the Stereoscope app will replay a live light show playing across the surfaces of each building, generated using lights in the buildins’ 960 windows. The Stereoscope app will stream the light show live, replaying it on the rendering of the buildings.

“Reaction to the iPhone application has been overwhelmingly good as many people were surprised what 3D on the iPhone could be like,” said project director Tim Pritlove.

The light show is part of an all-night art event called Nuit Blanche that will turn the landmark buildings into a giant computer screen.

Created by Project Blinkenlights, the unique art show will feature animations and interactive games.

The full story after the jump.

The Android-based G1 handset now shares with the iPhone the status of a goal-setter for mobile phones, researcher Gartner said Thursday.

“You won’t beat Apple in the short term, but being worse than both Apple and Android is likely to end in disaster,” Gartner analysts Roberta Cozza and Carolina Milanesi write.

The two said the Android-based G1 will probably ship between 600,000 to 700,000 devices this year and comprise 10 percent of smartphone sales by 2011.

If you’re the logo type, Louis Vuitton has launched a new iPod Widescreen case.
It’ll set you back $290, but hey it’s got “Armagnac leather lining.” And a belt loop.

The iPhone’s entrance onto the handset scene was a “big favor” to the handset industry, pushing companies to change in the face of Cupertino, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said Thursday.

The comments came as the handset giant launches its 5800 XpressMusic, a touch-screen handset with the Comes With Music service. Like the iPhone, the 5800 offers a 3G network interface, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Nokia’s comments appear to reflect the view of others. “I don’t think a handset maker out there doesn’t believe that,” Kevin Burden, ABI Research’s director of mobile devices, told Cult of Mac.

The next time you’re stuck in traffic, start stumping for Obama.
That’s the idea behind the Obama for America iPhone app, free for download on iTunes.
It organizes your contacts “by key battleground states” and keeps an anonymous record of your virtual campaign trail. And if you haven’t got a move on yet, it’ll tell you where the nearest Democratic headquarters are and keep you updated on local events.

While it seems a little full-on for the armchair activist, kudos to iPhone dev’er Raven Zachary for the idea.

Via Cnet

Apple’s share of the operating system market hit 8.2 percent in September, research firm Net Applications announced Wednesday. The numbers mark the first time the Apple OS has risen above 8 percent.

The new numbers reflect a 0.45-point advance from August’s 7.86 percent market share. In June, OS X approached the 8-percent mark, reaching 7.94 percent.

Mac OS X broke the 7 percent barrier in December 2007, moving to 7.31 percent from 6.8 percent a month earlier.

September’s increase is credited to the surge in Apple sales during the back-to-school period. In September 2007, the Mac OS X market share jumped 0.45 points, mirroring the same growth in September 2008.

Although Microsoft Windows remains above 90 percent of operating systems, that dominant lead slipped slightly in September, falling 0.4 points to 90.3 percent.

Here’s one for the ZOMG THERE MUST BE NO CABLES VISIBLE types among you. Yes, you know who you are.

This is the iDesk. Of course, you knew it would be called that.

This guy was photographed by Flickr user Rodrigo Galindez in a Berlin coffee shop.

On close inspection, it looks like he’s glued some kind of laminate on to the lid of his MacBook Pro, and made a good job of neatening the edges and the corners. He gets extra points for marrying the wood effect with the sleek metal of the computer and the horizontal stripes of the classic Apple logo, and with a purple jacket. Fantastic.

Mysterious Berlin Mac user: who are you? Do you have any other decorated computers?

(Photo used under Creative Commons license. Thanks to Rodrigo.)

Is this the new MacBook Pro?

The picture above claims to be a camera phone pic snapped by an Apple employee on the design team.

If the picture is real, it means the new MacBook Pros, expected to be unveiled October 14, have a few design changes:

1. It has a unique two-tone case. A first for Apple. The lid looks like it’s made of glossy black plastic, with an aluminum bottom.

2. The lid dispenses with hook clasps in favor of a magnetic latch mechanism, like current MacBooks.

3. There’s no multitouch sensitive “glass touchpad,” as rumored.

The Apple source also sent an ad featuring the MacBook Pro that is destined for Apple’s website.

The MacBook Pro ad after the jump.

Japanese designer Jun Takahashi’s all white collection for Undercover in Paris this week included a coat with a clear plastic iPhone ready pocket. In a nod to animé, Takahashi designed the clothes for an “alien race called the Graces,” according to a sign at the entrance.
Cool idea, too bad it is one of the more awkward offerings in an otherwise stunning collection. Next time make it iPhone friendly and gorgeous, kay?

Via Fashion Spot

Apple Inc. announced Wednesday it will release its fiscal fourth quarter report Oct. 21, possibly ending speculation how the economic downturn hurt the Cupertino, Calif. company.

Earlier this week, Apple shares dived 18 percent following downgrades by several investment houses, including Morgan Stanley. The stock recovered a day later after Goldman Sachs and Citi retained “Buy” ratings for Apple, suggesting investors went overboard in their reactions.

Analysts said Apple likely did not repeat its third-quarter figures which saw a record $7.46 billion profit, outpacing Wall Street expectations. More than 11 million iPods and 717,000 iPhones were sold during the period.

Apple has decided to drop the iPhone dev NDA for released software.

It said that “the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success”. That’s putting it mildly.

Unreleased software – or even unreleased features inside released software – is still covered by it, however.

This means the lives of software developers (and quite a few book publishers) will now be a lot easier.

That sound you can hear is iPhone devs everywhere breathing a sigh of relief.

Net Applications added another metric to the increasing evidence that Apple is closing the gap with Windows – this time online.

Macs online grew by more than 5 percent to 8.28 percent in September, compared to August, a survey of operating systems used to connect to Web sites found.

Windows, although comprising more than 90 percent of online connections, actually fell by 0.47 percent to 90.23 percent of online operating systems last month, according to Net Applications.

IPhones leapt from 0.30 in August to 0.32 percent in September, a 6.67 percent jump.

In related news, an iPhone Satisfaction Survey by the Technologizer Web site found 91 percent of participants adore their Apple device with the majority having owned the handset for 2-3 months. E-mail, the Web and SMS topped the list of most-used iPhone applications.

Graph from Technologizer

Royal Hawaiian Apple Store Grand Opening from hawaii on Vimeo.

Here’s nicely edited footage of the opening, just a couple of days ago, of the new Apple Store in the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki.

There’s also some behind-the-scenes preparation shots, of the kind you don’t see very often given how secretive Apple is, showing the build team putting the finishing touches on the store frontage just hours before the opening ceremony itself. Which includes dancing and acoustic guitars.

The Apple blogosphere is rife with renewed chatter sparked by Adobe’s Senior Director of Engineering, Paul Betlem at the recent Flash On The Beach conference in Brighton: “My team is working on Flash on the iPhone, but it’s a closed platform. If Apple says yes, Adobe will have the player available in a very short time.”

So, let’s see, getting Adobe’s closed platform to play on Apple’s closed system, that sounds like a fun game, right? Building a plug-in for a browser that doesn’t support plug-ins, what more productive endeavor could a team desire?

Of course, the Internet itself is riddled with Flash and Apple has positioned the iPhone as the must have mobile device for browsing the Internet, so there is that conflict to resolve somehow, plus, allowing people access to the gazillion online Flash games could hurt game sales in the AppStore, but Apple doesn’t see the AppStore as a significant profit center anyway (coughs), and oh yes, there’s the battery issue to resolve since Flash is such a processor hog.

Of the pieces I’ve read, I think Aviv at MacBlogz gets it mostly right, saying if Flash does come to the iPhone, Safari better get a “Flash-Off” setting.

I kinda like not seeing Flash ads on my iPhone, personally.

The BBC web site ran an interview with Woz yesterday, but to be honest there’s not much in it that the average Cult reader won’t know already.

Some of the better quotes:

“You become what you want to be in life. I wanted to be an engineer. I didn’t want to run a company.”

“Lack of resources forces you to do a lot more original thinking.”

“I wanted to do a great engineering job and every time I designed something great, several times in our life, Steve would come and say: Let’s sell it!”

The only fact in the piece that was new to me was the number of cellphones Woz owns: 10. I’m surprised it’s only 10.

Picture of Woz by Eric Rhoads, used under Creative Commons license.

Calling it the world’s first monthly comic series for children on the iPhone and iPod touch, EyeCandy is available on iTunes.

The $.99 comic, described as “goofy” by creator PJ Holden as he walks through features, can be stripped down to the ink or pencil layers for digital finger painting. It exploits the iPhone platform for sound, vibration and an accelerometer. Each issue comes with extras, like a pony toy (shake the iPhone and it whinnies) in the cowboy-themed first issue, so a lot of busy time for your buck.

EyeCandy is a heroic come back by Infurious Comics, whose MURDEDROME was rejected by Apple for sale on iTunes out of concern over adult content.

The boys in Belfast are valiantly trying to put a positive spin on the situation, describing safe for children release as “hot on the heels of the rejection” of the adult comic.

While we’re not against kiddy apps, it’s a shame there isn’t more for grown-ups who need a little displacement activity during meetings.

New from geek jeweler Irina Blok, a superb new take on the digital photo frame. Only 50 of these hand-silk screened frames will be produced, at a price of about 50 bucks each. I predict Irina will have sold the lot before the end of today.

Assuming she does, and you’re too late to get your hands on one, she has plenty of other cool stuff for you to have a look at.

There’s been a lot of hot air posted in recent hours about Apple’s apparent “threat” to pull the plug on the iTunes Music Store if it doesn’t get its way.

This is, to put it politely, nonsense.

Apple would be insane to switch off the Store now. It has invested far too much of its business in products and services that integrate with the Store to just suddenly pull the plug and go home.

The quote that has caused all the fuss is this one, submitted by iTunes vice president Eddy Cue to the Copyright Royalty Board last year:

“If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss – which is no alternative at all.”

Let’s say that again: submitted by Eddy Cue last year. This is an old comment on an old issue and in no way reflects today’s reality: which is that Apple has invested a fortune in developing a line of products (iPhone, iPod) whose future is inextricably tied up with the Store. Switching it off would be little short of madness.

Of course Apple doesn’t want to run an unprofitable Store, that’s obvious. But what should also be obvious to all is that it isn’t going to suddenly have a tantrum and switch the whole thing off if royalties have to go up. The far more likely consequence is that you and I will have to pay a few pennies more for each song we buy.

In honor of its 10th anniversary, Google has rolled back the clock as far as it can go — its January 2001 index. Though the company got rolling in fall 1998, this is the most materially complete version of the original Google that they have, and they’ve even included links to the Internet Archive to retrieve long-since dead web pages. An era before the iPod.

When you go looking for your humble Cult of Mac curators, however, it’s possible to discover a lot of proto-Cult of Mac content, most of which is extremely amusing. It’s like reading today’s Cult of Mac yesterday — but without the benefit of decent web design.

Why here’s Leander at Wired News, writing about the 2001 MacWorld keynote after years kicking around various tech publications and becoming a bicycle messenger: It’s a Mac, Mac, Mac, Macworld.

Or this riveting narrative of Apple’s decision to replace QuickDraw GX with Unicode!

This site even tells of a prehistoric July 15, 1996 MacWeek article in which Leander reports on shocking Mac sales slumps. Damn you, Windows 95!

Other than a bunch of articles from college, searching myself only yields my earliest ever Mac tip from a MacCentral round-up of Mac celebrities that included my report on Radiohead.

Turning back the dial on Craig, meanwhile, turned up the archive of his MacToolbox column “Revert to Saved,” including this scandalous rant that Macs crash occasionally!

Ed’s history includes postings on a now-defunct and not-even archived BeOS user message board called “BeSpecific.”

Giles pops up all over, but this interview about what it’s like to be a British journalist is probably the best.

Lonnie turns up this fascinating 1971 camp photo, which might or might not be him.

And Leigh might or might not be this yoga instructor/university department secretary.

It’s like looking into the old mirror. Fascinating.

Still embarrassed for them, those nice Jonas Brothers sporting purity rings at the VMAs. These Hanson clones seemed determined to make the Aughties not very naughty. At least they have cool gear.

Here Kevin picks up shirts from a dry cleaners, keeping his iPhone 3g in hand. Remember, always true to you darling, in my fashion.

Photo: courtesy Bauer-Griffin

Did investors react too quickly to analyst comments which sent Apple shares tumbling 18 percent Monday? Add Piper Jaffray to the list of analyst firms now calling for calm.

“We recognize investors do not see light at the end of the tunnel as market fears appear to be outweighing fundamental analysis” Piper’s Apple analyst Gene Munster wrote Tuesday.

Those fears – not including the Dow plummeting 777 points – were spurred by a spate of downgrades of Apple stock as analysts said slowing consumer sales could derail the Cupertino, Calif. company.

Photo courtesy wwww.stallman.org

Web-based applications like Google’s Gmail and Apple’s MobileMe will force people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that will cost more and more over time and ultimately put user’s data at risk, according to Richard Stallman, founder of The Free Software Foundation and creator of the open source operating system GNU. He calls cloud computing “worse than stupidity” in an interview with The Guardian. Follow after the jump to learn why cloud computing is not such a good idea and why Apple users should already know this.

Analysts went too far with their fears Apple could be caught in the downward spiral of consumer spending. Tuesday analysts say the 18 percent fear-driven drop in Apple shares may have been ‘overdone.’

Apple shares were up 3 percent to $108 early Tuesday after Monday losing $22.98 and closing at $105.26 on Nasdaq.

Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey said Monday’s pullback “more than captures the concerns over Mac growth in a weakening spending environment.”

Yes, we know the iPhone camera is rubbish compared to most of its cameraphone rivals. But that needn’t stop people being creative with it. People like…

P0psharlow, who has created some stunning panoramic images with an iPhone and some very deft image manipulation:

Fulton Street workers study