Travis Hammond is a graphic designer located near Baltimore, Maryland. He works for a private auction firm and a local magazine, and does freelance photography and design work. He’s also a bit of an Apple nut, if these among many other examples of his Mac, iPod and iPhone inspired creativity are any indication.
See more at his website and his Flickr pages
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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.”
For those of you who thought the Diamond Shuffle was a bit much, Swiss luxury accessories brand DEOS launched these diamond-encrusted covers designed for iPod and iPhone earbuds.
Prices for these handcrafted covers, which slip on earbuds, start at $4,500, for black and white diamond versions, climbing to $60,000 for earbuds dripping with pink, yellow or black diamonds.
Sure, they cost more than the actual device. Which is why some of the models, like the DEOS 32W, which has a full carat of diamonds and costs $5,000, comes with a complimentary Shuffle.
If you’d like to add a little splash to your morning run but don’t have the cash, Swarovski crystal versions run from $110 (demi-dipped) to $200 for the Full Monty.
Steve Goldstein, founder of the Geveva-based DEOS (Defining Expressions of Sound), said the idea is one whose time has come:
“Today there are more than 152 million earphones in the world. [It’s] a marvellous way of making a fashion statement. When you meet someone the person sees first your face and then looks at your ears…”
Don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that bling.
Nitrozac is an artist and co-founder of GeekCulture, a high-tech humor web site, thriving online community and, according to the artist, purveyor of fine propeller beanies. She says she’s always wanted to take contemporary technology subjects and render them in old style media, and has been offering her acrylic and oil paintings on canvas by auction since December 2007. “I love working with digital images on my Mac, but there is something extremely satisfying about creating with paint and a canvas,” she adds, and describes her paintings as “based on my work at the The Joy of Tech. The subject matter will usually be geeky and techy; the people, places, and things that make up geek culture.”
Her latest work is titled, “The Introduction,” a painting of Steve Jobs unveiling the MacBook Air at Macworld 2008, shown above. Click through in the gallery below to see some of her past work.
Photo by Rinox via flickr
Apple has long been a poster child for the wisdom of Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand. With active trade in some of its discontinued products, such as the iSight camera (which regularly sells on auction sites such as eBay for more than the original purchase price), and high-resale values for “previously owned” and “refurbished” models of its computers, the reality has been that the cost of owning an Apple over the years has not been nearly so high as its reputation for premium pricing might indicate.
The iPhone is providing additional confirmation that, despite complaints about the company’s obsessive desire to control the user experience, they must be doing something right at 1 Infinite Loop.
iPhone Atlas reported recently on the high prices still being fetched at resale by the original model phones, indicating concern over the ability to unlock and/or jailbreak the upcoming model, combined with significant demand in countries where the iPhone 3G will not initially be on sale, including Russia and China.
While the current value of first-generation iPhones may be high, with reports of the bid on 16GB phones near $600, some believe the market for the phones will stay active with prices coming down as the availability of 3G models gets closer. Michael Johnston at iPhone Alley suggests the window for high prices may be closing soon and Dennis Sellers writes for Macsimum News that active trade in the post-3G launch market for first-gen iPhones could see prices come down under $100.
With Apple and AT&T seeming to have foiled the unlocking/jailbreaking movement that flourished in the wake of iPhone’s initial release, Stateside customers who must have the speed and features of the 3G model but still have, or want, service with a carrier other than AT&T, will either have to wait and see if the new models can be jailboken or look to Apple’s deals with a different carrier in almost every country overseas, where the phones will go on sale next month. Across both ponds Apple has had to agree to a wide range of prices and options for selling the iPhone 3G, making it likely that in quite a few countries outside of the U.S., you’ll be able to buy an iPhone without a contractual agreement.
It’s iPhone upgrade season. With the deluge of iPhone 3G rumors convincing just about everyone that now might be a good time to dump the old phone, in anticipation of getting one of the new models, here’s a tutorial to help you sell your iPhone safely, and get the best price.
Macs are quite famous for holding their value and lasting longer than Windows PCs. The resale value of an Apple machine is higher both for its style and its durability. This is especially true for Mac product lines that have no true replacements. For a few years after they were discontinued, Power Mac Cubes consistently fetched higher-than-expected prices on Ebay.
What does that mean in light of this week’s renewed rumors of an amazing thin, light, aluminum and tiny Macbook? Take your 12″ Powerbooks and unload them now. I’m an owner of such a machine (and will be selling it as soon as I replace the hard drive), and the market is great right now — $400-plus for four-year-old Powerbooks. The machines have special cachet, because they were significantly lighter than any current Mac portables. I know a lot of people who have been refusing to upgrade because there just isn’t a machine that meets their needs.
But if the rumors popping up all over 9to5Mac are even close to right — especially if there are new MacBooks announced the day of Leopards release — the market for those glorious Baby Powerbooks is going to deflate as soon as the new machines get announced. There’s still plenty of doubt for the time-being — some think the new machines won’t even have DVD drives. What do fear, uncertainty and doubt lead to? Higher resale prices for the existing and reliable. Gentlemen, start your auctions!
Image via LowEndMac.
Being a Machead can be a disease. We spend too much on Apple stuff, we get embarrassing temporary (and not-so-temporary) tattoos, and our partners tolerate our obsessions out of love and not much more.
I think such bonds are automatically made null and void if anyone comes home with the above item, which is a 6-foot-tall neon Apple logo sign being auctioned by Huntsville, Ala. Mac store MacResource on eBay. And here’s the deal. Despite currently going for $4,350 at auction (the equivalent of more than 7 fully loaded iPhones!), the reserve has not been met.
Pull out your credit cards?!
Via Macenstein
Phillip Torrone of Make magazine and Adafruit Laser Services, a laser-etching etching service for iPods and MacBooks, has kindly offered to etch OxyContin pills for free onto any Rush Limbaugh iPod. If you recall, Limbaugh is offering eight free iPods engraved with his signature as an incentive for his email newsletter (see here).
Phil writes: “If any of your readers wins one, I’ll etch pills all over it for free with my laser. We can then auction it off and give the $ to a group Rush hates.”
Send mail to Pete or I at the email addresses listed at right. Also include suggestions for a suitable charitable organization.
If you can’t wait until June for the real iPhone, buy this $3 paper iPhone cutout on eBay instead. The seller, who has has 96.9 % positive feedback, claims it’s the “most accurate” paper model on the market today. It boasts advanced features like:
1. Real Rounded Corners
2. Images of the top and bottom of the iPhone
3. Cingular icon has been replaced with AT&T
The seller has even made a high-quaility, pre-assembled paper iPhone for an extra $3. It even includes a thich cardboard insert for extra rigidity. Link to the assembled Paper iPhone auction.
