The artist known as Monsieur Plant prompts nature to override the power of the computer. Photo: Christophe Guinet
Apple designs its products with an affinity for creatives of all kinds. But a French artist known as Monsieur Plant uses Macs to take “Think Different” to another level.
The Apple computers used by Christophe Guinet, 39, are not the tools but the subject in a body of work that integrates life-giving plant matter with life-altering technology.
Vintage tech collectors Lonnie Mimms, left, and Alex Jason pose with an Apple e-Mate prototype, part of a collection Alex sold to Mimms. Photo courtesy of Bill Jason
Alex Jason, the Maine teenager who used lawn-mowing money to build one of the most impressive collections of rare and historical Apple devices, recently packed it all in a 26-foot truck and made a heartbreaking trip to deliver it to a new owner.
The dream of creating a museum with the collection had hit a snag. Alex had the building and even an impressive board of directors that included Mac designer Jerry Manock. But raising capital to renovate the site proved near impossible in sparsely populated Maine.
The Vintage Mac Museum heads west to Montana Photo: Adam Rosen
Adam Rosen’s collection of vintage Macs doesn’t make him a hoarder, but he acknowledges it doesn’t make him an obvious choice for a husband, either.
In several rooms of Rosen’s Boston home you’ll find a love story nonetheless. The rooms are shrines to a high school sweetheart that matured and grew more sophisticated with time, a friendly face still aglow with “hello.”
These guys rock — and design great apps. Bassist Joe Cieplinski, left, and lead guitar and vocalist, Dave Wiskus, of the band Airplane Mode. Photo: Airplane Mode
The indie rock band Airplane Mode does indeed get its name from the feature on an iPhone that shuts off wireless transmission.
The name and the resumes of three of the band’s musicians — well-established iOS designers — have led more than a few people to assume they have found a source of cute parody music about Apple culture.
In fact, you won’t find any iPhones, iMacs or odes to Steve Jobs in the lyrics of the tight, hard-charging synth-driven music. However, the band’s roots in Apple culture permeate everything else, from its use of technology and understanding of social engagement to its start-up energy.
And there is one other way: Airplane Mode is making money.
A sampling of Ryan Verbeek's ever-growing Apple Watch band collection. Photo: Ryan Verbeek
Ryan Verbeek is fashionable enough as he moves about Holland’s oldest city, but he says his style is not likely to draw much attention. His friends and more than 51,000 followers on Instagram beg to differ and are always curious about one detail — the band Verbeek is wearing with his Apple Watch.
The 17-year-old student has a collection of nearly 40 bands that he routinely switches out depending on his mood or wardrobe. His enthusiasm has gained him Instagram fame, free bands from companies hoping he will model them for his social media account, and a deal to collaborate with a French company to design a couple of bands.
Jake Harms in his Nebraska workshop, where he turns old iMacs into home furnishings. Photo: Steph Harms
Jake Harms was on his way to the warehouse when a supervisor asked him to take a cart full of garbage to the dumpster. On top of the cart was an old indigo blue iMac G3.
Crossing the warehouse floor, Harms needed to turn left toward the dumpster. Instead, he steered the cart right toward the parking lot so that he could offload the broken iMac into his car.
That rescued iMac would become the first of more than 700 to get a second life as an aquarium.
Those are not cases. These iPhones get gold, leather and jewels applied directly to the aluminum. Photo: Aurum Edition
If your iPhone feels precious out of the box, hand it over to Dmitry Lischina for a couple of weeks. Afterward, you will then understand precious as you hold an iPhone unlike any other.
Lischina’s company Aurum Editions could have made phone cases, but instead developed a business around pulling apart iPhones and plating them with 24K gold, exotic animal leather and diamonds.
Ayano Tominaga shares a little pillow talk with Steve Jobs while waiting to purchase the iPhone 7. Photo: Ayano Tominaga/Instagram
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was known to have a prickly personality. But Japanese internet star Ayano Tominaga can honestly say Jobs is a good cuddler.
Tominaga is a popular tech journalist, Apple fan and IT consultant who can be seen at the launch of every new iPhone, camping out in line at the Apple Store in Tokyo clutching a body pillow featuring the likeness of Jobs.
Apple gets plenty of love from its customers according to the Netbase report of Most Loved Brands. Photo: Viktoria Fomchenkova
Lauren Wilkin’s life was about to get better. So she decorated her fingernails to reflect her shift in social status much like women of royalty did 7,000 years before.
Upper-class Egyptian women may have had a front-row seat to a growing civilization, but none experienced the excitement of trading in an iPhone 4 for an iPhone 6.
YouTube is a repository for animated features on the life of Steve Jobs. Photo: Adam Holownia,
With all there is to marvel about Steve Jobs and the story of Apple, it’s easy to forget what Jobs meant to animation.
So it’s not surprising that several animators have sought to capture the near-mythological character of Jobs in animated shorts that can be found all over YouTube.