My soup

NIKEiD Air Force 1 Returns With Wool Option

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:45:58 GMT

Fast on the heels of the Nike Air 180, another celebrated model is making its triumphant return to NIKEiD. The venerated Air Force 1 is launching at midnight ET tonight on Nike’s customizing platform. As a post-Halloween treat, the first 750 pairs will feature a wool material option. But be quick — once those 750 pairs are sold, the wool option disappears. From the initial images provided by Nike, we can see that the Air Force 1 will be come in both low and high-top styles, and that a suede overlay and translucent outsole will also be available. Click through for more looks.

Release Date: November 1st, 2011 (Tonight, at 12 am ET)

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Regal Shoes x Mr. BATHING APE Wing Sta Bapesta | Available Now

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:48:25 GMT

Hand crafted accordingly like any other brogue wingtips by Japan’s Regal Shoes, the Mr. BATHING APE Wing Sta Bapesta does include something quite distinctive – a BAPE Shooting Star appliqué on the shoe’s lateral edge. Luxurious calf leather with glove leather lining along and leather sole, each part of a limited collection now available at end clothing of UK.

End Clothing
4-6 High Bridge | Map
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 1EN, England

Read the rest of: Regal Shoes x Mr. BATHING APE Wing Sta Bapesta | Available Now

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Post tags: end clothing, Mr. BATHING APE, Regal Shoes

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Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:15:01 GMT

Submitted by: trish08
Posted at: 2011-10-30 02:22:09
See full post and comment: http://9gag.com/gag/443495

Yet Another Appalling NYPD Tactic: Send The Aggressive Crazies To Zuccotti Park

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:42:08 GMT

The New York Daily News reports:

The NYPD seems to have crossed a line in recent days, as the park has taken on a darker tone with unsteady and unstable types suddenly seeming to emerge from the woodwork. Two different drunks I spoke with last week told me they’d been encouraged to “take it to Zuccotti” by officers who’d found them drinking in other parks, and members of the community affairs working group related several similar stories they’d heard while talking with intoxicated or aggressive new arrivals. The NYPD’s press office declined to comment on the record about any such policy, but it seems like a logical tactic from a Bloomberg administration that has done its best to make things difficult for the occupation — a way of using its openness against it.

“He’s got a right to express himself, you’ve got a right to express yourself,” I heard three cops repeat in recent days, using nearly identical language, when asked to intervene with troublemakers inside the park, including a clearly disturbed man screaming and singing wildly at 3 a.m. for the second straight night. “The first time I’ve heard cops mention our First Amendment rights,” cracked one occupier after hearing a lieutenant read off of that apparent script.

And now we know the true source of all those triumphant "on the scene" reports from Fox News.

Subscribe to Joe.My.God.

New iPhone 4S Commercials

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:38:43 GMT

These are some of the best ads I’ve ever seen. I love how in the Siri spots, the only faces entirely in the frame are the kids. Note too, that the narrator never says “Apple”.

★

Portland's Pok Pok Comes to Columbia Street

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:19:00 GMT

Portland's Pok Pok Comes to Columbia Street

Rumors have been buzzing for weeks about the New York debut of Portland, Oregon's Pok Pok, a James Beard Award-winning Thai street food shop, and now it has been confirmed that Pok Pok Ny will open at 127 Columbia Street. The space used to house 5 Burro Café.

In Thai, “ny” can be roughly translated to “in the city.”

Chef and owner Andy Ricker also plans to set up a smaller shop (which will most likely open first, according to Grubstreet) on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side.

Grubstreet reports that the Brooklyn outpost will be a “full sit-down restaurant” with a small dining room and a large backyard that Ricker hopes to be able to use year-round.

Pok Pok gained a large following in Portland with their staple menu offerings, such as Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings.

Mac OS 10.8 users already doing external testing

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:13:09 GMT

Mac OS 10.8 testers both inside Apple’s HQ and in the surrounding area of Silicon Valley have been spotted in Web Logs by MacRumors. Indeed, looking at our own logs (above), 10.8 users have been hitting our servers since mid-August, though only in numbers that probably could have been faked.

More recently, however, 10.8 testing has grown more abundant, with testers hitting our site every day including on weekends from non-Apple IP addresses throughout October.

Similar patterns emerged in testing OS 10.7 which leads us to conclude that this is still very early testing and it is likely more than a year before we’ll see even public betas of the OS.

Still, very nice to see Apple’s already working on the next big cat.

Apple looking to bring AirPlay Mirroring, iMessage application to Mac OS X (9to5mac.com)
Former Compaq Chairman, and current Mac user, reveals that Jobs asked Compaq to license the MacOS in 1999 (9to5mac.com)
Refurbished Apple PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8GHz Desktop for $265 + $4 s&h (9to5toys.com)

With great power comes boorish behavior

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:38:13 GMT

These two stories seem related to me and I can't figure out which is the more disturbing. First up, at last year's company Halloween party, the employees of the law firm of Steven J. Baum dressed up as homeless people who the firm had brought foreclosure proceedings against.

Let me describe a few of the photos. In one, two Baum employees are dressed like homeless people. One is holding a bottle of liquor. The other has a sign around her neck that reads: "3rd party squatter. I lost my home and I was never served." My source said that "I was never served" is meant to mock "the typical excuse" of the homeowner trying to evade a foreclosure proceeding.

And then Friday in Queens, hundreds of off-duty police officers turned out to applaud sixteen police officers accused of fixing tickets and other more serious crimes.

As the defendants emerged from their morning court appearance, a swarm of officers formed a cordon in the hallway and clapped as they picked their way to the elevators. Members of the news media were prevented by court officers from walking down the hallway where more than 100 off-duty police officers had gathered outside the courtroom.
The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward.
The unsealed indictments contained more than 1,600 criminal counts, the bulk of them misdemeanors having to do with making tickets disappear as favors for friends, relatives and others with clout. But they also outlined more serious crimes, related both to ticket-fixing and drugs, grand larceny and unrelated corruption. Four of the officers were charged with helping a man get away with assault.

Siri hack now fully working on the iPhone 4 and iPod touch [video]

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 08:33:49 GMT

Siri has now been fully hacked onto an iPhone 4 and iPod touch and it now communicates with Apple’s servers to provide a 100% working solution. We told you a few weeks back that developer Steve Troughton-Smith was working on hacking Siri onto an iPhone 4 but had run into one or two hurdles. Well the main hurdle involved getting the hacked iPhone 4 to talk to Apple’s servers. That has now been overcome and it is now looking like a real possibility.

Talking to 9to5Mac, Steve Troughton-Smith revealed that the hack works across devices but requires files from an iPhone 4S that are not legally available to distribute. It also requires a validation token from a live jailbroken iPhone 4S. The whole hack involves around 20 steps to complete. Because of this, Steve Troughton-Smith doesn’t want to be involved in distributing the Siri port and has only done it to prove it can be done.

We don’t know at this point if others will take on the distribution and risk the wrath of Apple’s legal team, we will have to wait and see. In the mean time take a look at the two videos below. The first one shows the iPhone 4 running Siri side by side with an iPhone 4S and the second video shows Siri running on an iPod touch.

Source: 9to5Mac

Instagram Started as a Location Check-In Service

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 20:24:19 GMT

Naomi Zeichner interviewing Kevin Systrom, one of the founders of Instagram:

How did you develop the idea of the Instagram filter? It started off as a mobile check-in app that let you post pictures and videos. People ended up liking the photo posting more than the checking in, so we built in camera functionalities and made the focus photos, not check-ins.

One question Zeichner didn’t ask: how does Instagram plan to start making money?

✚ Permalink

Kids Say The @#$%est Things

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:00:42 GMT

(Grocery Store | New Jersey, USA)

(A customer comes through my line with a small child.)

Me: “Aww! How old is your son?”

Customer: “He’s 4. Isn’t he adorable?”

Me: “He is.”

Customer: “Say hi to the nice lady.”

Son: “F*** you.”

Me: *shocked*

Customer: “Isn’t he just precious?”

Facebook Thread of the Day

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:24:00 GMT

Facebook Thread of the Day: Meanwhile, on the Mountain Dew Facebook page, Extreme Suicide Prevention.

[reddit.]

Tagged: Extreme Suicide Preventio, Facebook Thread, Mountain Dew Saves

My. God…

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:20:05 GMT

My. God…

My. God…

Something tells me you don’t…

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:41:00 GMT

Something tells me you don’t…

Something tells me you don’t…

TJ Maxx Subsidiary Kicks Out Girl With Service Dog, Apologizes, Then Kicks Her Out Again

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:57:38 GMT

TJ Maxx Subsidiary Kicks Out Girl With Service Dog, Apologizes, Then Kicks Her Out Again

After an autistic girl and her service dog were wrongly kicked out of a discount clothing store owned by TJ Maxx, the district manager profusely apologized and gave them a $25 gift card to pick out anything she liked. When she returned and tried to use the gift card, store staff kicked her out for having a service dog again. Looks like someone didn't get the memo.

Three months after the nine-year-old girl, Emily, was kicked out of "Winners," a chain owned by TJ Maxx, she and her mother came back to the store to pick out something nice using the gift card the district manager gave her.

"We were asked to leave the store," Emily's mother told CBC News. "My child's service dog was not permitted in their establishment anywhere. And if that's true, then that includes my child because there is no separation between the two of them."

"I was disappointed that I didn't get anything from the store, even my dress that my mom picked out nicely for me," Emily told CBC News.

The mother said she didn't think the store's apology was sincere because while the manager had made the perfect "putting out of the fire" gesture, the store hadn't bothered to educate their staff on the proper protocol.

Parent company TJ Maxx said that it's standard policy for service dogs to be allowed in stores. "We are looking into the particulars regarding this customer's experience and will reach out to her directly, as well as take whatever actions we believe are appropriate," Doreen Thompson, a TJX spokeswoman told CBC News .

Edmonton store bars girl's service dog twice [CBCNews] (Thanks to Neil!)

This is Spinal Tape

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:01:00 GMT

25 meters long x 2 inches wide.

$7.81.

[via Paul Biba, Laughing Squid, Geekosystem and Incredible Things]

iPhone - The Siri button gets the same functionality as the...

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:21:45 GMT

iPhone - The Siri button gets the same functionality as the...

iPhone - The Siri button gets the same functionality as the space button while typing quickly.

Don't Let Mario Kart Facebook Scam Spin You Out

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:37:42 GMT

Don't Let Mario Kart Facebook Scam Spin You Out

Those who toil away on free-to-play Facebook games may have built up a false sense of security as they blindly click on all the permission buttons in order to get to the good stuff. But an ad that claims to offer Facebookers access to a free Mario Kart game is a trap, like one of those upside down question blocks in the real version of the game.

Sophos Naked Security reports a scam masquerading as access to the non-existent game is popping up as status updates and messages, tricking users into filling out a seemingly endless stream of online surveys and possibly asking users to install dubious software, as well as an offer to attempt to win a non-existent "iPhone 5."

If you run across this offer as a message or post, you'll probably want to delete it to stop it from spreading.

Mario Kart on Facebook? Fast-spreading scam hits many users' accounts [Sophos Naked Security via Kotaku]

Another Follow Up of the Day: Parents Lose Custody Of Adolf Hitler

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:48:04 GMT

Another Follow Up of the Day: The mother and father of three children with Nazi-themed names have reportedly lost custody of their kids, despite claiming that a court in New Jersey ruled that no abuse had taken place.

Adolf Hitler, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie were placed in foster care nearly three years ago after a ShopRite reported Heath and Deborah Campbell’s request to decorate a birthday cake for their three-year-old son, who happens to share a name with an infamous dictator.

The couple’s claim that the children were removed solely because of their names was disputed today by a New Jersey appeals court, which ruled that sufficient evidence of abuse and parental incompetence existed to justify their placement in foster care.

The case was sent to New Jersey Family Court for further examination. According to the Campbells, a judge is set to rule in December on the status of their custody.

[nbc10 / myfoxphilly.]

Tagged: Adolf Hitler Campbell, Follow Up

Porsche Design P9981 BlackBerry to Sell for $2000

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:03:30 GMT

Easily the best-designed new phone of 2005.

★

How to Reopen Recently-Closed Tabs in Safari for iPad

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:50:11 GMT

Good to know. And it sure beats shaking to undo.

✚ Permalink

This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:36:36 GMT

This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: A Brooklyn woman who was struck by a stray bullet says she was unlawfully detained for five days by police officers who claimed she was lying about the incident.

35-year-old Takesha Griffin was allegedly handcuffed to a bench and, later, put in a dirty holding cell at the 73rd Precinct, while officers attempted to compel a false confession. “They wanted me to lie,” Griffin told the Daily News. “It was like The Twilight Zone.”

The Brownsville resident reported that she was hit in her thigh by a stray bullet after returning home from a club with a male friend. The same friend drove Griffin to the Hospital, where staff alerted the police after realizing the source of the wound.

Griffin, who was taken away by police while still in her hospital scrubs, says she was held at the Brownsville police station from September 3rd through September 8th, even though, by law, she was entitled to a court appearance within 24 hours.

While in custody, Griffin claims she was forced to urinate on herself after no one would take her to the restroom, and says she was made fun of when she complained about receiving a McDonald’s hamburger every day in lieu of a decent meal.

“This is something that would happen in a fascist state, not in America,” says her lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein.

The police claimed that Griffin was shot during a lovers’ spat with her friend; a background check also brought up a warrant for her arrest issued after Griffin allegedly failed to heed a disorderly conduct summons. Griffin pointed out to police officers that her friend was gay — they were returning from a gay club — and the warrant was later shown to be a clerical error.

Griffin and Rubenstein plan to sue the city for $5 million.

[nydn.]

Tagged: All Kinds Of Wrong, brooklyn, NYPD, Takesha Griffin

Double-dipping

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:32:22 GMT

I bought my first iPad magazine¹ last weekend: one issue of The New Yorker.

It was $4.99. Most entire apps (including mine) cost $4.99 or less, once, and this magazine is $4.99 for just one issue. Ignoring what content and apps “should” cost, and despite knowing that this is a very good magazine, this felt expensive.

As I was flipping through it, when I saw the first of many full-page ads, I was offended. I thought, “I paid good money for this and it’s full of ads?”

Consumers have tolerated double-dipping — products that cost customers money and have ads — for over a century. It doesn’t feel as offensive in contexts that have always had it, such as printed newspapers and magazines, or cable TV.

But ads shoved into a non-free iPad or web publication feel wrong to me.

I don’t regret paying for Ars Premier or Consumer Reports because I get a clean, ad-free, reader-friendly experience in exchange. But I hesitate to pay for The New York Times because I know it’s still going to be full of ads, paginated stories, and distractions.

Maybe these different standards are because the contexts are so different: magazines, newspapers, and TV all feel cheap, since they’ve shat on consumers to make a few more cents for decades, but the iPad or a well-designed website are clean, high quality, and customer-centric.

Or maybe it’s just me. I just don’t feel comfortable paying for an iPad or web publication, no matter how good it is, and then having ads shoved down my throat. It makes me feel ripped off: what did I pay for?

Yes, I probably should try iPad magazines and newspapers more often, given the business I’m in. ↩

Halloween iPad Game Sales Starting Already

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:38:21 GMT

Huge sales and massive price drops on iPad and iOS games have become a pleasant new part of holiday traditions. It looks like the Halloween weekend sales on iPad games have already kicked off – and I’m already seeing some superb bargains around on some top-notch games.

Here’s a few sales that have caught my eye:

– Real Racing 2 HD is now at its lowest ever price, only US$1.99 (original price US$6.99). This game has awesome support for AirPlay Mirroring and is a superb racing app all round.

– Civilization Revolution for iPad: $12.99 to $1.99

– Sega have a bunch of their iPad games and iPhone games on sale.

– Gameloft have some of their iPad and iOS games on sale.

I’m sure EA and others will be joining in on the Halloween sales soon.

Happy bargain hunting.

'Penny Parlor' Review - Games Used to Cost Less Than a Buck!

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:00:52 GMT

Penny Parlor [$1.99] wraps four antique coin-operated sports games into one release. But we're not talking about classic arcade games ...no, Australian-based GamesLab Apps are taking us further back in time, like pre-1950's, to the era of mechanical arcade machines which used to cost one penny to play.

The game displays a room (parlor) with four antique amusement machines shown in 3D, including: American Pro Football, Super Swing Baseball, The Amazing Golf Game and Smack'n'Whack Cricket. The old-fashioned color schemes, carnival music, and mechanical style movements and controls are all designed to convey the original feeling of playing these games at the fairground.

My favorite mini-game is 'American Pro Football', which challenges you to flick a football with your finger to avoid three defenders (who move on tracks) and score touchdowns. The end-zone is divided into different gates, which represent either a touchdown or the amount of yards gained. If you accrue 100 yards you score a touchdown. You can bounce the football off the sides to sneak around the defenders or double-tap to quickly reset the football, ready for another attempt. Each time you score a touchdown, extra time is added to your play clock.

In 'Super Swing Baseball', a ball rolls down a track towards home plate and you have to tap at the right time to swing the bat. You can either score a home run or help your team progress around the bases by hitting the ball into targets. As always, three strikes and: "you're out!", and three outs means game over, unless you hit the "extra innings" target. As you move up the levels, the balls are bowled more frequently, testing your hand eye coordination.

The 'Amazing Golf Game' involves sinking 9 holes of golf, although you have to sink the ball in one shot from the tee. You rotate a little man to aim, then hold down the red button to determine the power of your swing. Initially you have 10 credits, but each time you go over par you lose a credit. Sinking the ball earns a point, while a hole-in-one scores 2 points. The par for each hole starts at four attempts, but this decreases each round, making it progressively harder. For me, this mini-game doesn't live up to it's name, unless you're interested in memorizing the correct angle and power for each hole.

Finally, in 'Smack'n'Whack Cricket' you're the batter standing at the crease, trying to score as many runs as possible. You drag your finger downwards to determine the power of your swing and slide left/right to aim, then release to swing the bat at the right time. In the field, there are targets representing 2,4 and 6 runs. If you hit a target, it's knocked over until all targets have been hit or the batsman is given out for either missing the ball or hitting an "Out!" target.

Each game has four levels of difficulty to progress through, with nine achievements to complete. Game Center wasn't included initially, but online leaderboards and achievements were released as an update, along with iPad support (Universal).

It's impossible to review this game without using the word "nostalgic", even if you weren't alive when these vintage mechanical games were originally available. In that regard, it's a charming "feel-good" game and an interesting experience, almost like visiting a game museum. However, it's also extremely basic and repetitive game-play which may not hold your attention for long once the initial novelty wears off. But for a quick go-to game on your mobile when you have just a few moments to spare, Penny Parlor does the trick, and is executed with great presentation and style.

App Store Link: Penny Parlor, $1.99 (Universal)

The Art of Pixar

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:29:11 GMT

You can't believe how excited my four-year-old was at the arrival of this book last night. He read it this morning as he ate his breakfast, quiet as a stone, save for the occasional "daddy, look at this!" outburst.

Tags: books Pixar The Art of Pixar

BaseStation iPhone 4 Stand

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:15:00 GMT

The great looking BaseStation puts your iPhone 4 on display while it syncs and charges. Pick your choice of Maple or Walnut wood, and if you want, you can have the stand engraved with your name. Buy it here ($52)

How To Beat HDTV "Customer Service"

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:10:16 GMT

How To Beat HDTV "Customer Service"

If your HDTV set is malfunctioning you follow the advice most HDTV manufacturers put on their website, you can actually end up screwing yourself. Surprise, surprise. Here's what you should do instead.

HD Guru says that if your set starts to fail, even briefly, immediately call the HDTV manufacturer and start a case number to document the issue. Here's the thing. HDTV makers tell customers on their website that they should just reboot their HDTV to fix most issues. But if the issue is a faulty part, it's usually failing because it gets powered up and overheated in some way. Unplugging the TV and then turning it back on may temporarily help because it let the part cool down. However, often times this just delays the inevitable. Then when the part completely breaks for real, you may already be past the warranty period and out of luck.

So if you start noticing your HDTV acting funny, call up the set maker right away and start documenting the issue. If you establish proof that the HDTV was starting to fail within the warranty period it will make filing for a warranty repair or replacement a lot easier.

How To Deal With HDTV Customer Service and Win [HD Guru]

Koostik Mini Koo iPhone Speaker

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:09:29 GMT

Building upon their original speaker design, Koostik expands their product offering to those looking for a slightly less expensive and smaller footprint speaker. The Mini Koo measures at just 3.5″ x 5″ x 1.5″, making it a good size for bedside tunes and to follow you on your travels. It makes use of natural passive amplification through its “trumpet horn” speaker port, and requires no power to operate. Available in solid walnut and cherry, finished with an orange oil & beeswax.

"Do you know, with your experience, how we can ‘Chinesisize’ the website?"

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:20:05 GMT

“Do you know, with your experience, how we can ‘Chinesisize’ the website?”

→ Nexus One not getting Android 4.0

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:10:25 GMT

Jordak Crook at TechCrunch:

Unfortunately for owners of the original Google phone, Google has confirmed that the Nexus One is just “too old” for the new software.

MG Siegler:

Apple often gets dinged for cutting support to older hardware, forcing users to upgrade if they want the latest and greatest software. So I feel it’s necessary to point out that the iPhone 3GS is 7 months older than the Nexus One. And guess what it runs? Apple’s just-released latest and greatest operating system, iOS 5.

The Nexus One was the flagship Android phone, from Google itself: an example to the other manufacturers on how to make great Android phones. Even though there weren’t a lot of them sold, cutting off support less than two years after its launch (and even less time after it stopped being sold) sends a message to the other manufacturers that it’s acceptable not to care about the long-term usage of Android devices.

This isn’t new, of course. Other Android-phone manufacturers usually cut off software updates to “old” phones even faster.

Most Android phones in the U.S., representing a huge chunk of Android’s total market share, were sold to Verizon customers on 2-year contracts. And among those, a very large portion were sold before there was a Verizon iPhone.

As these contracts come up for renewal over the next 1-2 years and these customers buy new phones, how many of them will stay with Android?

Long-term satisfaction might have a large effect on the Android retention rate and, therefore, its long-term market share. Cutting off software-update compatibility to so many phones while they’re still under contract isn’t going to do any favors for customer satisfaction.

∞ Permalink

Google Maps - The “map” or “satellite”...

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:30:05 GMT

Google Maps - The “map” or “satellite”...

Google Maps - The “map” or “satellite” button” shows the actual area behind it.

/via Hugo

Apple's sometimes-screwball design aesthetic

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:10:38 GMT

James Higgs wrote a provocative piece on something that I've noticed recently as well: the two sides to Apple's design aesthetic. On the one hand:

[Apple's] devices have become increasingly simple and pared down, even as the power contained in them has increased. There is very little, if anything, extraneous on the Magic Trackpad or the MacBook Air. And of course the iPhones 4 and 4S are radically simple, yet well-constructed masterpieces of industrial design.

Yet, when it comes to stuff that isn't hardware:

But no one laughs when Apple delivers a calendar application for the iPad that tries its hardest to look like a real-word desktop calendar pad, complete with fake leather and "torn" pages.
Still fewer have a chuckle when they see the new Address Book app on Mac OS X Lion, or the even more recent Find My Friends iPhone app.
These apps, and many more besides, all stem from a completely different, and I would say opposite aesthetic sensibility than the plain devices they run on.
They are an expression of purest kitsch, sentimentality, and ornamentation for its own sake. In Milan Kundera's brilliant definition, kitsch is "the absolute denial of shit". These are Disney-like apps, sinister in their mendacity.

This isn't a recent thing either...look at the cheeseball themes and transitions in Keynote (many of them used by Jobs in his keynotes), some of the default system fonts, the emphasis in past keynotes on things like Mail.app themes, etc. Without too much effort, you could pull together many design examples from their currently shipping software that make it appear as though Apple doesn't have a good aesthetic sense of design at all. But then you look at the general aesthetics of OSX and iOS...I don't know, it's really confusing how the same company, especially one that had such strong design leadership, could produce something as beautifully spare as iOS and something as cheesy as the Game Center app. (via ★thefoxisblack)

Tags: Apple design James Higgs

Spray Your Food Gold

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:57:00 GMT

Spray Your Food Gold

What, chicken for dinner? Again? Turn those blahs! into yays with Food Finish, an edible colorizer that you spray on your food to make it look like it's covered in gold.

It's basically spray-on food coloring with an extremely high luster. It's also available in silver, chrome blue, and magenta.

No one will that you're swapping out sirloin on the dinner table with hanger steak, or serving up haddock instead of cod, they'll be too busy oohing and ahhing over how all the meat looks like it was prepared by Midas himself. It's the perfect recessionary gastronomical pick-me-up!

Here is the ingredients list: Gold: ethyl alcohol, flavorings, additives: E943a, E943b, E944, Colours: E555, E171, E172. Silver: ethyl alcohol, flavorings, additives: E943a, E943b, E944, Colours: E171, E555. Red: additives E943a, E943b, E944 ., ethyl alcohol, flavors, E555, E172 Blue: additives E943a, E943b, E944, ethyl alcohol, flavors, E555, E171, E133.

I have not personally tried this food spray because I am not fancy enough. Also, because it is sold only in Germany and shipping regulations currently prevent it from being imported over here.

ESSLACK [The Deli Garage via Trendland]

Herman Cain's Crazy In 100 Seconds

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:32:33 GMT

Subscribe to Joe.My.God.

Aaron Sorkin being courted for Steve Jobs biography, the movie?

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:15:27 GMT

Aaron Sorkin, responsible for everything from The West Wing TV series to The Social Network, is rumored to be somehow, someway, in consideration or talks — basically being courted by Sony — to write the movie version of the just-released Steve Jobs biography.

Sorkin is one of the smartest screen writers in recent times, with a pitch-perfect ear for dramatic dialog. He made the relatively boring subject of Facebook into a highly engaging movie (as opposed to terrible writing, which made a lot of fantastic looking movies painful to endure) and could likely inject similar sizzle in the Steve Jobs movie.

Let’s hope they make this deal and get it done. Then all they have to do is cast Steve Jobs. What do you think, TiPb nation, Noah Wyle again?

Source: LA Times

How much has the iPhone camera improved over the years?

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:31:40 GMT

Camera+ has thrown together some great comparison photos depicting just how much the iPhone camera has improved over the years.

The comparison photos really speak for themselves, and the difference is especially noticeable with the iPhone 4S photos when compared to older models. They even go on to compare with more expensive DSLR cameras for reference. As expected, from the original iPhone to the latest iPhone 4S model, the camera quality has obviously improved immensely.

Feel free to drop into our iPhone 4S pictures forum for even more evidence of how well the iPhone 4S camera performs.

Source: Camera+

“A Tempo” Laundry Basket

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:22:37 GMT

Remember last week’s “A Tempo” Stool? Well, rarely is a laundry basket something worth featuring, but designer Pauline Deltour has made this one with metal wire, and, as was the case with the stool, it’s something to notice. Rarely would a laundry basket command such a price, but this one is infinitely better than your local big box store selection. There’s also an additional tray ($34) if you want to hide those not-clean clothes.

If you’re not fond of the white basket/orange fabric combo, it also comes in white with a chrome basket.

Los Angeles Seeks Gay Parents

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:52:05 GMT

Los Angeles County has launched a publicity campaign seeking gay adoptive and foster parents for the over 30,000 children presently in their system. Via press release:

The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is partnering with three non-profit organizations to recruit gay and lesbian families to foster and adopt children during November, National Adoption Month, in an effort entitled RaiseAChild.us.The coalition has placed large banners on light poles along major boulevards across L.A. featuring two gay families who have fostered and adopted children from the County. They have also placed PSAs on local radio stations and created RaiseAChild.us, a resource website. One of the families profiled in the campaign includes actor /comedian Alec Mapa, known for his work on ABC’s Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty television series. Alec and his husband fostered and adopted their six-year-old son in 2010.

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