Mashable: Latest 7 News Updates - including “10 Vintage Apple Ads That Time Forgot [VIDEOS]” |  |
- 10 Vintage Apple Ads That Time Forgot [VIDEOS]
- HTC, RIM and Nokia Challenge Apple’s Antenna Claims
- HOW TO: Give Your Photos a Vintage Look
- For Women, Social Media is More Than “Girl Talk”
- Facebook Will Celebrate 500 Million Users Next Week
- 10 Fun Microsoft Facts You Might Not Know
- FaceTime + $50 = Awesome Personalized Avatar
- Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]
| 10 Vintage Apple Ads That Time Forgot [VIDEOS] Posted: 17 Jul 2010 08:47 PM PDT      As Apple’s latest TV commercials for the iPhone 4’s “FaceTime” functionality dazzle us with blandness, it got us thinking about the company’s ad campaigns of years gone by. Although Apple has had some amazing ad successes in recent years — so much so that the release of a new Apple ad becomes news in itself — that’s not always been the case. Here, we step back in time and bring you ten vintage commercials from Apple that time forgot — and in many cases, for good reason. 1. AlligatorsWhat's a good euphemism for the cutthroat world of business? Oh yeah... alligators. Thank goodness someone boats in with a Mac, although we're not convinced with the whole water + electronics sends the right message safety-wise. Unless they were suggesting a new way to really eliminate the competition. 2. HomemakerHere talk show host Dick Cavett becomes the first celeb to advertise for Apple, although with his blatant sexism we're not sure he's quite a poster boy for the brand. And since career-minded women were featured regularly in early Apple ads, it suggests the female market was a target audience. However, we're not convinced that calling a computer "the appliance of the 80s" would have made that many rush out and buy one. 3. 20th Anniversary MacWith its unusual design the limited edition T.A.M. was a love it or hate it machine. Although it's now a collector's item, at the time its high price tag made it a commercial flop, and after seeing this overblown ad, we're not surprised. 4. Kevin CostnerThis shows how much times have changed since the early 80s for Apple. In this case, there's a lot less Kevin Costner and pit bulls. Made in the days before it was branded a "Mac," it's interesting to hear the slogan about the two kinds of people in the world, "those who use computers and those who use Apples." This soon changed for good when the Macintosh line came along. And really how many times have you heard someone say they "use an Apple?" Exactly. 5. The Personal ComputerJust try and follow the complex train of thought here. And while we're on the topic, what's with the lame sound effects? 6. Newton - RestaurantSo the message here is to get a Newton in case the person you're having lunch with turns out to be some kind of psychopath? Huh? And FYI -- if you've interviewed a hundred people for one position then there might be something wrong with your recruitment process. 7. NightmareEver have one of those "forgot to do your homework" nightmares? No, neither have we. 8. The Power to SucceedUnlike today, many of Apple's early ads focused on the business market in an "anything you can do I can do better" battle with Windows PC. This cringe-worthy ad aired in the UK and offers an awful, caricatured glimpse into the world of business. 9. Middle SeatNot really "vintage," but this ad from 2001 for the iBook, featuring Heros star Milo Ventimiglia as the guy you hope you never have to sit next to on a plane, may well be the reason some PC users have a low opinion of Mac owners. 10. We Are Apple (Leading The Way)Not an advert, technically, more a corporate message. This is still unspeakably bad. It's hard to see how Apple made it from this to the ultra cool consumer brand it is today. It makes Apple's success all the more remarkable. More Apple resources from Mashable:
More About: advertising, adverts, apple, commercials, videos, vintage For more Apple coverage:
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| HTC, RIM and Nokia Challenge Apple’s Antenna Claims Posted: 17 Jul 2010 06:29 PM PDT   Apple claimed at its press conference Friday that virtually every competing smartphone faces the same antenna challenges as the iPhone 4, but three of its competitors — HTC, RIM and Nokia — have since stood up and challenged that claim.
Nokia jumped into the fray too, bragging that it was the pioneer of internal antenna technology, and claiming that it has this all figured out while Apple is just playing the blame game for its foolish design decisions. Here’s its statement.
Finally, HTC — whose Droid Eris was shown by Apple to have the worst signal problems of all during Steve Jobs’ presentation on Friday — decided against a lengthy statement and tried to let the numbers speak for themselves, telling Pocket-lint that only 0.016% of its Droid Eris buyers have called to complain about signal problems. Apple was saying with pride that 0.055% of its customers did the same about the iPhone 4. Apple’s people surely must have anticipated that they would face a backlash from their competitors when they chose for their press conference the angle that other smartphone companies have the same problems they do, but Apple hasn’t fired back just yet. It may not; Apple’s best interest is to see this story die out in the press as soon as possible. These Guys Know How to Play the PR Game TooMany readers of tech news are entertained and fascinated by stories of corporate failure, especially within a company that has had such a long string of successes as of late. Steve Jobs made that point himself during the hit-and-miss press conference, but it’s not an invalid one. It’s just like politics. A politician is stuck in an unpopular war or a sex scandal, and he or she hosts a press conference or makes a speech to try and change the narrative. Whatever he or she is pitching has to be really juicy for that to succeed, though, because like the political media, tech blogs are financially incentivized to fuel the most devastating fire they can find. HTC, RIM and Nokia knew it was in their interests to prevent Apple from having the last word, and they know that what Apple said and did last week wasn’t quite juicy enough to kill the original scandal once and for all. That said, what do you want to bet that fatigue will kill the story in the end? Is there anything more Apple can say or do? Are any transformational developments possible in the near term? Do people even want to hear about this anymore? We’re very curious about the tech user zeitgeist right now, so let us know in the comments. More About: antenna, Antennagate, apple, blackberry, droid eris, htc, iphone, iphone 4, Nokia, research in motion, RIM For more Mobile coverage:
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| HOW TO: Give Your Photos a Vintage Look Posted: 17 Jul 2010 06:07 PM PDT   Your profile photo is an important part of your online personality, offering a glimpse of you to the wider world. We’ve previously brought you tips for creating the perfect profile pic, and in this post we’ll be looking at some great online services that can help you create a variety of fun, vintage-looking pics for your profile. So, for anyone who doesn’t have photo editing know-how, expensive editing software and a load of time to spare, here’s how to create a retro profile pic in a matter of minutes using some absolutely free, entirely online services. Let us know in the comments if we’ve missed any! The Original Shot This is the photo we’re editing, shown here as a control pic so you can gauge how dramatic the effects we’ve picked really are. A standard snap from a point-and-shoot camera, there’s nothing wrong with this image, but read on to see how it can be made so much more fun in just a few clicks. 1. Phixr’s Cross Process EffectThe Effect In film photography, the cross processing effect was achieved by switching different chemicals used to process print or slide films. This made for dramatic colors, contrast and grain. Although the effects of cross processing have been known since the 1960s, it was in the 1990s that the effect reached the height of its popularity with photographers like Nick Knight bringing cross processing to fashion and studio work.  How to Get the Effect It’s possible to recreate the effect using photo software by playing around with the color balance and contrast ratios (there are plenty of tutorials around the web to help). If you don’t have the time/inclination/correct software, then Phixr offers the effect at the click of a button. Simply head to Phixr and hit “get started,” which will bring up account options. If you want to set up a free account you can do so from here, but you can also skip this step, which will give you access to Phixr (as long as you’re not on it for more than six hours straight, which, trust us, you won’t be). You then need to upload your chosen pic from your computer (or via a URL) and hit the upload button, at which point the pic will be be resized if it’s too big. After your photo has loaded, select the “color effects” button from the icon menu on the left hand side and scroll down one line to select “cross process.” At this point there are options to adjust the brightness, contrast and opacity, but for the effect in the image above we kept it all at the auto levels pre-loaded by the site. The effects are previewed, however, so if you’d like to play around, you won’t be committed to the changes until you click “execute.” 2. Picnik’s 1960s EffectThe Effect Although many technical advances have been made now, back in the “old days” the colors in photo prints were made up of dyes that decay with age — especially if exposed to light — hence why so many of your parents’ or grandparents’ photos take on pink or yellow tones as the years go by. The faded color helps to date a photo almost as much as the outlandish fashions that might be found in it, and is a great effect to give your modern pic a vintage feel.  How to Get the Effect Drop into Picnik and click the “get started now” button. Upload your chosen photo, hit the “create” tab along the top, and select “effects” from the secondary tab menu. Now scroll down the menu on the left hand side of your display and choose “1960s” which brings up further options. You get the option to keep the round corners (we did, as it helps achieve the dated look even more) and what color you want to fill them in with (we chose white for a subtle effect) as well as how much “fade” you want. We maxed our fade in the pic above (zero percent) but again, you can play around with a preview, so feel free to experiment before hitting “apply” and saving the photo back to your computer. 3. Rollip’s Styled Lenses EffectThe Effect In the 1960s, cheap cameras like the Holga and Diana were mass-produced as “toys” and were predictably made of cheap construction and parts, including such photographic abominations plastic lenses. Of course, though poorly made, these low quality cameras actually produced really interesting effects such as light flares, blurs, distortion and vignetting (darker or blurry edges) that have, in recent years, gained the cameras a cult following (best seen from the Lomography movement) by those interested in the unpredictable and often beautiful results.  How to Get the Effect If you’re at all interested in super-simple retro photo effects then you need to head to Rollip pronto as it offers over 40 options. We narrowed our choice down to this “Styled Lenses” option which emulates the kind of effect you could hope to get from a quirky old-school film camera. To find it on the Rollip site, hit “click here to start” on the home page and then scroll through the “more effects” option until you get to page 5/10. Click “Styled Lenses” and select the photo in the top left hand corner. Once you’ve done this, it’s just a matter of clicking to browse your computer for a photo and wait for Rollip to work its magic. 4. Photobucket’s Color Splash EffectThe Effect Coloring black and white photographs by hand using photo oils or tinting pencils was popular in the first half of 20th Century before the advent of affordable color film. Recreated digitally, it makes for a nostalgic effect and can increase the emphasis to a certain part of an image, such as a person, or a features like lips or eyes.  How to Get the Effect You do need an account to use Photobucket, but it’s a simple email and password affair, so not too arduous to get set up. Once you’re good to go, upload an image from your computer and then hit “edit.” After your photo has loaded, select “effects” from the tab menu at the top of the page and choose the first option called “color splash.” The software will then greyscale your photo to black and white, leaving you to choose which part you want to fill in with color. The actual coloring in is super-easy: Just dab the circle over the area you want the color restored too. We stuck to the standard size blob in the image above, which worked fine, but if what you want colored is smaller, or more detailed, you can change the blob size to suit. Finally we took advantage of another free effect from Photobucket to complete our image and employed the “blur edges” tool (on the default setting) from the effects menu to give a blurry vignette feel. This helps focus the eye on the colorful figure. 5. Picnik’s Polaroid EffectThe Effect Polaroid photographs are iconic and immediately recognizable as the instant photo format of choice. Polaroids ruled up to the start of of digital photography when slower, film-based formats were pushed out of the market. Since Polaroid’s decline, nostalgia for the product has seen various groups campaigning for a revival of the format. With some success, film and cameras are now back on the shelves. It looks like Polaroid will live on for a few more years yet.  How to Get the Effect There are various Polaroid-erizing tools on the web, the most notable of which is Poladroid, however, this requires a download and we’re nothing if not impatient. We wanted an in-browser service. Picnik offers a Polaroid look as part of its “frames” options, but that doesn’t give the image an aged look. We countered this by using the 1960s effect (detailed above in number two) but nixing the round corners and setting the fade to 40 percent for a less dramatic effect. Once you’ve applied that, go to the frames menu under the “create” tab and select “Polaroid.” We opted for a white background color and a five percent angle. When you’ve made your choices, it’s just a matter of saving the pic down to your computer and you’re all done! More Tech Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kevinruss Reviews: Photobucket, iStockphoto, picnik More About: Phixr, photo editing, photobucket, photography, picnik, polaroid, profiles, retro, rollip, vintage For more Tech coverage:
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| For Women, Social Media is More Than “Girl Talk” Posted: 17 Jul 2010 04:40 PM PDT   Jessica Faye Carter is an award-winning author and columnist. Her company, Nette Media develops social media technologies for women and multicultural communities, and she blogs at Technicultr. A few months ago, I wrote about how social media presents women with increased opportunities for influence and professional development. In the comments, I found a number of commenters (both men and women) who relegated women's interest in social media to superficial reasons like "girl talk" or women's natural abilities as "connectors." I pushed back against those characterizations because I thought they were too superficial and limiting only to have one commenter suggest that there was no shame in women's natural social skills. This explanation was a bit too surface for me, so I set out to understand more about the reasons why women are such avid users of social media beyond the fact that it’s an opportunity to be social. My interest in the subject wasn't just in defense of my own ideas; I instinctively felt that there was more to explore about women's interest in social technologies. The level of female involvement struck me: of the 87 million women active on the Internet, an estimated 67.5 million women are engaged with social media. And by now you’ve probably heard that women are now the majority of social media users on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. This level of engagement indicates that there’s more to the story than just simple enjoyment of social interaction. WominnovationWhat I discovered might surprise you. It turns out that sociolinguists have found women to be innovators when it comes to communication, especially with new forms of languages. The shift from "ye" to "you" in 15th Century England? Women were behind it. Common phrases such as, “Like, ohmigod,” known as Valley Girl uptalk, were started by young women from California. And in the mid-20th century a group of young women from Oberwart, Austria shifted the primary language of a bilingual community from Hungarian to German, which was a powerful move in a community that had resisted the influence of the German language for close to 400 years. Today, women are continuing this linguistic innovation by adopting social media, a sort of hybrid of written and spoken language, and a perfect example of the kind of new linguistic form that women flock toward. One reason for women's interest in social media has to do with its symbolic capital, and what it represents in our culture. As language changes often signify underlying social change (think tutoiement in the French Revolution), people adopting emerging forms of communication like social media, are also embracing the consonant social identities. Social media represents an identity that is modern, connected, and a little bit daring. It's an identity that is understood to be comfortable with a certain amount of transparency, promotes information, and has a global outlook, as technology crosses geographic boundaries. It is participative in nature, and this opportunity to add new layers to their identities is part of what makes social media so attractive to women. The other reason is more pragmatic: social media offers benefits and improvements to a woman’s quality of life. Whether it's adding convenience to a work arrangement, harnessing information for decision-making, managing relationships, or juggling a variety of other responsibilities, social tools provide a convenient and efficient way for women to manage the various aspects of their lives. The practical benefits that social media affords, combined with its emotionally fulfilling features make it likely that women will not only continue to engage with social media, but with future related innovations, as well. By now, you’re probably thinking that the emotional and practical benefits that women find attractive about social media are also attractive to men, and you’re right. These factors explain, at least in part, why women are engaging with social media, but we’ll need to go further to understand why more women than men are using social media. To answer that question, we’ll need to revisit the issue of social change. Social Media & Social ChangeAs I noted earlier, language changes (or the introduction of linguistic variants, like social media) are symbolic of social change. What social media symbolizes is increased access to both information and platforms to express ideas. It has opened the door for new leaders, experts, and voices, and can help get them a “seat at the table.” Women stand to benefit from this type of social change more than men because women generally have less access to influential networks and leadership roles in society than men do. We sometimes forget that despite considerable progress, women continue to confront numerous inequities and considerable marginalization from influence in our society. It is precisely these challenges that fuel women’s greater interest in social media and social change. Understanding the underlying reasons for women's engagement with social media gives the discussion of women and emerging technologies an entirely new flavor. It's not about a communication style that is unique to women, nor is it based on some supposedly evolutionary instincts that women possess. It's about engaging women across the various layers of identity that they carry. Female consumers are not monolithic: they hail from diverse ethnic backgrounds and countries, have varied familial structures, do or don't have children, have a range of education levels, and share many other differentials. By recognizing women as complete people, and not just as limited stereotypes, and by understanding that their interest in emerging technologies is a reflection of the various aspects of their identities, is a useful starting point for organizations that hope to reach and engage women online. Now that's "girl talk" that I can get used to. More Social Media Resources from Mashable:
iStock: Image courtesy of iStockphoto, lisegagne Reviews: Facebook, Internet, MySpace, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: communication, innovation, language, Opinion, social media, women For more Social Media coverage:
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| Facebook Will Celebrate 500 Million Users Next Week Posted: 17 Jul 2010 03:17 PM PDT   Facebook will finally reach the impressive 500 million user milestone sometime this coming week. To celebrate, it’ll launch “Facebook Stories,” a visual memorial to all the ways the social network has changed people’s lives. All Things Digital’s BoomTown blog uncovered the details in an interview with Facebook marketing guru Randi Zuckerberg last week. She said that while previous announcements of this nature have been about the numbers, this time the company wants it to be all about the users. That’d be empty PR-speak on its own, but she’s talking about a real initiative: Facebook Stories will be a website within Facebook that’ll sort actual, submitted user stories by location and theme. Theme examples given included “finding love” and “natural disasters.” Each story will be limited to the same number of characters a Facebook status caps out at: 420. Facebook has already posted a form through which you can submit your own story. If your story becomes popular — that is, if it gets more “Likes” than most — it could be featured among other popular stories. Facebook reached 400 million users five months ago. This time last year, it had just reached 200 million, and eight months before that it was at just 100 million. The site launched in February of 2004, and has since become the most popular social site on the web. Reviews: Facebook More About: 500 million, facebook, facebook stories, milestone, randi zuckerberg, social media, social networking, trending, users For more Social Media coverage:
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| 10 Fun Microsoft Facts You Might Not Know Posted: 17 Jul 2010 01:27 PM PDT   Despite ever-increasing Mac sales, Microsoft’s still has an undisputed dominance over the computer industry. With such a vast presence, much has already been written about Microsoft: Its history, its products, even its former CEO Bill Gates. For those itching to know even more, we’ve dug up 10 snippets of info that you might not have heard before. What experimental musician created the Windows start-up sound? How do they celebrate anniversaries? Does Microsoft have a “pest” problem? Have a read of our Microsoft-themed facts, stats and trivia and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 1. “Micro-soft’s” First Ever Mention The first ever mention of “Microsoft” was in a letter from Bill Gates to co-founder Paul Allen in 1975. Gates initially wrote the company name as Micro-soft, which made sense considering it’s a portmanteau of “microcomputer” and “software.” Losing the hyphen, “Microsoft” was officially registered as a company in November, 1976 in New Mexico where Gates and Allen were working with their first major customer, MITS. Microsoft didn’t move to its current campus in Redmond, Washington until 1986. The Microsoft logo has changed several times over the years, the current “Pac-Man” logo was introduced in 1987, but previous to that was the “blibbet” logo that’s pictured above. The “blibbet” refers to the stylized “o” and was apparently once the name of a burger served in the Microsoft company cafeteria. 2. Brian Eno Composed “The Microsoft Sound”Pioneering musician Brian Eno was the musical brains behind Window 95’s start up tune, dubbed “The Microsoft Sound.” The influential musician, who has worked with the likes of David Bowie and U2, told the San Francisco Chronicle that making such a short piece of music was “funny” and “amazing.” Eno likened the process to “making a tiny little jewel.” Other musical trivia from the launch of Windows 95 is, of course, the use of The Rolling Stones “Start Me Up” in the ad campaign, while a related Eno fact is that he also composed the music for the computer game Spore. 3. Microsoft’s Fave Food Is Pizza Although not quite at Google’s level of snack-tastic, free-for-all wonder, Microsoft does offer free drinks. Over 23 million gratis beverages are downed on the corporate campus each year. Apparently the top two drinks of choice for Microsoft staffers are milk and OJ. There’s also free candy on the Microsoft campus shuttle. As far as food goes, Microsoft has around 35 cafeterias (one of which is pictured above) serving around 37,000 people each day. Pizza tops the list of most popular meal. 4. Microsoft Uses Codenames Ever since the company’s first operating system, Microsoft has worked on its projects under codenames, of which Wikipedia has a long list. Apparently Gates was ready to launch Windows under the name “Interface Manager” before he was persuaded to change it by an employee. Past codenames include “Longhorn,” “Lone Star,” and “Vienna.” While you might be tempted to add “Mojave,” to that list, it’s actually part of a Microsoft ad campaign. The “Mojave Experiment” was a marketing exercise that battled Vista’s poor PR by presenting the software to new users as a fresh product. 5. The Average “Softie” The average Microsoft employee, or “Softie” as they call themselves, is a 38-year-old male with the average salary for a developer coming in at $106,000. Microsoft currently employs 88,180 people who work across 32,404,796 square feet of Microsoft’s premises, over 50,000 of which are U.S.-based. The male to female ratio is very high among Microsoft’s American employees with a staggering 76% male workforce. 6. Microsoft Celebrates Anniversaries With M&Ms All companies have their little in-house traditions, and Microsoft is no exception. It seems it’s customary for Softies to celebrate their yearly employment anniversaries with candy, and more specifically, M&Ms. Each anniversary, a Microsoft employee is expected to provide one pound of M&Ms for every year they’ve worked. That means if Bill Gates observed the tradition, he should have turned up with 33 pounds of M&Ms on June 27, 2008. 7. Microsoft’s Stock Has Split Nine Times Microsoft has split its stock nines times since it went public back in March 1986. Put very, very simply, a company will generally split its stock when its share price becomes too high. Since Microsoft has had six 2-for-1 splits and three 3-for-1 splits, one original Microsoft share would now be equal to 288 shares today. Interestingly the price of Microsoft’s stock at its initial public offering was $21 a share, at the time of writing a share is now around the $23 mark. One original MSFT share would now be worth over $6,000. 8. Microsoft Has a Huge Art Collection No, we’re not talking about Clip Art. Microsoft is one of the largest corporate collectors of artworks with over 5,000 contemporary pieces including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, ceramics, studio glass, and multimedia works. Microsoft gathers arts from local artists, up-and-coming artists and big names such as Cindy Sherman, Chuck Close and Takashi Murakami. A large proportion of the works are on display at more than 150 of Microsoft’s many campuses, as the company subscribes to the belief that art in the workplace reduces stress, increases productivity and encourages discussions and expression of opinions. 9. Microsoft Asks Strange Interview Questions Microsoft has a reputation in the industry for asking off-beat, off-the-wall questions during its job interview. The most oft-quoted question is: “Why is a manhole cover round?” Whether this particular example is genuine, or an urban legend, it’s certainly true that Microsoft employs a very unusual, and forward-thinking interview process. It’s even rumored that companies like Google have since emulated the style. Rather than plain “Where do you see yourself in five years” type questions, Microsoft is more likely to ask you to solve a logic puzzle or think through a problem like “Design a coffee maker that will be used by astronauts.” Obviously, Microsoft isn’t planning to go into the coffee-in-space industry anytime soon, but the process serves to find candidates that can think creatively. 10. Microsoft Holds Over 10,000 Patents Microsoft holds over 10,000 patents and files around 3,000 every year, ranking as one of the top five patent owners in the U.S. Although a large majority of the patents relate to obscure elements of software, the 5,000th and 10,000th were consumer-friendly, easily-understandable ideas. The 5,000th was for tech in Xbox 360 games that lets people “watch” a video game remotely, while the 10,000th was for the Microsoft Surface, linking real-life objects with data and images. Microsoft also rewards its staff members for securing a new patent. Besides a $1,500 bonus, they get a wooden plaque and a decorative black “cube” that features their name, as well as the title and date of the patent. BONUS: The Microsoft Campus is Full of Bunnies! Our very own Jolie O’Dell found a great factoid about the Microsoft Corporate Campus, she gleaned while on a recent visit. “So, back in the mists of time, some people dumped a bunch of rapidly reproducing pet bunnies — leftovers from kids’ Easter gifts — on a grassy knoll near the MSFT campus,” Jolie said. “The bunnies started doing what bunnies do best, that is, making more bunnies. At one point, there were so many that MSFT staff had to start catching them and having them spayed and neutered! Nowadays, you’ll still see lots of rabbits hopping around, though. Way cuter than Google’s goats.” It seems the bunny proliferation has been a long term issue. According to a 1998 Seattle Times article, the “Redmond rabbit problem” does not just affect Microsoft, but Nintendo, Eddie Bauer and other companies in the area. The problem back then spawned the Redmond Rabbit Coalition group (many members of which are now involved in the current day Evergreen Rabbit Rescue) who campaign for a humane solution to the ongoing pest problem. Rabbit image courtesy of iStockphoto, LindaYolanda More Tech Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, Windows, iStockphoto More About: bill gates, brian eno, codenames, facts, microsoft, pizza, rabbits, rolling stones, trending, Windows For more Tech coverage:
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| FaceTime + $50 = Awesome Personalized Avatar Posted: 17 Jul 2010 12:09 PM PDT   For $50, artist David Lanham will connect with you over FaceTime, hand-sketch an image in about ten minutes, then use his digital arsenal to create a fully-realized digital portrait that you can use for just about anything. He’ll even mail a print to your house. We already thought that FaceTime was pretty cool but now that we’ve used Dave’s service to get a FaceTime Portrait, it’s moved into to “beyond cool” category. Dave is a designer at the Iconfactory and responsible for the ultimate Twitter icon, Ollie the Twitterrific bird, but he broke his foot while playing soccer over the Fourth of July. That means that the poor guy is relegated to staying off his feet at home. Rather than wallow in self-pity, he decided to use the opportunity to keep himself from going completely Rear Window and offer up his design skills to the Internet public. After reading about Dave’s offer in Wired, I had to reach out and get my own FaceTime Portrait made. Not only was I a huge fan of Lanham’s work (and seriously, check out his website, his stuff is incredible), I really needed a new avatar. This is the result:  I’m pretty psyched to see myself as a cartoon. You can see other examples of completed works on Dave’s Flickr gallery. He’s received a ton of offers but has been keeping at it at a pretty steady pace. Lanham says that it takes about an hour total to do the portrait. The sketching aspect via FaceTime only takes about 10 minutes and he’ll snap a screenshot so he can reference it if he needs to later on. This is a great example of ingenuity on several levels. First, what a great way to deal with being stuck at home and in a chair. Second, what a great way to use technology to connect with people all over the globe to create totally original artwork. You can send Dave an e-mail here or hit him up on Twitter. What do you think of FaceTime Portraits? Let us know! Reviews: Internet, Twitter More About: apple, art, custom avatars, david lanham, facetime, facetime portraits, the iconfactory For more Apple coverage:
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| Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART] Posted: 17 Jul 2010 10:00 AM PDT   This week’s chart was dominated by the sports world. From the conclusion of the World Cup to blockbuster Major League Baseball trades to the continuation of a hot NBA free agency season and the death of an American baseball icon, sports were on everybody’s minds this week on Twitter. Even sports side show stories like Paul the Octopus got more play among the tweeting masses. This week we’re adding a new “intensity” column to the chart, which measures the “heat” of a specific story. Intensity is measured from 1 (least) to 5 (most) and essentially represents how often that topic trended during the week — for example a topic with an intensity measure of 3 appeared nearly twice as many times as an item at intensity 2. Because trending topics generally change so much from week to week, we’ve replaced the “previous peak index” number with the new measure of intensity. Please let us know what you think in the comments. As always, our partners in data at What The Trend have provided the complete chart below. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart. You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section as well as read more about this past week's trends on What The Trend. Top Twitter Trends This Week: 7/10 – 7/16
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ricardoinfante Reviews: Twitter, World Cup, iStockphoto, movie More About: entertainment, List, Lists, MLB, Movies, NBA, social media, sports, Top Twitter Topics, trends, twitter, twitter trends, world cup For more Social Media coverage:
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