Pillow talk

Well, pillow music really.. this does look a simply brilliant idea.

http://www.soundasleeppillow.co.uk/

Charming but pointless?

Dominic's work is all very charming but is that enough??

http://www.dominicwilcox.com/work.html

Although his anti-theft stuff is an exception -

13 days of not being stolen in London probably equates to 7 years of non-stealing in the friendly countryside.

Three no longer the magic number

The cone-shaped blobby creatures (devised by Aardman Animation almost exactly five years ago) that danced to the sound of Three Is The Magic Number are dead.

A new identity is born.. I not mad about either but the goodbye idents seem sweet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2008/jan/22/bbc32

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2008/jan/22/bbc31

Gig posters

Nice article about gig posters... here are some randomly stumbled upon ones.







http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/01/ive_died_and_gone_to_gig_poste.html

http://www.gigposters.com/

Jason Munn
http://thesmallstakes.com/gallery.php

Apple launches ultra-thin laptop

Apple launched the world's thinnest laptop and a new movie download system.

"We tried with Apple TV, but it's not what people wanted. So we're back with Apple TV take two – no computer is required. You can rent movies directly on your widescreen TV and you can rent them at DVD quality or you can rent then at high-definition quality."

Costing $229, the system links into the company's plans to offer films to rent over the internet through its iTunes store, also confirmed today. Rumours of the plans had been widely reported in the past week, and the company said it would join with film studios including 20th Century Fox and Sony to allow iTunes users to stream movies live, direct to their computer or TV, for a one-off payment of between $3 and $5.

A thousand new titles

The system will launch with support from every major Hollywood studio, with a thousand new titles and back-catalogue films available by the end of February. The service will be launched immediately in the US, and is set to arrive around the world latest this year. "We're dying to get this international as well," he added.

http://www.apple.com

.NET Winners

Brand wins podcast of the year.

.NET WINNERS

People's Choice Award - WebJam
Design Agency of the Year - Preloaded
Viral Campaign of the Year - Will it Blend?
Best Mashup of the Year - Flash Earth
Standards Champion - Dan Cederholm
Mobile Site of the Year - Gmail
Podcast of the Year - Russell Brand
Best Redesign of the Year - Apple
Infamy of the Year - MySpace
Interactive Award - Get The Glass
Innovation of the Year - Google Earth
Web Personality of the Year - Kevin Rose
Socially Powered Site of the Year - Facebook
Best Blog of the Year - Engadget
Open Source Application of the Year - Firefox
Best Web Application of the Year - Wordpress

Bond Stamps

New long stamps produced for Royal Mail issued to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the James Bond creator, Ian Fleming, each stamp begins with the cover from first edition hardbacks before progressing through paperback versions from the 1960’s, 70’s/80’s and current Penguin editions. Compare first to last image in each set - Notice the dumbed-down, sexed-up nose-dive from intriguing subtlety to crass commercialism.

Doodles are the new paisley

New Size? Collection artwork by Burgerman

“The collaboration came about after I doodled a column in their Nottingham Store late last year,” Burgerman tells CR. “I think this is further evidence to the fact that Doodles are the new paisley,” he adds.

Boring Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen's suggests that ordinary sites would waste their time adding so-called Web 2.0 features if they haven't got the basics right.

The bottom line? While a modest 2.0 infusion can be beneficial, advanced features are rarely the most important contributor to good user experience or profitable websites. If you get caught up in the hype, you divert attention and resources from the simpler things that really matter. This opportunity cost is the real reason to take it easy on Web 2.0.

Before throwing spending money at "2.0" features, make sure that you have all the "1.0" requirements working to perfection.

I love the first comment from the guardian site..

Jakob has got to be the most boring person on the web. His website is boring, he talks about boring things, he states the obvious and makes it sound even more boring. He even makes something exciting like Web 2.0 sound boring.

His Christmas tree is probably 4 foot high because if it was 6 feet high it would be unusable - because he couldn't reach up to put his angel on it. It's probably a boring shade of grey too.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/12/18/jakob_trashes_web_20.html

New BBC homepage

In beta.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/home/beta/ Still seems to be some functionality missing.. but overall not too shabby.

TomTom and Google Maps

TomTom and Google Maps have launched a new service, where people can use Google maps to find businesses or addresses and then send that address to TomTom

As I've got a Tom Tom this is good.. although you need to use TomTom home and sync your TomTom - not tried it out yet, so don't know how painful this all is... seems like a goodish idea

"Drag"on

The new British flag? In the UK Parliament yesterday, culture minister Margaret Hodge pledged to consider a redesign of the union flag to incorporate the Welsh dragon.

Welsh MPs claim that their constituents’ identity has been suppressed by the current design which does not include a symbol to represent Wales. Albert Owen, Labour MP for Ynys Mon was reported in The Guardian as claiming that “We in Wales do not feel part of the union flag because the dragon or the cross of St David is not on it”.

Mother - London Ink

Tat's on massive sculptures in london by mother.. the swimmer looks great.

iPhone 9th Nov launch (UK)

So it's out on 02 in November (9th) for £270.

Of course we still need to know whether it will blend..

50 Years of Helvetica

Total Geek Post... but kinda not..

Obviously Geek is the new cool, but even that aside I was surprised that Time Out had a film about a font as it's pick of the week. 5 Stars (out of 6).

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/84295/helvetica.html

... One highlight is an interview with German typographer and designer Erik Spiekermann who goes so far as to compare the uniform appearance of the font to Nazi soldiers marching in line. In fact, every one of Hustwit's shrewdly selected interviewees has extremely strong opinions on the subject, and there doesn’t seem to be any kind of generational or creative link as to why a designer will love or loathe the font; some see it as a design masterpiece which will never be bettered, others see it as emblemic of a creative drought and serves as nothing more than an easy design solution for lazy creatives.

http://www.helveticafilm.com/
http://www.blanka.co.uk/50_years_of_helvetica/