Mayor Boris adds second wheel to the London Eye to mark cycle hire launch

Source: The Poke

Superlative Apple Store opening in Covent Garden on August 7th

The new Apple store opens on 7 August in Covent Garden, on the site formerly occupied by the Rock Garden nightspot.

According to a blog devoted to the subject of Apple retail outlets, it will be the largest store Apple has opened, occupying three floors, and the most expensive in terms of refurbishment. Apple will also have offices above the store.

Apple is as good at creating hype around the launch of its stores as it is around the launch of its phones – when the first London branch opened on Regent Street in 2004, people began queuing outside days before, in spite of it being November.

One report says that more than a thousand people were in the queue prior to the doors opening at 10am.

The company has a strategy of selling 'Lucky Bags' to the people coming through the doors. These have limited edition goods and souvenir T-shirts, adding up to greater value than the selling price, as well as being sought after by Apple fans.

Apple stores are so busy that the company advises people to come in early in the morning or late in the day, or to make a personal shopping appointment, to avoid the crowds.

The Covent Garden shop is the fourth Apple store in London.

Source: Marketing Magazine

Apple's new Magic Trackpad

If you've used a MacBook Pro or MacBook over the last couple of years then surely an Apple Magic Trackpad is old news? I say that because from what I've heard, the technology is the same, the experience is the same, and the usability is the same: anything you can do on the trackpads of the latest MacBook or MacBook Pro laptop range, you can do here. So do I really need to buy this £59 accessory?

I found a review from Pocket-lint who were assessing just that:

The device itself oozes typical Apple minimalism design. It's a sheet of aluminium that sits on your desk at a slight angle waiting to be touched, topped with the wear-resistant glass surface for you to touch. The angle is created by the battery tube at the top and it takes two AA batteries. Apple claim this will be enough to power it for around 2 months. That tube houses the power switch and the gubbins to make it all work. Aside from a green light that only lights up when it is pairing, there is very little to report here.

While the top is metal the underside is white plastic - identical to the Apple Bluetooth keyboard. In fact design-wise it is identical its approach. It's the same brushed metal on top, the same angle, the same depth, the same height, in fact you can put the two together and pretend they are one piece.



Unlike most other computer peripherals, the surface is free from buttons. But you still get the ability to left or right click, thanks to the small feet on the leading edge of the underside. It's an incredibly simple and clever idea that works just like the MacBook Pro's system - you just click on the trackpad without realising there is no button.

The Magic Trackpad is connected to your Mac via Bluetooth, and the only other requirement here is that you are running OSX 10.6.4. Connect the device to your Mac and at first you'll believe that you've bought a rather uninspiring and expensive trackpad that doesn't do much.

Perform a software update to get the latest software (if you haven't already) and empower your Magic trackpad to deliver on its promises. A quick restart later and you're ready to tinker if you so wish, although for the most part you won't have to.

The new software gives you the power to scroll, rotate, pinch open and close, screen zoom, and secondary click when using two fingers.

Add a third finger and you can swipe to navigate, and drag windows around, while four fingers up and down opens Expose and swiping left and right gives you the ability to change applications.

Don't panic you can just use the one finger. The travel of your finger on the trackpad is more than enough to cover your screen within a single motion and that saves you having to keep lifting your finger.



There are other options with your single finger; i.e. tap to click (which can be turned off) and secondary click zoned into the bottom right corner for example: we found a two finger click was easier, but there are choices so you can set it to your preference. You can adjust tracking, double-click and scrolling speed as well.

In practice and it really is the same as the MacBook Pro trackpad, although we found it easier to use three and four finger movements due to the increased real-estate. The glass is beautifully smooth on your fingers and the click, which can be done from anywhere with very little effort, is responsive and don't really have to press that hard.

With the resting feet responsible for the clicking part of the trackpad you will have to have it on a level surface. We tried balancing it on a leg - it just doesn't work - but you can use it up to 10 metres away. We're sure that swapping trackpads around in the office will lead to a great deal of hilarity.

So the question is, can it become the primary input device for professional graphic designers?

App of the week: Dragon Dictation

Dragon Dictation is a voice recognition application that allows you to speak and then instantly see your text or email messages. I've just downloaded it and it's brilliant - a real time-saver. Find it here.

The Free Apple iPhone 4 bumper program is now open in the UK

To get your free case from Apple click here.

There are a range of different cases available and this article can help you choose the right one for you.

Flipboard

I guess a lot of you have heard of the awesome Flipboard iPad App by now, but if you haven’t and you own an iPad, you’ll be excited to see what this brilliant Social Magazine app actually does.

Franking Fail

An awesome gift for male geeks: USB Flash Drive Cufflinks

Not only are these cufflinks engravable, they each feature functional USB drives, so you get a total storage capacity of 4GB.

Available from CuffLinks.com.

Brilliant online ad idea

A very creative online ad for Ikea: when clicking the banner the user has to select an mp3 from his or her own computer to be played through the ad. Click here to view the ad and see what I mean...

Total, fcuk and UPS in joint sponsorship deal with England football team

High Haute? Louis Vuitton Bongs

Brilliant Old Spice parody by Dove

(because real women want a real man!)

Does anyone else love their job this much?

Daddy DJ seriously wants to rock out and he doesn’t care how embarrassed the kids are.

Beautiful use of lego

These walls in the old part of Tel Aviv and Jaffa, in Israel, were in need of repair, and lego pieces prove to be a wonderfully colourful solution.

Love the Pop Art style of these new limited edition Perrier Cans with Dita Von Teese.

This is Perrier's third collaboration, and follows previous tie ups with fashion designers, Agnes B, and Paul & Joe, reinforcing Perrier's edgy and graphic image

iPad iOS 3.2.1 now available for download in iTunes

Hot on the heels of the iPhone iOS 4 update, Apple has launched a second update – this one's for the iPad.

The iPad iOS 3.2.1 updates the iPad with the following:

- provides improved WiFi capability
- fixes the copy/paste of single-page PDF’s in Mail
- addresses the issues that causes video playback to freeze
- improves the reliability of video-out when using the iPad Dock Connector to VGA adapter
- added Bing as an option for Safari’s search field

What? Bing? How very un-Apple!

Anyway, just connect your iPad to your computer and check for the update in iTunes.

iOS 4.0.1 update now available

Somewhat earlier than expected, Apple has rolled out the much talked about new firmware for its iPhone 4, which according to the company will fix the handset's ongoing reception problems.

In actual fact, the update merely recalibrates the way the phone displays its signal bars, and makes the bars a bit taller so they're easier to see. Whereas previous versions showed a full five bars, despite only a mediocre signal, the new version now more accurately portrays the accepted maximum (that you'd get if you stood next to a tower) and the minimum signal level before a call is dropped, and has a more linear drop off in bars as it loses signal.



The new update is available immediately through iTunes and is compatible with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. As per usual, you'll have to wait a while as you need to download the full 180MB firmware, despite only being a tiny update.

Source: trustedreviews.com

Designer's tea break

The Netherlands beat Spain, according to CBS News

The website of American broadcaster CBS has a story (now updated but see screengrab above) that states that the Netherlands defeated Spain in the World Cup final.

The report, which I guess had to be written before Spain scored their winning goal in the 25th minute of extra time, claims that "the Netherlands defeated Spain by a score of SCORE to SCORE to win its first World Cup title."

FAIL!

No Weight Gain Chocolate

Fair play to Bloomsberry & Co for a light-hearted approach to chocolate branding.

Source: David Airey

Brazil Unveils 2014 World Cup Logo

Sao Paolo-based agency Africa yesterday unveiled the official logo for the 2014 World Cup to be held in Brazil.

Titled ‘Inspiration’, the emblem features three intertwined hands forming the iconic shape of the most coveted trophy in the football world.

Source: Design Taxi

Make an iPad stand out of pencils

This genius stand design for your iPad comes from gadget blogger Julian Horsey of Geeky Gadgets, and is the successor to his own Pencil iPhone Stand of last year.

It's beautiful to look at, but it's the rubbers on the tips of the pencils that make this design so clever.

Source: Wired

City maps in the style of 1980s video games

Click here to see your part of the world in the style of 1980s video games : www.8bitcity.com

Moshik Hebrew Typeface by Moshik Nadav

Being half Israeli, from time to time I work on certain projects for friends and family that require hebrew typography and I'm afraid to say that there aren't that many beautiful hebrew typefaces around. So I was really pleased to stumble upon Moshik Nadav's typeface design here. I look forward to buying it in July 2011, Moshik.

Meantime does anyone else know of any other stylish Hebrew typefaces?

Barack Obama's and Mahmud Ahmadinedschad's personal Facebook pages

Click images below to enlarge or view Barack Obama's here and Mahmud Ahmadinedschad's here

An inspired ad for Pedigree featuring slow motion pooches

Flower Grenade

What a lovely idea. Suck UK are selling a ceramic missile for £12 which is filled with seeds, so you can toss it into an unattractive corner of your 'hood and then watch it transform into an urban jungle.

Great for passive-aggressive types!