Remember when a cell phone was just a cell phone? When things like internet access, camera quality, and IM capabilities didn’t impact your final decision when buying one (since most of these features were limited or nonexistent at the time anyway)? As long as your phone made clear calls, clocked sufficient talk time, and looked fairly decent–LED screen, pull-out antenna and all–you were straight! And you probably held on to the same model for more than a year. That’s hardly the case these days. With features like text messages, mobile web, and IM (among others) now on the scene, the game, as well as consumer demands, have been changed forever.

This article in today’s New York Times takes a look at the steps that a few cell phone manufacturers are taking to appeal to the tastes of today’s design and environmentally conscious consumers.

Like fashion or entertainment, the cellphone industry is increasingly hit-driven, and new models that do not fly off the shelves within weeks of their debut are considered duds. The most gadget-conscious shoppers buy new phones every nine months, twice as fast as they did a few years ago. And teenagers, one of the fastest-growing markets, are especially quick to dump a brand if it loses popular appeal.

Read on.

Staying on the theme of innovation…If you have a some innovative ideas in mind that you’re dying to share with the world, and you just so happen to find yourself in the vicinity of Monterey, California this weekend, make an effort to stop by the Bil Conference. Unlike many of the super exclusive tech/design/idea-sharing conferences that we sometimes hear about, Bil is open to any and everyone and its completely free to attend. The official site sums up the general idea behind Bil like this:

BIL is…
an open, self-organizing, emergent, and anarchic science and technology conference.
Nobody is in charge.
If you want to come, just show up.
If you have an idea to spread, start talking.
If someone is saying something interesting, stop and listen.

Pretty simple. In the meantime, have a look at this tentative list of presenters and presentations.

50 of the world’s most innovative company’s according to Fast Company. It’s a pretty diverse list made up of design firms, internet startups, sportswear giants, and electronics companies, just to name a few. Peep the top 10:

1. Google
2. Apple
3. Facebook
4. GE
5. Ideo
6. Nike
7. Nokia
8. Alibaba
9. Amazon
10. Nintendo

Not many surprises here on the top 10, other than the position of Facebook–coming in 3rd just under Google and Apple. For a social networking site, that’s definitely major.

Convinced that “systematic branding efforts” have much to do with Barack Obama’s appeal to voters, Newsweek’s Andrew Ramano called on veteran graphic designer Michael Bierut to examine some of the key branding and design elements that set Obama apart from the competition.

He’s the first candidate, actually, who’s had a coherent, top-to-bottom, 360-degree system at work. Whereas, I think it’s more more common for politicians to have a bumper-sticker symbol that they just stick on everything and hope that that will carry the day.

The thing that sort of flabbergasts me as a professional graphic designer is that, somewhere along the way, they decided that all their graphics would basically be done in the same typeface, which is this typeface called Gotham. [See "Change We Can Believe In" sign, above] If you look at one of his rallies, every single non-handmade sign is in that font. Every single one of them. And they’re all perfectly spaced and perfectly arranged. Trust me. I’ve done graphics for events –and I know what it takes to have rally after rally without someone saying, “Oh, we ran out of signs, let’s do a batch in Arial.” It just doesn’t seem to happen. There’s an absolute level of control that I have trouble achieving with my corporate clients.

Then if you go to the Web site, it’s all reflected there too–all the same elements showing up in this clean, smooth, elegant way. It all ties together really, really beautifully as a system.

[Ad Age via Newsweek]

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When most producers release beat compilations over the web, they usually go to great lengths to protect their material from unauthorized use. Sometimes using air horns, voice drops, and other clever and sometimes annoying effects to make it difficult for beat thieves to record vocals. Fortunately, Algorythm isn’t like most producers. For his new project, “First”, he’s inviting singers, MC’s and fellow producers to use the tracks and sounds on the compilation anyway they please…just as long as he’s given the proper credit.

This is the FIRST in a quarterly series of short instrumental projects that I’ll be putting out through this site as digital downloads. Each project will be approached in a different way and have a completely different direction in sound — although, this ‘First’ installment is more of an introduction to my sound. Everything is made in either Reason 3.0, 4.0 or a combination of both. I then bring the separate beats together with Cool Edit(Yes, Cool Edit; not Adobe Audition) and bounce out an mp3.

Ideally what I’d like to do with this project is to keep everything as FREE as possible, which means if you’re a vocalist, or an MC, and would like to use any of the music you hear on these projects, by all means, go right ahead. Use them on mixtapes, albums, ringtones whatever. My only small request is that you credit me whenever possible — That’s it. Also if you’re a producer, and you hear some open drums go ahead and chop’em and use them on your next track. Just don’t be a loser and try and pass any of this stuff off as your own creations. Be True.

Definitely an innovative approach. Check out the beats here.

Might we finally hear news about the delayed iPhone SDK’s and the future of 3rd party iPhone apps? It looks that way:

Apple distributed invitations Wednesday morning for “an iPhone software road map” event next week, which means we’re finally going to hear details on the plans for an iPhone software development kit.

As you might be aware, next week is March, not February, which means Apple will have missed its deadline for shipping the SDK this month. Still, on Thursday, March 6, at 10 a.m. PST the company will hold a “town hall” meeting at its headquarters in Cupertino to discuss the State of the iPhone, and probably answer several questions about how iPhone application development will unfold.

[via CNET]

Aside from being two very unique subcultures that spawn their own internal trends and movements, Skateboarding and Go-Go share very little in common. Recently, however, Kickballers DC and Shut NYC blended the two together to create these limited edition skate decks that feature none other than “The Godfather of Go-Go” himself, Chuck Brown. This is definitely a first for go-go and skate culture. Get familiar with Chuck after the jump.

[via HS]

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Given the fact that music and MySpace go hand-in-hand these days, it should come as no surprise that the insanely popular social networking site is now looking to launch its very own online music service. As part of a joint venture that would include the record industry’s ‘big four’ (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI Group, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment ), the music service, currently dubbed ‘MySpace Music’, would not only allow users to purchase music through the site, but also listen to copyrighted music for free (a featured which will be suppported by ad revenue). Peep: Read the rest of this entry »

Peep today’s top gadget finds after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Paul Mawhinney’s music collection is pretty ill. Insane even. So much so, that those two shots pictured above only display a fraction of his entire stash. Over the years he’s collected 300,000 cd’s, and a whopping 3 millions records (3 million, fam!), half of which he says are new and have never been played. Now he’s putting it all up for sale. For a little over $3 million (considering the current
eBay price) the entire collection, along with a few of his other prize musical possessions (including 8 indie record labels) can be yours. Peep: Read the rest of this entry »