Apple have always been different. Despite some solid hardware and software design over the past few years, the biggest advantage Apple has is that it’s not Microsoft Windows. Partially because of this, Apple has been the faux-official computer manufacturer for creative folk. Musicians need an OS that doesn’t get in the way of their creativity. Visual artists knew they could install Photoshop on Windows, but on a Mac it felt like it belonged there. Designers not only loved the way the machines looked, but also the way they handled their creations without fuss (or BSOD). Writers and bloggers loved their (usually) good keyboards and subtle UI. For their efforts, Apple have been rewarded with loyal fans amongst those who create.

Image by HappyToast @ b3ta

For some people the internet is a one way thing. You sit back and it washes over you. Videos of cats falling off chairs, news articles, online radio, pornography… whatever. For many people, however, the web is a two way conversation. Whether it’s through IM, writing blogs, commenting on Reddit or even uploading shot film to Youtube, the web isn’t there to just be stared at. The people who demand this contributory attitude are often the creative folk I mentioned before. An on-screen keyboard isn’t the best way to go about all this. Neither is a 9″ screen, but that’s fair enough. We’re all pretty much in agreement that Apple didn’t make this device for creating monstrous Photoshop artworks or hours long Reason jams. No, they made it for the consumption of already created works. So why, Apple, limit so unnecessarily the ways in which we can consume such works?

The answer of course is control and money. You have to get everything through iTunes which means Apple cash-in, big time. What is puzzling is why creative types so readily favor such a creatively-limiting device. It’s understandable in a way: Apple rescued us all from a Windows hell. But don’t they understand that Apples “everything has to flow through us, it’s for your own sake, citizen” attitude stunts creativity? How can a design community be approving of Apple products when their applications are removed from the store, and their time wasted. Not only is this app-store only, no-multitasking world so bad for innovation, but Apple have the gaul to pretend that they’re doing something new. In yesterdays keynote we were told that all these cheap, 1.6GHz netbooks were too slow to be useful. That’s not true. Again, if you want to to some major Illustrator work then it’s probably not the best choice, but we’ve already decided that these machines are for consumption, which i think many netbooks (be they Linux or Windows7) excel at. I know hardware isn’t the only thing that effects performance, but I’m not entirely sure how the 1GHz iPad processor is going to be that much faster.

As a web developer I have to accept that the Apple app-store approach is bad for the web. When one creates an application for the web, be it using the latest HTML5 techniques or Flash, one can be sure that everyone can use it. As crap as Flash is for online video, it excels in some areas (like casual gaming). But that would mean that Apple loose out to free online alternatives to many (if not most) apps in their store. Apple is creating an elite version of the web, for only those who pay them directly, and because of this the iPhone and the iPad must be seen as poisonous to the internet, just as iTunes is poison to the music industry.

Some other ‘features’ of note include: The design looks like it’s a parody from the Onion. I need someone to explain how if a base model costs £388 and the same model with 16GB more memory costs £122 more, then where the hell do they buy their memory? Did they seriously call it an ‘iPad’? Finally, whatever I say, Hitler always has a much better grip on these things.

1960 by Mark Weaver

Graphic artist Mark Weavers’ flickr stream is heavily dosed with win. Some of this work I think may be influenced by the Footfall series of science fiction books. Regardless, it’s great work.

Via the Kitsune Noir wallpaper project.

Looking across No Man's Land to East Berlin

Flickr have created a set that commemorates the fall of the Berlin wall. What’s great about this is that whenever we pick up a paper we see the same pictures and video: The Brandenburg gate, that guy with the hammer… etc. You know what i mean? Sometimes you need to step back from the same old cliched images and get more of a sense of the scale of the thing and the effect it had on the architecture around it. This set has regular folk who visited in the dark old days to show off their photos which often show the city, not just the wall, and from the angles you tend not to see on tv.

Picture by flickr user Richard and Gill

It’s only going to be available in the US initially, but the same goes for many of these big ‘Map-based projects.

This is one in the eye for Apple and friends, whose app store is currently full of £40+ turn-by-turn navigation apps. It’s bad news for GPS system makers as well, who rely on their proprietary software to shift their hardware. If you are particularly cruel, you can watch the stock of Garmin and Tom Tom fall on Google Finance or head to Engadget for further (typically excitable) coverage and videos.

Here in the UK we sometimes like to poke fun at the US’s attitude to current affairs reporting. Maybe we’ll laugh at the CNN homepage as it becomes full of reports of Britneys latest outburst. Or possibly we’d compare measured debate on Newsnight to O Reily / Becks insane outbursts. But on the web and especially at Current TV, the US often takes the intellectual high-ground (or at least the high-brow ground).  I attach the following as evidence from my Twitter client:

Current TV in my twitter feed

Sadly, this sort of contrast is pretty typical. If you don’t believe me, I recommend you go to the Current website and use the top-right icon to switch between the British and American versions. So in short: come on Current UK! You’ve got some great staff and in the UK we’d love some relevant localised reporting. Surpass your US brother and don’t fall into the Heat Magazine pit.

(yes, I realise I posted this just after kittens. Shameful)

1. Turns out Obama wasn’t a very good choice for prez. Shit kicks off and he goes to hide in some bunker somewhere. Not like Bush did in 9/11. Conspiracy theorists would have you believe that once the twin towers got hit, he paniced and flew all over the US in Air Force One. This isn’t the case. He headed for new York and stood upon the rubble, Stinger ground-to-air missle launcher over one shoulder and a knuckle duster on his right hand; screaming “Bring it, Bin Laden you pussy”. Fictional/real Obama really dropped the ball on this one.
2. Where was Sally Field? Shia LaBeoufs (yes that is a real name) mum was an incredibly annoying character but she reminded me of Sally Fields. If Sally Fields had played her I would have probably found her slightly less annoying. Why not just use Sally Field, Bay, you cheap bastard?
3. The American Military is fucking awesome. Not only do they have a shit load of kit that can take down marourding 6-story high robots, but each and every man and woman in uniform is pretty damn good looking. Like, beautiful. I wish they’d liberate Sheffield just so I could be around them. This could of been because this film was half Dept. of Defence recruitment video. The other half was a toy advert.
4. What’s the deal with Megan Fox’s lips? CG?
   

   In this picture, the flower represents this blog post.

5. The American motor trade make some pretty crappy looking vehicles. I’d heard stories, y’know about how the motor trade in the US is failing? Occassionally we get a Crystler sold over her in the UK that makes it onto the streets but if you just look away it’s okay and it’s clear why the industry is in such trouble. But this film really helped clarify the whole situation. The French make panel vans with more character than trendiest modern GMC models.
6. Based on evidence in this film; black people have really bad teeth. Even robots who are portrayed by black people (or vis-versa… I’m not sure what the deal is) have bad teeth. Robots with bad teeth. Seriously. Just the ‘black’ ones. All over this film. Wierd (and they don’t read so gud, huh huh).
7. Arabs on the other hand: I learnt nothing new about them. They’re the same as they are in all American films, “Hey mister! I like Ice-T too!“
8. If you’re a 26 year old man, you shouldn’t go and watch a film aimed at teenage boys. Particularly one made by a racist, mysoginistic, flag-waving retard.

One of my favourites is a recent interview by the lovely, if not a bit soft in the head, Lauren Laverne. So uncomfortable, yet enticing, to watch. Her poor treatment wasn’t very surprising. She introduced him by reciting the same old boring tale that the Fall wouldn’t have been stirred into action, were it not for the famous Sex Pistols Manchester Free Trade Hall gig in 1976. Shockingly, there was actually music in the North of England before the Sex Pistols came to play to a couple of hundred Mancunians. So I heard anyway.

The Talk To Frank campaign has been running for several years now, and has stepped from a friendly helpline service to an all-out televisual propaganda festival. From the first, Frank’s been all about matey advice and informed decisions. He’s also been about misinformation and eroding the last remnants of trust the perpetually disgruntled youth have in the British government. Frank doesn’t give a shit, he was hired to scare the crap out of kids TODAY, what happens tomorrow when they find out he’s been feeding them a crock is someone else’s problem.

The point is not that we should be taking drugs (although it’s noticeable that Frank disproportionately targets marijuana rather than more friendly drugs like say, smack). The point is that Frank’s taking kids aside and teaching them that they can’t trust the government, because seriously, nobody’s falling for this shit; the website itself seems mostly geared towards guidelines for submitting satisfactory voluntary mugshots.

I mean, the campaign spans newspapers, radio, TV… it’s not like they’ve been short of fucking space to present an honest, balanced argument. But quoting terrifying, unverifiable statistics and claiming that all the friends, public figureheads, doctors, and politicians who say it’s probably not that bad are all liars (and therefore communists)? This is not the way a government should defend its legislation in a democracy.

So come on, Frank. Shut your hole, pass the mic to Mary-Jane and let’s hear someone who’s actually fucking taken drugs advise us if it’s worth it.

But why so negative? Pah! It was a great gig. The LCD have never truly amazed me. I loved the music-snobbery love-fest of Loosing my Edge back in 2002 (it still makes me giggle; “I was theeeeeerrreee…”) and like every other human on earth, I have to at least tap the desk appreciatively to Tribulations. Still, I thought I’d better check them out live and it was definitely worthwhile. Despite a set that was a little on the short side, it was interesting to see a band perform what I’d incorrectly assumed to be little more than laptop compositions. Front man Mr. James Murphy really went for those drums towards the end of the show and it was all just such a rich, colourful and downright fun experience, maaaan. Everything wound down right at the end with New York I Love You which I’m sure means something special to someone out there, but it was a pretty rip-roaring affair for most of the gig (to quote someone from the 1950′s). Recommended.

I was rather fond the support as well; Prinzhorn Dance School who did sound somewhat like the Fall. I know. Stop rolling your eyes please. Anyway, despite the crowd on Saturday not exactly appreciating them (there were some boos; which is to be expected when touring with any reasonable sized US act and having to tolerate the minority of rabid idiot fans they will inevitably pick up) they were far from uninteresting. Go and buy/borrow/steal their new 7″ now.

According to Pitchfork the latest Fall tour has ‘Descended into Chaos’. Ah, M.E.S. is playing up and God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world! Actually, placing the blame at the foot of Mark E Smith is somewhat unfair this time; his only mistake was to let the Fall play with some MySpace band plebs whose leader decided to throw a banana skin at him. Apparently he found Smiths behaviour frustrating. Well durr, had he even heard of ‘The Fall’? Was he surprised? Did he expect polite banter and straight-faced professionalism? The Fall went off stage to chants of USA! USA! USA! Seriously, were there any real Fall fans at this gig? You don’t get such behaviour in Manchester. It’s worth reading the full eyewitness report at Pitchfork for such gems as; “MARK E. SMITH a.k.a MR. BURNS”. Bless ‘em.