Fast Company

Ten Mac Apps That Make Windows Users Drool

Chris Dannen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:30:39 EST

digg_url = 'http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/10-mac-apps-make-windows-users-drool'; digg_skin = 'compact'; Used to be that Windows users could admit the Mac was easy to use--they just complained there wasn't any software for the platform. Apple knew their weakness, too, so they endeavored to turn their developer tools into the envy of the industry. What they've created in the latest versions of Xcode and Interface Builder, two of the anchor apps in the Mac developer's kit, are an engineer's dream team. Their thoughtful, intuitive design beget tools for the Macintosh that are just as much about visual design--gorgeous graphics and standardized controls--as they are about ingenious, robust interactivity.

So it's no surprise that in the nearly nine years that Mac OS X has been earning converts, -the Macintosh a decade after the first iMac has become a software honeypot luring Windows users from all walks of life. While some of the apps below have counterparts in the PC realm that aim to do a similar task, the apps on this list say as much about the Apple-inspired philosophy of interaction--elegant, efficient, easy, powerful--as they do about the ideas that drive Mac developers. Below, the apps that Windows users can only wish came in .exe.

Tangerine! by Potion Factory

Tangerine! is the long lost companion to iTunes: it lets you create playlists by the beat and intensity of your music, allowing you to create purpose built lists for relaxation, exercise, parties, and work without having to slog through the tens of thousands of songs in your library. Very much in Apple form, Tangerine! has a three-pane browser that automatically culls your iTunes music and analyzes it for its musical properties, then plugs your playlists back into iTunes once you've made them. $25.

Delicious Library 2 by Delicious Monster

If you're obsessive about your media collection, Delicious Library 2 is a must-have. Hold any book, CD, DVD or video game up to the iSight camera on your Mac, and DL2 reads the barcode, storing that piece of media in your library along with all the data that goes with it: reviews, summaries, links to buy and sell on Amazon, synopses, and suggestions for similar media. (You can put in anything without a barcode by hand.) Not only is this good for remembering who's borrowed what, or providing evidence in case of an insurance claim--it also makes building bibliographies, organizing your stuff, and doing research with your own library a lot easier. The best part: you can publish your library to MobileMe, allowing you and your friends to share libraries, so you can pool your resources. $40.

Acorn by FlyingMeat

Think of Acorn as everything you need from Photoshop, and nothing you don't. For essential, light image editing, Acorn is incredibly fast, versatile, customizable and cheap at just $50. Made with care by a well-respected Seattle developer, Acorn could teach the engineers at Adobe a thing or two about interface design.

Quicksilver by BlackTree

Talk to any hardcore Mac nerd, and there's no doubt he'll admit to living and dying by Quicksilver. It's a launcher, at heart--a few quick key taps and you can fire up any app on your machine. But it's also ingeniously customizable. Hit the hotkey and punch in anything else: Filenames, contacts, URLs, iTunes commands ("pause"), and complex daisy chains of actions, and Quicksilver fires them off with alacrity. And it's free. (Thanks to Quicksilver, this writer goes hours without touching a mouse.)

Spaces by Apple

Virtual screen space isn't an idea Apple knows, but it's certainly one they've perfected. Spaces allows you to create virtual desktops and assign which apps live in which space. While the idea sounds great in concept, it'd be easy to royally botch in practice--but because of Apple's superb graphical transitions, smart commands and hotkeys, and ingenious logic, Spaces gives you more real estate, and more control over it, than a whole desk full of monitors. (Comes with Mac OS X Leopard.)

Fluid App

Fluid is a free app that allows you to create freestanding applications from any of your favorite websites. It's essentially a single-purpose browser, but allows you to assign certain sites you use a lot (like say, a CMS) to certain Spaces in OS X, and even makes them run faster. It's also light, quick-building and super-stable. (Below, a Reddit app I created for that site's technology channel.)

Billings 3 by MarketCircle

If you've ever used an invoicing app for Mac or Windows, you know that they are largely nightmarishly complex. Billings has such an elegant workflow and a carefully-considered user interface that it snagged Apple's highest honor at WWDC: an Apple Design Award. And in true Mac tradition, it integrates fully with Address Book, iCal and Google Maps all within the app. A companion iPhone app is on the way. $40.

LiveView by Ideo

LiveView is actually two apps: One for iPhone and one for the Mac. Fire it up on the Mac, and you get a big, glossy iPhone bezel on your screen. Anything that's within the bezel gets beamed to any iPhones on your LAN that are running the companion app, allowing all your buddies to pipe in on your design or programming work whenever they like. Free.

Aperture by Apple

For photographers, there simply isn't anything remotely as robust for photo management. What about Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, you say? Well, that's a great combo for heavy editing--but when you have a library of 50,000 RAW-format photos to manage and circulate, Aperture is the clear winner. Its dead-simple organizational system makes it easy to sort and stack, and because of its robust backend, it can handle and back up photo collections that number in the hundreds of gigabytes. Got MobileMe? It can auto-publish certain albums to the Web, too. Bonus feature: you can order professional quality prints up to 20 inches by 30 inches for a fraction of what a print shop would charge. $200.

MarsEdit 2 by Red Sweater

newsletterPromo("Technology", "right");

Blogging used to be a light, simple endeavor, but with the advent of Tumblr, embedded media, and reblogging, these days it takes a desktop app to do it right. MarsEdit 2 lets you build posts, preview, publish and edit without touching a browser, speeding up what can otherwise be a painful Web-based chore. It feels a lot like Apple Mail, to its credit, and lets you set up custom macros so you're not constantly re-typing the same stuff. $30.

GM Emerges from the Rubble of Bankruptcy. Now What?

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:00:25 EST

GM returned from the black hole of bankruptcy today with promises of impending change in its corporate structure and products. The company's press release is, as expected, filled with nonspecific ideas like "a fresh lineup of Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC cars, trucks and crossovers, each with leading-edge designs and technologies that matter to both consumers and the environment" and a new focus on "customers, cars and culture." In other words, GM will actually pay attention to the fact that it needs to deal with changing technologies and trends in the car world.

But that's not all. GM is also apparently moving ahead with a range of energy-saving technologies such as biofuels, fuel cells, and hybrids. It is also, as we know, focusing much of its energy on the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt, expected to retail for $40,000 (not including tax incentives). There are ambitious ideas, but the Volt isn't expected to be profitable until the second generation, and the company is already lagging far behind Honda and Toyota in the hybrid technology arena. Whether GM can catch up in time to grab a piece of the hybrid and PHEV market remains to be seen.

One short-term, practical idea on the agenda: GM may initiate a partnership with eBay to allow customers to bid for vehicles online at pre-determined prices. At the same time, GM will cut its dealer network from 6,000 locations to 3,600. The move will let the company keep prices on its cars low, as dealers usually take a cut of profits.

And perhaps as a result of the media outcry, GM has denied any plans to change its iconic blue logo to green. This in itself is a good start; after decades of ignorance, GM might finally be listening to what people are saying.

[Via Autobloggreen]

For Effective Advocacy, Select "E" for "All of the Above"

Michael Krempasky — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:30:30 EST

My colleague Steve Rubel neatly lays out the challenge facing communicators today: with today's fractured and diffuse media, "life is nothing but a stream, and ad pages and feature placements become scarcer (and arguably captivate less attention)." And if this challenge frustrates communicators, how much more difficult is it for public affairs or advocacy professionals working to not only enlist supports but mobilize advocates?

As there is no shortage of news and information channels, there's no shortage of opportunities (or asks) to take civic or political action on behalf of a good cause. From the deluge of email fundraising emails to friends recruiting friends with Facebook applications, it's easy to see how your appeal can get lost in the crowd.

So how do you break through? By taking a careful look at your audience and understanding which channels and which networks they prefer to use--and be prepared to play on any field at any time.

But let's be clear: the need to be ubiquitous is most certainly not a "spaghetti-on-the-wall" strategy in which you throw everything out there and see what sticks. In fact, that's rightly identified as the exact opposite of strategy.

The key is to not necessarily be everywhere all the time, but to evaluate every platform. And then make choices that connect with your advocacy goals, not what's cool or top-of-mind for the moment.

Partner with a company like Rapleaf to analyze your organization's membership roster. Which networks are they most active on? Who in your database has the largest and most influential social footprint? Conduct online conversation research across different communities and networks. Where are your potential advocates engaged in conversations about your issues? When you identify your audiences, be as flexible as possible. You can start with simple tools such as the SocialCapital widgetthat helps supporters communicate with members of Congress about the issues that they care about through the channels *they* choose. Understand that in almost every case, what's good for your cause and audience won't be ideal for another group's campaign. While of course Facebook is a necessary component of almost every effort--is it sufficient? Don't hesitate to pursue niche audiences and groups on the much smaller and focused sites.

It might sound overly simplified, but don't be everywhere--just be everywhere your audience needs you to be - and don't spread yourself too thin. Instead, invest the effort to make sure that where you engage, you do so with sufficient attention to that community. For instance, among hundreds of possible social networks, the Obama campaign established a presence on fifteen of them, including being the first presidential candidate on BlackPlanet AsianAve.com; and MiGente.com.

In digital advocacy, the answer is not to chase every channel, but to focus on the platforms where your potential supporters already are. Call it "impulse advocacy." Be nimble and agile while making it easy for them to mobilize and they will reward you by advocating for your cause time and time again.

Mike Krempasky, Executive Vice President, leads Edelman's Digital Public Affairs practice. Based in Washington, DC he specializes in crisis communications and issues management. He is the co-founder of RedState.com, one of the most-read and influential Republican community blogs. He has been a blogger since 2001, and in that capacity testified before the FEC in 2005 on the regulation of political speech on the Internet and became one of the first bloggers called to offer expert testimony before a Committee in the House of Representatives.

Housing Complex Doubles as a Social Experiment

Cliff Kuang — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:00:29 EST

A student housing complex in France has one wing that shelters battered women--an effort to create "social co-education."

Every architect, no matter how humble they may be, is a would-be social engineer at heart. The Greeks and Romans alike believed that the very values of their society were embedded in their buildings; more recently, Communists, Fascists, and Utopians have all sought to create new paradigms for architecture that would change the way people lived--and thus, how they thought.

A French firm, ecdm is continuing in that tradition, this time with a small-scale social experiment embedded in their new student housing block. The building, which contains 240 units, mostly houses students. But it also has apartments for researchers and professors--and also one wing which functions as a battered women's shelter. The idea is to create social interaction of a type you'd rarely see in the wild. When's the last time you saw students breaking bread on a regular basis with the less advantaged, much less sharing gardens and the laundry facility?

The various wings are color coded, to aid in wayfinding, and to lessen the monotony of an overall plan that otherwise might be overwhelming institutional. (We presume that the cladding, which makes the entire thing look like a Hershey's bar, is as mostly about looks.)

It's hard to say how an experience like this will work out; often, these kinds of programs can be patronizing and paternalistic in the extreme. (It's probably no accident, after all, that this building is French.) But it's probably not a stretch to think that some people--both the women and the students who pass through--will come away from the experience having learned something.

newsletterPromo("Design", "right");

[Via Design Boom]

Naked Juice Brings PET Bottles to the Mainstream

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:30:14 EST

Mainstream beverage distributors haven't managed to muster up the energy to produce 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles--until now. Naked Juice became the first nationally distributed brand to use PET (polyethylene terepthalate) bottles this week with its 32 ounce reNEWabottle. Drinks available in the new bottle, scheduled to hit shelves this month, include Green Machine, Blue Machine, Mighty Mango, Chai Spiced Cider, and Pomegranate Blueberry.

The switch to PET bottles will save over 1 million pounds of virgin plastic each year and cut oil use by 8,192 barrels. That's the equivalent of taking 497 cars off the road. Once Naked Juice transitions completely to PET bottles in 2010, the company will slash plastic use by 8.1 million pounds per year.

PepsiCo-owned Naked Juice is light years ahead of other drink manufacturers, which have stalled on the issue of PET bottles. Coca-Cola uses less than 4% recycled materials in its PET bottles and has the fairly unambitious goal of increasing the number to 10% by 2010. Cost could be a part of the problem--Naked refuses to disclose how much the move to 100% PET bottles cost, and the company insists it didn't make the switch for monetary reasons. The new bottles could, however, boost Naked Juice's environmental credibility and lead to a bump in sales. And now that Naked has figured out the technical aspects of designing and manufacturing its recycled bottles, perhaps its parent company will take note and adopt the process for other brands.

newsletterPromo("Ethonomics", "right");

[Via SGV Tribune]

MacroSea Turns Dumpster Diving Into Family Fun

Cliff Kuang — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:00:01 EST

MacroSea, a team of urban planning visionaries, has been staging "guerilla pool parties" inside retrofitted dumpsters.

Macro|Sea wants nothing less than to remake America's countless abandoned strip malls. They're starting one dumpster at a time, experimenting with guerilla pool parties that take place in retrofitted trash containers. One day, they might be coming to an unsuspecting parking lot near you. Relax! Swimming in one of these is certainly no dirtier than gulping e.coli at one of the public pools that your kids love.

ReadyMade Magazine broke the story. Jocko Weyland, David Belt, and Alix Feinkind, were inspired by dumpster pools that were first created by a band in Athens Georgia. The team, which calls itself Macro|Sea, decided to resuscitate the idea. It took a mere 12 days to gather the materials--which are just a dumpster whose seams have been sealed up, a liner, sand to create a soft bottom, a tarp, and lots of water. The first pools were inaugurated at an undisclosed location in the wilds of Brooklyn, on July Fourth.

The designers hope to build and deploy them in the parking lots of abandoned strip malls--a larger urban revitalization project that they've also turned into a design competition called REBURBIA. As they write, "By stripping and altering its [strip malls] common architectural features, adding community space and involvement, and carefully selecting and curating vendors and the space itself, Macro-Sea hopes to create and promote a place for people to shop, meet, learn, and engage with one another." The dumpsters, meanwhile, show that "with not too much expense you can creatively reuse what is basically considered urban detritus and make something really cool and fun." More power to 'em.

newsletterPromo("FCNow", "right");

[ReadyMade via Inhabitat]

The Next Big Green Industry: Barcoding Trees to Save Forests?

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:30:01 EST

Keeping track of illegally logged trees is a lot easier when you know how many trees there are. At least that's the hope of Helveta, a British company that hammers plastic barcodes into trees.

The company, which is tracking a million trees in southeast Asia, Africa, and South America, gives every tree in a plantation above a certain size its own barcode. When a tree is chopped down, workers use a handheld computer to scan processing and export data into Helveta's database. Each felled tree is given a new barcode for export auditing at docks. Think of it as supermarket shopping for trees.

So far, Helveta's business is booming. The company just received over $4 million in funding from investors, and its barcoding technology could become even more popular if a global climate deal is passed in December's Copenhagen talks. That's because trees soak up carbon dioxide, effectively making it easier for countries to keep their emissions low. Barcoding technology could also ease the $10 billion annual financial burden on timber-producing countries caused by losses from stolen wood. Indeed, the problem is so widespread that even major companies like IKEA, BMW, and Kraft rely on leather and beef from farms involved in deforestation.

Helveta's system can't stop determined criminals from selling illegal timber on the black market, but it does make it more difficult for them to sell or export the wood, as any timber processed without tags is considered illegal. Because in this case, someone does hear when a tree is chopped down in the wilderness.

newsletterPromo("Ethonomics", "right");

[Reuters via Treehugger]

Today's Layer Tennis Finals Has Designers on the Edge of Their Aerons

Alissa Walker — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EST

Lance's comeback in the Tour de France isn't the only sporting event fans will be glued to today. The global design competition Layer Tennis ends its season with its final match kicking off at 2pm CST. Layer Tennis, you ask? Those familiar with Adobe's graphic design programs like Photoshop will understand all too well. When building documents, designers use "layers" to separate different graphic images. In Layer Tennis, a designer creates a layer which is then volleyed to another designer (sometimes on the other side of the planet) who builds upon that layer and ships it back. And this happens, live, over the course of a few hours every Friday afternoon.

An early volley in a semi-final match by Aaron Draplin.

The Chicago-based firm Coudal Partners (also quite famous for their Museum of Online Museums and products like the Field Notes notebooks) has rallied such a crowd that Adobe themselves came on as a sponsor of Season 1, which started in September 2007. Now in Season 2, tens of thousands of designers who should be working check out each week's match; in addition there are 9000+ "season ticket" holders who get to not only vote on the winners, but participate as well by using the files in remix contests.

The return by Gregory Hubacek and subsequent volley by Draplin.

This graphic conversation becomes a delightful and highly-entertaining game of visual riffs, clever pastiche, and obscure pop culture references (many, of course, are inside jokes only for designers). To get the flavor of the game, watch the evolution of each match as the entire season is mashed together into this snappy music video. While most matches still use Photoshop, some use Illustrator...or even Flash (view the animated progression by clicking through the images). The way fans can participate has also changed this season: Thanks to Twitter, anything tagged with #lyt shows up on the crowd page, where fans can also vote for the winner post-match by Tweeting the tag of their preferred contender.

Back to Hubacek and a creepy twist (view the rest of the semi-final match).

While designers frantically crash their Macs to turn the files around in the 20-minute time limit, writers like blogger Jason Kottke or author Ben Greenman do color commentary (I've even taken a few nerve-wracking turns in the booth as a commentator). Today, however, Coudal's pulling out all the stops for the final: blogger John Gruber and designer Jason Santa Maria will actually be doing old-school Madden-style audio play-by-play. But come this afternoon, as the votes roll in for either Gregory Hubacek or Shaun Inman, Layer Tennis will finally be over. Which means next Friday, everyone in the design world can finally go back to work. Until the next season kicks off in the fall.

newsletterPromo("Design", "right");

Dublin's Brand New, Beautiful, Bumpy Bridge

Cliff Kuang — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:30:50 EST

The first photos of the Spencer Dock Bridge by Amanda Levete Architects.

It won't be until 2010 that Amanda Levete Architects completes the Spencer Docks bridge in Dublin, but today they released the first official photos of the work. It's gonna be a beaut.

The 131-foot bridge is to be the crown jewel of Dublin's new light-rail line extension, and a larger effort to revitalize the Dublin's inner city and docks. When completed, it'll overlook the stunning Linear Park, currently under construction.

The bridge itself will handle tram, automobile, and pedetrian traffic. The swale you see on the side of the bridge provides a scenic overlook for walkers. The fluid, undulating design--which was meant to make the entire bridge appear to be one seamless whole--was created by casting the concrete with styrofoam blocks cut using CNC milling. The project represents one of the largest-ever uses of that technique.

The bridge was originally commissioned to be designed by Future Systems. But Amanda Levete, who co-founded the firm with Jan Kaplicky, the patron saint of "blobitecture," took over after Kaplicky's death in Janurary.

newsletterPromo("Design", "right");

[Via Yatzer]

How the Tech Boom Terminated California's Economy

Douglas Rushkoff — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:00:34 EST

However comforting it might be to blame Southern California's movie industry for unleashing Governor Terminator on the state's economy, the real seeds of the current crisis were sewn further north, in the seemingly prosperous corporate parks of Silicon Valley. In fact, the dot.com boom and subsequent, inevitable bust are the real causes of our economic malaise. For while Californians were hit first, hardest and most directly by the rise of dot.com-style capitalism, the rest of us are soon to follow.

Put simply, California cannot afford to pay its bills because its tax base contracted at the same time as its investments tanked. Like any of us contending with the double-whammy of lower pay and shrinking portfolios, the state is getting slammed on both income and savings at the same time. Unable to secure credit, the state will instead be forced pay its bills to citizens and local governments with IOUs.

While the pundits point to real estate speculation and bank insolvencies as the chief cause of California--and the nation's--financial distress, these are both direct results of the late 90's explosion of computer innovation and Internet proliferation. That's right: The Internet crashed the economy.

First, and most obviously, the Internet served as a shiny new calling card for an already-exhausted equities market. The biotech boom of the 80's had failed to spawn a successor, recession appeared interminable, and the emergence of the Internet provided a new "story" through which speculators could be encouraged to buy stock.

The dot.com boom was among the largest collective investments in American history, leading to a near doubling of stockholders--and quadrupling of the NASDAQ index. Where did all this money come from? It was printed by the Fed and then loaned by banks, who used the good times to justify more highly leveraged rates of borrowing, themselves.

Problem was, the dot.com industry--while certainly fun and wonderful--could not support this level of investment. There just wasn't so very much more profit in doing things with chips and wires that used to be done with paper and people. Thus, the crash.

In an effort to orchestrate a soft landing, Alan Greenspan looked for someplace all the money printed for the dot.com boom to go. Real estate was the obvious choice. Banks were enabled to stay in the leveraged lending business, and homes became the asset class to fill in for Pets.com and Lucent.

The real estate crash is really just the second leg of the dot.com crash--the failure of housing to absorb the tremendous cash surplus generated by the irrational exuberance of Internet investors.

And it actually goes deeper than this. The Internet is even more directly at fault. The fact is, most Internet businesses don't require venture capital. The beauty of these technologies is that they decentralize value creation. Anyone with a PC and bandwidth can program the next Twitter or Facebook plug-in, the next iPhone app, or even the next social network. While a few thousand dollars might be nice, the hundreds of millions that venture capitalists want to--need to--invest, simply aren't required. Entrepreneurs who do accept such exorbitant funds do so knowing full well that they won't get paid back. The VCs investment is the entrepreneur's exit strategy.

The banking crisis began with the dot.com industry, because here was a business sector that did not require massive investments of capital in order to grow. (I spent an entire night on the phone with one young entrepreneur who secured $20 million of capital from a venture firm, trying to figure out how to possibly spend it. We could only come up with $2 million of possible expenditures.) What's a bank to do when its money is no longer needed? Especially when contraction is not an option?

So they fail, the tax base decreases, companies based more on their debt structures than their production fail along with them, and we get an economic crisis. Yes, the Internet did all this.

But that's also why the current crisis should be seen as a cause for celebration as well: the Internet actually did what it was supposed to by decentralizing our ability to create and exchange value.

This was the real dream, after all. Not simply to pass messages back and forth, but to dis-intermediate our exchanges. To cut out the middleman, and let people engage and transact directly.

This is, quite simply, cheaper to do. There's less money in it. Not necessarily less money for us, the people doing the exchanging, but less money for the institutions that have traditionally extracted value from our activity. If I can create an application or even a Web site like this one without borrowing a ton of cash from the bank, then I am also undermining America's biggest industry--finance.

While we rightly mourn the collapse of a state's economy, as well as the many that are to follow, we must--at the very least--acknowledge the real culprit. For digital technology not only killed the speculative economy, but stands ready to build us a real one.

Douglas Rushkoff is the author, most recently, of Life Inc.: How the world became a corporation and how to take it back.

Summer Movies We're Afraid to See: Dude, Where's My Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote?

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:30:17 EST

With Hollywood prepping big-budget versions of Monopoly, Bazooka Joe, and Stretch Armstrong, what's next? Each week we'll supply the title for an upcoming--and completely fake--Hollywood movie. You supply the plot synopsis, then reveal the hidden text to see what Rooftop Comedy came up with.

Dude, Where's My Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote? Director: Judd Apatow Seriously, where is it?

Quote: "Hey, [expletive]! Halo [long expletive]!" //

Plot Synopsis Seann William Scott and Jason Segel forge a deep bond as they dig through a couch for a lost controller. Then they get high and swear at each other.

Add your synopsis to the comment thread below to be featured in next week's edition of Summer Movies We're Afraid to See.

Last week's winning entry is by William (Billy) Barrell:

When Mackie's travel dept. erroneously booked him to set up a booth at the high county PC tech convention, the stage was set for an emotional experience he never anticipated. Always the first to load, Mackie was set up and back at his hotel room before any other conventioners arrived. When he returned the following morning, he entered a world surreal, yet provocative. Finding hundreds of booths filled with Windows based vendors, he suddenly became attracted to downloads and connections which seemed forever incompatible. Only after he met the guy in the booth next to his, P.C. Browser, did he begin to feel a sense of connection. The interface which followed was something his code had never considered, leading his hardware to places his software didn't know it could go.

Thanks, Billy--look out for an email about your collector's edition copy of The Sims 3.

RooftopComedy records live comedy every night of the year, with a global network of comedians satirizing everything from the boardroom to the bathroom. Go to fastcompany.com/rooftopcomedy every Friday for new RooftopComedy videos.

Palm Pre Hacked to Run on Verizon

Chris Dannen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:00:21 EST

Can't wait until winter, when the Palm Pre will ship for Verizon customers? Have some time to kill? Well, you too may be able to hack your Pre into working on Verizon's CDMA network, should you possess the immense patience and technical skill of a PreCentral user named "Cleanser." Mr. Cleanser has determined how to unlock the phone's radio and has successfully gotten voice and SMS messaging to work on his Verizon-enabled Pre, but hasn't yet gotten data services working (though he assures readers he's working on eschewing the provisioning check that the phone uses to initiate the data connection.)

According to PreCentral, Cleanser says the hardest part of the hack wasn't the actual software pnwing--it was getting a Verizon customer service rep to add a device to his account that had such an unusual identifier number (meaning, they could tell it wasn't a normal Verizon-network phone, and got suspicious.) Check back with FastCompany.com for updates on the hack, and any forthcoming tutorials for the brave of spirit.

newsletterPromo("Technology", "right");

[Via PreCentral]

The Banning of Bottled Water

Max Linsky — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:30:00 EST

Why we like this: Because of all the things that are emblematic of the halcyon days of the 1983-2007 economic expansion--McMansions, Hummers, the universal right to a $400 Nylon Handbag--we may look back on bottled water as the most ridiculous craze to overtake our nation Sources: Guardian, Grist

Gist: The hazards of bottled water, both for our world and our wallets, have been well-known for a while. But now the Australian town Bundanoon is trying an unprecedented move to set the clock back to a simpler and more environmentally-friendly time--by banning bottled water altogether. Boston-based non-profit Corporate Accountability International says that this is the first town in the world that has tried an outright ban on bottled water.

America has already taken a few baby steps to protect us from plastic. Some towns have banned bottled water at civic meetings, for example. But for the U.S., banning bottled water entirely probably won't fly. Americans don't like being told what to do by bureaucrats, and they are especially wary of government mandates (see: universal health care). So our efforts to deal with bottled water will have to be unusual, creative and based on individual choice. Which is why we should follow the lead of a 31-year old British adventurer named David de Rothschild.

According to Grist, the son of one of the world's most powerful families is using his global clout to draw attention to the Plasticki, a ship he built that uses plastic bottles to stay afloat. By creating this environmentally-friendly vessel, he's hoping to draw attention to ways that we can create a new kind of economy that uses and re-uses materials creatively. He's not ready to join the Bundanoon city council though. Instead of railing against plastic, he simply wants us to be smarter about how we use it and dispose of it.

Of course, to truly transform the economy--and quit spending our dollars and carbon on unnecessary luxuries--we'll need people from all countries and of all viewpoints to get their heads together to tackle these problems. And we wouldn't be surprised if Rothschild eventually teams with his fellow environmentalists in Bundanoon--his ship's maiden voyage is a three-month journey to Australia. We're betting that the good folks of Bundanoon wouldn't mind temporarily suspending their ban should Rothschild and his crew bring their plastic-bottle laden ship through the town.

Photo by Aubrey [Raw Angles Photography]

The Stimulist is journalist Carlos Watson's original take on the daily news: a tasty mix of rising stars, provocative ideas, and inspiring stories. Enjoy responsively:

Ideas: Provocative daily resolutions to be debated. Kind of a Big Deal: Tomorrow's stars from around the world. C-Note: Carlos Watson's daily take on politics, business, and life.

First Hydrogen Fuel Cell-Powered Plane Takes to the Skies

Ariel Schwartz — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:00:15 EST

The world's first plane powered solely by hydrogen fuel cells took off on its maiden flight Tuesday from Hamburg Airport in Germany. The Antares DLR-H2's 10-minute flight showed off the plane's 105-mph-speed capabilities and quiet electric glide motor. Eventually, the German Aerospace Center-sponsored Antares will be able to hit 300 mph.

Boeing experimented with a fuel cell-powered plane flight last year, but the flight was boosted by a battery-electric motor. The Antares flight was powered purely by fuel cells. The 25 KW fuel cell system on board provides more than enough electrical power for the Antares, which requires only 10 KW of power to cruise. And the total efficiency of the system is approximately 44%--twice the efficiency of a conventional internal combustion system.

Commercial aircraft won't likely be powered by hydrogen fuel cells in the near future since energy-efficient sources of hydrogen aren't yet available, but the cells could act as auxiliary power. Check out the Antares in action below.

newsletterPromo("Technology", "right");

[Via Engadget]

Astonishing Tribe's Augmented ID App Recognizes People Around You

Cliff Kuang — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:30:42 EST

A miracle for real-world networking, which uses attaches virtual ID's to people using facial recognition software and the camera on your phone.

Conferences and networking events are baffling affairs: You look around and you wonder, who the hell are all these people? You can never been too sure who to target; What if the guy you've been schmoozing ends up being some fool who there "just for the booze and the single ladies, man"?

The Astonishing Tribe, a Swedish developer team, hopes to solve that problem, with a new app they're developing called Augmented ID. Using facial recognition software and your phone's camera, it overlays the image of whomever you're looking at with profile information that they've made public--from Twitter feeds to Last.fm playlists to a simple business card:

Facial recognition is one of the most obvious augmented reality apps, and it's only a matter of time until some developers nail it--hopefully this one becomes a reality. (TAT already designed the T-Mobile G1 user interface; one of their previous design concepts was this awesome 3-D eye-tracking UI.)

Apple has been keen to the possibilities that facial recognition presents: Information Week just just discovered that Apple has filed for a patent on built-in facial recognition, which could grace computers and iPhones. What's just as interesting was a filing for object-recognition technology. The idea is that by using some combination of the compass, GPS, camera, and even RFID, your phone could automatically provide you with more information about objects around you. Thus its fairly easy to imagine, for example, a shopping app that provides you with all competing products and reviews when you're eyeing a new gadget.

[Engadget via PSFK]