beining

I really love Rene Magritte, so what could then be better than to place him on my MacBook Pro? Etsy.com has some great dekals for $13. But which is best?

I see that I slowly (?) become more and more an iPhone fan/geek. So wanting to have my new friend as long as possible (or just pimping it up?), I have scavaged the net for a small selection of my favourite sleeves. Me personal favourite is: Freiwild purple felt sleeve sold at PodCenter €15 (should arrive to my mailbox soon I hope!

Byrd and Bell grey felt sleeve $19

Red Maloo purple felt sleeve with orange band €29

Marware Sport Grip €15

Seidio Slim Rubberrized Hard Case $29.95

Griffin FlexGrip from $9 (3 colors)

E&B; Company eNOVO W/ Clip for iPhone $39.95 (corporate leather style)

InCase Slim Sleeve $24.95

Mobi Products Clip Pouch for iPhone – “workers”sleeve $9.95

One thing that sucks is the battery capacity. Apparently this is the best one:
Review: Just Mobile Gum Pro Power Pack

Review of Backup battery: InCase Power Slider and JuicePack Air

The iPhone’s interface is in many ways amazingly simple and intuitive, but it would be good to customise it. In lack of this option, I hope Apple reads my post and make my suggested improvements.

Using the Contacts photos would be much easier and allows for my contacts without scrolling. The application “My Phone Plus For Facebook” has done this already, displaying 9 contacts as opposed to the current 8:

However making the icons the same size as the rest of the iPhone’s icons would give a total of 16 favorites (considering I have several hundred contacts, 16 is not that many..:)

2. Many applications installed gives loads of scrolling
If you are like me, then you have many apps installed. This means right scrolling and scrolling the screen to the right. Vertical scrolling has though not been used:

Small circles could indicate where one is:

3. Most of my contacts have birthdays noted in the phonebook.
Why isn’t this info linked up to the calendar? Or at least one ought to have the option to get notifications of birthdays. (I use fbCal to have birthdays in another calendar on the iPhone, but I tend to forget to look at it. Hence the desire for birthday intergration.

4. Improve battery life A product can be as fantastic as it wants, but when such a basic feature isn’t in place, then quite alot falls apart. I mean, if I make it through the day with one charing I am happy. Heavy usage makes it last maybe 7-8 hours. Sorry, MAC. Please improve.

Touchless wizzkids Elliptic Labs are on Engadget (again!) and this time they have teamed up with Opera Software. They have created a touchless photoalbum interface. Check out the video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y36B-QafClI]

Ah, and if you happen to be really interrested in testing it (or just in Amsterdam), meet them at IBC 2009 and try their prototype at the Opera Software booth – 3.C11.

Nothing better than to see a client doing great.

Quite funny, I downloaded loads of Polaroid images some time back, so that in case I wanted to create Polaroidstyle photos with Photoshop I could. Then suddenly get an email from the lead developer at Rollip.com telling me about their website and web-application.

Its an easy 3 click manner to create images like the one you see on the left. Its free too!

One thing Im missing though, is the ability to choose the position and cropping of the photo I’m uploading to the Polaroid template. Hope to see that in their next release.

Wibiya.com have created a brilliant application/plugin to be added on your blog. Works on Blogger, WordPress, and many more. And Ive just added it to my blog as you can see.

What is it you may ask? Its a toolbar that shows your Twitter feed, Facebook page, translates your blog, gives you search ++ Its completely customizable, free and gives you statistics too. This video explains it fairly well:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irBhEhArDfY]

ps. Its still in Beta, but only took me one day to get invite.

Laptopstand like iCurve (or Elevator as it is now called) are great. But you might wanna go cheaper. Like MacGuyer you can use paper and cardboard: http://www.cardboardlaptopstand.co.uk/

But why pay, when you can create it yourself!? Laptop cardboard tutorial

Or even from a clothhanger.

Having a house in Norway (or most other places for that matter), means needing light. But you dont want just any light. You want a sexy lamp to accompany that light. I present: 4 lamps I want for Christmas. (a bit early maybe, but…)

The Sticker Lamp (Tall & Tiny) by created by Italian designer Alicero Signoli.
Buy them at PA Design

The Liquid Lamp by Caina’s Design Shop. A bit pricey at US $262, but really cool

Neon Lamp
(created by yourself) thanks to design by OpenDesignClub and Instructables.com

Or the slightly more futuristic (non existing) “PC lamp” by designer Seungchan Lee

AppStorm has gathered a great selection of 12 apps for running a freelance business. Some are free, whilst others cost (a bit). One of my favourite sites are mentioned, namely DropBox.

I have looked into Billings before, but never really started to use it (never came past the testing stage..), but it seems promising.

One programme I found really interresting was iBiz by IGG Software. You can associate a document to the application and it tracks the time you work on it (or at least have it open). Much better than having a stop watch which one tends to forget stopping.