Solve a Rubik's Cube

Bonus Shape of the Week...the mighty Rubik's cube. Can you solve it? Here's the definitive guide.

Tags: rubik, puzzles, shapes, design

Desert Living Tip #602: Desert Outpost to Major Metropolis

From recent US Census Bureau Data:

Population of Phoenix
2006: 1.5 million (6th most populous city)
1967: 439,170 (29th most populous city)
1915: 11,134 (not among the 100 most populous cities)

Tags: Arizona, Phoenix, Census

VJ with a Nintedo DS

Check out NDSVisuals. Play clips, overlay them, change opacity and color wirelessly from your Nintendo DS. Add generative effects and use your stylus to manipulate everything in real-time.

Tags: nintendo, ds, vj, performance, technology, art

Wii Countdown Widget

One month from today the Wii drops in the US. Here's the OS X Wii Countdown Widget to help you pass the time. Congratulations to Nintendo for going to the edge and taking risks again to push the gaming industry forward and redefine the experience for gamers.

Update: Here's an alternate widget from Wiichat.com!

Tags: nintendo, wii, gaming, widget

YUVA Studio

Shape of the Week: YUVA Studio. Allow your kids to create with drawing tools, templates and shapes, imaginantion is the only limitation here. Parents can look at the Sketchbook to see their child's latest creation. It's also a great way to share art. YUVA allows you to send custom greetings to family and friends, and even create posters and t-shirts. It's a free trial for 7 days and then there's a one-time $29.99 fee. YUVA suggests ages 4-10.

Tags: kids, fun, shapes, design

Steve Jobs vs. Zune

Love this quote in Newsweek from Steve Jobs when asked if he was worried about Zune's "Community" feature:

"In a word, no. I've seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you're connected with about two feet of headphone cable."

Tags: iPod, Apple, Zune, Microsoft

MIT Sketching

Draw shapes, anchor them to to the background, add gravity and run your drawing. This interactive whiteboard device allows simple shapes to explain concepts and test prototypes.

Tags: shapes, whiteboard, drawing, MIT, engineering, design

FREITAG Shop Zurich

Shape of the Week: The new, recycled FREITAG SHOP ZURICH, made entirely from used freight containers. Kudos for extending the brand's theme of reuse to the store experience.

View the shop stock-in at Flickr.

Thanks for the tip AD!

Tags: retail, design, architecture

The Truth About Apple ID and .Mac

Like many Apple customers, I have had a .Mac account since they started offering one. A few years ago Apple merged it's .Mac and Apple ID usernames to become one in the same. So when I log into Apple support or even iTunes Music Store, I just use my .Mac email address. This was really nice to have one username for all Apple services. But what happens when you have to renew .Mac just to keep your Apple ID? Do you have to pay $100/year for the username? Surely it must be easy to change your Apple ID, right? It's not. You can't change your Apple ID if it's a .Mac username. Apple's MyInfo, Account Settings page states you can log in to .Mac to change your Apple ID, but you'll never find the tool to do it. It simply doesn't exist.

If you have a .Mac account as your Apple ID good luck changing your Apple ID. The good news is you do not have to, even if you are not renewing .Mac. Apple has a little known support file that states .Mac: Expired User Names Still Valid for Other Services. That's significant. You are free to cancel your .Mac account and preserve your Apple ID with a .Mac extension.

Recent .Mac renewal emails have stated that once you give up your .Mac address it can be used by someone else. What they fail to mention is, if it's your Apple ID too, you have a unique username preserved.

Tags: apple, dotmac

Coolest Microphone on the Planet

The Sony PCM-D1 Protable Linear PCM Recorder is the ultimate portable microphone. (Or at least the coolest looking mic I have seen). I've been experimenting with pieces of found audio as samples for building electronic music tracks and the source material isn't crisp enough, I'd like to get better audio quality and this may be the ticket. Not cheap at $2000, but most great dedicated hardware isn't cheap. Any other suggestions?

Tags: design, music, technology