Thumbs up for These Awesome Fingertip Portraits

Artist Dito Von Tease creates hilarious, yet totally recognizable portraits of famous people and pop culture icons by dressing up and manipulating close-up images of fingertips – including his own.

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These clever images include everyone from Steve Jobs to Mr. T to Pikachu to Alex from A Clockwork Orange. Each one has its own unique charm, but at the end of the day, you’re simply looking at a close up of somebody’s finger. Click on the (literal) thumbnails below to check out some of my favorites:

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Gotta love that Spock. I wonder how he does the whole “Live Long and Prosper” gesture. You can see many more of Dito’s whimsical images over on his website, Ditology.

[via My Modern Met via iPhone Savior]


Refresh Roundup: week of October 22nd, 2012

Refresh Roundup week of October 22nd, 2012

Your smartphone and / or tablet is just begging for an update. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery we could find during the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!

Continue reading Refresh Roundup: week of October 22nd, 2012

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Refresh Roundup: week of October 22nd, 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Day After Tomorrow: Oh God We Are All Going To Die

It’s pretty simple. There’s a big-ass storm starting to hamme the East Coast tonight, so why not watch a movie about a bigger-ass storm hammering the East Coast? It’s like the better version of all the news coverage we’re getting over here. More »

Amazon Gets Feisty, Updates Homepage To Talk Smack On The iPad Mini

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Competition in the low-cost tablet space has been heating up for a while now thanks to strong new hardware from the likes of Asus, Google, and Barnes & Noble, but it seems the time has come for the Kindle Fire hucksters at Amazon to go on the offensive against a very prominent rival: Apple’s iPad mini.

The company has recently given its homepage a facelift with a very prominent comparison between the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD and the iPad mini sitting right at the top. Most of it is pretty tame and points out the disparity in features between the two tablets (ex. the Fire HD sports a higher resolution display and smarter speaker layout than the mini), but the kicker here is the quote Amazon used to drive its point home. It’s a brief snippet culled from a Gizmodo post by Brent Rose on Apple’s perceived hypocrisy when it came to crafting a smaller tablet:

“…your [Apple’s] 7.9-inch tablet has far fewer pixels than the competing 7-inch tablets! You’re cramming a worse screen in there, charging more, and accusing others of compromise? Ballsy.”

For better or worse Amazon lopped off the beginning of that paragraph, which began with “Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me.” Sort of a shame, methinks — it would’ve made Amazon’s point that much stronger, though I’m pleased as punch to see Amazon allow such a prominent reference to balls on its front page.

It’s hardly the first time that Amazon has sought to position its tablets as a strong competitor to the iPad — Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos noted in an interview with AllThingsD that he felt the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD was “the best tablet at any price” — but this move represents a considerable change in tone for Amazon. Then again, this sort of trash-talking seems to be quickly becoming par for the course in the industry — when Apple officially revealed the iPad mini earlier this month, SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller jabbed at smaller tablets (and Google and Asus’s own Nexus 7 in particular) by basically crapping on the sorts of experiences that they’re capable of delivering.

“Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad, and they’ve failed miserably,” Schiller noted on-stage.

One has to wonder what exactly has prompted Amazon to go on the offensive, and it may be that surging sales momentum may have given the company a shot in the proverbial arm. According to a statement Amazon released on Friday, the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD enjoyed its biggest day of sales since launch on the same day that Apple’s iPad mini announcement took place. It went on to note that sales for the Seattle company’s tablet lifted “3x week over week” on the day of Apple’s event, though exactly what that works out to in numbers is unclear since Amazon tends to be infuriatingly vague when it comes to concrete Kindle sales figures.

With a season of unabashed consumerism nearly upon us, we’ll soon see if Amazon’s new approach to appealing to would-be tablet purchasers pans out. In the meantime, here’s a tip for anyone from Amazon who may be reading this — next time you need an feisty anti-iPad quote or five, you should spend some time checking out our comments section. Pure gold, I’m telling you.


Cinema EXP DVD Projector

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Chinavasion hits back by offering you their newest DVD projector, the Cinema EXP. Unlike most projectors, the Cinema XP comes with a built-in DVD player to let you play DVD movies directly from the video projector. Apart from that, this LCoS-based projector also provides 1024 x 768 native resolution, 120 ANSI lumens brightness, 100:1 contrast ratio and up to 20,000 hours of LED lamp life. What’s more, it also comes with an SD/MMC card slot and two built-in 2W stereo speakers. The Cinema EXP can be yours for just $300.75. [Product Page]

Google puts Hurricane Sandy on its crisis map, hopes to help you weather the storm

Google puts Hurricane Sandy on its crisis map, hopes to help you weather the storm

Just because Google abandoned its October Android event doesn’t mean it’s left its users out to dry — Hurricane Sandy now has its very own Google Crisis Map. It isn’t the first time Mountain View has lent its mapping tech to folks in harm’s way — survivors of Hurricane Issac used a similar Crisis Map to track the storm, follow public alerts and find shelters. Sandy’s map is no different, providing locals with information on the storm’s path, forecast information, evacuation routes, areas of high wind probability and even links to webcams surrounding affected areas. Google isn’t the only firm lending a hand, either — both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal are lifting site paywalls during the storm, ensuring the public has access to developing news as long as their internet connection doesn’t give out.

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Google puts Hurricane Sandy on its crisis map, hopes to help you weather the storm originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rii R900 Professional Air Mouse Presenter

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Check out this new professional air mouse presenter from Rii, the R900. Designed for tablet PC, HTPC, PS3 and Xbox 360, this air mouse presenter uses a 2.4GHz radio frequency (works up to 10 meters) and comes with a scroll wheel, a small USB receiver and a built-in laser pointer (suitable for multimedia teaching, meeting, lecture and other activities). Powered by 2x AAA batteries, the R900 retails for just $39.99. [Product Page]

To Successfully Launch A Product, You Have To Tell A Compelling Story

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“The art of narration and dramatic presentation, together with a keen sense of the oral epic style, became a characteristic quality of the Russian people.” —Vladimir Propp, Morphology of the Folktale

At the end of a week filled with product launches and press conferences, it’s hard not to compare those marketing events. Without even talking about the products, some were much more compelling than others. And it all comes down to the story that you tell, as a company. Failing at that task will greatly endanger your product.

Over the past few days, I had the chance to watch and write about iPad mini‘s keynote, attend Samsung’s Galaxy Note II launch event in New York, and go to Microsoft’s Windows 8 conference (and its secret Surface conference).

It’s no mistake that all of those things are happening at the same time. Even though Google had to reschedule its Nexus event, it’s only due to a hurricane. The company would have gladly unveiled its new devices shortly after its competitors.

They want to dominate the news, retaliate and change the subject as quickly as possible. That’s why Surface reviews were all published at 8PM on the day of Apple’s keynote. It’s a coverage war.

Yet, timing and money are only a small part of the equation. What many companies fail to realize is that you have to tell a compelling story in order to stay relevant, convince potential customers and drive sales growth.

Even though technology as we know it is very young, the art of narration has existed for centuries. Building on the work of Russian linguist Vladimir Propp and French philosopher Gilles Deleuze is essential. Propp demonstrated in its book Morphology of the Folktale that Russian fairy tales all had a common structure. He rigorously explained the complex pattern and analyzed all the little details that make those stories work so well.

Just like technology is ruled by science, storytelling is ruled by theorems and implications.

Are you telling a story?

As we’ve recently learned, Wayne Goodrich played a key role at Apple. He was the person working behind the scene before an Apple keynote, writing the text. Even more important, he created a narration around the product launches. It was his job.

Years after those keynotes, I can still remember Scott Forstall asking questions to Siri, Steve Jobs awkwardly browsing the web on a couch with the iPad, and of course the now famous iPhone unveiling. “An iPod. A phone. And an internet communicator.”

If you present things properly, if you go further than the specs, they will stick in your mind. You just get it.

On Tuesday, Apple unveiled the iPad mini. The anticipation was incredible and we knew nearly everything before the event. In those cases, narration is key. When you ask me about the keynote, all I can think of is that the iPad mini is small and light. In other words, specs.

The emphasis of the conference was on the fact that you can hold it with one hand. This is not a story, this is a use case. I still don’t know why it’s better to be able to hold it with one hand. Now I’ll just have to wait and see one to understand whether it is a better form factor.

Samsung and Windows 8 events

At Samsung’s press conference, the company talked a bit about the brand in the U.S. and how it has gained a lot of recognition over the past year. The Twitter and Facebook numbers were really impressive.

As there was nothing new at that conference, I spent the rest of the conference thinking about the little things that could have triggered Samsung’s incredibly successful year with its smartphones. Of course, products play an important part, but there are many Android smartphones out there. So there must be something else.

And it hit me when seeing the video ad and reading “The Next Big Thing Is Already Here”. The aggressive ads against Apple didn’t start before the launch of the iPhone 5. It started a year before that, with the Galaxy S II commercial.

Samsung has stubbornly sticked with the same narrating strategy over the past year. When talking with friends who aren’t working in this industry, it’s easy to realize that it has definitely worked. Every few days, I get the question “what does the iPhone do better than Samsung phones?”

As you can read in the comments everyday, people are passionate about their phones. By talking to these very vocal people, Samsung has found a way to spread its message very effectively. It’s all about the story.

At Microsoft’s event, it was something completely different. The audience was composed of two very distinct groups of people: media people and OEM partners. The company went through all the new features of the Windows 8 modern UI and all the new tablet/laptop hybrids from its partners. It was both boring and uninspired.

I’m very excited about the new operating system, the Surface and, more generally, the paradigm shift occurring with Windows 8. I think it’s an important tech launch this year — maybe even the most important one. But the excitement wasn’t there. I wanted them to tell me a story, and they failed.

Is the story compelling?

Telling a story is one thing, but it has to be a good one as well. Otherwise, at best it doesn’t resonate with the potential customers, at worst it becomes awkward.

An example would be the Windows Phone 7 ads: “it’s time for our phone to save us from our phones.” Yes, the little scenette showing people forgetting about their environment because they are focused on their phones are funny.

But if I’m concentrated on my phone, it’s because I like it. I don’t want to have a phone to ignore it. It would mean that I have nothing to do with it.

What do the users have to say about your product?

If you get the story right, the salespeople, the early adopters and the early majority will propagate the right message around your product. Otherwise, the salespeople will just say meaningless ineffective things about the product.

Are your clients interested by your story? Could they become the main character? Thanks to the story, the clients can become product advocates. And who hasn’t talked recently with a friend who couldn’t help saying all the wonderful things that happen when you own a Galaxy S III.

Caring about propagating the story is as important as the story itself. When I received my Kindle Paperwhite, there was letter from Jeff Bezos. I remembered that it was on my first Kindle too and expected the same kind of letter. But Amazon wrote a different letter, a version for existing Kindle owners. Here’s how it starts:

Dear Romain,

Thank you for upgrading to Kindle Paperwhite. As a previous Kindle owner, we think you’ll love Kindle Paperwhite. You are holding our best Kindle yet.

The attention to the little details makes me want to tell the story as well, even if it is one of the simplest ones with the Kindle — it’s not a device, it’s a way to read. I’m still waiting for the company who will crack the code of storytelling — just like Vladimir Propp did for fairy tales — and get it right every time, with every product launch.

(Image credits: Mario Lapid, Wikimedia Commons)


Window N90FHD Retina Android 4.1 Tablet

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Getting yourself a new Android 4.1 tablet? Why don’t you take a look at this newly launched N90FHD Retina from Window. Priced at $309.99, the device is packed with a 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 capacitive Retina display, a 1.6GHz Rockchip RK3066 dual-core processor, a Mali-400 GPU, a 1GB DDR3 RAM, a 32GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot (up to 32GB), dual cameras (2MP front & 2MP rear), 2160p Super HD video playback support, 3G external support, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, an HDMI port, built-in stereo speakers and runs on Android 4.1 OS. [Product Page]

Gigabyte GA-H61N-D2V Mini-ITX Motherboard

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Here’s the latest mini-ITX motherboard from Gigabyte, the GA-H61N-D2V. Based on Intel H61 Express Chipset, the board supports for Intel LGA1155 processors and features two DDR3 DIMM memory slots (up to 16GB RAM) and one PCI slot. Connectivity-wise, it offers four SATA 3.0 Gbps, eight USB 2.0 and Gigabit Ethernet. The GA-H61N-D2V will become available from late October for around 6,000 Yen (about $75). [Product Page]