Retro Game Cases For The iPhone and Samsung Galaxy From Pure Gear.

Retro Gamer Cases are compatible with the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III or the Samsung Galaxy S4, these fun protective cases also allow for some interactive play.

The newly inspired product line from Pure Gear comes in three options:

Amazing: Navigate the ball through the challenging maze from start to finish:



Groovy: Maneuver the balls until all are in the center at the same time in a game of wits:



Undecided: Hold vertically and shoot the ball for a magically answer to your question



Although only available in the bright colors on their website, they also have more subtle versions in black and grey, but only on
Fab.com and only for the next two days!




The packaging:


•Buy them discounted on Fab through Sunday (if you're not a member, you can use this invite link)

•Pure Gear Website

QR Code Greeting Cards Become the New "Mix Tapes" and Send You to Spotify Playlists.

above: A series of greetings cards that when scanned with a QR code reader direct people to themed music playlists within their Spotify Premium smart phone app.

Once upon a time, the "mix tape" was an overture of intimacy, of sharing, a gesture to show you cared by sending someone your own personal musical playlist as a message. Now, Stupid, a collective of young creatives in the UK, have designed greeting cards with customized artful versions of QR codes (they call them QR Images) that when scanned, lead you to specific playlists on Spotify, making them the mix tapes of the new Millenium.

How it works:


The Cards:

above: Music for art lovers

above left: Music for Cooks; above right: Music for Monsters

above left: Music for Geeks; above right: Music for Love

Stupid is presently in talk with various UK companies about producing the cards en masse, but for now, if you'd like one contact them directly here.

About Stupid:
A collective of young creatives who want to work on interesting and challenging projects. With their mix of creative disciplines they hope to do most projects entirely in house allowing them control over the entire creative process. However when they do use outside specialist talent they make sure it's someone very special with an inherent ability to think stupid.



WTF are QR Codes and what is Spotify?
If you're not at all familiar with QR Codes or Spotify, and the above post sounded like a foreign language to you, learn about both at the links below:

• How QR Codes work
• About Spotify

Combination Tourbillon Watch & Cell Phone. Le Dix By Celsius X VI II.

Like a butterfly spreading its wings, LeDIX, the first creation from Celsius X VI II, has taken flight after four years of research and development. Is it a pocketphone- watch or a watch cell phone? It is above all a resolutely novel nomadic object that pushes the boundaries of imagination.






At first glance, LeDIX is a clamshell cell phone with an integrated tourbillion watch. As streamlined as a sports car, this aerodynamic creation is made from polished and brushed grade 5 titanium discreetly enhanced by inserts. It is the ultimate expression of contemporary elegance.



The exclusive mechanical movement, developed under the technical supervision of Celsius X VI II, has what it takes to appeal to the most demanding watchmaking connoisseurs: a flying tourbillion equipped with exclusive shock absorbers and more offset than any existing model; a modern design focusing on transparency; as well as fine watch finishing and decoration. The stage setting chosen for this movement ensures peerless visibility and aesthetic elegance.




When LeDIX opens its wings, an attentive listener perceives a gentle noise that micromechanical devotees are sure to appreciate. It comes from the patented winding system of its horological component. Housed within the hinge, this Remontage Papillon (Butterfly Winding) is activated with each opening, thereby adding three hours of power reserve to the total 100 hours – a major innovation that elevates this nomadic object to an extraordinary, fusional dimension.





This state-of-the-art communication device comprises a range of features that take micromechanics well beyond its usual boundaries, including: a mechanical battery-ejection system; a main connector protected by a mechanical-locking flap; and screen-flap closing cushioned by a set of spring mounted ball bearings.





The electronic communication platform combines high performance with extreme reliability. Designed in collaboration with renowned French company, recognised as a global benchmark in the field of customised connected lifestyle devices, it embodies the most demanding quality standards.




Its interface, which deliberately focuses on the essential mobile functions, makes LeDIX the ultimate personal phone, specifically designed for the pleasure of escaping from daily routine. This approach targeting durability, quality and simplicity involved a number of challenges, such as handling interferences with the moving watch components, or with the metal casing - itself a token of nobility and superior resistance.



The fusion of haute horologerie with the world of mobile technology led to some innovative features, such as the mechanical whisper of time constantly accompanying every communication.

Accessories:

“LeKit” - the no-hands kit secured by a tie-pin style clip:


“LaBase” - the docking station:


“LaChaîne”, the innovative chain system:

Le Holster:


and “LeCoffret”: the presentation box, all devised and designed by Celsius X VI II.


They are crafted in noble materials and equipped with mechanical components reflecting the brand's fundamental concept. Leather items, such as “LeHolster”: the holster-type pouch, are made from top-quality hand-sewn hides. LeDix and its ecosystem herald a new and prestigious mechanical world.

LeDIX is available in two limited editions:
· LeDIX Origine, limited edition of 18 in grade 5 titanium with ebony inserts
· LeDIX Véloce, limited edition of 28 in black PVD-treated titanium with carbon fibre inserts

Technical Specifications for LeDIX

General features:
· Clamshell mobile phone
· Around 600 mechanical parts, including 330 in the watch movement alone
· Structure entirely milled from a block of grade 5 titanium
· High-end watchmaking finishes: polishing, satin-brushing, Clous de Paris hobnail pattern, shotblasting

Mechanical Movement:
· Patented mechanical hinge (Remontage Papillon), serving to harness and store the kinetic energy generated by the user. On this specific model the energy is then used to activate the mechanical system
· 100-hour power reserve. Each opening and closing of the clamshell phone generates an additional 3 hours of power reserve
· Flying Solitaire tourbillion visible on both sides. World’s most off-centered tourbillion (36 mm)
· Regulating organ mounted on shock-absorbers (4 springs)
· Movement integrated within water-resistant box in aluminium treated with GL coating of titanium and ceramics to ensure extreme resistance

The phone:
· Mechanical battery-ejection system, Clous de Paris hobnail pattern
· 7 main sapphire parts, some featuring two radii of curvature
· Technology developed in cooperation with a French company, renowned for the high quality and reliability of its platforms. Every platform is tested to meet the highest standards.
· Platform Made in France, 2.75G GSM-GPRS-EDGE : Triband 900/1800/1900MHz
· User interface deliberately simple, user friendly and designed to optimize the ergonomics
· Screen AM-OLED : 2.2" QVGA 320x240 262k colours
· Photo / Video : 3.2Mpix camera, Autofocus, Flash, Digital Zoom
· Music : MP3, AAC, AAC+, Music Player. Stereo, 3D sound
· Video streaming, video capture and playback, progressive download
· Bluetooth 1.2 Profile : AADP, AVRCP
· MMS, Java application, 2Go internal memory (SD card), Browser open source
· Battery: Li-Ion 770mAh, >3.5 hours talking time, 240 hours of power reserve in standby mode
· Multi-lingual interface, including: French, English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic

Ecosystem of accessories:
· “LeHolster”: Minimum of 2 hand-stitched leather accessories designed by Celsius X VI II and made by specialized craftsmen
· “LeKit”: Mechanical Hands-Free Kit in leather and polished /satin-brushed metal. This “tie pin” accessory includes an ingenious system ensuring the wires do not tangle
· “LaBase”: Mechanical Docking Station in wood, leather and polished and satin brushed metal to recharge and synchronize the phone. A mechanical system enables easy docking and undocking of the phone
· “LaChaîne”: Chain equipped with mechanical components: belt attached with spring-mounted beads and mechanically linked to the phone.

THE GENESIS OF CELSIUS X VI II
The founding concept behind Celsius X VI II was born in 2005 in the mind of Thomas Pruvot, a mechanical engineer specialised in industrial design, during a flight from Paris to Hong Kong. Frustrated at losing the time display when he had to switch off his cellphone, he had the idea of adopting a mechanical solution inspired by watchmaking. Thomas soon produced some sketches and showed them to a childhood friend.

Romaric André, who had just graduated from business school, proved an ideal partner thanks to his entrepreneurial mindset and a capacity to take the inherent risks. Both launched into the adventure with a confidence tinged with naïvety. Their early stages were more akin to an artistic approach than to a business start-up. They spent most of the time devising the mechanised cellphone of their dream, fine-tuning it in step with meetings they arranged with specialists from the various fields involved. Building on their youthful energy, their primary aim was to appeal to people rather than to prove the potential profitability of their scheme. At that time, Thomas was still in paid employment and so it was up to Romaric to handle the various administrative procedures. While some people were sceptical and funding the endeavour was no easy task, other encounters proved fruitful. Personal conviction enabled the pair to stand firm in the face of obstacles and to find means of bouncing back.

Alejandro Ricart, a friend Romaric had met while studying at a university in the United States, was contacted during 2007, at one of the critical moments of the project in gestation. He joined the team, thus contributing the professional skills acquired in a Barcelona consulting company, as well as the fruit of an aristocratic family background. He was one of those who approved and even reinforced the decision to aim for a firmly prestigious, uncompromisingly top-quality product strategy.

The team managed to attract the attention of an independent risk capital company which suggested that it should first and foremost broaden its field of competence. Edouard Meylan thus began the fourth member to join the adventure at the start of 2008. In addition to his family roots in the Swiss fine watch industry, he also brought with him a wealth of marketing and sales experience acquired in Asia with a distributor in this sector.

The group thus formed features a particularly valuable range of complementary talents, further backed by the enthusiastic support of eminent figures that later became the Executive Board Advisors, including Hugues-Olivier Borès, a strategy and marketing consultant well known in watchmaking circles, as well as telecommunications expert Jean-Marie André. Finally, Richard Mille, won over by the youthful team’s determination to pursue absolute perfection, agreed to sit on the future company’s Board of Directors. This impressive set of human factors, along with the interest generated by the innovative nature of the project, finally convinced Sofinnova Partners to invest in Celsius X VI II. The support of this European leader in the financing of young tech companies is a well-deserved token of recognition of the multiple resources engaged in the venture. The good news of their backing was confirmed in mid-2008 and ever since, Thomas, Romaric, Alejandro, Edouard and their partners have been unswervingly and entirely committed to gradually giving shape to their dream of a micromechanical cellphone.


Celsius X VI II
18, rue du Faubourg du Temple
75011 Paris - France
tel +33 (0) 155 28 17 92
www.Celsius-X-VI-II.com
contact@celsius-x-vi-ii.com

via NOTCOT, images and info via Celsius X VI II

Fun With Skype Screen Grabs By James Callahan.

I figured it wouldn't be long until we began seeing more and more 'art' made from the latest tech apps and devices. We've already seen a wonderful series of illustrated versions of You Tube's most popular videos and seen how the New Yorker Magazine has featured covers created with an iPhone painting app.



Now, UK advertising art director, illustrator and photographer James Callahan has had some fun with screengrabs of his Skype video chats. His ongoing project which he calls Screengrabography is simply his superimposing of screen grabs from Skype chats over stock photos or art.

They are not super impressively composed or even that inventive (men's heads on women's bodies), but they are fun nevertheless and certainly simple enough for almost anyone to do. The results are good for a chuckle. And may just inspire you to start making a few of your own.





Extra points to James' friends Daisy and Joseph for being such good sports.


See James Callahan's portfolio here which includes some very impressive advertising and design work.

Want an iphone? Better Read This First

The long awaited Apple iphone hits the market today! Betcha want one, huh? Me too. But read this first-just so you know all you need to.

Written By David Pogue for The New York Times:

Often-Asked iPhone Questions
With its new iPhone, Apple pulled off two masterful feats: creating the machine and creating the buzz around it.

That machine, and that buzz, have inspired a lot of questions. Just how much of a phone, an iPod and an Internet machine is this thing?

Here are the answers to the most frequently asked iPhone questions. Consider them a companion to my review yesterday, which covered the big points like the touch-screen keyboard (adequate with practice), the AT&T Internet network (painfully slow) and the iPhone's overall character (fun, powerful, amazing).

Before you dive in, though, a note about the "Does it have...?" questions. Apple has indicated that it intends to add features through free software updates, so the real, secret answer to some of the "no" answers is actually, "Coming soon."


Phone


above: the iphone in stand

Does the touch screen work if you're wearing gloves?
Will a stylus or pen tip work? No. Skin contact is required to operate the buttons. Fortunately, most tappable elements on the screen are big and broad, designed for fingertip access.

Does the iPhone have a speakerphone? Vibrate mode? Airplane mode?
Yes, yes and yes. The speakerphone and the vibrations are both weak, though.

Can I dial without looking? Can I dial one-handed?
You can't do much on the iPhone without looking. Then again, few people can operate a cellphone without looking. Dialing the iPhone one-handed, though, is easy. As your fingers grasp the iPhone, your thumb is free to tap buttons, scroll lists and so on.

Can I use a SIM card from another phone?
The iPhone comes with an installed SIM card, the tiny circuit board that stores your account information and phone number. Apple says that you should be able to replace it with any recent AT&T card, once you activate it in iTunes. No other company's SIM card works in the iPhone.

Will the iPhone work overseas?
If you mean to use your AT&T account, yes; call AT&T to turn on international roaming, and then prepare to pay big roaming charges. If you mean to insert some other country's SIM card, no.

How about voice memos, voice dialing or call recording?
No.

Do I need an AT&T account?
Yes. The iPhone won't work at all without a two-year AT&T voice-plus-Internet plan (and no, you can't use it as just an iPod, no matter how tempting the bigger screen and longer battery life is).


Above: iphone with music and headphones

iPod
What iPod features does the iPhone have?
Password protection, Shuffle and Repeat modes, ratings, audiobooks, audiobook speed control, podcasts, SoundCheck, equalization, volume limiter, on-the-go playlists.

What iPod features does it lack?
Games, lyrics, video output to a TV and disk mode (when the iPod acts as a hard drive for transporting computer files).

Does the iPhone work with iPod accessories?
Some of them. The iPod radio receiver works, for example, but FM transmitters may not work. Existing speaker systems trigger the iPhone's airplane mode (wireless and phone features turned off) to avoid interference with the music. Starting soon, iPhone-compatible iPod products will bear a "works with iPhone" logo.

Can you use your iTunes songs as ring tones? Can you download new ones?
No. At the moment, the iPhone's 25 ring tones are your only choices. (They're really good.)

Can you use your own headphones?
Fortunately, the iPhone has a standard miniplug headphone jack; unfortunately, its plastic molding prevents most headphone plugs from seating properly. Inexpensive adapters are available from Belkin and others.

Wireless

Does the iPhone work with Bluetooth computers, printers, stereo headsets or keyboards?
No. At the moment, it communicates only with hands-free devices like Bluetooth headsets (including Apple's very tiny one, coming in July) and a car's dashboard system.

Does the iPhone alert you when it detects a wireless Internet hot spot?
Yes. In fact, if it's a hot spot you've used before, the iPhone hops onto it seamlessly and quietly.

Can the iPhone serve as a wireless modem for my laptop?
No.

Can the iPhone receive songs, files, calendar appointments, contacts or software updates wirelessly?
No, only from your computer through the U.S.B. charging cradle. But this is kind of neat: Unlike the iPod, there's no "do not disconnect" message during syncing. You can yank the iPhone out of the cradle whenever you like - to answer a call, for example; syncing resumes when you're done. You can also operate the iPhone while it is charging.

Internet



Can you make phone calls while you're on the Internet?
Yes - if your iPhone has a Wi-Fi connection. When it's using AT&T's Internet network, no.

Why didn't Apple use AT&T's faster 3G Internet network?
Apple says that today's relatively unpolished 3G (third generation) radio chips would drain the battery too fast - and at this point, wouldn't provide enough of a speed boost to justify that trade-off. Apple will release a 3G iPhone model when the time seems right.

How snappy is the real iPhone, compared with Apple's ads?
It's identical, with one exception: Apple never shows the iPhone when it's on AT&T's cellular network. That would just be embarrassing.

What kind of e-mail can it get?
The iPhone comes with presets for Gmail, AOL and Yahoo Mail. You can also set up standard POP3 and IMAP accounts.

Is there instant messaging, like AIM or MSN Messenger?
No. Text-message exchanges appear as sequential, colorful text balloons, just as in Apple's iChat program. But they're still cellphone text messages, not chat.

Does the iPhone synchronize bookmarks with your computer?
Yes: with Safari on the Mac, or Internet Explorer on Windows.

What does the Web browser have?
Multiple open pages (like tabs), fonts, layouts, pop-up menus, checkboxes, clickable links and dialable phone numbers (tap with your finger).

What does it lack?
Java, Flash, stored passwords, RSS, streaming audio or video (except for some QuickTime videos).

What about V.P.N. (virtual private networking)?
The iPhone works with several common V.P.N. systems (that is, secure connections to corporate networks). A Settings screen lets you fill in the configuration details.

Software

Does the iPhone synchronize with my computer's calendar and address book?
Yes. It can sync with Address Book or Microsoft Entourage on the Macintosh, Outlook, Outlook Express on Windows, or Yahoo's address book on the Web. If you add appointments or phone numbers to the iPhone, they are added to your computer the next time you sync.

Do To Do items show up on the iPhone? Do memos in the iPhone's Notes program show up on the computer?
No.

Does the keyboard rotate when you rotate the iPhone?
Only in the Web browser. That's a shame, because the rotated keyboard, stretching the full length of the screen, is much bigger and easier to use than the narrow version.


Above: The iphone's keyboard

Can you type with two thumbs?
I've seen Apple employees flail away with two thumbs as though on a BlackBerry, but it takes loads of practice. After two weeks, I'm still tapping with one index finger.

Without cursor keys, how do I edit something I've written?
If you hold your fingertip against the glass, a magnifying loupe appears around it. You can now slide you finger through what you've written, moving the insertion point as you go.

Can the iPhone replace a BlackBerry?
It's not really even in the same category. For example, only Yahoo Mail accounts offer "push" e-mail like a BlackBerry, in which new messages appear in real time. For other accounts, the iPhone checks either periodically (every 15, 30 or 60 minutes) or when you tap the Check button. Similarly, you can view e-mailed Word, Excel and PDF attachments on the iPhone, but you can't create or edit them. The iPhone doesn't work with corporate Exchange e-mail systems, either, unless the administrator turns on IMAP (the administrator presumably knows what that is).

Hardware


Above: the back of the iphone

Is there an ambient light sensor?
Yes. A light sensor lies camouflaged behind the black glass. Each time you wake the phone, it adjusts the brightness - to make it brighter in sunlight, for example. You can also adjust the brightness manually.

Does the camera have a flash? Zoom? Self-portrait mirror?
None of the above. The chrome Apple logo on the back is not a self-portrait mirror.

Are there any secret features?
When the screen is off, the glossy black glass becomes a handy makeup mirror.

Wanna see David Pogue's video of the iphone?
click here.

or type the address below into your browser.
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=caed76f16c6132710db58210df3940afb8a3f7c8