This thing is called kinetic wall. Made with 250,000 aluminium panels that are sensitive to wind currents, its 5000 sq m surface looks like a vertical lake. Watching it in motion is a surreal experience:
The video above is from a smaller previous project. The wall in the image is being made by Urban Art Projects and artist Ned Kahn for the Brisbane Airport. It will completed next to the new domestic terminal short-term parking building in 2011. [Archdaily]
The ultimat Cool wall
During their press conference on Friday, Apple made the case that the so-called “death grip” isn’t unique to the iPhone 4. In fact, they showed the same symptoms on three other phones: the HTC Droid Eris, the Samsung Omnia 2, and the BlackBerry Bold 9700. Apple also created a website to show how the death grip affects each phone (and their own iPhone 3GS as well). Not surprisingly, none of those other companies liked that too much. Of them, RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, was the most vocal.
“Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable,” a statement released by the company reads. “RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage,” the statement continued.
And yet some videos posted yesterday of the not-yet-released BlackBerry 9800 appear to show the same attenuation problem. Or at least, they did until they were removed following an electronista post pointing that out.
Officially, the videos were removed due to a “terms of use violation.” But what’s odd is that RIM didn’t seem to care too much about them when they were originally posted on this site simply giving an overview of the new device and OS. Also odd is that many other videos of the 9800 still are alive and well on YouTube. Again, it’s just the videos that show attenuation which were removed after a blog post pointed that out.
Videos of the Droid Incredible, the Nexus One, the Palm Pre, and various other smartphones all showing attenuation remain up on YouTube. Of course, all those products are also released already.
I just find it amusing that “attenuation” has now entered regular geek lexicon.
Attentuation schmattenetuation I still want one
According to The Next Web, Optus has confirmed they will be holding midnight launch events in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth for the iPhone 4 on Thursday, July 29th. Who’s going to brave the winter cold?
Technically the phone won’t go on sale until 12:01 on Friday morning, but given the hoards of people who have queued up in previous years for the new iPhone, the time isn’t too much of an issue.
There’s still no pricing, but we expect Optus to announce those details any day now…
Hmm, I don’t plan to get my iPhone 4 from Optus and I don’t plan to be waiting in the freezing cold at midnight either. #justsayin
If you are interested in testing your resistance to psychic pain, may I recommend Qwitter? This is a service that emails you daily to impart who has “unfollowed” you on Twitter in the last 24 hours – who, among all the new friends you have acquired online, has decided they no longer want to read your hilarious 140-character posts. If Twitter is the bright, open heartland of limitless conversation, then Qwitter is the abandoned wheelie-bin behind the boarded-up kebab shop of failure, a place where the limitless conversation ends.
The email arrives heralded by the strapline “Your latest Twitter Qwitters!” – has there ever been a more unwelcome exclamation mark? – and your eye is immediately drawn to that day’s number. Today it was small: just one, a T-shirt company. Why was a T-shirt company following me? More to the point, what did I do to make a T-shirt company unfollow me? Losing something a step up from a spambot (an automated identity that posts malicious links) is nothing; much worse is when the rejections come in groups. Last week I lost six in a day. Six entirely (as far as I can see) unconnected people decided they could live without my sun-bleached pictures of Dulwich park and excitable Spotify recommendations. To be Qwit is to be reminded that someone has stopped listening, stopped caring. It’s as if they have, very quietly, put the phone down on you while you are still talking.
In the past I have unfollowed many people, recently jettisoning a number of blowhard wafflers, a young rapper constantly plugging his CD, and a maddeningly ponderous website editor. I’ve dropped people I have interviewed, worked with and even like, in an attempt to keep the online noise down a little. And not one of those decisions was personal – apart from maybe the website editor. I just wanted something else from my Twitter feed. So I know how ridiculous it is to feel bad about being digitally dumped. Yet this distancing still stings. What did I say? What did I do? Don’t go, you feel like shouting, tomorrow I might tweet a blurry picture of my lunch or even say something mildly amusing about a Coronation Street character.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010
Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.
Today I downloaded Twitterrific 3 for iPhone and was left very disappointed. It is clearly a step backward, gone are easy to get to filters for replies, DM’s, favourites and my own tweets. Also gone is the ability to mark tweets within the app. Resizing for easy viewing is gone as is multiple account support on the ad-supported version. Whilst list support has appeared, popular things that are missing include: ability to add personal bit.ly api, ability to geo-tag tweets.
I had a short conversation with someone from the @Twitterrific twitter account, here it is.
Luckily @Twitterrific made this a new download so I can still use the old one, but that doesn’t solve my problem with custom URL shortening. I liked this app as it allowed me to see that i wasn’t missing any tweets throughout the day if @twitter goes off, like yesterday when the Federal leadership #spill was happening here in Australia. Whilst they say improvement is coming, they have stripped it right back to not much more than m.twitter.com can provide. At the end they appear to be going with Twitters new in-house URL shortening, totally leaving out those of us with custom URL’s, is this a good thing? I don’t think so.
Surely they could have done better, She's the Prime Minister now for goodness sake.
The premier league has released the full draw for the 2010/11 EPL season today.
New fixtures released
The eagerly-awaited fixtures for the 2010/11 Barclays Premier League season have now been released.
Champions Chelsea begin the defence of their Barclays Premier League title at home to newly-promoted West Bromwich Albion managed by former Stamford Bridge favourite Roberto di Matteo.
Runners-up Manchester United also kick off against a promoted side as Newcastle United visit Old Trafford. Click here to see all the fixtures in chronological format or click here to see club by club fixtures.
It is a re-run of the opening-day fixture in 2008/09 when the sides drew 1-1. At the end of the campaign, the Magpies were relegated and United went on to win the title.
The other new-boys Blackpool’s first ever Barclays Premier League fixture will be a local derby at home to Wigan Athletic. They then go to Arsenal before hosting Fulham.
But perhaps the pick of the opening day fixtures is a re-run of last season’s intriguing battle for a Champions League place.
After pipping Manchester City for fourth spot, Tottenham Hotspur begin at home to Roberto Mancini’s side while Liverpool host Arsenal who finished third last season.
It promises to be a mouth-watering start to the new campaign. Aston Villa who finished sixth begin at home to West Ham United who just avoided relegation and who will be playing their first match under new manager Avram Grant.
Local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City meet at Molineux and Sunderland manager Steve Bruce faces his old club Birmingham City at the Stadium of Light.
Everton make the short journey to Blackburn Rovers while Bolton Wanderers are at home to Fulham.
key matches
Fans will be keen to see the key matches between the teams who finished in the top four last season, although fixture dates are still subject to change.
The first of these is currently scheduled for 2nd October when champions Chelsea host Arsenal.
The first meeting between last season’s top two comes at Stamford Bridge on 18th December and the sides do battle again a fortnight before the end of the season as Chelsea visit Old Trafford on 7th May.
There is a festive feast on Boxing Day when Arsenal host Chelsea and the first real heavyweight encounter comes on 18th September when Manchester United meet Liverpool at Old Trafford.
intriguing finale
The season boils up to an intriguing finale with champions Chelsea finishing at Everton while title hopefuls United host Blackpool.
Arsenal are at Fulham, Liverpool go to Aston Villa and Manchester City visit Bolton while Spurs finish at home to Birmingham. Newly-promoted sides Newcastle and West Brom face each other at St James’ Park.
Click here to see all the fixtures in chronological format or click here to see club by club fixtures.
All dates and kick-off times have still to be confirmed and the fixtures are still subject to change.
Opening day fixtures
Aston Villa v West Ham
Blackburn v Everton
Blackpool v Wigan
Bolton v Fulham
Chelsea v West Brom
Liverpool v Arsenal
Man Utd v Newcastle
Sunderland v Birmingham
Tottenham v Man City
Wolverhampton v StokeBoxing Day fixtures
Arsenal v Chelsea
Aston Villa v Tottenham
Blackburn v Stoke
Blackpool v Liverpool
Bolton v West Brom
Everton v Birmingham
Fulham v West Ham
Man Utd v Sunderland
Newcastle v Man City
Wolverhampton v WiganFinal day fixtures
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Bolton v Man City
Everton v Chelsea
Fulham v Arsenal
Man Utd v Blackpool
Newcastle v West Brom
Stoke v Wigan
Tottenham v Birmingham
West Ham v Sunderland
Wolverhampton v BlackburnAll fixtures are still provisional and subject to change.
Ooh faster updating with iOS4.
Find out how:
http://www.loopinsight.com/2010/06/16/itunes-9-2-paves-the-way-for-ios-4-and-iphone-4/
This article titled “Qwitter: was it something I tweeted?” was written by Rob Fitzpatrick, for The Guardian on Wednesday 7th July 2010 19.30 UTC