David Lidsky's Blog, page 4824

iPad Pre-Orders Begin at 8:30 AM EST Tomorrow: Start Practicing Your Speed-Refreshing

Okay, Apple fanatics, publishing hopefuls, and reckless early adopters: tomorrow is your day. Start warming up your refresh finger (mine's the right middle finger--it's like I'm saying "screw you! Work this time!" with every furious refresh), because Apple's iPad, in both Wi-Fi and 3G configurations, is allowing pre-orders starting tomorrow at 8:30 AM EST (5:30 AM PST). You can pre-order either online at Apple's site or through any of their individual stores over the phone--if you're...

Maya Romanoff Celebrates 40 Years of Design History with Tie Dye and Pink Socks

[image error]Maya Romanoff, the man who made tie-dye hip for non-hippies, celebrated four decades of creating drop-dead wall coverings last night at New York's Museum of Arts and Design. Resplendent in pink striped socks and a tie-dyed velvet necktie, Romanoff sat silently in a metallic red wheelchair as his wife, Joyce, the company's president, closed her thank you speech with a quote from Oscar Wilde who, on his deathbed, reportedly said, "Either the wallpaper goes, or I do." "Except if it's from Maya...

Logos Get Lost in the Supermarket, Here's Why

Have you seen Logorama, the movie comprised entirely of animated logos, that just won the Oscar for best animated short film? It's an excellent representation of the technicolor tapestry of branding that our world has become. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your point of view.

[youtube p10UE3O8s24:]

But what would the world be like if there were no more brands to
differentiate products, inspire us, or give us a good feeling about a
company or product we've never tried before...

Today in Most Innovative Companies

Daily news of note from our most Innovative Companies, including HP, Microsoft, Spotify, and Intel.

HP: The Palo Alto-based computer giant has launched its first corporate advertising campaign in a half-decade, and they've pulled in favors, from Dr. Dre to Annie Leibovitz. The $40 million Let's Do Amazing ad-campaign is aimed at expanding the scope of HP's brand, which is normally associated with printer technology. We recommend the Dre clip, which shows the megastar producer pumping out...

Google's Blue Dot Alerts Shoppers to the Last Tickle Me Elmo on Earth

Google has just added a nifty little 'blue dot' feature to its mobile Shopping search engine. Anyone with either an iPhone, Palm WebOS phone, or any Android-powered device will be able to discover immediately if the item they're after is in stock with nearby retailers, which will mean cutting out all that thankless traipsing around stores as you try and hunt down the latest Toy Story 3D merchandise for that special ankle-biter in your life.

As long as whatever it is you're looking for is...

Foursquare vs. Gowalla: Inside the Check-In Wars

If you ever visit the downtown Manhattan offices of Foursquare, the popular location-based social game for smartphones, don't say the word Gowalla. When I made that mistake during a visit there last November, 27-year-old cofounder Naveen Selvadurai sent me to the Foursquare time out chair. It was a joke. I think.

Gowalla is Foursquare's arch-rival. The companies both launched eight months earlier at the South by South West interactive festival. Their products pioneered the then-uncharted...

BART Gets Official Augmented Reality App: "Couldn't Find the Train" Is No Longer a Viable Excuse

BART, in partnership with San Francisco-based developer Junaio, released its first official augmented reality app--or, more accurately, its first official augmented reality layer.

Augmented reality adds text or graphic overlays onto real objects as seen by a phone's camera, and while it's often of questionable use (like, say, turning your neighborhood blue as an homage to Avatar), it has a lot of potential to help people find specific locations faster and easier than looking at a map...

Maya Romanoff Celebrates 40 Years of Design History ith Tie Dye and Pink Socks

[image error]Maya Romanoff, the man who made tie-dye hip for non-hippies, celebrated four decades of creating drop-dead wall coverings last night at New York's Museum of Arts and Design. Resplendent in pink striped socks and a tie-dyed velvet necktie, Romanoff sat silently in a metallic red wheelchair as his wife, Joyce, the company's president, closed her thank you speech with a quote from Oscar Wilde who, on his deathbed, reportedly said, "Either the wallpaper goes, or I do." "Except if it's from Maya...

Crib Sheet: Mozilla's Mitch Kapor, Lotus-Leafer or Berkeley Agitator?

Just how do you go about introducing Mitch Kapor? Designer of Lotus 1-2-3, founder of the Open Source Applications Foundation, first chair of the Mozilla Foundation, current chair of OneWebDay.. oh, blah, let's leave it up to his Twitter bio. "Tech entrepreneur, startup investor, activist philanthropist."

Mitch Kapor, Born in Brooklyn and now residing in San Francisco, is a mogul of many colors--although mostly green. The Lotus Development Corporation, Mozilla Foundation and Open Source...

"Red Steel 2" Director on Motion Control Gaming, Making a "First-Person Brawler"

This month, Western-meets-Samurai Anime game Red Steel 2 takes a giant leap forward in translating players' movements into epic on-screen swordfights. Creative director Jason Vandenberghe gives us an inside look at the making of an action game with detailed motion controls and shares his enthusiasm for PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Project Natal.

Kevin Ohannessian: Tell me about Red Steel 2.

Jason Vandenberghe: Red Steel 2 is a first-person sword and gun-slinging action game, with the Wii...