Author: Toby Leftly

Barcodes, those tiny black and white stripes on stuff we buy have been around for ages, but they’re boring. And small. No longer. Blue Fountain Media is a company with a dream, a dream of turning those boring tiny codes into massive, not-so-boring codes, and to prove their commitment they’ve created the world’s largest Stickybit. Stickybits is their idea for making everything digital – everything has barcodes, and now cameras on cellphones are so ubiquitous, Blue Fountain Media has brought these two simple facts together to allow you to scan barcodes and ‘tag’ your stuff. Scan your CDs and DVDs….

I’ve written about the problems with maintaining Google accounts before. A lot. Sometimes on my bedroom wall, late at night in my own blood. To describe Google’s account systems as massively, time consumingly problematic would be unfair to massively time consuming problems. But help may be on the way. PC World reports that they received a tip that next week Google may provide some relief from account madness. Back in May they announced that changes coming soon will allow Google Apps users to access more services not currently accessible from within Google Apps, with the changeover starting…

If you have a pulse, you’re probably a member of Facebook. If you’re on Facebook and own an iPhone you’re not alone – almost 55 million users each month access Facebook on an iPhone. Big numbers, but if you’re one of those 55 million you know that Facebook for iPhone is an imperfect method of accessing the service, to say the least. Facebook is troublesome when accessing through a web browser, due to the conflicting nature of so many contradictory privacy settings, but on an iPhone those problems are magnified. Facebook is clearly struggling without Joe Hewitt, who quit as the principal iPhone developer…

Or at least a cynical, funny look at the iPad. Apple takes themselves way too seriously, leaving themselves wide open to parody and merrymaking. The iPad is the latest target to be stripped naked and thrashed to within an inch of its life. The video says it all, so watch, enjoy, and go give your iPad a hug right afterwards. Source: YouTube…

The format wars are largely a thing of the past, and thank god for that. Now we’re less concerned about the shape or size of the piece of plastic we insert into drives with complex moving parts, and more concerned with moving bits and bytes around the web onto servers and hard drives. The one format that has always seemed immune from progress though is vinyl. Even audiophiles can’t explain pop culture’s ongoing love affair with tired old plastic discs, but the attraction remains nonetheless. Jeff Mills knows you shouldn’t have to choose. His latest music release is a double-sided CD and vinyl hybrid,…

Nothing smarts like losing your shiny, brand spanking new iPhone. You worked and saved to earn the money to buy Apple’s latest hot gadget, then you got wasted one night and it slipped out your pocket on the cab ride home. Well, now there’s a solution. Kind of. Apple has launched the new Find My Phone app (iTunes link), an iPhone app you can install to help find your lost iPhone. That’s right, when you’ve lost your iPhone, there’s an iPhone app for that. Of course, the idea is that you install the app on a friend’s iPhone and head off like Nancy Drew on the hunt for your missing, but more likely stolen iPhone….

Online stock media giant Getty Images is going mobile at last. The Getty Images iPad app is now available on the App Store (iTunes link). This is fantastic news for creative professionals who are most likely always in and out of client offices and previously have had to rely on their laptop or their clients computers for selecting stock artwork on the road. The app allows users to search Getty Images library of over 24 million images, compare images, view and share lightboxes and shake to view random search results. You can even add voice recordings to lightboxes. While the App Store gets filled with…

In what is quickly becoming an extremely Apple-centric day, Apple has announced its own app to browse its online store. With a new Mac Mini out today and the iPhone 4 now available for pre-order, Apple is having a big day, although perhaps too big, if the “now you see it, now you don’t” availability of the online Apple Store is anything to go by. Apple’s Apple Store app will allow iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users to browse and make purchases from the Apple Store without negotiating the store online. I’ve always wondered why Apple had never made their own site more accessible to iPhone and iPad users….

As the big boys in tech continue to eat into each others business models, is it really that surprising to hear Google is considering getting into the music distribution business? Apple’s iTunes Music Store has been the poster child for showing the music industry that suing and harassing its customers might not be the only way to make money in the 21st century. But the record labels have been nervous about putting all their eggs into Apple’s basket, always looking to spread the risk amongst digital distribution services, such as Napster, Coke’s iMusic effort and a number of other largely unsuccessful…

Apple’s long suffering under-powered Mac Mini is a strange thing, to say the least. Possibly Apple’s most copied design by other PC manufacturers, true Mac users always saw the Mini as an attempt to offer an easy entry point for dubious Windows exiles. But today the Mini earns its stripes, no longer the Mac lineups only white brethren. The new Mini is thinner, gets its own aluminum unibody and loses the heavy power brick that trailed behind it like a ball and chain. The new Mini also gains an HDMI port, a nod to the many users who have adapted Apple’s smallest offering as a media server. It also gains an…