One of the new features of iOS4 is custom wallpaper on the home screens. This idea came from the iPad, which on the iPad looks amazing. This is because there is more screen real estate. On the iPhone however, the icons are much closer together and it starts to look a bit cluttered.

I’ve found that reverting back to black is actually quite visually appealing.

Also, I’ve made a custom logon type lock screen. It can show your avatar, your name and “if found” details.

Download the PSD package
Download the classic black wallpaper

Cluttered home screen:

Classic home screen:

Custom logon screen:

When you really get down to some dirty drum and bass or at least something some sawtooth, make this face:

Frame grab from Salt (movie) with Angelina Jolie.

Loving this song; hope to get the album soon.

Just found this awesome menu bar tool which lets you quickly swap the graphics card on your Macbook Pro. It lets you swap say from onboard Intel graphics to dedicated nVidia, or vice versa.

It should work with most Macbook Pro.

http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/

Why is this awesome? Because Google are dropping a locked in piece of software (which is bug ridden, and insecure, and has extremely poor performance on anything but Windows).

Just check out Google maps on iPhone Safari:

It supports dragging around to pan, and pinch to zoom. I guess it’s using canvas, html5 goodness.

This guy has created an amazing audio tool out of javascript and html5.

Something I’m sure you could waste hours and hours on. Would be good to pipe it through some effects processing though.

link

New service put.io is a commercial service which has allows you to download torrents using their servers, store the files and then later download them to your computer, or stream them to your iPhone, without a trace.

Obviously you must agree to the terms and conditions, which probably have some sort of ass-covering legalities such as the DMCA.

The service is extremely fast. Collecting an 8gb torrent took only about 10mins. Then downloading it took me about 2 hours. The service also has some sort of realtime transcoding going on too. It can convert most types of video/audio to suite streaming.

The servers are based in The Netherlands, security and privacy is pretty tip top. On their website they state:

Your files are your business. We do not log your location, isp or ip address.

SSL can be configured in the users account panel.

Prices start at $US4.90 for 10gb storage and 10gb bandwidth.

And… There’s a Boxee plugin too.

Amazon. Love them or hate them, they have a great system. Browse, add to cart/wish list, buy, deliver. I’ve only had slight problems with amazon and that was when Royal Mail was on strike.

Their wish list system is a great tool to use for ideas of friends and loved ones birthdays. You can either search for their username or email address and it will display a list of items in their wish list.

They’ve even added the functionality to scour *any* website and add items using their bookmarklet or Safari extension.

Futurama is an amazing TV cartoon. However, it’s more than silly jokes. They actually use precise maths and science in their shows, right down to the minute details.

A recent episode was broadcast which is the same idea i have about how the universe works. How the big bang happens, then forms galaxies, then planets, then life. Life dies, planets die, suns die, galaxies implode, universe implodes. Then suddenly, BANG. Another big bang happens. And the same sequence of events follows.

I like this.

Using simple colour-cycling, artist Mark Ferrari and developer Joseph Huckaby have created beautiful vistas in 8bit.
http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/

Looks like you’re gunna have to check out the link above, sorry. Or upgrade to a better browser.

Works in all major browsers except any of Internet Explorer browsers.