Someone named Lamarde has put together a wonderful collection of tobacco ads from around the world, dating back several decades. The ads range from culturally interesting, to graphically appealing, to borderline pornographic.
Found via Brand Infection
UPDATE: Apparently the person who runs the Brand Infection site liked my description of the ads. They’ve added it to their post.
In July of 2004 I referenced an article written by Dan, at Mister BG. It was a hilarious, and oh so accurate analysis of the Apple product cycle. With all the talk of iPhones, and Video iPods lately, I though it was appropriate to revisit the article. It begins:
“An obscure component manufacturer somewhere in the Pacific Rim announces a major order for some bleeding-edge piece of technology that could conceivably become part of an expensive, digital-lifestyle-enhancing nerd toy.
Some hardware geek, the sort who actually reads press releases from obscure Pacific Rim component manufacturers, posts a link to the press release in a Mac Internet forum.
The Mac rumor sites spring into action. Liberally quoting “reliable” sources inside Cupertino, irrelevant “experts,” and each other, they quickly transform baseless speculation into widely accepted fact.
Eager Mac-heads fan the flames by flooding the Mac discussion forums with more groundless conjecture. Threads pop up around feature wish lists, favorite colors, and likely retail price points. In a matter of days, a third-hand, unsubstantiated rumor blossoms into a hand-held device that can do everything except find a girlfriend for a fat, smelly nerd.”
Engadget has posted pictures from their meetup here in San Francisco. I went to the event, and I ended up in a couple of the pictures. Being 6’5″, I’m usually fairly easy to pick out of a crowd.
The event was pretty fun, and it was cool to hear how they got started. On a side-note I was so close to winning an OQO in one of the raffles. They called out numbers… six…. one… fffffive. I had 614, but for a split second I thought I was going to win. Oh well.
Anyone familiar with Steve Jobs keynote addresses should recognize his line “One more thing…”. It’s something he likes to say towards the end of a keynote, just before making a really big surprise announcement.
Apple sent out this invitation to members of the press inviting them to a special event next Wednesday (10/12). The most widely accepted theories of what will be announced include updated iPods, and pro machines (Powermacs & Powerbooks).
The iPod updates may even be what many of us have longed for. AppleInsider is quoting “reliable sources” as saying “Apple Computer has begun production of a new version of its iPod digital music player that will be capable of playing videos.” I personally am not going to get my hopes up too high this time.
Given the fact that Adobe has recently released Photoshop Elements 4.0 for Windows only, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple will also announce some new software. (FYI… A Mac version of Elements 4 is supposedly on its way).
It was announced today that NewsGator has acquired NetNewsWire, from independant Mac software developer, Ranchero. Why do I care? Well, NetNewsWire has been my news reader of choice for quite some time now. I like it… a lot. I don’t want to see some big company screw it up.
It’s possible that NewsGator will make a great product even better, but it’s also possible that I’ll be looking for a new RSS reader. Only time will tell.
One thing is for sure, NewsGator has it’s own agenda. They will want to integrate NetNewWire with their other software and services. So needless to say, NetNewsWire will be going through some changes. One thing I’m betting will change is NNW’s ability to sync with .Mac or an ftp server. I’m sure NewsGator will pull that functionality in favor of syncing with it’s own subscription based service instead.
The other big question is what will happen to MarsEdit? If you are unfamiliar with MarsEdit, it’s a weblog editor for the Mac. MarsEdit is to writing blogs, what NetNewsWire is to reading them.
MarsEdit wasn’t included in the purchase, and Ranchero Founder, Brent Simmons, says they are “currently looking for a home for it”. The future of MarsEdit is uncertain to say the least. I may be looking at Ecto real soon.
UPDATE: Brent Simmons has posted clearification on his blog about the sale of Ranchero. It looks like it does include MarsEdit, along with all the other Ranchero software. They just don’t know what they will be doing with the other software.