It’s no secret amongst people that know me that I am a huge fan of the NBC TV series Battlestar Galactica. Such a big fan boy in fact that my car features the numberplate Cylon GP (jealousy makes you nasty) and is the reason why I was so incredibly excited to learn that a special edition BSG toaster will go on sale to coincide with the Comic-Con convention in San Diego.
The toaster itself is rather pricey at $65 plus shipping but I don’t think you can put a price on something that will have one production run and burns Centurion effigies into your toast each morning?
And somehow I think this wins hands down over Gregor’s Mickey Mouse toaster.
If you don’t already have a Flickr account, then now is the time to get one because Yahoo! (owners of Flickr) have signed a ground breaking deal with Getty Images, which will allow Getty customers to seamlessly search the Flickr database and commercially license the pictures in the same way that Getty pictures are licensed, meaning amateur photographers will be handsomely compensated.
“We believe that Flickr will be an important addition to the mix that we have,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive of Getty Images. Mr. Klein said Flickr photographers will increase the depth of Getty’s catalog on certain subjects and certain regions of the world. And they will be bringing an element that professional photography often lacks, he said. “Because the imagery is not shot for commercial services, there is more authenticity,” Mr. Klein said. “Advertisers are looking for authenticity.”
Read the New York Times Bits Blog for more on this story.
Courtesy of CNN Money:
Axel Springer AG, one of Europe’s largest newspaper publishers, with 10,000 employees and more than 150 papers in 30 countries, including its flagship Die Welt, announced on Friday that it is switching its entire operation from PCs to Macs.
This really is a big deal for Apple, who historically have had a very low install base in big corporates, and this will make Axel Springer their second largest corporate customer after the mighty Google.
Although some might argue that a large majority of newspapers and magazines are already designed on Macs, it’s one thing committing to a handful of machines that a a few designers, subs, and wierdos work from, and another thing moving an entire company’s business operations including departments like HR and accounting onto Apple and this takes some really progressive thinking.
It will be interesting to see if any other large companies make the switch in the aftermath and I suspect that we will start hearing a lot more along these lines as Windows Vista struggles to make a positive impact on corporates. Whatever the case, ones things for sure and that is times are definitely a changing!
DStv Mobile has sponsored a project, which is currently under way, that equips journalism students from Wits University and CityVarsity with Nokia N95 “mojo” kits similar to the one pictured below:
The main aim of the project is for journalism students to produce video, audio, and photos that get uploaded to a special mobile broadcasting network, which will initially be accessible to over 20 000 Wits students.
Although news organisations such as Reuters have started to use these kits in their news operations, I’m pretty sure that this is the first time that they will be used in a production environment in South Africa.
This has all been made possible by constant technological breakthroughs and the portability and immediacy of connected mobile devices; it is becoming increasingly feasible for journalists to replace their pens and dictaphones for converged smart phones with exceptional audio/visual capabilities such as the Nokia N95. Add a keyboard, tripod, and an external microphone and all of a sudden you have a portable newsroom and studio in one, which previously was semi-possible with a hefty budget and bulky, professional-grade equipment.
Read more about the project here.
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