A non-ugly iphone.

Well... Apparently it´s custom and it´s gonna cost ya. Some dude is selling it on ebay, check it: here . Shame that this isn´t how they would have made it look from the beginning, cause this actually looks good.

Apple... Who are you? Part 1 of 4.

(photo courtesy of jcdecaux)

"Silent Bob here's an electrical genius. He won the science fair in eighth grade by turning his mom's vibrator into a CD player using some chicken wire and shit.The mother fucker's like MacGyver. No, the mother fucker's *better than* MacGyver." (Quote from the movie "Mallrats" by Kevin Smith).

Pretty impressive. So... in that case, what came first?- Silent bob the original thinker, or Silent bob "the guy who got inspired by the right thing, in the right place, at the right time" and then... Cdplayer!. Its a tough one. The movie makes it seem like, that even the most common pothead (as Silent Bob) can modify/engineer cool things, with a little inspiration. Well ofcourse, Kevin Smiths character in the movie Mallrats, is just as fictional as a 20$ Hummer. But the essence of the situation comedy film quote in the beginning of my post, is absolutely relevant when it comes to me attempting de-bunk the grey areas between infinite layers of corporate inspiration, original thinking and re-invention. Again, theres a long walk from a sexual device (such as a vibrator) to a real functioning cdplayer. But having that walk in mind and putting fiction aside. I wonder..... How easy would it be for a reasonably intelligent well travelled designer (or company), to convert a basic, but wellknown shiny "pictureframe" design into an "original" mobile phone design? Well...

First of all lets focus on fx. Milan, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, Oslo, Chile, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Malmö... and the many more cities, that Jcdecaux, a world wide outdoor advertizing company are present with their products (and have been for years). To narrow it down, lets lock on to the french town of Plaisir, a city not far from Versaille. Here you will find the Jcdecaux designers who are responsible for the neat worldknown looks of the "Paris 3".



Yes, it is indeed an outdoor display with very smooth looks. A simple square, with nice rounded corners, cool chrome finish... all of it together, almost too classy, for being a passive display. I really wonder how this french design would look if it was to be the size of a hand. "A tiny billboard in your hand" (or pocket). A tiny chrome square, with oh so cute and shiny corners. That would be kinda cool. Hmmmmmm... (thinking).






Part 2 of "Apple: Who are you?" (plus 3 and 4), coming soon.

Benq Siemens Black Box...

For a while (almost a year), the news had been that Benq Siemens were working on a release for their "pure touchscreen" based cellphone entitled Black Box (and Codename Ruby). But the joint company efforts of Siemens and Benq broke down and the previous line of phones are now only under the name of Benq. Rumours were that Benq would keep working on the Black Box phone. (one can only hope). So far only concept images have been posted of the phone, but i thought it would be appropriate to sum up the few images that had been spotted. I personally hope that someone within Benq will keep this project running, and get it released.

Who doesnt love pictograms. (very nice).



Sorta like on the Nintendo Ds, it looked like Benq Siemens were aiming for alot more than just the standard cellphone with features concept.


Im keeping my fingers crossed, that it will turn up somewhere... someday.... soon.

What Iphone?

The apple Iphone.

Ok, here i go... What happens when you take one of the biggest and fastest growing (semi intelligent) companies in the world, with a fantastic patented clickwheel which enabled their socalled Ipod to conquer the world..... and you have them remove and forget their fantastic patented clickwheel, let them take a "couple" of years for thinking, and let them "reinvent/re-promote" the phone? Well... good question. Basically you get - Nothing. But... you also get a chinese company called Meizu and their meizu M8. An asian company with a vision and a phone that is, more Iphone (and revolutionairy) than the actual Apple Iphone itself. Hmmmm.... sounds crazy, right? Well basically what Meizu have done with their concepts around the M8 phone was to say... Why not approach (ok ok, borrow/adapt/adopt) what apple claims is so great and new. Clone it! and improve the hell out of it, all... for an even cheaper price. Scary, but none the less plausible. The Meizu M8 delivers 3g capabilities and a front view camera (which the Apple phone does not) which automatically makes it appeal to more customers, a 1mp upgrade on the backside camera compared to the Iphone, twice the resolution on the screen, almost (720x480 pixels), and if that wasnt enough, they even adopted the "white" that apple threw away or prioritized away in the process. Last but not least Meizu reduced the size of their phone a tiny bit.......... Numb yet?

Meizu m8


Ok. Let me just state, i do acknowledge to some extent that Meizu indeed are ripping apple more than a bit (on the material use). But seriously, can apple really expect to present a revolution thats not even a revolution (technologically that is). They threw away their prime values : the clickwheel from the Ipod, and they skipped their signature white. So what do they have left? Squares with round corners? Sorry Mr. jobs, you cant really patent that (yet). So... im intrigued to see the result of all this during a couple of months. A thing to remember in the meanwhile: Consumer products is all about capitalism, and capitalism is all about making money... so did anyone really expect a fair game here?

Meizu M8

To be honest, i really do think that the Meizu M8 is the "real" complete package, the whole hand, the extra milage, or whatever you could say. Facts are: Apple slept on the job (or atleast doze off), and abandoned their typical domain... They didnt create the revolution they promized.... and suddenly there was china.

Waiter! (apple).... I ordered fries with that!