The LUPE may look like another touchscreen camera but this concept is designed for ease of use and simplicity even tho technically it’s quite complex.

Finally, something for us [few] PC users [left] out there to get excited about! The Beta version of Google Chrome has launched today, and it's only available for those of us fortunate enough to be running Vista. My initial test run of it here is looking pretty good so far - I'm loving the visual representation of your most visited websites as the default homepage. Check it out here!

No need to fret - turns out all that time spent trawling the search engines for the latest and greatest gossip...er...important news items is in no way detrimental to your brain functionality. On the contrary, a recent study shows that this activity among seasoned internet users actually promotes brain activity. Check out the full article at USA Today.

...when it's good, it's good. But when it's bad, well...not so great, according to the NYT.

Some examples:

A Chevrolet billboard that used real pennies lasted only 30 minutes as people picked it clean.

In London, Right Guard sent a team of people onto subway trains with tiny video screens in the armpits of their shirts.

Either way, we're still talking about it...so maybe the point is getting across anyway?

The designs for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing have been revealed, called "Fuwa" (below). It's being reported in the WSJ that even the mascots' designer doesn't want to take responsibility if these don't go down in history as iconic Olympic mascots.

Not that the Fuwa have been the only controversial mascots; since its inception at the Munich games in 1972, the Olympic mascot has always been a source of debate (more mascots below after the jump). The article goes on to state how the Fuwa may be the result of "Too Many Chefs" syndrome and a bureaucratic backlog, a challenge in trying to create an iconic image representing 1.3 billion people and their history - the five Fuwa were pared down from over 1,000 sketches submitted by the artist.

Not sure what I think about them...any thoughts?

Continue reading to see some other mascots from past Olympics...

The first Olympic mascot - Waldi (Munich 1972)

Cobi (Barcelona 1992)

Izzy (Atlanta 1996)

Syd, Ollie, and Millie (Sydney 2000)

Athena and Phevos (Athens 2004)

Not sure what to do when you're feeling chill? Sophisticated? Energetic? I Feel NYC is one of the most clever (and funny/useful) Google Maps application that I've come across. Also available for London.

An article by Warren Berger, in his words: For the last two years, I’ve been doing to designers what they usually do unto others. Which is to say, I’ve been observing and studying them, asking a lot of questions and trying to discern patterns. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

1. Designers question

2. Designers connect

3. Designers commit

4. Designers care

Read article »

Last Saturday ,  there was an opening of a group exhibition featuring commissioned works by 130 something artists at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea.

I didn't want to go because it was storming like crazy!!  However, the gallery was packed with so many people.

All the artists got a 7” x 5” wooden panel, and those artworks created a single continuous work. I liked some paintings a lot. But some were just crappy things and the price were like $600....?!  I don't know what Art is!

At least, I got free beer-.

http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/?method=Exhibit.ExhibitDescription&ExhibitID=FB86C9CC-19DB-5802-E0C4211518300C5B

I love stumbling across creative applications of Google Maps, and TripWolf incorporates one of the coolest. It combines the GMap with Q&As (think Yahoo Answers), social networking (integrated with Facebook), and a wide breadth of information to create one of the coolest travel advisor sites out there. Just a quick look around gets great suggestions from users on sites all over the world, including tips from a destination's primary user (or "guru"). Check it out here.

Need to decompress a bit from sitting and staring at your computer for hours on end? Check out thisissand.com for a fun way to do it - reminiscent of those sand art crafts projects we all did as kids. Pick your colors and just click to create mountains of colored sand. Be careful though, this one is addicting...

Twitter has just passed the One Billion Tweets mark, according to GigaTweet!

Just in case you were wondering whether the Hadron Collider being tested right now at CERN has destroyed the world yet, you now have a handy website to go to check it out: http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

A friend just turned me on to this delightfully simple work log, ididwork.com. The name pretty much says it all; log the work that you did, tag it if you like, and ididwork.com will create charts mapping your work, email your logs to your manager (if desired), and schedule work reviews. This is a handy little tool for jobs where you have to log hours on certain projects, or you may be working on site and have to report in your work to your manager. Just a great example on how simplicity wins over and a site without too many bells and whistles can be most useful.

...you get the Most Innovative Celebrities in Digital Media, or, the Econoclast10.

I'll admit it - I'm a complete internet radio junkie. I love it, listen to it constantly, and rely on it to introduce me to new stuff. Up until now, I've been a solid last.fm girl, but I recently stumbled upon blip.fm. Blip is an odd combination of Twitter and internet radio, that allows you to become a "DJ," to "blip" what you're listening to, and to listen to other DJs who have similar tastes to you. I'm still trying to get a feel for how it all works, but it seems pretty great. Check it out here - and add me as a DJ - my DJ name is "isureamheather."

A little while back, AOL site Spinner.com, posted the top 25 band logos "of all time" (personally, which I think is still up for debate).

Which reminded me of another site, http://pictograms.blogspot.com/ which has been archiving a huge collection of band logos, fonts, and iconography as well.

From former Google employees comes Cuil, the newest super engine to hit the net. I took a quick look around, and so far I really like what I see. It has a great clean design (including the option to view your search results in 2 or 3 columns), and great smart options for sorting your data (a search of the term "Olympics" presented me with tabs for Winter Olympics, Special Olympics, Summer Olympics, and categories such as "2012 Summer Olympics" and "IOC Members"). Cuil also presents a much cleaner summary of each page (in a small paragraph) than its competitors. I wonder if this will prompt enough people to make the switch over from Google...I think I'm convinced.

I've always been a fan of movie posters - but I think they're so often seen as pure advertising and the excellent design sense of some of them goes unnoticed. Here is a great compilation of some of the best!