But damnit, I’ll bet that whatever Apple release tomorrow I’ll want. Because smug and self-satisfied as Mr Jobs is, his company is awesome at design and fantastic at getting us to ‘need’ things for no reason other than they’re beautiful and elegant. I’m not a Mac, though… that’s one thing I’ve managed to hold firm to.

Cross posted at Division6.

Despite the freedom of speech argument, I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. When it comes to social media a certain amount of common sense is required, and without wanting to resort to stereotypes, footballers aren’t considered one of the more sensible facets of society, so perhaps a blanket ban is best. Fans are still going to go and watch the match/purchase merchandise etc., and at the end of the day that has to be the consideration of the business – does a presence on SM by individuals have a positive effect on the bottom line? In this instance I don’t think it does.

Having said that, Bent has learnt from his mistake in the summer, and he now provides an intriguing insight in the day-to-day workings of a professional footballer’s life. As long he steers clear of engineering transfer moves on Twitter again, he could become a case study of how public figures should operate online.

Try searching for a trailer for Twin Peaks and you’ll come across this – possibly the most bizarre dance put to celluloid.

Not so long ago, a friend recommended I visit www.davidlynch.com. Meh, probably some bog-standard, self-promoting ‘web destination’ for all things Lynch, shamelessly wrapped around some new film, I cynically thought.

How wrong I was.

Without a doubt one of the most unique websites I’ve seen. Check it out for yourself. It includes, but is not limited to:

A video of the director offering daily weather reports

A dedicated catalogue on the range of David’s ‘Signature Cup’ coffee products

A page of ringtones (presumably created by Lynch)

An online shop selling pins/buttons, distorted nudes books, hats and mousepads

Bizarre but y’know, sort of cool.

Ok, cool might still be pushing it.

This isn’t the first time the occasional England striker has embraced Twitter. In the summer, in an attempt to reinvigorate his stalled transfer from Harry Redknapp’s White Army to the Black Cats, he let his feelings been known with what some might call a strongly-worded outburst aimed at the North London club’s chairman, Daniel Levy.

Obviously Bent isn’t the first sportsperson to use Twitter, but he does seem to be the one embracing it the most. We’ve had live event blogging and tweeting – what money on Bent to tweet whilst playing in a match?

To this list I can now add Dave 2.0b2, a short story by Michael Marshall Smith.  I stumbled across it the other day, and I immediately got it on a number of different levels:

1. The genre – I’m a big fan of short stories, they’re a very efficient way to get a hit of good story telling
2. The protagonist – It’s about a man, and I’m a man – how can I not relate to that?
3. The format – It’s a review of a man, by all the people that know him, as if he were the product of a developer. Having worked in Tech PR for over two years, I’m well versed on the issues developers of all kinds have with their applications.

Basically, it brightened my day considerably when I read it. It’s short, to the point, and easy to dip in and out of if you’re really, really pressed for time. I urge you to read it.

For example, the US gets an advertising free episode of Family Guy featuring show favourites Brian and Stewie installing the new OS (an episode which incidentally may never see the light of day here due to product placement regulations):

Japan takes things one step further with this incredible Burger King promotion – the seven (yes, seven) burger Windows 7 Whopper:

Meanwhile, here in the UK we have to make do with a PC World trade-in offer. Come on Microsoft, if you want me to upgrade you’ll have to convince me harder than that.

deadmau5 (pronounced ‘dead-mouse’ don’t you know, not ‘dead-mow-five’ like I called him for months) is a world renowned DJ – hot on the heels of the likes of Justice and Daft Punk – and is sampled left right and centre.

Pay £1.75 or thereabouts and you can mix just like him. The deadmau5 app includes a top-ten hitlist of his most popular songs, two of which can be played simultaneously and mixed together. You can do all sorts of cool things with the tunes: loop sections, increase/decrease the track tempo, bring specific parts of the songs to the forefront, to create some fresh lyrical beats of your own. All these elements and tune-tinkerings, my flatmate DJ assures me, are crucial ingredients to the real world of mixing.

One major difference is that, once you select a section of music to play, the app brings this in automatically at exactly the right moment – removing the need for what separates the amateurs from the pros: musical timing and a sense of rhythm.

Nevertheless,  I’ve had the app for weeks and still haven’t got it.  It’s somehow hard, even when everything is made easy.

The clip below may not sound that incredible, but they have really mastered this little application.