Walmart has changed the look of it’s website and more presumably their logo. Gone is the star that separated the “Wal” and “mart.” They are going for a hipper new look. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re trying a bit too hard to be Target. 

Let’s analyze the logo:
First off, what’s with the new symbol? It looks like a dingbat from Zaph Dingbats. (To be fair, the spacing has been adjusted and color added but come on, do they think it’s clever and nobody will notice?) The symbol looks sadly out of place. Removing the star was a good idea. (I never quite understood why it was there in the first place) Blue.. not a bad choice for the type. I really like the color blue they chose. Yellow for the dingbat just doesn’t work. It’s probably not the color as much as it is the logo.

Now for the tag line:
They ditched the old line “Always Low Prices.” I guess by this point most people know pretty much that Walmart is a deep discount/bargain store. So what do the brain trust over at Walmart come up with? “Save money. Live better. WHAT! Okay, I get the save money part. I think the whole world gets that. LIVE BETTER?? We’re supposed to live better if we shop at Walmart? Is that what they’re getting at? I don’t get it.

It no mystery that Walmart’s market share is declining. It’s not a bad idea to reinvent and reshape the brand. In this case it’s a total miscue. It’s obviously a decision made by a bunch of suits at Walmart.

Target:
Target is an ever evolving brand name. They have great products at reasonable prices. And many cool designers to boot. Also, when a new Target comes to town, the community is actually happy about it. You don’t see anyone protesting or showing up at city board meetings attempting to block a new Target. The same cannot be said of Walmart.

Target has since dropped the “Target” name from the logo. Anyone can easily recognize the brand sans the actual name beside it. Now that’s clever. 

Brooklyn based hotographer Tom Kirsch - better know by his nickname Motts – has assembled some amazing photos of abandoned hospitals, hotels, and prisons over on his site opacity.us. In many cases his photos are the last images taken before the buildings were demolished which makes them all the more interesting.

The two shots featured above are of the Sterling Hotel in Wilkes-Barre PA. The first photo was photographed in August of 2005. The black and white photo is from a 1908 postcard. The hotel was eventualy demolished in February 2007. 

To find out more about Motts, check out his about page.

Billionaire oilman, philanthropist T. Bone Pickens has a plan to wean us our dependence on energy imports. He plans on building the worlds largest wind farm. It’s a far more detailed plan than either presidential candidate has laid out. But then again, the best plans always rise from the private sector.

From Forbes:

At 80 the oilman and financier is healthy and having some of his best years in business. “Of all the taxes I’ve paid, 90% of them were after I was 70,” says Pickens, who forwarded $200 million of his capital gains to the U.S. Treasury last year. Worth $3 billion at last count, he’s still drilling for oil and buying water rights. His Mesa Energy in May bought 667 wind turbines from GE and has spent $2 billion so far developing a 4-gigawatt wind farm, the world’s biggest, in the Texas panhandle.

From Cleantechnica:

When one of Texas’s richest oil men bets big on wind energy, it gets attention. Yesterday NPR’s Living on Earth broadcast an interview with Mr. Pickens, who shared the salient facts about his planned wind project:

• It will be the largest in the world, he reckons, at 4,000 megawatts
• It will provide enough power for 1,300,000 homes
• It’s a $10 billion dollar project from which he plans a 15%-25% profit

Asked why he is investing in wind now, Pickens replied:

“For a number of years I’ve watched the wind turbines develop — and I feel like it’s time for it. I think that oil has peaked at 85 million barrels in the world. We’ve got to develop other forms of energy — wind, I think solar will be next, and I hope I’m still around to be in the solar deal.” (Pickens is 80 years old.

So Pickens has a plan. Sounds like a good one. I applaud this man for stepping up and doing something with his brain and his money.

You’ll be the envy of your colleagues with this handy-dandy invisi-bookshelf. The only downside is choosing which large book to destroy. I’m sure if you look hard, you can find one laying around the house. Of course you could always visit a second-hand bookstore for the base book.

Most posters these days are either tired or boring. So it’s refreshing to see some very unique retro inspired posters. Check ‘em out over at theposterlist.com. These babies are definitely worth the paper they’re printed on. Only $11 bucks! ($10.99 to be exact)

The folks over at madebysofa have built the best disc burning app that I’ve seen for for Mac OS X Leopard by far. It’s so innovative and simple is hard to believe no one has thought of it before. I downloaded a trial here, then after burning two discs, I bought it. 

Let’s start with the interface. Super clean + sexy. Black with white type with great icons and animations. For example, once you begin burning a disc, animated smoke flows out the top of the window. You can even set a preference so that you can blow into your microphone and affect the smoke. Little touches like that make Disco fun to use.

There is even an option to pull up an “Index” window which keeps a record of all of the discs you’ve burned and allows full search capabilities. Usually a secondary program is required.

Disco also includes “Spanning” which automatically divides files that are too big for one disc and would “span” across several discs. With Disco you can create a disc image from a set group of files. For you laptop burners, it can even detect physical motion to prevent coasters.

With a price of only $29.95, it’s well worth the effort. You will not be disappointed.

Addictive music video by NAIVE NEW BEATERS. I definitely enjoyed the video more than the song.

What’s the best way to avoid paying $8 bucks a beer at a concert? Simply bring it along in your fake Beerbelly. What a concept. Its surprising that no one else thought of it before. What to do if you already have a beer belly? No worries, you just gained another 20 pounds overnight. I mean, who’s going to notice anyhow?

Don’t worry girls – they have a product just for you. It’s called the Winerack and it’s just like you guessed it. A bra that you fill up with – what else – wine!

Photo by Dusty California

Photo by Margarita Gonzalez

This is the third time that I saw Radiohead play live. First in 1995 when they opened for REM in support of “The Bends.” REM lead singer Micheal Stipe boldy praised the band saying “They’re so good, they scare me.” He commented on Radiohead for a total of three times during their performance that night. But let’s get one thing clear – I was there to see Radiohead. It is still one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen.

I also saw Radiohead in 2003. The funny thing is that I don’t remember much of the show. I remember Thom Yorke putting in a good performance but that’s about it. It was a good friend of mine that reminded me that I even attended the show in the first place!

Fast forward to last week. Radiohead was opening their North American tour in West Palm Beach, Florida. West Palm Beach Florida? What an interesting choice since most bands skip South Florida altogether because of the location. Once a band plays Tampa, it’s straight down to Miami for a quick set up and tear down and another 7 hours before the equipment gets out of the state. Yorke commented during the show that the band spent the previous three days in Miami preparing for the show. Perhaps it was the sunshine that attracted the band.

Yorke addressed the audience like a nervous school child making an appearance at his first recital. He sauntered up to the microphone and said “Hello” with the usual normal tick. The band chose ‘All I need’ to start things off – immediately followed by ‘Bodysnatchers and ‘There there.’ I was really looking forward to hearing ‘Weird Fishes’ which was eventually played the 10th song in. This is when the concert started for me. Something rather strange happened though. Close to the ending, the band stopped playing. They had botched the ending and Yorke quickly huddled up with his band mates around their drummer, Phil Selway. After some chatter they quickly returned to where they left off. Selway counted them off and they played the ending correct.

I really don’t think too many people really noticed the screw up. However, Thom – in his pursuit of perfection – played it again the way it was written. [see videos here] Afterward he exclaimed to the audience that they really should have practiced that one or something to that tune.

All and all I would say it was a great show. The big missing for me was the more musically inspired numbers. I would have liked to have heard more of the classic Radiohead before they discovered synths. Not that the later stuff isn’t great, it’s just that I wanted to hear the guitars roar. A little less prefab action and a bit more guitar driven music.

Starbucks finally gets a clue — they start selling decent coffee!
When Starbucks recently introduced its new smoother coffee “Pike Place Roast“, I have to say that I was very skeptical. Let’s face it, Starbucks was more famous for it’s specialty coffee drinks than for its coffee. Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonalds and a slew of other coffee hucksters have beaten Starbucks in blind taste tests. McDonalds is knee deep in the coffee game and is certainly having an effect on Starbuck’s market share.

With that said, I have to say that I was very surprised. The coffee was delicious and every bit as good as the marketing campaign that accompanied it. The main issue that I have had with drinking Starbucks coffee in the past is how incredibly bitter it was. Not the case with “Pike Place.” It’s bold, smooth and very tasty. Ahh, the return to the days of old — when Starbucks was known for it’s coffee. There is also a throwback with the original siren logo that appears on the coffee cups. Kudos to Starbucks for pulling a winning clue out of the cluebag.

Also see:
Starbucks finally switches to free Wi-Fi!
Starbucks Sleeve
Jackhole goes to Starbucks
Do Starbucks corporate employees get free coffee?
Akeelah and the Bee and the Starbucks employee

Everytime I see Bill Hemmer, an anchor on the Fox News channel, I can’t help but think of Jim Carrey. Hemmer actually looks more like Carrey’s evil twin than look-a-like brother. I think it’s just because Carrey’s face is a bit warmer if nothing else.

I really like Hemmer since he made the jump from CNN nearly three years ago. He’s much friendlier and way more interesting to watch. He looked and sounded like an android on CNN.

It seems like only yesterday that I, along with hundreds of Mac enthusiasts, waited for over three hours last June 29th to purchase an iPhone. A year has nearly passed and I couldn’t imagine life without my iPhone. For starters – I have quite a few email accounts. Ten to be exact. The usual emails - Work, several personal, Yahoo, Gmail, my spam account, etc. I check most of my email on the iPhone. Previously, I would log into my Yahoo email only to be overwhelmed by the 1000+ emails. After checking a few emails I would get discouraged and would soon log out. One of the consequences of not checking some of these email accounts often would be a missed domain renewal. Ouch. Now thanks to iPhone I stay up to date with any new inbound emails.

Early on it was basically just the internet in your pocket. Since then, many Web entities have set up iPhone optimized sites. Here are my top 10 picks in no particular order:

01 Foxnews
The best news site for iPhone. An extremely well designed interface and video integration. (CNN has some catching up to do!)

02. Meebo
Hand-down the best instant messaging app for the iPhone. (Until apple releases a native version of iChat that is) Works with AIM, Yahoo, Google talk, and MSN.

03. Popurls
Great interface of the popular preselected RSS aggregater.

04. Bank of America
Wins best of show in the bank category. Well done! (Good thing I bank with them)

05. LinkedIn
Where business meets social. It could use some improvements but it’s not bad.

06. Amazon
Simple, yet well done interface. Whenever you’re out shopping, you can always get use Amazon as a good barometer for cost. Looks more like a PC than a Mac.

07. iGoogle
Probably the best RSS aggregator in the land. The regular version allows you to set up multiple RSS feeds in arranged in category tabs that you define. This translates beautifully to the iPhone. It’s non-linear interface should serve as an inspiration to other developers. Although, why Google has yet to create a iPhone icon is a mystery to me.

08. Digg
The standard community site for the latest content on the web. I always find great things to read on Digg.

09. Facebook
It’s featured in the latest Apple commercial. Need I say more…

10. Jajah
The best VOIP phone site on the planet. The interface is perfectly executed. Easy to make calls once you’ve set up your contact list. Uses a similar iPhone keypad for entering numbers.