After the iPad officially opened to pre-order on Friday, CNN took a sample of iPad and other Apple product purchasers to try to get a glimpse at how exactly the fabled tablet is doing in sales. The conclusion? Damn well--but that's not the whole story.

Based on a sampling, CNN estimates the total product sales at Apple's online store to be about 125,000 on Friday. Once you subtract the average sales of 16,500 and multiply by the average number of iPads bought (1.1), you come up with just shy of 120,000 iPads sold. It's an estimate, sure, but a conservative one, and that number is reasonable.

Interestingly, we also find out that that 1.1 order per person is lower than expected; Apple capped the number of iPads per person at 2, but it seems like they needn't have bothered. Aside from that, we find that all three versions by capacity (16GB, 32GB, and 64GB) sold almost exactly equally, but about 70% opted for the Wi-Fi-only model, compared to 30% for the 3G model. That latter stat makes a bit more sense when we take launch dates into consideration: the 3G model won't be out for a few weeks after the Wi-Fi-only model, and those pre-ordering want to get their hands on an iPad as soon as possible.

We don't have pre-order numbers for the original 2G iPhone, which would really be the only fair comparison (the 3GS pre-orders were far higher, but that was the third generation of the hardware; the iPad is only the first of its kind). Still, for the first day of pre-ordering (not even real purchasing--these people have never touched an iPad in real life!), those are big numbers.

[CNN via Gizmodo]

Netflix's grassroots competition to best its recommendation algorithm was a bit popularity booster for the company--but thanks to concerns over privacy (backed up by one troubling example), the company has decided to kill the contest.

Netflix's recommendation engine can be a little wonky. (I know the film Big Fan is about football, and stars comedian Patton Oswalt, but it's also a painful drama written and directed by the guy who wrote The Wrestler, and it's an exceptionally bleak and dark story--so maybe Bring It On isn't the right movie to recommend, eh Netflix?) So they started a contest in which any development team that could create a movie recommendation algorithm more accurate than theirs would will a million dollars. It's a win-win-win: the company gets press, grassroots developers get a chance to win a million dollars, and we all get a better recommendation system.

Unfortunately, Netflix also had to release certain data to these teams for testing, as simply part of the process--and one woman sued for a violation of privacy. The woman was gay, and not broadcasting it, and felt that if her choice of films was made public, she'd be unable to retain her privacy.

The Federal Trade Commission investigated the situation, and Netflix settled the lawsuit for an undiscolsed sum. Unfortunately, the settlement included a section banning Netflix from releasing any more of this data--which means the end of the competition. It's unfortunate, but probably a necessary evil. Netflix will just have to improve their algorithms on their own, now.

[Netflix via PCMag]

How can 1 in 7 people be malnourished in the modern world? A beautifully illustrated video shows the causes.

To understand the complexities of the international food market--and how traders in Chicago can cause Africans to starve--you could get a ph.D. in economics, or read a 400-page report from the World Bank. Or you watch this superb nine minute video, directed by Denis van Waerebeke.

Though ostensibly created for a science show in Paris for 12 year olds, it's actually probably waaaay over a kid's head. Just watch--it's excellent, and very well illustrated:

The video begins with a basic question: How is it that the first world has an oversupply of food, while 1 in 7 in the world go malnourished? Basically, farmers in developing countries have eschewed growing local food crops in favor of growing things like cotton for international export. For food, those countries instead import rice.

That can have disastrous effects. When cotton prices waver, trade revenues plunge, the economy sinks, and there's not enough money for food imports. Obviously, that's a bit of an oversimplification, but the basic story is real---it's called food dependence.

The solutions will involve everyone, the world over. Those in the developing world will need to reignite local food chains. And everyone else will have to become smarter: By 2050, our world population will double. But it's hard to imagine that we'll be able to feed that many people if we keep on consuming like we do. Instead, we'll have to rely on more sustainable farming techniques that don't leave sterile land in their wake--and we'll have to eat more vegetables and less meat--because every pound of meat takes about 7 to 12 times the resources to produce as a pound of veggies.

Still hungry for more infographics videos? Check out the The Crisis of Credit, which illustrates the banking and debt mess that caused the Great Recession.

[Via Infosthetics]

The Us Weekly readers who know freak-folk musician Devendra Banhart as the hippie-haired beardo on the arm of Natalie Portman probably won't recognize him now. The Portman thing ended a while ago, for one. Plus he's wearing glasses these days, prescribed to him when he started getting headaches from poring over his miniscule drawings for a recent art exhibition, he explains in a call from his home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. Also, he'll begin a tour next week to support his latest album, What Will We Be, with a scandalously short-cropped do. "It's like a lesbian librarian," he jokes.

Along with the new bookish look, he's coming out as an accomplished visual artist--his second career that technically came first. His first album The Charles C. Leary, came out in 2002; he's been quietly exhibiting paintings since 1998. He's designed the covers of all but one of his eight albums, too, but people still ask him who's the artist behind them. "I am very grateful that anyone other than my mom is taking an interest in what I do, but it's very funny that people don't even know," he says, joking that it must be because of his teensy signatures. "I do have very small handwriting."

Banhart runs in a circle full of friends he met in the late '90s San Francisco art scene--people such as Tauba Auerbach, Christopher Garrett, and Barry McGee or collaborators such as Adam Tullie, who runs the fashion line Cavern. Many, like him, are both underground or indie musicians and even lesser-known visual artists, such as Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons, members of Gang Gang Dance, and Fabrizio Moretti, the Strokes' drummer. "His stuff is incredible," Banhart says. "He's like Chuck Close!"

The rock-star-slash-painter/illustrator/sculptor is all too common (everyone from Bob Dylan, Sir Paul McCartney, and David Bowie to Iggy Pop, Marilyn Manson, and David Byrne), but Banhart has the experience to back it up. He first attended the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, where his work made its way into local group shows in places like the influential Luggage Store. As his music career blossomed, so did his art, with solo shows at Andrew Roth Gallery in New York and Galerie Mazzoli in Modena in 2006.

For his latest show, created during rare few weeks at home, Banhart made 25 new drawings for ARCOmadrid, Spain's contemporary art fair. The work features watercolor lines wandering throughout an array of creatures and characters, each rendered in earth-toned ink and floating on tiny paper canvasses. The aged sheets, he's ashamed to say, used to be the blank pages torn out of the front of old books. Now reformed, he still looks for vintage materials that come with a bit of history. "It never felt right on a white piece of paper," he says.

The other reason for the small format is, of course, Banhart's own peripatetic life--touring rarely affords a breezy, light-filled space fit for large canvases--but also his penchant for cozier quarters. "I've always lived in small places," he says, like a cabin in nearby Topanga Canyon that was his most recent residence.

As for inspirations, Banhart cites favorite artists that range from Cy Twombly to John Cage, but his actual heroes are more literary than visual. He's likely to get charged up by the words of Kurt Vonnegut and Neil Gaiman or short Japanese poetry. But that's because his visual art comes from the words of his own songs--his most recent drawings, for example, took shape in the early stages of his songwriting.

At first, when it was only Banhart and his guitar, he would work through the kinks in his songs by creating art on the reverse pages of his music notebooks. "I have a book where I'm revising lyrics and have sketches," he says. "When I'm done with everything then I use that as a reference point." Turning this visual art into album artwork becomes a secondary process of completing the album, something too personal to farm out to other artists, he says. For example, the cover art for What We Will Be (at top) began as two profiles that became two people looking at each other, and when the album was finished, they were united into a singular face.

He sees the imminent extinction of the CD, leaving only MP3s and vinyl, and he welcomes the revolution. Even his art catalogues have begun to take the form of hybrid box set: A limited-editon catalogue from a gallery show at Galerie Mazzoli in Modena comes with MP3s and a tiny zine.

Though he takes his album artwork very seriously, he has a fairly flip approach to the business of music. "With music there's so many limbs and facets," he says. "Video and touring and merchandise and all those little things require attention. They're artist things but I tend to joke around too much with those things." For example? "My videos are shit and my t-shirts have the Chicago Bulls logo on it. But I think it's funny." It's not as if the music is his bread and butter. "I make very little money doing both things," he says of his songwriting and visual art, "but I make more money doing visual art."

When this latest tour wraps, Banhart plans to move back into artist mode, curating a show in New York, participating in some group shows, and participating in an upcoming exhibition at a gallery in Spain, which will feature his drawings alongside the photography of musician Beck Hansen (simply "Beck" to most).

But it's the next potential collaboration that might finally change the way people know him best. "I've been talking with Jeffrey Deitch about doing a show," he says of L.A.'s newest and most infamous museum director, who will close his gallery and move here in June. Banhart has long aspired to a big solo show with Deitch. "For three years I've been putting it off," he says. Suddenly, it seems the critically-acclaimed musician with almost a decade's worth of touring and recording is on the verge of a big break--in the art world.

Banhart photo by Lauren Dukoff

NPR's Planet Money produces an astounding infographic that shows just how bad a bet the banks made when they went crazy for bundles of subprime mortgages.

Toxic assets brought our economy to its knees. You remember those, right? They were bundles of sub-prime mortgages, which were sold to banks like bonds. As the bundled mortgages were paid off each month, they promised a steady portion of the cash.

For the banks that bought these assets, the problems began when people couldn't pay the mortgages.

NPR's Planet Money--which brought you the Giant Pool of Money story that explained the entire mess--wanted to get a more concrete picture of the foreclosure crisis gripping the country. So the bought a single toxic asset, formerly worth $75,000, for a mere $1,000. And they've tracked its progress in a superb infographic, detailing that assets performance from December 2006 to the present day. (Graphic above, explanatory video below.)

The chart includes a map of where all the troubled mortgages in the asset are coming from, and a pie chart and bar chart showing the composition of the asset.

So how's it faring? Not so well. When first bought, the asset was a bunch of good mortgages, which could potentially have paid off the investment quite handily:

But now, a large share of those mortgages are in trouble. Only 2/3 are either paid off or current; the rest are in foreclosure or liquidation.

As you can see in the bar charts above, almost all of the houses represented in the asset have been sold off for a loss--meaning there's no more mortgage to pay off Planet Money.

Now, there's one thing to note: As the $1,000 price (and the $74,000 discount) indicates, Planet Money bought a particularly troubled bunch of mortgages. The results of their experiment are probably far more extreme than you'd see buying assets that sold for less of a discount. Their security includes some of the worst mortgages around. But these are very bad indeed.

If you don't listen to the Planet Money podcast, you should: Published twice a week, there's absolutely no better resource out there, for anyone looking for explanations about the state our world economy.

[Via GOOD]

Used in everything from soup to nutritional supplements and skincare products, sharks are a multi-billion dollar, global, mostly unregulated industry. Now conservationists want to declare eight species endangered.

With a powerful torpedo-shaped body almost the size of a bus, the ability to sniff out one drop of blood in 25 gallons of water--or up to three miles away--and fearsome toothy jaws, it's no wonder the very thought of sharks can send shivers up the spine. (Cue the theme music from Jaws).

But these deep-sea predators have much more to fear from humans than the other way around. Used in everything from soup to nutritional supplements and skincare products, sharks represent a multi-billion dollar global industry and the growing demand is pushing them towards extinction. Alas, even these eating machines have champions. And if they have their day during the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of Parties, which starts Saturday, eight shark species will be protected to ensure the sustainable trade of their products--oceanic whitetips, scalloped, smooth and great hammerheads, sandbar sharks, porbeagle sharks, and spiny dogfish (a type of shark).

It's not going to be easy. The shark trade--especially in fins--is a predatory business. Think: shark cartel overlords, gangs, and smugglers (PDF file) who routinely take part in a lucrative, yet grisly, dealings estimated to bring in over a billion dollars annually.

Add in the fact that shark fin soup--once a luxe Chinese delicacy reserved for special occasions--is now available to the rising middle class whose demand is not only growing, its spreading west.

Then there's the well-meaning American Cancer Society touting the benefits of shark liver oil as a complementary or alternative form of treatment for cancer and other diseases. Sprinkle in a few general misconceptions such as sharks deliberately targeting human prey and you have the makings of a morass the size of a gaggle of great whites.

Here's what we do know: Sharks have been around in some form for about 400 million years. Just because they've toughed it out for so long doesn't mean they're invincible. Sharks are slow growers. They mature late, have a small number of offspring, and are slow to recover their population if it is depleted.

Oceana's marine scientist Kerri Lynn Miller points out that because sharks are at the top of the marine food chain they are invaluable to maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems. "No one knows exactly what the oceans will look like without sharks, but some possibilities include economically important fisheries shut down; coral reefs shift to algae dominated systems; seagrass beds decline; and species diversity and abundance decline with the loss of habitats."

Any of these scenarios could have a huge environmental and economic impact. Unfortunately the bad PR surrounding shark attacks continues to make it difficult for people to get warm and fuzzy about predators. Even though shark attacks have declined sharply in the U.S. in recent years, most notably to only 28 in 2009, according to a study by the University of Florida who also have proven you are statistically more likely to be struck and killed by lightning than you are by the teeth of a shark.

But Miller underscores one of the more cruel aspects of shark harvesting. "Shark fins are the most lucrative portion of the shark, so it is more advantageous for the fishermen to cut off the fins and through the remaining body over board."

In the United States and other countries, fishermen are required to land sharks with their fins in a 5% fin-to-body ratio (meaning they must keep the bodies on board the boat) adds Miller. However, according to the World Wildlife Foundation, 50% of all shark fins sold in the world come through a market in Hong Kong where trade is largely unregulated.

Steven Weathers, producer and host of Foreigner Perspective who resides in Shanghai says shark fin soup is often served in China at formal banquets, particularly at weddings or large celebrations where the host wants to treat his guests to the most expensive delicacies. "I've seen some restaurants serve small bowls of the soup for about 100 USD." Weathers notes that much of the shark fin served in China is rumored to be fake now. "Mashed up bones and cartilage of other fish are reshaped as shark fin," he says. It would be difficult to tell because shark fin doesn't have a taste on its own, it draws flavor from the broth which is--you guessed it--chicken.

Stateside, plenty of Chinese restaurants continue to serve the controversial dish that was deemed so fine as to be on Alice Waters' plate should she be able to choose her last meal on earth. The queen of all things organic and sustainable later recanted this wish, but a recent call to the Wynn's Las Vegas restaurant, Wing Lei, confirmed that while shark fin soup is not listed on the menu, it is available--and served daily. (Calls to confirm the origin of the fins or the price of the dish were met with a request to call back later, and then a period on hold that became far too long to endure.)

In any case, Miller says there are measures being taken to preserve the species in the U.S. The House passed the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 and it's now in the Senate's hands to determine whether sharks should be landed whole with their fins naturally attached. "This would ban shark finning within U.S. waters," she says.

For now, the global future of the species rests, at least in part, in the convention proceedings. A CITES Appendix II listing would limit trade to sustainable levels by requiring export permits. By limiting trade to sustainable levels Miller says, "It would put a threshold on the number of sharks that are being caught and would help to quantify how many sharks are being killed."

No joke: this is your last chance to get a ticket to attend Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored conference on April 21.

Who will be there? Along with the editors and writers from this magazine (which is being honored as a finalist for ASME's Magazine of the Year), you'll get direct access to people from the inspired companies that you read about in Fast Company and FastCompany.com every day. Here's the lineup:

Mark Parker, CEO, NIKESusan M. Lyne, CEO, GILT GROUPESean Maloney EVP/GM, INTEL ARCHITECTURE GROUPDave Stewart, SINGER, SONGWRITER, COFOUNDER, EURYTHMICSTero Ojanperä, EVP, NOKIAMcG, FOUNDER, WONDERLAND SOUND AND VISION (and director of Terminator: Salvation)Alex Bogusky, CHIEF CREATIVE INSURGENT, MDC Ashton Kutcher, Actor and Co-Founder, Katalyst Matt Kistler, SVP of Sustainability, Walmart Anne Globe, Head of Worldwide Marketing and Consumer Products, DreamWorks Noreena Hertz, Professor, Cambridge University

The conference is going to be intimate enough to give you access to the business visionaries in attendance, so that provocative thinking and collaboration can take place.

Innovation Uncensored takes place on Wednesday, April 21, at the Edison Ballroom on West 47th Street in New York City. You can buy tickets right here.

Complex Magazine rounds up their 50 favorite Photoshop moments in honor of the software's 20th birthday.

Photoshop turns 20 this year, and in honor of 20 years of making the impossible possible--or at least easier--Complex Magazine has teamed up with Brooklyn design studio Chips to gather their 50 favorite moments in Photoshop history. They're hilarious, and hilariously true.

All the memes are here, from the Montauk Monster to Nicolas Cage. Cory Arcangel's gradients make an appearance. So does Coudal Partners' Layer Tennis. On a more serious note, they include Brian Walski's infamously manipulated Iraq war photo for the L.A. Times and Iran's faked missile launch. But it's Complex, after all, so the most screen time goes to awesomely bad mixtape album covers, most by the mad geniuses of Pen and Pixel Graphics, who rose to fame on the '90s Houston rap scene. It only speaks to the program's power that it enables designers (and everyone else) to make everything from this to this.

For a little nostalgia, check out this anniversary video from Adobe. It opens with bolo-tied Photoshop founder Russell Brown demonstrating Photoshop's "most unethical" uses on an ancient Mac and nay-saying Fred Ritchin warning that Photoshop will make the public "disbelieve photographs generally" and that photographs "won't be as effective and powerful a document of social communication as it has been for the last 150 years." How naive. Jump to 2010, Russell (bolo intact) sits with John Knoll, Thomas Knoll, and Steve Guttman to discuss the impact of their 20-year-old idea.

[Via Design Observer]

The Guggenheim is auctioning off the works displayed in its recent exhibition, Contemplating the Void.

Recently, we brought you a slideshow preview of a lovely exhibition at the Guggenheim, Contemplating the Void, which runs through April 28. In it, the Guggenheim invited 200 artists and designers to imagine radical installations for the interior of the museum--fantastical ideas for turning the famous central atrium into something entirely new.

Well, if you liked a piece from the show, you might also be able to own it: The Guggenheim is auctioning off 95% of the pieces. The list of works is basically a hit parade of architects and designers you're read about quite often on FastCompany.com--including (covered Snøhettahere); BIG (covered here); Toyo Ito (covered here); Joris Laarman (covered here and pictured below); Marti Guixe (covered here); and MVRDV, which was most recently one of our 50 Most Innovative Companies.

Obviously, a few of the works, such as the one up top by artist Matthew Ritchie, are likely to go for several thousand dollars. But most of those by architects and designers will probably be had for a couple hundred bucks.

Finally! Our wildest dreams for hobo-tech can now be had for $250.

As a regular reader of FastCompany.com, you know that we keep sharp about developments in hobotech: From hobo-conventions for techies to rolling hobo shelters. So it's with great excitement that we bring you the JakPak, a jacket that converts into a tent.

Previously, we'd only seen student concepts of this sort of idea. But the JakPak--pardon the egregious, vaguely pornographic name--will be available for $250 this spring.

It's loaded with features, suited to three seasons of camping (spring, summer, and fall). The jacket itself is breathable and waterproof--it even has a routing system for iPod cords. Inside, extra fabric in the lining can be unfurled, to create a sleeping bag. There's then another large flap, integrated into the back, that converts the sleeping bag into a one-person tent. The jacket interior even contains a mosquito net. Granted, the confined space might take some getting used to, but this is pretty genius for overnight hikes where packing tent poles and the like seems excessive. Or for long sojourns across America, while you're riding the rails, eating beans from a can.

[Via NotCot]

Using a video projection and text-message billing, a new project opens up hearts and wallets to problem of homelessness.

A problem like homelessness hides in plain sight: It's easy not to give, because, as any city dweller knows, you simply don't notice the homeless after a time. And even if you intend to be charitable, you're probably loathe to give change--and neglectful in following up with the right charities.

[youtube SWhdY-9DC0M]

Those dilemmas are solved in a new installation created for the charity Pathways to Housing created by digitial agency Sarkissian Mason. First, there's a project of a shivering homeless person projected on the open street; viewers can then donate directly to the charity via SMS, via a number shown on the installation.

By way of giving credit where due, the idea of projecting video of homeless people actually isn't new. But the combination with the txt-message giving is brilliant. Non-profits from the Red Cross to NPR have raised massive amounts of money via text message, simply because of how simple it is--when giving becomes as easy as texting, you can get people to open their wallets precisely at the moment you've reached them. There's no loss from the countless people who thought to give but failed to follow up. (Which has probably been all of us, several times over.) The biggest example so far: The Red Cross's recent text-giving drive benefiting Haiti, which raised tens of millions in a matter of days.

Evan Williams, one of the founders of Twitter, has given a lengthy interview to the BBC World Service, in which he claims that social media is fundamental to the spread of democracy. Or should that be the other way around? In the 30-minute program, which debuts tonight, he also touched on why he turned down an offer from Facebook, and why the company is focusing on money first of all. "Our goal at Twitter is to be a force for good," he said, as he outlined plans for the Web site's expansion throughout the world.

"We can't change the world if we can't pay for our servers and employees," he said, while admitting that a scalable business model for Twitter was still very much a work in progress. "What we want to do is build something into the product that makes us money and makes the product better. And the more people that use Twitter, the more money we make, the better we can make Twitter."

The company is trying to improve SMS coverage in India and Haiti, but Williams admits there is nothing he can do about his site's being blocked by the Chinese authorities. "My hope is that eventually the open exchange of information will prevail in most regions, but we don't have any specific plans in China or other areas where we're blocked."

Asked about his who his favorite celebrity tweeter was, Williams plumped for White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. "He's using it to give these sort of inside peeks from the White House and behind the scenes. He's definitely using it as part of their strategy and supporting Obama, so that seems important because it's really changing the game there.

"I think Twitter will be a fundamental part of how people interact with their government. I think it will be how you get personal, customized information from every entity you care about, from your local café to your government, from your politician to your friends and family."

When quizzed about the rumored half-billion offer from Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook, however, Williams turned coy. "Most of the biggest and most interesting services are independent. I believe that companies that are independent are more competitive, ultimately. What we're working on is technology that has the power to change things, and that's very, very exciting and motivating."

The Interview is due to be broadcast at 6.30 p.m. EST this evening, and will be available as a podcast here.

[Via BBC News]

Although the NBC Universal-Comcast hook-up was announced at the end of last year, it's taken three months for the FCC and the Justice Department to decide whether they're going to scrutinize the merger. (More time, even, than it took 30 Rock to parody the merger -- clip from Thursday night's show below). And the answer is yes, apparently, they will investigate.

While the antitrust bit of the deal will be handled by Justice, the FCC review will go up close on the details, such as spectrum allocation, universal service and the diversity of news. The review will take anything upwards of a year, apparently.

[Via New York Post] 

The spat between Google and the Chinese government has been rumbling along for weeks, but just now it's been elevated to "fist fight" status: The inevitable strongly-worded Chinese warning about "consequences" has arrived.

The warning came today from the Minister of Industry and IT, Li Yizhong, who was speaking to reporters at the annual National People's Congress meeting. Li was, of course, diplomatic about the matter and noted that the government does actually support Google in its efforts to "expand its business and market share in China."

But then the gloves came off: "If [Google] violates Chinese laws it would be unfriendly and irresponsible and [it] will definitely be responsible for the consequences." This is the most direct threat yet toward the global search engine giant, and highlights that the Chinese government is not going to budge one millimeter from its official legal position. If Google, for whatever reason, decides to stop censoring its search results which it currently does to comply with the strict Dark Ages-style active censorship laws the Chinese demand, then China will simply snip off access to Google, and really won't care about the matter.

Basically, this seems to be the start of the Chinese lock-down. It comes after months of posturing which started with Google's (and others) accusations of serious hacking attempts from China, possibly with state complicity, and which has recently got confusing over whether or not Google and China are in direct dialog. Google may well have threatened to withdraw from China, after first uncensoring its search engine...but as of yet it appears to have made no active moves to enact the threats. And maybe that's the point--it's been being inscrutable, and waiting for exactly this new Chinese posturing.

And this almost makes it seem like Google's behaving with the same diplomatic grace and guile of a real nation. Which is amusing, given the slightly fudged and hands-off handling the actual U.S. government is exhibiting in its dealings with this case--demonstrated neatly by a new official State Department report that condemns China's "numerous and serious" rights abuses, but which is merely a paper threat. Does Google have more direct impact on human rights and freedoms in China than the Obama Administration? That's a scary thought. We'll all have to see what the next plays are in the Google-China battle to find out.

[Via Yahoo, Breitbart]

Apple's iPad went on pre-order for the lucky Amer'cans today (the rest of us have to wait an interminable extra week or so) but Apple also revealed a little more about its iBooks effort. Guess what? It's surprisingly open. 

Clicking on the iPad page at Apple.com now reveals a segment in the "Features" tab that explains much more about the iPad e-reading iBooks app and its supporting iBookstore service than we've heard until now. It's due to launch at the same time as the iPad--April 3rd--and iBooks will serve as e-reader, book-shelving service and portal to the Apple digital book store. 

We knew iBooks would support the open-standard ePub books format (recently championed by a group of tech-industry e-book hopefuls, including Sony) but we didn't know for sure whether that meant you could read any ePub-formatted text, in a similar way to being able to drop any old MP3 into an iPod, as well as officially-purchased Apple tracks. Now we know: And yes, you can. This goes a long way to boosting the iPad's functionality of course, and means you'll be able to drop files in that you've purchased from other e-bookstores that perhaps have deals with publishers that Apple's not pulled into the fold yet.

More features are also outlined: You can switch between single-page mode when holding iPad like a notepad, and double-page when holding it like an open book in landscape mode automatically. For accessibility purposes you can select the font size to make things easier to read, and you can choose fonts you may prefer. Tapping a word in an e-book will bring up a dictionary definition from the built-in Apple dictionary, or take you to Wikipedia or the web to do more in-depth research (a definite boon for those planning to use iPad in an educational context.) VoiceOver is also enabled, meaning you can get text read aloud automatically...though we're waiting for the Author's Guild to get their panties in a bunch over this, the same way they did for the Kindle.

And the specifications page on the iPad store also reveals something that's not been mentioned much on the Intertubes: The iPad has a "screen rotation lock" switch on its side control panel. And that's fabulous, solving one problem that irritates iPhone users currently--that of the display autorotating the "wrong" way when you lie down in bed to read a page or watch a video. Clearly the iPad is going to be used more like this than the iPhone, and Apple's thought about it.

What we still don't know is whether or not Apple will bolt in FairPlay DRM to books sold through its iBooks portal, so you can access them on devices other than the iPad, and when iBooks will roll out around the rest of the world. But watch this space--it won't be long until Apple reveals more on this.

[via MacRumors]

To read more news like this, not yet in ePub format, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.

We've joked about the robocalypse a lot, but robot tech really is developing at one hell of a clip. And you may be rubbing, um, shoulders with robo-house assistants sooner than you think, as two recent developments from France and Japan remind us.

First up is France's Robosoft with Kompai, who's specifically designed to assist old people at home, with a nod toward the well-known "aging population" problem that's facing developed nations--Japan in particular. (Just be sure to keep your Old Glory robot insurance policy paid up.) There've been several prototype devices over the years that aim to do the same sort of things as Kompai, but they totally lack the simplicity and, let's face it, panache that Kompai demonstrates. He's designed to be super-simple to interact with, with a plain PC screen and a massively voice-centric control system. Check him out in the video below, where you should be impressed at how clever the thing is, and how potentially useful in the home, even if his potential is somewhat stymied by the lack of arms.

[youtube GciSisi1cMg]

Did anyone else get slightly creepy reminders of Serge, the similarly-shaped, and similarly eloquent robo-butler from Caprica?

But while Kompai is quite definitely designed to serve mankind in a caring, sharing role, Toshiba's Wheelie--also a tall, narrow wheeled robot--has more materialistic aims. In a recent demonstration, it looks like the Wheelie machines, which are no-doubt jam-packed with mega-clever electronics to help them balance and navigate their way around your home, have no more exalted a task than ferrying around your TV dinner from microwave to couch, or possibly whisking hors d'ouvres and champers among your guests at a dinner party.

[youtube Y_qEn5MZJTs]

I, for one, welcome the arrival of our robot underlings.

[Via Physorg, Engadget]

Inhabitants of the picturesque village of Woolhampton, 50 miles west of London, are set to be guinea pigs for an interesting broadband experiment. Virgin Media is to trial running fiber-optic cables from telegraph poles, piping ultra-fast broadband direct to the villagers' homes.

Although you might think that it's just case of stringing up the cables on the existing above-ground network, it's apparently a bit more complicated than that. Workmen will have to install new poles, dig up the cable, stick it on the top of the pole, and then flick the switch.

If the six-month trial does work, the good burghers of Woolhampton will see their Internet speeds increase tenfold to a tidy 50 mbps. Virgin Media is pretty excited about the project, saying that it will help them "understand the possibilities of aerial deployment and may provide an exciting new way to extend next-generation broadband services."

There are, however, a couple of problems. Firstly, it would make the network more vulnerable to a terrorist attack, and secondly, someone taking the telegraph pole out--like this:

It would lead to the whole neighborhood's Internet connections going AWOL. And knitting a complex bunch of fibers back together isn't so simple as a basic soldering job.

Virgin Media, presumably, will have taken into consideration the physical problems, such as the added weight to the cables in icy weather, but it does mean that maintenance fees will tumble, meaning maximum benefit to the ISPs (definitely) and cheaper broadband for us (err, I'll get back to you on that one.)

[Via SamKnows. Images Via Flickr and Telegraph--ironically enough]

Christoph Niemann's latest project is an atlas of daily life.

Maps aren't just for getting around anymore; they've become so ubiquitous--and so easy to manipulate--that they're more like raw materials that artists, designers, and everyone else use to make sense of the world as it is, or just make a new one. Sharing the shelves with dozens of newly compiled atlases of historic cartography are books like The Map as Art or Strange Maps, which show all the weird, alternative uses people find for boring old geography. There's an imaginary, world-wide metro, or Christian Nold's San Francisco Emotion Map. And now, Christoph Niemann's on the case.

Niemann, the man behind the blog-post-now-book I LEGO N.Y., takes on Google Maps as his newest canvas, turning daily life (like making omelets or going through airport security) into tangles roads and highways. No street view necessary: the map is the picture.

[More at The New York Times]

For the Meat Packing District eatery due to open March 17, designers ICrave hired artists on Craigslist and Etsy, a plumber who also designs lighting fixtures in styrofoam, a former Swiss goldsmith who recycles street signs, and a pair of women carpenters from Brooklyn who create dazzling floors from reclaimed wood.

You know times have changed when a new restaurant in Manhattan's swank Meatpacking District brags that its decor has been scavenged from junk yards, flea markets, and discarded packing materials. But that's exactly the shabby aesthetic that The Collective, which opens on St. Patrick's Day, aims to make chic for folks who don't mind eating burgers on sofas possibly found on curbs ("Totally reupholstered!" designers insist to the bed-bug-phobics among us.)

ICrave, the outfit that previously designed such tony venues as NYC clubs Tenjune and Crobar, the W Atlanta Hotel Midtown, and the markets at the T5 JetBlue Terminal at JFK, is behind the re-do of what formerly was One Little West 12th. "The owner wanted something new but didn't want something expensive," says lead designer Robert DelPazzo, echoing a mantra that many designers have been hearing from clients for the past, dismal year. "To renovate in this velvet ropey area for less than a million is unheard of. We basically did it for one tenth the cost."

To save money, ICrave recruited artists on Craigslist and Etsy, assembling a team that included a plumber who also worked designs lighting fixtures in styrofoam, a former Swiss goldsmith who recycles street signs, and a pair of women carpenters from Brooklyn who create dazzling floors from reclaimed wood.

Various columns in the space are covered with deflated balloons, old twist-ties, or junk jewelry. A wall of slot machines, unearthed in flea markets in upstate New York, will glow against one wall. There will be around 150 pieces of recycled furniture in the space, reborn in ICrave's workshop. "One sofa will be reupholstered in jeans, another in an ugly granny pattern, but stenciled with skulls," says DelPazzo. "Each piece is funny and unique in its own way." A drink named "Dirty Granny," will honor the old dames.

Remnants of New York City will abound, from old subway doors to parking meters seeing new life as lamps. There will be a swarm of butterflies crafted from old LPs, and a flock of birds made from old steel license plates --- two from every state. The bar is embellished with battered muffin tins from a defunct bakery, and the hostess stand is a repurposed jet engine. "Every object represents layers and layers of found things," he says.

The menu will forgo the neighborhood's precious vittles in favor of small plates of upscale comfort food--mac 'n cheese, burgers, pizzas. "The owner wanted something not glitzy, something approachable," says DelPazzo.

In a nod to our recent economic doldrums, Icrave has even resurrected the Depression Era folkart custom of the Memory Pot--a pot with small mementoes affixed to it that remind one of a lost loved one--Grampa's watch, Auntie's buttons and thimble. But this is Manhattan, not Mayberry, so this tradition naturally has a twist. "We have one with a doll's head glued on it," says DelPazzo. "It's a little creepy."

Anything that Stella McCartney can do, Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Penn Ritchie Insert Your Name Here And Win A Prize! obviously feels she can do better. She's just inked a deal with Iconix Brand Group that will see her producing a range of clothes for children that will be sold at Macy.

The MG Icon range (that's Material Girl) will cost between $12 and $40 and comprise of back-to-school apparel, footwear, handbags, and jewelry. It'll be interesting to know which of her looks the once-chameleonic star will take inspiration from. As far as I can remember, the Disco Slut era was followed by the Lapsed Catholic Slut era, which in turn begat the Days of Tassels-On-Ma-Wotsits, and Italians Do It Better. What is most ironic about this announcement is that, while once she really was a fashion icon, recent years have seen her pottering about in Adidas tracksuits, Ed Hardy tees, and big puffy anoraks. A new set of priorities, perhaps.

And then there was this--M's first foray into fashion retailing: her collection for H&M. Capsule-like in its unadventurousness, the only thing you could really say about it was don't light a cigarette while you're wearing any of the mainly-black, mostly-shiny garments. There was also, if I remember rightly, a risible pair of sunglasses with a gilt M on the arms.

While the statement from Iconix was positively fawning spaniel-like in its euphoria, Madonna's was a bit more cool. "Joining forces to bring my fashion ideas to consumers is very exciting for me," she said. But you've got to give her a break. Famed for her multi-tasking, she probably whipped off this statement at the same time she was chowing down on some macrobiotic mung beans, minimizing her bingo wings, laying down the lyrics for her next album, showing up on The Marriage Ref, feeding the chickens, healing the world, and berating an assistant.

Those of you who feel too old to be able to really work the look will have to wait for the singer's fragrance to be released sometime next year. As to what it will smell like--money, a virgin?--well, your guess is as good as mine.

[Via Daily Mail]