David Emery Online

Too many designers and publishers see the iPad as an opportunity to do all the wrong things—things they once did in Flash—without the taint of Flash.

Vaughan Oliver is one of the great (music) designers. His work is highly original and often breathtakingly beautiful. Probably best known for his work for The Pixies and Cocteau Twins on the 4AD label, Oliver’s designs for Scott Walker, His Name Is Alive, Heidi Berry and many other lesser known names is just as remarkable. For someone who claims to have been uninspired by typography at college, his use of type is a joy. In its gestural expressiveness it focuses and enlivens each design with tremendous inventiveness. Oliver’s work often foregrounds dark images produced by photographers who are essential collaborators in the creative process (key names include Simon Larbalestier, Nigel Grierson and Marc Atkins). Also central to his process is a willingness to experiment and a deep engagement with the music. The result is work that is passionate, elegant and highly influential.

So, Converse is opening a recording studio in Williamsburg, and nobody seems entirely sure what to make of it. Is this a well-earned payday for struggling musicians? A shameless corporate buyout of the last remaining scraps of “indie integrity?”

4AD introduces Twin Shadow, the latest addition to the 30 year-old label, rubbing shoulders alongside the likes of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Bon Iver, Deerhunter and The National. Initially discovered by Grizzly Bear's Chris Taylor, 4AD will release the debut album Forget on November 15th.

British Sea Power release a generous seven-track EP on Monday 4 October. The Zeus EP is the band's first release since The Man Of Aran soundtrack from 2009 and acts as a wild and wunderbar-wonky precursor to the band’s fourth studio album, set for release in 2011.

The new slate -- which Lazaridis described as "the first professional tablet" -- will sport a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display, a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU (the company calls it the "fastest tablet ever"), 1GB of RAM, and a 3 megapixel front-facing camera along with a 5 megapixel rear lens (and yes, there will be video conferencing).

Fujifilm has announced the X100, a large-sensor compact camera aimed at professional and enthusiast photographers. Based around a 12Mp APS-C CMOS sensor, Fuji EXR processor and 23mm F2 Fujinon lens (equivalent to a 35mm semi-wideangle), the classically-styled camera features traditional analogue controls for shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation.

We developed a specific photographic technique for this film. Through long exposures we record an iPad moving through space to make three-dimensional forms in light.

...Sites enable smaller labels and less mainstream artists to spread the word about their talents, said David Emery of Beggars Group, a collection of independent record labels. "Word of mouth has always been incredibly important to us and now it's easier than ever to get the word out there," he said. Different networks play different roles, he added. "Twitter is great for artists interacting directly with fans, like MIA, who has millions of followers and will do things like make a video on her phone and post it on Twitter. That is so much more powerful than traditional marketing.

This is important.

Historically, there’s been a buffer between star and audience. And this buffer was managed by professionals who’d seen it all and told you how and when to play. It was like everybody with a media profile had a coach. And if you disobeyed him, you were booted from the team.

But now, through the magic of the Web, through the magic of Twitter, a celebrity can speak directly to his audience, can tell his side of the story, sans the reinterpretation and the agenda of the media.

We asked Apple to explain and just heard back from a spokesperson that "artist profiles were launched by invitation, but we'll keep adding more and more." No information was provied on who is handing invites or what criteria they are using. But bands do have another option ...kind of. "Any iTunes user can create a profile on Ping, artist or otherwise," reminds Apple.

Google is now telling you the total number of items you’ve read all time. For me, that number stands at 219,652 over these past (nearly) 5 years. I would have thought that would be pretty impressive, but apparently some people are much higher, because the Reader team notes that there’s a 300,000 limit on their tallies.

What would a music experience designed specifically for the modern web look like? This is a question we've been playing around with for the last few months. Browsers and web technologies have advanced so rapidly in the last few years that powerful experiences tailored to each unique person in real-time are now a reality.

He predicts, apparently seriously, that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites.

Without commenting on the article's argument, I nonetheless found this graph immediately suspect, because it doesn't account for the increase in internet traffic over the same period. The use of proportion of the total as the vertical axis instead of the actual total is a interesting editorial choice.

What’s a Dimension then? Well, basically what it says right there on the homepage: “Dimensions takes important places, events and things, and overlays them onto a map of where you are.”

Morisset has worked with designer Caroline Robert to create a digital artwork that appears when the album is played on mp3 players like the iPod or iPhone. The work deliberately echoes the pleasures of old vinyl record sleeves, where the song lyrics were often written out in full. Each track on the album has an individual image that appears on the iPod screen when it is played, with the lyrics of the song then appearing on the screen as they are sung.

...But actually this is one of the most forward-looking electro-guitar pop albums of the year (by turns it mixes Atari Teenage Riot with MIA, the Mary Chain and industrial hip-hop beats). It seems to constantly push you to the edge of your senses and then reels you back in. It wants to give you a headache and then sooth your brow.

I hated the media-creep of iTunes from the start. A dedicated ‘QuickTime Video Library’ would’ve been my preferred solution for Movies and TV shows, a rebuild of iSync to handle MobileMe and iPhone synchronization settings, and a standalone iTunes Store app (or, frankly, web site) for media purchases.

I wonder what it’s like to be 14, to be watching this unfold and have Wikileaks as the base of certain assumptions you will make about media, news, government and information for the rest of your life.

I am proud to live in a world where this is possible.