iPhone and iPod Touch users looking for something extra in the way of wallpapers to suit their style, personality and profession should find this useful. Smashing Magazine has compiled 100 beautiful iPhone wallpapers designed by some of the finest and most creative artists around.

The wallpapers are 320×480 pixels in resolution and cover typography, nature, retro and vintage, illustrations and artwork, Apple wallpapers, abstract and space. All are clickable and linked to their source.

At this week’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Apple Inc. unveiled the latest member of its laptop computer family, the MacBook Wheel. At 13.3 inches, it’s the first laptop without a traditional keyboard. As Senior Product Innovator Brian Gilman put it, “At Apple our philosophy is create products that are simple to use, and nothing’s more simple than a single, giant button.”

The MacBook Wheel won’t be available for several months, but tech reporter Jeff Tate was able to test drive one. Andrea Bennett has the story.

While most of us were ringing in the new year, California police officers were preparing for the text-messaging law, SB 28, that went into effect on January 1. It bans writing, sending, or reading a text-based communication while driving on the highways of the golden state as posted on the Department of Motor Vehicles’ web site.

Frankly, I’m amazed that such a law was needed. I mean, common sense should have made it unnecessary. But apparently a wake-up call to the swerving clueless among us was needed. Texting has become a big deal, especially among teens, but I hadn’t noticed until recently just how many of them do it while driving. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention to fellow drivers with whom I share the highways before the law went into effect, but I am now and what I’m seeing scares me.

Bear in mind, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger just signed the hands-free cell phone law in September although the fines, if you’re caught in violation, aren’t very steep. Yet, now that I’m paying closer attention, I’m noticing that a lot of people — and not just teens — are talking on hand helds or texting in the lanes next to me.

It’s as though they’re thumbing their collective noses at law enforcement. Or maybe they’re rich and aren’t swayed by the prospect of shelling out the bucks for fines if they’re caught. Or maybe they’re just too stupid to realize they’re putting other people’s lives — yours and mine — at risk. Maybe they just don’t give a damn.

In any event, I wonder what can be done about it. There aren’t enough police officers available these days to nab red light runners or drunk drivers, so I imagine texters are way down the priority lists of the few officers we do have. Would it help if we called 911 and reported abusers? Or would that be considered a non-emergency call?

I don’t have the answers. If anyone does, I’m all ears.

My favorite illustrator, John Cox, came up with this illustration last year that echoes, I think, public sentiment, especially during these trying economic times. Many believe we are abandoning our nation’s manufacturing roots in favor of becoming a country that makes nothing and buys everything from abroad but likes to think we’ll be dominant in the development of technology (with any related manufacturing, of course, being outsourced offshore.) Whew! Long sentence!

I think we’re deluding ourselves. We could regain our dominance in manufacturing if we simply uncoupled ourselves from labor unions. Why can’t we compete in auto manufacturing, even against Japanese auto makers who manufacture cars right here in the U.S.A.? Because the Japanese car makers are exempt from our trade unions (and aren’t financially hamstrung trying to support a bottom heavy legacy pension plan, but that’s another issue for another day). Hardly a level playing field, is it. But what are we doing about it? Nothing.

Anyway, I thought John’s illustration was particularly poignant at this time of year when we’re concerned about our economy and vanishing manufacturing roots. Fisher-Price, Mattel - many of this country’s major toy manufacturers - have outsourced the manufacturing of their toys to China, and quality and safety have suffered. Not too many years ago, Americans wouldn’t have accepted poor quality. But we’ve become a nation of “sheeple,” too fat and lazy to do anything about it. I hope we rediscover our cajones before it’s too late.

Got this from Mike. I fear some folks are going to be left high and dry come February…

Check out this cool video wall my son, Rick, just installed at Safe Credit Union’s corporate offices. Six 40-inchers!

We spent Sunday evening with good friends enjoying Sisko’s excellent chili, Michael’s choice cigars and some fine Napa Valley red wines. The “guy talk” eventually rolled around to how as kids we’d all made rubber band guns — pretty much a piece of wood with a handle and a wooden clothes pin attached to the back or top to hold a stretched rubber band — and how seldom we see kids making them today. It’s probably the fault of merchandising. The unfortunate result? Kids are no longer satisfied with “home made”, not when they can buy this…

…which, of course, leads to this when they need more firepower.

You know, technology is great, but I think our simple “single round” shooters were more fun, easier to make, cost less and, if a “part” broke, we just replaced the firing mechanism (clothes pin) or made a whole new gun! Kids today miss the joy of building something from nothing using only their imaginations, ingenuity and sense of discovery.

One of my favorite blog reads has been The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs penned by Forbes’ Dan Lyons, known to most of us as Fake Steve Jobs or FSJ. So, like many regular readers, I wondered what was going on when last month he wrote that he was “sailing away” and would be writing as “Real Dan” instead of “Fake Steve”.

Well, here’s what happened. After 10 years, Dan is leaving (or has already left) Forbes to fill the vacancy at Newsweek left by Steven Levy, who is moving on to Wired. Dan’s new blog, Real Dan, is up and running. Check it out. If “Dan” evolves as did “Fake Steve”, it’ll be a fun read.

Apple Inc. said Monday that it sold 1 million of its new 3G iPhones over the weekend amid high demand for the device that was greeted with long lines and long activation times around the world. In a statement, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the new iPhone was “clearly off to a great start,” as it took Apple 74 days to sell 1 million of the first version of the iPhone. …

Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said Apple’s iPhone sales exceeded his estimates of 425,000 units for the weekend, and that global demand is better than expected. “This trend will likely continue,” Munster said, as Apple plans to roll out the iPhone in 70 countries over the next few months. Munster estimates Apple will sell 4.1 million iPhones in the current quarter, and sales could reach 45 million units in 2009. Full story

As for Apple’s new online AppStore during the same weekend, users downloaded more than 10 million applications! AppStore has more than 800 native applications for iPhone and iPod touch. Of that number, more than 200 are offered for free and more than 90% are priced at less than $10.

The new 3G iPhone goes on sale worldwide today at 8 a.m. And just like last year, when Apple introduced the first iPhone, eager buyers are lined up to gear up. At our local Apple Store in Arden Fair Mall, there are already more than 500 of the faithful waiting for the doors to open. Many spent the night.

But most seem unaware of a new AT&T calling plan they’ll encounter when the buy their new piece of technology They’ll have to sign up for it at the time of purchase and it will cost them $20-$40 a month more than the old plan. Ouch! But there’s apparently an alternative: They can trade in their old iPhone for a shiny new 3G model (presumably remaining on their old calling plan) for $175.

I reported on this a few months ago. At the time, it was being described as a $400 iPhone that could be bundled with a 2-year calling plan for $199-$299. I think that’s essentially what they’re still doing, albeit with a twist on the presentation.

Coincidently, I believe my contract with Verizon ends this month. Dawn already has an iPhone… I’d like a new phone… hmmmm.

The incandescent light bulb is a quintessential American invention, discovered by Thomas Edison more than 125 years ago, but its future seems to be fading to black amid an ever-greening society. As Americans become more environmentally conscious, consumers are being pushed to buy more earth friendly products including compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs, the latest help-the-planet issue du jour among concerned citizens.

At the federal level, President Bush signed an energy bill in December that, among other changes, will require all light bulbs sold in the United States by 2014 to be at least 70 percent more efficient than today. For those of you that haven’t already connected the dots, the mandate means that, without major improvements, incandescent bulbs will disappear from store shelves by 2014.

After Congress delivered its comprehensive energy bill to the White House in a Toyota Prius hybrid car, U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat, waxed poetic about light bulbs, noting that little had changed since Edison and his glass tube and filament. “When it comes to illumination,” Harman said, “we still live in a cave.”

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Oil prices are at record highs. The overwhelming dependence of our cars and trucks on oil strains family budgets, threatens our national security and contributes to global warming. Plug-in electric vehicles have the potential to significantly reduce the United States’ dependence on oil. Yet can this potential be realized? If so, how? Is there a national interest in putting millions of plug-in vehicles on the road soon? How should policymakers in Washington, D.C., respond?

On June 11 and 12, the Brookings Institution and Google.org hosted a conference titled “Plug-in Electric Vehicles 2008: What Role for Washington?” The conference placed a spotlight on plug-in electric vehicles, examining their potential, their viability, and the pros and cons of different federal policies to promote them.

Transcripts and videos will be posted on the site soon. Meanwhile, I’ve been checking into available electric cars as a possible replacement for my gas guzzling Range Rover. Honda’s Civic Hybrid delivers an estimated 45 mpg, but with a gallon of gasoline approaching $5, it’s not as attractive to me as it might have been when a gallon ran a mere $3.25. There are several concept electrics in the pipeline, but none seem quite ready for prime time. However, I think I’ve settled on this one…

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When we vacationed last July with Cindy and Ray, Cindy had just bought a mobile GPS to help her navigate our Sacramento>Carmel>Yosemite>Folsom road trip in case our cars became separated. As I recall, she had some problems with it… beginning with getting it to stick to her windshield and later with its disagreeing with the fancy schmancy GPS in our car. So when I saw this Randall Munroe ‘toon, I immediately thought of them… and the wonderful memories came rushing back.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention that, along with April Fools’ Day, yesterday marked the 32nd anniversary of Apple, Inc. In its 80th Anniversary issue, Time Magazine revisits a 2003 story titled, “80 Days that Changed the World” that includes a piece about how Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ushered in the personal computer with the founding of Apple on April 1, 1976:

They were two guys named Steve, so Steve Jobs was called Steve and Steve Wozniak went by Woz. At 25, Wozniak was the technical brains. Jobs, 21, was the dreamer with a knack for getting others to dream along with him. They had gone to the same high school, and in the hazy years after graduation - both were college dropouts - a shared interest in electronics brought them together. Jobs didn’t yet have his own place, so when their formal partnership began, the decision was made in a bedroom at his parents’ ranch house in Los Altos, Calif.

Most computers in 1976 were room-size machines with Defense Department size price tags, but Wozniak had been tinkering with a new design, and his computer was different. It wasn’t much to look at—just a bunch of chips screwed to a piece of plywood—but it was small, cheap and easy to use, and Jobs had noticed the stir it caused when they took it to a local computer club. “He said, ‘We’ll make it for 20 bucks, sell it for 40 bucks!’” Wozniak remembers. “I kind of didn’t think we’d do it.” Jobs came up with the name, inspired by an orchard in Oregon where he had worked with some friends: Apple Computer. “When we started the little partnership, it was just like, Oh, this will be fun,” Wozniak says. “We won’t make any money, but it’ll be fun.”

They didn’t go out and celebrate that day. Woz wouldn’t even quit his day job designing chips for calculators at Hewlett-Packard until months later, after Jobs had sold his Volkswagen bus for seed money. Nobody, not even Jobs, saw what was coming next: that Apple would create the look and feel of every desktop in the world and start our love affair with the personal computer.

I didn’t become an Apple fan (I prefer “user” or “evangelist”) until the introduction of the horribly overpriced ($10,000) Lisa, the first personal computer to feature a visual desktop (GUI) and a mouse. And when Apple later introduced the Macintosh, well, I was hooked. Happy birthday, Apple!

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and LONDON, England (April 1st, 2008) – Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Virgin Group today announced the launch of Virgle Inc., a jointly owned and operated venture dedicated to the establishment of a human settlement on Mars. …

For thousands of years,
the human race has spread out across the Earth, scaling mountains and plying the oceans, planting crops and building highways, raising skyscrapers and atmospheric CO2 levels, and observing, with tremendous and unflagging enthusiasm, the Biblical injunction to be fruitful and multiply across our world’s every last nook, cranny and subdivision.

An invitation.
Earth has issues, and it’s time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.

The question is, do you want to join us?
Ever yearned to journey to the stars? You can learn how to become a Virgle Pioneer, test your Pioneering potential, or join the Mission Control community that will help develop the 100 Year Plan we’ve outlined here.

Interested? Complete the questionaire to see if you’re a suitable candidata. Questions? Check the FAQs. Read the hundred year plan. More