Happy New Year!
The dust has just about settled on what was an evening full of celebration to bring in 2012. As usual many cities around the world tried to outdo each other with some great fireworks displays all captured on film and posted on everyones favourite video site, YouTube. If like me you were no where near a TV when this all happened fear not, I’ve picked out a few of the best after the cut. Enjoy!
The Dark Knight Rises
Start getting excited, the final film in the trilogy is nearly here.
Following the huge success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight comes the third film in the trilogy starring Christian Bale, The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan again takes the reigns as director which instantly fills you with a sense of relief, if it works, don’t fix it! In-between directing these he’s also been a part of other smashes such as Inception and The Prestige so there’s not many other people you’d want on the job. Lets face it, most comic book conversions are generally crap, mediocre at best, so to get two or even potentially three films of this calibre is very rare.
To cut it short the final film is set 8 years on from the previous in which the terrorist Bane arrives in Gotham City causing the usual havoc and pushing the police force to its limits. After taking the flack for Harvey Dent, Batman is forced to resurface and rise once again (hence the name) and save the day. Whilst the trailers admittedly don’t fill me with as much excitement as for The Dark Knight it does look like we’re in for a treat. The final film is always going to be difficult due to the stellar performance by Heath Ledger in the previous, and the fact that he played Batman’s most notable enemy. Taking that into account I think we’re looking at something on Batman Begins proportions which definitely isn’t a bad thing as it will still be one of 2012′s biggest films. Just a shame we’ll have to wait until July 20th!
Check out the two official trailers after the cut and head here for the official site.
Twitter gets a makeover
Bit late on this one but as it’s such a huge move in the social networking world it deserved a post anyway! Twitter is set to get one of its biggest overhauls to date bringing in greater integration, increased ease of use and a host of other new features that will enhance every users experience. The only gripe I ever had with Twitter is that on occasions it was difficult staying on track with conversations and it was easy to miss posts from people which looks to have been fixed… result! It’s quite clear that Twitter is picking up pace in pulling people away form Facebook and I’m certainly one of those that has been converted (@mattzarandi) . There’s already a huge A-lister presence tweeting every day which give it a credible backing and the likes of those in the music and sports industries starting to use hash tags in pretty much everything they do which we weren’t seeing this time last year. If you’re not yet on the band wagon I strongly recommend you take a look as now is a better time than ever to do so.
Check out the video after the cut which takes you through all the new features in detail or if you don’t have the time head here for a list of whats new.
T90 Laser IV: The Strike Counter
If you hadn’t noticed Rooney and co waltzing around the field in some shiny new boots then you’re probably not a football fan but I’m sure you’ll be able to appreciate the quality of the promo work for the new T90 boots. They feature some of the latest technology as you’d expect but for the purpose of this post they also have a great advertising campaign, and in particular a great video to back them up which is something you’ve come to expect from Nike these days. Everyone remembers last years World Cup ad which included every player on their books, and the Brazil airport ad of yesteryear which were all brilliant, however, even though this one isn’t as high profile it’s certainly up there with some of my favourites.
Read on to check the video…
Steve Jobs, 1955-2011
I’m honestly lost for words, nothing I could write here would do the greatest pioneer in innovation and technology any justice. A true inspiration to many and co-founder of probably the most forward thinking company in the world has passed away.
Unfortunately I have to head off to work on what is a very sad day so can’t share my thoughts just yet. I will leave you however with the Apple and BBC press release plus two videos of Steve doing what he did best in presenting the iPod in 2001 and inspiring others at Stanford’s graduation ceremony in 2005.
Rest in peace Steve. You’ll be missed by everyone.
Street art, Bristol
Whilst wandering around Bristol city centre over the weekend I came across an area that screamed with creativity everywhere you looked and ended up capturing the moment to share with all of you, kind I know. The most amazing thing about this place to me wasn’t just the street art and the diverse forms it appeared in, but it was the fact the council had commissioned it and encouraged some of the best artists in the area to come and spruce up the area. Whilst Bristol council is probably more open to street art than others thanks to the infamous Banksy it’s still commendable and something I wish other councils would open themselves up to the idea of. It’s certainly much better than looking at empty buildings and concrete which otherwise would of been the case here. What’s even better is that a few companies still trading within the area decided to get in on the act and have their logos incorporated into some of the works which again brings a great sense of unity to the project.
Anyway, the pictures (all 27 of them!) really will do all the talking with this post so check them out after the cut and feel free to comment!
Forget Facebook, check out the new BBC site!
Ahhhhh what the hell have you done to my news feed!? Made it better, that’s what! Honestly, people see change on Facebook like it’s the plague, can you remember where we’ve come from on that thing? Probably not as you’re so used to it by now… change is good! I doubt anyone is making a fuss over the hiding of the poke button (if you still want to be a pervert it’s still there but I won’t tell you how to get there as poking is simply wrong!). Anyway rant over and onto the webs real big news, the BBC has updated their home page! Having thought recently that the site has been looking dated for a while it seems the boffins at the BBC have been thinking this for the past year or two and been working on the beta site available for us all to view now. Whilst the current site can be customised to suit you it seems that personalisation has been taken to a new level on the new page and now every part of the home page can be tailored to suit you. Get a full lowdown and images after the cut…
New work: England Facebook Creative
It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded any of my work but now a few projects are coming to fruition expect a number of pieces to start showing their face in the forthcoming months. This piece was created to celebrate the England facebook fan page hitting 1 million fans and overall I was extremely pleased with the final design as it received some great exposure through the +1 million fans on facebook and the England vs. Wales match day programme.
You can check it out here: England facebook creative
The coolest trainers ever? The Nike Air Mag
If you love the Back to the Future trilogy then you’re going to absolutely love this. Remember those supremely cool trainers Marty slips on in the second film? Well, prepare to have your boyhood dreams answered. The Nike Air Mag are now available to buy! They won’t be in any stores however, at 11:30 EST today Nike will be selling 1500 pairs of these extremely collectable trainers on eBay ($$$) with all proceeds going to the Michael J Fox foundation in the hopes of finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease.
The outer sole is lined with LED panels that’ll light up just like you’d expect and if you’re thinking of those LA Gear shoes you used to sport back in the day then these raise the bar far higher! The trainers are rechargeable and can stay lit for up to 5 hours and in addition to the LEDs there’s also an electroluminescent Nike logo in the strap, they’re pretty much an exact replica. Unfortunately the shoes won’t lace themselves up (boooo!) they will do pretty much everything else the shoes in the film could… all you’ll need now is a hover board.
If you’re thinking of placing a bid then head here nikemag.eBay.com
Check the video after the break and be prepared to mop up that drool!
Facebook takes on Instagram
According to the New York Times, Facebook is planning to add it’s own set of filters to the next version of their mobile app to take on Instagram after a failed attempt to buy the company. After all, isn’t this the way things usually go? Big fish tries to buy little fish, little fish says no so big fish tries to eat it. Instagram has over 8 million worldwide users and just announced its 150 millionth photo upload so it is certainly popular and proves people just aren’t happy with uploading images as they appear in the real world so there is a definitely a market for this. Facebook being Facebook though wants their users to do everything they want to within their world so it’s only natural that these developments were set to happen although it kind of looks like they’re just throwing their toys out of the pram again. Whatever happened to a bit of healthy competition!?