Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.
Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?
objectifiedfilm.com
NEW YORK, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, and Guvera Limited, announced today an agreement which will allow www.guvera.com to offer consumers free, legal downloads from UMG's market-leading roster of chart-topping musical artists. Through this partnership, Guvera further solidifies its presence in the US in anticipation of its official consumer launch in February, 2010.
Founded in Australia in 2008, Guvera offers consumers 100% free music downloads paid for by brands. Guvera's technology also makes it possible for brands and advertisers to target broad or very specific consumer segments in a non intrusive way, showcasing particular aspects of a brand's personality with relevant music genres in their branded music channels.
Consumers currently can pre-register at Guvera.com where they will complete profiles with demographic and geographic information. Brands will fill out similar profiles and Guvera's patented algorithms will then match these consumer profiles and preferences with a brand's personality. Consumers can search for any song, artist or musical genre they desire and will be directed towards relevant brand channels providing these tracks or groupings of tracks. For example, a 25 year old female consumer who searches for pop music and mentions that surfing and wakeboarding are among her passions will be directed to music channels presented by brands with similar sensibilities. Brands will pay a fee when their targeted consumers download music, and companies such as Universal Music Group will, in turn, receive a percentage of that fee per download to distribute back to their artists and/or labels.
Claes Loberg, the inventor behind the Guvera model and CEO of Guvera Limited, commented, "One of our missions is to make music free for people worldwide, while still paying the artists and the labels that create and distribute it. With Guvera, every brand can offer engaging content to their target consumers without disrupting them with ads and can use their channel to represent music that relates to the brands' personality." He added, "I am excited to announce our content deal with Universal Music Group, which has been a pioneer in championing new digital business models, as well as a steadfast advocate for artists in seeking fair compensation for the use of their music online."
"We are delighted to partner with Guvera, whose service will only strengthen the connection between artists and fans," stated David Ring, Executive Vice President of Business Development & Business Affairs for eLabs, UMG's new media and technologies division. "Universal Music is committed to cultivating legitimate online entertainment by offering our consumers even more ways to enjoy the musical experience where they want, how they want and in the manner of their choosing."
About Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry's leading global music publishing operation.
Universal Music Group's record labels include A&M/Octone, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Polydor Records, Universal Motown Republic Group, Universal Music Latino, Universal Records South and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalog is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its new media and technologies division; Bravado, its merchandising company; Twenty-First Artists, its full service management division; and Helter Skelter, its live music agency.
Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.
About Guvera Limited
Guvera Limited is a music and content download system designed in Australia, founded in 2008. Guvera provides a way for content owners such as artists and record labels to generate revenue from their music, making it readily available and 100% free and legal to consumers. Content is paid for by advertisers looking to target consumers in a revolutionary way with branded channels. The company's consumer facing website is www.guvera.com. Visit www.guveralimited.com for a presentation for advertisers and agencies.
SOURCE Universal Music Group
A T-SHIRT a day has kept unemployment at bay for an American man who is making about US$83,000 ($90,000) a year by selling advertising space on his torso.
Jason Sadler, 26, a former marketing professional from Florida, founded his own company, www.iwearyourshirt.com, in 2008 with the idea to wear a T-shirt supplied by any company and then use social media tools to promote the firm.
For his human billboard service, Mr Sadler charges the "face value" of the day so January 1 costs $1, while December 31 costs $365.
Mr Sadler said this may not sound like a lot but it adds up to $66,795 a year if he sells out every day, which he did this year.
He also sells monthly sponsorships for $1500, adding another $18,000 to his income.
"I walk around, take photos, wear the shirt all day," he told Reuters.
"I blog about those photos, I put 'em up on Twitter, I change my Facebook profile ... and then I do a Youtube video.
"I made about $83,000 this year."
The average US wage is about $615 a week or about $32,000 a year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Mr Sadler has already begun filling his 2010 calendar so, in true entrepreneurial fashion, he is expanding services by hiring another individual to wear a shirt a day on the west coast of the United States - and is doubling his price.
COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.
Them Crooked Vultures is Dave Grohl (Nirvana/Foo Fighters), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin).
More at undercover.com.au
The American fast-food giant McDonald's has lost an eight-year legal battle to prevent a Malaysian restaurant calling itself McCurry.
McDonald's argued that the use of the "Mc" prefix infringed its trademark.
But the Federal Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled that there was no evidence to show McCurry was trying to pass itself off as part of the McDonald's empire.
The owner of McCurry insists its "Mc" prefix is an abbreviation for Malaysian Chicken Curry.
Long process
McDonald's, which has more than 180 outlets in Malaysia, first sued the McCurry restaurant in 2001.
 McDonald's has more than 180 outlets in Malaysia |
A High Court ruled in favour of the international chain in 2006, but then McCurry took the case to the Court of Appeal, which overturned the ruling.
McDonald's then went down its final legal avenue, taking the case to the Federal Court.
But chief judge Arifin Zakaria said on Tuesday that the three-member panel had unanimously dismissed the application.
"We feel great that this eight-year legal battle is finally over," McCurry owner P Suppiah told reporters.
"We can now go ahead with whatever we plan to do such as opening new branches," he said.
McCurry opened for business in Kuala Lumpur in 1999, and serves Indian dishes, including fish head curry and breads including tandoori naan.
Lawyers for McDonald's told the Associated Press news agency that the company accepted the judgement.
Yahoo!7 Finance and Reuters
Visitors to London always have to be on the look out for pickpockets, but now there's another, more positive phenomenon on the loose - putpockets.
Aware that people are suffering in the economic crisis, 20 former pickpockets have turned over a new leaf and are now trawling London's tourist sites slipping money back into unsuspecting pockets.
Anything from 5 pounds (A$10) to 20 pound (A$40) notes are being surreptitiously deposited in unguarded pockets or open handbags, along with a small card that explains where the dough came from.
The unique initiative has been in action since July 1st this year across locations in London, including Leicester Square, Oxford Circus, Covent Garden, Westminster, Trafalgar Square and the South Bank.
Signs have also been posted in those areas, advising the public that there may be a few extra pounds in their possession when they arrive home because of it.
The initiative, which runs until the end of August in London before being rolled out countrywide, is being funded by a broadband provider, TalkTalk, which says it wants to brighten up people's lives in unusual ways.
Mark Schmid of TalkTalk said: "Britons have become very sceptical of companies giving money away - so we have turned to Put-Pocketing to give something back. Whilst unconventional, we don't think anyone is going to mind finding a crisp 20 pound note in their pocket."
"It feels good to give something back for a change - and Britons certainly need it in the current economic climate," said Chris Fitch, a former pickpocket who now heads TalkTalk's putpocketing initiative.
"Every time I put money back in someone's pocket, I feel less guilty about the fact I spent many years taking it out."
London's police have been briefed about the plan, which will see at least 100,000 pounds (A$200,000) given away.
Futurorg is the online portfolio of Timothée Mathelin, aka Shift, a french designer with mad Photoshop skills. I’m only sharing some of his personal Photoshop artworks here, but he also presents some interesting photography or commissionned graphic design work in his portfolio, go take a look.The Pope will be singing litanies and chants and reciting passages and prayers in five languages on an album being released ahead of Christmas by Geffen Records, the label that signed up Snoop Dog and Ashlee Simpson.
The album will feature the backing vocals of The Choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome blended with modern classicist recordings by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It will be mixed at London's Abbey Road Studios.
Colin Barlow, the president of Geffen Records which is owned by Vivendi's Universal Music Group, said he did not think it was odd to put out a religious record in Latin, Italian, Portuguese, French and German on a mainstream music label.
"I think in this day and age, as the public are, as I am, people are fascinated by all kinds of music. We're not fed on one type of music," he told Reuters Television.
The pope's voice was recorded in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican and during papal trips abroad.
It's not the first time a pope has released an album on a major label.
Pope John Paul released "Abba Pater" on Sony Classical Music in 1999.
Pope Benedict's album "Alma Mater" will be released on November 30 and some of the proceeds will go towards supporting music education for poor children around the world.The pregnant wife of Twitter chief executive Evan Williams delivered updates on the delivery of their son on Tuesday using the microblogging service co-founded by her husband.
"Dear Twitter, My water broke. It wasn't like Charlotte in Sex and the City. Now, timing contractions on an iPhone app," Sara Morishige Williams wrote late Monday on her Twitter feed @sara.
"The Contraction Tracker was fun until the contractions got painful," she informed her more than 14,000 followers about an hour later.
"Admitted to hospital. Got the second-to-last room," she "tweeted" early Tuesday, followed several hours later by: "Epidural, yes please."
In one final "tweet" following her request for painkillers, she wrote: "The heartbeat monitor soothes the silence of a room that will shortly be anything but silent."
Her husband then took over on his Twitter feed @ev. "Operation Baby Launch continues on track, though a bit too slowly in my opinion. That's usually the case with big launches though," he said.
That was followed several hours later by another message announcing the delivery.
"Yes! @sara gave birth to a perfect baby boy. Both are well. 8 pounds, 21 inches! Smiles all around," it said.
The couple live in San Francisco. It is their first child.
 Andrew Taylor has been unimpressed with some firms he has dealt with |
A professional footballer is launching a website aimed at helping fellow players avoid being ripped off or getting bad service.
Middlesbrough defender Andrew Taylor came up with the idea after being dissatisfied with a company that installed an audio system in his home.
Platinum Players will feature companies that offer "luxury lifestyle products" - from cars and gadgets to hotels and restaurants - which have been vetted and deemed "trustworthy" for the stars.
There are also jewellers, financial advisers and lawyers - most of whom have been used by the left-back, or recommended to him by other players.
The UK's 4,000 professional footballers will be sent log-in details for the invitation-only site.
Lawyers listed
Mr Taylor, 23, has funded the project from his own wages, and will earn income from listing fees and advertising charges paid by the companies it features.
 |  There are car dealers, for example, who see footballers as a way to make easy money  Andrew Taylor, Middlesbrough footballer |
Car dealerships, a hotel in Mayfair, property companies and an interior design firm are among those who have already signed up for the site, which launches on 1 September.
Other high-profile names include the restaurant group Nobu, upmarket retailer Harvey Nichols, Movida nightclub and the car marques Alfa-Romeo and Bentley.
Vulnerable
Mr Taylor, who says he has always had an interest in business, was inspired after having a bad experience when he randomly chose a firm to do work in his house.
"I had no idea who to call so I basically Googled a local company. When they found out I was a footballer, every option they offered me was the most expensive one," he said.
Poor after-sales service meant attempts to rectify problems with the work hit a brick wall, he added.
 Hefty footballer salaries have helped attract some upmarket brands |
And after speaking to his teammates, he realised he was not alone in feeling he was being taken advantage of.
"There are car dealers, for example, who see footballers as a way to make easy money. They'll think: 'He's a young lad with plenty of cash, he won't miss £5,000, let's do him over.'
"This site has people who won't rip you off and that's something nobody else is doing for footballers, as far as I know.
"The idea is not to make money but simply to help players find prestigious brands and companies that are trustworthy," the former England Under-21 player added.
He said the site would be particularly useful for foreign players, who did not know how to find the services they needed on arrival in the UK. They were particularly vulnerable to being overcharged by handymen doing work on property, he added, saying that while football clubs did help new signings settle in, the assistance only went "so far".
The idea of media specifically targeting footballers and their families is not new.
In 2005, former Liverpool, Tottenham and England star Jamie Redknapp launched a bi-monthly magazine with his wife, Louise, and former team-mate Tim Sherwood, called Icon.
Companies will pay a premium to advertise to footballers - some of whom earn well in excess of £100,000 per week.
There is also a Lite version of Palettes, which does not cost anything, but has some features removed (such as importing and exporting palettes from Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other programs.
