Filed under: Flickr Find

The image above was shot by Jason Mullins with his iPhone 4 on a flight from London to Guernsey. The weird black lines you can see are actually distorted, disconnected copies of the propeller blades, but this isn't a Photoshop hack; this was how the image came out of the phone.

Virtually all consumer grade digital cameras, including cell phones, do not take the picture instantly when you push the shutter button. Instead, they quickly scan over the CCD CMOS sensor from the top left to the bottom right, like the electron beam in an old CRT television. This is called rolling shutter capture. This scanning process is fast, but sometimes it's not fast enough. If you angle the device just right and take pictures of fast moving or rotating objects, you can create all sorts of weird and funky distortion effects. You can see more like this in the rolling shutter Flickr group.

(Thanks to Jason for letting us reproduce his shot; he's put a few more pictures on Flickr from the same flight.)

[Post updated to correct CCD vs. CMOS sensor used in the iPhone.]

If there's anything we love to hear about here at TUAW, it's great customer service. Reader Cristina made our morning with a story of how the team at Griffin Technology went out of their way to turn a bad situation into a happy one for everybody involved.

Cristina had purchased a standard Griffin Reveal case with white sides to protect her iPhone 4. After a few weeks, she noticed that the "sides got really nasty," so she decided to bring it up to Griffin. She contacted customer service at the company through their website, talking to a customer service agent named Curt.

The two talked for a bit about the issue. Curt wanted to see the case to view the damage and also asked why Cristina couldn't just return the Reveal to Best Buy. Well, a quick glance at the case shown that she had modified the case into "Lester," who you can see at right. Yes, a pair of stick-on googly eyes and a red smear of paint had given the plain case a personality and a name.

Curt was in awe of the case mod, and mentioned that it would look good on his desk. Curt offered to send Cristina two new Reveals (one black, one white) if she'd send Lester back to the company. Cristina agreed, but only with the guarantee that Curt would take good care of Lester.

A few days later, Cristina received the black Reveal case. Yesterday, she received a much larger box containing what she thought would be the white case. Much to her surprise, inside were six Griffin Reveal cases, all with names and faces except for one labeled "Design your own."

You can view Cristina's new family of cases in her Flickr gallery.

Flickr member flypigs has made this series of six cover mock-ups for the rumored forthcoming Steve Jobs autobiography. They're all pretty cool, and if you look at the notes for each photo you'll see that flypigs has put a little research into it. For Steve Jobs: The Man Who Makes It A Different Place, flypigs stated: "After searching "Walter Isaacson" on Amazon.com, you will find almost all his books share the same layout of cover design -- a big title on the top, a highly visible "Walter Isaacson" on the bottom, and a huge famous face in the center."

Personally, my favorite is Connecting The Dots. It uses a photograph by Diana Walker called STEVE JOBS AT HOME IN 1982. Steve Jobs said of the photo: "This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that's what I had." I love the layout of the title and the fact that flypigs took the title from Steve Jobs' 2005 Commencement address at Stanford University.

What's your favorite? Vote in the poll!

Ahhhh, Milano! The name makes me think about the Milan Cathedral, La Scala, fashion models, and the aggressive drivers in that city. And now, when I think of Milan, I can also fondly think of the new Apple Store Carosello.

TUAW reader Filippo sent us a link to his Flickr gallery of the opening earlier today, which appears to have attracted a huge crowd of Apple fans. PhilApple, as he is known on Flickr, also captured the traditional "running of the geeks" in a short video upload. This is the well-known phenomenon in which the first customers are greeted by the applause, cheers, and general silliness of the Apple Store employees and other customers.

While I wish Apple had chosen to place the store in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in the Piazza Duomo, reputed to be the world's oldest shopping mall, I'm happy for the Milanese to now have their very own Apple Store. Grazie, Filippo, for this set of photos!

What's better than pictures of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in the wild? How about a snapshot of Snow Leopard running on a hackint0sh? While this could be a doctored photo, it does show a Eee PC 901 netbook with several windows open on the screen. In the About This Mac window are the magic characters "Build 10A432", which all good TUAW readers should recognize as the build number for the Golden Master of Snow Leopard. Click the Read More link to see the picture.

Shooting photographs of fireworks can be a real challenge. The good shots happen quickly, cameras don't always get the focus right, and there is a lot of movement that can make for blurry pictures. The iPhone is not the best camera in the world for demanding photo jobs -- that's true for all cell phone cams, with the possible exception of digital cameras that happen to include phones as a bonus feature.

Nevertheless, we asked our readers around the U.S. to send us their fireworks images, and that they did. Actually, the iPhone acquitted itself pretty well, both with still images and in movies done with the new 3G (plus one movie done with a jailbroken 2G and Cycorder).

Look below for a gallery of some of my favorite stills. Many were sent anonymously, so we can't always credit the photographer. Some were uploaded directly from their phones to MobileMe and YouTube.

Thanks to all who participated and made our 4th of July sparking and colorful. Visit this link to see the full collection of entries, check out comments in our request for pictures article yesterday for more YouTube links, and view the gallery below for our selection of some great images from around the country.

Solely for your lunchtime amusement, we bring you this classic, heartwarming picture of a young family celebrating their new addition around the holidays.

Mac is now 25, and had his first TV appearance last year after a short career as a young actor appearing on TV's Seinfeld. Tom and Beth just finished remodeling their kitchen.

[Via BuzzFeed and EatLiver.com.]

TUAW reader Mike turned us on to a Flickr photo set and a related post on Aussie Mac site MacTalk.

MacTalk forum regular Donnie Darko was visiting a used book store in the Sydney suburb of Newtown when he came upon a rare find -- a 1991 copy of a Japanese design magazine called Axis featuring concepts that Apple was working on at the time.

In this jewel are a number of concept computers:

• The bike computer on the front cover (see photo at right)
• A wrist-mounted Mac called the TimeBand
• A device called the Exchanger that shows an American dollar being inserted and another currency coming out of a slot
• Several server concepts that look similar to Apple servers of the early 90s
• A very cool flat-panel TV that looks cutting-edge even in 2009
• Several tablet Macs
• A device that looks like a hybrid Mac / digitizer tablet

A sidebar in the article shows stills from Apple's classic Knowledge Navigator concept video. It's a fascinating look at what products might have come out of Cupertino in an alternate universe.

When Flickr user jpegsrock returned from a few days out of the office, he discovered that someone else had taken over his desk while he was gone -- Steve Jobs.

It's an unwritten rule among his co-workers that something is done to their cubes if they're going to be out of the office for awhile, and the prank they settled on for jpegsrock was hanging up portraits of Steve on every available surface. Why? Jpegsrock told me that he is the unofficial Apple spokesperson for his office and his colleagues figured this would be an appropriate homage. As another TUAW writer who saw the gallery commented, it's fantastic, but a bit creepy. And yes, it even got a little creepy for jpegsrock as people from around the company dropped by his cube to check out the display.

Some forms of Apple fandom are quick and simple -- the button, the tote bag, the temporary tattoo (not to be confused with the more permanent variety). Some forms, however, require commitment and patience. I don't speak the predominant language over at useloos.com, but I can guess that the translated caption for this photo gallery might be "How do you like them apples?"

Update: Per Cult of Mac, It looks like the source for the tattooed apples is this Japanese site -- translations welcome.

Yes, one very patient apple tree owner applied icon stencils for the Apple & iPod logos to a treeful of apples, and then let the sunshine do the work. The results can be seen to the right and at the gallery -- a bushelful of neatly logofied fruit, ripe for the munching. Talk about living your brand.

Thanks Tim!

For your evening amusement (and nothing more), Flickr user elbewerk has found a creative way to try and convince people that, no, he's not actually using a PC.

Persuasive? Perhaps not. But at least it's marginally more honest about being a PC compared to, say, an MSI Wind.

[Via Digg.]

At the Austin Maker Faire last month, careful observers noted a small addition to a miniature main street created by the Texas LEGO User Group: An Apple retail store, complete with products inside.

TexLUG created a town and space-themed layout that included working trains and motors. Other photos of their impressive handiwork are available on Flickr. You might also enjoy this attempt at a Lego Apple Store, accessories sold separately.

In what could be a sign of things to come, an unnamed staffer Biden's son Hunter (thanks commenters) was pictured on Election Night showing Vice President-Elect Joe Biden something on a MacBook Air. Biden also appears to be holding an iPhone 3G with a sticker on the back.

Biden was apparently observing something on screen, while President-Elect Barack Obama celebrated in the background with another staffer. The MacBook Air appeared to be connected to a USB 3G network adapter.

The Obama administration could become the most technologically-savvy presidency so far. The President-Elect's transition team has already put up change.gov, a website developed by Blue State Digital, the same firm that created Obama's campaign website. Obama's administration promises to be the first to include a Chief Technology Officer, and he supports net neutrality.

Obama has been photographed during his campaign using an iPhone. A Newsweek article in Feburary noted that Michelle Obama bought then-Senator Obama and their children each a MacBook, so they could stay in touch during the long campaign.

Yes, we can add the team to the growing list of world leaders using Apple products.

Thanks, Brian!

Editor's Note: Political discourse can sometimes get heated, and that's understandable, but there are some boundaries. Multiple comments to this post have made threatening statements against the President-Elect. Any comments of this nature will be deleted and identifying information will be provided to the US Secret Service.

If, like myself, you can't tear yourself away from your G4 iBook long enough to upgrade to the latest and greatest consumer laptop from Cupertino, our friend Joe Russell saves you the fuss with his MacBook unboxing pics on Flickr. There are notable changes in the packaging:

"Opening the box, first thing I noticed was that it's virtually identical to the iPhone 3G experience... the back of the lid is black softy foam, and when lifting the black tab it brings the machine up and forward."

Joe describes the box as "small but dense." As we pointed out, Apple is trying to ship more by making less packaging (both economical and green). If you've been itching to see the MacBook unboxing experience, consider yourself gratified.

Thanks Joe!