Design. Charity. Life.

The new The Beatles: Rock Band commercial spot (presented by MTV Games and Harmonix) takes an iconic Abbey Road photograph from 1969 and brings it to life for a new generation. This is absolutely incredible graphics video editing! Whether you’re a gamer or not, watch the Beatles, who came back to life just to promote their new game, in the commercial below.

The Beatles: Rock Band Commercial Spot

Ever joked around with someone about being addicted to the Internet or gaming? You may find it frustrating when you’re Internet is down, or when you have no service on your phone when you’re out of town – I just did at the cottage for a few days this summer – but we all need a break at some point.

There are people, however, that are seriously addicted. And in the United States, a they’ve opened their first rehab center that will treat Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD). There’s a 45 day program called reSTART that you may want to check out if you haven’t looked away from this computer for the past 24 hours (or, if you’re just reading this on a break from playing XBOX 360 for 2 days straight).

© 2009 reSTART Internet Addiction Recovery Program

So, how can you tell if you need to be admitted into the reSTART program? First off, the program website asks: Are you spending too much time playing video games, texting, or using the computer? Maybe lots of us are – but in this case, you’ll have to be displaying symptoms of its nine guidelines for Internet Addiction Disorder, which include:

1. You have a strong desire or impulse to use the internet.
2. Decreasing or stopping of the internet leads to withdrawal symptoms (e.g. general malaise, restlessness, irritability, lack of concentration, dyssomnia); and the above mentioned symptoms may be relieved by similar electronic media (e.g., TV, handheld games, gaming devices).
3. Continually increasing the amount of internet use and the extent of internet involvement to reach sense of satisfaction.
4. Use of internet in spite of its harmful effects; despite knowledge of harmful effects, internet use is hard to stop.
5. Difficulties controlling beginning, and finishing, and the duration of time of internet use; efforts to modify internet use may be attempted multiple times without success.
6. As a result of internet use, interests, recreation or social activities are decreased or abandoned.
7. Internet use is seen as a way to escape problems or to gain relief from negative feelings.
8. The extent of internet use is denied or minimized to teachers, schoolmates, friends or professionals (including actual time and expenditure of internet contact).
9. Everyday life and social function is impaired (e.g. in social, academic and workability).

So if you’re reading this and a lightbulb just went off in your head, you can actually go ahead and take the survey: “Are you Internet or Technology Addicted?”. Just realize that the 45 days of rehab will cost around $14,500.

For now, I’ll just keep making websites, writing blog posts, posting on Twitter and Facebook until…

Apple is such an unique, revolutionary brand and I now know I’ll continue to find renewed inspiration. Again, I was blown away while watching an Apple television commercial from 1997 – the first ad using the hugely successful “Think Different” slogan.

In only one minute, the ad shows footage of significant people in history – those that were not afraid to think differently. It includes people like Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Lloyd Wright, Picasso and more.

You may have seen it already – I had, but this time from a different perspective. I think you’ll find it inspiring too - Apple user or not. In one minute, Apple’s counter-culture image that was lost during the 1990′s was reestablished (DaveNet). The agency responsible for this incredible commercial is TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles, with CEO Steve Jobs playing a very active role in the production.

Watch the commercial yourself, embedded below (click here to watch on YouTube if it does not appear)!

Script recited in the Ad:

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.

Note: The views expressed on this blog do not represent the views of Apple, Inc. or any other person or organization.

I ask, if you had too many friend requests on Facebook – say around 10,000 – would you quit Facebook? Bill Gates did.

Yes, you know who Bill Gates is – the co-founder of Microsoft and consistently one of the wealthiest people in the world (even though Apple makes incredible, genius, revolutionary, beautiful computers, I have huge respect Gates).

Gates apparently said he “tried out Facebook” but ended up with “10,000 people wanting to be my friends”. Is that a big shocker? He explained that he had trouble figuring out whether he “knew this person, did I not know this person” and that “It was just way too much trouble so I gave it up”. Wow!

But why is it a big deal that he quit? Well, I think it’s kind of odd that someone who was such a key factor in everyday computers and the Internet couldn’t just figure out how to use Facebook. While explaining this to an audience, Gates also revealsed that he’s “not that big at text messaging” and that he’s “not a 24-hour-a-day tech person”. How can Bill Gates even say this? He’s the one that, after all, had the vision of having a computer on every desk and in every home!

Why else is it kind of a big deal? If you didn’t know, Microsoft owns a share of Facebook! Does that not seem like negative PR for Facebook? Who knows. I’m not leaving Facebook anytime soon, that’s for sure.

I have incredible respect for Gates, especially after giving up his daily role at Microsoft to devote his life to charity work through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The reason he was in India (where he made his Facebook statement) was to receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. Go Gates!

To see a hillarious mock-up version of what Gate’s Facebook profile would look like, visit this article on Mashable.com.

With summer in full swing, I’ve been receiving a lot of automatic reply messages when emailing various people and organizations. Anyone who uses email, especially in business, has received a “Vacation Reply” or “Out of Office Auto-Reply” at some point. I’ve had an auto reply setup a couple of times while on trips, and our ACCESS email account always has one (linking people to the information they may need, and letting them know we’ll reply soon).

But what if you could set-up an automatic reply all the time, to actually answer people for you? Not just a “I’ll get back to yo when I return on August 2nd” but an actual response, generated by your email program?

Well, Google (one of my favourite companies ever) came out with a Gmail Email Autopilot program that automatically responds to your e-mails, so you can spend more time keeping up with your other messaging systems such as Facebook (the more fun, social ones). Google starts off by saying, “As more and more everyday communication takes place over email, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.”

The easiest email could possibly be.

You can automatically respond to business proposals and even manage personal relationships. So, I guess you don’t have to actually check your email any more, right? Wrong!

This whole Email Autopilot thing all  just a prank by Google’s Gmail this spring! Read all of the features their amazing yet fake Email Autopilot would actually have at http://mail.google.com/mail/help/autopilot/index.html. Either way, Gmail is awesome and I highly recommend it to anyone (they make it really easy to switch too).

Now, back to responding to emails – myself!