"Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." This quote from Apple's Think Different commercial filled all of the ears of Apple employees as Tim Cook, Apple's new CEO, played the commercial's audio at Steve Jobs' company memorial on October 19th.

Apple last week closed its stores so employees worldwide could tune into a company-wide tribute to Jobs at Apple HQ in Cupertino, CA, which was recorded and is now posted on Apple's website.

The tribute began with Cook introducing Steve Jobs' wife, Laurene Powell Jobs. He went on to describe the many achievements of Jobs, including the Mac, the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, and PIXAR. Cook was constantly reminding the audience on how Jobs wanted to company to do "what was right," and not "what Steve Jobs would have wanted."Continue reading...

It was a regular Church Social today on Twitter. Around 1:30pm EST today, Pope Benedictus XVI tweeted to the world via an iPad. The holy finger typed up the Twitter message above to promote the Vatican's just-launched news portal, news.va.

When in Rome, tweet as the (holy) Romans do. Yes, the Roman Catholic Church, one of the oldest establishments in existence, has entered the era of Web 2.Oh Holy Father.

Of the over 2 billion Catholics in the world, almost 15,000 followers are following the Vatican's Twitter feed for the News.va site, which features on its homepage today a picture of the tweeting pontiff and the headline "A Historic Tweet" of Pope Benedict (as he's more commonly known in English) tapping out his first tweet.Continue reading...

Google and its YouTube video portal are among the top five brands ‘best perceived’ by lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender Americans.

Videos like the brand's "It Gets Better" clips below, and the rainbow enhancement to gay-related searches for June's pride month, are only two for the reasons why the search giant has won favor with the gay community, according to new research from YouGov BrandIndex.Continue reading...

Adidas is hoping a lineup of A-list athletes including Reggie Bush and Andy Murray will lure consumers to download its MiCoach mobile app. PC World thinks it has a tough road ahead against Nike+iPod in the U.S., although the brand's SVP of global marketing Eric Liedtke thinks aspiring fitness fanatics will welcome its personaization features and simplicity.

"This spot launches our latest technology to help athletes Be Better," commented Liedtke. "miCoach is coaching made simple, and we are proud to launch the miCoach app to enable all athletes to be faster for their sport." On your marks...

TED’s tag line is “Ideas worth spreading,” and it has been doing just that since founded by Richard Saul Wurman and Harry Marks in 1984. An annual conference event since 1990, Wurman left following the 2002 conference, and the owner/curator now is Chris Anderson, whose Sapling foundation acquired TED in 2001; he hosted his first TED in 2003. TEDTalks debuted online in 2006.

TED.com has become the ‘Who’s Who’ of technology, entertainment, and design. TEDTalks are available free on TED’s website, and on iTunes, YouTube, and most recently a free iPhone app. The archive now exceeds 600 talks viewed more than 230 million times worldwide since launch in 2006.Continue reading...

Last October, we reported on a brewing Apple trademark battle in Australia. Apple was suing Woolworth, an Australian supermarket, over its use of an apple for its brand logo. Apple claimed the logo would compete for market share and create confusion in the minds of consumers.

Well, it seems Apple's trademark adventures Down Under continue. In a new ruling, the tech giant has been told that it has no exclusive use of its vaunted "i" prefix. More than just another trademark lawsuit loss, reports of questionable legal action on Apple's part is beginning to pile up and the brand that "thinks different" is beginning to look a lot like...*gasp*... 1990s Microsoft. Continue reading...

What's up with all these square cars? Honda introduced the concept with the Element in 2002, and now it's joined by the Kia Soul, Scion xB, and, most recently, the Nissan Cube in establishing a whole new automotive look. While some consider them boxy, the square cars are distinctive for their modest exterior size but surprising interior roominess.

The Nissan Cube, which came to market last year and has been updated for 2010, looks "something like a Honda Element that your mom accidentally shrunk in the wash." But that shouldn't stop its target audience – young drivers – from clamoring for one.Continue reading...

Publishers are wary about Amazon’s $9.99 price point for Kindle e-books, and wonder how the inventive brand plans to profit from such a pricing model – and who stands to benefit in the long run.

Before Kindle, Amazon never belonged in the gadget business. It sold gadgets, but that was distribution. It also sold music – both physical and digital – but it never went up against the iPod (Microsoft’s lamentable Zune being enough already).

Eventually, Amazon launched the Kindle because its brand is synonymous with books and because nobody else was doing it – there was an opportunity to open up an ancillary market. The decision heralded a bold move for Amazon, of course, with no guarantees. Yet innovation is part of Amazon’s brand, and risk-adverse publishers that stand to gain immeasurably from such pioneering should look at their own efforts to do so much as develop a Blackberry app before complaining about Amazon’s tactics.Continue reading...