Strawberryluna

Rock Show: iPad app for Rock Posters

Rock Show, view and buy posters from your iPad. (Click for more info or to download Rock Show from the iTunes store for FREE!)

Dangit! I’ve been meaning to post about this for a little bit now.

Right before SXSW & Flatstock in Austin, TX this year, I was approached by a software development team from Neutrinos in Portland, OR. They were getting ready to release a pretty cool (and FREE!) new app for the (then) upcoming iPad called Rock Show. The new app Rock Show was being debuted at the Interactive portion of SXSW, just a few days before the Music segment of this huge Festival begins.

Examples of posters on Rock Show to view & purchase. (Click for more info or to download Rock Show from the iTunes store for FREE!)

After talking with Rob from Neutrinos, we signed on as one of the first wave of artists submitting posters to be shown and sold via the Rock Show app for the iPad. It seemed like a big step, but we could tell that the team behind Rock Show was committed to making a great app for music, poster and art fans that would also support rock posters artists like us, and help gain more exposure for the artists involved and the resurgence of rock posters in general.

So what is Rock Show? They describe it best:

“Exclusive to the iPad, Rock Show is an awesome way to view, share and purchase concert posters. Rock Show is the best way to view, share, and buy concert posters. All the posters featured in Rock Show are available for sale directly through the iPad. Posters are often signed, numbered, and shipped by the original poster artist. All of the concert posters in Rock Show are available for purchase securely from the app.

Hold your iPad however you want to get the best view of high resolution, full screen artwork. Learn more about a band using the app’s quick Wikipedia link.

I naturally got on board being A) A rock poster artist B) An Apple and Mac person and C) Wildly excited about the iPad and the new horizons it’s opening and D) Impressed with Neutrinos approach for Rock Show. I’m proud to say that we were among the very first poster artists to sign on and start working with Rock Show and uploading posters.

Currently, we here at strawberryluna have about 15 titles listed under ‘strawberryluna’ in the Rock Show app, and there are tons more poster artists partnering with Rock Show and adding their work up for viewing and purchase as well. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Using your iPad, you can search Rock Show posters by poster artist and also by band names, as seen below:

Rock Show is an amazing way to explore the variety of art and design in the current rock poster movement with the large and frankly beautiful resolution and clarity of the iPad screen, as well as being a great new way to connect artists and fans, be they musicians or artists, or best, all of the above.

There are complete descriptions for each poster, such as the band name, date & location of the show, the medium of the poster, and more. Rock Show‘s payment gateway is secure, so it’s a seamless process, with posters shipping directly to the customer from the artists’ themselves, often within a day or so of order receipt.

It’s pretty sweet! We’re having fun with it, and if you own an iPad or know someone who does, check out the FREE app Rock Show and have some pretty fun too.

Rock Show is always looking for new poster artists and designers too. If you are interested, drop them a line here.

BookBook = lit geek meets computer geek, falls in love.

BookBook's cool MacBook cover, click for details and info.

This might be the coolest thing I’ve seen all year. And yes, I’m aware that 2010 just began. And yes, I’m still saying that this might be one of my favorite things for the entire year, already. Yes. I really might be.

BookBook is a rad Apple MacBook laptop case and cover designed exclusively for MacBooks & MacBook Pros, from Twelve South (whose self-proclaimed motto is: “We’re not just Mac friendly, we’re Mac only.“)

There is little more depressing and somewhat sad to me than a dullard, run-of-the-mill laptop cover. Seriously. Those of us who use (and love) our little super machines develop an emotional affinity with them, so why encase that in something that says: “Do you have those TPS report cover letters?” Yuck. I am currently rocking a custom made laptop by the sadly now defunct Flicka bags, but I’m mega tempted to add one of these awesome cases to my gear.

BookBook disguises your laptop neatly. Click for more details.

The old book cover style evokes a Robinson Crusoe/Great Books Of the Western World vibe to it that I just adore. It reminds me of perusing used bookstores for hours with my mom as a kid, being held in reverie by older, fantastically bound books that had clearly seen better days, yet seemed all the more loved for their reading wear.

From Twelve South’s site, they describe BookBook’s protective qualities of the hardbound book and soft interior:

Protecting your MacBook is a top priority and it’s job one for BookBook. Slip your Mac inside the velvety soft, padded interior. Zip it closed and your baby is nestled between two tough, rigid leather hardback covers for a solid level of impact absorbing protection. The rigid spine serves as crush protection for an additional line of defense. BookBook creates a hardback book structure that safeguards your MacBook like few other cases can. Far better than any floppy neoprene bag ever will. End of story.

Each BookBook case is individually hand crafted, and with design details like the ability to keep your laptop plugged in and charging while in use. If you can be a hardcore laptop user, that’s a really great feature. Clever + good looking + functional = I’m all about it. As to Twelve South‘s claim that the BookBook is a more secure way to disguise or prevent the theft of your laptop, well, I don’t know about that. Especially if this sucker gets as popular as it should, but then again, I’m not one to leave my laptop out in the open in public much anyway. Still, it is a clever disguise.

Like a laptop at Vincent Price Halloween bash, it’s BookBook. Nifty and cool.

Click for more information about BookBook from Twelve South.