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1. 2012 gets a facelift

There was quite a bit of consternation when Wolff Olin's logo for London 2012(™) was unveiled in 2007. We were a little surprised to see the consternation continuing – with an alternative logo being submitted to Logo Design Love just last week (with an accompanying dig at Wolff Olin's attempt). venturethree's version is actually rather good!

2. Poor Buffy's not doing so well

There have been rumours drifting around the internet for years about the possibility of Facebook producing a phone. Or rather Facebook writing the software and partnering with a hardware producer like HTC or Samsung to produce a mobile.

Tech blog AllThingsD recently published a story revealing that FB are actually in the process of producing such a phone running on a HTC handset with souped-up Android. Apparently, according to Inside Mobile Apps, things haven't been going smoothly...

But, on a more positive note, all is apparently not lost. The Wall Street Journal is reporting Facebook are looking into filing their elusive IPO "targeting a time frame of April to June 2012 for an initial public offering, said people familiar with the matter" – in which the company is looking to raise $10bn.

Which would value the company at around $100bn...

3. Spinning in control (as long as you live in America)

Google launched their attempt to steal the digital music crown from iTunes (Match) last week. The imaginatively titled (but rather awesome) 'Google Music' lets you upload up to 20,000 of your own tracks to the cloud (for easy listening on any device), share your music tastes via Google+, access your music anywhere and discover new music via the Google Music recommendation system.

Which all sounds great, but it's as of yet unavailable in the UK...

4. To iMessage or not to iMessage

When Apple announced iMessage, their version of Blackberry's BBM service, back at WWDC in June, we all jumped for joy at what we thought would be a (free and) fantastic, SMS-killing service.

But, as is often the way, all is not as magical as first advertised. Entrepreneur Matt Galligan eloquently described what we couldn't. Well worth a read.

5. Chasing deer and rapping for investment

We've two videos in this week's 5 top finds:

1) Benton (no relation to the author, for those of you who were about to ask; who the Sun is reporting is actually called 'Fenton') being admonished – but taking no notice – for taking an afternoon jog with a herd of deer.

2) An intriguing way of marketing your startup and asking for angel investment (but it seems to work).

1. Google buys Motorola Mobility

Arguably the biggest technology news in quite a while; last week search giant Google went shopping and racked up quite a bill. $12.5 billion to be exact.

Their (biggest ever) purchase of the Motorola Mobility communications corporation puts a noticeable dent in their bank account but adds some serious firepower to El Goog's mobile hardware division. It also gives the search company a sizeable patent library (Motorola owned over 24,000 patents) to challenge the likes of Microsoft and Apple after their mutual purchase of the Novel patents earlier this year.

TechCrunch, GigaOm, Mashable and Engadget all have their takes on what the merger means for Google. Well worth a quick read!

2. Passion of the Craft

Ex-Hoopster Rob and the rest of the Bandit Copenhagen guys have just released the fantastic trailer to their new film, 'Passion of the Craft'.

"Passion Of The Craft is a short documentary about just that.

BANDIT, a strategic ideas agency in Copenhagen, work with clients daily that don't understand the real link between the lives of the consumers, and their brand. So they started on a journey to find like-minded individuals in fashion, branding, media, photography, marketing and design.

The result is 10 frank and open conversations with 10 influential people in modern culture.

Watch the trailer in full on Vimeo and follow Passion of the Craft on Facebook here.

3. Apple's magical trip chord

Apple's MagSafe connector is one of those inventions that prevents those of us who happen to be rather clumsy folk from doing thousands of pounds of damage to our Macbooks. Unfortunately, MagSafe has yet to appear on Apple's mobile devices. Until now...

Patently Apple has the juicy details. We can't wait!

4. 30 years of the music industry in 30 seconds

The music industry's sales model has changed drastically over the past three decades. We've seen the rise and fall in popularity of the CD, cassette, EP and LP – and have seen the slow but steady rise of digital sales.

We stumbled across this gif on Digital Music News the other day - "30 Years Of Music Industry Change, In 30 Seconds". Definitely worth a play.

5. An attack of the doppelgangers

It's Friday so forgive the final rather silly 5 top find. We spotted these celebrity lookalikes over at So Bad / So Good and they made us all giggle. Happy Friday!

1. Struggling with your social media strategy?

So is comedian Stewart Lee in this latest BBC skit.

On a more serious note, if you've got problems with social media why not get in touch and see if we can help? We promise we won't morph your head onto Rasta Mouse.

Watch "Social Stewart" on the BBC here.

2. A very large, ambitious and expensive model

Ever wondered what the world's largest model of landscapes and landmarks that took 11 years to build, cost around $15 million and covers over 16,000 square feet looks like?

Hamburg's Miniatur Wunderland have recently completed the latest section, a fully functioning model airport - complete with operational aircraft and other vehicles. It's a mini marvel!

You can watch the airport in action here and get an idea of how big this model actually is here.

3. "Evidence of the true cost of educational funding cuts"

We've all been there; sitting an exam and your mind goes blank. Usually, you can remember a suitable response to the question you're struggling with but sometimes you're not so lucky. We spotted an amusing collection of quotes from students who've not been so lucky and have been chuckling all week.

Read 'Sh*t my students write' here.

4. Applying a brand on a massive scale

Rob draws your attention to this cool time lapse video of the effort (and time) that goes into applying branding to a Boeing 747-400. It took 15 days, using multiple cameras shooting 50,000 frames to record the re-branding of Virgin Atlantic's 'Mustang Sally'. Well worth a watch!

Watch 'Virgin Atlantic New Livery Time-Lapse' here.

5. Hugh Laurie does the blues

We're big fans of Hugh Laurie's work - back from his Fry and Laurie days, to appearing in Blackadder and finally him cracking America and becoming the highest paid TV actor in the US.

He recently released his debut album on Warner Bros Records. 'Let Them Talk' is a wonderful tribute to New Orleans rhythm and blues and features covers of classics such as 'St James Infirmary' and 'John Henry'. We were a bit surprised to hear him singing in an American accent - but that's the only downside we've found so far!

Watch the preview video to 'Let Them Talk' here.

1. No mobile signal on the underground after all but there's still light at the end of the tunnel.

We first reported about the possibility of mobile networks coming to the London Underground in the first '5 top finds' back in February. Now, it seems talks have fallen through with all the major network providers – but luckily, all is not lost.

TfL, after a successful trial at Charing Cross, are looking to roll out Wifi in 120 tube stations in time for the 2012 Olympics. It doesn't look like the wifi will be available actually during the tube ride, but will be at the stations at the start and finish of your journey.

Read more on Wired.co.uk.

2. Is the iPhone losing its share of the marketplace?

I'm a long term fan of Apple and have owned an iPhone in each of its various guises. With new research released today, it seems the UK has started to favour Google's Android platform (with 28% of the marketshare) over Apple's iPhone (26%). Blackberry rounds out the top three with 14% of the market. Hoop developer Mark recently made the change from Apple to Android and has written an interesting blogpost about it which you can read here.

If you're an iPhone fan you'll no doubt be wondering what Apple have got in store for the impending (well, at some point this year) release of the iPhone 5. French designers Nowhere Else came up with a neat little infographic about the iPhone 5 rumor mill which you can see on Mashable here.

3. Eurosport has a dramatic rebrand for April 2011.

If you'd ever wondered how much drama and suspense it's possible to cram into roughly a minute of video you'd get your answer if you were to watch Eurosport's new branding for April 2011. Awesome stuff!

See the video here.

4. That horizontal feeling.

Spotted this cool video by Jacob Tonski the other day.

A video studying balance, isolated from a fixed horizon, inspired by disorienting episodes in life.

See the video here.

5. A Music Monday recommendation on Tuesday.

One of the finest pop vocalists to come out of London released her debut album yesterday. Yes, we're of course talking about Rinse FM's Katy B. Her sensational debut single 'Katy on a Mission' caused a storm when it was released last August, as did the follow up 'Lights On' featuring Ms. Dynamite.

Read Pitchfork's review of 'On a Mission' and if you want to grab a copy of the album you can purchase it here from iTunes, Amazon or HMV.

1. Dot - the world's smallest stop motion animation character.

Aardman, creators of the wonderful Wallace & Gromit and other fantastic animations, joined forces with Nokia for this record breaking and award winning stop motion animated video. Dot is just 9mm tall, was animated using tweezers and was filmed using a Nokia phone and a microscope - but you have to see the video and its 'Making Of' to truly understand the magic.

Watch 'Dot. The world's smallest stop-motion animation character shot on a Nokia N8' here.

2. Hoop's video for the Carbon Trust.

The Carbon Trust help UK businesses adapt and succeed in a low carbon economy. They wanted a short and inspirational video that highlighted the economic opportunity for the UK in the global green market. 'Green Growth – the big opportunity' makes the case powerfully and is the Carbon Trust's most viewed video on their YouTube channel to date!

Watch 'Green Growth - the big opportunity' here.

3. 'Giant Steps' by synesthetic Michal Levy.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition where the stimulation of one sensory pathway triggers an experience in another (like 'seeing' music or 'hearing' colour). Israeli born artist Michal Levy both sees music and hears colour and her animation to John Coltrane's 'Giant Steps' is her attempt to convey these experiences.

Watch 'Giant Steps' here.

4. "This thing went to space".

More phone magic with this next video; one that shows if you put your mind to something you can achieve pretty much anything. Luke Geissbuhler and his son Max constructed a special container (made from a take away box) for an iPhone and attached it to a helium balloon. The balloon and container made it to 100,000ft with the iPhone filming the entire trip. Amazing stuff.

Watch the 'Space Balloon - Stratosphere Spacecraft Launched From Newburgh, NY' video here.

5. Nobody Beats the Drum - Grindin'

Our final video this week is courtesy of Rob, who'd like to draw your attention to this fantastic music video to Dutch electro group Nobody Beats the Drum. Their visual artist sequenced 4,085 photos of coloured blocks that he moved by hand to create this sensational stop motion animation.

Watch the video for Grindin' here.