That Skullphone billboard hack we saw yesterday had everyone at Engadget HQ pretty impressed with the corporate-pranking hijinks. Too bad it turns out that Skullphone is actually a phony (and total buster, we might add) who had to pay The Man (aka Clear Channel) cold hard cash to "glitch up" the digital billboards. According to Curbed LA (and our reliable tipsters / commenters), Skullphone paid the massive media conglomerate for one-day Los Angeles-wide ads -- there was no hacking involved at all. From now on, he should just leave the signage-goofing to the pros, or at least make it clear there's some money changing hands. Fool us once, shame on you... and... we won't get fooled again.

[Thanks, Dakota]

We've gotten pretty used to seeing crashed digital billboards and signage dot the landscape, but just like regular billboards, what's really interesting is when the graffiti artists manage to get their own messages up on the big (big) screen. Looks like Clear Channel is the latest victim - 10 LA-area billboards owned by the media giant started displaying the logo of 18-year-old graffiti artist Skullphone last Thursday, slotted innocuously within the regular ad rotation. Sure, it's not quite at the anarcho-political level of the Billboard Liberation Front and their ilk, but every great leap begins with just a small step, no? Hit the read link for tons more photos.

[Via Textually.org]

Regular graffiti not doing it for you? Looking for something a little more up-to-date than spraycans and brick walls? Perhaps you should direct your attention to the artist known as DAIM and his recent project creating real-time graffiti in 3D. By utilizing a multi-camera scheme, DAIM is able to smear virtual paint across an empty gallery space using special handheld markers which are tracked by proprietary (we assume) software, calling the project "Tagged in Motion." A picture says a thousand words, and in this case, a video says about a million -- so hit the clip after the break and see the work in action.

Update: The software in use is not proprietary, rather it's the ARToolKit (or Augmented Reality Toolkit), which is an open source project. Thanks for the info Kenijo!

[Via Fresh Creation]

Sure, we've seen a plethora of interactive billboards before, but Mark Ecko's (credit to Benjamin Busse) latest eye-catcher could seriously make you miss your ride. This brilliantly designed ad sports an LCD that can be painted up by your Bluetooth cellphone, as it allows passers to use their mobile as a spray can to decorate the screen as they please. No word on whether this thing accepts multiple connections or not, but a tagging duel would be mighty fine entertainment whilst waiting on the next bus.

[Via AdGoodness, thanks John]

Concocting zany printers seems to be all the rage these days, and if the sugar, 3D, and film renditions weren't sophisticated enough for you, this creation is giving new meaning to taking your word to the street. In a DIY endeavor that eerily resembles one we recall from years back, the StreetWriter project stuffs a computer-controlled industrial spray painting unit into an extended-body cargo van, where it can then roll up to unsuspecting sections of pavement and drop all sorts of textual delight. Granted, the prints can really only be deciphered from tall buildings or low-flying crafts, but we're sure it needs all eight of those cylinders to skedaddle if caught printing on public property. No word on how long this bad boy's been rolling about, but be sure and click through to get a closeup of the innards.

[Via CNET]

Lessee here, we've got lasers, creative input devices, a "stick it to The Man" aesthetic and a Mooninite -- sounds like a successful night of hacking to us. Graffiti Research Lab and friends hacked together a high powered projector with some computer components and a camera to track the writings of a 60mW Green Laser on the side of a building in Rotterdam and project it as blue graffiti. The resulting art looks surprisingly good, and the perpetrators were kind enough to document the event, along with providing instructions for doing up your own version. It's hard to describe, so we recommend peeping the video after the break, or the better quality vids and pics over at the read link.

[Thanks, Teferri]

So we weren't even aware that this was an issue anymore, but apparently Xerox and Palm have still been battling over that "Unistrokes" handwriting recognition patent which caused us to waste several minutes of our lives learning a handful of new Graffiti 2 characters oh so long ago. Battling up until today, that is, because after nine years the two companies have finally come to a mutually-acceptable agreement, wherein Palm caves and pays Xerox $22.5 million. The deal does net Palm paid-up licenses on a total of three Xerox patents -- licenses that also apply to Access PalmSource and 3Com -- as well as a so-called seven-year "patent peace," in which the two sides agree to stop fussing and fighting about infringements pertaining to certain technologies. Does this agreement mean that we can expect to see the triumphant return of Graffiti 1 on future Palm PDAs? We're not sure, but frankly, now that we've moved on to packing QWERTY-equipped Treos, we don't really care.