We’ve seen great and strange uses of the iPhone before (the experimental show car at left is actually controlled by one), but the $4.99  “Brushes” iPhone App (by Steve Sprang) may be the overall coolest yet.  The cover of this week’s New Yorker Magazine was done by NY-based graphic artist Jorge Colombo using the app, which allows you to paint on you iPhone screen - with its 800x magnification, your fingers are all you need.   Even cooler, the app allows you to record your “brush strokes” -  check out the time-lapse version of Columbo’s work below (there’s even a Flicker group for Brushes iPhone art).

            

All in all, a  great app - and like remixes and mashups, another case of technology encouraging play and creativity.  We like that. A few thoughts, though:

• Since you can record strokes,  this would be a cool tool for animators - could there be an animator-optimized version of Brushes coming soon?
• Imagine this app on the much-anticipated iTouch/netbook/tablet rumored to be launched next year.
• At $4.99, a bit of a landfall for Steve Sprang - and a bit less expensive than Adobe Illustrator!