Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on TwitterBe a Facebook FanTumble us!

04 Oct 2011 11:20

tags

Tech: What to expect at today’s post-Steve-Jobs Apple event

  • Apple’s big speech is a real turning point for the company. It’s the first major one since Steve Jobs gave up his role as CEO earlier this year amidst significant health problems, passing the role off to Tim Cook. Since then, new competition has started to heat up — most notably from Amazon, whose CEO Jeff Bezos has shown some of that old Jobsian sparkle of late. But without getting too far ahead of ourselves, let’s do a check of what to expect today:
  • one Don’t expect Steve Jobs, unless there’s a late-in-the-game surprise. Instead, Tim Cook will be the man of the hour, and it’ll be interesting to see how he pulls this off.
  • two There will be at least one new iPhone, most likely, possibly two. The long-gestating iOS 5 will also likely launch soon, complete with a better notifications system.
  • three The original iPod, which is officially a decade old, could disappear once and for all today. We could use that spinny thing for hours and not get bored! source

31 Aug 2011 21:48

tags

Tech: An iPhone prototype walked into a bar and … poof. (Yes, again)

  • 2 iPhone prototypes lost at bars; Apple workers probably shouldn’t drink source

24 Aug 2011 20:45

tags

Tech: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards”

  • Here’s Steve Jobs in 2005, passing on some wisdom to newly minted Stanford grads. It’s a very nonconventional college commencement speech, a fact that becomes obvious as soon as Jobs says that dropping out of college was one of the best decisions he ever made. He also explains how a spontaneous decision to drop in on a calligraphy class helped shape the future of home computing, and his comments about retroactively connecting the dots of our past decisions is one of the more insightful things we’ve heard in a while.  source

27 Jul 2011 21:57

tags

Tech: Laptop broken? Enroll in an Owensboro, KY public school

  • FREE Macbooks for kids in Kentucky! source
  • » We were generally supportive of the 2009 stimulus package, but aspects of it are starting to seem a bit questionable, to say the least. Case in point: 2,200 students and staff in the town of Owensboro, Kentucky will soon be enjoying a free Macbook Air, courtesy of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. While we’re all for providing students with the technical competency needed to compete in the 21st-century global economy, you don’t really need to give everyone a Macbook Air to do that. The cheapest Air is $999; if we assume, for the sake of argument, that Apple gave Owensboro a 50% bulk discount, that’s still over a million dollars of federal money being spent so kids can have free laptops. Opponents of “wasteful government spending,” your Exhibit A is right here.

20 Jul 2011 22:33

tags

Tech: App lets iPhone users see all of your drunken mistakes

  • A new iPhone app allows you to view real-time video feeds from inside local bars, so you can, in the words of the creators, “see what a venue looks like, to get a head count.” Cool idea, but that means that if you’re in one of said bars, everything you do is being streamed online—whether you know it or not. Bars that opt-in to this aren’t required to tell patrons that they’re being filmed, and the footage is accessible from the company’s website, so it’s not just limited to iPhone users. The creators defend the app’s integrity, saying that “the point of the product is not to make a stalker utility.” Which is a vapid defense, of course, because the intent behind a product has no bearing on the manner in which it’s capable of being used. We suspect Apple might pull this one before too long. source

20 Jul 2011 13:24

tags

Tech: Apple does a bunch of updates (OSX Lion!), kills off a classic breadwinner

  • cool While exterior changes didn’t happen (did it need any?) the new MacBook Air is a heckuva lot faster and comes with solid-state drives by default.
  • cooler The Mac Mini, sort of the redheaded stepchild of the Mac line, also got a fresh upgrade — notably without an optical drive of any kind.
  • coolest Mac. OSX. Lion. In the Mac App Store. You don’t even need to leave your apartment to upgrade it, guys. Do it naked if you want. source
  • » It’s so hard to say goodbye … Not all changes were in the form of hello, however. The polycarbonate MacBook, a stalwart of the line since Apple’s move to Intel, is gone, effectively replaced by the MacBook Air. It’s the first time in a decade that Apple hasn’t sold a white plastic notebook of any kind. A sad day, but one full of new beginnings, right?

18 Jul 2011 14:59

tags

Tech: Patent lawsuits: HTC feeling the heat after Apple wins ruling

  • 2 Apple patents infringed upon by HTC, a trade commission says source
  • » The judge favors Apple in a key case: This decision might mean that every single Android device violates this patent — and may possibly prevent Android devices from being imported to the U.S. HTC says they can find a way around it, but it will be difficult — it’s not looking good. And, let’s face it — if Apple could get Android phones off the market, they totally freaking would.
 

07 Jul 2011 10:29

tags

Tech: More on “App Store” suit: Why Apple has nothing to worry about

  • 15 billion freaking downloads from the App Store; no mistaking it source

22 Jun 2011 09:55

tags

Tech: Samsung’s legal ploy to see the new iPhone early fails miserably

  • lawsuit A while back, Apple sued Samsung, claiming that they basically ripped off the iPhone’s designs for their phones, a charge Samsung denies.
  • evidence In an effort to defend itself, Samsung’s lawyers requested that they get access to the new iPhone and iPad before their release. No, really.
  • denial Unfortunately for them, the court ruled against Samsung; if you want to see the new iPhone, you have to find it in a bar like Gizmodo did. source

14 Jun 2011 10:29

tags

Tech: Want an unlocked iPhone? Good news. They sell them now.

  • $649 for the right to buy your iPhone 4 unlocked source
  • » Two caveats, though: Before you get too excited about the idea of buying an ultra-expensive iPhone contract-free and untied to a single carrier, two things you should be aware of: First, it only works on GSM networks, so no Sprint or Verizon. And second, while T-Mobile is a GSM network, it doesn’t support the iPhone’s style of 3G, so you’re stuck with last-generation EDGE speeds. But it can be a boon if you’re an international traveler, as GSM networks are the most-common style worldwide.