Archive for December, 2007
Steve Job’s Customized Mercedes CLS?
from left lane news:German car customizer Mattes Interieurtechnik has created a customized Mercedes CLS with a nicely integrated iMac personal computer in the rear seats. The iMac’s compact all-in-one design lends itself to such an installation, and the firm makes sure the integration is complete with slick leather covering around the machine. A wireless mouse and keyboard mean there are no exposed wires to contend with. Of course, the customized CLS also gets a completely revised interior, with some pretty fancy upholstery and trimmings…
Class Notes on Your iPod
From NYT:
Students staring at their iPod screens may be taking a break with a music video — or they may be reviewing a tough chemistry lecture.
These days, students who miss an important point the first time have a second chance. After class, they can pipe the lecture to their laptops or MP3 players and hear it again while looking at the slides that illustrate the talk.
At least two companies now sell software to universities and other institutions that captures the words of classroom lectures and syncs them with the digital images used during the talk — usually PowerPoint slides and animations. The illustrated lectures are stored on a server so that students can retrieve them and replay the content on the bus ride home, clicking along to the exact section they need to review.
When it’s time to cram, the replay services beat listening to a cassette recording of a class, said Nicole Engelbert, an analyst at Datamonitor, a marketing research company in New York.
“Students already have an iPod and they already use them all the time,” she said. “You don’t need to train them.”
Professors who know less than their students do about MP3 players won’t be at a disadvantage, because the systems require little technical skill to operate. “The best lecture-capture solutions simply require the speaker to turn on a mike and push a button to start the recording,” she said. “They are simple to use.”
Long before audio files, of course, students were doing…”
Apple Slim Notebook Rumors
From: macrumors:
As rumors start to build for Macworld San Francisco 2008, the most consistent rumor appears to be one of an ultra-portable Apple notebook computer.
These rumors started back in March 2006 by MacScoop who indicated that “very reliable” sources had indicated that Apple was planning on releasing an “ultra-thin 12 inch Mac Book Pro”. More confirmation came from an analyst, Benjamin Reitzes in June, 2006 with expectations that an “ultra-portable” Mac could be delivered as early as Macworld San Francisco 2007. Reitzes also suggested that these new ultra-portables would use NAND flash memory, either in combination with a traditional hard drive or using NAND flash alone.
Indeed, earlier in 2006, Digitimes had first reported that Apple and Intel were researching the use of NAND flash in portables to improve boot time and battery life. MacScoop later detailed the thin-laptop to be a $1700-$1800 12″ MacBook Pro with dual core processor and still retain an optical drive.
Macworld San Francisco 2007, of course, came and went with no new ultra-portable, but in February, more claims emerged from Appleinsider confirming that Apple was working on a mini-MacBook “lighter and more compact than any other Mac portable Apple has put forth in recent years”. These specs claimed that the new laptop would exclude a built-in optical drive and would indeed use NAND flash memory.
9to5mac added a report in September that an aluminum MacBook prototype had been spotted that was…
Platinum iPhone
From gizmodo:
“The iPhone just went platinum, literally. From the precious metal enthusiasts at Goldstriker International, you can now buy a platinum-coated iPhone for about $2,230. And while most of us aren’t interested in purchasing or carrying around a platinum iPhone (that will scratch to hell, btw), it’s still the best way to shut up that a’hole talking on his gold iPhone. Well, that, or watching him get mugged while your friends hold him down.”
Apple’s 15 billion Dollars
From Fortune:
“Pop quiz: Which tech company has the most cash?
(A) IBM (IBM)
(B) Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
(C) Intel (INTC)
(D) Google (GOOG)
(E) Apple (AAPL)
If you picked E, congratulations. Apple’s $15.4 billion stash is indeed the biggest of the group, putting the iPod maker in the elite ranks of well-heeled Fortune 500 tech companies. (Only Microsoft (MSFT) and Cisco Systems (CSCO) stockpile more.) And lately the stacks have been rising fast; Apple has added $5 billion to its coffers in the past year alone, according to regulatory filings.
Unlike Microsoft or Cisco though, Apple (AAPL) doesn’t pay a dividend, doesn’t make big acquisitions, and doesn’t buy back many shares. Last month the company reported that since 1999, it has spent a relatively paltry $217 million to repurchase stock, though its board has authorized $500 million for that purpose.
So what does CEO Steve Jobs have in mind for all those greenbacks?
Traditional money managers would say he has to spend them somehow. Sure, a growing mound of cash looks impressive on financial reports; and a growing cash reserve also can be a sign of above-board profitability, since it’s easier for companies to play games with income numbers than with cash flow. But if the money just sits there, it smacks of waste.
When asked about Apple’s plans for the cash, a spokeswoman referred to chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer’s statements earlier this year. When a Lehman Brothers analyst asked him where the money would go, Oppenheimer……”
14th Street Manhattan Apple Store revealed
From Apple Insider:
Gary Allen, author of ifoAppleStore and frequent AppleInsider contributor, made the pilgrimage on Wednesday to the site of Apple’s latest flagship retail store — soon to be Manhattan’s largest — and filed the following in-depth report, complete with revealing photos from the shop’s interior.
“The store is in full view and completely ready for the grand opening. The store occupies three floors, each about 40 feet wide, and the ground floor about 85 feet deep (the second and third floors are about 50 feet deep). Most spectacularly, the front 35-feet of the store spans three-stories, occupied by the most complex and immense glass staircase ever built, spiral or otherwise.
The outside of the store is completely devoid of the usual Apple architectural branding, except for a…
Mac games in 2008
From Macworld:
This week, we’ve recognized the memorable games of 2007 and a significant technology that bolstered the Mac game market. But dwelling on the past year is so yesterday—forward-looking Mac gamers want to know what they can expect the rest of this year. I’m happy to oblige.
So here’s a quick look at what some of the major game makers—and a few smaller operations—have planned for 2008 and how it might affect your gaming options in the coming year.
The Unreal world
Epic Games, which makes, the Unreal game engine, has promised that both Unreal Tournament III and Gears of War are Mac bound. What Epic hasn’t said is who will publish those games on the Mac.However, you don’t exactly need to be a Myst-level puzzle solver to make a fairly educated guess about the would-be publisher’s identity. Destineer Studios’ MacSoft has published previous Mac versions of Epic’s offerings. I’m sure you can draw your own conclusions there.
Speaking of MacSoft, the company promises a few big announcements to start the year that should re-solidify its reputation as a top-tier publisher of hardcore Macintosh games.
Are you ready to rock? With Guitar Hero III arriving on the Mac, you had better be.
Aspyring releases
Aspyr Media’s Neverwinter Nights 2 remains was dangerously close to release; its imminent arrival will give fans of the role-playing game something to cheer about. Other Aspyr titles have already hit the market—Guitar Hero III
5 Things Your Second Generation iPhone Better Do
From dmiessler.com:
As most already know, the second generation of the iPhone will be released next year — possibly around April. For most people the major feature, which has already been confirmed, will be the network speed improvement, i.e. the move from EDGE to 3G.
While I think this will be a great improvement (assuming I don’t lose too much battery life) I think there are other features that are even more important. Here’s my short “it better have…” list:
1. GPS / Geolocation
I don’t care how they do it (a hybrid would be ideal) but putting in a source location is unacceptable. First gen, I forgive you. Second gen, give me my current location.2. MMS
What modern phone can’t do multimedia messages? Come on guys, we need this. And please let us send to more than one recipient at a time.3. Video Capture
You’ll see a trend here: if it’s pretty standard on phones that cost a third of the price, I want it on my iPhone. Besides, it’s just wrong to have a device that displays video so well but can’t capture any.
PayPerPost Fights Back Against Google
From Wired:
All Google had to do was futz with its search algorithm, and the entire PayPerPost world was thrown into total chaos.
The details are somewhat complex, but the gist is this: Google assigns a PageRank rating of 0 to 10 for every site it indexes. The ranking reflects the significance of a site as determined by Google — the higher the rank, the more popular the site. When Google modified its PageRank algorithm a couple of weeks ago, however, thousands of bloggers working for PayPerPost (”posties,” as they call themselves) found their rankings wiped to zero, which meant they were suddenly ineligible for PayPerPost work.
PayPerPost isn’t taking it quietly, though. Izea, the Orlando, Florida, business formerly known as PayPerPost, has rolled out a new product that it thinks will save its bloggers from the financial ruin wrought by Google.
PayPerPost’s business model has been controversial from the start. It recruits bloggers to post promotional content on behalf of advertisers in exchange for a fee. The advertisers are surprisingly legitimate: Sweeney Todd, the new Tim Burton movie starring Johnny Depp, for example, is among the products being touted by PayPerPost right now.
There are roughly 100,000 PayPerPost bloggers, many of whom have seen their revenue completely evaporate since Google modified its PageRank algorithm.
Because advertisers hire posties based on their PageRank scores…
Illustrators Could be Paid by Wikipedia
From NYT:
The foundation that runs Wikipedia has finally agreed to pay contributors to the online encyclopedia a modest fee for their work. But it won’t pay the thousands of people who participate in creating the wiki pages — just artists who create “key illustrations” for the site.
The payments are made possible by a $20,000 donation from Philip Greenspun, who said he was moved to give the money because of his experience seeing technical books he had originally published online appear in print.
“In comparing the Web versions to the print versions, I noticed that the publishers’ main contribution to the quality of the books was in adding professionally drawn illustrations,” he wrote in an e-mail message. “It occurred to me that when the dust settled on the Wikipedia versus Britannica question, the likely conclusion would be ‘Wikipedia is more up to date; Britannica has better illustrations.’”
The woman running the project for Wikipedia, Brianna Laugher, says the plan is to create a list of articles that need illustrations and then solicit the work. The first list is expected to have 50 illustrations and be completed this month. Contributors will be able to sign up for an illustration and have two weeks to submit it; if it is accepted, the illustrator will be paid…”
Red iPhone
Join the red movement without having to purchase a whole ‘nother gadget. This red GadgetSkin iPhone Silicone Case is designed to perfectly fit your precious iPhone, this silicone case will cover and protect it from scratches and bumps. And it’s on sale for only $5.99!
MacBook’s Non-Functioning Screws!
From Macenstein:
Urban legends are usually thought of as pretty cool, quite often involving escaped maniacs and hook-hands stuck to the side of car doors, but even we geeks have urban legends. I learned one such tale today, told to me by a Mac Genius on a trip to the Apple Store, and if you think you are brave enough, pull up a round bean bag chair, and I will tell it to you now.
About 5 hours after I opened my new MacBook (purchased 2 weeks ago online) I noticed that the lower left side of the unit (the side with the ports) seemed to be loose. When I pressed on it, the two securing screws moved in slightly, and a slight clicking sound could be heard. It just felt kind of “squishy”. I showed it to Helper Monkey at the lab the next day, and he confirmed that it appeared as though those two securing screws had been stripped. They were not catching into whatever mounts they were designed to, so the whole area from about the security lock hole to the lower corner appeared somewhat loose, whereas the right side (with its two matching screws) appeared rock solid. We’ve only had the pleasure of using Apples Pro laptops up to this point, the MacBook being the first consumer model either of use had seen up close. We checked out his old PowerBook and a new MacBook Pro, and both of those sported tight screws on both the left and right. So, we decided I must have gotten a lemon or some sort.
Off to the Genius Bar.
While waiting for my appointment, I decided to check out the floor model MacBooks and see if I actually had a problem or if this squishiness was a design issue. I’m not sure if I was relieved or saddened to find that every last one of the 15 or so MacBooks at the store had the same “squishy” left side as my MacBook. When the Genius called my name, I sheepishly went to the counter and said “Well, I don’t think you can help me as this seems to be a design flaw of these new McBooks”. I showed him my problem, and he verified, yes, that’s the way all the new MacBooks are made. The two screws closest to the trackpad on the left are purely cosmetic, they do not “catch” into anything.
“Cosmetic?”, I said. “Who thinks extra screws look good?”
A second Mac Genius (who seemed to outrank mine) overheard our conversation, and grinning, walked up to me and said “There’s a good story behind that”.
“Oh?”
I've been a Mac fan forever. This blog is a supplement to my main website 
