30 March 2007
[apple] Top 10 Apple Products which Flopped … ‘One of the main reasons of Lisa’s failure was its astonishing price of $9,995 dollars ($21,500 in Feb 2007 dollars).’
18 March 2007
[mac] Unboxing a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh — watch as a Mac collector unboxes a never opened Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh he bought on eBay for a large sum of money … ‘When the auction ended, I was the proud owner of a brand new TAM for my exact maximum bid. I had outbid another boxed TAM pursuer by £0.01.I went out that night and got drunk, partly out of elation but mainly because I was so dazed at sending so much on an eight year old computer, no matter how gorgeous. With the aid of alcohol, I convinced myself that it was a bargain because I hadn’t paid the $7500 asking price from 1997.’
6 March 2007
[apple] Create your own Apple Rumor … ‘An Anonymous tipster has advised us to expect a Flash based iMac or Wifi Enabled iPod Nano in the NAB 2007’ [via Blah Blah Flowers]
14 February 2007
[24] Whatever It Takes — interesting look at the politics behind 24 and of it’s creator Joel Surnow … ‘The “24” producers told the military and law-enforcement experts that they were careful not to glamorize torture; they noted that Bauer never enjoys inflicting pain, and that it had clearly exacted a psychological toll on the character. (As Gordon put it to me, “Jack is basically damned.”) Finnegan and the others disagreed, pointing out that Bauer remains coolly rational after committing barbarous acts, including the decapitation of a state’s witness with a hacksaw. Joe Navarro, one of the F.B.I.’s top experts in questioning techniques, attended the meeting; he told me, “Only a psychopath can torture and be unaffected. You don’t want people like that in your organization. They are untrustworthy, and tend to have grotesque other problems.” [via Blah Blah Flowers]
8 February 2007
[apple] Are you a Mark or a Jez? — some photoshopping of Apple’s Peep Show Adverts … ‘Let’s be honest – I’m a bit of a twat. Guess which computer I am?’ [via linkbunnies.org]
5 February 2007
[apple] Charlie Brooker: I Hate Macs … ‘So when you see the ads, you think, “PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers.” In other words, it is a devastatingly accurate campaign. I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don’t use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.’
11 January 2007
[iphone] 30 Things the iPhone Could Do That You Haven’t Thought of Yet … ’17. Bring you to tears when it falls and skids face-down across a parking lot.’
3 January 2007
[mp3] Use iTunes to add embedded album art — another useful iTunes tip from Lifehacker.
18 December 2006
[itunes] iTunes Power Tips — some useful ideas from Lifehacker … ‘Want to separate your speed metal collection from your spouse’s Broadway tunes fetish? How about your, ahem, grownup movies from your regular collection? Used to be that you had to maintain separate playlists, or log onto the same machine under different usernames to do so. But with iTunes 7, just hold down the Shift key (Option on the Mac) when you launch iTunes to create or choose a separate iTunes library.’
30 November 2006
[simpsons] When iPods take over the Earth — screengrabs from a new episode of the Simpsons showing what happens after the iPods become self-aware.
26 October 2006
[ipod] The Perfect Thing — another article about the creation of the iPod this time from Steven Levy … ‘In August, the team finally got one of the physical prototypes to play a song. A group of people working late at night took turns listening on a set of headphones from someone’s old Sony Walkman. That first song, by the way, was Spiller’s “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”…’
21 October 2006
[apple] Straight Dope on the IPod’s Birth — Leander Kahney on the creation of the iPod … ‘The iPod name came from an earlier Apple project to build an internet kiosk, which never saw the light of day. On July 24, 2000, Apple registered the iPod name for “a public internet kiosk enclosure containing computer equipment,” according to the filing. “The name ‘iPod’ makes much more sense for an internet kiosk, which is a pod for a human, than a music player,” said Athol Foden, a naming expert and president of Brighter Naming of Mountain View, California. But Foden said the name is a stroke of genius: It is simple, memorable and, crucially, it doesn’t describe the device, so it can still be used as the technology evolves, even if the device’s function changes.’
29 September 2006
[apple] YouTube: Steve Jobs likes to says “Boom!” alot. [via Blah Blah Flowers]
22 September 2006
[tech] Robert X. Cringely on Apple’s iTV Strategy: ‘Virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier once told me, “you can have enough money and you can have enough power, but you can never have enough EXPERIENCE.” Jobs understands this better than almost anyone else and the pieces he’s put together are all aimed at giving us an experience and allowing us to share that experience with others in a large and grand way.’
16 September 2006
[music] The iPod’s Achilles Heel? It’s er… Reader’s Digest — Orlowski on Zune and iPods. ‘…in business terms, the iTunes Store is a deceptive chimera. Pakman has a joke he likes to illustrate it. “The iTunes Music Store buyer buys 25 songs in the first year, 15 in the second year, and in the third year, the battery has died, so you have to go out and buy a new iPod,” he says.’
10 September 2006
[apple] Why the iPod is losing its cool … ‘[iPod] Sales are declining at an unprecedented rate. Industry experts talk of a ‘backlash’ and of the iPod ‘wilting away before our eyes’. Most disastrously, Apple’s signature pocket device with white earphones may simply have become too common to be cool.’
24 July 2006
[apple] The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, Aged 51 1/2 … ‘Dude, I invented the friggin iPod, okay? Have you heard of it?’ [thanks Phil]
31 March 2006
[apple] Steve Jobs’ Best Quotes Ever … ‘It’s better to be a pirate than to join the Navy.’
22 October 2005
[macs] Mainly Neat Stuff — web site covering vintage Apple Computers and curios like a second-hand Mac IIfx belonging to Douglas Adams … ‘I started up MacWrite Pro and noticed that it was registered to “Douglas Adams, Serious Productions Ltd”.’
6 October 2005
[apple] Video iPod UK Launch at the BBC? — according to Radio 6: ‘Apple is set to unveil a new video iPod at the BBC Television Centre in London on October the 12th…’
27 September 2005
[ipod] The Guardian asks: Is it OK to have more than one iPod? … ‘Apple has to avoid giving the impression that its products are built to obsolesce, that anything you buy now, however pretty and functional it seems, will be superseded. (Consider Apple’s “clamshell” laptops, praised when released, but comical now. Even 2003’s iPod Mini seems like yesterday’s toy.) This is why reports that the Nano scratches easily are a potential PR disaster – especially for Apple, whose designs target an especially anally retentive, perfectionistic personality strain, exemplified by founder Steve Jobs.’
15 September 2005
[apple] Stevie’s Little Wonder — Time Profiles Apple’s iPod Nano. ‘…it’s clear Jobs is just happy to be here. To paraphrase Lou Reed, his company was saved by rock ‘n’ roll. “What’s really been great for us is the iPod has been a chance to apply Apple’s incredibly innovative engineering in an area where we don’t have a 5%-operating-system-market-share glass ceiling,” Jobs says. “And look at what’s happened. That same innovation, that same engineering, that same talent applied where we don’t run up against the fact that Microsoft got this monopoly, and boom! We have 75% market share.”‘ [via Technovia]
5 September 2005
[mac] Blank Apple Keyboard! — yet another oddity on eBay … ‘This is an authentic screw-up by Apple – even their mistakes are aesthetically pleasing…’ [thanks Phil]
16 August 2005
[macs] Largest Collection of Macintosh Compacts in Belgium — collecting Mac’s taken to the extreme… [thanks Phil]
9 May 2005
[apple] Apple’s HD Video Plot Thickens — Robert Cringley on Apple’s plans for iTunes: ‘[Tiger] gives us a peek at another evolution of iTunes, which is the inevitable expansion of the system to carry additional audio file formats. Looking at the unused iTunes icons that shipped with your new version of 10.4, you’ll notice icons for currently-not-supported ogg vorbis and Windows Media Audio (wma), as well as several others including a variety of video formats, too. With this new information we can make a pretty good guess about the evolution of both iTunes and iPod. When Apple feels that the success of iTunes is absolutely assured, which will be shortly, they’ll address the user complaint that iPod only supports AAC and MP3 audio by adding these additional formats, leading to increased iPod sales.’
28 February 2005
[tivo] Rumors Apple Acquiring TiVo — interesting report from PVRblog … ‘So what would an iTiVo look like? White plastic all around? Complaints about there only being one TiVo button on the remote?’
25 January 2005
[mac] Kottke: Video of Jobs introducing the Macintosh in 1984 … ‘Hello, I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag! Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I’d like to share with you a maxim I thought of the first time I met an IBM mainframe: Never trust a computer that you can’t lift!’
16 January 2005
[mac] How the Mac was born, and other Tales — interview with Andy Hertzfeld regarding his new book Revolution in the Valley … ‘I had a talk with [Steve Jobs] about a year ago where I was telling him, “Hey, there’s this huge opportunity, things are shifting.” And he kind of said, “No, they’re not. Windows is going to be dominant for at least the next 10 years.” I said something like, “Is it going to be the rest of our lives?” He said, “Depends on how long you live.”‘
22 December 2004
[apple] David McCandless: The Applestore of the Future.
8 November 2004
[comic] Dan Clowes Switch Commercial — the creator of Ghost World did an unused commercial for Apple (directed by Errol Morris) … ‘It’s like a perfect robot pal.’
23 March 2004
[macs] Douglas Adams’s Mac IIfx — vintage Mac collector finds a Mac IIfx which used to belong to DNA … ‘I popped an ethernet card in the IIfx, mounted an AppleShare volume and ran Norton Utilities to recover the files onto the server. The results? I recovered hundreds of documents relating to Jane Belson’s professional work and precisely two that bear the hand of Douglas Adams. I doubt whether the copyright lawyers would chase me for publishing his Idiots Guide to using a Mac but you wouldn’t be thanking me either. For now at least, the draft of a TV sketch called Brief Re-encounter is strictly for my personal enjoyment.’
15 February 2004
[apple] Apple to open flagship London store this Xmas — the Register on an Apple Store UK … ‘The store is believed to be located at 229-247 Regent Street, locating it near Oxford Circus and Liberty’s, Dickens & Jones, Nike and FCUK stores. The site has been under re-development for a few years now.’
10 February 2004
[ipod] iPod Pros and Cons — discussion on Metafilter … ‘An iPod, by contrast, keeps no secrets. The iPod records what songs have been played both most recently and most often, so it quickly becomes a record of the owner’s internal aural landscape. Listening to someone else’s iPod is thus an intimate, almost invasive activity. On the scale of personal exposure, it’s not exactly trading diaries, but it’s much more revealing than a mix tape’
18 July 2003
[quote] ‘For today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths.
‘Our Unification of Thought is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people. With one will. One resolve. One cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death. And we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!’
‘Our Unification of Thought is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people. With one will. One resolve. One cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death. And we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!’
7 March 2001
[apple] Rip, Burn, Mix. If you’ve got the time or bandwidth… a great Apple TV commercial. [via Scripting News]
15 January 2001
[weird tech] It does not get much weirder than this… Macs in Space. ‘Dennis Wingo is one aerospace researcher who definitely thinks outside the box. A self-proclaimed computer geek, he wants an astronaut to hurl a specially modified G4 MacIntosh Cube computer into orbit in 2001 from the International Space Station.’ [Related Links: Some Apple PR, via Unxmaal]
30 November 2000
[think really different] The LC Cube ‘Apple’s new G4 Cube inspired me to produce a similar machine, and this is the result – the LC Cube. It even has a vertically mounted floppy drive which spits out disks in the same toaster-like fashion as the G4 Cube. The LC Cube is built around an LC II logic board I salvaged from the rubbish heap of a Mac wrecker. It sports a 16MHz ‘030 CPU and has been maxed out to 10MB of RAM. The front panel has an illuminated electric oven-style On/Off switch and a hard disk activity LED’ [via the Master of Old School Apples]