Feb 2010

Rise of the Machines II: The Maiden-ator

02/23/10 00:19

Back in September, we shared part of a conversation with a source that claimed to have first-hand knowledge of the Apple Data Center, a server farm being built in Maiden, NC. It was, to say the least, disturbing stuff. If you missed it, go back and give it a quick read. We’ll wait.

Back already? You’re one fast reader.

Today, a low-quality video of a flyover of the Maiden site -- shot from a helicopter -- appeared on YouTube:

We contacted our source -- whom we’ll again call “T800” -- and he confirmed the authenticity of the whrlybird spy-vid. We asked if he could give us a brief rundown on exactly what we were seeing. He quickly responded with a handful of Keynote slides that reveal features of the Maiden server farm in greater detail than previously seen. Warning: the last few slides may leave you feeling a tad uneasy. Ready? Let’s take a peek:

maiden.001

Better pre-order that iPad as soon as they become available. You might not have much time left to enjoy it.

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How dumb is your password?

02/15/10 21:30

If your idea of an easy-to-remember tech password is “123456.” you’re not alone. That simple sequence is still one of the most commonly-used and easy-to-crack passwords in tech, according to an item in The Register.

Where do you fall on the Password Inscrutability Index? The chart below may help. It’s also a helpful personality-type profiler.

passwordguide

So remember, kids: if your password was ever a punchline in a Mel Brooks movie, you shouldn’t be using it:

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Best. iPad. Hands-on. Video. Ever.

02/15/10 21:04

Our friends at the excellent Unofficial Apple Weblog did some real yeoman’s work at last week’s Macworld Expo. At a set dominated by a pair of Blue Yeti USB microphones (read our Yeti review here), the TUAW team managed to find some pretty consistently good content to video-blog about. One of our all-time favorites: a hands-on with the yet-to-be-released Apple iPad.

Okay, actually, it wasn’t a real iPad, but an engineering mule mocked up by accessory manufacturer Hard Candy Cases, to help them design sleeves and whatnot for the upcoming product. So, what we have here is a hands-on review...of a prototype...that’s a mockup of an actual product. Can your gizmo do this -- even before it’s on the market?

Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to call our broker and buy some more Apple stock. Wow. Just...wow.

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Keep your iPhone finger warm in the winter? There's a sausage for that.

02/13/10 18:45

South Korea’s CJ Corporation recently noticed a wintertime spike in the sales of some of their frozen sausage products. Apparently, the eager buyers were iPhone users trying to keep their fingers warm.

The company says South Korean sausageophiles discovered that the product in question had an electrostatic profile similar to that of a human finger, which made it a perfect meat-stylus for gloved outdoor iPhone use in cold weather. As a bonus, users would presumably have a tasty snack for the train ride home.

It sounds a tad ridiculous, until you read the Google Translate version of the Korean news report. According to the story, “Max rods instead of your fingers if you use the pen to the increasing number rods, Max is under the spotlight's netizens.” (Well, of course. Why didn’t we think of that?)

According to a person described as the company’s “maekseubong gimminseop manager of brand managers,” the gang at CJ couldn’t be happier with their unexpected sales windfall. “This just fits the iPhone user base, while the poisonous celebrity, Max is on the stick.”

We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.

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iPants

02/10/10 23:26

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Macworld Expo: The Movie?

02/10/10 00:11

Don’t wanna suggest that Macworld Expo 2010 will be a tad deader than usual, but...this is one of Apple’s 99¢ iTunes Movie Rentals this week:

weekendmacworld560

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iHat revealed?

02/07/10 10:59

Steve Jobs is really rockin’ the hat thing lately. So much so, he’s thrown his considerable tech influence behind the idea of a web/email/multimedia center you wear on your head -- literally. From some really obscure French Mac site that gets one right occasionally, here’s an early prototype of the splash page for...the iHat. (Click the image for a larger view.)

(Okay okay, we know. Bear with us. One or two more should be enough to get this hat thing out of our system.)

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Dotcomic: Say hello to iHat

02/07/10 10:58

Music: "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" by Bob Dylan

dotcomic-ihat

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Beauties & The Beasts

02/06/10 21:58

Two rather surprising pieces of seemingly unrelated news broke in the past couple of weeks:

Apple, Microsoft discuss giving Bing top billing on iPhone
Kristin Bell and Dax Shepard engaged

Now that’s a pair of truly odd couples: Ballmer’s Google-Killer getting prime real estate on the iPhone? The wholesome beauty who played Sarah Marshall engaged to Frito from “Idiocracy?” This could be a brilliant celebrity branding opportunity:

dax-kristin

As the old Chinese proverb goes, we’re living in interesting times.

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Jobs Hat Pic II: Electric Boogaloo

02/06/10 21:27

Our source at the New York Times has shared another pic with us that goes a long way toward explaining the whole “Steve in a top hat” thing. Apparently, Jobs plugged the iPad in a literal song-and-dance number with Apple Hardware VP Bob Mansfield. It looked something like this:

jobs-hat2

So maybe Steve isn’t as stressed out as first reports indicated. If any NYT’ers got video of the presentation, we’d love to see it.

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Jobs' "funny" NY hat revealed

02/06/10 20:40

Steve Jobs took the iPad road show to the Big Apple this week, where he met with various mucky-mucks at the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to discuss bringing their content to the Device That Will Change Everything.

Normally, an item like that would be ho-hummed by the MacInquirer staff, but one of the key sources for the story provided a bizarre detail that quickly piqued our curiousity: New York magazine reports that Jobs met with the Times folks wearing what they describe as “a very funny hat -- a big top hat kind of thing.”

Okay -- NOW we’re interested.

We texted a request for more info to one of our minions embedded deep within the bowels of the Gray Lady (hmm...that didn’t sound quite right). The hat thing is apparently 100 percent accurate. Our source even provided a picture snapped stealthily with their iPhone showing Steve and Apple COO Tim Cook waiting to meet with the multimedia department of the Times:

jobs-hat

Looks like the pressure of launching the iPad is taking its toll. Either that, or Steve was also planning to demo a new close-up magic app for the Times folks. Stay tuned.

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