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Apple's "liquid metal" experiments confirmed

08/09/10 20:07

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AppleInsider finally confirms what savvy MacInquirer readers have known for over a year: “Apple has entered into an exclusive agreement to utilize amorphous metal alloys with unique atomic structures, allowing products that are stronger, lighter, and resistant to wear and corrosion.”

Click here for our exclusive insider report on Apple’s Maiden Data Center from last August, featuring a tantalizing exchange about “mimetic polyalloys.”

The long-term outlook? As tech pundit Sarah Connor once put it, “Anybody not wearing 2-million sunblock is going to have a really bad day -- get it?”

Macinquirer: Come with us if you want to live.™

Dotcomic: Yoko on iTunes

08/07/10 12:48

dotcomic-yoko

Apple's rejected Antennagate followup vid

08/01/10 21:32

Case-Off: Apple iPhone 4 Bumpers vs. Griffin Reveal Etch

08/01/10 21:12

Apple’s solution to the Antennagate scandal was the somewhat grudging offer of a free iPhone 4 case to alleviate the “death grip” signal-drop problem experienced by many initial buyers of the New Hotness. Being early adopters, we had already purchased a protective case: the Griffin Reveal Etch -- which turned out to be one of the free-as-in-beer models being offered by Apple. When the iPhone 4 Case Program went live, we chose Apple’s own iPhone 4 Bumpers case as our please-leave-us-alone gift. With the recent arrival of the Bumpers case, we became the owner of two of the cases in the freebie program, which struck us as a good excuse to do a quick comparo of the dynamic duo.

Despite the plural name, the iPhone 4 Bumpers case is a singular affair consisting of a plastic wraparound with rubberized trim on the front and back edges. The Griffin Reveal Etch is a more full-surround design, a plastic shell backplate with a rubberized ring that hugs the body of the phone. Both cases are currently available in any color you might fancy, as long as that color is plain-ol’ black.

Bumpers and the Etch -- which sounds like a goofy 80’s morning radio team -- are both easy to put on and remove. The Apple model has a secure custom fit that doesn’t feel prone to slip off when going in or out of a pocket, and features inset chrome-look buttons for the power and volume controls. The Reveal Etch is also snug, and has simpler molded-in buttons on the rubber ring. Though different, the button designs seem to work equally well.

The Reveal Etch has a rear cutout to accommodate the iPhone 4’s camera/flash combo. (Being open-backed, the Bumpers case needs no such hole.) Both cases have cutouts for the iPhone’s headphone jack, mute switch, speaker, and bottom-mounted noise-canceling microphone. The Griffin’s dock connector opening is a tad larger than the one on the Apple case, so if you plan to use third-party cables with big honkin’ plastic plugs, you should be in good hands with Griffin.

On the grippiness scale, we give the edge to the Griffin’s rubber trim and carbon fiber pattern backside over Apple’s smoother, shinier design. (We should note that for a product with “Etch” in its name, the carbon fiber pattern on the Griffin is disappointingly wimpy.) The Reveal Etch’s backplate would seem to provide more protection in the event of dropsies. The assless design of the Apple Bumpers case provides basically no protection for the phone’s backside, though the rubberized trim does help keep the front or back surface of the phone from rubbing directly against whatever you might set it down on top of.

The Griffin Reveal Etch seems to be a more protective solution due to its coverage of the iPhone’s back panel, though Apple’s use of rigid plastic for their open-back case might make it a tad sturdier if your iPhone lands on one of its corners. (Which it will.) On the other hand, the more tactile edge of the Reveal Etch might make accidental drops less likely in the first place, so unless you’ve got a serious case of the butterfingers, we’d call it a wash on drop protection.

Both cases seem to eliminate the “death grip” problem reported with the first batch of iPhone 4’s.

In the end, the case-off comes down to personal preference. If you’re paranoid about protection and anal about fingerprints, the Reveal Etch’s rear plate covers your backside on both counts. The Apple Bumpers case looks a tad more “custom” and what it lacks in rear coverage it makes up for with snappy-looking volume and power buttons. Either way, you can’t beat the current price: thru September 30th, they’re free!

Apple iPhone 4 Bumpers
Pros: Snug custom fit. Excellent integration between hard shell and soft bumper material. Chromey button snaz. Getting one for free will prevent Apple from trying to charge you 30 bucks for it.
Cons: No rear coverage. Snappy neon colors not part of current freebie case program. One-piece product has weirdly plural name.

Griffin Reveal Etch
Pros: Provides more comprehensive coverage of iPhone surface. Grippier edge detailing. Backplate’s carbon-fiber texture eliminates rear-deck fingerprints and ever-so-slightly improves grip.
Cons: Fit not quite as custom as Bumpers case. No button chrome. Carbon fiber “etching” a tad wimpy. Product generates disturbing phrases like “anal about fingerprints” in reviews.

Apple's free iPhone 4 cases up close

07/24/10 18:40

The always excellent iLounge has a feature on the free iPhone cases Apple is offering. If you’re all squinty from trying to see the tiny pix on the iPhone Case app, here’s a better look, with some informed recommendations. (We’re satisfied owners of one of the choices, the Griffin Reveal Etch. Sadly, we had to pay for it ourselves, since we ordered before the Apple case program started up. But whaddayagonna do, eh?)

This is not the Droid you're looking for...

07/23/10 21:38

Best iPad vs. netbook article ever

07/18/10 22:53

A link from our iPad’s SkyGrid news app promised a thorough look at the pros and cons of iPad vs. netbook. We’d never heard of techsuave.com before, but the name was intriguing, so we surfed over. The reviewer wasted no time in getting down to brass tacks:

The interrogative many peoples have today is whether it is worth greasing one’s palms an Apple iPad or go with a netbook, notebook computer or laptop computer as their data processor. That is a option suitable of very much of retainer still though the iPad is betraying very well justly now.

Being tremendous fans of Japanenglish and Babelfish-style automated computerized language translations, we were immediately hooked. (One might argue that the iPhone 4 is a better example of “betraying very well justly now,” though Steve says the free bumpers should take care of that.)

In the interest of transparency, the reviewer shared his iPad vs. netbook comparison criteria thusly:

I will create my breaker point by creating a couple of compares.

And while the review strives mightily to be fair to both products, The ‘Suave isn’t afraid to take a stand when it’s called for:

If you demand a great deal of computer memory then a 2.5″ disc drive has an reward over a 16GB unchanging reposition iPad. You too have the power to change the disc drive likewise as having extra USB port wines to use.

Remember when Cnet still had the balls to say stuff like that? But wait -- there’s more:

The iPhone OS versus Windows 7 works substantially with the iPad since Malus pumila worked difficult to pluck that organization. No vantage with Windows 7.

Truer words were never spoken. Microsoft’s continued reliance on the antiquated Malus pumila is a disgrace to the world of modern computing.

TechSuave’s bottom line:

It all appears to boil down to this : if you are looking to run through subject matter like surfboarding the net with an easy to utilize, extremely portable device then the iPad is for you. But then, if you desire more functionality than channelling surf the cyberspace and meter reading e-books, then you want to study a slimly less portable netbook or notebook computer.

True dat, my brotha.

Macinquirer salutes our new favorite tech blog: TechSuave.com!

Anechoic shock

07/18/10 20:46

Apple’s Antennagate response kit includes a quick video tour of the massive anechoic chambers the company uses to test reception on its mobile devices. The Cupertino Skunkworks has invested big bucks in these rigs, and they’re quite impressive. Except for this odd detail in one shot:

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anechoic1

Your eyes are not deceiving you: the final link in this $100 million chain of high-tech test gear appears to be...a rubber band.

A. Rubber. Band.

Suddenly, this photo doesn’t look quite as ridiculous as it did last week:

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rubberband1

Antennagate Update: Apple speaks

07/16/10 15:33

Apple has responded to complaints about the now-famous iPhone 4 “Death Grip” controversy with a press event at company HQ. The results were...how can we say this....a tad underwhelming. In the words of commenter Dan828 on TUAW:

So the gist of the press conference is this: There is no problem. Even if there was a problem, other phones have the same problem. And though there is no problem, we are going to fix the non-problem by giving away free cases. We love you, stop being mean to us.

Sad to say, but fairly accurate, in our estimation. You can read the recap here, and watch the whole streaming video spin-fest here.

Jane Lynch vs. iPhone 4

06/26/10 13:51

iPhone 4: Will It Blend?

06/26/10 13:45

Our homeboy Tom Dickson does the Blendtec torture test on the new hotness.

Rejected iPhone 4 ad

06/24/10 18:01

MS vs. Apple: Clash of the Launches

06/24/10 17:40

Apple is in the spotlight today with the official launch of iPhone 4. But arch-rival Microsoft isn’t taking the big event lying down -- the Redmond Octopus has fired a shot across Cupertino’s bow with a competing celebration: the grand opening of its fourth Microsoft Store in the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego, just yards away from the mall’s Apple Store.

Apple not only drew bugger numbers, but the crowd at the iPhone launch was...how can we say this...a tad hipper than the competition. Judge for yourself: here’s a shot of the throng waiting to snag an iPhone 4:

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applecrowd

And here’s a look at the typical corporate-mandated line dancing going on inside the new Microsoft outlet:

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mscrowd

Apple FTW.

iPhone 4: First review

06/23/10 20:03

NYT/CNBC tech columnist David Pogue reviews the iPhone 4, with not one but two “special guests.” An instant classic.

iPhone 4 Keynote in under 5 min.

06/09/10 17:21

Don’t have the better part of 2 hours to spend watching the official iPhone 4 intro at WWDC? Here’s a version that captures all the key moments in under five minutes:

iBlinked: Updated iPad to run Flash!

05/29/10 12:36

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h/t: Scoopertino.com

First Look: ClamCase for iPad

05/09/10 15:04

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Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
- Dr. Ian Malcom, “Jurassic Park”

One of Apple’s selling points for the iPad is “it’s like holding the internet in your hands.” So why would you want to turn a bladelike tablet into a folding laptop with a full physical keyboard? Dr. Malcom would say “because you can.” Which brings us to ClamCase, LLC, and their upcoming accessory that turns the iPad into a multi-touch netbook.

The only pix of the ClamCase so far are 3D renderings on the company’s website. They depict a glossy black plastic shell with a built-in keyboard that connects to the iPad via Bluetooth. The ClamCase also acts as an easel-style stand for watching videos and whatnot. The shiny-shiny finish looks like it would be covered with fingerprints in about the first 30 seconds, which begs the question: where’s the version with the faux leather wraparound?

At first blush, it may sound about as practical as a set of frames that turn contact lenses into a regular pair of eyeglasses. But once you’ve seen the clamshell in all its injection-molded awesomeness, you can’t help but admire the ingenuity, and think “that would come in handy sometimes.” If you’re unable to resist the siren song of a totally superfluous yet strangely seductive accessory, sign up at the site for updates on availability. There’s even a spot on the form to share your opinion on what this little sucka ought to sell for. If you click anything but the lowest price, you’re a ClamCase kinda consumer fershure!

Apple Flash-Killer attacks Tokyo!

05/09/10 12:24

Adobe’s Flash has become the Starbucks of internet technologies: it’s not very good, but it’s frickin’ everywhere, so most people swallow it without thinking. Apple has made no secret of their desire to change that, and has a new Flash-Killer that may help hasten the transition.

“Boogie Nights” star Daniel Eran Dilger’s report on AppleInsider describes a new Apple-developed, standards-based framework for web apps called...are you ready for this?...Gianduia.

The technology is apparently much better than the name, which suggests either a fire-breathing dinosaur running amok through Akihabara or the next planet over from James Cameron’s Pandora. Wait -- maybe it’s the last thing a woman wants to hear from her gynecologist. Or the secret identity of the original San Diego Chicken. Or...

Gianduia is actually pronounced “jon-doo-ya” and is an Italian word that describes hazelnut chocolate, a reference to the framework’s Cocoa-based origins. (Get it?) Dilger says it was introduced last summer at Apple’s World of Web Objects Developer Conference, where it was quite the belle of the ball for hip code monkeys looking to deliver snazzy content without the use of turdy plug-ins like Flash and Silverlight. Apparently, if you want to stay on the bleeding edge of web gizmos, a little Gianduia will do ya. I for one welcome our new chocolate-scented interactive content overlords.

UPDATE: The guy from “Boogie Nights” was actually named Dirk Eran Diggler. Our bad.

UPDATE 2: The real terror of Akihabara is this guy.

UPDATE 3: The planet closest to Pandora is Chlamydia.

UPDATE 4: The San Diego Chicken was Ted Gianoulis.

UPDATE 4: The last thing a woman wants to hear from her gynecologist is “Oops -- sorry about that. Oh wow -- I’m totally using this as my new profile pic on Facebook!”

Super Mario to Jobs: It's war!

05/08/10 12:12

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On the heels of its first profit drop since 2004, Nintendo is apparently preparing for an all-out war with a new arch-enemy. Electronista reports that company president Satoru Iwata plans to shift Nintendo’s laserlike focus on sticking it up the Sony Playstation’s caboose and instead target Apple, whose explosive growth in the gaming biz seems likely to continue with the larger canvas of the iPad now available. A source says the House That Mario Built now views Cupertino as the “arch enemy of the future” and presumably the nexus of evil on our planet.

Macinquirer’s sources in Asia say Nintendo has recently cornered the market on fire-breathing turtles and polka-dotted mushrooms in anticipation of the coming battle, and has instructed all employees to bash their skulls repeatedly into the cubes that hover over their workspaces, in order to generate as many gold coins as possible to finance the campaign. (Which, if money is the objective, makes you wonder why they don’t just have everybody on staff do the skull-bash thing every day, all day long, y’know?)

Dotcomic: Letterman in Cupidtino

05/07/10 12:24

dotcomicdavecupid

@theMovies: Iron Man 2

05/05/10 07:55

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In 2008, billionaire arms tycoon and part-time superhero Tony Stark graduated from the Marvel Comics B-list to Hollywood superstar status in “Iron Man,” featuring Robert Downey Jr. as the swaggering tech genius trying to blast his way to World Peace so he can get back to chatting up hotties at the bar. Director John Favreau reunites almost the whole gang from the original film in “Iron Man 2,” with decidedly mixed success.

As our preposterous story opens, Stark’s metallic alter ego has made the world safe for democracy in less than six months. His only remaining adversary is a doughy Gary Shandling as a US senator bent on taking custody of the Iron Man armor in the interest of national security. Enter Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko, a Russian Randy the Ram with some sort of homebrew version of the original Iron Man power pack, featuring electrically-charged bullwhips instead of a full suit of armor. (It didn’t make much sense to us either.) Sam Rockwell is Justin Hammer, nerdy arch-nemesis of Stark Industries, whose master plan is to steal Stark’s technology and get rich selling a knockoff Iron Man to the Department of Defense. It’s a bit like Bill Gates asking a Russian Jason Chen to help him pinch an iPhone prototype and make Zune phones to sell to the Feds. Or something.

Of course, plot is hardly the point here. Favreau delivers more than enough action to keep the ball rolling. Roarke’s electro-whips slash most of the field to ribbons in the middle of a Formula One race in Monaco. Downey and Don Cheadle get into a full metal dustup when Stark’s Iron Man gets toasted at his birthday party and starts blowing up watermelons to entertain the guests. (Yes, really.) Scarlet Johannson as The Woman Who May Be More Than She Seems lays an Emma Peel-style smackdown on a team of security guards. And the obligatory CGI mayhem ensues when Downey and Cheadle take on an army of Iron Man clones in Act III.

As in the first film, Downey’s Tony Stark fits him like a heavily-armored glove here. Rockwell is fine as Stark’s twitchy rival, though his villainy is more Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor than Heath Ledger’s Joker. Except for the Formula One slashfest, Roarke is given surprisingly little to do. Paltrow, in a ”meh” role, delivers a “meh” performance. The always engaging Samuel L. Jackson shows up again for a few scenes, though his eye-patched presence is a fairly obvious plug for Marvel’s movie version of the super-team comic The Avengers, which isn’t due until 2012. Johannson is apparently in the cast mainly to set up her Black Widow character for that same sequel. (Sit through the lengthy closing credits for a brief coda involving another Marvel hero who’s headed to the big screen next summer.) “Iron Man 2” feels a good bit less fresh than the original. But the film features a mostly appealing cast and avoids adding nipples to the hero’s costume, which is about as much as can be expected from a superhero sequel nowadays.

Bill Gates on the iPad. Or not.

05/04/10 00:01

Retired tablet computing pioneer Bill Gates gets a question about the iPad, and immediately engages Congressional Antitrust Hearing mode:

Wow -- the MS tablet engineers must be stinking it up in the test lab even worse than we’ve heard. Even the Nook team at Barnes & Noble had a better comeback line than that. (“‘iPad?’ They shoulda called it ‘I suck really bad!’” Followed by a series of fist-bumps among the members of the team.)

Review: SGP Carbon Skin for iPad

05/02/10 19:25

Our continuing quest for the perfect iPad case/folder/wrapper led us to the fine folks at HandheldItems.com, aggregators of skins & stuff for mobile devices of all kinds, including the Tablet That’s About To Change Everything, And Probably Already Has. In terms of sheer number of products offered, these guys are the kings of the iPad accessory hill at the moment.

Along with the expected silicone sleeves with round cutouts to show off the Apple logo -- the crotchless panties of the gadget world -- the site also offers a couple of products from SGP that include a handy-dandy bit of iPad flair called the SGP Premium Protective Cover Skin for iPad [Carbon]:

skin1

skin1

Try to imagine Ricardo Montalban’s velvety tones extolling the virtues of “reech eemitation carbon fiber” as you behold the faux awesomeness:

skin2a

skin2a

The SGP PPCSFI (we’re not typing that whole name again) is a rubbery stick-on with a fake carbon fiber pattern embossing. “Premium” apparently refers to the $19.95 price. “Protective” is a bit of a stretch, since the skin offers virtually no protection from droppage or spillage, and exists purely to give that Toyota Scion vibe to the world of Apple tablet add-ons.

The cutout for the Apple logo is a tad more refined than the big round peek-a-boo hole in many cases. It follows the contours precisely, which makes it virtually impossible to allign the skin perfectly, even if you start slowly from the middle and work your way carefully to the outside edges. All in all, we think our test staff did a pretty frickin’ good job lining this sucker up:

skin4

skin4

The case comes with a clear plastic sticker to cover the shiny black Apple logo, which apparently was included as some kind of a sick joke. In other words, we completely boogered it up with fingerprints while trying to put it on, and finally said to hell with it.

The SGP effect is not really that bad, in a boy-racer kind of way:

skin7

skin7

SGP’s fake-cessory adds virtually no thickness to the iPad’s svelte lines: And while the skin’s grippiness is a tad disappointing, this is the first iPad case we’ve tested that actually allows the use of Apple’s pain-in-the-ass official iPad Dock:

skin5

skin5

How much would you pay for all this Sharper-Image-y goodness? Would you go for $19.95? Then head on over to Handhelditems.com and get ready to rumble!

Pros: Cool, in a woodgrain wallpaper kinda way. Works with the Apple Dock.
Cons: Not especially grippy. Not at all protective. Apple-shaped hole takes the touch of a heart surgeon to align properly. Most readers too young to appreciate Ricardo Montalban reference.

Jobs makes the Time 100

05/02/10 19:05

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Congratulations to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, named one of the Most Awesomest People in the Whole Wide World in the just-announced Time 100. Steve is pictured on the cover alongside longtime Oprah Winfrey paramour Steadman Graham and funnygal Tina Fey from NBC’s “30 Rock.” Well done, everyone!

Review: Macally Bookstand

04/26/10 22:01

macallybookstand

Macally is a company name we’ve never been sure how pronounce. The obvious inference is “You like Macs? We’ll be one of your most trusted allies!” If that version seems a tad clumsy to pronounce, it could be a variant spelling of “Welcome to Mac Alley.” Or maybe the guy who started the company has Scottish heritage, and was actually named “MacAlly.” However you say it, the company has made a name for itself with a line of headphone winders, USB hubs, car chargers, and iPhone cases.

One of the company’s first accessories for the iPad is the folder-style Bookstand. The feature set is similar to the previously reviewed Apple iPad Case, with a few variations on the theme.

In place of the Apple case’s charcoal neoprene-y material, the Bookstand comes in a light grey suede. That’s right, suede: full-grain leather’s Rick-James-lookin’ cousin. The case is held closed by a tan leather tongue that slides into a matching strap on the bottom of the case, which isn’t nearly as sexual as we just made it sound. For some reason, the mixed-leather combo evokes Jeff Hamilton’s legendary mac-daddy leather jackets. (Who can forget the classic 8-Ball design sported by the inimitable David Puddy on that very special episode of “Seinfeld?”) But we’re weird that way.

The tongue-and-strap design of the cover (again, less sexual than it sounds) enables the case to be used as either a low-profile table stand or a more upright easel for iPadding with a paired bluetooth keyboard.

Macally decided against making the retaining mechanism a picture frame style pocket with a cutout for the screen, and went with a clip-in case that holds the iPad in place with four rounded corner bumpers. On the plus side, this minimizes the added thickness of using a folder-style iPad koozie. But although the grip of the case seems pretty secure, some users might find it less, shall we say, idiot-proof than a more standard full-surround holder with cutouts for the ports. Throwing caution to the wind, our intrepid review team flipped the loaded Bookcase over and shook it a few times, with no iPad slippage problems. (We did this test a few inches from a thickly carpeted floor. We may be daring, but we’re not idiots.)

The back of the case would appear to be a plastic shell wrapped in the aforementioned gray suede. This gives the Bookstand more of a curvy backside than you might expect. (And that last sentence makes this the most sexually-charged review we’ve ever written.)

The Bookstand is a worthy competitor to the more generic looking Apple iPad Case, with similar features -- though at $49.95 it’s ten bucks pricier than its rival. While the gray suede may strike some as an odd choice, it offers an alternative to those looking for a folder-style case that protects, adds minimal thickness, and lays down a tad more snazz than Apple’s offering.

Pros: Solid construction, good fit, adds minimal thickness, generates random sexual references in reviews.
Cons: Gray suede isn’t for everybody. Less edge protection. Clip-style case may not satisfy nervous nellies. We’re still not sure how to pronounce “Macally.”

Dotcomic: Saw VII: Wrath of Jobsaw

04/25/10 15:11

dotcomic -jobsaw1

Say hello to Woz-Bot.

04/25/10 11:40

Spy pic of the week: A prototype of Apple’s new Robot Wozniak jacked into the Cupertino server farm for testing. The ‘bot is equipped with an LCD t-shirt screen that can display either diagnostic info or the kind of snappy patter that made the original Woz a legend in the world of topical tech comedy. Also, Robo-Woz can play Bejeweled on an iPhone and Kenny G tunes on a beer bottle -- at the same time! How’s THAT for multitasking?

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Macinquirer Review: Belkin Grip Swell

04/25/10 10:48

belkingripswell

The silicone case has become the go-to accessory for iPod and iPhone owners. It usually comes in an acid-trip rainbow of colors, including the ubiquitous pink for girly-girl users who want to make their gadgets look all Susan G. Komen, and the usual reds and neon greens found at the mall kiosk that sells cheap Asian import cases for everything from Star-Tacs to Blackberrys. The name-brand cases you find inside the Apple Store tend toward the ridonkulous end of the pricing continuum -- hey, it’s a quarter’s worth of injection-molded plastic -- and at 40 bucks, the Belkin Grip Swell for iPad is no exception.

First, there’s that Japanenglish name. “Belkin Grip Swell.” It conjures a mental image of a 12-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl delivering copy like “iPad need more grippy? Here’s one now! It’s grip-nasty fun for boys and girls of all genders! Belkin Grip Swell! It’s the WOW!!” (Okay, so it’s probably not that. We assume that “grip” is a reference to the tactile nature of the material, and “swell” is meant to convey the ocean-wave pattern embossed on the back. Or something.)

There’s a fine line between “timeless classic” and “looks like the upholstery from a 1970s power boat,” and Belkin is dangerously close to that line here, especially with the two-tone colors that highlight the embossed pattern in question. (The item we picked up at Best Buy had apparently been opened and put back in the package backwards, so we thought it was a plain black silicone sleeve until we got it home and discovered the Wavy Truth. Curse you, cardboard iPad homescreen!)

For a product with “Grip” in the name, the Grip Swell is a bit disappointing. It’s an improvement over the stock aluminum case, but not by much. There are openings for the essential ports and switches, and while the case actually covers up the Home button, it doesn’t interfere with the button’s operation at all. The overall fit is good, though this is another case you’ll have to peel off to use the impossibly-placed connector on the Apple iPad Dock. (Of course, there’s a lot of that going around lately.)

At $39.95, the Grip Swell is not all that “grippy,” and not particularly “swell.” Coming soon from Belkin -- the new “Grip Swell Inexpensive,” priced at $100.

Pros: Fits well, protects the Home button from finger grease.
Cons: No grippy, no swelly, just pricey.
$39.95

Tomorrow: The Macally Bookstand

MacInquirer Review: Apple iPad Case

04/24/10 22:47

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The iPad hit the streets the first weekend in March, but what will no doubt be bajillions of accessory products are just beginning to trickle into the market. That’s what happens when you put the Cupertino Cone of Silence over a new piece of hardware the way Apple did over the last few months. Among the first pieces of kit for the new tablet are an assortment of the usual comically-overpriced silicone sleeves and folder-style protective cases. But when you’ve held the iPad in your hands, the first thing you notice is how easy the sleek unibody aluminum tablet would be to drop, which means a case of some kind will likely be one of your first add-ons.

The staff of MacInquirer Labs are known for slutting it up with every pretty face that comes along until we find the One True Case that completes us. This expensive dance happened with both the iPod and iPhone, and the cycle is repeating itself with the iPad. Over the next few days, we’ll be taking a look at several of the early candidates to become the permanent Missus to our new Mr. iPad. First out of the box at launch was Apple’s own offering, ingeniously dubbed “The Apple iPad Case.”

The homegrown tablet hugger is apparently the one part of the project that was kept hidden from industrial design wunderkind Jonathan Ive. How else to explain the generic styling of this case? It looks like it was designed by Woz for his Etsy storefront. The puckery-ness of the cutouts for the essential ports and switches is disappointing, especially from the company that has the best industrial design team on the planet right now. The case has a grippy neoprene-feeling exterior that works, though without an ounce of pizazz. (And what -- not even a business card slot inside the cover? You guys are taking this “we’re not obsessed with the business market” thing a tad too far.)

Despite our niggles with the look, we must admit that the case works pretty well. The edge of the bi-folding cover flips back and slips behind a tab on the back of the case, creating your choice of a low-profile slant for iPadding during breakfast, or an upright easel perfect for using with a paired Bluetooth keyboard.

This was the first product to reveal what’s shaping up to be all-too-common failing among iPad cases: it has to be completely removed to use the official Apple iPad Dock. The laughably tight placement of the connector on the iPad Dock is the real problem here, and almost appears to be an intentional gotcha for third-party case manufacturers. But Cheese Louise -- Apple should have gotcha-proofed their own case. (C’mon Steve -- you had your hands on this sucker months before anybody else. Would it kill you to make a case and a dock that, y’know, work together?)

If you’re looking to wrap your sexy new iPad in a deeply unsexy layer of OfficeMax-style camouflage, this case will have you at “hello.”

Pros: Grippy, works pretty well.
Cons: If this case had a TV show, it’d be called “Fugly Betty.”
$39.95

Tomorrow: A look at the Belkin Grip Swell

Granny's iPad: The Lost Limericks

04/22/10 12:31

99-year-old Virginia Campbell has gone viral in this video showing off the joys of her new iPad:

The feisty Campbell sent us a couple of her other limericks via email, and we’re pleased to share them with you. First, she weighs in on the Apple/Adobe Flash controversy:

My new iPad doesn’t run Flash
Which means I need not fear a crash
Adobe’s lame app
Is a big pile of crap
That ought to be thrown in the trash

She’s not a big fan of Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer either:

There was a bald man from Seattle
Who treated his users like cattle
Don’t mean to sound plucky
But Microsoft’s sucky
And using their stuff is a battle

Virginia tells us she’s working on another one about an old boyfriend of hers from Nantucket, Massachusetts. That and more coming up -- only from MacInquirer.

Apple beats Disney, Coke, Amazon

04/16/10 10:17

fortune500hed

Forbes has released the 2010 edition of the Fortune 500, its annual ranking of the world’s most valuable companies. Apple jumped 17 spots from 71 to 56, making it the third most valuable computer company. While it still lags behind #36 Microsoft and #38 Dell, Apple is now ahead of such global octopi as Intel (#62), Coca-Cola (#72), Fox parent News Corp. (#76), and Amazon.com (#100). The Mac/iPhone/iPad maker is now one slot ahead of Disney, where Steve Jobs is the largest single shareholder thanks to the House of Mouse’s acquisition of Pixar.

At the bottom of this year’s list is #500 Blockbuster, whose video rental juggernaut has been bitch-slapped by nimble competitors like Netflix, Amazon, and even video rental “hobbyist” Apple. It’s hard to believe the once-invincible Blockbuster has actually lost ground to such strip mall mainstays as Foot Locker and Big Lots (#428 and #436 respectively).

Fun fact: though the Fortune 500 gets all the attention, the magazine actually ranks businesses all the way down to #10,000. The bottom five in this year’s list:

9996: Burqua Barn (Saudi based sportswear company)
9997: E-Cola (unfortunately named energy drink)
9998: Bed Bath & Begone (also ranked worst customer service)
9999: Abe Vigoda’s Asian Sex Tours, Inc.
10000: LiveNudeBallmer.com

Tip: iPad printing

04/15/10 23:31

ipadscan

One of the most frustrating iPad deficiencies solved! Get a better look here.

Tiger comes to iPad

04/05/10 22:04

tigeripadgame

iPad vs. Blendtec -- will it blend?

04/05/10 21:23

willitblend-ipad-explicit

The incomparable Tommy Dickson does the legendary “Will It Blend?” test on the iPad. The Parental Advisory is for the violence required to make the tablet fit into the relentless maw of the world’s most badass kitchen appliance, the Blendtec Total Blend. Click here to view the demolition derby -- and stand by for pod smoke.

Ten iPad snap judgements

04/04/10 12:15

ipad-basic-sm

24 hours with the iPad is hardly enough to really shake down the New Hotness. But here are ten of the MacInquirer’s initial hands-on notes:

1. Solid. The aluminum unibody/glass construction is a tad heavier than we expected. This gives an impression of solidity and quality, and makes it a handy bludgeon should you need to club your pain-in-the-ass Dancing With The Stars partner during a rehearsal.

2. Smooth. Maybe too smooth. Butterfingered users will probably want to invest in a protective case of some kind. Dropsies would be hazardous to the iPad’s long-term health, especially that big honkin’ piece of glass covering the display. And while we’re on the subject...

3. Jonny Ive still doesn’t do cases. Apple apparently hired the same guy who did the original Kindle case to do their iPad cover. The neoprene has a grippy microsuede feel to it, but the seams around the edges give it a cheap, 1980s vibe that sucks all the cool away from the embossed logo on the cover. The cases’s cutouts for ports and switches are way more puckery than we’d expect from the world’s greatest industrial design team. Pros: It fits. Cons: It’s clunky, has no pockets of any kind inside the cover, and the multi-fold gimmick only works as a low-profile landscape stand. For stability’s sake, you wouldn’t wanna use this in portrait mode. In other words, look elsewhere for your long-term iPad case.

4. Oleo-WHAAAT? Unless you’ve just scrubbed up like a heart-surgeon, it only takes about ten minutes of use for the iPad screen to look like the window at the Today show during a Jonas Brothers interview. Maybe we’re just greaseballs in general, but Apple’s magical oleophobic coating was no match for our grubby digits.

5. Oooo -- shiny! While the display fully justifies its rave reviews on brightness, viewing angle, and clarity, this sucka is is definitely glossy. Not great for outdoor use. For reading ebooks at the bus stop, the Kindle’s monochrome display is still the king of the hill in this department.

6. Walled Garden 2010. Unless it’s in your iTunes/iPhoto library, loading content is also problematic at this point. We assume the iPad Camera Connector kit will alleviate this a bit once it hits the streets. Dropbox -- our current cloud storage solution of choice --seems to play as well with the iPad as it does with the iPhone.

7. Printing? Good luck with that. Pages for iPad can create beautiful docs, but printing them is a bit of a challenge thus far. There are a handful of App Store solutions that promise iPhone/iPad print compatibility, but being generally lazy and cheap, we haven’t investigated any of them yet.

8. iPhone games actually look pretty good with the 2x zoom function. Our beloved copy of Tris -- the late, lamented, copyright-infringing Tetris clone -- is perfectly playable in zoom mode. Having said that, the folks at Popcap should still keep Peggle HD on the fast track.

9. The built-in speaker is surprisingly good. It’s not stereo, but it’s not bad.

10. All accelerometer-aware apps are not created equal. Game Table, for example, only rotates in one direction, which means you’re forced to orient the iPad with the home button on the right when using landscape mode. Developers should be aware of this wrinkle when programming screen rotation into their apps.

The above should not be taken as contrarian Enderle-style nitpicks. We’re more than happy with the first-generation iPad, and look forward to pre-ordering Version 2 (the one with an actual camera in the chassis’ camera hole) as soon as it emerges from the Cupertino Skunkworks. Excelsior!

Sync then swim

04/03/10 11:29

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Stand by for action.

BTW, the screen’s not goobered up with finger grease already -- that’s the chalkboard background.

iPad unboxed

04/03/10 11:24

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Okay, so we took ‘er out before we snapped the pic. This is no time for restraint.

iPad TV moment

04/01/10 08:35

Phil Dunphy -- the ultimate early adopter -- gets an iPad on ABC’s “Modern Family.” An absolute classic.

Top Ten "Explicit" iPad Apps

03/31/10 15:42

explicitapps

The saga of the rumored “Explicit “category in the iTunes App Store has more surprising twists and turns than a bedtime story by ex-Congressman Eric Massa. Our mole inside the Cupertino Mothership says the internal debate is still raging, with the fate of dozens of adult-oriented iPad titles hanging in the balance less than a week before the new product is released.

Whether or not the category itself ever makes an official public appearance, our source confirms the following as the App Store’s Top Ten “Explicit” titles among iPad reviewers and internal testers:

Family Bejeweled
Super Monkeyballs
Pants vs. Zombies
Titris
MILFbusters
Megan Fox Teaches One-Handed Typing
Reversi Cowgirl
Pocket Cod
Diki Wiki
Muthaflickr

(Sophomoric? To be sure. But if SNL can get Bobby Frickin’ Deniro to read off a list of terrorist names that include “Hous Bin-Pharteen,” then we feel perfectly comfortable making a few weener jokes when the occasion calls for it.)

Dotcomic: Mr. Sulu for Sharpple TV

03/28/10 12:02

doctomic-sharppletv2

Behind frenemy lines

03/27/10 14:41

jobscoffee

(image: Gizmodo)

Apple capo de fruity capi Steve Jobs shared a cuppa joe with former ~~mole in the camp~~ Apple board member Eric Schmidt of Google on Friday. The summit took place at Calafia in Palo Alto, a watering hole that’s reportedly owned by former Google chef Charlie Ayers. Gizmodo reports the pair decided to move their impromptu coffee klatch to a more private location after attracting the attention of several tech-savvy pedestrians in the area, including the one who snapped the pic above. It seems reasonable to assume one topic of the conversation was Apple’s rumored online advertising venture iAd. No word on whether Jobs asked Schmidt if he’s still a virgin, though the body language does suggest one of these guys was way more relaxed than the other.

iPad TV!

03/08/10 20:25

ipadtv#1

The iPad made its first TV ad appearance during ABC’s Academy Awards broadcast. If you missed it, you can click the graphic above to view the official online version at Apple.com. This thing appears to be the King Shiz for onscreen demos edited in the ADHD style that’s so popular with These Twitchy Kids Nowadays.

In case you were wondering, the music is The Blue Van’s “There Goes My Love,” which is available here. The lyrics make it easy to see why this song was Steve’s choice for the iPad’s coming out party -- the first verse in the ad goes like this:

Be Be the charming type
Take off your gloves
And show what they hide
Please take my naked wrist
With your hands and fingertips

Very fingery content, no? The second half of the verse gets even freakier, suggesting the kind of things an unscrupulous Apple Store employee might go for if an attractive female wants to get bumped to the front of the line on Launch Day:

And please baby get on your knees
Don’t bare bare bare your teeth
I’ll let you pry if you close your eyes
I’ll have an answer for your wives

We must confess that the first time we saw the ad, we thought the last part of that lyric was “I’ll have an answer for your ass” -- which would make it more of a non-sexual taunt from Steve to the vast legions of iPadophobes among the Punditocracy. We’re looking at you, John C. Dvorak.

Jobs does Oscars

03/08/10 20:20

Steve Jobs may not have gotten the red carpet attention of your George Clooneys or Sandra Bullocks, but Apple’s el jefe did make the scene at the Oscars Sunday night, as captured by what appears to be the world’s grungiest iPhone camera lens:

Steve-Jobs-Oscars-iPad-Commercial-e1268017945476

Steve-Jobs-Oscars-iPad-Commercial-e1268017945476

We’re not loving Guy Kawasaki’s new ‘do, but otherwise think Steve’s former lead Mac evangelist can do no wrong. Good to see them together again, if only for one night.

Oscar Preview?

03/07/10 13:22

Is it just us, or does ABC seem to be trying just a wee bit too hard to connect with Real America here?

oscar-final

oscar-final

Okay, we made it up. But if Dale Junior walks out tonight with Dame Helen Mirren...you heard it here first.

Mission: Implausible

03/07/10 12:07

cruise-wires

Move over, Ethan Hunt -- a group of thieves operating with what authorities call “a high level of sophistication” invaded a New Jersey Best Buy and made off with an armload of high-tech booty -- and by that we don’t mean iJustine.

The team entered the Electronics Stuporstore™ by cutting a hole in the roof and dropping down in an area where security cameras were apparently blocked by an oversize banner advertising the type of marginal gizmos that is the store’s normal specialty. But the team’s sophistication apparently extended to their choice of loot -- they bypassed the rows of Dell Perspirons and made off with 20 MacBooks instead. We’re not the type to encourage larceny, but it is somewhat comforting to know this particular criminal enterprise knows how to Think Different.

One investigator called the heist “the most productive ten minutes anyone has ever spent inside a Best Buy.”

Gray market blues

03/07/10 11:51

The “free minds, free markets” thing in action. It’s like a real-world, possibly-felonious version of eBay!

4405601176_c5db4bcb89

4405601176_c5db4bcb89

From Flickr.

Apple Tablet: Unboxing Gallery

03/07/10 10:04

The iPad doesn’t arrive until next month -- but the Notepod is here now! One of our sources in Australia sent us a review unit of an Apple-style tablet that’s just hit the market. And by “review unit,” we mean we ordered one. Anyway, here it is:

pad10

pad10

Okay, it’s not actually a digital device -- it’s a 100-sheet iPad-shaped notepad. See some of the web’s first pix -- and a demonstration of the device’s graphics capabilities -- in our gallery here.

UPDATE: Just got a very nice note from Virginia Murdoch at Inventive Labs. She saw our comment about the extra-bendy nature of the Notepod, and says they’re planning a stiffer backing on the next batch. Another public service of MacInquirer: making the world better, one minor product suggestion at a time.

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

maiden.001

maiden.002

maiden.003

maiden.004

maiden.005

maiden.006

maiden.007

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

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

passwordguide

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

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.

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

02/13/10 18:45

iphonesausagestylus234

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.

iPants

02/10/10 23:26

ibap

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

weekendmacworld560

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.)

ihat560x

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

Dotcomic: Say hello to iHat

02/07/10 10:58

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

dotcomic-ihat

dotcomic-ihat

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

dax-kristin

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

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

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.

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

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.

iPad Keynote: The Lost Slides

01/30/10 21:55

Thanks to the MacInquirer’s top-secret mole deep inside the Mothership, we’re proud to present a rare treat: iPhone pix from a Tuesday rehearsal before the iPad launch party, featuring ten slides that were actually dropped from the show for various reasons.

ipad-keynote.001

ipad-keynote.001

ipad-keynote.002

ipad-keynote.003

ipad-keynote.004

ipad-keynote.005

ipad-keynote.006

ipad-keynote.007

ipad-keynote.008

ipad-keynote.009.1

ipad-keynote.010

Dotcomic: Say hello to iPad

01/30/10 13:28

dotcomic-helloipad

Say Hello to...iPad?

01/27/10 13:46

appletabletb99

Photo: Gizmodo

LIVE: MacInquirer at tablet event

01/27/10 12:24

facetubelive-tab

LIVEBLOG PROVIDED BY FACETUBE
PAGE WILL AUTOREFRESH.
BUT FEEL FREE TO RELOAD ANYWAY -- WE NEED THE HITS.

9: 28 PST
NO CONNECTION

9:27 PST
TECH PRESS SUX!! YOU GUYS ARE JUST A BUNCH OF SELF IMPORTANT SONOFABI

9:26 PST
REALLY? NOBODY HERE HAS A SPARE IPHONE CHARGER?? REALLY??

9:25 PST
Probably shouldn’t have given my Mophie Juice Pack to that hottie at the Hilton last night...

9:24 PST
Okay, we’re back. 2 bars. Not great, but -- hey! “Low Battery?? 10% of battery remaining??” What the frack??

9:22 PST
NO CONNECTION

9:22PST:
About to reboot iPhone to refresh 3G connection. Standyby.

9:21 PST:
One bar? ATT sucks.

9:21 PST:
Could Andy Ihnatko have a BIGGER hat? What’s under there -- a satellite uplink?

9:20 PST:
Something smells like Oreos. Oh -- there’s Rob Enderle.

9:20 PST:
We’re at Yerba Buena, and we’re in. Press credential wasn’t even questioned. This is why we still love PrintShop Pro.

Tablet Day: Colbert nails it

01/27/10 09:53

All-Tablet's Eve: Former insider spills beans

01/26/10 22:02

Ed Eigerman, a former Apple senior systems engineer, tells Bloomberg News what it’s like to be on the inside of a big Apple product launch, in this case, the original iPod:

All-Tablet's Eve: Bad Pundit Flashback

01/26/10 21:03

A few vocal contrarians have been poo-poohing the idea of an Apple tablet for months. But veteran observers (and by that we mean, us) notice a certain...sameness about the comments of these skeptics. These are the guys who cut & paste the “too expensive, functionally crippled tech toy” boilerplate every time The Steveness pulls another game-changer out of his hat.

Think we’re exaggerating? How bout this: In the same way they scoffed before the iPhone, the infidels we’ll call Embracers of the Conventional Wisdom were also quite confident that Apple had pulled a major boner in 2001 by introducing a little thang we like to call...the iPod.

Thanks to Apple user and amateur tech historian “sleevesend,” here’s a medley of delightfully misguided instant reviews of the original iPod from the Apple Yahoo Stock message boards on launch day, September 23, 2001 . Replace ”iPod” with “tablet” and see if any of these sound familiar:

Nah, this would be stupid. Limited market.

It seems a bit of a waste to devote a Firewire disk device to loading MP3 documents. Isn't that a bit of a conflict with the iTunes disk burning application, and the ready availability of dozens of wearable CD music devices?

WAAAAYYYYYY overpriced for what it is and for the niche it is trying to find a home in.

Will Apple phanatics ever get a gut-full of handing over their wallet ?

Geez...Compaq's award-winning PDA is within a few bucks of this overpriced, overhyped iDud device.

Guess that's why the stock is tankin - and i ain't kiddin.

$399??!?! Sheesh...I can get an Xbox (or PS2) for that much.

I was definitely hoping for something more "revolutionary" given all the hype.

That's literally a down payment on a brand new car these days....half the price of an imac....half the price of a decent iBook on eBay...for a tiny piece of electronic that's essentially $150 by any other brand on a bad day at eBay or half.com ?

Is CEO Jobs insane in the middle of a full-blown recession or what is his basic problem

What Apple marketing idiot sets these price points ?

This is sooo lame...

Right-I’m going to give my kid one of these. NOT!

You've been tricked.

PRICE!! look up MP3 players in Cnet, not much over $200, the best buy (rio) is only $165.

I was really hoping for something that appealed to everyone, not just mac people, IMHO, this is a cool bummer.

what a joke....hahahahahahahahahahha....thanks jobs.

once again the faithful get screwed.

tock price, I sense, is already factoring in this dud. Apple thinks they can over-price their product line no matter what device they hype and trot out to us...they are screwing themselves by not only DESIGNING the product as Mac only, but then crowing about it.

This is the CUBE2 - no doubt.

the apple sheep have talked about nothing for the last week other than the new product release. they talked about how revolutionary, sleek, slick, dell killing, and, microsoft killing it would be. they talked about taking the wind out of the windows xp sails.......YOU ALL HAVE EGG ON YOUR FACE. HAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH.

bend over and prepare for innovation.

(Fun Fact: “Bend over and prepare for innovation” was later used by Microsoft in a Windows Vista TV ad featuring Dan Aykroyd as Beldar the Conehead.)

Pop culture insta-homage

01/26/10 11:26

Perfect sportswear for the Apple fanboi/Conan O’Brien fanatic:

imwithcocoa

imwithcocoa

Also available in poster-style. Get yours here.

"Behold his mighty hand!"

01/26/10 11:10

Analogies between the eagerly-awaited Apple Tablet and the original portable device from on high have been everywhere lately. And while there have been several Jobs-as-Moses Photochops that get the point across well, we think there’s nothing like the power of a well-rendered portrait, like this one from illustrator Dale Stephanos:

mosesjobs

mosesjobs

Even better: iPhone Savior reports that Dale’s offering 8x10 and 11x14 prints of the art here.

Tablet games revealed!

01/25/10 18:45

An analytics company known as Flurry claims Apple (or somebody) has been testing the mythical iTab/iSlate/MagicSlate/MrSlate/TabSlate/whatever in an area near the Cupertino campus since last October. The Flurrians claim to have a breakdown of different app types being used, and suggest that the device will definitely have a consumer focus, with the number one category being “Games.” Fascinated, the MacInquirer emailed out contact deep in the bowels of Flurry (wasn’t that a Black Sabbath album title?) and pressed them for further details.

Consumer focus? Without a doubt. In fact, the beta test group appears to be composed entirely of the staff at Break.com. Here’s the breakdown graph on the Games category:

mactab-chart3

mactab-chart3

For some reason, we doubt Steve will be sharing that slide onstage at Yerba Buena on Wednsday.

Oh yeah -- it's on! (But...what is it?)

01/18/10 12:53

Apple had finally made it official -- they’ve sent select members of the Mac media elite email invites to a special event on January 27th. The relevant graphic looks like this:

appleinvite

appleinvite

The tagline implies a brand new product, not just a speed-bump of MacBook Pros or a preview of iPhone OS v4.0. But there are no clear clues to what the latest creation might be, unless you count the rounded-rectangle shape in the background. (Look -- it’s the same shape as a tablet! And the splotches spilling out over the borders of the rectangle suggest communicatio and sharing capabilities -- which means both Wi-Fi and multiple carriers for 3G!! Suck it, AT&T!!!)

Actually, the rectangle tells us nothing. At this point, neither do the multicolor paint splotches. You could make an argument that the clean white logo over the drippy blobs implies that the tablet market is a splotchy, disorganized, multicolor fustercluck, and that Apple sees itself eventually coming out on top of the whole mess with a clean, iconic design. Yeah -- we’ll go with that. Makes as much sense as anything else we’ve seen lately.

Extra-bendy tablet revealed

01/09/10 14:19

While we’re all eagerly awaiting the rumored arrival of Apple’s tablet computer later this month, there are a handful of other intriguing products in the pipeline, like the Skiff --a large-format touchscreen tab co-developed with Hearst Publishing. Hey Steve -- can your tablet do this?

skiff1

skiff1

Still a tad vapor-warey for our tastes, but an interesting idea nonetheless. Here’s hoping the Skiff people can bend the cost curve as much as the product itself.

iFart launches social network. Yes, really.

01/05/10 23:30

iFart Mobile, the king of the hill of iPhone fart apps (and we can’t believe we just typed that either) has stayed on the -- ahem -- cutting edge of technology by providing frequent updates to their chucklehead product. The developers recently added in-app purchasing of downloadable fart upgrade packages. Available are such classy collections as the Rock Bands pack (featuring Aerosniff, Fartwood Mac, and Hubastink) and the Gassy Celebrities collection (with Methane McConnaghey, Gaston Kutcher, and Colon O’Brien).

Okay, we’re not talking Algonquin Roundtable here. But we love the campfire scene in “Blazing Saddles” as much as the next guy.

Now the iFart gang is introducing a social network for fartophiles. We’l let you discover the ridiculous details for yourself at the company’s blog. Basically, once one of your “Fart Budz™” has “friended” you, the iPhone’s -- ahem -- push technology allows you to send them a quick trouser cough anytime, anywhere. (No matter what you’re doing. And you’re stuck like that. Forever. It’s like a mobile phone version of getting an ill-advised tattoo.)

Can a fart app create a social network? Why not? Call it...Fartbook. Or if they add video uploading capabilities, they could launch You Toot. Or you could share a quick 140-character message on your latest blast via...something that rhymes with Twitter.

Stupid? You betcha. But it’s not the dumbest idea that ever brought a diverse group of bent-arrows together. (That would be this.) So high-five to the shameless capitalists of iFart, and here’s hoping they continue to -- ahem -- leave their mark on society.

Gear Review: The Blue Yeti

01/04/10 23:05

yetiheader

The Yeti
USB microphone
Blue Microphones
$149.95
@@@@@
4.5 out of 5 (We couldn’t figure out how to type a half-@.)

PROS: Great design. Four pickup patterns. Good balanced sound.
CONS: USB audio just shy of pro quality. Control knobs a tad jiggly.

Blue has become famous for its striking microphone designs, and the retro-modern USB Yeti is a worthy addition to the company’s product lineup.

The first thing you'll notice is what a beautiful, well-designed object this is. The Yeti has a solid custom desk stand that provides built-in cable management for headphone and USB cords. Despite its outdoorsy name, this Yeti is not the ideal choice for recording in the wild -- it’s really big and really heavy. But the swivel-stand arrangement allows you to rotate the body of the mic upside down into the base if you do need portability.

On the front: a mic mute button and headphone volume dial. On the rear, mic level control and a pickup pattern selector. The dials strike us as just a tad jiggly and plasticky for such an otherwise elegant design. On the bottom are the zero-latency headphone jack and mini-USB connector. The swiveling body makes accessing the USB and headphone ports a snap. Another thoughtful addition is a 5/8 inch threaded hole that allows you to remove the base and mount the Yeti on a standard microphone floor stand.

The Yeti houses a trio of mic elements to offer stereo, omni, cardioid, and figure-eight pickup patterns. The selections give the mic a versatile bag of sound tricks, whether you're recording a solo podcast, taping an interview or meeting, or laying down some vocals in GarageBand. The headphone amp doesn't exactly go to 11, but the mic delivers a pretty respectable output level. We're talking 16-bit USB audio, so the Yeti doesn't have quite the full warmth and sonic detail of a "real" large-diaphragm condenser like Blue's pro studio models. But the sound is surprisingly good for a USB mic, with much less noise than similarly-featured competitors like the Samson G-Track.

No drivers needed -- just plug in the included USB cable. On a Mac, select "Yeti Stereo Microphone" for both input and output in the Sound control panel of System Preferences. Configuring audio in/out in GarageBand's Audio preferences is a snap, too.

The Yeti displays minimal “boominess” on the low end when worked close, what audio pros call “the proximity effect.” To avoid P-pops and breath sounds, you might want to invest in a pop screen of some kind, though it seems a shame to put a big foam hat on top of such a beautiful head.

Did we mention how cool The Yeti looks sitting on your desk? The streamlined aluminum styling matches the finish of Apple's current product lineup quite well.

The Yeti's sound quality and multiple pickup patterns raise the bar a bit for USB mics, and leave even Blue's much-beloved Snowball playing catch-up. For the price, a product that looks and sounds this good is going to be pretty hard to beat. Highly recommended.

Dotcomic: Big Bang Theory

01/02/10 16:52

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Apple tablet specs mystically revealed

01/02/10 15:03

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Greetings, infidel technophiles. The aroma of your collective fanboi dreams of a new Apple gizmo has permeated my high-tech North African citadel. The MacSwami is here to clear the air with some early details about the upcoming Apple tablet computer.

It’s true: the Cupertino Skunkworks has finally come up with something Steve Jobs can enjoy while sitting on the toilet. MacSwami sees an official Apple tablet announcement at the end of January, with limited availability in late March. The main bullets:

-Oleophobic glass multitouch screen will be a larger version of the one in the iPhone 3GS. Screen size just north of ten inches. Will run a customized operating system somewhere between the iPhone OS and the full desktop/laptop version of OS X. Onscreen widgets will be slightly larger finger-targets than iPhone versions. For a preview, examine the revised horizontal scrollers in iTunes 9.

- Will be tied to the iTunes App Store like the iPhone. Jailbreakers will quickly figure out how to install their own apps. Among the first gray market add-ons: a hack that enables the use of Apple’s wireless keyboard. Speaking of which...

- No physical keyboard. Onscreen KB like iPhone, though its bigger keys will make it a bit easier for the bifocals crowd to use.

- Most iPhone apps will run, though they’ll need to be modified slightly to fill the full screen. (Leading fart-app developers are working overtime on this right now.)

-Communication capabilities will be similar to iPod Touch: Wireless networking, but no built-in phone capabilities. AT&T will announce an iPhone tethering plan for the tablet, but never deliver. Apple and AT&T will each drop hints suggesting the other is the problem. Full tethering will only arrive in mid-2011, when the tablet and iPhone become available from carriers that are not named AT&T.

- No memory card expansion slot. SD card support will make an anticlimactic appearance about 3 years down the road.

- 128 GB SSD for storage. 256 GB will be a ridiculously expensive option whose price will drop dramatically before the end of the year, generating an idiotic class-action lawsuit that will go nowhere.

- Single 3 megapixel camera with video capability, similar to current iPhone unit. Several key tech writers have already written the section of their reviews that whine girlishly about the lack of a second camera for iChat.

-Standard 1/8-inch headphone jack. Tiny, underwhelming stereo speakers. Port for charging and sync that appears to be identical to the dock connector on the iPod/iPhone, but will give you a scary “this accessory could blow up your tablet” warning if you try to use existing cables/docks. Tablet will necessitate an all-new dock/cradle ecosystem, most of which will be utter horsecrap. Only products from Griffin and one or two other companies will be worth even looking at.

- Full large-screen iPod functionality will goose sales of iTunes TV/movie downloads. Books will also be available. ala Kindle. “Enhanced” versions of the New York Times, Wired, Sports Illustrated, and various other dead-tree publications will be available at launch, at prices distressingly similar to newsstand copies. This will do little to stop the bleeding, and Old Media companies will continue to struggle.

- Kindle and Nook will both announce lower prices. It won’t help. Nook will bite the dust first, with Kindle hanging on a bit longer.

- Predictable humbuggery about the new device being “too expensive to succeed” will be accompanied by lengthy Apple Store lines at product launch and backorders of several weeks.

There is much more, but you are not ready to receive it now. MacSwami will reveal additional details soon.

Stay classy. But mostly, thanks for stopping by.

Video: Welcome to the Future!

01/01/10 14:54

New Year’s Day is a time to reflect on the past, and ponder the future. And while most films predicting “the world to come” are laughably inaccurate, this rare black and white chestnut from the 1950s has turned out to be amazingly on-the-nose:

Pop! Fizzzzzzz.....Glug Glug...

01/01/10 00:02

happy2010