Author archive: Nicole Martinelli
12:36 pm, November 20th, 2009
Journos on Macs at Microsoft's Mobius event. @windows phone thoughts
It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire” at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think they’d have a more sympathetic crowd.
If this pic posted by Jason Dunn over at Windows Phone Talk is any indication, most journalists, even the best and brightest from sites like Engadget and Slash Gear are Macs, at a non-scientific ratio of five to three.
Sorry guys. It looks like we’re mostly interested in covering you, not using you.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, Top stories | 8 Comments »
11:10 am, November 20th, 2009
In “The Proposal,” Sandra Bullock plays a Canadian-born, bulletproof book editor who finds herself stuck in Sitka, Alaska while waiting to marry her assistant to get a green card.
After her cell phone gets stolen by an eagle, she picks up a replacement at the town general store — what could be more Alaska? — and then goes to the only Internet cafe around.
And has to answer all of her 37 urgent messages with a handful of dimes on a coin-operated modem system — via a iMac G3. This in stark contrast to the late-model iMac she had in her New York fiefdom.
It was one of the only bits in the movie that made me smile. I kind of wish I hadn’t sold mine, old as it was…
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Quickies, iMac | 6 Comments »
10:31 am, November 19th, 2009
There are iPhone-controlled cars and beds — now one company plans to integrate iPhones/iPods in its wheelchairs for a new kind of accessibility.
Dynamic Controls developed a system to connect an iPhone or iPod Touch to the wheelchair system via Bluetooth; it mounts on an adjustable arm and has a recharger, too.
In addition to music and all the other stuff you can do with an iPod/iPhone that might come in handy — compass reading, maps — it has an app that can be used for some controls on the chair, showing chair information in real time, including speed, and a diagnostics feature for when things go awry.
“We recognized the iPhone has revolutionized the way people communicate and saw the opportunity to develop this solution for wheelchair users, taking full advantage of Apple’s ‘Works with iPod / Made for iPhone’ developer program,” Charlotte Walshe, CEO of Dynamic Controls, said in a press release.
Lee Kwok, a wheel chair user in Christchurch, New Zealand was also quoted in the presser, saying says he thinks it will be fantastic to be able to buy an off-the-shelf product that has so many features for powered wheelchair users: “Having access to mainstream technology via a wheelchair is a huge advantage.”
The new feature is expected to launch in April, 2010.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, iPhone, iPhone Apps, iPod Touch | No Comments »
9:36 am, November 19th, 2009
‘Tis the season: Italian magazines are chock full of ads for this sleek iPod dock and bedside lamp called “Diva.”
Designed by Dante Donegani and Giovanni Lauda for Italian firm Rotaliana, it’s an LED light and music system whose polycarbonate, anodized aluminum curves are all in the right places.
Clutter phobes will appreciate the retractable docking station and arm for the light. The docking station, suitable for iPods and iPhones, has four 6-watt speakers, plus an FM radio and USB socket if you’d rather play music from a flash drive. The whole shebang can be commanded via an infrared remote control. She comes in black, gray or white.
At €360 euro (circa $535) one would have to offer molto proof of saintly behavior to Santa for this one.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Quickies, iPhone, iPod, iPod Accessories | No Comments »
10:16 am, November 18th, 2009
Holds toilet paper and an iPod, but is it an alibi for murder?
A man appealing his conviction for murdering a British student in Italy testified Wednesday that he heard the victim arguing with an American defendant in the case minutes before she was slain — while in the bathroom listening to his iPod.
In November 2007, British student Meredith Kercher was murdered in Italy, during a study abroad program in hill town Perugia.
In October 2008, Rudy Guede was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the killing, for which Kercher’s roommate, American student Amanda “Foxy Knoxy” Knox and her boyfriend, Italian IT grad, Raffaele Sollecito, are now on trial.
During what has been hypothesized was some sort of late-night Halloween sex game where the 21-year-old Kercher was an unwilling participant, Guede maintains he was out of commission during the murder while in the bathroom of the young women’s apartment.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Top stories, iPod, iPod Accessories | 3 Comments »
10:28 am, November 17th, 2009
Rivers Cuomo of Weezer loves Jason Neely’s high-flying dog Sidney so much, he put the pooch on the cover of the band’s seventh album, Raditude.
But the mutt’s not just photogenic, he’s communicative and tech savvy: here’s an MTV clip of Sidney interviewing Rivers using iChat on Macs.
The thing is, the dog barks every single question.
Do all journalists sound like that?
Via MTV
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Humor, News | 3 Comments »
9:56 am, November 17th, 2009
We recently wrote about JBMJBM, LLC — a one-man app factory with 87 approved ones so far — on the eBay block for $100,000.
Top-selling titles include Friday Night Lights, iSpy Game, iReferee, Pet Peeves (a social network for griping pictured above), iSexyRef2, Pro Rodeo Fan, Sit Up Counter and Shake 2 Count.
CoM had a quick word with owner Brice Milliorn about the sale, what’s next for him and how he sees the future of apps.
CoM: Was JBMJBM sold?
BM: No, I have not sold company or apps yet. I am in talks with one guy about buying me out via stock, but it doesn’t look promising.
CoM: What plans to you have to sell it now?
BM: No plans to sell again, just going to continue doing what I am doing and do more freelance work as well.
CoM: What changes would you like to see in Apple’s app store?
BM: I don’t have a problem with Apple, you follow their guidelines you get things approved, simple as that. The few items that I have had issue with them, they called explained, I fixed and it got approved. I even wrote the number down and called the guy back a few times when I was having issues and within a few hours it was fixed.
CoM: Where do you think the future of app development is headed?
BM: I think the future of the iPhone is opening it up to Verizon. That will be another huge influx of potential app buyers and I look forward to this happening.
I also believe all this hype on the Droid and all those other handsets that will ultimately never get to the level of the iPhone. The only company to match the iPhone and better it is Apple itself.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, iPhone, iPhone Apps, iTunes | No Comments »
11:33 am, November 16th, 2009
Used with a cc-license, thanks to juanpol on flickr.
The Economist’s quarterly mag Intelligent Life did round robin interviews with a number of design luminaries, literati and museum curators about what objects define life in the aughts.
The iPod and iPhone came up most frequently, leading the editors to name this the iDecade.
That doesn’t mean they have anything nice to say about them, however.
Most of the comments veer towards the “these devices cut us off from humanity” type. Young’uns in other times were more social and less social media, apparently, we were all the better for it.
A few choice excerpts:
STEPHEN JONES, Milliner
iPhone. Txt spk
What is the Mini of today? Probably the iPhone. I wish I could say floor-length dresses or big green hats, but I can’t. Communication is the issue now, not freedom and mobility: iPhone, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter. This is a big sea-change: it is more about communication through the word and less about the image…
DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Author of “White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties”
iPods. Extreme materialism. Politicians cycling.
People listening to iPods on their way to work—and not merely as a symbol of technology, but as a representation of a sort of introversion, a retreat within our own bubble…
EKOW ESHUN, Artistic director, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
The Prius. iPods. Style jams
The Prius is the car of the decade. It’s unlovely in lots of ways, but it has become an icon of aspiration. And then the iPod and social networking. Something that spools from these is that we don’t really have style subcultures anymore. Instead we have a playlist culture, where you’re allowed to mash up everything around you in a sort of pick’n’mix…
Via More Intelligent Life
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Cult of Mac, News | 4 Comments »
5:27 am, November 16th, 2009
The original manual comes with the Apple 1 up for auction on eBay.
There’s another Apple 1 on the eBay auction block, this one comes with enough collateral to stand as its own museum exhibit.
The starting bid is $50,000, the auction is on for another two days.
The owner, who wished to remain anonymous, told us how this Apple artifact got there.
CoM: How did you get your hands on an Apple 1?
Anonymous Owner: I came to own the Apple 1 through a very convoluted story, but in short I found a guy in Minnesota who bought it from the original owner in 1990 and, eventually, he sold it to me.
CoM: What made you decide to sell it?
AO: It is killing me to sell it but I’m on very hard times and I’ve sold everything else of value. I want to keep this magnificent piece of history forever. There is no price I would willingly put on this item…but I have kids and of course that takes priority.
CoM: How did you decide the price?
AO: I set the opening price because a) an Apple 1 has sold for as much as $43k and b) if I have to sell my most prized possession and I sold it for an inadequate amount I’d have to take my life.
So, really, the price is all about saving lives. lol.
CoM: In the selling info, you say that Woz looked at it and said that it probably wouldn’t boot because the first batches of Apple 1s used a brand of chip they later replaced because they blew out easily.
How did you meet Woz?
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, Top stories, Vintage Tech | No Comments »
10:43 am, November 13th, 2009
The 21-year-old Australian behind the first iPhone virus got a death threat, media interviews and job offers as the result of his efforts.
Ashley Towns, who said the result was an “experiment that got out of hand,” created a worm that switches iPhone wallpaper for an image of 80s pop singer Rick Astley. Astley, who sang the 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,” who morphed into the Internet prank known as “Rickrolling.” The bait-and-switch worm replaces an ordinary video with one of Astley.
Here’s how it happened:
“I was reading a blog that said in bold letters to change your passwords and I wondered how many had.”
It turned out that most of the people on his network had not.
“So I started writing it from there. I stayed up all night and when I was half asleep I decided to test it.
“I didn’t really think about legal consequences at the time. I honestly never expected it to go this far.
“I thought it would spread to no more than 10 or 15 people.”
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, iPhone | 3 Comments »
10:17 am, November 13th, 2009
Let’s say you’ve got $30 grand to blow on a gold and diamond iPhone but the idea of just buying one without the thrill of an auction bores you.
Two of these tricked out iPhones are up for sale from “bespoke luxury communications” (read: cell phones that go bling-bling along with ring-ring) purveyor Stuart Hughes on BillionaireXchange.com, a site that launched this week billing itself as the first online marketplace for, uh, billionaires.
The pink 3GS model above, coated in 18-carat solid rose gold, was designed entirely by hand and dusted with 53 pink diamonds on the Apple logo. Each phone takes four craftsmen months to make. If that’s too girly, there’s also the 22-carat gold model with a white diamond logo.
Retail price for both? Nearly £22,000 ($36,000). Starting bid on the auction site is £18,000 ($30,000).
Both auctions say the reserve price has already been met, so maybe diamond-encrusted iPhones aren’t the white elephants of the aughts.
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in Cult of Mac, iPhone, iPhone 3G S | No Comments »
6:05 am, November 13th, 2009
There are only thought to be about 50 Apple 1s still in the wild, this is the second one up for auction on eBay in a month.
The last one sold for about $18,000, several thousand over its estimated value, to an anonymous computer collector who also tipped us off about the sale of this 1976 progenitor of the personal computer. The starting bid is $50,000.
So why is this Apple 1 , which the seller states won’t boot up, priced at 177% more than the other one?
It’s pretty much a capsule history of early Apple: the wise person who first bought it for Electric City Radio Supply in Montana kept everything — the invoice, the box (which shows the return address as Steve Jobs’ parents house), a cassette with BASIC, the operation manual and a typed letter on ring binder paper from Steve Jobs answering questions about it, including how to hook up a keyboard. Even if you don’t have the cash, the photos are worth checking out.
We wrote to the seller, more when we hear back.
Hit the jump for the letter signed “Steven Jobs” on notebook paper and more details…
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, Vintage Tech | 1 Comment »
9:22 am, November 12th, 2009
BBC reporter Sharif Sakr took a top-of-the line Yamaha PDX50 dock (about $250 plus the iPod) and put it up against a secondhand stereo system (with CD player, amps and speakers) estimated cost, $80.
Then he wrangled about 10 passersby to get an earful of Pavarotti warbling. They told him which sounded better — though they couldn’t see which device was pumping out the opera.
Almost everyone — 8/10 — preferred the secondhand stereo, to the highly-rated Yamaha dock calling the sound warmer, fuller and more crisp.
Like a lot of people, I’ve got an iPod dock, but it’s not replacing my stereo. It lives in the kitchen, where sound (as in listening to the Car Talk podcast while flipping French toast) more than sound quality is important.
How many of you just use an iPod dock instead of a stereo system?
Via BBC
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, iPod, iPod Accessories | 9 Comments »
8:41 am, November 12th, 2009
@paolotonon
The mystery object in Monday’s contest is an Apple IIC. This time, we weren’t even trying to make it especially hard, but kudos to everyone who noticed that it was a European version.
We picked it out of the line-up of fabulous Apple products from yesteryear from Paolo Tonon’s flickrstream. Paolo took the shot of it and others, including a Macintosh Portable and Newtons, from an Italian retrocomputing group.
Winner named after the jump.
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Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News | No Comments »
10:39 am, November 11th, 2009
LocFinder is an augmented reality app that boasts it will always let you see which direction is home or find your car, even if you’re halfway across the world.
LocFinder costs $0.99 on iTunes and while isn’t the first augmented reality app to tackle parking lot amnesia — we recently wrote about Car Finder — it sounds like a compass on steroids.
It has a bevy of features that may end those ping-pong SMS messages to set up a meeting, make stopping to ask for directions a non-issue even when you’re lost in Paris — or let you know exactly how far away you are from Cupertino at all times.
More on what it does with video after the jump…
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps | 2 Comments »
