Nicole Martinelli - page 31

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VWZrQN9MMo

A hotel chain wants you to leave your laptop at home and use a Mac mini for in-room entertainment and work. Call us dirty minded, but it sounds mainly useful as a way to watch free porn on boring business trips.

Joie de Vivre is a chain of California boutique hotels testing a program called Joie Connect at the Citizen Hotel in Sacramento.

In addition to cable, you get a Mac mini in your room hooked up to a 42-inch LCD TV and a remote control.

You can check your email, watch Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and video on demand, plus check your hotel bill, Google for local attractions and check out from the comfort of your room.

Apple has posted the full video of Steve Jobs’ keynote at WWDC yesterday. It’s worth watching for a few highlights.

Look out for the iPhone 4 announcement at around 30 min  (“Stop me if you’ve already seen this…”), about the retina display (“Once you’ve used a retina, you’ll never go back”) at around 38 minutes and enjoy Jobs coping with a wi-fi glitch at around 40 minutes. We also enjoyed the Guitar Hero demo and the video chat with Jonathan Ive.

What was your favorite moment of the hour-long state of the Apple nation?

An upscale Manhattan tailor has designed a $600 suit jacket with an iPad pocket.

Mohan’s custom tailors, founded in the 70s before men needed gadget pockets, said the somewhat gimmicky-looking iPad suit is the result of customer requests.

You don’t have to be very sartorially savvy to wonder how the jacket — pictured either flat or with the model holding it — could stand carrying a 1.5 pound device on one side without deforming the fabric or giving you a lopsided look. Mohan’s says it has “several dozen” appointments scheduled for fittings.

As invites roll in for extracurricular activities for WWDC next week, only one so far offers something besides drinks and the same folks you’ve seen all day: a museum-style look at working Apple technology dating back to 1976 — including an original Apple I.

The aptly-named iNSpired tour is sponsored by BoxTone, Mobile Service Management software provider and you’ll get to ogle 25 years of Apple’s insanely great tech as you hobnob with community members over drinks and food. (They promise a “hands-on” experience but keep your potato-chip grease off the keyboards, thanks.)

Apple employee #16, Wendell Sander, aka father of the Apple III, is coming to the party, he’s bringing the Apple I.

Entrance is free for WWDC attendees, spaces are limited, tell them you’re with us (promo code: CultofMacFan) when you register and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win an iPad and a VIP pass.

See you there?

The iPad has already gone beyond kid-appeaser — a recent study reported that the most downloaded apps are for adults using the device at work.

So if you want to give the iPad a permanent place in your office, you might want something to prop it up with that doesn’t involve pencils and rubber bands.

While in some office environments, funky DIY stands (including a cat) might be conversation starters, in others, they just look, well, funky.

Here are our top five picks for iPad stands that deserve a place next to that sleek perpetual calendar and won’t look like some random piece of junk when your iPad is elsewhere.

1. Old Time Computers Marble finish stand. For that banker desk look, try this handcrafted stand in hardwood with a marble finish. It comes with a USB cable and audio jack,  available for $59.00 on Etsy. The same artisan has some terrific wooden stands in the same vein — including a combo iPad/iPhone dock charger —  as well as antique-looking external keyboards with a steampunk aesthetic.

Artist johannes-p-osterhoff pwned the squeaky clean iPad advert in a Berlin subway station by putting porn in right before the device launched in Germany.

The attention gained from his protest over the “porn-free device” crashed his server, so osterhoff (who prefers to go all lowercase) got back to us just now on how he did it, sending Cult of Mac exclusive photos of his guerilla art operation at the Rosenthaler Platz stop in Berlin’s subway.

A few of our especially astute readers thought the osterhoff’s Photoshop skills could use work, but as you can see in the above pic, his protest over the allegedly porn-free iPad was an old school cut-and-paste operation.

If you believe iPads are not just for keeping the offspring entertained during car trips, there are numbers to back that up.

Half of the top ten paid iPad apps are “productivity tools,” in other words, apps that grown-ups use for work.

According to Distimo, a start-up that analyzes app stats, the top two paid iPad apps in April are word processor Pages and Goodreader, a large-file PDF enabler.

Pinball HD is the only game in the top five paid apps at spot no. 3, followed by note taker app Penultimate and presentation app Keynote.  (You can download the full report here.)

iMaria is a virtual girlfriend app billed as your very own English play pal. But the developers struggled with the “hot Brit chick,”  concept seeing as the virtual girl is in fact embodied by Playboy model Maria Eriksson, who is Croatian. (More at her NSFW site.)

So, well, at least she’s great to look at, right? Sure, but a come-hither look and perma-tousled hair is about as far as you’ll get with iTunes enforced no-porn rules.

She’s been iDubbed to have a “cute English accent,” and your interaction with her hinges around some pretty banal activities: should she cook for you? Or should you take her out? You can then choose what you eat, too. She does look pretty suggestive peeling those potatoes for your English stay-at-home meals but is that’s about it.

CNN paid a visit to Foxconn, the Chinese factory complex where 10 workers jumped to their deaths this year.

What did they find? A super-concentrated complex in Shenzen where sleeping quarters, restaurants, hospitals, supermarkets and swimming pools are packed into 2.3 square kilometers (about 0.9 square  miles).

It’s a factory town, they report, that feels more like a “heavily secure” university campus.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FncILxajmlw

Rats: just as we were hoping for a heart-pumping, fist-waving performance from Steve Ballmer, a la’ Monkeyboy iPod mash-up above, Microsoft has officially denied he will be appearing at Apple’s WWDC via Twitter:

Steve Ballmer not speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor riding in the Belmont. Just FYI.

There’s hope, though perhaps he will be considering a stint on “So, You Think You Can Dance?” or emceeing a roller derby match.

Via App Zone

UPDATE: Microsoft denied Ballmer would be present with a pithy tweet. Darn.

There may be a few surprises at the upcoming June 7 WWDC keynote after all.

Barron’s reports that a sliver of that day’s agenda (exactly seven minutes) has been allotted to a Microsoft presentation. Speculation is that the microphone would be handed over to none other than that bouncy preacher with the overactive sweat glands himself, Steve Ballmer. He just may be giving that signature rallying cry of “Developers! Developers! Developers!” to a Mac audience:

Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with tiny Global Equities Research, contends that 7 minutes of the June 7 keynote by Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been blocked off for a presentation by Microsoft (MSFT) to talk about Visual Studio 2010, the company’s suite of development tools. Chowdhry says the new version of VS will allow developers to write native applications for the iPhone, iPad and Mac OS. And here’s the kicker: he thinks Microsoft’s presentation could be given by none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

Using VS would allow PC folks to make apps without having to switch over to a Mac and employ Xcode, reasonable enough, but the disparity in speaking styles (and clothing styles) make Ballmer’s air time at the Apple event a little hard to imagine.

If the spectacle is anything like the fake video above of his incursion at MacWorld, sign me up.

Instead of dragging potential buyers out of a car to discuss details, Mercedes Benz is using the iPad to keep them on the showroom floor while getting down to brass tacks.

Some 40 Mercedes Benz dealerships are testing the iPad program, which uses the company’s MB Advantage software. The sales staff can scroll through info on the latest offers, check rebates and start running the credit application while the customer sits in the Mercedes they are interested in buying.

“We wanted to bring the mobile revolution into the dealership,” Andreas Hinrichs, vice president of marketing, told the Wall Street Journal. . “The iPad is consumer centric but there is a business side to it as well.” If the pilot program is successful, the company will roll it out for all 350 US dealers.

Good for the seller, sure. But for the buyer? They just might miss a shot at reality in a cubby-hole office, making a decision they regret while high on that new-car smell.

The iPad launches officially in Japan on May 28, but like lots of countries around the world, jet setters and government members already have them before local stores do.

Apple’s new device hasn’t been declared street legal by Japan’s communication authorities yet so, much like in Israel whose iPad “ban” got supermodel Bar Rafaeli into trouble, until it’s been officially cleared for use, elites who have them must pretend not to use them.

Case in point: Japan’s telecoms minister, Kazuhiro Haraguchi, “borrowed” an iPad from Marc Benioff, customer service exec at Salesforce.com, while visiting the US in May. Haraguchi however, clarified via Twitter that “I’m not illegally using the iPad in Japan.”

In the on-again-off-again Apple/Flash affair many people feel caught in the fray. McCann creative Mat Bisher, perhaps tired of being caught up in this tug- of-war, used his Flash-built site to send a strong message:  “STEVE JOBS HATES YOU.”

Bisher employed a Flash sniffer to send this message, sniffers detect whether users are on Flash-enabled  devices. Try to view Bisher’s “Save Apple” site from an iPhone or iPad you’ll be greeted by Steve Jobs flipping you the bird with a freakishly long middle digit.

Bisher hit on the idea out of frustration:
“I, like many agency creatives, have designed my site using Flash, and as we all know, Apple’s iPads and iPhones are not Flash supported thanks to Mr. Jobs.

Former Apple retail employees have filed a class action suit in California over rest breaks and poor treatment.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of all people employed in non-exempt (hourly paid) “Genius” positions in San Francisco County Superior Court on September 15, 2009. A website gives more details on the suit.

“Apple has enjoyed an advantage over its competition and imposes a resultant disadvantage on its “Genius” employees by failing to authorize, permit and provide statutorily mandated rest breaks as required by law.”

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Outdoor furniture designers must be feeling the fruit this season: here’s another Apple- inspired al fresco lounger.

In darker rattan than yesterday’s version spotted in Norway, this one’s also got a little more abstract shape and looks less cribbed from the Cupertino company logo.

Mac collector Mark Johnson spied this one in a Liverpool Costco where the price tag is about $2,100 (£1,500 circa).

Can the apple fall too far from the tree or would you buy this for your backyard?

Not sure you’d have to be an Apple fan to buy this rattan love seat for your summer lollygagging, but it probably helps.

Spotted by Eirik Nilsen, it retails for about $1,500 (9,900 Norwegian Kroner) at Coop Obs Bygg in Stavanger, Norway.

Holly Golightly probably wouldn’t wear her iPad in a front pocket pouch, but in a pinch it may be better than a toting a bulky bag.

As much as we’re crazy about the iPad, carrying it around is still kinda awkward — remember the condom case? — but an Australian company has come up with an intriguing solution.

The iDress positions itself as kind of a chic, kangaroo iPad pouch, a cute to-the-knee number in black cotton sateen, perfect for when it comes time to put down your mouse and pick up a glass of prosecco, if their marketing speak is to be believed.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNnX6XRQBec

It looks like the final curtain has closed on Apple’s award-winning “Get a Mac” campaign launched in 2006.

Apple has pulled the ads from the company site, the page now redirects visitors to “Why You’ll Love a Mac.” (Nostalgics can still find them on YouTube, though.)

The last ones, released in October 2009, were surprisingly clever but Mac man Justin Long speculated in an interview last month that the ads had run their course:

What’s the status on those Apple commercials?

JL: You know, I think they might be done. In fact, I heard from John, I think they’re going to move on. I can’t say definitively, which is sad, because not only am I going to miss doing them, but also working with John. I’ve become very close with him, and he’s one of my dearest, greatest friends. It was so much fun to go do that job, because there’s not a lot to it for me. A lot of it is just keeping myself entertained between takes, and there’s no one I’d rather do it with than John.

Are you sad or glad to see them go? Which one was your favorite?

Via Mac Rumors

Future iPhones may be able to flash ads for theater discounts or suggest a burrito special in the neighborhood as you head out of the office at lunch time.

Geo-tagged ads and coupons would zap themselves to iPhone users a number of ways, including RFID, Apple Insider writes.

The Cupertino company applied for a patent this week titled “System and method for providing contextual advertisements according to a dynamic pricing scheme.”

If the price (or timing) is right, users could make buys at kiosks or use coupons or discounts from their smartphones.

Here’s how they described it in the application:

“If the submitted advertisement… provides a coupon for food at a restaurant, the submitting advertiser… may include an indication that the advertisement… is directed to food sales, times of day when meals are popularly served, a GPS location of the restaurant, keywords that may relate to the restaurant in an Internet search, how weather may affect the use or non-use of the coupon in the advertisement…, etc.”

Via Apple Insider

Ayman Shamma’s iPad steel drum just might revolutionize music on street corners and subway stops.

Shamma made a pair of drum sticks out of conductive material, then wrote an iPad app that mimics the sound of a steel drum, without any heavy equipment to lug around.

You can whip up a pair of drumsticks in about half an hour following his tutorial and start annoying the neighbor’s immediately with Shamma’s preferred apps, Magic Piano or iDaft.

If you’re interested in keeping abreast of Steve Job’s new hobby of personally answering customer emails (though some of us here at Cult of Mac still maintain it’s a Robin-type assistant or robo-prototype), check out sent by Steve.

It’s a growing, searchable collection of emails Steve sends with just the copy of the exchange, plus links to the source.

Hat tip: Johnny Makkar

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kY46zm98Ng

The iPod is a multi-function device and using it to rap your order at McDonalds is not a crime.

A Salt Lake City judge cleared Spenser Dauwalder, 18, of disorderly conduct for ordering at a McDonald’s by singing along to a rap song playing on his iPod. Dauwalder and his three 17-year-old friends in the car faced $750 fines.

The teen was imitating the Mickey D rap in the YouTube video above, which, translated into lay speak asks for fries, a double cheeseburger, a 10-piece chicken dinner and two Dr Peppers.

The San Jose Mercury News hit stands today with a front page story on Steve Wozniak’s Segway Polo Team training for the International Segway Polo Association Woz Challenge Cup finals next month.

As far as Woz athletics go, this is a smidge more elitist than his recent roller derby hosting gig, it takes place in sunny Barbados from June 10th – 13th.

Segway Polo isn’t a very complicated sport — two teams of five players each try to ram a ball through the goal post of opponents — but that doesn’t mean Woz won’t do anything necessary to win, the paper reports:

Giving the ball a mighty whack, Wozniak watched as his shot dribbled to within a few feet of the goal — and then stopped. Complaining that his wrist strap slipped, he spun his Segway and went hurtling off to the other end, where he attempted to disrupt a shot by his wife, Janet Wozniak, by throwing his mallet at the ball. He did this despite a decree in the Segway polo rule book written specifically to stop him from doing this.

“As you can see,” says Woz’s Silicon Valley Aftershocks teammate, George Clark, “he will even cheat on his wife.”

“Only in Segway polo,” Woz clarifies.

His Silicon Valley Aftershocks team is determined to avenge last year’s defeat in Cologne, Germany. We’ll keep you posted.

Via San Jose Mercury News

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1sdtiwCJ9s

Voters in Santa Clara County can now register via iPhone and iPad for upcoming elections.

An Oakland company called Verafirma has been pushing an app that collects signatures via iPhone, iPad and other touchscreen devices. First touted as a way to sign petitions, Verafirma works much the same way bank technology does to accept digital John Hancocks. It doesn’t store signatures electronically.  Once sent, they are printed out and when the ballot is cast, that paper signature is compared to the electronic one.

Verafirma’s efforts paid off, if just in the nick of time: the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters decided last week that voter signatures collected via electronic devices as well as those on paper are also valid. Voter registration ends May 24 for state primary elections taking place on June 8.