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Steampunk’d Eye-Pod is Scary Great

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Click for larger image view.

Perhaps you know about Steampunk, the geek sub-culture movement that marries devotion to the aesthetics of Victorian romance with a commitment to the use of modern technology.

The vast majority of Steampunk practitioners work in the PC realm, though there are impressive examples of Apple gear transformed.

None moreso, perhaps, than the eye-Pod Victrola from Doctor Grymm. A custom mod of an Apple iPod Nano 1st Gen, the design is inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The “eye-Pod” can be worn on the wrist via the leather cuff, or placed on it’s custom Victrola base.

Full functionality of the iPod remains intact and a hidden USB cord retracts from the base to either a wall charger or a computer. Hidden pressure plates send a strobing “static charge” into the quartz crystals on either side of the magnified veiwing portal, and music plays through the Victrola horn or though a portable personal hearing apparatus (in progress).

[SteamGearLab, via BoingBoing]

Have2P – Sometimes the Best Things in Life Are Free

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Here’s an iPhone app you might find coming in handy someday. Best of all, Have2P is a free iPhone app that finds restrooms in your area thanks to your device’s nifty GPS locator.

Useful features include info on whether the restroom is for customers only, if it has a changing table and even reviews on how clean it is. Users can edit restroom info, submit restroom reviews and add restrooms to the database.

The latest update to Have2P even claims to have an “urgency detector” that senses when you and the phone are shaking and automatically starts a new search for nearby relief.

[GeekSugar]

CBS to Stream Live Hoops Action to Apple Mobile Devices

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CBS and MobilTV announced a grand experiment in WiFi broadcasting this week with the release of March Madness on Demand (link opens iTunes), a $5 application for iPhone and iPod Touch that will theoretically allow users with a good WiFi connection to see live streamed TV broadcasts of the NCAA Basketball Tournament begining March 19th.

CBS will stream every game of the tournament up to and including the Finals on April 6th, in addition to providing video highlights on demand. Users without WiFi access will be able to access live audio of games in progress over AT&Ts 3G and Edge networks.

Every year at this time, it becomes a popular sport to estimate the supposed billions of dollars in lost productivity American businesses suffer as a result of workers’ preoccupation with what some call the most exciting spectacle in sports.

How about you, dear Cult readers? Are you willing to throw $5 on the table to see if CBS can follow through on its promise to live stream the excitement?

Let us know how you think this is going to play out in comments below.

New Viral Ad Seeks to Make Office for Mac Fun

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Dennis Liu shot The Apple Mac Music Video last year that went pretty viral on the internet.

Liu says he got interest pretty high up the Apple corporate ladder from that video, but “Microsoft actually took my music video video very seriously, and we decided to collaborate on a viral video for Microsoft Office for Mac.

The video was supposed to debut at Macworld this year, but delays intervened and it is finally being released today.

Liu told Cult of Mac he had hundreds of windows open at times in PPT, Excel, and Word during the making of the video. “Honestly, it didn’t crash, and didn’t slow down. Not like anyone else in the world would try and animate ASCII in MSWord, but … ”

He explained his motivation for the project, saying, “I think Apple users should know that MSOffice doesn’t have to be “un-fun” like ILife ’09 makes it out to be.”

“I’m a huge Mac fanatic, and I wanted to make Microsoft seem less corporate-y with this ad campaign. Microsoft gets thrown under the boss (sic) a lot.”

For what it’s worth, Liu said he was bored and curious, and he tried doing this with iWork ’09 but it wasn’t holding up as well. “I do have to hand it to MSFT for making a pretty stable program, with good creative features (if you know how to use them).”

Woz Fractures Foot, Vows to Keep Dancing

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Steve Wozniak has a slight fracture in his foot but has vowed to press on with the Dancing With the Stars competition.

“I didn’t want to worry anyone unduly.” Wozniak mentioned on his blog this morning. He had been feeling pain in his foot and after having an X-Ray and an MRI it was revealed that he has a foot fracture.

Karina Smirnoff, his professional dance partner accompanied “The Woz” to Cedars-Sinai hospital, worried that she had lost her partner, but Wozniak was given a removable cast and the okay to dance as long as he is very careful and wears the cast faithfully when not rehearsing or performing.

In an e-mail to his Facebook Support Group, Wozniak said he told his doctors he is determined to continue with Dancing With The Stars because he “loves being part of such a good and important thing.”

[Reality TV Magazine]

In A Crisis, Do Kids Need More Macs?

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A  program providing MacBooks for students in Maine plans to increase its scope by leasing 100,000 computers from Apple at a cost of about $25 million per year.

Maine started its first-in-the-nation program by distributing more than 30,000 computers to each seventh- and eighth-grader in all of the state’s state public schools in 2002 and 2003.

Now, all 120 of Maine’s high schools, along with 241 middle schools, will have new laptops under the same program. The cost runs about $242 per computer per year.

Maine governor John Baldacci believes the laptop computer program can go beyond the classroom,  becoming ” a powerful tool for the entire family.”

“Every night when students in seventh through 12th grade bring those computers home, they’ll connect the whole family to new opportunities and new resources,” Baldacci said. The computers would come with software to connect to the state’s CareerCenters, he added.

In 2007,  a study released by the Maine Education Policy Research Institute (.pdf)  indicated that student writing scores improved after laptops were introduced.

Image used with a CC license, thanks to torres21.
The AP via Bangor Daily News

iPhone 3.0 Software Preview Set for March 17

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Apple is indeed having a special event, as widely rumored, March 17. But it won’t be hardware, it will be a preview of the next iteration of iPhone software. The company distributed invitations to select press outlets Thursday, saying the event at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters will also feature a new version of the iPhone SDK.

Presumably, the new software will get into general release by June/July, which is becoming the time of year we can expect new iPhone hardware as well.

Stay tuned for more as news and rumors and mock-ups and spy shots develop.

[VentureBeat] [Cnet]

Big Frank, Little Frank: What are These Mystery Ports For?

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The full-time techie and self-described “part-time jackass” at drunken tech took a look inside a new single quad-core Mac Pro to find two mystery ports named “Big Frank” and “Little Frank.”

DT writes: “I haven’t seen an Easter egg, hardware or software, on an Apple product in a LONG time. I have no idea what the “Big Frank” non-socket or “Little Frank” actual-socket is. My only speculation is that the single quad-core board is the “Little Frank” and that the dual quad-core board is “Big Frank.”  I’ll speculate some more and say that maybe the connector is for the equipment testing hardware. ”

Any other guesses?

Via Drunken Tech

New iPod Shuffle Talks If You Want It To

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Apple introduced an all-new redesigned iPod Shuffle Wednesday, touting it as the first music player that talks to you.

Except that it’s not the first music player that talks to you. Does anyone remember the Nanocromatic iPods introduced just last summer?

Those iPod nanos also featured the “Voice Over” function being touted as Wednesday’s big new improvement to the shuffle, which now sports 4GB of storage (up from 2GB). Apple’s smallest music player now features playlist support, however and syncs with iTunes through an included USB cable which connects to the shuffle’s audio jack.

The new shuffle also comes with earbuds featuring on-cord remote control.

The new design is rectangular rather than square, comes in Silver or Black and costs, as did previous models, $79. Apple is making these things smaller all the time, with the new shuffle being smaller than a house key and not much thicker.

It’s probably a good thing the shuffle’s Voice Over function, which supports 14 languages, is accessed manually, to tell users the name of the artist and song playing or run through the playlists available on the device. On the iPod nano introduced last summer, the Voice Over feature was an on-or-off setting and quickly grew tiresome when it would kick in at the mere changing of the device’s orientation from vertical to horizontal.

More user control is good; thank you, Apple.

UPDATE: this piece has been edited to more accurately reflect the new shuffle’s capacity. Thanks to readers who pointed out the error in the original report.

Welcome to the 1980s—App Store game compilation appears

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I grew up with 1980s home-computer gaming: Atari, Commodore, Spectrum, Amstrad. In the UK, we had, comparatively speaking, no money (yuppies aside), and, rather than being lucky enough to follow our disk-happy American chums, had to make do with cassettes. Inevitably, with tapes being cheap, publishers soon realised that affordable games were very saleable games, regardless of quality. Eventually, the number of £1.99 and £2.99 games being churned out was astonishing, as was the ever-diminishing amount of time it would take full-price releases to show up on budget labels.

Towards the end of the 1980s, it got to the point where almost no-one bought full-price games in the UK, because everyone would just wait for a price-drop. Watching apps on the App Store brings back these memories, and so perhaps it was inevitable that the other bastion of 1980s software—the compilation—would at some point make its way to the App Store.

On March 9, the 5 Fingers Games Bundle appeared, mashing together BurnBall, Chopper, Up There, Sneezies and Blackbeard’s Assault. Time will tell if this process works in the present day. It certainly has the potential to give exposure to poor-selling but quality games. However, compilations were the other thing that broke 1980s gaming in the UK, since almost every half-decent game ended up on a compilation eventually. I’m hoping people will continue to buy and support indie devs, rather than wait for a now seemingly inevitable price-drop or compilation entry that will ultimately lead to cheaper entry points and fewer development resources.

iPhone and iPod touch games worm their way into UK press

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The opening spread of a large iPhone gaming feature in Retro Gamer 61.

In the UK at least, the balance is starting to tip regarding iPod touch and iPhone games. Edge magazine interviewed  Greg Joswiak (Apple VP for iPod/iPhone product marketing) recently, but, more importantly, gave Rolando a double-page spread in the magazine.

Edge is notorious for being one of the few British magazines that actually understands how a rating system should work, and avoids placating publishers, instead scoring games as they deserve. Rolando got a ‘7’, which in Edge’s book is pretty good, especially when you consider games are rated against all the competition. (The general conclusion was the game is good when compared to anything, but a current standout on the platform.)

More astonishing, though, is the current issue of Retro Gamer. This magazine concentrates solely on classic gaming, interviewing the likes of Eugene Jarvis, Toru Iwatani and Yu Suzuki, seeing how old games came to be. This month, ten pages of the magazine are given over to iPhone, exploring how the system is becoming a favourite for indie devs who have a fascination with classic gaming.

The point is that when newsstand mags—and especially niche publications like Retro Gamer—start covering iPhone gaming in this manner, it’s surely knocking on the door of mainstream. That said, such coverage can still prove controversial, and there was a barrage of complaints regarding ‘legitimacy’ on Retro Gamer’s forum—some centring around the relevance of Apple’s device in a retro magazine, but many arguing that it’s not a de-facto gaming platform at all. Long-time readers of Cult of Mac will know that this was a view that I once held, something I intended to address in a feature on this site sometime over the next couple of weeks.

Track Your Internet Stats Anywhere with Ego

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Ego is an aptly-named iPhone app that lets you check web statistics that matter to you, on the go. Because you’re, as the tag-line says, important.

Through hooks into Feedburner, Mint and Twitter, the current version supports statistics on the number of visits to any number of your websites (including daily, hourly and monthly numbers), feed subscription totals and changes, and how many people are following you on Twitter.

Support for Google Analytics is planned in a coming update.

Just $1.99 keeps you up-to-date on your web relevance any time, any where.

Cult Readers Respond with Apple Netbook Mock-Ups

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Sentiment seems about 8:1 against young German artist Darakas’ vision for the Apple touchscreen netbook rumored to be headed to market in the 2nd half of this year.

We asked Cult of Mac readers to step up up with their own renderings and so far we’ve got a sleek looking tablet idea from reader Bobbertson, above, and another from reader Sean, below.

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Sean imagines a device containing a 7″ Multi-touch glass screen with a black frame and chrome bezel around the screen. Something more like an enlarged iPod Touch rather than a ‘tablet’, which usually contains a larger screen.

It would have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Processor, 512MB – 1GB of RAM, 64GB flash memory, bluetooth, WiFi, and a cut down version of OS X Leopard or ‘Snow Leopard’ to fit the device.

Any takers?

Will Apple’s Touchscreen Netbook Look Like This?

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Speculation that Apple is poised to release a touchscreen netbook remains persistent as winter snows, with dozens of outlets reporting again today that unnamed “sources” in Taiwan and China “confirm” the new product will be released as early as the 2nd half of this year.

So what the heck, as long as we’re talking about something that may or may not come to pass, why not talk about what it may or may not look like?

16 year-old German artist Darakas, who also goes by the name Jesse, gets the conversation started with this 3D modeling rendition of his vision for the Apple MacTouch.

Until the badly lit spy photos start showing up, we think this is a pretty good jumping off point. Have you finished your Apple netbook mock-up, or see any others out there? Let us know in comments and we’ll feature them here.

Apple App Store idiocy reaches new low

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Evil Panda says: See me inside Tweetie. I like Tweetie. Apple, stop being stupid, or Evil Panda will get you.

UPDATE: All’s now well in the land of Tweetie. Apple relented and, in double-quick time, posted Tweetie 1.3 to the App Store today. However, this episode highlights that if you’re going to censor things, you really have to censor the ‘right’ ones, and also have some consistently enforced guidelines to work towards. And so Evil Panda is sated for now, but he’s still watching, Apple.

I recently moaned about the App Store on my blog, Revert to Saved, when the South Park app rejection debacle highlighted Apple’s inconsistency regarding application approval. (Short version: South Park app gets rejected for “potentially offensive” content, despite entire South Park episiodes being for sale on iTunes and therefore watchable on an iPhone.)

Today, however, things took a turn for the crazy. Tweetie, an iPhone Twitter client—in fact, the very best and top-selling iPhone Twitter client—just got its latest update rejected. The reason is so staggeringly bonkers that I’m hoping it’s an early April Fool jape. Apple rejected it, according to the developer, because there was an offensive word in the Twitter trends list, which Tweetie provides access to. No, really.

This is so astonishingly stupid that I am still reeling that Apple could be so dumb. Are apps now supposed to police the entire internet? Does Safari filter out rude words? Is Apple suddenly going to wrench Tweetie and every other Twitter client from the App Store? For that matter, maybe Apple should remove the likes of WriteRoom, because, hey, I can write the word “fuck” in it, and I might offend myself.

Sort out your App Store approval process, Apple, because you’re looking stupider by the second. And while competition is currently non-existent, it certainly won’t be that way for long.

Still Time to Vote for Woz, Even if You Watched Chuck or Live Abroad

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If you were, like one of our readers, too busy watching “Chuck” last night or you live outside the U.S., you can still vote for Woz on Dancing with the Stars. Polls are open until noon EST.
Check out his moves to the aptly-chosen “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”  then go to the ABC website,  register and you’ll be able to cast all 13 of your votes (yes, the hack Woz  predicted works) as I did this morning from Milan.

Amazing Apple Collection Liquidation Sale

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Times are tough for Blair Saldanah.

“My wife needs medical care; and we don’t have health insurance,” he explains on the website he just put up, where he is selling quite a collection of Apple memorabilia, including posters, brochures, cards, stickers, manuals, annual Apple fact books, t-shirts, even a vintage Apple ProMouse that was Steve Jobs’ gift to attendees at the Macworld New York keynote address in 2000.

“Don’t be intimidated by the prices!” Saldanah writes on the portal page. “Most items have some bargaining room built-in, and we’ll do quantity discounts too, so find what you want and let’s talk. You might be suprised!”

That’s a good thing, too, because — for example — he’s got eleven t-shirts from various Apple Store grand openings priced at $200 each.

These economic times are difficult for so many people and one never wishes on anyone the need to sell things near and dear to them in order to raise funds for medical bills. We wish Saldanah and his wife the best.

Follow American Idol Like a True Fanatic with iPhone App

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Zumobi announced Monday the arrival of the first-ever official American Idol application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. “American Idol Season 8 Exclusive” (link opens iTunes) follows this season’s American Idol Top 13 finalists in their quest to be named the next American Idol and brings fans exclusive multimedia content and news updates for $2.

The app gives dyed-in-the-wool AI nuts contestant bios, pictures, news and exclusive video from behind-the-scenes of the on-air show. In total, 78 original videos of the remaining contestants will be released weekly between now and the Finale, giving fans the opportunity to get know their favorite contestants better.

A “My Rankings” feature allows users to test their talent-picking power by predicting, customizing, and tracking the order of who stays and who gets voted off each week. As users track their favorite contestants’ progress, they are also one click away from the American Idol iTunes page where they can download music from recent performances.

Of course.

Woz Is a Scream on Dancing With Stars

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Woz’s dancing was hilarious. The kids stayed up specially to watch him and we laughed our heads off. Especially when he first came out on his Segway and went into a dance pose.

Woz had some great moves, saluting his slinky partner, twisting his meaty hips and dropping to his knees. For a big guy, he had surprising energy.

We were expecting a cringe-worthy disaster, but he comported himself superbly. It was a genuine a hoot. Can’t wait till next week.

I’m long on Woz. He might go to the finals, just like the BBC’s pudgy John Sergeant in the UK last year.

UPDATE: The stupid judges gave Woz and Karina Smirnoff low marks. Idiots.

See Also: Voting for Woz on Dancing with the Stars? Here’s how

Dancing With the Woz Liveblog

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Photo from Woz.org

Steve Wozniak on “Dancing with the Stars” is the greatest cultural event of the decade. As such, I’m plopped in front of the couch awaiting the Woz for the West Coast broadcast (I’m told we’re just three minutes away). Nicole told you how to vote, and I’m here to tell you how he did. Check out the blow-by-blow below!

9:15 p.m. I just endured a solid three minutes of Jewel’s cowboy husband not dancing. It was absurdly painful. He gets a total of 14 points.

9:18 p.m. There goes Olympic silver medalist Shawn Johnson. She’s being pulled around by a man who looks like the uglier brother of Mark from “Ugly Betty.”

9:23 p.m. Big points for Shawn! I guess! I’ve never watched this show before.

9:23 p.m. Woz just rolled in on a Segway in a cloud of smoke! There is a god.

9:24 p.m. Also, Tom Bergeron just said Woz founded Apple in the early ’70s. A factual error on first sentence.

9:24 p.m. Woz meets his dancing partner by rolling up on a Segway, too.

9:25 p.m. Woz really does not know how to dance, based on these rehearsal shots. Though he does notice that dancing can be mathematical and left-brained.

9:26 p.m. Words of Wozdom: “I like to close my eyes when I’m practicing, because it lets me get an image of my head of me dancing. It’s like I’m dreaming.”

9:27 p.m. “Nerds can dance.” No, Steve, they can’t.

9:27 p.m. Steve comes out with a giant pink feather boa and a tux. He’s actually got a lot of personality, although he might want to close his mouth. Still, he’s a natural ham. A lot of sticking his tongue out.

9:28 p.m. The song is “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” Quite.

9:29 p.m. You know, by the standards of this show, that was very not embarassing.

9:29 p.m. Bergeron: “Take that, Bill Gates.” Also: “If Safari freezes, should I delete it or restart it?” Yes, because Woz has a lot to do with current Apple software.

9:30 p.m. Cranky Italian judge: “It was like watching a Teletubby going mad at the gay pride parade!” Well said.

9:30 p.m. Lady judge: “You are what this show is all about!” And “You made it to the end! It was fantastic!” It’s true. He didn’t once take a break or sit down.

9:31 p.m. Woz score coming after the ad. I have to say. He looks way more composed than his partner.

9:33 p.m. Here come the scores: 5, 4, and 4 for 13 total. Which means they did worse than Jewel’s stupid cowboy husband. Which is a serious miscarriage of justice. He was so much better than that guy! 

9:34 p.m. Empty headed-host: “You said that ballroom dancing is harder than designing computers. But you just got through that entire dance!” They really seem concerned about his ability to remain standing.

9:34 p.m. Woz: “That was the most incredible fun thing I’ve ever done. It’s so great. I’m so glad to be here!” More fun than pretending to date Kathy Griffin?

9:35 p.m. Dance partner Karina Smirnoff: “Honestly, he’s the nicest man alive, and he gives 100 percent in every rehearsal!” Well, he would have to give at least that much. He’s Woz.

9:36 p.m. And…it’s over. Please turn it off before David Alan Grier dances, and get your vote in now! (Just done with my 13 now; what a worthy cause!)

See you next week? Maybe?

Proto-iPhone on eBay: Do You Buy It?

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A pre-release version of the original iPhone has surfaced for sale on eBay, though if it’s real, it may not be there for long.

According to the Bloomington, IL seller, up for auction is “a quite rare and collectable example of iPhone prototype,” that even runs on a beta version of the iPhone OS.

The device features a matte plastic screen and has serial number YM649xxxxxx, which the seller claims corresponds to a factory in China, manufactured week 49 of the year 2006. It supposedly works, running iPhone OS 03.06.01_G — the iPhone launched running OS 1.0, version 03.11.02_G.

The seller claims the phone can make calls, browse the mobile versions of websites, and can receive SMS, but lacks any way to manually type an SMS on the phone.

Also for sale is a non-working prototype with a glass screen, a slightly higher serial number, and is described as being in “fair” cosmetic condition, with various scratches.

The bid on the two phones is currently $735, though it remains to be seen whether the auction will close on March 11 as scheduled. Apple demanded eBay take down a recent auction for a pre-release iPod, citing intellectual property concerns. eBay quickly complied, though the iPod owner apparently sold his device privately anyway.

[iLounge]

RIM to Sponsor U2 Tour: It’s Only Rock & Roll

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In other Rock and Roll news, U2 has chosen Blackberry to be the lead sponsor of its upcoming 360 Degrees tour, set to kick off with a June 30th show in Barcelona, Spain and travel across Europe during the summer, before crossing the Atlantic for the first US date at Soldier Field in Chicago September 12th.

The band, which famously stood with Steve Jobs in 2004 and launched a special edition iPod, said at the time, “We want our audience to have a more intimate online relationship with the band, and Apple can help us do that.”

Now, after five years in which Jobs has supposedly raked the music industry over the coals with his tough iTunes pricing negotiations, either the band feels that mission’s been accomplished, or perhaps its record company has merely had enough.

In any event, Bono, U2’s lead singer and most identifiable public figure, is a partner in the firm Elevation Partners which holds a 39 percent ownership stake in Palm, whose highly anticipated Pre smartphone is slated to debut around the time the band’s tour kicks off.

In a statement about the partnership with Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry, Paul McGuinness, U2’s manager, said, “This tour announcement marks the first stage of a relationship and shared vision between RIM and U2 that we expect will lead to new and innovative ways to enhance the mobile music experience on the BlackBerry platform for U2 fans.”

It might be tempting to read an emotional component into U2’s “rejection” of Apple and its public embrace of a major competitor, but the greatest likelihood is that — as the old saying goes — it’s just business.