Your captions, please, for this lonely G5 as it sits watching the world go by in a quiet Danish street. According to Google Translate, the photo’s title on Flickr means “on the walk.”
Clean and funny please. Extra points for poetry, flowery language and use of puns. Lolspeak is banned.
Winner (as chosen by me) will be sent a small packet of Wine Gums. Deadline for entries is midnight (GMT) tomorrow (Friday 10th October 2008).
Photo used under Creative Commons license; thanks to Kofoed on Flickr
“The spotlight turns to notebooks.” So goes the just-released invite from Apple to an Oct. 14 media event. The e-mail to media appears to lend credence to a bevy of reports that Cupertino is set to launch a low-cost notebook computer.
Earlier this morning, a number of tech news sites, lead by the Inquisitir, reported an $800 laptop is among a price list that was released to Apple retailers.
The rumors were also backed up by a series of leaked photos published by a Taiwan website. Among the photos was a 13-inch aluminum Apple laptop.
Analysts have speculated Apple may “refresh” its hardware with a sub-$1,000 Mac. Long known for its pricey hardware, Apple has seen its sales impacted by the sluggish economy.
The Taiwan-based website apple.pro, source of leaked MacBook photos in July, is busy again today with new photos purporting to show the aluminum casings of Apple’s next-gen line of notebook computers.
AppleInsider claims to have confirmed the photo posted earlier today by The Inquisitr is indeed the aluminum “brick” casing for the new 15″ MacBook Pro.
Other pictures from the apple.pro site purport to show Apple’s upcoming aluminum 13-inch MacBooks.
Click on the thumbs above for larger images.
Victoria’s Secret models Gisele Bundchen and Alessandra Ambrosio in between takes on an ad shoot busy with Mac laptops.
Nice to know that Brazilian beauty Bundchen — aka “I’m a Mac Home Movie” — hasn’t fallen into the Charlize Theron trap.
Funny how big those lap tops look poised on those tiny, model laps.
Seen an iCelebrity? Let me know.
Photo Credit: Gabriel Galvao
Apple engineers and “technology evangelists” are preparing a series of events in North America, Europe, India and Asia to teach you how to develop software for the iPhone.
Calling it the iPhone Tech Talk World Tour, the company has scheduled free seminars starting October 22 in San Francisco and Paris, continuing through early December in 22 additional cities world wide, to instruct would-be iPhone developers on the tools and technologies used to create iPhone applications. The one-day intensive sessions promise to reveal details on how to optimize your code, refine your user interface, and enhance the capabilities of your iPhone application – all things developers were presumably prohibited from sharing among themselves under the iPhone developers NDA.
Developers can register online to attend one of the events; Apple warns that space is limited.
Follow after the jump for a list of cities and dates and additional details.
All over the place this morning is the latest image of a rumored new Apple laptop. But here at Cult HQ, we’re more interested in The Inquisitr’s claim that the new line-up will include a $800 notebook.
Single piece of aluminum or not, a notebook that cheap from Apple would be a very interesting move indeed. It would be a clear signal that Apple was ready to dive into new consumer territory, pushing the brand awareness it’s built over the last couple of years to really drive sales of more Macs.
How much can we trust The Inquisitr’s scoop? One comment says: “Apple retailers don’t typically get price lists 10 days in advance.” But post author Duncan Riley says his source is “someone with access to the price list”. So six to one, half a dozen to the other.
It just might be that the timing of an announcement like this could work out in Apple’s favor. One argument says that in times of recession, people don’t spend as much on consumer goods. Another argument says yes, but people are still going to need computers, so cheaper ones will be more attractive.
Apple products are so good-looking, they act as an integral as part of the interior design of your home.
That seems to be the idea, at least, behind a photo spread in October’s Casa Amica, monthly design supplement to Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The Italians call it a “tecno minimal” look (click on photo for larger view), where your iPod Touch is the perfect complement to the gres coffee cups. You, minimalist homeowner, sip espresso while ogling an aluminum and marble Doimo kitchen from the screen. Or browse for a new kitchen with your iMac, perhaps this one with a slightly institutional feel, probably distracted by the lovely Philippe Starck glasses for Driade on your counter top.
Not so sure I buy the concept, but love the white ceramic espresso maker.
Spotted any Apple products in magazines, ads or movies? Let me know.
Over at Howard Forums, user Windsor43 relates the hilarious tale of how an SMS message from him to his wife autocorrected the word “nah” to “nag”.
“Thanks, Steve,” Windsor43 says, “for making my wife almost Think Different.”
I suspect most of us can relate to that one. I tend to sign off messages to loved ones with “gx”, but the iPhone likes to correct that to “Gf”. Is that supposed to be short for “girlfriend” or something? No matter; my wife is used to it already.
(Yes, we’ve heard the rumor about an autocorrect toggle switch in the next iPhone update. Let’s hope it’s true for Windsor43’s sake.)
Have you got any amusing tales of autocorrect woe? Confess all in the comments.
Nearly 75% of US college students believe WiFi access on their college campus helps them get better grades, according to a recent survey conducted for the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Wakefield Research polled 501 US college students in September 2008 and found that nine out of ten say Wi-Fi access is as essential to education as classrooms and computers, while nearly three in five say they wouldn’t go to a college that doesn’t have free Wi-Fi. Almost 80% percent said that without Wi-Fi access, college would be a lot harder.
“Wi-Fi has become a universal expectation among college students, and their attitudes towards technology are a good indicator of broad changes underway in how we as a society learn, work and communicate,” said Edgar Figueroa, executive director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the global trade organization representing the Wi-Fi industry.
For students today, getting connected no longer means reserving a station at the computer lab or going to the library. Undergrads log-in at coffee shops and restaurants (55%), in parks (47%), and even in their cars (24%). 60% of the survey respondents agreed widely available Wi-Fi on campus is an indication that a school cares about its students.
It’s a given that students will always adapt readily to changing technology and circumstances, that the wide availability of calculators, for example, led to higher grades in Math courses for some students, starting in the 1970s. But can Wi-Fi itself lead to better academic performance?
It depends what it’s used for: More than half of the survey respondents admitted to having checked Facebook or MySpace and sent or received e-mail while using their laptop in class. Just under half sent instant messages to a friend during class. Those uses of Wi-Fi are certainly not apt to produce higher scores.
On the other hand, 48% of the students said they would rather give up beer than give up their Wi-Fi, so perhaps we are in a nascent period of higher academic achievement after all.
Via MacWorld UK
Hillary Duff is often papped with her iPhone 3G. This time, we’re pleased to note that Duff, who used to play clumsy but lovable Lizzie McGuire, appears to have a firm grip on it. And that no permanent damage was caused when she let the phone take a tumble.
Via Macenstein
A Canadian tech school with an apple logo was sent a letter from Apple lawyers, claiming the school’s green and blue symbol violates Apple’s trademark.
It won’t settle the lawsuit, but they’re posting the legal letter, news reports and a poll asking people what they think.
Over 6,000 people have voted, about 75% of voters in favor of the school.
Lawyers aside, The Victoria School of Business and Technology could probably benefit from a better-looking design.
What do you think?
Via The Mac Observer
Apple has once again won the “cool factor” with teen iPhone owners now nearly triple ( 8 percent versus 3 percent) compared to a year ago. The Piper Jaffray survey also revealed 22 percent of teens say they plan to buy the Apple handset – up from just 9 percent in 2007.
Other good news for Apple: 84 percent of MP3 players purchased by teens were iPods. Microsoft’s Zune came in a distant second, capturing just 3 percent of the teen marketshare.
Apple’s iTunes music download service now has 93 percent of the market. That’s up from 79 percent uncovered a year ago.
I cooked up many reasons to justify buying an iPhone, and the fact that it had a camera (no matter how poor quality) was one of them. I liked the idea of having a camera that was so well integrated with the rest of the software on the machine.
As it turns out, third-party software that makes use of the camera is the stuff I’m getting most excited about, and playing with most often.
The most recent addition to my iPhone home screen is CameraBag, purchased for just 1.79 of our fine English pounds (which is about 3 of your fine American dollars).
This is Miles the iBunny, enjoying the comfort of his hutch, formerly a classic first gen iMac.
Owner Lisa Balbes of Balbes Consultants told us: “Four Macs is not enough for one family. We currently have six for our family of four (one is an original SE). We pass them down through the family, and my pet rabbit Miles is at the bottom of the Mac chain. Here he is in his iBed.
“I travel a lot for business, and recently realized I had visited several Apple stores. I have now made it a goal to eventually visit all of them. Does that qualify me as a Mac fanatic?”
I don’t think we need answer that one, do you?
Bally previewed Gismar, a hand-stitched calfskin leather case for the MacBook Air during Paris fashion week.
Available in black or white with a signature Bally clasp, the sleek envelope design wouldn’t look out of place in the clutches of Vogue editrix Anna Wintour.
Leathergoods company Bally, which started out as a Swiss silk ribbon weaving outfit in 1821, has been trying to rejuvenate its prestigious, if slightly creaky, brand. Designer Brian Atwood’s third collection launched this fall was decidedly more “Hotel California” than Silversea Cruise.
Available in Bally stores worldwide in December, price not available.
Thin is in.
Gentlemen, start your copiers! Well, the last one is a stolen image from Blackberry.com, but still. In case these images change over night, I have been to the Vodafone page, and these images really are all there. Someone’s unemployed right now…
For those of you who thought the Diamond Shuffle was a bit much, Swiss luxury accessories brand DEOS launched these diamond-encrusted covers designed for iPod and iPhone earbuds.
Prices for these handcrafted covers, which slip on earbuds, start at $4,500, for black and white diamond versions, climbing to $60,000 for earbuds dripping with pink, yellow or black diamonds.
Sure, they cost more than the actual device. Which is why some of the models, like the DEOS 32W, which has a full carat of diamonds and costs $5,000, comes with a complimentary Shuffle.
If you’d like to add a little splash to your morning run but don’t have the cash, Swarovski crystal versions run from $110 (demi-dipped) to $200 for the Full Monty.
Steve Goldstein, founder of the Geveva-based DEOS (Defining Expressions of Sound), said the idea is one whose time has come:
“Today there are more than 152 million earphones in the world. [It’s] a marvellous way of making a fashion statement. When you meet someone the person sees first your face and then looks at your ears…”
Don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that bling.
Image via Bob Pearce/smh.com.au
Steve Wozniak thinks “It is time for the whole computer industry to maybe have a bit of a slowdown,” according to comments published in a wide-ranging interview with the Telegraph UK.
With shares of Apple, Inc. off 45% from August highs at $179, Wozniak thinks the spate of analyst downgrades for the near-term prospects of the company he founded are likely “correct.” He said, “For twenty years we have been in this replacement and upgrade market” that he finds unsustainable.
“Things like [the iPod], if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while,” he predicted, referring to a major Apple profit center in recent years.
Wozniak also appeared critical of Apple’s latest groundbreaking product, the iPhone, and the direction development of third-party applications has taken. “Consumers aren’t getting all they want when companies are very proprietary and lock their products down,” he opined, saying, “I would like to write some more powerful apps than what you’re allowed.”
And while, as some analysts believe, Apple may be in a better position to withstand an industry slowdown than other technology companies, because of the near-religious devotion some consumers have toward Apple products, Woniak said neither he nor Steve Jobs was ever comfortable with such attitudes. We “don’t like the fact that it’s a bit of a religion,” he said of the company’s cult followers.
“I would like to have the users influence the next generation,” he said. “With a religion you’re not allowed to challenge anything. I want our customers to challenge us.”
One area of the Telegraph interview with a disturbingly false ring to it, however, concerned Wozniak’s description of Steve Job’s position in Apple’s stream of internal intelligence. He claimed that, when it comes to the introduction of new products, “nobody, not even Steve Jobs” knows what’s next.
“I think he would be sitting there [unaware] right up until the day it is introduced.” Ya think?
Apple’s fourth quarter results later this month may be one of the most widely-awaited events since the Vice Presidential debates.
After the stock whipsawed on analyst downgrades then health rumors surrounding CEO Steve Jobs, investment analysts now suggest Apple must either report strong sales or announce new products.
If Apple does not report healthy sales of Macs during the September quarter, “the importance of the new Mac increases substantially,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told Cult of Mac Tuesday.
LOMME (Light Over Matter Mind Evolution) is cocooning for the aughts, or “a unique sleep experience and rejuvenation environment,” as the designers call it.
The fiberglass egg-shaped bed emits soothing sounds (from a built-in iPod), beams tired eyes with “color-therapy filtered lights,” and offers a variety of massage options.
All functions are controlled by a specially-programmed iPhone.
Created by a design trio based in Liechtenstein, only the price may not make you rest easy: around 40,00 euro, or about $55,000.
The Oscar-winning actress looks great, even with no makeup, unmatched sweats and tangled up in the cord of her iPod touch.
Got to wonder about that book she’s lugging titled “Diagnosis and Treatment for Multiple Personality Disorder.” Maybe it’s for new part, or maybe for juggling the life of a star-mom-perfume maker….
Next time she might try going for cover under an iPhone.
Via Celeb Slam
The Apple Blogotubes are a-buzz with boffo Interblag bloviating at a rumor from 9to5mac.com that Apple’s rumored “Brick” product was actually a nickname for a new manufacturing process that will use “lasers and jets of water to carve the MacBooks out of a brick of aluminum.” More, it’s a “game-changer;” “totally revolutionary;” “Apple’s biggest innovation in a decade.”
…Yeah, maybe not.
As Adam Richardson, an industrial designer at consultancy frog design and CNet blogger, points out, lasers and waterjets have been used in manufacturing for ages — by Apple.
The glowing LED that appears behind a “solid” front face of the MacBooks is apparently achieved with laser-cutting to thin out and partially perforate the wall in that one area.
Richardson also speculates that the existing iPod Shuffle is manufactured using a similar process, and even the MacBook Air has some telltale signs that it draws on really interesting and unusual manufacturing techniques. But would Apple actually carve an entire laptop out of one block of aluminum? And would it save any money?
On such a small product this is do-able. On a large product like a laptop this would typically result in a massive amount of waste (so kiss your green credentials goodbye). And the notion that this is somehow cheaper than stamping thin sheets or molding plastic is completely wrong – it’s much more expensive.
Yeah… no.
I’ve been talking with other industrial designers about this issue, and they all agree that the reasoning behind the current Brick rumor doesn’t add up. One friend of mine guessed it would add up to $50 in manufacturing costs and might not be any stronger or lighter than more traditional manufacturing approaches.
Does Apple have a game-changing laptop in the wings that will reinvent the MacBook and MacBook Pro design language? For their sake, they’d better. Will it be milled from a single block of aluminum? Not in this lifetime.
Google’s 2001 retro-search tool has provided endless amusement over the past few weeks. None so much as the image at right, which is the “iPhone 2,” released by InfoTech in mid-1999 and reviewed on StreetTech by Gareth Branwyn.
And yes, it was a comical Internet landline phone, featuring full QWERTY keyboard. Like today’s iPhone 3G, it featured a touchscreen, Internet access, e-mail, and location-based services. Also like today’s iPhone 3G, it improved on significant shortcomings in its predecessor, by adding a better keyboard, higher data speed, and better speaker-phone sound quality.
And, eeriest of all, it had notable areas that needed improving. There was no “Forward” browser button, no “Find” function, and, hilariously, no Cut, Copy, or Paste features. In many ways, it’s exactly like today’s iPhone. Just, you know, totally janky.
Some things never change, apparently.
Thanks, Jwester!
OObject is a curious bloggish sort of site where each post is a collation of objects, brought together under a particular theme. They have a whole category for Apple stuff, including the 19 all time worst Apple products, 12 blatant iPod knock-offs, and 15 best Stevenotes.
You’ll probably be most interested in the 15 best Apple product concept mockups, though. You’ll have seen most of them before, but it’s nice to see them all together at last.
The list of 20 famous Mac users could do with a little work, though: putting Steve Jobs in there doesn’t really count.
TidBITS Publishing Inc., publisher of the Take Control electronic book series, is celebrating the 5th anniversary of the Take Control ebook series with a 50%-off sale. Cult of Mac readers are invited to take advantage of this special offer by following this link to access the discounted pricing. Discounts apply to all ebooks and are calculated once items are added to the shopping cart. The sale runs through October 14, 2008.
The Take Control series launched in October 2003 by publishing Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Upgrading to Panther” simultaneously with Apple’s release of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Since then the series has grown to include 58 titles and numerous free updates, bringing together nearly 8,000 pages of professional content from some of the top names in the Macintosh world: Joe Kissell, Glenn Fleishman, Matt Neuburg, Sharon Zardetto, Ted Landau, and Take Control publisher Adam Engst.
Take Control ebooks use carefully designed layout and typography for easy onscreen reading and printing. They also include bookmarks, clickable links, a feedback channel to authors, and a Check for Updates button that readers can click to access free updates. Print-on-demand versions are available for most titles, and steep discounts are available for classroom and library copies.
Engst is grateful to have been able to keep the series alive for five years and commented, “the people who really deserve credit for Take Control’s success are the readers who trusted us enough to buy our first ebooks and who kept coming back for more. As much as we put a huge amount of thought and design work into making our ebooks more than just digital versions of print books, we know it was leap of faith for many people to try a PDF-based ebook.”
