Today’s daily deals are perfect for the back-to-school crowd, or anyone looking to own a Mac without breaking their bank account. Remember the iconic CRT iMacs – you can own a piece of the past for $60. Love the sleek lines of a MacBook Air but the price tag disrupted your daydreams – now just $999. Looking for an iPod Video but want some spare change, too? Snag an iPod Video for just $140.
Details of these and many other deals can be found in CoM’s Daily Deals page.
Meet Tadataka Goh, a Japanese jazz bassist who is perhaps the world’s biggest collector of Apple-branded goods — you know, Apple t-shirts, pens and hats.
Over the last 15 years, Tadataka has amassed the largest collection of Apple knickknacks on the planet. He has thousands of items, including hundreds of pens, t-shirts, baseball caps, posters and buttons. He has the first issue of Macworld magazine and an Apple-branded traffic cone.
Tadataka has possibly spent more than $100,000 on them. That’s right — more than $100,000.
“Looking at his collection, he’s probably spent several hundred thousand dollars,” says Steve Naughton, co-owner of RedLightRunner.com, which sells Apple collectibles and counts Tadataka as its best customer ever.
The Japanese are well-known for being enthusiastic collectors, and the most otaku can be fanatical completionists. Even so, the scope of Tadataka’s collection boggles the mind.
He’s got so much stuff, even he doesn’t know how much he’s got. He recently posted pictures of more about 4,000 items to an online gallery, and has scores more pictures to upload.
Click on to see some of Tadataka’s collection. You have to see the photos to appreciate how big this collection is.
The audio manufacturer Shure is known for its excellent headphones, which makes it a favorite target of counterfeiters.
In May, Shure helped Chinese authorities bust knockoff shops run by two Shanghai companies that were making copycat Shure headphones. The raids uncovered large quantities of Shure E2c and E4c earphones, which sell for about $70 and $170 respectively, as well as headphones branded JVC and Audio-Technica.
Unlike copycats of yore, today’s counterfeiters are amazingly sophisticated and accomplished, turning out high-quality knockoffs that in some ways rival the originals. Flickr user digaderfox bought a pair of fake Shures on eBay last year, and documented the surprisingly high quality of the knockoffs on the photo site.
Apple is also is becoming a target of copycats, with amazingly good knockoffs of iPhones and headsets coming onto the market.
SEE ALSO:
Marvel At the Ingenuity of the Chinese iPhoney, iPhone Knockoffs Now Near Perfect
Paul Applebaum, Shure’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel, said counterfeiters are increasingly sophisticated. Some are setting up convincing factory-direct websites, or hijacking U.S. eBay accounts to make it appear goods are shipped domestically.
Full interview after the jump.
The first jailbreak application for the iPhone 3GS has been released by premier iPhone hacker George Hotz.
Named “purplera1n,” the unlocking software is Windows-only. Hotz says a jailbreak for Mac is “coming shortly.”
Hotz’s application requires an iPhone 3GS running the 3.0 OS, and the latest version of iTunes — 8.2. Hotz warns that the unlock s beat and to back up the iPhone before running it.
The unlocking process seems straightforward. Writes Hotz on his blog: “Connect your iPhone normally. Click ‘make it ra1n.’ Wait. On bootup, run Freeze, the purplera1n installer app. Hopefully you’ll figure out what to do from there.”
There is another jailbreaking application for the iPhone 3.0 from the iPhone Dev Team (The 19-year old Hotz was associated with the group, but split with it). The Dev Team’s app will not work on the iPhone 3GS.
Jailbreaking allows an iPhone and iPod touch to to run unapproved apps through unofficial installers like Cydia and Icy.
Jailbreaking is not unlocking, a different, distinct process that frees the iPhone from the current carrier and makes it available for use with other wireless networks.
Needless to say, Apple sanctions neither process. Both have their risks and have been known to “brick” devices.
Hotz gained fame in 2007 when he became the first person to unlock the original iPhone. Using a combination of software and hardware hacks, the then 17-year-old tried to sell the hacked iPhone on eBay, but pulled the auction when jokers raised the bid price to more than $100 million.
He shortly traded the unlocked iPhone for three locked iPhones and a Nissan 350Z with Terry Daidone, founder of Certicell, a phone repair company in Louisville, KY.
Up for sale is on eBay is a sketchy-looking, non-functioning white iPhone described as a prototype demo unit of the brand new GS model.
The auction has attracted two bids and is currently running at $305, even though the iPhone doesn’t work.
The seller says there’s a problem with restoring the software: “This device is not eligible for the requested build,” iTunes says when he tries to restore it.
The seller, vofffka, of Ocean City, New Jersey, says an Apple genius at his local retail store verified the iPhone as an Apple product, but can’t service it, “because it’s never been sold.”
WTF that means, who knows?
The seller has a very high rating. He is currently selling several unlocked iPhones.
Where did he get this prototype? Get this. In the QA section, a potential buyer asks the same question, and gets this reply:
“Hi! It is currently NOT WORKING, I got it on ebay a month ago and the guy I got it from told me he found it in the airport. Thanks!”
Yeah, that makes me feel real keen to bid on this item.
Here’s a link to the auction: White 16GB APPLE IPHONE 3G S PROTOTYPE UNIT!
More pictures after the jump.
Counterfeit iPhones have come a long way. They’re now almost identical to original iPhones, fooling bargain hunters on sites like eBay.
Look at the video below from Dana Stibolt, founder of MacMedics, who was given a fake iPhone bought on the auction site.
At first glance, it’s almost identical to current models, from the touchscreen to the volume switches on the side and the dock connector on the bottom.
“It looks EXACTLY like an iPhone,” says Stibolt. “But it does not work very well, and when it does work, it is very slow.”
Last year, knockoff iPhones were easy to spot. They were thicker, bulkier and often had extra buttons or keyboards.
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]
“Steampunk lies at the intersection of science and romance,” says one of its foremost practitioners, Jake Von Slatt. “It embraces technology but demands technology return the favor.”
We came across Von Slatt while checking in with our friend Bob Eckstein, whose recently completed project, The History of the Snowman is now out in the world after six years of grueling research.
One of Eckstein’s next projects is producing a graphic novel out of a nautical explorer’s diary from 1850. A full-immersion writer, Eckstein has gotten himself in the mood for the work by transforming his office space into a 19th century Captain’s Quarters. He refitted his computers and office equipment into old ship instruments to lend verité to his efforts, and secured vintage trappings to serve up authenticity to his muse.
Hence, my introduction to Steampunk.
Click on pics in the gallery below and follow after the jump for more of the story.
Travis Hammond is a graphic designer located near Baltimore, Maryland. He works for a private auction firm and a local magazine, and does freelance photography and design work. He’s also a bit of an Apple nut, if these among many other examples of his Mac, iPod and iPhone inspired creativity are any indication.
See more at his website and his Flickr pages
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The creators of Where To, one of the more successful iPhone applications to appear in Apple’s AppStore since its launch in July, have decided to divide their company (tap tap tap) and its assets, and to continue on separate creative and business paths.
tap tap tap co-founder John Casasanta detailed circumstances underlying the split in a blog posting today, indicating the success of his venture with Sophia Teutschler had led to insurmountable differences between them about everything from advertising and marketing expenditures to design decisions.
Under the terms of their agreement to move forward, Teutschler will get the iPhone app Tipulator and two apps-in-progress, I’m Here and Groceries. She will publish the apps under her Sophiestication brand. Casasanta said, “[Sophia] is a good UI designer and I have faith that she’ll put out a great app even if the direction she takes it isn’t exactly where I would’ve gone with it.”
Casasanta will retain the tap tap tap brand with apps the company had in early development but had not yet announced. A previously assembled design team will remain with tap tap tap and Casasanta expects to name two new programmers to develop both current and future projects.
The fate of the drinking and dining guide whose success prefigured the split, Where To, remains up in the air. With gross sales of around $200,000 in the three months it was available on the App Store, according to Casasanta, he and Teutschler decided to pull it from the App Store pending resolution of their differences. Casasanta reports they will seek a buyer for Where To and its assets via sale by auction, and that he and Teutschler will split the proceeds of any sale.
“I’m going to put out a post in the next couple of days detailing our plans to sell it off,” Casasanta wrote in his blog posting today, saying, “full details will be coming soon along with complete financials for it including the marketing costs, etc.”
