Yearly Archives: 2012

Dell stock tumbles on weak sales outlook

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Shares of Dell Inc fell more than 7 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday, after the world’s No.3 personal computer maker forecast weak sales for the current quarter.

What we learned from the ‘Nightline’ report on Foxconn factories

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The Verge:

Nightline has aired its report from Foxconn’s factories on ABC. In the report, host Bill Weir speaks directly to factory workers as well as their managers. You would think that this “unprecedented” look inside Apple factories would reveal much we didn’t know, but the show was relatively light on information.We’ve compiled a list of the most interesting facts in bullet points, but we’re left feeling like there wasn’t much meat on the bones of the 30-minute report.

i hope no one was expecting some kind of Mike Wallace “60 Minutes” explosive, rip-the-lid-off-the-industry kind of expose.

Flickr getting a major makeover

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Betabeat:

Markus Spiering, senior product manager for Flickr, is very happy to be making extensive changes to the Flickr interface, the first of which will roll out next week, as he explained in a meeting with Betabeat, Yahoo’s Jason Khoury, and Flickr.com, looking pretty on Mr. Spiering’s Macbook Air.The new photo view will hit on Feb. 28, Mr. Spiering said, and with it comes a new upload interface. Flickr’s uploading page now looks more like an app than a website. Goodbye, retro blue links. Hello, swoopy drag-and-drop.

I’ve used Flickr for years and am looking forward to the revamp. The interface is definitely long in the tooth.

Facial recognition billboard for women only

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Mashable:

A new kind of outdoor advertisement is being tested on Oxford Street in London’s West End. The interactive advertisement uses a high-definition camera to scan pedestrians and identify their gender before showing a specific ad. The built-in system has a 90% accuracy rate in analyzing a person’s facial features and determining if they’re male or female.Males won’t be able to see the full ad and will be directed to Plan UK’s website instead. The purpose of this was to show men “a glimpse of what it’s like to have basic choices taken away.”

This is the tip of the focused advertisement iceberg.

The curious case of (cr)apps that make money

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PandoDaily:

Apple has a serious problem on their hands, and it is one they need to fix it as soon as possible. This is an issue that Apple’s biggest ally – iOS developers – are complaining about, one that hurts the user, and one that could end up damaging the iOS ecosystem more than any set of labor issues ever could.The issue we are facing, is the proliferation of scamming apps. Apple needs to take better care of its walled garden.

PlayBook gets email, but it’s still a piece of shit

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Roger Cheng: While RIM touts the ability to get e-mail, it’s actually using Exchange ActiveSync, and not the company’s own secure BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Without RIM’s secure network, the PlayBook’s e-mail access isn’t any better than what can already be … Continued

Best. Technical College. Ad. Ever.

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Gizmodo:

What begins as a seemingly cheesy commercial for the Central Institute of Technology in Australia quickly devolves into a morass of extremely dark silliness. But yes, it’s actually a real ad for a real school. Very creative, twisted, and funny.

Utterly demented video.

Microsoft Office for iPad

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Matt Hickey for The Daily:

Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be created and edited locally and online. But it’s unclear if Microsoft will support other Office apps at launch or at all.

Nook Tablet goes on a diet, loses $50

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Barnes & Noble is bolstering its Nook Tablet line by introducing a lower-priced version with less storage – more competition for the Kindle.

Keyboard jeans are true “laptop”

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Discovery News:

They’re a pair of jeans with a set of speakers, a wireless mouse and a keyboard embedded into the upper thigh regions. Imagine typing — literally — on your lap and you get the picture.The jeans were designed to “combine fashion and technology”.

If you wear these, don’t be surprised if someone punches you in the FGHJ.

More crap from RIM

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Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for RIM:

PlayBook OS 2.0 benchmarks better than any other mobile implementation (just point your PlayBook at HTML5Test.com), and better than every desktop browser, except Chrome 16. It also includes WebGL for accelerated 3D graphics, and with WebWorks, we can free HTML5 code from the browser, let you upload it to AppWorld, and turn that HTML5 website into a revenue generating HTML5 application. How ‘bout them apples?

Two things:

  1. Make sure you’re near a Wi-Fi connection before pointing your PlayBook at any site because it doesn’t have 3G.

  2. You think it’s a good idea to allow developers to sell an app based on an HTML5 Web site? That’s not a plus. People want real apps, not fake shit.

Whitney Houston, Charlie Chaplin items being auctioned

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Highlights of items from Whitney Houston that will be auctioned include a Whitney Houston black velvet dress owned by Houston. The floor length long-sleeve dress has a high collar and is embellished at neck and waist with metallic silver ribbon, black and clear stones giving the illusion of a necklace and belt. (Est: $1,000 -$2,000), a Whitney Houston vest worn by Whitney Houston in the blockbuster film “The Bodyguard,” (Warner Bros. 1992). The fitted vest has a floral pattern in gold, blue and pink, two exterior pockets, shawl collar and four button closure. Purchased by the end of production sale by the film’s set costumer Janet Sobel (Est: $400-$600), and a pair of pearl drop earrings also worn by Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard (Warner Bros. 1992), faux pearl with silver tone bead cap and euro clip with scallop (Est. $600-$800). Other items include jewelry and costumes from Houston’s appearance in film and on stage.Highlights include a Charlie Chaplin iconic cane (Est. $20,000/$30,000) and Charlie Chaplin film worn suit (Est. $20,000/$30,000) and a number of his own personal items including his personal drivers license (Est. $2,000/$4,000) originating from family members and the Estate of Charlie Chaplin. Other highlights include Clark Gable’s riding jacket from “Gone With The Wind,” (Est. $10,000/$15,000), a tuxedo jacket worn by Judy Garland in “A Star Is Born,” (Est. $4,000/$6,000), a Charlton Heston screen worn robe (Est. $30,000/$50,000) and screen worn staff (Est. $20,000/$30,000), screen used tablets (Est. $40,000/$60,000) from “The Ten Commandments,” Marilyn Monroe pantaloons worn in “River of No Return (Est. $20,000/$30,000) and a vintage Christian Dior gown worn by Grace Kelly, known more famously as Princess Grace of Monaco (Est. $10,000/$20,000)

Six legal things you should know about social media

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The Wall:

Whether it is uploading photos, that we then allow another entity to have control of, or granting access to our Facebook or Twitter account to a third party – we are, often unknowingly, giving away data, and, in certain instances, giving away certain privacy rights associated with that data.Admit it, when that long, boring box of detailed legal information pops up when you download an app or sign up to a website, you just hit “I Agree” and don’t actually read it, don’t you? Well maybe there are a few things you should be paying attention to.

While some of the information may be location (UK) specific, the article does serve as a reminder that the “social media” space can be scary and have real word consequences. Thanks to Colin Crawford for the heads up.

Norman Seeff releases Steve Jobs collectible lithograph

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iPhone Savior:

Each lithograph will retail for $75 and then Norman intends to sign the back of the initial run of 300 and sell them for $125 each — the dimensions measure 26 x 34 inches. For this piece Seeff added color to the Apple rainbow logo on the front of the Mac. It’s a wonderful bit of detailing that adds a special quality to the black and white image.

Make sure you read the story of the image’s creation.