Tell me if you’ve heard this one: “Steve Jobs never would’ve let [PRODUCT/SERVICE/INCIDENT] happen.”
That declaration has distorted the way the press writes about Apple and how it operates. The claims of his alleged perfectionism and ability to “sweat the details” didn’t just elevate the CEO to “best thing since sliced bread” status, it mutated the perception of the company for industry insiders and the public. […]
Sprint may become the property of Japanese mobile carrier Softbank if a $20 billion deal goes through.
Saturday Night Live’s “Tech Talk” segment parodied complaints about the iPhone 5, pairing off whining tech journos with very unsympathetic Chinese factory workers.
WIRED:
For most of the demo, we were running between 5 and 10 watts of power into the LS Concerts — all that’s required to drive the speakers this light and fast. Even at that level, they were loud. Like, really loud. We were pushing roughly 120 decibels out of the LS Concerts, and the sound was absolutely glorious.Tim reluctantly turned it down a few notches when a candle came tumbling off the fireplace mantle.
Holy crap. I’d never pay that kind of money for “just” a set of speakers but I’d really like to hear what they sound like in that kind of environment.
The Stones are back, and rocking harder than ever.
CNET:
To encourage repeat viewings of his latest flick, writer-director Rian Johnson released an audio commentary track that you can listen to on your iPod.The director of the sci-fi action movie “Looper” wants you to bring an iPod into the theater to listen to details of how each scene was filmed.In a Tumblr post, Johnson, who also directed the AMC TV show “Breaking Bad,” provides a downloadable MP3 file to be played during the movie.
This is a really interesting idea and I wonder if it will catch on. I’m a huge fan of commentary tracks on DVDs.
Huffington Post:
There are large phone bills and then there are insane phone bills. Solenne San Jose, a woman from Pessac, in the Bordeaux region of France, received an utterly insane one.After she terminated a contract with the phone company Bouygues Telecom early, San Jose was told that she would have to pay a cancellation fee. The bill she received was for a mind-blowing €11,721,000,000,000,000, the Herald Sun reported. That’s around $15 quadrillion.
The best line in the story is, “San Jose had a hard time convincing the phone company that was the case.” WHY!? How hard should it be for even a mindless bureaucrat to acknowledge that the bill might just be incorrect?
ThinkGeek:
A Candwich Canned Sandwich is one tasty DIY treat, just waiting for you to crack it open. When you pop the top of your Candwich Canned Sandwich, you’ll hear an audible hiss of magic, and out will spill the contents to make one yummy sandwich. And best of all, each Candwich Canned Sandwich has a 1 year shelf life…
I almost threw up just reading about this.
Apple has agreed to pay the Swiss national railway a license fee for the design of the clock used in iOS 6.
“Partysaurus Rex” is a new short film from Pixar shown in theaters before Finding Nemo 3D. Also online, thanks to Disney.
Ubuntu One, the Linux distribution’s free cloud data sync offering, is now Mac-compatible with a new beta release.
The Guardian:
Scientists from Newcastle University have drawn up a table of the least pleasant sounds we may encounter as part of everyday life.They tested reactions to 74 different noises both in outward response and more closely via small changes in the brain.The results are published in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience and show, among other things, that acoustically anything in the frequency range of around 2,000 to 5,000 Hz was found to be unpleasant.
I’m not going to tell you what they are – you’ll have to click through to see for yourself. Then, you will be forced to listen to them out of curiosity. Then you will find yourself in pain – just like I was.
New York Times:
Zipping around on a motorcycle can be fun, but being in a downpour or an accident on one is not. Driving a car is safer and more comfortable, but traffic and parking can be annoying. What if you got rid of the bad parts of both?You might end up with something like the C-1, an electric motorcycle that looks as if it came out of the movie “Tron.”
As a rider myself, I have a hard time calling this thing a motorcycle but as a “single person urban transport vehicle”, it’s kind of interesting. Make sure you watch the video from the company to see how the fascinating gyroscopes work to keep the “rubber side down”. It will be interesting to see if this ever becomes a real shipping product.
Sega’s legendary Dreamcast console game Crazy Taxi is now available for iOS.
Kobo, maker of inexpensive e-readers, has acquired indie software developer Aquafadas, maker of digital publishing software.
Developers speak on the record about Apple’s recent App Store terms changes which may restrict apps that promote titles from different developers.
Finnish developer Supercell says it’s making $350K a day from its two iOS games.
Better late than never – Sid Meier’s Railroads! is finally headed to the Mac.
T-Mobile has begun stocking nano-SIMs designed to fit in the iPhone 5, according to this report.
A look at why Steve Jobs remains so relevant even a year after his death.
Wired:
Watch as Oracle Team USA CEO Russell Coutts, a four-time America’s Cup winner, flips an AC45 in a practice race last summer. The AC45, named for its length, is 70 feet tall, 22.6 feet wide and weighs 3,086 pounds. Now consider that the boats racing in next year’s Cup finals are twice as big and have a top speed north of 30 knots.
The big cats are back on the Bay.
I’m not a fan of Larry Ellison but I think he deserves props for livening up the America’s Cup Series. As much as I loved the “old boats”, these new ones are like F1 race cars – hi-tech and dangerous. I’ve seen some of the racing on TV and the new “yachts” are amazing and the new rules are designed to make the racing a real live TV sporting event. I wish Ellison luck.
A metal singer got drunk and made a video with his cat, and this is the result.
A Maine state senatorial candidate’s World of Warcraft status has become a point of contention with the opposition party.
Vice:
Maritimers communicate with one another like young twins that invent gibberish language. For starters, Maritimers speak at a speed that can only be compared to an episode of Gilmore Girls cast with leprechauns on crank.Here are a few tips if you ever want to try and converse with someone from Tatamagouche.
I had tears in my eyes reading this. I love my home province but there’s no doubt – we talk funny sometimes.
If you’ve hung around The Loop’s Publisher long enough for him to have sucked back a few Heineken, you’ll have been lucky enough to hear some of these. And I’ll admit to talking way too fast at times, too.
Hat tip to the @beardsdaughter for the link!
CNN takes a look at how Tim Cook has changed Apple.
A compilation of some atrocious-looking logos from black metal bands.
According to court papers revealed recently, Apple offered to license Samsung’s 3G/UMTS technology for 33 cents per unit before they got to trial. Samsung wouldn’t agree to the deal.
A new study says bald men are perceived as more masculine but less attractive.
More bullshit, this time from Forbes’ “The Street” blog.
Samsung claims the foreman of jury responsible for the $1 billion Apple patent verdict is guilty of misconduct.