Did you know that when a hockey player winds up for a slap shot they’re not trying to hit the puck?

Duh. I’m Canadian.

. Time:

If you wanted to pick a single date to mark the beginning of the modern era of the web, you could do a lot worse than choosing Thursday, April 1, 2004, the day Gmail launched.

Scuttlebutt that Google was about to offer a free email service had leaked out the day before. But the idea of the search kingpin doing email was still startling, and the alleged storage capacity of 1GB—500 times what Microsoft’s Hotmail offered—seemed downright implausible. So when Google issued a press release date-stamped April 1, an awful lot of people briefly took it to be a really good hoax. (Including me.)

Gmail turned out to be real, and revolutionary. And a decade’s worth of perspective only makes it look more momentous.

I still remember getting that Google press release and thinking, “This is the stupidest April Fool’s Day prank ever.”

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VintageZen:

I’ve collected print ads from Apple, from their earliest days in the late 1970s to the present, which illuminate their continued focus on simplicity in design. In the first part of this two part series, I’ll look at Apple’s first twenty years of advertising.

We often think about Apple’s TV commercials when we talk about their advertising but for many years, it was all about print ads. How many of these do you remember?

TechCrunch:

Late last night, a tweet was spread far and wide showing that a DMCA notice had blocked a file from being shared on a Dropbox user’s account.

What was going on? Was Dropbox suddenly doing something sketchy? Were they suddenly lurking around their users’ folders, digging for copyrighted material hiding amongst personal files?

Nope. The system is neither new, nor sketchy. It’s been in place for years.

You may have seen the original tweet fly around on the weekend. As is often the case, if you wait – rather than Chicken Little panic – someone comes up with a good explanation for the “offence”.

Online Sports Marketing Guy:

Have you ever wondered how much money you make compared to a Major League Baseball player? The interactive visualization can be used to compare your salary and the average US worker’s salary to any MLB player across several different statistics from the 2013 season.

Take my advise – do not do this. It’s way too depressing.

Fast Company:

Decluttr buys anything–because that’s their business model. They will literally buy any CD, DVD, or video game you want to mail them. And they pay the postage, too.

Might be a way to get rid of all that old media you have no use for.

Priceonomics:

Perhaps no other creation in history has navigated the divide between terror and unadulterated joy as skillfully as the roller coaster.

Since these “scream machines” were introduced nearly 250 years ago, they have brought millions to tears in all capacities. As one roller coaster designer told us, anonymously: “My job is basically to get as close to making people poop their pants as possible, then have them step off in ecstasy and want to go again.”

I’ve always loved roller coasters. One of my biggest regrets while I was living in the US was not getting to the sixteen roller coasters of Cedar Point, Ohio.

askTog:

Before delving into what an Apple smartwatch might look like, we need to understand why, right now, people not only think they don’t need a smartwatch, they flat-out don’t want a smartwatch.

Long piece on the subject but Tog brings up some interesting points as to what he sees as the advantages and disadvantages of a smart watch.

SFGate:

The first MacWorld in 1985 looked much different than the current incarnation, which peaked with more than 50,000 attendees at Moscone Center several years ago.

The show starts this week and, while it is the barest shadow of what it was in its glory days, it’s still a show I miss going to if only for the friends and colleagues who are there.

Wall Street Journal: Mr. Christie’s team devised many iPhone features, such as swiping to unlock the phone, placing calls from the address book, and a touch-based music player. The iPhone ditched the keyboard then common on advanced phones for a … Continued

CNBC:

Apple needs an iWatch sooner rather than later, or the company will risk losing its innovative edge to rivals, analysts say.

“They only have 60 days left to either come up with something or they will disappear,” said Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research.

The single stupidest thing ever written about Apple. When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you’ll know that’s saying something.

Ars Technica:

Screen protectors: don’t use ’em, don’t want ’em, don’t need ’em. I’ve been rocking a naked smartphone since 2007, and I don’t ever anticipate changing. And yet the screen protector PR pitch that landed in my inbox last week proved difficult to resist:

Subject: Preview the bulletproof iPhone? On March 18, Sir Lancelot’s Armor will announce the first reusable screen protectors for iPhones and iPads made of bulletproof glass….If interested in getting a sample to use or test, please let me know the model and color of your iPhone.

The only word I needed to hear was “bulletproof.”

I got the same PR email and thought, “Bull.” Glad to see testing proved me right.

CNBC:

Apple CEO Tim Cook has issued a statement about a new book about the tech giant called, “Haunted Empire,” saying it is “nonsense” and fails to capture Apple or former CEO and Co-Founder Steve Jobs.

Very interesting that Cook released a statement like this.

Minimally Minimal:

The only thing people seem to love to talk about more than Apple’s success are their failures. The iPod Hi-Fi is considered one of the classic Apple failures. Apple discontinued it just a year after its launch and it received universally lukewarm reviews. I’ve always had a crush on it though. It’s a beautiful piece of hardware and I’ve always loved the idea of having a speaker that pairs perfectly with my iPod.

This is one of those products I wish I could sit down with Ive over a beer and ask, “What were you thinking!?”

This might just be the coolest thing you watch all day.

Diary of a Mad Man:

My close personal friend, Jim Darlymple, was down in Austin, Texas this past week attending the SXSW iTunes Music Festival. He apparently had a great time.

Except for that time when that guy stole his guitar. I watched the video, fully expecting to see Jim beat the guy to death with his own arm.

The Verge:

The software maker has been inviting members of the media to a special cloud- and mobile-focused event in San Francisco on March 27th. Nadella is expected to discuss Microsoft’s “mobile first, cloud first” strategy, and there will be some major news ahead of the company’s Build conference in early April. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the event will mark the introduction of Office for iPad.

Do you care?

The Push:

A class of apps, christened “ambient apps” by the blogosphere, are endowing mild-mannered smartphone users with what might have passed for superpowers a few years ago. They work by keeping your smartphone’s mic, GPS and even its camera listening, watching and seeking out every signal coming from your surroundings.

In many ways, ambient apps are a logical step in the evolutionary process of mobile devices. For some, however, they press too hard against our personal space, intrude upon our most precious moments and deliver marketers far more about ourselves than we care to divulge.

Some of these apps are really cool, like Flightradar24, but some are disturbing – yet seemingly inevitable.

Sports Illustrated:

220,000 square feet of exhibition space filled to the gills with Ugly Stiks and Mr. Crappies, and an 18,000-seat arena will host the nightly weigh-in for the 44th annual Bassmaster Classic, the self-described Super Bowl of Fishing – though to the 200,000 angling enthusiasts passing through here in cardboard hats in the shape of bass and weapons of bass destruction T‑shirts, the Classic is a vast improvement on the Super Bowl.

I’m not a fisherman but it was fascinating to live in The South and see how big and important bass fishing was. I knew guys with thousands of dollars in gear and $30K+ custom painted bass boats.

AP:

A handful of Idaho hockey fans sued a Boise arena on Tuesday, saying they were duped into thinking a $7 beer contains more brew than a $4 beer.

Don’t mess with hockey fans and their beer.

Heights can be scary. Climbing to those heights can be scarier. Free solo climbing up Yosemite’s 2,000 ft Half Dome should get you committed to an asylum for your own safety. It’s utter insanity. Even the climber himself says, “just a second. I’m freaking out actually.”

Priceonomics:

Playing with Lego bricks (can) become more than a mere hobby: the best of the best have made a career out of it. But how much can you expect to earn as a Lego maestro, and what exactly does the job entail? We’ve explored three jobs — model master builders, Lego Certified Professionals, and industry “renegades” — to answer these questions.

If LEGO ever needed someone to make walls, I’m your boy. I could build some great walls with my LEGO as a kid. Sadly – nothing else.

Collectors Weekly:

There’s an open secret in America: If you want to kill someone, do it with a car. As long as you’re sober, chances are you’ll never be charged with any crime, much less manslaughter.

Over the past hundred years, as automobiles have been woven into the fabric of our daily lives, our legal system has undermined public safety, and we’ve been collectively trained to think of these deaths as unavoidable “accidents” or acts of God.

Today, despite the efforts of major public-health agencies and grassroots safety campaigns, few are aware that car crashes are the number one cause of death for Americans under 35. But it wasn’t always this way.

In light of the discussions we’ve been having here and elsewhere about CarPlay and distracted driving, this is an interesting history lesson in how we used to view cars versus today’s perceptions.

Examiner:

A child was at the Barrett Pharmacy & Variety in Watford City, North Dakota this past December, and the 6-year-old informed the pharmacist that she couldn’t sleep at night. According to the little girl, she was afraid of monsters that were in her room. Pharmacist Jeff Dodds prescribed the girl a bottle of anti-monster spray to take care of the problem.

“Spray around the room at night before bed, repeat if necessary,” the instructions on the label informed the user.

What a sweet thing to do. I wonder if he’d prescribe anti-moron spray I could use on the internet?

Co.Design:

Something between a black MIDI glissando and a brown note, the THX “Deep Note” is one of the world’s most recognizable audio logos, signaling the highest quality audio standard in films. Yet despite its distinctive crescendo, the THX Deep Note wasn’t actually composed so much as it was programmed, which makes it a fascinating success story of early computer audio design.

I remember the first time I heard that sound. It gave me chills.

Ars Technica:

The Mophie Space Pack does three things, but it doesn’t do them equally well.

This is an accessory that will appeal mostly to Apple die-hards who use their phones all the time and want to carry as much of their stuff with them as possible.

I’ve always been a fan of Mophie products but this one seems to be too much for me. Is it a product you’d be interested in?

SBNation:

I got up there on a Saturday, and caught up with them a little bit, and then they said, “Well, let’s go look at the bird.” They were all in small hangars, all closed. We unlocked the back doors, turned on the lights, and I thought “Oh lord, there’s a spaceship.”

It’s still the most amazing aircraft. I remember seeing it at the Vancouver Air Show. They had it do a flyover of the city and watching it bank around the buildings of English Bay was incredible.

NPR:

A Canadian beverage company has concocted a low-alcohol, protein-packed “fit beer” that is expected to be marketed as a sports drink later this year.

I prefer skipping the workout part and going straight to the beer part.