Chinese gamer returns dozens of spacebars stolen from internet cafe

Written by

The Verge:

According to a bizarre story reported by Chinese state newspaper The People’s Daily, a man recently turned up at an internet cafe in the country with dozens of stolen spacebars. Irritated by the noise made by players of the rhythmic game Audition Online, which involves repeated tapping of the keyboard, the disgruntled gamer had surreptitiously removed the offending keys from the establishment more than seven years previously.

But he decided to make amends in order to enjoy a fresh start following his upcoming wedding, returning the spacebars in bulk earlier this month.

Gamers are so odd.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies at age 82

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NBC News:

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died Saturday, weeks after heart surgery and days after his 82nd birthday.Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, and he radioed back to Earth the historic news of “one giant leap for mankind.” He spent nearly three hours walking on the moon with fellow astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.

Sad day.

The goofiest thing you’ll learn to do today – make a “Dollar Bill Shirt”

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When I was a kid, I had a fascination with origami but like so many things I’m fascinated by, I could never master it. But the instructions to make this “Dollar Bill Shirt” look easy enough that even I can do it. The site also has instructions on how to make a “Dollar Shirt (with cuffs) and Pants” and even a “Dollar Bill Digital Camera”!

iPhone: The bet Steve Jobs didn’t decline

Written by

Counternotions:

Suppose you were the CEO of Apple in 2005 when a couple of intergalactic visitors with time-warping technology offered you this bet:Design and manufacture a small mobile device that seamlessly combines the functionalities of a cellular phone, a web surfer, an audio/video player and a small PC, and your company will double its market cap and establish a third mass-market computing platform after Windows and Macintosh.Would you take it?Before you say, “Are you nuts, why wouldn’t I?” ponder just a few of the issues involved.

Reading his analysis of the issues Apple faced back in 2005 makes it even more remarkable that Apple “bet the company” on the iPhone.

Bait and switch: What’s behind AT&T’s stance on FaceTime

Written by

GigaOM:

AT&T’s decision to block Apple’s video-calling program on its cellular network for certain customers has raised the ire of consumers and public-interest groups, and it may even draw the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. And after the wireless carrier posted its rationale on Wednesday on its decision to limit video over FaceTime to customers who have signed up for its Mobile Shared Data plan, I see two reasons the carrier has picked this fight.The first is to push more consumers over to the Mobile Shared Data plan, and the second is to establish a precedent that will put its Wi-Fi network on the same legal footing as its cellular one, especially when it comes to network neutrality.

Apple ID security increased with 3 questions and rescue email address

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iPhone in Canada:

For those accessing iTunes today, you may have noticed Apple has added extra security to your iTunes Account by asking you to fill out three security questions and input an alternate recovery email address.With these additional security questions now being asked in the event of account recovery, and the additional rescue email option, it should increase Apple ID security. But of course, nothing can beat a strong password, which Apple ID accounts now require a capital letter and numbers.

I’ve checked with friends in Canada and some of the questions are really obvious – like, “What is the name of your lead dogsled dog?” and “How many relatives do you have in Toronto?”

Honda debuts Miimo robotic lawnmower

Written by

Autoblog:

Miimo is an autonomous robotic mower that Honda will be selling in the European market only (for now) starting in 2013.Miimo runs on power supplied by its lithium-ion battery pack and, just like a Roomba robotic vacuum, will return to its charging station for a fresh batch of electrons when it runs out.The mower can operate in a random pattern, a directional mode where it mows back and forth in lines, or a combination of the two. As for safety, Miimo has bump sensors so it won’t break any potted plants, and if lifted off the ground, its blades will automatically stop and starting up again requires entering a unique PIN number.

As a kid, sweating behind an old fashioned push-blade mower (no – I’m not that old. My father was that cheap!), I would have saved my allowance and bought one of these!

Misleading, incomplete coverage of Apple’s record value

Written by

Columbia Journalism Review:

The big market news today is about Apple’s gargantuan market capitalization reaching a new, stunning high. There’s a big problem with all of the headlines: They’re all false.Apple is not the biggest or most valuable company in history—not by a longshot. That’s because the press is overlooking reality for the apparently irresistible pull of a headline that includes “Apple” and “record” = pageview gold.Apple’s $622 billion market cap is a nominal record, which means “in name only,” or alternatively, not really. That’s because it’s a record only if you don’t adjust Microsoft’s 1999 market cap for inflation.

Keep this story in mind next time you read of something or other achieving “record” status. Always question the numbers and where they come from.

Apple to open its own stores in Russia

Written by

The Moscow News:

Gadgets manufacturer and darling of the hipster set, Apple Computers plans to sell its products in Russia without the use of middlemen, bringing the price of its trendy equipment down.Apple has registered a company Apple Rus and assigned Vitaly Morozko, the corporation’s local legal advisor, as its director general, Kommersant reported.According to an unnamed manager of an Apple distributor, the company could start direct sales in Russia in 2013, but it is unclear when first Apple Stores will open.

“darling of the hipster set…”? Hipsters didn’t make Apple the most valuable public company in the world.

David Beckham looms large at the 5th Avenue Apple Store

Written by

Adweek:

David Beckham is bigger than ever, in almost every way, now that Spellbound Media and Zenith Optimedia have unleashed giant silver statues of the footballer around three U.S. cities for H&M.Three statues have gone up outdoors in New York—one in front of the Apple Store at 58th Street and 5th Avenue; one near the Flatiron Building; and one at the South Street Seaport.The outdoor figures will remain up through Sunday.

The iPhone is now worth more than Microsoft

Written by

Forbes:

One Apple product, something that didn’t exist five years ago, has higher sales than everything Microsoft has to offer. More than Windows, Office, Xbox, Bing, Windows Phone, and every other product that Microsoft has created since 1975. In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, iPhone had sales of $22.7 billion; Microsoft Corporation, $17.4 billion.Now when we say “worth” there’s a number of different things that we can mean.

Agreed. “Worth” may be a bit misleading but there’s no argument about the sales numbers.

9 sites to save big on college textbooks

Written by

Mashable:

It’s that time of year again, when college students scramble for textbooks, in the hopes they’ll have money left over for food and fun during the school year.No longer does the campus bookstore have the monopoly on book sales. The key is to find the right edition of a textbook at the right price, and that can take some research.Fortunately, a few websites can help with that. Amazon has just hopped on the rental bandwagon, launching its own textbook rental service. Other sites offer books you can both rent and buy.

I was luck that, as a Political Science major, my “textbooks” were often mainstream but my CompSci buddies just got crushed by the cost of textbooks. Check out some of these sites to see if they can help save you some beer money.

Winnie Cooper wants you to know “Girls get Curves”

Written by

Buzzfeed:

Danica McKellar, former Wonder Years star, is on a mission to make young women know they’re just as good at math as their male counterparts.She just released her fourth math book for girls, Girls Get Curves. It’s designed to teach girls math but also confidence so that they don’t shy away from pursuing it in college or their careers beyond. Playing off the geometry focus, the book also tries to teach young women how to have a positive body image in a world that tries to keep them from it. McKellar speaks to BuzzFeed Shift about why women are so underrepresented in mathematics, her own experiences in the field, and more.

Winnie has growed up real good and, after graduating summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in Mathematics, has made another career for herself as an award winning author and mathematician.

The absolute worst sentence of 2012

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Hypervocal:

Ladies and gents, we present to you the official Worst Sentence of 2012:“As he told her that he loved her she gazed into his eyes, wondering, as she noted the infestation of eyelash mites, the tiny deodicids burrowing into his follicles to eat the greasy sebum therein, each female laying up to 25 eggs in a single follicle, causing inflammation, whether the eyes are truly the windows of the soul; and, if so, his soul needed regrouting.”

I have been a fan of the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for years but be careful – the web site can be a huge time suck!

IHave50Dollars is App.net for people with $50

Written by

TechCrunch:

Do you have $50? Do you trust strangers with it? Do you like paying for evanescent access to a service you may never use? Then IHave50Dollars.com is the site for you. Not everyone has $50 they’re willing to push down a rat-hole in hopes of access to a social media service based on a promise by a man with a proven track record in being compellingly earnest on camera, but if you do, this may be your lucky day.IHave50Dollars is a parody site, obviously (there’s an Easter Egg at the end) but it does offer a fairly poignant criticism of the bandwagon mentality in the Valley.

Prankster plants garden cress in co-worker’s keyboard

Written by

Hypervocal:

“My colleague has a dirty keyboard and has gone to vacation,” writes this Redditor. “I did the only logic[al] thing: I planted cress in his keyboard.”

The included GIF is a bit misleading. You have to go to the full album to see the prankster “cheated” a little bit – he put dirt in the keyboard and watered the garden cress seeds so of course it was going to sprout. Still – you’d like to see the look on the co-worker’s face when he comes back from vacation!

Apple retail leadership tells employees “We messed up”

Written by

NASDAQ:

Apple Inc.’s retail boss told employees that the company made mistakes with its staffing levels, leading to news reports that the company was cutting employees, according to two people familiar with the matter.Apple acknowledged the retail staffing changes. “Making these changes was a mistake and the changes are being reversed,” said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman. “Our employees are our most important asset and the ones who provide the world-class service our customers deserve.”

This comes on the heels of a detailed IFOAppleStore report about various changes Senior VP of Retail John Browett was making to the retail environment increase the the stores contribution to company profit.

Would you swim In the world’s scariest pool?

Written by

. Gadling:

How far would you go to get a bird’s-eye city view while swimming? If you’re staying at the Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao, you’ll get to take a dip in their glass-bottom pool, which appears to be suspended in mid-air as it partially hangs over a 24-story drop.

Easy answer to the headline question. HELL NO.

What are Apple’s plans for TV?

Written by

PC Mag:

While Apple could still make a physical TV, I think this move incorporating Hulu and Amazon is very telling of Apple’s future TV strategy. The key here is that for Apple’s current TV device to make money, it needs content. By biting the bullet and offering competing services to iTunes, the value proposition of an Apple TV device rises. Apple can now accelerate its TV plans through areas it excels in, namely software and human interfaces. I believe that it can do all that it wants to do in these areas through an external box that connects to a TV and delivers iTunes and its cloud services.The problem with TVs is that people buy them and hold on to them for five to seven years on average. While Apple could design a TV that could be upgraded in software, it makes more sense to create a sophisticated box that works with all televisions and allows the company to innovate around this model.

Bajarin has been around for a long time and is a smart guy. I’ve been saying the same thing about Apple’s direction with regards to the Apple TV set-top box but The Esteemed Publisher of The Loop still believes Apple will still produce an actual HD television set. Time will tell.

How we screwed (almost) the whole Apple community

Written by

Day4:

How easy is it to spread disinformation?One afternoon we sketched out a screw in our 3D program, a very strange screw where the head was neither a star, tracks, pentalobe or whatever, but a unique form, also very impractical. We rendered the image, put it in an email, sent it to ourselves, took a picture of the screen with the mail and anonymously uploaded the image to the forum Reddit with the text ”A friend took a photo a while ago at that fruit company, they are obviously even creating their own screws ”.Then we waited …

If you ever wonder where all these untrue Apple rumors come from, this will answer the question for at least some of them. It also shows how many web sites post “information” with little to no facts, research, details or common sense attached.

2012 Perseid Meteor Shower Aug. 11th through 13th

Written by

NASA:

On the nights of Aug. 11th through 13th, the best meteor shower of the year will fill pre-dawn skies with hundreds of shooting stars. And that’s just for starters. The brightest planets in the solar system are lining up right in the middle of the display. The Perseid meteor shower peaks on the nights around August 12th as Earth passes through a stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle.“We expect to see meteor rates as high as a hundred per hour,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “The Perseids always put on a good show.”

NASA even has a free app you can use to count meteors and upload the data to researchers.

Google’s iOS search app to gain “enhanced voice search”

Written by

Ars Technica:

Google’s search app for iOS is about to become more Siri-like. The app, which already allows users to enter search terms via voice, will soon gain the ability to better understand your intent—that is, what you actually mean with all those extraneous words coming out of your mouth. Google announced on Wednesday that the feature will be available “soon” for iPhone and iPad.

Big advantage of this Google “version” is that it will be available on the iPhone 4.

Full moon rises at Tower Bridge

Written by

Reuters:

The full moon rises through the Olympic Rings hanging beneath Tower Bridge during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As a photographer, you dream about getting perfect shots like these.

How to watch the Mars Rover land on Sunday

Written by

Wired:

The moment is almost here. In just a couple days, NASA’s new Mars rover, Curiosity, will begin its descent to the Martian surface and hopefully start beaming back amazing images and data.Unfortunately, there’s no way to watch the probe actually plunge into the Martian atmosphere and undertake the carefully orchestrated sequence of landing events known as the “Seven Minutes of Terror.” Even the radio waves that indicate the rover’s position have to obey the laws of physics and recognize the 14-minute communications delay between Earth and Mars.But there are still plenty of ways to catch the action online and feel like you’re getting a front-row seat for NASA’s next big mission.

If you can, spare some time on Sunday to watch this event – and it’s on less of a tape delay than NBC’s Olympic coverage.

#nbcfail economics

Written by

BuzzMachine:

Reading the #nbcfail hashtag has been at least as entertaining as much of NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. It’s also enlightening — economically enlightening.The people formerly known as the audience have a voice and boy are they using it to complain about NBC’s tape delays of races and the opening ceremonies, about its tasteless decision to block the UK tribute to its 7/7 victims, and about its commentators’ idiocies.The counterargument has been an economic one: NBC has to maximize commercial revenue, which means maximizing prime time viewership, to recoup the billions paid for the rights to broadcast, billions that pay for the stadiums and security and ceremony. The argument is also made that NBC’s strategy is working because it is getting record ratings.

What do you think? Are you watching the Olympics live, either on TV or online? Or are you waiting for the evening recaps? Thanks to Dan Frakes for the link.

Apple design chief: “Our goal isn’t to make money”

Written by

The Telegraph:

Apple might be the most valuable company in the world, with a market capitalisation of $556bn, but its design chief insists it is not in it for the money.Sir Jonathan Ive, whose personal fortune stands at an estimated at $130m, said yesterday that Apple’s guiding principle was nothing to do with its balance sheet, and that it simply wanted to make “great products”. “Our goal isn’t to make money. Our goal absolutely at Apple is not to make money. This may sound a little flippant but it’s the truth,” said the British designer.

70 years – at the same job

Written by

Cockpit Chronicles:

Al “Blacky” Blackman has reached a milestone few can claim. He has worked for 70 years as a mechanic for American Airlines based in New York, starting when he was only 17 years old.Surprisingly, he has no plans to retire. “I don’t consider this work. It’s being able to do what you like and getting paid for it.”

Al celebrated his milestone in a way suitable to his amazing employment longevity – with a flight around New York City in an original American Airlines DC-3, the oldest DC-3 still flying.

Carbon Copy Cloner v3.5

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One of the best backup applications for your Mac is Mike Bombich’s Carbon Copy Cloner, now up to version 3.5. The new release brings Mountain Lion support and has “transitioned” to a fully paid application – while Bombich worked for Apple, the software was donationware. Mike is no longer at Apple and he wants to get paid!

CCC creates automated, incremental and bootable backups and makes backing up simple and easy.

The new version costs $39.95 but is on sale for $29.96 for a limited time.

Steve Jobs: Inspiration or a cautionary tale?

Written by

Wired:

Jobs has been dead for nearly a year, but the biography about him is still a best seller. Indeed, his life story has emerged as an odd sort of holy scripture for entrepreneurs—a gospel and an antigospel at the same time.To some, Jobs’ life has revealed the importance of sticking firmly to one’s vision and goals, no matter the psychic toll on employees or business associates. To others, Jobs serves as a cautionary tale, a man who changed the world but at the price of alienating almost everyone around him.For those who, like Jobs, have pledged to “put a dent in the universe,” his thorny life story has forced a reckoning. Is it really worth being like Steve?

Apple’s new iPad makes unusually quiet debut in Beijing

Written by

Wall Street Journal:

Apple’s latest iPad model went on sale quietly on Friday at a retail location in Beijing where unruly buyers and sullen crowds had marred past releases. Roughly 40 customers quietly lined up Friday morning outside the Apple Store in Beijing’s high-end Sanlitun shopping and restaurant district. They waited within a cordon surrounded security personnel and reporters. Store doors opened at 8 a.m. without disturbances.In May 2011, customers who lined up for new white iPhones scuffled with employees, leading managers to lock the doors.For the launch of the new iPad, Apple instituted a system new to the location in which buyers were required to take reservations beginning on Thursday, the day before the launch. Customers were then given a set time to pick up their devices.