Peter Kirn finds another goodie for Mac users.

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.

Derek Turner for Wired:

Though it’s trying its best to hide it, the truth is that AT&T’s motivation here is to prop up its slowly declining voice and text revenue streams, which are expensive services that the open internet is making obsolete. If AT&T can weaken the FCC’s Net Neutrality protections at the same time, well that’s a bonus. The decision to block FaceTime likely will not be the last anti-consumer thing AT&T attempts as it tries to reassert its control over the communications ecosystem that the open internet pried away long ago.

Turner hits the nail on the head.

Tony Wolverton for MercuryNews.com:

The company owed $30 million to $40 million to various creditors and had little money to pay them. It had failed to find a buyer despite shopping itself around and was facing a complete shutdown of its services, said Joel Weinberg, CEO of Insolvency Services Group.

OnLive is the video game service that enables you to stream popular PC games to your Mac or PC over the Internet, or to your TV using a small settop box.

OnLive made headlines last week when its assets were abruptly sold to a newly formed company (also called OnLive) and many employees were terminated. The service continues for customers, however.

The CEO of a firm tasked with paying some of OnLive’s old debts explained that OnLive “had only days to live” because of cashflow and credit issues.

OnLive emerged as one of the highest profile “cloud gaming” services, which enable people to play games without actually buying them and downloading them – paying a monthly subscription fee instead.

On this day in 1969, two days after their final recording session, the Beatles gathered at Tittenhurst Park, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono resided, for a photo shoot they didn’t realize would be their last — an instance of those bittersweet “unknown lasts” that wedge themselves between our lived experience and our memory, sometimes violently and other times with the tender wistfulness of nostalgia.

The hobo is a migratory worker, some with a special skill or trade, others ready to work at any task, but always willing to work to make his way.The tramp, they’ll tell you, is a traveling non-worker, moving from town to town, but never willing to work for the handouts that he begs for. A bum is the lowest class, too lazy to roam around and never works.

[Via Kottke]

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.

This pack is perfect for the songwriter looking for a wide variety of basic drums for a broad spectrum of playing styles. It covers anything from mellow ballads to funky midtempo swing and straight uptempo rock, all categorized in different songs and full 4-8 bar song part blocks.

I love Toontrack’s products. I have almost everything they make.

Makes more sense now.

More CSS3 goodness.

Glassboard premium was created to give you more of what you need from Glassboard – more storage, more boards, the ability to bookmark messages and much more, all for just $5/month.

Great stuff from Sepia Labs.

You knew it was going to happen.

Some cool tools to help you with your CSS.

You’re welcome.

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?”

I laughed so hard at this. Especially the Siri part:

“Chickpea salad. Nom nom nom. I am happy.”

Dell just announced its quarterly earnings:

Income: Down Revenue: Down Enterprise: Down Government: Down Small and medium businesses: Down And Consumer: You guessed it, down.

Oh and stock price: Down

Despite all of that, Dell posted “better than expected second-quarter earnings.”

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!

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.

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.

I’d love to have one of the Strats.

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.

Goodrich, who worked for Jobs since 1998, was promised by late chairman of the world’s most valuable company in a one-on- one meeting in May 2005 that he would always have a job at Apple, according to the complaint. The conversation took place after Jobs’s return from medical leave to receive treatment for pancreatic cancer, Goodrich said.

Just playing devil’s advocate here, but aren’t things like this said all time? “You’re good, you’ll always have a job here.” Things change.

We’re re-doubling our efforts to bring you an all-new version of Twitterrific: one that complies with Twitter’s new guidelines and makes reading and posting to Twitter even easier and more fun.

Great news. I’m glad to hear that the guys will continue one of the great Twitter apps on the market.

A new cool Mac app from Matt Gemmell. I just picked it up.

The jurors have to answer 700 questions in the Apple v. Samsung case.

The website of a Moscow court that convicted three members of punk band Pussy Riot to two years in jail each for belting out a profanity-laced anti-Kremlin song inside a cathedral was hacked on Tuesday.A slogan denouncing President Vladimir Putin was posted on the site as was an appeal for the trio’s release along with a video clip of one of the band’s latest anti-Putin songs and a clip by Bulgarian singer Azis, local media reported.

Respect to Pussy Riot.

The Princess Merida’s hair was almost a three year process to get correct. Earlier hair such as for the characters in The Incredibles had much more groomed hair, but here the character’s hair simulation needed to solve how to get this messy, tempestuous and unpredictable look while still looking attractive and flowing nicely with the animation.

It’s the details.

Blake Patterson for TouchArcade:

Rantmedia Games will soon be releasing Vectrex Regeneration, a universal Vectrex emulator that comes bundled with the entire original game library — nearly 30 titles. Beyond this, a number of feature packs will be available as in-app-purchases to enable extended functionality.

The Vectrex was a video game system from the same era of home consoles that spawned the Atari 2600 and the Mattel Intellivision. It sported its own built-in monitor, which displayed vector graphics (think “Asteroids” or “Tempest”) instead of the traditional blocky color graphics that were standard for the era. It died an ignominious death in the early 1980s with a paucity of games available, but anyone who’s ever handled one will tell you how cool it was.