Filed under: Cult of Mac

We've written about the recycled Mac clocks that pixelthis on Etsy has created before, but this one is definitely worth a mention. This particular piece combines an old iBook G4 with an Apple mouse to create a time piece that's complete with a working pendulum. Current pieces include a clock made from a recycled iMac G4 motherboard.

Looking for other handcrafted Apple goods for your sweetheart this Valentine's Day? How about a cap honoring Apple of a bygone era? Or an Alfred Hitchock decal for your MacBook? Or if you want a custom-made laptop case, here's one made out of denim. If you need a new lamp for your desk, try one made from an old G4 iMac. If your special someone really desires jewelry, you can always get some Apple cufflinks or earrings.

[Via The Daily What]

This video of Woz talking about the "revolutionary" idea of putting color into computers is amazing. It sounds like an LSD trip -- he says he was awake for four days in a row, plunged into some sort of television screenglow madness, and somehow emerged from this zeroes-and-ones induced frenzy with a cheap way to create color screens (which we presume eventually found its way in the Apple II).

This is why Woz is really the preeminent geek for our times -- he's done some brilliant things with computers, really helped revolutionize the industry, and invented from scratch some of the most amazing things in this already amazing age, and when asked how he did it, he doesn't credit his own intellect or any personal insight. He says he stayed up for four days, and "sometimes, you're not sure if it's going to work because it didn't follow all of the methodology, all of the science that's in the books... but in this case it did." That is quintessential Woz -- way before marketing types put together the "Think Different" slogan, this guy was living it.

[via Cult of Mac]

Unfortunately these guys are already sold out (though maybe there'll be more soon), but I'm still posting them here just to gaze on their awesomeness -- Etsy user Rabbitrampage put together these six iPhone icon keychains (well, five iPhone and one Finder) out of felt, thread, and fiber fill. I think they look great, though it would be nice to have even more custom icons available. I guess if you want a special icon keychain made of your own app (ahem), you'll have to make it yourself.

This same Etsy user also enjoys wrapping your iPhone in felt recreations of old retro items like Game Boys and even a VHS tape. I've already got a case on my iPhone, but if I didn't have one yet, I'd definitely pick up one of these.

[via iPhone Savior]

In my post yesterday I touched on the likely long faces at Amazon H.Q. in Seattle. The iPad is something I'm sure they wished hadn't happened, but of course it did, and I thought I'd take a closer look at the competition between the Amazon and Apple devices.

First off, if you were thinking of buying a Kindle DX, I'd say forget it. The iPad is a knockout punch to that device. At just ten dollars cheaper than the low end iPad, there just is no contest. The two devices are the same size (both are 9.7"), but the iPad has a color screen and can do a lot of things that Kindle just can't do.

Yes, the DX has free 3G wireless for buying books, but the iPad has 802.11n, and for most common usage, it just isn't that hard to find a place to hook up. Book prices may be a bit higher on the iPad, but they will be in color and multimedia with the promise of moving video, color charts and pictures, and so on. I also consider the on-screen keyboard an advantage for the iPad -- the keyboard on the Kindle is basically a waste of space.

As a travel companion, all you can do on the DX is read, although there is a rudimentary browser, and more functionality coming. Subscriptions are another Kindle selling point, but it's not a stretch to believe that Apple has something like that coming as well. Comparing the iPad to the Kindle DX, I just don't think there is any contest, and Amazon is going to be forced to think about how they are pricing and marketing the Kindle DX.

One of my all-time favorite movies is Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. At several points during the film, we see ill-fated astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole using a flat, iPad-like device. In one of the posters for the movie, astronauts at a base on the Moon are seen using this device (see image at right).

Those who read Arthur C. Clarke's novelization of the movie will remember that he described this device as the "Newspad," something that was used by people of the future (as envisioned in 1968) to watch TV and read newspapers. You can read the full description of the device after the break -- it's described as a newsreader, with two-digit codes for each article online, and a constant stream of information from the hourly updates on "electronic papers."

Of course, we don't have two-digit references to articles; we simply need to tap on them to bring them up. We do need to know the "codes" for the world's major electronic papers; we refer to them as URLs or specific apps. But like many things Clarke foresaw in his lifetime of writing science fiction, the Newspad has finally become reality in the form of Apple's iPad.

I think Arthur would be proud.

All in all, the iPad turned in a pretty exciting product debut. I don't think Apple will have any trouble selling these things, and it can't be a very good day in Amazon, Sony or Barnes and Noble's executive suites.

While all the final info is not out yet, there were a few major omissions from the iPad hardware. Here's the highly desireable stuff that came out missing :

• No camera, which means no video conferencing. No quick shots for blog posting. No videos.
• No Verizon. The AT&T pricing looks good, but is it really unlimited or is there a 5GB ceiling? Many users are pretty desperate to get away from AT&T, so it was surprising Apple went for another partnership with them.
• No notifications. Not a word was said about them. They might be in there, since the iPad clearly runs iPhone apps (and what iPhone app doesn't notify you these days?) but nothing was demoed.
• Enhanced multitouch. As far as we can tell, it works the same as the iPhone -- no dynamic tactile interface, no pressure sensitive screen, nothing special that we know about yet.
• No TV content. Of course there's the iTunes deals, but Apple has apparently been scrambling around to make so DVR deals as well. So far, nothing.
• No multitasking. Perhaps the biggest disappointment: no streaming media apps while punching out a document in Pages. No MLB video running in a corner while you read your mail, or pulling up a PDF while chatting with a friend.

I think the iPad will be a superior device, and will sell like the proverbial hotcakes. Apple will certainly extend and enhance the iPad over time, but it would have been great to see some of these things in the initial release.

Anything else we missed that they missed?

Earlier this month we took you down memory lane for a 1987 video that Apple produced about a futuristic product called the Knowledge Navigator.

It was a super smart, full featured tablet with internet connectivity, video conferencing, datebook and browser. It also contained a nifty personable digital assistant.

Ten years later, Apple was still selling the idea of an enhanced tablet. One of our readers sent us this YouTube video of a concept that Apple sent around to educators. It had a lot of the same great technology, like video conferencing and browsing, but the video shows a variety of form factors, including a desktop unit, a tablet, and a small hand held device.

It's pretty clear Apple has done a lot of thinking about what a tablet should do. Who knows if any of these concepts will get into tomorrow's announcement, but the technology is pretty much here to make the dreams into some kind of software/hardware reality.

Will an Apple tablet change the world? Stay tuned.

Thanks to Fred for the Apple nostalgia!

New York Times columnist John Markoff recently interviewed Beat-era poet Gary Snyder, who usually writes about the American wilderness. Markoff found that the 79 year-old Snyder, who confesses to writing his poetry on "whatever was at hand," is an avid and devoted Mac user.

According to Markoff, Snyder wasn't aware of the upcoming announcement of an Apple book replacement, as he lives in the California back country and apparently doesn't have the interruption of broadband noise to bother him. Snyder rarely uses a mobile phone and is quoted by Markoff as considering texting "abhorrent." But he waxes poetic when he uses his Mac.

Snyder noted about his Mac, "I like the storage space it has," he said, "and I like the ability to have back files accessible to me wherever I go." Those weren't the only words he had to say about the Mac. In a short, previously unpublished poem titled "Why I Take Good Care of My Macintosh," the "poet laureate of Deep Ecology" describes why he says that personal computers feel like sentient beings.

Fans of poetry and Macs can read the poem by visiting the title link in the previous paragraph. It's crazy, daddy-o!

With the Apple tablet announcement growing closer by the day, we at TUAW have been putting on our thinking caps trying to brainstorm out exactly what the new device might be called. Of course, since we don't have a clue to base our guesses on (aside from the thin support of domain name registrations), we decided to turn over the decision and brainstorming process to you, the TUAW reader. What do you think the new device will be called? Place your vote in the following poll, and add your guesses to the comments. Let your imagination free -- but do remember we're a family friendly site.

Speaking of thin support & quite amusing -- It's not much to go on with respect to a name, but as suggested by reader Nicholas, we did take a closer look at Apple's invitation copy. "Apple's latest creation," without the spaces, becomes "Appleslatestcreation," which of course does contain the phrase "Apple Slate." Yes, well, it seems pretty silly and inelegant to me too, and not something Apple would do... and yet. [Editor's note: OK, we went and looked again -- the exact phrase "Apple's latest creation" isn't there, it says "our latest creation," so this bit of pipe-dreaming goes from silly to ludicrous... don't blame Erica, blame the editing.]

It seems like only hours ago, on the Talkcast, that we were discussing the notable absence of any invitations to Apple's rumored end-of-January event. Where were they? Was all this hype nothing but a smokescreen? When would the word be given, flights booked, liveblogs scheduled and iPhones charged? What were we waiting for?

This, apparently. Engadget and The Loop are both reporting that they have their emailed invitations in hand for the January 27 introduction of... well, Apple's "latest creation." The invite has a spraypainted look, a time of 10 am Pacific and a place of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts -- and not much else.

Who's ready for something insanely great?

Note: As several folks have pointed out, there's another major public event on 1/27, in Washington. Reader Nicholas Lohr offered the bon mot that while the President will be delivering the State of the Union in the evening, Steve Jobs will be giving us the Slate of the Union in the morning. Ha!

My Painting Has Crashed from James Théophane Jnr on Vimeo.

James Théopane was asked to create a piece of artwork for his employer. He fused an old painting, a motor built from a kit, and new art done on canvas to create a fantastic interactive piece that pays tribute to the spinning pizza of death / rainbow pinwheel cursor / Marble of Doom. Read about how Theopane developed this work on his Posterous site.

[Via Neatorama]

We're dreaming of a TUAW tablet
Just like the Newton we used to own...
Where the touch pad glistens,
And the sensors listen
To hear accelerometer events, and so...

We're dreaming of a TUAW tablet
With every blog post that we write,
May your devices be merry and bright...
And may your tablet be beautiful and light

Thanks to reader Juan Secin, who imagined and designed this conceptual mock-up

When we received the tip for this little video, I wasn't inclined to post about it. Watching it changed my mind. It's sweetly done and brought a smile to my face. Yes, it's a silly joke about an Apple-style device guaranteed to be more useless than the (possibly mythical) tablet but it's a little gem. Andrew, the guy who put it together did a fabulous job. So take a few seconds, kick back, watch, and enjoy.

Engadget's Josh Topolsky got to chat with none other than Woz recently, and they've finally shared a great video of their meeting. Woz says a lot of interesting things in the video (he runs six navigation systems at a time in his car just for comparison's sake, and carries two iPhones nowadays, just in case the battery life runs out), but the most intriguing thing about this video is just seeing the great Wozniak thinking machine race along at the speed of Woz.

For example, those two iPhones he carries are the two different colors available. Why? "White and black, black and white. Resistor color codes: zero and nine. Those are the digits they end in!" Gosh, we love Steve Wozniak. You can watch the whole video after clicking the link below.