America's favorite ex-con (that's Martha Stewart, not her dog Sharkey, as seen above) just loves her new MacBook Air, according to her blog. Like most MBA owners, she's "amazed" by how thin it is, and is thrilled that the trackpad "works much the same way as the Apple iPhone" -- in fact, her whole writeup reads exactly like an ad from Apple, complete with the link to the Apple Store at the end. Who knew Martha was such a Mac-head?
Although she does settle that debate about whether the book counts as a laptop or a laptop support unit: Martha still keeps her HP right next to the Air, not only because she likes to keep up with both platforms, but apparently because when aides come by her desk to work, she wants them to have choices. And we all know what choice is: a good thing.
So, say you're watching Pirates of the Caribbean. Mmmm... Did somebody say, "Calamari?"
Before there was the iPhone, there was iHome. And strangely enough, it worked pretty much the same-- just a little slower, and you could only do it from home, and you had to decide who was going to get the phone book out and look it up. My only question is what exactly he's doing at the beginning. Is he pretending to drive the ship?
As he even points out, this isn't the first time this has been done, but Quag7 has written up a very detailed, simple, and often hilarious (I feel the same way about Michael Bay!) guide for converting that old Apple ][e you've got sitting around into a Linux serial terminal. In this case, he runs a serial connection between a modern (everything is relative here) Gentoo distro and the ][e using ADTPro as a go-between. Hook up ADTPro on both, get the serial hooked up and running on both, install a term program on the ][e and then make sure everything can talk to each other (at 9600 baud-- remember baud? Oh those were the days), and voila, you've got an Apple ][e that can run a Linux distro. Why would you want to do this? No idea.
But why else do we do this kind of crazy stuff (like hook an Apple ][e up to a game machine, or even an actual Mac)? We do this, my friends, because we can.
Those ZoomSystems iPod vending machines that we once gently mocked are both more successful and more ubiquitous than we thought they'd be. Still, it seems they aren't flawless. Reader & iPod shopper Kristopher decided to give one of the machines at his local mall a try; unfortunately, as soon as he started using the touchscreen, a familiar error screen appeared, and then... well, you can see what's underneath the pretty surface.
Sure, lots of retail kiosk applications use XP, but c'mon -- for an iPod sales system, shouldn't Mac OS X be the firstchoice?
[That's a joke, in case our visitors from Digg are confused. While there are plenty of Point Of Sale systems for the Mac, I don't actually know of one that's intended for vending-machine deployment, and even a Mac Mini is a bit high-end for the build cost of vending machines. That aside, it's probably not the best call to go with XP for a vend setup either...]
If you happen to find a Belkin TuneTalk Stereo under the menorah this week or under the tree next week, you might be a bit surprised when you open it, as I was -- for a moment I thought the Belkin-elves had mistakenly slipped a test iPod into the packaging, or possibly that my wife had connected hers to the TuneTalk while I wasn't looking.
After the moment of mystery cleared, I was mildly impressed with the quality of the cardboard "FauxPod" that Belkin put in the package; presumably this is to let you know exactly where you can stick your TuneTalk. It's still a waste of space and paper, but at least it's an attractive one.
[Not to keep you guessing: the real iPod is on the left, turned off.]
Amazon must be testing some new accessory recommendation algorithms, as they have really branched out on this one: Reg Hardware in the UK has a story about Amazon UK's engine recommending Marmite, a popular sandwich-topping yeast extract in England, with a .Mac subscription. While I don't recommend spreading any Marmite on your .Mac anytime soon, I can see a connection between these two (im)perfect strangers via a former Marmite ad campaign slogan: "you'll love it or hate it." Nutrition facts aside, that seems to describe .Mac in a nutshell these days.
No word on how soon this dynamic combo is shipping, nor how long this offer will last; "act now!"
I was waiting for someone to add Linux into the mix, and TrueNuff TV did a pretty good job with a series of Mac Spoofs. Parodying (of course) the latest series of love-em-or-(mostly)-hate-em ads, TrueNuff has produced 6 spoofs that poke fun at the Mac, though Linux, admittedly, takes quite a beating as well (but c'mon - it's Linux!). The spoofs are featured at TrueNuff TV's site and also on YouTube. Enjoy.
Hooray for music television stations that do anything but these days: VH1's 'Best Week Ever' has spoofed the new Mac ads, and we have to say: they're pretty darn funny. They might not be safe for work (mild language), but they did a good job of capturing the somewhat pretentious and put-off attitude of 'the Mac'. Enjoy.
ChatFX can bring some fun to your iChat video conferences by adding quirky video effects; basically it's like Apple's Photo Booth for iChat. Using the power of Quartz Composer (built into Mac OS X 10.4), ChatFX can apply eight different effects to your video conference in real time, including a green-screen effect for that perfect "sure, I'm still at school/the office" cover story. Using the green screen, you can even place a movie in the background - the sky's the limit with that feature.
While
chatting with my brother this afternoon about (what else) this whole Boot
Camp thing and its ramifications, he brought up a great point concerning Apple's marketing and a good
choice they made with this new software:
They didn't call it "iBoot."
Bonus points
for not calling it "iBooty" either. Thanks guys.
As he even points out, this isn't the first time this has been done, but Quag7 has written up a very detailed, simple, and often hilarious (I feel the same way about Michael Bay!) guide for converting that old Apple ][e you've got sitting around into a Linux serial terminal. In this case, he runs a serial connection between a modern (everything is relative here) Gentoo distro and the ][e using ADTPro as a go-between. Hook up ADTPro on both, get the serial hooked up and running on both, install a term program on the ][e and then make sure everything can talk to each other (at 9600 baud-- remember baud? Oh those were the days), and voila, you've got an Apple ][e that can run a Linux distro. Why would you want to do this? No idea.
If you happen to find a Belkin TuneTalk Stereo under the menorah this week or under the tree next week, you might be a bit surprised when you open it, as I was -- for a moment I thought the Belkin-elves had mistakenly slipped a test iPod into the packaging, or possibly that my wife had connected hers to the TuneTalk while I wasn't looking.
Overall, Apple tech support is top notch. Most of the techs I have spoken to have known their stuff, and are generally pleasant. Could it be that they are too pleasant? That's the impression that I get from reading this blog post entitled 'What would happen if the irrepressibly positive Apple repair technician I talked to this week about my broken iPod were to get a new job at a suicide hotline.'
ChatFX can bring some fun to your iChat video conferences by adding quirky video effects; basically it's like Apple's Photo Booth for iChat. Using the power of Quartz Composer (built into Mac OS X 10.4), ChatFX can apply eight different effects to your video conference in real time, including a green-screen effect for that perfect "sure, I'm still at school/the office" cover story. Using the green screen, you can even place a movie in the background - the sky's the limit with that feature.
While
chatting with my brother this afternoon about (what else) this whole Boot
Camp thing and its ramifications, he brought up a great point concerning Apple's marketing and a good
choice they made with this new software:
