glass posts

iPhone vs. gravity is no contest

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Apr 9th, 2008

Apple's MagSafe power cords have probably saved thousands of laptops from untimely impacts -- too bad there's no such insurance policy for the iPhone. Brett Peters' phone had an unfortunate encounter with his young son and moments later, with the floor, and the result is as you see above. While the screen glass is shattered, Brett was able to lay a piece of clear packing tape on top of the phone and keep all the shards in place. You can see all the photos on Brett's blog and here on Flickr.

Believe it or not, the phone is still functional; more surprisingly, except for the most seriously damaged spots, the touchscreen still works. Brett is considering a screen replacement via this procedure, but in the meantime I'm sure he's having a heart-to-heart with his son about the facts of physics. 9.8m/s^2 -- it's not just a good idea, it's the law.

[via Twitter]

Tags: damage, glass, gravity, iphone, shattered

Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, iMac, Apple, iPhone

Three stories of Mac woe

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 20th, 2007

Maybe there was something about this weekend, but we received not one but three stories of busted Mac stuff in the past few days. Warning, these pictures are pretty graphic, if you consider seeing computers worth thousands of dollars in disrepair graphic.

First up, we have Katie W's iPhone vs. Recliner story: She was apparently sitting in her recliner at home watching a movie, and after the movie, couldn't get the footrest to fold back in correctly. After a lot of pushing (and a few sickening crunches and grinds), she got it fixed, but then figured out why it wouldn't close: her iPhone was sitting right on the metal mechanism. And it still worked! Even more unbelievable: apparently Apple hooked her back up with another 8GB iPhone for free.

Then there's Nicholas' story-- he works in an Apple store, and says they had a new iMac sitting in the sun for days. He says the glass was superheated, and you can see from the pictures that the screen's color got thrown way off. But he says after putting the iMac away and powered off for about 3 hours, it was back to normal.

And finally, Shawn M sent us this forum thread, which is "what happens when you run over a MacBook Pro." Yeah, pretty gruesome. Again, apparently the flatted MBP worked just fine-- only the screen and the SuperDrive had issues. The guy was, however, able to hook it up to a monitor and keyboard and had no problems. Apple didn't treat him so well, however-- they told him it wouldn't be covered and it would cost $900 to fix.

Pictures of all the carnage in the gallery below. Take care of your Macs, or this too could happen to you!

Gallery: Apple Product Devastation

Tags: crunch, glass, imac, iphone, macbookpro, overheat, ruined, runover

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, iMac, Apple

iMac design vs. Audi

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 11th, 2007

We've already seen the iPhone's influence on the new iMac, but the Audi? A British ConceptCar site claims the aluminum and glass casing of the new iMac reminded them of another chrome, aluminum and glass design-- that of an Audi. As you can see in the picture above, the comparison kind of works. Kind of. I especially like the coloring on the windshield.

I really doubt the iMac's design was directly inspired by the car-- I don't see Apple designers sitting around a table while one of them looks out the window and is suddenly inspired by something he sees driving past. Rather, my guess is, as ConceptCar says, that they're both headed towards the same things: form mixed with function, and grace mixed with power.

But then again, who knows what inspired Apple to make that logo black? The iMac certainly costs about as much as my first car did.

Thanks, Christian!

Tags: audi, black, conceptcar, design, glass, imac, inspiration, metal, windshield

Filed under: Hardware, Retail, Other Events, iMac

Apple announces new iMacs with aluminum enclosure, glass displays

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Aug 7th, 2007

Well the rumors that date all the way back to May were true - today Apple announced a redesigned, cheaper iMac and the loss of the 17-inch model. Let us all take a moment of silence for our fallen comrade.

Now that that's over, let's get to the good stuff. The new iMac tosses aside the old 'n busted plastic and LCD design for two of Apple's increasingly favorite materials: aluminum and glass (Exhibit A: the iPhone). Steve says customers absolutely love the glass and glossy displays, so the new iMac now continues the trend. With the loss of the 17-inch, however, the lineup has been slimmed down to two primary model sizes: a 20-inch now starting at $1199, and a 24-inch at $1799. For their respective sizes, this is a price drop of $200 across the board, but this now means that the barrier to entry for the iMac lineup has actually risen by $200.

The new models, their features and prices are as follows:

20-inch introductory iMac: 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 250 GB SATA Hard Drive, 8x SuperDrive, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT video card - $1199
20-inch mid-level iMac: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 320 GB SATA Hard Drive, 8x SuperDrive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro video card - $1499
24-inch top line iMac: 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 320 GB SATA Hard Drive, 8x SuperDrive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro video card - $1799

[Update: Wow, now that I can finally get into the store (barely), I can confirm commenters are right: there is a 4th iMac at the top of the line offering a 24-inch display, 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM and a 500GB SATA Hard Drive for $2299.]

All new iMacs feature that fancy, 0.33-inch keyboard that was leaked not long ago, and all models are available and shipping immediately. Ladies and gentlemen, you may now let the credit cards fly!

Tags: aluminum, glass, glossy, iMac

Filed under: iPhone

Apple announces iPhone now delivers up to 8 hours of talk time, new glass display

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jun 18th, 2007

Talk about last minute upgrades: In a press release today, Apple has revealed a number of significant upgrades to both the iPhone's battery life and touch screen. Instead of what I believe was around 5 hours of video/talk and 16 hours of audio playback, Apple has updated the iPhone's battery life rating to the following numbers: up to 8 hours talk time, a whopping 250 hours of standby (over 10 days), 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback. Of course, just like any other mobile phone, these numbers can vary depending on various factors like intermittent use and network configuration (whether features like Wi-Fi or the speakerphone are enabled, etc.).

In addition, Apple has changed the spec of the original 3.5" plastic surface of the iPhone to "optical-quality" glass, which should bring some smiles to those who were concerned about the durability of the phone's primary feature and user interface.

This is quite the update to drop on anxious customers less than two weeks from launch. I can only wonder what other tricks and unknown or upgraded features (PUSH email? HSPDA instead of EDGE?) Apple could be waiting to announce.

Update: Interestingly, this latest press release also mentions the iPhone's pricing - again at $499 and $599 for 4GB and 8GB, respectively - but makes no mention of contracts being involved with those prices. Since Apple dropped the "2-year activation required" language from their ads after originally airing them, this might offer more hope to those who aren't able to renew a contract just yet to get the discounts.

Update 2: Commenter Greg points out that Apple's competitive chart shows the Nokia N95 as a no-WiFi device, when it actually does do WiFi. We hope this error will be corrected in short order.

Tags: battery, glass, iphone, life, plastic, surface, talk time, TalkTime

Filed under: Software, Productivity

Magnify what you're working on with iPiece

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jul 20th, 2006

For those times when the 6pt type in EULA's just doesn't quite cut it and you literally consider the possibility that your lost car keys could be lying around somewhere on your Desktop, there is iPiece - a magnifying glass for Mac OS X. Double-clicking its icon in the menubar (is that in the HIG's?) opens a magnifying window next to your mouse (fortunately: not right on top of it) and follows it like a hyperactive kitten. Its product page lists uses ranging from adding some legibility to small lists of text on websites to having an extra magnifying trick up your sleeve when editing images. Some of you may prefer Mac OS X's built-in magnifying features, accessible from the Universal Access pane in System Preferences (especially since this feature has keyboard shortcuts; hint-hint, iPiece), so we'll let you decide whether iPiece earns a spot in that menubar.

iPiece is a Universal Binary, costs $10 for a license and is available from Old Jewel Software.

Tags: glass, glasses, ipiece, magnify, magnifying, menubar, utility

Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, iPod Family, Retail, Macbook Pro

Incase releases exclusive New York commemorative case line

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 22nd, 2006

iLounge is reporting that Incase has pulled out all their case-making stops and introduced a complete lineup of cases for Apple products that commemorate New York and some of its major landmarks. To top things off, these cases are exclusive to the new 24/7 5th Avenue Apple Store that opened last weekend.

The lineup consists of white and black cases for the 5G iPod, iPod nano and MacBook Pro. No word yet on whether Incase has been chosen to create the leather case for the giant glass cube that Dave mentioned yesterday.

[image via iLounge]

Tags: Apple Store, AppleStore, case, cases, commemorative, cube, exclusive, glass, Incase, iPod, iPod nano, IpodNano, MacBook Pro, MacbookPro, New York, NewYork

Filed under: Retail, Apple

Apple store pr0n: a peek at the 5-story Manhattan glass cube

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 8th, 2006

At least one Flickr user, bhaggs, has posted some images that offer a peek at Apple's new commercial monument to itself - the much-anticipated 5-story, all glass, Fifth Avenue Apple Store in Manhattan. As Dave Caolo noted before, construction is still slated to finish in time for the holiday season, so I only have one question: when is Denver going to get their own glass cube, Apple? C'mon, we have like... 1/100th of NY's population!

[via digg]

Tags: Apple, cube, Fifth Avenue, FifthAvenue, glass, Manhattan, New York, NewYork, NY, Store

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