mystery posts

Filed under: Odds and ends, Apple History

Mystery Apple box

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Jul 14th, 2008

TUAW reader Gabriel Moore runs an Apple Certified Sales and Service store called Computer Evolution in Davenport, IA. He sent us a short note and link to a MobileMe Web Gallery with several pictures of a strange, Apple-labeled wooden box (picture above).

Gabriel writes "One of our customers noticed that we have a small collection of Old Macs in my service department and thought That he would give me something to add to the collection... Problem is I have no idea what it is or why it has the Apple name. Is this an after market fan boy box or a real product from Apple Computer? Any help from the readers or you would be awesome."

It looks like the 1980's Apple logotype, but I don't remember seeing a box like this anywhere. It's small enough that it could only contain something like an Apple IIc. Do any of you wonderful TUAW readers know what this box was used for? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Thanks to Gabriel for today's stumper!

Tags: apple history, AppleHistory, mystery, photos

Filed under: Audio, Odds and ends, iTunes

iTunes and Gracenote help expose classical plagiarism

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Feb 19th, 2007

She was among the most mysterious figures in classical music: Joyce Hatto, a renowned pianist who retired from active performance in 1976 due to ill health. With the help of her husband and his private recording studio, however, Hatto released scores of recordings in the 1990s, performing the complete solo piano works of many composers including Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Liszt. Some suspected that Hatto might not have produced all her stunning performances herself, but prior to her 2006 death there was no sure confirmation.

It was one of Hatto's recordings of Liszt that Gramophone magazine writer Jed Distler popped into his computer in early February, and iTunes loyally searched the Gracenote database for a match. Found one, too -- but not to a Hatto CD; the disc matched another Liszt recording by pianist László Simon. When Distler pulled that CD from his collection and played it alongside the Hatto disc, they sounded precisely the same.

The ensuing cascade of suspicion, comparison, testing and confirmation is documented thoroughly in the Gramophone and Stereophile articles (and explicated further in the Pristine Audio and CHARM analysis pages), but the summary version: most if not all of Hatto's late recordings are apparently copied from other artists, some modified to hide the theft, some just duplicated as-is. If not for the surprise iTunes ID, this might have gone undetected for much longer. I've often seen iTunes and Gracenote make wildly inaccurate guesses when confronted with rare or custom CDs, but in this case I suppose that wild guess was forensically sound.

Thanks Jonathan!

[via Stereophile]

Tags: gracenote, itunes, mystery

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends

Another Hubert?

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Dec 10th, 2006

Sharp-eyed TUAW reader GPessia spotted a curious puzzle piece on the Midnight Apps ChaChing page. The icon links to a PDF file, which contains the puzzle piece shown here.

The name of the PDF file is %72%65%61%6C%6D%61%63%73%6F%66%74%77%61%72%65.pdf, which translates to realmacsoftware in Hex Ascii. I popped over to http://www.realmacsoftware.com, the makers of RapidWeaver, but did not find another puzzle piece.

Are we dealing with another Hubert situation? What's the deal with the puzzle? Let us know in the comments if you have any insights.

False alarm TUAWers. It looks like this was part of a recent MacHeist puzzle. Thanks to Lucas Cantor for the clarification.

Tags: mystery, puzzle

Filed under: Software

StoryZOT

by Dan Lurie (RSS feed) on Sep 1st, 2006

MacZOT is back with more ambiguity in the form of a special edition triple-Xtreme MysteryZOT they're calling StoryZOT. Three mustery developers talk about their pasts, how they came to write software, and their philosophies on various issues. One application out of each of the developer's software offerings will be included in the StoryZOT bundle, valued at around 70 bucks, but selling for only $6. Until now, no one, not even the over 1000 people who have already shelled out the cash for the package, knew what they were getting.

I however, using my stealth, cunning, and l33t hax0r skillz, have been able to pry from an inside source the fact that one of the apps in the bundle will be KIT from Reinvented Software.

Tags: deals, kit, maczot, mystery, storyzot

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