Oddsandends Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

iPhone 4 survives 1,000 foot fall from Air Force plane

by Dave Caolo (Mar 23rd, 2011)

Late last night, we received an email from U.S. Air Force Combat Controller Ron Walker, who wrote to tell us an incredible story about his iPhone 4 and a minor workplace mishap. Staff Sergeant Walker's duties as a jump master require him to ensure that his aircraft is in the proper location ...

BBC comedians have fun with tech talk

by Dave Caolo (Dec 21st, 2010)

Here's a bit of levity for your pre-holiday enjoyment. Comedians Harry Enfield and Ronnie Corbett elevated the play on words to a sublime level with this skit, reminiscent the famous "Fork Handles" bit. A befuddled shopper turns to his grocer for help with his Blackberry and Apple. We won't spoil ...

MacBook Air powers four screens simultaneously

by Dave Caolo (Dec 17th, 2010)

We're going to be agreeable and assume this picture of a MacBook Air powering 4 displays isn't a Photoshop job (It's Friday and we're in a good mood). From right to left, we've got: An old-school, 20" Apple Cinema Display A 7-inch Mimo 720-S USB display The MacBook Air itself An ...

Police hunt down stolen iPhone in chopper

by Kelly Hodgkins (Dec 16th, 2010)

Police in Australia take iPhone theft seriously; so seriously, they will not hesitate to employ the use of a helicopter to nab a thief who has made off with one of Apple's prized mobile devices. The story begins in a hospital in Heidelberg, Australia where an iPhone was stolen from an unsuspecting ...

iPad portrait light array for photographers

by Dave Caolo (Nov 9th, 2010)

Here's an interesting way to use 9 iPads. Photographer Jesse Rosten mounted the set on several pieces of plywood, maxed out the brightness on each and had assistants move then around while he shot his model. In fact, the iPad arrays were the only light sources for this particular shoot. Was it a ...

The first Presidential iPad autograph?

by Dave Caolo (Oct 22nd, 2010)

At a recent rally at the University of Washington in Seattle, President Obama signed a well-wisher's iPad. As far as we know, this is the first presidential autograph captured with an iPad. Sylvester Cann attended the rally with Adobe Ideas running on his iPad. He tells TechCrunch that at first ...

Found Footage: TWEET IT a video parody of Beat it

by David Winograd (Oct 21st, 2010)

We're a few days late on this one, but I thought that it was quite well done and rather clever in a Weird Al Yankovich sort of way. In this spoof of Michael Jackson's Beat It, Pantless Knights, a group that has made some pretty good musical spoofs, presents TWEET IT. In this video the hipsters, ...

Luxo iMac makes killer iPad stand

by Dave Caolo (Jun 15th, 2010)

Among the iPad's superpowers is inspiring its owners to new heights of creativity. So far it has delighted a 100-year-old user, been wrapped in chocolate and spawned all sorts of DIY cases and stands. The latest effort we've seen is this G4 iMac-mounted beauty. Flickr user Rusty saw his busted G4 ...

99 year-old loves her first computer -- an iPad

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 22nd, 2010)

Virginia Campbell, a 99-year-old woman from Lake Oswego, has finally bought her first computer -- an Apple iPad. "It's changed her life," one of her daughters told OregonLive.com. Virginia has been an avid reader most of her life, but she suffers from glaucoma, making reading increasingly ...

Today's two-second laugh: iPad printing, solved

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 15th, 2010)

Take one iPad with any application running (and a clear-as-day multitouch screen), add one multi-function printer with an optical scanner, and boom, you've solved the problem of printing from iPad. Who needs a firmware update when you've got a little ingenuity? Points to the clever folk at ...

Retro handset for the iPad is fashion-forward, techno-backward

by Dave Caolo (Apr 14th, 2010)

Here's something very high on the cool scale. The retro-cool Moshi Moshi 01 handset (MM01) can be used with mobile phones, VoIP via USB and yes, iPhones and iPads. Old-timers like me remember back when talking on the phone meant standing next to the wall, tethered (physically, not Bluetooth) to a ...

Found Footage: iPad intro video as captioned by Google

by Dave Caolo (Mar 9th, 2010)

Update: Some folks aren't seeing the captions. To ensure that you do, click the right disclosure arrow then make sure "CC" is selected. Next to "CC," select "Transcribe audio." It should be on by default, but if not, that's how to fix it. Auto-captioning, introduced last year by YouTube in a ...

Life of Steve Jobs to be a play

by Michael Grothaus (Mar 4th, 2010)

The Berkeley Repertory Theater is producing a play titled The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. The play will be a monologue monologuist piece that "dives into the epic story of a real-life Willy Wonka whose personal obsessions profoundly affect our everyday lives" The play isn't all roses ...

Found Footage: SNL parodies Steve Jobs again

by Dave Caolo (Mar 1st, 2010)

Saturday Night Live (SNL) has done a great job of satirizing Steve Jobs and Apple over the years, and the tradition continued last week. "Undercover Boss" is a TV show in the states that has big business CEOs perform their company's entry-level jobs. SNL expanded the idea to Undercover Celebrity ...

Frozen sausage as iPhone stylus

by Dave Caolo (Feb 12th, 2010)

Using an iPhone in the cold presents a quandry. You don't want to freeze your fingers, but gloves make the touchscreen difficult to use. Unless you've got Dots Gloves. Or sausages. In South Korea, CJ Corporation noticed a sharp increase in sales of their frozen sausages. Not because they're ...