Screen Grabs: '24' offers up OQO, Mac mini BOGO special
By Laura June 
posted March 11th 2009 3:04PM
posted March 11th 2009 3:04PM
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.
We'll be honest: we haven't seen 24 for many a season now, but, thanks to a few sweet tips, we decided to take a look at a recent episode, and bam! Right after a nefarious-looking doctor suffocates an elderly gentlemen in his hospital bed, the evil chap shoots over to the nurses' station on the down low to download some hyper-rad schematics from the terminal. So... he whips out his OQO (not the device's first appearance on Screen Grabs), plugs 'er into the nearby Mac mini (ditto) and goes about his suspicious, suspicious business. Dude, we gotta get to this magical hospital, where technology rules and the "doctors" are plotting stuff. Jack into some more evidence after the break.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
why is he looking to his right? The screen is right in front of him.
umm he just killed a guy and is trying to take down Jack Bower by framing him for another murder he is about to commit... I might check my back if I were him...
Watch the episode and you would know... he is uploading the floor plans of the hospital and the location of all the patients from that Mac Mini onto his handheld. And he just killed a man in a room to distract the doctors while he steals that information... so he is obviously checking over his shoulder (or just was checking) to see if anybody is coming!
hot nurse at the station maybe?
I always loved how every cellphone/pda worked everytime, got a singal and received loads of data instantly in every bunker, wooded area and helicopter on 24. I'm always dropping calls how the hell can this guy get a clear call in the luggage area while flying in a 747...?
It's tv I know... :)
Great show BTW I just netflixed every season from 2-present and pretty much watched them all back to back. I don't know how people did it waiting week to week.
Old guy probably deserved it. Also why couldn't he of just used the mouse and keyboard... germaphobic bad guys.
It's obvious. If he used the keyboard and the mouse they wouldn't get to show the OQO product placement. Not to mention that the keyboard is actually from a Dell that his hands conveniently cover over its logo. That would show that the mini is only for display.
Just saying
And the display is a ViewSonic... so? (Impossible to miss such LCD stands)
Because everybody knows you can't use a non-Apple keyboard and monitor with a Mac. :P
I would love to live near a hospital that was so well funded that it could afford to waste money on extravagances like this
Not to mention keeping unsecured "real time" hospital plans on nurses workstations.:)
Notice how the bad guy is using Apple...? Anyone... Anyone...? Just saying...
The bad guy is not using apple, the hospital is. OH wait! You meant the hospital is the bad guy. I wouldn't doubt it.
Yeah... Doctors are pretty shady... Always taking your money... And telling you that you have cancer... http://www.theonion.com/content/video/courageous_man_refuses_to_believe
Maybe he's an Evil Genius?
Maybe I am Steve... Maybe I am.
This is news?
This is a comment?
This is...Sparta?
This is... Spinal Tap?
"We'll be honest: we haven't seen 24 for many a season now" Shame, this season is really good.
+1
Last season was really lame, too emotional for my liking.
Agreed, I've been enthralled much of this season.
This season is violent. People are dying all over the place and getting tortured...AWESOME!
funny, i've watched every season so far and all of 7 so far as well but i've just begun to realize how low budget, horribly scored, and horribly acted it was. not to mention (although i love the character of jack) how "blah" he is. he's the exact same every episode of every season.
Well, considering that each episode is supposed to be a real-time hour (unless they've loosened up on that gimmick), you can't expect Jack to change a lot in the course of a day. :D
Is that a new Mac Mini? Sure looks like it has a lot of USB ports. When did they film this episode?
I don't think it is a new one... especially considering that is looks like a DVI connector plugging directly into the box ;)
yes it is the new mac mini, i did some 1280x720 screenshots in the thread about screengrabs from the show life about 2days ago, you'll clearly see its the new mac mini then.
blatent product placement as this would have been filmed months ago, it didnt accidentally happened to be in the shot, apple would have given Fox some $$$ for it.
It's not the new one. I have an HD recording and if you look at it zoomed in it as a Firewire 400 port and the display is plugged in directly( not mini displayport.
Actually I've heard* that Apple never pays for product placement. Producers like it because of the 'cool' factor.
*[citation needed]
He's not a doctor.
He's a secret agent sent in by a corrupt government official to kill the one man who has information about the terrorist plots... and it just so happened this man was in a heavily-guarded hospital room.
So the man downloaded the schematics from a handy nurse station after distracting the nurses by killing a lonely old man, disabled the surveillance, climbed in through the ceiling, disabled Jack Bauer (the only other person in the room) with a short-acting nerve agent, killed the man, framed jack, and left without ever being detected.
Duh.
Quite simple really.
Dude! Spoiler!!!!!!!! ;-)
here are the screenshots i sent in:
http://i44.tinypic.com/281adq9.png
http://i44.tinypic.com/8wgrw7.png
As I said in you pervious comment Look at the port arrangement, it is the OLD model. You proved yourself wrong.
i'm not sure about in those shots, but you can clearly see (if you watch the episode and pause at the right moment) that there are in fact 5 usb ports.
what's up, where's my credit? I pointed this shit out.
Their is a whole thing about Macs and Pcs on 24. Usually the good guys use Pcs.
24 has been doing product placement with Sprint and Nextel for years. There was a nextel i870 on last episode
actually, they when ctu was around, all the govt used dell, if I remember correctly...now that ctu has gone rogue, they've been using macs like crazy. As far as cell phones go, though, jack will never have an iphone because he only steals sprint phones.
in season 1, the CTU was almost entirely macs. at least there were cinema displays and powermacs at every desk. the macs slowly faded away in CTU through the next few seasons until this one. last november-december i rewatched all the seasons and noticed the trend.
Even stranger that he was able to use his "windows" OQO device to terminal serv. into a "mac" mini to capture screen shots with minimal configuration.
How is bootcamp strange?
"Jack into some more evidence after the break."
Oh, Engadget. I see what you did there.
Cisco are also well supported by the chaps at 24. Their TelePresence system was used in various seasons and also the 2 hour special. Plus their IP phones used to be used in CTU. They must have paid Fox a decent sum!
not to mention the overwhelming Apple usage starting in season 5. CTU was ALL macs starting then.
the OQO is also used in I think it was Chuck aweek or so ago
Im completely excited about getting my new mac mini, ive got a little 7"touchscreen which i am going to have as a clone display, so i can have that in my hands and use it as a human interface without the arm strain.
New Mac Mini...old Mac Mini...who cares? Here's what I really want to know: Why in the WORLD does the computer at the nurse's station have detailed schematics of the building in the first place?!?? It's pretty ridiculous!
Dead on my friend!