Recent Comments:
Apple rejects Unity games on the App Store {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Nov 15th 2009 7:21PM the real question is why APPLE needs this API for THEIR applications? If it's so important to privacy, why isn't it locked out better in the first place.. or do only "friendly" companies get to use it?
Fortune names Jobs "CEO of the Decade" {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Nov 6th 2009 8:16PM it's crowd-sourced editing!
Samsung slims down NAND memory packaging, wafer-thin gadgets to follow {Engadget}
Nov 6th 2009 12:05PM It's ALREADY sold to Apple... Apple paid Samsung 500 Million last fall (see Steve's "cash is king" comments) to pre-order chips. That gets them first place in line for new toys like this.
Developers report a moment of upside-down app rankings, now returning to normal {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Nov 4th 2009 10:29PM Somebody was using the Bozo sort to make those top spots more visible.
If the top spot is really that important, then Apple should put any 10 random apps on the same page as the top ten by downloads... if being in a certain spot is so important (and iPhone app buyers so gullible), everybody should get a shot!
NVIDIA confirms Intel chipsets won't support USB 3.0 until 2011 {Engadget}
Nov 4th 2009 1:34PM It's less evil than that. Intel has a monopoly (from patents) on chipsets for intel processors starting with the i5/7 (maybe sooner I stopped caring and bought a mac) and the next atom.. this is why Nvidia is taking yet another jab at them while OEMS sit silently and take it. Even though Apple uses Nvidia NOW, they're playing with Intel to jump to light peak about the same time Intel cuts off Nvidia from making laptop chipsets... how polite!
What's Intel's rush for USB3? Most of the PC market CAN'T buy their chipsets anyplace else. Why release it now, when they can make everybody buy new in 2 years to get the feature?
What makes it doubly bad for anybody else is that in 2011 when Intel finally does release a chipset with USB3, whatever bugs or tweaks their product has will instantly become "de facto" standard everybody releasing products/chipsets NOW will have the "astroturf tech media" calling existing products "broken" the day blessed Intel's hits. This is just like Microsoft shut down the performance for 64bit processors when AMD was 3 years ahead on the desktop.... until Intel started shipping 64bits now 32 & 64 is in the same box.
Nvidia's got to be sore.. they priced themselves out of AMD buying them and now nobody with the cash can touch them due to anti-trust concerns. (AMD/ATI can't, VIA doesn't have the cash, and Intel can't buy them [AT] and can just let them die off) Nvidia made the day for everybody else... their video cards keep pros and gamers buying expensive Intel processors for the last 10 years, their graphic chips help Microsoft found Xbox on sold ground... but like the "safety" prom date nobody's returning their calls now.
Adobe points finger at Apple over Flash for iPhone {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Nov 3rd 2009 12:00PM Why would Apple push HTML5 and push to obsolete MS IE dominance only to tie iPhone to the boat-anchor of Flash and closed Adobe programs?
The last several visible Mac exploits in hacker contests have been Adobe Flash plugins that are poorly written.. why contaminate iPhone?
iPhone safari uses a similar engine to desktop safari and HTML5 should be everywhere... Safari, Opera, Firefox... why do we NEED Flash to browse pages? We certainly don't need Video Pop-up ads!!!
Think those warranty parts are new? Think again {The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)}
Nov 2nd 2009 3:32AM generally rules for repair of other items like Cars require you to be told up front in very specific terms the part will be rebuilt (in the case of engines and transmissions) opposed to new, especially if it is out-of-warranty repair.
IBM has a similar term "Servicable Used Part" to identify non-new parts sent back to the warehouse to be tested and repackaged. But the warranty agreement specifically says the parts replaced under service plans may be used and under IBM's server warranties they have less than one day to fix it, and you can keep running the CE to your site until it's right!
I know Apple makes you sign a similar thing for replacement parts that I signed to get warranty work done, but for things like motherboards that have $600+ replacement costs they better be putting in new parts if that's what they're charging for, but I'm sure they follow the "letter" of the law.
Tesla Roadster keeps on rollin', goes 313 miles on single charge {Engadget}
Nov 2nd 2009 2:40AM part of driving an electric car is to use the regenerative breaking features to regain breaking energy, it's the point of the vehicle. In a gas car all that "acceleration" is literally burned off when you hit the breaks... it's simply lost as friction and you have no way to recover it.
The magic number is about 500 miles, that's what my mini-van does on a full tank of cruise-controlled highway driving. The real problem is the recharging. Once you burn up your miles, it can be up to 8 hours to recharge... that totally sucks versus 10-15 minutes at the service station to fill up gas. At this point fuel cells seem most interesting because they convert hydrocarbons chemically to electricity, which is 2-3x as efficient as burning the gas for mechanical energy. Because the conversion is controlled it's easier to control the environmental byproducts in fuel cells. Hydrocarbons (gas, diesel, ethanol) are still the best reasonable energy storage mechanisms for easy access to large amounts of energy.
iLuv ships weather-watching iMM183 dual dock iPod / iPhone alarm clock {Engadget}
Nov 2nd 2009 2:18AM Exactly, mobile companies had years to come up with something standard... hell you can't get standard chargers across a single model year from companies like Motorola or Nokia... some still use custom wired HEADSET adapters and not 2.5mm. Even now, after 5 years of iPod dominance, they could have put up "something" to compete, like Paul said, the media features on most phones are wasted because you can't use the phone with your car or stereo dock, so it's one more item to keep track of on a busy schedule.
iPhone and Windows 7 don't play nice, Intel P55 chipset to blame {Engadget}
Nov 2nd 2009 2:01AM but Apple has always done screwy stuff with their ipod. I remember early Shuffles wouldn't even show up as USB drives, or even charge off the USB ports without itunes installed. It seems to go back and forth that Apple is doing stuff in the driver stack to keep those ipod/itunes links really tight, mostly to keep iPod Owners from using their devices how they wish. I've had 5 different iPods and they all have some unique iPod/iTunes snarky bug because Apple is being paranoid and prefers to break stuff then give an inch.
