AlGore
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A new supersonic jet, and more in the week that was
Tesla currently makes the world's best electric vehicles, but Jaguar's first EV could give the automaker a run for its money. Meet the I-Pace: a svelte, stylish electric SUV that's faster than most sports cars and can drive 220 miles on a single charge. In other auto news, a new law requires all electric vehicles to make noise by the year 2019, and VW's new e-Golf can drive further than the Nissan Leaf at 124 miles per charge. Long-haul flights are the worst, but a new supersonic jet called the Boom could cut them in half. And Noordung launched a stylish vintage-inspired e-bike with a built-in sound system.
Al Gore praises Tim Cook as 'a fantastic CEO'
Tim Cook already has plenty of fans, but just in case you were wondering, we can add former US Vice President Al Gore to the list as well. Speaking with Bloomberg, the almost-43rd-President of the United States called Apple's head honcho "a fantastic CEO." This should come as little surprise, given that Gore is indeed seated on Apple's board of directors, but it's a nice pat on the back in the midst of the utterly absurd "the sky is falling on Apple" mania. "Can you imagine trying to follow Steve Jobs?" Gore continued. "Well, Tim's done it, and he's done it in his own unique way. Next week, there's yet another announcement from Apple. I invite people to tune in for that. They're really hitting on all cylinders." Gore, of course, was referring to the October 22 event in which it is expected that Apple will reveal the next devices in the iPad line... and maybe even something you aren't expecting.
We're live at SXSW's Al Gore on The Future panel
Al Gore: former Vice President, environmental activist, author, voice-over artist, gadget freak -- and psychic? The politician and supporter of all things green will be looking into his crystal ball today, with a little help from The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg here at SXSW. Join us after the break for all the robots, lasers and flying cars.
Al Gore buys lots of AAPL
Al Gore is not afraid of all the doom and gloom surrounding Apple. According to Forbes, the politician/environmentalist just spent US$440,000 to buy 59,000 shares of Apple stock. Of course, he exercised stock options that he received for serving on Apple's Board of Directors and bought the stocks at a very, very reasonable $7.475 per share. Based on Apple's closing stock price as of Thursday afternoon, that purchase is worth a cool $30 million.
Internet Hall of Fame gets first inductees at inaugural event in Switzerland
Major League Baseball has Cooperstown, Robots have their HOF in Pittsburgh and now we finally have a Hall of Fame to call our own. Today marks the inaugural set of Pioneers, Innovators and Global Connectors inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, having taken place at an Internet Society conference in Geneva, Switzerland. The web HOF is part of an initiative by the nonprofit organization to "celebrate the advancements of 33 talented people who have made significant contributions to the design, development, and expansion of the internet." Among these are folks such as the Father of the Internet Vint Cerf, ARPANET engineer Paul Baran and the 45th US Vice President Al Gore, just to mention a few names. Between the 2012 inductees there were nine different countries represented, 11 PhDs, 11 published authors and a winner of an Academy Award and Nobel Prize. Interested in knowing who else made it in? The full list of inductees can be found at the source below.
Al Gore praises Apple Board at All Things D conference
Al Gore, Former Vice President and member of the Apple board of Directors, sat down with Walt Mossberg at the recent AsiaD conference held in Hong Kong last week. Besides environmental issues and politics, Gore also talked about Steve Jobs, Apple and its board of Directors. Gore has served on Apple's board since 2003. Gore had nothing but good things to say about the members of Apple's Board of Directors and praised them for making difficult decisions throughout Steve Jobs's protracted illness. I have the deepest respect for my fellow board members, we're all very good friends... I think that people who specialize in kibitzing about these things - I respect them, it's good for them to think about this kind of stuff, but I wouldn't change a thing about the way the Apple board has operated. Apple's board has been criticized in the past for withholding information about Steve Jobs's illness and for not publicizing its CEO accession plan.
SimCity Societies teaches players to think 'green'
With Maxis still hip-deep in Spore's primordial ooze, EA's decision to hand the next game in the storied SimCity franchise over to Caesar IV devs Tilted Mill was understandable, if not entirely welcome given the game's move away from being a 'realistic urban simulation,' a shift decried by fans to the tune of "you killed my baby!"In keeping with the forthcoming SimCity Societies' touchy-feely approach, which looks to abandon simulation gameplay in favor of 'social energies,' EA has announced that the game will also include 'climate education' through "low-carbon electricity choices and carbon emission monitoring" thanks to a partnership with 'green minded' alternative energy organization BP. The goal, says EA, is to give players an "accurate" look at some of the causes and available solutions to the inconvenient truth of global warming, no doubt giving Al Gore reason to smile as he continues to tango with Mizuguchi.Thankfully, according to EA, the game will not shove any eco-friendly environmentalist perspectives down players' collective throat. Instead, Societies will offer choices on how players wish to power their cities, leaving those of us who feel less at home hugging trees than we do while shoveling coal into the furnace free to do as we please when the game ships for the PC this November.
Al Gore: ex-VP, environmentalist, gadget freak
We all know former-VP Al Gore loves his Apple gear. Besides sitting on Cupertino's board of directors, he was happy to be shown toting his then-PowerBook around giving that wacky Academy Award-winning Keynote presentation of his. But today in Time's photo essay of his life, we got to see another side of Al Gore: gadget junkie. It's not too often you catch a glimpse of these high profile figures' inner info-sanctums, but we're not at all disappointed in how he holds court over the internet kingdom legend holds he created.From here it looks like the dude's all hooked up with a triple-head 30-inch Cinema Display rig (daaaamn!), what appears to be a Sharp HDTV on the wall (we're gonna guess that's a LC-32D7U), Humanscale Freedom ergo-chair, and an iPod (didn't the President, who owns one, help develop 'em?), whose box sits up in his shelf. Not to get all political and stuff, but surely this office, messy though it may be, is a step up from Bush's humbler means of input, no?P.S. -Yeah, fine, we're creepy gadget stalkers, what of it?
Rig of the Week: Al Gore's setup
We're going to break from tradition this week and highlight a rig that is not a part of our flickr pool. At right we see former Vice President (and Apple Board member) Al Gore flanked by three huge Apple displays. We can only imagine where the computer powering those things is located in that cluttered office.By the way, does anyone know where I can get an enormous tree frog for my wall?"Al Gore's American Life" photographed for Time Magazine by Steve Pyke.If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. Each Sunday we'll comb through the most recent entries and declare a "Rig of the Week!"
Mizuguchi working on Al Gore environmentalism project
On stage to discuss the game development process during Grasshopper Manufacture's 'Snake vs Zombie Vol. 2' event Saturday, Lumines producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi was instead questioned about his rumored involvement in an unannounced Al Gore project. Coy about details, Mizuguchi did confirm, "It's not going to be a video game. The concept derives from video games, and its something which the gaming generation will appreciate."Like last year's film An Inconvenient Truth, the project will focus on environmental issues, including energy conservation. Mizuguchi hinted that the effort will play on our perspective of Earth. "I think that we would need to see our own planet from outer space. We see that there are no borderlines between the countries and simply notice how beautiful it is. And maybe then, we will be more conscious about the environment. It's about gaining a new perspective, like when we moved from 2D to 3D," suggested Mizuguchi.
E-rope: saving the planet one socket at a time
As we all know, the biggest problem with conventional power strips are the unconventional plugs with whom the ol' girl mates. These boys come in all sizes and shapes resulting in at least one or two unusable sockets due to overlap. Well no more dear reader, at least not if the 2006 IDEA award winning design concept from the kids over at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute is taken from art to part anytime soon. The E-rope, designed by Chul Min Kang and Sung Hun Lim, is a modular power strip which can be twisted about to better accommodate cable gore with large, bulky plugs. Worried about vampire devices quietly leaching power off the mains? No problem, just give the socket section a 90-degree twist to strangle-off the current. Of course, while you're down there you could just unplug the damn thing but that's just an inconvenient truth, eh?[Via inhabitat]
TUAW Podcast #10
Here it is ladies and gentlemen: TUAW Podcast #10 for 6/7/06. In this edition I sat down for some coffee talk with Dan Pourhadi and Conrad Quilty-Harper on everything from Apple's new 5G iPod U2 Edition to Macs in Best Buy, as well as gaming on, the finish of, and that darn glossy screen in the MacBook. We also discuss that "Why 1st Generation Apple Products Suck" article and other various bits of Mac culture.You can download the podcast in MP3 format here (42.2 MB), and it should appear in our TUAW iTMS Podcast feed soon, if it hasn't already. We recorded this via an iChat audio conference using GarageBand (which rocks by the way), and we're still working on our podcasting and audio editing skills, so there will be a little bit of noise. Also, Conrad was using his MacBook's internal mic, so let that be a testament to its quality. Nevertheless, it's a good podcast that we hope you'll enjoy.
Apple profiles Keynote use in 'An Inconvenient Truth'
I saw 'An Inconvenient Truth' last night and I couldn't help but think, 'This is one long commercial about Apple.' Al Gore is seen, in almost every scene, sitting at his Powerbook fiddling with his presentation in Keynote, or giving his presentation with his Powerbook front and center. Apple has posted an article detailing the use of Keynote during the production of the film, and why it was used (ease of use and the ability to import HD video top the list).I must say that the presentation looked great, and I bet Al didn't even have to pay for Keynote (he is on Apple's board).
President Bush: US Government developed iPod
Oh, boy. Here's one for all you conspiracy theorists. In a speech delivered at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, President Bush addressed the American Initiative. During his address, the President said:"The government funded research in microdrive storage, electrochemistry and signal compression. They did so for one reason: It turned out that those were the key ingredients for the development of the iPod. I tune into the iPod occasionally, you know..."The President was joking, of course. When asked if he thought the joke was funny, Apple Board of Directors member Al Gore said, "No."[Via Engadget]
