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Analogue Pocket first look: Handheld gaming as good as it ever was
The long-anticipated Analogue Pocket is finally here and it appears to deliver on all its promises. Our full review will put it through its paces.
Samsung unveils limited-edition Galaxy Watch 4 bands from designer Sami Miró
Samsung is making its Android-based Galaxy Watch 4 more fashion forward via a new collaboration with designer Sami Miró.
Etsy is acquiring the reseller Depop in a bid to reach Gen Z
Etsy is acquiring secondhand clothing marketplace Depop for $1.625 billion.
UC Santa Barbara sues Amazon and IKEA over LED lighting
UC Santa Barbara has had enough of retailers selling its patented LED light bulb technology without authorization. This week, the university filed a lawsuit charging Amazon, IKEA, Walmart, Target and Bed Bath & Beyond with infringing its patents. According to Nixon Peabody, the law firm representing UC Santa Barbara, this is the "first-of-its-kind direct patent enforcement campaign against an entire industry."
Moog's Minimoog Model D reissue revives a classic synthesizer
To properly celebrate this year's Moogfest, the synth maker is giving synth collectors the chance to own a piece of history. The company set up a temporary "pop-up factory" during this weekend's event where the iconic Minimoog Model D is going back into what Moog is calling pilot production. The Model D, the first Minimoog instrument made available to the public (A through C were prototypes), was built between 1970 and 1980, serving as the precursor to the popular Minimoog Voyager synthesizer that was discontinued last year.
Vintage video games and hardware
This afternoon I visited Buy and Sell Kings, on Danforth Ave in Toronto. It is amazing.They have pretty much every historic video game console you could name for sale, and rafts of games for them all. Some particular gems were Atari VCS, Neo-Geo, Sega Game Gear, Colecovision and even a Panasonic 3DO. It was quite a treat.Here is a walk-through:And a shot of the Neo Geo Arcade machine they had for sale:And some still photos I took:
An '80s-era Amiga controls the heating for an entire school district
Think the Windows XP workstation you use at the office is ancient? It doesn't hold a candle next to what the Grand Rapids Public School district is using to control its climate systems. All 19 schools covered by the authority depend on a nearly 30-year-old Commodore Amiga 2000 to automate their air conditioning and heating. It communicates to the other schools using a pokey 1,200 baud modem and a wireless radio so behind the times that it occasionally interferes with maintenance workers' walkie talkies. Oh, and a high school student wrote the necessary code -- if something goes wrong, the district has to contact the now middle-aged programmer and hope that he can fix it. It's a testament to the dependability of the Amiga in question, but you probably wouldn't want to trust the well-being of thousands of students to a computer that's probably older than some of the teachers.
Hornby's KitStarter lets fans crowdfund vintage model sets
Hornby, a British company that makes detailed model trains, plastic build-it-yourself toolkits and die-cast collectibles, wants to bring back some of its classic sets. To do so, it's launching a Kickstarter-style site called KitStarter that lets Airfix fans pledge their interest for old and out of production models. Once a set receives enough support from backers, Hornby will trigger a two-week "last orders" period and then put the kit back into limited production. To begin with, the company is starting small with two bird-themed kits -- Bluetits and Bullfinches -- that were originally produced in the 1970s. Hornby plans to add new vintage sets over time and is encouraging fans to submit their most-wanted recommendations in the forums. So if you've ever regretted not completing a particular Airfix collection, this could be your opportunity to finally pick up some missing sets.
Reinvigorate your inner nerd at this retro-computing exhibit
Modern computer interfaces are swiftly being reduced to glossy touchscreen slabs, distancing us from the inner workings of devices we use every day. Kimon Keramidas, director of the Digital Media Lab at the Bard Graduate Center in New York, is offering a refresher on how we got here by "bringing the clunk back." From the pleasing clack of mechanical keyboards to blister-inducing Atari joysticks, he curated a collection of computing history and put it on display at the school's Focus Gallery in an exhibit called "The Interface Experience: Forty Years of Personal Computing."
The iWatch mockups from yesteryear
Old smartwatches don't die, they just need new batteries. I was going through some old bookmarks last night and I ran across a site called Wrist Dreams, which had a sad but funny list of smartwatches from 7 or more years ago. Listed among the fish finder watch and "thinking" watches, there's a link to a bunch of crazy Apple concept devices. On that list: some Apple watches, before THE Apple Watch was announced. Look at the watches on Wrist Dreams, however. They remind me of those clunky tablets before the iPad, or even more of the slide Steve Jobs put up showing what state-of-the-art smartphones from 2007 looked like. Full of buttons, a real hot mess. Then again, we didn't have 7 years of iPhone design language, so it's not surprising how dorky these old things look.
In this 1996 video Apple talked incredibly polite trash about Windows 95
The debate between PC and Mac users over which system is better will likely never end, but since the fight rages on, we might as well enjoy its finer moments -- like this video Apple produced in 1996 talking polite trash about the Windows 95 operating system. Over the course of 26 minutes Apple's Mike Bobrowicz makes the case against Windows 95. You want to install a new hard drive on your Windows PC? Oh hell, you don't even know how hard that's going to be. Well, surely your PC can use a Mac-formatted disc? You're going to be sadly disappointed. Can you talk to your Windows 95 PC? Mac is ready and listening right now, in a way that (to be honest) wasn't nearly as useful as the video makes it seem like it was. This is easily the most polite trash talk ever released. If you enjoy cheesy vintage computer videos, pour yourself a nice drink and revel in the glory of 18-year-old technology.
Gadget Rewind 2005: Samsung YEPP YP-W3 (limited edition)
In 1999, Samsung launched the YEPP series aiming to deliver some of the smallest MP3 players on the market. These devices went beyond mere MP3 playback functionality with built-in FM tuners and voice recorders. By 2005, however, Samsung was looking for a better way to make its YEPP players stand out from the portable media players crowding the market. Its solution was the limited edition YP-W3: a diamond-studded MP3 player fashioned in the style of a pocket watch.
Beyond Swift: visit Apple's official blogs of yesteryear
The introduction of Apple's programming language Swift at WWDC represents a departure from tradition in several ways. If an entirely new coding dialect wasn't enough, last week the company also launched a blog specifically focused on Swift. The new blog is aimed at developers working to adopt Swift, delivering tips and tricks to ease the learning curve. Any gesture of glasnost from Apple is newsworthy -- but something about the Mac Observer's headline Apple Launches Swift Developer Blog, Its First Ever Blog didn't ring quite right. As Macworld's story points out, Apple's Developer Connection site has included a blog for quite some time, even if the overall tone was more "bulletins from headquarters" and less "fireside chat." There are also developer-centric blogs that come under Apple's ownership umbrella (although they don't live on the apple.com domain) for both Safari's Webkit engine and the Mac OS Forge open source projects hub. What if we scan even further back into the mists? Indeed, there have been several past appearances of "official" Apple blogs for some segments of the company's business. In 2008, we saw the launch of an official MobileMe blog (which initially boiled down to "Sorry, our bad" in light of the CEO's reaction to the less-than-stellar online product). That site continued to see intermittent posts until 2011 and the beginning of the iCloud transition. Before there was MobileMe, there was .Mac, and naturally that included a .Mac blog of tips and tricks. That site first appeared in 2006... and then ceased updating later in 2006, from January to July to be specific. Neither of those sites, however, beat out the earliest Apple-hosted official blog I've been able to spot: the Apple Education blog, founded in November of 2004 and featuring a rotating cast of student authors. The honor of being the first contributor went to a recent University of Colorado at Boulder grad and newly minted Apple hire, one Dave Morin... whom you may have heard of: he's now the co-founder and CEO of Path. This blog actually made it past its first anniversary, with the final post coming in December of 2005. With luck and dedication, the Swift blog may indeed escape the "Apple official blog curse" and celebrate several birthdays. We're rooting for it. Meanwhile, if you know of an earlier Apple blog, let us know in the comments!
Here's the Mac's first first-person shooter from the 80s
If you've ever spent a evening racking up headshots in Call of Duty or Marathon, you should probably pour one out in respect for MazeWars. Originally released in 1974 MazeWars is widely considered one of the original first-person shooters in history. Players moved a selected avatar through a maze looking for their opponent. When you found your opponent you'd shoot a missile at them until they died. Deus Ex this wasn't. By the time the game hit the Apple Macintosh in 1987 the title had made a number of major improvements. Released as MazeWars+ the Mac version included fully 3d levels that, although crude by today's standards, are still incredibly impressive. Players could play with friends online over an AppleTalk network. For a period of time the title was included with the purchase of a brand new Macintosh. Enjoy a few minutes of game play below, it's a delightful reminder of how far Mac gaming has come.
Dish Network's mistake is a blast from the Mac past
It's not often that the onscreen programming guide for your cable or satellite TV service can trigger an unexpected wave of Mac nostalgia, but that's exactly what happened to me this weekend. As a Dish Network subscriber, I'm reasonably familiar with the available channel lineup, but most of the time I leave the EPG set to only show high-definition channels. On Saturday night, I wanted to catch a few minutes of the White House Correspondents' Dinner on C-SPAN (yes, it's a wild and crazy party all the time up in here), but I couldn't find the channel right away -- because it was only available in standard-def. Simple enough to fix; I switched the EPG view to show all channels and began scrolling through the listings. As I passed through the mid-200s channels, mostly populated with religious and inspirational programming, one unfamiliar network caught my eye, as seen in the photo above. It seemed impossible... but sure enough, the logo for the Daystar network actually appeared to be the same as the branding for DayStar Digital, the defunct Mac accelerator and clone maker. "That's awfully unlikely," I thought. A quick check of the real Daystar network's website and Wikipedia listing showed that indeed, the logo for the network is entirely dissimilar from the CMYK-comet logo for the hardware maker. What's going on? If I had to hazard a guess, chances are that whoever at Dish is responsible for getting those network logos into the guide may not have looked too closely at the source for this particular channel's branding, even though the channel listing on the Dish website uses the right image. Looking for "Daystar Logo" on Wikipedia does come up with a first result of the DayStar Digital logo -- but the next one down is for the TV network. We'll follow up with Dish and see if they acknowledge or fix the error. In the meantime, enjoy this tiny taste of Mac history right there on your TV screen.
A Mac graveyard
I'm not sure of the back story on this somewhat creepy collection of defunct computer hardware, which includes quite a few elderly Macs including a Power Mac G4 Cube and a gaggle of iMacs. The photo description says simple "In an old Mac shop," which makes it even more mysterious. Either way, it looks like a meeting of depressed Macs, discussing their glory days. There are some other classics in this collection. Anyone see that Commodore CBM Model 4032 hiding near the Cube? [Photo credit: Martin Deutsch]
You came to the wrong neighborhood, Windows user
There's something a bit menacing about the ways these vintage Macs have gathered, like they're just waiting for an unsuspecting Windows XP user to walk by and get roughed up. [Photo credit: Peter Baldes]
Instacube photo frame finally shipping, will arrive with support for video
Well, that took awhile. Remember Instacube, the purpose-built digital photo frame designed to pull images directly from your Instagram feed? The Android-powered photo screen found itself short on both funding and manufacturing options last summer. These issues set production back almost a year, but come April 5th, it'll all pay off -- the first units are finally shipping out. Instacube's creators used the extra time productively, at least: the final hardware was redesigned to include speakers (to support Instagram video). Future updates will imbue it with the ability to stream content from Facebook, Vine, Flickr and other services, too. Kickstarter backers who opted for the white or classic models should get their units in the next few months, but the team says additional styles won't be available until production hits full steam. A bummer for sure, but hey, folks have waited longer to get Instagram.
Wooden iPad mini case creates the 1950s TV that never was
Jeffrey Stephenson has long had a knack for giving PCs an elegant retro look, and he's now bringing his crafting skills to the mobile realm. His recently completed DuMont project turns an iPad mini, a Jawbone Jambox and a heap of wood into a tiny 1950s TV set, complete with a woven speaker grille; the owner just has to slot devices into the enclosure's side to indulge in some nostalgic viewing. Stephenson isn't officially selling the box, but he is taking inquiries from those who want a tablet TV of their own. If you're wondering how he did it, you can visit Bit-Tech's forums to check out the project work log.
The 12 Days of iMas, Day 11: The undisputed classiest iPhone dock you'll ever see
Today is the 11th day of a 12-day feature where we'll show you the strangest Apple-flavored gifts we can find. Check out the previous days here: Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Day 11: Give your iPhone a touch of oh-my-god is that brushed copper? Most iPhone docks try to match the modern look of the phone itself, with black plastic and clean lines dominating the market. The Pyle Retro Home Telephone Charger takes things back in time, letting you plug your Apple smartphone into an elegant work of stained wood and brushed copper. But this dock is just as much about function as it is about flash, as the old-school handset station is also a fully functional chatting device that can be used with either a separate landline or as a stand-in for your iPhone. If you've got someone on your gift list who begrudgingly entered the age of smartphones against their will, this might be the perfect gift. You can give them a trip back to early 20th century telephony while also providing them a useful accessory for their less wood-adorned communication device. Oh, and it's downright gorgeous, too, all for an Amazon sale price of US$79.09.
