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>> Postings for March 2011

Andy Ihnatko - The tablet challenge

Tue, 22 Mar 2011

I have to admit, I sorely underestimated how long it would take the rest of the tech industry to respond to the iPad in any meaningful way. Two weeks before Apple finally moved the device from the Strongly Rumoured list into the Holy Jumping Jesus! roster, any number of companies were showing off their own 10in tablets running Android on Tegra processors.

I was sure that half a dozen challengers would be released in time for the 2010 holiday season. Instead, the industry collectively behaved like one of those chess players who makes a move but then keeps their finger on the piece and mutters, “It’s still my turn… I haven’t gone yet…” while they obsessively continue to eye the board.

Andy Ihnatko | Read more...


Simon Jary - Apple's explosive H Bomb

Wed, 16 Mar 2011

Hair Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Woz) were both once very hairy, sporting beards and wayward head hair. When you work in a dusty garage nobody’s going to march you to the barbers. And when you run a multi-billion dollar business, the clippers aren’t mentioned either. Woz has remained consistently hairy, while Jobs has toyed with his barnet depending on the latest fashion: 1970s Steve was much hairier than clean-cut 1980s and 1990s Steve. A beard – this time in grey – returned between 2003-6, but the once-luxurious hair had started thinning on his return to Apple in 1997. In comparison Bill Gates has stuck with his boyish, hairless chin from the very start and has a hairstyle so boring it’s impossible to recall.

Happy Mac Many of Apple’s best icons were dumped on the introduction of Mac OS X and its fancy pulsating glow icons, but perhaps the greatest loss was the Happy Mac. When you started up a Mac pre-OS X the bootup icon was a little Mac with a broad grin, accompanied by a musical chord. Designed by chief Mac iconist Susan Kare, the Happy Mac icon showed that booting had begun successfully. Its evil twin, the Sad Mac, would appear if there was a hardware problem. The Sad Mac had its own little tune, known cheerfully as ‘The Chimes Of Death’.

Simon Jary | Read more...


Beware iPhone RSI

Thu, 10 Mar 2011

I love my iPhone and I love my MacBook. Sometimes the things we love can hurt us... 

I'm now suffering from RSI in my wrist and my thumb. Mostly my thumb due to the repetitive action of scrolling on my iPhone screen while holding it in my right hand. Add to that scrolling on the trackpad of my MacBook, again using my thumb on my right hand, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Karen Haslam | Read more...


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