Good lord! How old is Apple’s ergonomics page?!
Filed under: Apple, History, Humor, Opinion, Slow News Day, That's Weird...
Wow. It looks like Apple’s ergonomics web page predates the internet. Is that an Apple II that 1st guy is using? No wonder he’s suffering from “lightning bolt neck”.
Oddly, besides that Apple II-looking thing, there’s not a Mac to be found in any of Apple’s “ergonomic no-no’s” drawings. I suppose the indication here is that unlike PCs, it is impossible for a Mac to cause harm to a human. I think its the 1st law of Mac computing or something.
New York City Transit Authority using Keynote to run its kiosks
Filed under: Apple, Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Software
Faithful Macenstein reader Mike Solomon from over at The Cleverist sent us this video he made providing pretty convincing evidence that the NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority is using Apple’s Keynote software to run its kiosks, as illustrated by those trademark transitions Snap! Crackle! and Pop!… err, Cube, Dissolve, and Pop.
While we think it’s great to see Apple software (and presumably hardware (?)) being used by such a large city agency, we have a feeling the MTA may be an equal opportunity OS customer. Having ridden the NYC subways numerous times, I am quite certain the MTA is also using Windows Vista to create that convincing virtual urine smell.
Thanks Mike!
Behold the new Apple TV “Take 2″ Intro Movie
Filed under: Apple, Apple TV, Awesomeness, Updates, video
For those without Apple TV’s but who must see everything related to Apple, here’s the revamped Apple TV “Take 2″ intro movie.
(iPhone users click here to watch the video)
Unfortunately this video is pretty much the best thing about the update, but I’ll get to that later. Enjoy.
Steve Jobs has lost $214 million $220 million $1 billion since Macworld
Owning 5.4 million shares of Apple stock is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you have a huge fortune. On the other, you can lose $214 million in a week. This is just one of the reasons I have chosen not to own 5.4 million shares of Apple stock.
“Poor” Steve Jobs
Apple’s stock has been riding high for nearly a year heading into Macword, and had briefly peaked around $200 a share. On Macworld Eve (January 14th) the stock had a listed price of $178.78, making Steve Jobs’ 5.4 million shares of Apple stock worth $965,412,000. 
Today, just a week later, the stock is worth $139.07, dropping him down to a modest $750,978,000. This means Steve’s net worth is now more or less identical to yours and mine. Factor in Steve’s $1 a year salary, and things are looking pretty grim for the Jobs household.
A number of factors contributed to the decline, including a somewhat over-inflated stock price to begin with, lackluster product announcements at Macworld, disappointing 2nd quarter sales projections (despite record 1st quarter earnings), and an overall looming recession. Unfortunately, these 4 factors combined to form a profit eating monster J.J. Abrams couldn’t have imagined, and it gobbled up $214 million of Job’s portfolio. Faithful Macenstein reader and stock wizard extraordinaire dersky estimates it will take Apple 3 years Read more
MacHeist ends tomorrow – What will Diggers write about?
MacHeist 2, perhaps the most widely over-publicized conglomeration of software in the history of the Mac, will see its shadow tomorrow and go back in its hole for another year.
I have been strong, and managed to resist the bundle’s siren song up ’till now, but it looks like I will be breaking down tonight and picking it up. I’m a sucker for deadlines, and I have bought more than one horribly overpriced bit of animation art at auction because of my tendency to be pressured into a rash decision due to time running out.
I already have what I consider to be the crown jewel in the suite (Snapz Pro X) but for $49, odds are at least one of these other apps will prove useful (plus with so many Macs, I’ll sleep a little better with an extra Snapz license). I’m actually hoping Cha-Ching has some magic Keyboard shortcut capable of somehow getting my finances under control (it will probably suggest I sell my animation art), and Pixelmator and Awaken both looked interesting enough in the past that I wanted to check them out, but not interesting enough that I wanted to pay full price. I suppose I can always write these off as “research” for Macenstein come tax time.
So looks like I’ll be buying the bundle. If any of you own and love any of the other apps in the bundle, let me know why in the comments. I love hearing tales of how software has changed people’s lives for the better.
Where’s the leak? Finally, a Macworld stream worth watching!
I can’t remember the last Macworld where we didn’t know the majority of what Steve was going to announce less than 12 hours before showtime, yet here we are.
As near as anyone has been able to figure, the big thing Steve will announce tomorrow is the “MacBook Air”, an ultra light notebook. The problem here is, aside from the name, we know nothing about the device. In fact, we don’t even know 
that that’s the name! Is it a touch screen tablet? A notebook? A touch screen notebook? Does it have an optical drive? Flash drive? Ethernet? No one knows. And you know what? I couldn’t be happier.
Pretty much every Macworld in recent memory has been ruined for me either weeks, days, or mere hours before the Stevenote by the myriad of rumor blogs out there, combined with my inability to resist reading them. But MW 2008 has the best chance in years of allowing Steve a chance to truly surprise us.
Certain things are a given. We’ll hear about record Mac sales, the new iTunes movie rentals, Apple retail stores, and iPhone SDK. But still unknown are the fate of Apple’s pro and consumer laptops, the Apple TV, and Mac mini. All could be updated in any number of ways, and with less than 12 hours to go, no one has been able to figure out for sure just how.
Now I lay me down to sleep…
When I wake up tomorrow, I know the first thing I am going to do is check Digg and see if anyone has been able to steal Steve’s thunder. I don’t want to know, but I have to know. I won’t be able to help myself. Yet, finding out the dirt so close to showtime is one of the most depressing experiences a Mac fanboy can go through. It’s like finding out what Santa brought you on your way downstairs to the tree Christmas morning. 
So here’s a plea to the Mac rumor community: At this point, if you find out for sure what Steve is going to announce, just keep it to yourself. After all, if you find out some dirt a mere hour before Steve hits the stage, did you REALLY do anything worth writing about? Odds are a bored teamster who had to set up the display at the last minute spilled the beans just because he couldn’t care less. A source that lame doesn’t deserve credit for breaking a rumor.
I have no idea how Steve managed to keep this years announcements a secret, but the fact is, he did. He beat us all, and I am big enough to admit it for everyone. So let’s all just sit back and bask in the communal geekery that is watching a Stevenote with no idea how it ends.
Oh, and you happen to be a bored teamster with inside info, even just 2 minutes before the Stevenote, please send us an e-mail!
Apple owns the MacBookAir domain… or do they?
Uh oh… MacDailyNews is reporting that Apple owns the rights to the MacBookAir domain.
According to the site, MacBookAir.org, MacBookAir.us, MacBookAir.biz, and MacBookAir.info all show a 1 Infinite Loop address. MacBookAir.com and .net currently do not provide registration info, but odds are they too are registered to a certain Cupertino address.
Or are they?
Before we all run off pell mell, there are some questions to be answered however. First, how hard is it to put a fake mailing address when registering a domain? Apple doesn’t even own the domain to the regular MacBook.com. And as faithful Macenstein reader Shakelford points out, Apple has never owned a .biz address ever (in fact, no one has). Finally, all the MacBookAir domains we see seem to have been bought up on January 11th, right when speculation began that the MacBook Air name might be for real.
So what’s the deal? Does Apple own these domains, or just some stupid California companies willing to pay GoDaddy $9.99 to get a week’s worth of publicity? Can any of our readers with more sleuthing prowess than ourselves shed some light on this?
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Aleks for helping us past our idiocy and finding the registration link in question.
Say it ain’t so, Jonny!
Gizmodo has posted a somewhat incendiary piece outlining some rather unmistakable design similarities between the work of Apple’s Jonathon Ives and Dieter Rams, the famous 1960’s era designer for Braun.
Gizmodo stops short of accusing Ives of ripping off Rams, instead merely saying that Rams’ work has influenced “every single product at Apple, from hardware to user-interface design“. Ouch.
Well, at least Ives didn’t copy Rams’ haircut. Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Fortran for the heads up.
Macworld Keynote Bingo Klingon Edition – nerd and geek worlds collide
Every once in a while, a “Perfect Storm” of both geeky and nerdy events comes together to form something so massively uncool it almost demands someone beat it up. This year, that thing is Macworld Keynote Bingo, Klingon edition.
We’ve seen Macworld bingo before, but the The Swedish Bingo team has outdone themselves this year with their multi-lingual version. Ths year, in addition to the standard translations of Swedish, English, Finnish, Italian, Esperanto, German, French (partial), the group has added Klingon, the race of Star Trek aliens that (like all Star Trek aliens), looks exactly like humans, but with a little bit of latex applied to their face.
Have you ever wondered how to say “Apple Discontinues Apple TV” in Klingon? Apparently it’s 
“‘ape’l TV lubaq ‘ape’l“. What about “John Mayer plays”? That would be “much jo’n” (personally, we think it should have been “TOO much j’on“, but then, we aren’t fluent in Kilngon).
Anyway, if you’d like to play along, in either Klingon or your native tongue, you can check out The Swedish Bingo team’s Macworld bingo app here.
Uh oh… looks like John Mayer is free January 15th…
Filed under: Apple, Apple Fanboyism, Rampant Speculation
OK, nobody panic. This may be nothing, but… a quick check of John Mayer’s website, pollstar.com, and ticketmaster.com all add up to one alarming conclusion: John Mayer is not currently touring, and by all accounts is available to play once again at this year’s Macworld. His last listed tour date was 
December 12th in Los Angeles (so he could still very well be in the California area, assuming he has no access to a car) and his next scheduled date is February 1st in Miami.
Of course, there has been no official announcement as to whether Mayer will indeed be showing up to play Steve off stage as he has for the last 23 Macworlds (yes, Mayer was only 7 years old when he first began promoting Apple). However, if you are a betting man, I wouldn’t put too much money down against the pasty cocksman showing up to serenade the faithful.
Calls to Mayer’s management were not returned (nor were they made… we’re not exactly Woodward and Bernstein here).
