Apple posts

Recently two Silicon Valley giants made big investments in their future. But while HP’s purchase of Palm got all the headlines and page views, Apple’s acquisition of Siri, an iPhone “personal assistant”, is the real story. Palm Meet HP After pioneering the PDA market with fantastic products like the Pilot, Palm allowed itself to be lapped first by Handspring, a company formed by former Palm employees, and then by practically everyone else. RIM outpaced them on smartphones, then Apple revolutionized the entire industry with the iPhone. The Palm Pre was a decent enough phone, but the…

Everyone loves a good hack. There are good hacks, bad hacks, clever hacks, then there’s just plain old hacking. John Benson purchased a 3G iPad and traveled home to the UK hoping to be able to simply switch SIM cards. The one problem? The 3G iPad takes a MicroSIM card, which aren’t yet available in the UK. Some might have been stumped. Some might have given up. Not John. With a chopping board and cleaver, John literally hacked his way out of a pickle. On his site he provides step by step instructions with photos, but doesn’t recommend everyone try this. John is now happily using his 3G iPad on the Vodafone…

I can’t get enough of widgets. I remember, back in the day, as a rabid PC user, vehemently anti-Apple, I flat-out lold at the concept of widgets. Now, years later, on a Mac Pro, I seem to be hitting F4 for one reason or another every four or five minutes. My widget addiction is about to get worse. With Google having recently acquired 3D desktop manager BumpTop, it would appear Apple’s looking to create an entire new generation of widgets in response, both multifunctional and existing in 3-dimensional virtual space. OSX was already a champion of pointless eye candy, but this is going to waste SO much…

Apple’s recent behavior may seem strange – but we forget that they’re fighting to own the future of the computer industry. Perhaps even more than usual, Apple have dominated the world of tech news in the last little while.  With the saga of the lost iPhone, a very public battle with Adobe and half of ‘the ‘sphere’ up in arms about Apple’s more-closed-than-normal business practices, everyone is talking about the folks at Cupertino. But lost in the shuffle of endless discussion, outrage and impassioned defense is a simple point: Apple aren’t defending what they have now. They’re preparing for…

Apple, always the innovator, is looking for the key to your heart. Security is a major concern in computing, particularly with smaller mobile devices becoming more capable. Apple thinks it has the answer. The patent describes a method of detecting an authorized user by the pulse in the veins and arteries in the hand holding the device. A sensor built into the device would detect your heart rhythm, apparently as unique as a fingerprint or retina. Other uses have been suggested, such as mood detection or managing user profiles. I’ve not heard much about cardiac signatures before, but this strikes…

If you’re on of the one million people who purchased an iPad, you probably planned to buy either a case, a keyboard or both. The Clamcase solves all your iPad-related woes by providing both. Demand for this uber-accessory was so high yesterday that the company site was knocked offline. The company is sending users to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube while they prepare their servers for higher demand. The Clamcase “magically” turns your iPad into a full laptop, with bluetooth keyboard and full hinged casing. The Facebook page doesn’t offer a price, but in the discussions page the price of $75 is mentioned….

Comedian Ellen DeGeneres has fallen foul of Apple’s infamously volatile sense of humor. After posting the above iPhone 3GS commercial parody, Ellen said that Apple representatives contacted her with complaints. The video shows Ellen attempting to send a text but mistakenly opening Google Maps. She then sends a jumbled text message to her partner, Portia DeRossi before asking someone off camera for assistance. Apple is notoriously fickle about who can poke fun at it, and apparently Ellen overstepped the mark. It’s clear to all that Ellen is poking fun at herself rather than the device, and…

Following the wacky trend of destroying expensive equipment for little or no good reason, a couple of genii have decided to turn an iPad into a skateboard. At $500 and a size of roughly 8″ x 11″, even I’m gnarly enough to know that the iPad makes a better tablet PC than skateboard, but I guess these guys aren’t interested in creating Keynote presentations or sharing files on Dropbox. Part of Fuel TV’s Built To Shred series, host Jeff King and pro skater Chad Knight destroy the iPad in seconds in the name of.. skateboarding insanity. Cringe as they drill a hole right through the screen. Shudder as they…

I’ll say it right up front, this is just.. awful. Cupidtino is a new website for Apple fanboys and girls to hook up with each other. A concept that was clearly built upon a bad idea with a bad name that will only lead to bad things, Cupidtino is a dating site that will be purely Apple-based, in Safari on desktops and iPhone and iPad on the go. I doubt anyone will be looking into any kind of antitrust suit over the fact that this won’t be available on Windows or Android. Launching in June 2010, Cupidtino hopes to bring together smug Mac users who can share their passion for Apple’s product lines. I’m going to…

While a specific date has not yet been given, the popular UK-based music streaming service Spotify is threatening a US launch before the end of 2010. No doubt the new Spotify features we reported on last week were partially in preparation for the big reveal. Spotify is a music streaming service that offers over 8 million tracks for free, and its move may scoop Apple’s plans to introduce a similar service within iTunes with its recent acquisition of streaming music service Lala. Currently, UK Spotify users can access the service ad-free for a small subscription charge of $15.00 per month. Users…