Leander Kahney's Blog, page 2250

Behold the Tiny MacBook Pocket Mirror/Business Card Holder

If you are looking for a way to check your hair surreptitiously at the upcoming WWDC, behold the "MocBook" pocket mirror and card holder.
It comes from Japan, where locals love mignon tech, and is available in versions that mimic the MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
At just a fraction of the size of the real [...:]

Steve Jobs: Patent War Brewing Over Ogg Theora and H.264

Steve Jobs is very serious about HTML5 being the future of the web, and in Jobs' view, H. 264 is an integral part of that formula. Google and Microsoft agree: they've committed to MPEG LA's video codec as the new standard for online video. That puts the three biggest players all in the same corner [...:]

Comic: iPhones, iPods No. 1 Threat in Airplane Safety

Cult of Mac reader Ian Chan was inspired by our recent story of a football player getting grounded after listening to his iPod during landing to pen the above comic on airplane safety.
Chan — along with everyone else who has forgotten to turn off a device on board — says:
"I might be overreacting, but perhaps [...:]

iFixIt Tears Down The iPad 3G, Finds Five Antennas

It's just a matter of course for any new Apple product to be vivisected down to its very bolts and each part catalogued by the Internet's gadget coroners, but no one does a better job at it than the boys over at iFixIt, who have already torn down the iPad 3G.

So what are the big [...:]

MONDAY GIVEAWAY: 4 SWEET Apps To Trick Out Your iPad

Over 1 million iPads have been sold since it first came out almost a month ago, and we're guessing that many of our readers have one, am I right? If you don't, sorry to rub it in your face, but we'll be giving away 4 iPad apps today as part of our ongoing Monday [...:]

Jailbroken iPads On T-Mobile Can Send SMSes

Take out the trusty old ex-acto knife and whittle down your T-Mobile SIM cart just right and you can cram it right into your iPad 3G's medulla oblongata. Jailbreak with Spirit and you can then use your iPad to send SMSes, provided you've got some command line skill. Who said there was no reason to [...:]

Report: Apple Faces Federal Inquiry Due to Developer Policy

Federal regulators apparently have taken note of the ongoing spat between Apple and Adobe, and the iPhone maker's decision to prohibit developers from submitting apps originally created for Flash. The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are "days away" from deciding which agency will launch an antitrust probe into Apple's developer agreement banning [...:]

Apple: 1M iPads Sold – Breaks iPhone Record

One million iPads have sold in under 30 days, Apple announced Monday. It took twice as long for the iPhone to reach the same figure.
"One million iPads in 28 days — that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with the iPhone," CEO Steve Jobs said in a [...:]

Review: Blue Mic's Yeti Captures Monster Sound

Blue Microphone's Yeti – a versatile $150 USB device from the company behind the legendary Snowball and the must-have Mikey - would be an absolute steal at twice the price.
In applications from podcasting to studio recording the Yeti delivers intimacy and clarity rivaling the output of some of the best microphones from better [...:]

The Fat Mac Saves the Day [Recollections]

In part 12 of Macworld founder David Bunnell's story of the early Mac, Bill Gates is the only developer to actually deliver on his promises of software for the Mac. Microsoft's Excel literally saves the Mac just when sales drop to nil, but at the same time Gates' engineers are reverse engineering the GUI for [...:]