Geekery

No sex please, we’re Apple

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Jake.

App by app, Apple has spent the last couple of days embarking on a moralistic cleansing of their iPhone App Store. Porn fiends the world over wanted answers, and now. So, thanks to an article on Gizmodo.com, let’s here what the official word from Apple executive Paul Schiller is:

“It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.”

Fair enough. What those who have come out strongly against the move have pointed out, though, is that those parents who have complained are not aware of, or simply aren’t using, the parental controls available to them that would restrict their kids from access to these apps.

Also controversial is the fact that Apple have retained two risqué, borderline soft-porn apps in the form of Sports Illustrated and FHM. Are these two allowed to remain because of the commercial clout of the companies they represent? And, if so, is Apples app purge aimed only at smaller developers, who need their products to remain in the App Store the most?

Schiller, when asked about Sports Illustrated, does not deny this: “the difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” he said. But, the idea that it’s fine to publish half-naked women as long as you’re famous is insulting.

And, many Apple-heads want their favourite brand to be cooler than the others. We want it to treat us like adults, and that is why the idea of the brand condoning a world in which we cannot choose which Apps we can and can’t to download is troublesome.

Are Apple in the right self-censoring their App Store at the expense of developers? Let me know below.

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The obligatory iPad post

Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Ok, so it’s actually here, the device that, as a friend of mine put it, ‘will change the way people wildly speculate about new technology before it is even actually released’.

Now that it’s out, the question is, is it all that? We have crazed fans in one corner declaring it a work of unmitigated genius, and haters in the other pointing out that, as far as they can see, it’s like an iPhone, only bigger. What do I think? The truth is probably somewhere between these two opinions.

The main thing to remember is that the iPad is still a baby. When the developers start working with it and for it, real innovations will start taking place. For now, even those who want a Wi-fi model will have to wait until March, and those after the 3G version will have to wait until April. And it won’t stay at $500 forever. For now it is, in my humble opinion, a beautiful and innovative machine that not a hell of a lot of people will have a use for. Yet.

Oh, and we’re South Africans, remember. So all we can do for now is speculate and dream. The dang thing ain’t even available here yet, and who knows when it will be.

Anyway, here are some pros and cons, which I’ve have based on extensive internet research:

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The first ever review of the Apple Tablet…

Posted on 27. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Amidst the rumours and the speculation and the ‘leaked pics’ and the silly pun pictures of pills with Apple logos on, you would be forgiven for refusing to click on any link that mentions the mythical Apple tablet ever again. But, if you’re here right now, obviously the temptation was too much for you…

Forget the rest, and watch the world’s only reliable source of gadget-related journalism, Walt Mossberg provide us with the first review of the new Apple Tablet.

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Geek God – Steve Wozniak

Posted on 17. Nov, 2009 by Jake.

The original inventor at Apple HQ

A major oversite (geddit?) took place on this blog when I declared Steve Jobs a Geek God. Sure, the guy deserves some credit for turning Apple into the global mega-brand it is today. But the real geek genius, the inventor, is his partner Steve Wozniack.

Known affectionately as ‘The Woz’, ‘iWoz’ and the ‘Wonderful Wizard of Woz’, Wozniack is a geek’s geek – he was the one whose bedroom as a young man was filled with bizarre electronic devices of his own invention, who would invent cool gadgets just to impress his friends at parties and who had to be convinced by the more business-savvy Jobs that there may actually be a market for this ‘personal computer’ idea he’d been tinkering with. If The Woz would never have become a multimillionaire (back in 1980 when that was still a lot of money) without Jobs and his business sense, then the same goes the other way around – none of Apple’s true technological innovations could have taken place without the Wonderful Wizard of Woz.

The invention that made him famous was the first PC, the Apple 1. The machine sounds like a joke now – a  $25 microprocessor (MOS 6502) on a single-circuit board with 256 bytes of ROM, 4K or 8K bytes of RAM and a 40 character by 24-row display controller. The user was expected to supply the case, power supply, keyboard and display themselves. The Apple 1 was fairly expensive $666.66 (Wozniack says he has no idea of the supposedly satanic connotations of the number and just chose the price because he ‘likes repeating digits’). Apple 2 introduced innovations such as high res and the floppy disk drive. Wozniack designed all the software as well as the hardware for these early machines.

Since his early innovations iWoz has been quite low key. An aircraft accident gave him amnesia in 1981, and when he eventually returned to Apple in 1983 he was just employed as an engineer. He has been involved with pioneering useful things such as early GPS technology as well as the universal remote control. He still receives a paycheck from Apple (even though he stopped being a full-time employee in 1987) and is a shareholder in the company.

The Woz is a true geek icon, proving that with enough tech savvy you can be a success in life without an iota of business or dress sense. Respect.

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Gadget – The Swatch Infinity Concept Watch

Posted on 13. Oct, 2009 by Jake.

Once I had a Swatch watch. It was big and multi-coloured and analogue and I loved it with all my heart, because I thought it was cool even though, in retrospect, it probably wasn’t. This was before cell phones, back when one actually needed a watch and it wasn’t just a fashion statement. So although all my Swatch could do was tell the time (it didn’t tell me the date or the temperature or do my maths homework like a good digital watch could), I wore it day in and day out until the plastic strap gave in. I even got used to the surprisingly loud ticking noise it made.

So imagine my surprise in discovering that the kings of analogue, Swatch themselves, are busy developing something called the Infinity Concept Watch. It doesn’t tick. And it sure as hell doesn’t just lie around on your wrist telling the time all day. It has video, music, photo sharing and video recording. It doesn’t have bright cartoons on it or a plastic strap.

It looks like the watch of the future. The kind of thing a One World Government run by shape shifting lizards would force all its citizens to wear while they finish developing the microchip. And as much as I like technology, gadgets and gimmicks, a part of me thinks that Swatch have sold out with this one. Swatch is a brand that, to me, is synonymous with analogue. They shouldn’t try to be Apple. If this were the iWatch I’d understand. But Swatch, I expect less from you. All the same, I have to admit that if this were being developed by anyone else I’d be drooling over it.

The watch will have a removable face and a magnetic strap that attaches to the watch, which can be removed to be recharged. One of the gadget ten commandments, – though shalt not design things which attempt to do absolutely everything – has been ignored here. We’ll have to wait and see whether it manages to make up for this transgression by adequately fulfilling its multiple functions. While it functions as an MP3 player, mini-cinema and photo album, I see no evidence that the thing can actually tell time. That’s fine, we have cell phones for that.

I look forward to actually testing the Swatch Infinity Concept Watch out, but the thing is still in production and hasn’t yet reached the shops. And I’m guessing it will take even longer to reach South African shops. For now, like riding the Gautrain or, for that matter, real live members of the opposite sex, local geeks are just going to have to imagine what it’s like.

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