Category — news

On Valentines day in the ipod section of the Fifth Avenue Apple store in New York City, Josh Li and Ya Ting exchanged vows in front of an officiant dressed as steve jobs. The couple’s vows were read off of an ipod, and as far as I can tell they didn’t get kicked out for doing this. Although you can see some apple store employees in the background, It looks like they were enjoying the occasion along with everyone else in the store.

Apple has finally released their “much anticipated tablet device” and it is called the… iPad? really? they still didn’t see those jokes coming? Mad TV made an iPad spoof of their own back in 2007. What follows is my own first take on this new product.

In the hardware department Apple’s industrial design department has seemed to hit the nail on the head once again, this device looks gorgeous and from what people who have actually held it have said, seems like it will be a pleasure to use. The Screen is a 9.7inch LED backlit IPS display (In Plane Switching). The really strange thing they did with the screen is they made it 1024×768, which is a standard 4×3 frame size that computers used to use, if this device is going to be primarily a media device, for consuming video and written content, why not make it a 16×9 aspect ratio like they do with most of the rest of apple’s products? At the least, I would have wanted to see a native 720p display, which is 1280×720 resolution. As far as most of the specs go, for the most part it seems to be a souped up ipod touch, with a much larger, higher resolution screen, a built in microphone, a much faster processor (Which may be the fruit of Apple’s Acquisition of PA Semi back in 2008), and the possibility of 3G coverage. Ports consist of a single 30pin ipod dock connector, with an external keyboard, docking station, and digital photo kit (SD card reader), available as ad-on accessories. One glaring problem that I have noticed, is that GPS capabilities are only available with the Wifi + 3G models, which in my opinion limits the capabilities of the device.

In the software arena, the iPad is running a higher resolution version of the iPhone OS, which means you should be able to do everything on it that you can normally do on your ipod touch or iPhone right now, as well as have the ability to add higher resolution software as it comes out, most notably ebook apps, and research apps. Apple is also releasing a version of iWork for the iPad, which actually would allow you to get some real work done on the device. I am curious to see the iBookstore, and how well that works out, it definitely seems like apple will be giving Amazon a run for their money in the ebook reader market.

Price is what can make or break this product. Much to my amazement (and everyone else’s), Apple actually came out with the iPad at a mostly reasonable introductory price. $499 for the 16Gb base model with Wifi Only. As mentioned above, this model also lacks GPS, however may be a perfectly useful device depending on how you plan on using it, 32 and 64Gb models are $599 and $699 respectively, and all are supposed to be available in Late March, with the Wifi + 3G versions coming a month after that. The Wifi + 3G version will be unlocked, with no contract required, and cost $629 for 16Gb, with 32 and 64Gb models $729 and $829. The wireless options seem reasonable with 250Mb costing $15 a month and “unlimited” costing $30 a month.

Final word: I want one, it looks like a really useful device, excellent mobile media device. Battery life seems good, at a claimed 10 hours of HD video decoding, although, there are a few glaring omissions. The biggest downfall in my eyes is that there is still no camera. A camera was the one thing I was waiting for on the iPod Touch, and I thought for sure that they would add one on this device, however they have not. Imagine a front facing camera allowing you to do iChat AV through your iPad, that would revolutionize the way we communicate. But alas, I suppose I’ll still have to drag out my MacBook Pro for that one. Also missing is the ability to do do multitasking, my Droid does it, why can’t we have multitasking on this new seemingly powerful product? So I guess the big question I still need to answer is, do I buy one now or wait until they finally fix what I want fixed? And could that mean waiting for something that will never happen?

Today is in the middle of the 10th anniversary of the day that Nicholas White was trapped in an elevator car in New York City’s McGraw Hill building. This is a time lapse video of the ordeal as captured by the buildings security cameras. The story was first reported in the New Yorker Magazine, in an article by Nick Paumgarten in April of 2008. I have recently recounted this tale to a few friends, some of whom I doubt believed me. At any rate, now that it is the tenth anniversary of this unlucky staffer from Business Week’s trip to nowhere, I thought you all might want to view it. I also highly suggest reading the entire New Yorker article, which takes you through many other elevator stories through the years.

George Takei at Drexel

Originally uploaded by kenzickler

George Takei speaking at Drexel University tonight.



The above is a video of George speaking about what he thinks of Obama’s record on LGBT Issues

Josh Muszynski was charged 23 Quadrillion dollars when he bought a five dollar pack of cigarettes at a local convenience store. Visa has said that it was a programming error that resulted in many people across the country to be inadvertantly charged many quadrillions of dollars for small purchases. The following is the story originally reported by WMUR (My former employer).

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Visa said Wednesday that a “temporary programming error” caused to a Manchester man and thousands of others across the country to be charged quadrillions of dollars for small purchases.
Josh Muszynski just wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes at a Mobil gas station, so he was shocked to see a charge on his bank statement of more than $23 quadrillion.
“I thought my card had been compromised,” Muszynski said. “I thought somebody had bought Europe with my credit card. It was very concerning.”

- WMUR TV