512 Pixels

After all these years, the Newton design language still speaks volumes to me.

Dieter Bohn at PreCentral has posted this letter from Palm:

These are exciting times for Palm and our developer community. The Hot Apps promotion that we kicked off back in February is about to end with over 400 developers receiving a share of a million dollars. We recently launched the Summer Half Off promotion—a 50% discount for nearly every app in our catalog that was funded by Palm; developers still get their full earnings for each sale, but customers get half off. And we’re just getting started.

Sounds like a string of “oh crap, we’re dying” type moves to me.

Steve Jobs, via Wired:

We require all of our suppliers to certify in writing that they use conflict few materials. But honestly there is no way for them to be sure. Until someone invents a way to chemically trace minerals from the source mine, it’s a very difficult problem.

It sure would be nice if Apple were more public about this issue.

Pete Vilmu:

Fans old enough to remember the days before the Empire struck back in 1980 might recall a little-known promotion launched in the months preceding the first Star Wars sequel. As reported in the Spring 1980 issue of Bantha Tracks – the original Star Wars Fan Club newsletter – a telephone hotline was set up to allow callers to dial in and hear teasers for The Empire Strikes Back several months before the film’s release.

Steve Jobs, via the Apple PR Machine:

This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.

APPL is sitting at $267 a share at this writing.

It ends pretty much the way you think it will.

[ via Macgasm]

The always-amusing John Welch:

I can tell you that sysadmin consultants rarely get called in under good circumstances. Sometimes, but that’s only when you have a client who realizes they don’t have internal expertise, and need shit done quickly, too quickly to get it done in house. Those are the best, because there’s no hurt feelings, and you’re not a cover for intercine office wars.

That’s what we all want. No dicking around, no hurt feelings, no drama. You know my skills, I know your problem, we get shit fixed quickly, and everyone’s happy.

I wish I had this on the back of my card when I did Mac-related consulting for a living.

Josiah finished his last round of chemo today. Now everyone is just keeping a close on eye on things to make sure his brain tumor doesn’t start growing. My wife and I blog about his progress here.

He’s being highlighted in St. Jude’s fundraising for July. Check out the video.

I love the Gizmodo angle.

Add this to the list of issues, I suppose.

Comprehensive.

Mark Milian of the Los Angeles Times:

In April, on the Friday-afternoon launch of Apple’s tablet computer equipped with an AT&T 3G Internet chip, Wiens and co-founder Luke Soules arrived at the Apple Store a mile and a half away from their office just before the 5 p.m. sale. They were surprised to find a line there even though it was just an upgrade.

Not even a month earlier, Wiens and Soules were scrambling to be the first to put an iPad under the microscope — both figuratively and literally; they use a $1,000 scientific instrument for analyzing miniature parts.

To do so, IFixit ordered 10 separate iPads to be shipped to several locations around the country. The one that arrived first, which turned out to be at a friend’s house in Virginia, got the surgical treatment.

These guys are hardcore. Here’s their latest project — the iPhone 4.