512 Pixels

Typekit:

Add a line of code to your pages and choose from hundreds of fonts. Simple, bulletproof, standards compliant, accessible, and totally legal.

Google PR:

Google announced an agreement to acquire AdMob, a mobile display ad technology provider, for $750 million. This acquisition will enhance Google’s existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, while also giving advertisers and publishers more choice in this growing new area.

AdMob currently hosts ads in many mobile applications, including those on the App Store.

…creating a funny “that’s what she said” moment:

With lots of fixes.

Shufflegazine:

At the core of that legal issue, according to Mr Huang, is that Intel wants to standardize the technology that computer manufacturers use and computer manufacturers, like Apple, wants to differentiate. Mr Huang said “Apple wants to differentiate. So inside your MacBook is a NVIDIA chipset. Because Apple wants to build fundamentally different computers than just the Intel platform. They want to add value.”

Mr Huang said that in his home they’re “all Apple.” According to him “Apple uses the best technology for their [computers]. Apple says to their customers: if you buy a computer from us you can be sure we have selected the best technology inside for you. That is their promise to consumers. Their promise to consumers isn’t we’ve selected the best technology for you with the exception of what Intel allows us to use. That’s not their promise. And that’s why Apple uses the best technology where they want whenever they want. And that’s why I’m all Apple! At home it’s just Macs everywhere. It’s NVIDIA’s technology in all of them but I use Macs. My son has two Macs, my daughter has a Mac, there’s an extra Mac just in case and my wife has a Mac. It’s just Mac, Mac, Mac! Because I know it’s got the best stuff inside.”

Back in May 2006, as Apple was transitioning to Intel processors, the company announced the MacBook, a 13-inch notebook to replace the 12- and 14-inch iBook G4s (and maybe the 12-inch PowerBook G4). The new machine came in white or black plastic, sported a glossy display, a built-in iSight, and a brand new “sunken” keyboard design.

The machine was a huge hit. Starting at $1099, the machines were far more powerful and feature-packed than the aging machines they replaced — and cheaper.

But the early models weren’t without issues. A problem with random shutdowns plagued early models. Apple pushed out a firmware update after months of replacing heat sinks in a vain attempt to fix the problem.

Other models were affected by a widespread hard drive failure related to a specific Seagate drive Apple shipped in many machines. And almost every single white MacBook on the planet has had chips missing from its top case.

But I can forgive these issues — in 2006, the MacBook was a brand-new, redesigned-from-the-ground up project for Apple. Sure, they should have fixed the top case thing at some point, but at least they’re replacing top cases for free now.

My biggest beef with the MacBook is the crazy revisions the unit has gone through over the last year. For years, Apple shipped two white models, with a black model as the “best” option. Then, last fall, Apple ditched the black model, kept the lower-end system as the the “MacBook White” and released a brand-new model, in an unibody aluminum enclosure with no firewire port. The “White” was basically the same machine as ever, with FireWire 400 and chip-prone top cases.

The aluminum MacBook was discontinued this summer, however, when Apple morphed the 13-inch Unibody MacBook into the 13-inch MacBook Pro, with a FireWire 800 port in tow. The “MacBook White” simply became the “MacBook” once again.

Then — just a few weeks ago — Apple revamped the MacBook yet again. This time around, they kept the white plastic, but instead of the classic top case/bottom case design, it is now a unibody as well. With — once again — no FireWire.

It’s confusing to those of us who make a living thanks to Apple, let alone the average consumer. The MacBook line has been as confusing as the Performa/Quadra line was in the mid–90s. Hopefully those days are over. The new unibody, plastic machines are well-built, and I have a feeling they’re here to stay. Hopefully.

Apple, in an email to customers:

Dear Customer,

If you’ve installed the Apple TV 3.0 software update, you should immediately update to version 3.0.1. This prevents content from temporarily disappearing until it is resynced.

To update your Apple TV software:

1. Reboot your Apple TV (unplug the power cord and plug it back in)

2. Select Settings > General from the main menu

3. Select Update Software

4. Select Download and Install

Note: Your Apple TV will conduct a restart, which is followed by the Apple logo and a status bar. For more information, please refer to this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3116

If you need further assistance with your Apple TV, contact AppleCare.

Sincerely,

Apple TV Team

Wired’s Dylan Tweney, on why he’s not switching to the Droid quite yet:

The second big reason is that I’ve grown dependent on two iPhone apps: Instapaper Pro and Tweetie. I also occasionally use RunKeeper, Stanza, Pandora and a handful of games, but Instapaper and Tweetie are the killer apps. They’re the things that, together with e-mail capability, make the iPhone useful to me.

Tweetie I could probably learn to live without: There are plenty of Twitter apps for Android, and the most popular one, Twidroid, seems to work fine, even if it lacks Tweetie’s elegance and speed. But Instapaper’s ability to collect, reformat and display news articles and blog posts I want to read — even if I’m offline — has made it an indispensable commuter and downtime companion. I would sorely miss it.

So while I’m no fan of AT&T or Apple, I’ll be sticking with the iPhone now. It’s one of the two best smartphones on the market, and it’s the only one that has the apps I depend on.

The Droid, Palm Pre and others now match the iPhone feature-for-feature. In fact, in some ways the iPhone is behind these other devices when it comes to things like multi-tasking, battery life and carrier coverage.

However, switching from one of these devices to another is a complicated thing, as Tweney points out. He — like most power-users — has a system in place that system relies heavily on third-party apps. And with 100,000 apps, no other device — no matter how great — can match the iPhone platform’s power and flexibility.

This again raises the question of “quality vs. quantity.” Just because a platform has more apps than any other platform doesn’t mean it’s better,* but it sure gives people something to think about before buying a new phone.

*Case in point: Windows.

The Power Mac G3 intro:

The i Mac G3 intro video:

Sorry for the low quality — it’s the best I could find.

Objectified is a film about industrial design, from Gary Hustwit, the same guy who did Helvetica. Here’s a clip from the new film, in which Apple’s Jonathan Ive discusses the MacBook Air and Apple’s unibody construction process.

It makes me happy he carries a white iPhone. When people ask me why I didn’t buy the more popular black version, I’m going to start referencing this clip.

Kotaku:

John Carmack has a long history working with Apple on gaming products, not all of it positive.

“My relationship with Apple has been long standing, but it’s a roller-coaster ride,” he told Kotaku. “I’ll be invited up on stage for a keynote one month and then I’ll say something they don’t like and I can be blacklisted for six months.”

[…]

Carmack thinks the run-ins with Apple are because the company, the highest people in the company, look down on games. But the popularity of gaming on the iPhone has forced Apple to try and come to grips with that, even if they’re not happy about it.

“At the highest level of Apple, in their heart of hearts,” Carmack said, “they’re not proud of the iPhone being a game machine, they wish it was something else.”

Bizarre.