posts

John Siracusa, in 2005, for Ars Technica:

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the xMac. My xMac. The Mac that I want to buy. Reduced to one sentence, it’s a completely configurable, headless Mac that trades expandability for reduced size and cost.

The idea of the xMac is older than this article, as John explains, but it’s pretty simple: a Mac that trades some of the flexibility of the Mac Pro for a big reduction in price. A Mac mini-priced system with a few PCI Express 2.0 slots, a nice RAM ceiling would tickle the fancy of many Mac nerds who dislike the iMac’s severe lack of upgradability.

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The subhead to a story written by Austin Carr:

Six years and five iPhones later, Fast Company tracks down the recipient of Steve Jobs’s groundbreaking prank call, the first ever made from Apple’s original iPhone to the outside world.

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James Dowd at The Commercial Appeal:

Beginning Monday, the price of Monday through Saturday single copy editions of The Commercial Appeal — found in racks and at retailers — increases to $1, but the change will not affect Sunday editions or subscription rates.

As part of the increase, a portion of every non-subscription copy sold will be deposited in The Commercial Appeal Children’s Fund, a newly established program to benefit nonprofit organizations dealing with children’s and women’s issues.

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Clara Moskowitz at Space.com, on the Mars rover:

The computer problem is related to a glitch in flash memory on the A-side computer caused by corrupted memory files, Cook said. Scientists are still looking into the root cause the corrupted memory, but it’s possible the memory files were damaged by high-energy space particles called cosmic rays, which are always a danger beyond the protective atmosphere of Earth.

NASA says the rover should be good to go, as it can run on the B-side computer for some time.

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Dave Engberg at Evernote:

While our password encryption measures are robust, we are taking additional steps to ensure that your personal data remains secure. This means that, in an abundance of caution, we are requiring all users to reset their Evernote account passwords. Please create a new password by signing into your account on evernote.com.

Good on Evernote.

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Don’t tell Josiah, but we’re headed to Disney World with Make-A-Wish.

Many of you know that our son has been in a fight with brain cancer since turning six months old. Now, at four and a half years old, we’ve been extremely blessed that his cancer has been stable for two years.

See, Josiah’s type of cancer doesn’t go in to remission. Here’s how the American Cancer Society defines the term:

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It’s a shame that EA’s ruined what was such a great title for iOS.

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It’s hard not to like the Apple TV. For just $99, it delivers iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and more, right to your television. It’s simple to setup, simple to use and simple to troubleshoot. There’s really no reason not to have one as part of your home media setup.

As Apple’s quarterly numbers always show, the Apple TV continues to grow in success.

I manage almost 40 of them at work.

We use them in classrooms, conference rooms and sound booths for AirPlay from iOS devices and recent Macs. AirPlay works great — even across VLANs — if you have your network set up well.

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HTC’s Drew Bamford, writing about the work that went in to Sense 4:

During our research, a few consistent patterns emerged:

-Most people don’t differentiate between apps and widgets.

-Widgets aren’t widely used – weather, clock and music are the most used and after that, fewer than 10% of customers use any other widgets.

-Most of you don’t modify your home screens much. In fact, after the first month of use, approximately 80% of you don’t change your home screens any more.

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With App.net growing by leaps and bounds, Niels Kobschätzki is keeping up with all of the third-party clients that have sprung up around the service.

For what it’s worth, I’m using Felix on my iPhone, Zephyr on my iPad and Kiwi on my Mac.

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I love my backpack, but Tom Bihn has released a new version that’s even better.

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This week, Myke and I discuss Myke’s ability to force developers in to updating their apps with a mere mention, then discuss the state of the Apple blogosphere and those who might be stuck in the past when it comes to Apple’s direction and business.

This episode is brought to you by: Squarespace, the secret behind exceptional websites. Go to squarespace.com/70decibels to start your free trial and use the offer code 70decibels2 at checkout to get 10% off your first order.

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