Aim for the Apple logo

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to shoot a piece of expensive technology with a shotgun?  ”Only every time I use my computer,” you’re saying to yourself in the monologue I’m writing for you.  Well, I feel the same way, so that’s why when I saw this video of an iPad getting shot with a shotgun in super slow-motion, I just had to share it.

Really, the folks at Free Tax USA really do make a good point.  Paying someone to do your taxes is like throwing money away, but paying someone to do your taxes RIGHT is a whole lot better than legal bills, prison time, and the hassle of dealing with the IRS when you do something via a website (or doing it on your own) and it turns out to be completely wrong.

I have an adage I try to stick to when it comes to things I don’t enjoy doing, like math.  You’re not just paying to have it done, you’re paying to have someone to yell at if it’s not done right.  And really, isn’t it the American dream to make angry phone calls to H&R Block, only to have them absolve themselves of all responsibility when the IRS comes looking for heads to collect?

I think we’ve all been here.  You get your hands on a hot new gadget and you want to tear it open and start playing with it right away!  Then, you get to the box.  Apparently, the average new DVD or remove control or pack of batteries is as valuable as the gold in Fort Knox, so it gets protected like gold in layers of difficult-to-tear plastic, tie-downs, and other irritants that stand between you and your gadget.

Here’s a guy who feels your pain.  He’s got his new Apple Remote, he wants to be all cool and do one of those awesome unboxing videos that make all the geeks and gadget-heads drool, and then he runs into the packaging problem.  Coolness destroyed; tickets booked for first-class passage on the failboat to Pwnville.

I really can’t mock this guy; I think we’ve all been there.  I’ve just never gotten my failed attempts at opening up video game packages or new headphones on video!  I’d say keep practicing, but you’re getting more famous for failing than you would have for a smooth unboxing!

Via:  The Cynch

There are computers, cheap computers, and then there’s the very cheapest of the cheap.  The government of India, seeking to save some money and provide computers for its population of several billion people, has decided to do OLPC one better.  The inexpensive laptop computer has been one-upped as India’s Human Resources Minister, Shri Kapil Sibal, has unveiled the country’s $35 laptop.

Best of all, the company hopes that the $35 laptop eventually gets driven down to $10 via competition.  Now, the device isn’t the most capable thing on the market, but considering that it’s got a color touchscreen display, 2GB of memory, a USB port, and the ability to play YouTube videos.  If you throw in a very lite word processing program, I think you’ve got pretty much everything you could possibly need on the go at an incredibly low investment.

Here’s the question:  how’s it even possible?  To roll out a laptop for significantly less than the cost of a cell phone, even with India’s billion-population buying power and ability to access very cheap manual labor for the making of these machines, is mind-blowing.

Sony’s had a few laptop problems in the past couple of years.  Back in the mid-00’s, Sony’s laptop battery division was the source of the above pictured exploding laptop.  That particular unit’s a Dell, but Sony’s faulty laptop batteries fell across a wide swath of manufacturers and brand names.

Now, Sony’s back again with another faulty laptop (or, I guess, perfectly functional lap-placed omelet maker) in the form of the Sony Vaio laptop.  As it turns out, some 539,000 Sony F and C Vaio laptops sold throughout the US, Europe, and Asia are also prone to overheating, to sometimes dangerous levels.  Well, dangerous to the technology, not to you.

According to the company, “In rare instances, these notebook computers may overheat due to a potential malfunction of the internal temperature management system, resulting in deformation of the product’s keyboard or external casing, and a potential burn hazard to consumers.”  If you own one of the affected, you can either do a firmware update or send your laptop off to Sony for repairs.

Oh Apple.  Will you ever get the iPhone to work as a phone, rather than just a tiny computer that occasionally makes phone calls?  After all the issues with the iPhone 3G,  you’d think the iPhone 4G would be an improvement, but it just might not be.  After all, with the 3G, you never had to worry about how holding your phone in your left hand would keep it from working.

Seriously.  Due to the placement of the antenna, for most people who use their left hand for phone-use, their hand blocks the antenna.  That’s enough to degrade or completely interfere with the iPhone’s ability to hold a cell phone signal.  That’s poor design, no matter how you slice it.  I don’t care how pretty something looks on the outside, if you’re not doing it right on the inside you may as well just smash the thing with a hammer for all the good it’ll do me.

Apple’s solution?  Don’t hold your phone that way.  Great, thanks!

It took 28 days to sell a million iPads.  It took 58 days (30 days later) to sell two million iPads.  Now, just 22 days after the two-million-sold mark, Apple chairman Steve Jobs is crowing about three million iPads sold.  In 80 days, the iPad has moved three MILLION units in one of the worst economic crises in recent history.  Staggering.

In spite of budget cuts, job losses, pay increase freezes, and general austerity all around, people are just lining up to give their money to the Cupertino fruit company.  Is the iPad providing a way for people to squeeze a few more years out of their current computer by giving them something mobile?  Is it allowing them to bypass upgrading to a smartphone in favor of a new gadget?  I’m not quite sure how this thing is making the splash it is, but the numbers don’t lie.  People are loving them some iPad.

Tell me, gentle reader.  What exactly would you do with an iPad?  As for me, I’d probably trade in my old laptop.  The battery life is awful; while I do like the ability to game on the road, it’s a few years too old for any newer games, and even kind of strains under the weight of World of Warcraft anymore.  I’d love something more portable for quick jaunts to the coffee shop or wherever free WiFi can be had.

Odds are I wouldn’t turn it into a desktop replacement, like in the picture above.  Though if I did, could I write it off on my taxes?  Hmm… perhaps something to consult with an accountant about.

Image: Terpstra Brett

One of the perils of owning a cell phone is that, inevitably, you’re going to misplace it.  And once you lose it, you generally won’t be able to get any peace until you find it again.  Since I tend to leave my phone on vibrate and forget to turn the sound back on, I spend a lot of my time mashing redial on my house phone, trying to listen for the telltale rattle of plastic that announces my phone’s buzzing.  Apple, wise as they are, has figured all that out and has an app to help you find your lost phone.

Find my iPhone, the cleverly-named app, is actually just an app version of the Apple MobileMe program already in place and accessable via web browsers.  Basically, you install the free app, subscribe to the $99-per-year-service, and you’ve got complete control over your phone remotely.  If you want to wipe it, it’s wiped.  If you want to make it display a message and make noise for you to find it, you can do that too.  If you just want to lock it down until it gets returned, that’s also a possibility.

The service works with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch (basically anything capable of running apps).  The only downside, aside from the subscription to MobileMe, is that you have to put your phone on battery-eating Push mode for the service to work.  Still, if you’re absent-minded like I am, this might be perfect.

Want to hear something amazing?  Apple is just NOW launching an iPhone/iPad App to connect your mobile device with access to the Apple Store.  Seriously, given how much Apple loves connecting devices with their online stores (iTunes/iPod), it’s staggering that it took them so long to finally connect their devices to their actual store.

However, the Apple Store App is more than just a way to preorder an iPhone 4G (thought it is supposed to be able to do that), it’s also a handy-dandy way to read reviews of Apple products and locate Apple stores in your area.  Since, you know, you can’t just do that with any old web browser.  Oh wait, you can.  Never mind.

If you’re going to make an app available, why not have it do something special?  It should provide free mobile special deals or coupons or something, rather than just replicate the online store experience in a special app environment.  I’m sure it’s easier to use than the regular store via mobile browser, but that alone doesn’t make it worth downloading.

While it’s not much for actually walking, I do love how the iPad and iPod in the video pop up onto their little feet and stand like they do.  If they could somehow make that a default feature, and maybe turn it into like a pop-up stand, I think you’d have something pretty cool.  Just a little lightweight frame, a little motor, and bingo, instant stability!

There’s no reason to buy a stand-alone iPad stand if you can just… make it stand on its own like this (or work it into a stand-alone collapsible stander).  You could even make it adjustable so you have the right angle for doing whatever you’d do with an iPad.  I’m in favor of this idea.

Were you looking to get your iPad or iPhone into AT&T’s unlimited data plan, to turn it from a smartphone or simple toy into a real data-eating personal computer?  Well, too late.  AT&T has unveiled new plans for their data that are designed to put the kibosh on the data-heavy user and open up the very lowest end of the market for the average consumer.

The old plan, $30 for all-you-could-eat bandwidth, is gone.  As soon as the current contracts run out, that plan is getting eliminated.  What has AT&T replaced them with?

Well, AT&T says 65 percent of smartphone users use less than 200MB of data per month, so their new lower plan is $15 for 200MB or less of data use per month.  The remaining 33 percent of smartphone users use less than 2GB of data, so the second tier for users is 2GB for $25 dollars.  As for serious bandwidth users, that 2percent who apparently use 40 percent of all the available network space?  Well, every gigabyte over 2 will cost you $10/GB.  For an additional $20, there’s also a tethering plan that allows you to split your data between your smartphone and your tethered device (whatever that may be).

If the new caps seem pretty restrictive (and they are), AT&T is soothing the irritated by throwing in free WiFi service at any of AT&T’s hot spots, and plans on sending users warning texts when they consume 65, 90, and 100 percent of their allotted data.  They’re hoping the cheaper plan will lure the cost-conscious consumer onto a smartphone-friendly plan.  I’m not quite sure how offering significantly less for basically the same amount of money is supposed to accomplish this, but I’m not a marketing guru.