Apple has filed a patent application detailing a method of “pairing a sensor and an authorised garment”, such as “running shoes, shirts or slacks” in hopes of deterring what the company has determined is a disturbing trend toward people “[taking] it upon themselves to remove the sensor from the special pocket of the [iPod-linked] Nike+ shoe and place it at inappropriate locations (shoelaces, for example) or place it on non-Nike+ model shoes.”
Apple sells the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit as a tool for storing data about your workout on your iPod, allowing you to track and analyze your progress toward fitness perfection. As one commenter on Slashdot said about the $30 sensor, “you can also share your workout stats with others, help build community, etc - sort of the antithesis of the “isolated runner with headphones on” kind of thing. Very Web 2.0.”
Under the patent Apple has applied for, companies like Nike could authorise their garments by burying an RFID chip inside it, requiring that chip to activate the sensor. No longer would you be able to use the sensor you paid for with any shoe of your choosing.
Via Slashdot
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 15th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Clothing and Hardware Hacks and iPod and iPod Accessories.
Writer Scott Gilbertson has a very cool Mac netbook that cost him only $550.
It’s got a slick black case, weighs nothing, gets hours of battery life and runs Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS X. It’s not a MacBook Air.
It’s a hacked EeePC — a tiny liliputer , as they’re now called, fresh from Asus, a Tawainese manufacturer best known for PC motherboards.
Gilbertson’s netbook is the device Mac fans have wanted for years: A low-cost cousin to the beautiful but pricey MacBook Air.
It runs like a champ but has a couple of quirks (one big one) and may not be strictly legal, though Apple’s never going to prosecute unless these machines are sold commercially. Hit the jump for details.
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Written by Leander Kahney on September 6th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Apple and Hardware Hacks and Macintosh and Software.
Via Flickr
Flickr user Danial Forsythe has taken matters into his own hands and found a way to manually refocus the iPhone’s camera. Long derided as a deficient feature of Apple’s popular handset, the iPhone camera’s default focal length is set to infinity, which makes for less-than-stellar close up shots. Forsythe has posted instructions detailing a way to open up the case, get the screen out of the way, flip the camera up, break the glue, adjust the lens, and plug the screen back in to check the focus.
If that sounds like more getting “under the hood” than you might be comfortable with, third party lenses and filters do exist to help you try and get more out of your iPhone’s camera.
Via Ars Technica
Written by Lonnie Lazar on August 28th, 2008 with no comments.
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In what can only be considered a turn of logic from an alternative “evil twin” universe, Hackintosh maker Psystar answered Apple’s cease and desist lawsuit of July 3th with their own alleging restraint of trade and antitrust violations.
via Computerworld
// Opinion Follows //
It’s been long anticipated that Psystar would play the “Antitrust Card” in defense of its illegal activities. The only thing is, it’s not illegal to have a monopoly. The key predicate to an antitrust suit is that the consumer must in some way be harmed by the monopolistic behavior of the defendant. Rudy Pedraza, Psystar’s president summed up their consumer harm argument by saying: “It’s not that people don’t want to use Mac OS X, but they’re not open spending an exorbitant amount of money for something that’s essentially generic hardware.”
So that’s it, ‘the Apple’s hardware is too expensive’ argument we’ve heard time and time again, and have time and time again refuted. On a direct feature for feature comparison with Sony, HP or IBM, Apple hardware is no more expensive than the competition.
Our industry is FULL of monopolies that no one seems to disagree with, examples follow:
- Tivo has a monopoly on the Tivo OS, in that it too can only be employed on Tivo or licensed 3rd party hardware.
- Sony has a monopoly on the PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and PSP operating systems and regulates very closely the hardware they’re allowed to run on
- IBM has a monopoly on mainframes and the mainframe Z-OS
- even Microsoft has a monopoly on XBox OS and limits the hardware it can run on
While I can understand that free spirited hackers take unbrage at being locked out, there is nothing inherently wrong or illegal with Apple’s strategy of controlling the whole widget. Monopoly “sounds” bad on it’s own, but in Apple’s case they’re not abusing their power.
Written by Leigh McMullen on August 26th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Apple and Hardware and Hardware Hacks.
Last month, after a couple of eggnogs at the office, <a href=”http://cultofmac.com/?p=1574″>I drenched my keyboard in a cup of coffee</a>. Kind readers suggested running it through the dishwasher. Of course, putting keyboards in dishwashers is the kind of thing you read on the internet all the time, but never believe it actually works.
So, skeptical that it would work, I tried it myself.
I’m happy to report that running a filthy, coffee-stained keyboard through the dishwasher works great. The keyboard is spotless, and it works perfectly.
Feel me: dishwashers make keyboards better than new.
Full procedure after the jump.
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Written by Leander Kahney on January 9th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Hardware and Hardware Hacks and Hints and Rumors.
