If you’re looking to pick up an iPhone cheap, you may want to avoid any opportunities that arise for you in Russia. It seems there’s an increasingly popular scam there where people want to quickly unload their iPhone with a nearly discharged battery in order to quickly raise funds for a train or plane ticket. They show you the phone with an Apple logo that lights up momentarily when the power button is pressed and say, “just charge it and you have an iPhone!”
Not surprisingly, the insides look something like what you see in the gallery below, complete with a steel plate to give the fake phone some heft, and batteries to produce the lit-up logo. At least the fake Rolex watches tell time, don’t they?
Written by Lonnie Lazar on November 5th, 2008 with no comments.
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I was amused to see early shots of the latest Dell OptiPlex desktops. These are pretty much the mainline of Dell’s line-up, and are among the most popular desktop PCs in the country. Electronista talked about the new line-up’s “industrial, metal” look, which Dell credits for dramatic reductions in power consumption. And despite Dell’s much-remarked-upon commitment to industrial design, the new boxes are incredibly hideous.
Why? Because Dell is perfectly willing to sacrifice a design vision in order to save on manufacturing costs. Compare the box at left to a Mac Pro. Both have metal grill faces, but only one is metal all over and uses modified commodity components in order to maintain a consistent look. Dell, meanwhile, dropped in ugly black plastic components for the drives and sides, presumably because it was a lot easier than speccing a custom mold for all parts. AND they left in the floppy drive, a full 10 years after Apple ditched it.
This, in a nutshell, is the difference between Apple and nearly every other computer company on earth (Sony might be the one exception, and HP is improving): Apple just won’t compromise. If a computer is going to be an imposing metal tower that recalls a steel factory, it will be that all over, even if it’s nearly impossible to engineer. A company like Dell, on the other hand, will throw such interesting design ideas out as soon they get hard to pull off. Apple is committed to engineering designs exactly as crafted, down to the millimeter and the routing of interior cables. A company like Dell wants to provide just enough design and taste that people aren’t actively repulsed by its products.
It’s not even close.
Electronista via Engadget
Written by Pete Mortensen on October 29th, 2008 with no comments.
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The iPhone is great for a lot of everyday uses, but dog chew toy is definitely not one of them. Luckily the folks over at Haute Diggety Dog have created the iBone, a textile stand-in for your precious iPhone so your dog can join in the i-fun. It may not get very good reception, but it's better than lobbing the real deal across your lawn into the slobbery jaws of death. Grab one from their site or Amazon for $11.95.
[Engadget via Investor Spot]
Written by Edward Kirk on October 27th, 2008 with no comments.
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The trouble with iBone, a plush squeaky toy for dogs modeled on the iPhone, just slightly larger than the real thing, is that it’s unlikely to discourage Fido from playing around with your iPhone, should it get within paw reach.
Via Nerd Approved
Written by Nicole Martinelli on October 20th, 2008 with no comments.
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You know what it’s like when you’re strolling around looking for networks. They’re all the same. They’re all called “belkin54″ or “NETGEAR” or “BTHomeHub”. So generic. So default.
What we really need is networks with imaginative names. Names like “Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem”, as screenshotted here by Flickr user Ingridesign.
I’m now inspired to change my network name from the stupendously dull “16spring” to “The Network That Performs Somersaults”.
Is your network called something interesting? Something better than “Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem”? Do share.
Oh, and another thing: apparently someone announced some new laptops yesterday. You might want to look that up if you’re interested.
(Picture used with permission. Thanks to Ingrid!)
Written by Giles Turnbull on October 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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