A recent job advertisement posted by Apple has led to speculation that the iPhone could get handwriting recognition.
The call for a “Handwriting Recognition Engineer” to work full-time in Cupertino points to Apple developing some kind of new system, but whether it’s something that will appear on the iPhone is another matter…
One of the latest rumours surrounding the iPhone is that it will come to Australia on the Telstra Next G network in the second quarter of 2008, with eight million units expected to be produced in the third quarter.
According to a report in Smart House, Telstra’s Next G network is credited as being the fastest in the world, currently running at 7.2Mb/s, and tipped to reach 32Mb/s with planned network upgrades that could coincide with the iPhone’s Australian debut…
Title says it all really. Into Mobile reports that ZiPhone 3.0 offers an easy “few click” procedure for jailbreaking and unlocking any iPhone or iPod Touch…
In what is likely to be an ongoing pattern, Apple has updated the iPhone’s beta SDK, offering release 2 (build 9A2151 to be precise) for download to all registered users…
Lost is an awesome show. But every now & then I wonder just what the writers were thinking…
10. Nikki & Paulo
Yes, they were by far the two most annoying characters in television history. I’m glad to see them gone. But, with Patchy resurrecting all the time, Locke cured of paralysis, Rose cured of cancer, and Christian Shepherd sitting around in Jacob’s cabin… Might we see Nikki and Paulo again too? Say it isn’t so! I for one am hoping the immortality theory is not true.
9. Libby’s Death
Guess I’ll never know why she was stalking Hurley at the mental institution. Great way too create a really compelling mystery and then destroy it.
8. Eko’s “Smoky” Encounter
This left something to be desired. Sure, the morphing of Eko’s brother into Smoky was really cool and helped us realize many of the Losties’ hallucinations were actually Smoky appearances. But the next scenes where Smoky was tossing Eko around like a ragdoll were unfulfilling, to say the least. Sometimes Smoky looks and acts way too much like the water creature on “The Abyss” to be taken seriously.
7. Hurley’s Diet
Hurley wouldn’t be the same - or as much fun - if he were skinny. But Hurley really should be losing some weight on the island. He was sneaking Dharma food for awhile, but isn’t that long over?
6. Fake Smoky Appearance
Big goof. Lost viewers everywhere discovered that in the pilot episode, a “smoke monster” was seen hitting the airplane turbine shortly before it exploded. Much speculation ensued about this find. Sadly, the producers later confirmed it was a CGI effect left in the show in error. You can see it here:
5. Charlie: Death by Stupid
Charlie’s death was sad. But the saddest part was that it didn’t have to happen. He could have run to the other side of the door and shut it. There was plenty of time.
4. The Lost Experience
OK, a lot of people will disagree with me on this. Sure, The Lost Experience kept us entertained one summer. But the revelations ended up being very out of place. The solution it offered to Hurley’s numbers was unsatisfying and has never been mentioned on the actual show. Does anyone still believe that was really the answer?
3. Locke’s Bizarre Trust of Ben
Seriously Locke, grow a brain!
Ben shot him and left him for dead in a mass grave. Ben admitted to gassing all those Dharma people and thus committing mass murder. He’s insane. Yet Locke continues to release him and actually believe him. Utter stupidity. Why does Locke insist on trusting liars?
2. Lack of Curiosity Killed the Cat
How many times have we yelled at our TV screens because Locke didn’t follow up on a mystery when he was with an “other” or Jack seemed to care more about Kate and Sawyer than the smoke monster that was killing people? There were plenty of times the Losties didn’t share vital information with one another or “forgot” to ask Danielle or an Other about a question that was bugging all of us.
Sure, Locke finally asked Ben what the smoke monster was. And Ben said he had no idea. But really Locke, of all the people you could ask, you choose Ben?
1. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllttttttttttttttttttttttt!
Ah yes, it was the fodder of forum humor everywhere: Michael and his ever-present Waaaaallllltttt scream.
Waaaaaalllllltttttt! haunted us in our dreams. Sadly, we saw it again before “Meet Kevin Johnson.” Think the love of Waaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllttttttttt is over? Just run a Google search on Waaaaaaaaaaaaaalt!! and you’ll see we’re all still talking about it:
Notice the third entry in the picture above. Apparently Waaaaaaaaaalt!!!! translates into any language. No wonder Walt doesn’t want to see Michael anymore.
The iPhone Dev Team strikes at Apple’s core with the Pwnage tool. The PWN, which is publicaly available later today, Sunday March 30th, allows you to flash custom unsigned firmware onto the iPhone or iPod touch. Not only will PWN properly hack the iPhone and iPod touch, the iPhone Dev Team claims, “any subsequent firmware releases will also be vulnerable to “Pwnage”…like 1.2 (2.0) beta.” Is the iPhone Dev Team getting too arrogant for their own good or is it possible they’re that good to believe they’ve developed a tool that’s Jobs proof? Apple, I believe the ball is now in your court. Click over to watch the video and view screen shots of PWN in action.
CNN Money has reported that some person familiar with the situation, told Dow Jones Newswire that Hon Hai will be the folks assembling what they’re referring to as a more advanced version of the first-gen iPhone. The unnamed source stated Hon Hai scored the exclusive contract from Apple. Unfortunately, the source declined to provide more details.
In case you’re wondering how much more advance the iPhone can really get. Lets just say at the moment it sorely lack 3G, integrated GPS as well as the not so-advance feature such as copy and paste. Well, the last one is an OS feature that doesn’t require new hardware - I just thought it’s important to throw in there.
Apple’s decision to refuse third-party developers from using background processes on the iPhone has been a regular sore-point in discussion of whether the handset is a “true smartphone”, and at first glance Rupert Goodwin’s article on the subject comes across as just more bile-bait. However, what differentiates Goodwin’s piece - once you look past his comparison of the iPhone to a 1981 IBM PC - is the fact that he offers some actual suggestions for how Apple could have handled the situation differently.
“If the design of the iPhone precludes proper always-on connectivity — which wouldn’t be the first time the company has gone for form over function — then have a decent scheduler, which understands the metrics of wireless access and makes intelligent decisions about when to allow what to connect. This does put the onus on application designers to understand the limitations and capabilities of such a channel and to create software accordingly, but then that is their job”Rupert Goodwins, ZDNet
Last year, we pointed out this cool campaign for iPods with video in South Africa. Tiny boxes of movie popcorn, posters and even a miniature “trailer” announced the idea of “Movies in your pocket.”
Today, Creative Bits describes another iPod campaign from South Africa. It features a set of earbuds that lead not to an iPod, but a pocket full of music, if you will. In one ad, a rock band does its thing in a woman’s purse. In another, a boy band croons on a desk and a hip-hop act features a microphone wire that leads to the wearer’s earbuds.
The images are great, and quite different from the silhouette ads we see in the US. Have you seen an interesting campaign or ad in your neck of the woods?
In “the seventh Aperture-related software release from Apple in a little over six weeks,” reports Rob Galbraith (robgalbraith.com) in his first look at Aperture 2.1, Apple rolled out the addition of image editing plug-ins. In addition to taking an extensive look at the Apple-developed Dodge & Burn plug-in — which he thinks will “quickly become an indispensable tool” — Galbraith also delves into what he considers “the real story” of this release: “among early plug-in creators are Nik, with Viveza, and PictureCode, with Noise Ninja,” and he describes the value that several expected plug-ins (including Power Stroke from Digital Film Tools) will offer Aperture users.