Apple

Lawyer: Jobs not 'strong enough' for town meeting

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was not feeling well enough to attend a marathon town council meeting Tuesday night over the fate of his Woodside, Calif., mansion, according to his lawyer.

"I don't think he would be strong enough if we were here until 1 a.m., and I think there's a strong possibility of that," said Howard Elman, Jobs' representative before the Woodside Town Council, as reported by the San Jose Mercury News. Jobs is currently on medical leave from Apple, and is scheduled to return to his regular schedule by the end of June.

Anyone … Read more

Just how much tech junk is getting recycled?

Correction at 9:20 a.m. PDT: The time span for Office Depot's figures is one year.

Last year, Office Depot recycled almost 1.5 million pounds of old tech equipment through its service for consumers, the company said Wednesday.

That sounds like a lot. It makes you realize how quickly all those landfills must be filling up since that figure represents only the junk from people who 1) actually bother to recycle, and 2) chose to go with Office Depot's recycling program.

For a comparison, I decided to check how other company-sponsored recycling programs are doing. Unfortunately, … Read more

Apple plots course for middle of mobile

Is the world finally ready for the mobile minitablet?

It's become quite clear over the last several months that Apple is ready to bridge the mobile computing gap, with plans to develop a device that fits somewhere in between the iPhone and the MacBook. A recent Wall Street Journal article proclaimed that during his medical leave, CEO Steve Jobs has been working on that midsized mobile device, bigger than an iPhone but smaller than a MacBook.

And just this week, BusinessWeek reported that Apple is developing a "media pad" that would let users watch videos on a … Read more

Texas Hold'em iPhone game hides an Easter egg

I recently learned about an Easter egg in Apple's Texas Hold'em card game, which sells for $4.99 in the iTunes App Store.

If you're playing the game in landscape mode, you'll be able to see both your hand and the hands of the other players. Looks normal right? Indeed, the game will continue to look normal until you make a random touch motion on the screen.

Simply make a circle with one finger in the middle of the screen and the game's hidden Easter egg--a heart-shaped cartoon face with his hands in the air--will make its appearance. In case you missed him, we've captured the little surprise. Find our screen capture after the break.… Read more

Apple releases iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4 to developers

Apple's engineering department is still working hard toward the summer release of iPhone OS 3.0. It has released beta 4 to developers only two weeks after beta 3 was released.

Like most Apple updates, we suspect that the new beta 4 includes several stability and performance enhancements that might make the beta more pleasing to use, if you are testing it.

We've heard from some early beta testers complaining (see article comments from this April 1 post) about the number of issues they were experiencing with the previous releases.

It is too early to tell what kinds … Read more

Which smartphone maker isn't Verizon talking to?

In the past 36 hours, rumors have been flying around that Verizon Wireless is in talks with Apple, Microsoft, and a Google Android phone maker. So who's next?

Just in case you are having trouble keeping up, here's a summary to get you up to speed:

Late Sunday, USA Today reported that Verizon was planning to offer an iPhone on Verizon's current CDMA-based wireless network. Business Week followed on Monday with its own story that Verizon is talking to Apple about a new "iPhone-lite" phone and a tablet-Netbook-type device. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal … Read more

The 404 330: Where Tuna Tuesday becomes Bacon Tuesday

Ace reporter Caroline McCarthy from CNET News joins the show today to bring us bacon chocolate from Foodzie. It's kind of like, Etsy but for food. Wilson doesn't partake in the bacon, but he munches down on the bourbon chocolate. Jeff's not a fan of swine cocoa, but Justin can't get enough of it.

However, Justin's not a fan of Apple's iPhone warranty policies. Apparently, he dropped his iPhone into a puddle of something. We're not exactly sure what, but we're pretty sure you can't drink it. Anyway, because of this whole ordeal, he's decided to become Justine.

Additionally, ESPN.com tries to be cool when it briefly enables the "Contra code" for its Web site. The hack lasted for about 45 minutes before it got shut down, but we give the site props for making unicorns and rainbows cool again.

It's Tuna Tuesday again, and we get a phone call from Tina. Finally, Twitter has become popular enough to ban at work. We get around it with this new Web app that fakes an Excel document with all your Twitters.

Be sure to check out Jeff Bakalar's appearance on Dan Levy's podcast "On the DL." He talks about tech and hockey. Lastly, a show about supercute kittens and puppies uses The 404 music loop. Didn't know the music could go both ways.

EPISODE 330 Download today's podcast |  Subscribe in iTunes |  Subscribe in RSS… Read more

How I got my BlackBerry Bold for $30

I'm now the proud owner of a BlackBerry Bold.

For a while, I was trying to decide if I wanted to ditch my iPhone 3G for the Bold. After some research and hands-on time with Research In Motion's beauty, I decided that it was in my best interest to escape from Apple's grips.

But there was a problem: the BlackBerry Bold is expensive. If you're not eligible for a two-year upgrade, the Bold will set you back $550 at the AT&T store. If you're new to AT&T or eligible for the upgrade price, you pay $399.99.

I didn't want to spend that much on a mobile phone that replaced another expensive gadget. Plus, I wasn't eligible for an upgrade. So I decided to head down to the AT&T store to talk with a representative to figure it all out. And much to my surprise, he and I determined that I would end up paying just $30 for the Bold.

Here's how it worked:… Read more

Apple prepping two wireless devices with Verizon?

Over the last few months rumors have continued to swirl around a possible Verizon-Apple deal to bring the iPhone to Verizon once Apple's exclusive pact with AT&T expires in 2010. But Tuesday BusinessWeek added a new twist to the rumor, reporting that Verizon and Apple are in talks to develop two new wireless devices that may hit the market this year.

Allegedly, one device would be a thinner, lighter, and lower-priced version of the iPhone--an iPhone Lite, if you will. While the other device would be something akin to the jumbo iPod Touch that we wrote about … Read more