Ryan Block
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Olympic 'Bird's Nest' Stadium Now an MP3-Player, Too
Steve Jobs Admits He Made a Big Mistake With MobileMe
Not that anyone could really dance around the facts of the matter at this point, but Ars Technica is reporting that in an e-mail to Apple employees sent yesterday, Steve is alleged to have said the following: "It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store. We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence."
Apple exec Eddie Cue appears to taking the much maligned service under his wing (as well as the App Store, adding to his original gig as VP of iTunes), hopefully making good on the other bit in El Jobso's e-mail, in which he resets Apple's call to action on .Mac's replacement:
"The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year."
We'll see about that!
YouTube Comes to Tivo
Just in case you weren't already watching enough YouTube at work and on your home computer, on your iPhone, Ocean, etc., or on your Apple TV, now TiVo's getting in on the action as well. Originally announced earlier this year, TiVo users can finally expect the update to pop over your TiVo's regularly scheduled updates over the next couple of weeks. Oh, and our man Dave Zatz shot some video of the new feature and put it up on (where else?) YouTube -- check it out after the break.Hands-On With the New Apple App Store
Already users can start downloading their programs (which are downloaded to their /Users/[user]/Music/iTunes/Mobile Applications/ directory as .ipa files), but you can't do anything with them until you get the 2.0 firmware (or an iPhone 3G).
So far everything is really smooth and easy to use, although it's easy to tell that the enormous amount of applications that will be available in the coming months (and years) will become a difficult thing to trudge through. It's a high-class problem for Apple, but hopefully it won't be too overwhelming to find something good if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.
We'll be keeping tally of some of the more noteworthy launch apps, although many we've already seen:
- AIM - duh
- Google Mobile - "a great place to start your search"
- Twitterrific - Finally, a legit, standalone Twitter client
- Bomberman Touch
- Epocrates Rx - An app to help identify "mystery pills" you might find. Very helpful.
Roomba Creator Working on Lawn-Mowing Robot?
Not that it's any surprise, but according to a patent filing (which we were unable to ourselves unearth from the abyss that is the USPTO), iRobot would appear to still be working on the "Mowba," or whatever the hell the lawn-cutting robot is that they were talking up years ago. We're not sure you really need to pore over 80+ pages of sketches and drawings to get the idea though, especially since there are already a number of autonomous grass-cutting machines out there. [Source: Robot Stock News]
Toyota Prius to Get Solar Panels
According to Nikkei, Toyota's apparently going to be equipping future high-end Priuses with Kyocera-built roof-mounted solar panels. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the sun's rays won't be used to power the car itself, but will instead run the AC. It also sounds like your next solar-assisted Prius won't be around for a while, as the panels aren't designed in yet, nor will they be until early next ...Local Students Get Free Lesson-Equipped Zunes
The latest edu-gimmick to hit small-town America: 100-plus media players -- Zunes, to be specific -- are being handed out to local high school and middle school students in Liberty, Missouri and Fort Sumner, New Mexico for listening to lesson-supporting podcasts in the hopes of saving them "lost class time." Surely this will raise test scores, right? Or at least improve the Zune's cachet? Who ...Fastest Clock in the World Tells Time to the Microsecond
Art school student Freddie Yauner's CO2-powered Highest Popping Toaster in the World concept is great and all (it's even supposedly Guinness World Record-certified), but a clock that aims to tell time to one millionth of a second is what it takes to turn our geeky, schedule-obsessed hearts to mush. Since no display can refresh a million times a second (and no eye can comprehend that kind of ...Is Helio Going Out of Business?
It ain't over until it's over, but we just got word that Helio store managers received notification this week that the axe is finally falling: (at least some of) the nationwide chain of retail stores will be shuttered during Virgin's takeover of Helio. As we've heard, "there is no 'merge' in this merger," so it sounds like after this year's big executive reshuffle, SK Telecom (which owns a ...iPhone 3G: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (But Were Afraid to Ask)
If you're anything like us, just about everyone in your family has called you up this week to ask if you think they should get the iPhone 3G; it really doesn't help matters that there's just an absurd amount of (mis)information floating around about it right now, too. So this one's for you and your fam -- we're dishing out the straight dope on iPhone 3G, a to z, so feel free to pass it on. Hit the ...
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