Woziness.

You can always count on The Woz to tell it to you straight.

Steve "The Woz" Wozniak and Steve "Steve Jobs" Jobs started Apple Computers together in the 70's. Nowadays The Woz likes to collect Segways, cellphones, date D-List Celebrities, and serve as an advisor for many admirable non-profit organizations. He also likes to be the unwitting subject of unauthorized, improvised plays in Atlanta, but that is a story for another time.

Also, here is a mysterious photograph of The Woz, and his doppleganger.
Who is who?!?!

This is an interesting interview with the Woz for Laptop Magazine. In it he talks about the new OS X operating system, and more insterestingly to us, the locking of the iphone by Apple:

Laptop Magazine: So you're in favor of the unlocking and jailbreaking for third-party applications?

"Steve Wozniak: From a business point of view, Apple owns what they have done. They have a right to lock it. But I am really for the unlockers, the rebels trying to make it free. I'd really like it to be open to new applications. I'd like to install some nice games. Why in the world can I not install a ringtone that I've made? How would that hurt AT&T's network? Here is Steve Jobs sending letters to the record companies saying [they] should provide music that's unprotected, but here he is taking the opposite approach with the iPhone. I don't know to what extent AT&T is involved in the thinking and direction."

Snaps Woz.

Did you know that "jailbreaking" (the process of granting yourself root access to your phone files) has become so reliable and stable that the iPhone Dev Team has written a webpage that'll do it all for you!

All you do is navigate to the AppSnapp webpage on your phone, and IT DOES EVERYTHING AUTOMATICALLY. This new way to jailbreak your iphone even fixes the TIFF security exploit, making your phone even safer from being hacked. The Dev Team has also developed a "re-virginizing" program that'll reset SIM unlocked iPhones back to their factory settings. This effectively de-voids your waranty, and gives you a fresh iPhone.

I just don't see how anyone, including our beloved Mr. Jobs, could not see these hacks and mods as anything other than beneficial for the iPhone.

Bindle will travel

A new desktop image to celebrate our jailbroken iPhone.

Bindle, he's a pilot.

From the brink of infinity

We finally worked up the nerve to modify our iPhone. While the process was nerve wracking and sometimes extremely complicated, we found it to be a rich and rewarding experience.

Apple has made modding the iPhone as hard as possible on purpose. They want to treat the iPhone just like an iPod. That means the brains of the phone are completely "locked down" or "Jailed." But the iPhone is so much more than an iPod. Primarily because it's got a "mobile" version of OS X. The phone is so powerful, it's really a little computer. So of course people are going to want to crack that shit open and get their hands dirty.

Apple has also warned against modding or hacking your phone because they won't help you if you "brick" it. It officially voids your warranty, and you're SOL.

So of course the first day we tried to modify the phone we "bricked" it. Sending the phone into what the internet is calling an "Endless Reboot." I literally almost cried. If you've never seen a 6 foot 4 inch tall man crying over a phone... Let me tell you, it's not pretty. However, thanks again to the instruction of the Dev Team, we were able to "unbrick" the phone. I had to use the Unix Terminal in OS X to get into the brains of the phone and tell it "stop rebooting." (literally an "off" command) Now that I've brought the phone back from the brink of infinity, I feel invincible.

Behold.

Aside from adding programs and graphics, I've also re-arranged my springboard (homepage) so that the programs I use the most are organized from top to bottom, left to right. I've gotten rid of the annoying "stocks" button, and replaced it with a new "contacts" button that goes directly to my address book. I've kept the front page of my springboard as clutter free as possible.

Also, being able to kill and replace the AT&T logo in the top left was what pushed me to modify the phone in the first place. We're not big fans of the company.

This page contains the majority of the 3rd party applications I've downloaded.

The top row is all games, I've been rotating them out to see which ones I like the most. So far, none have totally blown me away. Though the NES emulator is super cool, it is practically unplayable. Since the D-pad and buttons are on the touch screen, you can easily loose track of where your thumbs are because there's no actual button to feel, only a graphical representation. The etcha-sketch program is pretty fun, and it erases sketches when you shake the phone.

Click the images above for a more detailed explanation of the various programs.

Why take this risk you ask? It's the principle of the thing. I own this phone. I should be able to do whatever the hell I want to it. On top of that, many of these 3rd party features "fix" or replace stuff that Apple hasn't gotten around to, or stuff that they simply "got wrong."

Like a cat, tied to a stick

Radiohead recently released their new album "In Rainbows" a few weeks ago. Instead of the traditional payment method, the band opted for a "sliding payment scale." This meant that you could literally name your price for the album prior to downloading.

You could have payed zero dollars if you chose to. I payed a little over $10, while my buddy Mack payed $5... Supposedly because he didn't like the band's last album "Hal to the Thief" and not because he's a cheapskate.

I certainly hope this kind of trusted customer service keeps getting more and more popular. However, I'm afraid the internet did a great job of ruining a good thing. Reports indicate that the average purchaser of the new Radiohead album payed a mere $3 for the entire album. Way to go jerks.

Besides breaking ground with the way they sell albums, Radiohead has lots of other cool things going on with their first record in a few years. Put on your tinfoil hats and gather around the Victrola. This is the story of the TENspiracy.

10 years ago Radiohead released the ground breaking album OK Computer. 10 years later they distribute In Rainbows, announcing the album only 10 day before it's release. "In Rainbows" and "OK Computer" each contain 10 letters. IN Rainbows is comprised of 10 musical tracks.

So far the theory is that you are supposed to listen to OK Computer and In Rainbows TOGETHER. Where OK Computer = 01 and In Rainbows = 10. The guys over at Peddlegum have constructed a playlist combining the albums based on various clues and numerology. Here is the playlist, obviously you need both albums, and if you insert a 10 sec crossfade between the songs most of them match up perfectly:

Radiohead - 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)

Fans far more devoted then us have spent many hours developing this theory. Thom York himself has hinted at the fact that we're on the right track, but we still haven't figured out everything Radiohead has planted or planned regarding the albums and their meaning. This playlist seems like the leading candidate, but even it has gone through a few revisions based on new discoveries.

Vespas get you the ladies

This thrilling Vespa commercial from the 60's has taught me a couple of things. According to this film riders of Vespa's are:

A) Well groomed.
B) Barely able to keep the bike from crashing.
C) Knowledgable about where Women like to hang out in the woods.
D) Douchebags.

A little Devito goes a long way

Always Sunny in Philadelphia:

Currently one of the best comedies on television. The show makes us laugh out loud consistently. If you haven't had a chance to catch it, check it out. FX only runs it every second of the day.

Our only complaint is, oddly, concerning the best actor in the cast. A little bit of Devito goes a long way. It seemed like they were leaning on him a bit too much earlier this season, but have since found a nice Devito-to-NonDevito ratio. Even though Devito is a comedy veteran (Taxi!) we believe that the rest of the cast actually outshines him when it comes to Teh Comedy. And, Charlie, the character we originally liked the least has become our total favorite.

Also, I imagine the headline of this post is exactly what Devito's local home-town newspaper wrote when he first made it big.... (too many jokes)

I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One!

Now you too can posses The Only Map of the Holes.

This replica of the time/space rift map from the classic film Time Bandits has been lovingly restored. You can order your very own for $90 and be the first to rob Robin Hood, or be a surrogate son for Agamemnon. Just don't piss off The Supreme Being.

Also, don't touch that... "IT'S EEEEEEVIL"

(via boingboing)

Applethetic

Man, our beloved Apple has really been raked over the coals lately.

We're Apple nerds. We've never said otherwise. Apple often gets a pass around here where other companies may not. But lately, even we have been cringing at the stuff Apple seems to be pulling.

First, while buying the actual iPhone at our local Apple Store was a real pleasure, it also meant we had to enter into an unholy contract with AT&T. I'm still not sold on why they had to go with the most evil phone company around... However, our love of Apple is such that we conceded this as a necessary evil.

Next there was the price drop of the iPhone. From $599 to $399. The price dropped by $200 only 2 months after it launched! We'd be lying if we said that didn't break our hearts just a little. Then Apple offers all early iPhone adopters a $100 credit to be spent in it's retail or online stores. Ok. Despite them being "Apple bucks" instead of real dollars, this is a classy move. What about the other $100? The way we see it that was the premium we payed to get the phone the day of the launch. Is it foolish to buy electronics the day they're released? Yes, totally. I'd do it again.

As soon as the phone is released people started making 3rd party (or unauthorized, independently developed by enthusiasts) applications for it. Everybody wants new programs that do cool new stuff. But Apple had already stated that it wouldn't support 3rd party "apps" and was actively discouraging people from trying to develop them.

Instead Apple wants developers to make "Web Apps" for the phone. Programs that would never actually live on the phone, but would be accessed through a webpage.

"The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn't work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers."

Despite this pretty boring limitation, some sweet web apps were developed. Since they don't exist on the actual phone, you must be connected to the internet to use any of these applications. Therefore you're at the mercy of a wi-fi connection, or God forbid, AT&T's shitty Edge network. Also, they'll never be as good as a real application that makes use of the phone's impressive "mobile" version of Apple's operating system, OS X. And that's the biggest shame, because the phone is really powerful. So people developed independent applications for it anyway, it was just too much to resist.

Programs like, the Nintendo NES emulator that allows you to play old school nintendo games on your iPhone, or the true mobile iChat program, or the ToDo list application. (a feature missing from iCal on the iPhone)

Then came the hackers. The SIM unlockers. These guys are to be considered heroes, to be sure. Their goal was to free the iPhone from the bonds of AT&T. And they succeeded. A couple of different SIM unlocking programs have been developed for the iPhone. Some, like SIM Unlock leave very few footprints on the iPhone other than a clean and free choice of cell carriers.

Next Apple released a new firmware update for the iPhone. It offered a few bug fixes, and some interesting new features. (and some really lame ones) It also completely broke the Sim Unlock and all 3rd Party Apps. Even worse, some people with unlocked phones were reporting that their phones had "bricked." Meaning that they were now useless bricks made of plastic and metal.

Apple's lidless eye had taken notice.

Who would have thought? I'm exaggerating. To be fair to our beloved Apple, they warned everybody. The said flat out that future updates "may break" some iPhones....

Accusations began flying around the Nerd-O-Sphere that Apple had intentionally broken people's phones with this new update. This Wired article on the iPhone firmware update makes the argument that Apple has, in fact, worked hard to make sure the update DIDN'T "brick" more of the hacked phones. Sure it causes them to become pretty unusable (until restored to factory specs), but it doesn't destroy them completely.

The whole thing has left a bad taste in everybody's mouths. Even Apple nerds like us. What bothers us the most is the broad sweeping indifference with which Apple seems to lump 3rd Party Developers and SIM Unlockers into the same pile.

We could even be convinced of the need for Apple to target the SIM Unlockers and their programs, no matter how well they're written. It's common knowledge that Apple gets a cut of the AT&T rate plans, so it's not surprising that they'd be pressured to keep the phone locked to AT&T's networks. It's crappy, but not surprising.

But why target the 3rd Party Apps? Especially when the programs themselves have proved their own stability. So the excuse of breaking your phone is laughable, and many of these programs add to the *near* perfect functionality of the phone, making it even more desirable.

One particular example of a 3rd Party Developer getting the shaft has made us especially sad. The case of Ambrosia Software, and their program iToner.

iToner is a very simple and clean program that allows you to drop customized ringtones directly into the iPhones sound file directory. It does this in a way that doesn't alter the iPhone file system in any way other than inserting an additional mp3. The same way iTunes does for Apple's custom ringtones. Well, it used to. Now it's broken.

Why is this broken software more troubling to us than say, the Nintendo Emulator? Because it flies in the face of what Apple has been successful at doing in the past. When iTunes came out, it didn't prevent you from buying songs from other sources online, it just offered them in the best way available. It succeeded, not because it locked out the competition, but because it did it's job better than they did theirs

iToner seems to have been broken only so Apple could squeeze more dollars out of us by selling it's own ringtones through iTunes. But Apple doesn't make all it's iTunes songs available as ringtones. So not only did Apple lock out the competition, they do a lousy job of offering a working alternative. It's so money motivated, and makes Apple look so bad that even devotees like us are shaken.

Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software, the makers of iToner, sat down for an interview with TUAW.com. He talks about the sting of getting trampled by Apple's giant elephant feet. He says that his company will continue working to get iToner up and running again. They're a stand-up company, even going so far as to say they'd refund everyone's $15 for iToner if they can't "fix" it.

Incidentally, we've been a fan of Ambrosia since they first made the arcade style game "Malestrom" back when we were in art school and had our first Apple computer ever. I can't even remember how I got the game, we didn't have the internet back then. I must have gotten it from a school computer somehow, but I don't even remember having a floppy drive on that computer...

We love to hate crappy companies, it's a hobby of ours. We're not ready to give up Apple just yet, but man... We sure hope they get their shit together.

The Shock Doctrine

A short video based on the book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein. With real excerpts from the CIA's interrogation manual from 1963 and 1983.

It explores how phycological shock therapy can be used on whole groups of people, without actual electrical shock. Because what works on a person, also works on a nation.

(via boingboing)

Woziness.

You can always count on The Woz to tell it to you straight.

Steve "The Woz" Wozniak and Steve "Steve Jobs" Jobs started Apple Computers together in the 70's. Nowadays The Woz likes to collect Segways, cellphones, date D-List Celebrities, and serve as an advisor for many admirable non-profit organizations. He also likes to be the unwitting subject of unauthorized, improvised plays in Atlanta, but that is a story for another time.

Also, here is a mysterious photograph of The Woz, and his doppleganger.
Who is who?!?!

This is an interesting interview with the Woz for Laptop Magazine. In it he talks about the new OS X operating system, and more insterestingly to us, the locking of the iphone by Apple:

Laptop Magazine: So you're in favor of the unlocking and jailbreaking for third-party applications?

"Steve Wozniak: From a business point of view, Apple owns what they have done. They have a right to lock it. But I am really for the unlockers, the rebels trying to make it free. I'd really like it to be open to new applications. I'd like to install some nice games. Why in the world can I not install a ringtone that I've made? How would that hurt AT&T's network? Here is Steve Jobs sending letters to the record companies saying [they] should provide music that's unprotected, but here he is taking the opposite approach with the iPhone. I don't know to what extent AT&T is involved in the thinking and direction."

Snaps Woz.

Did you know that "jailbreaking" (the process of granting yourself root access to your phone files) has become so reliable and stable that the iPhone Dev Team has written a webpage that'll do it all for you!

All you do is navigate to the AppSnapp webpage on your phone, and IT DOES EVERYTHING AUTOMATICALLY. This new way to jailbreak your iphone even fixes the TIFF security exploit, making your phone even safer from being hacked. The Dev Team has also developed a "re-virginizing" program that'll reset SIM unlocked iPhones back to their factory settings. This effectively de-voids your waranty, and gives you a fresh iPhone.

I just don't see how anyone, including our beloved Mr. Jobs, could not see these hacks and mods as anything other than beneficial for the iPhone.

Bindle will travel

A new desktop image to celebrate our jailbroken iPhone.

Bindle, he's a pilot.

From the brink of infinity

We finally worked up the nerve to modify our iPhone. While the process was nerve wracking and sometimes extremely complicated, we found it to be a rich and rewarding experience.

Apple has made modding the iPhone as hard as possible on purpose. They want to treat the iPhone just like an iPod. That means the brains of the phone are completely "locked down" or "Jailed." But the iPhone is so much more than an iPod. Primarily because it's got a "mobile" version of OS X. The phone is so powerful, it's really a little computer. So of course people are going to want to crack that shit open and get their hands dirty.

Apple has also warned against modding or hacking your phone because they won't help you if you "brick" it. It officially voids your warranty, and you're SOL.

So of course the first day we tried to modify the phone we "bricked" it. Sending the phone into what the internet is calling an "Endless Reboot." I literally almost cried. If you've never seen a 6 foot 4 inch tall man crying over a phone... Let me tell you, it's not pretty. However, thanks again to the instruction of the Dev Team, we were able to "unbrick" the phone. I had to use the Unix Terminal in OS X to get into the brains of the phone and tell it "stop rebooting." (literally an "off" command) Now that I've brought the phone back from the brink of infinity, I feel invincible.

Behold.

Aside from adding programs and graphics, I've also re-arranged my springboard (homepage) so that the programs I use the most are organized from top to bottom, left to right. I've gotten rid of the annoying "stocks" button, and replaced it with a new "contacts" button that goes directly to my address book. I've kept the front page of my springboard as clutter free as possible.

Also, being able to kill and replace the AT&T logo in the top left was what pushed me to modify the phone in the first place. We're not big fans of the company.

This page contains the majority of the 3rd party applications I've downloaded.

The top row is all games, I've been rotating them out to see which ones I like the most. So far, none have totally blown me away. Though the NES emulator is super cool, it is practically unplayable. Since the D-pad and buttons are on the touch screen, you can easily loose track of where your thumbs are because there's no actual button to feel, only a graphical representation. The etcha-sketch program is pretty fun, and it erases sketches when you shake the phone.

Click the images above for a more detailed explanation of the various programs.

Why take this risk you ask? It's the principle of the thing. I own this phone. I should be able to do whatever the hell I want to it. On top of that, many of these 3rd party features "fix" or replace stuff that Apple hasn't gotten around to, or stuff that they simply "got wrong."

Like a cat, tied to a stick

Radiohead recently released their new album "In Rainbows" a few weeks ago. Instead of the traditional payment method, the band opted for a "sliding payment scale." This meant that you could literally name your price for the album prior to downloading.

You could have payed zero dollars if you chose to. I payed a little over $10, while my buddy Mack payed $5... Supposedly because he didn't like the band's last album "Hal to the Thief" and not because he's a cheapskate.

I certainly hope this kind of trusted customer service keeps getting more and more popular. However, I'm afraid the internet did a great job of ruining a good thing. Reports indicate that the average purchaser of the new Radiohead album payed a mere $3 for the entire album. Way to go jerks.

Besides breaking ground with the way they sell albums, Radiohead has lots of other cool things going on with their first record in a few years. Put on your tinfoil hats and gather around the Victrola. This is the story of the TENspiracy.

10 years ago Radiohead released the ground breaking album OK Computer. 10 years later they distribute In Rainbows, announcing the album only 10 day before it's release. "In Rainbows" and "OK Computer" each contain 10 letters. IN Rainbows is comprised of 10 musical tracks.

So far the theory is that you are supposed to listen to OK Computer and In Rainbows TOGETHER. Where OK Computer = 01 and In Rainbows = 10. The guys over at Peddlegum have constructed a playlist combining the albums based on various clues and numerology. Here is the playlist, obviously you need both albums, and if you insert a 10 sec crossfade between the songs most of them match up perfectly:

Radiohead - 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)

Fans far more devoted then us have spent many hours developing this theory. Thom York himself has hinted at the fact that we're on the right track, but we still haven't figured out everything Radiohead has planted or planned regarding the albums and their meaning. This playlist seems like the leading candidate, but even it has gone through a few revisions based on new discoveries.

Vespas get you the ladies

This thrilling Vespa commercial from the 60's has taught me a couple of things. According to this film riders of Vespa's are:

A) Well groomed.
B) Barely able to keep the bike from crashing.
C) Knowledgable about where Women like to hang out in the woods.
D) Douchebags.

A little Devito goes a long way

Always Sunny in Philadelphia:

Currently one of the best comedies on television. The show makes us laugh out loud consistently. If you haven't had a chance to catch it, check it out. FX only runs it every second of the day.

Our only complaint is, oddly, concerning the best actor in the cast. A little bit of Devito goes a long way. It seemed like they were leaning on him a bit too much earlier this season, but have since found a nice Devito-to-NonDevito ratio. Even though Devito is a comedy veteran (Taxi!) we believe that the rest of the cast actually outshines him when it comes to Teh Comedy. And, Charlie, the character we originally liked the least has become our total favorite.

Also, I imagine the headline of this post is exactly what Devito's local home-town newspaper wrote when he first made it big.... (too many jokes)

I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One!

Now you too can posses The Only Map of the Holes.

This replica of the time/space rift map from the classic film Time Bandits has been lovingly restored. You can order your very own for $90 and be the first to rob Robin Hood, or be a surrogate son for Agamemnon. Just don't piss off The Supreme Being.

Also, don't touch that... "IT'S EEEEEEVIL"

(via boingboing)

Applethetic

Man, our beloved Apple has really been raked over the coals lately.

We're Apple nerds. We've never said otherwise. Apple often gets a pass around here where other companies may not. But lately, even we have been cringing at the stuff Apple seems to be pulling.

First, while buying the actual iPhone at our local Apple Store was a real pleasure, it also meant we had to enter into an unholy contract with AT&T. I'm still not sold on why they had to go with the most evil phone company around... However, our love of Apple is such that we conceded this as a necessary evil.

Next there was the price drop of the iPhone. From $599 to $399. The price dropped by $200 only 2 months after it launched! We'd be lying if we said that didn't break our hearts just a little. Then Apple offers all early iPhone adopters a $100 credit to be spent in it's retail or online stores. Ok. Despite them being "Apple bucks" instead of real dollars, this is a classy move. What about the other $100? The way we see it that was the premium we payed to get the phone the day of the launch. Is it foolish to buy electronics the day they're released? Yes, totally. I'd do it again.

As soon as the phone is released people started making 3rd party (or unauthorized, independently developed by enthusiasts) applications for it. Everybody wants new programs that do cool new stuff. But Apple had already stated that it wouldn't support 3rd party "apps" and was actively discouraging people from trying to develop them.

Instead Apple wants developers to make "Web Apps" for the phone. Programs that would never actually live on the phone, but would be accessed through a webpage.

"The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn't work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers."

Despite this pretty boring limitation, some sweet web apps were developed. Since they don't exist on the actual phone, you must be connected to the internet to use any of these applications. Therefore you're at the mercy of a wi-fi connection, or God forbid, AT&T's shitty Edge network. Also, they'll never be as good as a real application that makes use of the phone's impressive "mobile" version of Apple's operating system, OS X. And that's the biggest shame, because the phone is really powerful. So people developed independent applications for it anyway, it was just too much to resist.

Programs like, the Nintendo NES emulator that allows you to play old school nintendo games on your iPhone, or the true mobile iChat program, or the ToDo list application. (a feature missing from iCal on the iPhone)

Then came the hackers. The SIM unlockers. These guys are to be considered heroes, to be sure. Their goal was to free the iPhone from the bonds of AT&T. And they succeeded. A couple of different SIM unlocking programs have been developed for the iPhone. Some, like SIM Unlock leave very few footprints on the iPhone other than a clean and free choice of cell carriers.

Next Apple released a new firmware update for the iPhone. It offered a few bug fixes, and some interesting new features. (and some really lame ones) It also completely broke the Sim Unlock and all 3rd Party Apps. Even worse, some people with unlocked phones were reporting that their phones had "bricked." Meaning that they were now useless bricks made of plastic and metal.

Apple's lidless eye had taken notice.

Who would have thought? I'm exaggerating. To be fair to our beloved Apple, they warned everybody. The said flat out that future updates "may break" some iPhones....

Accusations began flying around the Nerd-O-Sphere that Apple had intentionally broken people's phones with this new update. This Wired article on the iPhone firmware update makes the argument that Apple has, in fact, worked hard to make sure the update DIDN'T "brick" more of the hacked phones. Sure it causes them to become pretty unusable (until restored to factory specs), but it doesn't destroy them completely.

The whole thing has left a bad taste in everybody's mouths. Even Apple nerds like us. What bothers us the most is the broad sweeping indifference with which Apple seems to lump 3rd Party Developers and SIM Unlockers into the same pile.

We could even be convinced of the need for Apple to target the SIM Unlockers and their programs, no matter how well they're written. It's common knowledge that Apple gets a cut of the AT&T rate plans, so it's not surprising that they'd be pressured to keep the phone locked to AT&T's networks. It's crappy, but not surprising.

But why target the 3rd Party Apps? Especially when the programs themselves have proved their own stability. So the excuse of breaking your phone is laughable, and many of these programs add to the *near* perfect functionality of the phone, making it even more desirable.

One particular example of a 3rd Party Developer getting the shaft has made us especially sad. The case of Ambrosia Software, and their program iToner.

iToner is a very simple and clean program that allows you to drop customized ringtones directly into the iPhones sound file directory. It does this in a way that doesn't alter the iPhone file system in any way other than inserting an additional mp3. The same way iTunes does for Apple's custom ringtones. Well, it used to. Now it's broken.

Why is this broken software more troubling to us than say, the Nintendo Emulator? Because it flies in the face of what Apple has been successful at doing in the past. When iTunes came out, it didn't prevent you from buying songs from other sources online, it just offered them in the best way available. It succeeded, not because it locked out the competition, but because it did it's job better than they did theirs

iToner seems to have been broken only so Apple could squeeze more dollars out of us by selling it's own ringtones through iTunes. But Apple doesn't make all it's iTunes songs available as ringtones. So not only did Apple lock out the competition, they do a lousy job of offering a working alternative. It's so money motivated, and makes Apple look so bad that even devotees like us are shaken.

Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software, the makers of iToner, sat down for an interview with TUAW.com. He talks about the sting of getting trampled by Apple's giant elephant feet. He says that his company will continue working to get iToner up and running again. They're a stand-up company, even going so far as to say they'd refund everyone's $15 for iToner if they can't "fix" it.

Incidentally, we've been a fan of Ambrosia since they first made the arcade style game "Malestrom" back when we were in art school and had our first Apple computer ever. I can't even remember how I got the game, we didn't have the internet back then. I must have gotten it from a school computer somehow, but I don't even remember having a floppy drive on that computer...

We love to hate crappy companies, it's a hobby of ours. We're not ready to give up Apple just yet, but man... We sure hope they get their shit together.

The Shock Doctrine

A short video based on the book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein. With real excerpts from the CIA's interrogation manual from 1963 and 1983.

It explores how phycological shock therapy can be used on whole groups of people, without actual electrical shock. Because what works on a person, also works on a nation.

(via boingboing)

Woziness.

You can always count on The Woz to tell it to you straight.

Steve "The Woz" Wozniak and Steve "Steve Jobs" Jobs started Apple Computers together in the 70's. Nowadays The Woz likes to collect Segways, cellphones, date D-List Celebrities, and serve as an advisor for many admirable non-profit organizations. He also likes to be the unwitting subject of unauthorized, improvised plays in Atlanta, but that is a story for another time.

Also, here is a mysterious photograph of The Woz, and his doppleganger.
Who is who?!?!

This is an interesting interview with the Woz for Laptop Magazine. In it he talks about the new OS X operating system, and more insterestingly to us, the locking of the iphone by Apple:

Laptop Magazine: So you're in favor of the unlocking and jailbreaking for third-party applications?

"Steve Wozniak: From a business point of view, Apple owns what they have done. They have a right to lock it. But I am really for the unlockers, the rebels trying to make it free. I'd really like it to be open to new applications. I'd like to install some nice games. Why in the world can I not install a ringtone that I've made? How would that hurt AT&T's network? Here is Steve Jobs sending letters to the record companies saying [they] should provide music that's unprotected, but here he is taking the opposite approach with the iPhone. I don't know to what extent AT&T is involved in the thinking and direction."

Snaps Woz.

Did you know that "jailbreaking" (the process of granting yourself root access to your phone files) has become so reliable and stable that the iPhone Dev Team has written a webpage that'll do it all for you!

All you do is navigate to the AppSnapp webpage on your phone, and IT DOES EVERYTHING AUTOMATICALLY. This new way to jailbreak your iphone even fixes the TIFF security exploit, making your phone even safer from being hacked. The Dev Team has also developed a "re-virginizing" program that'll reset SIM unlocked iPhones back to their factory settings. This effectively de-voids your waranty, and gives you a fresh iPhone.

I just don't see how anyone, including our beloved Mr. Jobs, could not see these hacks and mods as anything other than beneficial for the iPhone.

Bindle will travel

A new desktop image to celebrate our jailbroken iPhone.

Bindle, he's a pilot.

From the brink of infinity

We finally worked up the nerve to modify our iPhone. While the process was nerve wracking and sometimes extremely complicated, we found it to be a rich and rewarding experience.

Apple has made modding the iPhone as hard as possible on purpose. They want to treat the iPhone just like an iPod. That means the brains of the phone are completely "locked down" or "Jailed." But the iPhone is so much more than an iPod. Primarily because it's got a "mobile" version of OS X. The phone is so powerful, it's really a little computer. So of course people are going to want to crack that shit open and get their hands dirty.

Apple has also warned against modding or hacking your phone because they won't help you if you "brick" it. It officially voids your warranty, and you're SOL.

So of course the first day we tried to modify the phone we "bricked" it. Sending the phone into what the internet is calling an "Endless Reboot." I literally almost cried. If you've never seen a 6 foot 4 inch tall man crying over a phone... Let me tell you, it's not pretty. However, thanks again to the instruction of the Dev Team, we were able to "unbrick" the phone. I had to use the Unix Terminal in OS X to get into the brains of the phone and tell it "stop rebooting." (literally an "off" command) Now that I've brought the phone back from the brink of infinity, I feel invincible.

Behold.

Aside from adding programs and graphics, I've also re-arranged my springboard (homepage) so that the programs I use the most are organized from top to bottom, left to right. I've gotten rid of the annoying "stocks" button, and replaced it with a new "contacts" button that goes directly to my address book. I've kept the front page of my springboard as clutter free as possible.

Also, being able to kill and replace the AT&T logo in the top left was what pushed me to modify the phone in the first place. We're not big fans of the company.

This page contains the majority of the 3rd party applications I've downloaded.

The top row is all games, I've been rotating them out to see which ones I like the most. So far, none have totally blown me away. Though the NES emulator is super cool, it is practically unplayable. Since the D-pad and buttons are on the touch screen, you can easily loose track of where your thumbs are because there's no actual button to feel, only a graphical representation. The etcha-sketch program is pretty fun, and it erases sketches when you shake the phone.

Click the images above for a more detailed explanation of the various programs.

Why take this risk you ask? It's the principle of the thing. I own this phone. I should be able to do whatever the hell I want to it. On top of that, many of these 3rd party features "fix" or replace stuff that Apple hasn't gotten around to, or stuff that they simply "got wrong."

Like a cat, tied to a stick

Radiohead recently released their new album "In Rainbows" a few weeks ago. Instead of the traditional payment method, the band opted for a "sliding payment scale." This meant that you could literally name your price for the album prior to downloading.

You could have payed zero dollars if you chose to. I payed a little over $10, while my buddy Mack payed $5... Supposedly because he didn't like the band's last album "Hal to the Thief" and not because he's a cheapskate.

I certainly hope this kind of trusted customer service keeps getting more and more popular. However, I'm afraid the internet did a great job of ruining a good thing. Reports indicate that the average purchaser of the new Radiohead album payed a mere $3 for the entire album. Way to go jerks.

Besides breaking ground with the way they sell albums, Radiohead has lots of other cool things going on with their first record in a few years. Put on your tinfoil hats and gather around the Victrola. This is the story of the TENspiracy.

10 years ago Radiohead released the ground breaking album OK Computer. 10 years later they distribute In Rainbows, announcing the album only 10 day before it's release. "In Rainbows" and "OK Computer" each contain 10 letters. IN Rainbows is comprised of 10 musical tracks.

So far the theory is that you are supposed to listen to OK Computer and In Rainbows TOGETHER. Where OK Computer = 01 and In Rainbows = 10. The guys over at Peddlegum have constructed a playlist combining the albums based on various clues and numerology. Here is the playlist, obviously you need both albums, and if you insert a 10 sec crossfade between the songs most of them match up perfectly:

Radiohead - 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)

Fans far more devoted then us have spent many hours developing this theory. Thom York himself has hinted at the fact that we're on the right track, but we still haven't figured out everything Radiohead has planted or planned regarding the albums and their meaning. This playlist seems like the leading candidate, but even it has gone through a few revisions based on new discoveries.

Vespas get you the ladies

This thrilling Vespa commercial from the 60's has taught me a couple of things. According to this film riders of Vespa's are:

A) Well groomed.
B) Barely able to keep the bike from crashing.
C) Knowledgable about where Women like to hang out in the woods.
D) Douchebags.

A little Devito goes a long way

Always Sunny in Philadelphia:

Currently one of the best comedies on television. The show makes us laugh out loud consistently. If you haven't had a chance to catch it, check it out. FX only runs it every second of the day.

Our only complaint is, oddly, concerning the best actor in the cast. A little bit of Devito goes a long way. It seemed like they were leaning on him a bit too much earlier this season, but have since found a nice Devito-to-NonDevito ratio. Even though Devito is a comedy veteran (Taxi!) we believe that the rest of the cast actually outshines him when it comes to Teh Comedy. And, Charlie, the character we originally liked the least has become our total favorite.

Also, I imagine the headline of this post is exactly what Devito's local home-town newspaper wrote when he first made it big.... (too many jokes)

I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One!

Now you too can posses The Only Map of the Holes.

This replica of the time/space rift map from the classic film Time Bandits has been lovingly restored. You can order your very own for $90 and be the first to rob Robin Hood, or be a surrogate son for Agamemnon. Just don't piss off The Supreme Being.

Also, don't touch that... "IT'S EEEEEEVIL"

(via boingboing)

Applethetic

Man, our beloved Apple has really been raked over the coals lately.

We're Apple nerds. We've never said otherwise. Apple often gets a pass around here where other companies may not. But lately, even we have been cringing at the stuff Apple seems to be pulling.

First, while buying the actual iPhone at our local Apple Store was a real pleasure, it also meant we had to enter into an unholy contract with AT&T. I'm still not sold on why they had to go with the most evil phone company around... However, our love of Apple is such that we conceded this as a necessary evil.

Next there was the price drop of the iPhone. From $599 to $399. The price dropped by $200 only 2 months after it launched! We'd be lying if we said that didn't break our hearts just a little. Then Apple offers all early iPhone adopters a $100 credit to be spent in it's retail or online stores. Ok. Despite them being "Apple bucks" instead of real dollars, this is a classy move. What about the other $100? The way we see it that was the premium we payed to get the phone the day of the launch. Is it foolish to buy electronics the day they're released? Yes, totally. I'd do it again.

As soon as the phone is released people started making 3rd party (or unauthorized, independently developed by enthusiasts) applications for it. Everybody wants new programs that do cool new stuff. But Apple had already stated that it wouldn't support 3rd party "apps" and was actively discouraging people from trying to develop them.

Instead Apple wants developers to make "Web Apps" for the phone. Programs that would never actually live on the phone, but would be accessed through a webpage.

"The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn't work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers."

Despite this pretty boring limitation, some sweet web apps were developed. Since they don't exist on the actual phone, you must be connected to the internet to use any of these applications. Therefore you're at the mercy of a wi-fi connection, or God forbid, AT&T's shitty Edge network. Also, they'll never be as good as a real application that makes use of the phone's impressive "mobile" version of Apple's operating system, OS X. And that's the biggest shame, because the phone is really powerful. So people developed independent applications for it anyway, it was just too much to resist.

Programs like, the Nintendo NES emulator that allows you to play old school nintendo games on your iPhone, or the true mobile iChat program, or the ToDo list application. (a feature missing from iCal on the iPhone)

Then came the hackers. The SIM unlockers. These guys are to be considered heroes, to be sure. Their goal was to free the iPhone from the bonds of AT&T. And they succeeded. A couple of different SIM unlocking programs have been developed for the iPhone. Some, like SIM Unlock leave very few footprints on the iPhone other than a clean and free choice of cell carriers.

Next Apple released a new firmware update for the iPhone. It offered a few bug fixes, and some interesting new features. (and some really lame ones) It also completely broke the Sim Unlock and all 3rd Party Apps. Even worse, some people with unlocked phones were reporting that their phones had "bricked." Meaning that they were now useless bricks made of plastic and metal.

Apple's lidless eye had taken notice.

Who would have thought? I'm exaggerating. To be fair to our beloved Apple, they warned everybody. The said flat out that future updates "may break" some iPhones....

Accusations began flying around the Nerd-O-Sphere that Apple had intentionally broken people's phones with this new update. This Wired article on the iPhone firmware update makes the argument that Apple has, in fact, worked hard to make sure the update DIDN'T "brick" more of the hacked phones. Sure it causes them to become pretty unusable (until restored to factory specs), but it doesn't destroy them completely.

The whole thing has left a bad taste in everybody's mouths. Even Apple nerds like us. What bothers us the most is the broad sweeping indifference with which Apple seems to lump 3rd Party Developers and SIM Unlockers into the same pile.

We could even be convinced of the need for Apple to target the SIM Unlockers and their programs, no matter how well they're written. It's common knowledge that Apple gets a cut of the AT&T rate plans, so it's not surprising that they'd be pressured to keep the phone locked to AT&T's networks. It's crappy, but not surprising.

But why target the 3rd Party Apps? Especially when the programs themselves have proved their own stability. So the excuse of breaking your phone is laughable, and many of these programs add to the *near* perfect functionality of the phone, making it even more desirable.

One particular example of a 3rd Party Developer getting the shaft has made us especially sad. The case of Ambrosia Software, and their program iToner.

iToner is a very simple and clean program that allows you to drop customized ringtones directly into the iPhones sound file directory. It does this in a way that doesn't alter the iPhone file system in any way other than inserting an additional mp3. The same way iTunes does for Apple's custom ringtones. Well, it used to. Now it's broken.

Why is this broken software more troubling to us than say, the Nintendo Emulator? Because it flies in the face of what Apple has been successful at doing in the past. When iTunes came out, it didn't prevent you from buying songs from other sources online, it just offered them in the best way available. It succeeded, not because it locked out the competition, but because it did it's job better than they did theirs

iToner seems to have been broken only so Apple could squeeze more dollars out of us by selling it's own ringtones through iTunes. But Apple doesn't make all it's iTunes songs available as ringtones. So not only did Apple lock out the competition, they do a lousy job of offering a working alternative. It's so money motivated, and makes Apple look so bad that even devotees like us are shaken.

Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software, the makers of iToner, sat down for an interview with TUAW.com. He talks about the sting of getting trampled by Apple's giant elephant feet. He says that his company will continue working to get iToner up and running again. They're a stand-up company, even going so far as to say they'd refund everyone's $15 for iToner if they can't "fix" it.

Incidentally, we've been a fan of Ambrosia since they first made the arcade style game "Malestrom" back when we were in art school and had our first Apple computer ever. I can't even remember how I got the game, we didn't have the internet back then. I must have gotten it from a school computer somehow, but I don't even remember having a floppy drive on that computer...

We love to hate crappy companies, it's a hobby of ours. We're not ready to give up Apple just yet, but man... We sure hope they get their shit together.

The Shock Doctrine

A short video based on the book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein. With real excerpts from the CIA's interrogation manual from 1963 and 1983.

It explores how phycological shock therapy can be used on whole groups of people, without actual electrical shock. Because what works on a person, also works on a nation.

(via boingboing)

Woziness.

You can always count on The Woz to tell it to you straight.

Steve "The Woz" Wozniak and Steve "Steve Jobs" Jobs started Apple Computers together in the 70's. Nowadays The Woz likes to collect Segways, cellphones, date D-List Celebrities, and serve as an advisor for many admirable non-profit organizations. He also likes to be the unwitting subject of unauthorized, improvised plays in Atlanta, but that is a story for another time.

Also, here is a mysterious photograph of The Woz, and his doppleganger.
Who is who?!?!

This is an interesting interview with the Woz for Laptop Magazine. In it he talks about the new OS X operating system, and more insterestingly to us, the locking of the iphone by Apple:

Laptop Magazine: So you're in favor of the unlocking and jailbreaking for third-party applications?

"Steve Wozniak: From a business point of view, Apple owns what they have done. They have a right to lock it. But I am really for the unlockers, the rebels trying to make it free. I'd really like it to be open to new applications. I'd like to install some nice games. Why in the world can I not install a ringtone that I've made? How would that hurt AT&T's network? Here is Steve Jobs sending letters to the record companies saying [they] should provide music that's unprotected, but here he is taking the opposite approach with the iPhone. I don't know to what extent AT&T is involved in the thinking and direction."

Snaps Woz.

Did you know that "jailbreaking" (the process of granting yourself root access to your phone files) has become so reliable and stable that the iPhone Dev Team has written a webpage that'll do it all for you!

All you do is navigate to the AppSnapp webpage on your phone, and IT DOES EVERYTHING AUTOMATICALLY. This new way to jailbreak your iphone even fixes the TIFF security exploit, making your phone even safer from being hacked. The Dev Team has also developed a "re-virginizing" program that'll reset SIM unlocked iPhones back to their factory settings. This effectively de-voids your waranty, and gives you a fresh iPhone.

I just don't see how anyone, including our beloved Mr. Jobs, could not see these hacks and mods as anything other than beneficial for the iPhone.

Bindle will travel

A new desktop image to celebrate our jailbroken iPhone.

Bindle, he's a pilot.

From the brink of infinity

We finally worked up the nerve to modify our iPhone. While the process was nerve wracking and sometimes extremely complicated, we found it to be a rich and rewarding experience.

Apple has made modding the iPhone as hard as possible on purpose. They want to treat the iPhone just like an iPod. That means the brains of the phone are completely "locked down" or "Jailed." But the iPhone is so much more than an iPod. Primarily because it's got a "mobile" version of OS X. The phone is so powerful, it's really a little computer. So of course people are going to want to crack that shit open and get their hands dirty.

Apple has also warned against modding or hacking your phone because they won't help you if you "brick" it. It officially voids your warranty, and you're SOL.

So of course the first day we tried to modify the phone we "bricked" it. Sending the phone into what the internet is calling an "Endless Reboot." I literally almost cried. If you've never seen a 6 foot 4 inch tall man crying over a phone... Let me tell you, it's not pretty. However, thanks again to the instruction of the Dev Team, we were able to "unbrick" the phone. I had to use the Unix Terminal in OS X to get into the brains of the phone and tell it "stop rebooting." (literally an "off" command) Now that I've brought the phone back from the brink of infinity, I feel invincible.

Behold.

Aside from adding programs and graphics, I've also re-arranged my springboard (homepage) so that the programs I use the most are organized from top to bottom, left to right. I've gotten rid of the annoying "stocks" button, and replaced it with a new "contacts" button that goes directly to my address book. I've kept the front page of my springboard as clutter free as possible.

Also, being able to kill and replace the AT&T logo in the top left was what pushed me to modify the phone in the first place. We're not big fans of the company.

This page contains the majority of the 3rd party applications I've downloaded.

The top row is all games, I've been rotating them out to see which ones I like the most. So far, none have totally blown me away. Though the NES emulator is super cool, it is practically unplayable. Since the D-pad and buttons are on the touch screen, you can easily loose track of where your thumbs are because there's no actual button to feel, only a graphical representation. The etcha-sketch program is pretty fun, and it erases sketches when you shake the phone.

Click the images above for a more detailed explanation of the various programs.

Why take this risk you ask? It's the principle of the thing. I own this phone. I should be able to do whatever the hell I want to it. On top of that, many of these 3rd party features "fix" or replace stuff that Apple hasn't gotten around to, or stuff that they simply "got wrong."

Like a cat, tied to a stick

Radiohead recently released their new album "In Rainbows" a few weeks ago. Instead of the traditional payment method, the band opted for a "sliding payment scale." This meant that you could literally name your price for the album prior to downloading.

You could have payed zero dollars if you chose to. I payed a little over $10, while my buddy Mack payed $5... Supposedly because he didn't like the band's last album "Hal to the Thief" and not because he's a cheapskate.

I certainly hope this kind of trusted customer service keeps getting more and more popular. However, I'm afraid the internet did a great job of ruining a good thing. Reports indicate that the average purchaser of the new Radiohead album payed a mere $3 for the entire album. Way to go jerks.

Besides breaking ground with the way they sell albums, Radiohead has lots of other cool things going on with their first record in a few years. Put on your tinfoil hats and gather around the Victrola. This is the story of the TENspiracy.

10 years ago Radiohead released the ground breaking album OK Computer. 10 years later they distribute In Rainbows, announcing the album only 10 day before it's release. "In Rainbows" and "OK Computer" each contain 10 letters. IN Rainbows is comprised of 10 musical tracks.

So far the theory is that you are supposed to listen to OK Computer and In Rainbows TOGETHER. Where OK Computer = 01 and In Rainbows = 10. The guys over at Peddlegum have constructed a playlist combining the albums based on various clues and numerology. Here is the playlist, obviously you need both albums, and if you insert a 10 sec crossfade between the songs most of them match up perfectly:

Radiohead - 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)

Fans far more devoted then us have spent many hours developing this theory. Thom York himself has hinted at the fact that we're on the right track, but we still haven't figured out everything Radiohead has planted or planned regarding the albums and their meaning. This playlist seems like the leading candidate, but even it has gone through a few revisions based on new discoveries.

Vespas get you the ladies

This thrilling Vespa commercial from the 60's has taught me a couple of things. According to this film riders of Vespa's are:

A) Well groomed.
B) Barely able to keep the bike from crashing.
C) Knowledgable about where Women like to hang out in the woods.
D) Douchebags.

A little Devito goes a long way

Always Sunny in Philadelphia:

Currently one of the best comedies on television. The show makes us laugh out loud consistently. If you haven't had a chance to catch it, check it out. FX only runs it every second of the day.

Our only complaint is, oddly, concerning the best actor in the cast. A little bit of Devito goes a long way. It seemed like they were leaning on him a bit too much earlier this season, but have since found a nice Devito-to-NonDevito ratio. Even though Devito is a comedy veteran (Taxi!) we believe that the rest of the cast actually outshines him when it comes to Teh Comedy. And, Charlie, the character we originally liked the least has become our total favorite.

Also, I imagine the headline of this post is exactly what Devito's local home-town newspaper wrote when he first made it big.... (too many jokes)

I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One!

Now you too can posses The Only Map of the Holes.

This replica of the time/space rift map from the classic film Time Bandits has been lovingly restored. You can order your very own for $90 and be the first to rob Robin Hood, or be a surrogate son for Agamemnon. Just don't piss off The Supreme Being.

Also, don't touch that... "IT'S EEEEEEVIL"

(via boingboing)

Applethetic

Man, our beloved Apple has really been raked over the coals lately.

We're Apple nerds. We've never said otherwise. Apple often gets a pass around here where other companies may not. But lately, even we have been cringing at the stuff Apple seems to be pulling.

First, while buying the actual iPhone at our local Apple Store was a real pleasure, it also meant we had to enter into an unholy contract with AT&T. I'm still not sold on why they had to go with the most evil phone company around... However, our love of Apple is such that we conceded this as a necessary evil.

Next there was the price drop of the iPhone. From $599 to $399. The price dropped by $200 only 2 months after it launched! We'd be lying if we said that didn't break our hearts just a little. Then Apple offers all early iPhone adopters a $100 credit to be spent in it's retail or online stores. Ok. Despite them being "Apple bucks" instead of real dollars, this is a classy move. What about the other $100? The way we see it that was the premium we payed to get the phone the day of the launch. Is it foolish to buy electronics the day they're released? Yes, totally. I'd do it again.

As soon as the phone is released people started making 3rd party (or unauthorized, independently developed by enthusiasts) applications for it. Everybody wants new programs that do cool new stuff. But Apple had already stated that it wouldn't support 3rd party "apps" and was actively discouraging people from trying to develop them.

Instead Apple wants developers to make "Web Apps" for the phone. Programs that would never actually live on the phone, but would be accessed through a webpage.

"The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn't work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers."

Despite this pretty boring limitation, some sweet web apps were developed. Since they don't exist on the actual phone, you must be connected to the internet to use any of these applications. Therefore you're at the mercy of a wi-fi connection, or God forbid, AT&T's shitty Edge network. Also, they'll never be as good as a real application that makes use of the phone's impressive "mobile" version of Apple's operating system, OS X. And that's the biggest shame, because the phone is really powerful. So people developed independent applications for it anyway, it was just too much to resist.

Programs like, the Nintendo NES emulator that allows you to play old school nintendo games on your iPhone, or the true mobile iChat program, or the ToDo list application. (a feature missing from iCal on the iPhone)

Then came the hackers. The SIM unlockers. These guys are to be considered heroes, to be sure. Their goal was to free the iPhone from the bonds of AT&T. And they succeeded. A couple of different SIM unlocking programs have been developed for the iPhone. Some, like SIM Unlock leave very few footprints on the iPhone other than a clean and free choice of cell carriers.

Next Apple released a new firmware update for the iPhone. It offered a few bug fixes, and some interesting new features. (and some really lame ones) It also completely broke the Sim Unlock and all 3rd Party Apps. Even worse, some people with unlocked phones were reporting that their phones had "bricked." Meaning that they were now useless bricks made of plastic and metal.

Apple's lidless eye had taken notice.

Who would have thought? I'm exaggerating. To be fair to our beloved Apple, they warned everybody. The said flat out that future updates "may break" some iPhones....

Accusations began flying around the Nerd-O-Sphere that Apple had intentionally broken people's phones with this new update. This Wired article on the iPhone firmware update makes the argument that Apple has, in fact, worked hard to make sure the update DIDN'T "brick" more of the hacked phones. Sure it causes them to become pretty unusable (until restored to factory specs), but it doesn't destroy them completely.

The whole thing has left a bad taste in everybody's mouths. Even Apple nerds like us. What bothers us the most is the broad sweeping indifference with which Apple seems to lump 3rd Party Developers and SIM Unlockers into the same pile.

We could even be convinced of the need for Apple to target the SIM Unlockers and their programs, no matter how well they're written. It's common knowledge that Apple gets a cut of the AT&T rate plans, so it's not surprising that they'd be pressured to keep the phone locked to AT&T's networks. It's crappy, but not surprising.

But why target the 3rd Party Apps? Especially when the programs themselves have proved their own stability. So the excuse of breaking your phone is laughable, and many of these programs add to the *near* perfect functionality of the phone, making it even more desirable.

One particular example of a 3rd Party Developer getting the shaft has made us especially sad. The case of Ambrosia Software, and their program iToner.

iToner is a very simple and clean program that allows you to drop customized ringtones directly into the iPhones sound file directory. It does this in a way that doesn't alter the iPhone file system in any way other than inserting an additional mp3. The same way iTunes does for Apple's custom ringtones. Well, it used to. Now it's broken.

Why is this broken software more troubling to us than say, the Nintendo Emulator? Because it flies in the face of what Apple has been successful at doing in the past. When iTunes came out, it didn't prevent you from buying songs from other sources online, it just offered them in the best way available. It succeeded, not because it locked out the competition, but because it did it's job better than they did theirs

iToner seems to have been broken only so Apple could squeeze more dollars out of us by selling it's own ringtones through iTunes. But Apple doesn't make all it's iTunes songs available as ringtones. So not only did Apple lock out the competition, they do a lousy job of offering a working alternative. It's so money motivated, and makes Apple look so bad that even devotees like us are shaken.

Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software, the makers of iToner, sat down for an interview with TUAW.com. He talks about the sting of getting trampled by Apple's giant elephant feet. He says that his company will continue working to get iToner up and running again. They're a stand-up company, even going so far as to say they'd refund everyone's $15 for iToner if they can't "fix" it.

Incidentally, we've been a fan of Ambrosia since they first made the arcade style game "Malestrom" back when we were in art school and had our first Apple computer ever. I can't even remember how I got the game, we didn't have the internet back then. I must have gotten it from a school computer somehow, but I don't even remember having a floppy drive on that computer...

We love to hate crappy companies, it's a hobby of ours. We're not ready to give up Apple just yet, but man... We sure hope they get their shit together.

The Shock Doctrine

A short video based on the book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein. With real excerpts from the CIA's interrogation manual from 1963 and 1983.

It explores how phycological shock therapy can be used on whole groups of people, without actual electrical shock. Because what works on a person, also works on a nation.

(via boingboing)

Woziness.

You can always count on The Woz to tell it to you straight.

Steve "The Woz" Wozniak and Steve "Steve Jobs" Jobs started Apple Computers together in the 70's. Nowadays The Woz likes to collect Segways, cellphones, date D-List Celebrities, and serve as an advisor for many admirable non-profit organizations. He also likes to be the unwitting subject of unauthorized, improvised plays in Atlanta, but that is a story for another time.

Also, here is a mysterious photograph of The Woz, and his doppleganger.
Who is who?!?!

This is an interesting interview with the Woz for Laptop Magazine. In it he talks about the new OS X operating system, and more insterestingly to us, the locking of the iphone by Apple:

Laptop Magazine: So you're in favor of the unlocking and jailbreaking for third-party applications?

"Steve Wozniak: From a business point of view, Apple owns what they have done. They have a right to lock it. But I am really for the unlockers, the rebels trying to make it free. I'd really like it to be open to new applications. I'd like to install some nice games. Why in the world can I not install a ringtone that I've made? How would that hurt AT&T's network? Here is Steve Jobs sending letters to the record companies saying [they] should provide music that's unprotected, but here he is taking the opposite approach with the iPhone. I don't know to what extent AT&T is involved in the thinking and direction."

Snaps Woz.

Did you know that "jailbreaking" (the process of granting yourself root access to your phone files) has become so reliable and stable that the iPhone Dev Team has written a webpage that'll do it all for you!

All you do is navigate to the AppSnapp webpage on your phone, and IT DOES EVERYTHING AUTOMATICALLY. This new way to jailbreak your iphone even fixes the TIFF security exploit, making your phone even safer from being hacked. The Dev Team has also developed a "re-virginizing" program that'll reset SIM unlocked iPhones back to their factory settings. This effectively de-voids your waranty, and gives you a fresh iPhone.

I just don't see how anyone, including our beloved Mr. Jobs, could not see these hacks and mods as anything other than beneficial for the iPhone.

Bindle will travel

A new desktop image to celebrate our jailbroken iPhone.

Bindle, he's a pilot.

From the brink of infinity

We finally worked up the nerve to modify our iPhone. While the process was nerve wracking and sometimes extremely complicated, we found it to be a rich and rewarding experience.

Apple has made modding the iPhone as hard as possible on purpose. They want to treat the iPhone just like an iPod. That means the brains of the phone are completely "locked down" or "Jailed." But the iPhone is so much more than an iPod. Primarily because it's got a "mobile" version of OS X. The phone is so powerful, it's really a little computer. So of course people are going to want to crack that shit open and get their hands dirty.

Apple has also warned against modding or hacking your phone because they won't help you if you "brick" it. It officially voids your warranty, and you're SOL.

So of course the first day we tried to modify the phone we "bricked" it. Sending the phone into what the internet is calling an "Endless Reboot." I literally almost cried. If you've never seen a 6 foot 4 inch tall man crying over a phone... Let me tell you, it's not pretty. However, thanks again to the instruction of the Dev Team, we were able to "unbrick" the phone. I had to use the Unix Terminal in OS X to get into the brains of the phone and tell it "stop rebooting." (literally an "off" command) Now that I've brought the phone back from the brink of infinity, I feel invincible.

Behold.

Aside from adding programs and graphics, I've also re-arranged my springboard (homepage) so that the programs I use the most are organized from top to bottom, left to right. I've gotten rid of the annoying "stocks" button, and replaced it with a new "contacts" button that goes directly to my address book. I've kept the front page of my springboard as clutter free as possible.

Also, being able to kill and replace the AT&T logo in the top left was what pushed me to modify the phone in the first place. We're not big fans of the company.

This page contains the majority of the 3rd party applications I've downloaded.

The top row is all games, I've been rotating them out to see which ones I like the most. So far, none have totally blown me away. Though the NES emulator is super cool, it is practically unplayable. Since the D-pad and buttons are on the touch screen, you can easily loose track of where your thumbs are because there's no actual button to feel, only a graphical representation. The etcha-sketch program is pretty fun, and it erases sketches when you shake the phone.

Click the images above for a more detailed explanation of the various programs.

Why take this risk you ask? It's the principle of the thing. I own this phone. I should be able to do whatever the hell I want to it. On top of that, many of these 3rd party features "fix" or replace stuff that Apple hasn't gotten around to, or stuff that they simply "got wrong."

Like a cat, tied to a stick

Radiohead recently released their new album "In Rainbows" a few weeks ago. Instead of the traditional payment method, the band opted for a "sliding payment scale." This meant that you could literally name your price for the album prior to downloading.

You could have payed zero dollars if you chose to. I payed a little over $10, while my buddy Mack payed $5... Supposedly because he didn't like the band's last album "Hal to the Thief" and not because he's a cheapskate.

I certainly hope this kind of trusted customer service keeps getting more and more popular. However, I'm afraid the internet did a great job of ruining a good thing. Reports indicate that the average purchaser of the new Radiohead album payed a mere $3 for the entire album. Way to go jerks.

Besides breaking ground with the way they sell albums, Radiohead has lots of other cool things going on with their first record in a few years. Put on your tinfoil hats and gather around the Victrola. This is the story of the TENspiracy.

10 years ago Radiohead released the ground breaking album OK Computer. 10 years later they distribute In Rainbows, announcing the album only 10 day before it's release. "In Rainbows" and "OK Computer" each contain 10 letters. IN Rainbows is comprised of 10 musical tracks.

So far the theory is that you are supposed to listen to OK Computer and In Rainbows TOGETHER. Where OK Computer = 01 and In Rainbows = 10. The guys over at Peddlegum have constructed a playlist combining the albums based on various clues and numerology. Here is the playlist, obviously you need both albums, and if you insert a 10 sec crossfade between the songs most of them match up perfectly:

Radiohead - 01 and 10 playlist:
1. Airbag (OK Computer)
2. 15 Step (In Rainbows)
3. Paranoid Android (OK Computer)
4. Bodysnatchers (In Rainbows)
5. Subterranean Homesick Alien (OK Computer)
6. Nude (In Rainbows)
7. Exit Music (For A Film) (OK Computer)
8. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (In Rainbows)
9. Let Down (OK Computer)
10. All I Need (In Rainbows)
11. Karma Police (OK Computer)
12. Fitter Happier (OK Computer)
13. Faust Arp (In Rainbows)
14. Electioneering (OK Computer)
15. Reckoner (In Rainbows)
16. Climbing Up The Walls (OK Computer)
17. House Of Cards (In Rainbows)
18. No Surprises (OK Computer)
19. Jigsaw Falling Into Place (In Rainbows)
20. Lucky (OK Computer)
21. Videotape (In Rainbows)
22. The Tourist (OK Computer)

Fans far more devoted then us have spent many hours developing this theory. Thom York himself has hinted at the fact that we're on the right track, but we still haven't figured out everything Radiohead has planted or planned regarding the albums and their meaning. This playlist seems like the leading candidate, but even it has gone through a few revisions based on new discoveries.

Vespas get you the ladies

This thrilling Vespa commercial from the 60's has taught me a couple of things. According to this film riders of Vespa's are:

A) Well groomed.
B) Barely able to keep the bike from crashing.
C) Knowledgable about where Women like to hang out in the woods.
D) Douchebags.

A little Devito goes a long way

Always Sunny in Philadelphia:

Currently one of the best comedies on television. The show makes us laugh out loud consistently. If you haven't had a chance to catch it, check it out. FX only runs it every second of the day.

Our only complaint is, oddly, concerning the best actor in the cast. A little bit of Devito goes a long way. It seemed like they were leaning on him a bit too much earlier this season, but have since found a nice Devito-to-NonDevito ratio. Even though Devito is a comedy veteran (Taxi!) we believe that the rest of the cast actually outshines him when it comes to Teh Comedy. And, Charlie, the character we originally liked the least has become our total favorite.

Also, I imagine the headline of this post is exactly what Devito's local home-town newspaper wrote when he first made it big.... (too many jokes)

I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One!

Now you too can posses The Only Map of the Holes.

This replica of the time/space rift map from the classic film Time Bandits has been lovingly restored. You can order your very own for $90 and be the first to rob Robin Hood, or be a surrogate son for Agamemnon. Just don't piss off The Supreme Being.

Also, don't touch that... "IT'S EEEEEEVIL"

(via boingboing)

Applethetic

Man, our beloved Apple has really been raked over the coals lately.

We're Apple nerds. We've never said otherwise. Apple often gets a pass around here where other companies may not. But lately, even we have been cringing at the stuff Apple seems to be pulling.

First, while buying the actual iPhone at our local Apple Store was a real pleasure, it also meant we had to enter into an unholy contract with AT&T. I'm still not sold on why they had to go with the most evil phone company around... However, our love of Apple is such that we conceded this as a necessary evil.

Next there was the price drop of the iPhone. From $599 to $399. The price dropped by $200 only 2 months after it launched! We'd be lying if we said that didn't break our hearts just a little. Then Apple offers all early iPhone adopters a $100 credit to be spent in it's retail or online stores. Ok. Despite them being "Apple bucks" instead of real dollars, this is a classy move. What about the other $100? The way we see it that was the premium we payed to get the phone the day of the launch. Is it foolish to buy electronics the day they're released? Yes, totally. I'd do it again.

As soon as the phone is released people started making 3rd party (or unauthorized, independently developed by enthusiasts) applications for it. Everybody wants new programs that do cool new stuff. But Apple had already stated that it wouldn't support 3rd party "apps" and was actively discouraging people from trying to develop them.

Instead Apple wants developers to make "Web Apps" for the phone. Programs that would never actually live on the phone, but would be accessed through a webpage.

"The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn't work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers."

Despite this pretty boring limitation, some sweet web apps were developed. Since they don't exist on the actual phone, you must be connected to the internet to use any of these applications. Therefore you're at the mercy of a wi-fi connection, or God forbid, AT&T's shitty Edge network. Also, they'll never be as good as a real application that makes use of the phone's impressive "mobile" version of Apple's operating system, OS X. And that's the biggest shame, because the phone is really powerful. So people developed independent applications for it anyway, it was just too much to resist.

Programs like, the Nintendo NES emulator that allows you to play old school nintendo games on your iPhone, or the true mobile iChat program, or the ToDo list application. (a feature missing from iCal on the iPhone)

Then came the hackers. The SIM unlockers. These guys are to be considered heroes, to be sure. Their goal was to free the iPhone from the bonds of AT&T. And they succeeded. A couple of different SIM unlocking programs have been developed for the iPhone. Some, like SIM Unlock leave very few footprints on the iPhone other than a clean and free choice of cell carriers.

Next Apple released a new firmware update for the iPhone. It offered a few bug fixes, and some interesting new features. (and some really lame ones) It also completely broke the Sim Unlock and all 3rd Party Apps. Even worse, some people with unlocked phones were reporting that their phones had "bricked." Meaning that they were now useless bricks made of plastic and metal.

Apple's lidless eye had taken notice.

Who would have thought? I'm exaggerating. To be fair to our beloved Apple, they warned everybody. The said flat out that future updates "may break" some iPhones....

Accusations began flying around the Nerd-O-Sphere that Apple had intentionally broken people's phones with this new update. This Wired article on the iPhone firmware update makes the argument that Apple has, in fact, worked hard to make sure the update DIDN'T "brick" more of the hacked phones. Sure it causes them to become pretty unusable (until restored to factory specs), but it doesn't destroy them completely.

The whole thing has left a bad taste in everybody's mouths. Even Apple nerds like us. What bothers us the most is the broad sweeping indifference with which Apple seems to lump 3rd Party Developers and SIM Unlockers into the same pile.

We could even be convinced of the need for Apple to target the SIM Unlockers and their programs, no matter how well they're written. It's common knowledge that Apple gets a cut of the AT&T rate plans, so it's not surprising that they'd be pressured to keep the phone locked to AT&T's networks. It's crappy, but not surprising.

But why target the 3rd Party Apps? Especially when the programs themselves have proved their own stability. So the excuse of breaking your phone is laughable, and many of these programs add to the *near* perfect functionality of the phone, making it even more desirable.

One particular example of a 3rd Party Developer getting the shaft has made us especially sad. Th