Greg In The Desert

Apple announced their worst kept secret, their Apple tablet computer called the iPad. It’s exactly what what it was rumored to be, a oversized iPod Touch. The iPad will run all the apps the iPhone and iPod touch will run but it’s missing a camera and GPS. Apple says they got 10 hours of use out of it, it will come with WiFi but a 3G cellular data option is available (and unlocked).

I think every rumor, including the prototype pictures at engadget and interview with McGraw-Hill’s CEO and President (Update: McGraw-Hill might have been punished for making the comments about the iPad before it was released), were all sanctioned by Apple. It was just enough to keep the hype and Steve Job’s reality distortion field in place but not enough to actually reveal the device.

I can’t imagine I will purchase an iPad as soon as it comes out (which is not for another 60 to 90 days) I do hope that parts of it make it into Apple’s laptops before my next laptop purchase. I also was hoping for an iPhone OS 4.0 and iLife 2010 announcement.

I wrote about an rumored Apple tablet computer as far back as 2004 and now it seems to be confirmed by the Wall Street Journal.

While the device’s ship date hasn’t been finalized and could still change, people briefed on the matter said the new product will come with a 10 to 11-inch touch screen—which would make it closer in size to Apple’s line of MacBook laptops than its smart phone.

John Martellaro at macobserver says this was part of a controlled leak because he used to do the same thing when he was a Senior Marketing Manager at Apple. I always believed that Apple did controlled leaks like this and they have figured out how to control the hype around product releases.

Supposedly this thing will be announced in a January 27th event. I’m also hoping for an updated iPhone and especially a updated Apple TV.

• First H1N1 death confirmed in NM – A 45-year-old woman from Sierra County died over the weekend, becoming the first person in New Mexico to die from the H1N1 Influenza Virus.
• www.KOB.com – Gov. calls for jail time for first DWI offense – Gov. Bill Richardson says first-time drunken driving offenses should carry three days of mandatory jail time and $2,500 in fines.
• McCarthyism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – McCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, "McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.
• Internet friends log on to suicide note | KRQE News 13 New Mexico – Facebook friends of Jason McCoy who sign on to their social-networking Web pages Wednesday morning found a long message from the Albuquerque man announcing his intent to kill himself. In the farewell note posted on their Facebook Walls McCoy, 33, told friends and family he recently had lost his job, was losing his home to foreclosure and had been kicked out of the home where he had been staying.
• Interview with Rob Janoff, designer of the Apple logo | creativebits – When Jean Louis Gassée (executive at Apple Computer from 1981 to 1990) was asked about his thoughts to the Apple logo he answered:
  One of the deep mysteries to me is our logo, the symbol of lust and knowledge, bitten into, all crossed with the colors of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldn't dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy.
• Dallas-bound American Airlines jetliner makes emergency landing in Los Angeles | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News – A Dallas-bound American Airlines jetliner was forced to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles on Friday night after passengers said they saw parts of the right wing falling off.

  Flight 414 had taken off from San Diego when passengers said they heard an unusual noise as the aircaft flew higher.

  The jet was diverted to Los Angeles International Airport and landed without incident. American Airlines says maintenance crews found missing "lamination" on the right wing, but there was no hole.

• www.KOB.com – School reopens after four decades – Coronado Elementary, built more than 100 years ago and shut down for the past four decades, is set to open up again on Monday.
• I-25 drivers encounter half mile of terror in Northglenn – The Denver Post – A police report released Friday recounts the harrowing scene on I-25 Monday evening when the Jeep, driven by 48-year-old Broomfield resident David Scott Ulwelling, sped southbound in northbound lanes near 120th Avenue for more than a half mile. No fewer than seven vehicles swerved out of the way of Ulwelling's Jeep before it collided with the Applegarths' truck, setting off a chain reaction that eventually involved five other vehicles.
• BBC – Earth News – How cacti become ‘rock busters’ – Few plants can grow without soil and even fewer are capable of growing on nothing but bare rock. Yet some species of desert cactus manage this extraordinary feat, and now scientists have worked out how. The plants have evolved a symbiotic relationship with rock-dissolving bacteria, which they allow to grow in their roots, say the scientists.
• Lunch ladies no longer serving up fried foods to students | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News – The stricter Texas Public School Nutrition Policy, phased in over the last several years, will be in full effect when kids show up Monday. That means no more deep-fried anything, no more sodas and no more so-called "foods of minimal nutritional value."

Steve Wozniak, beloved co-founder of Apple Computer, will be a contestant on Dancing With The Stars. ABC has the details.

STEVE WOZNIAK — A Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for the past three decades, Steve Wozniak, a.k.a. The Woz, helped shape the computer industry with his design of Apple’s first line of products, the Apple I and II, and influenced the popular Macintosh. After leaving Apple Computer Inc. in 1985, Wozniak was involved in various business and philanthropic ventures, focusing primarily on computer capabilities in schools and stressing hands-on learning and encouraging creativity for students. In 2000, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame and was awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment. Wozniak is also a published author with the release of his New York Times Best Selling autobiography, iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon, in September 2006.

Apple Gazette has some scans from a 1983 Apple Computer gift catalog with some (now) vintage swag. What caught my eye is the Apple Hot Air Balloon poster on page 9.

I would love to have this poster, or at least a high res scan of this poster. I googled “Apple Computer Hot Air Balloon” but no one seems to have this poster or any other pictures of it. I’m also curious as to what happened to the balloon. Apple should bring it back, after all, Intel has it’s “Floating Point” Hot Air Balloon.

Do I file this under “Apple Computer” or “Albuquerque”? Whatever. It’s coming, the Albuquerque Apple Store is coming! Cult Of Mac has revealed it’s exact location in the Uptown Albuquerue shopping center next to the withering Winrock.

Like a true Mac nerd, I plan to be there for it’s opening.

LANLs is in trouble again. A guy bought a salvaged computer from them that hadn’t been completely erased, unfortunately for them he works at a TV station.

KOB-TV of Albuquerque reported Thursday night that one of its photographers bought an Apple computer several weeks ago. “In the computer … we found documents labeled classified,” KOB reported.A Los Alamos spokesman said there is “little to no chance” classified information is on the computer and the station “misserved the public” and “jumped to erroneous conclusions.”Lab spokesman Jim Fallin said Friday that the computer “never, never would have used or produced classified information, nor was the computer ever in a classified area.”

News that Intel wants to rip off the Mac mini.

A new Wintel prototype that openly apes Apple Computer’s popular Mac mini is due out this week, sources told Wired News, giving Intel a showcase to prove its chips are a match for anyone when it comes to tiny PC designs.

Working prototypes of the Mac mini look-alike running Microsoft Windows and based on Intel’s Pentium M CPU have already been built by Taiwan PC maker AOpen at Intel’s request, according to two sources in Taiwan’s PC manufacturing industry who have seen them.

Another rumor that Apple will use Intel chips. Personally I don’t care what chips are in their computers, but I find it hard to believe that they would just switch the whole line over to a new processor and dump IBM.

The report, citing two industry executives with knowledge of recent discussions between the companies, said Apple (Research) will agree to use Intel (Research) chips.

Neither company would confirm the report and an Apple spokeswoman told the Journal she would characterize it as “rumor and speculation.”

Update 05/24/05 7:59am: This is exactly what I think too.

ut Kevin Krewell, editor in chief of newsletter Microprocessor Report, said he smells an orchestrated media ploy by Apple to pressure IBM to improve its supply problems, which have led to delays in some Apple products. “I believe this is a purely negotiating move by Apple to grab some attention and headlines and to point out that they’re feeling underappreciated by IBM,” Krewell said.

Updated 05/25/05 08:22 PM: I wouldn’t have expectedthis comment.

Pressed about security by Mr. Mossberg, Mr. Otellini had a startling confession: He spends an hour a weekend removing spyware from his daughter’s computer. And when further pressed about whether a mainstream computer user in search of immediate safety from security woes ought to buy Apple Computer Inc.’s Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC, he said, “If you want to fix it tomorrow, maybe you should buy something else.”