Found Footage: Young Steve Jobs’ First TV Appearance

Before the “Stevenotes”, the “magical” and “wonderful” products announced at conferences streamed live worldwide, there was a kid amazed to see himself on a TV monitor for the first time. In the video below, courtesy of Electricpig, you can see Steve Jobs in his twenties getting ready for an interview on national television.

It turns out – surprise – Jobs wasn’t always confident and “arrogant” as you’ve seen him in the past few years. He’s nervous, asks for some water before the show, people adjust his hair and microphone before the interview.

Ah, the good times. Check out the video below. Fascinating. Read more

iPad Run Over By Chrysler PT Cruiser, Still Works

See the iPad above? That’s what happens when a Chrysler PT Cruiser, this lovely car, runs over it with its front and rear wheels. The “problem”, or perhaps the most surprising thing in this accident, is that the iPad still works. The glass is shattered, but the Home button / multitouch / accelerometer are all working.

As reported by our friends at TUAW, the iPad was inside a standard Apple Case when the PT Cruiser ran over it and as you can see in the video after the break the device is completely functional. Sure, it might not be a wise move to keep using that iPad with all that broken glass on screen, but this says a lot about the build quality and durability of Apple’s products over time and against the most serious accidents.

At least that poor iPad didn’t get shot like this MacBook. Read more

Want To Work On The Next Angry Birds? Speak Finnish? Join The Rovio Academy

Rovio reminds me of Nintendo back in the late 80’s and early 90’s: you can’t stop them. Not only did they achieve worldwide success with iOS games and consequent spin-offs (Angry Birds Seasons), they ported the franchise to a plethora of other platforms (including Sony’s PSP) and even announced a partnership with Hollywood studio Fox to create a special version of Angry Birds featuring the characters from the upcoming Rio animated film. Not to mention their own payment system, the Super Bowl, or the gaming network rumors.

Rovio is a fully-working, perfectly functional machine right now. And they need new employees. Who, this is the downside, will have to be able to speak Finnish. So if you happen to live in Finland (or know how to speak the language for some reason) and you want to be part of the Angry Birds bandwagon by, you know, joining the team, you should take a look at Rovio’s latest initiative, the Rovio Academy.

Game developers who speak Finnish and have C++ experience can take part in the six month training and recruitment program organized by Rovio Mobile, Saranen Consulting, and the Finnish Employment and Economic Administration.

Our goal is to take ten new talents on board, provide them with training by experienced experts from the industry, and hire all trainees as game programmers at Rovio. The program consists of altogether 26 training days; both theoretical teaching, guided on-the-job learning and on-the-job training. The application period lasts until February 20th, and the training begins at the beginning of April 2011,” explained Rovio Mobile.

Sounds interesting to you? Head over the official website, and try to become the next Angry Birds developer. [iPadevice via FindMySoft]

Flash Player 10.2 Now Available, Brings Stage Video

Early in December, Adobe launched the first beta of Flash Player 10.2, which was aimed at reducing processor load with a new feature called “Stage Video” that promised to rely on the GPU instead. Today Adobe has made Flash 10.2 available out of beta, and it brings full Stage Video support, although content providers like Youtube and Vimeo will need to manually enable the Stage Video APIs before the end users can see any improvements. That should happen soon.

Flash Player 10.2 should play most high-resolution video with processor load below 15% – we’re talking full 1080p streamed directly from Youtube to your Mac. For instance, Adobe says they were able to play 1080p content on a 2 year old Mac Mini with CPU load under 8 percent. That’s not too bad.

Press release embedded below. [Adobe via Engadget] Read more

World Of Goo Sells 125K In First Month: 2D Boy Talks Sales, Strategies, And Consoles

World of Goo has had incredible sales as it launched on the iPad, eventually reaching the #2 spot after a $5 price drop from $10 and lots of press coverage. In its first month of sales, the Mac famous strategy slash flubber-venture sold approximately 125,000 copies in the iPad’s App Store, having been exalted by the media on numerous occasions as well as by Apple, deservedly featuring World of Goo on the store’s front page. 2D Boy has published a rather lengthy analysis on their indie title, and we encourage you to click past the break for an overview of some of the finer points.

Read more

Sparrow Launches On The App Store For $9.99

The long awaited and much anticipated Sparrow for OS X just launched in the App Store for $9.99, with an expected launch of $19.99. Merging the elegance of Tweetie with the bravado of Gmail, Sparrow is a beautiful email client whose gorgeous interface enables users to effortlessly manage, label, and compose messages through intuitive actions. With Growl support, multiple accounts, and quick replies to seamlessly manage inbox cruft, Sparrow is a no-brainer if you live in Gmail, but don’t want the heft of a traditional email client. IMAP support for Aol., Yahoo, and MobileMe is promised for a future update. We’ve been following Sparrow for quite a while on MacStories, and I have nothing but good things to say about this sleek client after many Twitter followers turned me on this once public beta project.

You can purchase Sparrow on the Mac App Store via the following link: Sparrow for Mac

Edit: Have I told you how much I love Sparrow’s new icon? It looks great in the menubar too!

Nokia CEO’s Leaked Memo Mentions Apple, iPhone Marketshare→

Nokia CEO’s Leaked Memo Mentions Apple, iPhone Marketshare

An allegedly leaked memo of Nokia CEO Stephen Elop sets the record straight on Nokia’s position on a “burning platform” and the success of Apple in the past three years:

In 2008, Apple’s market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.

The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.

Awareness is the first step to build better products. Full memo available here.

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Next Generation iPad In Production: Factory Ready For Verizon, AT&T

Forget the MiFi: the next generation iPad will work on both red & blue networks out of the gate according to the Wall Street Journal. It’s a no brainer that the next generation iPad is going to be thinner, more powerful, and feature a front-facing camera, but an important tidbit from the WSJ notes:

The new iPad will be available through Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., but not Sprint NextelCorp. or T-Mobile USA in the U.S., according to some of the people familiar with the matter

2011 shouldn’t see any more iPhones or iPads on the remaining two American carriers, so don’t expect Apple to join forces with Nascar sponsor Sprint anytime soon. The WSJ doesn’t expect the second generation iPad to have a significantly greater display, but we’re get anxious to see Apple unveil their next gen tablet already.

[via Wall Street Journal]

“Death Hug” Impossible Grip Affects Verizon iPhone Antennas, Third Hand Rumored To Enable Secret Features

Antennagate is over, right? Steve Jobs told everyone that just about any phone suffers from signal attenuation if you cover the antenna with your skin, and people who had issues with their iPhone 4s got a free Bumper case to resolve the “Death Grip” problem. And Apple’s 2010 numbers tell us Antennagate wasn’t really a problem for iPhone sales.

Still, someone is saying Death Grip is still alive, kicking and affecting the mythical Verizon iPhone’s antennas. Not just the 3G radio antenna, the WiFi one as well. How’s that possible? That’s the magic of the Death Hug, a new kind of grip that can be activated with two hands wrapped around the phone and its screen. Look at the video below. It’s a full-phone hand hug.  iLounge reports:

The problem with Wi-Fi reception appears when the device is held snugly in landscape orientation with two hands, a position common when playing games or using the widescreen keyboard. Prior to the Verizon iPhone 4’s launch, sources told iLounge to be on the lookout for the issue, which was being referred to as the death hug.

We’re just going to leave you with the Youtube video after the break. But let me say that, frankly, that’s one kind of grip that requires some serious skills. Honestly, we at MacStories don’t hold our phones like that. But then again, we don’t disdain hugs either. Read more