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Kickstarter Project: Adonit WRITER

Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. They have helped projects like the TikTok+LunaTik watch kit for iPod Nano and the Glif tripod mount / stand for iPhone. Today, we thought we would show you a project that’s aimed at all of our hearts, the iPad.

Adonit has started a project via Kickstarter for their product WRITER, an iPad case + keyboard. Adonit is trying to raise $10,000 to get this project funded by February 3 and currently has over $7,000 (US). Read more

Reminder: Macworld 2011 Kicks Off Today

Apple may have stopped attending Macworld and announcing new products there, but the expo is doing well. So well that, according to stats provided by CultOfMac, more than 25,000 attendees are expected to walk around booths at the Moscone Center where 230 exhibitors will launch 100 new products. The show’s numbers are up from last year, when they dramatically dropped since Apple confirmed they wouldn’t go to Macworld anymore.

The show is shaping up good,” Macworld general manager Paul Kent told CultofMac.com. “If the numbers go right, we’re going to have about a 25% increase in attendance.

It’s a really fun time,” said Kent. “Macworld is a celebration. There’s a high joy quotient. It’s a fun place to be. There’s not a lot of places were people can do this any more.

We won’t be at Macworld, but we will try to aggregate, starting today through Saturday, the best new accessories, apps and Mac software we’ll be notified of. For all the details about the expo and the schedule of events, go here.

Power Mac Wall Clock & The Mighty Pendulum

No, what you’re reading above isn’t the title of a new movie or a web comic, it’s an actual mod realized by Justin Tyler Moore. He took a Power  Mac G4, cut it down on the side, place a “cheap clock mechanism” inside and made it all work together with a “Mighty Pendulum” – that is, a Mighty Mouse becoming a pendulum.

Full album can be viewed here. Now somebody please make me a Magic Clock. [Engadget via Justin Tyler Moore]

Apple’s Website Returns from Outage with New Design

The Apple site today went down and despite earlier rumors that it had gone down because of the launch of the white iPhone 4, the outage seems to have been due to cosmetic changes being made to Apple.com. The most obvious change is the sites navigational bar that is now a much darker tint of gray.

Animations have been added to several pages (such as the iPhone page) and the key pages from the navigational bar have been revamped and refined. Jump the break for images of the new Apple.com or head there yourself.

The Store and Support component of the site are still down; when it returns this post will be updated.

UPDATE 1: A very subtle background texture has been also added to the site. Comparison included after the break.

UPDATE 2: Store and Support seem to be up, with no change.

Read more

Date Night: App Store Gets Valentine’s Apps

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching (mark your calendars, gentlemen) Apple thought it might be appropriate to launch a new dedicated App Store section to showcase apps that can turn out to be useful on that day. Like Yelp and OpenTable (because you want to go to a classy restaurant, right?), OkCupid and iLoveYou in 50 Languages. Apps can be romantic too.

If you don’t feel like going to a fancy place with your loved one, you can follow some cooking advice with the 20 Minute Meals app, featured as well. Oh, and if the dinner turns out to be a disaster, you can call a cab with Taxi Magic.

Date Night: App Store Essentials is available here.

“A Lot Happens In 10 Years”→

“A Lot Happens In 10 Years”

Bottom: Graphite iBook G3, circa 2001-ish.

Top: 11.6” MacBook Air, 2010

Approximately 20x the RAM, 8x the hard drive space (now SSD instead of magnetic), Bluetooth and 802.11n standard, built-in camera, no optical drive, multitouch trackpad, at least 2x the battery life. ~300 MHz to 1.4 GHz x 2 cores on a new architecture. Completely new operating system. 3 or 4 pounds lighter, and who knows how much thinner, but a heck of a lot thinner.

No matter the decade, it always feels like we’re just getting started.

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Personal Hotspot On The Verizon iPhone? That’s An Additional $20

Earlier today, Verizon confirmed the iPhone will launch on their network on February 10 with an initial unlimited data plan priced at $30; speaking to Macworld, Verizon Wireless’s Executive Director of Corporate Communications, Brenda Raney, confirmed that in order to use the Personal Hotspot feature provided by Apple iPhone users will have to pay $20 more:

Raney said that Verizon iPhone owners will be able to take advantage of the 3G wireless hotspot feature for an extra $20 per month on top of the iPhone’s required voice and data plans—that’s the same price that applies to current Verizon smartphone owners.

The hotspot feature comes with its own 2GB monthly data pool, separate from your iPhone’s data plan. That covers the use of any and all devices using your iPhone’s 3G data connection. The downside? Go over that amount, and each additional gigabyte will cost you another $20.

Personal Hotspot is a functionality that allows users to turn the iPhone into a mobile hotspot to share the 3G connectivity with nearby devices, via Bluetooth, USB or WiFi. The feature will officially debut with the Verizon iPhone (which at the time of the media event, was running an unreleased iOS 4.2.5 version) and it’s already been implemented in the iOS 4.3 developer betas. Carriers, however, will retain the ability to disable the functionality on their network, or charge extra fees in order to activate it.

The Finder’s Legendary Selections→

The Finder’s Legendary Selections

Terrific post by Mike Lee on the Finder’s selection behavior. Lots of things I didn’t know in there:

If you’re not a software engineer building apps for the Mac, none of this really matters. It’s just an interesting bit of trivia you can use to not really impress anyone.

If you are a software engineer building apps for the Mac, buckle up, because like Past Me, you have no fucking idea how these selections work, which is a real problem, because one day you are going to implement selection behavior in your app and completely fuck it up.

I say go read it no matter if you’re a software engineer or not.

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