TheFW » Apple

Walmart Employees Toss iPads Around Because They Can

Emerald Catron — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 21:15:06 +0000

Maybe don’t buy expensive electronics from Walmart. If this (NSFW) video is to be believed, they’ve all been tossed around and dropped on the floor repeatedly just for the hey of it. These Pikeville, Kentucky, employees decide to have a little fun by swearing profusely and chucking some iPads around. The man filming prefaces their [...]

NASA and Apple Engineers Develop $11,111 Coffee Maker

Jeremy Taylor — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 21:15:54 +0000

What happens when rocket scientists take on the coffee machine? The answer is a $11,111 coffee maker which brews java at the “perfect” temperature. The Blossom One Limited is the brainchild of Jeremy Kuempel. His development team for the device included engineers who’ve worked at NASA, Apple and the electronic car company Tesla. The very expensive piece [...]

Hacker Group Leaks Over One Million Apple Cell Numbers Obtained From FBI

Amanda Ferris — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 15:06:06 +0000

The infamous hacking collective known as Antisec has created one of the largest privacy disasters yet -- they've obtained 1,000,001 Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs) from an FBI breach. To make matters worse, this is only part of a larger list of 12 million UDIDs that they also managed to get their hands on.

iPhone 5 Spoof Proves You Only Use it For Photos of Food

Jeremy Taylor — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:35:49 +0000

You've surely noticed over the past few years the proliferation of photos of plates of food on your Facebook feed. While one's first instinct is to blame Zuckerberg for this culinary invasion of your cyber space, the real culprit is the late Steve Jobs, since it is the high quality camera on his iPhones that are allowing all your friends to post these dispatches from the latest trendy eatery.

Study Shows Siri May Not Be As Smart As It Thinks It Is

Danny Gallagher — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 21:00:57 +0000

Apple's Siri app turned a lot of heads and ears when the iPhone 4S first hit the shelves. The voice controlled app looked and sounded like something from an Arthur C. Clarke novel.

However, it may not bring us any closer to having a real HAL 9000 computer (and considering what happened in '2001: A Space Odyssey,' maybe we should be thankful for that).

Baby Rescued From Well Thanks to iPhone

Jeremy Taylor — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:45:52 +0000

Two-year-old stuck in a well? There's an app for that.

Rescue workers in Mengzi City, China had the daunting task of freeing a toddler who had fallen into a 40-foot well. While they could hear the boy's cries, they couldn't really see him. This posed a problem when he kept slipping out of the adult-sized harness they had sent down the shaft.

Elderly Woman Slams Into Glass Door at Apple Store, Sues for $1M

Donald Deane — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:35:33 +0000

Ever since the first Apple store was established in 2001, the all-glass storefronts have become seriously iconic. But one woman became the victim of modern architecture when she accidentally walked into a glass door at an Apple store and broke her nose. Now she’s suing the company for $1 million in damages. 83-year-old Evelyn Passwall [...]

Mac vs. PC — Which Is Better?

TheFW Staff — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:30:14 +0000

In one corner, we have the Mac, a brand of computer birthed by Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs, who both later founded Apple. The computers grew to incorporate a variety of applications, iPods, iPhones and iPads, and changed the way we listen to music, watch videos, look at photos and communicate.

In the other, we have the PC, which refers to any personalized computers that aren't Macs. On the whole, PCs are more affordable, more compatible with each other than they are with Macs, they can be designed in what appears to be an endless amount of ways, and some can even attach to video game systems.

Apple's Siri Raps to Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Hypnotize' [NSFW VIDEO]

Donald Deane — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:55:55 +0000

Siri, the iPhone's voice recognition software, may have trouble understanding accents, barking dogs and a Furby. But if there's one thing Siri gets, it's rap, as evidenced by this amusing video where Siri recites the lyrics to Notorious B.I.G's 'Hypnotize.' Who knew Siri had street cred?

Pug Is Not an iPhone Fan [VIDEO]

Donald Deane — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:35:33 +0000

Despite its immense popularity, the iPhone just isn’t for everyone. Take this pug, for example, who flips out when an iPhone commercial appears on TV. Coco the pug lounges peacefully as the TV plays in the background. But when an iPhone ad appears, the dog leaps to its feet and barks frantically. Clearly this pooch [...]

Apple's Siri Technology Struggles to Understand Dog Barks [VIDEO]

Jeremy Taylor — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:00:37 +0000

The new Apple iPhone feature called Siri is supposed to allow users to send messages, calls and similar functions through voice instruction. However, the technology has yet to master non-American accents, like Scottish, and, similarly, dog barks.

5 Accents Apple's Siri Doesn't Understand [VIDEOS]

Chip Sandalwood — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:31:39 +0000

When it comes to recognizing American, French or German accents, Apple's new personal assistant software Siri is a certified pro. But throw some tone terracing at her and maybe a few unvoiced consonants and Siri is likely to get confused faster than you can say "linguistics."

Scroll down for five accents Siri has had particular trouble with only a few weeks into its release.

The iPhone's Siri Is Terrible at Scottish Accents [VIDEO]

Paul Ciampanelli — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:09:51 +0000

This poor Scottish fellow is having a bit of trouble with his iPhone’s Siri voice-recognition technology. No matter how hard he tries to annunciate, he can’t seem to get his phone to “create a reminder.” It seems Siri was designed for American accents, and American accents only. So ultimately, what does this mean? Is Siri [...]

iPod Turns 10 — Happy Birthday to the Greatest Invention of All Time

Dylan Schenker — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:45:51 +0000

The iPod, Apple’s MP3 player that revolutionized the way we listen to music, recently celebrated its tenth birthday. How do ya like them apples, Microsoft Zune! Can anyone remember MP3 players before the iPod? They were dinky and only held, at most, a handful of songs. The iPod forever changed how we listen to music by [...]

Incredible Steve Jobs Portrait Made From 4,001 Post-It Notes [VIDEO]

Chip Sandalwood — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:46:50 +0000

To pay tribute to the man they say “devoted his life to give us the most powerful devices ever available to an ordinary person,” four twentysomethings from Munich, Germany created a giant portrait of Steve Jobs from 4,001 Post-It notes. The pixelated project, which took six hours to install and cost just under $200, will be [...]

Apple's New Siri Technology Has a (Hilarious) Mind of Its Own

Shauna Wright — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:42:32 +0000

Apple's voice-recognition technology, Siri, has been lauded for its groundbreaking ability to understand natural human language rather than just simple commands. In the past, most people have used it for various mundane activities -- finding the nearest sushi restaurant or theater showtimes for a movie, for example.

In its most recent incarnation, you can even ask it questions ("Will it rain today?") and it'll use GPS to spit out an accurate answer. But some creative folks have tested Siri's abilities on the new iPhone 4S with rather amusing results.

Apple's Touching Homepage Tribute to Steve Jobs [IMAGE]

TheFW Staff — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:43:49 +0000

No doubt right now your Facebook feed is almost 100% about the sad passing of Steve Jobs. But in true Apple fashion, the company's website features a minimalist tribute to the legendary thinker that says it al

Apple's Siri Voice-Recognition App Is the 'Butt' of Jokes in Japan

Shauna Wright — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:07:44 +0000

During Tuesday’s ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ presentation, Apple wowed the audience with a demonstration of the Siri voice-recognition technology, which can understand natural human language rather than just simple commands. Even more wowed? Japanese audiences. Seems the word “siri” is dangerously close to “shiri,” which is Japanese slang for one’s, shall we say, backside. So when Japanese [...]

YouTubers Rap a Tribute to Steve Jobs in 'We Are All Steve' [VIDEO]

Shauna Wright — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:47:33 +0000

As we're all sadly aware, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and the creator of iconic products like the iPhone, has been valiantly fighting cancer for years -- and given his recent resignation as CEO of the company, he doesn't appear to be winning.

YouTubers Pantless Knights have put together a terrific tribute song, and the accompanying video features various people -- and one Muppet -- in Jobs' trademark black turtlenecks and round glasses lip-syncing a rap about the legendary tech genius.

Apple Loses Another iPhone Prototype in a Bar

Shauna Wright — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:35:46 +0000

In a replay from an incident last year, another Apple employee lost another iPhone prototype in yet another Bay Area bar. If this keeps up, they're going to start surgically implanting new phones into developers' arms.

Woman Conned Into Paying $180 for iPad That Was Just a Block of Wood

Jeremy Taylor — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:07:14 +0000

Ashley McDowell of Spartanberg, South Carolina probably thought she was a master negotiator when she haggled with two men a McDonald’s parking lot for a new iPad, getting the price down from $300 to $180. But when McDowell got home and opened the box, she instead found a plank of wood. The con artists tried [...]

The Steve Jobs Taiwanese Animation Is Here! [VIDEO]

Dylan Schenker — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:15:18 +0000

We all know that Apple was founded when Steve Jobs took a technicolor trip through a forest and was bonked on the head with a Newtonian Apple logo of inspiration, before going on to literally give birth to a bulky Macintosh computer. Well, that's how Taiwanese animation team Next Media Animation remembers it at least.

Comedian Finds Out Just How Much You Can Get Away With in an Apple Store [VIDEO]

Jeremy Taylor — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:54:50 +0000

After realizing there are hundreds of YouTube videos of people singing and dancing inside Apple Stores without the intrusion of staffers, comedian Mark Malkoff set out to test the limits of what one could get away with in the land of iPads and Genius Bars.

Malkoff's stunts include a pizza delivery, donning a Darth Vader costume and wining and dining a date. See how they were received below:

$8.1 Million iPad Features Gold, Diamonds and Dinosaur Bones (Seriously)

Jeremy Taylor — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:01:55 +0000

Designer Stuart Hughes, who specializes in bringing bling to everything from beds to yachts to liquor bottles, is now offering a gold- and diamond-encrusted iPad 2 for the princely sum of $8.1 million called the Gold History Edition.

Entire Counterfeit Apple Store Uncovered in China [PHOTOS]

Jeremy Taylor — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:40:58 +0000

Given the Chinese population's well-documented love of Apple products -- and the Chinese government's well-documented disregard for copyright laws -- it should come as no surprise that there are many counterfeit iPads floating around the land of a billion plus.

But an entire fake Apple store, selling entirely fake Apple products, is still pretty stunning. And that's what the blogger BirdAbroad found in the Chinese city of Kunming.