Category: Business

Stewart calls Apple “Appholes” over lost iPhone response

An Apple employee lost a prototype for the new iPhone, which is kind of a big deal to them and soon after came the headline/news: Per Apple Request, Police Questioning Gizmodo’s iPhone Scoop. RespondingiIn a segment titled “Appholes”, John Stewart went off (though gently) on Apple for handling the Gizmodo iPhone leak poorly, most notably observing that Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one, but now Apple is busting down doors in Palo Alto while Bill Gates rids the world of mosquitoes. Everything is upside down!

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Appholes
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Commenter Durox on the Daily Show website rebuts:

1. the guy has a case# from the Apple’s support team, he contacted them but they had no idea that a ‘secret iPhone’ was lost, so they decided it was a joke (Apple also said in the begining that it’s not a prototype …) 2. the blogger paid for an iPhone; he took a chance; it might have been a joke, a replica, etc, but he considered the risks and got it. when asked to return it, he sent it back to Apple. the whole thing took days to develop, and that seems to me like a publicity stunt… Jobs’ own secrecy regarding the product, turns out to be the cause why they didn’t get the iPhone back before it made it on the news. if the support team were updated, if Jobs would not have been so paranoid, the phone would have been returned to Apple. IMO it’s like this: you buy a used bike on a garage sale. the guy says he found it on the side of the road.. you give him the money, and take the bike to a ride. someone stops you and demands that he left the bike on the street, and he wants it back. you give it back.. now, what’s going on w/ your money, what’s going on when the police arrives? ;] ps Apple has the argument that the new iPhone is top secret and the competitors might steal its ‘secrets’! come on Jobs, we are in 2010 and the iPhone still doesn’t multitask. it took several upgrades to film, and other expensive jokes like these ;]. don’t give us this BS, with the secrect technology, iPhone’s only thing is its applications. w/o them it simply blows!

and commenter Go Zi An created some buzz on the videos comments with a few along these lines:

But John Gruber actually has a fair and balanced take on this issue, unlike Jon Stewart. Steward [sic] is misrepresenting facts, leaving out important details like the prototype was stolen, and whoever found it never informed anyone at all for 3 weeks, despite knowing the identity of the Apple engineer since he could access his Facebook app on the iPhone prototype. And Gizmodo paid for the prototype, is that even ethical journalism (something Stewart himself always raves about?) Jon Stewart it’s time you actually went to journalism school to learn the basics on reporting facts.

Giant poop bubbles plague Indiana neighbors

Giant house-sized poop bubbles are growing and becoming dangerous in the “waste lagoons” at a dairy farm in Winchester, Indiana. When I think of a lagoon, I think tropical, I think Gilligans Island. Way to ruin that word by informing me that there are such things as open air cow shit “lagoons”, Wall Street Journal… The giant bubbles are made from a plastic lining that was supposed to stay at the bottom of the damn thing but something clearly went wrong and now they are filling with gas from all the poop that got underneath it. Nearby houses are annoyed/terrified that volatile shit bubbles are in their back yard. If one were to pop, the explosion could destroy millions. Actually, I made that up, but they DO allude to danger if they pop. All I can think about is getting a gun and shooting them just to see what horrible shit-boom occurs.

Well, the fun is over and the problem is solved I guess. NY Mag reports that the bubbles have deflated like “raisins in the sun” which sounds impossible, or at least extremely rare. Kinda like toasting toast – you toast bread and you put grapes in the sun to turn them into raisins. Toasting toast and shrinking a raisin in the sun? no thanks.

My first idea was that this looks like a perfect source of green energy and got angry at the double fail that this isn’t already done everywhere. Every dairy farm everywhere should be harvesting the methane gas from their livestock into energy. wtf guys?? I was disappointed when I saw someone else make this suggestion on the WSJ’s comments, but still wonder why its not friggin happening.

When life gives you lemons – make poop bubbles that can pay the electric bills.

Steve Jobs is not dead

Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs has been on extended sick leave and had to skip the last stage presentation or two because of it. His lack of visibility lead many to believe he was terminally ill or maybe even had already died and was being kept as a Weekend At Bernies type secret for as long as possible. But today – tadaa! – Jobs is back on the job..z, and conducted the expo thingwhatever today revealing new ipod nano’s with cameras and a software upgrade to the iPhone full of features no one will ever notice. yeay! but his entrance… so blah… dude just walked out on the friggin stage with no announcement.

The video below is the whole thing if you’re interested, but for purposes of this blog, only the first 60 seconds is important.

Jobs squandered a huge opportunity here. No one had any idea he was going to appear on stage and he just strolls out and starts talking?? wtf Steven? He could have tripled the publicity for this event if he had taken the Willy Wanka route:

See Mr Jobs? thats how its done… Maybe a full floor tumble was out of the question, but a fakeout still could have been pulled off subtlety and been just as awesome. Imagine him limping out with a cane and beginning to tell that story about his recovery only to drop it and erect himself to announce how great he feels. Apple stock would have risen an extra 4 points, I guarantee.

Bankrupt Sharper Image to close remaining 86 stores

Awwwwwwwwwww MAN! This sucks. Every time I pass the Sharper Image stores in LA, New York and Honolulu I always stop in to play with some of the toys and most definitely get an ijoy chair massage on my back and calves. Now I’m screwed. Never again being able to get free muscular relieve within malls from products I’m too cheap to purchase. =(

Bankrupt gadget retailer Sharper Image plans to close all its remaining stores, its new owners announced Sunday.

The company expects to sell $50 million in inventory as it shutters 86 stores across the United States, the joint owners of Hilco Organization and Gordon Brothers said in a statement.

The group, which purchased the gadget retailer’s assets in a bankruptcy auction Thursday for $49 million, said it has developed a licensing strategy for wholesale, retail, direct-to-retail, e-commerce, and catalog businesses.

Sharper Image filed for bankruptcy protection in February with plans to shut about half of its 184 stores and reorganize. The San Francisco-based company said it had lost more than $135 million since early 2005. The company put itself up for sale in April.

Source: Steve Mosil.

Inside the process on new McDonalds menu items

Fox Business Network’s morning show Money For Breakfast gets the skinny on the fat. McDonalds is changing their menu and this chick talks to the guy responsible for the new stuff. You will learn that toasted pumpkin seeds were a failure (later replaced by tortilla chips) and it took 3 years to get a Mcgriddle from idea to sale. yeesh.

Part 2 is more casual and ‘Today Show’ type personal story of the chef and the actual food preparation for a new food product idea:

Check at the end where she explains that another idea that got shot down was having shrimp in one of the salads, and was deemed impossible because McDonalds would then wipe out the shrimp market across the world (or don’t cuz I just told you).