Apple hasn’t been having the best couple of weeks recently. The iPhone 4S’ battery woes have been a big issue, and the iOS 5.01 update they released to remedy the problem seems to have opened an entirely new can of worms. But now it’s come to light that the company has also recalled the first generation iPod Nano over safety risks with its aging battery.
The recall notice was posted on the support section of Apple’s website, with the following statement:
Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk. Affected iPod nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006.
This issue has been traced to a single battery supplier that produced batteries with a manufacturing defect. While the possibility of an incident is rare, the likelihood increases as the battery ages.
On the plus side, it means that users who still have a five year old iPod Nano lying around can get it replaced, free of charge. If you’re not sure when you purchased your Nano, the recall process will check your unit’s serial number to see if it’s eligible for replacement. So if you can manage to find yours in that drawer full of forgotten technology, it’s certainly worth checking to see if it’s covered under the recall.
Water and electronics are not good bedfellows, but a new silicon-based sprayable coating that makes gadgets completely waterproof has me even more excited for its other applications. Like making clothing impervious to food stains, as demonstrated in this video.
The miracle product that makes this possible is called NeverWet, developed by Ross Nanotechnology to allow liquids and heavy oils to slide off machinery and electronics. Upon application, the superhydrophobic silicon-based coating creates a 160 to 175 degree contact angle, making it nearly impervious for liquids to gain a foothold. Chocolate syrup, the mortal enemy of white fabrics, basically slides off a pair of Keds without leaving a mark. And an even more dramatic video on the company’s website shows a working iPhone submerged under water for half an hour. A test that usually results in failure after just a minute.
Ross Nanotechnology is hoping to break into the coatings market with their new product, but admits it’s not easy given how long other products have already been on the market. So worse comes to worse, they can always set up a booth at county fairs, carnivals and other local exhibitions where products like this seem to always start their life.
With content pouring in from cameras and smartphones all around the world, it’s not surprising that Flickr gains over a million new photos every single day. It’s a fact you probably wouldn’t give much thought to, until you see photographer Erik Kessels’ latest exhibit where he printed and filled a gallery with a day’s worth of Flickr uploads.
The installation, which fills multiple rooms at the Foam gallery in Amsterdam, illustrates how digital photography, and sites like Flickr and Facebook, have literally flooded the internet with photos. To the point where we’re “drowning in representations of other peoples’ experiences” according to Kessels. Like doing a photo search on Google, the mountains of photos in the gallery are overwhelming, making it almost impossible to take them all in. But, like with Scrooge McDuck and his money bin, I like the idea of being able to dive and swim around in a room filled with photos. Paper cuts be damned!
Nokia appears to have dislodged some huge creative blockage, beginning with its decision to back a new smartphone horse. Today we get yet another concept handset, revealed at Nokia Conversations. The GEM offers up an utterly customizable appearance that doubles as the interface. Following its naming convention, the user “polishes” the appearance of the phone, constantly tweaking it to suit their needs. The full-body touchscreen could offer up advertising on the back of the phone during calls, subsidizing costs, or media sharing done with some physical gesturing. See these glittering features shine in the ethereal design video right after the break.
The German division of animal rights group PETA sharply criticized content in Battlefield 3 as animal cruelty. According to a press release, the offending content includes the possibility to “sadistically” stab a rat with a combat knife, pick the rat up by its tail and then throw the dead body – “like garbage” – away.
PETA noted that killing of virtual animals can promote brutal behaviour and impact the “young, male target audience”. There is an ongoing trend in which (German) teenagers torture animals and kill them in a cruel way. According to PETA, the inspiration is delivered by violent movies and video games. The organization also noted that, once a certain level of brutality against animals is accepted, people may be close to be considering violence against other people as well.
The organization asks the developers of the game to avoid such content in future.
You can’t expect to see one for “one to two weeks,” but those hellbent on holding out for an unlocked iPhone 4S here in the US can finally snag one without jetting off to Australia (among other places). Nearly five months to the day after Apple started selling the iPhone 4 in unlocked fashion in the States, the iPhone 4S is joining the club, with a 16GB model going for $649, a 32GB model for $749 and a 64GB variant for $849. Just so you’re aware, the unlocked phone enables you to use any micro-SIM from any GSM carrier worldwide, but it won’t play nice with CDMA carriers “such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.” And yes, both the black and white versions are up for order. Hit the source link to part ways with your chosen amount of cash.
The New York Time’s profile of Google CEO Larry Page, in which we learn that the head of one of the biggest powers in the tech universe is exceedingly impatient, won’t come as much of a shock. What is a shock is that he apparently doesn’t much care for the one thing other than their search engine that Google has managed to do better than anyone else in the world – Gmail.
“He does not much like e-mail either — even his own Gmail — saying the tedious back-and-forth takes too long to solve problems.” I’m sorry, what? I am willing to bet actual money right now that future generations will remember Gmail as one of the greatest contributions to the consumer Internet experience (the crummy new version notwithstanding). Apparently, Page is on a mission to navigate what he thinks is Google’s midlife crisis, and that means trimming the fat. Hence the recent death of Google Buzz, for example. And that makes sense. Google Buzz was like an inconvenient clone of Twitter, destined to fail because you couldn’t just go to it without being logged into Google, and then it slowed all their other applications down. But the NYT indicates he’s positioning himself as a kind of Android Steve Jobs, and that’s worrisome.
Anyone who’s had the dubious pleasure of working in a large corporate organization can attest that there is basically a hierarchy of impatience. Director level bosses expects 1 paragraph or shorter email. Anything you send to a Vice President-level bigwig better say everything in the first sentence. And Chief Officer levelers? God forbid they actually have to read their own email. Hell, Page fired his secretary because he hated being scheduled for meetings. Shooting the messenger isn’t the same thing as demanding that iPods be more compact, you know? It’s a mistake – one that currently affects America’s insane economic debate – to think that the preferred lifestyle of a fabulously wealthy and busy businesspeople has any relevance to what the rest of us want. Steve Jobs at least understood that making things easy and convenient is as important as making them look good. This profile makes Page look come off like he just wants to be king of the world.
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