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Loading ...iPhone girl’s identity revealed!
She was a pretty Asian factory worker whose picture appeared on an iPhone sold to a British customer. That’s all we knew about ‘iPhone girl.’ Until now.
Shark Tales has learned exclusively that the woman in the photo is a prototype of iMinion, Apple’s next-generation automated assistant and a cornerstone of its enterprise supply chain strategy.
Okay, not really. But whoever iPhone girl is, Apple has proved that even its sweatshops are prettier than other vendors’.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The future of Scrabulous: D-O-O-M-E-D
If only those letters landed on some double-word score spaces, and we’d be in business!
According to AP, “Facebook said Monday it was forced to disable Scrabulous after one of Scrabble’s rights owners, Mattel Inc., made a formal removal request and the developers of Scrabulous took no action themselves.”
Oddly, neither Mattel nor Hasbro has taken action against Microsoft for any resemblance to Monopoly.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Oracle hires Kramer in US$100 million spokesperson deal
Okay, that headline is completely untrue but what better way for the business software maker to counter Microsoft’s recent contract win with Jerry Seinfeld? While Redmond is trying to out-cool Apple, Cosmo Kramer would bring some much-needed levity to Larry Ellison’s sweat shop by acting as comic foil.
Other great celebrity-vendor pairings we’d like to see? How about Mike Mysers (as Dieter) for SAP, Fred Savage (who could pass for a young Michael Dell) for Dell and for IBM you could cast . . . um, there’s really no one that could make Big Blue appear very cuddly. Except maybe Cookie Monster.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...High-tech lobsters foil crime, still die
CBC News reported this week on a recent Department of Fisheries and Oceans sting that involved planting microchipped lobsters in poachers’ traps.
The poachers had been laying unmarked traps off the coast of Newfoundland’s Burnt Islands. “During a stakeout of the area, officers saw three men hauling two of the untagged traps from the water and approached the men. Officers searched their boat and found all six microchip (sic) lobsters,” according to the story.
This led to busting the rest of the poaching ring, which included 13 traps and 54 lobsters seized. Dread poacher Everett James was brought to justice, and was dealt the deadly blow of a 14-day licence suspension at the start of the 2009 fishing season. Accomplices Wallace James Sr. and Kevin Courtney were fined $500 each.
That fine money might go toward promoting protection of fish and lobster habitat in Newfoundland and Labrador, apparently, but what of the brave undercover lobster officers?
Aaaaaawkwaaaaard.
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(1 votes, average: 8 out of 10) Loading ...Attention Tim Horton’s addicts
If you’re a coffeeholic and won’t settle for anything other than Timmy’s, Apple Inc.’s App Store has something for you.
According to IDG News Service, the TimmyMe application, for the iPhone 3G, is designed to give users directions to the nearest Tim Horton’s.
Of course, a true Tim Horton’s addict doesn’t need one of these. If, hypothetically, the author of this article was a Tim Horton’s addict living and working in Toronto, he would be aware there are two Tim Horton’s locations in Scarborough Town Centre, plus locations:
- -on the west side of Warden about 300 metres north of St. Claire;
- -on the northeast corner of Pharmacy and Eglinton;
- -on the east side of Victoria Park just north of the 401;
- -on the south side of Sheppard Ave. between Consumers Road and Highway 404;
- -on the west side of Yonge south of Sheppard in the gas station;
- -on the west side of Yonge two blocks north of Sheppard,;
- -on the west side of Victoria St. north of Dundas;
- -on the east side of Yonge immediately north of Bloor;
- -in the Finch subway station inside the fare-paid zone near the escalators on the south end;
- -on the west side of Leslie St. immediately north of Lakeshore Blvd.
- -on the north side of Front St. west of Peter St.
But of course, that’s only hypothetical.
Now all we need is one that will give you directions to the Tim Horton’s that has the fastest-moving lineup.
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(1 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...Parenting in the mobile Internet age
Normally at IT World Canada we get flooded with press releases from companies like Cisco, Microsoft, IBM and other large, established vendors looking for publicity for their business products.
But recently we received a release from a woman who identified herself as a “North Texas Mom” promoting The Enforcer and eSembler, which lets parents view their kids’ school grades online and then punish poor performance by cutting off online or mobile access.
The Enforcer would work in conjunction with eSembler. In the event that a student received poor grades, The Enforcer would restrict other activities, such as cell phone use and Myspace.
“The student would be notified, via text or email, giving them an opportunity to redeem themselves prior to interruption of privileges” the release stated. “In an ever-changing world of technology, this cuts their life-line without the physical or emotional confrontation between parent and child.”
So, let me get this straight. These products are innovative for two reasons. They let parents find out about their children’s grades without having to go to the trouble of contacting their teachers or reading their report cards. Then they cut off access to cell phones and the Internet without having to undertake the archaic task of actually talking to their children in person.
Welcome to 21st century parenting, where software and messaging technologies make the old-fashioned, cumbersome chore of having a heart-to-heart discussion with your children a things of the past.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...I’d rather be phished than stuck in another meeting
Shark Tales has noticed a disturbing new trend among e-mail scammers: they’re trying to convince unsuspecting users that they should be attending even more conferences than they already do!
“I would like to personally invite you to the national conference, we hope to see you there,” reads the boilerplate in such spam, followed by a legitimate-looking link and even a legitimate-looking phone number and unsubscribe link. We’re not about to test-drive these links, but even getting snared by a fleet of botnets would be far more exciting than the festivals of fatigue that most conferences turn out to be.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...If he can’t keep his pants on, her underpants are going online!
A woman scorned has taken a pair of underwear belonging to her unfaithful husband’s lover photographed them and and put the picture up for sale on eBay, along with a picture of a used condom wrapper.
According to Reuters, the woman first learned about her husband’s tryst when he sent her a romantic text message by mistake. An eBay spokeswoman took the posting in stride.
“This is obviously very therapeutic for this woman and it must be a great channel for her views on cheating and the sanctity of marriage.” Whatever happened to just “journalling” your rage?
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Steve Jobs: Dicktastic!
Steve Jobs haters have had a good run lately, whether it be the MobileMe debacle or his evasiveness around ripping down seemingly innocent apps from The App Store.
Through the magic of wikis, the haters can now collectively hate on Jobs over at Dickipedia (”A Wiki of Dicks”), where they can take a stroll through Jobs’ lifetime of alleged dickitude, including his being ousted from Apple (”It takes a pretty big dick to get fired from your own company”), his prediliction for mock turtlenecks (”now everybody’s doing it”), and his alleged secret PC envy (”no matter how many PC users he manages to convert, Steve Jobs will always totally sweat Bill Gates’ jock”).
The only thing missing from the Wiki is a YouTube clip of Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs angrily hitting everything off a table while raging on employees. You can troll through the many “Pirates of Silicon Valley” YouTube clips for that gem, but, in the meanwhile, you can make do with the fictionalized vignette of “Steve Jobs, Dick Job Interviewer” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcbOGamZrhI.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Batman doesn’t give a damn about your privacy
In our ongoing efforts to point out the IT in current Hollywood fare, we bring you our observances about the blockbuster smash, The Dark Knight.
First off, Batman doesn’t care a lick about privacy. His newest nemesis could be a privacy commissioner or two after his new bat-tastic sonar-based device allows him to listen in on people’s calls and locate them via their mobile devices. He shrugs off such privacy concerns as a mere casualty in his war on the Joker.
He’s also clearly behind on his security know-how. Batman hands over the management of this tool to his right-hand man, Lucius Fox, who can access this goldmine of illicit info with the password of…his name. Did Fox not learn anything in Right-Hand-Man College?! Throw some numbers in there! We suggest: Rache14lif3.
