Here are some treats courtesy of the Iconfactory.

Happy Halloween.

The Associated Press is reporting on today’s iPhone launch in China, and not all of it is good, because Apple faces some serious challenges while trying to carve out a section of market share in the largest market in the world.

Some of the challenges Apple is faces are things like the Chinese iPhone lacks Wi-Fi. The reason? China had imposed this restriction until recently, and only relaxed this policy after Apple has sent the Chinese version of the iPhone into production.

Unicom’s iPhones lack WiFi because it was temporarily banned by Beijing, which was promoting a rival Chinese system, according to BDA. The ban was relaxed in May after manufacturing had begun.

A Unicom spokesman, Yi Difei, said the company hopes to have WiFi in the next batch of phones.

“We are talking with Apple and expect the problem to be solved by the end of this year,” Yi said.

In addition to lacking Wi-Fi capabilities, the Chinese iPhone’s price point is relatively high, which may make the “official” iPhone compete with other unlocked iPhone 3GS models that have seeped into China from other countries. In fact, it is estimated that 1.5 – 2 million iPhones had already found there way into China, and are operating on China Unicom’s network prior to today’s official launch. Additionally, these “unofficial” unlocked iPhones have been selling on the streets for 20% less than than the official models purchases without a contract.

Apple Inc. and Unicom also could face competition from an unusual source: unlocked iPhones brought in from abroad that have WiFi.

There are already an estimated 1.5 million to 2 million such phones in China using China Mobile 3G service that allows Internet access and other features.

Unicom’s prices range from 4,999 yuan ($730) to 6,999 yuan ($1,025) for the high-end, 32-gigabyte iPhone 3GS. That is 20 percent above the 5,700 yuan ($835) charged by merchants at Chinese street markets for a 3GS with WiFi.

In short, it looks like Apple’s biggest enemy in China, is Apple. They are competing with their own devices that have been acquired by other means other than Apple or China Unicom.

Hell, I thought the N-Gage had died out a long time ago.

Of course, this was the phone you had remove the battery to switch games, and you had to place the thin edge of the device to your head to talk. I wonder why it failed?

@seoulbrother has made an awesome video montage responding to one of John Gurber’s toots.

The end scene from Spaceballs is spectacular.

After an 8 month hiatus, the incomparable Dan Benjamin and John Gruber are back in the saddle with episode 30 of The Talk Show.

Without showing her, I can hear my 53 year old mother say something like, “That’s just wrong”, after seeing this video. And for her, it would be, after all she grew up in the 60s and 70s, when this sort of thing was still a fairly taboo subject.

My initial knee-jerk reaction was of surprise, but not shock. We live in modern day equivalent of the 1960’s, if that makes any sense. Things are a little more free, liberal, maybe even hippie. That doesn’t bother me, and this video is a form of art. Not to my taste, but art none the less.

Most of Europe wouldn’t object to this video, after all they freely include sex in their movies, but hesitate to include violence. You know, because most people will have sex in their lives, but not everyone is going to kill a man. As you know, we have that backwards here in the U.S. We show both sex and violence, yes, but we show more violence than sex.

The main objection to this video, other than the graphic nudity, would be that it is obviously about gay couples. I live in Southern Indiana, a very conservative part of the country, and shit like this would never fly. All of the old and/or “religious” people would be in the streets -rioting. The funny thing is, other than the people my age who think they are “religious” and or “conservative”, have no objection to gays, and nor do I. Most of the people that wouldn’t object to this video, aren’t gay themselves, and nor am I; we’ve just grown up around this sort of thing.

The point I’m trying to make, with the help of this shitty artsy music video, is that gay rights are a generation away. Let the current group of legislators who are set in their ways, die off, then things will change. We had to wait for a racist generation to die off, before equal rights for African Americans were achieved, and we’ll just have to do the same for gay rights.

The first six photos are the best.

Agile Web Solutions, the makers of 1Password the indispensable password keeping/creating utility, have now released 1Password 3 as a public beta.

Almost nothing is the same as 1Password 2, and it has changed for the better.

Try it, I love it.

I don’t even want to know…

John Gruber is spot on.

“The simplest reduction of the age-old Mac-vs.-Windows debate is quality-vs.-quantity. But I don’t blame Apple for bragging about the sheer number of iPhone apps available, because it’s something that can be measured. It’s a powerful marketing point because it is an undeniable fact: there are nearly 100,000 apps, and more every week. You can’t quantify the advantage Mac software has over Windows.

But my interest remains, as ever, in the quality of the apps, not the quantity. Let’s say that when the dust starts to settle in this market, Android winds up with far fewer total apps than iPhone OS, but they’re of generally higher quality. That would make Android the Mac to the iPhone’s Windows. I would switch to that platform. (Feel free to substitute WebOS for Android in the above hypothetical.)”

What a wonderful print.

Why is nothing this classy anymore? You can make things cheap and classy you know.

Agreed.

“Bookrest is a practical and colorful spot in every room! It gives your book a new and graphical expression while hanging and has a small hook for reading glasses.”

A mug shot of one of my favorite internet personalities.

Would you just look at those locks!

Japan has the fastest and cheapest internet access, Greece has the slowest, and the U.S. is somewhere in the middle.

These letter press cards are just beautiful.

Odd but not unreadable.

I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this before. Guidebook has a bunch of images from operating systems of years past.

Enjoy.

One of the few iPhone apps I’ve truly gotten excited about.

TUAW is showing us what it’s like be hired by Apple for a call center position.

This move appears to be political, maybe even related to Oracle’s acquisition of Sun.

Everything about this is elegant, but above all, the typography is exquisite.

I’m normally not a fan of prison films, but this looks amazing- mad even.
(Via Sam Lyden)

This is exactly why I have never read a Star Wars Book or Comic, even though I’m a hardcore Star Wars fan.

Also, I actually liked the Star War prequels. Blasphemy, I know.