That is some fancy looking beer.

Hard to believe these guys were full of hot air.

Here are some nifty coasters made to look like the default applications that ship with iPhone.

I don’t expect these guys to be around very long however, they are after all, using unaltered Apple designs.

Here is a nice graphical representation of how large our digital storage capacities have gotten. It boggles the mind.

Excellent re-imagining of the iPhone home screen by Geoff Teehan.

Excellent point made here, even if it is a little overblown.

This plays into the same line of thought as when you are reading dialogue, and no gender or race is specified, nearly everyone defaults to “white male.”

This junk proves George Lucas lost his mind a further back than anyone had suspected.

Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve got that Jar Jar Binks candy tongue thing laying around here somewhere.

Orlando Sentinel:

Professional golfer Tiger Woods was seriously injured in a car accident early this morning, the Florida Highway Patrol just reported.

Woods, 33, pulled out of his driveway in the Isleworth community about 2:25 a.m. when he struck a fire hydrant, and then drove into a tree at his neighbor’s property, FHP reported.

To me, it sounds like a possible suicide, or even more likely, drunk driving.

UPDATE: Turns out Woods only suffered facial lacerations, and alcohol doesn’t seem to be involved.

Another one of my “so-so” creations for you fine people to adorn you desktops with.

Betanews is reporting on data from NPD a market research firm, which shows that Apple grabbed 48% of the U.S. PC industry’s revenue in October.

In October, Mac US retail desktop computer revenue share was 47.71, percent up from 33.44 percent a year earlier, according to NPD. It’s a stunning number, given just how many Windows PC companies combined command so much more market share, while competing for the same revenue share.

NPD analyst Stephen Baker points out that Apple’s recent desktop refreshes and slumping Windows PC sales ahead of the Windows 7 launch were likely contributors to Apple’s performance in October, and also expects this trend to subside shortly, even though Apple was grabbing 45% of revenue as far back as April of this year.

NPD goes on to say that Apple’s huge portion of revenue compared to their market share, comes from the Mac’s higher average selling prices, which are often three times that of an average Windows PC.

One factor helping Apple is average selling price. The Mac maker has largely chosen not to compete with Windows PC manufacturers below $1,000. While price wars continue at the low end among Windows PC manufacturers, Apple’s entry-level iMac starts at $1,199. True, Apple offers the Mac mini for $599 or $799, but the ASP is considerably higher than comparably priced Windows PCs. Low-cost Windows PCs typically come with monitor, keyboard and mouse, which are all extra-cost items for Mac mini unless the buyer uses existing gear.

Worth noting, is that Apple’s revenue share isn’t as large in the laptop segment, where they only have 34% revenue share.

Now, before you go off thinking Apple is ripping you off, actually handle their products, and then handle the generic PC manufacturers products. You’ll notice a difference right away. Apple’s products don’t squeak, they aren’t loud, they are tasteful. PCs have a utilitarian look and feel to them, and that is the market they serve. Granted Apple does have a small premium on their machines that they could shave off, but regardless of price you are paying for the quality.

Another point worth making is that these numbers go on to further prove the point that Apple isn’t targeting market share, they are targeting revenue share.

Notice how everyone wore hats…

Happy Thanksgiving.

Rainbow Cake, I bet it’s delicious, but I know it’s pretty.

(Happy Birthday Sam)

Looks delicious.

Daniel Eran Dilger nails it:

Google is adding value by stripping away conventional services that a PC normally runs (and which aren’t necessary on a netbook, the idea goes), and building support around HTML5 to enable web apps to do things that a conventional browser hasn’t been able to do before. That includes offline browsing, local thin client style storage on solid state disk, and a stronger security partition around individual web pages, so one tab’s browser exploit can’t impact things happening on another browser tab.

Rather than being anything like Android, Chrome OS is another take on the Palm Pre’s WebOS platform, but for netbooks rather than iPhone killers. Unlike Palm’s new OS, Chrome OS is backed by Google’s vast fortunes and can be implemented by a variety of hardware makers. Or from the opposite perspective, it’s backed by a company with no hardware or consumer platform expertise and set to be deployed across a mess of fractionalized, squabbling competitors two years after the Palm WebOS was first announced.

I do think Dilger is being a little hard on Chrome OS, but overall he is correct. Google could make a Microsoft style mess out of this in a hurry. The irony being, that they are trying to remove Microsoft from that market.

The incomparable Neven Mrgan has made us all another excellent iPhone web-app called Pie Guy. It’s fun go try it.

He has said it functions the best on an iPhone 3GS.

Engadget is reporting that a significant number of complaints are arising from customers who purchased Apple’s new high-end Core i7 based 27 inch iMacs, in which the computer will not power on or has a cracked scree, right out of the box.

Apple’s new Core i7-based iMac might be a performance monster, but it looks like the whole family’s having some problems getting out of the gate: in addition to the previously-noted performance issues with the Core 2 Duo models, a quick glance across Apple’s support forums and on other Mac boards around the web reveals that some machines are showing up DOA and / or with cracked screens. We’re a little more familiar with the DOA issue, since the new i7 we just bought doesn’t boot at all, but the cracked screen issue seems to be equally common and mostly affecting the bottom left corner, from what we can tell.

These problems have been widely reported by users on Apple’s support forums, and may indicate that this isn’t just a few isolated events.

This isn’t the first complaints we’ve heard regarding the new 27-inch iMacs. Last month there were numerous reports that the Core 2 Duo models were having issues with Flash video playback, which was reportedly fixed in the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update.

Apple:

Automatic, electronic submission of your iTunes LP or Extra is scheduled for the first quarter of 2010. Until then, the submission process is manual and limited. Please contact your label or studio rep for details and consideration. An existing iTunes contract is required. Your iTunes LP or iTunes Extras will be reviewed by the iTunes team for appropriateness of content and for technical quality.

Sounds like the App Store, and that isn’t a complement.

Live Nation, a concert promoter, has announced that they have partnered with Apple to deliver audio and video content recorded from live performances via iTunes. Additionally, Apple has launched a special section for this new content in the iTunes store.

Live Nation, the world’s largest live music company, has joined with the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com), the world’s #1 music retailer, to launch a new live music program, which debuted today. Live Nation Studios will now offer exclusive recorded and filmed concerts from its network of “wired” venues for purchase and download only on iTunes. Exclusive live recordings from OK Go, Jesse McCartney, Saving Abel, A Fine Frenzy, Duffy, Plain White T’s and Ziggy Marley, to name a few, have been released this week, with many more to follow.

Live Nation has goes on to mention that they have “wired” their concert locations to allow performers to easily record audio and video for resell.

So much we don’t see, that happens right before our eyes.

BBC News is reporting that another new worm attacking jailbroken iPhones. The worm was discovered by the security firm F-Secure, and the attacks appear to be localized to the Netherlands.

It is specifically targeting people in the Netherlands who are using their iPhones for internet banking with Dutch online bank ING. It redirects the bank’s customers to a lookalike site with a log-in screen.

F-Secure places the number of affected devices in the “hundreds” at this time. This attack appears to exploit the same weakness as the previous two worm attacks. The attack is carried out on jailbroken iPhones, with SSH installed with the default password still set.

However, this attack could be used for malevolent means. According to F-Secure this worm “enables the phone to be accessed or controlled remotely without the permission of its owner.” Intego goes on to tell us that the attack could also be used to steal personal data, and open up the device for even further control.

When active on an iPhone, the iBotnet worm changes the root password for the device, in order to prevent users from later changing that password themselves. It then connects to a server in Lithuania, from which it downloads new files and data, and to which it sends data recovered from the infected iPhone. The worm sends both network information about the iPhone and SMSs to the remote server. It is capable of downloading data, including executables that it uses to run and carry out its actions, as well as new files, providing botnet capabilities to infected devices

Finally The Loop is reporting that Apple has released a statement regarding the attack, and washing their hands of the whole situation.

“The worm affects only a very specific set of iPhone users who have jail broken their iPhones and hacked it with unauthorized software,” Apple spokesperson, Natalie Harrison, told The Loop. “As we’ve said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones, and for good reason. These hacks not only violate the warranty, they will also cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably.”

Moral of the story? Don’t jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch, and if you do, change your SSH password to something, anything, besides the default.

Businessweek recently interviewed Apple SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller regarding the App Store approval process, which has been a source of complaint from many developers. Developers, not customers, note that distinction. Customers love the gluttony of 99¢ apps, developers don’t like the approval process, amongst other things. Here’s what Schiller had to say to Businessweek:

“We’ve built a store for the most part that people can trust,” he says. “You and your family and friends can download applications from the store, and for the most part they do what you’d expect, and they get onto your phone, and you get billed appropriately, and it all just works.”

The interview continues with Schiller giving us numbers on App Store rejections. Around 90% of of app rejections are due to technical issues such as errors or bugs. Another 10% of rejections are due to illegal or inappropriate content, wile <1% require legal research on the part of Apple before they can be approved.

Developers are unsettled by this process, because they have come across inconsistent review standards, and little input from Apple on why they are being rejected. Apple has recently taken steps to ease tensions between the company and developers, but it’s clearly not enough on Apple’s part at this time.

AOL has decided to switch logos from a bad design, to a worse design. Goldfish? Really?

This is really cool. Twelve South has made a portable, USB powered, subwoofer called BassJump, and was designed exclusively for MacBook and MacBook Pro. Supposedly, BassJump greatly increases your MacBook’s audio performance.

That’s not the point I’m trying to make though. What I am trying to say is Twelve South obviously “gets” the Mac idea. Simplicity.

In short, I want one.

CrunchGear is reporting on a complaint email sent to Apple CEO Steve Jobs from The Little App Factory CEO John Devor regarding Apple’s request that Devor’s company change the name of iPodRip, an application that moves music off of customers iPods. Apple originally requested the name be changed because of the use of “iPod” in the applications name, which of course is an Apple held trademark. The catch here is the fact that The Little App Factory has sold over 5 million copies of the application under the iPodRip name since 2003, and Apple is just now asking them to change the name, long after it has been established.

So, forgive me in advace, but here is John Dever’s email to Steve Jobs, in it’s entirety:

Dear Mr. Jobs,

My name is John Devor and I’m the co-owner of a small Mac shareware company named The Little App Factory and a long-term Apple customer and shareholder. I doubt you’re aware but we recently received a letter from a law firm working on Apple’s behalf instructing us that we had violated several of Apple’s trademarks in our application iPodRip and asking us to cease using the name and Apple trademarks in our icons.

We have been distributing iPodRip since 2003 with the aim of providing a method to recover music, movies and photos from iPods and iPhones in the event of a serious hardware failure on their Mac which leads to data loss. Our goal has been to provide the highest quality product coupled with the highest quality service in a bid to resolve some of the angst that is generated by such an ordeal; service befitting of an Apple product. In this department we think we have succeeded as we have approximately 6 million customers, many Apple employees, music artists and other notable people in society. In fact I’d argue that our customer service is the best of all competing applications in our niche as many of them are scams and frauds that leave Apple customers with a terrible taste in their collective mouths. We fear very much that tens of thousands of Apple customers looking to recover their own music and having heard of our product via word-of-mouth or otherwise, will instead find a product produced by one of our competitors, and will wind up the victim of a scam (one closely-named competitor charges a hidden monthly fee, for instance).

It is quite obvious that we mean Apple no harm with the use of the name iPodRip, or of the inclusion of trademarked items in our icons, and in fact I believe that we have been providing an excellent secondary service to Apple customers that has potentially caused you many repeat clients. In fact, we are quite aware that Apple support and store staff have recommended our software on numerous occasions as far back as 2004 so we have felt that we were doing something right!

With this in mind, we are in desperate need of some assistance and we beseech you to help us to protect our product and our shareware company, both of which we have put thousands upon thousands of hours of work into. Our company goal is to create Mac software of the highest quality with the best user experience possible. I myself dropped out of school recently to pursue a path in the Mac software industry, and you yourself have been a consistent inspiration for me.

If there is anything at all you can do with regards to this matter, we would be most grateful.

Best,

John Devor

Here is Mr. Jobs’ reply:

Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

It turns out that after the email exchange The Little App Factory did change iPodRip’s name to iRip, and removed the iPod icon from Evom, another of the company’s products.

I think the release of this email was intended to villainize Steve Jobs, which it might, for only a short while. That said, I think Jobs’s response says a lot about his management style, but more importantly his mentality behind developers, which might explain Apple’s views towards iPhone developers and the treatment they have been receiving from the company.

This week, the Macalope talks about line dancing, idiot arguments about the Droid phone, and the always-wrong Scott Moritz.