Panic Inc. explains that weird phenomenon known as the “Blue Moon.” Like the one we’re experiencing on December 31, 2009.

This has to be the most honest (and awesome) paper packaging.

Amongst the usual “celebrities” that make it onto these kinds of lists, there were a few truly remarkable people that died this year that barely made it into the paper. It’s a shame where society places it’s priorities.

I agree with most that is on this list, I don’t agree with their selection of music, but everything else is pretty spot-on.

I don’t know how we as a people survived it.

It really is amazing to see how far the mouse has come since Apple introduced in alongside the original Macintosh in 1984.

I think these photos are pretty representative of the entire computer industry. Think about it, mice were once an experimental computer accessory, and they looked the part. Nowadays, they are streamlined, operate smoothly, and are an indispensable part of our day-to-day computing. Apple should be congratulated for this, because if it were up to Microsoft, we’d still be using the command line(yes, I’m being hyperbolic). Also, I’m glad the trackball died out (albeit a slow death). Can I get an amen?

Of course, Apple again revolutionized the way we deal with our computers when they brought multi-touch to the masses with the launch of the iPhone in January 2007. Now just about every cutting edge phone released has some sort of multi-touch-esque features.

I also suspect Apple will change things up again when/if they introduce the mythical “iSlate” tablet thingy. And who knows, this “Magic Slate” input device thing may blow our minds if/when it’s introduced.

One thing is for sure though. Apple will be the defining tech company in the decade to come.

Happy New Year.

I’m not very old, but I remember standing watching the ball drop to the year 2000 (Which contrary to popular belief, really wasn’t the first year in the new millennium, 2001 was. Look it up). Personally, I was waiting for the power to flicker or whatever that Y2K thing was going to do to us all. Eighteen months later terror struck, a month after that I was burying my grandfather, and another six months I was burying my father. That was a lot for a child’s mind to take in, but I did. So, here I am, a better man, giving you the run-down of what I believe to be the most important things of the clusterfuck that defined the 2000s.

Politics and World Affairs

The Presidential election of 2000 was hellish. I was 10 at the time, and even I knew this thing was going to have repercussions that would echo in the coming years. Bush won the election by making it 50/50 close and kissing the Supreme Court’s ass. By the time September 11th rolled around people were giving this new President the benefit of the doubt, and the American people continued to do so throughout his first term. Even when it was apparent that he was leading us into wars that we had no business starting.

The election of 2004 proved the Democrats couldn’t pull out a better candidate than John Kerry, who was caught in his own words more than once. 2005 rolled around, and it was evident that we were stuck with someone incapable of discharging the powers of the Presidency. The Proof? Look no further than the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. While Bush was playing army in the Middle-East the city of New Orleans washed into the sea. To think we had just reelected this man, and the even more uncomfortable idea that we still had to suffer his cowboy administration for another three years.

Then in 2008 Barack Obama was elected President. The first African American to do so. Regardless of your political views you should be proud of this. Here, in America, where racial divides still run deep, a black man was elected to the most powerful office in the world. That’s not to say he wasn’t equipped for the job. A genuinely smart, eloquent man, he is the complete reverse of President Bush. McCain didn’t win because he couldn’t separate himself enough from other Republicans whom President Bush also managed to desecrate.

Now, that’s not to say I don’t disagree with my President on occasion, but he’s still my President. If you do not agree with him, and he does not earn your respect, the office which he holds demands respect. Tea-baggers and lunatic Republicans be damned.

There were repeated attempts to de-legitimize the President. Anything from fake Kenyan birth certificates presented by nuts like Orly Taitz, and Glen Beck, to the absolute parade of racism dressed up as a health care debate in August of 2009. Amazing amounts of stupid people live amongst good people. People can have honest disagreements, that is after all what America is about.

Besides the numerous international terror attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, that spat between Russia and Georgia and the quick war between Israel and Hezbollah, the most significant event that comes to mind is the Indian Ocean Tsunami on December 26th 2004. It blows my mind that we could have an earthquake so perfectly placed that it could wipe out hundreds of thousands of people, all while actually slowing the earth’s rotation by a few milliseconds.

Here’s to hoping fewer people die in the coming decade.

Entertainment

Early in the 2000s the going thing amongst children was Pokemon, it was genuinely fun until it all but died out by the end of 2001. The next big thing to come to mind was the hysteria surrounding Harry Potter, which to me, is the most unimaginative junk to ever come out of England, but it did get my brother to enjoy reading, which is a plus.

Also from the early 2000s came the exquisite film adaptations of the J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels. These films made their director, Peter Jackson, a household name. Around this same time, George Lucas was shitting all over his masterpiece that was the original Star Wars Trilogy. That’s not to say I don’t like the Star Wars prequels, in fact I love them, they just aren’t very good, especially in comparison to the timeless classics that make up the original trilogy.

Lastly, in October of 2001 Apple introduced iPod, which brought music to the mainstream. CD players were the tool used before the iPod, but they were limited to only playing as many songs as you could fit on a CD. The original iPod on the other hand allowed users to pack 1000 songs on a device the size of a pack of playing cards. Combined with the easy to use iTunes software, iPod was a hit. Apple soon expanded iTunes with the inclusion of a music store. Making the legal acquisition of digital music as easy as grabbing music off of peer to peer sharing networks. The idea worked and iTunes is now the largest music retailer in the world. As for the iPod, it became a household name. That said, it is slowly being eaten by another Apple product. iPhone.

By the mid-2000s we coming up on a new cycle of game consoles. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were natural evolutions of the game industry. The Nintendo Wii however, was a revolution in the way we play games. This change will be the single greatest change in games since their inception. Expect both Microsoft and Sony to expand on Nintendo’s pioneering idea come next console cycle.

This was an absolutely horrid decade for music. From the beginnings of the decade with bands like NSYNC and what ever the hell Britney Spears calls herself, or horseshit like EMINEM, to the end of the decade with whiny pop bands like Cute is What We Aim For, Cartel, and Boys Like Girls, they are all creatures of their time, and will not be remembered twenty years from now. I promise.

To sum up the music scene in the 2000s, gelled, bleach blonde hair ruled the first half of the decade, synthesizers and autotune ruled the second half. Personally I’m still waiting on the keytar to become a big hit.

Most of the good artists that produced at least decent music throughout the decade, had been in existence long before the year 2000. Artists like Modest Mouse, Bob Dylan, Yo La Tengo, and The Flaming Lips, had been around for some time, and continued to produce good music.

God bless ‘em, there were a few tolerable newcomers this decade. Artist like John Mayer (I actually like his music, so fuck off) and Taylor Swift whom both actually sing and write their own music. Imagine that.

In literature, few things come to mind other than the above mentioned Harry Potter garbage or Dan Brown’s POS, The Dvici Code. Much like the music industry, most of the good authors that continued to put out readable material were around long before the decade, and most of those decided to die off this decade.

Technology

My favorite subject. This decade saw the web explode into mainstream existence (it was strictly for nerds back in the 1990s), and ultimately become the hub for everyday life. We now buy things, keep track of people, and a multitude of other things, thanks to the advent of the world wide web.

Now to discuss the companies responsible for this.

Early in the decade Microsoft still had it’s iron grip on the tech industry. The monolithic, monopolistic titan attempted to control every aspect of the industry in the decade prior, and had largely succeeded. They were now in monopoly maintenance mode, which is to say, they were on top, and trying to stay there by any means necessary. Two companies managed to slip under their radar however.

The first company is Google, which had just been created in 1998, and was in the process of ballooning in size due to advertisers paying vast amounts to get a spot on their search results pages. After all, Google had became a house hold name simply by word of mouth. Until recently, Google had never aired an ad anywhere. Google provided a simple product (web search), and people flocked. They are now expanding into things like web-based office applications (to compete with Microsoft’s Office software suite), web-based operating systems (to compete with Microsoft’s Windows), and mobile phone operating systems(to compete with Apple’s iPhone). Google is threatening to become the Microsoft of the 2010s.

The other company that slipped under Microsoft’s radar was Apple, my favorite company ever.

Apple was in serious trouble in the mid-90s. After the firing of Steve Jobs (one of Apple’s cofounders ) in the mid-80s, and after a series of incompetent CEOs, Apple was in serious trouble of going bankrupt. They soon bought Steve Jobs’s second company, where he was CEO, called NeXT Computers. He was soon placed as Apple’s new CEO. He immediately cleaned house. Removing incompetent management and shaping up Apple’s messy product line. This paved the way for the iPod introduction in 2001, the product that made Apple a household name once again.

Apple, with iPod, managed to snag a demographic that Microsoft had/has managed to overlook. That demographic is teens/young adults. iPod was a hit with that crowd, and drew attention to Apple’s other products. Before we knew it, iPod, Mac, and eventually iPhone sales skyrocketed, which actually lead to Apple having a higher market cap than Microsoft in less than 10 years. A rags to riches story if ever their was one.

Apple has continued to do what Microsoft seems to be unable to do, and that is innovate. The Mac is nearly inarguably superior to anything Microsoft has put out. iPod has remained on top, and the iPhone, which was introduced in January 2007 is still reaching for the stratosphere, and has revolutionized the mobile phone industry with a gluttony of mobile phone software available to consumers via the iTunes App Store. Competitors are still trying to catch up.

In short, my generation will nearly exclusively use Apple products for their day-to-day computing needs, simply because Apple snagged us early with the iPod. Reasonable people can disagree, but you would be wrong. Email me, and I’ll prove it.

Recap: Microsoft is losing market share quickly. Google is angling itself to be the next Microsoft, or as I like to call it, “the company we look to to supply us everything.” Microsoft will fade into obscurity, while Google and Apple clash over industry control.

You could look at it like this, Microsoft and Google have money to burn, for entirely different reasons, but they still have money to burn. They hammer money into any problem until a favorable outcome is reached for their companies. Apple however, who was formerly the underdog, carefully plans and angles their attack to make each dollar spent a competitively effective one. Apple carefully aims at a market and captures it. Rumors are circling that Apple aiming at the tablet-computer market, an area Microsoft has utterly failed in. That means Apple would be making the equivalent of a large iPhone and selling it to the masses.

Another subject worth mentioning here is social networking. Companies such as Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, have sprung up in the latter half of the 2000s, and have become invaluable tools for companies to reach their customers. Myspace has largely blown over, and for good reason. Myspace was the place where people (read: tweens) thought they were making their own ugly, website. My response? Grow up, and build your own website that doesn’t look like a horse just ate a barrel of sprinkled cupcakes, and then proceeded to take a massive shit on the web at large.

Facebook is tolerable, otherwise I wouldn’t be on it. They limit user control, so no more tacky shit. The only thing you the user is left with, are the other people you care to talk to. I suspect it will be around longer than Myspace.

Twitter, my favorite social networking service, doesn’t give users much freedom at all. In fact they give users 140 characters to speak their mind. They allow you to say something the world can see, but not so much that you look stupid. However, Twitter has recently seen a massive spike in users, users too stupid to be allowed an account. I mean, “tween girls” level of stupid. I can’t wait for Twitter’s popularity to drop off so it will go back to feeling like the “gentlemen’s club” it did in the beginning.

Can you tell this is my passion? This is what I love.

My Generation

Now that my generation is reaching adulthood, they are proving to be the most self-righteous group of boobs to ever walk the earth. We truly are the “gimme” generation. We’re born, we expect to be given everything we see, we expect to have a new car when we turned sixteen, we expect college to be paid for by our parents, and we expect them to allow us to move back in their home after college, and then expect them to help us find a job. I call bullshit, and there is no one to blame but this generation’s parents. Grow the fuck up.

In case you were wondering, I grew up around adults and few other children. I have far more in common with people that are at least twenty years older than me. In a nut, I hated high school(where rank stupidity ruled the day), I hated most of the people in it, and if I spoke to you, I consider you a friend.

Also, the current styles make me want to vomit. Flat-billed ball caps, tight shirts that have Hollister scrawled down the side, a year-round spray-on tan, and moptop hair. If you partake in any of this, you might just be awesome. Far more awesome than I’ll ever be in fact.

There you have it. My slapdash review of the decade. I’m sure I missed plenty of important stuff, but this was the stuff that I found important. If any of this came off as sounding bitter, or for that matter left a bitter taste, it should. The 2000s were awful, especially for me, but in that awfulness, I emerged a better person.

To sum it up, the 2000s, besides a few key events here and there, felt like a largely disposable decade in the annals of history.

NPD Group (via TUAW) is reporting that Apple’s iWork productivity suite saw a 50% jump in sales over 2008 levels. The reason given for this drastic jump is the bundling of iWork along with iLife and Snow Leopard in the “Mac Box Sets” Apple recently introduced.

No unit numbers were given, but we can assume they aren’t insignificant. Another reason for the sales jump, is due to price. Compare iWork to say, Microsoft Office for Mac, and you’ve got an equally capable piece of software for significantly less money.

These sales numbers follow the recent discovery that Apple is looking into taking iWork to the cloud.

Slow Start, but I think iPhone will be a moderate success in that knock-off hellhole known as China.

If you haven’t picked up on it by now, I think China is a shithole. Those are our jobs they have over their.

OLPC’s new device expected release date is 2012. That’s rich. I mean, they’ve never shipped anything have they?

A little steep, but not iPhone level of steep. I was hoping the device would sell in the same price range as a high-end iPod touch. The Nexus One (or any other iPhone competitor) will struggle if they do not have a “non-phone” version of the same platform, a la iPod touch.

TUAW is reporting that Apple COO Tim Cook received $12.3 million in Apple stock options for his role as CEO while Apple CEO Steve Jobs took a leave of absence for the better part of 2009.

Even in this rough economic climate Apple has managed to expand quicker than most of the markets they are competing in. A lot of this can be placed at the feat of Steve Jobs, and it will be, but Cook deserves credit for ably running Apple for the better part of 2009.

In 2007 Cook was granted $7 million in stock options, and 2008 brought him $6 million in stock options. So for 2009, Cook was handed $12.3 million in stock, a $100,000 raise, bringing his salary to $800,000 a year, and finally a $800,000 cash bonus. Total haul for 2009: $14 million.

Steve on the other hand received his usual $1 salary with a $1 bonus. Don’t worry, his 5.5 million Apple shares total some $1.1 Billion.

If you can’t beat’em, sue‘em.

AppleInsider is reporting that Apple’s recently introduced Magic Mouse has doubled Apple’s mouse market share in the eight weeks since it went on sale. That means Apple held over 10% of the mouse market in November.

It does appear to be a popular mouse. At the time of this writing, the Apple online store shows a shipping delay of “7-10 business days.” A local third-party hasn’t been able to get a shipment from Apple to date.

The NPD (the company that is responsible for the numbers), claims that this data is only representative of sales of the standalone mouse and doesn’t include the Magic Mice included with the new 21.5 and 27-inch iMacs.

Also, Microsoft simply rebrands Logitech mice and sells them as their own. I assume they use a similar business model as Wal-Mart uses to sell generic goods. Seriously.

Chart and story courtesy of AppleInsider.

Classy packaging for basic medical commodities. I hope they go far.

This is almost certainly where Google will launch the Nexus One.

There is now no reason for people in college to not buy a Mac over a junk PC. This new price brings MacBook well within range of the rest of the computer industry. Granted you can still buy a cheaper notebook, but, you get what you pay for.

Trust me, I’ve dealt with enough busted junk notebooks that I could have used them as bricks and built a house out of them by now.

Additionally, Engadget is reporting that some customers are seeing the price as low as $728.

This nut wants the U.S. tangled up in more military action. He needs to retire. And if he doesn’t opt for retirement, he needs to stop pretending he’s liberal while caucusing with the Democrats.

Engadget is reporting that AT&T has resumed sales of iPhone through their online store. The reason for the temporarily halting of sales still isn’t known. Originally it was thought NYC’s spotty network coverage, then it was said by an AT&T spokesperson that a recent spike in fraudulent purchases were to blame. Regardless, everything seems to be back to normal.

No one really seems to know why AT&T stopped selling the iPhone, so we are stuck with their word. If it was indeed fraud, we don’t know what kind. It also seems peculiar that the sales freeze was for only about a day.

My guess: AT&T was going to quietly stop selling iPhone through their online store for a limited time in an attempt to ease the strain on their network in the NYC area. The story broke, and in turn AT&T issued a flimsy reason for the outage, and backpedaled on their original plan.

But what do I know.

More is said with this collection of images than any of the wordy reviews I’ve seen so far.

A solid selection.

Continuing their excellent coverage of the “iSlate” saga, MacRumors has found that Apple has used the word “slate” in a prototype for another tablet-like device back in the early 1990’s. The device’s name was “MessageSlate” and was based on Newton technologies.

Although the MessageSlate never went into production, Apple had applied for a trademark for the MessageSlate name in 1993.

Excellent statistical data proving that you are more than likely never going to encounter such a awful event as the people did over Christmas.

No matter how unlikely it is however, that number still isn’t zero. And that is a shame.

(via Daring Firball)

These jokers aren’t done yet. This move comes off as pithy at best.

It’s simple, they stole software, tried to make a half-assed legal case out of it, and unsurprisingly lost. They are finished, at least in regards to Mac clones. Give up.

I’m the guy under the Storm Trooper mask naturally.

MacRumors is reporting on evidence from several sources suggesting that Apple may be in the process of ordering components for their much rumored mythical tablet that may be named “iSlate.”

First up, the Taiwanese Economic Daily paper is claiming that Cheng Uei Precision Industry has received an order for connectors for this mythical new device. This report also claims that Apple is planning to ship this device sometime in Q3 of 2010.

Digitimes is reporting that Innolux, a subsidiary of Foxconn that makes screen panels, will be supply Apple the touch-enabled screens needed for the device. In case you were wondering, it appears the device will have a 10-inch screen, according to this report. That number falls in line with several other reports we’ve heard over the months.

As things stand at the moment, this device Apple has said nothing about, will have at least a 10-inch multi-touch screen possibly with tactile feedback. It should cost more than an iPhone but less than a MacBook. It may or may not be subsidized with a 3G data network plan, with the possibility of an iTunes subscription plan. It is expected this thing will be announced late next month at an Apple special event, presumably under the name “iSlate.”

Exciting.

That image is a mockup so don’t get excited.