Hasta La Gadget!

It’s not just a descriptor of the personality of the brief owner of the late Steve Jobs’ iPad, Kenneth Kahn is actually a real performer also known as Kenny the Clown. This month Jobs family residence was broken into whilst being renovated, the thief being a friend of Kahn and, according to the clown, “a nice guy who made a horrible, horrible mistake.” The robbery had one Kariem McFarlin picking up tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods that included jewelry, Cristal Champagne, and lots and lots of Apple gear.

Of course as Apple implemented “find my iPad” and other location-aware software into their operating systems and newer gear over the past few years, it wasn’t long after the heist took place that the thief was caught. The thief confessed to the crime and the breaking and entering of other homes in the recent past once he was identified by the police via his iTunes account. Once he understood that he’d stolen goods from the home of Steve Jobs (a fact he did not known before the event), he wrote a letter of apology to Jobs’ widow.

The clown Kahn, on the other hand, simply gave the tablet back to the family, noting that he had no idea that it was stolen in the first place.

It would be like getting a football from Joe Montana that was stolen out of his house. If this thing weren’t so tragic, it would be comical. It’s bizarre; it’s really bizarre.” – Kahn

Kahn noted also that he’d coached McFarlin on a highschool basketball team more than ten years ago and had been friends with the man ever since. While the iPad was in the clowns possession, he used it to download songs to play while doing his clown routine for tourists and kids in the area.

[via Mercury News]

Steve Jobs stolen iPad returned by repentant clown is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It seems that honor among thieves does not include robbing the house of a great American icon, the late Steve Jobs. His home that is located on the 2100 block of Waverley Street in Palo Alto was actually trespassed last month – July 17th, to be exact. It took a fortnight or so for the police to successfully perform an arrest on Kariem McFarlin, the 25-year old male from Alameda, after he stole more than $60,000 worth of “computers and personal items” from Jobs’ home. Just last week, McFarlin was arraigned on one count of residential burglary and selling stolen property. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Steve Jobs was receptive to the idea of a 7-inch iPad, Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview – now on iTunes,

The residence where Steve Jobs lived in Palo Alto, California, was burgled late last month, according to the Associated Press. Around $60,000 worth of computer equipment and valuables were taken from the home. Police have already arrested and charged a suspect, 35-year-old Kariem McFarlin. McFarlin is currently in jail with his bail set at $500,000, and is due to attend a court hearing for his case on August 20th.

The burglary happened on July 17th, but is only just now being reported by news sources. The police department handling the case has declined to say whether the equipment that was stolen belonged to Steve Jobs or another family member. The prosecutor in the case, however, did say that the suspect may have been unaware of the significance of the home he was robbing.

According to the report, the house was surrounded by a construction barrier during July. That may have allowed outsiders to wander onto the premises without arousing suspicion, but the details of how McFarlin undertook the burglary aren’t clear. McFarlin is being charged with residential burglary and selling stolen property.

Details of what was taken haven’t been made available, but the home of the late Apple CEO is sure to have contained expensive computer equipment along with valued possessions. It’s not clear if the police have managed to recover any of the stolen goods either, but seeing as how McFarin has been charged with selling stolen property, it might be already be too late.

[via MacRumors]

Thief steals $60k worth of valuables from Steve Jobs’ home is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We’re back to Monday folks, but thankfully this particular Monday provided us with a lot of interesting news. Of course, Apple and Samsung’s court battle is still raging on, with Samsung today claiming that Apple pressured 3G experts to change evidence. Apple detailed the icons it accuses Samsung of ripping off, while Samsung made a case for the uniqueness of its handsets up on the stand. Samsung was looking pretty decent there for a while, until an expert Apple witness took the stand to say that the iPhone and the original Galaxy S were “substantially the same.” Ouch.

But enough about boring old courtroom drama, because today Apple and Samsung’s lawsuit was eclipsed by another event: NASA’s Curiosity rover touched down successfully on the surface of Mars today. It was a huge event, and we’ve got plenty of related posts for you to read through. If you missed the live stream, you can watch this video of the Curiosity team as they react to the rover’s landing. There are also a few images from the surface of Mars to check out: after sending back the first image from the landing, NASA received even more images from the surface of Mars. There was also this shot of the descent taken by NASA’s Mars orbiter, which we have to say is pretty awesome. Did you know that Curiosity will be leaving behind tags as it travels across Mars? It is, and it’s doing so in Morse code.

In other news, Samsung has announced that the Galaxy Note 10.1 will indeed be hitting shelves this month. That announcement was accompanied by a new promo video for the Galaxy Note 10.1, and after watching it, we wonder if Android users care more about functionality than they do about specs. We also caught a glimpse of what appears to be Samsung’s plan for Jelly Bean updates on various Galaxy devices, so you may want to give that a look. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak gave some warnings about becoming too reliant on the cloud, and it turns out that Steve Jobs actually liked the idea of an iPad Mini. Speaking of Apple, it appears that the company’s entire mobile line is going to get new dock connectors, and YouTube has been banished from iOS 6, but we tell you why that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

Get ready ultrabook enthusiasts, because Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X1 Carbon will be launching by the end of the month. Demonoid has been shut down by Ukrainian authorities, much like MegaUpload was by the US earlier this year. Finally, the PS3 is getting a bunch of collections at the end of this month, with Sony announcing today that the God of War Saga and the inFamous Collection will be launching alongside the Ratchet & Clank Collection on August 28.

That about does it for the evening wrap-up, so now that you’re all caught up on the news from the day, head out and enjoy the rest of your Monday evening!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: August 6, 2012 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Steve Jobs’ famed dismissal of 7-inch tablets may have been more misdirection than authentic dislike, with internal emails shared during the Samsung lawsuit revealing the founder was “very receptive” to a smaller iPad. The tablet tidbit was revealed during testimony by Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior VP of iOS software, in the San Jose court, with Jobs’ attitude described by senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue after he himself had an epiphany of sorts following some quality time with the original Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Jobs had made headlines with comments back in October 2010 that users would need to sandpaper down their fingertips in order to use 7-inch slates, which the outspoken CEO described as “tweeners” falling in-between phone and true tablet. As of January 2011, however, high-level mutterings around smaller iPad possibilities already appeared to have been considered to have earned Jobs’ approval. In an email from Cue to Tim Cook, Scott Forstall and senior VP of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller, CNET reports, several positive use-cases are cited based on a third-party editorial piece on the iPad and smaller models.

“Having used a Samsung Galaxy [Tab],” Cue writes, “I tend to agree with many of the comments [in the editorial] (except actually moving off the iPad). I believe there will be a 7″ market and we should do one.” Despite Jobs’ public attitude, Cue says he “expressed this to Steve several times since Thanksgiving and he seemed very receptive the last time.”

According to Cue’s own experience, “email, books, Facebook and video [are] very compelling on a 7″. Web browsing is definitely the weakest point, but still usable.” Jobs’ original criticisms had been that “this [7-inch] size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps, in our opinion,” something which the GigaOm disagreed with.

Whether Cue’s enthusiasm actually resulted in a smaller iPad project is unclear, though it’s worth noting that rumors of a 7.85-inch model have persisted over the past months. Such a tablet could have half the resolution of the current new iPad – i.e. run at the same 1024 x 768 as the original iPad and iPad 2 – it’s suggested, making for easier app transitions from the 9.7-inch model.

Jobs was known for his proclivity to misdirection, publicly insisting one thing while Apple simultaneously beavered away on the opposite behind the scenes. Comments on video not being something suited to portable music players – then countered with a video-capable iPod – have often been cited as evidence of that. The growth of smaller tablets such as Google’s Nexus 7, not to mention budget ereading slates such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire and larger phones like the Galaxy Note, have seen the tablet segment change significantly since those original 2010 comments, however.

Forstall declined to comment on future iPhone or iPad plans as part of his testimony.

[Image credit: Ciccaresedesign]

Steve Jobs secretly “very receptive” to iPad mini is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.