Hasta La Gadget!

Neither high-tech nor fancy, Apple

This bike is the Apple campus bike. The photo above, taken by designer Everaldo Coelho, shows one of the bikes apparently used to get around at Apple’s headquarters at One Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California.

If you were expecting a high-tech machine that looks more like Eve from Wall-E than a silver mixte that could come from any decade in the past 50 years, then you will obviously be disappointed. But take a closer look and you’ll see that this bike is as well suited to its task as an iPad is to its own market.

First, it looks great. Everything is silver, gray or black, even the panniers that sit astride the rear rack, ready for an iPad, a MacBook Air or even (gasp) stacks of paper.

Next up is the style. The mixte frame is somewhere between the step-through bike and the more familiar diamond-framed design with a high top-tube. The mixte is easy to mount, but still uses triangles in the frame to keep it strong and rigid.

Meanwhile, a chain guard keeps oil off trouser cuffs, a three-speed internal hub is both easy to use and almost maintenance-free, and the fenders (along with the waterproof panniers) are great for the odd Californian shower.

Most importantly, though, it looks to be of good quality. Although the logos have all been removed (even the tires are bare of brand names), those deep v-section wheels look tough, the brakes and levers are all metal, and the twin top-tubes even meet the seat tube with a lugged connection.

UPDATE: Jul 26 2011. Thanks to our awesome readers, we now know that the Apple Campus Bike is an M3 Mixte from Public Bikes in the Netherlands San Francisco. Check out the product page here. Thanks, Richard!

UPDATE 2 Jul 27 2011 Brad from Public bikes wrote to say that the company is just up the road from Apple in Cupertino, California. The bikes were a special order from Apple and — as Brad says — ” the end product really does look impressive.”

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but if you think about it, this simple, classic bike seems like exactly the thing Apple would pick to get its employees around the campus. I wonder what Microsoft uses? Probably electric golf carts. Or even (shudder) Segways.

Apple’s Campus Bike [Flickr via Mac Magazine and Cult of Mac]

See Also:

• Apple Files Patent for a Smart Bike
• IBike: iPhone Wrist-Mount for Motorbikers

Ok, so the name isn’t great, but the Voomote One is actually kinda neat. It’s not the first universal remote adapter we’ve seen for the iPhone and, unlike the Surc IR case, you probably wouldn’t want to leave this bulky add-on attached to your handset when not in use. But, the app does have some convenient features, like the ability to create custom layouts that can easily be switched based on the devices in a particular room. So you can setup a living room profile to control your big screen and cable box, and a separate bed room one for your more modest set and a stereo. You can also create command macros that fire up multiple devices with the tap of a single virtual button. The Voomote app is available for free in the app store, but the actual IR-blasting sleeve will set you back $99. Check out the gallery below and head on after the break for some PR.

Continue reading Voomote One turns your iPhone into a well organized universal remote

Voomote One turns your iPhone into a well organized universal remote originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know what you’re thinking: Mac OS X Lion (10.7) has been out for nearly a week, so why have we yet to hear anything about Snow Lion? Patience friends, Apple will roar soon enough — but for now, 10.7.2 will have to do. Apple released the beta update to developers over the weekend, eschewing any acknowledgment of 10.7.1, or correcting any of the bugs that have popped up over the last week. Instead, Lion’s pending second update (build 11C26) is required for testing the operating system with iCloud — a feature notably absent in the public version of the OS released last week. The new System Preferences iCloud module enables granular management of select features, letting you choose which accounts and services to sync. Full iCloud support is coming in the fall with the release of iOS 5, so it’s probably safe to assume that Apple plans to patch some of those bugs in the meantime — any day now, we hope.

Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 beta brings iCloud support, no bug fixes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 08:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but that didn’t go down too well with the three KIRF Apple Stores in Kunming, China. In fact, after American expat BirdAbroad made her local stores famous last week, local officials have since been combing through the city’s 300-plus gadget shops on behalf of Apple China, and managed to dig up two more “Apple” stores. It’s not exactly clear if these new offenders are at the same severity as the ones spotted by BirdAbroad, but the authorities have confirmed that none of the five stores are Apple Authorised Resellers, let alone having its permission to use its logo on their store front.

Additionally, two out of the five stores have since been shut down due to unlicensed retail operation. The fate of the remaining three is still unknown — the officials have only concluded that no KIRF products have been found in the stores, though details such as the decor and staff uniform are certainly very similar to those of the real deal. Well, we’re glad they agree, but this is only just the beginning — BirdAbroad has since gathered photos of more sketchy Apple stores across the world, so go take a gander. Oh, and for those who have been out of the loop, there’s a hands-on video of one of the Kunming stores after the break.

Continue reading Two more fake Apple Stores spotted by officials in China, two get the smackdown

Two more fake Apple Stores spotted by officials in China, two get the smackdown originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jul 2011 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Kerberos, the hound from Hades that lent its name to an MIT-developed network authentication protocol, is often visualized as having three heads. But if dogs can have multiple heads, why can’t other technology species? Many of the features in Lion have impact for different kinds of users, and the value users see in them may well depend on which face they tend to view.

The new user. Lion represents the biggest user interface change to the company’s desktop experience since the debut of Mac OS X. With the Mac hard drive hidden by default, full-screen apps that hide the menu bar, and omnipresent scroll arrows put out to pasture, it even dispenses with some user interface conventions that have been around since the original Mac. The focus on multitouch gestures — while enabling more fluidity in the user interface — are not as self-evident. Overall, though, the gradual shift away from contrivances such as windows, menus, and cluttered icons should make things less intimidating for new users.

The iPad user. One can only wonder what features the successor to Snow Leopard might have sported had Apple not launched the iPad. The most prominent design theme in Lion has been bringing user experience elements of Apple’s tablet to the Mac. This is highlighted best by Launchpad, the iPad-like collection of sliding home screens, and full-screen apps, but also includes support for full-screen apps and bundling of the Mac app store introduced with Snow Leopard.

Continue reading Switched On: A Three-Headed Lion

Switched On: A Three-Headed Lion originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Jul 2011 18:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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