iPhone Tip Of The Day!

 

Wassup kids? IT’S ALMOST THE WEEKEND!!

 

Want an extra way to see all the phone calls and text messages you’re getting inviting you to awesome parties this weekend?

 

We got you!

 

Your iPhone can give you a visual alert for incoming calls and texts. Just go to Settings > General > Accessibility and turn on LED Flash for Alerts.

 

It’s like your phone’s already getting the party started!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Quickmeme.

Another Google secret!

Happy Humpday!

 

Wednesday is almost Thursday. Thuuuuursday is so close to being friday which is pretty much the weekend and the weekend means beers and the beach right? Or, wait, family quality time. That’s what we meant.

 

To help you guys out with some Wednesday afternoon procrastination for the nation, how about some time with the original ladies man?

 

 

 

 

No, not that guy! Pacman, duh!

 

 

 

Originally bought out by Google for the 30th anniversary of Pacman on May 22, 2010, the link is essentially an easter egg where instead of searching for stuff you need to find out about, you can play Pacman!

 

It was so greatly received and proved to be so popular, Google left it there on the internet. Just for you guys!

 

 

What heroes. Kinda like this guy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the link! http://www.google.com/doodles/30th-anniversary-of-pac-man

 

 

Also take note: Clicking on the right and left arrows will also take you through a gallery of previous Google ‘Doodles’ celebrating various anniversaries and special dates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Simpsons.wikia.com, Fightersgeneration Cattime.

iPhone Tip Of The Day!

 

iOS 7 Users!

 

Want to block that pesky ex girlfriend/boyfriend/odd person who you used to say hello to in gym class and now calls you just to say ‘uh, so whatsup best friend forever?’

 

Yes siree you do!

 

Here’s what you do.

 

Settings > Phone > Blocked. Add their phone number to the list.

 

No more of this!  ( On the phone at least).

 

 

 

Your welcome.

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Memestache

Happy Birthday Mac!

 

 

 

 

30 years and one day ago today, the Macintosh computer was introduced to the world by Steve Jobs at the Macworld computing conference in San Francisco.

 

To celebrate, Apple have added a new section in the App store, devoted to wishing their grand old computing dame a happy dirty thirty. Called  ‘Happy Birthday, Mac’, it features  apps and games from Apple and third party app designers aimed at capturing the spirit of what makes the Mac, and it’s thirty year existence, extraordinary.

 

Apple said the following about the celebration;

 

 

“When the Macintosh debuted on January 24, 1984, it fundamentally changed what a computer was – and what it could do. Software developers had an incredible new playground for their imaginations, allowing them to create groundbreaking apps and games unlike any seen before. And that’s just as true of the Mac today as it was then. Celebrate the Mac’s 30th anniversary with our specially chosen assortment of apps and games that capture the spirit of what makes this computer so extraordinary.”

 

 

Apple has also created a tribute to the Mac on their homepage with a visual timeline and a “Mac 30” video that looks at the Mac’s past and present.

 

 

The Mac was a revelation in computing, making the need to type in commands when using a computer unnecessary, instead recquiring point and click menu’s and a clear, graphical interface that is now used across the world today. It had a 9 inch screen, used floppy disks, cost $2495, and  had 128KB RAM. The current Mac Pro starts at 12BG of memory – more than 90,000 times as much as the 1984 model.

 

 

In traditional Apple form, the computer was first sneak peeked to the world in a infamous ad, directed by Ridley Scott and aired during the 1984 Superbowl.

 

 

The ad alluded to George Orwell’s novel ‘1984’ and was seen as a dig at Apple’s leading rival at the time, IBM. The Mac, apparently, was going to save people from a future dominated by IBM.

 

 

 

 

Happy Dirty Thirty Birthday Mac! We love you and everything you’ve brought into the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of  Computerhistory.org & Oldskull.net

iPhone Tip Of The Day

 

In iOS 7, swiping right to left will get rid of a notification without opening it!

 

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Quickmeme

Episode 3,56789 of why it’s so good to work at Google

 

 

 

Hands up who wants to work for Google? Even though the company’s presence has become somewhat controversial recently in it’s hometown of San Francisco, there’s no doubting that it is one of the best tech companies to work for, with perks up the gazebo, including free haircuts, healthcare and awesome food.

 

You also get to ride sweet buses equipped with Wifi to transport you to and from your home to the Google offices. These are awesome and good for traffic and carbon emissions but have recently been targeted by angry San Francisans who see them as a symbol of their city being taken over by rich techies, making the city unlivable.

Apart from what they symbolize, they’re still an awesome perk. Now we have news of another one- a Google Ferry. Take a look at this little sexy lady:

 

 

 

This  83-foot, Wi-Fi-equipped catamaran names ‘The Triumphant’ is now being used to carry Google employees, for free, between San Francisco and the Redwood city port in the South Bay, where they can catch a Google bus to their offices in Mountain View.

 

The ferry service is apparently a test – with Google having the permits to operate the service for only 30 days currently. What lucky little Googlers. We wish we could get a ferry to our offices! Or…. like a submarine. A glass submarine. Yeah! That’s a thing right?

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of Business Insider, 9to5Google and Obviousmag.

All the reasons you want to work for Google

 

 

 

Google has been rated the number one best company to work for by Fortune for the fifth time this past Thursday. It’s kind of getting silly now. We mean people are going to stop trying to beat them soon, and just sell their own companies to go work for google. They have a roller hockey rink for crimeney’s sake.

 

Here’s some of the reasons why you want to work for Google. We’re sorry if you’re reading this at work.

 

Google donates $50 for every five hours an employee volunteers. Cos they’re GOOD PEOPLE, ya get it? They’re rich and smart and good people.

 

Google employees get free onsite haircuts. Cos they’re rich and smart and good people and they’re pretty.

 

Google employees have a full gym and laundry service, both for free. Because they also have nice bodies and have well laundered clothes.

 

They also have access to swim-in-place swimming pools ( kind of what they use with racehorses… a bit weird).

 

 

Also available are ping pong, billiards and foosball tables as well as video game consoles.

 

There are onsite doctors and nurses at Google as well as a subsidized massage program. (subsidized? C’mon Google, that doesn’t sound like best rated company behavior!)

 

What does sound like top rated company behavior is the 20 percent program. Basically, every employee gets to use up to 20% of their working time on their own unrelated projects. To let creative freedom do it’s thing you see?  If we had something similar, we would be working on creating our tiny pet dinosaurs, obviously. Rawr!

 

 

Then there’s the food. Google employees get breakfas,t lunch, snacks and dinner all free of charge. We’re not talking bagels and oranges here, guys. We’re talking more than 30 cafeterias serving fresh, organic foods ranging from vegetarian to Japanese to Morrocan and back to good old American food.  There’s also snack rooms full of delicious snack type things. Mmmmm snack type things.

 

To rub in how awfully good they are, Google donates leftover food to food banks and collects the used cooking oil from its cafeterias and sends it to another company to convert it to biodiesel. Then Google buys back some of the biodiesel to supplement its power needs. Because obviously.

 

To get around, employees can hop on free electric scooter found littered around the Mountain View campus, or alternatively they can use real pedal powered bikes, or one of the all-electric cars that they can check out for several hours each day.

 

 

Googlers and their families are covered with travel insurance and emergency assistance even on personal vacations and Mama’s get to spend time with new bundles of joy as well as a bundle of extra spending money. Because Google cares about the future!

 

Google will reimburse you for classes or degree programs that help you with what you do, give you legal aid for less, and they provide a free schedule of classes called Learning@Google which apparently ranges from sign language to open source web applications.

 

Every week, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin sit in the main Google cafe and give everyone a run-down of what happened that week. Afterwards, they open up the floor to questions from Googlers.

 

Ready to quit your job yet?

 

 

But wait there’s more!

 

When you start at Google, you’ll be taken to the ergonomic center where you pick out your laptop, mobile phone, keyboard, monitor, mouse, desk and chair. An ergonomic expert takes your measurements and shows you the options. The IT team installs your chosen configuration overnight.

 

When you’re stressed out from all the free food you’re eating, you can go rest and de-stress in the community gardens. The food grown here goes either home with the employees, used in the google kitchens or given to food banks. Cos Googler’s are so healthy!

 

You can also get to take naps in sleep pods.

 

 

AND just in case you’d forgotten what kind of people we’re talking about here, three winners of Google’s annual talent show opened for Bruno Mars at his Las Vegas in April at the Global Sales Conference. Because obviously they did.

 

Ok, ok, we’ll stop now. But hey, think of this as inspiring rather than annoying ( stupid googlers with being so lucky and stupid and pretty). Make a new years resolution to incorporate one of the above into your workplace. Boss or not, it’ll impress, improve the workplace and everyone will love you. 

 

We’re going to start with the free onsite haircuts and the learning program. Learning how to do haircuts. Sounds pretty sweet to us.

 

 

 

 

Images courtesy of Google, Edition.cnn.com, The Guardian, Sodahead, QuickmemeGeek.com & Sodahead.

Seven years, one week and one day ago, Steve jobs introduced us to the iPhone

 

 

 

And then the world changed, just a little bit.

 

We wanted to make the anniversary 7 years, one week and one day because, well, we’re awesome? And who are we to say that everyone has to curtail to society’s strict view on anniversary’s? Huh?

 

Just because the word itself means yearly. We’re making this one the anniweekidayiversary. Take that society.

 

Erm, anyway. 7 years 1 week and 1 day ago Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld Expo 2007 in bright and breezy San Francisco to show us what Apple had been working on.

 

What we saw was not what we ( for the most part)  were expecting. We had seen all the parts before- we knew iPods, we knew phones fairly well and we knew how to communicate on the internet. An amalgamation of those things, a small and sexy one at that, blew our combined socks off.

 

And then these guys got stuck in them!

 

 

But Mr Jobs was less concerned with the kittens stuck in our blown off socks. He was concerned with revolutionizing a bunch of different technologies at once, as you do. The iPhone sparked the beginning of a huge and fast moving change – how we use the internet in almost every aspect of our life, how we interact with people, how we use technology in occupations and education, advertising, the list goes on.

 

This is what Steve had to say on that day.

 

“Today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device.

 

So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone…are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone.

 

Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.”

 

It’s amazing to us that the iPhone has only been around for 7 years ( and one week and one day).

 

Thanks Steve!  Everyone who’s happy about iPhones, raise a drink to Steve in the Sky tonight! (and if you accidentally drop your iPhone into said drink, you know who to call to sell your iPhone- www.iPhoneAntidote.com, duh.)

 

 

Images Courtesy of USnews.com & Jenkatgames

There’s another Steve Jobs biopic coming out

 

 

 

Seen the first Steve Jobs movie? Ready for another one?

 

Um… sure?

 

 

Sure! But don’t worry too much, this one hasn’t even started filming yet so it’s quite a ways off, but you should probably be ready for people to start talking about it.

 

This new one promises to be different from the last one with famed wordsmith Aaron Sorkin ( West Wing and The Social Network) having just submitted the completed the script.

 

The script is based on Walter Isaacson’s biography and Sony is in charge of this one, hence it is purported to have a significantly larger budget then the Ashton Kutcher starring ‘Jobs’.

Sorkin has already revealed to the press in 2012 that he planned on having the movie take place across 3 30-minute scenes, all focusing on important Apple product releases. It is not known if that is still the case.

 

We liked Jobs, but being fans of Alan Sorkin’s script structure and sympathetic yet flawed characters, we’re quietly excited about this one.

 

 

 

Images courtesy of Hollywoodreporter & Twicsy.

Apple’s new iPad Air ad is poetry to your ears.

 

Apple has released a new ad for the iPad air and as per usual, it teams magnificent visuals with an emotional and thought provoking voiceover. The ad was debuted during the NFL playoffs this last weekend – oh, wait a sec –

 

 

Go Niners!

 

Ahem. Excuse us. The ad features a speech from the movie Dead Poets society by Robin Williams’ character, including poetry by Whitman, over the top of people using iPads in extraordinary and inspiring ways.

 

 

Apple has also simultaneously launched a new website called ‘Your Verse’ to share the stories of the people featured in the ad, plus more who use the iPad in their occupations.

 

To quote from the ad –

 

“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”

 

What will your verse be?

 

Another pretty rad ad from the magic people at Apple who seem to know exactly what we like to see and respond to best. Very suspiciously awesome Apple, we’re watching you.

 

Cos that’s what you want.

 

Cue rat playing the trumpet.

 

 

Images courtesy of 49ers.com and intermezzo.typepad.com. Video courtesy of Apple’s YouTube Channel.