Filed under: Found Footage

The oldsters at TUAW (yeah, I'm one of 'em) just love it when someone does a comparison of some nice new shiny Apple technology with Michael Spindler-era Apple products.

Today's example comes from TUAW reader and Duke University sociology professor Kieran Healy, who kept the PowerBook 145B that helped him throughout grad school. As he says in the blog post accompanying the video (after the break), "despite being such a seemingly underpowered dinosaur, it (the Powerbook) nevertheless cold-booted faster than any computer I've owned since." That "dinosaur" had a 25 MHz 68030 processor, 4MB of RAM, and a huge (for the time) 40MB hard disk drive.

Healy recent purchased an 11" MacBook Air, which he put to the test versus the aging speedster. The Air won handily in the bootup race, loading OS X and even a few applications (I saw 1Password appearing on the Air's screen) before the PowerBook finished loading all of those extensions. Enjoy the video, and especially the final shot comparing the size of the two laptops.

Here's a great piece of Apple history. In this video (check it out after the break), Steve Jobs gives a demonstration of a NeXT computer. You'll remember that Steve formed NeXT in 1995 after being ousted from Apple. Years later, in 1996, Apple purchased NeXT after Steve's return. Much of the current Mac OS X system is built on the OPENSTEP foundation.

You needn't look too closely to see the predecessors of Mac OS X, like the dock, the services menu, the home directory and windows that display their contents while being dragged. It's also interesting to hear Steve put the Mac down on a couple of occasions. For a nice illustration of how NeXT features became a part of Mac OS X, look here.

Looking at this, one could argue that Steve's dismissal from Apple was the best thing that happened to the Mac OS.

[Via Reddit]

Over the holiday weekend, we noted that the Glif is now available for ordering (although it's not shipping quite yet). The iPhone 4 stand / tripod mount gadget is a triple threat: functional, attractively designed and the owner of a great backstory.

The Glif guys wanted to share the experience of producing their product, so they released a short video covering the injection molding process out in South Dakota. If you're a fan of the Science Channel's hypnotic How It's Made show, you'll dig this clip. It's embedded in the second half of this post.

Again, congratulations to team Glif on taking their idea from the napkin stage to physical realization.

Thanks to Dustin for the heads-up.

There comes a time in a boy's life when his latest toy no longer thrills him as it did when it was shiny and new. Engadget blogger Richard Lai found that his Core i7 27" iMac was slowing down as it neared its first birthday, so he decided to liven things up by popping a 240GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD into the box.

Watching Richard tear apart his baby was a bit unnerving to me. I recall opening an iMac G5 about five years ago to swap out a noisy power supply and fan assembly, and I still shudder to think about that.

Richard was armed with the proper tools: a set of Torx screwdrivers, tweezers, a pair of suction cups for removing the glass screen and the restore disc for Mac OS X. He also had a handy tool nearby in the form of an iFixit teardown guide for the iMac displayed on his iPad.

Richard noted that boot times are almost three times as fast for the iMac after the heart transplant, and the video (after the break) shows it launching in just over 20 seconds. That's still not enough to make me take apart my iMac. Enjoy the video, if you can stand to watch that beautiful iMac being dissected.

If you had a smart pogo stick, wouldn't you want it to run apps? It just makes sense, in a strange sort of way.

Thanks to Sesame Workshop and those lovable Muppets, here's your Tuesday No Comment. Click the image or Read More to see the video.

[via Switched Tumblr, Laughing Squid & Minyanville]

Remember last week's Back to the Mac event where the stunning iLife '11 suite and the jaw-dropping new Macbook Airs were announced? No? Well if you missed it, Lockheed91 has saved you some time and reduced the introduction of the awesome new computers along with the amazing new releases of the incredible new iPhoto, the stunning new Garageband and the extraordinary new iMovie down to a remarkable 104 second adjective-fest. Take a look at this phenomenal (and really exciting) video after the break and see for yourself.

[via Huffington Post]

Comedian/musician/mad genius Reggie Watts found himself sans equipment (seems to be going around) when he was being interviewed on Sirius XM radio, but that didn't slow him down one bit. He pulled out his iPhone 4, and using a looping app (possibly Everyday Looper, $5.99) he improvised a number that absolutely wowed host Ron Bennington and the rest of the folks in the studio. Be sure to listen for Bennington's final line.

Seeing this, you wonder: are the rest of us really getting the maximum utility out of these ridiculously powerful miniature computers disguised as phones?

[via CrunchGear, hat tip to C.K. Sample III]

In the midst of all the excitement and hype surrounding today's announcements, we thought we'd share this popular and heart-warming tale of a father and son believing in their dreams and reaching for them.

Seven-year-old Max Geissbuhler and his dad, Luke Geissbuhler, dreamed of visiting space. After eight months of determination and preparation, and with the help of a weather balloon, a HD video camera, and an iPhone, they got pretty close. Housing the equipment in a specially designed, insulated case (filled with some hand-warmers) and hoping to capture "the blackness beyond our earth," the pair launched their explorer in August of this year. The video above is the story of that journey.

Climbing almost 19 miles, their craft flew into the stratosphere, capturing some rather impressive video footage along the way. International convention puts space at 100km. Once the weather balloon burst (due to lack of atmospheric pressure), the capsule began its decent back to the Earth -- aided by a deployed parachute.

But how did they locate the unit once it had landed back on earth? Well, that's where the iPhone came into play. They used a GPS tracking app on a borrowed iPhone (that's how you know who your real friends are, by the way) to locate the downed capsule and recover it.

From all of us at TUAW, we say well done to you, Max and Luke Geissbuhler. The family is now gauging interest in a 'how-to' book for other parental explorers.

It's time for another installment of our favorite viral program, "Bands You've Never Heard Of Play A Song On Their iPhones." In this case, the band is Brooklyn's Atomic Tom, the song is the decidedly catchy Take Me Out, and the performance is live on the 6th Avenue line of the New York City subways, crossing the Manhattan Bridge on the B train.

Add the degree of difficulty of shooting the video on iPhones, the noise and lighting challenges of the train, and the likelihood of an overeager "see something, say something" New Yorker getting the boys into trouble with the transit cops -- all in all, an impressive effort.

Thanks Howdy!

[via NYT Bits, Daily What and The Loop]