Nelson Wong Life Blog

Confiscated Scissors Transformed into Stabby Spiders

Ever wonder what happens to all the pointy objects confiscated by those eagle-eyed defenders of justice at airport security? Well, at least some of the potentially-stabby scissors are turned into sweet spiders by artist Christopher Locke. He’s got a step-by-step on his site on how he did it, and one thing is definitely for certain: if these scissors didn’t make it onto an airplane before, they definitely won’t now. Yikes.

Rebuild Your Mac with 20 Useful Downloads

Mac OS X only: So you erased your hard drive to install Leopard, and now you’ve got to load your Mac up with all your essential software. I kept a detailed inventory of the downloads I hunted down all over the internet to load on my Mac this weekend, so I thought I’d save you a few clicks. Here’s a list of 20 (mostly) free apps with direct links to their download pages. › Continue reading

Apple Gets $831 for Every iPhone Sold Thanks to AT&T Payments

We already knew that the iPhone was making Apple money by the barrelload, but we didn’t know exactly how much. Well, uh, you’d better sit down. According to the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Apple receives a whopping $18 per month from AT&T for each iPhone customer. That adds up to $432 for each two-year contract, or, including the price of the phone, $831 per iPhone.

Yes, Apple is making more than twice the retail price of the iPhone for every one sold. With cost analysis’s putting the price of iPhone components at around $250, that means that Apple is pulling in around $580 in profit on each iPhone. Yeah, I know, they need to pay their designers and their advertisers and their rent and all the business overhead that comes with running a gigantic electronics company, but the fact of the matter is that Apple is pulling in over the full price of their iPhone in profit with each one sold. Now we know why they went with that five-year exclusive deal with AT&T, eh? It’s basically a five-year contract with a money-printing machine.

World’s Largest LCD/LED Screen

We ran a piece on Beijing’s ginormous LCD about a month ago, but here’s another (slightlybetter) video we found of it in action (with some non-underwater scenery). We’re not sure that the experience translates to low bitrate flash video, but it’s the best we can do on a Thursday morning. Wednesday, everyone would have gotten one-way tickets. But on Thursday you’ll watch your flash videos and like them!

Street Fighter: The Later Years

Part 5:

› Continue reading

Nokia N810

Nokia announced its new N810. Details are still incoming, but here’s what we know for sure:

-Same 4.13-nch WVGA (800 x 480), 65k color display as the N800, brightness increased by ~20%
-GPS with particular focus on the “context sensitive web” via Ovi
-2GB internal storage (not including memory cards), ships with maps for use with GPS
-Has WiFi (802.11b/g), does not have WiMAX
-Bluetooth (2.0+ EDR) DUNs to capable phones, totally Foleo-like
-400MHz OMAP 2420 CPU, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM
-Integrated frontal camera, ambient light sensor, mini USB 2.0, hardware lock switch

-Plays back video: 3GP, AVI, H.263, H.264, MP4, ASF, WMV, MPEG-1/4, Real video; -audio: MP3, WMA, AAC, AMR, AWB, M4A, MP2, Real audio, WAV
-Battery life aimed at 4 hours of “typical use” (movies, music, internet access, etc.), 10 hours music only, and up to 2 weeks totally idle time, and 5 days active standby (“improved compared to previous generation devices”)
-Runs Nokia’s Linux Maemo interface (duh)
-5 x 2.83 x 0.55-inches, 7.97 ounces
-Ships in November, $479

Apple Confirms October 26th Leopard Ship Date, Preorder Start Now

The horse has spoken: The eagerly anticipated, occasionally delayed Mac OS 10.5 Leopard is finally shipping. It will be available in 10 days, on Friday, October 26th, at 6pm in Apple Stores and at authorized resellers. Leopard may be the most ambitious MacOS update since the switch to OS X, with new features such as Time Machine, Spaces and Quick Look, plus updated iChat and Mail and a snazzy new Dock with Stacks. The upgrade will cost $129 for a single-user license, and $199 for five-user “family pack.” Meanwhile, if you’ve bought a Mac anytime on or after October 1st, you’ll get an upgrade for the cost of shipping ($9.95).

Apple also confirmed the simultaneous shipping of the Leopard Server software, and unveiled a new utility, Podcast Producer, “the ideal way to automatically publish podcasts to iTunes or the web.”

Leopard

Microsoft zeun phone, it is funny

The Transformer bicycle

Not sure if you like to ride your bike sitting up straight or getting all laid back? Then the Switchbike is for you, letting you go all AC/DC on your bike, riding it upright in a conventional style or transforming it into a recumbent bicycle when the spirit moves you. With a quick flick of the handlebars, this strange design by Ron de Jong transmogrifies into something completely different. It’s not exactly a great-looking racing bike—since it obviously got hit pretty hard by the ugly stick—but there’s something strangely appealing about its unique versatility.

Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Speaker MBS-100 Looks Like a Disease

Sony Ericsson takes its design chops to the limit with this Portable Bluetooth Speaker MBS-100, a softball-sized orb that reminds us of something we saw in a microscope when we put some soap scum on the slide. With its rechargeable battery that’s said to last five hours, it’s just about small enough to take with you, and hooks up to any Bluetooth device via A2DP. Apparently the various positions of these speaker holes will spread that sound far and wide, but this design reminds us of the underwater mine, and it still has a scratching our heads. Sony Ericsson says the MBS-100 will ship in Q1 of ’08. If it’s cheap, it might be good for a few laughs.