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If there’s anything I’ve learned about Apple, in all these years of reading, and just recently, writing about them, it’s that you don’t mess with them. Ever. That’s a lesson a lot of would-be Apple product burglars would do good in learning, lest they want to be the ones pictured and talked about in this article here. The two men you see here are the burglars that we reported about previously, responsible for stealing flat-screen TVs, computer games, iPods, DVDs, a box of liquor and even a set of car rims from an apartment shared by three roommates. The one on top is Edmon Shahikian, while the one on the bottom is Ian Frias. They were apprehended shortly after the owner of one of their stolen wares, a Mac laptop, used the Back To My Mac feature to photograph them and show their photos to the police. I wonder when anyone will be able to do that with their Windows lappies.

Read [NY Times]

An Apple Store employee whose apartment she was sharing with two roommates was recently victimized by burglars, however they had a happy ending thanks to the help of her stolen Mac’s screen sharing feature and built-in webcam.

After the house was burglarized by thieves, the Apple Store employee received a call from a friend asking if she was online, since it appears that she is online on her friend’s computer. The victim immediately logged on to the Internet and used the Back-to-My-Mac program and found out that her Mac was indeed connected to the Internet. Not wasting any time, the victim quickly activated her Mac’s built-in webcam and the screen sharing feature in order to take a snapshot of the thief who was currently using her notebook. The victim’s friend recognized the man in the picture as someone who had been at her apartment during the recent get together. 

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Score one for the UMPC hacker community again, for just recently, a hacker named TFR revealed in OQO Talk that he successfully installed and ran Mac OS X Leopard on his little OQO e2 UMPC. Taking into account that his device came with Windows Vista pre-installed, it’s not that hard to imagine why he’d want to do something like that and run Leopard on the poor thing. As of this time’s writing, the hacker still hasn’t provided any details on how he performed the trick because he’s still not finished with the project and needs to take care of two final issues: video resolution and wwan. However, he promises that he will do so once he gets done. For now, you can take joy in viewing a photo of his Leopard-toting machine (log-in/register to view) and watching his YouTube video proof. Psystar should hire this guy.

Read [OQO Talk] Via [Tech Radar]

Western Digital has launched the new My Book Studio Edition II, a dual drive storage system designed specifically for Mac computers.The Western Digital My Book Edition II is a fully customizable drive, which users can service by themselves. If they need a higher capacity or experience a drive fail, users can just open the enclosure and replace the affected drive with a new or larger one. The My Book Edition II also brags about being an eco-friendly device due to its power saving features. The drive storage utilizes one-third less power than most standard dual drive external storage systems. In addition, the My Book Edition II is equipped with an efficient convection cooling system that does not require a fan. Hence, the drive will run quieter.

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Hoping to emulate the success of Paolo Coelho with his books after releasing them as free digital downloads, Wired managing editor Leander Kahney and his publisher Bill Pollock of No Starch Press have posted two Apple-oriented books on The Pirate Bay. Full electronic versions of the two books, Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, have been seeded via torrent on Pirate Bay and are now available for download.

“We want to see if giving away copies of the books will have any effect on sales.”, says Kahney.

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As most of us saw this morning, the Apple online store went down, and when that happens the rumors start flying. This time it went down for a very good reason, Apple has added a 16GB iPhone and also a 32GB iPod Touch.

The 16GB iPhone will join the 8GB model and it will retail for $499, the 8GB model will remain at $399. The 32GB iPod Touch will also retail for $499, while the 16GB and the 8GB models will remain at $399 and $299 respectively. Both are available immediately.

While there still is not any 3G capable iPhone, the larger storage options for these models should appeal to those that were holding off due to a lack of available storage. With these rumors being put to an end, what will come next?

Read [Apple.com] Via [Appletell]

Apple has certainly gotten a lot of buzz with their latest offering, the MacBook Air. There are a few Air’s out in the wild now, including John Mayer who was showing his off on a recent trip. The Air still is a little bit away from hitting the hands of us regular folk, however the reviews from the big guys are starting to trickle in. Lets see what they have to say:

Walt Mossberg; All Things Digital

If you value thinness, and a large screen and keyboard in a subnotebook, and don’t watch DVDs on planes or require spare batteries, the MacBook Air might be just the ticket. But if you rely on spare batteries, expect the usual array of ports, or like to play DVDs on planes, this isn’t the computer to buy.

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Apple has posted some exciting news, their first quarter earnings have been the “best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history.” The first quarter earnings posted a revenue of $9.6 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion. These numbers are up from a revenue of $7.1 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1 billion during the same quarter in the previous year.

These record breaking numbers come from sales that included 2.3 million computers, 2.3 million iPhones and 22 million iPods during the quarter. While the market share of the Mac may not be what the PC holds, its very hard to argue that these are impressive numbers.

Read [Apple]

Today during Job’s keynote address, Apple took the wraps off “the world’s thinnest notebook”: the MacBook Air.  Yes, it is real and features a 13.3” wide screen and one of the best keyboards, according to Apple, ever.  They are serious about being thin, only .8” thick.  Check it out here.

iTunes will be renting movies from $2.99 up to $4.99 as predicted.  Apple got all the major studios involved on this one and it is full steam ahead.  Read the nitty-gritty here.

The iPhone gets some new fun like maps with location approximation (looks to be based on triangulation).  Sweet.  Adam Fisher-Cox has the latest over at Appletell.

The iPod touch also gets some love (though we have to pay for it, just like in Vegas).  5 apps (that arguably should have been there from the get-go).

And then there is Apple TV’s Take 2.  The second coming of a good idea, now in better form.  No computer needed to download movies, show photos, DVR functionality looks to be possible and a reduced price of $229.  Check it out in detail here.

Also announced is Apple’s time capsule which combines a hard drive with Airport Express to help us back up.  Nice. Check it our here.

Company page [Apple]

Now on its second issue, Geek Monthly is trying to be the ultimate print authority for all things, well, geeky. Tech, anime, gadgets, comic books, movies, babes, toys, clothes, video games and pretty much every geeky thing in between (as if that was some kind of linear list).

The latest issue features TV hottie, Kristen Bell, star of Veronica Mars wrapped in police tape, wielding a light saber and making smootchie-face at a Han Solo action figure.

The issue also has a list of “108 Things That Rule,” including:

• Jon Hodgeman (of the “Hi, I am a Mac” commercials)


• Billie Piper’s accent on Dr. Who (the new series, not the old one)


• Mentos in Diet Coke (wee!)


• Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (but they left off the far funnier “30 Rock")


• Quisp cereal (hellz yeah - I even have a Quisp collector’s watch… and yes, I am a Geek)


• The illuminated keyboard on MacBook Pros ("I can type in the dark.")


• Cars with built-in Bluetooth


• Baked Cheetos (I’ve been doing that on my own for years. Also try baking Cool Ranch Doritos - even better. Oh wait, they meant the ones you buy in the store… never mind).


• DC’s Absolute Editions


• Pop Rocks


• Evil Dead: The Musical (though I would have replaced it with “Cannibal: The Musical” or even “Reefer Madness: The Musical")


• Tequiza (Really? OK, yeah.)


• Caffeine Gum (Move over Ballz).


• Monk-E Mail


• Scarlet Johansson (Amen, m’brothas ‘n’ sistahs.)


• Apollo and Starbuck Frack (Frack yeah!)

Read [Neekole] Site [Geek Monthly]