Datensklaven

As we are all well aware by now, yesterday saw the launch of the white iPhone 4 in 29 countries around the world. What you may not be aware of, however, is that the white iPhone is ever so slightly thicker than the black model, as discovered by some early adopters of the device.

A MacRumors reader was one of the first to discover the difference, and emailed the site to let them know:

Just picked up the white iPhone 4 and realized it doesn’t fit into my Incase slider case. It appears that Apple has increased the size of the plastic that borders the glass on both sides by about 1mm

Ryan Cash of Marketcircle also discovered the difference, but it didn’t take an ill-fitting case for him to realize: Cash claims to have noticed simply by picking the device up:

A colleague of mine just picked up a 16 GB iPhone 4 in white. I was a bit surprised when I picked it up off his desk (I had my black 32 GB in my other hand at the same time) – it immediately felt thicker. We placed them side-by-side on his desk, and sure enough, the white iPhone was a hair thicker.

Comparison photos taken by Cash demonstrate the slight difference, but it’s not as much as the MacRumors reader had suggested. In fact, the white iPhone 4 is thicker than the black model by just 0.2mm.

After closer inspection, Cash has revealed that the difference is in the iPhone’s stainless steel surround, which is obviously thicker on the white device.

A difference of 0.2mm is never going to cause too many issues, but it’s worth remembering when shopping for a case that some may be a tight fit.

It has been a long 10 months, but the long-awaited white-colored iPhone 4 is shipping and for sale today in the US and 28 other countries. Therefore, you would expect that people would be excited to get their hands on one of these babies, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for Apple Stores in the US.

The stores I checked in the Houston, Texas area didn’t have lines forming — like you would normally expect for a product launch. China on the other hand was a completely different story as long lines were reported there.

The long lines in Beijing were the result of high demand for Apple’s new iPhone 4, which many touted as being favored due to its bright and young appearance. Additionally many of Apple’s customers in Beijing considered the white-colored iPhone 4 a good fit for women. The popularity of the new device led to it being sold out on launch day in Beijing.

In Hong Kong, where shoppers began queuing up at midnight the day before, the white iPhone 4 is alleged to have sold out in only one hour.

White iPhone 4 Line in Hong Kong via Elegenttech.com

Apple has to be pleased since the market in China, which accounts for 10% of Apple’s total sales, has been outstanding for iPhone sales and it looks like the white iPhone 4 just kept the momentum going. Especially when you consider that during an April 20 analyst call outlining its first quarter earnings, Apple had stated that iPhone sales in the China region where up 250% been January and the end of March. Sales in the US by comparison had only gone up 155%.

Congrats to Apple on what appears to be a successful third launch of the iPhone 4.

[via Forbes]

Seeing the latest installment of the Fast & Furious franchise, Fast Five, this weekend? You may want to check Fandango’s iPad app before you try to book your tickets.

A feature called “The Pulse” shows realtime ticket sales (more or less), indicating what movies are going to be hot over the weekend — and which screens will be empty.

Bad news for Fast Five fans: It looks like the movie, which opens on Friday, is going to be sold out. It’s already shaping up to be the biggest pre-sold movie of the year to date, says Fandango’s Harry Medved, who shows us how The Pulse works:

For more fun, see The Onion: Today Now! Interviews The 5-Year-Old Screenwriter Of “Fast Five”

Here’s a peek at Al Gore’s new book, “Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis,” which has been turned into a very cool interactive iPad app.

The former vice president’s book features text, images, interactive infographics, documentary video and audio commentary.

It looks like a great, immersive experience (and probably pretty scary, given the subject matter) — the climate change equivalent of the beautiful The Elements app.

Check it out:

The app ($4.99 on the App Store) was designed by Push Pop Press, a San Francisco startup by a pair of ex-Apple engineers, including Mike Matas, who helped design Delicious Monster. Push Pop Press is working on a Mac desktop application to create similar eBooks, which will be “very affordable” when it eventually ships. Reporter Brian Chen has more detail at Wired.com: Gore, Ex-Apple Engineers Team Up to Blow Up the Book

Here’s another video showing Gore’s app/book in more detail:

Al Gore’s Our Choice Guided Tour from Push Pop Press on Vimeo.

Spins 3D is the latest game that’s left me scratching my head in complete flummoxation – if you need a brain teaser, it certainly teases brains.

The idea, like all good puzzles, is very simple: you have a number of rings with colored patches on them. On the disks, but movable around them, are colored balls.

All you have to do is line up all the balls and patches so that everything matches up, green on green, red on red, and so on. It’s all in 3D, which means a 2-finger swipe moves the whole puzzle around – you can literally look at it from all angles. Sounds easy? Well, it is to start with.

Once you have more than two rings, and more than two or three colors, things soon get very taxing. Balls can move between rings – and often do so even when you don’t want them to. Grrr. Arrrgh. Hnnngh.

Spins 3D has 120 levels and costs one dollar. There’s also a free version with just 28 puzzles if you want to try before you buy. Happy spinning. Hnnngh. Arrrgh.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Sorry, We’re Open is a new surf film starring

and

and

and the rest of the SUPERbrand Surfboards team.

This week SUPERbrand is embarking on a two-month underground premiere tour of the film through the US and Australia. It’ll also come included for free in issues of SURFING and Stab magazines this summer.

And it’s gonna be great.

Photos by Nate Lawrence
Check the Sorry, We’re Open site for music, a digital zine, and more info on the film.

Behold the speed and torque of a Parko carve. That’s Detroit muscle. He should be in Ford commercials. Photo: Ed Sloane

Mick Fanning, red and yellow against the brown Bells moonscape. Photo: Andrew Christie

In-the-pocket carve from Adriano de Souza. Photo: Ed Sloane

Perfect waves, great weather, Easter weekend, and two childhood chums/competitive psychopath legends going at it in the final. A promoter’s dream. Photo: Andrew Christie

Mick Fanning, tail over top at Bells — no easy task. Photo: Ed Sloane

Moments before their semifinal clash, Jordy Smith and Mick Fanning compare pre-heat rituals. PHOTO: Sherm

Easter Sunday brought out record breaking crowds to Bells. PHOTO: Sherman

“I’ve never seen him look that focused,” said photographer Steve Sherman. “He wouldn’t look at anyone or say anything. It was sick.” Joel Parkinson moments before the final. PHOTO: Sherman

After wearing a bright yellow wetsuit the entire event, Mick Fanning took to the all black suit for the final. Dark Knight, right before the clash. PHOTO: Sherman

One of those off-beat moments that just highlight how unique Parko and Bells are. Not many people can surf this wave period, and to surf it this well is just an art. Parko, in the final. PHOTO: Sherman

Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning. Classic moment in a classic arena. Mick immediately became one leg of the chair carrying Joel up the beach, because that’s what friends do. PHOTO: Sherman

“Immeditely after making it back to land, Joel completely changed back to normal,” Sherm said. “It was epic to see him this happy.” PHOTO: Sherman

That thing is seriously f—cking massive. After four heats at Bells in one day, Parko still standing tall. PHOTO: Sherman

Joel Parksinon during the very ceremonial Bells awards presentation, (moments before he actually almost broke the bell from ringing it so hard). PHOTO: Sherman

Hell yes. Finally. I’m so happy this just happened. And in such classic fashion too! Despite heavy scrutiny of the wave at Bells. About the timing of the event. About the tour. About the judging. About blah blah blah, whatever people seem to complain about, the Rip Curl Pro Bells has just reinvigorated a World Tour, a wave and two of our favorite surfers’ careers. It’s just a splendid little tale. Gather around, there are stories to tell.

It went down in electric, legendary, timeless, classic (choose your magical adjective, they’ve all been used and abused this week) fashion here at Bells this year. I’m here, sitting in the VIP section, overlooking the Bells bowl right now, which is now hosting a herd of surfers (literally) towing in (yes, the swell filled in) and I feel like the Super Bowl just ended and my team won. The swell is marching through Bells and the festivities for Easter Sunday are just starting to cascade across the land.

With a record number of humans on hand to watch live, and parking lots closed and traffic backed up to Geelong, Joel Parkinson has sealed his third Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach title, and I can guarantee you that this one will be his favorite. The waves were flawless. It’s a holiday. He surfed against one of his best friends in the world. And his surfing was inspired and a damn pleasure to watch throughout the event. And for those of you who got to watch the moment in which Joel shut down Mick’s last second charge with a 10-point ride at the buzzer (he was literally in the barrel as the hooter went off), you will remember the buzz it gave you for a long time. I know I will. That was a pretty little moment. I seriously got goosebumps. And then, as the two boyhood buddies made their way to the shore — backdropped by the cliff-laden amphitheater at Bells — I watched Mick Fanning hoist Joel Parkinson on his back and chair him up the steps, his board dangling in the shorebreak, and I realized something: there is no other lifestyle like being a surfer. We win. We are the best. Cheers to Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson for epitomizing the passion and fun all in one moment.

“The fact that it’s the 50th anniversary makes it that much more special too,” Joel said afterwards. “I can’t remember a time Bells had waves this good. I’m so excited. I can’t believe this.” And as a spectator, we must log this moment in our collective memory banks, because, like the Curren/Occy clashes, like Occy’s floaters at the Skins event, like Andy Irons’ laybacks period, this is a moment we must store and pass along for the ages.

The atmosphere at this event has catapulted the World Tour back to an interesting place. Even without Dane, and with a lot of exciting surfers losing out early (Wilko, Bobby, Kerr, etc.), it still managed to demonstrate to the world that pro surfing can be a damn good time. Kelly got combo’d by Adriano de Souza, who looked fantastic throughout the event. Mick Fanning put on an absolute clinic at Bells all week, showcasing a dynamic repertoire of maneuvers. “I’ve been working on some new turns,” he said. And hot damn, they look good on the face of a Bells Beach wave. And Chris Davidson made us believe again. In everything.

And as I attempt to file this from the front line, on Easter Sunday in Australia, surrounded by celebrations, amid Tooheys Extra Dry cans and surfers and shuffleboard and laughing and face-paintings and tow-in showcases at Bells, I must say I have only one complaint: the judging of backside surfing throughout the event. Owen Wright, Ace Buchan, Jadson Andre and CJ Hobgood deserve some sort of medal. Their surfing was incredible to watch and often under-appreciated, so I’d like to take this moment and raise my glass for the goofy’s: grab one on us tonight. You deserve it, as do Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning. Thanks for putting on that show. We’ve missed that lately. Long live East-(ah) mate. And congrats to Bells Beach and Rip Curl and Parko. That was classic. —Travis Ferré

Pictures taken by a source at Best Buy reveal that the retailer’s inventory database is currently listing an April 27th launch date for the elusive white iPhone 4. The device featured in the pictures is the GSM model – which supports the AT&T network – though it is expected that the CDMA model designed for Verizon will launch on the same day.

One report over the weekend claims that 16GB and 32GB models of the white iPhone 4 have already been shipped to Best Buy stores located throughout the U.S. – with around 10 16GB models on order for each store. Inventory numbers for the 32GB are currently unconfirmed.

The launch date on Best Buy’s inventory ties in with an earlier story which revealed a memo that BelCompany – a carrier in the Netherlands – sent to its staff, confirming the device is to be released on Wednesday, April 27th. Vodafone has already sold at least one of the devices to a lucky customer in the U.K.

[via 9to5 Mac]

The entire Internet is aflame, at least by. The standards of your average Saturday night, on word that Boy Genius Report has gotten ahold of a strange pre-production white iPhone 4 loaded up with admin and field-testing apps and running quite nicely on T-Mobile 3G. That’s quite newsworthy, as no shipping iPhone supports the obscure 1700 MHz AWS band that T-Mo rolls in the U.S.

There are many number of ways of faking this — I still find it hard to believe that you wouldn’t take some serious pictures of the hardware in search of differences from the existing iPhone 4 if you actually had it in your hands — but the various software screens are fairly convincing, including a number of apps I’ve heard are used in testing, but that mere mortals like us never see.

On the one hand, it makes sense for Apple to expand it’s reach to as many standards as possible now, especially since AT&T will likely own T-Mobile unless anti-trust regulators hold up the acquisition. On the other hand, the intent of that deal is to convert all of T-Mo’s towers to LTE fairly rapidly. It’s interesting.

Have a look through the gallery and let us know what you think — I’m actually most skeptical of Apple Connect. Would Apple really copy pattern unlock from Android?

Have you ever needed to insert a special character while typing a document in Mac OS X, but didn’t know how? Apple doesn’t provide an easily accessible way to view which keys generate which characters. Buried in System Preferences though, is a keyboard viewer which will let you figure out which keys give which symbols. This video will show you how to enable this function and use it to discover helpful key combinations.

Mowing the lawn is the outdoor equivalent to vacuuming your carpet: it has to be done regularly, and most people put it off. But now you don’t need a riding mower with dual-cupholders to impress the neighbors while being slovenly. Husqvarna has just introduced an iPhone app for remote deployment of their Automower robotic lawnmowers with GPS Communication Units.

The Automower works by following a thin wire laid on or under the grass. Using SMS Text Messaging, you can display the location of your mower on ?Google Maps, tell your machine when to start and stop, return for a charge, or check current operating status. There’s also a GPS Theft Tracking feature in case your mower ventures too far away under somebody else’s control. Would that be called Find My Lawnmower?

Doing yardwork from the couch gets my vote! Or it would, if I had a lawn…

[via TG Daily]

This is how much it costs in electricity to run my 13″ MacBook Pro per year, if it were continually left on: $11.20. My 32-inch flat screen TV? That’s a whopping $100/year, if left on; but when it’s off, it’ll only drain to the tune of about 75 cents per year (similarly, my MBP only drains about $2/year in sleep mode).

How do I know this? I’ve been (lame-pun alert) charging around, giddily testing everything in the house with Belkin’s Conserve Insight, a brilliant, $30 tool that measures the energy use of any gadget or appliance that plugs into a wall outlet  — and the results have been (oh, and again) electrifying enough for me to really change my habits.

The Insight is comprised of two components connected by a 5-foot cable: a three-pronged plug combined with its own outlet, and a three-buttoned screen. Plug the Insight into an outlet and the gadget you’re measuring into the Insight’s outlet, and the Insight’s screen will light up with data. There are three basic ways the Insight can interpret energy flow (represented by the three buttons): cost per year (or month), the amount of CO2 released in to the as a result of the electricity consumed feeding your gadget, or actual wattage. Leave it plugged in for about an hour and it’ll average energy use for that particular gadget. The longer it’s left plugged in, the more accurate a picture you’ll get.

The Insight supposedly figures out rough geographic location to determine electricity rates in the area, but we haven’t figured out how it does this (and Belkin hasn’t replied yet with an answer); but it can also be programmed with exact rates.

Every home should have one of these. Its relatively inexpensive price, stupid-easy interface and incredible usefulness make it a no-brainer.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Who is Ian Walsh? Who is John Galt? Photo: Kanoa Zimmerman

I am in love with beautiful things. With warm, jasmine scented air. With Paul Smith button-ups mostly unbuttoned. With the soft soft skin of my honey babe. With the architectural design of Richard Neutra. With Ian Walsh’s Cloudbreak barrel as big as the Kaufmann House. Proportionally it is almost perfect, yet it is so much bigger than even big. It is a towering example of excess. It is the American economy. Ian, sitting in Cardiff by the Sea’s precious sun, recalls the wave:

“I knew it was going to be huge when the horizon went totally blue. The whole horizon. And as I was getting whipped in I could see it stacking up down the reef. I had been getting waves all day that weren’t barreling right at the end so I had decided, before I took off, that I was going to fade a bit and then pump through the section on my next wave, no matter what. So that’s what I did.

I faded and the lip pitched over and I knew how huge it was because it was so empty. It was so empty in there. And I was pumping and I could feel the foam ball behind me and I had no idea if my fins were going to hold or not. There was just so much pressure sucking up the face but I could see the end and I thought I was going to make it.

I could feel the wave getting ready to spit and then the foam ball hit the back of my board and that was all it took. My board squirreled out and I was flying, got cart-wheeled across the face and then went over the falls. The wave pushed me all the way to the ground…I was on my knees. And I tried to get to my feet so I could force myself to the surface but it felt like two waterfalls were pouring on my shoulders. Finally I was able to get to my feet and I pushed up just in time to get one breath and see another wave as big as a two-story sushi restaurant about to dump on my head. But, yeah, it was a good wave.” —Ian Walsh

It was a beautiful wave even. Maybe the barrel of the year, though it is not in the XXL Monster Tube competition. I spoke with Bill Sharp, the commissioner of big-wave surfing, about this, and there was an unfortunate mix-up involving magazine covers and untimely events. Nothing personal. Bill loves Ian Walsh’s surfing. He loves Cloudbreak barrels as big as Hollywood’s Marathon Apartments.

And who will win the XXL’s Monster Tube? Shane Dorian? Tom Dosland? James Hollmer-Cross? Mark Mathews? Eric Rebiere? I say Mark Mathews. I once did the Bra Boy handshake with Koby Abberton after too many drinks on Australia’s Gold Coast. I was wearing something amazing. —Chas Smith

Chas Smith writes frequently for SURFING Magazine and is at the moment en route to Los Angeles for a night on the town, and perhaps a Lil Wayne concert.

The popular Japanese EV, the Mitusbishi iMiEV, is finally coming to the U.S. next January and at $27,990 before incentives, it will be the cheapest plug-in car on the market.

The tiny all-electric will be eligible for some major incentives:  a $7,500 Federal tax credit, thousands more in state credits (California offers $5,000, Colorado $6,000, etc.), regional and local credits like the $3,000 rebate for residents of the San Joaquin Valley and some companies like Sony Pictures are offering up another $5,000 to employees.

In fact, if you are among the handful of Sony Pictures employees who reside in the San Joaquin Valley, you can get the iMiEV for about $8,000 after all the incentives are cashed in.  Pretty incredible.

Even if you’re not among that small group, you can expect to take at least $10,000 off the top, which puts this car in the range of something like the Honda Fit. For an additional $2,790, it comes with a DC fast-charge port that delivers an 80 percent battery charge in only 30 minutes.

Interested buyers can register to pre-order the vehicle starting today.

via GreenCarReports