Newton Poetry

Funny. I like how the Newton talks in the old Mac OS’s Mr. Roboto voice.

Nice dig at the Zune, too.

Leander Kahney, author of the Cult of Mac blog, got a cover piece wondering if Apple is an evil genius (and it’s caused quite the reaction).

What caught my eye, however, was the binding on the cover of the magazine. Notice anything?

Look here:

Wired had a bit of fun with the old-school Apple logo colors – placing them in the original order, even.

I didn’t even notice it when my subscription edition came, but today I sat at my desk, turned around, and *BAM* it hit me. The old Apple rainbow.

Say what you will about Wired pimping their writers’ upcoming books, or their stance on whether Apple is “evil” or not (because they do things differently?), but their design is fun. If you’re not an Apple fan, you may not have even noticed the subtle clue.

In spite of everything, thanks for the nod, Wired.

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Fifteen men on a Bend Man’s Just
Yo hc hc and a bottle of ruin.
Drink and the devil had love for the rest.
Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of ram.

[Find out about the original, taken from Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” of course. People love their pirates these days, don’t they? Find out why this poem is misspelled. Savvy?]

Turns out the playa-hatas over at Amazon have launched an e-book reader, named “Kindle.”

Only $399 (the price of an iPhone), high-res (“just like real paper!”), no syncing required, cheaper prices for books ($9.99), no service plans to worry about – the thing seems like a mixed blessing.

The no-syncing part is really interesting, since you don’t need to be at home with your computer to buy a book – kind of like what Apple is doing with the iPod Touch. That’s cool. So is the fact that you don’t have to carry around a shit-ton of books to read them – just this…thing.

So, again, the Newton delivers first. PDAs, portable computers, and now eBooks.

Fake Steve Jobs has an interesting take:

I know what you’re thinking. Wouldn’t it be just kick-ass super duper if, say, Apple came along and finally delivered the ultimate product in this category? Because you just know if we did it the thing would look gorgeous and have a beautiful feature set and would just kick everyone’s ass.

And there’s already a comparison with the iPhone.

But seriously, lots of luck Amazon. You don’t have a beautiful machine, but any way to promote reading is a good thing.

Untitled, by Hank McCoy, aka Beast

There comes octiml twixt life qnd tenth,
When all men stop to cutih their brick.
We ask the stars “Why?” We question our lot.
The hequens open wide and reply “Why not?”

[I first read this poem way back in “X-Men” issue 11, when I was 12 or 13 years old, and – being the comic dork I was/am, I memorized it. It’s nice to see, thanks to Marvel’s wiki, that my memory hasn’t failed me. “Yeats?” Wolverine asked. “Nope,” came the reply. “Beast.” Also, find out why this poem is misspelled.]