• Sharebar

Next week, Apple is going to unveil the iPad Mini, the culmination of the Worst Kept Secret In The History Of The Planet. However, there’s no way they put together an entire press conference just to announce one thing. So what else is on the menu? How about four new iMac models? Huh. So much for living in the “post-PC” era…

Whenever Apple buys anything, you can count on everyone putting on their analyst hats and trying to figure out why. Apple recently bough a small design company called Particle, but the big question is why? Why buy this little company with only a handful of employees when you have countless designers already working for you? Speculation time: the company specializes in designing HTML5 for mobile devices, which sounds like it’s right up Apple’s alley.

It’s never not a rough time to be Foxconn. The Chinese manufacturing plant has always represented the dark side of Apple and this week is no different. First, there’s the trivial: the iPhone 5 remains in short supply because the plant is having difficulty with the device’s complex assembly process. Then there’s the not-so-trivial: they’ve been caught hiring underage interns. The world’s general goodwill for Apple can only go far. This place needs cleaning up. Stat.

But enough about Apple! Let’s talk about the Microsoft Surface, which is planning a collision course with the iPad this holiday season. We don’t know if it’s any good yet, but at least we know it’s built well. In fact, it’s so solid that you can attach wheels to it and use it as a skateboard without breaking it. Take that, iPad! And how about the first commercial for the Surface? The actual software is shown much, but at least we know it has the cool keyboard and stand…and that it will cause spontaneous dancing. Oof. This is not a good ad.

 

Comments

comments