Tag Archives: clock
iPhone robot is an alarm clock with attitude
Tim-e can wake you up with interactive games, music, or snarky comments.
(Credit: Kickstarter)
For the snooze kings and queens of the world, an even more annoying alarm clock is a must. Well, here’s a droid with a “hilarious personality” that looks like it needs a good kick.
Tim-e is an iPhone dock with arms and legs. It wriggles and dances and is generally annoying. But that’s the whole point.
The subject of a Kickstarter campaign that’s aiming for $ 150,000, Tim-e (pronounced “Timmy”) uses your iPhone screen as an animated face.
In the promo video below, it has a blue, animated mug and puts on a snarky routine. It recalls the genie from Disney’s “Aladdin.”
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Why wristwatch geeks will clock any mistakes
Hong Kong (CNN) – My cousin Anson Chiou, who lives in Boston, has three passions: Movies, the New England Patriots and wristwatches. I saw him in the U.S. a few weeks ago for the Thanksgiving holiday and we got into a long conversation about two of those passions.
While watching Ben Affleck's new movie "Argo," he noticed something odd in a one-second scene. Ben Affleck's character, (pictured in the image above) was putting on a Rolex in his hotel room.
My cousin noticed the clasp on the Rolex was too modern for the movie’s 1979-1980 timeframe. "Ben Affleck is wearing a Rolex Submariner. It's been around since the early 50s and has had a few updates and upgrades. One of the major updates was on the clasp a few years ago. It's much more beefy looking – solid and modern versus the older thin tiny clasp," he said.
My cousin wasn’t the only one who noticed. Immediately after the movie's premiere, there was a whole thread on watch chat forums about this minor movie mistake. One watch aficionado wrote: "They show a close-up in one scene of the back of his wrist and it is clearly the new style glide lock clasp, brushed finish, so it is either the newer ceramic sub or DSSD … it is definitely not a vintage Rolex model associated with the time period of the movie." Another comment on the thread was more succinct: "My wife thinks you guys are nerds."
Watch aficionados notice everything. They keep track of how many times actor Daniel Craig wears an Omega watch in his James Bond movies. They will tell you that Arnold Schwarzenegger wore an Audemars Piguet in “Terminator 3.” And did you know Elvis Presley sported an Omega while Gandhi owned a Zenith pocket watch? Fascinated by this watch subculture, I reached out to watch expert Genki Sakamoto of Antiquorum, an auction house for luxury watches.
He said Swiss watches (the best of the best) saw a record year in 2011 with a 19% increase in exports. Asia was the main growth driver with Chinese buyers capturing 49% of that growth.
"Fashion and status are the reasons collectors are so passionate,” Sakamoto says. “Watch collectors love and enjoy the story behind every watch."
There is often a story behind a great watch. Tenzing Norgay wore the Rolex Explorer when he climbed Mount Everest. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin wore the Omega Speedmaster on his mission to the moon.
If you ask my cousin, he says most of watch geeks are men. Why are they so passionate? "Watches are an art form where guys get into the technology of the automatic watch – all those gears, wheels, levers and springs where you don't need a battery and the watch winds itself,” he says. “They are kind of cool living machines!"
Apple licenses Swiss Railways’ copyrighted clock design after being accused of stealing it
Apple (AAPL) has made it a case to point fingers and sue Samsung (005930) for copying its patented product designs, but when it uses another company’s copyrighted and trademarked designs without consent, the end result is probably going to be a licensing agreement. Such is the case with Apple’s usage of the Swiss Federal Railways’ (SBB) iconic clock design in iOS 6.
Apple was accused last month of blatantly stealing the clock design without SBB’s permission but according to SBB, Apple has now agreed to license the clock design for future use. Exact terms weren’t disclosed, but with Apple having more than $ 100 billion in cash, the licensing agreement probably wasn’t a big deal for the company.
Still, should Apple be let off the hook so readily for stealing another company’s designs? Probably not. Apple definitely deserves its share of criticism, especially when it’s accusing other companies of ripping off black rectangles.
[Via The Verge]
