cooking

There is something slightly entertaining about the alleged crisis at the world's most famous and successful company.

Just because a bunch of greasy-haired speculators have decided that Apple's shares are worth less than Google's (this week), garments are rended and teeth gnashed.

And then there's teens. Apparently, they're all fleeing the brand and rushing toward Microsoft's Surface. Which, apparently, isn't selling well.

In times of such rampant face-contorting and mind-numbing, I always remember the words of Mitt Romney: "Companies are people, too."

And so it is that in a rather more measured discussion … Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook may testify in the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case against the company over e-book prices, Bloomberg reported today.

In the lawsuit, filed in April, federal prosecutors accused Apple and five book publishers of working together to artificially hike e-book prices.

In a letter earlier this week, the Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Denise Cote to help settle a "discovery dispute" over Cook's deposition, or testimony taken outside of court, according to Bloomberg. Cote scheduled a March 13 conference call in response.

Apple remains the sole defendant in the … Read more

The dead bodies come into your morgue every day.

Sometimes, no one comes in to identify them. Who are these people? Does no one miss them? Are they all people who lived a lonely life? Isn't there someone out there who at least knows who they are?

The Medical Examiner of Cook County in Chicago, Dr. Steve Cina, wants to give these bodies a chance of at least being known, one last time.

So he has taken the difficult decision to put images of them online.

As he told Fox 32 in Chicago: "We're hoping that that … Read more

A watched pot never boils, but some pots can stir themselves.

Kurukuru Nabe, a pot developed in Japan, stirs its own contents, freeing you up to do better things with your time.

You'd think this is high-tech stuff, but no. It's a conventional saucepan with a grooved insert that produces a circular motion resembling a whirlpool in the water.

The design is fairly simple, as seen in this video of an aluminum pot with grooves that induce a spin. … Read more

The video below describes separating an Oreo cookie as a "basic human desire." While it may not be quite as fundamental as all that, separating cookie from cream has become a ritual for Oreo lovers around the world.

But why must we use our soft, weak human hands to pry these cookies apart? Why can't someone invent a hilariously overcomplicated machine to do this painstaking work for us?

Luckily, someone did.… Read more

Apple has become easier to do business with under Tim Cook's leadership, according to the chief at one major European wireless carrier.

"Apple has [become] more flexible, paying more attention to everyone else, probably a little less arrogant than they used to be," France Telecom-Orange CEO Stephane Richard told reporters today in Barcelona, Spain. According to All Things D, Richard compared today's company with the one led two years ago by Steve Jobs, saying, "I think they are probably a little more under pressure, and it is quite nice."

Indeed, Jobs was not a … Read more

One of President Obama's policy points in his State of the Union speech tonight was that U.S. companies need to create jobs here. Not only did he stress this need, he also praised those companies already in the process of doing this, including Intel and Apple.

"Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing. After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three," Obama said in his speech. "Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs … Read more

Even at a company given to the routine deployment of magical superlatives to promote its products and technologies, Tim Cook went out of his way today to describe Apple's stores as leagues beyond anything so mundane as a retail outlet.

"I'm not sure store is even the right word anymore," Cook said in a talk at a Goldman Sachs investor forum in San Francisco. "They've taken on a role much broader than that. They are the face of Apple for almost all of our customers."

Cook offered a uniformly bullish outlook for different … Read more