willy wonka

Jeff and I find ourselves in a conversation about candy in this morning's preshow that bleeds over into today's recorded episode. Why? Well, we heard a story about Steve Jobs proposing a Willy Wonka style contest to celebrate the sale of the millionth original Apple iMac.

It comes from a book coming out soon called "Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success," and it talks about how Steve wanted to put a custom gold ticket inside a single iMac box that would land the winner a trip to Cupertino, Calif., for a tour of … Read more

I imagine a glorious future in which aspiring candy makers have the ability to create inspired recipes, and then test the delicious results. How such a thing could not lead to a future populated with Willy Wonka-esque contraptions and taste delights is beyond me. I have always wanted to live in the world created in that factory (the original with Gene Wilder, thank you very much).

A small part of that wildly imaginative future has inadvertently landed in our time. The Ame no Wataame (Cotton Candy from Candy) custom cotton-candy maker is available right now, ensuring the ability to feed … Read more

We always thought the term "candy bar" was something of a misnomer as applied to mobile phones, especially those that more resembled bricks while claiming to be skinnier than they really were a few years back. And giving names like "Chocolate" to sliders and such just confused the matter.

But Au's new "Infobar" actually comes close--not just because it's only 15.5 millimeters thick, but because it's got rounded corners and tapered edges. Kind of like a 3 Musketeers bar, but wider and without the nougat. It also comes in some … Read more