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"Oooh, CHiPs Is On!!" (4/20/00)
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Strange and coincidental anomaly, or an unexpected glimpse into Apple's master plan for global domination? That's what we're wondering after reading about a "Pismo" PowerBook's bizarre behavior over at Go2Mac. When he's not actively using it, the owner of this seemingly possessed PowerBook keeps it in sleep mode on a slide-out shelf under his TV set. Fair enough. But what he's noticed is that when he turns his TV on or off with his remote control, sometimes his PowerBook wakes up.
Now, even the incurable skeptics among you can probably accept this as a true story, right? After all, the PowerBook has an infrared port, so it's not inconceivable that the signal from this gentleman's remote control just happens to be capable of triggering enough of a response from the PowerBook to wake it from sleep-- chalk it up to a bug in Apple's IR routines, or something. But what if this behavior isn't just a freak occurrence? We've all had the term "convergence" shoved down our throats for the past several years; is this proof that Apple's got something special up its sleeve?
Or maybe the PowerBook's waking up has nothing to do with the infrared signal itself. Perhaps the latest PowerBooks are secretly conscious, and wake up when something good comes on TV. The report notes that turning the TV on with the remote doesn't always wake up the PowerBook, so we propose the following experiment. First try turning the TV on when Buffy or The X-Files is on. Then try it when the TV's tuned to a rerun of The Facts of Life or anything on the Lifetime channel. Being a machine of taste, we bet we know what the PowerBook will do.
Okay, so a sentient PowerBook's a long shot, we admit. Most likely of all, the Pismo engineers just got a little too literal when they heard Uncle Steve say that he wanted to make Apple the "Sony" of the computer industry. Any bets on what kind of TV and remote were causing the PowerBook to wake up?
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SceneLink (2244)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/20/00 episode: April 20, 2000: The proposed addition of Playboy's Christy Hefner to Apple's board at the shareholders' meeting leaves us drooling at the potential soap opera plot twists. Meanwhile, an Australian company figures that, as far as the iMac copycat game is concerned, "better late than never," and a Pismo PowerBook wakes up when a remote control turns on a nearby TV-- what's up with that?...
Other scenes from that episode: 2242: Worth The Wait? (4/20/00) Wham, bam, thank you Steve-- and suddenly the official business of Thursday's annual shareholders' meeting was over. According to MacWEEK, the formal part of the meeting "lasted less than 10 minutes," which may well be viewed as a little on the short side, seeing as this blessed event only rolls around once a year... 2243: Think Different, Mate (4/20/00) All over the world, Mac fans' eyes are rolling in a collective gesture of disbelief. Wouldja believe that another company has decided to copy the iMac, this late in the game? 'Strue, we swear!...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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