It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I’m thinking about iPods

Later today the boffins at CERN will switch on the Large Hadron Collider, which will – depending on who you believe – usher in a brave new era in physics, turn the planet into Swiss cheese, or open a portal for Satan to come and enslave us all. Which may well overshadow the latest iPod.

iPod Nano 4G
iPod Nano 4G

It’s a really nice upgrade, I reckon, but I do wonder where the iPod can possibly go from here. Pico-projectors that enable you to show video on nearby walls or bald people’s heads? Integrated kazoos?

Tangent: during the keynote Steve Jobs made it clear that he wasn’t too happy with third-party accessory firms leaking supposedly secret products, as happened with the nano. I wonder if pre-release access to Apple’s plans is going to be more restricted now. Why help add-on manufacturers get to market quickly if they’re going to blow your big reveal?


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0 responses to “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I’m thinking about iPods”

  1. I quite like the new Nano – looks nicer than the previous “fat” Nano.

    I was going to head down to the O2 shop this morning to get me a new iPhone but there seems little point if we’re all going to be dead by this afternoon. Shame.

  2. Gary

    You just know that the human race’s last ever word will be “fuck”.

  3. I’m kinda disappointed to be sat in the office working, TBH.

  4. mupwangle

    I thought that the serious high-energy experiments didn’t start until late October?

    Joystiq made me laugh by spotting someone who had the same specs and facial hair as Gordon Freeman in one of the press photos from CERN. What could possibly go wrong?

  5. mupwangle

    I’ve just gone and had a look and it looks like October might be a conservative estimate. The proper stuff might not be for a year.

  6. On TV a few nights ago, the physicists were saying that initial plans had been to gradually warm up to the big stuff, but then they’d changed their mind because of cost. The whole thing runs at about 1 degree Kelvin, so, if even just one little tiny thing goes wrong, it takes days just to get it warm enough for someone to go and fix it without dying, then time to get it cold again before they can switch it back on. So they said the decision had been made to just jump in at the deep end and get the big stuff done as soon as possible.

    But maybe they’ve changed their mind again.

    Personally, I want the world to end, just for the headlines. Because one of the physicists running the thing is the ex-keyboard-player from D:Ream.

    REALITY ITSELF RUPTURED BY ONE-HIT WONDER

    WRITER OF LABOUR’S THEME TUNE DESTROYS UNIVERSE

    AT LEAST GARY GLITTER DIDN’T TEAR THE FABRIC OF SPACE AND TIME

    Yeah, yeah, I know there’d be no headlines. Obviously.

  7. mupwangle

    From what I can gather, today is just running a single proton stream in one direction – once this morning and once this afternoon. They all seem inordinately proud of themselves for managing this.

  8. THINGS CAN ONLY GET NON-EXISTENT?

  9. Gary

    DON’T, D:REAM – IT’S OVER

    Sorry, that’s shite :)

  10. Gary

    > So they said the decision had been made to just jump in at the deep end and get the big stuff done as soon as possible.

    Fuck everything! We’re going to five blades!”

  11. Squander Two

    U R THE LAST THING

    And I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of …

    SHOOT ME WITH YOUR LARGE HADRON COLLIDER

    … though that works whether the world ends or not.

  12. mupwangle

    What about :

    You’ve Saved My World (Not!)
    Blow up the world

  13. Squander Two

    MODERN MUSIC JUST SOUNDS LIKE A LOAD OF BANGING

    BOFFINS TURN AMP UP TO 11 – MILLIONS DIE

    The fact that the guy’s name is Brian Cox could lead to a whole raft of jokes about his namesake always playing bad guys, too. But I can’t think of any.