intric8

With all of the other rumors making  everyone seem absolutely crazy right now over Apple’s upcoming conference, I’ve got one of my own.

The new Apple iPhone Shuffle.

One Button.  Makes random calls.

That’s right, you heard it here first, folks.

A buddy of mine, Jason Wong, sent me some pics today of his latest creation: a FingerWorks keyboard-enhanced MacBook Pro!

The much sought-after FingerWorks keyboard can occasionally be found on eBay for around $825. Jason snagged his, brand new (made in 2004) and unused, for a mere $350. The bastard. The keyboard was just sitting in a factory in Virginia, all alone and waiting for someone to touch it. Like a genie’s lamp.

Take a look: it’s all so very Star Trekky. No raised buttons, all flat and smooth and silky. If only the buttons had backlighting…

This keyboard uses the same technology Apple plopped into their slick iPhone touch-screens. The difference, of course, is that this is one big honking keyboard (a super-sized iPhone keyboard, basically). And, it fits absolutely perfectly into the MBP!

It all runs off of existing USB keyboard/mouse drivers, so you don’t even have to install or hack anything.

It also supports “gestures”. For example, three fingers and a “twist” to the right closes a window. Now, that almost sounds painful but I’m sure it’s cool to do it, at least once, as long as no one sees you doing it in public.

I don’t know if I would do this conversion to my own MBP, but I sure want to take Jason’s for a spin (or a twist).

The Apple Store credit for early-adopter iPhone users is available now.I was really concerned at first because I thought I was going to need my receipt, and I had already submitted the original to my Finance department.Apple apparently was expecting this, and made the store credit incredibly easy for iPhone owners to collect.  As long as your iPhone was activated through AT&T, all you need to supply is the phone number and serial number of your phone.You’ll receive a text message with a authorization code, and then voila!  A nice little coupon is offered up, which you can either use at a retail outlet or on the online store.So, the big question is, do I get the new Police box set, or the wireless keyboard?