Gizmodo Australia » warning

Apple’s Internal Secrecy Protocol Is Ridiculous

Adam Frucci — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:20:00 +0000

Apple is known for being secretive to the extreme, but did you know some of their employees look like they’re dressed up for Dungeons & Dragons LARPing while at work?

Here’s stuff from the NYT article that we already knew:

Secrecy at Apple is not just the prevailing communications strategy; it is baked into the corporate culture. Employees working on top-secret projects must pass through a maze of security doors, swiping their badges again and again and finally entering a numeric code to reach their offices, according to one former employee who worked in such areas. Work spaces are typically monitored by security cameras, this employee said.

This stuff is common in normal companies even, and a good majority of tech employees have badges as a permanent fashion staple. But this, this is interesting:

Some Apple workers in the most critical product-testing rooms must cover up devices with black cloaks when they are working on them, and turn on a red warning light when devices are unmasked so that everyone knows to be extra-careful, he said.

That seems a bit over the top to me, but hey, you know what? It seems to be working for them. [NY Times]

New Warning Label: Lithium-Ion Batteries May Explode

Wilson Rothman — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Apparently some lawyers heard that lithium-ion batteries explode, and are now making companies ship gear with these stickers. But what’s with the wine glass? Literally: Drinking with mismatched batteries may lead to consumption by fire.

Best Warning Sign Ever Doesn’t Mess With Idle ‘High Voltage’ Threats

Kit Eaton — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:00:00 +0000

High voltage electrics plus risk of sparky, smoky death plus humorous engineer equals excellent warning sign. I’d keep well away, after reading that. Though I do remember an old girlfriend’s dad once pinned a freakishly similar note (substituting the odd “I will” into the text) to his daughter’s bedroom door, and pointedly drew my attention to it. [Voltagecreative via Neatorama]

Mobile Phone Use While Pregnant Causes Kids To Go Haywire, Study Says

Gizmodo US Edition — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Pregnant women should probably add mobile phones to the list of things they need to avoid, along with alcohol, sushi and cat poo. A giant study that surveyed over 13,000 children found that women who used mobile phones when pregnant were more likely to give birth to kids with behavioral problems.

The study, conducted by UCLA and Aarhus University in Denmark, found that using mobile phones just two or three times a day would raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and emotional disorders by the time they enter Kindergarten.

The scientists responsible for the study say that the results were “unexpected,” and that they haven’t discovered what biological mechanisms causes the problems. But the results stayed the same even when they accounted for other possible causes—such as smoking, family psychiatric history or socio-economic status.

But before everyone freaks out and buys a MummyWrap, the scientists stress that the results “should be interpreted with caution” and affirmed by other studies. In the meantime, maybe tell Mummy-to-be to limit her mobile phone use a little bit, just in case. [The Independent via Textually]

Seagate 2.5-inch Hard Drive Flaw Affecting MacBooks?

Jason Chen — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:40:00 +0000

Retrodata, a data-recovery company, has just issued a warning for Apple MacBook owners with Seagate hard drives that were manufactured in China and have a firmware version of 7.01. Apparently these have a fatal flow that cause their read/write heads to fail mechanically, scratching up the hard drive surface as pictured and making data unrecoverable (even by professionals such as themselves). If you’ve got a MacBook, you should check to see if your internal drive is a Seagate and back up your data accordingly. There’s no official word yet from Apple on whether or not this actually a problem, but better safe than crying over lost nudie photos. [Retrodata - Thanks Eric!]

Up Close and Personal Time With Phones Bricks Nissan I-Keys

Seamus Byrne — Fri, 25 May 2007 18:15:14 +0000

If you have an I-Key from a 2007 Altima or Infiniti G35 jangling around in your pocket, don’t let it snuggle up to your cellphone. Apparently incoming and outgoing calls have the nasty potential to switch up or wipe out the I-Key’s internal code, leaving you with a sweet-looking but useless hunk of metal.

A new version of the I-Key that’s hopefully less bricktastic around everyday objects won’t come out until the fall, but you can get a new key from your dealer if you render yours stupid since they can’t be reprogrammed. Until then, it might be a good idea to keep AAA’s number handy. – Matt Buchanan

Nissan warns U.S. cellphones can disable car keys [Yahoo!]