Ha, Facebook translates Spanish birthday greetings into “Fuck you bitches”. That’s how they roll.

Of all the instances of things slipping through the cracks or someone “going out with a bang”, Facebook’s July 29th 2010 snafu will forever stay in my memory. The snafu, discovered by a TechCrunch reader, apparently involved (note the past tense — Facebook has already fixed the glitch) a small issue when changing your Facebook profile’s main language to Spanish. Up in the top right where birthdays are announced, the words “Fuck you bitches” resided instead.

Not exactly the Happy Birthday we’re used to. But in the spirit of a good laugh, I can certainly appreciate Facebook’s attempts to make me laugh. It was fun while it lasted guys…

Beginning DIY’ers, the new iMac is not for you. Tip: Stay away from the SSD option.

After reading through OWC’s new iMac teardown, I’ve come away depressed. Why? I really wanted at 27″ iMac so I could get a speedy SSD and slap it in myself, saving a couple hundred bucks in the process. But lo and behold, Apple’s our way or no way policy shines though yet again.

If you object to the SSD drive bubble on the ordering page, it’ll be a nice little test of your ingenuity and resourcefulness when it comes time for you to install your own SSD. You see, Apple designed the new iMacs to require proprietary cabling and mounting hardware to fit an SSD into the iMac’s body if it wasn’t originally ordered with one — in which case, the required hardware is obviously included. Furthermore, end users have to remove part of the logic board just to plug in the SSD. Seems like an awful lot of work for a simple hard drive upgrade/addition. Honestly — that’s because it is. Some will flame me for needlessly bitching, pointing out that the iMac isn’t a tinkerer’s machine, and if more power is warranted, upgrade to a Mac Pro. Ya, ok, let me just pull $3,500 out of the couch.

The most disappointing, though unsurprising move with the new iMac SSD option is the choice of drive itself. For an anal leaking $600, Apple will proudly sell you a low-end 2568GB Samsung SSD. People will immediately gravitate towards the storage size of 256GB. But it’s pretty useless. If you’ve read your SSD reviews thoroughly, you’ll know the Samsung drives are some of the slower SSD’s on the block. Drives featuring either Indilinx or Sandforce controllers are leaps and bounds better — even “lower-end” drives with said controllers. Even worse, a drive of that size needs TRIM to keep it performing optimally over the life span of the drive. Seeing as how this drive is both slow and can’t make use of TRIM (OS X doesn’t support it yet), it’s a no-brainer — Don’t buy this option! A solid year down the road, Apple’s only SSD offering is going to c.r.a.w.l.

Again, it’s nothing revolutionary that Apple empowers complete control over their products and aims to make the most money possible with proprietary hardware and software. It’s just that I thought with as much attention (both good and bad) and increased market share Apple is acquiring, they’d look at listening and catering to customers’ best interests a little more. Guess i was wrong.

Stretched Range Rover features extra seat room, humidor, and mini-spa!

Land Rover’s aren’t cheap. This is no secret. But when money is no object and you bathe in fine caviar and smoke the finest cigars, a tricked out Range Rover is the only answer to mobile luxury. The Design Q designed Range Rover is marketed as a private jet on wheels. Lavish goodies such as extra seat room, personal mini spa, humidor, and plenty of other over-the-top features ensure your bank account will bleed deep, dark red before all is said and done.

Anyone up for a cocoanut facial and Brazilian wax while doing 90 on the highway through downtown Iraq? Yeah, I’ll pass…

Droid 2 User guide leaked!

If the wait for official DROID 2 announcements and images is starting to get to you, you’re in luck. Droid-Life has scored the official DROID 2 owners manual for the world to partake. Not wasting any time, it’s evident that the re-worked Moto BLUR that is featured on the DROID X is front and center, as are the Swype and multi-touch keyboards, and yes — Froyo!

Speaking of that multi-touch keyboard, I’m hoping some talented dev can rip it out and port it over to the D1. To the best of my knowledge, no one has taken it off of the DROID X and got it working on a Droid 1 running Froyo, though users still back on 2.1 have voiced success. Seeing as how the D1 and D2 will share Android versions, it looks like that succulent multi-touch keyboard will finally make its way across the hardware gap.

Sadly, looking back at all the known hardware specs and now the manual, I’m left wanting more. The D1 was a game changing Android device back in November. The D2 is merely a ploy by Moto to capitalize on the D1′s success while spending as little R&D as possible. It’s not really different at all. Simply put, compared to the EVO 4G’s, and Samsung Galaxy S’s of the world, the D2 is merely average.

Mini rant aside, you can download the manual in its entirety and find several more images over at Droid-life. Hop to it!

Download: Droid 2 User Guide (PDF)

Old school P2P music transfers: DIY Vinyl record copies.

Even with all of the convenience and other sonic qualities of digital music files, some people simply prefer the sonic fidelity of good ‘ol fashioned vinyl records. Amongst the supporters, hardcore audiophiles tend to pop up as the natural, slightly warm analog sound is something that many claim digital audio just can’t reproduce faithfully. Nevertheless, regardless of where you stand, it’s easy to see that making backups of your precious records aren’t quite as easy as hitting “copy”/”paste”. But in reality, it isn’t too far off.

The great thing with records is that they’re pretty resilient. Not to mention, all of those pits and grooves on the record themselves are real pits and grooves. See where this is going?

Dousing your records in some silicone and plastic is a relatively quick and surefire way to get honest 1:1 backups/copies of your vinyl music on the cheap. This point is further hit home by the fact that multiple copies can be made out of a copy itself — a sort of old school P2P music sharing deal if you ask me.

I’m not into vinyl records, but can definitely appreciate the spirit of self preservation and taking care of your property. Do any vinyl junkies out there employ such methods of backup? Be sure to check out the how-to vid inside…

JBL Snowflake speaker: The coolest iPod accessory that doesn’t exist?

The world of iPod docks and accessories is probably never ending. If there were one brave soul who decided to catalog it all, it would be a monumental undertaking that would more than likely be the death of him. Poor guy. There’s just so much junk out there. In order to keep your own product from not blending in, you have to be different. Is the Snowflake Speaker different enough?

Sadly, this is nothing more than a concept from the head of designer Sylvain Gerber. But if it were real, would you buy it? To my eyes, it looks like a Ferris Wheel at the fair. You?

Intel unveils Light Peak successor. 50Gb/sec transfers say “Light Peak what?”

USB 3 and eSATA may be the king and queen when it comes to external speed, but no technology is more promising than Intel’s Light Peak. While USB 3.0 was a marginal, linear progression from USB 2.0 and 1.0 before it, Light Peak is exponentially faster. For example, USB 3.0 has a theoretical top speed of 5.0Gbps. Though real-world speeds tend to hover around 100-130MB/s. Still, that’s a helluva lot better than their previous technologies. Light Peak on the other hand has a theoretical top speed of 10Gbps, which will obviously offer at least double the real-world transfer speeds. But what’s slightly surprising is that Intel showed off the successor to Light Peak — mind you, Light Peak still has 3-5 years before we actually see it in mainstream products.

If Light Peak is all the rage in geek world currently, the successor has to be something special, right? Right! Light Peak tops out at 10Gbps. Ok, awesome. But Intel’s even faster laser-based technology will allow data transmissions of up to 12.5Gbps across (4) laser beams, netting nearly ~50Gbps of total bandwidth. That’s inane! But that’s just the beginning…