Wires Crossed #133 – October 22
A sneak peek of Apple's new headquarters; man gets free PS4 after abusive tweet at retailer; who has the most twitter followers; and Facebook post surprises bully.
By Mike Wheeler
Apple Shows Off Pics Of Futuristic Headquarters
Apple has always been the King of Cool when it comes to the design of its devices, and they have spared no quarter with its new digs it wants to build in Capertino, California. The company’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, showed a model of the proposed building to a local newspaper reporter and it looks just as funky and functional as you would expect. What is even more impressive is that the ground used to belong to HP and was 80 percent asphalt and 20 percent green, but Apple plan to turn that upside down with its saucer-shaped building and turning the majority of the 175-acre site into parkland.
Who Has The Most Twitter Followers
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Oprah Winfrey and Ashton Kutcher were having an unofficial race to see who could be the first person in the world to get more than one million Twitter followers. Four years later and one million followers wouldn’t even make the top 100 of the most popular tweeters out there. So who has the most? Well, he’s a singer. He’s Canadian. And he causes tween girls to scream and jump up and down on the spot. Justin Bieber has close to 46 million followers. Next it is Katy Perry with 45 million, then Lady Gaga with 40 million, fourth is US President Barack Obama with close to 38 million, and rounding out the top five is songstress Taylor Swift with 35 million or so. And Winfrey and Kutcher? Oprah comes in at 13, while Kutcher is nowhere to be seen.
Man Abuses Retailer – Gets Free PS4
A misunderstood tweet has ended up with British man getting a free PS4 from online retailer Shopto. It appears that the customer called Carl found out that PS4 bundles on Amazon were going cheaper than at Shopto where he had placed a preorder. He asked if Shopto would meet the Amazon price. When they said no, he sent a non-to-complementary tweet to a friend that went public and found its way to Shopto who promptly cancelled his account. The long and the short of it is that he shared the incident with one of the most popular gaming forums around, NeoGAF, at which point Shopto realised that there was going to be a backlash. Not only did they restore Carl’s account, they gave him a PS4 for free.
Facebook Plea Sees Off Bully
A bully got the surprise of his life when more than 100 people turned up at his school in support of his victim. The victim, Halsey Parkerson, was also shocked to see the people turn up and had no idea how they found out about his problem. It turns out that his aunt had seen him being bullied at school so put out a post on her Facebook page at her car club calling for support. The following Friday 50 cars turned up at the school in Salem, Washington State, some even coming from across the Canadian border – to support Parkerson. It ended well with the bully apologising for his behaviour.
