Stephen Colbert, host of the Comedy Central show "The Colbert Report," recently took a hands-on look at the iPad before it was available to the general public. In addition to examining this week's Newsweek cover featuring the iPad and one unfortunate similarity to the iPhone, Colbert demonstrates some of its lesser known features - including those pertaining to the culinary arts!

No, we're not talking about former Senator Ted Stevens's clumsy description of the Internet; this article from the Stanford School of Medicine Web site instead describes the wildly cool pneumatic tube system used by Stanford Hospital staff to send lab samples around at speeds up to 25 feet (7.6 m) per second - that's roughly 18 miles (30 km) per hour. Pneumatic tube systems were cutting edge communication technology way back in the 19th century, but when it comes to transporting physical objects, they retain their utility even in today's networked age.

Kuo Design has compiled a hefty collection of magazine covers featuring Steve Jobs. The 87 covers span 28 years, from 1981 to 2009, and take you on a stroll through Jobs's many professional ups and downs - as well as some of his fashion hits and misses!

Our friends at MacTech Magazine are kicking off their 25th anniversary celebration by soliciting the Mac community's best Mac-related stories, to be printed in upcoming issues of MacTech over the next year. The first issue of MacTech came out in December 1984, after which it was published as MacTutor for the next 7 years, before eventually reverting back to the MacTech name.

The inimitable Andy Ihnatko writes on his Celestial Waste of Bandwith blog about testing Dragon Dictation, the free iPhone version of Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking dictation software. Andy accidentally discovers that Dragon Dictation censors naughty words, which practically forces him to read it George Carlin's famous "Seven Words" routine, with predictably amusing results. Why censor? Perhaps to get it through the App Store approval process?

Think you're a foodie? Think you're a type snob? Give your self-image a test at the new "Cheese or Font?" Web site, which presents a single word and asks you whether it's the name of a cheese or a font. Be warned that it may make you hungry.