I haven’t gotten around to posting this video yet, but I think it goes without saying that as a Mac-head I’m pretty damned excited about the new iPhone. Which might be why I just pre-ordered one I got fucked by AT&T’s ineptitude, just like everyone else who tried to pre-order today. [From Apple]
![I think that calling it a “Retina Display” is just as silly as the next guy, but as far as I’m concerned, Apple can toss around all the marketing jargon they want if this is the result. [From patrickbeja.com]](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/robcoyne/700900480/1/tumblr_l3zwwb3Ist1qzdr7k)
I think that calling it a “Retina Display” is just as silly as the next guy, but as far as I’m concerned, Apple can toss around all the marketing jargon they want if this is the result. [From patrickbeja.com]
The Beverly school district is apparently run by Mac-heads
So let me get this straight, Beverly High School is requiring that all students have a MacBook, but they want the parents to foot the bill? Regardless of whether or not the student already has a laptop? A thousand points for style, Beverly, but minus several million for bad decision making skills. A unified platform is great, but there are better ways to do it than forcing people into something that might not be well suited for them.
I can think of nothing more deserving of the following quote than an ultra realistic bionic hand for people who have lost their own:
“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. We can make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.
We are about one and a half steps away from having a droid poke at your new robotic hand with a needle after you had it cut off in an epic laser sword duel to the death with the evil overlord who you just recently found out was your father (and is incidentally the only bionic man cooler than Steve Austin, or at least he was before Emokin from the “first” three movies went and put the redeemed villain incontext - terrible context).
For the record? THIS BIONIC HAND CAN PLAY JENGA! I’m sold. [From Engadget via Engadget]
iPad + Communication + Magic = GANKED FOAR MAH TUMBLR. Some of the tricks are a little sloppy, but it’s a good message, and it all comes together at the end. Worth a watch for sure. [From Michael Simmons]
Blizzard Boss Says DRM is a Waste of Time
FREAKING FINALLY!
We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology.
It’s always nice to hear the people at the top in any tech field speak a little sense from time to time. Now if only Hollywood, the music industry, book publishers, the rest of the video game industry, and the various people who distribute these things digitally could wrap their head around this mindset and focus on providing quality products instead of trying to figure out how to keep the glaring minority from doing whatever it is they’re afraid of them doing, then I’d be a happy camper.
Since we’ve been talking about technology… (Hey! Come on! One post in a row counts!) I wanted to share a delightful advertisement mocking the Rube-Goldberg Google Chrome ads that came out a little while ago boasting about the lightweight browser’s blistering speed (faster than a baked potato!). In this video, Opera reminds us that Chrome isn’t the only browser on the market capable of trouncing tubers in a speed test. The funniest part? They’re not joking. Opera actually came out above both Chrome 5 and 6 in a test done over at Download Squad. HAI GOOGLE. You’re not the only player in this game. But in the end, Chrome still wins for me because IT OUTRAN A FREAKIN’ TESLA COIL. Nothing can compete with that. [From Engadget]
Synesthesia Neckset: Music for the Deaf
I’m a musician. I am also a technophile. As a result, I get this little tingly feeling somewhere in my tender regions (as a guitarist, those’d be my fingers you weirdo) anytime a story crops up on my feed reader that talks about technology’s role in sharing music with, well, anyone really. But it’s special when that technology brings music to someone who is incapable of perceiving it (in the traditional manner, at least). This concept device would take advantage of touch/hearing synesthesia (why do these berries taste like purple? I’M SO CONFUSED) to allow users to feel sound. Of course, the trick is evoking a voluntary synesthetic response, which isn’t so easy. Yet, it’s so conceptually interesting that I cannot stop myself from posting it here. Believe me. I tried. With four hours of sleep in the last 40+ the alluring call of my bed was hard to ignore. YOU SEE WHAT I GO THROUGH FOR YOU PEOPLE!? (All one of you - thanks mom!) All jest aside, I’d probably try one of these even though I’m not deaf: yet another way to experience music. What kind of musician would turn that down?
A reblog from spime:
The Inter Dis-Communication Machine exchanges views between two persons. You can only see through the other person’s eyes when you wear these machines, which forcibly put you in the other’s place. These were made to obscure the border between identities of two persons.
Uh, this is simultaneously really cool, and really weird. Which makes it all the more difficult for me to NOT think about the many mind breaking applications this thing could have if it ever went mass market. Oh, and for the record? I’m not the only one who immediately thought of that. Exhibit a: the link above. In any event, I’ll promptly never speak of this again, purely because that name is hard enough to say, but I’ll certainly never remember it.
Source: spime
I think iPad + Velcro might just be the greatest combination of anything since eggs + bacon, with the one possible exception of anything else + bacon. [From Jesse Rosten via TUAW]
