If you go over to Apple's UK site, you're sure of a big surprise: they're listing the iOS 4.1 software update as being released September 8th. The US site still says "coming soon." [Apple UK]
Starting today, DC area bus stops are being treated with a bit of augmented reality. Smartphone users can get up-to-the-minute status reports and traffic updates for the bus they're waiting for by using a QR reading app. Convenient! [ReadWriteWeb]
The monster was presented on August 27 at the Dusseldorf's Caravan Salon 2010. It also also has a lounge, a bunk, and built-in booming sound system.
If I had $840,000 to spare, I would consider it, as long as they include a Porsche, a Jaguar, and a Mercedes mini-me sport car instead of the super car. [Futuria via BornRich]
Mad Catz has debuted a new line of gaming headsets for the launch of Call of Duty: Spec Ops. Coming in varieties for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC commandos, the headsets feature 5.1 Dolby Digital sound and detachable microphones.
Mad Catz will be selling the console versions in both true or virtual 5.1 setups, for $249 and $199, respectively (the true 5.1 edition come with light-up ear cups!). The PC cousin will offer true 5.1 for $149 (since your existing sound card will be doing the heavy audio lifting). Look for these to arrive in time for the holiday shop fest. [Mad Catz]
Did you know the one of the horse who goes into the Apple Store? Update: For those who thought this was a Photoshop, reader Chris Laseter sent us a close up.
Yes, that looks like a horse's ass indeed. The little pony is real too. Chris tells us more about it: "It is a one-to-one customer's horse that visits the store on the regular. He even rides in the front seat of the woman's van."
[Frank Chimero via Phil Torrone via John Mahoney—Thanks, Chris!]
The full list of changes and new things is listed at the beta page, but what strikes us in a quick look at a live-booting beta (for which we recommend Unetbootin and a USB thumb drive) are the changes to Ubuntu One, the Dropbox-like syncing service that ties in Music Store purchases, personal files, settings, and other user data. There's now a single, easier sign-on for Ubuntu One, and the look and feel are much improved. Same with the Ubuntu Software Center, which makes it easier to see the apps you've installed from the Center, as well as peek at popular and recommended apps.
As expected, Shotwell has replaced Fspot as the default photo manager, and it's a step forward, if not exactly Picasa for Linux. The volume control in the system panel now has music player controls, too, and Rhythmbox and all the other default apps have seen their normal version upgrades and bug fixes.
Ubuntu 10.10 Beta is a free download that should install on most any system, though Macs require a bit of extra work. Tell us what you think of the early-stage Maverick Meerkat in the comments.
The V-Tape concept design is pretty basic. It's just a plain ol' roll of tape with a little v-shaped cut along one edge. Thanks to that cut, you'll tear off the tape in the same spot each time and know where to find the end.
The downside of the design is that you'll always have to use specific lengths of tape. [Yanko Design]
Have an iPad and a bit of time? Might want to check out the free preview of the Fallout: New Vegas All Roads graphic novel.
Bethesda Softworks teamed up with Dark Horse Comics to create this graphic novel penned by Chris Avellone, the game's senior designer. The freebie gives you 12 pages of the graphic novel. Here's a small taste.
Everyone has had the experience of coming home from a long day, turning on the lights, and having the light bulb sputter at them as it flickers out. Fewer people have seem them randomly fizz out in the middle of the evening, after they've been on for a while.
Light bulbs give off light by pumping electric current through a thin tungsten filament. The filament heats and gives off light. Over time, the filament oxidizes and becomes more and more brittle, until it breaks apart and the bulb goes out. Since the oxidation occurs gradually and builds up, the light bulb should give out randomly, at any time. As anyone who lives in a house with electricity knows, this is not the case.
Tungsten gains resistance as it heats. Resistance is the amount of ‘push back' a material has against an electric current. The only thing that heats tungsten in a light bulb is electric current flowing through it. Imagine if a rubber hose gained strength only after water flowed through it. After some use, it would be able to handle a heavy stream of water. At first, though, it would bulge and strain like a water balloon before regaining its shape. Unless the rubber is in good condition, it will snap. In the same way, a tungsten filament is overloaded with current in the first few seconds after being turned on. The heat causes it to expand, and the filament experiences thermal stress, the strain of the material trying to expand due to sudden changes in temperature. Unless it is in good condition, it snaps.
What's more, over time, the filament becomes uneven. At certain points along the filament, the tungsten evaporates, thinning the filament more and more. At other points, the coils of the filament get pushed close together. When the high level of current surges through a stretch of wire even thinner than the rest of the filament, the heat builds up even faster than the rest of the filament. When it heats a section of coils pressed close together, the heat between them can't dissipate as quickly as it does in the rest of the bulb. The filament breaks or burns or simply melts.
It turns out that the average light bulb is not designed to be turned on. It's meant to already be on. The initial stress on the tungsten filament is far higher than the light bulb can handle. Those who wish to prolong the lives of their bulbs for ecological or sentimental reasons can pre-warm them before turning them on to a cozy 2,000 degrees before switching them on.
Top image by Andrew Price.
The Konami Code (if you don't know it, then shame on you!) has long been part of geek lore. But now it can be part of your work day too: Google has added a new, pranktastic easter egg to Docs.
Just enter up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, and then enter, and behold. I was kind of hoping for a Contra emulator, but oh well—still neat!
Xbox Live's Major Nelson was roaming PAX here in Seattle, probably needing something fun to do. So I asked him to let me try the new Xbox 360 controller with transforming D-pad — oh, and the analog sticks are different.
Major Nelson even agreed to shoot this video, and while I put him to work he revealed that this is his own personal controller. The new d-pad is easy to transform and the alternate, raised-cross mode feels like it will be good for games that require precise horizontal, vertical and diagonal inputs — you know, like fighting games.
We knew about the transforming d-pad, but did you know the analog sticks have changed? They tilt the same, but the shape of the depression on top of them has been tweaked. The old raised bits are gone and the center has a deeper depression. I'm not sure what the consequences will be of the small change, but the new stick did feel comfortable under my thumb.
Here's a comparison of the new controller and an older black one, set up so you can compare the right analog stick of the new one to the left of the old one.
The new controller, which will be sold for $65 with a recharge kit, will be out later this year.
UPDATE: Uploading this video from the show floor I didn't realize that Major Nelson was cut off at the end of the video. The video ends with him in mid-sentence saying the new controller is "kind of a limited edition... We're not making..." Readers have rightly asked what he said next. He said that the tweaks on this controller are not being applied to the standard Xbox controllers. He didn't say they never would be, but the impression I got is that, for the fall at least, you'll need to buy this silver controller in order to get the new d-pad and stick design. You won't be able to buy a spare standard controller and experience the new design tweaks on them, because the design of the standard controllers will not be changing soon.
Writing an eBay description of a beloved car is like writing an obituary for a friend that's still alive. Flaws and strengths. Have to be honest. But then you have to go out to the garage and crawl inside them.
Let's not focus on the sad news, which is the passing of my lovely 1975 BMW 2002 on to another owner. Ruby is a good car, but I'm barely driving her, and I don't like owning things I don't use. May she be as good for her next owner as she has been for me.
Instead, let's focus on why I'm letting her go: to buy a Land Cruiser.
I'm getting older and slower and dumber. I'm 32. I'm not going to be rich or famous or wealthy or have a lot of money or be rich. But what I do have, what has become my own personal fortune, is freedom. I don't have a lot of stuff, but I don't have any debt. I have my health. (From which I withdraw at a rate of a few whiskies-and-cigarettes-per-day.) And I have a job that lets me make money from the road.
I wasn't planning on being at Gizmodo this long this tour. Six months, in and out. But it's been more like nine months already and I don't see an immediate end in site. I had this startup I was going to do with a friend but that died on the vine. So here I am, blogging. Which, hey. It's a good gig.
But I won't be able to do this forever. I'll go stir-crazy. I always do. So I'm trying to put together the next big adventure.
Next summer I want to hit the road. First to Alaska, to touch the pole. (And get every Palin woman pregnant. My girlfriend objects to this goal primarily for political reasons.) Then back down and around the States for a month or two, visiting many of the places I've never made it to or haven't spent enough time in. And then in the fall, down south through Mexico and on towards Argentina. The Panamerican Highway.
As daydreams go it's a pretty mild one. Hundreds of Americans hit the overland road every year toward Central and South America. And a large percentage of them write and blog about it. And I'm sure I will, too.
But in the meantime, I've got slightly less than a year of learning and experimentation ahead of me. I need to greatly expand my abilities as an auto mechanic beyond my current specialities, Bolting Things On and Sandwich Spreads. I need to bone up on some more Spanish. I wouldn't mind some sort of first aid training, as the last I had was twenty years ago in the Scouts.
And I need to figure out what gear is essential and what is a joke. I expect this is going to be a relatively high-tech expedition rig when all is said and done—I am a tech dork after all—but the last thing I want to be doing in a year is troubleshooting fritzy gear in the field. (Instead I want to do that this year.)
So first things first: Getting a truck. Land Cruisers are about as universal as a vehicle can be across the world. Capable, relatively inexpensive when used, and with a better-than-average chance of local parts availability. Plus the old ones look fantastic. And if you can't look fantastic in the field, where can you, really?
(I'm looking at 62s and 80 Series, if you're a truckdork and care.)
I'm particularly looking forward to finding the balance between equipment to keep us running strong on the road with things that we'll want to, you know, live in relative comfort. I'm not Mr. 4x4, but I've seen plenty of rigs taken out to the desert or what have you that are packed to the gills with extraction equipment, etc., leaving little room for water. I had a moment last night when I looked at my acoustic guitar, safely swaddled in its hard case, and thought, "Of course I'll want to take my guitar." And then a bit of shock as I realized that my guitar in its case would take up a tremendous amount of room in the back of a Land Cruiser. Should I instead strap it to the top? Mount it on the hood like an ornament? Build a special guitar trailer? Every single thing ends up being questioned and questioned again.
That doesn't bum me out. I've been ditching more and more of my stuff over the years. I already do two-week trips abroad in a carry-on—with my camera equipment. But it's going to be a whole new level of technomading it.
I also have no idea how to use a Hi-Lift jack in all its fancy multivariousness. The only winch I've ever used was made of LEGO. Most of my desert driving experience was while high and in dust storms. I'm out here in Portland, Oregon now, so there's plenty of terrain around to practice on all winter, but I've got a lot to learn.
It's my latest mid-life crisis and I look forward to sharing it with you all. We'll see if I actually manage to stay on target for this one—I'm not known for follow through when it comes to life goals—but I've been thinking about it heavily for at least a couple of years. I have the luxury of actually being able to pull it off. It seems wrong, in a way, to not do it. But who knows?
If nothing else, it should be amusing to watch me flail.
Illustration by Sam Spratt. Check out Sam's portfolio and become a fan of his Facebook Artist's Page.
Apple is offering a new showtimes service to go along with its always popular movie trailer selection. The new site may not be as feature-filled as the likes of Fandango, but it's certainly more slick.
After consenting to a little browser geolocation, Apple will overlay nearby films and theaters onto a Google Map, as well as presenting neatly displayed showtimes (of course) and address information. [Apple Trailers via PC World]
To view these on one page, click here
To view these on one page, click here
To view these on one page, click here
We are so crazy about apps right now you wouldn't believe it. If you have recommendations, tips, or just want to let us know about your own app, drop a note in the comments or shoot me an email.
Whether you're trying to increase your security at an internet café, tunnel your way to your home computer from your cubicle, or leave no trace on your friend's borrowed computer, a flash drive turned portable privacy toolkit is invaluable.
Photo by Dave Boyer.
Flash drives are enormously handy for carting around files, taking portable applications with you, and serving as a mobile computing base when you're away from home. They're also excellent tools for increasing your privacy when you're away from your home computer. Below I'll point you toward methods of setting up secure connections with SSH and round up a few of your best options for SSH-friendly applications; then we'll look into encrypting data, permanently erasing data, and otherwise covering your tracks on any machine you're using.
Before we begin, a big fat disclaimer is in order. Working from a flash drive privacy toolkit, in most situations, is rife with compromises. There is no way to, for example, set up a totally bulletproof system for browsing privately and anonymously from work. You can dodge IT, you can encrypt and tunnel, you can worm your way around security measures, and you might even be able to do it without getting caught. Doing so is grounds for termination at many company, however, and the IT admins frown heavily on users who punch holes in the firewall. If you absolutely must alleviate the boredom of your workday by streaming music from your home PC or browsing "off record" from your office, your best bet is to bring a netbook and tether it to your cellphone so all your activity occurs completely off the company networks and remains undetectable by your corporate overlords.
All of that said, the following tricks and applications push the limits of what the humble flash drive and non-administrative rights can do. We know you'll find more than a few tricks that will make life from your flash drive toolkit more secure and your computer activities more private.
Whether you're trying to get around a pesky firewall or you're trying to secure your laptop's wireless connection against sniffing at the local coffee shop, Secure Shell (SSH) tunneling is your friend. If you're unfamiliar with SSH tunneling, it's largely what it sounds like: A secure "tunnel" is formed from the client machine (the remote terminal you're working at) to the host machine (your server) and everything that passes through that tunnel is hush-hush to observers on the surrounding network. Observers with proper access to the network can see the tunnel, they can see that data is being transferred, but they can't get at the contents. Whether you're streaming high quality audio, high quality video, or just performing a remote disk backup, the specifics of your activity remains unknown to anyone watching the transfer. Photo by vkramer.
We're not going to rehash setting up a personal SSH server and how to encrypt your web browsing session with an SSH SOCKS proxy in this guide because we have two excellent prior guides on the topic. Check out how to set up a personal, home SSH server to get started, then take a stab at encrypting your web browsing session with an SSH SOCKS proxy. Those two guides will get your home server setup and show you the basics of setting up Firefox to use a SOCKS proxy server. That knowledge will come in handy for configuring the proxy servers in some of the later apps we'll be looking at.
Once you have a server setup, you'll need some way to connect into it remotely. Our prior guide discusses clients, but we're going to highlight some flash-drive-friendly examples here.
KiTTY: Kitty is a feature-packed branch of the well-known PuTTY line of SSH clients. It's portable, supports drag-and-drop file transfer using SCP, and supports scripting. PortaPuTTY was our previously recommended portable PuTTY client of choice, but KiTTY supercedes it with more features and easier setup.
Web Browsers: Once you have your SSH tunnel set up, picking your portable browser is largely a matter of preference. Always, always, configure your portable browser ahead of time so that things are running smoothly by the time you need to securely browse from your remote location. As we noted in our guide to setting up encrypted web browsing sessions, you must configure your web browser to send DNS requests to your proxy server to bypass the local DNS server. Not only does sending DNS requests to the DNS server used by the local machine often lead to errors that render your proxy-driven-browsing impossible to use, but it defeats the whole purpose of setting up a SSH tunnel if you're broadcasting all your DNS requests to the local host and network. You can find portable versions of your favorite web browsers here: Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.
Thunderbird: If you conduct all your email and contact management through a web-based email service like Gmail, then your browser+SOCKS proxy setup takes care of your email needs. If you require a desktop client to access your email, however, you'll need a proxy-friendly client on your flash drive. Mozilla Thunderbird is an open-source and feature-rich email client you can take with you, set to use your proxy server, and enjoy robust and secure email management away from home. You can read more about Thunderbird in our previous guides to making Thunderbird your ultimate messaging hub and upgrading it with extensions.
Pidgin: Pidgin is a lightweight, open-source, and proxy-friendly IM client. At this point you've already set up your SSH proxy, so to IM with a little extra privacy, you can hook any proxy-friendly application into it—including Pidgin. Even if Pidgin isn't your first choice for a desktop IM client, it supports 15 chat protocols, packs light on your flash drive, and is easy to set up for proxy routing and encrypted chat.
Selecting Additional Communication Apps: Regardless of what kind of applications you're adding to your flash drive tool kit, if they need to communicate with the outside world, they need to be proxy-friendly. If you can't configure the application you need to use your proxy then you'll have to accept that its transmissions will be occurring outside your secure tunnel. Thankfully SOCKS proxies are an old—but dependable!—and incorporated in many applications.
Encyption on portable media is tricky. The most comprehensive encryption tools require administrative access, which is rare when you're using a computer at work or away from home. This rules out powerful tools like Truecrypt out for inclusion in a portable toolkit—yes, Truecrypt has a traveler-mode, but it's a poor compromise given what Truecrypt can do with full administrative powers. With the restrictions of portable drives and non-administrator privileges in mind, we've put together a grouping of applications that are still functional even if you're sitting on a guest account. (If you're still interested, here's how to encrypt your thumb drive with Truecrypt—you'll just require admin access to get to the data, which most of the time isn't an option.)
FreeOTFE Explorer: FreeOTFE (on-the-fly-encryption) Explorer is a free and portable application that allows you to create encrypted containers with on-the-fly-encryption for easy drag and drop file management. It has limitations—for example, you can't run portable applications from within the container without extracting them first—but it offers a huge number of encryption techniques and it's a great way to keep your data locked up tight until you need it.
LockNote: If you're primarily concerned with locking down notes and not as concerned with running an encrypted volume, LockNote is a lightweight and open-source text-encryption tool. LockNote is great because the application and the text are bundled together—negating the need to run the app and mount an encrypted file—just click on the portable app, enter your password, and work on your notes.
KeePass: KeePass is one of the most popular password managers around. Choosing strong passwords is critical to good security and having a solid keyring tool like KeePass makes it all the easier to generate, store, and use long and complex passwords. If you're not using some sort of password manager you're really missing out on some great features and increased security. Check out eight great KeePass plugins here to supercharge your password keyring. On the flip side, if most of your password management is web-related, you can also install LastPass with your portable, SSH-proxied browser for one of our other favorite password-management solutions.
Neo's SafeKeys: Neo's SafeKeys is a secure on-screen keyboard that provides protection against hardware and software key loggers, including protection against screen logging, key logging, clipboard logging, and more. You can read about the technical aspects of how SafeKeys protects you in their extensive FAQ file here. Ideally you'll never be on a machine where you feel the need to resort to spy-vs-spy virtual keyboard tools, but it's lightweight and worth adding to your toolkit if you need it.
Sure, we love a good gamecake, but these Threadcakes are in a league of their own. OF THEIR OWN. Clamp your lips 'round the 2010 winners over here: [Threadcakes]
The Hubble keeps leaving me speechless. University of Colorado at Boulder Research Associate Kevin France, of the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, comments on the image:
We are seeing the effect a supernova can have in the surrounding galaxy, including how the energy deposited by these stellar explosions changes the dynamics and chemistry of the environment. We can use these new data to understand how supernova processes regulate the evolution of galaxies.
This is also the effect that you always see about to destroy the Enterprise before Picard shouts: Warp 9, engage!
Supernova 1987A is located in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located near the Milky Way. Hubble Site]
Logitech just announced a revamp of their Gamepad line of PC controllers, taking a little bit of visual inspiration from here and little from there (that means Xbox and Playstation) for three affordable new USB controllers: F310, F510, and F710.
The F310 has a floating D-pad as well as colored XYAB buttons and dual joysticks that will be vedddy familiar to console fans. The F510 adds dual rumble motors and grips for your sweaty paws, and the F710 is all of the above plus wireless thanks to a USB dongle. They're out of stock currently but should be available soon for $24.99, $34.99, and $49.99 respectively. [Logitech]
The price of the HS1 USB headset is quite reasonable: $99. Other competitive headsets, like the Logitech G35 and the Creative Fatal1ty headsets are sitting in the same space, offering 5.1 and a built-in boom mic. The bonus of Corsair's is that they run 50mm drivers, which means they push more air, offering a more well-rounded sound profile, rather than having to, say, sacrifice mid-range in order to have more bass.
A full review and comparison is coming later, but from what I've seen from a day's worth of use, the cans are comfortable and the mic quality sounds great to the people on the other side. These are made for gaming, and even though they sound decent enough for music and phone calls, Corsair knows what people are going to use these for. [Corsair]
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• AMD AMC Theatres Coupon: Fountain Drink for $0 with popcorn purchase
If a deal looks too good to be true, investigate the store and see if it's a good, reputable place to buy. Safe shopping!
[Thanks TechDealDigger, Dealzon, Logic Buy, GamerHotline, Cheap College Gamers, CheapStingyBargains, TechBargains, Slickdeals, Savings.com, and Dealhack.]
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Boy Genius hears that the Galaxy Tab, Samsung's Android tablet already rumored to be on Verizon is heading to Sprint too. And, it'll have both 4G WiMax and 3G. Nice! [BGR]
Kopac:
Steve,
Enjoyed the presentation today. But…this new iTunes logo really sucks. You're taking 10+ years of instant product recognition and replacing it with an unknown. Let's both cross our fingers on this…
Jobs:
We disagree.
Sent from my iPhone
Well, I must admit that I completely agree with Steve Jobs and disagree with Joshua Kopac. The iTunes 10 icon doesn't "suck" and this is not about brand recognition. The iTunes 10 icon is an inane, insipid piece of shiny bore that one of the designers for Windows Vista vomited after having an orgy of sex and tropical cocktails with a stock clipart rep back in 1994. Someone found it fossilized in a dumpster, polished it, and then shoved it inside the resources folder of that bloated piece of software that some people call iTunes and I call iTurd.
Yes, I feel much better now, thank you very much. [Wired]
Apple has always sucked at the internet. With Ping and the new Apple TV, Apple sucks a little bit less at it. But Apple could be good at it.
Apple's finally starting to reward people for buying into the Apple ecosystem, but everything they're doing is only a half-step toward what it could be, should be doing. It launched two social networks, and showed us how it's going to wirelessly connect iOS devices with AirPlay. And with the rental-and-stream-only Apple TV, Apple's slowly starting backing away from downloads—or at least pay-to-own content. These are the first shuffling, awkward steps toward an Apple whose products are neatly tied together by a common thread—the internet.
Apple's strongest asset for building a unified, puffy cloud-based ecosystem is your iTunes ID. There are tens of millions of users like you, waiting to be the perfect identity glue for a whole suite of interconnected Apple services. As I've argued before, it'd make a lot of sense to unify iTunes IDs with (free) MobileMe accounts, creating one uber ID for every connected service that Apple has—much in the same way Facebook's sought to establish itself as your sole credible identity on the web.
But it's obvious now that's not how Apple's thinking. Apple effectively launched two separate social networks yesterday—Game Center for the iPhone and iPod touch, and Ping for iTunes—and while both of them tie into your iTunes ID, they're not connected by it. They're two distinct networks; your iTunes ID only lurks in the background. You have separate identities on each network, with Game Center letting you pick out a different nickname.
Even if there's a case to be made for keeping different sets of friends in each network—my gamer friends have terrible taste in music, while the music nerds suck at gaming—it's hard to see why Apple effectively forces you to be schizophrenic, iterating different versions of yourself across services run by a single company. It's two more networks, two more statuses, two more identities to maintain. And if you have a MobileMe account, that's a third. (Why isn't MobileMe free again? It would make this all so simple.) Even Google, notoriously allergic to the word "cohesive," has you maintain a single identity across all 10 bajillion of its products, from Google Talk to Tsunami.
Apple doesn't even approach the middle ground of letting Facebook or Twitter offer deep integration—although there was nominal Facebook Connect support that's since disappeared. Apple simply apes some of those social networks' tropes: following friends, celebrities, and brands; liking, commenting, and posting status updates. What, you're not having enough trouble keeping up with your other social networks?
It's awesome that Apple's trying to add another layer to iTunes, a social layer that could in fact add a lot of depth. Imagining the possibilities of a social, free-wheeling iTunes—especially if it was built more around a streaming model like LaLa—is kind of spine-tingling. But Ping is just too half-assed the way it is right now; the scope is too limited. I don't buy music from iTunes, and neither do most of my friends. So, even though I use iTunes everyday, because of its singular integration with the iTunes Store, Ping doesn't actually tie into the way I use music at all. That renders it slightly better than useless.
The iTunes Music Store itself is fundamentally unchanged, at least when it comes to music. It hasn't undergone the radical, LaLa-inspired reformation it needs to be modern, transforming it into a massive streaming music repository like Spotify, beaming music to any iOS device with an internet connection. (Could you imagine how amazing an iTunes re-oriented around streaming would be with Ping, in terms sharing music with your friends and discovering new stuff?) Nope, it's just the same old iTunes. Still just an app. Still just a fat vault of music, stuck on my hard drive like it's 2002.
On the other hand, iTunes in the context of Apple TV is vastly more interesting—in fact, Apple TV is by far the most enthralling thing Apple announced this week, a model for what Apple products should be more like. A palm-sized plastic box filled with little more than a cellphone-sized processor and a wireless card, the new Apple TV doesn't download movies or TV shows to own. You can't buy movies. You can only rent them. Or stream them via Netflix. (It should be noted that Apple opening up to another content service that's effectively a competitor is promising all by itself). It's a tiny shift on a single front, but a shift nonetheless, deeper into the techno-philosophical territory where you never "own" the content you pay for, where you only license or borrow it. The kind of territory that you'd be in with an iTunes music streaming service. It's hard to pronounce the download an endangered species, given that the one-click download is still a huge component of Ping, but a quick glance around the media landscape should spin your head in the right direction: Things are moving toward effervescent (if omnipresent) streams, not files.
Apple TV's integration with AirPlay and an upcoming, more powerful new Remote app soothes a lot of the anxiety about the inexplicable sense of disconnect between various Apple products. With AirPlay, you can wirelessly stream music, photos or video from any iOS device to Apple TV. Duh. Obvious. The new Remote app turns an iPhone or touch into the amazing multitouch remote control we've always wanted it to be. You can rent movies and TV shows, scan Netflix, browse your media collection, input text and do everything else you'd expect from a remote. Apple TV and iOS devices just go together, and it's a feeling you should get more often from owning tons of Apple products. Right now, buying an iPhone doesn't make owning a Mac orgasmic.
Now that the Touch is legitimately an iPhone 4 minus the phone—and the only iPod that matters—a combined, more deeply integrated MobileMe/iTunes that streams music to iOS devices, slurps up photos and videos to a free account and expands storage into the cloud with a built-in, Dropbox-like app makes even more sense. It would make the iPod touch an even better proposition. And it'd open the door to the kind of synchronicity between Apple products that would make it feel like you're wrapped in safe, puffy cushion all the time. The cloud would be the stuffing. That sense of being comfortably smothered is still not quite there. But it's a little cozier than it was last week.
Original art by guest artist Chris McVeigh (AKA powerpig). You can catch all his work at flickr.com/powerpig, and follow him on Twitter @Actionfigured
The US Patent & Trademark Office has awarded a truckload of patents, some of them seemingly trivial, from continuous scrolling acceleration on the iPhone to the burn disc icon user interface in iTunes, which was imagined by Steve Jobs himself.
• That patent, by Jobs and Tim Wasko, refers to an icon with three states of operation, like in iTunes CD burning. First you can see the burn icon. When the user clicks it, the system gets ready to burn, and shows a second icon. When the user clicks that second icon, the burning operation starts, and the icon changes into a third icon, showing the progress. Its objective is to avoid accidental operation by one click.
• System for reducing number of programs needed to render an image, so it uses less memory and processing power.
• User interface to improve media item searching, which adapts your search bar options to the type of media you are browsing.
• Interface morphing between two views of data.
• Continuous list acceleration, the stuff you experience when you scroll up and down the list of contacts.
• Display of search results before the user even submits the search, which is what you see when you start typing in Safari's search field (but also on other browsers and even Google page).
• Split video edits (which was invented by Final Cut Pro genius-in-charge Randy Ubillos.
• One of the patent refers to several methods for inputting information, created by Avie Tevanian himself, the creator of the NeXT and Mac OS X Mach kernel, who left Apple in 2006 when he was Chief Software Technology officer.
• User interface for the hierarchical selection of items.
Dushare makes it dead simple to take a file on your computer and share it with a friend. Visit the site, pick your file, decide if you want to password protect the download, and then share the short URL with your friend. If they can visit a website and download a file they can grab the file you're sharing. Dushare also includes a chat function so you can talk to the person you're transferring the file to while the transfer is in progress.
Dushare is a free service and requires no registration. Have a favorite tool for transferring files to your friends? Let's hear about it in the comments. Thanks gizread!
iOS 4.0 was so slow on our 3G, we promptly downgraded after updating. Earlier this week, Apple announced, among other things, that iOS 4.1 fixed performance on the iPhone 3G. We put their claim to the test.
In the video above, the iPhone 3G battles itself in an epic speed test to find out if Apple's claims are true: Is iOS 4.1 faster than 4.0, or is it just a wash?
Music by Julian Wass
Note: This is far from a scientific examination of both versions of iOS 4. We only had one iPhone 3G to work with and couldn't run through the trials at the exact same time. As a result, some of the actions are not perfect, but they nonetheless demonstrate some performance differences between iOS 4.0 and iOS 4.1.
Double note: To clarify, iOS 4.1 isn't yet available through iTunes; what you see, however, is the final 4.1 release running on our iPhone 3G.
The video demonstrates the results, but here they are in all their glory:
While the speed advantages ranged from marginal to significant, iOS 4.1 clearly outperformed iOS 4.0. It's still significantly slower performance than you'll get from a 3GS or iPhone 4, and we're still not sure it's a big enough improvement that 3G owners will want to ditch iOS 3. The most obvious difference was UI responsiveness. The UI didn't get stuck nearly as much on an interface element or when trying to enter text. If you are set on using iOS 4, the upgrade is worthwhile for that alone.
Passengers returning to Sydney from San Francisco were treated to a delightful pyrotechnic show as a special treat from Qantas. A mesmerizing cascade of flame and sparks! Coming from their 747's engine. Which exploded after taking off. Wait a second.
One man aboard the plane was able to document the ordeal—which thankfully ended with a safe landing—on his iPhone, capturing what must have been a harrowing hour in the air. But at least the captain was able to provide some soothing words: "You must be assured that we are trained for this situation...Normally, we do it in a simulator, of course, but we are trained for it so rest assured everything is under control." [Daily Mail]
Considering it less uncomfortable than other methods of sneaking cellphones into prisons, a Brazilian gang hired a local teenager to launch phones over prison walls with a bow and arrow. Their plot was foiled when one hit a guard:
Authorities say the boy was caught after one of the arrows he launched struck a police officer on the back. The officer was not seriously injured because the cell phone was tied to the tip of the arrow and softened the impact.
Oh good. The teen did manage to successfully fire off four arrow-phones before that, though, so all in all maybe this plan was not as stupid as it sounds. [AP via Engadget]
Image credit Jane Starz
Rovio dropped a few hints earlier in the week that it'd have a public beta test of Android Angry Birds ready by Friday, and it's followed through—it's up on the Android Market right now. The level select shows 15 locked spaces for you to power through—and a link to buy the full version. But that doesn't work yet. This is a test. [Rovio via Techradar]
Similar to when AIM notifies you that you're still logged in on another computer, Facebook will go even deeper and not only tell you how long you've been logged in for, but the name of the device and location, too.
While the feature hasn't gone live yet, it's going to be so handy knowing where you are still logged in—and being able to sign off from there, too. It will actually let you sign off from one or all of the locations, whether that be a phone, computer, tablet or TV. Keep an eye on the Account Security section of Facebook for when it goes live. [TG Daily]
The legend is that a mouse can freak out elephants, but the truth is that their worst enemy is much smaller: Ants. Elephants get scared of ants. That's what Jacob Goheen and Todd Palmer have discovered in Africa's sub-Saharian savanna.
Goheen and Palmer observed that, during a really dry year, most trees in were obliterated by hungry elephant herds. Only a single species of tree stood up, untouched: The Acacia drepanolobium, also called the whistling-thorn tree or ant tree.
These acacias are a refuge for ants. They feed them with a sweet substance and, in exchange, the ants will attack the elephants whenever they get near it, invading their trunks and biting them badly. The scientists tested this by feeding the plant to the animals with and without ants, as well as other species with and without ants. The elephants didn't touch any of vegetation with ants in them.
After that, they altered ant population in the wild trees. The same trees, with no ants, got badly damaged by elephants. Their conclusion is that ants, the tiniest of animals on the African savanna, trump the largest animal in those fields. [Current Biology]
A collection of new images of the R2-D2 skinned special edition Droid 2 have been unlocked on Verizon's advertorial web site, showing the phone in much more detail—and revealing this rather nice themed dock.
There's a cool etched circuit board effect beneath the space where the Droid 2 sits, plus the back of the dock has the Star Wars logo on it, just in case you don't get the amazingly obvious reference. Isn't it nice to see Android accessories in white for once? [Verizon via Phandroid]
Glasses-less 3DTV sounds like the greatest invention ever, right? But secretly, I think we were all worried it would look quite rubbish. After a lengthy session with Sharp's parallax barrier technology, I can say chin up! It's not that bad.
Sharp wouldn't say whether their parallax barrier technology's actually being used in Nintendo's 3DS, but from what I saw today it's very similar—and Sharp's going to do extremely well sticking these panels in phones, cameras, laptops and tablets, I think.
Two differently-sized panels were on display at their stand at IFA, with the 10.6-inch 3D LCD offering 1280 x 768 resolution when playing 2D content, or 640 x 768 in 3D. They claim that the optimal distance is around 50cm, something I confirmed by standing a meter away and then just inches away. This is very much a technology for personal use, for being used in a tablet or netbook.
The smaller display measures 3.8-inches, and was very much demonstrating how a smartphone such as the one we caught wind of weeks ago would work. Playing 2D content would render in 800 x 480 resolution, with 3D content playing back at 400 x 480. Optimal distance is shorter, at 30cm—which makes sense, considering the size of the panel.
When asked about the resolution, the product manager I spoke to said that it boiled down to battery life: specifically, if they increase resolution to 1080p for 3D content, the battery life would be extremely poor, and that wasn't something they are willing to compromise on at the moment.
However, they did say they're not limited by size. 42-inch TV sets are entirely possible—but whether you'd want a faux 3DTV set is another matter entirely. The smaller panels on show today had quite a bit of flicker when you moved your head left and right (it flickered approximately five times when moving my head, for just the smaller-sized panel).
At least parallax barrier technology would be cheaper without those pricey glasses...though that's a very small consolation when you can't move your head more than an inch before the image shifts.
Launch periods were certainly not mentioned, with Sharp only saying products with the displays would go on sale when they're ready. But, their smartphone-sized panels are most definitely not going to be relegated to Asia, where their smartphones sell well. We can expect to see phones with 3D displays in the US, Europe, and other parts of the world—but whether that's under Sharp's name or someone else's, remains to be seen.
Interestingly, they also showed off their 3D camera, presumably using the module we wrote about here (though there wasn't any 3D video on offer.) There was nary a detail to be told about the camera, however I did snap a few photos of the camera itself, and the screen with a photo (of yours truly), though it's obviously difficult to see the 3D effect through a photo. Especially when it's so low-res, grainy and dark, as the photo in the gallery below will demonstrate.
Now, I'm no fan of traditional 3D. It makes my eyes feel like they're about to pop from their sockets, and I just don't see the point in buying a set (unless you're a gamer). These Sharp panels are so much fun though, and didn't give me the same headache/nausea I experience with passive or active glasses.
The larger model was touchscreen, and damn responsive too—a lot better than I was expecting. Playing on a loop, a pop-up book-like video had dancing Three Little Pigs and other nursery rhymes which you could control with a touch of the finger.
It was blurry, however. Not as sharp as traditional 3DTV, and while it was a lot brighter, the resolution was a lot poorer. I'm not too sure about the usages of such displays, but the screen on the camera was terrific, displaying photos you had taken just seconds before. It could render Fujifilm's 3D cameras absolutely useless, if the pricepoint was good enough.
That's the thing. While the technology was brilliant in practice, it's no replacement for true HD on anything larger than a laptop—anything smaller, and it's a great novelty, but not something you'd want to pay too much extra for.
If you happen to find yourself at the ARS Electronica Center in Linz, Austria thinking, "that facade could do with a bit more color," you're in luck—a special smartphone application lets passersby paint the building in real time.
There are actually two applications, developed jointly by the University of Saarbrücken, Germany and University of Munich, Germany: one that lets users paint the building block by block with a color wheel on their phone, and another let them solve a huge, building-size jigsaw puzzle on its facade. You better hope your aesthetic sensibilities are as good as you always thought they were. [Project iRiS]
The cars, which are manufactured with exquisite detail, include the classic Porsche 356, the Mercedes Benz 300SL, the Jaguar E-type, the Willys Jeep, and the Bugatti T35. They use composite chassis and composite body shells, and can be driven by anyone age of 6 and up. In fact, the two seat models can fit a kid and an adult.
They come with 50cc engines, but you can customize them with any racing kart engine you want, as well as choosing automatic or manual transmission.
You can also add extras, like leather interiors, race exhausts, wood rimmed steering wheels, or racing numbers. [Group Harrington via Likecool]
When the show was being shot, they were disappointed with their performance in the competition. But by the time they saw how their characters had been edited to fit certain roles on the show, they were more than relieved that their stint was short.
The show's producers had edited down hundreds of hours footage and deftly employed some time-shifted cutaways and voice-overs to turn my friends into the characters the show supposedly needed. If you've watched any reality TV, you've seen these personas before. She was the needy, unsupportive complainer who demanded constant hand-holding, and he was the non-committal boyfriend whose general ambivalence was interrupted only by memorable outbursts of uncontrolled anger.
Neither of the characters on the screen had anything in common with the people I know. And that's not much of a shock. Reality television is not all that close to reality. The producers of these shows need to move the stories forward and, with enough bits of content, they can turn you into whatever they need you to be. While some folks are surprised at the skill with which their realities are re-created, no one who signs up for a reality show is surprised that producers use these creative editing tactics.
Will you be surprised by the story the internet tells about you?
For years, millions of us have been voluntarily leaving little bits and pieces on ourselves on the web. A blog post, a funny photo, a few thousand status updates, a joke that fell flat, reactions to the news of the day, favorited media, heated comments; what narrative will all of this data create?
Like with reality TV, the answer to that question depends on who's doing the editing.
If you Google my name, you might end up meeting a creative thinker who provides contrarian viewpoints on issues related to the intersection of technology and society. Or you might find a peanut-butter fetishist who has an unholy obsession with Beyonce and melon puns. Which is the real me? I'm sure my terrestrial friends could have a long and spirited debate on that topic. But it's not up to them. It all depends on what comes up first when someone performs a search. My legacy will come down my ability to make sure the good stuff about me is better optimized for search engines than the bad stuff.
The truth is, I have no idea where my trail of data crumbs will lead. And if someone decided to vacuum up and rearrange all the bits and pieces I've shared online, they could easily tell almost any story. I could spend an online lifetime trying to mold myself in the image of da Vinci, Lincoln and Springsteen and - after a few selective cuts and creative pastes - I could still come out looking like Snooki doing a keg stand.
What we've understood as identity is becoming deeply and permanently destabilized online. The gradual creation of new, online versions of ourselves is not necessarily a bad thing. But it's important that we think about the future use or misuse of our content before we decide to hit the publish button. Anyone who goes on a reality show has to sign an extremely detailed contract that explicitly gives producers the right to do as they wish with the content. When it comes to the internet, there is no written contract, but the rules are the same.
My friends who were kicked off of that reality show are getting married this Fall (family wedding, no video cameras). Their counterparts who did better in the televised competition aren't so lucky. Several of the other couples who lasted a lot longer on the show have since broken up. It turns out that letting someone else take over your narrative can have a big impact on the way your story ends.
Dave Pell is an internet addict, early adopter and insider. He blogs regularly at Tweetage Wasteland.
Apple's previewing everything that's new in iOS 4.2 for iPad, like AirPlay, wireless printing, and a couple surprises—text searching in Safari, finally. Just rubbing it in. The update needs to come fasterfasterfaster. [Apple]
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