Multi-tools are all the rage now, but that wasn’t always the case. In fact, inventor Tim Leatherman shopped his idea around years before finally finding a company that was willing to sell his product. He formed his own company in 1983, and the rest is history. → Read More
The Doc is coming back again on October 26th. You might remember this date as being significant from the first movie: October 26th is the day that Marty met Doc Brown at the mall and traveled back to 1955. The best news is this release is all three movies on one disc in one box. The set includes two hours of bonus footage, deleted scenes, and other extras. No idea on the price yet. Now where are Star Wars and Indiana Jones? [via Gizmodo] → Read More
These are, well, amazing photos. The story goes Leo from TheChive simply walked past barricades and security surrounding the Transformers 3 shoot in downtown Chicago. His 56 published pics seem to confirm the tale. He seemed close enough to catch a whiff of McDreamy’s pheromones. Scary thought. → Read More
A Facebook game about Facebook games was inevitable: Hence “Cow Clicker,” a spoof Facebook app created by game theorist Ian Bogost in an attempt to distill the appeal of Zynga games like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and FrontierVille. Between Scamville, Mark Pincus’ “every dirty trick in the book” comments, and a particularly unfortunate speech at the GDC, 2010 is the year to hate on social games — viewed by many gaming industry developers to be simplistic derivatives requiring no talent or skill.
Whether Zynga games are successful because they give users valuable social experiences or because they are, according Bogost’s fellow game theorist Jesper Juul, “brain hacks that exploit human psychology in order to make money,” people will always be willing to play up the latter theory. The word “exploit” added to any article makes for great pageviews. As do extreme examples, like the case of the kid who ran up a $1400 debt on his parents’ credit card trying to pimp out his farm. → Read More
Oh my god, guys! How did I not know these existed?! I think they’re new! I’m going to replace all my current Sharpies with these immediately! Stainless steel with laser-etched Sharpie logo. Life is good, people. Life is good. [via Doobybrain] → Read More
Earlier today Google Operating System noticed something odd in an official Google Docs demo video: an icon for an unreleased document editor called Google Punch. Numerous blogs have taken a stab at guessing what Google Punch may be (we initially speculated that it’s Google’s answer to Microsoft Publisher). But we’re hearing that it is something decidedly less exciting: Google Punch may just be a placeholder for a new version of an existing editor.
In other words, Google is testing a new version of Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, or one of its other existing apps, and just needed something to call it. So what exactly is this new editor going to feature? It’s possible that Google is working to integrate DocVerse, the service it acquired in March that allows users to collaborate on Microsoft Office files. → Read More
The DMCA ruling won’t change things for the average iPhone user — the main difference being that jailbreakers now can’t be sued by Apple successfully under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Apple will continue their attempts to block the jailbroken phones with every iOS update and jailbreakers will keep getting more and more savvy, like a vicious cycle of digital cat and mouse.
Jay Freeman, who runs Cydia, what many in the industry refer to as the “Jailbroken App Store,” posits that what today’s ruling did change was awareness; “More people will jailbreak their phones. Now that they think it’s legal.“ [Emphasis mine]. When asked whether the ruling had increased traffic to his site, Freeman bemoaned that today’s stats were unfortunately not available. → Read More
Good news iPhone 4 users; despite being being told that the free bumper (or case) wouldn’t be shipping for 3-5 weeks, word on the internet is that many people are starting to receive shipping notifications. So heads up if you’ve already ordered your free case or bumper, and a gentle reminder to go and do so if you haven’t already. Apparently this isn’t an isolated incident either, as TUAW reports that multiple iPhone 4 users have reported the same thing happening. → Read More
I’m not a skateboarder, but I’ve been in the world long enough to be skeptical of designs that leapfrog existing ones in weird ways. This one, for instance, trades the ability to flex the deck for a number of extra wheels, supposedly making it possible to carve at a lower angle than on a traditional board. Can such a design really be practical? → Read More
A new option has just appeared in Twitter’s “Settings” menu called “Twitter Media.” This appears to indicate that inline image and video sharing is making its way to Twitter.com shortly. The option appears on my account, but checking the box does nothing so far. [update below]
If this is indeed the case, Twitter is once again emulating some of the functionality third-party sites are building on top of Twitter. For example, one of Brizzly’s main selling points right now is the ability to show photos and videos inline in your tweet stream (though, to be fair, they go beyond that with other features and have Facebook integration too). → Read More
It’s interesting to see pictures of areas of your city or town from the past, and it can be even more interesting to try to reproduce those pictures. Typically, it’s very difficult to get everything to line up exactly right, but researchers at MIT are developing software to automate the process. → Read More
There’s a new mystery on the web today. In an otherwise boring video about “Google Lookup in Google Docs,” the search giant appears to have inadvertently revealed a new Google Docs product called “Punch.” So what on Earth is it?
The blog Google Operating System (which spotted the feature) has its guess: “Maybe Google Punch is a free-form document that lets you combine data from other documents, spreadsheets, presentations and forms.” ReadWriteWeb expands on that a bit for a similar guess: “Perhaps a Punch is a mix of functions and content intended for collaboration, more than for posting publishing like Google Pages is.” Both sound plausible, but we have another guess. → Read More
Today’s adjustment of the DMCA has far-reaching legal implications, which will only be evident after a few weeks, months, or even years as various parties exploit them however they can. I’m going to let the experts play in that sandbox. But one of the new rules seems to have had a specific target in mind: Apple. To wit:
“(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset.”
The language is a bit confusing, but the end result is the legalization of jailbreaking your phone and side-loading apps. Not that it was ever illegal, although some Apple store employees thought otherwise. Now that it’s been made official, however, one might reasonably expect a bit of give from Apple on this point, since they have taken such great measures to prevent such actions. But I’m pretty sure that apart from a little lip service, Apple will continue with the exact same policies, with the sort of blithe arrogance that simultaneously compels and repels consumers. → Read More
When the Transition, one of the world’s first flying cars intended for consumers, had its maiden flight, I suggested they could get the function down first, then make something cool-looking later. Yeah, not so much. → Read More
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/22881388001?isVid=1 One of the unexpected hits at E3 this year was Child of Eden, a spiritual sequel to the mesmerizing classic rail-shooter Rez. Unfortunately, few videos exist of it actually being played. This one showed up Friday but we missed it; it looks great, very Rez-like, and although the lag of the Kinect-based controls is evident, I can say from my experience with the peripheral firsthand that you adapt pretty quickly to it. → Read More
The Internet has been quietly turning out Apple rumors over the last few weeks. Something about new Mac Pros here and new iMacs there and a multi-touch desktop trackpad thingie. It might all come to the surface tomorrow if John Gruber of the Internet is believed. → Read More
The Chevy Volt is slowly and surely creeping towards dealers and GM is set to unveil the price tomorrow. At 12:00 pm ET Joel Ewanick, VP of US marketing, will make the announcement at the Plug-In 2010 Conference in San Jose, California.
Of course a lot has changed in the three year span it has taken the Volt to hit production. Nearly every major car company either already sells a few hybrids or there’s one coming soon. There are even a couple more pure electric vehicles that will compete for the same marketshare now. But saving any major manufacturing hurdle, the Chevy Volt should be the first mass-produced Extended Range Electric Vehicle to hit the streets here in the States when it hits dealers later this year.
The last big question should be answered tomorrow. What’s the price? → Read More
Earlier today on the Ron & Fez show on Sirius XM, the great Ron Bennington made an astute point: Comic-Con may be too big for its own good. It used to be a place where geeks and nerds could get together to talk about storyline inconsistencies in the latest Batman series. Now? It’s just as much about A-list-ish celebrities “being seen” and hawking their trash as it is celebrating the spirit of nerdiness. Maybe it’s time Comic-Con split into two parts: you Hollywood jerks have a mini movie fest in Los Angeles, fawning over how great you are in the process, and leave the comic books and video games to San Diego. → Read More
