11 “modern antiques” today’s kids have probably never seen

Written by

Mental Floss:

Even though I’m fairly ancient, I’ve never seen a Model T outside of a classic auto show. So I realize that there are many things that have been obsolete since the elastic waistband was invented and would confound anyone under age 70. But what about some common items that have come and gone within the last 30 or so years? See how many of these you recognize, and how many of them would puzzle your kids or grandkids.

Interestingly, while I have heard about all of them, five of them I’ve never actually seen in real life (#2, 4, 6, 8, 10). How about you? And which ones would your kids not be able to recognize?

The “Coca-Cola Hug Machine” takes hugs instead of money

Written by

NY Daily News:

This vending machine cares more about love than money.A new Coca-Cola machine at the National University of Singapore dispenses free beverages in exchange for hugs. The red-and-white machine has the word “Hug Me” written across the front in Coke’s signature font.The machine is programmed to dispense a Coke when a person wraps their arm around it.

The video accompanying the story is very sweet but it’s hard not to be cynical and think there’s no way this campaign would work in the US.

Crazy expensive audio gear from The New York Audio & AV Show

Written by

[caption id="attachment_22903" align="alignnone" width="470" caption="This is what a $28,000 turntable looks like"][/caption] Cool Material:

Every year, unbeknownst to most of the public, the most outrageous and amazing pieces of audio equipment are tossed (see: very carefully placed) into one hotel for The New York Audio & AV Show.This is not the kinda stuff you get at Best Buy or hook up to the turntable you bought from Urban Outfitters. This is the stuff for the hardcore audio fan who happens to have deep pockets.

“Deep pockets” and maybe a pathological need to spend insane amounts of money on audio gear. Some of it is really cool looking though.

Meet the Filmmakers of the Tribeca Film Festival

Written by

If you are lucky enough to live in the New York City area, Apple is sending out invites to their “Meet the Filmmakers” series in conjunction with the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. Filmmakers like Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Brad Hall, Morgan Spurlock and Will Arnett wil be on hand, talking about their latest projects.

The 2012 Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 18th to the 29th.

Sizzling Bacon Candles

Written by

ThinkGeek:

Short of whipping out a skillet and doing a quick fry-up, how can we enjoy that wonderful meaty sweet and smokey aroma without the temptation and subsequent belt-busting and heart-clogging richness of actual cured-pork ingestion? Bacon scented candles, of course!These premium scented candles are long-lasting and made from actual rendered bacon fat using a top-secret process that preserves bacon’s natural aromas and essential oils.

Mmm…Bacon. I have to imagine the only people who would buy these would be single guys. Would any woman allow you to fill up her home with the smell, however delicious, of bacon?

FoxTrot for iPad

Written by

Bill Amend:

Announcing my simultaneous first steps into the worlds of e-books and self-publishing. I’m pretty excited. If you’re an iPad user who likes FoxTrot or who has a kid who likes FoxTrot, these are for you.I’m calling them FoxTrot Pad Packs, because I like the metaphor of collectable cards and how you build up your collection via booster packs. I made them myself using Apple’s free iBooks Author software. Each $1.99 book contains 100 strips, some old, some new, some story lines, some stand-alone jokes, some black and white dailies, some color Sundays. The idea is to create mini books that take maybe 20-30 minutes to read and which aren’t bogged down with a ton of outdated references, as happens with my older, chronologically arranged print books.

Most of us are fans of the strip and this looks like an interesting way to collect a variety of them.

Instarchive, by Recollect

Written by

Instarchive:

There’s been a lot of talk about Instagram lately. We’re pretty sure the sky isn’t falling, but you should always have a backup, so we built this little tool for you.It’s called Instarchive, sign into your Instagram account and we’ll send your photos down to your computer in a convenient zip file. It’s quick and easy, we hope you like it.

Hat tip to Daring Fireball.

Pebble: E-Paper watch for iPhone and Android

Written by

Pebble E-Paper Watch:

The Pebble is an “electronic” watch with an e-paper display. It vibrates, has a three-axis accelerometer and contains Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR for connecting to your phone. Battery life is seven days and is charged via USB.The beauty of the Pebble Watch will be the apps and customization – everything from different styles of watch faces to all kinds of apps.

Amazingly, this Kickstarter project is fully funded already with over $2 million dollars pledged and still 35 days left to go.

Craft Beer App

Written by

Cool Material:

The Craft Beer App has (deep breath): an enormous database of craft beer (from all 50 states), beer podcasts, beer videos, beer descriptions, reviews, ratings and food pairing recommendations. Most importantly, it will locate your favorite craft beers around your location. Want an Allagash White, like, yesterday? Done. Left Hand Milk Stout? No problem.The availability obviously depends on your location, but it’s easily the best use of geo-location to date. Besides, what else are you going to do in the car/bus/cab? Draw something? This is obviously better.

Mmmm…beer.

New Livestream Broadcaster will let you stream from almost any camera

Written by

TechCrunch:

Livestream, the live video streaming service, is announcing an interesting new product: a $495 hardware encoder that can be connected to virtually any camera and that can stream HD video directly to the Web through a WiFi connection or most USB wireless modems.The small device is fully integrated into the new Livestream platform. The purchase price includes three months of free access to Livestream’s ad-free HD streaming service (normally $45/month). Livestream describes the device as “the industry’s first affordable unlimited ad-free HD live streaming end-to-end solution.”

This could be a very exciting piece of tech for broadcast geeks. It would allow them to quickly and easily get high quality video streamed live to the web.

Cut in eBook pricing by Amazon set to shake rivals

Written by

The New York Times:

The government’s decision to pursue major publishers on antitrust charges has put the Internet retailer Amazon in a powerful position: the nation’s largest bookseller may now get to decide how much an e-book will cost, and the book world is quaking over the potential consequences.Amazon, which already controls about 60 percent of the e-book market, can take a loss on every book it sells to gain market share for its Kindle devices. When it has enough competitive advantage, it can dictate its own terms, something publishers say is beginning to happen.

This is a story with a lot of different angles and repercussions depending on your point of view.

Apple begins enhancing ID security in iTunes and iOS

Written by

The Next Web:

In the past 24 hours, Apple appears to have started prompting iOS devices owners and those with Apple IDs within iTunes to make their accounts more secure, requiring them to pick three security questions and enter their answers when they download a new app.Whilst the new prompt will undoubtedly help secure accounts, many Apple device owners are confused by the new pop-up message and believe it is a phishing attempt.

Great idea from Apple but “springing” this on users without prior knowledge has caused a lot of unnecessary confusion and consternation among users.

What is ‘Agency Pricing’?

Written by

The Wall Street Journal:

At the heart of the U.S. government’s suit against Apple and some publishers over e-book pricing is something called “agency pricing.”It’s a term for a new way of setting e-book prices that came about as Apple prepared to introduce its iPad in 2010. Under the traditional “wholesale” pricing model, publishers had long charged booksellers around half the cover price of a book, leaving booksellers to discount the books if they wanted.When Apple entered the fray, it offered publishers the ability to set their own prices.

Good explanation of what the two different pricing models are and how the effect book prices.

The people behind your iPad: The workers

Written by

Marketplace:

Last week, Marketplace’s Rob Schmitz actually got inside a Foxconn factory in the southern city of Shenzhen. He didn’t meet anybody who was poisoned on the job. He didn’t meet any 13-year-old workers. Nobody he talked to had been hurt in an explosion. He says the stories he heard were more about China than Apple.In the first of two reports, Rob introduces us to the people behind our iPads.

The hanging monasteries of the world

Written by

Dark Roasted Blend:

Dizzying heights, pervading mists and isolation seem to invariably fuel humankind’s spiritual quests and lofty aspirations, so it comes as no surprise that we find monasteries and other sacred architecture suspended high above deep valleys, perched on impossible rocks and looming over gorges. The air is certainly clearer there, though at these heights, it’s often much foggier.Serving partly as castles and almost always as unconquerable fortifications, these ancient sites were built on steep cliffs and daring promotories, often accessible only by secret paths – and thus provide the utmost seclusion amid serene surroundings, so valued in true spiritual devotion.

As a Canadian, all I can think of is, “It must be a bear to get beer up there.”

NHL Playoffs start tonight! Grab the free GameCenter 2011-2012 app

Written by

NHL GameCenter 2011-2012:

The National Hockey League has an updated GameCenter app that adds new features and expanded coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs that start this evening. This update has round-by-round coverage of the playoffs and highlights of games.You can view playoff videos with commentary, highlights and top moments and even listen to live game radio during the playoffs. Game alerts are also available for each playoff series. NHL GameCenter 2011-2012 is available from the App Store as a free download.

Go Canucks!

New quarter features glow-in-the-dark Alberta dinosaur

Written by

The Vancouver Sun:

The image of a dinosaur whose remains were discovered in Alberta’s Peace Country will be featured on our newest quarter — the first Canadian coin with a glow-in-the dark picture.The quarter, being released by the Royal Canadian Mint April 16, features Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, a large herbivore whose bone fragments were discovered by Grande Prairie, Alta., science teacher Al Lakusta in 1974.

It’s a glow in the dark 25 cent piece that costs $30. Silly Canadians.

500px aims to take out Flickr

Written by

.

The Next Web:

In a move that should be a surprise to nobody, technology darling 500px is moving to take out Flickr with a new Plus plan. The company had previously held a high-level plan that was priced at $50 per year, but the Plus membership’s $20 per year pricing is aiming to hit Flickr where it hurts against its own pro-level plan at $25 per year.As for the features? Here’s what you’ll get – unlimited uploads and storage, access to files, unlimited number of collections, market functionality included, and advanced statistics on engagement.Another, smaller announcement is coming today as well. The site is introducing a desktop uploader app, for the Mac only. It’s doing so in response to the 30,000 photos per day that are uploaded to the service via the manual process, with 25% of its users on Mac machines.

I was a big fan and user of Flickr but it hasn’t really moved forward. Lots of photographers are checking out what 500px offers.

Space Shuttle Discovery to fly over Washington, DC

Written by

NASA: NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with space shuttle Discovery mounted atop will fly approximately 1,500 feet above various parts of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on Tuesday, April 17. The flight, in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, … Continued

U.S. government, carriers plan a national database of stolen cellphones

Written by

Wall Street Journal:

The nation’s major wireless providers have agreed to a deal with the U.S. government to build a central database of stolen cellphones—part of a broad effort to tame an explosion of thefts nationwide.The database, which the wireless companies will build and maintain, will be designed to track phones that are reported as lost or stolen and deny them voice and data service. The idea is to reduce crime by making it difficult or impossible to actually use a stolen device, reducing resale value.

Las Vegas missed out on a full sized Starship Enterprise

Written by

Gary Goddard:

My concept was to do something so large and so epic, it would fire the imaginations of people around the world. After looking at how difficult it would be to bring people to the downtown core (from the Strip), I knew we had to have something really exciting, dynamic, and without equal. We kicked around a few ideas, and then I came up with something really unique. I went to Chuck Canciller, my lead designer then – and a genius as well – and said, “What if we built the STARSHIP ENTERPRISE – FULL SCALE – on the land at the end of the street. Imagine that…”

That would have been amazing….

While Apple is criticized for Foxconn, other companies are silent

Written by

New York Times:

Apple’s rivals are quick to say how much better, faster, cheaper or more popular their smartphones, computers and tablets are.Yet when it comes to working conditions in the Chinese factories that build these competing products, Apple’s electronics rivals go silent.So why would these electronics makers be so reluctant? They won’t tell us, but Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch had an idea: “Many companies, like H.P., Sony and Dell, don’t publish the full reports because they find violations and problems that are much worse than Apple, and they don’t want the media fallout from the reports.”

As the article says, while Apple may not be a “paragon of open communication”, they are certainly do more and doing it more openly than their competition.

The Titanic at 100

Written by

The Big Picture:

The sinking of the RMS Titanic caused the deaths of 1,517 of its 2,229 passengers and crew (official numbers vary slightly) in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.The 1985 discovery of the Titanic wreck on the ocean floor marked a turning point for public awareness of the ocean and for the development of new areas of science and technology. April 15, 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.

The Big Picture, as always, has some amazing photos – including personal effects brought up from the site. Should those artifacts be left at what is, in effect, a burial site? Or is there more value to the living to actually see them?

New iOS app helps ships avoid whale collisions

Written by

Wired Gadget Lab:

There are only around 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the world today, according to International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), one of the collaborators on the app. With such a small population, the right whales are one of the rarest large animals and are close to extinction. Collisions with ships is currently the leading cause of death for these remaining whales.To prevent ships from striking whales, Whale Alerts works by linking near-real-time acoustic buoys that listen for whale calls to an iOS device in a ship’s bridge. Using these whale calls, a GPS system and a vessel’s Automatic Identification System (AIS), the app displays a whale’s location in relation to a ship’s location on a digital nautical chart. The app also sends alerts with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conservation measures when a ship enters a conservation area.

“Find My Whale” app?

Dropbox referral bonuses double to 500 MB

Written by

The Dropbox Blog:

For every friend you invite that installs Dropbox, you’ll both get 500 MB of free space. If you’ve got a free account, you can invite up to 32 people for a whopping total of 16 GB of extra space. Pro accounts now earn 1 GB per referral, for a total of 32 GB of extra space. Have you already invited a bunch of people? Don’t worry. Within a few days, you’ll get full credit for every referral that’s already been completed. Boom!

Nice little bonus for those of us who use Dropbox.

Mac business sales grow

Written by

CIO Journal:

About 46% of corporations now issue Macs to employees, up by half in just two years, according to a Forrester report. “The use of iPads and iPhones in the workplace is creating increased awareness and consideration of Macs,” said Frank Gillett, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.Even though more companies are starting to issue Macs, the percent of workers using them is still fairly slim. About 7% of computers companies give to employees are Macs, he said.Macs are the de facto choice of many Silicon Valley startups, and many larger companies now let workers choose a Mac. For example, Cisco CIO Rebecca Jacoby told CIO Journal that about 25% of Cisco’s 63,870 employees use Macs.

The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs

Written by

Walter Isaacson:

Even though he will not be around to see them to fruition, his rules for success helped him build a company that not only will create these and other disruptive products, but will stand at the intersection of creativity and technology as long as Jobs’s DNA persists at its core.

“as long as Jobs’s DNA persists” may be the key to the future success or failure of Apple.

Java for OS X Lion 2012-001 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7

Written by

Apple has released Java for OS X Lion 2012-001 and Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 7. The updates address the vulnerability in Java exploited by the Flashback.K trojan. The latest variant of Flashback.K could hijack you Mac even if you don’t enter an admin password. Apple says this can occur when visiting a Web page that is running an untrusted Java applet.

The update is available for OS X Lion 10.7.3 and Mac OS X 10.6.8, and you can get it via Software Update.

Apple holds iCloud master decryption key

Written by

Ars Technica:

Ars recently attempted to delve into the inner workings of the security built into Apple’s iCloud service. Though we came away reasonably certain that iCloud uses industry best practices that Apple claims it uses to protect data and privacy, we warned that your information isn’t entirely protected from prying eyes. At the heart of the issue is the fact that Apple can, at any time, review the data synced with iCloud, and under certain circumstances might share that information with legal authorities.

It’s a a good article and should be read by anyone who uses iCloud but the bottom line is, if you didn’t encrypt it yourself, it can be vulnerable to others.

Put the universe on your iPad

Written by

MSNBC:

None of us living today will ever get beyond our celestial backyard in real life, but there’s a fleet of apps out there that can blast you through hyperspace to explore — and understand — the far frontiers of the cosmos on your tablet computer. The latest app is “The Wonders of the Universe,” a multimedia spin-off of physicist Brian Cox’s coffee-table book and TV documentary series of the same name.The app, sold by Harper Collins for the iPad 2 and the new iPad, organizes more than 200 interactive articles, two and a half hours of video and hundreds of graphics to do a show-and-tell that ranges from subatomic quarks to the largest scales of the cosmic web.

The article also mentions and has video of four other space-themed apps for the iPad: The Night Sky, Solar System for iPad, Solar Walk and my personal favorite, Star Walk.