Smash-and-grab robbers.

Interesting article from Marko Savic on how Apple names its products.

However, the location of the announcement and its proximity to Hollywood has some speculating that there may be more. One of the possibilities being raised is more content for Amazon’s Prime Instant streaming service. Of course, there’s another option: What if Amazon announced a streaming video device to compete head-to-head with Apple TV, Roku and Google TV?

Among its new features the app offers a sleak, easy to use interface, an intuitive system requirements checker, automatic game updates, and a place to meet with your fellow Mac gamers.

Great new Web site and app for Mac gamers.

Huffington Post:

Baskin-Robbins debuted Waffle Chip Dippers on Tuesday — soft-serve vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, M&M’s and Snickers pieces. The ice cream is served with waffle and brownie chip pieces meant for dipping. Sound a bit like the dessert version of nachos? That’s what Baskin-Robbins is going for.

This sounds like the greatest single advance in soft serve ice cream delivery in the history of the medium.

Adrienne Crezo for Mental_floss:

While shoe-horning these into conversation today might prove difficult, these 17 synonyms for sex were used often enough in 19th-century England to earn a place in the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, a book for upper-crust Britons who had no idea what the proles were talking about.

First of all, I am filled with indescribable glee knowing not only that there is a Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, but that according to the screenshot, at least two editions were published. Examining this tome first-hand is now on my bucket list.

My three favorites from this list are “amorous congress,” “convivial society,” and for its pure visual appeal, “St. George.”

Midwestern regional carrier Cellcom won’t reveal how many iPhones it sold last quarter, but according to CEO Pat Riordan the specific numbers are irrelevant. The iPhone is luring new customers into its stores, it’s keeping old customers loyal, and it completes Cellcom’s smartphone portfolio.

How many other phones fall into that category for carriers? My guess is zero.

Misleading? Bullshit!

On this week’s episode of Amplified, Jim and Dan discuss the upcoming Apple event and whether or not it will be exclusively iPhone, the Samsung Mob!lers program and IFA 2012, Apple’s addition of the Galaxy S III to its complaint, app development and the “Sparrow Problem”, the VOX JAMVOX, headphones, guitars, and more!Sponsored by Hover (use coupon DANSENTME for 10% off), Sourcebits, and Squarespace (use coupon DANSENTME9 for 10% off)

Designed and produced by the World Wide Web Foundation, the Web Index is the world’s first multi-dimensional measure of the Web’s growth, utility and impact on people and nations. It covers 61 developed and developing countries, incorporating indicators that assess the political, economic and social impact of the Web, as well as indicators of Web connectivity and infrastructure.

That looks like ass.

“We have not announced any tablets, but I think the opportunity is very clear,” Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told ABC News. “People today increasingly are looking for a common digital experience between their smartphone and tablet, with a PC, and with their gaming platform, and so there’s clearly an opportunity across there. This is something that we’re looking at very closely.”

Not a huge surprise, really. Maybe a bigger surprise that it’s not more of a priority.

Kevin C. Tofel:

Instead, I was left with a key unanswered question from Nokia that directly impacts the company’s future: What did it announce today that will get consumers to switch from an iPhone or Android device? Without a compelling answer to that question, I suspect most new Lumia sales will come from those already using an older Lumia and that won’t generate the growth that Nokia needs to sustain a turnaround.

Smart article by Kevin. To my mind, this is the key point that Nokia may have missed. You have to give consumers a reason to switch and if they didn’t do that, they missed a huge opportunity. With the new iPhone coming soon, it’s hard to imagine that people will go for a Lumia.

Apple’s iPhone share of U.S. smartphone subscribers bumped upward 2 percentage points from May through July, giving it 33.4 percent of the market, online tracking and analytics firm comScore said Tuesday.

Android grew 1.4 percent to 52.2 percent of the market.

A new version of Nuance’s speech and dictation software.

Chrome turned 4 on Sunday.

Youkyung Lee for for the Associated Press, via Yahoo:

Fresh off a billion-dollar loss in a patent fight with rival smartphone maker Apple, embattled Samsung Electronics Co. now finds itself accused by a labor rights group of mistreating workers in China and illegally using child labor. The New York based-China Labor Watch said its investigation into workplace conditions at eight factories in China showed some employees were working more than 100 hours per month of overtime and that children were knowingly employed.

The factories are owned by Samsung suppliers. Samsung says it is undertaking a review of labor policies with its suppliers.

Wired UK:

To replicate with CGI, however, there had to be physical Daleks present. “Having the Daleks on set is quite an odd process because you rehearse the scenes with the operators standing in for the them but then when it comes to shooting, the poor guys are in there for about four or five hours at a time,” Wilson said. “You can just see the glow of iPhones through the head grills as they play games or read e-books. You also never know if there’s someone inside or not. So you’ll think you’re having a conversation with someone and suddenly another Dalek will respond. They do keep you on your toes.”

Great info about the making of the Doctor Who season premiere, “Asylum of the Daleks” (which made its debut last weekend). The episode featured many different Dalek models which producers had to beg and borrow from the BBC, exhibitions, collectors and fans – including former show-runner Russell T. Davies.

Now, according to a Yahoo executive involved in hiring, Mayer is actually doing it.She literally looks at every serious candidate’s resume.

Much respect to Marissa Mayer. She wants the talent she feels will improve the company and she’s making sure she gets it.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a denial of responsibility regarding the leak of more than 1,000,000 iOS UDID numbers last night.

Fender updated it’s line of Machete guitar amps today with a 50 Watt Head, a Combo and two cabinets.

PCWorld:

Is it time to give Java the boot? Experts say yes.Java, the programming language designed to make the web fun and interactive, has become one of the weakest links in a PC’s and Mac’s defenses against external threats.The risks don’t outweigh the rewards, security experts say. “I’d say 90 percent of users don’t need Java anymore,” says Dominique Karg, the founder and chief hacking officer of AlienVault, a security software company. “I consider myself a ‘power user’ and the last and only time I realized I had Java installed on my Mac was when I had to update it.”

When was the last time you used Java on your Mac?

Morgan Brennan for Forbes:

The Savant Experience Center, which took eight months to craft and opened in July, was designed by Thom Filicia of TV show “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” fame. It hosts a master bedroom with a walk-in closet, a loft-like living room, a Theo Kalomirakis-designed home theater, even a sports bar. But the real draw isn’t the lavish layout (which also has a hotel room, an office and a classroom); it’s the technology that covertly operates the space. Every “room” in the center is automated by Savant Systems and easily controlled with Apple products like iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch-embedded remote controls.

Savant makes really cool home automation systems and features Apple technology front and center. Apple stuff isn’t added on as an afterthought, like it is for some home automation companies. At Savant, Apple hardware and software is truly a centerpiece of how it works. I have a special affinity for them not only because of the Apple angle, but because they’re not too far away from where I live.