CNET:
An ad out of Taiwan for the Action Pad, which appears to be an iPad-type device produced by a company called Action Electronics.The presenter might strike you as somehow familiar. It is an actor, dressed to resemble the late Steve Jobs — and equipped with with halo and wings.
Spectacularly tasteless.
This is either sad or exciting to you...
Recently, Wizards of the Coast, the company that now owns Dungeons & Dragons, announced a fifth edition was in development. The reaction, despite mentions in media outlets like the New York Times and Forbes, has seemed muted.Does D&D still have a place in the world, or has it been replaced by new technology?
My three Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books ― the Monster Manual, the Player’s Handbook, and the Dungeon Masters Guide – were prized possessions in high school and college.
Mental Floss:
In 1984, Apple defined the Super Bowl Commercial as a cultural phenomenon. Prior to Super Bowl XVIII, nobody watched the game “just for the commercials” — but one epic TV spot, directed by sci-fi legend Ridley Scott, changed all that. Read on for the inside story of the commercial that rocked the world of advertising, even though Apple’s Board of Directors didn’t want to run it at all.
A lot of people don’t realize the reason why this weekend’s Super Bowl commercials will be as talked about as the game is the iconic Apple 1984 ad. It is still considered, almost thirty years later, the greatest commercial ever shown.
Certainly not safe for work or kids, but I laughed so hard.
Market research firm IDC reported this week that Apple has surpassed LG Electronics to become the third largest mobile phone maker, behind Nokia and Samsung.
Neither Nokia nor Samsung have anything to fear from Apple for the moment – they’re both way out in front, with 27 and 21.3 percent of the market, respectively, while Apple has carved out a 6 percent share for itself. Apple’s year-over-year growth is astonishing, however – 96.2 percent.
IDC aggregates both smart phones and feature phones together in that number, so it’s worth noting that Apple only competes in one of those markets – smart phones – while Nokia and Samsung both make feature phones as well. IDC noted that the market for feature phones was soft in the fourth quarter of 2011; in fact, it was slowest since the third quarter of 2009 during the height of the global economic recession.
Feature phones still remain top dog in the mobile phone market, noted IDC senior research analyst Ramon Llamas. “Even though their proportion is eroding, feature phones maintain their appeal on the basis of price and ease of use.”
Android smartphones continue to make inroads to new markets as their price creeps down, but Apple products remain in high demand in places like North America, China and Japan. Apple is also making “quiet progress” in Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to IDC.
A number of news outlets picked up on a rumor from a Japanese blog this morning saying that Apple would hold an “unusual” event in February.
This is not going to happen, according to my sources. Apple will not hold an event in February, unusual or otherwise. That’s it.
Aspyr Media on Thursday announced the release of RAGE: Campaign Edition, a Mac version of the game released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows late in 2011. The game costs $39.99 and is available through the Mac App Store and other download services, including Aspyr’s own GameAgent.com.
RAGE takes you to a post-apocalyptic wasteland ruled by bandit gangs and mutant hordes equipped with exotic weapons and special items. The game combines first-person action, driving and role playing game elements as you fight to survive in the deadly wastelands.
RAGE: Campaign Edition includes all of the content found in the game’s full single-player campaign as well as the bonus equipment previously exclusive to the “Anarchy Edition.” You also have access to the Wasteland Sewers Missions.
After receiving help from an Apple Genius at a retail store, a customer started getting texts sent to the employees iPhone. While Gizmodo classified the mishap as a bug, Apple says the employee didn’t follow protocol.
To help the customer, who was using the iPhone without a SIM card, the Apple employee placed his SIM card into the phone. Unfortunately, the iPhone married itself to that number, so any texts sent to the phone were also sent to the customers phone.
It was like the perfect storm of circumstances. If the employee had of simply toggled the iMessage on and off, or if the customer had of put in a different SIM card, none of this would have happened.
“This was an extremely rare situation that occurred when a retail employee did not follow the correct service procedure and used their personal SIM to help a customer who did not have a working SIM,” Apple representative Natalie Harrison told The Loop. “This resulted in a temporary situation that has since been resolved by the employee.”
TheNextWeb:
Apple has named former Microsoft Product Marketing chief Robin Burrowes as the head of App Store Marketing for iTunes Europe, becoming the latest games executive to join Apple’s ranks.
Apple’s previously hired executives from Nintendo and and Activision for their PR efforts, according to the report.
Big-screen moviemaking comes to the touchscreen with Avid Studio for iPad. We’ve distilled the world’s leading film-editing technology into an easy-to-use app that enables you to edit video, audio, and photos at the speed of your creativity.Swiftly arrange your clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and add high-quality transitions, effects, and a soundtrack. Then share your movie directly to YouTube, Facebook, and more—or export your project to Avid Studio for the PC and continue editing with even more advanced tools.
Competition is good.
Brings back memories for me. Do kids even use these anymore?
This is kind of cool. Load an image — or use one of the default images — and have a little fun. After the image has loaded, click on the page and then move your mouse around.
Violet Blue describing the “saddest booth babe in the world” at Macworld:
Her shoulders were hunched and her hands sat limply in her lap beneath breasts that were packaged air-tight in a tight, branded t-shirt.
Except it wasn’t a booth babe, it was a developer at her booth. Perhaps Violet should have asked her about the product since she was only 15 feet away from her.
I love this from the comments on the story:
Violet Blue, that “saddest booth babe in the world” is in fact the developer and sole proprietor of NeoPlay Entertainment. Had you actually been doing your job, i.e. reporting, you would have known this, because your would have talked to her. But no, being the pustulent wart that you are you stand around making up your own facts to fit the story that ‘you’ want to tell.For someone that advocates female rights and empowerment to the extent that you do, you display a breathless ignorance of the issues.Had you been doing your job you would be celebrating this woman, not sneering at her in order to make a factually incorrect point.
The only thing sad here is the reporting or lack of.
Get your Software Update system preference warmed up because Apple released Mac OS X 10.7.3 on Wednesday evening. The update is recommended for all Lion users.
The update fixes problems with smart cards used to log on to OS X; authentication with directory services; address compatibility issues with Windows file sharing; and improvements to stability, compatibility and security.
Language support has also been added for Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian.
"2012 SXSW Opening Day Bash" Amazon sampler
SXSW in Austin, TX is often thought of as a tech show but there is a huge music component. Every year, up and coming bands play the show in the hopes of getting noticed or getting a wider audience. And every year, Amazon posts a selection of free music from those bands.
This year’s selection is from bands like Pillow fight, Bright Moments, Polica and others.
Vancouver Sun:
Canadian singles who use Android phones are more likely to have sex on a first date and partake in one-night stands, in comparison to those with other types of smartphones, according to a results of a survey.
Mashable:
The Super Bowl isn’t just the biggest day in American football. It’s also the advertising world’s shining moment.Brands and agencies pull out all the stops to make an impression on the game’s captive audience. Most frequently, they turn to the bizarre and the offbeat, seeking to burn messages into viewers’ brains with humor.And the ads had better be funny; commercial slots are going for a whopping $3.5 million a pop this year.
Any list that includes the “Wassup!” ads but doesn’t include the Budweiser frogs can’t possibly be the ten funniest.
TIME:
A Yale lecture capped at 270 students? And no wireless Internet available? Dial up the anger on the New Haven, Conn., campus.After Alexander Nemerov moved his popular “Introduction to the History of Art: Renaissance to the Present” from the Yale Law School auditorium that easily fit about 450 students to the more cramped Yale Art Gallery auditorium, he not only upset some students and alumni by capping the class size at 270 because of the smaller venue, but also shocked some students that walked into a room void of wi-fi or cell service.
Before you scream, “Luddite!”, read the article. The professor seems to have good reasoning for his decision.
I usually just lay under the Heineken tap in my house, but I suppose if you have to use a glass.
[via BroBible]
Brett Kelly:
Let me restate that I’m not just generally crapping on iBooks, the iBooks Author application or anything else. I’m an eBook author that’s sold a few copies and is pretty happy with how things have gone. If Apple’s wares seem like just the thing for your next eBook project, then I’d suggest you seriously consider employing them.Just make sure you think through all of the possible ramifications of such a decision. That’s all I’m saying.
Brett certainly has some good points. While I’ve been asked many times to write a book, I never have, so I’m not an eBook author. For me, the interactivity that iBooks Author offers would be enough to use it and sell my books through the iBookstore. As Brett said, it’s important to know everything before you jump in.
Helix Nebula, NGC 7293
In a few billion years, our dear Sun will look like this, a beautiful glowing eye of spent starstuff trash in the shape of Sauron’s Eye. And no ring is going to save us from this one.It’s the Helix Nebula, NGC 7293, 700 light-years away from Earth. Once upon a time it was a star like ours.
I’m going to be so bummed when that happens.
New York Times:
In a sharp answer to Amazon and its expanding publishing efforts, Barnes & Noble said on Tuesday that it would not sell books released by Amazon Publishing in its bookstores.The ban includes books released by New Harvest, a new imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that recently struck a deal to publish and distribute books released by Amazon Publishing’s unit based in New York.It also seemed unlikely that many of the 1,900 independent bookstores in the United States would be willing to stock Amazon books.
To be clear, the B&N ban only applies to books from the publishing arm of Amazon – not all books sold through Amazon.com.
GameInformer.com:
At the end of March, Bungie will no longer handle player data for Halo games. The studio issued a statement today saying the transition process between it and 343 Industries, Microsoft’s new internal Halo studio, will be completed March 31. After then, all live Halo data will be managed by 343.
Bungie’s been ready to move on from Halo for some time. The company went private again in 2008 after being part of Microsoft following its acquisition in 2000. While the Halo franchise remains a Microsoft property, Bungie has entered into a 10 year deal with Activision Blizzard and formed Bungie Aerospace, an independent developer studio that has released an iOS game called Crimson: Steam Pirates.
Gamesindustry.biz:
Sony has named Kaz Hirai as the successor to Howard Stringer’s roles as both president and CEO, effective April 1, 2012.Stringer, who has lead the company in the joint role for seven years, will take up the position of chairman of the board, whilst current chairman Yotaro Kobayashi will retire.
Hirai oversees Sony’s PlayStation operations. He’s been the most public face of Sony for gamers for a number of years now.
Crunchie
This year’s fifth annual Crunchies Awards has just finished up at the classy Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and it was a smashing success. We poked fun #humblebraggers, got cussed at by Siri, honored former TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde, and gave wild monkey trophies to tech’s greatest innovators. Check out the full list of nominees and winners.
Apple took a Crunchie for Siri in the “Best Technology Achievement” category and was nominated for “Best Tablet Application” (Garageband) and “Best New Device” (iPad 2) but lost out to Fotopedia and Nest respectively.
Tony Hart:
Tony,I talked to many people and John was the best by far. I think you will be as pleased as I am. His role isn’t to bring Dixons to Apple, [it’s] to bring Apple to an even higher level of customer service and satisfaction.Tim
If nothing else, Cook’s emails to customers are longer than Jobs’ ever were.
DesignModo:
The role of minimalism is very strong in web design with the help of companies like Apple. Apple has helped expose minimalism in to the 20th century by the way their website, branding and devices were stripped down to show only its necessary elements, the less is more statement has never been so popular.
Clearly I’m a big fan of minimalist designs, but I like functionality and coolness too.
David Boles:
I was having such a good day today. Then Apple threatened me in a nasty email.
The question is, are those footers we see in some emails – the ones like “This transmission may be privileged and may contain confidential information intended only for the person(s) named above” – legally binding and/or actionable? Many of us have always assumed they are put there just to satisfy some corporate weenie and can be safely ignored.
In 1970, at the height of his career, Cash needed a personal limousine. He turned to Rolls-Royce where he acquired a long-wheelbase Silver Shadow Saloon. At the time the Crewe factory did not produce a limousine, so Cash turned to a local Nashville coachbuilder, gave them his specifications and this is the final product. Cash used this limousine up through 1977 when it was sold to another private owner prior to coming to the Burdick collection.
Longform delivers all of the latest in-depth articles from the world’s best magazines, plus unmissable reads curated from across the web by the editors of Longform.org. Perfect for commutes, flights, or Sunday afternoons.
I expect this will be quite popular.