Muppets Costume Pack Launches for Disney Universe
The Muppets continue to expand the Disney Universe game experience with a downloadable character pack available on PlayStation Network and XBox Live.
Gear Bits
The Doors Release New Video for L.A. Woman 40th Anniversary
No, you didn’t misread … the Doors, whose lead singer died more than 40 years ago, have released a new music video. No, it isn’t a reforming of the band with some American Idol alum or anything like that. According to the info for the video: Professional skateboarders Kenny Anderson, Alex Olson, and Braydon Szafranski take viewers on a “Doors-centric” skateboarding tour of Los Angeles. If you head to their Facebook page you get this description: The Doors are thrilled to premiere a brand new video for “L.A. Woman!” The video was directed by two-time Emmy® nominee Matt Goodman and…
Does B&N Have an International Strategy?
B&N confuses me greatly. There are moments when it appears they have a master plan, with a clear strategy and vision, such as the release of the NOOK Simple Touch. Then they completely ignore the international markets, only to hold a “Hey, we’re…here…but not” meeting like they did this week in London. Techcrunch had some insight into B&N’s bizarre non-event: In packed room of app makers, Barnes & Noble’s director of developer relations, Claudia Romanini, took the audience through some of the basics of developing apps for the Nook tablet. In attendance, a lot of Android developers. We caught up…
AMG Viella 12 Redefines the Classic Turntable
Do you still have a vinyl collection that you just can’t part with? If so, then you’ll be glad that you held on to it, as AMG may have just released the ultimate turntable, the AMG Viella 12 “V12”. Werner Roeschlau, designer and driving force behind AMG, works with his son and other master machinists at their bespoke multi-story Bavarian factory located north of Munich. All machining is done in house, combining the latest Computer Aided Design and CNC machines with “classic analog” tools including custom lathes and drill presses. Their factory has been manufacturing key, precision parts for some…
Today Marks the 30th Anniversary of the Death of Randy Rhoads
There are so many tales of artists lost too young, but way too many of them are more cautionary tales of self-destruction and failing to heed the constant pleas and attempts of others to save them – such as almost the entire ’27 club’. Those are tragic in their own right, but there are also losses of artists through disease or accidents. I always think of the young loss of Scott LaFaro in 1961, or the infamous ‘Day the Music Died’ plane crash … but today marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Ozzy Osborne guitarist Randy Rhoads in…
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Trailers are Full of Undead Awesomeness!
I remember when my kids bought ‘Pride & Prejudice and Zombies’ by Seth Grahame-Smith in 2009, I assumed it would be just a silly little parody with no depth or sense of quality … boy was I ever wrong! The great story from Jane Austen was respectfully handled and transformed into story of love and manners – and zombie killing on the English countryside. There have been numerous others since then that have varied in quality … but the next one to really capture everyone’s imagination was another book by Seth Grahame-Smith, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Now the book is…
How Real People Will Deal With Windows 8
Have you tried out the Windows 8 ‘Consumer Preview’? I skipped it as I have enough other stuff going on, but have heard generally good things from the tech press and other tech-centric friends. And perhaps that is the issue – everyone I know who has played with the so-called ‘consumer release’ isn’t really a consumer. The results of having people who are too skilled evaluate a product are that your end result is designed for those people. That is the thesis of a video that accompanies an article about the importance (or lack thereof) of Windows 8: After playing…
Is That a Cthulhu on Your Face?
This knit hat bears the uncanny likeness to one who should need no introduction, to H. P. Lovecraft fans, at least: Cthulhu. His very existence may be outside our realm of understanding, but this scary cross of octopus, dragon and human caricature is sure to bring second looks wherever he is seen. Has Cthulhu awoken and decided that it’s time to rule the Earth again? If so, then we mere mortals had better be very, very afraid … “la, ia, Cthulhu fhtagn!” A comfortable, soft beanie with loads of curly tentacles! Perfect as a ski hat, keeps the whole face warm! Made in soft wool-acrylic…
The iPad Camera in Action (Literally)!
The new iPad has a fantastic camera, but it has led to the question “Why?” Why would anyone choose to hold up a 10″ tablet to snap a picture instead of the camera on their mobile phone or a regular point & shoot? It is a stumper, because unless you want a huge viewfinder, there are much more ergonomic and lighter choices in cameras. However, at least two or three people HAVE been snapping shots with their iPads. While running the ‘Rock N Roll DC’ half-marathon today, I passed a clump of spectators where everyone was holding up iPads to…
For St. Patrick’s Day, the Muppets Sing ‘Oh Danny Boy’
In between your corned beef and cabbage and green beer, enjoy a good laugh. Have a great day! Source: GeekDad
Apple’s Achilles Heel Revealed
If you have wondered if Apple has an Achilles’ heel you might want to check out a new post over on Gizmodo. It makes clear that there is one and if goes by the name “expectations”. People have come to expect SO much from Apple each and every time they release a new device that there is Simply No Way, Apple can keep pace. That seems to be the case with the Gizmodo crew’s initial reaction to the new iPad. There doesn’t seem to be anything that is making them go “wow”. It is also interesting to see Gizmodo’s behind…
Off-Broadway Becomes iBroadway in ‘Rated P, for Parenthood’
Elana and I spent this evening in Manhattan. We had a bite to eat and then got to see the new Off-Broadway show Rated P for Parenthood. Rated P, was written by Sandy Rustin, made its initial debut at the South Orange Performing Arts Center just down the street from my synagogue. (Disclosure: I know Sandy and she is a fantastic writer and comedian.) It has now moved to its new home at the WestSide Theater and is getting rave reviews. The reason for the rave reviews is quite simply the fact that it… is… awesome! The hour and a…
New Report Says Mammals Rise Began Before Dinosaurs Demise
Image courtesy of MSNBC.com One commonly held belief is that dinosaurs became extinct before mammals began to flourish – that the events leading to the mass death of dinosaurs allowed mammals to develop fully. Now a report in the journal Nature – and an accompanying one in Science Magazine – seek to prove otherwise. From Nature: Here we show that in arguably the most evolutionarily successful clade of Mesozoic mammals, the Multituberculata, an adaptive radiation began at least 20 million years before the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and continued across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. Disparity in dental complexity, which relates to…
Hope You Bought the 64GB iPad … New Apps are 2.5 – 3x Larger!
I was checking out some screenshots and photos from the new iPad over at Macrumors, which all hailed from the much-reported early delivery 3rd generation iPad from Vietnam that is getting loads of press … and I noted a quote from Vietnamese site Tinhte.vn regarding the size of the original apps: The sizes of these Retina-enabled apps appear to be about 2.5-3x the size of their original counterparts. These applications are developed by Apple has been upgraded to support the Retina screen, for example with Keynote (iWork software sets), this application previously only 115MB capacity but its latest version is…
Outta This World: GM/NASA Develop Robotic Glove
Five years ago, researchers and scientists from General Motors and NASA began collaborating on a project called Robonaut 2 (R2 for short) that led to launching the first human-like robot into space in 2011 that is now a permanent resident in the International Space Station. Now the two are jointly developing a robotic glove inspired by the unprecedented level of hand dexterity on R2 and they call it the Human Grasp Assist, a.k.a. K-glove, a.k.a. Robo-Glove. The first prototype of the glove was completed in March, 2011 with a second-gen model arriving just three months after that. The current Robo-Glove…
What Do You Do When the Internet Is Down?
I’m not going to lie — this looks more like the way I behave than I’d care to admit; okay, minus the crying in the mirror part. My family can tell you that when I am trying to edit or write and the internet goes down, I am an absolute pain in the butt to be around; grumpy and moody and prone to random curse word outbursts. It’s not pretty. I’m almost as bad when our WiMax internet service is hiccuping and slower than usual. Anymore, I try to leave and go on a long hike when this happens, but sometimes ……
Android Developers Can Now Develop on the go with AIDE
In yesterday’s post about Post-PC or Plus-PC, I mentioned that you could generally not write programs on mobile devices. This is not true as of today. As I was reading through my feeds at lunch, I noticed a story on the Register about AIDE. AIDE is short for Android IDE or Integrated Development Environment. An IDE is an editor that is specifically for writing programs. In this case, you write programs for Android. AIDE is not necessarily targeted for developers to use their phone to write programs. It’s targeted at developers using devices like the Asus Transformer and Transformer Prime….
Is it really the Post-PC Era, or Is the Plus-PC Era Simply Continuing?
Ten years ago I bought one of the first devices I ever had that could be classified as a post-pc device or as I like to call it, a plus pc device. That was a Toshiba e740 Pocket PC. This was the first device I had outside of a laptop that included wi-fi. I remember taking the e740, a flexible USB keyboard, the keyboard adapter and a compact flash modem on a trip with me and chatting with my wife and other family members every night on a SLOW modem. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. I also remember my…
Chilling New Home Video of the Challenger Disaster
I still remember sitting in the formal living room of my fraternity house watching the Challenger launch back in 1986 (hard to believe it has been 26 years now). If I had the chance to go to watch it live, I would have done it in a heartbeat – my family was vacationing in Florida a few years back, and the schedule was supposed to have us there for a launch, but it was pushed back. We still got to see the shuttle being moved towards the launch site, and that was thrilling to behold. But of course Challenger ended…
“Would You Believe…” It Is That Close?
The very first time Maxwell smart’s “Would You Believe…??” made an appearance on the Classic TV show Get Smart, it was in reference to Smart being tortured after being captured by the enemy. He says, “The most fiendish torture ever devices by man- the water torture. A drop of water on the forehead every minute for 300 gallons… Would you believe it?” (Reply, “That’s pretty hard to believe.”) “Would you believe a quart?… What if they came by once a day with a glass of water and an eye-dropper?” Well, Apple has its own form of torture and this is…
Cool Mashup of The Smiths and Super Mario Bros
I am a sucker for cool and creative mashups, so here is another one that I saw at Neatorama. This is a remake of the classic Smiths song ‘This Charming Man’ – from the original ‘The Smiths‘ or the wonderful ‘Complete‘ from last year … but done in the style of Super Mario Bros!