Imaginos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Imaginos - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Virtuoso guitarist Joe Satriani financed the recording of his second album, Surfing with the Alien, through his work on Imaginos.

Cynic’s Progress | The Weekly Standard

Cynic’s Progress | The Weekly Standard: His witticisms, which were of a very high order, reappear sometimes, too. His best aphorisms in The Devil’s Dictionary are easily a match for La Rochefoucauld, maybe even Voltaire. His most reprinted book review consists of a single sentence: “The covers of this book are too far apart.” When a young mother pestered him for advice on bringing up children, he finally replied: “Study Herod, madam. Study Herod.” Democracy he defined as “four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” At the death of a local politician, Bierce volunteered the epitaph: “Here lies Frank Pixley, as usual.” Disdainful of philosophical pretension, he rewrote Descartes’s axiom as “Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum”: “I think I think, therefore I think I am.”

New Mac Pro: Simultaneous Real-Time 4K Effect Rendering, +900MB/s Read/Write

New Mac Pro: Simultaneous Real-Time 4K Effect Rendering, +900MB/s Read/Write: FCP.co posted a 24-hour hands on with the new Mac Pro. They found read speeds of 880MB/s from the Mac Pro's solid state storage, with impressive write numbers of 985.5MB/s. Further, the team discovered that new machine could post full 4K video with multiple color corrections, effects and transitions playing back all in real time.

Macworld saw even more impressive SSD performance, with Black Magic reporting 952.8MB/s writes and 920.5MB/s reads. Black Magic's speed test app reports that the new Mac Pro can easily handle all video formats it currently tracks, with FCP.co adding that its Mac Pro was able to play back 16 simultaneous streams of 4K video.

FaceTime Audio Coming to Macs With Next OS X Update

FaceTime Audio Coming to Macs With Next OS X Update: According to 9to5Mac, the FaceTime audio feature is "integrated deeply" into both the Messages and FaceTime apps, making voice communication between Apple users on any device easier than ever. With Messages, FaceTime, and FaceTime audio on iOS and OS X, Apple will have a complete communication system in place.

With a simple way to answer telephone calls and chat requests from all devices, those in Apple's ecosystem will have little reason to resort to alternative VoIP apps when communicating with other Apple users. FaceTime audio is also a high-quality VoIP choice, as it uses the AAC-ELD codec for Full-HD Voice. AAC-ELD is designed to provide CD-like audio quality for voice calls, delivering high speech and audio quality at a low coding delay.

Plex Media Server 0.9.8.17 - Seamlessly connect your Plex clients with your local media. (Free)

Plex Media Server 0.9.8.17 - Seamlessly connect your Plex clients with your local media. (Free): Plex Media Server seamlessly connects your Plex clients with all of your local and online media. The combination of centralized library management, streaming of online content, and powerful transcoding functionality provides an unrivaled level of flexibility and ease of use.
Plex Media Server runs on your Mac, PC, or compatible NAS device and serves your media to all of your Plex clients including Plex-enabled mobile devices and 2011 LG Smart TVs.

Making the most of iMovie's lesser-known features | Macworld

Making the most of iMovie's lesser-known features | Macworld: Using the Sports Team theme and editor
Speaking of themes, iMovie includes the Sports theme, which has a special talent for adding player names and statistics, player photos, and team logos. It gains this information via the Sports Team Editor. You use it this way.

Choose Window > Sports Team Editor. By default you’ll see an entry for the Leopards. You can edit this entry by clicking on it or you can start fresh by clicking the plus (+) button to add a new team. Click on the Sport pop-up menu to choose the sport the team plays—baseball, basketball, football, soccer, or volleyball.

Below the teams area is a place for the team’s players. Click the plus button to add team members. For each player you can, by default, add a number, name, position, age, height, and weight. (Adding all of this information isn’t required.) To add a player’s picture, just drag it to the Player Photo field or click the plus button in this field and navigate to the image you want to add. Likewise, to add a team logo, drag it to the Team Logo field or click the plus button and navigate to it.

You can edit much of this information. For example, if the sport your team plays isn’t listed, click the triangle that appears next to Sports at the bottom of the window. Then click the plus button that appears below the list that’s revealed. A New Sport field is added. Fill it in as you like—Bowling or Disc Golf, for example. To the right are four Label fields. Select each one and enter an appropriate label—Average, Shoe Color, Ball Weight, and Cocktail, for example. When you’re finished configuring your team, click Done.

Apple releases Final Cut Pro X 10.1, optimized for Mac Pro with 4K support

Apple releases Final Cut Pro X 10.1, optimized for Mac Pro with 4K support: “Alongside the release of the new Mac Pro, Apple has updated Final Cut Pro in the Mac App Store to take advantage of the machine’s immense raw processing power,” Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac.
“Specifically, Apple says that playback and rendering has been optimised for the Mac Pro’s dual GPUs,” Mayo reports. “Final Cut Pro X 10.1 also adds 4K support, including monitoring across Thunderbolt 2 and HDMI displays as well as 4K titles, transition and generators.”

Roku enters early 21st century, offers YouTube

Roku enters early 21st century, offers YouTube: Merry early Christmas, Roku owners. You can finally watch YouTube as a Roku channel.

Scientists Discover a Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics - Wired Science

Mind-blowing!!

Scientists Discover a Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics - Wired Science: The revelation that particle interactions, the most basic events in nature, may be consequences of geometry significantly advances a decades-long effort to reformulate quantum field theory, the body of laws describing elementary particles and their interactions. Interactions that were previously calculated with mathematical formulas thousands of terms long can now be described by computing the volume of the corresponding jewel-like “amplituhedron,” which yields an equivalent one-term expression.

“The degree of efficiency is mind-boggling,” said Jacob Bourjaily, a theoretical physicist at Harvard University and an author of the first of two papers detailing the new idea. “You can easily do, on paper, computations that were infeasible even with a computer before.”

Kitzhaber announces he'll run for historic fourth term

Kitzhaber announces he'll run for historic fourth term: Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber announced Monday morning that he will run for an historic fourth term.

Way to go, Hayduke, from your old buddy, Lightspeed!

How and why to use Google+, the surprising champ of photo sharing

How and why to use Google+, the surprising champ of photo sharing: Google’s much-maligned social network is leagues above the rest when it comes to photo-sharing tools and privacy controls

Apple updates Dictation for Mac users in OS X Mavericks

Apple updates Dictation for Mac users in OS X Mavericks: “One of the lesser known features of Mavericks is an upgrade to the Dictation Software,” Daryl McCartney reports for Amsys. “In 10.8 Dictation was available but required an internet connection so that it could contact Apple Servers to translate speech to text.”
“In Mavericks, Apple have added Enhanced Dictation which is a worthwhile initial 490MB approximate download which gives you the ability to have offline Dictation,” McCartney reports. “Even better, the translation is almost instant and because it is done locally you can live edit the dictated speech.”

McCartney reports, “Unlike dictation in 10.8, when using enhanced dictation, you aren’t limited to a 30 second recording.”

First official new Mac Pro sold sets all-time record for most expensive personal computer at $977,000

First official new Mac Pro sold sets all-time record for most expensive personal computer at $977,000: “Apple is known for making history by inventing the future, but even its designer could not have predicted a new record shattered on Saturday as a special one-off red version of the new Mac Pro (which is not officially available for sale yet) was sold at a charity fundraising auction for $977,000 — an all-time record for the priciest personal computer ever made or sold,” Electronista reports.

Aldous Huxley: the prophet of our brave new digital dystopia | John Naughton | Comment is free | The Guardian

Aldous Huxley: the prophet of our brave new digital dystopia | John Naughton | Comment is free | The Guardian: It is set in the London of the distant future – AD 2540 – and describes a fictional society inspired by two things: Huxley's imaginative extrapolation of scientific and social trends; and his first visit to the US, in which he was struck by how a population could apparently be rendered docile by advertising and retail therapy.

Apple dives deeper into designing and inventing robots, other manufacturing tech

Apple dives deeper into designing and inventing robots, other manufacturing tech: “Apple is putting a record $10.5 billion to work in new technology — from assembly robots to milling machines — that consumers will never see,” Adam Satariano reports for Bloomberg News.
“To get a jump on rivals such as Samsung Electronics and lay the groundwork for new products, Apple is spending more on the machines that do the behind-the-scenes work of mass producing iPhones, iPads and other gadgets,” Satariano reports “That includes equipment to polish the new iPhone 5c’s colorful plastic, laser and milling machines to carve the MacBook’s aluminum body and testing gear for the iPhone and iPad camera lens, said people with knowledge of its manufacturing methods.”

Windows 1.0, where it all began - CNET News

Windows 1.0, where it all began (PICTURES (TILES!!))- CNET News: Microsoft Windows 1.0, seen here, was released in November 1985. Unfortunately for Microsoft, it failed to inspire -- especially when compared with the more user-friendly graphical user interface developed by Apple for the Macintosh.

Interactive Dylan video takes surreal roll through TV land

Interactive Dylan video takes surreal roll through TV land: Cutting-edge new video for the 1965 Bob Dylan song "Like a Rolling Stone" lets you flip through TV channels as a host of recognizable characters lip-synch their way through the iconic song.

For Your Pleasure: 10 essential “lesser known” Roxy Music tracks selected by Michael Bracewell – The Vinyl Factory

For Your Pleasure: 10 essential “lesser known” Roxy Music tracks selected by Michael Bracewell – The Vinyl Factory: So, with the extended Roxy discography reaching in all directions, we asked Michael Bracewell to take stock and delve into the band’s essential back-catalogue to introduce ten “lesser known”, but nonetheless essential, Roxy Music tracks and the records where you can find them.

When We First Met – The Infinity Stones | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources

When We First Met – The Infinity Stones | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources: The soul gem was first introduced in Marvel Premiere #1, when Roy Thomas and Gil Kane first gave us Warlock. The High Evolutionary just gives it to him…

Obama May Have Twitter, But Lincoln Was the First President to Go Viral | Underwire | Wired.com

Obama May Have Twitter, But Lincoln Was the First President to Go Viral | Underwire | Wired.com: “Lincoln was a master political strategist. He truly understood what it took to get the message out to the people,” said Schnall. ”He knew the speech would be telegraphed across the nation; within 48 hours every newspaper as far as California had printed the speech straight on the front page, which is exactly what he was aiming for. He was using the media of communication in different ways than a president had ever done before.”

Google Play Music makes its debut in Apple's App Store

Google Play Music makes its debut in Apple's App Store: The application allows people to listen to the millions of songs in its library, as well as upload up to 20,000 of the user's own songs to the service for access elsewhere.

Apple's New Manufacturing Partner, GT Advanced, Uses Particle Accelerator to Cut Sapphire Glass Production Costs

Apple's New Manufacturing Partner, GT Advanced, Uses Particle Accelerator to Cut Sapphire Glass Production Costs: "A particle accelerator bombards these wafers with hydrogen ions, and with exacting control of the voltage of the accelerator, the hydrogen ions accumulate precisely 20 micrometers from the surface of each wafer. A robotic arm then transports the wafers to a furnace where the ions expand into hydrogen gas, which cause the 20-micrometer-thick layer to shear off."

PerfectTablePlan 5.1.4 - Create a seating plan for your wedding, party, or event. (Demo)

PerfectTablePlan 5.1.4 - Create a seating plan for your wedding, party, or event. (Demo): PerfectTablePlan is the easiest way to create a seating plan for your wedding, party, or event.
Import existing guests lists, experiment with table sizes and shapes and assign guests to seats with a single mouse click.

No more fiddling with scraps of paper!

Flipboard expands into mobile commerce with catalog feature

Flipboard expands into mobile commerce with catalog feature: The social magazine app has broadened its commerce ambitions with a new catalog section, letting users and brands alike curate products with price tags and purchase links.

"Daredevil" Leads Marvel & Netflix Multiple Live-Action Show Deal

"Daredevil" Leads Marvel & Netflix Multiple Live-Action Show Deal: Marvel and Netflix have announced five all-new live-action series, beginning with "Daredevil" and culminating with "The Defenders."

Comics A.M. - Investor Group Buys Majority Stake in Crunchyroll

Comics A.M. - Investor Group Buys Majority Stake in Crunchyroll: Anime and manga site Crunchyroll sells majority stake to Chernin Group! A look at new online comics site Believed Behavior! Dark Horse has 750,000 copies of "Berserk" in print! Plus more!

Orson Scott Card Talks Ender's Game in Rare Interview | Underwire | Wired.com

Orson Scott Card Talks Ender's Game in Rare Interview | Underwire | Wired.com: As it’s written, Ender’s Game is unadaptable. The book takes place entirely inside Ender’s head. If you don’t know what Ender is thinking, he’s just an incredibly violent little kid and not terribly interesting. You have to find ways to externalize what he’s thinking. But he can’t be the kind of person who explains himself to other people. That would weaken him.

The Real Reason It Doesn't Matter That Amazon Is Losing Money | Wired Business | Wired.com

The Real Reason It Doesn't Matter That Amazon Is Losing Money | Wired Business | Wired.com: Amazon’s flexibility in overseas markets — where sales have grown by 29 percent over the past nine months — is just one more piece of what investors love about Amazon: its diversification. What other sellers of books, clothes, and gadgets can also boast a $600 million cloud-computing contract with the CIA, a video-streaming service to rival Netflix, and hardware that competes credibly with Apple?

Tech Time Warp of the Week: The Apple Lisa, 1983 | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

Tech Time Warp of the Week: The Apple Lisa, 1983 | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com: What we can say is that Apple took these ideas to the next level. All six of Lisa’s software tools — LisaWrite, LisaDraw, LisaGraph, LisaCalc, LisaProject, LisaList — were integrated together, so you only had to learn one set of skills that translated from one program to the next. That made Lisa much easier to use than previous systems. One of its signature functions was “Undo Last Change,” which BYTE called a “tremendous security blanket that enables you to experiment and work without worrying about making an irrevocable mistake.”

Apple’s software as a service strategy

Apple’s software as a service strategy: Bajarin writes, “An investment in Apple’s hardware is an investment in future software upgrades at no additional cost. The value of the software is now built into the value of the hardware. Apple is telling customers that they are committed to bringing them quality software as a service to their quality hardware. This is Apple’s vision for personal computing.”

Book of Lamentations – The New Inquiry

Book of Lamentations – The New Inquiry: The best dystopian literature, or at least the most effective, manages to show us a hideous and contorted future while resisting the temptation to point fingers and invent villains. This is one of the major flaws in George Orwells’s 1984: When O’Brien laughingly expounds on his vision of “a boot stamping on a human face – forever” he starts to acquire the ludicrousness of a Bond villain; he may as well be a cartoon – one of the Krusty Kamp counsellors in The Simpsons, raising a glass “to Evil.” Orwell’s satire of Stalinism, or Margaret Atwood’s on the religious right in The Handmaid’s Tale tend to let our present world off the hook a little by comparison. More subtle works, like Huxley’s Brave New World, are far more effective. His Controller, when interrogated, doesn’t burst out in maniacal laughter and start twiddling his moustache. He explains, in quite reasonable terms, why the dystopia he lives in is the best way to ensure the happiness of all – and he means it. Everything’s broken, but it’s not anyone’s fault; it’s terrifying because it’s so familiar.

Ready To Cut The Cable TV Cord? Here's How To Do It - Forbes

Ready To Cut The Cable TV Cord? Here's How To Do It - Forbes: The moment for me when the idea of dropping TV service became a long term prospect rather than just a short term experiment so I could write this article, was when I plugged in the antenna. The fact that I can get such high quality output, for network and PBS channels I had been paying for makes it hard for me to envision going back to a cable TV subscription.

NYCC | ‘The Venture Bros.’ Creators Joke With Fans, Dodge Season 6 Questions – Spinoff Online – TV, Film, and Entertainment News Daily

NYCC | ‘The Venture Bros.’ Creators Joke With Fans, Dodge Season 6 Questions – Spinoff Online – TV, Film, and Entertainment News Daily: As they’re writing the next season, they were being tight-lipped. “It’s not like sex, where you say what you’re going to do the entire time, and then do it very badly,” Hammer said.

Dante: The Most Vivid Version by Robert Pogue Harrison | The New York Review of Books

Dante: The Most Vivid Version by Robert Pogue Harrison | The New York Review of Books: The basic “plot” of The Divine Comedy has to do with the pilgrim’s efforts to complete a long, self-interrogating, and transformative journey at the end of which his inner being—which, like human history, suffers from the perversion of self-love—becomes harmonized with the love that moves the universe. Salvation means nothing more, and nothing less, than such harmonization. It is not until the very last lines of Paradiso that the Comedy’s story reaches its conclusion.

Hands-on with Square Cash, a free, dead simple way to send money via email | Macworld

Hands-on with Square Cash, a free, dead simple way to send money via email | Macworld: Square's war against PayPal continues with a new free service that lets you transfer small amounts of money between friends using nothing more than email.

Called Square Cash, the new service is available now to anyone with a U.S. bank account and is dead simple to use. Seriously: It couldn't be easier. Unlike PayPal, Square Cash doesn’t require you to sign-up for a Square account first, and all funds are transferred directly between bank accounts with no third-party holding account.

Square Cash lets anyone send money by e-mail -- for free

Square Cash lets anyone send money by e-mail -- for free: First launched as an invite-only beta, Square Cash is now available to everyone. The free service lets anyone send and receive cash simply by sending an e-mail, no account required. [Read more]

Jonathan Rée reviews ‘Newton and the Origin of Civilisation’ by Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold · LRB 10 October 2013

Jonathan Rée reviews ‘Newton and the Origin of Civilisation’ by Jed Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold · LRB 10 October 2013: By that time he had settled into a steady habit of suspicion: he trusted nobody, and refused to believe anything that he couldn’t reduce to mathematical terms and prove for himself from first principles. In particular, he trained himself to doubt the evidence of sensory experience: sensible qualities were events in our bodies rather than features of the objective world, and sense organs, like any other mechanical instruments, were liable to bias, inconsistency and malfunction.

Report: Oregon a 'haven' for sex offenders

Report: Oregon a 'haven' for sex offenders: An Oregonian investigation published Wednesday finds that the state has one of the worst records in the country for following federal standards intended to keep registered sex offenders under supervision.

FreedomPop launches free mobile phone service, 200 free minutes

FreedomPop launches free mobile phone service, 200 free minutes: The service includes a guaranteed use of 500MB of data and 500 text messages. [Read more]

Mapping agency builds all of Great Britain in Minecraft

Mapping agency builds all of Great Britain in Minecraft: British governmental mapping company Ordnance Survey has re-created the entirety of Great Britain in Minecraft using real-world data.

America’s Best Unknown Writer by Jonathan Raban | The New York Review of Books

America’s Best Unknown Writer by Jonathan Raban | The New York Review of Books: Gaddis arrived in New York with a pile of pages that by March 1952 had grown to “almost 100,000 words,” or “just barely more than half finished.” For the winter of 1952–1953 he holed up in a borrowed farmhouse outside Montgomery, New York, emerging in the spring with a completed novel of around 500,000 words. By then, he had also signed a contract with Harcourt, Brace, and collected an advance of $1,000, which enabled him to work full-time on revising his enormous manuscript, and ditch his part-time job with the US Information Service, writing propaganda pieces for the magazine America Illustrated. That winter of hectic composition shows. For all its life, inventiveness, and seriousness of intent, The Recognitions is riddled with clumsy sentences to which an author in less haste would have mailed rejection slips. As Homer may sometimes nod, Gaddis can take disquietingly long naps.

JIM STERANKO Slams AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Premiere

JIM STERANKO Slams AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. Premiere: The NICK FURY: AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D. writer/artist calls show disorganized and without menace.

"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Dominates Tuesday Ratings

"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Dominates Tuesday Ratings: With 11.9 million viewers and an impressive 4.6 rating, the debut episode of "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." is the highest-rated TV drama premiere in nearly four years.

Roku channels its efforts into updated hardware, new content options | TechHive

Roku channels its efforts into updated hardware, new content options | TechHive: M-Go customers on Roku will also get two free movie rentals to try out the service. (Note that M-Go is available only in the U.S.)

To show how serious M-Go and Roku are about the partnership, M-Go is getting a dedicated launch button on the new Roku remotes, alongside Netflix, Amazon, and Blockbuster. M-Go tries to distinguish itself from other non-subscription video services (Vudu, iTunes Store, Amazon, and so on) by focusing on features related to personal relevance: custom lists (Cards) for quick access to favorite shows, movies, actors, and directors; the capability to fine-tune recommendations; and even links to other services that offer the content you’re looking for.

Roku unveils trio of new boxes, M-Go integration: Hands-on with restyled $50 Roku LT, $60 Roku 1, and $80 Roku 2 | Digital Media Receivers - CNET Reviews

Roku unveils trio of new boxes, M-Go integration: Hands-on with restyled $50 Roku LT, $60 Roku 1, and $80 Roku 2 | Digital Media Receivers - CNET Reviews: The upside with M-Go is that Roku owners won't need to sign up for any new account, as it works with your Roku account and the credit card that's required during setup. (This fact still irks some Roku buyers.) M-Go will also allow you to link your UltraViolet account, giving you access to any content have stored in your digital locker.
The software update is coming in October to all "current-generation" Roku boxes, which includes the Roku LT, Roku HD, Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS, Roku 1, Roku 2, Roku 3 and Roku Streaming Stick.

The 7 best things about iOS 7 | iPhone Atlas - CNET Reviews

The 7 best things about iOS 7 | iPhone Atlas - CNET Reviews: I decided to round up my favorite parts of iOS 7 that I think are truly useful and stand out from the other changes. Tomorrow, I'll be writing what I think are the 7 worst things about iOS 7, so don't get caught up thinking this is just an iPhone fan-fest.

iOS 7 Tidbits: iMessage Timestamps, App Switching, Spotlight Search, and More

iOS 7 Tidbits: iMessage Timestamps, App Switching, Spotlight Search, and More: Apple released iOS 7 to the public earlier today and while we highlighted a number of the major features in the operating system, there are more than 200 changes in all, including hundreds of minor tweaks and improvements. We’ve gathered up a list of some of the lesser known iOS 7 features below and additional information about iOS 7 can be found in our iOS 7 forum and our post on the iOS 7 release.

CDC Threat Report: 'We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era'

CDC Threat Report: 'We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era': The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just published a first-of-its-kind assessment of the threat the country faces from antibiotic-resistant organisms. The news isn't good.

Google buys Bump for smoother file sharing

Google buys Bump for smoother file sharing: Android, Chrome, and maybe even the iPhone could get a jolt in the file sharing department with Google's acquisition of Bump, which was announced Monday.

How Apple’s unmatched A7 64-bit processor gives iOS plenty of headroom for the future and Apple a distinct competitive advantage

How Apple’s unmatched A7 64-bit processor gives iOS plenty of headroom for the future and Apple a distinct competitive advantage: Bisson writes, “With a virtualisation-ready processor in its new phone, Apple can now start to move iOS in the direction of a hypervisor-controlled sandbox environment… Here the operating system component of a VM is tailored to the application it is hosting – minimising the attack surface of each secure partition. Combined with a fingerprint sensor to identify users, Apple has the tools it needs to deliver biometric access control, allowing devices to support multiple users, with files and apps for one user hidden from another using hardware encryption.”

Google+ snaps Snapseed into Chrome browser | TechHive

Google+ snaps Snapseed into Chrome browser | TechHive: This should come as no surprise. Snapseed, a photo editor created by Nik Software, was long a favorite of mobile snap shooters, and when the company was acquired by Google last year, it was obvious that it had big plans to boost the visibility of this respected product. With the Google+ social network out there as an increasingly popular Facebook rival, it needed some high-powered photographic goodness to go with it.

Roku takes on Google with new Chromecast-like feature | Internet & Media - CNET News

Roku takes on Google with new Chromecast-like feature | Internet & Media - CNET News: The new Roku feature -- known as discovery and launch protocol (DIAL) -- will essentially turn a user's smartphone into a remote control. While Roku's iOS app and its Android app can already do this, the added feature will let users stream video from third-party apps. Chromecast currently does this with Netflix and YouTube. It's unclear what apps will be able to do this for Roku.

The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: What you need to know | Macworld

The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c: What you need to know | Macworld: here are our answers to some of the most pressing questions about the new smartphones, based on what Apple has told us and our own investigations.

Apple silently sends off Cards for iPhone

Apple silently sends off Cards for iPhone: It looks like you’ve sent your last 100-percent cotton letterpress card. Apple on Tuesday quietly discontinued its iOS-based service for sending photo postcards via good ol’ fashioned snail mail, removing the related iOS app from the App Store.

Should you still have the app installed on your phone, you’ll receive the following message when you attempt to create a new card:

The Cards service is no longer available. You can review your previous purchases in Saved Cards.

Born in 2011, Cards was a relative of the late iCards, which passed away in 2008, and is survived by iPhoto’s card and calendar printing service. Pour one out in memory of the dearly departed app and service—it was taken from us too soon. We can only hope it joins iCards in the hallowed Hallmark halls of heaven.

Apple to release iOS 7 with completely redesigned user interface on September 18

Apple to release iOS 7 with completely redesigned user interface on September 18: Apple today announced iOS 7, featuring a completely redesigned new user interface, will be available starting Wednesday, September 18 to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users as a free software update. iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos, Safari, Siri and introduces iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes. In addition, iOS 7 has been engineered with deep technical and design integration with both iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.

Apple Announcements Sept. 10, 2013

iOS 7

iOS 7 will be available for free on September 18.

iWork FREE!! iWork apps, iPhoto and iMovie -- all now free. (Only on new devices.)

iPhone 5C

Colors. Made of a hard-coated polycarbonate. Inside it's build with a steel-reinforced structure. Inside it's powered by an A6 chip, with blazing-fast performance and console-level graphics. It has a slightly larger battery than the iPhone 5.

8MP iSight camera, backside illumination, and IR filter. Front side has a new FaceTime HD camera that's even better in low-light, bigger pixels, better backside illumination. Works with FaceTime audio.

iPhone 5C supports more network bands than any phone we've made, more LTE bands than any other phone in the world. Up to 100Mbps download and Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0.

16GB configuration at $99 or 32GB at $199 (with two-year contract).

So, instead of continuing to make the 5 available for $99, this time they're replacing the 5 with a new model at at price.

iPhone 5S

Performance

A brand new system-on-a-chip from Apple: A7. First ever 64-bit smartphone.

The A7 is a 64-bit desktop class architecture, with a modern ARM instruction set that's more efficient, 2x general-purpose registers, 2x floating-point registers, over 1 billion transistors and in the same die size as the A6.

We haven't told you yet that iOS 7 has been re-engineered for 64-bit, as have all the apps that come with your device.

They've updated Xcode to support 64-bit to let developers make 32-bit and 64-bit apps simultaneously. For customers, apps run side-by-side and transparently.

A7 is up to 2x as fast with CPU tasks and graphics tasks.

Typically converting to 64-bit is a lengthy process, but with Apple's tools, one person converted the code in 2 hours.

M7 - Motion coprocessor. Takes advantage of all the sensors and continuously measures the data coming from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass without having to wake up the A7.

iSight Camera

New five-element Apple-designed lens, larger f/2.2 aperture. New sensor with a 15% larger active area. The pixels on this sensor are 1.5 microns in size, larger than iPhone 5 and larger than other smartphones. More light, better picture.

Before you take a picture, iPhone does auto white balance, auto exposure, creating a dynamic local tone map around the image to get better highlights and shadows, autofocus matrix metering for more sharpness, and it actually takes multiple photos, analyzes them in real time for which is the sharpest, and that's what you see.

New flash: the True Tone Flash. Flash in iPhone 5S solves this; two LEDs, one a cooler white one and another a warmer one. Over 1000 unique variations to give you the right color flash for the room or situation you're in.

Auto image stabilization.

New Burst mode. Hold down on the shutter it'll burst a bunch of photos; 10 fps for as long as you hold the shutter.

Slo-Mo. Captures HD video at 720p at 120fps.

Security

Touch ID. It reads your fingerprint at an incredibly detailed level, using a touch ID sensor. 170 microns thin, has 500 ppi resolution, scans sub-epidermal skin layers for a better image; you can teach it about more than one finger, and no matter what orientation, it can tell.

Starts with 16GB at $199; 32GB at $299; and 64GB at $399, all with two-year contract.

The 8GB 4S is staying in the line-up for free.

iPhone 5C pre-orders open on Friday, September 13.

Elvis Costello!

Celtx review: Professional screenwriting software at starving-artist prices

Celtx review: Professional screenwriting software at starving-artist prices: Powerful, cross-platform writing tool Celtx Plus includes most of the features a screenwriter needs at a fraction of Final Draft's price. The free Celtx works neatly for personal screenwriting projects.

SpaceX to build spacecraft parts with motion tech and 3D printers

SpaceX to build spacecraft parts with motion tech and 3D printers: Elon Musk's new endeavor to build rocket ship parts with Leap Motion hand gesture technology, Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, and 3D laser metal printers makes sci-fi look antiquated.

Plein Air: Bringing art to the outdoors in Roseburg

Plein Air: Bringing art to the outdoors in Roseburg: There were over 50 artists participating in the third annual Plein Air Arts Festival at the Umpqua Valley Arts Center in Roseburg.

In Coos: Colin Farrell orders chowder, fish and chips

In Coos: Colin Farrell orders chowder, fish and chips: Colin Farrell ate dinner at SharkBite's Seafood Café in downtown Coos Bay on Tuesday night.

Air Video Server HD 1.0.3 - Stream videos in almost any format to your iOS device. (Free)

Air Video Server HD 1.0.3 - Stream videos in almost any format to your iOS device. (Free): Air Video Server HD streams videos instantly from your computer on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Apple TV. No need to worry about converting or transferring files.
We took everything that was great about Air Video and then re-thought and re-engineered it.

JAMES SPADER Cast as ULTRON in AVENGERS Sequel AGE OF ULTRON

JAMES SPADER Cast as ULTRON in AVENGERS Sequel AGE OF ULTRON: AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON's villain as been cast - veteran actor James Spader.

Academy Fight Song | Thomas Frank | The Baffler

Academy Fight Song | Thomas Frank | The Baffler: Actually, that explanation isn’t simple enough. The truth is that rip-offs like this abound in academia—that virtually every aspect of the higher-ed dream has been colonized by monopolies, cartels, and other unrestrained predators—that the charmingly naive American student is in fact a cash cow, and everyone has got a scheme for slicing off a porterhouse or two.

Ben Affleck to be next Batman

Ben Affleck to be next Batman: Two-time Academy Award winner is cast to portray the caped crusader in "Man of Steel 2," the Batman-Superman pairing expected in 2015.

Google Search beefs up its online dictionary

Google Search beefs up its online dictionary: When typing "define ..." into the Web giant's search engine, users now get the word definition, sample sentences, synonyms, origins, translations, spoken response, and more.

Ben Affleck to Play Batman in Batman/Superman Film, Release Date Set

Ben Affleck to Play Batman in Batman/Superman Film, Release Date Set: Warner Bros. announced that Ben Affleck will play an "entirely new incarnation" of Batman in the still-untitled Batman/Superman film, and set a release date for July 17, 2015.

BEN AFFLECK is SUPERMAN/BATMAN's DARK KNIGHT

BEN AFFLECK is SUPERMAN/BATMAN's DARK KNIGHT: Ben Affleck will star at BATMAN opposite Henry Cavill's SUPERMAN in the MAN OF STEEL sequel.

Why BEN AFFLECK is Brilliant Casting as BATMAN

Why BEN AFFLECK is Brilliant Casting as BATMAN: Ben Affleck is Batman. Here's why that rocks.

Thor and Asgard Arriving in Disneyland This Fall

Thor and Asgard Arriving in Disneyland This Fall: Disney announced it will bring more of the Marvel Universe to its theme parks this fall, when Disneyland guests will have a chance to visit Asgard and “come face-to-face” with Thor himself.

Google Maps adds Waze traffic reports

Google Maps adds Waze traffic reports: The mobile versions of Google Maps now blend in traffic data from Waze, while Waze users gain Google Street View and satellite images.

The Granddaddy of the Political Cartoon | Peter Bruegel | The Land of Cockaigne | Masterpiece by Jamie James - WSJ.com

The Granddaddy of the Political Cartoon | Peter Bruegel | The Land of Cockaigne | Masterpiece by Jamie James - WSJ.com: The most poignant modern survival of the Land of Cockaigne, and the truest to its simple spirit of rebellious yearning, is the hobo ballad "Big Rock Candy Mountain." First recorded by Harry McClintock in 1928, this vision of heaven on earth reflects the daydreams of the tramps who rode the rails. It is a "land that's fair and bright," where "they hung the Turk who invented work," hens lay soft-boiled eggs and cigarettes grow on trees. "There's a lake of stew, and of whiskey too, and you can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe, in the Big Rock Candy Mountain."

Plex Media Server 0.9.8.4 - Seamlessly connect your Plex clients with your local media. (Free)

Plex Media Server 0.9.8.4 - Seamlessly connect your Plex clients with your local media. (Free): Plex Media Server seamlessly connects your Plex clients with all of your local and online media. The combination of centralized library management, streaming of online content, and powerful transcoding functionality provides an unrivaled level of flexibility and ease of use.
Plex Media Server runs on your Mac, PC, or compatible NAS device and serves your media to all of your Plex clients including Plex-enabled mobile devices and 2011 LG Smart TVs.

Hooking up: Are today's college students more sexually active?

Hooking up: Are today's college students more sexually active?: Are college students "hooking up" for "no strings attached" sex with more people than ever before?

The Untold Story of Google's Quest to Bring the Internet Everywhere—By Balloon

The Untold Story of Google's Quest to Bring the Internet Everywhere—By Balloon: Inside Project Loon, an ambitious plan to bring the Internet to a huge swath of as-yet-unconnected humanity via thousands of solar-powered, high-pressure balloons floating some 60,000 feet above Earth.

Apple to Unveil Next Generation iPhone on September 10

Apple to Unveil Next Generation iPhone on September 10: Apple will unveil its next iPhone on September 10, reports AllThingsD, citing sources with knowledge of the event.

Though the date of the event has been revealed, it is unclear whether the event will focus singularly on the upcoming iPhone 5 or if it will include Apple’s rumored low-cost iPhone, possibly dubbed the iPhone "5C".

Roku app now beams videos from your iOS device to your TV | Macworld

Roku app now beams videos from your iOS device to your TV | Macworld: On Thursday, the company added video to the mix—for iOS users only right now—allowing streaming of videos in your iOS device’s Camera Roll.

That means you can play anything you’ve shot with your iOS device—family ballet recitals and 15-second Instagram video masterpieces, say—but not TV shows or movies you’ve synced with your iPhone. Which makes it somewhat less useful than the Apple TV’s AirPlay streaming, but still a pretty cool addition.

Get ready for the sun to flip its magnetic field

Get ready for the sun to flip its magnetic field: We're just a few months away from the sun flipping its magnetic field, a change that only happens about once every 11 years. [Read more]

Redbox Instant comes to Roku

Redbox Instant comes to Roku: The fledging joint venture from Redbox, the DVD-rental kiosk company, and Verizon adds another device to push its catalog of streaming movies straight to TVs. [Read more]

Jeff Bezos Pays $250 Million For The Washington Post

Jeff Bezos Pays $250 Million For The Washington Post: In an ironic twist for a tycoon whose company has never appeared to care what the press thinks of it, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has agreed to pay $250 million cash for The Washington Post.

Amazon's CEO to buy Washington Post for $250M

Amazon's CEO to buy Washington Post for $250M: Jeff Bezos himself is buying the newspaper publishing side of the Washington Post Co., including its flagship publication but not its most high-profile digital assets. [Read more]

Forget Apple’s SuperDrive and go for MCE’s Super-BluDrive (especially if you’re a Blu-ray movie fan)

Forget Apple’s SuperDrive and go for MCE’s Super-BluDrive (especially if you’re a Blu-ray movie fan): As for MCE Technologies’s US$79.99 USB Super-BluDrive (http://tinyurl.com/mnd28az), forget Apple’s SuperDrive. Though a bit heftier, the MCE is a much-better deal.

It’s compatible with all Mac systems. You simply plug it into an USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 port, and you’re good to go.

The MCE USB Super-BluDrive comes with the aforementioned Mac Blu-ray Player software (which is $39.95 if purchased separately). Commercial Blu-ray movie playback requires an Intel Core 2 Duo processor-equipped Mac running at 2.4GHz, or faster, and at least 2GB of RAM.

Newly leaked NSA program sees 'nearly everything' you do

Newly leaked NSA program sees 'nearly everything' you do: The X-Keyscore program, which has been revealed by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, may be the "widest-reaching" intelligence system yet uncovered.

A few nice word from my friend Gordon

prompted me to write this post.

A Bizarro Drone That Would Deliver Peace and Oxycontin Instead of Missles

A Bizarro Drone That Would Deliver Peace and Oxycontin Instead of Missles: The Peace Drone hones in on enemy combatants to administer a dose of calming, violence-abating Oxycontin.

Google Takes Aim at Apple with New Nexus 7, Google Play Games and Chromecast

Google Takes Aim at Apple with New Nexus 7, Google Play Games and Chromecast: Chromecast, another feature Google introduced today, is an HDMI accessory that functions similarly to AirPlay, allowing users to mirror content from a tablet, smartphone, or computer. Chromecast works with video, music, and apps like Netflix, and can be used with a number of devices, including iPhones and iPads. Chromecast, which will retail for $35, will be available later today through Best Buy, Amazon, and the Google Play Store.

Mikhail Bulgakov's 'The Master and Margarita' at Bard College | By John Castellucci - WSJ.com

Mikhail Bulgakov's 'The Master and Margarita' at Bard College | By John Castellucci - WSJ.com: When the Devil visits Moscow and discovers the majority of Russians don't believe in him, there is hell to pay. An editor who boasts that Soviet society is atheist slips beneath the wheels of a trolley and is decapitated. A poet who doubts the Devil's existence goes insane. The tenant of an apartment the Devil needs for Walpurgis Night is whisked away to Yalta. The audience at a performance of black magic erupts in a riot.

Zeta Woof: The Master

Zeta Woof: The Master: Dave saved me from that. Dave had spent some time at the university and in addition to the thousands of comic books he purchased, studied, and saved — some are worth a fortune now if you can get him to part with them — he also developed the habit of reading serious science fiction and literature. Every time I would visit him he would hand me a handfull of books.

"Here. Read this."

How could I refuse? Michael Moorcock, John Brunner, Samuel R. Delaney, Philip K. Dick, Kilgore Trout, Thomas Pynchon, Lawrence Durrell, and Mikhail Bulgakov... there were others, too. I can't remember them all. Dave Handy got me started reading again.

Some I borrowed and never gave back. Dave was not particular about that. The important thing to him was that I read them. I did, and I bought more, and I kept reading, and I've never stopped.

SIM card flaw said to allow hijacking of millions of phones

SIM card flaw said to allow hijacking of millions of phones: Vulnerability in the security key that protects the card could allow eavesdropping on phone conversations, fraudulent purchases, or impersonation of the handset's owner, a security researcher warns.

Hands-on: VLC, the prodigal media player, returns to iOS

Hands-on: VLC, the prodigal media player, returns to iOS: VLC is a popular media-playback app on the desktop—an open-source project, it runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux. And, once upon a time, it was even available on the iOS App Store. Just a few months later, however, it was forced out, thanks to a licensing dispute.

That issue has now apparently been resolved, and VLC is back in the App Store as version 2.0. The goal of the free app remains the same: Play any video files you throw at it. While the app itself could reasonably substitute for iOS’s built-in Videos app, it offers a number of additional features beyond just greater codec compatibility.

SDCC: "The Simpsons" Will Cross Over with "Family Guy" Next Year

SDCC: "The Simpsons" Will Cross Over with "Family Guy" Next Year: It's finally happening. "The Simpsons" will appear in a fall 2014 episode of "Family Guy in which the Griffin family goes on a road trip and ends up in Springfield where the two FOX families collide.

Apple ‘iPhone 5S’ specs leak: 4-inch IGZO Retina display, NFC, 12MP camera, 2GB RAM, quad-core GPU, fingerprint reader, sources claim

Apple ‘iPhone 5S’ specs leak: 4-inch IGZO Retina display, NFC, 12MP camera, 2GB RAM, quad-core GPU, fingerprint reader, sources claim: Photos and hardware specifications of the iPhone 5S have leaked from the Chinese supply chain

Man, that is a lot of technology.

Hulu's sellers cry "cut"; scrap sale

Hulu's sellers cry "cut"; scrap sale: Co-owners 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, and The Walt Disney Company say they'll pump $750 million into the video-streaming service to "continue to empower the Hulu team." [Read more]