Following in the footsteps of great historical figures is a great way to learn about them. Michael Wood famously did so in the 1980's for his PBS documentary and book In The Footsteps of Alexander The Great. This March, UK-based marketing director Chris Worth completed a similar endeavor—not by tracing the path of a real-life emperor or explorer, but a humble video game character. One known simply as "The Courier".
It's been about five months since Google first unveiled their prototype future computers running Chrome OS, and the time is nearly here for the Chromebooks to be unleashed on the public. But there are a lot of qualms over the release of Chromebooks, with most criticism coming from their lack of traditional laptop-based features such as an optical drive, storage space and the ability to run comprehensive software programs like Adobe Photoshop.
Rovio's highly successful Angry Birds game has generated a slew of wannabe Angry Clones and dominated nearly every device and platform known to man—iPhone, Android, PSP, Xbox 360, Windows—and now, for the first time it's available for play directly on the web (for free). It was specifically designed for Google's Chrome OS and their new Chromebook line of laptop computers, but can play on any device in almost any web browser (like Firefox).
Android users are probably already familiar with the doubleTwist Player (free) from doubleTwist, available on the Android Market. They recently added AirPlay support for users with AirSync ($4.99) that allows streaming to Apple TV and DLNA devices, which is sure to provoke some cease and desist requests from Apple. But their second, newly unveiled feature is more enticing—doubleTap, which adds proximity-based file sharing for Android devices.
In the past, geocaching has been an activity overlooked by most. Partly because nobody really knew what it was and partly because you needed a GPS-enabled device to participate, like a Garmin. But now, thanks to GPS-enabled Android and Apple devices, geocaching will finally be noticed by the masses in Garmin's own OpenCaching.
Apple's iPhone is considered one of the best smartphones in the world. Many cell phone makers have tried to take down the juggernaut, with some Android-based devices coming close, but in order to become an actual iPhone killer, something revolutionary needs to happen in the mobile world. And Human Media Lab (HML) may be the ones to make it happen.
If you powered up the ol' Xbox 360 last night to watch Netflix, you probably noticed that a new streaming service moved into Xbox LIVE—Hulu Plus. Netflix finally has some competition. Or maybe not. But with a week of free service, they're sure to attract some would-be watchers.
RESPECT - What It Means (in the picture above are my parents, both of whom I respect and cherish dearly)
When children's book author Aaron Zenz took his family to see the highly acclaimed Banksy documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, his 10-year-old daughter Gracie was immediately inspired to become a street artist. Aaron quickly explained that "while the art was fun and the story was great, vandalism isn’t a good thing" so the family was challenged to come up with an appropriately stealthy public art project that didn't entail defacing public property. So, what do you get when you cross an in...
Entrepreneur Jason Fried is co-founder of 37signals, a successful Chicago-based software and design firm that has doubled its sales every year for the past decade. Although Fried has a degree in finance, making money isn't a skill he picked up in the classroom or a book. Practice makes perfect, and Fried's experience has taught him that excelling at making money is separate from the product or services provided. Understanding the buyer and experimenting with price models are two of Fried's ke...
According to PlayStation Network @ Home, a new app may allow hackers to ban or unban anyone they please from PSN.
The Lost Thing is a lovely short written by Shaun Tan and co-directed by Tan and Andrew Ruhemann (executive producer of the fantastic doc My Kid Could Paint That). Based on the award-winning children’s book of the same title (also by Tan), the piece was created over a span of eight years(!) using a mix of CGI and 2D handpainted elements. Tan, whose background is in painting, spent much of the duration "carefully building, texturing and lighting of digitial elements to create a unique aestheti...
Well, maybe not a real invisibility cloak—sorry Harry Potter fans—but a team of scientists at MIT's SMART Centre are on their way to producing materials that mimic actual invisibility.
Aram Bartholl over at F.A.T. is pretty pissed because MoMA is discriminating against internet artists. As most New York-based working artists know, MoMA offers annual membership for only $35 (compared to the standard rate of $75) to artists who can provide "credentials" that prove legitimacy. Though the offer isn't publicized on the MoMA site, word on the street is "credentials" equates to "a letter from the gallery or an announcement for one of the artist's shows within the past two years" (...
It looks like Sony is adding some cool features to their upcoming portable game system called NGP (Next Generation Portable).
The exile is officially over. Let the good times roll. Unequal Technologies has just signed Michael Vick as its corporate spokesman. They have applied for 50 patents that largely employ the Dupont-created Kevlar for "shock suppression". Formally speaking, this is his first product endorsement deal since his arrest in 2007.
Keyword Research Tool. This tool provides you with the ability to directly query the Google keyword databases and truck load of choices of keywords to use in your campaigns. With this keyword tool you are able to create, manage your keyword list and integrate with other tools like competition spy and list builder.
Know the saying, "The inmates are running the asylum"? Well, if the inmates actually were running the asylum, we imagine the asylum might look something like this!
It may look like a modern take on Oliver Twist but, we assure you, this is for real. Before you get too alarmed, however, you should note that the headline reads "how to steal cars" and not simply "to steal cars." We are, after all, dealing with the fine people at Machine Project, a Los Angeles-based non-profit community space organized around the investigation of "art, technology, natural history, science, music, literature, and food."
Now, I've already had the experience where I go to a Renaissance Faire and can identify the patterns used by various fairegoers to make their costumes. But I had an experience last week that I'm still wondering about.
This are my tips for fifa 11. The following are purely my opinion and what has worked well for me, it is not my fault if the same things do not work for you.
Imagine walking around and everyone looks awesome! Ok, maybe this beauty is only skin deep or shall we say AR deep. Coming soon to a pair of glasses near you, you will be able to put on glasses that actually make people look more muscular, have bigger boobs, look tan & blonde, etc... Now imagine that you can push a button or say a word and now all the people around you become brunette. Then another setting makes everyone slightly shorter than you. All of this in realtime!
"ASTON-2"-WINDOWS SHELL REPLACEMENT USER INTERFACE, I HAVE BEEN USING IT NOW FOR A WEEK OR SO AND I FIND IT NOT ONLY FASTER, YET MORE INTUITIVE, AND MORE FEATURE RICH THAN WINDOWS EXPLORER.EXE EVER THOUGHT OF BEING...! IT DOES HAVE IT'S LITTLE QUIRKS OR EVEN BUGS HOWEVER...LIKE EARLIER TODAY THE TASK-BAR FOR ASTON-2 WOULD NOT RAISE UP OUT OF AUTOHIDE FOR ANYTHING, I REBOOTED THEN IT WAS FINE AGAIN, THIS COULD BE A WEB BASED BUG THAT INTERFERED, OR LOCAL BAD CODE WITHIN ASTON-2 BUT I DOUBT IT,...
UPDATE: New York University photography professor Wafaa Bilal talked the talk, and now he's walked the walk with his recent camera implant. And guess what? It hurt. What a surprise.
Far away in Finland, where the ice is plentiful and the temperature is bitter cold, the Finnish Nokia team have created the world's first touchscreen display made entirely of ice. Constructed with massive slabs of river ice, the display was first shaped into neat square slabs with a chainsaw, and then smoothed into a watchable surface with a powerful heat gun.
In January of this year, I went to Kuwait with director Fawaz Al-Matrouk to complete photography for the film "To Rest In Peace". We shot the majority of the film in Southern California, duping air force bases, homes, and beaches for authentic Kuwaiti locations. Because traveling was a significant theme for the film, we went to the small, nearly deserted island of Failaka (about 20km off the mainland). Captured by the Iraqi army and deserted by its citizens almost 20 years ago, this island wa...
UK-based designer Dominic Wilcox's Speed Creating Project presents the challenge of making something creative everyday, for 30 consecutive days. Wilcox's best results are pointless in an utterly delightful way. True junk drawer resourcefulness. My 7 favorites below; click through for all 30.
I've created this chart which shows you all the contents of each Mystery Egg that you can find in the FarmVille game.
A recent Japanese study proposes a simpler, softer, more natural-feeling alternative to silicone breast implants: fat-derived stem cells. The cells are extracted from liposuctioned fat, and then injected into the patient to increase breast circumference. San Diego-based biotech company Cytori Therapeutics is currently waiting on FDA approval to start clinical trials.
Every summer the city of Brussels assembles an enormous carpet of begonias, under the advisement of one hundred experienced gardeners. The project is planned far in advance, with illustrations and scale models based on a chosen theme (previously chosen have been the arms and shield of a town or commemoration of important events). This year's theme features Saint Michael striking down the dragon, the official protective image of the city, founded over 1,000 years ago.
Probably one of the coolest things I have seen on the net. That crazy guy at xkcd have made a visual map representation of the internet based on user activity. Click on the picture for a a better look because this map is huge!
Sprint has a new cell phone coming out soon, and it's called Transform (by Samsung). If you want to get a head start on learning your way around the new Android-powered mobile device, the official Sprint User's Guide has been leaked onto the web, thanks to Sprint in Overland Park, Kansas.
Designed by a computer, milled by machines and assembled by a team of robots, Federico Díaz's Geometric Death Frequency 141 isn't necessarily the warmest work of art you'll see this year. But it is, nevertheless, quite a lot of fun to behold:
Wired posts a gallery of the original models of now iconic devices, with some fun tech-fetish facts. Did you know the first cell phone weighed a whopping 4.4 pounds? Or that the world's first super soaker was invented completely by accident? Examples below; click through for Wired's complete gallery.
First of all you tell someone to jump off of a roof onto a tranpoline
Every day of the week, WonderHowTo curators are hard at work, scouring the web for the greatest and most inspiring how-to videos. Every Friday, we'll highlight our favorite finds.
Shiny, pretty touchscreen vending machines have finally gone mainstream in Japan. My only question is... what's taken so long? The vending machine business can be quite lucrative (location, location, location), so all the more reason to make the interface as aesthetically appealing and user friendly as the iPhone AND as smart as a robot (read below). Features (translation via YouTube):
Funny video, sort of like the Jay Leno street questions segment. IGN asks regular people in San Francisco what they think a game is about based on the box art. They showed people different games and they gave really frank answers.
When viewing Toronto based artist Evan Penny's work, Ron Mueck immediately comes to mind. The clear similarities include a representation which is completely photo-realistic, a playfulness with scale, and the mutually shared background in Hollywood SFX.
Here's another jewel from Serious Eats series, The Nasty Bits: yummy cow tongue, complete with that lovely texture we all know so well. Though most us likely have a negative visceral reaction to the idea of tongue, Serious Eats make a compelling argument that it is actually one of the tastiest bits of the animal.
