if you're bored, you're not paying attention
When this year began, we were feverishly speculating about an Apple tablet, looking forward to 3-D TV sets, and optimistically waiting for the end of the cable companies’ cruel grip on our wallets.
We had to settle for one out of three.… Story continues … “The 10 Most Significant Gadgets of 2010”
Is it too late for holiday shopping? Not at all. If you act fast, you can still get some cool gifts for the geeks on your list. Some are available online and some require a trip to a local store — but all of the items on this list are likely to be well-received by any Wired reader.… Story continues … “Last-Minute Geeky Christmas Gifts”
Newly-approved Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is a Kindle user, while longtime conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wields an iPad.
This nugget of information appeared in a recent video clip on C-SPAN. Both justices use the devices (plus hard copy printouts) to read the vast quantities of written material they must wade through — up to 40 or 50 briefs for each case, Kagan says in the video above.… Story continues … “Supreme Court Considers Kindle v. iPad”
Every day, 3.2 gajigabytes of streaming video are delivered straight to the screens of slackers like you and me, sitting at our desks at work and gawping at classic outtakes from The Muppet Show in 1979, re-creations of news events by creative Taiwanese animators, and adorably cute animal babies.… Story continues … “Boxee Box Is an Endless Stream of Disappointment”
Research in Motion announced this morning that it acquired Swedish interface design firm TAT, whose initials stand for The Astonishing Tribe.
RIM clearly plans to use the Swedes’ talent to beef up future versions of the BlackBerry user interface, which despite the addition of touchscreen tech in the last year still seems clunky and quaint compared to iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7.… Story continues … “How BlackBerry Could Benefit From a Swedish Redesign”
Gawker founder Nick Denton is one of the most aggressive and successful blog publishers around.
He started with a good gut understanding of what works online, and built a federation of blogs that exploit a similar model (low overhead, smart and fast writers, efficient tech and ad sales) to great effect.… Story continues … “Beyond the blog.”
Poet and publisher Dave Bonta spoke to me on the phone awhile back for his “Woodrat” podcast. He got me to talk about everything from how I handle submissions to tinywords, what my publishing philosophy is, why haiku is important, and what I learned from studying poetry with Louise Glück.… Story continues … “Woodrat Podcast 21: In which I talk about poetry and technology”
While other phones are going large, Motorola is taking things in a different direction: small and tough.
The new Motorola Defy is a compact Android phone that wisely eschews the gigantism of other smartphones. Instead of the HTC Evo’s 4.3-inch screen or the Dell Streak’s 5-incher (please!),… Story continues … “Petite Android Seeks Partner for Adventure, Beer”
Apple is planning an announcement Tuesday morning regarding iTunes.
Count us among the cautiously optimistic. ITunes is one of the most successful software packages in history, installed on more than 125 million computers worldwide and used for about 70 percent of all digital-music purchases.… Story continues … “What We Wish Apple Would Do With iTunes”
1815: English mathematician George Boole, who would help establish what is now known as Boolean logic, is born.
Boole’s breakthrough was the insight that logic, which had previously been considered a branch of philosophy, was actually closer to mathematics. All you needed to do was express logical problems in a symbolic format, and they could be solved in a way similar to mathematical problems.… Story continues … “Nov. 2, 1815: Boole Born, Boolean Logic Logically Follows”