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As if launching one drone alone wasn't good enough, hobbyists at Flite Test have decided that what's required is a drone carrier. Yep, this video shows one drone take off from the back of another.

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This is one of many videos from Airbrush Action Magazine capturing self-taught airbrush artist Glen Weisgerber, who has been painting custom lettering and graphics for trucks, cars, guitars and motorbikes since the 1970s. It shows Weisgerber demonstrating his “round hand lettering” technique—essentially a kind of calligraphy that emphasizes open, flowing letterforms—by hand-painting words on an…

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Disney Interactive posted $116 million in annual operating profit, which is the first time Disney's gaming arm has made a yearly gain under its current setup. The figure represents the division's profit for the fiscal year that ended September 27,...

 Many people, like me, were wondering when Spotify would use its Connect feature — which launched just over a year ago — to connect their phone and desktop devices. Well, I’m please to say that this #firstworldproblem has been itched today, and you can now use your phone or tablet as a remote control for the tunes playing on your desktop. Read More

The EFF:

The scorecard includes more than three dozen tools, including chat clients, text messaging apps, email applications, and technologies for voice and video calls. EFF examined them on seven factors, like whether the message is encrypted both in-transit and at the provider level, and if the code is audited and open to independent review. Six of these tools scored all seven stars, including ChatSecure, CryptoCat, Signal/Redphone, Silent Phone, Silent Text, and TextSecure. Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime products stood out as the best of the mass-market options, although neither currently provides complete protection against sophisticated, targeted forms of surveillance. Many options — including Google, Facebook, and Apple’s email products, Yahoo’s web and mobile chat, Secret, and WhatsApp — lack the end-to-end encryption that is necessary to protect against disclosure by the service provider. Several major messaging platforms, like QQ, Mxit, and the desktop version of Yahoo Messenger, have no encryption at all.

I’ve never heard of any of the six apps to which they awarded all seven stars.

Nick Wingfield, writing for the NYT:

But in a sign of the seismic changes underway in the tech industry, Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, said on Thursday that it would give away a comprehensive mobile edition of Office. The free software for iPads, iPhones and Android tablets will do most of the most essential things people normally do with the computer versions of the product.

Just a few years ago, giving away a full free version of Office would have earned a Microsoft chief executive a visit from a witch doctor. Now, the move is following through on the rallying cry coming from Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s new chief executive, who has pushed cloud and mobile computing as lodestars for the company’s future.

Marco Arment:

It seems that Microsoft is finally accepting the reality of Office’s market position on smartphones and tablets. To some degree, Office needs to compete with the free Google Docs and iWork, but for many customers, it’s also competing with the idea of simply not using office apps (or using them far less often).

A group of University of Washington researchers showed a year ago that brain-to-brain interfacing is possible in real life. Now, they're back after conducting a more thorough experiment, proving that their initial success wasn't a fluke. This time,...

Toy Story is coming back for another installment, and original film director John Lasseter is on board to direct. The film will be released on June 16th, 2017. This is likely to be exciting, if trepidatious news for fans of Pixar and the series: Pixar has increasingly relied on sequels for big hits, while creating great new properties has been put on the back burner. It's likely that Pixar's move toward sequels is in part a result of being owned by Disney, which would rather see Pixar continue to mine its most successful properties — of which Toy Story is perhaps the biggest.

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Last night's episode of South Park was an ode to all things freemium, and as you might expect from the longrunning comedy show, they went in hard on the unethical free-to-play menace that has been plaguing video games for the past few years.

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iPhone users are usually considered safe from malware, but a new report from Palo Alto Networks suggests that reputation may be about to change. Palo Alto's researchers have discovered a bug called Wirelurker, which the company says may have already impacted hundreds of thousands of users. The bug is primarily spreading through the Maiyadi App Store, a third-party source for OS X software in China, and researchers estimated the infected apps have been downloaded 356,104 times already. Once the computer is infected, Wirelurker spreads to iOS devices that connect over USB, rewriting existing programs on the device through binary file replacement. It's the first such bug that can infect iPhones that haven't been jailbroken, using the rarely...

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You can’t just expect people to switch to an altogether unfamiliar device because of a corporate sponsorship. iPads are essential tools for many people. Familiarity matters. Microsoft needs to focus on getting people to want to use Surface tablets, not use them because of a corporate sponsorship. This is just embarrassing.

Remember Code Name STEAM ? Here's some new footage of its tactical action—and now we have a vague release date, too. Spring 2015, for the 3DS.

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Carnegie Mellon researchers have built Spliddit, a web site which gives users "provably fair" ways to divide things of value.

Dividing a cake using the “I cut, you choose” method is the classic example used to illustrate envy-free approaches.

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After years of teases, it's finally official: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is coming to the 3DS this spring.

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Just in time for the November 11 launch of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Microsoft and developer 343 Industries have unveiled a new eSports league dedicated entirely to the publisher's flagship shooter franchise. "The 'Halo Championship...

Make sure you keep your ticket when you get your sandwich.

For the first time in probably forever, Katz's Delicatessen will sell a limited-edition sandwich, and it's a doozy: The Roast Beast is made with roast beef, turkey breast, and the Lower East Side institution's famous soft salami, as well as some house coleslaw and plenty of Russian dressing. It's on rye, or course, and will be sold from November 17 to December 28. The sandwich is slightly more mammoth in real life, and if the picture doesn't make it clear, it's got a real Seussian thing going on.

Katz's, of course, does not normally serve sandwiches piled with meat. Its hardworking slicers do not dabble in the precarious mountains of cold cuts spaced out with slices of rye as they were served at the lamented Stage Deli. This one happens to be a festive tie-in with Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, which is playing the at Theater at Madison Square Garden from December 5 to December 28. It costs $22 plus tax, and no holiday cheer at all is needed to enjoy it.

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Filed Under: beasts, how the grinch stole christmas, katz's deli, roast beast

Everyone knows graffiti artist extraordinaire Banksy is a man. What this post presupposes is, maybe she's a woman?

But what Banksy Does New York makes plain is that the artist known as Banksy is someone with a background in the art world. That someone is working with a committee of people to execute works that range in scale from simple stencil graffiti to elaborate theatrical conceits. The documentary shows that Banksy has a different understanding of the street than the artists, street-writers, and art dealers who steal Banksy's shine by "spot-jocking" or straight-up pilfering her work-swagger-jackers who are invariably men in Banksy Does New York.

All of which serves as evidence against the flimsy theory that Banksy is a man.

Or maybe Banksy's like the Dread Pirate Roberts?

Tags: art   Banksy   graffiti   Old Custer

Musician, producer, and just generally positive dude will.i.am has dipped his toes more than once into the personal technology world. His latest venture is a wearable smartphone called the Puls, sold under his i.am+ company. The Puls is a fully independent smartwatch — it has its own SIM card and doesn't rely on being connected to a smartphone to work. Will.i.am introduced it to the world on a stage at Salesforce's Dreamforce conference last month in front a bunch of devotees to CRM.

I got a chance to use an early production model earlier today. It's objectively the worst product I've touched all year.

The Puls is a stiff cuff that you wear around your wrist. It has a curved touchscreen on its surface and sensors to measure your...

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María Teresa Romero Ramos, 44, was found to be infected with the virus after treating a Spanish missionary who had returned from West Africa with the disease.

Rodriguez, a Yankees third baseman, told federal agents in January that he had used performance-enhancing drugs supplied by Anthony Bosch’s South Florida clinic, according to a report in The Miami Herald.

Scotch-infused bourbon joins tequila-vodka and Cognac-infused Grey Goose.

Our heady, exciting age of Cronuts and Dorito-fied everything has now seemingly spilled over into the liquor cabinet: Last week, the Suntory-owned distiller Jim Beam announced it will next year roll out what it's named Jim Beam Kentucky Dram, described as "premium Bourbon infused with Highland Scotch whisky." Of course, whiskys made in Japan are right now making quite a showing, but because it's already possible to buy a tequila-vodka mash-up and Cognac-infused premium vodka, it seems there are other forces at work here beyond the basic mash-up novelty of it all.

Recent booze flavor experiments include port-finished whiskies, a pinot noir-finished bourbon, and Riesling-infused and oak-aged gins. But because they are angling for their own permanent share of the bar cart, these new top-shelf products are different: Vodquila, a "blend of premium vodka and Mexican blue agave tequila" that happens when the two are "infused together at a high temperature," may sound like something concocted during a particularly grim frat party lull, but it apparently so wowed the judges at an International Wine and Spirit Competition event this year — where it won a gold medal — that they are said to be considering adding a "hybrid drinks" category for the future.

Elsewhere, Grey Goose this fall rolled out VX, which is vodka "finished with a hint of precious Cognac." Like the vodka itself, the spirit is bottled in Cognac and touts a familial connection of a sort to Francois Thibault, the blender who came up with the original Goose recipe. ("It is not a hybrid," says the vodka's brand ambassador, who prefers the term "love story.") And there are yet others: a tropical-flavored vodka plus moscato, Kahlua plus rum. Piedre Almas +9, a mezcal gin hybrid made as a small-batch craft liquor in Oaxaca, also joins the roster.

Why is this happening? Other than the now practically knee-jerk tendency to smash together two (or more) road-tested products and combine them into something new and intensely Frankensteinian, it's good business sense: Grey Goose sales abruptly dropped 5 percent in 2013, and the world can only have so many Cinnabon vodkas, which don't exactly scream luxury. We've also arrived at a time when one of America's most revered brands is newly Japanese-owned, and court battles are fighting over the technical details of what is and isn't Tennessee whiskey. All of this is to say there's suddenly a lot more wiggle room to revise the origin stories of our most revered brands. "This is the first of a new range," Beam's marketing manager tells the Spirits Business, "so each year we look forward to introducing something related to the legends that Jim Beam was created with."

Related: Japanese Whisky Wins ‘World’s Best’ Title
[The Spirits Business]

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Filed Under: chin chin, grey goose vx, hybrid liquors, jim beam, vodquila

It might include pork buns.

The Momofuku chef, restaurateur, and all-around empire builder is now also the chief culinary officer at a start-up called Maple, which will begin delivering meals to Manhattanites in around 15 minutes' time beginning early next year. The food may be piping hot when it reaches you, but it won't be Momofuku-branded, a representative says. The company aims to charge $12-15 per meal, with tax, delivery, and tip included. All recipes will be exclusive to the service, and what's more, David Chang will bring more chefs into the fold to diversify the menus, which will change all the time.

Unlike, say, Caviar, which now sherpas everything from Han Dynasty's dan dan noodles to Oddfellows pints directly from the establishments to your doorstep, Maple will deploy the kind of algorithms used by FedEx to centrally locate its commissary kitchens based on user data. and sign-ups. The idea is that the computational approach will vastly reduce delivery times.

Despite various advances, New York still contends with logistical failures when it comes to delivery of some its most eternally popular foods: Ramen noodles get all mushy in transit, French fries immediately become un-crispy, and despite all sorts of cardboard flaps and vents and pizza-box technology, our pies almost never get to the door without suffering some kind of mozzarella-related mishap. It's obviously too early to tell, but the combination of Chang's food I.Q. and Maple's brainiac approach to delivery parameters might change all that. The company closed on a $4 million seed round earlier this year, so there may even be some pork buns involved.

[Official site]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: startups, david chang, delivery, maple

Flavor packet not included.

There is some very big news in the world of make-at-home ramen: Whole Foods recently announced they'll carry a small line of at-home ramen kits in their New York stores that are made by none other than the famed Sun Noodle company. Sun, of course, also makes the noodles that ramen superstars like Ivan Orkin and David Chang sell at their restaurants, so the blockbuster potential here is huge.

It's clear from the packaging alone that these kits are a step above the instant cups: They're currently sold for $5.99 each in two flavors — Shoyu (soy) and miso, as well as a $2.99 Kaedama noodle pack that doesn't come with flavoring — and, because they're made at Sun's facility in New Jersey, should be stored in the refrigerator for no longer than 14 days.

But Grub wanted to know one important thing: Do these premium ramen kits have what it takes to impress college kids, arguably the most important ramen-making demographic? To find out, we gave packs to three NYU students — office interns Stephanie Eckardt, Layla Ilchi, and Marcus Jones — and asked them what they thought.

First off, what kinds of kitchens were you working with?
Marcus Jones: I have a kitchenette, so it’s super small. I kept my ramen in a mini-fridge. I have a stove, but there’s not a full kitchen area, so I was kind of stuck in a corner.
Stephanie Eckardt: I have a stove, limited counter space.
Layla Ilchi: It’s an apartment kitchen, small.

What was it like actually cooking the kits?
SE: My pot only holds four cups of water, so I used that to boil the noodles. I already felt bad for wasting four cups of water, so I used the water I boiled the noodles in to make the broth.
LI: I just filled a pot with water and put the noodles in. The instructions called for seven cups of water, but I didn’t really pay attention to it because I didn’t think that was necessary. Then I boiled water to make the sauce separately. I put them both in a bowl and added veggies because it didn’t have anything.
MJ: I borrowed my roommate’s pot because my pot wasn’t big enough to hold the seven cups. I did not have a measuring cup, so I just filled up a mug seven times and threw it in. Then, once the noodles finished cooking, I took my mug, dipped it in the boiling noodle water, and added it to the bowl with the broth base. I mixed that up and then spooned the ramen into the bowl — just scooped it out, like, up and over.
SE: It was so funny how the package told you to add ham, boiled eggs, and green onion. We’re college kids!
LI: Yeah, where am I gonna get that from?
MJ: My microwave takes up most of the countertop we have in the kitchenette. It’s like a microwave in front and a dish rack in the back, so if I had to chop anything it would either be on my dresser or on top of my microwave.

Was it worth the extra effort? Did you like how this ramen turned out?
SE: It tasted so weird. Eeeuuuugghh. It was sort of floury and eggy-tasting, the noodles, everything. I don’t know if it was because I used that water and I should have used fresh water. I took out half of the ramen and left the other half in the pot, and it ended up absorbing all the water and became this big clump. It was really gross, so I decided to throw it out. The oil and miso in the packet had separated, and it tasted really gross. It was so salty. The package said that a serving has 130 percent of your daily sodium, so I only used half of it, but it was still overpoweringly salty — and I really like salt and miso. And then I was going to put in veggies also, but I didn’t want to after I tried it. I didn’t want to put that broth flavor on my veggies.
LI: Veggies helped it for me. But I used the soy package and it was too salty. Halfway through, I didn’t really want to eat anymore. I felt really sick afterwards.
MJ: It definitely felt like a lot more food, since the noodles are thicker than instant. But I liked the noodles a lot. They were comparable to the trendy ramen places I’ve been to, Momofuku and Ippudo. It’s definitely restaurant-quality noodles. But the broth was just okay.

So you go to a lot of ramen shops?
MJ: I definitely do. I really like ramen so I was excited to try it, but then the ramen you buy from M2M or something is super convenient because it’s quick and it’s basically boil water, throw the noodles in, throw the seasoning in — whereas this is, like, pour an ocean into your pot.

Were you aware that Sun Noodle supplies some of the best ramen shops in the city? Places like Momofuku and Ivan Ramen.
LI: They need to step up their game.

Would any of you ever make this again?
SE: Absolutely not.
LI: No. I wasn’t a fan of it, no.
SE: It was too much work.
MJ: It’s less work than I thought it was, but I still felt like, do I care about the noodle quality that much? If I wanted that type of noodle, I could just walk over to Momofuku or Ippudo and eat it. As far as eating ramen at home, I’m fine with instant.

So how would you improve the product?
LI: It should have come with more stuff, maybe veggies or something.
SE: I think they should be displayed with those items in the refrigerated case.
LI: Make it less salty. That would help.
MJ: I really hope Sun Noodles doesn’t ban me from Momofuku. [Laughter.] I still want to eat the noodles there! I just don’t want their flavoring packets. Or lack thereof.

You might be blacklisted from the ramen shops now.
MJ: Change my name to Martin in the article.

Read more posts by Vicky Gan

Filed Under: quick takes, sun noodle, whole foods

You might think this Pokemon keyboard design, which swaps out the letters with tiny pictures of Pokemon, is the least practical keyboard ever made. But hey, look at that: the name of every Pokemon used corresponds with the letters they're replacing. So if you know your Pokemon, you'll be just fine.

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J2ObjC is a “Java to iOS Objective-C translation tool and runtime”. Google uses it to maintain a cross-platform shared codebase for its mobile apps; internal logic is written once (in Java) and ported to Objective-C using this tool. But it’s only for non-UI code. Here’s why, from creator Tom Ball:

It’s regularly asked why J2ObjC purposely avoids translating UI code; after all, wouldn’t it be wonderful if a tool existed where a developer can drop in Android source and out pops an iOS app? Our usual response is that world-class apps need user interfaces that are tightly integrated with each platform, and that common-denominator attempts to span platforms provide degrades user experiences. As I found when working on Swing many years ago, customers notice the smallest deviations from a platform’s UI standards and generally find them off-putting. But non-compromising UIs are just one of the reasons we focus on translating shared logic.

I wasn’t aware of this; my thanks to Google’s Ray Cromwell for bringing it to my attention. What I find interesting is that Google is (wisely, in my opinion) hand-crafting their iOS UI code for performance reasons and to avoid all the well-known pitfalls of cross-platform UI code, but they’re using their cross-platform “Material Design” visual style. That is, they’re writing native iOS code to create Google-styled apps.

Ron Amadeo, writing for Ars Technica:

We’ve seen widespread complaints about the new “premium” pricing strategy for the new Nexus devices, and to make matters worse, the Nexus 9 didn’t really live up to the “premium” price. With a price cut this deep just a day after launch, we have to wonder if the Nexus 9 is really worth $400. On Google Play, the device is still going for $400, but this is definitely an eyebrow-raising move by HTC.