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Xbox 360 owners now have the option to download the Pizza Hut app for their console and place an order directly from the comfort of their couch, cozy recliner or beanbag chair. As Polygon reports, there's no need to search for a phone anymore, as the chain's full menu (pizza, pasta, breadsticks, agita) is available from the app. Shame or pride after ordering can be shared across Facebook.

"We're always looking at ways to give our audience more of what they're interested in," Xbox's Larry Hryb told Polygon. "If you look at our audience, they love pizza. I mean, who doesn't? It has international appeal, and Pizza Hut is a recognized brand that matches up well with the Xbox brand."

Don't go thinking Microsoft is some pioneer in this space. In 2005, World of Warcraft let you order chinese food from Pandaren Xpress... no, wait, that was a joke. However, EverQuest 2 players could order a pie by simply typing /pizza.

Order Pizza Hut from Xbox 360 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Right on the heels of the latest Dove Real Beauty campaign, newfeelingstime has a parody in which men go through the same experiment. First they are sketched according to their own descriptions, and then from the descriptions of other people. It doesn't turn out the same way. -via Daily of the Day

nadiaoxford:

“Recreate a video game cover using only comic sans and clipart.”

…

Oh my god I’m dying

Manchester United completed their leisurely stroll to a record 20th league title with an all too easy 3-0 win over relegation threatened Aston Villa. After the match, Man United players and staff celebrated their title clinching win with the excitement of an accountant after realizing a new way to decrease his client's tax bill.

In the subdued mix of it all, a fan tossed a fake severed arm onto the pitch, which a smiling Patrice Evra picked up and pretended to bite. It seemed to be a reference to Luis Suarez's second opponent biting incident during the Liverpool-Chelsea match a day earlier from the man Suarez was found guilty of racially abusing last season. Either that or it was the result of the human sacrifices that have brought Alex Ferguson and Man United their success.

Coincidentally, Evra has now won a Premier League title for each of the five fingers on that hand during his time with Man United.

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Futurama is no stranger to being cancelled, and it unfortunately looks like the axe has fallen yet again — Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Comedy Central has declined to renew the show, making the seventh season the last go for the Planet Express crew (note: link contains season seven spoilers). While the show has a loyal and devoted fanbase, it also has had more ups and downs than most programs experience since its debut on Fox way back in 1999. Futurama was the victim of erratic scheduling until the plug was finally pulled (for the first time) in 2003.

Comedy Central led the show's first revival in 2007 after reruns of the Fox episodes on Adult Swim proved popular — four straight-to-DVD movies were released, and each was eventually broken into four individual episodes which comprised the show's fifth season. The network then gave the show two more 26-episode seasons, each of which was split down the middle, with the final 13-episode run scheduled to begin on July 19th.

"I think these episodes are the best ones we've ever done."

"I felt like we were already in the bonus round on these last couple of seasons, so I can't say I was devastated by the news," executive producer David X. Cohen told EW. Despite Cohen and creator Matt Groening's acceptance of Futurama's final fate, both left the door open for yet another revival. The show's producers said they were exploring options for a new home, but there was nothing serious yet to report. "We would love to continue. We have many more stories to tell," says Groening. "But if we don't, this is a really great way to go out... I think these episodes are the best ones we've ever done."

Please note: The Entertainment Weekly source link contains season seven spoilers, including details on the final episode!

Steve Jobs never got around to building the iCar, but Apple has worked with Volkswagen on its new iBeetle. The German carmaker teamed up with Apple to design what it calls a "genuine integrative interface" for the smartphone, pairing them using the peculiarly named smartphone app Volkswagen Car Net The Beetle and a dedicated docking station located on the car's dash.

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Its 'genuine integrative interface' was coordinated with Apple

While Apple has already forged partnerships with BMW, Mercedes, GM, Land Rover, Jaguar, Audi, Honda, and Ferrari to integrate its Siri Eyes Free feature, Volkswagen has taken a different approach by offering separate apps and accessories. The car is also available in various colors that are "stylistically linked" to Apple. The docking station is designed to allow the iPhone to snap into the cradle, which will then provide owners with the ability to make use of the specially designed app. The app itself enables Spotify integration, use of a G-Meter, oil temperature gauges, fuel economy diagnostics, and a variety of social features — most of which should probably not be used while you are driving.

Volkswagen says it conceptualized the iBeetle for the debut of iPhone 5 integration, but with advance sales for the car beginning in October 2013 ahead of a 2014 launch, we can't help but point out that Apple will have likely released a new iPhone model by that time. However, the company also notes that the Beetle is the first model line in which it has provided iPhone integration — suggesting other models could feature Apple-specific services in the future.

Fresh off being named to the shortlist for PFA Player of the Year, Luis Suarez continued his history of bizarre and vicious in-game violence during Liverpool's match against Chelsea on Sunday by biting Branislav Ivanovic on the arm like a giant, rabid zombie squirrel. Suarez conceded a penalty and earned a yellow card for a handball in the box in the 56th minute, which allowed Eden Hazard to score a go-ahead goal for Chelsea.

Less than 20 minutes later, a seemingly innocuous battle for position between Suarez and Ivanovic led to the Liverpool striker burying his face in Ivanovic's arm and taking a bite before the Chelsea defender shoved him off. Despite Ivanovic's brief protest, the referee apparently didn't see the incident, but it will surely be reviewed by The FA in the coming days.

(UPDATE: Suarez apologizes after the match.)

Showing the full spectrum of his ugly behavior and undeniable talent, Suarez went on to score an equalizer just before the final whistle to end the game at 2-2.

This, of course, isn't the first time Suarez has bitten an opponent during a match. In 2010, while he was with Ajax, he bit PSV's Otman Bakkal on the shoulder. As with the Chelsea incident, he wasn't booked at the time, but he was eventually banned for seven matches. Last season he was banned eight matches for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.

Suddenly this headline from the Guardian takes on a whole new meaning...

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When it comes to Apple products, refurbished is the best way to go. RefurbMe showcases the latest, available refurbished products from the Apple Store and makes it easier to quickly snag the best deals as soon as they're listed.

Read more...

Holy butts! The Legend of Zelda 3DS

It’s not a remake for a Link to the Past — it’s a new game set in the SNES classic’s world, releasing this holiday season! It will feature new dungeons and an original storyline.

The new title looks to “”reinvigorate the flat 2D world of A Link to the Past with a sense of height and volume,” making it easier to differentiate levels and adding a new puzzle-solving mechanic. Link can also now become a drawing and move within walls, changing the game’s perspective and allowing you to see previously hidden connections to solve puzzles.

Watch the reveal and trailer past the break:

here’s also a 3D version of the video you can watch on the eShop. Shout-outs to Toddhunter for the original GIFs.

BUY Hyrule Historia, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

“Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking soundbites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, ‘that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘The Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machinegun?”

The obscure 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.

The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. Kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”

In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, “The NBC Nightly News” and other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them.

The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.”

-

A Roger Ebert quote that sticks out in my mind

From his review of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant

(via yeezytaughtme)

Man that movie is so sad.

(via softcastle-mccormick)

A Link to the Past and its 3DS sequel compared

I’m a bit LTTP on this since the image made the rounds yesterday, but Zelda Informer put together this direct overworld comparison using screengrabs from the new Legend of Zelda 3DS trailer yesterday. Not everyone’s in love with the 3D aesthetic, but I ain’t even that worried about it.

Meanwhile, Nintendo of America’s product marketing director Bill Trinen tells Joystiq that “from a story perspective there are connections [between the 3DS game and the original SNES title], so it does fall after A Link to the Past.”

BUY Hyrule Historia, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

13 minutes of Zelda 3DS with direct audio

Even as a demo dungeon, this is looking hot. Skip to 3:15 to preview some fun uses of the new paper/heiroglyphic Link feature. 

BUY Hyrule Historia, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

For hand towels, astronauts get those little vacuum-packed pucks that you kind of have to unravel into a towel. But what happens when you actually put the towels to use?

Two Nova Scotia high school students, Kendra Lemke and Meredith Faulkner, submitted this experiment to Canadian Space Agency and got to see astronaut Chris Hadfield actually test it out on the ISS. The results are seriously extraordinary and you need to see them.

Thanks, Dean!

Chinese pirate site 7659 is exploiting Apple's bulk enterprise licensing tools to distribute free versions of paid App Store applications. Bulk enterprise licensing is supposed to let businesses send in-house apps to employees without dealing with Apple's App Store. It works via a developer provisioning profile, which facilitates "sideloading" of sorts without jailbreaking.

The site is only open to users in China, but that restriction can be circumvented via proxy server. According to VentureBeat, 7659 is full of apps that would otherwise cost money. Those include our best new app last week, Badland, which is usually $3.99, and Final Fantasy V, priced at $15.99 in the App Store. In a statement on its site, Kuaiyong, the company that appears to run 7659, explains its reasoning behind offering the apps:

"First of all, we would like to thank all Apple users around the world and your support for Kuaiyong.

Statistics have shown that a significant amount of Apple users are Chinese based. However, the fact is that in China, a large number of Apple users are not very familiar with the iTunes system and how to effectively manage it.

In order for Chinese Apple fans to download applications securely, Kuaiyong developed its own method of giving users access to thousands of free apps without having to jailbreak their devices. Kuaiyong offers detailed descriptions of apps, free app download trial, IOS device management and visual and audio file backup system. IOS system backup and recovery features will also be released in the very near future.

Our goal has always been about bringing Chinese Apple users with quick, convenient and pleasant IOS experience. Since the introduce of Kuaiyong, the proportion of jailbreak in China has declined dramatically from 60% to around 30%. Kuaiyong will hold on to this goal in the future and we would like to see more support for Apple as well as Kuaiyong."

Kuaiyong's justification for providing pirate apps — that navigating the App Store is difficult for Chinese users — is laughable at best. It would appear that Apple won't have a particularly tough time putting a stop to this, though, as all of the apps are provisioned with the same developer profile. Apple just needs to find a way to cut 7659's profile off. Of course, there's always the chance that the same organization could use another developing profile to achieve the same thing, and it's not clear if Apple is able to remove apps remotely from users' phones. VentureBeat says it asked Apple for comment on the matter "multiple times" without response, but we've also reached out to ask how it plans to deal with 7659.

 

World 1-2 is a music album 8 months in the making, with over 80 minutes of music and a roster of 21 composers — and  is finally available to pre-order! You’ll receive 5 tracks upon pre-ordering, and Bandcamp will e-mail you your copy once the album is out on May 2nd. Get yours now & spread the word!

World 1-2, a new album produced by Mohammed Taher for the record label GameChops, is a collection of new material by relatively new voices like Super Hexagon composer Chipzel, and established artists like Mega Man's Manami Matsumae (who Taher's Koopa Soundworks connected to Yacht Club Games for Shovel Knight). Other artists on the eclectic mix include Danimal Cannon, Austin Wintory, Tecmo's Keiji Yamagishi, halc, and Akira Yamaoka.

The album will be released on May 2 for $10. Five sample tracks can be streamed here, in case the collected talent on the album isn't convincing enough.

'World 1-2' album brings chiptune artists and legendary composers together originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new build of Windows 8.1 has surfaced on file sharing networks this week along with a host of screenshots providing a fresh look at Microsoft's plans for its Windows 8 upgrade. Build 9369, a more recent build than the previous leak, includes some tweaks and changes as work continues on Windows 8.1. Microsoft hasn't made any significant changes in this build, but the company appears to be improving the multitasking interface for multiple "Metro-style" applications.

New multitasking UI

While the previous build revealed the ability to snap multiple apps, the latest leak includes a new UI element that allows you to pick which view an app opens into. This mode is only enabled when two or more apps are snapped side-by-side, and the new app splash screen simply hovers until an area is selected. Other improvements include a "Files" app with the SkyDrive logo. It's not immediately clear whether this is the result of Microsoft's continued SkyDrive integration, or a separate "Metro" file explorer. Either way, the app includes a touch-friendly interface to navigate local files and content stored on SkyDrive.

Microsoft also appears to be improving its support for keyboard and mouse users. A new apps button is present in the left-hand side of the Start Screen which provides quick access to a list of apps. A new filter is also available to select by "most used" apps. The Search Charm functionality is also altered, allowing users to type a search query and then press enter to search apps or select the relevant search area from the Charm. In Windows 8, this automatically starts searching apps from the Start Screen. A new search setting also allows Windows 8.1 to include search suggestions and results from the web, something we'd previously heard was coming.

Lockscreen camera access was previously discovered, and the UI appears to work in build 9369, allowing users to simply drag down on the lockscreen to access the camera and take photos quickly. Microsoft has also added trackpad settings into the Windows 8-style PC settings page, letting users disable edge gestures.

No surprises, just refinements

Overall there's no huge surprises or changes here. A boot to desktop setting does not appear to be present, and the Start Button is nowhere to be seen. Microsoft is still tweaking Windows 8.1 heavily and the company is expected to release a public preview version at its Build developer conference in June.

If you were taken aback by the indie rock outro during the closing credits of Sunday night’s episode of Game of Thrones, you weren’t the only one. To uncover the thinking behind the jarring cut-to-credits, Wired spoke with the guitarist of The Hold Steady, the band tasked with arranging "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" (below) — a popular tavern song in the world of Westeros — for a more modern audience. "They wanted it to contrast a little bit," said guitarist Tad Kubler. "Obviously, we’re not going to do a medieval-type jam."

Intel, AMD, and ARM are all competing to offer a compelling Windows 8 experience at a low price point, but Intel might be poised to shoot ahead. For the time being, you have to pay upwards of $400 for a tablet with Intel's dual-core "Clover Trail" Atom processor, but company CEO Paul Otellini says that prices will drop drastically when the new Bay Trail chip arrives later this year. Not only will Bay Trail allegedly offer a quad-core chip without consuming additional power, but Otellini claims that "prices are going to be down to as low as $200" for Windows 8 touchscreen laptops.

"The touch price points today are still fairly high and they're coming down very rapidly over the next couple of quarters," Otellini said today, on a quarterly investor call.

At $200, Windows 8 touchscreen devices would be as cheap as even the cheapest popular Chrome OS device today, the Acer C7 Chromebook. Whether those laptops have the performance and battery life to offer a compelling Windows 8 experience, though, that's harder to call.

In the aftermath of yesterday's tragic events in Boston, what appeared to be a chillingly prescient clip from a month-old Family Guy episode circulated around the internet. The video is a doctored composite of two scenes from the episode "Turban Cowboy," and plays off Family Guy's trademark flashback method of telling jokes to suggest that lead character Peter Griffin detonated a bomb at the Boston Marathon. While the joke is crude and tasteless, it wouldn't be unexpected for a show that frequently pushes the boundaries of what's acceptable. But the next controversy was extreme, even for Family Guy: conspiracy theorists linked the fake clip to the attacks on the Boston Marathon, which they suggested was a government-orchestrated attack.

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As the AP reports, the clip actually splices two separate scenes from one episode together, giving the impression that the plot involved explosions at the Boston Marathon. Instead, the marathon scene featured Peter running over participants in his car, and the bombings were part of a separate thread where a terrorist blew up a bridge. Fox has removed the episode from its website and Hulu, and it's easy to see why — the episode was already crass, and yesterday's tragedy casts it in a whole new light. But knowing how the clip came together would seem to absolve Family Guy of "predicting" the attack; creator Seth McFarlane spoke out to call the video "abhorrent."

Our hearts go out to those that are hurt or killed #Boston marathon - but this thing stinks to high heaven #falseflag

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) April 15, 2013

But the video has made the rounds on areas of the internet looking to establish the "truth" behind the Boston bombings. As he frequently does following major events, controversial conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of InfoWars was quick to cast aspersions over the attacks, saying the incident "stinks to high heaven." In a further video, Jones argues that arrangements for a controlled explosion drill around the marathon suggest a government cover-up planned in the event that something went wrong. InfoWars radio host Dan Bidondi attended a Boston Police Department press conference and asked "Is this another false flag staged attack to take our civil liberties and promote homeland security while sticking their hands down our pants on the streets?" Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick replied "No."

VIDEO: Family Guy Episode Predicted Boston Marathon Attack - youtube.com/watch?v=gmGNta…

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) April 16, 2013

Jones made the connection to Family Guy when he tweeted an InfoWars article titled "Family Guy Episode Predicted Boston Marathon Attack." When YouTube pulled the clip, InfoWars updated the article to state that the video "is not a hoax" and that its removal is designed to censor "your right to merely talk about it." Despite widespread criticism of Jones' commentary on the incident, however, he remains undeterred. "Seth MacFarlane created a cartoon which made fun of terrorist bombings and depicted mutilated Boston Marathon runners," he wrote on Twitter. "Yet he is labeling people who merely talk about the episode as 'abhorrent.'"

Good news everyone! Hive is now my legit job.

Special thanks to my current employer Tivix, who is sponsoring me and this project. For the next month I will be working on Hive with Tivix and all it’s resources are at my disposal.

What does this mean for Hivemined?

I can now focus on this 100% and get it out the door asap. (get yourself ready)
I will be bringing in at least one other person who is 100% focused on Hive as well.
I also will be getting help from some of the most talented people I know and already work with.
With their help, along with my full attention, you can get it in your hands way faster and hopefully with fewer bugs.

This is super exciting news. I couldn’t ask for anything better. HUGE thanks to Tivix for giving me this opportunity and resources to see Hive come to life. (I think they got tired of me always talking about it and spending all my free time on it, lol)

To you, the community: thanks for sticking with me! This is now happening without a doubt and should arrive way faster. Expect more updates, we want to be very open about what’s happening and keep you in the loop.

Lastly, the answer to Beta keys is soon. I’ll have a more concrete answer hopefully late next week.

I can’t wait, it’s gonna be awesome.

http://hivemined.org/

Worth reblogging for the Super Mario World one alone. So good.

(via it8bit/Víctor Somoza Benítez || deviantART)