D G

People who keep up on the latest smartphones (that's you) have a problem: You wait and wait until the best new phone comes out, then you drop your money on that new hotness. But what happens? Six months later the newer hotterness is out, but you've got another year and a half before your next upgrade. T-Mobile is finally, mercifully fixing that. This is cause for rejoicing.

The carrier's new upgrade plan, called Jump, will allow you to upgrade your phone up to twice a year the same price that new customer would pay. This is especially interesting because fairly recently Verizon and AT&T made it so you had to wait a full two years to upgrade your phone, unless you wanted to pay the full, unsubsidized price (which you don't, if you can help it).

Adding Jump to your plan will run you $10 a month. It will allow you to upgrade your phone up to twice a year, and it will include insurance for your device against malfunction, damage, loss, or theft. And yes, you'll have to trade in your old phone each time.

We're still learning more about Jump, but $120 for two upgrades a year? That is catnip for geeks.

In other news, T-Mobile is adding another multi-line Simple Choice Plan. "Families can get four Simple Choice Plan lines with unlimited talk, text and Web and up to 500MB of high-speed data for only $100 per month (plus taxes & fees) — with no credit check and no annual service contract required." Nice price, but 500MB goes mighty fast these days.

T-Mobile also flipped the switch on LTE in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Atlanta, Miami, and a few others. Out of the gate, it's kinda fast. [T-Mobile]

We’ve seen a 3D printer make objects out of soft materials, and one that uses titanium powder.  This 3D printer made by researchers at North Carolina State University is somewhere in between: it uses a liquid metal alloy that is stable at room temperature.

According to the university’s press release, Dr. Michael Dickey, Colin Ladd, Ju-Hee Soand John Muth were able to make freestanding structures out of an alloy of gallium and indium. At room temperature, the alloy reacts with oxygen in the air, forming “a ‘skin’ that allows the liquid metal structures to retain their shapes.” Watch the video below, but I must warn you: it will make you want to play Sims.

According to the researchers, the printer can not only stack metallic beads together as shown in the video; it can also inject the alloy into a polymer template to assume a specific shape. The template can be dissolved to free the printed metal structure. The alloy is also conductive, meaning it can be used to connect electronics. I wonder if the alloy can be used with carbomorph to print complex gadgets.

[via NC State U via Popular Science]

Laying aside the fact that he’d likely fill his show with hour-long ruminations about “This Town,” I’m with him on this basic sentiment:

And, even if you love the Zimmerman trial, and trial coverage in general, you can enjoy Todd’s angst. Thanks to @FreeBeacon for grabbing this.

Iris van Herpen's work leaves me breathless. Look at that barnacle cape?! 

 

Presented at Paris Fashion Week, the 3D printed shoes were a collaboration with Rem D Koolhaas, Creative Director and Founder of United Nude.

 

Enjoy the interview with Herpen and Koolhaas below.

Through Hollow Lands is a 2012 installation by visual artists Etta Lilienthal and Ben Zamora of LILENTHAL|ZAMORA at Frye Art Museum in Seattle. The suspended labyrinth was constructed from 200 fluorescent lights in various configurations, creating a sort of immersive geometric canopy of light. If you liked this, also check out the work of Esther Stocker. Photos above by Malcolm Smith courtesy Frye Art Museum. (via colossal submissions)

SyFy Channel and The Asylum have released an “almost-redband” trailer for the upcoming SyFy channel original movie Sharknado. This film looks beyond ridiculous, and I’m excited to see every horrible minute of it. Watch the new trailer, complete with obvious Jaws-reference, embedded after the jump.

Official ploy synopsis:

When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace. And when the high-speed winds form tornadoes in the desert, nature’s deadliest killer rules water, land, and air.

• ‘Sharknado’ Trailer: It’s Raining Sharks

It’s widely agreed upon that hipsters say ridiculous things. Now, imagine those things coming out of the mouths of hipster dinosaurs…

 

 

 

Actually, I have to admit, I did like Bon Iver better before they were on the Twilight soundtrack.

 

 

 

The post Sh*t Hipster Dinosaurs Say appeared first on POPHANGOVER.

"That's why we make the big bucks."

---

Did the Department of Justice help generate protests in Florida over the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case?  Or did their Community Relations Service unit attempt to moderate their tone?  Judicial Watch discovered that the CRS spent some time and money participating in the protests in the spring of 2012, thanks to a trove of documents from [...]

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Easy Nutella Peanut Butter Glazed Doughnuts. Made with refrigerated biscuit dough for a quick and delicious breakfast!

craving more? check out TasteSpotting

Linden Lab is continuing with its mini-acquisition spree in gaming: it has just announced that it is buying Desura, a Australia-based digital distribution service for PC gamers. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but it follows on from the company’s acquisition of LittleTextPeople in February 2012 and Blocksworld in January of this year. Linden Lab says it will keep Desura operating for now: “The service will continue uninterrupted for current customers as the team and technology become a part of Linden Lab,” it notes in an emailed statement announcing the deal.

The move underscores the transformation that Linden Lab has been making under CEO Rod Humble, who took the reins in 2011 amid declining usage for Second Life, the web-based virtual world that took the online gaming and social worlds by storm after it first launched in 2003. That has included a shift into more mobile experiences, as well as monetizable games experiences.

Desura is not a games maker itself but provides all other services around them. Specifically, users can buy and play games, get free access to mods and add-ons, use the platform to distribute their own games if they’re developers, and use the platform to create a social layer around games for communicating with other players.

“Desura’s talented team, thriving business, and impressive technology are a great fit for Linden Lab,” said Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab, in a statement. “This acquisition gives us a global platform for serving creative developers of all kinds, and we’re looking forward to growing both Desura’s global community of gamers and its fantastic portfolio of thousands of games, mods, and other content. Our aim is to invest and support the Desura team in making it the most open and developer-friendly platform in the world.” It’s not clear how many users Desura has today.

The move also puts Linden Lab more squarely in competition against the likes of Steam from Valve and Origin, owned by EA.

More to come. Release below.

Linden Lab® Acquires DesuraTM

SAN FRANCISCO – July 10, 2013 – Linden Lab, the makers of shared
creative spaces including Second Life®, PatternsTM, CreatorverseTM,
VersuTM, and dioTM, today announced that it has acquired Desura, a
digital distribution service for PC gamers. The service will continue
uninterrupted for current customers as the team and technology become
a part of Linden Lab.

Desura puts the best games, mods, and downloadable content from
developers at gamers’ fingertips, ready to buy and play. The free
Desura application can serve and patch games, mods, and add-ons
directly for customers around the world. Developers and publishers can
share news, images, videos, and other content through their profiles,
while every member of the Desura community can post comments, submit
reviews, and upload screenshots from their own playing experiences.
Desura also demystifies user-made mods and add-ons for games by making
them as easy to find and install or update as professional titles.

“Desura’s talented team, thriving business, and impressive technology are a great fit for Linden Lab,” said Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab, in a statement. “This acquisition gives us a global platform for serving creative developers of all kinds, and we’re looking forward to growing both Desura’s global community of gamers and its fantastic portfolio of thousands of games, mods, and other content. Our aim is to invest and support the Desura team in making it the most open and developer-friendly platform in the world.”

The acquisition is Linden Lab’s second of the year and follows the
company’s acquisition of Blocksworld, an iPad game soon to be released
globally.

About Linden Lab

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, Linden Lab makes
shared creative spaces that inspire and empower users to explore and
share their creativity with others.

In 2003, the company released Second Life, the pioneering virtual
world filled by the unique creations of its users, who can build
anything they can imagine, socialize with others from around the
world, and share or sell their creations in a thriving real-money
marketplace.

Linden Lab has now expanded its portfolio to include four new digital
entertainment products, including Patterns, a new 3D universe for
users to shape; Creatorverse, a tablet and mobile game that allows
users to set their creativity in motion; dio, a new shared creative
space on the web; and Versu, an interactive fiction experience that
makes the reader a part of a living story.

For more about Linden Lab, its products, and career opportunities
please visit LindenLab.com.

—-

People still pirate things. Of course they do. Because, despite 14 post-Napster years of piracy in the mainstream, studios still don't get it. Consider the $100 Dark Knight Trilogy boxed set that came out just last week:

Now on September 24, Nolan’s three Batman films – Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises – will be released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as The Dark Knight Trilogy: Ultimate Collector’s Edition. The six-disc set will feature all three films with their existing extra content, two new featurettes and exclusive new collectible memorabilia. This must-own collection for fans of DC Comics’ Caped Crusader is available in premium packaging and will sell for $99.97 SRP.

Noticeably missing from that rundown of the $100 boxed set? Any reference to digital media at all. In 2013. Does anyone actually think this makes sense?

Physical vs. Digital Is a False Dichotomy

You could argue that a movie boxed set is a boutique purchase, to be placed on a shelf and admired by enthusiasts. But that belies the real issue here. Mega-fans will always be happy to plunk down a large wad of cash on a nicely packaged set, sure. But there's no reason to thank that fan for her purchase, and then grab her by the ankles and shake her upside down for the rest of her lunch money when she asks about a digital copy.

The choice we're left with when this happens is to buy a separate digital copy of the same movies we just spent $100 on, or to pirate. Guess which makes more sense to people? Some pirate because it's free, and easy, but for many, it comes down to the convenience of it all. Just like you stick all your DVDs or books on a shelf, you can keep all your pirated files in a folder titled Movies on a hard drive or media server, or even transcode them and stick them in iTunes. It's dead simple, if a little tedious.

You know how you get piracy to stop, or at least slow down dramatically? Match that simplicity and stamp out the tedium. So far, no one has.

There have been some lazy gestures in that direction. UltraViolet, the digital standard backed by most studios, is on the right track. Movies or TV shows you get from participating content owners can be downloaded to the UV app, played through Flixter or Vudu, or streamed from a central library. In theory, that's pretty convenient. In practice, guhhhh.

Ultraviolet is bad because new standards never overtake something that's entrenched and works well—Apple, Amazon, and Google all check both boxes—and it gives you no way to integrate to or from those services. It is only convenient, then, for keeping your stuff in "one place" if you consider that one place to be "the internet" or "a tablet." Want to watch an UltraViolet movie on your Apple TV? Your options are to mirror it from your iPad, or to give up.

It's not even that the bean counters would shoot down the inclusion digital codes (maybe?). The real issue is that the digital download is so removed from the idea of a unified experience. It probably never occurred to anyone in the first place. Instead, digital is treated as a separate, competing product, when really it's anything but. It's complementary.

While infrastructure limitations mean that Blu-ray discs will outpace streaming quality for the foreseeable future, this is really the first time we've had two entirely different standards—digital and physical—concurrent. There's been overlap in the past, but while it made no sense to bundle a CD with a cassette, the same people who watch Blu-ray also, largely, watch digital content. Often on the same machine.

Digital downloads cater to DRM phobias aplenty, but that can all be sidestepped. With every physical media purchase, include a field for orders asking for a preference on marketplace—Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc.—and include a download code with the set. Maybe slip whichever ecosystem the code goes to some of the vig.

It's not exactly that easy, because nothing ever is. Apple's resisted UltraViolet because it's just one avenue to get at the content, and the door remains open. But by working with studios to get a download code to its own system included with purchases, the door would shut behind you. The only loss of sale that happens there is in not forcing some poor fan to re-buy the content he literally JUST bought. Apple, Google, or whomever gets a customer plunked into their digital ecosystem, and everyone gets a load of goodwill, which is worth something. So let's try that.

You Can (And Should) Offer Both

Every movie, book, comic, and album should come with a digital download code. DRM is fine if it's to one of the main hubs, or anywhere you actually use, unlike UltraViolet. Or a give a choice of them if you're selling from a platform-neutral place. How much better do you think the Nook (and Barnes and Noble) would be doing if every book sold at B&N also showed up on your Nook? That, almost instantly, stops your "Amazon showroom" problem, right? And it's a nice way of not telling your customers to go screw themselves.

The Xbox One understood this, and tried to begin the process of uniting physical and digital. If you bought a game on a disc, or were given one as a gift, because for whatever reason people still like getting actual things instead of cards that say, "Here, asshole, enter this code and download this thing I got you later," that game would show up in your digital library. It would be attached to your account. That feature got blown up after fans decided that the accompanying restrictions were too big of a change too quickly.

It's not like the Xbox One is alone there. Just about the only place where this is (mostly) right is, strangely, comic books. Marvel has been including digital codes with its physical books for several months now. This lets you buy a comic once (if you buy it in a comic shop), and have it in all the formats you'd want. The code doesn't just go to Marvel's own app, but to the Comixology app (which powers Marvel, DC, Image, etc.), which has comics from every publisher. It's not just a show of goodwill toward the brick and mortars that are staring down the barrell of digital, it's an understanding that collectible things are enjoyed in two separate ways. We love having them, either as decoration or to pick through the pages and get lost in nostalgia from time to time. But we nerds also like—love, really—the encyclopedic, sortable, searchable database of everything we've ever bought or read. It's why so many comic bins and DVD and book shelves are meticulously sorted, categorized, and labeled. And we shouldn't have to choose.

In fact, sometimes we don't have to. Amazon's got AutoRip for music, which automatically adds mp3s to your library when you buy a CD. It basically says, yeah, chances are you're going to rip this yourself or download it without remorse, so here, let us just do that for you. It's great. It was even retroactive on Amazon purchases. And it works because it gives you incentive to stay with Amazon. The loyalty factor can work for everyone else, even without the massive Amazon's massive storefront.

But really, this is easy. The central tenet of getting everyone to stop pirating remains untouched: Make it easy, affordable, GOOD, and convenient, and we'll buy it. We will. But the corollary that apparently needs to be spelled out in torrent packet lists and middle fingers stands just as large: We don't want to buy things twice. Or three times. Or five. We hate that you think we will. Yes, there are times when it makes sense to reissue a movie or book or comic, but not in the very first wave of the releases.

People will still buy digitally, because it's just easier. And they'll buy physical because they like owning things. But you should not be relying on people who've bought one to run out and pay double for the other. Because they won't. They'll just pirate it instead.

Closed course. Sideways through the tight stuff, I6 wailing in the straights. This is how you drive a BMW.

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Grocery Store | Calgary, AB, USA

Me: “And do you have your rewards card with you today?”

Customer: “Oh, yes, it’s in here somewhere…”

(The customer proceeds to open and search through their purse while I wait.)

Me: “I can take your phone number, if that’s more convenient.”

Customer: “No, no! I can find it; it won’t take a moment.”

(The customer keeps looking as the line grows longer.)

Me: “I’d be perfectly happy with a phone number.”

Customer: “You young people are so impatient these days!”

(My line has now grown by at least five customers, who are starting to look restless. The customer is searching her wallet.)

Me: “You’d be able to leave much quicker if you’d—”

Customer: “Oh, for goodness sake! Do you really think I’ll just give your my phone number that easily? That’s personal information! How do I know you won’t call me later trying to sell me something I don’t need?”

(I am speechless.)

Customer: “Oh… you know what? I think my husband has the card; he was going to use it tomorrow. My phone number is [number]!”

AnimeNEXT is a convention that isn't afraid to be risque, judging from these videos of recent NSFW cosplay burlesque performances.

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Cat helps friend to get rid of a luggage tag.

The post OMG good Samaritan cat appeared first on Say OMG - omg videos,omg photos, omg news, omg images, omg movies on say OMG.

A compilation of cats getting scared

[Tastefully Offensive]

The post OMG what scares the cats? appeared first on Say OMG - omg videos,omg photos, omg news, omg images, omg movies on say OMG.

There’s a brand new collection of so-called “budget” iPhone colored backs, the lot of them showing up as especially vibrant tones as expected. It’s been expected that this lot would appear with connections to the recently enlivened aesthetics of iOS 7, an operating system given a boost by Apple’s Jony Ive himself. Here we see that the innards will, if these images prove true, match the outer bits as well.

The collection you’re seeing here matches – more or less – leaks that have appeared over the past couple of weeks. This iPhone will likely take on a display type not unlike the iPhone 5 at 4-inch diagonally, but will have a backside much closer to that of an iPod touch. Selecting between these five tones – yellow, green, blue, red, and white, will likely be the biggest deciding factor in a user either keeping their cash or laying down an extra bill on the iPhone 5S (or iPhone 6, or just the iPhone 5, as it were).

This machine has been leaked in green before, leading us to believe that either there’s one really tenacious lover of the electric tone giving peeks to multiple users across the days, or the creators of these backsides are really aiming to be a big name in the accessories market soon.

The iPhone 5S meanwhile has been suggested to be an incrementally updated device, bringing with it a display that’s the same as the iPhone 5 while the processor and camera technology surrounding it will get a bit of a boost. These iPhone “Light” models will end up taking the place of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, it’s been suggested, while Apple axes the smaller screen size altogether.

VIA: Apple Daily; C Tech; Engadget

iPhone color rush: “budget” plastic backs leaked is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This is the Starry Lights lamp designed by Anna Farkas. It projects accurate constellations on the ceiling and comes in four different models (based on the way the stars appear during different seasons): vernal equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox and winter solstice. All the stars are as they appear at 45-degrees north latitude though so if you want some southern hemisphere shit you are OUT OF LUCK. Just kidding, they also make custom ones, it's just going to cost you. And considering they start at $1,000 it's probably smarter to pound some holes in a coffee can with a nail then dangle it over a bare bulb. That's what I did, and I think it turned out pretty good. See? There's the Big Dicker. "It's DIPPER." You sure? "Positive." This reminds me of the time I found up Alaska wasn't an island. Thanks to Christian, who saved himself $990 and used a star map to put up a bunch of those glow-in-the-dark stickers on the ceiling the way we all did in high school and college. Hey baby, wanna see the stars? That was classic.

According to the South China Morning Post, the Chinese government is preparing to lift the 13 year long ban on game consoles in the region. Such a move would be good for the industry, but first console makers such as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft would have to kowtow to the demands of the government. Apparently efforts to eliminate the ban are strongly supported by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

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Broccoligate is the latest in a summer packed with scandals, and while the IRS Tea Party issue and the prior Benghazi kerfuffle were a pain for the Obama administration, the broccoli issue is looming as a new problem

As The Inquisitr reported earlier, Broccoligate started with an event aimed at encouraging kids to eat more healthily, and a “Healthy Lunchtime Challenge.”

President Obama was asked about his favorite food, and having previously gone on record loving pizza, fries, and other less health conscious treats, Twitter went nuts when the President stated improbably that broccoli is his favorite food.

Of course, the site was abuzz in a rapidly maelstroming “broccoligate,” with users skeptically observing that “no one’s favorite food is broccoli,” and others musing that if the president is dishonest to schoolkids about food, there surely are bigger lies lurking.

User @jeremyponder summed up broccoligate’s implications in a single tweet:

Either Obama lies to children, or broccoli is his favorite food. I’m not comfy with either being true about our president. #broccoligate

Whether or not broccoligate is a brewing food preference scandal remains to be seen, but others seemed to think it wasn’t worth the drama:

40% of the country don’t know whether Obamacare is law. Meanwhile, in COMPLETELY UNRELATED news, CBS is covering day 2 of BroccoliGate.

— Yeggo (@Yeggo) July 10, 2013

The story behind the #Broccoligate scandal. http://t.co/4rDd6M4ZYz #Wonkblog

— Lauren McGregor (@pink_dane) July 10, 2013

Of course, the White House has maintained its silence on broccoligate, refusing to confirm or deny the President indeed loves broccoli both hot and with cheese sauce or cold, blanched, and dipped in ranch dressing.

Could broccoligate be the scandal that finally brings the Obama administration to its knees? Do you want to know what the White House knows about a number two value meal and when they knew you can ask for extra Big Mac sauce on the side even if you’re not getting a Big Mac?

Broccoligate Raging, White House Predictably Silent On Cruciferous Veggies is a post from: The Inquisitr

Dartford, England – A penis-shaped strawberry stunned 52-year-old Carole Collen when she found it in her garden yesterday.

No, you’re not a perv. That strawberry (below) definitely resembles a man’s genitals. Collen thought so too, which is why she snapped a picture of it immediately.

“When I saw it I just thought, ‘oh my God!’ ” she said. ”It immediately reminded me of a man’s bits and I just had to take a photo.”

The married mother of two showed the picture to her friends, and everyone got a good laugh out of it. But despite the fits of giggles the penis-shaped strawberry blessed her family with, Collen still can’t wrap her head around how the fruit grew that way.

“At first I thought a snail must have eaten into it, but no. It’s funny how a strawberry can grow like that,” she said.

“My family couldn’t stop laughing. I must admit, I did think it was a bit small. It would be nice if it grew a bit bigger.”

Well, what a huge compliment to Mr. Collen, eh?

In any case, Carole Collen couldn’t wait around to see if the strawberry would grow to an “acceptable” size and plucked it. The implication in the Kent Online article that originally reported the story is that Collen and her family have since consumed the oddly-shaped fruit along with a mixture of other fruits and veggies from the garden.

Of course, the article did not specify who was bold enough to eat the penis-shaped strawberry. And that’s about where we’re going to stop today.

[Top image via: auremar / Shutterstock]

Penis Shaped Strawberry ‘Should Be Bigger’ Says English Woman is a post from: The Inquisitr

A few months ago, Pittsburgh artist Nickolay Lamm that revealed what 25 feet of sea level rise might look like at a variety of East Coast tourist destinations. Now, Lamm is back with more visions of America's watery future – but this time he's focused on the country's Pacific coastline.

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via

 

Each scene is more awkward than the next.

The post The Greatest Moments From ‘Between Two Ferns’ (Video) appeared first on POPHANGOVER.