Fatbob

You've seen the moon more times than you can count in your lifetime. But you've never seen it like this.

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Whaddya mean you didn't chow down on cicada during this summer's mass emergence? You'd be surprised how delicious those little creepy-crawlies are with a bit of salt and vinegar. Besides, if you had, you'd have gotten a head start on our inevitable bug-eating future.

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If a startup called Oyster is the Netflix for e-books, then iStoryTime is the children’s alternative. One of the oldest players in the kids’ interactive e-books app market is zuuka (aka iStoryTime), a company founded in 2009 and backed by $2 million in Series A funding. The company has been steadily growing its collection of digital, interactive e-books and apps, now reaching some 200 different applications across all the major mobile app stores and digital book marketplaces. Recently, it made a move to consolidate access to its collection of stories in a flagship application where parents can buy books a la carte, or, as of this month’s version 2.0 update, choose engage with advertisers to earn book credits, or even subscribe to the entire collection.

The company’s name alone may not ring a bell among parents, but there’s a good chance many have at least one of the iStoryTime apps installed on a mobile device somewhere. That’s because iStoryTime works with major studios to license content, including all of DreamWorks’ movies, plus content from Sony, PBS, Jim Henson, Cartoon Network, Mattel, and others. Its collection of apps and e-books offers a ton of recognizable kids’ brands, including Smurfs, Madagascar, How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Ice Age, Barney, “The Croods”, and many others.

Apps are available in iTunes, Amazon’s Appstore, Google Play, and Microsoft Surface’s app store, while e-books can be found on platforms like Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Apple’s iBooks, and Amazon’s Kindle. Basically, it’s a good many of the kid-focused studio brands (which aren’t Disney), in every major mobile marketplace.

“For a long time, we’ve been doing one app, one story,” explains iStoryTime co-founder Graham Farrar, who previously was a part of the founding team at Sonos. “Now we’ve launched our iStoryTime library as the second phase of our strategy – we’ve built the content library, now we’re building the distribution side,” he says.

The one app, available first on iOS, includes all the company’s licensed titles under a single roof. It ships with four free titles (Madagascar, Ice Age, Smurfs and Robin Hood), and then offers up each additional interactive book for sale, priced on average at $3.00 for a full-length narrated book. Many of these books also include animated stills in addition to the narration – a feature now common to interactive e-book apps today.

The company soft launched version 1.0 of the iStoryBook app a few months ago, with the option for parents to purchase books through the app’s included, but child-protected, in-app store. That’s actually a feature which makes iStoryBook stand out from a number of kids’ app makers, which far too often put the in-app upgrades in front of children’s eyes to their great dismay as parents continually tell them “no.” Instead, says Farrar, separating the kids’ side (the bookshelf) from the parents’ side (the store), offers a better experience for both sets of users.

“The freemium business model is great, but there’s a lot of fatigue around every time the kid clicks something, they’ve got to pay for it,” he says.

Children using the app see no ads or prompts to purchase, while parents can browse through the e-book selections in the store, receive alerts and notifications, and even preview the books before buying.

In the recent version 2.0 update, iStoryBook introduced an interesting feature through a partnership with TapJoy. Parents can optionally engage with advertisers behind the parental lock in order to gain points which can be applied to storybook purchases. For example, a parent may be asked to “like” Samsung on Facebook, watch a commercial, try out Hulu, get an insurance quote, and other activities, to earn these points. The points are transferred into the app’s wallet, and can then be used to buy books.

Parents can also purchase books via standard in-app purchases or subscription-based payments, starting at $5/month, with discounts for buying in 6 or 12 months chunks in advance. Farrar declined to provide conversion metrics given the newness of this subscription option, but would say that the app has seen nearly half a million downloads in the three months since launch, and the titles are seeing 2 to 3 times more revenue than they see in iBooks. (Combined, the company’s titles have seen over 6 million downloads to date).

Farrar admits that some of iStoryBook’s stories may be lacking in educational value, in terms of the lessons or morals provided, versus some of the company’s competitors. But, generally speaking, reading is still better than having kids playing video games or watching videos, he feels.

We’ve tried a number of “edu-tainment” in my household – most recently iStoryBook competitors like Speakaboos and FarFaria, as well as combination story/game apps like Hullabalu, and others. And it continues to be a wonder every time my kid launches a simple narrated storybook over the more interactive and engaging content found in apps like Leo’s Pad or PlaySquare TV, for example. But it could be that she, and other kids, are drawn to the variety offered by library collections, while the story/games become tiresome upon repeated viewings. iStoryBook should compete well, if that’s the case, with some 50+ titles available at launch, and plans to grow by at least one more per week. Plus, iStoryBook’s already familiar characters should prove an added draw.

Later this year, the plan is to introduce an “instructional” mode within the app which could help to add more educational elements to these now mainly entertainment-focused stories. That is, the app could pause the story to engage with the child, asking them how the character may be feeling, or augment the material with other content based on the Common Core Standards.

Interested parents can download the new iStoryBook for iOS app here on iTunes.

Plenty of movies use some version of the “nerd experience” to create comedy and sympathetic characters. The lovable loser who learns to fit in with society — or who teaches society how to get along with him — is a standard archetype at this point.

But no other film nails the emotions of being a hardcore nerd like Zero Charisma. The film is the story of Scott, a domineering but lonely guy who controls his own little geek clique as the dungeon master of a long-running role-playing game. His minor social standing is threatened by the intrusion of the funny, good-looking Miles, a guy who seems to be everything Scott cannot become.

Zero Charisma is right on the money when it comes to capturing the personal interactions, obsessions, and insecurities of nerd culture. It can be uncomfortably familiar, but it is hilariously funny as it simultaneously skewers and embraces members of true nerddom. Check out a trailer below.

Zero Charisma is available digitally October 8, and in theaters October 11. Apple has the trailer.

As the strict Game Master of a fantasy role-playing game, Scott (Sam Eidson) leads his friends in a weekly quest through mysterious lands from the safety of his grandmother’s kitchen. But his mastery of his own domain starts to slip—along with everything else in his life—when neo-nerd hipster Miles (Garrett Graham) joins the game, winning over the group with his confident charm and dethroning Scott with an unexpected coup. Caught in delusions of grandeur, Scott must roll the dice and risk everything to expose Miles as the fraud he believes him to be. A darkly comedic fable of epic proportions, Zero Charisma is an ode to nerds from every realm.

• ‘Zero Charisma’ Review: What Happens When ‘Comic Book Guy’ Goes Home At Night? [SXSW 2013]
• ‘Zero Charisma’ Trailer: A Dungeon Master Can’t Control His Own Destiny

With connections for microUSB, Apple's old Dock Connector, and its new Lightning option, the CrossLink cable by Id America can sync or charge pretty much any modern smartphone or tablet you can get your hands on. And if the Crosslink's flat cable anti-tangle design isn't enough, it's also available in six different colors that will perfectly complement your iPhone 5C, and it will set you back just $18. We'll take ten, please. [id America via The Awesomer]

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When calculators became cheap in the 1970s, millions of kids discovered that they could spell out words using numbers that looked like letters and flipping the screen upside-down.  Can you guess these?

1. What bacon does when it hits a hot pan: 372215

2. If you make an omelet, you'll end up with a lot of these: 577345663

3. Central American nation: 321738

4. Where caged creatures live: 0.02

5. Turtle hut: 77345

6. A traditional Inuit home: 0.0761

7. Norwegian City: 0.750

8. He has no home but the rails: 0.804

9. Similar to a clarinet, but with two reeds instead of one: 3080

10. Cowboys wear it instead of a tie: 0.708

11. The capital of Idaho: 35108

12. Emmy Award-winning TV show: 3376

13. Search me: 376006

14. It the tide doesn't flow, it…: 5883

15. Immigrant island: 51773

16. A paid male "companion": 0.70616

17. They're alive, with the sound of music: 57714

18. Black gold! Texas tea! 710

19. When black gold (or Texas tea) does when it emerges from the ground: 53200

20. Building block: 0.637

21. Where your boss might tell you to go: 7734

22. Letter-cube board game: 376608

23. Some people collect stamps; others go birdwatching: 5318804

24: Russian ballet company: 1045708

25. Uncle John's handwriting: 378163771

Continue reading for the answers.

1. Sizzle
2. Eggshells
3. Belize
4. Zoo
5. Shell
6. Igloo
7. Oslo
8. Hobo
9. Oboe
10.Bolo
11. Boise
12. Glee
13. Google
14. Ebbs
15. Ellis
16. Gigolo
17. Hills
18. Oil
19. Oozes
20. LEGO
21. Hell
22. Boggle
23. Hobbies
24. Bolshoi
25. Illegible

___________________

The article above was reprinted with permission from the newest volume of the Bathroom reader series, Uncle John's 24-Karat Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

Chrome: When you're dealing with a lot of tabs, it can be tough to stay focused on just one. NiftySplit is a unique Chrome extension with a clever idea to keep you in line.

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Troy Carney, a New Zealand artist living in Hawaii, paints with oil and gold leaf. He creates bas relief images of dreamy, ethereal scenes from those tropical islands and other beaches around the Pacific. You can see many more examples of his work at the link.

Link

Over a week ago, the Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter teased a short preview of composer Manami Matsumae playing the game's theme on piano. It was all to hype up the interview above, in which Miss "Chanchacorin" talks about her time at Capcom, as a freelancer, and eventually as the newest member of the Mighty crew.

This weekend, it's tough waiting on Nintendo's eShop to improve, Jim will outlast Outlast, Sup Holmes? welcomes the designer of Hohokum, Destructoid will party in San Fran, Dale is in Tokyo, River City Ransom's official sequel is getting Kickstarted, and Prince Ali has some season passes to sell you.

Destructoid Originals:
Bozon talks a male Shantae, +20 years indie, and more
Celebrate the games of Locomalito with us
Nintendo eShop: A work in progress
Live show: Volgarr the Viking with Crazy Viking Studios
Outlast - Now Bloody Playing Pt. 4
Sup Holmes hokums and hos with Dick Hogg

Community:
Community blogs of 9/14 & 9/15
Forum thread of the day: Recommendations for anime. (page 98)

Events:
Street party with Dtoid @ SummerSalt
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse Dungeon with Tony and Jim
The new PS Vita seems pretty nice

Tailgates with blue cheese dressing and buffalo wings are great, but sometimes you need something a little more portable -like a blue chese lollipop. These wonderful concoctions were created by the fine folks at Lolliphile, the company who has also created absinthe, sriracha and maple bacon.

Link Via Incredible Things

Has anyone ever told you that you should never trust anything you read on the Internet? We say that's hooey. The Internet is full of fascinating facts — some of which are even true.

If you're looking to spruce up your look-how-well-read-I-am dinner party facts, we can help you out. Curious why men have nipples? We'll tell you. Want to learn why vegetables suffer jet lag? Just think how smart you'll sound when you tell your friends about kale's circadian rhythms

Below you'll find 50 fascinating facts — all of which are true — that we learned from the Internet. If you're too lazy to read through this list, we highly recommend watching our YouTube show 5Facts, featuring the same facts, more jokes and even some surprise guests. Read more...

Paul “Dizzy Hips” Blair sets world record by Hula Hooping a 100 pound Tractor Tire.

Thanks sg

Thanks DJ

The British Museum has a a 1,600-year-old Roman chalice that becomes a different color depending on which direction the light comes from. No one knew why until scientists got a good look at the way the glass was made.  

The glass chalice, known as the Lycurgus Cup because it bears a scene involving King Lycurgus of Thrace, appears jade green when lit from the front but blood-red when lit from behind—a property that puzzled scientists for decades after the museum acquired the cup in the 1950s. The mystery wasn’t solved until 1990, when researchers in England scrutinized broken fragments under a microscope and discovered that the Roman artisans were nanotechnology pioneers: They’d impregnated the glass with particles of silver and gold, ground down until they were as small as 50 nanometers in diameter, less than one-thousandth the size of a grain of table salt. The exact mixture of the precious metals suggests the Romans knew what they were doing—“an amazing feat,” says one of the researchers, archaeologist Ian Freestone of University College London.

Researchers suspected the chalice would appear in different colors depending on what drink it held, but they weren't about to test that theory with the ancient artifact. So they recreated the material it was made of! Even more intriguing are the potential modern applications of the technology. Read more about it at Smithsonian magazine. Link

(Image credit: The Trustees of the British Museum/Art Resource, NY)

This guy built a tree house (though it is not finished yet) that is nearly 30 feet up a tree. He got tired of climbing a ladder six and a half million times a day, so he made a bicycle powered elevator to solve this problem.

Thanks sg

(Video Link)

How will Breaking Bad end? Perhaps as Seinfeld did: with everyone on the show going to prison. Matin Comedy mixed the two programs together, presenting Breaking Bad as a comedy about nothing.

-via Geekosystem

Something to think about every now and then.

Put the gadgets down every now and then.

via