firehose

A Google software engineer has outlined the Blink team's plans for 2014.

In April of 2013, Google announced that its Chrome browser would move away from the then-current WebKit rendering engine to a new, Google-backed (but still open-source) engine called Blink. Reasons given for the switch included a desire to improve performance and reduce complexity, and a recent Google Groups post by Google software engineer Eric Seidel shows just what the Blink team will be working toward in 2014.

Unsurprisingly, many of the team's goals focus on mobile device performance, "in part because Web engines (e.g. Blink) are not nearly as good on performance-constrained devices as they need to be." Google considers smooth scrolling and animation, input responsiveness, and load time to be key factors on mobile devices, and the company wants to improve on these while reducing memory usage and power consumption.

Other goals are focused on "improv[ing] the mobile Web platform itself," blurring the line between locally installed applications and apps run in the browser window. Google wants to enable "better-than-AppCache" offline modes for apps, Web apps that support push notifications, and apps that support hardware-specific features like screen orientation.

Kia has enlisted Laurence Fishburne to reprise the role of Morpheus in its upcoming Super Bowl ad. The ad is meant to promote the new K900 luxury sedan, and will reportedly force viewers to ask what is real in the world of luxury.

According to plot details released by Kia, a couple will find themselves face-to-face with Morpheus at a valet stand, where the cyberpunk prophet will present them with two keys — all reminiscent of the character's classic "red pill / blue pill" scene wherein he gives Neo the choice of staying in the Matrix or seeing the real world. "Should they choose wisely," Kia writes, "their perception of luxury — and Kia — will never be the same again." It all sounds more than a little bizarre (and perhaps a little offensive depending on the audience), but viewers will have to wait until February 2nd to weigh in. Fishburne can already be heard in this early spot starring the K900:

It's not the first time The Matrix has found its way into advertising. Hugo Weaving played a considerably less evil Agent Smith in GE's "Brilliant Machines" ad last year, commenting on the industrial internet and smart hospitals at the time.

Apple's stuck with the court-appointed monitor tasked with keeping an eye on the inner workings of its digital business — at least for now. In a ruling today, US District Judge Denise Cote denied a request by Apple to oust Michael Bromwich, who last year was tasked with keeping the tech giant within the bounds of antitrust laws following its loss to the Justice Department over ebooks price-fixing. In a filing last week Apple said it wanted Bromwich out, and accused him of having a personal bias against the company. Moreover, Apple had also tried to reverse the need for a monitor entirely, something Cote denied as part of her ruling today, Reuters reports.

Still on the job

The spat between the two began weeks ago. Bromwich fired first, saying the company had been wholly uncooperative, shutting him out from speaking with board members and executives as part of his job. Apple's lawyers then took Bromwich to task, saying he charged too much for his services, and overstepped his boundaries of viewing the deepest parts of its business.

Bromwich's two-year post at Apple was just part of a set of penalties placed on the company following its loss in court last year. The Justice Department also requested that Apple sever its existing agreements with the major book publishers, as well as change the way competitors like Amazon are able to display and link to content within apps on Apple's iOS platform. Judge Cote agreed with some of those things, like the scrapping existing deals, and installing the monitor, though disagreed with changing how competitors sold their goods. Apple can still fight this latest decision, Reuters says, but only has two days to do so after Cote elaborates on this latest decision.

If you’ve seen the 2009 blaxploitation parody Black Dynamite or the Adult Swim cartoon of the same name, then I don’t really need to tell you why a new, four-issue IDW Publishing miniseries from writer Brian Ash, artists Ron Wimberly and Sal Buscema, and colorist Dave Wilkins is exciting. The very idea is exciting on its face.

But if somehow you aren’t familiar with the explosive franchise, let me just tell you this: Black Dynamite is a love machine who can’t stand to see jive-ass suckas dealing smack to the kids and is also not fond of his kung-fu being interrupted.

And here’s IDW’s solicitation for the first issue:

HE’S A POWDER KEG OF BLACK FURY THAT’S ABOUT TO EXPLODE!  The baddest kung-fu cat to ever appear on screen is coming to comics so you suckers better duck!  Former CIA agent, international ladies man, and sworn ass-kicking enemy of The Man… he’s BLACK DYNAMITE—and he’s about to walk into the most dangerous journey of his life!

You can check out the preview of Black Dynamite #1 below.

Get ready for a new drink of choice, Pulp fans and Oasis apologists. Blur’s Alex James is making moves to launch a new, mass-marketed drink called Britpop, which Buzzfeed speculates could be a new low-alcohol beer or “alcopop.” James, whom fans might know as Blur’s “cute one,” applied to trademark the name "Britpop" last year, something the U.K’s Intellectual Property Office is currently considering.

The bass player also holds trademarks on a number of different names for varieties of cheese, including Blue Monday, Figgy Pudding, and Farleigh Wallop. Unfortunately, these cheeses have proved to be kind of a hard sell: In 2012, U.K. grocery chain Asda stopped stocking James’ products, saying the flavors were simply “ahead of their time.”  

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Otters are natures among natures nimblest and cutest critters, behold 8 GIFs showing them rock. If you have more GIFs of otters rocking, or video please share them below in the comments and I'll try to GIF them.

Submitted by: FrankieDudeUltimate

Forget about sea urchins, fish roe and poultry — the fantasy chefs of Trinket Studios' Battle Chef Brigade are cooking with freshly slain monsters and fantastical beasts.

Described by its developers as a fantasy Iron Chef, Battle Chef Brigade combines a cooking competition with a battle and item-collecting system. Players begin each round in the Pantry Arena where they have to slay monsters to be used as ingredients, while also fighting off fellow chefs who want the beasts for their own culinary creations.

Once players have collected their ingredients, they are dropped into the kitchen where magic meets method in a creative cook-off.

Battle Chef Brigade is in development for Steam and consoles and is expected to launch in 2014. The studio's progress can be followed on its developer blog.

After two failed attempts to buy and merge with Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications placed a third offer today and began appealing to its competitor's shareholders with an open letter. While Charter is pushing to make a merger happen, it doesn't expect it to happen through an immediate acceptance of this latest bid. The offer is an intentional lowball: just $132.50 per share, according to The Wall Street Journal, when TWC was reportedly looking for between $150 to $160. The offer — reportedly totaling $37.4 billion in cash and stock — only slightly exceeds TWC's closing price today too, of $132.40

"We have a significant opportunity to put our companies together."

Charter argues that the offer is a fair one though, writing in a press release that TWC's share value has already been raised over interest in the deal. Rather than looking for a higher offer, Charter suggests that TWC look at the deal's longterm potential for shareholders when considering the bid. "I believe we have a significant opportunity to put our companies together in a way that will create maximum, long-term value for shareholders and employees of both companies," Charter CEO Thomas Rutledge writes in an open letter to TWC CEO Robert Marcus.

Rutledge knows that TWC isn't interested in his deal though, and believes it's time to address TWC's shareholders more directly. "Our objective was to talk to management and try to get them engaged," Rutledge tells Bloomberg. "They have not, so we’re going to make our case to shareholders about why this deal is good for them and hope they ask management and the board to watch out for the interests of shareholders."

Rutledge writes in his letter that merging the companies will reduce overall costs, speed up growth, and offer tax advantages — all opportunities that shareholders would be glad to see. Both Charter's and TWC's stock are up year-over-year, with Charter closing today slightly above TWC. Though TWC is the larger business, Charter may be playing aggressive to get ahead of Comcast, which was previously reported to be in on the bidding war, potentially even as a partner to Charter. Charter will have major hurdles to address — TWC's management and board included — in order to make a deal happen though, but Rutledge will be ready should it come: "We are fully prepared to finalize a deal on an extremely expedited basis."

Submitted by: Unknown

Let’s be real for a second: A list of the top-grossing apps in the iTunes store isn’t going to be all that fair. Your assorted Candy Crushes, casino games, and Simpsons Tapped Outs — games designed to basically pick players up by their ankles and shake the change out of their pockets–are going to skew the results.

That makes it all the more of an achievement that ComiXology nabbed the No. 11 spot on the iTunes list of top-grossing iPad apps for 2013. Only it and the New York Times app, which was right below it at No. 12, managed to make the list without nickel-and-diming gamers who just had to have… I don’t know, better candy to crush? I’m not too familiar with that game.

“In a billion dollar marketplace with competition between over a million apps, it’s gratifying to rank as the top grossing non-game iPad App in the entire iTunes App Store,” ComiXology co-founder and CEO David Steinberger said in a press release. “This past year has been a great year for comics and ComiXology.”

In that same release, ComiXology noted that its customers have downloaded some 6 billion pages of comics in its four years of operation (which is triple the number of pages downloaded a year ago). That’s a lot of panels.

Also of note, ComiXology was the powering force behind all three of the top-ranking book apps in the iTunes top-ranking apps list. (Marvel and DC’s ComiXology-powered apps are also in the top 100.)

Back when ComiXology announced that it had surpassed 200 million comic book downloads in September, The Motley Fool speculated that ComiXology could be heading for the stock market. ComiXology hasn’t commented on that speculation, but every new press release about performance could be bringing that possibility closer to a reality.

COMIXOLOGY LAUNCHES NEW SUBSCRIPTION AND BUNDLE SERVICES

Submitted by: Unknown

Submitted by: Unknown