Ryan Mustard

New photos shared by French Apple news website iPhonote (Google Translate) claim to show a number of components for the upcoming iPad Air 2, including the device's GPS antenna, microphone, and Wi-Fi module. While previous leaks have shown off the device's front panel and rear shell, these images could be the first look at the various internal components in the iPad Air 2.

Purported iPad Air 2 GPS antenna, microphone, and WiFi module
The website also posted a variety of comparison images between each component for the iPad Air 2 and its corresponding part on the current iPad Air. While no major changes can be immediately spotted from any of the comparisons, it does appear that the next-generation iPad Air's GPS antenna is longer than its predecessor. Also shown are pictures of the iPhone 6's front panel, which appear similar to prior leaks of the component.

Apple is expected to announce the iPad Air 2 alongside the next-generation Retina iPad mini at an event this fall. A report from Re/code claimed that Apple would be unveiling the iWatch at an October event, which may also include the introduction of both new iPads. The iPad Air 2 may feature a thinner design thanks to an integrated display, anti-reflective coating, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, a faster A8 processor, and 2 GB of RAM.

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This video combines two thoughts to reach an alarming conclusion: "Technology gets better, cheaper, and faster at a rate biology can't match" + "Economics always wins" = "Automation is inevitable."

That's why it's important to emphasize again this stuff isn't science fiction. The robots are here right now. There is a terrifying amount of working automation in labs and warehouses that is proof of concept.

We have been through economic revolutions before, but the robot revolution is different.

Horses aren't unemployed now because they got lazy as a species, they're unemployable. There's little work a horse can do that pays for its housing and hay.

And many bright, perfectly capable humans will find themselves the new horse: unemployable through no fault of their own.

(via waxy)

Tags: robots   video

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Very impressive work from Microsoft Research:

We present a method for converting first-person videos, for example, captured with a helmet camera during activities such as rock climbing or bicycling, into hyperlapse videos: time-lapse videos with a smoothly moving camera.

The difference between the before and after footage is astounding.

While Apple next-generation iPhone is still over a month away from being announced, a number of clones from various companies have hit the market to try and capitalize on customer anticipation. In a video posted to his channel, YouTuber Jonathan Morrison took Goophone's "i6" clone to Hollywood Boulevard to see if people would see the Android-based device as a real iPhone 6.


Individuals were told that the clone was the iPhone 6 and came with a number of new features, including an eight-day battery life, an "A10" processor, and a high-resolution 8K sapphire display with 3D capabilities. Most people in fact believed those features, with one man proclaiming the phone felt "super fast" and another saying that the display "looked much clearer" than the display on his iPhone 5s.

At one point, a young individual in a crowd asks "How many milliamps does it have?" Morrison replies with "7,000", causing the person to respond "How does that fit in there?!" Others were also told about additional features, with one woman believing that the phone's photos were too high of a resolution for its screen, and a man in awe over the claimed "26-core" processor.

After being asked about Apple's efforts in comparison to Samsung's, one man even claims that the device is "really great" and that Apple has "caught up with this one." Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel pulled a similar prank on Hollywood Boulevard last month, with his team showing pedestrians a $20 Casio watch and claiming it to be Apple's long-awaited iWatch.

Marvin Gaye, 1972.

Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Reed Hastings, posting on Facebook:

Minor milestone: last quarter we passed HBO is subscriber revenue ($1.146B vs $1.141B). They still kick our ass in profits and Emmy’s, but we are making progress. HBO rocks, and we are honored to be in the same league. (Yes, I loved Silicon Valley and yes it hit a little close to home.)

Short, sweet, and honest.

Using Motorola, Nokia, and Nintendo as examples, Tero Kuittinen explains how dominant tech companies are lulled into "a comfy trip to the grave" by huge but ultimately short-lived successes before new paradigms take over.

For years, Nintendo has believed it could reject smartphone and tablet apps, yet still flourish. The reason for this delusion is familiar -- it's the toxic Last Blockbuster Syndrome that doomed the consumer electronics divisions of Motorola in 2004 and Nokia in 2007. Often at the start of a massive trend shift in consumer electronics, dominant dinosaurs get one massive hit built on a nearly obsolete paradigm, and that allows them to be lulled into a comfy trip to the grave.

The best example from the past few years is when Motorola, Nokia, and RIM were flying high with their phone products when the iPhone came along and changed the game.

Tags: business   Motorola   Nintendo   Nokia   Tero Kuittinen

Fritz Huber, writing for The Paris Review, on the sorry state of US televised sports commentary:

After a prolonged TV spectacle like college football’s Bowl Week (whose contests last year included the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl and the Taxslayer.com Bowl, the latter being only a slight improvement on the all-time most absurd Galleryfurniture.com Bowl), watching English Premiership matches or Six Nations rugby on BBC feels like a cultural upgrade. There’s less advertising. There’s less analysis of bullshit statistics (“Headed into this matchup, the Kentucky Wildcats are 11-3 in games played within four days of their coach’s annual colonoscopy”). And, on British television, the commentators’ linguistic repertoires don’t feel as inhibited; there’s more room for an occasional flourish. Why can’t we have a color analyst like Ray Hudson, who, in his exuberance, will announce that we’ve just witnessed “a Bernini sculpture of a goal,” or claim that watching Lionel Messi “softens the hard corners of our lives”?

Now available on Smashwords, Amazon, Apple & B&N.

We're now good to go on Apple. Time to put $9.99 on that gift certificate from your beloved Aunt Mabel.

The best Texas and Big 12 college football preview on the market is now available on Smashwords, Amazon, Apple and B&N.  Minor retailers like Kobo and others will be coming on-line soon.

**

Smashwords

Two very good reasons to buy here.

First, Smashwords is compatible with all reader formats (we now have enough data points to definitively say that you'll have a good user experience no matter whether you have a iPad, Nook, Kindle, personal computer, Mac or smart phone - it's incredibly straightforward and we have multiple testimonials from the computer illiterate on this point - if you're unsure, just ask us for help).  If you can read this post, you can read this book.  Zero excuses.  Dive in.

Second, we make 30% more on royalties from Smashwords vs. our other publishers.  We're thrilled with wherever you buy, but Smashwords definitely gives us the best cut.

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Amazon

The market leader is ready for you dollars.

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Apple

They took a little longer to get on-line (hey, it's Apple, they have to do their own thing) but your iBook awaits.

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Barnes & Noble

For you Nook holdouts...

Finally...

consider:

People don't resent recommendations for quality products dealing with something they're passionate about.  They're actually incredibly grateful.  If you're assuming everyone probably knows about this preview, you couldn't be more wrong.  In the grand scheme of things, it's a fraction of a percentage point.

Our simple request? Help Longhorn and Big 12 fans know about what's available to them in the market.

If you like the book, we love the feedback here, but please spread your enthusiasm to your friends, to your preferred Longhorn websites, toTwitter, to Facebook, to Reddit, to your family, to your local Texas Exes chapters and in book reviews.

Thanks!

Music recognition service Shazam, which was one of the early App Store hits and has continued to see good success on mobile platforms, is now bringing its services to the desktop in the form of the first music, TV show, and ad recognition app for Mac.

Running as a menu bar item, Shazam for Mac quietly monitors audio around the user's Mac and provides not only pop-up notifications of the content being played but also easy access to supplemental content such as lyrics, additional tracks from the album, purchasing options such as the iTunes Store, music videos, social sharing options, and more.


Once content has been identified by Shazam, a standard Notification Center pop-up appears onscreen, and an entry for the item is added to the running list of Shazam IDs in the menu bar app. Clicking in either location takes the user to a dedicated page on the web for the identified content.

MacRumors spoke with Shazam's Chief Product Officer Daniel Danker about the launch, and Danker highlighted the utility of Shazam for Mac in the context of the popularity of lyrics searches on the Internet. With Shazam's dedicated track pages on the web, Shazam for Mac seamlessly directs users to high-quality lyrics presented in a responsive layout appropriate for various screen sizes and without ads or other distractions.

Content feature page on shazam.com
In our testing of Shazam for Mac, the app generally did a solid job of picking up audio and quickly identifying the tracks being played. It is of course limited by the number of tracks available in Shazam's database, and on an eclectic mix of tracks Shazam was unable to identify some of the tracks. Identification was generally solid, however, and came fairly quickly after the track began playing.

Beyond music, Shazam also works with television channels in the U.S., and Shazam for Mac was able to identify a number of shows and movies airing on a nearby television. Clicking on the item's listing in Shazam offers quick access to content such as cast information, IMDB and Wikipedia listings, and more. With over 160 U.S. TV channels included in Shazam's database, content can even be identified from the commercials being played between segments. Even ads such as Apple's latest "Stickers" commercial for the MacBook Air can be identified by Shazam.

Shazam for Mac marks the next step in the service's evolution as the company seeks to integrate its platform into users' daily technology experience. Its always-on status builds upon the Auto Shazam functionality added to the iOS app late last year. Shazam has also entered into a partnership with Apple that will see Shazam's music identification services integrated with Siri, allowing users to quickly and easily ask Siri to identify the music playing around them.

As for the future of Shazam for Mac and the service in general, Danker noted the company is working to build seamless connections with streaming music services to aid listeners, and also enhancing the lyrics experiencing with syncing and other features.

Shazam for Mac [Direct Link] is a free app launching today in the Mac App Store.

Hi, everybody! Tim Carmody here, guest-hosting for Jason this week.

You probably know that Donald Glover (actor on Community, writer on 30 Rock) also has a rap career under the stage name Childish Gambino. You may not know that the name "Childish Gambino" comes from a Wu-Tang Name Generator.

That's half of the reason I'm here - I'm dead serious. Like I met RZA and he was like, "you're a cool dude, man - and your name is perfect for you! It's like that computer had a brain!" But yeah, I put my name in a Wu-Tang name generator and it spit out Childish Gambino, and for some reason I just thought that fit.

Now here's where things get a little weird. There are multiple, competing Wu-Tang name generators. (Of course there are.) Most of them seem to work the same way -- they run a script matching your name's characters with a decent-sized database of Wu-sounding words, kind of like a hash. But little differences in the scripts or in the database give you different results.

For instance, at recordstore.com, the "Original Wu Name Generator" (tagline "WE CAN WU YOU!") spits back "Erratic Assassin" (for "Timothy Carmody"), while "Tim Carmody" yields "Well-Liked Assman." These names are both awesome.

But the "Wu-Tang Name Generator" at mess.be ("Become a real Wu warrior, entah ur full name 'n smack da ol' dirty button"), which proprietor Pieter Dom says was made in 2002, is totally different. There, "Timothy Carmody" and "Tim Carmody" return "Shriekin' Wizard" and "Gentlemen Overlord," respectively. Now, while these definitely sound like Wu names, they are definitely The W to the other site's Enter the 36 Chambers.

Here's the weird part: both of these Wu-Tang name generators return the same name for "Donald Glover." It is, of course, "Childish Gambino."

Is it just a quirk that whatever difference crept in affects most names, but not Donald Glover's? Did one of the sites hard-code that result in, to boost its credibility with people who heard the Childish Gambino story? Or is Donald Glover somehow necessarily Childish Gambino, across all possible Wu-accessible worlds, in the same way that "Clifford Smith" is always and only "Method Man," even when he pretends to be an actor?

I don't think we can ever know. But just as Russell Jones was Ol' Dirty Bastard, ODB, Dirt McGirt, Big Baby Jesus, and Ason Unique as well as Osirus, I am content to be known by many names under the Wu.

(Dedicated to "Sarkastik Beggar" and "Lesbian Pimp." Via @hoverbird.)

Tags: perl   Wu-Tang Clan

Awful, trending bangs reveal a rift in Longhorn allegiances

Since being ignominiously pushed into an unwelcome but well-funded retirement, Mack Brown has seemed to settle comfortably into his new role of kindly, somewhat whisky-addled grandfather on Twitter. But as his first season out of the headset approaches, there have been signs of a growing wistfulness in his tone. His emotional state reached a nadir in the early hours of Monday morning, presumably more than a few pours into the good stuff.

There have, of course, been whispers of a divide in allegiances, as many inside the program still harbor appreciable loyalty to Mack. Those whispers became a ringing screech of hashtagtivism when kicker Nick Rose ravaged his luxurious mane with various powered lawn tools in a show of support for the coach who recruited him.

This caused somewhat of a stir.

Mark Sigal on Apple’s Q3 results:

While others may see a company that can’t possibly keep selling more devices, quarter after quarter after quarter, I see a company that has continually avoided the gratification of going for market share and sales at all costs (i.e., at the price of margins, profits and cash flow).

This is no small task when one considers that investors, the media and virtually every pundit in the blogosphere is not so adept at delaying gratification.

Jon Bell:

Which brings me to Chromecast. All Google will say is they’ve sold “millions” of the $35, (presumably) break-even device. But recently they announced 400 million “sessions”. Sounds impressive! A recent headline states “Chromecast turns one: why this small streaming stick became such a big deal” and the subheads are “So cheap, and so different”, “400 million cast sessions”, “Competitors are getting the streaming stick fever”, and “Why Chromecast continues to be disruptive”.

So kudos to Google for an enormous number, and for getting great press from it. But, wait. We’re actually going to record “uses” of products now? Well, sure. Because it makes the number look bigger.

Following a report by Droid Life yesterday, Verizon has now confirmed to Gigaom that starting October 1 the carrier will begin spot throttling of certain high-usage customers connecting to carrier's LTE network. The policy affects users on grandfathered unlimited data plans that are no longer offered and who rank in the top five percent of data users at Verizon.


While Verizon has had a similar policy in place for its 3G network for several years, the extension of it to the LTE network that now handles 76 percent of the carrier's data traffic will be noticeable for a number of users.

On October 1, Verizon will start throttling back LTE speeds on its heaviest unlimited-plan subscribers when they move into congested cells on its networks. What that means is that when the network gets crowded, Verizon will prioritize 4G customers who buy their data by the gigabyte over unlimited plan customers who fall into the top fifth percentile of monthly data usage.

As of today, the top five percent consists of customers who use 4.7GB or more of data each month, though that number will fluctuate month-to-month as traffic patterns change.

Rather than blanket throttling of users speeds when they hit certain thresholds, Verizon will be weighing demand on individual cell sites and assigning these unlimited users lower priority and thus slower speeds than other customers during periods of high demand.

Verizon said that its new policy will only apply to customers who have fulfilled their contract terms (so if you renewed your data plan under contract in the last two years, you’re safe). The policy remains in effect for a subscriber for the entirety of a billing period. If you’re still in the top 5 percentile of users at the end of that month, then the throttling policy continues for another billing period. But if you’re not, then all restrictions are lifted – at least until your next bill.

With the explosion in smartphone usage in recent years, carriers have been turning to throttling to help manage demand on their networks. The policies are also being used to encourage users to move away from the unlimited data plans that were popular in the early smartphone days but which have been phased out by carriers in a shift to tiered data plans in which the amount users pay is tied to their data usage.

The job description for the former Texas head football coach is now clear.

In an announcement that has been in the works for weeks, ESPN officially announced the addition of former Texas Longhorns head football coach Mack Brown as an in-studio analyst.

The following tweet accompanied the announcement:

I am excited to join ESPN/ABC this fall to share my passion for CFB with the fans. I look forward to giving a look "behind the scenes"

— Mack Brown (@UT_MackBrown) July 24, 2014

Brown will also provide analysis on Sportscenter and College Football live in addition to contributing to ESPN.com and ESPN Radio.

However, the main focus will be his work on Saturdays for College Football Countdown on ABC with host John Saunders and Danny Kanell, who is joining the ABC studio for the first time this year. Brown will also provide pre-game, halftime, and post-game commentary for every game on ABC, a portfolio that includes the marquee Saturday night match up.

Beyond the tweet above, Brown also released a statement through ESPN:

I'm so excited and grateful to be joining ESPN's college football coverage team. We've been talking about it for a few months, and I think it's a great opportunity to continue to be an active part of a game I love so much. People who know me know I'm a football junkie, so I'm really looking forward to watching and studying teams, sharing thoughts, and talking football with all of the passionate college football fans across the country each and every week.

The high-profile nature of the gig is indicative of how much on-air talent ESPN believes Brown possesses -- the network also announced the hire of former head coach Butch Davis in the same release on Thursday, but Davis will be working on ESPN2.

And hey, even if Brown doesn't live up to the lofty expectations that will accompany him into the role, he would have to work hard to be as bad as Lou Holtz.

Bonsai! In! Spaaaaaaaace!!

This image is from Exobiotanica, a project that sent various plants about 100,000 feet into the sky.

We’re excited to announce that Reeder for iOS and Mac now have support for The Old Reader.  We’ve been anxiously awaiting this new release as we’re big fans of the Reeder app.  If you’re on the iOS or Mac platforms and want a great way to keep up with your feeds in The Old Reader please give this app a look and let us know what you think.  Big thanks to Silvio for adding support and congrats on another great release.

And for users on other platforms, here’s a list of all the other great applications that work with The Old Reader.

John C. Beck:

Just a little under 31 years ago, I played a key role in a conspiracy theory that grew up around a passenger plane downed by a Russian missile. Trust me, I did not mean to be involved. 

Great story.

Daisuke Wakabayashi, reporting yesterday on the Apple/IBM team-up:

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook says he does 80% of the work of running the world’s most valuable company on an iPad.

“There’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t be like that,” Mr. Cook said in an interview, explaining why Apple struck a partnership with International Business Machines Corp. to develop applications catered to big businesses, or enterprises. “Imagine enterprise apps being as simple as the consumer apps that we’ve all gotten used to. That’s the way it should be.”

I’m sure “80 percent” is a rough guess, perhaps even somewhat exaggerated in the iPad’s favor, but there’s a dogfooding aspect to Tim Cook being a heavy iPad user who uses it for actual work.

Here’s my question (prompted by this thread on Twitter): Does IBM CEO Ginni Rometty use an iPhone? I don’t think it’s a deal-breaker if she doesn’t, but I do think it matters if she does — it’s an “actions speak louder than words” thing. Commitment and vision start at the top.

Update: Perfect counterexample: Google chairman (and long-time CEO) Eric Schmidt admitting to still using a BlackBerry — a BlackBerry! — last year.

Update 2: Horace Dediu: “I received confirmation that she uses iPhone, iPad and Mac and has for several years.” So there we go: the CEO of IBM apparently uses iOS devices and a Mac.

Apple PR:

“Sue is a pioneer in the financial industry and we are excited to welcome her to Apple’s board of directors,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We believe her strong experience, especially in M&A and building a global business across both developed and emerging markets, will be extremely valuable as Apple continues to grow around the world.”

“We conducted an exhaustive search for someone who would further strengthen our board’s breadth of talent and background, and we are delighted to have identified such an outstanding individual,” said Art Levinson, Apple’s chairman. “I’m confident that Sue is going to make an important and positive impact on our company.”

Makes me wonder if the Beats deal is the start of a trend toward larger acquisitions by Apple.

Bill Campbell’s relationship with Apple dates back to 1983, when he joined the company as vice president of Marketing. Next to Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Mike Markkula, Campbell is the longest-serving board member in the company’s history.

“Bill’s contributions to Apple are immeasurable and we owe him a huge debt of gratitude. On behalf of the board and the entire company, I want to thank him for being a leader, a mentor and a friend,” said Cook. “When Bill joined Apple’s board, the company was on the brink of collapse. He not only helped Apple survive, but he’s led us to a level of success that was simply unimaginable back in 1997.”

Apple share prices hovered around $0.80 (split-adjusted) in August 1997, when Campbell joined the board. They closed today at $93. Not a bad run for a board member.

The following abstract was first published in The New England Journal of Big-Time Science in 2007.

The Effects Of Being Repeatedly Called “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong” On The Human Rage Response In Subjects Named Jeff.

Dr. Kenneth Lam, PhD., Dr. Phyllis Lam-Ellington, PhD, Dr. Burt Ellington, PhD.

BACKGROUND

Anecdotal observations made by the research team noted that the ceaseless harassment of 24-year-old lab assistant Jeffrey “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong” Samuels, during which he was repeatedly and exclusively referred to as “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong” over the course of several weeks, triggered an acute rage response in Samuels; further monitoring of Samuels could not be conducted after he was terminated for knocking head researcher Dr. Kenneth Lam unconscious with a four-foot-long Pyrex graduated cylinder as Lam was dancing on a laboratory table chanting “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong! Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong!” while several other scientists clapped in unison and cheered.

METHODS

34 subjects named Jeff were confined to a controlled experimental setting and called “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong” repeatedly in high-pitched, mocking tones by researchers until rage was induced. In such cases where the subjects remained in control of their emotions for an extended period of time, more extreme variations of the taunt¹ were applied at escalating rates of volume and repetition. If the rage response still could not be triggered, the subject would be denied water while the temperature of the room was gradually increased and a series of exceedingly graphic, free-form abusive remarks were made regarding the sexual promiscuity and general appearance of the subject’s mother or grandmother. Additionally, if the subject were momentarily left alone during the trial and began to fall asleep or suddenly lost consciousness,² he would abruptly be awoken by a research assistant screaming “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong!” over a 400-decibel speaker system installed in the windowless room in which the subjects were detained. In trials where the desired result could still not be achieved, subjects were, over the course of several hours, repeatedly asked the question “what’s your name?” until the appropriate response of “my name is Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong” was obtained, with the strong implication having been made that responding in this manner was the only way the volunteer would be released from the experiment.

A control group of 11 subjects named Geoffrey (“Geoff”) were subjected to the same trials.

RESULTS

After being repeatedly called “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong,” every volunteer named Jeff invariably flew into an insane, frothing rage or otherwise became uncontrollably hysterical. Of the control group of subjects named Geoff, only 96% became enraged at being repeatedly referred to as “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong”—a notably lower percentage than the subjects named Jeff.³ Of the total number of subjects who volunteered for the experiment, 84% attempted to violently attack researchers and had to be subdued using a 50,000-volt TASER electroshock device, after which researchers, using their hands, manipulated the prostrate subjects’ mouths for several minutes while saying “Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong! My name is Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dong!” thus making it appear as though the incapacitated subject was mocking himself. 16% of subjects were eventually conditioned to retreat to the farthest corner of the room whenever a researcher entered, shutting their eyes tightly and covering their ears while attempting to make themselves appear as small as possible, until such time as the researcher left.

CONCLUSIONS

Jeffy-Weffy Ding-Dongs are stupid dumb diaper babies who can’t handle a little teasing.

¹ E.g., “Jeffy-Weffy Ringle-Dingle Ding-Dong,” “Jeffy-Weffy Ram-A-Lama Ding-Dong Dummy,” “Dumbfuck,” “Jefster-Wefster Dingster-Dongster Dickface,” etc.

² A small number of subjects ran full-speed at the large one-way observation mirror comprising the north wall of the trial room and were knocked unconscious.

³ Further research will be necessary to determine why the alternate spelling afforded the Geoff group some immunity to the taunting despite being phonetically identical.

Get to know the best way to prepare for the 2014 Texas football season.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce the fine readers of BON to 2014 In The Huddle - Texas, which is now in it's second year with Lindy's and available online at that link and in magazine retailers across the state.

It's also an honor to provide this introduction once again in my second year as the editor of the magazine. I'm lucky enough to do so because our founder here at BON, Peter Bean, passed the editorial duties along to me last year.

As it always has been, ITH: Texas is 112 glossy pages of beautiful pictures, stats, and the same informative, incisive content you can count on at BON and have come to expect from previous editions of the magazine.

This is a magazine by diehard Longhorn fans for Longhorn fans. In fact, many of the writers for the magazine you know from their contributions here and at Barking Carnival. Second-time contributors like Blake Borron (GoHornsGo90) and Michael Pelech (formerly The Audit Horn) got their starts on BON and did pieces for the magazine, joining first-time contributor Isak Lee (The Elusive Shadow). It was also great to welcome back contributors like Abram Orlansky, Jeff Asher, Peter Bean, Cory Davies, and Barking Carnival's Stephen Ross (srr50).

Suffice it to say that not only are many of these voices familiar to voracious readers of this site, but I also believe them to be among the best anywhere.

As always, the magazine leads off with a breakdown of the roster, provided once again by Blake. The next two articles represent a slight chance from past editions, as Lindy's has lended their expertise to the opponent preview with the same in-depth looks that has made the national edition of the magazine a must-read for college football fans for years. More Lindy's content follows in the form of a look at the Lindy's top 25 and Texas fans will be heartened to see where the Horns land.

Then it's back to original content created for the magazine with a fantastic piece from Peter Bean on why new head coach Charlie Strong looks like the right man to return Texas to its former glory on the football field. Following in that vein, I took a look at the new coaching staff that will help Strong achieve his goals.

As usual, there are articles breaking down the offenses and defenses that Strong will run in his first year in Austin and a comprehensive section on recruiting -- the incoming 2014 class, the 2015 group currently under construction, and even an overview of where things stand in 2016.

In the historical section, Abram Orlansky and Jeff Asher look back on the tenure of Mack Brown in Austin, Isak Lee considers the All-Mack Brown team, and Michael Pelech keeps Horns fans updated on the Texas players in the NFL.

Finally, Stephen Ross provides another must-read piece looking back at the Darrell Royal Era, this time considering the life and career of quarterback James Street, who led the Horns to two national championships and will likely forever remain the only signal caller in Texas history to go undefeated as a starter over multiple seasons.

I could keep going and stop myself only at the risk of giving too much away and spoiling the excitement that always comes from opening up the magazine and taking that first perusal through the table of contents -- it was something that I experienced for the first time in 2008 and continued to experience over the following years as I became a contributor and involved in the editorial process that goes into producing the magazine.

Just know that even though the last couple years have been hard and it's hard to feel completely optimistic about this team, this isn't a magazine for sunshine-pumping. It should leave you feeling better about Texas' chances this season, but it won't do so at the expense of maintaining the objective distance necessary to deeply assess where the program stands.

Hope y'all enjoy -- this was truly a labor of love.

An open-and-shut case from FiveThirtyEight: Lionel Messi is far and away the best player in football. Ronaldo is the only player who is close and he's not even all that close.

By now I've studied nearly every aspect of Messi's game, down to a touch-by-touch level: his shooting and scoring production; where he shoots from; how often he sets up his own shots; what kind of kicks he uses to make those shots; his ability to take on defenders; how accurate his passes are; the kind of passes he makes; how often he creates scoring chances; how often those chances lead to goals; even how his defensive playmaking compares to other high-volume shooters.

And that's just the stuff that made it into this article. I arrived at a conclusion that I wasn't really expecting or prepared for: Lionel Messi is impossible.

It's not possible to shoot more efficiently from outside the penalty area than many players shoot inside it. It's not possible to lead the world in weak-kick goals and long-range goals. It's not possible to score on unassisted plays as well as the best players in the world score on assisted ones. It's not possible to lead the world's forwards both in taking on defenders and in dishing the ball to others. And it's certainly not possible to do most of these things by insanely wide margins.

But Messi does all of this and more.

The piece is chock-full of evidential graphs of how much of an outlier Messi is among his talented peers:

One of my favorite things that I've written about sports is how Lionel Messi rarely dives, which allows him to keep the advantage he has over the defense.

Tags: Lionel Messi   soccer   sports

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She was the kind of dame you wouldn’t trust to watch your dog for the five minutes it would take you to run into the CVS to get your prescription.

She was a looker, alright—like one of those little Hummel figurines wearing a little petticoat and feeding a goose.

She was hot; the kind of hot that rises off a New York City sidewalk in August and fills your nostrils with the sense that actual rotting garbage has just lodged itself in your sinuses.

She was hot—not like a model hot, but like hot enough that like at a bar on like a Friday Thursday night you might be like, “Dude I think that girl is hot” and your friend would be like, “I don’t know, brah,” and then you’d go over to her and realize she wasn’t as hot as you thought but still like hot enough not to not talk to.

She was so hot you could fry an egg off her, one on each nipple, so it would look like she had fried eggs for nipples.

She was the kind of bird cat dolphin who didn’t give a hoot scratch flip.

She had so much electricity that when she walked into a nuclear power plant the lights dimmed for a second and freaked everyone out but then it was like, “Oh, that’s just Cheryl.”

You know the kind of girl—the one who uses the last creamer at the diner and just leaves that little quarter centimeter at the bottom that you can’t even do anything with like she’s doing you a favor—that kind of girl.

She had a face that could melt a heart of stone a heart of steel white chocolate.

She was the kind of broad you could probably order Thai food with if you were both in the mood for Thai food.

Vessyl, a smart cup designed by Yves Behar, is designed to measure and track any drink poured into it in real-time. Using sensors, Vessyl is able to detect drinks that are poured in to it, from water and soda to homemade smoothies, alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, and more.


When a drink is poured into Vessyl, an accompanying iPhone app displays all of the relevant nutritional information about the drink. Vessyl is able to track many pre-bottled drinks, but it is also able to determine the nutritional content of handmade beverages, such as smoothies or mixed drinks. The Verge was able to test Vessyl and has a detailed piece on the cup, including notes on its accuracy.

Let's cut to the chase: while I only had an hour with a Vessyl prototype, I tried nearly a dozen beverages in it -- and it successfully identified all of them. Within 10 seconds, the device, which currently resembles more of a Thermos than a finished product, recognized Crush orange soda, Vitamin Water XXX, Tropicana orange juice, Gatorade Cool Blue, plain-old water, and a few other beverages, all by name. Yes, this cup knows the difference between Gatorade Cool Blue and Glacier Freeze.

Vessyl can tell the difference between strong and weak coffee, Lee says, noting caffeine disparities. It can even measure the sugar, protein, calories, fat, and caffeine inside any beverage you pour into it, mass-produced or homemade.

Along with displaying nutritional information, Vessyl also keeps track of what a user drinks during the day, tallying statistics like calories consumed, caffeine levels, hydration, and more. Users can set goals within the app, tracking all of these metrics and more. Vessyl also tracks and estimates a person's real-time hydration needs based on how much they drink, which is measured through the liquid level in the cup.


Vessyl, which holds 13 ounces of liquid, has a built-in display, a spill-proof lid, and a non-stick interior. It connects to an iPhone using Bluetooth 4.0 to upload nutrient data to its accompanying iPhone app, which also integrates with popular activity trackers. The cup lasts for five to seven days on a single charge and uses wireless charging.

Vessyl can be pre-ordered for $99, but will later retail for $199. It is available in three different colors (Shadow, Snow, and Steam) along with several accent lid colors, and it is expected to begin shipping in early 2015.