Prcog1

This typeface was designed specifically to be unreadable by most automated text scanning software. The disruptive typeface ZXX takes its name directly from the Library of Congress’ listing of three-letter codes meant to specify what language a text is written in. The code “ZXX” is used to denote when there is no information that can be found from within the text.

The typeface, available in six different varieties (Sans, Bold, Camo, False, Noise and Xed) works by adding extra bits to each letter, confusing text scanning software all the while remaining easily  understandable to the naked eye. The typeface and each of its subsequent varieties has previously been available as a free download and is still currently being offered for whoever chooses to use it.

This isn’t the freshest typeface but it’s definitely timely. Check out the video for a more in-depth explanation of how exactly this type of linguistic disruption works.

(Image: Walker Art Center)

The post ZXX: This Typeface Might Fool the NSA appeared first on ANIMAL.

There was so much more to Dr. Seuss than his zany, surrealistically animated children’s stories. Aside from his left-leaning political stances, troublesome affinity for bootlegged gin, and an extramarital affair that reportedly led to his sick wife’s suicide, he privately produced an enormous art collection that was perhaps too “out there” even for his children’s books.

On view for the first time ever, “The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss” is a collection of his so-called “midnight paintings,” along with some very strange sculptures. From haggard-looking Cat in Hats to morbidly captioned smiley ladies in coffins to “Unorthodox Taxidermy,” the mounted heads of disturbingly familiar-looking creatures, this is a side of Theodor Seuss Geisel you’ve never seen before. “The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss,” Theodor Seuss Geisel, May 11- July 16, POP International Galleries, Midtown. (Images: ArtInfo, Huffpo)

The post The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss appeared first on ANIMAL.

The police released details about a rape that occurred last weekend in Greenpoint as well as surveillance video and a sketch of the suspect. [ more › ]

Brooklyn-based artist Peter Hamilton has created a poster series where he prints well-known images from popular culture onto vintage dictionary paper.

As the antique pages are taken from his own collection of beautifully aged dictionaries, no two prints are the same—“Our pages maintain excellent condition while keeping a beautiful golden-aged patina that comes only with time.”

Featuring a wide range of images—from Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup and Star Wars characters to cartoon icons like Donald Duck—these lovely art prints make for unique wall décor when framed.

Scroll down to some of our favorite pieces from the ‘Dictionary Art Prints’ series.



















[via Peter Hamilton]

[Click here to view the video in this article]



If you were a fan of the late legendary Steve Jobs and his revolutionary life work, you will likely want to watch this previously-unseen video of him talking about his legacy.

Shared by the Silicon Valley Historical Association, the video shows Jobs speaking about the “strange business” that he is in, where all his work would be “obsolete by the time he is 50”.

This short clip from 1994 is an excerpt from a full-length film titled Steve Jobs: Visionary Entrepreneur, which is now available for download over here.

Watch the video teaser below before deciding if you want to purchase the entire film.



[via YouTube]

[Click here to view the video in this article]



Still wondering when the 'Steve Jobs' movie is coming to theaters?

16 August it is, according to the new official full-length movie trailer for 'Jobs' which surfaced on YouTube today.

The biopic movie stars Ashton Kutcher, who plays the role of the visionary co-founder of Apple Computer.

Originally titled 'iJobs', the film changed its name to 'Jobs' and attracted mixed reviews from critics during early screenings at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

Expect to see the drama when Jobs tried 'to start a war on IBM', and getting fired from the very own company that he co-founded.

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. Because the people who are crazy enough who think they can change the world are the ones that do."

Check out the trailer below. Does it excite you as much as a new Apple launch?




[via YouTube]

New York City offers a plethora of photographic opportunity. Massive architecture alongside a vibrant and diverse population makes for plenty of work for photographers of all types. But have you ever thought about the myriad signage and typography that New York has to offer?

Matthew Anderson and Daniel Hunninghake did, and so they created NYCType back in 2007 to highlight it. The site brings together photos of New York City’s signage under once virtual roof.

When NYCType first went live, it was curated by Anderson and friends manually, but the process was time-consuming and labor intensive. The rise of Instagram has allowed them to automate the site, bringing in any picture hashtagged #nyctype and thus making sure the site is always updating.

Speaking with Wired, Anderson explained that he has a passion for typography. There’s a rich visual history of hand-painted signs and displays in NYC, but these unique creations are slowly being replaced by mass-produced corporate signage that he believes has “less soul.”

NYCType is a way to photographically document these unique pieces of New York City’s history before they all disappear.

In the future, Anderson hopes to find a way to integrate higher resolution DSLR imagery, videos and geo-tagging into the website, but there’s no telling when that will happen. To browse through the diverse world of NYC signage, head over to NYCType here and check it out for yourself.

(via Wired via Laughing Squid)

Colonel George Everette “Bud” Day is a retired U.S. Air Force Command Pilot who served his country during the Vietnam war, enduring a stint as a POW and earning the Medal of Honor and the Air Force Cross.

When he was asked to be on the cover of Smithsonian’s Air & Space magazine, it was portrait photographer Robert Seale who got the honor of photographing him, and for our sakes, he put together a behind-the-scenes video while he was at it.

They got started very early, wanting to capture the perfect shot during the golden hour at sunrise. Col. Day was to be photographed in front of an F-100 Super Sabre just like the one he flew during his time in Vietnam (his was called the “Misty 1″).

Here’s how the cover turned out:

Seale describes what went into the shoot over on his blog:

We started shooting before dawn — long exposures on a tripod with battery-powered strobes. Nathan Lindstrom assisted on the shoot and did a great job. We used a Profoto 7B with a Plume Wafer Hexoval 180 on the side, and a Wafer 100 on another 7B boomed in front of the face as a fill.

The cover shot is great, but it’s definitely worth heading over to Seale’s blog to check out the rest of the images he took during the photo shoot. Those eager to learn will find details about every shot and how it was lined up, while the rest of us can check out the photos and pay our respects to an American hero and ridiculously cool 88-year-old.

(via ISO 1200)

Designer Soohun Jung has invented the ‘iBackpack’, a simple communication tool for cyclists to keep safe on the road.

By using a transparent window that shows the screen of your tablet device to all, it lets the world know if you are about to turn right or left.

The tablet is synced with your smartphone via Bluetooth, using a special app. The smartphone then doubles up as a rearview mirror and relays information like break signals, emoticons and messages to the tablet.

It works with the help of simple, but intelligent technology. Scenes from behind users are displayed on their smartphone by using the camera on their tablet, acting as an intelligent rear view mirror. To activate the turn signal, swipe the smartphone on your bicycle handle bar and the gyro sensor will activate that message.

Similar for the break signal, when riding speed rapidly slows down, the speed sensor will recognize it and relay it. You can also display messages if you desire by selecting saved messages on your smartphone.

This technology might just be the thing that will make the roads much safer for cyclists.







[via Yanko Design]

"Mad Men's" penultimate season ends on Sunday, leading to preemptively high spoiler-alert levels of conversation at the water cooler: How will this show, however flailing, ultimately come to close? But TV endings are tricky, especially when you're talking about one of the greatest shows of all time. The final chapter can be absurdist, like "Seinfeld's," or confusing, like "The Sopranos." To some, however, "Mad Men" had its ending in its beginning, thanks to that instantly iconic animated man of opening-credits infamy, setting down his briefcase and tumbling down past buildings with billboards of beautiful women and happy families, perhaps toward his shadowed death. And while creator Matthew Weiner now says that his show will not end with a jump — just think how clichéd that would be — the image seems ever more important as "Mad Men" hurdles toward the brink.  

During an interview, The Wrap's Tim Molloy said: "With so many people saying the show should end with a jump out the window, that must be pretty much the only thing you can't do." To which Weiner responded: 

It never even occurred to me. I’ll be honest with you. Never occurred to me. That jump out the window was always meant to be symbolic and internal. I never meant it literally. I think it’s fascinating, though—I think people think it would be cool. But it hasn’t been an option. And now that we’ve had this conversation, I really can’t do it. 

Weiner has always said that the man falling to the theme song was not supposed to be Don. He told an audience at the Paley Center that "the origin of the credits was I had an idea about a guy getting up in the morning — a faceless man, not even Don, I didn't know who he was — going to work and going in, walking past the office, going into his office, opening the window and jumping out." He explained: "To me the American businessman jumps out the window, that is a statement and it only happens — it's part of our iconography, so I wanted to say that's what's going inside of this man."  

Over time, "Mad Men's" jumping American businessman has served as fodder for both conspiracy theories — they're fun to indulge, but ultimately worthless — and heady controversy. Last year's season-five poster isolated the show's falling man, and was deemed insensitive for recalling another falling man, the one so famously photographed leaping from the World Trade Center on 9/11. "On the one hand, the poster is merely a continuation of the art that has accompanied the show since its inception — a bit of shorthand that refers as much to the viewing public's impatience to get Mad Men back after its extended hiatus as it does to the existential consequences of Dick Whitman impersonating a dead man named Don Draper," wrote Tom Junod, who chronicled the 9/11 photograph for Esquire. "At the same time, the poster dispenses with the corporate context specific to Mad Men, indeed with context altogether, and, by concentrating on one falling man, seems out to remind viewers that the show is really about the Falling Man... that for all its American-Century trappings, it's set squarely in the age of American decline."

So, "Mad Men" will not end with a jump, but the image — or at least what Weiner wants the image to represent — appears increasingly relevant as we approach Sunday and the finale season. We entered season six in a haze of death, with Don pitching ads that were not so veiled premonitions of killing himself. And that was right after season five had left us reeling from the suicide of Lane Pryce  —in perhaps the moment that had most resembled the opening credits, here was a man at his wits end, driven by office culture to take his own life. "Mad Men" returned with Don's collapsed doorman. The rest of the season has existed in a depressive, drug-induced fog. In 1968, the world has collapsed around our besuited cocktail drinkers. With riots and war and rage, they are anomalies, so much so that Peggy stabs her boyfriend in an effort of self-preservation. 

Our characters, at this moment in their fall, are miserable. Don is disgusted with himself. Sally is disgusted with her father, having walked in on him cheating with the next door neighbor. Peggy, despite her remarkable progress, still is not getting the treatment she deserves. Ted, the good man, is in love with Peggy, who is not his wife. Pete has, for all intents and purposes, been abandoned by his family. Bob Benson has now been outed in more ways than one. There's something ghostly about this season. Margaret Lyons at Vulture has espoused the theory that Don is a version of Rosemary from "Rosemary's Baby," which Sally Draper read and multiple characters went to see at the movies this season. Over at Grantland, Andy Greenwald writes: "Don Draper has been surrounded by doppelgängers, mocking shadows that flit around him the way ghosts teased and enveloped Dante on his long walk to hell." Even though Weiner has said that no one is going to die this season, it wouldn't be shocking if one of the characters — maybe Don, maybe Pete — took that leap.

But that leap is a metaphor, Weiner insists, as so much in this show is. So while "Mad Men" may not end in a leap, we may feel a progressive push of our favorite doomed characters toward that window, toward the edge. Don, all curled up in the fetal position as he was at the close of the last episode, now seems to understand that his American Dream, his assimilation as someone not himself, was futile. 

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More From The Atlantic Wire:

The 'Jobs' Trailer Is Everything and Nothing

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Join the conversation about this story »

SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) - Ouya's $99 Android videogame console goes on sale on Tuesday, the latest attempt by a growing crop of niche hardware makers to chip away at a market dominated by Sony Corp, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd.

Ouya hopes its cheaper cube-shaped console will prevail over the long-established gaming triumvirate's pricier hardware. The new device has more than 150 free-to-try games, media features such as Flixster and radio service TuneIn, and an open ecosystem built on Google's Android operating system.

Founded by Julie Uhrman, a former executive at entertainment website IGN, the hackable, or customizable, device will go up this Christmas season against the $399 PlayStation 4 and $499 Xbox One. Both are packed with exclusive blockbuster titles from top developers, cloud gaming and other social features .

Ouya is going after core console gamers, as well as the mass market of college students, young adults and families that plays mobile games and is price-conscious, Uhrman said.

"Ouya is not an 'either-or' decision," Uhrman said. "It stands on its own and it's something that gamers are going to want in addition to whatever device plays the game that they've been playing for the last five years."

Ouya and other hardware companies, big and small, are hoping to claw their way into a global video games market expected to touch $66 billion in software and hardware sales this year, up from $63 billion in 2012, according to research firm DFC Intelligence.

The 2013 holiday season is shaping up to be the most hotly contested in years, with Microsoft launching its Xbox One and Sony's Playstation 4 coming to market.

Saratoga, California-based BlueStacks, will launch a $129 cube called GamePop that is expected to available this holiday season. Alternatively, gamers can pay $6.99 monthly for access to over 500 games and get the console and controller for free.

Next week, graphics giant Nvidia Corp will release its handheld Shield device, which runs games available on Android tablets and smartphones and streams titles from computers.

Demand for the new gadgets is unclear. Ouya has begun taking pre-orders, but is mum about figures. Just this week, Nvidia cut the price of the Shield, which starts sales on June 27, to $299 from $349, responding to what it called feedback from gamers.

"For a new product, we're satisfied with the reservation," Paul Raines, CEO of the world's largest games retail chain, GameStop, said about the Ouya.

But he added: "To really grow to billions of dollars, you've got have great IP that people want to play. People often talk about open platform gaming, but there's only one device that plays 'Halo' and that will be Xbox One, there's one device that plays 'Uncharted' and that will be the PlayStation 4, so the importance of the IP cannot be overstated."

DEVELOPER INTEREST

Ouya has received support from the gaming community. It racked up $8.6 million from 63,000 backers, mostly game enthusiasts and developers, on crowd-funding site Kickstarter. And it got $15 million in a funding round led by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with participation from the Mayfield Fund, Shasta Ventures, Occam Partners and Nvidia.

Developers can earn revenue on Ouya's platform through several avenues, including selling virtual goods, subscriptions and donations. Sales will be split along the traditional 70-30 model, with Ouya getting 30 percent.

Over 17,000 developers are using the Ouya software development kit to bring games to the new device, including Square Enix Holdings Co Ltd's "Final Fantasy III" and nWay's "ChronoBlade", the company said.

Nvidia's Shield is intended for hard core PC gamers with a yen for continuing to play on the go.

Meanwhile, BlueStacks will target a younger demographic of 10 to 30 year-olds hooked on tablet and smartphone games, said Apu Kumar, senior vice president of global sales and business development, said.

Its GamePop is "bringing the games you are most familiar with on iPhones and Android to the large screen," he said.

Join the conversation about this story »

If Cisco and iRobot have their way, robot CEOs may invade boardrooms from Tokyo to New York in 2014. The two companies recently announced collaboration on the autonomous Ava 500 telepresence robot for business. The firms hope the Ava 500 will allow business people to attend daily meetings in person, across the planet—without ever changing a plane or time zone.

The navigation technology behind iRobot’s Roomba robot vacuum cleaner and the RP Vita medical telepresence robot will guide the five foot five inch, 100 pound Ava 500. Meanwhile, a Cisco TelePresence EX60 personal video endpoint will broadcast a worker’s face and voice from its 21.5″ screen and send back sounds and images via an onboard camera and microphone.

Using a special app on a tablet, remote workers will wake the robot up and tell it where to go. The Ava 500 can map and autonomously navigate the halls of its home office, freeing the telecommuter to make small talk along the way (or leave the screen off until it reaches its destination). After a meeting, the unit dutifully returns to its charging station to catch a few winks and juice up for its next appointment.

iRobot CEO, Colin Angle, told the Boston Herald the Ava 500 gives folks the chance to be in the same room as the people they’re meeting, to see facial expressions, and to go in the hall after for a private chat. Angie Mistretta, director of telepresence solutions at Cisco, says, “The real value of the robot is that spontaneity.”

The question is whether that spontaneity is worth the robot’s $70,000 price tag (or $2,000 – $2,500 a month to rent). iRobot and Cisco are targeting executives, corporate trainers, site inspectors, and remote employees. Travel costs for these folks can stack up fast. If Ava 500 saves even a few trips a month, the robot could pay its way.

But businesses are cost cutting machines. If telepresence robots are attractive at $70,000, then they’re even more appealing at $7,000, and exponentially sexier as the price tag approaches $0. And already, firms can order a simpler telepresence robot from Double Robotics for $2,599. Businesses may be willing to sacrifice a little screen real estate and autonomous navigation for $67,000 in saved costs.

And they may not need to make that sacrifice very long. Advanced AI and robotics are entering the consumer market at drastically reduced prices.

We recently wrote about AI startup Anki. Anki’s robot cars drive themselves around a track at top speed, avoiding each other, the wall, making evasive maneuvers—all this runs on iOS with an expected cost of $200. But Anki isn’t just about toy cars. It’s an iOS-powered consumer AI and robotics platform.

Such technology will just as easily guide an autonomous telepresence robot through the office. And soon. Offering enterprise solutions at enterprise prices in a world where AI and robotics are hitting consumer markets at consumer prices—how long will such products make sense?

Is there anyone you would add to this infographic? Let us know in the comments section below!

[Source: Confused.com | Via Blastr]

According to many iPhone users who seemingly can’t resist provoking the robotic voice in their phones, Siri would respond to suicide threats with “helpful” tips: The nearest bridges, open pharmacies, a listing for Michael C. Hall. As suicide rates continue to climb, however, Apple and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline began working together to give Siri somewhat less passive-aggressive responses. Now, if prompted by statements like “I am going to commit suicide,” Siri will ask if you would like to call the suicide hotline. Should you not respond, the phone will display local suicide prevention centers, and provide you with a map.

John Draper, director of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Network, says that not everyone who suggests their imminent demise to Siri is joking. He adds that highly isolated individuals have a greater proclivity for intimacy and increased contact with Siri and other computers.

The most important thing is increasing access to this information, making it easier to help those in need. If you or someone you know should need it, the hotline number is as follows: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

(via ABC, images via AshtonPal, Karen)

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• Google: no longer helping users kill themselves
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William Shatner is a great actor. I’m serious. No one else could have played Captain Kirk. We have his role in the Twilight Zone to thank for that. Celebrate both of his awesome sci-fi roles with these Star Trek / The Twilight Zone The Captain and The Passenger Monitor Mates. They come in a one-of-a-kind [...]

Glastonbury, England is home to a thriving theatrical community of dancers, actors, circus performers, and all around flamboyant weirdos. Apparently living there during the right time of year is like being an extra at the end of Blazing Saddles right before the pie fight — everyone’s out in the street wearing ridiculous costumes like it’s no big deal and nobody takes umbrage. Well, nobody but the prudish townsperson who attacked an actor dressed as a giant penis while his performance art partner — dressed in a vagina costume, because of course she was — tried to diffuse the situation.

Chris Murray and Joanne Tremarco, who are players in the Nomadic Academy of Fools and who star as “Dick” and “Fanny” in one of the troupe’s featured productions, were outside the theater promoting the company’s Four Days for Play Festival. One passerby, though, found their attire to be unsuitable for public viewing and expressed his desire to protect the innocence of local children by loudly shouting a bunch of obscenities within earshot of those same children and then assaulting a man dressed as a penis.

“I could tell by his body language that he was really angry. I tried to calm him down, I wasn’t looking for a fight; but he grabbed my hat, tore it off and chucked it on the pavement,” said Murray, remaining surprisingly nonchalant following this violent hat circumcision. (Related: Violent Hat Circumcision is totally the name of my new Gwar cover band.)

After a police officer arrived on the scene to settle the matter, the genitalia-clad performers agreed not to do any more street performances lest they be faced with arrest for disrupting public order. Tremarco was quoted as saying that they did not wish to press charges against the man, and the plays continued without any trouble.

However, the Nomadic Academy’s website delivered quite a scathing commentary on the event this morning, suggesting that the perpetrator should be poisoned with aconite as punishment. Either that or they’re really big Harry Potter fans who suspect the man of being a werewolf and would like to treat his symptoms accordingly. This is England, so it’s hard to tell.

But wait, there’s more! We found some video of the costumes in question, because we love you. Here the actors appear to have switched roles, however — or maybe these are the parts they usually play and opted to with more traditional casting for the street version. Either way, “Dick” is kind of… well, a dick, huh. Hmmmm. Maybe the attacker just couldn’t handle the truthbombs these two were dropping. Just sayin’.

(via Central Somerset Gazette, image via flickr)

Meanwhile in related links

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It’s official: The world’s first crowdfunded, public use space telescope will be sent into space within two years.

Planetary Resources, the Bellevue-based asteroid-mining company, met its Kickstarter campaign goal of $1 million on Thursday, as more than 12,000 backers pitched in to launch a customized version of the company’s Arkyd-100 robot spaceship with an external camera into near-Earth orbit.

The fundraising got off to a soaring start, raising more than $100,000 in just two hours. The chance to use a special online interface to point the telescope and snap photos of objects in the Solar System was certainly appealing. For $25, backers could order a personal image of themselves that Planetary will capture with Earth in the background.

There are still nine days left on the Kickstarter, although it doesn’t seem like Planetary will reach the $2 million stretch goal, which would enable the telescope to hunt for alien planets.

Planetary, founded last year, is already backed by some of the biggest names in technology and aerospace and is planning to send spacecraft into orbit to ultimately swarm asteroids to mine natural resources like water and platinum group metals. This public campaign, however, will allow the company to involve the public more directly.

For a Friday morning laugh, here’s the company’s Kickstarter video translated into Klingon. Planetary’s love for Star Wars and Star Trek is not a secret — the inspiration for naming the Arkyd is from Star Wars, while Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek) — helped the company launch the Kickstarter last month.

Previously on GeekWire: Kickstarter campaign for public space telescope reaches $100K in two hours

Reach staff reporter Taylor Soper at taylor@geekwire.com or on Twitter @Taylor_Soper. Follow us on Twitter @GeekWire.

Just a reminder that there is an alternate universe out there where those four episodes of Roseanne were the apogee of Joss Whedon‘s career.

(via @TheAdamWells)

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Two years ago, I was a 12-year old Apple fanboy.

Not only did I spend most of my waking hours shuffling back and forth between an iPhone 4, iPad and MacBook Pro, but I also worshipped the words of Steve Jobs as if he was a deity.

I watched every Apple keynote on my laptop, and if the livestream wasn’t available I’d check out the live blogs. Not only that, my long-term goal was to work for Apple.  At that time, I believed Apple knew what I wanted before I knew I wanted it.

The world has changed so much in the last two years. I switched to the dark side.

Yes, I have become an Android user.

My switch from Apple’s operating system, iOS, is representative of a colossal shift I’ve witnessed among my friends in the teen demographic.

At my high school, the iPhone had the reputation for being the cool phone.  However, that’s no longer the case, and things have shifted in the span of the last year.  It used to be that nearly everyone in my school owned an iPhone.  However, by the end of the last year, I couldn’t walk around school without seeing a Samsung Galaxy S3. I switched to the Nexus S in February of 2012.  I am currently using the Nexus 4.

After interviewing many of the students at my school who have switched to Android from iOS, I heard a few common themes as to why they switched. For one, Samsung’s marketing has worked.

Apple understands the effectiveness of marketing.  The 1984 and Think Different advertising campaigns were some of the most recognizable that have ever been aired on television.  So, how did Apple lose teens?

As of late, Samsung’s marketing campaign has made an effective appeal to the teenage sector, while simultaneously, Apple’s marketing has lost its steam.  Apple started to run ads that showed Zooey Deschanel, Samuel L. Jackson, John Malkovich, and Martin Scorsese demonstrating Siri.  These ads have featured celebrities who have no profound connection with the teenage market because they did not demonstrate any of the ways that teenagers actually use their phones.

More significantly, teenagers did not connect with these celebrities, who seem to reach an older and perhaps less technologically sophisticated audience. None of my friends connected with the characters in the ads.

At the same time, Samsung has been creating advertising that actually features real-use cases for teenagers.  While these ads have not been targeted specifically at teens, any teenager would be interested in a faster way of transferring photos to his or her friends.  In another ad, Samsung demonstrated a new way of transferring music playlists through the tapping of phones, which has been highly enticing for many teenagers.

Another reason many of us teens switched to Android was the closed-down nature of iOS.  Android offers greater customizability, including being able to add new keyboards, live wallpapers and apps that aren’t from the Google Play Store.  While the Android platform provides this openness, Apple is closed.  You can’t even download new keyboards from the Apple App Store.  This closed-system does not appeal to my generation, who are focused on being individual and unique.

At Apple’s developer conference last week, Apple announced and demonstrated iOS 7.

With this latest version of iOS, Apple continues to play catch-up.  Apple has decided to not open up iOS to more customization, even though that is one of the biggest complaints that teens had with the old iOS.

However, when Tim Cook answered a question at the D11 conference about iOS openness, he had this to say: ”I think you will see us open up more in the future. But not to the degree that we put the customer at risk of having a bad experience. But will we open up more?  Yes.”

This leaves the possibility that Apple might open up iOS to customization in the fall, when they release the final version to the public.

Even if Apple opens up a bit, they may have lost my generation. For now, they’ve lost me, a one-time Apple fanboy.

Michael Sherman, 14, a student at Seattle’s Bush School, is a technophile with aspirations to be a future entrepreneur and/or politician. 

[Editor's Note: Michael's father, Craig Sherman, is a lawyer at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati who represents GeekWire.]

Previously on GeekWire: Why I won’t buy another subsidized Android phone (and why you shouldn’t, either)

Post updated to correct reference to Google Play Store.

The buddy system isn’t just a good way to keep fourth-graders from wandering off on field trips to the zoo. A recent study found that pilot whales take a buddy when they dive into the dark reaches of the ocean where light doesn’t penetrate and the animals’ vision is limited. On these deep dark dives, University of Tokyo researchers found that long-finned pilot whales — which are actually a species of dolphin — keep in fin-to-fin contact with their diving buddies, turning every deep dive into a perpetual cuddle session for the aquatic mammals. Also, there is some high-fiving.

To follow the whales on their extreme dives —  some of which can take them more than more than 600 meters beneath the waves — University of Tokyo researchers led by Kagari Aoki fitted a pair of the whales with some tracking gear including a camera and accelerometer. Data retrieved from the tracking tech showed that the whales not only started their deep dives in pairs, they stayed within 3 meters of one another for 75% of the time they were below the surface.

Images captured by the cameras also showed that the dives were very tactile experiences, with the whales frequently stroking one another’s bodies and touching their fins together in underwater fistbumps. Researchers don’t know why the whales perform their dives this way — staying in sync so closely likely makes the dives more difficult — but they suspect it may be a way to encourage bonding between the intensely social creatures, kind of like performing a trust fall nearly 2,000 feet underwater.

That ignores the simpler answer, though, which is that it’s dark and scary 600 meters below the surface of the ocean. I’d want someone holding my hand, too.

(via New Scientist, image via flickr)

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All I know about weapons I’ve learnt from roleplaying games; either as a player or as a GM. The pictures below show modern bullets cut in half. You can see the powder and contents of each round. It’s easy to see why some are better at punching through armour than others and why some specialise in doing big, messy, wounds.

Via Imgur.

The post Bullets precisely split in half appeared first on Geek Native.

Custom-made for only $20 by Etsy seller CuriousBurrow!

[via Etsy]

[Source: Team Pwnicorn | Via LS]

WPP has announced the launch of Geometry Global, its new global activation and shopper-marketing network, which will incorporate G2, OgilvyAction and JWTAction

The U.K.’s Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley is harboring a dangerous plant known as Puya chilensis, a South American monster with a 10-foot flower stalk and razor-sharp spines that it uses to trap and consume sheep. It looks like this:

Wait, no. It looks like this:

I am 100 percent not kidding about the sheep, though. That’s straight from the BB goddamn C:

In the Andes it uses its sharp spines to snare and trap sheep and other animals, which slowly starve to death.

The animals then decay at the base of the plant, acting as a fertiliser.

The RHS’s Puya chilensis, which gets fed liquid fertilizer rather than deliquesced mutton, is set to bloom soon for the first time since it was planted 15 years ago. Apparently, when you don’t satiate their bloodlust, it’s pretty hard to convince these guys to flower. But horticulturists who are definitely humans and NOT plants in disguise assure us that the spines are “well out of reach of both children and sheep alike,” so this would be a wonderful and perfectly safe time to visit.

Filed under: Living

Earlier this month Samsung and AT&T officially announced a new, ruggedized version of the Galaxy S4, dubbed the Galaxy S4 Active

The phone is now available for $199 exclusively on AT&T and we had some time to spend with the unit, comparing it directly to the standard model Galaxy S4.

The biggest difference between the regular Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy S4 Active is that the Active is water and dust resistant and can be submerged in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. You can even listen to music with it while swimming. Read more...

Similar Guts, Better Exterior

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Instagram video appears to be a hit. Users uploaded more than 5 million videos during the first 24 hours of availability.

In the first eight hours alone, the app saw one year’s worth of video uploaded, 40 hours per minute when the Miami Heat won the NBA championship Thursday evening, according to Instagram.

A number of celebrities ranging from Justin Bieber to Jimmy Fallon, and even more brands, are already using Instagram video. Huge brands such as Cisco, GE and Gap have started posting videos on the service, as have many major league sports teams, including the Yankees, Giants, Dodgers and 49ers. Read more...

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With a little help from Google, the Bard could be the next Internet sensation — or at least the next social media sensation.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) has put together its 40th rendition of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, only this time the company is calling it Midsummer Night’s Dreaming and it's playing almost exclusively on a social network near you

The RSC is playing out the piece in real time live and on social media. That means it will run for three days and will be updated through Google+ — as if the dramatic action were a major current event — that's how the audience will hear the story Read more...

More about Google, Shakespeare, Social Media, and Royal Shakespeare Society

Huzzah! The Federal Aviation Administration is primed to finally let flyers use their phones, tablets and other digital devices during taxiing, takeoff and landing, per a report.

The Wall Street Journal reports an advisory panel will recommend the FAA make changes to its low-altitude gadget use rules later this year.

The panel's decisions aren't set in stone yet. Reportedly, however, it may suggest flyers be allowed to use electronic devices in airplane mode during takeoff, landing and taxiing. It may also expand the window for passengers to surf the web or send emails via 3G or LTE. Read more...

More about Faa, Aviation, Mobile Devices, Us World, and Us