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MacintoshFrom: Apple Section - Ars Technica
Ars Technica will be covering Apple's "Let's Rock" event live on Tuesday, September 9. Here, we go over what we "know" will be coming, what we don't know, and whether there's anything left for "one more thing..."
We have received word that iTunes 8 is finally confirmed for Tuesday's special event, and that it's also expected that iPhone 2.1 will land as well with some hidden features we don't know about.
Orange and lime: not just fruits anymore. Allegedly-leaked photos of the fourth-gen iPod nano made the rounds overnight and they're pretty much what you would expect, except in some rare colors for the nano.
From: MacNN | The Macintosh News Network
Intel today set a pair of new speed records for its Xeon 5000 processors ahead of the introduction of their eventual Core i7 successors. The update pushes the quad-core Xeon 5400 series from its previous 3.2GHz limit up to 3.4GHz with the new Xeon X5492; the new flagship also climbs up to the maximum 1.6GHz front side system bus speed. Intel characterizes the processor as intended for performanc...
Microsoft's third-generation Zune players will be the first to support true wireless updating and purchasing, retailer Fry's has unintentionally revealed in an online store listing for a blue 8GB Zune. In addition to confirming both blue and silver as new colors for the flash player, the entry exposes a "Device to Cloud" feature that will let users update their song mix from most Wi-Fi hotspots, ...
Amazon today unintentionally revealed some of Microsoft's planning today with a listing for the Zune 120GB on its store. The new storage comes in at just under the expected $250 price point but through its listing appears to be virtually identical to the outgoing Zune 80GB, making no mention of new features beyond the existing share- and sync-only Wi-Fi as well as the FM tuner, all of which have ...
From: MacInTouch
Amazon has the best price on MacBook Air: just $1699. Or save $55-$105 off Apple's latest iMacs, or $150-$380 off the Mac Pro Quad and new Quad-Core models. Amazon discounts iPods and a huge selection of digital cameras and HDTV's, too. Save on AppleCare, ".Mac", "Leopard", iLife, iWork, Aperture 2, VMware, Photoshop Elements 6 and Office 2008, as well. And the Kindle wireless book/reader is now in stock at $359. While you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through our links to purchase!
[Updated 14:30] a 10.5.3 problem affects web browsers; other 10.5.3 issues, compatibility notes and more
From: Mac OS X Hints
Learn how to use an Apple-provided tool to manage your Mac's AirPort card and connections.
Do you use 10.5?s screen sharing feature? Have you been frustrated by the inability to send, for instance, Command-Tab to the remote Mac? Here?'s a simple way to solve that, and other, problems.
Here?s a reminder on a simple feature of Keynote?s slide groups that may lead to unintended results.
From: Macworld
The disappearance of Apple-related advertisements from Google's AdWords service in Australia has resellers fearing online sales leads will evaporate as Apple strengthens its own local retail presence and clamps down on other companies using its trademarks.
The first in a series of ads that Jerry Seinfeld will make on behalf of Microsoft debuted Thursday night. And the point of the 90-second spot is beyond Philip Michaels? comprehension.
Adobe Systems in October plans to launch a private pilot program for its "Genesis" mashup technology.
From: CNET News.com
The online e-mail application is faster for those using the 7-year-old browser and gets features already available to more modern browsers, Google said.
New server chips from processor giant draw as little as 12.5 watts per core.
Its line of Piccolo microcontrollers can reduce power consumption significantly of home appliances, hybrid cars, LED lighting, and even solar panels.
From: Wired Top Stories
1966: Star Trek makes its network television debut.
Given the cultural impact and enormous franchise spawned by the original Star Trek series, it's hard to believe that the show lasted just three seasons -- 80 episodes -- and was canceled by NBC in 1969 because of low ratings.
But if network numbers-crunching and the short-sightedness of advertising sponsors doomed it, Star Trek's long-term survival, evidenced by its ongoing syndication, not to mention the numerous TV spinoffs and feature-length films it inspired, is both a vindication of and a tribute to its creator and executive producer, Gene Roddenberry.
And Roddenberry was a guy badly in need of vindication. His career began promisingly: Roddenberry wrote scripts for some popular 1950s TV shows like Naked City, Highway Patrol and Have Gun, Will Travel. But the original Star Trek TV series, as well as the first feature-length film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, were conspicuous successes in an otherwise unremarkable and often problematic association with Hollywood.
The commercial success of the first Star Trek movie would spawn other films and a new TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, although Roddenberry's involvement with those projects was diminished. But if his relationship with the industry had its rough patches, his reputation as a futurist and visionary -- which begins and ends with Star Trek -- is assured.
The original show's most visionary aspects were social, not scientific, and that had everything to do with the times. The country was in turmoil, embroiled in Vietnam and the growing civil rights movement. Roddenberry said later that these events influenced many of the themes, as well as the multicultural makeup of the crew.
Roddenberry remained in demand on the lecture circuit to the end of his life, speaking not only at universities but at some other pretty significant places, too, including the Smithsonian Institution and NASA.
Star Trek's impact on popular culture is matched by only a handful of other television shows, and surpassed by precious few.
The original cast members on the USS Enterprise's 1966 flight deck became household names: Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner), First Officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Chief Engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (James Doohan), Communications Officer Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Helmsman Hikaru Sulu (George Takei). Navigator Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), who joined the cast in the second season to give the Russians their due in space, was also a popular character.
Phrases like "Beam me up, Scotty" and "Live long and prosper" and "to boldly go ?" entered the lexicon, and the show's cult following, kept visibly alive by the numerous and rollicking Star Trek conventions, remains strong to this day. An 11-foot model of the starship Enterprise is on display at the Smithsonian.
On the tech front, the communicator used by Enterprise crew members is said to have been the inspiration for the flip-open cellphone.
The original pilot episode for the series, "The Cage," was filmed in 1964 but not aired in its entirety until 1988. After the original pilot was rejected by NBC, "The Cage" was chopped up and heavily edited, and eventually shown under the title "The Menagerie" during Star Trek's three-year run.
Nimoy's Mr. Spock was the only character from the pilot to later appear in the TV series, although he was most un-Spock like, showing a lot more emotion than your average Vulcan. In the pilot, the Enterprise was commanded by Capt. Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter).
Because of all the spinoffs that resulted from it, Roddenberry's Star Trek is often referred to as The Original Series. For a lot of us who came of age watching Shatner chewing on all that alien scenery and nibbling on all those alien necks, it was The Only Series.
Have some favorite Star Trek moments you'd like to share with us? Wired.com wants to hear about your favorite Star Trek series, episode and feature film. Have a copy of the Animated Series on Laserdisc? Please, do share.
Source: Various
Many Japanese gals lead double lives: Mild-mannered students in plain-Jane uniforms by day; French maids, furries, and goth Lolitas by night. Legions run around Tokyo, wheeling suitcases full of makeup and costumes. But Superman had a phone booth — where are schoolgirls supposed to suit up? Luckily, Japanese company COS-Pa has introduced tiny dressing rooms for women in the trendy Shibuya district, where 500 to 700 yen (roughly $5 to $6) buys 30 minutes of private mirror time, free Wi-Fi, beauty supplies, and a nonalcoholic beverage. Says COS-Pa's owner firmly: "Ladies should not have to get beautiful in a bathroom."
A few years ago, Constance Steinkuehler -- a game academic at the University of Wisconsin -- was spending 12 hours a day playing Lineage, the online world game. She was, as she puts it, a "siege princess," running 150-person raids on hellishly difficult bosses. Most of her guild members were teenage boys.
But they were pretty good at figuring out how to defeat the bosses. One day she found out why. A group of them were building Excel spreadsheets into which they'd dump all the information they'd gathered about how each boss behaved: What potions affected it, what attacks it would use, with what damage, and when. Then they'd develop a mathematical model to explain how the boss worked -- and to predict how to beat it.
Often, the first model wouldn't work very well, so the group would argue about how to strengthen it. Some would offer up new data they'd collected, and suggest tweaks to the model. "They'd be sitting around arguing about what model was the best, which was most predictive," Steinkuehler recalls.
That's when it hit her: The kids were practicing science.
They were using the scientific method. They'd think of a hypothesis -- This boss is really susceptible to fire spells -- and then collect evidence to see if the hypothesis was correct. If it wasn't, they'd improve it until it accounted for the observed data.
This led Steinkuehler to a fascinating and provocative conclusion: Videogames are becoming the new hotbed of scientific thinking for kids today.
This makes sense if you think about it for a second. After all, what is science? It's a technique for uncovering the hidden rules that govern the world. And videogames are simulated worlds that kids are constantly trying to master. Lineage and World of Warcraft aren't "real" world, of course, but they are consistent -- the behavior of the environment and the creatures in it are governed by hidden and generally unchanging rules, encoded by the game designers. In the process of learning a game, gamers try to deduce those rules.
This leads them, without them even realizing it, to the scientific method.
This is what Steinkuehler reports in a research paper -- "Scientific Habits of Mind in Virtual Worlds" (.pdf) -- that she will publish in this spring's Journal of Science Education and Technology. She and her co-author, Sean Duncan, downloaded the content of 1,984 posts in 85 threads in a discussion board for players of World of Warcraft.
What did they find? Only a minority of the postings were "banter" or idle chat. In contrast, a majority -- 86 percent -- were aimed specifically at analyzing the hidden ruleset of games.
More than half the gamers used "systems-based reasoning" -- analyzing the game as a complex, dynamic system. And one-tenth actually constructed specific models to explain the behavior of a monster or situation; they would often use their model to generate predictions. Meanwhile, one-quarter of the commentors would build on someone else's previous argument, and another quarter would issue rebuttals of previous arguments and models.
These are all hallmarks of scientific thought. Indeed, the conversations often had the precise flow of a scientific salon, or even a journal series: Someone would pose a question -- like what sort of potions a high-class priest ought to carry around, or how to defeat a particular monster -- and another would post a reply, offering data and facts gathered from their own observations. Others would jump into the fray, disputing the theory, refining it, offering other facts. Eventually, once everyone was convinced the theory was supported by the data, the discussion would peter out.
"It blew my mind," Steinkuehler tells me.
And here's the thing: The (mostly) young people engaging in these sciencelike conversations are precisely the same ones who are, more and more, tuning out of science in the classroom. Every study shows science literacy in school is plummeting, with barely one-fifth of students graduating with any sort of sense of how the scientific method works. The situation is far worse for boys than girls.
Steinkuehler thinks videogames are the way to reverse this sorry trend. She argues that schools ought to be embracing games as places to show kids the value of scientific scrutiny -- the way it helps us make sense of the world.
One of the reasons kids get bored by science is that too many teachers present it as a fusty collection of facts for memorization. This is precisely wrong. Science isn't about facts. It's about the quest for facts -- the scientific method, the process by which we hash through confusing thickets of ignorance. It's dynamic, argumentative, collaborative, competitive, filled with flashes of crazy excitement and hours of drudgework, and driven by ego: Our desire to be the one who figures it out, at least for now. It's dramatic and nutty and fun.
And it's pretty much how kids already approach the games they love. They're already scientists; they already know the value of the scientific method. Teachers just need to talk to them in their language, so that the kids can begin to understand the joy of puzzling through the offline, "real" world too.
At one point, Steinkuehler met up with one of the kids who'd built the Excel model to crack the boss. "Do you realize that what you're doing is the essence of science?" she asked.
He smiled at her. "Dude, I'm not doing science," he replied. "I'm just cheating the game!"
- - -
Clive Thompson is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a regular contributor to Wired and New York magazines. Look for more of Clive's observations on his blog, collision detection.
From: Gizmodo
Even though giddy AT&T employees gushed to us all about the BlackBerry Bold price and release date they'd been told when they caught a peek at ours, it looks like the dudes on top have decided to push the launch date back a bit, to Oct. 2—possibly to iron out some issues. But, stores will be allowed to start ordering them on Sept. 24, meaning if you're in good with your local store, you might be able to grab one a little bit before the Oct. 2 street date Boy Genius is touting. The $299 price still looks solid though. [BGR]
A cool new blue Zune was spotted at Fry's today, complete with some new features. The first, ?Device to Cloud,? allows users to access wireless hotspots to update music collections, browse Zune Marketplace, refresh Channels (another feature), exchange favorites, and buy tagged FM songs. "Channels" are custom stations that deliver "personalized playlists" to the Zune, and the cleverly named "Games" feature is, well, about games. Rumor is a few might even come preloaded on this blue Zune. Lastly, the "Buy From FM" feature lets you listen to FM radio stations and tag the songs purchase when you sync with a PC. Full specs and other details down below.
Key Features & Benefits
Buy from FM
o Listen to your favorite FM radio stations and click to tag the songs you like for later purchase when you sync your device with your PC1.
Zune Pass
o Download millions of tracks, whole albums or playlists with ZuneŽ Pass subscription service. Explore new music or rediscover old favorites?then sync them all
to your Zune Extend your subscription online or by purchasing a Zune Pass card.4 Wireless Sync
o Connect to your home wireless network and remotely sync your ZuneŽ device with your PC collection from your dock, AC adapter, or speaker dock accessory. 2
Device to Cloud
o Access thousands of wireless hotspots around the country to automatically update your collection, browse Zune Marketplace, refresh Channels, exchange favorites with friends, or buy songs you've tagged from your FM radio.
Wireless Sharing
o Send your favorite songs, albums, playlists, pictures and even audio podcasts freely between any ZuneŽ devices. 3
Channels
o ZuneŽ Channels are custom programming stations that deliver personalized playlists to your ZuneŽ from a variety of sources you select, such as music experts, celebrities, or top radio stations.
Games
o Games rock on your ZuneŽ. ZuneŽ Players now come with a selection of fun free games to choose from. Play the popular poker game Texas Hold'em or challenge yourself to a game of Hexic, and make sure you play your favorite song from your collection to create your own personal game soundtrack.
Video/TV Shows
o Choose from a growing selection of TV shows now available on the ZuneŽ Marketplace video store. Recorded TV shows or movies from Windows Media Center in Windows Vista can be imported and synced to your Zune.5
Requirements
Specifications section
o Capacity:8GB
o Digital Storage Media: Hard disk drive - built-in
o Sound Output Mode:Stereo
o Supported Digital Photo Standards:JPEG,Audio & Video Playback
o Supported Digital Audio Standards: WMA, AAC, MP3
o Playback Modes: Random play / shuffle
o Supported Digital Video Standards:MPEG-4, WMV, H.264
o Display Built-in Display:LCD-color
o Diagonal Size: X"
o Resolution: 320 x 240
o Battery:rechargeable-Lithium ion
o Headphones:binaural-Earbuds
o Included Accessories: 3 earpiece covers, sync cable
o Connections Type:1 x docking station | 1 x USB | 1 x headphones
l0rdnic0, an administrator over at Acid Mods, has video of the unholy union of an Xbox 360 QWERTY with a PSP Slim. While the mod works just fine, as you can see in the video, we worry about the fanboys. Seeing something like this in action must be kind of like how Brendan Fraser's character felt we he woke up for the first time in Encino Man. It doesn't make sense. It can't make sense. Because then everything you've based you life on—every waking moment—was a lie.
Here's some of the tech specs about the mod, courtesy of l0rdnic0 himself:
My PSP?s are running CFW 4.01 M33-2, a special version of piKey and a custom flash on the Chatpad. Text input is a breeze and it works with the Sony OSK (on screen keyboard) and the Danzeff OSK under AFKIM. It does not work with PSPWrite and other ZX-81 applications because they are not compiled to do so but Jean is working on a compatible drive to make them work natively.
Is there any doubt that the PSP is a hacker's dream these days? [AcidMods]
From: National Geographic News
 | Hurricane Gustav inspired a bit of bathing, virgins awaited a king in Africa, hail spurred "snowball fights" in Kenya, and more. |
 | Hurricane Ike is forecast to hit the islands early next week as a major hurricane. Given the limited escape routes, officials have ordered evacuations to begin Saturday. |
 | An agreement between the country's wildlife authority and the army to move troops may help preservation efforts at Virunga National Park, home to rare mountain gorillas. |
From: BBC News | Science/Nature | UK Edition
China will launch its third manned space mission in late September, state-run news agency Xinhua reports.
The former UK chief scientist says the climate challenge is so great, it demands the most brilliant minds tackle it.
Palaeontologists lift a "rare" mammoth skull out of its resting place in France and move it to a museum.
From: New Scientist - Latest Headlines
People who are good at estimating numbers without accurately counting them also do well on tests of precise mathematical abilities
Individual viruses can be followed as they infect and move around inside cells, using new "quantum dot" tags
Some women are more likely to be adversely affected by men who hide their attitudes than by overtly sexist males
Film
Mazes and Monsters (1982) (TV)
Lieutenant John Martini: One of the players Robbie played with got carried away and killed him.
Daniel: That's kind of far out.
Lieutenant John Martini: Mazes & Monsters is a far-out game. Swords... poison... spells... battles... maiming... killing!
Daniel: Hey, it's all imagination!
Lieutenant John Martini: Is it? I'll be talking to you.
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