Day: December 22, 2012

Apple

Steve Jobs’ Superyacht Impounded in Payment Dispute

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As reported on Wired. BY DAMON LAVRINC The megayacht that Steve Jobs commissioned in the final years of his life has been impounded in Amsterdam after a payment dispute by the designer, Philippe Starck. The Venus, a 100-million-euro, 260-foot-long yacht, made its unofficial debut in late October. It’s currently stuck in the Port of Amsterdam after Starck hired a debt-collection agency to attempt to remit the final payment for his design. According to lawyers at Ubik…

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Story

What is Kindergarten Killer, the NRA’s showpiece for video game violence?

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As reported on Polygon. By ALEXA RAY CORRIEA In a press conference earlier today, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president Wayne LaPierreblamed violent video games as a contributor to last week’s Sandy Hook school shootings, citing Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, Splatterhouse and a free flash game called Kindergarten Killer as examples of games with destructive influence. Kindergarten Killer?La Pierre said the media has been hiding the existence of web-based Kindergarten Killer, making it his showpiece for the “dirty little truth”…

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Politics

National Rifle Association exec blames video games for ‘selling violence’ to children

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As reported on Polygon. By GRIFFIN MCELROY The National Rifle Association placed a portion of the blame for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on violent video games during a press briefing this morning. “There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows violence against its own people,” NRA head Wayne LaPierre said during the press conference. “Through vicious violent video games, with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto,…

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Article

Berkeley researchers map out how our brains categorize the things we see

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As reported on The Verge. By Bryan Bishop Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have created a map showing how and where the brain categorizes the actions and objects we see every day. The study began by taking five human subjects and placing them in an MRI machine while they each watched two hours of movie trailers. Each of the trailers had been analyzed to track the different objects and types of motion present — a leaf…

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Application

Rent.com Is Beta Testing A Mobile-Friendly Redesign

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As reported on TechCrunch. by ANTHONY HA Rent.com is taking a big step into the mobile world with the beta launch of its redesigned website, one that uses responsive web design to deliver an experience that’s usable on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Head of Product Amanda McConnell and Chief Technology Officer Alain Avakian gave me a preview of the redesign last week. It’s very clean, with big images and text, and if you’re looking at it on a…

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Story

Single-Click Double-Tap Murder

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As reported on TechCrunch. by JON EVANS Gun control is on many minds this week, but let’s not talk about guns. Let’s talk about drones. (With a reported 300 million guns in private hands in America already, it’s probably too late for gun control anyhow.) Drones are to nation-states what assault rifles are to psychotic mass murderers. Worse yet, the way things are going, it’s only a matter of time until alpha insurgencies like Hezbollah and the Zetas…

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Mobile

TransPhone modular smartphone / tablet goes Pro, still looks like a beginner Mobile

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As reported on Engadget. By Deepak Dhingra ASUS’ PadFone 2 may be the only notable contender in the phone-in-tablet space, but it does have a cheapo me-too in TransPhone. The latest “Pro” version of this budget hybrid comprises a 7-inch 1,024 x 600 TransPad dock, which swallows up a 3.5 inch 960 x 540 smartphone powered by a dual-core 1 GHz MediaTek chip. The set carries a $240 price tag on pre-order, though since this company doesn’t have much of a…

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Rheinmetall 50kW laser weapon aces latest test, pew-pews a 3-inch ballistic target

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As reported on Engadget. By Steve Dent In the “sure wish we had a video” category, aptly-monikered defense contractor Rheinmetall has run a highly successful test of its 50kW high-energy laser weapon. It works by hunting down incoming targets using a so-called Skyguard radar system, then locking in with an optical scanner before firing multiple, superimposed beams for extra energy. During the Swiss trials, the German-made HEL cannon managed to cut through a 15mm steel girder from over 3,200…

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