Slashdot Mirror

Forget 32-bit, 8-bit rules!

Exactly, not after this incident: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadget-hitmen/boy-pays-hitman-to-off-his-parents-after-taking-his-playstation-away-319285.php

Gizmodo has an article on this with a nice mock-up of the "MacBook Touch"

Article here:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/apple-ipad-touch-tablet-mock+up-is-shiny-iphone+y-319299.php

Very sleek, but I can see this being a pain to keep clean!

Now please give us an android update ROM for your previous phones (universal, blueangel etc.) so we can all rid ourselves of the brain-leakingly-bad windows mobile.

Bonus quote of the day

Did anyone watch the http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gphone/googles-android-team-introduces-the-gphone-318878.php?autoplay=truedev movie?

I quote

Slashdot - we're in your phonez, and they know it!

...although I think my next game system will be a Mini Polystation 3. Thanks Dr Ashen!!!

I often wonder why only the anti-blue ray articles seem to get posted to this site. I realize that because Sony challenged the all mighty Wii that on /. it has to be evil, but come on HD-DVD is backed by Microsoft, and MS has to be at least as evil, right? Anyway, in the article below from Gizmodo, it seems like some of the studios are getting of the fight and want the format war settled so people will start buying the next gen players. That means that Blue Ray will probably win because it's sales figures are twice what HD-DVD's are, and the studios will probably start lining up to support it.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/format-war/warner-bros-considering-blu+ray-exclusivity-316664.php

No, but close... It attacked another car, and there's some images of what may be hookers. (Possibly NSFW) http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/darpa-urban-challenge/robot-car-crashes-into-manned-vehicle-whered-you-learn-to-drive-316645.php

Both rapid explosions of greed and slow paced growth will eventually reach the same equalibrium state.
But with very different societal costs along the way!

That's the "no child left behind" argument, hold back anybody who may excel so that others don't feel bad about themselves.

Some people have unlimited wants, which as I already explained is the very definition of being an insane animal.

Most everybody has unlimited wants. It reminds me of the story where in India a guy had bought an old plane fusilage and was selling tickets to people to enjoy a similuated plane flight. Many people who take flying for granted chuckle, but then I realize those same people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars to experience simulated space flight. No matter what you have, you'll want a little more.

In reality the equilibrium is when sane, sentient beings decide on their own that getting a 5,000 room "house" is not a reasonable thing to want to do.

Why? If I work hard and take risk, should I not reap the rewards of my sweat? Does the man who decides to spend his free time making a fishing net instead of slacking off be forced to give up the extra food he catches?

LOL! If that were so, every scientist would jealously guard "his" discoveries, locking them up in a safe in his basement, to go there at night to count them by candle-light while giggling to himself! Instead they share them with everyone with an access to a library in scientific journals! A positive bunch of heretic Commies!

Yes, scientists always publish anonymously. They never compete for grant money. They all work for minimum wage and only care that the wealth of human knowledge has expanded. One of the reasons scientists share their discoveries is because they must to get the resources they need. Society gives scientists resources and expects the product of them to be shared with society.

See above. You've already completely conceeded the wholly indefensible point of "Science is Greed Motivated", now you've only got free-loaders-cum "enterpreneurs" left to ineffectively try to prop-up your lost arguments.

Yes entrepreneurs are all just free-loaders. All they do is profit, without ever taking a single risk. No venture capitalist lost money on the dot-com bubble; none ever had a company that failed to capitalize on a scientific discovery.

And that on top of the fact that these "wants" are satisfiable without anyone else having to part with anything, and their results are also freely shared with everyone, in exchange for nothing physical.

You mean scientists do all their work as a hobby in their free time, not expecting to be paid? Science like every other aspect of society has to deal with the fact that resources are limited. An electon microscope doesn't appear magically, it takes resources to make, resources that could be used for something else. It's economics that determines how resources are allocated.

Information, just in case you are confused about it, is not subject to any kind of trade, simply due to its properties.

Information itself no. Being able to apply that information in a meaningful way, yes; that is why education is one of the best predictors of economic earnings.

You remind me of a salesman I once knew, who claimed that everything in life, from family, friends to school to work to marriage is ... making sales!

There are many perspectives on modeling how a society works. If there was one perfect model, human behavior would be predictable.

Which requires no

Okay, how about a terabyte in a form factor small enough for a thunb drive, that costs one-tenth the price of traditional flash memory, and is a staggering 1000 times more energy efficient.

Researchers Develop Technology to Make Terabyte Thumb Drives Possible

Makes a mere 512GB flash chip look a bit sad, doesn't it?

This is definitely on my list to buy. First looks seem to be positive. I read through this and found some features and touches to look forward to: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/liveblog/leopard-liveblog-the-first-two-hours-315093.php I'm personally excited about the changes under the hood with respect to multithreading as this is purported to take advantage of multicore and multiprocessor hardware even more than Tiger. This could be the best OS X yet, if not the best OS ever. :)

Why are the URLs hidden behind anonymouse? If I want to browse anonymously, I'm going to use Tor, I don't need some stupid anonymizing site that pops up little boxes over what I'm looking at.

The real url to the store is this: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/electronics-industry-analyst-group-dismisses-greenpeace-claims-on-iphone-313411.php. I suspect the submitter of doing this one purpose.

Links without slashdotted anonymizer (really, if you think Gizmodo is tracking you maybe you shouldn't be on the Web) here and here.

Links without slashdotted anonymizer (really, if you think Gizmodo is tracking you maybe you shouldn't be on the Web) here and here.

Yes, though you might want to make a few of those sputniks in case of "accidents"

Radiohead has always been planning on releasing their CD in January. Putting out a 160 kbps crap quality version is there way to whet your appetite for the real CD, which will probably contain more content than the mp3 release and be of much better quality.

Before you consider the TiVo box, you should know that Comcast is using TiVo's software for their DVR. Linkage

I'd be surprised if someone hasn't already released an MP3-playing toothbrush.

you asked for it... http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/exclusive-video-hasbro-tooth-tunes-mp3-toothbrush-210116.php

360
fail
rate
and
here
and
here.

This anecdote
An Over view.
another article

As well Microsoft has announced about 100$ for each xbox 360 sold thus far($1 billion dollars). Which would be warranty repair costs and replacements costs for 1/3 of it's units if each replacement costs the same price as a new one in product costs and handling costs. Some say they may just be overly cautious but no manufacturer would announce such a huge warranty budget and risk extremely bad PR if there wasn't a problem. Given the next revision (falcon) will utilize the 65nm chip fab for the CPU it's less likely those will fail thus that billion is likely for machines already sold. Those new boxes aren't in the retail channels yet either.

Looking at the construction photos...
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/star-wars/rocketpowered-21foot-long-xwing-model-actually-flies-updated-new-pics-show-it-even-has-builtin-r2d2-305976.php ... the engines were not really mounted with much reinforcement. That could be a big part in the blunder :/

R.I.P. Porkins

Hallelujah!

Actually, there is a difference in HDMI cables, even though they are digital. Digital signals are not sharp 1's and 0's. When you start sending 1's and 0's very fast, they begin to look like waves. At a certain point, the digital signal will degrade and digital error artifacts will appear in your image. Look at this test that Gizmodo posted, where some HDMI digital cables are shown to fail at real world resolutions. Monster's cables actually transmitted the digital data better* and performed beyond their specs. *Better: steeper transitions between 1's and 0's... poor cables had more gradual and smooth transitions between 1's and 0's. Ideal case would be a vertical transition between 1's and 0's. Article here: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hdmi-cable-battlemodo/the-truth-about-monster-cable-part-2-268788.php

All. Sure, the new Zune is more of a half step forward than a completely new design. But Microsoft's done something fantastic here by rewarding first gen buyers with cool new stuff that also happens to be free by software upgrade. And talk about spin-- Microsoft just took a middling jump in hardware and turned it into a genuinely good move for loyalists (as well as a PR miracle). Are you paying attention Apple?

Already there.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/meizu-m8-pricing-revealed-most-affordable-iphone-clone-yet-241069.php

as well as many others. I have touched one of the cooler ones that accepts 2 sim cards. I love it when some of the international sales people come back from HongKong with neat toys.

Most likely Sonys new "Bravia Internet Video Link". Seems like it's only for streaming for now... and perhaps Sony will realise that people wants a hdd to save to as well. But judging from past behaviour from Sony it might really take some time since customer lock-in has been pretty high on the list of priorities.

http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_room/consumer/television/flat_panel_displays/lcd/release/27475.html http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/gallery-and-hands-on-sony-bravia-internet-video-link-box-226824.php

With all the rumors floating around, I'm surprised this story's made it this far. Apparently, a day after the dreaded update, and no one's sure what's going on.

Fact or Fiction
Video
Gizomodo's take on this

Pick your poison?

For those too lazy to read the links, the reports have gone as such. If you're in the majority, a hacked iPhone reverts to a clean slate after the update. If you're unlucky, it refuses to accept sim cards, legit or otherwise. If you're super unlucky, you start with an un-hacked, perfectly legit phone that still turns into iBrick. 3rd party software is no longer in the menus but is probably still hiding somewhere in the phone itself.

What a mess!

With all the rumors floating around, I'm surprised this story's made it this far. Apparently, a day after the dreaded update, and no one's sure what's going on.

Fact or Fiction
Video
Gizomodo's take on this

Pick your poison?

For those too lazy to read the links, the reports have gone as such. If you're in the majority, a hacked iPhone reverts to a clean slate after the update. If you're unlucky, it refuses to accept sim cards, legit or otherwise. If you're super unlucky, you start with an un-hacked, perfectly legit phone that still turns into iBrick. 3rd party software is no longer in the menus but is probably still hiding somewhere in the phone itself.

What a mess!

Description is slightly off; it's been available for pre-order for a while, but people have actually been receiving their copies recently (see here).

To the whiners about the price drop: I see no rational reason for you to be upset. You are early adopters and you evidently decided favorably to the value proposition of the iPhone. People who complain about a price-cut being a bad thing simply amaze me: they are pinning their own impatience, foolishness, or buyers remorse on someone else. If you feel cheated, take some personal responsibility and accept that if you did not like the price, you should not have made the purchase! When prices are lowered, it is almost always a good thing (there are exceptions for undercutting and subsidized goods, but I digress), and in this case, it is likely in response to market forces. That is how capitalism is meant to work. All of that is neglecting the fact that analyses of the manufacturing costs revealed huge margins for Apple almost immediately after the release (and reported on again, and again, and again). To the people who are complaining, you should make sure you understand caveat emptor before you plunk down over half a grand for a cell phone, especially since many—if not most—of you had all the facts available up-front. And in the interest of full disclosure, I do own an iPhone and made my purchase shortly after Apple subsidized my $200 early termination fee to Sprint. In closure, thank you for the price-cut, Steve!

...I'm pretty sure there's already a hack that helps out with that. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/apple/iphone-gps-hack-works-301459.php Now, this may not be "real" GPS, but it's better than nothing. Obviously though, it would be nice to see a real GPS unit built into the iPhone, or at least have this type of peer-collected GPS data function built in.

- Hardware Keyboard
- 3G
- Better Camera
- Less smugness

Oh Wait.

Don't get caught with the Bill of Rights, Security Edition.

2) iPod touch is crippled. The Bluetooth is physically there (supposedly) but not enabled.

It has been indicated that the iPod touch can run unmodified iPhone binaries. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/breaking/ipod-touch-runs-same-applications-as-iphone-296837.php As such, it seems very likely that all non-phone apps from the iPhone that are missing from the iPod touch, will be able to be added by end users just as soon as a "jailbreak" method for the iPod touch has been found and verified. At that time, the Calendar app will support adding and editing entries. Considering that there is no legitimate reason for not supporting these apps and features apple may eventually add official support with a firmware update. The current reasons for crippling the iPod touch include attempting to differentiate the iPod Touch and the iPhone (this is not a very convincing reason, as the most important differences are obvious. The other reason is that previous iPods have generally been read-only devices. (Song playcounts, the on-the-go playlist, ratings, and very little else is treated as non-read-only by previous iPods).

I love the guy standing over him with the camera in that link of yours.

While the slashdot effect kills the video, there's some pictures and comments at gizmodo

I expected it to be good, but it's gone way far above and beyond any expectations I harboured.

That's funny, because I am a HUGE fan of Vernor Vinge's and I was fairly unimpressed by Rainbow's End. I was really surprised that it won. Give that I've never heard of the competing books or authors, I just assumed it was a slow year.

The novel's setting was a fascinating and well-crafter vision of the hyper-info-technologized world of (~2030): I will give it that. But the characters were IMHO unsympathetic and most of the plot - particularly the end - felt forced and gimmicky to me.

Minor spoiler warning...

And, of course, the "librareome project" made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Given that we already have automated book scanning robots, why in 2030 would we go out of our way to shred books to scan them, since that only makes it harder than scanning an intact book? The genome project had to assemble the genome by computing the correct connections of millions of overlapping fragments because with a genome there is no other way to do it yet. But when you have an intact, scannable source it doesn't make any sense to destroy it for digitization purposes : you're only making your life harder.

My URL for the $250 didn't make it:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/iphone-only- costs-250-to-make-rest-of-price-is-fanboy-tax-2296 64.php

They are already available:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/like-the-iphone/meizu-m inione-specs-revealed-its-actually-got-some-juice- 261388.php

see also:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/dates-announced/red-one -hd-set-for-launch-movie-makers-wet-themselves-293 458.php
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?s=6390 1043439730f6c9e6df5e0d846bb3&t=1119
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?s=6390 1043439730f6c9e6df5e0d846bb3&t=2595

Growing up with the DeLorean always in production.

Well, the player is coming - the Samsung BD-UP5000 will play both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs, and unlike the vaunted-but-unfulfilling LG hybrid player (you know, the one that plays video from HD-DVDs but didn't support HDi interactive content, making the menus non-functional), supports interactive content for both disc formats. Admittedly it's not going to be cheap - at least not right away, but I'm hoping the price will come down a few months after its debut. Hey, at least one company is making "one with everything"...

Did you actually read that rumour you linked to? Where does it say Microsoft paid off Paramount? I see only that "sources" claim "the HD-DVD side" gave them $150M for "promotional consideration".

Here's another take that tries to verify this. They don't mention Microsoft at all.

Are you quite sure your historical bias against MS hasn't led you into hasty conclusions here?

Magic Apple iPhone glass never breaks.

$250 is an expensive repair job. It's half the price of the 4GB phone. Plus another $30 for a loaner. Break it twice and you've bought a new phone. AT&T isn't dumb enough to be offering insurance on the thing either. If it were a rare occurrence, I'm sure AT&T would be happy to take your $5 a month. As it is, you break it, you're f#cked.

The Open Moko, in pictures, looks to be a little large

OK, getting really tired of seeing these iBleedingPhone articles now [1]. Since the overpriced hunk o' junk came out, it's been iPhone this and iPhone that ad nauseum. It's expensive, locks you into a single provider, proprietary, expensive to maintain clunky and only superficially superior (ooooh, shiny!). In short, all the things that /.ers usually rally against. Am I missing some point, or is Apple just darling du jour?

Odd disparity of interest there, Slashdot. I'm trying to understand, I really am, but I really can't see any moral or technical advantages of owning one of these things.

[1] Yes, I can ignore them. Nobody has a gun to my head. I wonder if AdBlock Plus can filter on "shiny gimmick for tossers with more money than sense" or will I then be branded a "thief" for not reading them? It's akin to The Goog being everyone's darling even though they have more information on folks than the NSA. The world's gone mad, I tell you!

Looks like they've done a pretty good job! http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/coolest-mock_up-evah/gu y-creates-iphone-from-scratch-even-better-than-the -real-thing-288136.php

A bit like this maybe?