Apple Updates Its Entire Line of Notebooks

By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Today was the big keynote event Apple fanatics have been waiting for.  Steve Jobs and his team graced the stage once more in order to update the Apple line and get it ready for the holiday shopping season.  While the summer and spring were both big events for the iPhone and the iPods, September or October is traditionally the time when Apple brings out the big guns for its Macs.

This keynote was no exception to the rule.  If you want to know the exact layout of the presentation, I suggest either checking out the Engadget liveblog or simply waiting for Apple to put out an official version through iTunes or the Apple.com front page.

If you’re too impatient, here is the long and short of it, condensed for your convenience:

  • All of the new notebooks are now made out of a single piece of Aluminum that is cut and then anodized for strength and efficiency (a rumor we spoke of last week).
  • They have also upgraded the graphics on the MacBook Pro to NVIDIA’s new GeForce 9400M GPU chip as well as the 9600M GT chip for dedicated graphics.
  • The Macbook Pro has been upgraded primarily in appearance, which you can see above.  It has the black-framed glossy screen that matches their iMac line exactly.
  • The touchpad has been made buttonless with the addition of a glass panel that, like the iPhone, allows for multi-touch controls.  Up to four-finger commands have been pre-programmed in.
  • The Macbook Air is being updated with better graphics and an option for as much as 128GB of SSD disk space.
  • There is a new 24 inch glossy cinema display that looks amazing.
  • The “one more thing” is that the plastic Macbook is being reduced in price by 100 dollars.
  • Also, a new version of the Macbook is being offered (kind of a step between the plastic Macbook and the metal Macbook Pro) that is physically very similar to the Pro but not as robust in terms of features.

I’m not much of a graphics aficionado, but one of the constant complaints about Macs (and many notebooks in general) is their lack of graphics power.  I think this latest update is a serious attempt by Apple to take the worry out of potential consumers’ minds.

The multi-touch trackpad has me worried because not only will the multi-touch controls invariably confuse some people, but I think this is yet another step in Steve Jobs’ quest to destroy all buttons.  Personally, I get irritated when someone leaves tap-clicking on in their preferences because it’s simply not how I prefer to use a touchpad.

I love the move to a new “black and chrome” theme.  I think it makes the MacBook Pro very attractive and will certainly wow potential buyers this Winter.

There were a lot of little bits and pieces to this update, so please check out the liveblog or the link below for a little more hardcore listings of the specs.  Also, be sure to leave your thoughts on these developments in the comments.

[Image from Engadget]



Build Your Own Marriage Proposal

by Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

The much anticipated puzzle and word-creation game for Playstation 3, LittleBigPlanet, hasn’t even been released yet and it’s already changing lives. The game lets players build their own levels and share them through the PlayStation Network. It is due for release October 21, but has already had an extensive run in beta thanks to gaming websites offering codes for access.

One amorous gamer used a level he created himself to propose to his girlfriend.

How I asked my GF to marry me in Little Big Planet. My (now) Fiancee was playing the level. She was so shocked she kept playing and knew i was filming. Afterwords we hugged, she cried, and I gave her an engagement ring.

He notes that the level is called “Love and Marriage” by the user DimmuJed. So you may even be able to play it yourself–or use it to propose!

How to Postpone a Potentially Disastrous Exam

Try to imagine you’ve got an important test to pass tomorrow and you’re going to epically fail it. Whether it’s because you haven’t studied or because you are just plain academically inept, you know that doom is around the corner. What options do you then have? Don’t take the exam? Cheat? Cram?

The following video will let you hear the thought pattern of someone who is falling an exam while giving you a few pointers on how you can postpone the inevitable.
 



Old British Busker Builds Machine-Controlled Guitar

You got to give it to the ingenious old chap for coming up with such an awesome steampunk-esque musical machine. And in case you’re wondering why he decided to build this, he has all the reasons listed on a little sign he displays during his performances.

I built this machine because of unreliable guitarists.
It don’t smoke!
It don’t drink!
And it’s never late.

[Via Neatorama]

“Tech For Obama” Wants to Sway Geeks Everywhere

By Jimmy Rogers
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

As more and more people identify themselves as geeks, it’s important to remember that the geek voting block is growing too.  While the economy, the healthcare system, and the wars weigh heavily upon the minds of everyone, technology issues are not completely forgotten.

A new group of Obama supporters, Tech for Obama, has been started to bring just those issues up into the forefront.  While each candidate has fairly elaborate policies about most issues, tech is one of the areas where Obama seems to have the more clearly defined positions.  In this video by Tech For Obama, they talk about how issues like bandwidth penetration and net neutrality will affect all Americans, not just geeks.

Senator Obama has made his relationship with Silicon Valley very clear by visiting directly with Google at their headquarters and laying out elaborate statements on his website.  After perusing the McCain website, the vast majority of his page on technology seems to involve broad statements about open trade and educating people about technology.  He does support increased broadband penetration and intellectual property reform (both of which are badly needed in the United States), but he does specifically oppose net neutrality.

Whichever way you vote this year, remember that as a geek your vote may not only affect the economy, but also the way in which technology is treated here and around the world.

[via Gizmodo]

Airlines decide to block naughty websites from in-flight internet

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

It seems the Morality Police are back in town.  Airlines have seemingly taken the decision to filter out smutty websites from in-flight internet access after pressure from groups such as Girls Against Porn.    So no longer will you be able to get through that long flight watching King Dong or American Booty.

The airlines will be installing filters to make sure that no-one can access any bad URL’s.   This decision is also welcomed by the flight attendants who didn’t want to have to tell the over-excited passengers to turn off their bad websites because of kids nearby.   This I can understand.

But let’s flip the coin for a moment.  First, what’s to stop passengers from having objectionable stuff on their laptop hard drives?   No filters there and you can’t order passengers to delete anything from their computers.

Second, define “objectionable”.  One person’s “objectionable” is another person’s “OK”.   Who gets to define what’s OK and what’s not?   OK, porn is definately not allowed.  That’s obviously objectionable.   But doesn’t that then open the door for activist groups to campaign for other types of websites to be blocked next?  The word “objectionable” is such a broad umberella term that covers so much.   Can’t you just see the lawsuits now by “outraged passengers” who were “forced” to look at “objectionable websites” while they were on their flight?   Now they are “mentally scarred for life” and only $10 million in damages, free air travel for life, and the blocking of said websites will heal their mental anguish.   You might think I am mocking but just you wait and see.

Are the passengers and the flight attendants going to have a screaming match in the plane because the flight attendant is on a power trip and tells the passenger to switch off a website he or she deems to be “unsuitable” and the passenger decides there’s nothing wrong with it?

I think it would be best all round if we just didn’t have internet access at all on planes.   Life would be simpler that way.   What do you think?

YouTube’s Final Frontier

by Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

With the mess with the Viacom lawsuit and allegations of encouraging piracy looming, YouTube has seemingly been working to shrug off this reputation and legitimize itself as a forum for legal, freely available user-generated content as well as legally licensed media content. The latest step towards this is the availability of full-length television shows, supported by advertising.

If that sounds familiar, I’d even go so far as to say that YouTube’s new “theater view” looks a lot like the viewing format at Hulu.com. Not that Hulu has the monopoly on ad-supported full-length TV shows–and in my opinion, the more the merrier. After all, they’re not showing the same shows as of right now, and in my opinion, the more freely-available content out there, the better.

YouTube suggests that there will be more TV shows to come, but right now the content is coming from someone they already had a partnership with, CBS (their official clips from Letterman are often some of the most-viewed on YouTube). This happens to include… original Star Trek! Right now there are only five episodes, but included is “The Naked Time,” one of my personal favorites, as well as the much-praised “City on the Edge of Forever.” Other TV shows already running are MacGyver and Beverly Hills 90210.

I hope this takes off and encourages content-providers to put even more full-length shows online. Now if only so many of these sites weren’t US or US/Canada-only! These shows deserve to boldly go to anyone who wants to watch them.

Did Michael Moore deliberately break US copyright law?

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

When US movie producer Michael Moore announced that his new movie “Slacker Uprising” would be available for free download over the internet, he was forced by US copyright law to add a caveat – that it would only be available to residents of the United States and Canada.   Anyone outside of those countries would get a big “SORRY!” sign and politely told to sod off.

But he chose to use BitTorrent for the movie’s download and once one US or Canadian person had downloaded it, it was then extremely simple for anyone, anywhere to download it too.   This has led to accusations that Moore deliberately thumbed his nose up at the US copyright law, knowing full well that by using BitTorrent, he could circumvent the US / Canada only rule.

“I only own the US and Canadian rights” said Moore, “so my hands are tied. But this is the 21st century. What are ‘geographical rights’? I’ll say it for the hundredth time: If I buy a book and read it, and then give you the book to read, I have broken no laws. Why is that not true for all media?”

So I think basically what he’s saying is that he knew pretty much what would eventually happen to that torrent file and he chose to turn a blind eye to it.

Moore is a big supporter of people who illegally download his movies as he feels that the main thing is that his ideas get around and people think about what he says in his movies.   Losing the money from the illegal downloads doesn’t seem to bother him that much which makes you wonder how he can afford to be so blase about box office takings.

So when will he be doing a movie about illegal downloading, the restrictive copyright laws, the RIAA and the movie industry in the USA?   That would be a great Michael Moore movie.    What do you think?   Maybe we should get a petition going!


Via [TorrentFreak]

Austrian student invents a “second internet”

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

A 16 year old Austrian student has invented a “second web” with the aim of raising advertising revenue and has subsequently managed to make $25,000 by selling “domains”.

Julian Zehetmayr sells “Second Internet” top level domains for $5 each and you can link to pages on the “First Web” (the main internet).    But you don’t apparently get a proper domain.  Zehetmayr describes it only as a “database entry” – his lawyers supposedly told him this was the only way to avoid being sued by the owners of the domains on the real internet.    I don’t see the difference to be honest – either you own the name or you don’t.   There’s no in between.

The “Second Web” can be accessed here.    Zehetmayr describes the Second Web as a “good advertising opportunity” where people can pick up domain names that are taken on the real internet.

A lot of people seem to agree because 5000 domains are now sold.

What do you think?   A scam or an ingenious idea?  Do you see yourself snapping up domain names on the Second Web?