For years, Google Street View cars roamed our neighborhoods, quietly mapping streets, collecting our Wi-Fi network information, and gathering sample payload data. But don't worry, they "never used that data in any Google products" and are sorry about collecting it.
Like a billion other people, I download things illegally. I'm also an actor, writer and director whose income depends on revenue from DVDs, movies and books. This leads to many conflicts in my head, in my heart, and in bars.
From an industry standpoint, physical media has a great advantage: It is its own copy-protection. Even disregarding the DRM built-in to discs, to make copies is hugely impractical for the average consumer. But physical media is disappearing. We simply don't need it any more. Remember slinging out your VHS collection? That's how I'm now thinking about my DVDs. And don't think you're safe either, Blu-rays.
With bandwidth and storage increasing exponentially, getting cheaper, and consumers becoming more tech-savvy, it's becoming easier every day to grab free copies of books, movies and albums. This is why Internet users are thrilled. Including me. This is why people in the entertainment industry are terrified. Including me.
Years ago, Floridian inventor Michael Powell pitched Home Depot a device that would keep its employees' fingers safe when cutting wood for customers. It worked so well that they stole his idea. Now Powell's getting sweet, $25 million justice.
Before Michael Powell came along, Home Depot employees were slicing off fingers left and right, resulting in nearly $1 million a year in worker's compensation claims. But Powell devised a simple guard for protecting workers' digits and let the company test it out in eight stores in the area. The trial was a huge success—and cut worker's compensation claims down to $7000 the following year—but instead of ponying up Powell's proposed $2000 per device, Home Depot just went ahead and fabricated copies of the saw guards without Powell's consent.
According to court documents, when Powell's claim to the invention was brought up in a meeting, one Home Depot executive responded, "Fuck Michael Powell. Let him sue us." Well, hey, Powell did just that, and after a series of courtroom victories, he's now looking to collect some $25 million from the company.
"I may sound a little melodramatic to some but as a veteran of 3 combat tours (Gulf War Ep. 1, Iraq:The Sequel and Afghanistan:Burkas Gone Wild) I can tell you sniper fire is one of the most devastatingly scary things I experienced. Chilling out, bored as you normally are 99% of the time, *THWACK* ...a buddy of yours who was standing up and yelling at you about something stupid like how old school NWA far exceeded the old school Public Enemy rap is suddenly thrown onto his back and sliding 8 feet back like a rag doll.
Then you hear the gun shot.
Fuck snipers. Oh..and fuck the next battlefield game too, I'll read a book instead."
When a one-year-old has difficulty with movement, it impairs brain development, since researchers say babies form neural connections through exploration of their environment. How do you get around this? With a bad-ass robotic chair.
The USB audio version of the Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter hasn't shipped yet, but Kanex just came out with an even more updated version of it with digital audio.
Palm Pre and Android phone owners could be getting some Sling streaming television action if this Sling Media job listing reveals anything. The company is looking for a Mobile Interface Designer who has experience with Android and WebOS applications.
Spotify wowed us as an Android app for Europe, and this iPhone demo is still scary awesome—there's a million tracks to create totally customized libraries, with instant syncing to your phone and offline caching of your streams.
Not being allowed to have music subscription service Spotify is now officially the worst thing about being an American: Subscribers will soon be able to listen to unlimited music offline, just like in the murders-everything-else Spotify iPhone app.
You know that friend of yours who was so excited for college until three weeks in when, suddenly, they packed their bags and moved back home? Just what did they encounter that was so shockingly depraved? This thing.