On Gear Live: Apple’s $400,000,000 Secret to Saving the Planet

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Scarlet In GaslightBack in the day, one of the comic books that I was peripherally involved with was Scarlet In Gaslight, a Sherlock Holmes & Dracula mini-series. And I'll clarify that right away by saying that I had nothing to do with its creation.

It was created and written by Martin Powell, and illustrated by Seppo Makinen and after it was acquired by Malibu Comics for its Eternity imprint, it was edited by Chris Ulm. My role was limited to reading the issues as the original art came in. Ulm would drop it off on my desk and say, "You gotta read this." I was later the art director for the first collected edition.

Malibu was a creator-owned publisher back in those days, and the rights to Scarlet In Gaslight were held by the creators. In the years since its original publication, Martin has done an excellent job of keeping the collected edition in print. Its last edition is sold out, but the good news is that it's coming back, along with other Martin-based projects.

Click to continue reading Scarlet In Gaslight Is Back


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64gb iphone 4

A small batch of 64GB iPhone 4 prototypes was reportedly discovered in a "grey" market in Hong Kong, according to a couple Chinese blogs.

First announced on Chinese-language blog Unwire.hk and later "confirmed" by MIC Gadget, the 64GB model appears to be unlocked and running iOS 4.1.

MIC Gadget posted photos of the phone's exterior showing that, like the iPhone 4 prototype Gizmodo found in a bar last spring, this model has plenty of X's printed on its case: the model number states 'XXXXX'; FCC ID number is 'BCG- XXXXXX,'; printed capacity is 'XXGB.'

Click to continue reading 64 GB iPhone 4 prototype discovered in China


Less than a week after Apple released iTunes 10.2 with iOS 4.3 sync support, an update has arrived that seems to lack any new features.

At Apple's iPad 2 reveal last week in San Francisco, CEO Steve Jobs said iOS 4.3 would be available on March 11, the same day the second-generation tablet will go on sale. In anticipation of the update to the mobile platform as well as the new tablet, Apple released iTunes 10.2 last Friday. Then on Tuesday, Apple handed out iTunes 10.2.1, which contained the exact same description as iTunes 10.2.

The update is seemingly identical to the 10.2 version of iTunes, which has an improved version of Home Sharing that lets users stream content from their iTunes library between computers and to an iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM), or iPod touch (third and fourth generation), as long as the device running the iOS 4.3—which means users will have to wait until Friday to take advantage of beefed-up Home Sharing.

Click to continue reading Apple releases iTunes 10.2.1, iOS 4.3 next


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No point in denying it, I've been thinking about how I can get an Apple iPad 2 ever since Apple unveiled it on March 2. As a current iPad owner, though, this means I have some decisions to make.

I could sell it on the open market. But eBay is already stuffed to the gills with new and used iPads. So is Craigslist. I could use one of the services that offer tech trade-ins, but most want to give me $400 or less for my pristine, first-generation iPad. The longer I wait, the less I'll get. Having spent over $900 (with tax and my iPad cover) on the tablet last year, I'm having trouble accepting that I might have to sell my iPad for less than half its original value.

Click to continue reading iPad owners: Will you be buying iPad 2?


spotify 1 millionIn an age when Internet companies are struggling to make subscription-based services a success, music service Spotify has something to celebrate. The company announced this week that it now has one million paying subscribers.

"It's a testament to our fantastic users who continue to support us and spread the Spotify word, either by telling friends or sharing some of the 200 million playlists that you've put together so far," the company wrote in a blog post.

Spotify launched in October 2008 and reached 1 million users by March 2009. The service's features, however, have now prompted at least 1 million users to upgrade to Spotify's premium services.

Click to continue reading Spotify hits 1 million subscribers


iPad Flash

Despite a new pair of eyes, trimmer figure, and nimbler mind, the new iPad remains flummoxed by Flash. Wallaby, a brand-new tool from Adobe Labs, aims to help the iPad and its iOS brethren manage the once-taboo multimedia format. The free, cross-platform desktop application, available today, makes transforming Adobe Flash files into iOS-appropriate HTML5 as easy as drag and drop.

First previewed at the MAX 2010 Developer Conference last October, Wallaby's launch today at FITC Amsterdam fulfills months of fomenting developer excitement. Built on Adobe Air, the application runs on Mac or Windows and enables developers to convert Flash Professional (.FLA) files into the building blocks of simple animations or online ads—folders comprised of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—suitable for DreamWeaver.

"Adobe's goal is to support our customers with whatever tools they need to get their creative content onto any device," said Tom Barclay, senior product manager for Flash Professional at Adobe, when asked for a comment. "We look forward to the user feedback about the code they're generating with Wallaby and the use cases for which they end up using Wallaby. We believe Flash is the best long-term solution for things like games, video and RIAs where high levels of interactivity are required. And we believe HTML5 is just as imperative for things like banner ads, especially for devices such as iPad and iPhone."

Click to continue reading iPad 2 gets Flash with Adobe Wallaby


RAdeon had 6990

For gamers and enthusiasts who aren't willing to settle for just an ordinary video card—you know, the kind with only one GPU—the Radeon HD 6990, which AMD is releasing today, could be the next must-have product.

As the 6000-series replacement for 2009's ATI Radeon HD 5970, the 6990 boasts a pair of powerful graphics processing units (GPUs), and some of the speediest specs on the market: compute power of 5.1 teraflops, a core clock speed of 830 MHz, 3,072 stream processors, 192 texture units, 64 ROPs, and 4GB of GDDR5 frame buffer running a long a 5-Gbps, 256-bit memory path. For adventurous users who want even faster frame rates, a switch on the card itself can automatically overclock the card to still-higher levels of performance.

Click to continue reading $699 Radeon HD 6990 graphics card announced by AMD


iOS 4.3Get ready to sync your iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Apple's iOS 4.3 is will reportedly launch today, according to Boy Genius Report.

At Apple's iPad 2 reveal last week, CEO Steve Jobs said iOS 4.3 would be available for download on March 11, the same day the updated iPad goes on sale. But according to BGR, Apple will release the newest version of its mobile operating system at around 1 p.m. EST today.

The update brings a variety of new features, including enhanced Safari performance, iTunes home sharing, AirPlay improvements, slider switch rotation, and a personal hotspot for the iPhone 4. Apple iOS 4.3 will support all iPads, third- and fourth-generation iPod touch, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS.

Click to continue reading Apple may release iOS 4.3 today


Jack LondonI met Christopher Golden on the convention circuit back in the go-go 1990s. I was so impressed by our 5-minute-in-the-aisle conversation that, after the con, I wandered over to my local bookstore (you could still do that back in those days) and grabbed a copy of a book of his called Of Saints And Shadows. It was a vampire novel, long before everyone and his institutionalized grandmother starting writing about them.

I took it with me on a camping trip and it proceeded to scare the crap out of me. It was well-written, very scary, had great dialogue and Golden kept the story moving and kept raising the stakes until the breathless end. I was impressed and even more, I was hooked, but never again would I take a horror novel on a camping trip.

Since then, Golden has written quite a number of terrific novels and lots of comic books as well (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Dr. Fate and Baltimore: The Plague Ships).

Now he's got a new book out - the first in a series - called The Secret Journeys of Jack London: Book One: The Wild. Golden co-wrote it with Tim Lebbon and there are illustrations by Greg Ruth. You can read an interview with the guys at Golden's website.

Click to continue reading Christopher Golden And Jack London


Verizon iPhone slow

When it comes to data speeds, one research group claims that the AT&T iPhone 4 is a nosehair faster than Verizon's iPhone.

Downloading data with the AT&T iPhone, which runs on a 3G HSPDA network, is twice as fast as downloads with the Verizon iPhone, which runs on EVDO, according to mobile research firm Metrico Wireless. But the average load time for an "average Web page" is the same on both devices.

When the iPhone user is on the move, AT&T's iPhone completed "around 10 percent more data download sessions than the Verizon iPhone. The opposite was true when the iPhone was stationary," Metrico found.

"There are many factors that determine Web performance. Speed isn't the only one," a Metrico spokeswoman said. "There's also OS trends, rendering time, latency on the network, etc. This report's findings are based on a standardized average Web page. Larger Web pages may offer different results."

Click to continue reading AT&T iPhone download speeds beat Verizon


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