From Freddie Wong, the same guy who produced the hilarious Jedi A-Holes, here comes Flower Warfare, a video featuring Freddie and his girlfriend fighting off invaders with guns that fire deadly flowers. Enjoy!
[Via Neatorama]
Apple jailbreaking verdict: what happens next?
As we reported earlier this week, a revised interpretation of copyright laws means it is now legal to jailbreak an iPhone: that is, to modify it so it can run any software, including apps not approved by Apple. But the real question is what difference it will make.
From a legal standpoint, the answer appears to be “not much”. Let’s be honest: jailbreaking may previously have been assumed to be illegal, but it wasn’t a law that anyone was going to enforce. For Apple to have tried to get convictions over jailbreaking would have been a public relations nightmare: regardless of the letter of the law, society generally takes the view that once a manufacturer gets paid for a device (whether the customer pays outright or through a carrier subsidy), the owner should be able to do what they like with it as long as it isn’t directly cheating anyone of any money.
From a practical standpoint, Apple’s position isn’t changing. The company has reiterated that it advises against jailbreaking and that doing so automatically voids the warranty. That may seem harsh, but is probably fair: while most people with the technical savvy to jailbreak a phone are smart enough to take precautions, it does put security out of Apple’s control, so it’s going to be difficult to conclusively blame them if things go wrong.
What remains to be seen is whether Apple will continue taking steps to deter jailbreaking. For example, it now has to decide whether to continue the cat-and-mouse game of each software update undoing the most common methods of jailbreaking the phone. That raises some intriguing legal questions now that jailbreaking has been declared legitimate. Does Apple have the right to undo a legal action performed by a handset owner? And what, if any, legal obligation does Apple have to make software updates available to all customers: are people who don’t want their jailbreaking undone still entitled to the latest operating system, or are updates simply a discretionary bonus?
The people with the most to gain from the ruling appear to be the major manufacturers of unapproved apps which only work on jailbroken phones. There’s a theory they’ll now hit the jackpot with new customers piling in. I’m not convinced by that though: to me the real barriers to jailbreaking have always been the technical knowledge required and a fear of screwing up a handset, not the risk of facing prosecution. For the vast majority of iPhone owners, the 200,000+ officially-approved apps is plenty to be going on with.
Why Video Game Designers Are Missing The Mark With Women
A Growing Demographic
The statistics and the research may vary, but it’s quite clear: girl gamers are here, and they’re here to stay. Especially in the online realm, women make up a growing demographic of gamers who are just as passionate about playing as your typical gamer guy.
But as a girl gamer myself, it’s abundantly clear that the video game industry is not only run by a majority of men, but it’s catered to them as well. And it doesn’t seem to be changing much. Of course, catering to men makes sense from a business perspective, or at least it used to. But statistics indicate that’s no longer the case. And for some reason, many video game companies are just not willing to change to accommodate that shift. Maybe it’s part of the whole industry, so deep-seeded, that executives and producers can’t think outside of the box. But really, it’s still not an excuse. It’s honestly disgraceful at times, and downright disrespectful.
The Lara Croft Syndrome
Now, my intent here isn’t to start a flame war. There are plenty of women who are completely content with video games the way they are, and have no desire to see games change into anything other than they are. In fact, they like that they’re playing in a “Man’s Realm”. And that, of course, is absolutely fine. What irks me is that, so often, playing video games still feels like crossing into a man’s territory—like finding yourself in a world you weren’t taken into consideration. Aleah Tierny puts it into perspective in her article “What Women Want” when she talks about the Lara Croft syndrome:
I couldn’t wait to load and play Tomb Raider when it first came out, but when I saw Lara, I just couldn’t take the game seriously. The giant twin pyramids mounted onto her chest look like something she could use to impale her enemies. In many ways her kick-butt presence is a triumph, but the designers’ decision to sexualize her to the point of deformity angered me. I couldn’t get past her proportions, so I put the game away.
Tags: dragon age, fantasy, gamer girls, gaming, RPG, sexual stereotypes, women in gaming
Keanuify your Workplace
StarCraft II: Brick Rush!
Here’s what StarCraft might look like if Blizzard would release a LEGO version of the game:
Speaking of Starcraft, have you guys bought the new edition yet? How’s the story mode so far? Let us know in the comments section below!
Sucker Punch: Dragon, Samurais, Steampunk. Oh my.
Fantasy lovers and Steampunk fans rejoice: Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch promises to be a visual orgy of everything you guys love. Check out the trailer:
Sucker Punch is an upcoming American action-fantasy film written by Steve Shibuya and Zack Snyder, and directed by Snyder. Sucker Punch features an ensemble female cast that includes Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Jamie Chung and Jena Malone. The film follows a young girl in the 1950s about to be lobotomized and as she attempts to escape an asylum with her inmate friends.
The movie is scheduled for release on March 25, 2011.
[Via io9]
The Evolution of Apple [Cartoon]
[Via Gadget Buzzer]
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Dark Matter & Dark Energy
Thanks to Neil deGrasse Tyson, this is one of the simplest, most straightforward summaries of one of the greatest questions facing modern science today.