Doctor, your dinner’s in the oven. Mmmmm, mmmm!

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

First, there’s going to be a remake of \’Fright Night\’, an actually pretty good vampire flick from the 1980s. I’m generally opposed to most remakes, but I think that this isn’t such an awful idea, since the premise itself is a good one. However, the remake’s director is the same guy who did \’Lars and the Real Girl\’, which was… well, I’ll just say I didn’t like it and leave it at that.

But…

Guess Who they tapped for the part of Vincent, the fey late-night movie host who winds up becoming a real vampire hunter? David Tennant!

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A closer look shows Apple\’s A4 is \”tailored,\” not \”bespoke\”

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Analysis of Apples A4 didnt stop in the month after the iPads launch—a number of groups have continued to poke, prod, and photograph Apples chip, looking for insight into a question that will be familiar to longtime Apple watchers who remember the 68K and PowerPC eras. That question is this: what, exactly, is Apples processor strategy?

In the current mobile space, just as in the desktop PC space of the pre-Intel era, that larger question of strategy implies a host of smaller questions, like just how much influence do Apple\’s in-house hardware teams exert over the designs, and where is that influence manifested? What is Apple\’s long-term plan for playing in the hardware market, and does the company really expect to pit its boutique, Apple-specific designs against the wider commodity market and win?

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Valve says Apple, NVIDIA and ATI are working to improve Mac gaming performance

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

We\’ve already seen some evidence that Macs running Steam are generally more powerful than PCs running Steam, and it looks like Apple is busily working to make sure that all potential performance is put to good use. As Valve\’s Rob Barris has confirmed on the company\’s forums, Apple, ATI and NVIDIA are all \’involved\’ in improving Mac gaming performance, and that \’performance is going to improve as drivers are updated.\’ Barris further went on to say that he expects \’modest improvements in short term and larger ones in longer term,\’ but wouldn\’t offer any specific dates as to when some of those updates might roll out.

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UK Police To Allow Gun Users To Renew Licenses With iPhone App

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Sussex police are creating a number of iPhone apps for the public, including one to renew your gun license. Unsurprisingly, the plan has some anti-gun groups upset. Lyn Costello, of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (MAMAA), said, \’This isn\’t suitable, especially in light of what happened in Cumbria. We\’ve got to be extra careful giving gun licenses. We have this attitude that gun murders don\’t happen very often so it\’s OK to be lax, but it is not OK and we\’ve got to do everything in our power to stop it happening again. We can\’t put money before life and if you start to do that we are losing our humanity. It is a really stupid idea.\’

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Sizing up the iPhone 4 for shutterbugs

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

The original iPhone launched with a fixed-focus lens and a paltry (even for 2007) 2 megapixel sensor. The camera didnt get any improvements with the iPhone 3G, but gained another million pixels, autofocus, and a \’tap-to-focus\’ system—which links the focus control and autoexposure system to a specific point in the image—with the iPhone 3GS. It also gained the ability to shoot video, though it was limited to VGA resolution. Despite the improvements, many critics remained unimpressed with these updates.

When Apple announced the iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010, however, the company ticked off nearly every box on the wishlist: more megapixels (though as ever, there are people for whom no amount is ever enough), better low-light sensitivity, an LED flash, a wider angle of view, 720p HD video recording, a front-facing camera, and more. An iPhone 4 isn\’t going to replace a DSLR or a high-end point-and-shoot, but for all but the most devoted pixel-peepers, the hardware is capable of some very nice images.

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