Yeah, the Jeremy Renner-hosted installment of “SNL” certainly wasn’t the strongest effort of the season. And no cast member had a truly outstanding effort, though, there were a few strong moments sprinkled throughout the night. Especially “Weekend Update,” which featured a exceptionally strong Seth Meyers trading barbs with the governor of New Jersey.
1. Seth Meyers (Last Week: 7) Seth Meyers’ strongest show of the season.
Arizona teacher Sheldon White has been suspended without pay for the remainder of the fall semester after locking three students in a closet as discipline.
The Williams High School art and woodshop teacher had warned students against repeatedly entering a classroom storage closet. When they failed to comply, White locked them in the closet for more than 30 minutes.
“It was pretty tight, though, pretty tight,” student Sage Hoag told KPNX. “He had several students hold the door shut while he put up boards and rope, that’s what we saw when we were pulling the door back. He eventually got the boards stuck to where we couldn’t open it at all.”
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The guys at iFixit are at it again. Within minutes of the release of any new gadget, it seems as if they’ve already got theirs in hand, and ripped open for the world to see. With the Wii U out for just one day, they’ve already broken out the surgical tools and splayed out its guts so you don’t have to.
On the Outside of the console, there’s an SD card slot, HDMI port, four USB 2.0 ports, an AV multi out connector, and a sensor bar connector. Inside the console itself, they found that the largest single component was the optical drive, which takes up a significant amount of space, as well as 1/3rd of the weight of the system.
In terms of the motherboard itself, they found a variety of brand name components, including an IBM Power-based multicore CPU, AMD Radeon GPU – both placed under a single heat shield, A Samsung memory controller, a Panasonic HDMI controller as well as wireless and Bluetooth modules from Broadcom. They then moved on to cracking open the Wii U’s big differentiator – it’s game controller.
Under the hood of the Wii U GamePad is a 6.2″, 854×480 LCD screen, with a Texas Instruments touchscreen controller, InvenSense gyroscope, 256MB of flash memory of its own, a Broadcom NFC chip and various other support chips from TI and STMicrolectronics. There’s also some sort of custom wireless board from Broadcom, presumably used to stream data between the console and the controller. One surprise was how much spare room there is inside the controller case – despite the extra real estate, Nintendo chose to go with tiny little speakers – you’d think they could have splurged for something bigger with all that room.
Overall, iFixit says the Wii U is relatively easy to take apart and service, giving it a solid repairability score of 8 out of 10 – not bad given how so many of today’s smaller gadgets are glued together and nearly impossible to service. You can check out the full teardown and many more pics over at iFixit now.
Windows 8 might be a completely new take on the Windows operating system, but it seems sales aren’t doing as well as some may have hoped. Online electronics and computer parts retailer Newegg says that they were “prepared for an explosion” at launch, but sales have “been slow going” so far. However, the retailer says that sales of Windows 8 may start taking off starting in Q2 2013 most likely.
Merle McIntosh, Senior Vice President of Product Management of Newegg North America, says that the retailer was “prepared for some pretty big upside on the software side of the equation, and the hardware side of the equation, and it is has been steadily improving.” However, McIntosh noted that sales of the new OS “did not explode…coming out of the gate.”
Sales of copies of Windows 8 have “been slow going,” according to McIntosh, for which he thinks will continue “until the pricing normalizes sometime next year.” Then again, the retailer has been seeing a steady increase in Windows 8 hardware sales, such as laptops, desktops, and tablets. McIntosh declined to provide any sales numbers.
As far as Black Friday sales are concerned, McIntosh didn’t provide any specific Black Friday promotions that Newegg would have, but he said they would be doing “hundreds and hundreds of deals” across various hardware categories. Whether this will include Windows 8 hardware is uncertain, but it might be a good idea to keep your eyes peeled just in case.
[via ReadWriteWeb]
Windows 8 sales “slow” says Newegg is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Those of you looking for a more traditional approach to Windows with your newly downloaded operating system upgrade to Windows 8 will be glad to find no lack of appreciation from app developers on your side of the argument. One of these – perhaps the most popular app in this odd category thus far – goes by the name of Start8. This app will allow you to bypass the Windows 8 touchscreen-friendly start screen with the traditional Windows Start Menu interface for just $5 USD – and they’ve sold “tens of thousands” of copies of their simple application already.
This app will bring the same Star Menu interface you’ve gotten used to on Windows 7 and comes in two different versions, the “free trial” version also having been downloaded tens of thousands of times, so says Kris Kwilas, Stardock’s vice president of technology. Stardock is the group that developed Start8 and suddenly a voice for conservatism in the software universe.
“We were having some success with word of mouth before the Windows 8 release, and since the release, the floodgates have been opened, and the demand is surprising even us. It tells me that early adopters of Windows 8 feel there’s something missing — a comfort factor for how they want to use their PCs, vs how Microsoft has decided for them how they should use their computers.” – Kwilas.
This sentiment is not new – Microsoft was plagued with nay-sayers since the moment they first showed off their Windows 8 panels to the world. Touchscreen interfaces were made a priority while the standard for computing today – clicking with a mouse or a touchpad – was slightly degraded. It’s perhaps because of this most of all that Microsoft is finding slightly less-than-desirable sales numbers at the outset with Windows 8.
Have a peek at the timeline below to see other recent reports on how Windows 8 is faring in the global computing market. Let us know if you’re one of those “early adopters” excited about where Windows 8 is and where its going – and don’t forget to say why you think Microsoft isn’t doing as well as they thought they might!
[via USA Today]
Windows 8 Start Menu app sells “tens of thousands” for $5 a pop is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
You know your tablet platform has made it when you’ve scored a supply deal with an airline, whether it’s for the passengers or the staff. Microsoft undoubtedly feels that kind of validation now that Emirates has decided to give Windows 8 PCs a try. The air carrier will eventually outfit all its flights with HP ElitePad 900 slates, each loaded a custom Knowledge Driven Inflight Service (KIS) app, to help crew and customers alike. Attendants will get feedback and a heads-up on what to expect from everyone onboard; passengers will have chances to make their voices heard and upgrade their seat classes on the spot. Only 100 of the tablets will be in use by the end of January, but the 1,000 ElitePads needed for all aircraft should be active before 2013 is over. We just hope the rollout is quick enough to let us splurge on a sleep-friendly seat during a long trip to Dubai.
Filed under: Tablets, Transportation, Microsoft, HP
Emirates hands out HP Windows 8 tablets to flight crews, aims for first-class cabin tech (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It happens to everyone, Israel, don’t worry—one of the IDF’s drones was either shot down or malfunctioned above Gaza. Now Hamas has it. More »
Dyle is making it possible to watch live TV on your iPad or iPhone for free (kind of) with EyeTV. That’s the good news. The bad news is it sounds like a pretty crappy way to do something that other people make easy. More »
Nintendo might be pushing the Wii U for all its worth right now, but that doesn’t mean the company lacks an option for gamers on a budget. The Japanese company has revealed its Black Friday deal ahead of time, a $169.99 bundle preloading Super Mario 3D Land onto a Flame Red version of the glasses-free 3DS handheld, for a claimed saving of forty bucks.
Super Mario 3D Land – which currently has a street price of around $36.99, or a few dollars less than Nintendo’s official estimates – puts the popular plumber inside a 3D platform world. Rather than coming on a separate cartridge, however, it will be preloaded into the 3DS itself.
Nintendo actually saw an uptick in 3DS sales in its most recent financial quarter, though that was down to the newer, larger 3DS XL than a surge of interest in the original model. Both feature the same glasses-free 3D system, which uses a special stereoscopic panel on the top display for what Nintendo argues is a more immersive gaming experience.
Of course, most attention is on Nintendo’s Wii U at the moment, the company’s next-gen console which went on sale in the US over the past weekend. That, Nintendo hopes, will turn around the slump it has seen in home gaming, with Wii sales drooping over the past few quarters.
The Flame Red Nintendo 3DS bundle will go on sale this Friday, November 23, priced at $169.99.
Wii U sold out? How about a cheap Flame Red 3DS bundle instead? is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apparently, rocking chairs are pretty hot commodities nowadays. Following fast on the heels of the Rocking-Knit chair and the iRock is the Artful Dodger. Doesn’t sound like something you’d name a rocking chair, but designer Sam LOmingshum (no, that uppercase “O” isn’t a typo) did so with good reason.
You see, the Artful Dodger isn’t just a rocking chair. It also happens to be a thief. Well, sort of.
It’s never a good idea to sit and rock on a rocking chair if your pockets are full. If you’ve tried doing so with change in your pockets, then you know what I mean. Sam and his artfully dodgy chair are also well-aware of this fact.
So when you start rocking and your coins start falling out…
…the Artful Dodger will take care of collecting all your loose change. It’s sort of like any automatic piggy bank – for the owner of the chair, that is.
[via Chair Blog]
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