Hasta La Gadget!

The Apple TV is a fairly simple product. It’s a standard set-top box that allows you to stream content and even beam content from an iOS device to your big-screen living room television. However, the founder of the Xbox gaming console, Nat Brown, says that if Apple wanted to, they could easily destroy the Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii.

In a blog post, Brown says that there are numerous problems with the Xbox platform that leaves the door wide open for Apple. Plus, Microsoft has been making it extremely difficult to develop games for the Xbox, and it doesn’t really cater to indie developers. The Apple TV, on the other hand, runs iOS, which allows for anyone to develop apps and games fairly easily, which has spawned a wealth of games for users to play.

Of course, the Apple TV isn’t catered as a gaming platform, although it’s only a matter of time before that could happen. You can actually beam iOS games to your living room TV using the set-top box, but the Apple TV itself isn’t a gaming console by any means. However, that could change with just a few more advanced features added on.

In the end, Brown notes that the past five years have been painful to watch, in regards to the Xbox, because Microsoft has essentially failed to innovate and capitalize on the potential of innovations, like the Kinect sensor. Brown also wishes that Microsoft adopted a similar model for game and app distribution that iOS and Android have been using in order to create huge and successful gaming ecosystems.

[via Business Insider]

Xbox founder says Apple TV could “simply kill” gaming consoles is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Amazon has announced an extension of the content licensing deal that it previously had with CBS. As a result, more shows are being added for Amazon Prime Instant subscribers to watch. New titles include Undercover Boss, Star Trek, Everybody Loves Raymond, America’s Next Top Model, The L Word  and United States of Tara – in no particular order. (more…)

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As a fan of monsters and 3D printing, in that order, I was intrigued by Autodesk’s new iOS app, 123D Creature. Aimed at beginning 3D modelers, the app allows you to build cute (or scary) monsters right on your screen by pinching, grabbing, and rotating a lump of virtual clay hanging on a skeleton.

The $7.99 app ($1.99 for a limited time) is the latest in Autodesk’s line of free 3D apps. The company sells much more expensive and complex 3D solutions like Maya and 3ds max but these 123D apps are designed to allow users with little experience to build objects, paint them virtually, and output mesh files that can be used on 3D printers. You can even order 3D prints of your creations right from the app.

Given the perceived difficulty of 3D modeling, these are an interesting way for Autodesk to sneak their tools into the hands of younger designers who could go on to use the company’s more lucrative tools.

How does it work? Fairly well, to be honest.

I tried the app briefly today and was able to design a pointy-headed little man and print him on my home Makerbot. Sadly his arms didn’t quite make it through the print process but his tiny legs and pin head look just fine. I’m no 3D artist, to be sure, so it was fun to be able to make a cute little being and then pump him out of my extruder in a few minutes. Not only does this give 3D novices the chance to experiment with 3D design, it makes folks with 3D printers happy because of the seamless system for making and outputting mesh files for quick prints.

Scientists working with the European Space Agency (ESA) Cryosat satellite have discovered that Arctic ice loss has been massive in the years between 2003 and 2012. The ice loss is indicated at declining by 36% during autumn and 9% during winter. Cryosat satellite can measure ice thickness using a high-resolution radar altimeter. To achieve this, the altimeter of the satellite shoots microwave energy towards the ice. This energy bounces of the ice sections and off the water in the cracks. The difference in the values is used to calculate the height of ice above water and the volume of the ice covering. Scientists have been collecting data for the past two years for this research.

“Other satellites have already shown drops in the area covered by Arctic sea ice as the climate has warmed, but CryoSat allows scientists to estimate the volume of sea ice – a much more accurate indicator of the changes taking place in the Arctic,” added Tommaso Parrinello, CryoSat Mission Manager. The research was funded by European Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center, Alberta Ingenuity, NASA, the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation. Read more on Treehugger

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A penis would rank pretty high on any list of body parts you’d want to be able to grow back if lost. The more replacement penises the better. And for the first time, Japanese biologists have found an animal that can do just that. More »