Hasta La Gadget!

It would appear that the biggest-name biography movie surrounding the life and times of Steve Jobs, that being the one penned by Aaron Sorkin, will be played out in three 30-minute segments, each of them working as one single shot each. Each of these segments will work inside time behind the scenes right before the launches of the original Mac, the original iPod, and NeXT. This information was revealed this week at the Summit conference with Newsweek and The Daily Beast, Sorkin himself noting the format with little else for details.

What’s known thus far – per Sorkin – is that they plan on filming the movie in three shots. These shots will be continuous, not unlike the film Children of Men – though with far fewer deaths involved, of course. The movie will be backed by Sony and for those of you that don’t know him at the moment, Aaron Sorkin is best known for being a writer for “The West Wing”, a show of some note, and movies like The Social Network and A Few Good Men.

For those of you wondering if this is or is not the Steve Jobs biopic with Ashton Kutcher in it – it’s certainly not. That movie goes by the name “Jobs” and was written by a man named Matt Whiteley. This version has Sorkin speaking on the life of Steve Jobs years before the iPhone and iPad launched. It’s the Mac, here, that he wants to capture.

Speaking about the iconic Mac advertisement “here’s to the crazy ones”, Sorkin said thusly: “if I can live up to that ending, I will have won.” The version of the ad spot you’re seeing here has Jobs himself doing the voice-over rather than the more popular version with Richard Dryfuss doing the audio.

As for the segments this movie is going to come up on, you’ll want to begin with the Mac. This is the Apple Macintosh keynote by Steve Jobs all the way back in 1984. Have a peek and be utterly amazed.

Next you’ll see NeXT – it’s not clear at the moment if this will be the presentation they’ll be speaking about in the movie now or not, but still – interesting stuff! This is Steve Jobs speaking about NeXT OS. Very simple stuff, very visionary.

Then it’s time for the original iPod. This device appears to be a beast compared to the devices we use today, but back then it was an industry-changer. We’ll be getting an interpretation of the action behind the stage before this event started in the movie – can’t wait! Also – please excuse Comic Sans – Apple wasn’t part of the graphic design and typography modernism at the time.

Steve Jobs biopic to be three one-scene pre-keynotes is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A man whose daughter enjoys video games has released a lovely hack for the game Zelda: Windwaker in which all of the gender pronouns have been switched, thusly creating an environment that allows his young girl to be the hero and cementing himself as the Greatest Dad in History. This simple trick allowed a bit more gender equality – or flipping, in this case, in an industry where it’s incredibly rare for a woman character to save the day. Here with Zelda, the graphics already supported the idea that the boy needed saving and the girl did the saving – all this man had to do was switch some words around.

Of course no hack is ever as easy as it looks, and doing this sort of switch-up required a bit of the ol’ Dolphin emulator to make it happen. For those of you interested in creating a bit more of a positive place for girls to be superstars, head over to the “Blarg?” post here to do it. In the words of the creator of this modified environment:

“Maya and I have been playing through Windwaker together; she likes sailing, scary birds and remembering to be brave, rescuing her little brother and finding out what’s happening to Medli and her dragon boat.

She’s the hero of the story, of course.

It’s annoying and awkward, to put it mildly, having to do gender-translation on the fly when Maya asks me to read what it says on the screen. You can pick your character’s name, of course – I always stick with Link, being a traditionalist – but all of the dialog insists that Link is a boy, and there’s apparently nothing to be done about it.

Well, there wasn’t anything to be done about it, certainly not anything easy, but as you might imagine I’m not having my daughter growing up thinking girls don’t get to be the hero and rescue their little brothers.”

The creator of this vision for the future goes by the name Mike Hoye and was interviewed this week by Daily Dot, asked there about not just the game, but his daughter’s playing of video games as well. Hoye speaks on how he’s both scared and encouraged by his young one growing up in our modern technologically futuristic world.

“It’s more than a little scary. But it’s also pretty inspiring, to see how fast she learns and grows. The situation in tech now is, depending on what corner of that world you’re in, either “kind of bad” or “extraordinarily bad.” but it’s also changing. But those changes don’t just magically happen. So on the one hand, yes— I’ve had that in mind while I did this, and it feels like it was valuable work as a result.

On the other hand, this is also something I’m doing just for Maya, hopefully to make her a little bit happy this year, and maybe in a few years when she has a better sense of what’s going on, to show her that the culture around software isn’t carved in stone any more than the software itself is.”

Keep that in mind, folks, when you’re thinking your device, game, or anything in-between is stuck on crappy mode. Make it better! And let us know about it, too!

Zelda trades places with Link via Greatest Dad Ever is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s been said that any computer monitor should be situated at about eye-level for optimal ergonomics. That being said, most monitors needs a bit of extra lift to make them work at that height. Twelvesouth’s HiRise for iMac elevates your computer just to the right height.

HiRise for iMac will make it comfortable to view your monitor at the right height, so that you won’t slouch in your chair or try to use an old phone book underneath it to get it to the sweet spot. The internal metal support shelf can be adjusted so that you get your display at just the right height. This stand also has got some hidden storage, perfect for an external HD, Mac Mini, iPhone, or anything else you want to stash away.

The sturdy aluminum HiRise works with all iMac and Apple Cinema Displays that have an L-shaped stand, including the new Thunderbolt Display or the 27-inch iMac. It sells for $79.99(USD) from Twelvesouth.

I’ve never though of recycling books, since I’m a bibliophile, but there’s something marvelous about these docks that are made from old books. Rich Neeley custom makes them for the discerning gadgeteer.

Booksi docks by RichNeeleyDesigns look great – especially on a bookshelf. The charging dock is integrated into the book’s cover, and twisted around through the book so that there is actually minimal damage to the book. You could probably read it – assuming you undock your phone.

He’s even got some docks for the iPhone 5 and its new 8-pin Lightning connector.

Most of the docks work with a number of 30-pin iOS devices, like iPods, iPhones and some even work with iPads. Prices start at around $49(USD) and go up depending on the book or books used. Rich offers a wide variety of popular books in his shop which are ready to go, but he also accepts custom book requests.

[via BonjourLife]

It’s time for the DROID DNA by HTC – a beast of a device with the highest-definition display on the planet – gigantic! We’ve also had one whole heck of a lot of action going on in the morning, starting with Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Science has revealed to us this week that Dark Matter is driving the expansion of the universe. The LED lightbulb future has 100W equivalency on its mind.

Those of you hoping to use the GoPro Android app are in luck – it’s out today! There’s an update for YouTube out there today as well with Nexus Q-like integration with Google TV. Jawbone UP has been reborn for $130 with full iPhone integration – good luck to you Android owners.

The SugarSync 2.0 public beta has been released for everyone on both iOS and Android. Over at Microsoft the man known as Steven Sinofsky is said to be leaving over a failed CEO ultimatum. It would appear that OtterBox has acquired WrapSol.

Check out the new Vuzix Smart Glasses M100 that’ll be taking on Google’s Project Glass in 2013. Have a peek at the Lumen Smart Bulb seeking funding this week. The Android 4.2 manual update has gone live for the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus 7.

SlashGear Morning Wrap-up: November 13th, 2012 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.