Black Rectangle Review

Photo

Wed, 15 May 2013 12:15:21 -0400

Bringing BBM to Android and iOS should have happened a year ago

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:40:18 -0400

Bringing BBM to Android and iOS should have happened a year ago:

BlackBerry has just announced that its hugely popular BBM messaging service is going multi-platform: it will be released for Android and iOS as a free app this summer. BBM will support iOS hardware…

It was just announced that Blackberry Messenger is going to be released for iOS and Android later this summer. Thorstein Hiens claims that its a show of strength. That they are so confident in the BBM platform, and it will help draw people back to Blackberry.

This is a move that should have happened a year ago or sooner. The messaging market has never been so competitive. Just off the top of my head I can think of

*Kik messenger

*Moped

*whatsapp

*Gchat

*iMessage

*Facebook messenger

*Skype

And those are just the ones available in the US that I’m aware of. I guess you could still lump Yahoo chat and AIM into that list as well (though I won’t because its my list). Let’s also not forget good ol’ SMS.

Adding BBM to that mix isn’t going to win any hearts or minds unless, for some weird reason BBM is *INSANELY* better than the other options out there. I’m pretty sure it isn’t.

Even if BBM is excellent. That doesn’t matter because only one person I know uses a Blackberry and her next phone isn’t going to be a Blackberry (she’s told me). It may be nice that she can keep the handful of BBM contacts when she moves away from the platform, but that doesn’t sound like the kind of progress Blackberry wants (and its definitely not a moneymaking endeavor to appease customers not buying your products).

Blackberry has lost so much ground in the past decade that cracking open BBM at this point is an almost empty gesture. I would almost call it a hail mary, but that would imply that its a last ditch “all or nothing” move on Blackberry’s part. It isn’t. Its just weak and it won’t really help resurrect Blackberry as a handset maker.

-Ben

thisistheverge: Tumblr launches first-ever mobile ads in its...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:14:07 -0400

thisistheverge:

Tumblr launches first-ever mobile ads in its iOS and Android apps

Prepare for an onslaught of gif ads

Finally, there's a phone for your phone.

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:50:53 -0400

Finally, there's a phone for your phone.:

Think a miniature “dumb phone” for your HTC smartphone sounds absurd? We try out the Bluetooth-enabled add-on, which comes bundled with selected HTC One purchases in Singapore.

Photo

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:51:52 -0400

prostheticknowledge: Manfred Mohr’s Youtube Channel A...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 07:31:27 -0400

prostheticknowledge:

Manfred Mohr’s Youtube Channel

A collection of videos featuring works by pioneering computer artist Manfred Mohr, many dating back to the early 70’s. Also includes interviews and lectures:

Manfred Mohr is considered a pioneer of digital art. After discovering Prof. Max Bense’s information aesthetics in the early 1960’s, Mohr’s artistic thinking was radically changed. Within a few years, his art transformed from abstract expressionism to computer generated algorithmic geometry. Encouraged by the computer music composer Pierre Barbaud whom he met in 1967, Mohr programmed his first computer drawings in 1969.

You can go to the Youtube channel here

bobbyfinger: Buncha losers. (via Does Buzzfeed Know the Secret?...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 00:47:55 -0400

bobbyfinger:

Buncha losers.

(via Does Buzzfeed Know the Secret? — New York Magazine)

It is no doubt that Buzzfeed is very good at what they do. I am curious as to when and how it will fall apart for them.

"Some fake accounts look even better than real accounts do."

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 09:48:50 -0400

“Some fake accounts look even better than real accounts do.”

- Fake Twitter Followers Become Multimillion-Dollar Business - NYTimes.com (via thisistheverge)

thisistheverge: Ouya review: can an indie console take on Sony...

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:39:43 -0400

thisistheverge:

Ouya review: can an indie console take on Sony and Microsoft?

Please read the full review, but the overall review is that the product is pretty “meh” at this point.

This is what can happen when you back a kickstarter, even one that breaks a ton of records for funding. These are, in general, still going to be boutique products that may or may not deliver fully on their promises. Looking at it purely as a mechanical “purchase” of the device should be only one part of your decision to back a crowd funded project.

Crowd funding is still a fascination for this author. I hope that cooling people’s expectations will not adversely affect the overall trend of generating more support for these projects.

eightninea: Rebuild —

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:16:40 -0400

eightninea:

Rebuild —

The Independent Crowdfunding Blog - backers.co: There are eight hundred crowdfunding sites say Indiegogo

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:48:30 -0400

The Independent Crowdfunding Blog - backers.co: There are eight hundred crowdfunding sites say Indiegogo:

backrs:

A recent Google search led me to make a list of all the active crowdfunding sites I could find. I reached sixty without too much trouble, but beyond that I started hitting expired domains and works in progress.

CEO and founder of Indiegogo Slava Rubin however, claimed in his keynote…

800 seems a little dubious. This reminds me of the coupon sites that were trying to piggyback on Groupon and LivingSocial. I still think it would be nice to see some other players in this space beyond Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

theremina: Chris Novello introduces the glorious Super Mario...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:35:40 -0400

theremina:

Chris Novello introduces the glorious Super Mario Spacetime Organ:

In this video, I directly manipulate the RAM state of Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to transform it from a game into a strange instrument.

First, I play the game as it is traditionally played.. but I have access to the game’s memory, so I change Mario’s Y position using the Madrona Labs Soundplane (a surface that sends data to the computer about where it is being touched). This is how I hover Mario during the playthrough.

Also, before I start playing, I flip a switch on illucia (a patchbay instrument that I designed) to trigger recording — not video, but actually recording the entire memory state of the NES for each game frame.

Think about it - Mario’s universe is held in RAM, which the NES uses to draw his world for each frame of the game. By saving the entire state of NES memory for every frame, I’m able to go back to any moment in Mario’s life.

So then I use the X-axis of the Soundplane to sweep through the timeline of Mario’s universe.

Not only that, but the Soundplane is multitouch, so I use a second finger to specify start and endpoints in a playback loop. Technically, this is similar to the way samplers and granular synths work in audio.. but with the entire memory state of the NES. Conceptually, it is like Super Mario meets Groundhog Day. Mario’s universe computer/time machine gets caught in hellish loops.

Then I start using illucia to send alien data into various other places in Mario’s universe, which makes for all sorts of audiovisual insanity amidst the spacetime loops. This is sort of like circuit bending, but in a protected sandbox - at any point I can revert back to the clean recording of RAM states (aka moments in Mario’s universe).

I then try to go back to “playing” the game, watching Mario navigate a melting world of glitched-out ephemera. I then push things into full on glitch insanity. I use a pair of rubberband mallets on the Soundplane to jump around in Mario’s universe while leaving illucia to send a heavy stream of alien data into Mario’s RAM state. I eventually (accidentally/luckily) land at a place that triggers the game over music, and end the take.

(via parasitk)

fromgreecetoanarchy: Escape

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 13:58:16 -0400

fromgreecetoanarchy:

Escape

mosesgunn: Darkstar respect your elders

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 23:43:51 -0400

mosesgunn:

Darkstar

respect your elders

vgjunk: Hacker, Commodore 64.

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:53:57 -0400

vgjunk:

Hacker, Commodore 64.

suhbjektiv: Sharetapes - A Digital Mixtape For Sharing...

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 12:00:22 -0400

suhbjektiv:

Sharetapes - A Digital Mixtape For Sharing Playlists

So let me get this straight. I create a playlist via whatever service (in most cases, for free) then I will pay $10 ($7 for 5 cards + $3 for shipping) to be able to share a QR code (something I could print for free- or skip the middleman and just email the link or post to twitter/facebook)… to my spotify or Youtube playlist.

This is about the exact opposite of simplifying things. As it explains in the FAQ:

Does the receiver need a special app to play a Sharetape?

Services like Spotify require the receiver to have a subscription to play on mobile devices. Using YouTube or 8tracks does not require the receiver to have a special app, except a QR code reader for devices without NFC.

… I must have missed something, this doesn’t sound convenient at all, and it doesn’t really seem like a sound premise for a business.

"The Irish Independent reports that grocery giant TESCO has strapped electronic armbands to their..."

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:20:37 -0400

“The Irish Independent reports that grocery giant TESCO has strapped electronic armbands to their warehouse workers to measure their productivity, tracking their actions so closely that management knows when they briefly pause to drink from a water fountain or take a bathroom break. These unforgivable lapses in productivity impact workers’ performance score, which management then apparently uses to terrify them into working faster.”

- I know that we all need money to live but if your boss wants to strap a computer to you he deserves to have his ass kicked.

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/work-becoming-more-prison-some-workers-forced-wear-electronic-bands-track-everything

(via streetfightwcrs)

“…as if the whips of their masters were behind them.” - Legolas in LOTR

new-aesthetic: “Stop The Cyborgs’ was founded in response to...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:29:47 -0400

new-aesthetic:

“Stop The Cyborgs’ was founded in response to the Google Glass project and other technology trends. The aim of the movement is to stop a future in which privacy is impossible and corporate control total.”

About | Stop The Cyborgs

NB Addendum: “Two things are quickly lost in any internet debate: humor and nuance. So in retrospect we should have guessed that people would find it hard to read past the name ‘Stop The Cyborgs‘. We thought it would be a bit of fun – a suitably cyberpunk sounding opposition group. However we have been variously accused of hating technology & hating anyone who isn’t 100% biological. This is not the case. We love technology and we love people. Indeed we even wear clothes and create technology ourselves. Some of us might even have metal bits.” Read more…

Favorite quote from their site:

“People claim “You can’t fight the future” by which they mean “One particular possible future“.”

Absolutely agree with this. I’m also glad that their approaching this issue with tongue in cheek. I think adding a little humor to what some people may label as paranoia always helps the message go down.

9th Circuit Appeals Court: 4th Amendment Applies At The Border; Also: Password Protected Files Shouldn't Arouse Suspicion

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 02:18:11 -0500

9th Circuit Appeals Court: 4th Amendment Applies At The Border; Also: Password Protected Files Shouldn't Arouse Suspicion:

bingorage:

Sure to be appealed by usa admin., and probably does not apply to visiting Canadians; but, finally, a win for 4’th amendment at the border.

Progress for individual rights. Enjoy it while it lasts.

"The digital portion of what started as a music festival has metastasized into a spectacle of..."

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:12:19 -0500

“The digital portion of what started as a music festival has metastasized into a spectacle of peacocking internet startups and the people who surround them.”

- Addrianne Jeffries, The Verge