Kanye West launches design company, tweets to 'pick up where Steve Jobs left off'
Kanye West stormed Twitter late on Wednesday night and early today, writing 86 tweets discussing fashion, his late mother and announcing his new company "DONDA."
He wanted to let Steve Jobs finish; but he's planning to make the greatest production and design company of all time, as he tweets to continue work in the same vein as the late Apple CEO.
We can collectively effect the world trough design. We need to pick up where steve jobs left off
Kanye has said he is looking for “a team of architects, graphic designers, directors musicians, producers, AnRs, writers, publicist, social media experts … app guys, managers, car designers, clothing designers, DJs, video game designers, publishers, tech guys, lawyers, bankers, nutritionist … doctors, scientist, teachers.”
Apple accidentally releases "Gamestore" app, then removes it
Apple haven't exactly been 'on the ball' lately with keeping stuff under wraps, and today has been no exception. Apple accidentally published an app titled 'Gamestore' to the iTunes app store, and removed it pretty soon after.
The app was discovered by Florian Schimanke on December 31st, and seems to be (as hinted to by the name) a store for games. The description was rather sparse: "This application allows you to buy different things from within the app."
Nokia: solar charging mobile phones are possible but not ready yet
The results from Nokia's solar charging experiment are in, and while it is possible to juice up your phone via the Sun's rays, it's nowhere near consistent enough yet.
For the experiment, Nokia have used their C1-02 (one of their millions of dumbphones), attached solar panels onto the back, and sent them to a variety of countries over the last six months. Five participants were selected from across the world: two in the Arctic Circle, one in Southern Sweden, one in Kenya, and one in the Baltic Sea, each with varying lifestyles and varying weather conditions to give this a fair shot.
Art Deco Aerodyne PC takes us to the 1930s
As Andrew Ryan would ask, is a man not entitle to the sweat of hiw brow? No, says those with a small fortune, as designer Jeffrey Stephenson is selling a small run of this downright beautiful art-deco case mod.
Crafted out of mahogany with aluminium accents, this makes the Steampunk era of last year look downright crass. Each side invokes a completely unique visual style: from the streamline trains of old, to the Chrysler building, and then the side grilles looking as if they've been ripped straight from a 1930s radio.
The Church of file sharing recognised as a religion by Sweden
Swedish authorities has confirmed it's recognition of a 3,000 strong organisation of file sharers, called Church of Kopimism as a religion.
To help with the name translation, "Kopimi" pretty much means what it sounds like: "copy me." The organisation shares beliefs in the sharing and copying of data, as they see them to be a sacred act. Alongside this, monitoring and eavesdropping is seen as wrong. It's taken them a few attempts (their last declined application for official church status was in July of 2011); but Kopimism has finally been granted official recognition as a religion.
Study shows how to get Facebook friends. Questions power of influence
Researchers at Harvard have been analysing the reasons people are friending each other on social networks, presenting that those who share common interests in music and movies are most likely to be-friend each other. Similar book tastes, however, do not influence this decision whatsoever.
The study analysed and collected data from a group of college students (who self-reported for the experiment) over a course of four years.
Microsoft to Sue Comet for selling '94,000 counterfeit copies of Windows'
UK electronics retailer, Comet, is being taken to court by Microsoft for allegedly creating and selling unauthorised copies of its Windows operating systems.
Microsoft claim that the retailer created more than 94,000 Windows recovery discs for Vista and XP, and sold them to customers. They were sold between March of 2008 and December 2009, and while Comet sold this as an added extra to customers who wished to restore their computers to original configuration in the event of problems, the Redmond based technology company claim this is unfair to the consumer.
Real-life model Wipeout circuit powered by levitation. Real or fake?
We're not quantum physicists by any stretch of the imagination, but what we are is keen admirers of truly breathtaking science...especially when it recreates the same sort of racing you'd find in Sony's futuristic racer, Wipeout.
Google acquires 217 patents from IBM
In the last week of 2011, Google bought 217 patents from IBM in a deal that was officially recorded at the patent office on December 30, 2011.
The patent transaction was discovered by a reader via the United States Patent Trade Office (USPTO), who wishes to remain anonymous. It was for 188 granted patents and 29 printed patent pendings, across quite a large range of technological areas being covered by what's been bought. Things like network performance, email administration and instant messaging client functionality are all in place; but there also seems to be a significant lean towards covering phone and mobile technologies.
Steve Jobs Reborn As 12-Inch Tall Action Figure
Action Man, Captain Scarlet, Superman, He-Man... Growing up, there's a fair chance that you owned a variety of super-powered, feature-laden, articulating action figures of your favourite superheroes and supervillains. What you probably didn't have was a brilliantly lifelike plastic replica of an influential businessman. Kids growing up in 2012 might just get that chance.
Dark Knight Rises trailer parody. Audio sync with Lion King scenes
So after a fantastic trailer for The Dark Knight Rises, breaking iTunes Movie Trailer records by exceeding 12.5 million views in just 24 hours, Youtube user MovieMaestroTen has made the pitch perfect parody, syncing the audio from the Batman trailer with scenes from Disney's The Lion King.
Internet Explorer 6 is dying. Microsoft makes cake and merchandise to celebrate
After a decade, usage of decade-old IE6 in the US has dropped below 1%. This is now what Microsoft wants: they really does want it to die, making cakes, t-shirts and mugs to celebrate it's final steps towards the grave.
The Redmond-based company made a website in March 2011 to countdown the last few percent of usage, called (rather appropriately) IE6 Countdown. Since then, usage has dropped to 7.7%, down 12% since the launch of the countdown.
New Apple Patent to bring Face unlock to iOS
A recently discovered patent submitted by Apple details a method of unlocking an iDevice via face-recognition a'la Galaxy Nexus...kind of risky based on the privacy concerns surrounding using a photo to unlock the phone.
As described in the above image discovered by PatentlyApple.com, the device would sense a user approaching and wake from sleep to activate its image processor. At this point, facial recognition software can be executed to match the user's face and unlock the device. Business users can set even higher levels of security.
Crysis 2 Ends 2011 As Most Pirated Game
For game developers and publishers alike, earning recognition for their game through topping an end of year category (whether Game of the Year, Best FPS or Best RPG) is a prize that money can't buy. And then there are those that no company wants to win – namely 'The Most Pirated Game Of 2011'.
According to TorrentFreak, this year's crown went to the PC version of EA and Crytek's behemoth Crysis 2 which was downloaded approximately 3,920,000 times between its release in March 2011 and the end of the year.
Apple planning a Media event this month. Not iPad or Apple TV related, says All Things D
All Things D have always been very close to on-the-ball in relation to Apple predictions, and if the latest from the sources close to the tech blog are to be believed, the Cupertino based company are planning a media-related event in New York for later this month.
Mineways: Turn your Minecraft creations into real-world models
So you've invested time in Minecraft and built some pretty faithful block-renditions of different models. But what if you want them to be timelessly kept on your shelf, forming a time capsule of reminiscence? Well, worry no more, dear reader, as new software Mineways has your back.
Orangutan Outreach asks Apple for help popularising 'Apps for Apes'
Charity organisation Orangutan Outreach has invested both time and finance in its Apples for Orangs program, enriching the lives of these highly intelligent creatures with iPads. After it's work with regular 'human' apps (giving Orangutans Skype to see and communicate, music/matching apps to play), they have turned to Apple to create a special "Apps for Apes" category in the iTunes app store.
Has GTA V's Release Date Been Outed by NME?
First, there was the official announcement trailer and a 'For Sale' sign alluding to a possible 24 May 2012 release date. Now, music magazine NME has stoked the fire for a possible May 2012 release launch with its own '20 Reasons To Be Excited For 2012' feature on its website.
Rockstar Games and GTA V take up the eighth spot, in which NME highlights how it expects “half the country to retreat indoors and draw the curtains in May when Grand Theft Auto 5 hits the shops”.
Rupert Murdoch joins Twitter
So the owner of a media empire who everyone either loves to hate or hates to love (and who we love for the copious amounts of Simpsons on Sky One) has joined the microblogging universe that is Twitter.
LG Reveals World's Largest OLED TV At Just 4mm Thick
We're quite the keen observers of advances in TV technology here at NRM. From heavy investment in the 3D market and glasses-free 3D, to ever larger, smarter, thinner and more energy efficient sets. LG Electronics has revealed that it is planning to unveil the “world's largest” OLED TV at this year's Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, beginning January 10.