Broz News

Apple sets deadline for opening day App Store inclusion

Apple has given the date and time it that applications submitted by developers that desire to have them included in the launch of the App Store.

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Google optimizes mobile GTalk web client for iPhonenators

Google has created a new mobile Google Talk client that works with the iPhone. It's quite usable, unless you need to add new contacts or keep a charge on your battery.

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MacBook Air SSD purchase price drops by $500

Apple dropped the price of the highest-end MacBook Air this week by $500—$400 from the SSD drive and $100 from the 1.8GHz processor. The machine is still a little pricey, but $500 is no small change.

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Apple explains iPhone 3G upgrade process
Apple this week began posting information for iPhone users intending to update their device to the new iPhone 3G. A new support document explains how to replace an original iPhone with an iPhone 3G using the same carrier: "If you follow these steps to backup your original iPhone first, and then restore the backup to your iPhone 3G, your saved SMS m...

Apple lands largest corporate client in Europe
German newspaper publisher Axel Springer is migrating to the Mac platform and says it will replace all of its PCs with both Mac notebooks and desktops over the next five years, becoming Apple's second largest corporate client. The company, which already uses Macs for all of its layout work, cited the user-friendly Mac operating system, ease-of-use,...

Adobe Flash Player 10: 3x Mac performance boost? [u]
Adobe this week released Flash Player 10 beta 2, an early preview version of the nearly ubiquitous media plugin for browsers and for Flash/video playback. Version 10 of the player, code named "Astro," brings custom filters and effects, 3D effects, and a new text engine with text layout Components. Most importantly, however, it will bring a huge per...

Amazon Update
Amazon has the best price on MacBook Air: just $1699. Or save $55-$105 off Apple's latest iMacs, or $150-$380 off the Mac Pro Quad and new Quad-Core models. Amazon discounts iPods and a huge selection of digital cameras and HDTV's, too. Save on AppleCare, ".Mac", "Leopard", iLife, iWork, Aperture 2, VMware, Photoshop Elements 6 and Office 2008, as well. And the Kindle wireless book/reader is now in stock at $359. While you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through our links to purchase!

Report: Leopard
[Updated 14:30] a 10.5.3 problem affects web browsers; other 10.5.3 issues, compatibility notes and more

Report: Applications
Adobe CS3 issues, Print to PDF tips

Gain quick access to log files in 10.5
Use a new feature in OS X 10.5?s Console program for fast access to certain log files.

See more AirPort Extreme Base Station radio modes
If you?re using an AirPort Extreme Base Station on a network without 802.11n-capable machines, you can use a hidden feature in AirPort Utility to set a non-802.11n radio mode.

Easily review trashed files in OS X 10.5
Learn a very easy way in OS X 10.5 to make sure that the file you?ve thrown into the trash is the one you really meant to throw away.

iPhone cases: Incase Fitted Sleeve and Uniea U-Suit
The new iPhones may be on the horizon, but that doesn?t mean we?ve forgotten about the ?old? ones. We take a look at two cases, one from Incase, the other from Uniea.

Video: World Tech Update
In this week?s show: YouTube stars gather in Boston, a laptop is stolen from a car in just 90 seconds, a look at new robots, a tearful farewell to Bill Gates and we look inside a cable laying ship.

Headphone Buyer's Guide
Earbuds or headphones? Full-size or miniature? No matter what kind of listening hardware you like to plug into your iPod (or iPhone), Dan Frakes has some advice and recommendations for finding the perfect pair.

iPhone 3G queue forms in Manhattan
But the usual suspects--gadget fanatics--aren't the ones at the front of the line.

Privacy advocates praise Google's new link
Company's decision to add a link to its home page that leads to its Privacy Center is enough to quell a controversy.

Photos: Army designates year's best inventions
Every year, the U.S. Army designates a set of top inventions. This year's list includes a GPS-guided artillery shell and a new method for saving severely injured soldiers.

Inside Jokes: Science Writer Jim Holt Explores Why We Laugh

What do you get when you cross scholarly research and dick jokes? Nothing to laugh at, normally. But science writer Jim Holt defies the Heisenberg principle of humor — you can't study it without killing it — in his book Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History and Philosophy of Jokes. We caught up with him walking into a bar.

Wired: One question you tackle is who invented the joke. Weren't we cracking wise back in the caves?

Holt: No, the classic joke form — setup with incongruity, punch line that resolves the incongruity —seems to have come out of Greece and Rome. There's this guy in Greek -mythology called Palamedes who invented practically everything — numbers, currency, lighthouses, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He also supposedly invented the joke. And, of course, he was stoned to death.

Wired: So where do new jokes come from?

Holt: It used to be that all the jokes I got came from Wall Street. Now, with the Internet, they're sort of everywhere and nowhere at once. But the ideas for jokes are cultural — concepts that keep reappearing in different guises over the centuries.

Wired: There are lots of theories about why we joke. Which do you find most plausible?

Holt: Well, there's the superiority theory, that jokes express scorn for your inferiors — cripples and cuckolds and foreigners and the like. Plato said we laugh at vice. Then there's the Freudian interpretation, that it's all about sexual repression. Finally, there's the seduction theory, based on the observation that men do most of the joking while women do most of the laughing. Christopher Hitchens wrote a piece in Vanity Fair arguing that the only way most guys can impress women is to make them laugh.

Wired: But your favorite explanation is a mashup of Kant and evolutionary biology, right?

Holt: V. S. Ramachandran, the brain researcher, has a theory about the origin of laughter — that when you're in the jungle and there's an apparent threat, the first member of the kinship group to notice that it's not a real threat emits this stereotyped vocalization. And it's contagious, so everyone starts laughing. That's also the basis of the relief theory of humor, that there's a release of the energy you had summoned up to solve some puzzle. Kant said that the essence of humor is a strained expectation dissolving into nothing.

Wired: Did you find any candidates for the perfect joke?

Holt: I did find what might be the shortest possible joke: "Pretentious? Moi?"

Study: Orangutan Populations Declining Precipitously
Orangutan numbers decline sharply on the only two islands where they still live in the wild and they could become the first great ape species to go extinct if urgent action isn't taken, a new study says.

Climate Change, Food Crisis Linked, Says U.N. Chief
The U.N. climate chief says climate change will cause the global food crisis to worsen. He is urging leaders of the world's richest countries meeting in Japan next week to set goals to reduce carbon emissions within the next dozen years.

U.S. Travelers Lose 12,000 Laptops Every Week [Public Service Announcement]

All you travelers coming home tomorrow from your wild and crazy Independence Day weekend vacations, don't be one of 12,000 people who lose their laptops at airports every week. That's right, that ain't no typo—12,000 dudes and dudettes somehow manage to misplace their portable computers every seven days. That's 600,000 machines a year, many containing sensitive information that companies need to account for.

According to a study by the Ponemon Institute and Dell, only 30 percent or so lost laptops are ever recovered. Los Angeles' LAX airport reported having the most lost laptops out of any other airport, with 1,200 going missing every week. The most likely place for you to lose your computer is at security checkpoints and departure gates?so no matter how many beers you downed this weekend, try to be a little more alert while going through those areas, yeah? [Newlaunches]

picture credit: Mike Reger

Batpod Makes Its Way to the British Formula One Grand Prix [Batman]

One of the coolest things about the Batpod from the upcoming Dark Knight movie is the fact that it actually works. Previously seen being straddled by Meredith Viera on The Today Show, the decked out motorcycle burned rubber at the slightly more dignified British Formula One Grand Prix this weekend. Who else would give anything to be Jean-Pierre Goy, Christian Bale's stuntman, right now? [Gizmag]

Interview: Collecting Every Nintendo Game & Watch Ever [Nintendo]

Before there was the Game Boy, there was Game & Watch. DS Fanboy has a sitdown with two dudes who scoured the world to collect every Game & Watch handheld ever produced: 60 in all, each one a unique and delicious plastic bundle with a single game, like Snoopy Tennis or Donkey Kong Jr. How obsessed is collector Michael Panayiotakis?

After collecting them all, he reset his goal and sold most of them to collect only sealed games, ones in their original blister pack or rare versions (like the special edition Super Mario Bros. box he spent $1200 on). They've also got a pretty sweet gallery retrospective of the Game & Watch that's definitely worth checking out on this lazy weekend. [DS Fanboy]

WEEK IN PHOTOS: Space "Ribbon," Calif. Wildfires, More

A beach full of red balloons, a new Argo setting sail, and a U.S. flag lit up by lightning are among this week's most colorful events.

George Washington's Boyhood Home Found

Wig curlers, a pipe with Masonic carvings, and a half million other artifacts were also part of the discovery, which will help scholars fill in large gaps in the story of the first U.S. president's early life.

Everglades Rescue "Out on a Limb" Without Federal Aid

Some environmentalists fear that the historic land deal could be seriously hampered unless the U.S. Congress follows through on a funding commitment it made almost 20 years ago.

Smallest planet shrinks in size
The smallest planet in the Solar System has become even smaller, studies by the Messenger spacecraft show.

Sulston argues for open medicine
Nobel Laureate Sir John Sulston says medical profits are taking precedence over the needs of patients.

Badger cull proposals 'rejected'
The government has decided against a cull of badgers in England to control TB in cattle, the BBC understands.

Sex offenders unlikely to commit second crime
Sex crime statistics often make depressing reading, but newly released figures from California show that very few sex offenders reoffend (full text available to subscribers)

Should researchers tell over bad news brain scans?
Scientists face a dilemma over what action to take when an MRI scan finds something untoward in a study participant's brain (full text available to subscribers)

Fresh puzzle over dark energy supernovae
The supernovae that astronomers use to measure dark energy's affect on the universe's expansion have more complex origins than we thought