The Angry Bear

Looks horribly illegal, doesn't it?

Well, it’s about damned time.  There’s been some controversy over jailbreaking/rooting (essentially the same thing – usually just applied to Apple & Android devices, respecitvely) smartphone devices in the past so it’s a breath of fresh air for me that, finally, someone in a position to do anything about it had a moment of clarity.  Apple, among others, has trumped up all sorts of excuses for trying to keep people out of their phone software, the nonsense ranging from disrupting cellular networks to encouraging criminal activity.

The moment of clarity: Jailbreaking/rooting your smartphone is officially NOT a crime.  It’s a little odd to hear something like this being done by the Library of Congress, but they’re the group that oversees the Copyright Office, so it makes sense since these new rules are part of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

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Tags: Apple, DMCA, iPhone, Jailbreak, law

I always readily admit that I’m a geek.  When I read something like this article from Enhanced Online News, it honestly made me sad and a little angry.  Yes, I understand that Lucasfilm Ltd. owns all the related Star Wars material and that’s fine.  However, nowhere on WickedLasers.com do they say ANYTHING about lightsabers or any other trademarked material.  Yeah, it happens to look like a lightsaber hilt.  But, you could say that about a number of cylindrical objects found around the world.  The fact that this one in particular emits a blue beam is coincidental.  Read on for more info.

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Tags: laser, Lightsaber, lucasfilm, Star Wars, wicked lasers

WANT

Oh, man… I’m twitching.  Okay, I’ll start with the “why.”  Because Disney only made props for the movie, that’s why – and that’s a problem.  This, however, is the real deal.  The team that’s making these bikes (Parker Bros. Custom Choppers) has already built the “Batpod” bike replica (though, that isn’t street legal).  This one will be, though, and they’re going to be building five of them.  Five.  Do you have an iota of an idea as to how much I wish I had $35,000 in my bank account right now?  DO YOU?!

It’s actually doable, from what little I know of engineering.  I’ve already seen several motorcycles with hubless wheels (like the kind depicted above) so that’s entirely possible.  And, if they have the hardware to custom mold the metal and other materials involved in the making of the bike, it’s definitely plausible.  They’re even putting in a pop-up hatch that emits an analogue of the light trail left behind the bikes in the movies.  These guys mean business and obviously have the skill necessary to pull this off.  I don’t have the riding skills necessary to handle a 1,000 cc engine (and, honestly, I’d be afraid to take this thing out anywhere but on a track) but …I would be calling them right freaking now if I had the money.  Geek or not, there’s bound to be some part of your jaded hearts that pauses for a moment of lust upon gazing at this marvel of engineering and skill.

If you’re anything like me – or just morbidly curious – ogle the design at the link below.

(via eBay)

Tags: light bike, lightcycle, motorcycles, Tron

It's-a me!

I’m a gadget whore.  People give me unpleasant looks when I tell them things like the only reason for my jailbreaking my iPhone is so I can have Star Trek themes on it.  So, I’m totally cool with superfluous things weighing down otherwise useful devices.  Anyway, when I saw this, I felt a sliver of childhood innocence again.  The SNES was my first console and the reason I like the smell of the foam electronics are often packed in (yeah, I’m a freak.)  That also means that Super Mario World was my first console game and it still bears a sort of mysticism for me, despite its age and relatively simple graphics.  Pikipirs at XDA Developers has made a fine live wallpaper of, you guessed it, Mario wandering around randomly generated levels for Android phones.  Impractical?  Yes.  Awesome?  Hell yes.  Drop by the source link and take a look.  And maybe remember when things were simpler and people were less rage-inducing.

(via Android Central.com)

Tags: Android, Live wallpaper, Mario

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Apples are everywhere. Obviously, they tend to be used more in film/music editing, artsy stuff, etc. so it’s logical that they’re gonna have one on the set of the Jimmy Kimmel show. But, when his show’s control room lost power, a Macbook saved the day.

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Tags: Apple, Jimmy Kimmel, Macbook

The girlfriend may hate me for this a little later on, but I think she would be alright with the results. It’s designed by the creative – if not crazed – mind of writer and artist Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content. The Comic is a daily thing, going through the lives of a huge and inventive cast of characters, ranging from geeks, germophobic, giant purple weasels, and talking anthropomorphic PC’s that are hugely addicted to pornography.

The shirt and apron are on sale and can be seen in the comic, along with a large collection of the shirts that he has up for sale. So if you have a few minutes at work, go through the back logs and see what’s going on. Otherwise, just buy his stuff and make it so he can make me laugh on a daily basis.

Tags: apron, Awesome, Comic, Questionable content

Yesterday, Apple released the latest update for the iPhone, iOS4.  Over 100 new features became available, most notably: Multitasking, Folders, Unified Mail-Inbox, Spellchecking, 5x Digital Zoom (for pictures), Tap to Focus (while recording video), and support for bluetooth keyboards.  While most of these functions aren’t anything new to jailbreakers, this update has been highly anticipated by developers and users since its announcement during WWDC on June 7th. (more…)

Tags: Apple, Backgroung, iOS4, iPhone, Jailbreak, Multitasking

Umm, I’m not sure how I feel about this.  Ke$ha doesn’t do my kind of music and I’m apparently a bad gay because I don’t really care for hers, Lady Gaga’s, etc.  But, I gotta hand it to whomever did this music video – it syncs with the various scenes almost freakishly well.  Anyone who knows me knows I love my Star Trek, to put it mildly, so seeing it melded – successfully, in my opinion – with pop music is a refreshing change for me.  It also goes to show you that Star Trek is applicable everywhere.  Anyone who says otherwise can eat hard vacuum.

I guess I DO know how I feel about this… it just makes me feel dirty to admit it.  Kudos to the video’s creator!  I’m going to go listen to some Final Fantasy VIII music to cleanse, now.

See the higher resolution videos here.

Tags: kesha, mashup, Parody, Star Trek, Tik Tok

Hell. Yes.

I don’t care who you are, the new Tron Legacy trailers have to get your icy, dark heart pumping at least a little.  So, when I saw these toys on Wired’s site, I felt a beam of light in my otherwise humdrum soul.  Yes, I’m a big freakin’ dork.  Yes, I get excited a little from watching the original Tron, no matter how “bad” it may be.  And, the first time I played Tron 2.0 on the PC, I bloody loved it.  No matter now low-polygon it might’ve looked, it was fun.  And Angry Bear can tell you, it’s hard to get me genuinely excited about anything anymore.  That said, I WANT THIS.  I am the sort of person who would seriously consider applying EL wire to my Yamaha R6 to get as close to having a real lightbike as I possibly can – were it legal to do so (fuck you, state laws).

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Tags: controllers, lightbike, lightcycle, peripherals, Toys, Tron

A big question with the 360 owners after the reveal of the Xbox 360S last week at E3 (you know, other than “How does it feel to be Opera?”) was what else was done internally to help with preformance and with the reduction of heat problems, that caused so may Red Ring issues. At the time, nobody was talking about that because there was a convention going on and people were more concerned with booth babes, free stuff and shiny demos.

Well, now that the new week is here, so is the new tech. What you are looking at is the new “Valhalla” processor powering the big-little guy. Combining the CPU, GPU and eDRAM all into a collective chip reduces the likelihood of overheating and ups the performance potential. To help stabilize a little further, there is again one larger fan with a singular exhaust port, rather than two fans that can kick up enough dust (and decibels) to make you feel like you’re at a Nevada Air Show.

If you want a little more info and maybe to get a more exhaustive explanation than I can give you (because I don’t have a degree in this – I have a degree in talking shit), head over to Anandtech. He had an extensive breakdown of what was thrown in.

Tags: Slim, Technical, Valhalla, Xbox 360