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Exploring Apple's Divinity, 'You Gotta See This' App Creates Seamless Panoramas

Michelangelo meets the iPhone
There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.
  • After decades of fighting, the Mac vs. PC war shows no sign of subsiding. A new paper from Texas A&M's Heidi Campbell examines Apple's apparent divinity, as based on four myths (creation, hero, satanic and resurrection). [From: The Atlantic]
  • The unfortunately titled 'You Gotta See This!' may be the coolest mobile photography app we've witnessed this year. The iPhone 4-only app uses the phone's gyroscope to find the camera's position and automatically snaps photos as you move the camera. It then stitches all of the photos together into one giant panorama, saving you the effort of having to create a seamless image in Photoshop. [From: TUAW]
  • Gawker.tv compiles the dumbest things said about the Internet caught on tape, ranging from Senator Ted Stevens' classic quote, "It's not a big truck; it's a series of tubes," to Biden's woefully out of touch quip, "Do you know the website number?" [From: Gawker.tv]
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Guillermo Del Toro to Direct Live-Action 'The Haunted Mansion' in 3-D

guillermo del toro at comicon
In a surprise announcement Thursday at Comic-Con, Guillermo Del Toro said that he's agreed to direct a new 3-D movie based on Disney's Haunted Mansion theme park ride. (One would assume a movie based on a ride would be dumb, but, alas, not the case.) According to Wired, the live-action movie will reintroduce the ride's mythology, and the plot will focus on a main character called the Hatbox Ghost. No other plot or casting details were revealed, but Del Toro said this 3-D version would be nothing like the 'The Haunted Mansion,' which was released in 2003 and starred Eddie Murphy. "If you take the children, they will scream," Del Toro said at Comic-Con.

Del Toro is a big fan of the ride, which was built in 1969, calling it "the most precious real estate on earth." Apparently, it's more precious than any real estate on Middle Earth, too, since Del Toro has decided against directing two movies based on 'The Hobbit.' While we would have loved to see Del Toro's interpretation of Tolkien, we're nearly as excited to watch how he handles 'The Haunted Mansion.' For our money, nobody does scary better than Del Toro, so, after seeing some of his horrific creations in 3-D, we just may never sleep again. [From: Wired]

In New 'Tron: Legacy' Trailer, Jeff Bridges Looks Like He Got Some CGI Work Done

The (highly?) anticipated trailer for 'Tron: Legacy' is out! Fans of the original (read: red-blooded Americans) will probably be divided, just as they are with any other sequel-rehash that's been plumbed from the shallows of Hollywood's finite pool of originality. But we'll give this one a chance, because the inimitable Jeff Bridges has returned to reprise his original role as Kevin Flynn, as well as the role of a Flynn-generated computer avatar known as Clu 2.0.

Clu's face seems to be filled with CGI Botox, which makes for a look scraping the bottom of The Uncanny Valley. (That may be the reason he appears to have gone rogue.) He introduces himself to Sam Flynn, who somehow gets sucked into the Tron universe while searching for his long-lost Papa Flynn. Young Flynn learns how to do Frisbee Fatalities à la the original, while getting into some kind of romantic entanglement with a ridiculously bewigged Olivia Wilde. The mise-en-scène of the original is updated with shiny special effects (created by Quantum Creation FX, who worked on 'I am Legend' and 'Watchmen') and music by Daft Punk. But this is also the full-length feature debut of director Joseph Kosinski, so it has equal promise of being a total crap-show. Still, we're going to see it. Trailer after the break. [From: Gawker]

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Indian Engineers Produce $35 Tablet, No Word on Flash Capability

new $35 tablet from india
In today's new world economic order, China's supposed to be the one providing us with cheap products, and India's supposed to be the guy we call when said cheap products break down. Now, though, the mighty subcontinent has decided to throw its hat into the low-cost manufacturing ring with the release of a new $35 tablet.

According to Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, the cost-friendly reader will come equipped with 2GB of RAM, run Linux, and will be able to open both PDFs and YouTube videos. As Engadget reports, Indian students will get an even sweeter deal, as the government is planning on providing enough subsidies to allow hard-working collegians to pay a mere $20 or so. As you can see in this video, the new device probably won't make Steve Jobs lose much sleep anytime soon. But, in India's huge and relatively low-spending consumer market, a new tablet doesn't have to be tricked out for it to rake in a lot of profit. [From: Engadget]

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Bad Day for Dell: Company Fined $100M and Gets Caught With Infected Motherboards

dell computers with fail logoThese are dark times for Dell. As we reported last month, the computer manufacturer has been under fire for knowingly selling over 11.8 million faulty computers, and is currently embroiled in yet another lawsuit. Now it comes to light that some of the motherboards it recently sent out were filled with malware. The company has admitted as much, saying that the problems have only affected a "small number" of their PowerEdge PCs. According to DigitalTrends, the malware is showing up in the server management firmware embedded in the boards, and is really only affecting enterprise-level servers, not consumer computers.

But, in even worse news, the company settled yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud charges -- to the tune of $100 million. According to the SEC's allegations, Dell misled investors by padding its quarterly statements with money it had received from Intel during back-room agreements to not use chips made by competitor Advanced Micro Devices. Investors were not made aware of the dealings, and Dell was able to project greater financial results than it had actually achieved. [From: DigitalTrends and New York Times]

Facebook Accidentally Deletes Palin's Anti-Mosque Post, Promptly Apologizes

Share A few days ago, Republican prizefighter Sarah Palin posted a Facebook note titled 'An Intolerable Mistake on Hallowed Ground.' In the statement, Palin railed against a proposal to build a new mosque near the site of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, comparing the proposed construction to a "stab in the heart" for many Americans. [Ed. Note: As New Yorkers who pass this daily, we'd like ...

This Week in Design: Pared-Down Flashlights and Zany Umbrella Dryers

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. We've decided ...

Apple Confirms Safari Auto-fill Flaw that Reveals Personal Information

If you're using Apple's Safari browser, your personal information may be at risk. According to security researcher Jeremiah Grossman, Safari users could be unknowingly revealing personal data to third party sites, thanks to a flaw in the browser's security framework. As the New York Times reports, the bug exploits Safari's auto-fill function, and can allow sites to access a user's name, address, ...

White iPhone 4 Delayed Again, 'Horrendous' vBulletin Flaws Could Expose Thousands

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... The white iPhone 4 manufacturing problems have apparently forced Apple to delay the model's release to sometime "later this year." [From: Engadget] Internet Brands released a patch for its flawed vBulletin message board software this week, but reportedly there are persistent, "horrendous" vulnerabilities that could compromise ...

YouTube Play Judge Panels Announced, Art Aficionados Should Be Pleased

You aspiring video artists probably remember YouTube Play, the challenge put forth by no less than the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to find the best art vids on the Internet. As you may also recall, this event, the first biennial of its kind, will exhibit the 20 best entries at each of the Guggenheim outposts in October; and now, the judging panel has finally been announced. And what a ...
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