The Saw franchise is one of the most interesting to look back upon. The films were never critically acclaimed, yet they were all major financial successes. Even the installments that ranked near the bottom in terms of box office sales were still considered hits, because the movies were incredibly cheap to make. The films, a pop culture mainstay, were all interconnected in a way that was a bit ahead of its time....
It’s been over a decade since we last checked in with Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey, and over two decades since we were first introduced to them, but the Bad Boys movies still stand among the most popular action movies ever made. The critics have never been too impressed with Michael Bay’s ‘roided-up buddy cop franchise, but audiences have really taken to them. They have cool one-liners, like “This s*** just got real,” and mega-sized action sequences that get increasingly ridiculous....
Google Docs is one of the cornerstones of Google’s Office offerings, and despite Google’s penchant for haphazardly shutting down its services, it has so far been one of the ones still left standing since it was bought by Google in 2006. Along with Spreadsheets, Slides, Forms, and Drawings, Google has built a huge and formidable productivity suite rival to Microsoft, which used to rule this corner of the IT industry with very little competition to speak of....
The desire for ever more extreme selfies has so far resulted in 259 deaths, says a new report cited by the US National Library of Medicine … A global study published in the the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care collated worldwide reports of selfie deaths between 2011 and 2017, reports BBC News. Most of the fatal extreme selfies occurred on the tops of mountains, tall buildings and in lakes, says the report....
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnsR-kZUx6o&w=640&h=360] With Apple CEO Tim Cook’s endorsement, Anki, a company with artificial intelligence and robots-based products, debuted Anki Drive at WWDC earlier this year. Anki Drive is a car game for iOS that connects to physical cars. The app is currently available via the App Store while the cars and mat system will be available via retail channels… The demo from Apple’s 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference can be seen above. At the event, the creators of the product said that it would ship this fall....
Terry Lambert, a former senior software engineer who claims he wrote about 6% of the OS X kernel, has shared a few snippets about the secrecy surrounding the original iPhone project, codenamed Project Purple. Writing in a Quora post last month, Lambert says he was brought into the project to help debug the kernel. As an example of just how extreme was the secrecy surrounding the project, he said that you had to sign one non-disclosure agreement before you were allowed to see the one that revealed the codename for the project....
Update: Ooops. Originally thought this was an Apple patent. . Patently Apple today publishes some interesting new patents from developers including what appears to be an “iRobot” (oops, name taken) built around an iPad head. Subsequent drawings include navigation and obstacle avoidance (below) which seems to indicate that this is a “mobile” device in every sense of the word. Most of the perceived applications appear to be in the medical setting…...
Insomniac’s Spider-Man game is due out on September 7, and plot details are still being kept tightly under wraps. It’s known that players will take on the role of Peter Parker, both in and out of his legendary outfit (of which there will be a great many variants), and certain parts of the game will even put players in the shoes of Mary Jane Watson, possibly the most iconic redhead in comic book history....
Fortunately for streamers, Apple TV+ won’t break the bank. A subscription will cost $5 per month, and 7-day free trials are available. So, what’s all the fuss about, and how will Apple make a big statement with their original programming? It’s all about big stars and unique creative approaches. It’s been reported that Apple will spend several billion dollars on original content over the next few years, and their launch slate reflects a commitment to high quality series that will keep people engaged and streaming....
Avengers: Endgame has broken several records, many of which are from the worldwide box office. But which records, specifically? Marvel Studios’ 22-movie story arc (officially dubbed The Infinity Saga) that began with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man in 2008 has come to an end - at least in one way - in Anthony and Joe Russo’s Avengers: Endgame. And it brought together all corners of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in order to do so....
Apple Music has secured yet another documentary in its growing list of exclusive video content. Joining the likes of Harry Styles and Nial Horan, pop artist Sam Smith today announced an Apple Music-exclusive documentary that covers the creation of his sophomore album, “The Thrill Of It All.” Smith’s documentary is part of Apple Music’s “On The Record” series, which highlights the creation process and inspiration behind new albums. In a trailer for Smith’s film, you can see clips from the recording process of “The Thrill Of It All,” while the film will also feature interviews with producers Timbaland, Poo Bear, and Jimmy Napes....
Following up on his amazing app experience “Apple Store Time Machine,” Apple Retail aficionado Michael Steeber is back with a new app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. With a beautiful UI, Facades makes it easy to “browse, discover, and bookmark a catalog of every current and former Apple Store.” Michael launched the free Facades app today and shared how it came to be plus all the handy features and details in a blog post....
After testing the ability for brands to communicate directly with users, Facebook today announced its next step in monetizing its Messenger platform. In a post on the Messenger blog, Facebook product manager Eddie Zhang announced that the company is launching a “very small test” of ads in Messenger, beginning in Australia and Thailand. Zhang explains that with this functionality, businesses will be able to place an ad in Messenger below your recent conversations....
Remember six months ago when Snapchat introduced its crazy selfie lens feature that sort of went viral? Facebook wants in on the “how’d you do that” action too so it bought the recently launched app Masquerade (stylized as MSQRD) to instantly have access to its own selfie filter features. Masquerade, which only launched on iOS in December, works similarly to Snapchat’s filter feature seen above by using facial recognition over video to transform faces with comical filter effects....
Apple on Tuesday held its special online event “Peek Perfomance,” at which the company announced the third-generation iPhone SE, iPad Air 5, and a brand new Mac Studio desktop computer along with the new Apple Studio Display. Read on as we detail everything Apple announced on March 8. Green iPhone 13 Although the iPhone 13 is no longer a brand new product, Apple took the opportunity to bring its 2021 smartphones back into the spotlight during its special March event....
What if you suddenly woke up with a superpower that didn’t just give a gift, but demand that you be directly linked to somebody you had never met? That’s the question posed in Humanoid’s Strangelands, along with plenty of others related to the fictional world it’s helping to expand. Together, the mystery is putting an intriguing twist on Humanoid’s slate of new comics–and thankfully, we’ve got an exclusive preview of the first issue....
Balancing schoolwork with magical training is hard for any boy wizard, but for Timothy Hunter, the grisly murder of his teacher has raised the tension substantially. Harry Potter this comic series most definitely is not. The return of the Books of Magic comic series - and its star, boy wizard Timothy Hunter - came as part of the publisher’s launch of The Sandman Universe. And after three issues, it seemed that Timothy’s training may have actually gotten less life threatening than ever....
Apple’s bad day for antitrust concerns continues. European Union antitrust investigators are planning to announce the results of their investigation into Apple in the coming weeks, as reported by Reuters. This comes after the UK announced that it is opening its own investigation into the App Store earlier on Thursday. Background As background, Spotify filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission almost exactly two years ago, accusing Apple of giving itself an “unfair advantage at every turn....
Evernote this afternoon has released a major update to its OS X desktop app, making both major design enhancements for Yosemite and under-the-hood performance improvements. The update, which the company says is a total rewrite of the app, adds an entirely redesigned interface with a new, lighter color scheme, as well as new icons. In addition to the design improvements, Evernote also touts a variety of new features. First, users can now resize tables they create and customize the background colors and border styles....
If you’re a diehard Disney fan, you’ve probably enjoyed many of the studios’ fairy tale adaptations over many decades. What started out as just bringing classic fairy tales to life through the use of animation turned out to become the Disney Princess franchise, which currently encompasses 12 beloved characters from different movies. It’s safe to say that the bar is very high for Disney Princess films, as there is always a lot of anticipation surrounding new characters that will join the ranks....
