Appholes: Jon Stewart Weighs in on Apple vs. Gawker/Gizmodo

Jon Stewart addressed the iPhone HD (4G) controversy on The Daily Show in a clip dubbed “Appholes”. He did a good job summarizing all the events that have transpired and pointing how ridiculous the situation has become. He pointed out how Apple used to be the rebellious company that aimed to overthrow big brother and its recent actions have made it seem like “the man”. Here’s a funny quote from his rant:

Now you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitos. What the hell is going on?!?

Naturally, I loved his jab at AT&T:

If you want to break down someone’s door, why don’t you start with AT&T? For God’s sakes! They make your amazing phone unusable as a phone!!!

While I don’t agree with all of his opinions on the matter (I believe Gizmodo crossed a sketchy line), Stewart’s rant rules. Check out the video and let me know you think (please)!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Appholes
www.thedailyshow.com
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Activision and Bungie Sign 10-Year Publishing Agreement

In a tremendous move with all sorts of implications, Activision and Bungie have closed on a 10-year publishing-agreement. Here’s a snippet from the press release:

They have entered into an exclusive 10-year partnership to bring Bungie’s next big action game universe to market. Under the terms of the agreement, Activision will have exclusive, worldwide rights to publish and distribute all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property on multiple platforms and devices. Bungie remains an independent company and will continue to own their intellectual property. Additional terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The partnership is brilliant for Activision on several levels. It helps take attention away from nasty legal battle with its former Infinity Ward employees. It also replaces the talent lost from Infinity Ward creators jumping to Respawn. Since Infinity Ward clearly isn’t going to be the powerhouse studio it once was, Activision needed to replace it with another top-notch studio. Bungie is one of the few studios that can match the quality and success that Infinity Ward brought to the table. There are many gamers that would argue that Bungie makes better games.

As for Bungie…well, it has a partner with a boatload of money and global marketing muscle. Gamers will also see its titles on multiple platforms, which will be huge.

Naturally, I want to hear your thoughts on the partnership. Let ’em fly (please)!

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Coffee Talk #134: Have You Ever Quit Gaming?

I’ve quit many things over the years. At various points in my life, I’ve quit drinking, smoking, gambling, comic books, and several other things I can’t remember. (Sadly, I’ve never been treated for sex addiction like Tiger Woods, David Duchovny, and Chazz Michael Michaels.) Obviously, I have an addictive personality. One thing I’ve never given is playing games. Certainly I’ve had a lot of stretches (too many, really) where I’ve played games way more than I should have, but I’ve enjoyed the “work” excuse for my marathon sessions.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, your formidable Scrabble powers, The Neilsen Company rating the Cleveland Indians as the #1 most-hated team in baseball, or why you think Floyd Mayweather will beat Shane Mosley, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

I’ve quit many things over the years. At various points in my life, I’ve quit drinking, smoking, gambling, comic books, and several other things I can’t remember. (Sadly, I’ve never been treated for sex addiction like Tiger Woods, David Duchovny, and Chazz Michael Michaels.) Obviously, I have an addictive personality. One thing I’ve never given up is playing games. Certainly I’ve had a lot of stretches (too many, really) where I’ve played games way more than I should have, but I’ve enjoyed the “work” excuse for my marathon sessions.

How about you? Have you ever played games to the point you neglected eating, sleeping, and your social life? Have you ever had to take a step back and said, “Yeah, I really need to quit gaming for a while.”? Perhaps games have made you pull and HBK and you had to leave them in order to “find your smile”. Perhaps games have made you tap out and you had to take a break in the real world to recover. I’d love to hear about your experiences. Kindly share!

T-Mobile Drops 5GB Data Cap…But There’s a Catch

In a sign of where mobile broadband is headed, T-Mobile has dropped the 5GB cap for it’s “unlimited” data plans. Consumers that use devices like the T-Mobile webConnect Rocket will no longer have to live in fear of data overage charges, but they will have to live in fear of something else. According to GigaOm:

There’s a catch: go past that limit, and download speeds will slow. T-Mobile tries to play down such a caveat, however, saying: “When used as a mobile broadband solution in conjunction with an existing home broadband service, only a very small number of customers use more than 5GB per month.”

For the consumer market, this isn’t a big deal. For people using T-Mobile mobile broadband for small-office or a home-office settings, it’s kind of crap. Some people would prefer paying overage charges over crippled service. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a nice move on T-Mobile’s part, but it could have been better.

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Black Nintendo Wii Coming on May 4, 2010?

It looks like the black Nintendo Wii — you know, the one Nintendo of America said wasn’t coming — will hit stores on May 4, 2010. Kotaku has spotted GameStop flyer that touts a black Wii bundle that includes the ebony console, Wii Motion Plus, and Wii Sports Resort.

I would love a black Wii, simply because I’d enjoy having three black consoles in my entertainment center joined in solidarity. How about you? Are you interested in the ebony (Stevie Wonder) Wii? Or are you down with ivory (Paul McCartney)?

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Super Mario Crossover Bring Link, Mega Man, and Samus to SMB

Ever dream about playing through Super Mario Bros. levels as Simon Belmont, the dude from Contra, Mega Man, Link, or Samus Aran? Well now you can in Super Mario Crossover! This adorable Flash game takes levels from SMB and lets you play through them as heroes and heroines from other classic titles. Each character has his or her signatures moves and music. It’s cute. It’s fun. It’s familiar and new at the same time. Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Square Enix Undecided on Final Fantasy V and VI DS Remakes

Square Enix is considering remakes of the wonderful Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI games for Nintendo DS, but cites technical challenges it must overcome. Andriasang translated some tweets from producer Shinji Hashimoto, who said:

For FF5 and 6, there are technical issues as well, so at present these are also undecided.

Man, I would love remakes of FFV and FFVI. They’re two of may favorite games of all time. Versions with spruced up graphics, slightly streamlined gameplay (you don’t mess with excellence), and tighter translations would be phenomenal. While remaking these games for the Nintendo DS makes the most sense (the installed base is ridiculous), for some reason I’m wishing for iPhone versions of these games.

How about you? Are you down with improved versions of Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI?

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Coffee Talk #133: KFC Double Down vs. IHOP Pancake Stackers

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been fascinated with the KFC Double Down — cheese and bacon sandwiched by two slabs of boneless fried chicken. It is one of the most ridiculous fast food concoctions I’ve ever seen in my life. Ergo, I need to have one…but I’m more than a little scared of it. I’m not really sure why. After all, I did eat a double Big Mac (four all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame-seed bun) in Thailand, simply because of how preposterous it looked. For some reason, I chicked out (*snicker*) of the Double Down the last few times I passed my local KFC. It’s an intimidating sandwich.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the first round of the NBA playoffs, the WWE draft results, or Manny Pacquiao’s campaign, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been fascinated with the KFC Double Down — cheese and bacon sandwiched by two slabs of boneless fried chicken. It is one of the most ridiculous fast food concoctions I’ve ever seen in my life. Ergo, I need to have one…but I’m more than a little scared of it. I’m not really sure why. After all, I did eat a double Big Mac (four all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame-seed bun) in Thailand, simply because of how preposterous it looked. For some reason, I chicked out (*snicker*) of the Double Down the last few times I passed my local KFC. It’s an intimidating sandwich.

Yesterday a friend showed me IHOP’s Pancake Stackers. The press release says it features “sweet and silky crustless cheesecake layered between two world-famous IHOP buttermilk pancakes, crowned with a choice of cool strawberries, blueberry or cinnamon apple compote and crowned with creamy whipped topping”. Wow. A cheesecake sandwich that uses pancakes as the bread?!? And I thought the Double Down was ridiculous…. Still, I will eventually have one of these too.

Here are my questions for you today. What the hell is going on with food in America?!? Who would win in a fight? The KFC Double Down or IHOP’s Pancake Stackers? Have you tried either of these combos yet? Are you planning to? Or are they too extreme for you?

Don’t Call it a Comeback? Nokia Announces N8 Flagship Phone

Nokia has announced its latest flagship phone — the Nokia N8 — and released numerous videos to hype the product. In addition to compatibility with both AT&T’s and T-Mobile’s 3G bands, the N8 has several features that are new to its phones. On the plus side, it has a capacitive touchscreen. Curiously, the battery isn’t user replaceable; while this helps the N8’s anodized aluminum body keep its sleek looks, not being able to replace the battery will surely piss off some users. The big addition is Symbian ^3, which is the first attempt at modernizing the aging Symbian platform. One tidbit that isn’t on the officials specs page is the CPU, which is purported to be an older ARM processor clocked at 680MHz.

International travelers will be interested in the phone’s use of Ovi Maps. Unlike most GPS systems on smartphones, Ovi Maps works — for free — in more than 70 countries and doesn’t require a mobile signal for use, as long as the maps for a specific country have been downloaded to the phone. As someone that travels (and sometimes gets lost), this feature is extremely attractive.

The phone will be out in Q3 2010 for around $500. Here are more specs and a slew of videos. Check ’em out and let me know what you think. Will the N8 help Nokia win back some ground in America? Or will it be like its other recent smartphones — popular everywhere in the world…except America.

  • Symbian^3 operating system
  • 3.5-inch capacitive OLED touchscreen (640×360)
  • 12 megapixel camera (with Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash)
  • 802.11 b/g/n
  • HDMI output
  • 16GB of internal storage
  • microSD expansion slot
  • HD video recording
  • Free Ovi Maps walk and drive navigation