Tom and Chris talk about Apple's iPhone Event!

Well, it happened.  Apple finally unveiled their newest tech gadgets for the new year.  And they are impressive...looking, to say the least.  There's the iPhone 6, and the iPhone 6 Plus, which are your basic smartphone and phablet devices out of  Cupertino.  There are a great many places to find a great deal of information about these devices.

But, if you're just in the mood for a laugh, here's Tom and I cracking jokes, pondering the future of Android, and generally bitching about Apple's yearly conference of planned obsolescence.  Enjoy (and feel free to rightfully assume that everything here is [sic]'d to the dickens.)

On Robin Williams and Technological Information

The tragic news of the passing of Robin Williams shot across the country and the world like a comet last night.  There are many things to say in a situation like this, from praising the man who made you laugh until you cried (NSFW, pretty much everything)...

To the man that made a hard soul like Matt Damon's Will Hunting actually cry (NSFW, language)...

Williams touched a lot of souls, and a lot of hearts, and a lot of funny bones in his too short 63 years on this planet.  "On this planet" is a nice way of mentioning Williams, who got his break as Mork from Ork, on the show "Mork and Mindy", a performance that was literally from another world.

I heard about the news in a text message from my sister.  From there, I immediately went to Twitter, Facebook, Google and everywhere else to get my own confirmation, which was pretty much unnecessary since, if you hear it enough times on FB and Twitter, it has to be true.

Samsung's newest ad writes itself

By now you've seen the articles, posts, tweets, buzzfeed link dumps, et. al. about how the TSA will begin banning uncharged mobile phones from flights out of selected airports abroad.  The reason for this is simple enough, and might be the next great weapon in the fight against...other weapons on planes.

But, after reading the story online, I couldn't stop thinking about one thing...

Fox lifts logo from video game, is kinda sorta racist

Fox News (alias "FIXED News", alias "The Right Wing", et. al. whatever, you get the idea).  Is rather right wing in their coverage of the world and of politics.  Great for them, freedom of speech, all that jazz.  Unfortunately, that angle of coverage takes an interesting turn when they lift a logo directly from a video game that imagines that whole slavery thing is, you know, still a thing.

The resemblance is uncanny. The structural outline of Fox News' rendition is almost identical to the emblem utilized in Bioshock Infinite's award-winning video game. Mediatitewrites that the logo was exclusively used on Fox & Friends, a right-wing talk show notorious for its anti-Obama coverage. In an ironic twist, Bioshock Infinite is set in a fictional universe where Abraham Lincoln is vilified and racial segregation remains part of the status quo.

That's...not a great look, Fox.  

(h/t @verge)

Technology Gives Random, July Baseball Game Some Excitement

The implementation of replay in Major League Baseball has made life fairly interesting for umpires and players alike, trying very hard to make the best, fairest call possible.  You know, despite the fact that the sport existed for years and years and years without the benefit of a bajillion cameras tracking every move on a field.

But, hey, it is only sort of a waste of time (a literal one, not a figurative one, since the result is usually, and the emphasis is on usually here, the correct result) and it takes out the always interesting human element to determining the best outcome of a competitive sport.  And, every now and then, it makes the slow, boring world of baseball, which, with the #USMNT falling to Belgium yesterday is the only thing on sports TV now, a little more interesting.


Note: MLB is fun with their videos.  The embed should be available soon.

What you see here is a triple play, one of the rarer occurrences at the top level of baseball, with only 694 of them since 1876.  But it's 695 now, by way of not one but two different manager challenges, replay confirmation, and upheld calls on the field by the umpire crew last night in Los Angeles.  Typically triple plays are bang-bang-bang plays, but this one was a bit different, and had a little bit of a dramatic boost by way of MLB replay technology.

(via Deadspin)