Inbox: The week on the web

ADAM ROBERTS

Last updated 05:00 14/09/2012

Heaps of good stuff floating around the intertubes this week, enjoy.

Videos

The Wire as an old-school role playing game.

The hipster industrial revolution is upon us. This guy makes typewriters that hook into iPads and computers, then sells them on Etsy. I'm not convinced that this isn't a parody.

Reads

A fantastic profile of president Obama by Vanity Fair journalist and author of Moneyball and The Big Short Michael Lewis. The result of six months of "hanging around" with the POTUS, the story is chock-full of interesting tidbits - for example, for his frequent basketball games Obama wears custom hightops with 44 (he is the 44th president) on them. Very, very good read.

Hacked Wired journalist Mat Honan continues his journey down the rabbit hole and into the hacker world with a fascinating look at a teenage hacker who specialises in socila-engineering.

Other stuff

Apple released their new, longer, iPhone yesterday. Here's a good summary from Buzzfeed's FWD. I also really liked this list of superlatives used by Apple during the announcement. Personally, I don't see any compelling reason to upgrade from your 4 or 4S if you have one. I have no problem with the speed, screen size or battery life. As for moving over to Apple from an Android phone, I think more than ever it comes down to personal preference. All phones at a certain price point are about as good as each other these days, which is a good thing! Having said all of this, I'm probably going to avoid coming into contact with the new iPhone, because I'm sure once I've held it, I'll completely change my mind. That's how they get you. Oh, and I'm hoping the new unibody design will make iPhone cases (which I hate) obsolete!

This is gross - a 10-second exposure of bugs in flight.

The New Yorker was banned from Facebook for posting a cartoon with cartoon nipples - here's their take on the situation.

These guys used some fancy technology to skywrite the first 1000 digits of pi - in the sky. Very cool.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Newest First

Oldest First