In 1958, Dr. William Higinbotham was working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on a simulation of bouncing balls and missile trajectories that could predict the paths objects could take. Suddenly, it hit him: why not apply this to tennis? He created Tennis for Two, which depending on your definition could be considered the world’s first videogame, in October of that year. Video after the jump.
Mark Papermaster, a former IBM executive who’s replacing retiring iPod chief Tony Fadell, came to Apple with some heavy baggage—namely a one-year no-compete clause that IBM said he was violating by working at Apple. U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karashas sided with IBM for the time being in their lawsuit, ordering Papermaster to “immediately cease his employment with Apple Inc. until further order of this court.”
Andy Wilson, from Microsoft Research, has created a pretty impressive new way to interact with your computer, using very basic equipment and some very smart software coding. He’s managed to use a standard webcam (“like $US30,” he says) and custom software to get the cam to recognise the shapes and movement of only his hands. It’s a bit like the Wiimote hack, but already working with programs like Google Earth.
newVideoPlayer("/t4laing2.flv", 506, 281,""); I can’t believe I’m tingly for McG’s Terminator: Salvation, but I really am. Art Director Martin Laing takes us through the most detailed look yet at the brand-new Terminators—there are 10 in all—bent on the singular task of wiping out humanity in the new film. The scariest one, which we’d only peeked briefly before, is the Harvester, a Terminator Colossus that towers over puny Resistance fighters like an evil mecha or Transformer.
Microsoft’s arty Zune Originals designs are a great selling point for the device, but if you weren’t satisfied with the selection so far, they’re adding a whopping 46 new sketches to the collection. Some of the new designs are awfully snazzy, and they’re all available on the Zune Originals site. While perusing the press release, a reader over at Zunerama found a shot of what seems to be the Zune 120 in the same shade of blue as the flash-based blue Zunes. It’d make sense for Microsoft to add a little colour to the big brother of the family, so it’s probably safe to expect a more official announcement soon. [Zunerama]
