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AI-generated painting sells for $432,000 at auction
A painting created by artificial intelligence sold for $432,000 at the Christie's Prints and Multiples art auction in New York. The piece, called "Portrait of Edmond Belamy," is the first artwork made entirely by AI to go up for sale at a major art auction. It was expected to fetch between $7,000 and $10,000, making the $432,000 haul quite the shocker.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Is this a Verizon iPhone?
Dear Aunt TUAW, Dunno if you've seen this before! Is it a Verizon iPhone leaked screaanshot? Hugs, Francis Dear Francis, Auntie isn't sure if this falls under the basic rule of "Don't teach Auntie to suck eggs -- or change carrier names," but given Auntie's general familiarity with the subject matter, she's leaning towards "fake." What do you other nieces and nephews think? Let Auntie know in the comments. Love, Auntie T.
Tony Hawk Ride sequel already planned
In an interview with IndustryGamers, Robomodo president Josh Tsui revealed some exclusive, shocking information about Tony Hawk Ride. We'll give you a moment to mentally prepare yourself. Are you sitting down?There's probably going to be a sequel. To the tenth Tony Hawk game*.Asked what else was happening at the company aside from development of the first Ride, Tsui said that "Obviously, we're very focused on getting this done, but being the creative types that we are, we're always writing up new game proposals and things we want to do." One of the new game proposals, of course, is Ride 2. "It's just a matter of timing," he said. "With Tony Hawk: Ride finishing up [we have to think about] the sequel to the game and where that fits into our schedules. It's a lot of juggling at this point."Of course, while Robomodo has just started thinking about the sequel, it's been an absolute certainty at Activision since, say, 1999, as have annual Tony Hawk sequels from now until they outnumber humans.*Not counting ports, handheld versions, or spinoffs like Tony Hawk's Motion.
Christmas iPod touch and iPhone gifts boost App Store volume
Hello and welcome once again to The Obvious News. Our top story today: the sky remains blue, and we'll have a full report by our man on the scene Chip Thompson about that later. But first, this: apparently App Store downloads are up thanks to large holiday sales of the iPhone and iPod touch. This comes as a shock to absolutely no one, but reports are coming in from developers, publishers, and browser reports and search terms alike that App Store downloads and interest have jumped up three and four times over, thanks, it seems, to more people receiving iPhones and iPod touches for Christmas and the other winter holidays.John Sargent of The Obvious Institute tells us why: "Well, iPod touches are pretty boring without apps, you know? And I guess people probably want to try out apps on their new iPod touches." Thank you, John -- painfully obvious. Our technology analyst Ms. Common Sense also tells us that any time Apple sees a bump in sales of their devices, the App Store will have its own sales bump soon after.In other Obvious News, having too many meetings can apparently make you grumpy. We'll be back after these messages. Obviously.
"Obvious" patent laws could become relaxed, tech firms rejoice
Lawsuits in the technology biz certainly aren't uncommon, and it looks like we may have one more significant ruling about to hit just shortly after CSIRO won its own landmark case. The US Supreme Court justices seem to be viewing earlier, lower cases with a hint of skepticism in regard to decisions that have previously worked to safeguard patented products. While the trial at hand concerns two brake manufacturers -- KSR International and rival Teleflex -- the stipulations could be far reaching; the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit previously ruled that KSR failed to prove that Teleflex (the accuser) "did not encounter teaching, suggestion, or motivation in developing the product." The generally ambiguous test is a thorn in the side of major technology companies getting slapped around by frivolous lawsuits, and Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco Systems have all made time to "submit briefs supporting KSR's stand." Still, the final decision isn't expected for quite some time, so sue-happy firms still have time to submit their counter-briefs, but folks like Vonage and TomTom (just to name a couple) would obviously (ahem) love a victory here.[Via Slashdot]
Obviously, You Missed Something
I had to smack my forehead last night when I realized that my level 55 warrior was still carrying around nothing bigger than 10 slot bags. It seems so obvious that I'd have upgraded those by now, but inbetween all of the PVPing, questing, instance running, and grinding, it just plain slipped my mind. Herewith, five things that seem really obvious to remember, but a lot of players end up missing.1. Upgrade that equipment! My forgetfulness is your gain. Bags are important to upgrade (because even if it costs you all your gold, you'll make it back quickly with the extra carrying capacity), but it helps to check all of your equipment every time you ding. A guildie of mine had to laugh when he hit level 46 on his hunter-- he realized he was still wearing a leather chestplate, despite having trained to wear mail six levels ago.2. Train those skills. It's happened to all of us. You ding, head back to the trainer to train up, and you find that there's a ton of new skills sitting there for you. You forgot to train last time! Blizzard should have a little optional icon on the UI when there's a new skill for you to go get (or maybe this is a job for a plugin...).3. Professions, too. Professions have even more skills and recipes to train up than the regular levels, so it seems like people forget them all the time. And for some reason, when I'm looking for herbs or mining, I always forget to turn the little tracking marker on after I die (Gatherer helps out a little with this one).4. Repair, repair, repair! There's nothing worse than heading into an instance after LFG for half an hour, only to wipe once and have your gear turn yellow (or, even worse, red). By now, I'm repairing every single time I land from a griffon ride. Every time I enter a new town, the blacksmith is the first person I talk to.5. LRN2PLAY. Of course, this is what all those hardcore players will tell us forgetful types, but this time, they're actually right: studying up on a class's strengths, weaknesses, skills and abilities will make things much, much easier. If you're a priest, don't use Shield-- use Renew, and less mana. If you're a Shaman, use Rockbiter (until you get Windfury, at least). If you're a Warrior, make sure to keep Battle Shout up 24/7.Of course, all this stuff will seem obvious-- until you realize you've forgotten something. But in this game, as in everything, the devil is in the details.
