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Daily Roundup: April Fools' roundup, a tour of ThinkGeek's headquarters, and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Apple set to open massive European flagship store in Liechtenstein
It may be one of the smallest countries in Europe, but Vaduz, Liechtenstein will soon host Apple's largest European flagship Apple Store. The store, which will be located adjacent to the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein's Museum of Modern Art) and open in September, will be even larger than London's 28,000 square-foot Regent Street Apple Store, measuring 43,000 square feet. The first floor will be dedicated to showcasing Apple products, while the second floor will be comprised of multiple Genius Bars and staffed by over 100 multilingual Geniuses. The third floor will reportedly be an interesting mix of technology and art, including what might be a shared theater/gallery with the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein as well as a state-of-the-art digital library using iBooks sharing. The library was added to the plans at the last minute when Apple found out Liechtenstein is one of only two countries in the world with a 100 percent literacy rate (interestingly, this is probably the reason Apple is rumored to be requiring all future iBooks to be uploaded into the iBookstore in both English and Alemannic German).
TUAW Reports: FCC filing, photos detail last-minute iPad changes
First, and most important to the estimated quarter-million people who will have iPads in their hands on Saturday, is that there will be a front-facing digital camera on the device. As you can see in the gallery, the camera is a 6.0 megapixel unit with a zoom lens. It's apparent that Apple partnered with Canon on the camera -- the first time the Cupertino-based computer manufacturer has gone "out of the house" on a digital camera since the original Apple QuickTake was designed and manufactured by Kodak. The second feature makes a lot of sense, considering the power of the Canon-designed camera on the device. It's an SD card slot, which means that photos and videos captured with the camera can now be easily transferred to other devices via inexpensive and commonly-available SD cards. In the documents, there are also details of other members of the iPad "Most Wanted List" that appear to have made it to the shipping. In particular, Flash has been added as well. That's right -- Flash can be seen in one of the photos. Be sure to click the Source link below for a better look at the documents.
TV3's opening HD salvo announced
You can't do much better than William Shatner to launch a nation into its HD future, and that's exactly who New Zealand will get. TV3 is making its HD debut with Boston Legal, and has ten other shows lined up to round out the roster. We're a little confused on the timing of things, since the press release says the curtain falls on April 1, but the underlying Freeview HDTV platform isn't slated for takeoff until April 2. Opening night mixups or cruel April Fool's joke aside, click on through for the full TV3 lineup -- things look pretty good with HD faves in the mix like CSI, My Name is Earl and NCIS.[Via Mike's View]
April Fool's Alert #7: Bungie announces Pimps on Film
Chronic pranksters Bungie Studios launched into their April Fool's Day jokes in their usual manner. Not that there's anything wrong with that. ("No, not at all," he said.)From Bungie.net we have a "leaked" poster from the upcoming Pimps at Sea movie. Little is known about the film except what we are given on the poster. Michael Bay will direct the film, which based on the novel by Sylvia Plath based on a screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Alex Garland. Allen Murray, Ron Booth, K. Jong Il and Allan Peter Parson will produce, while Shane Kim, Peter Moore, Ron Howard and Jon Travolta will executive produce. The film stars Sir Anthony Hopkins, Damon Wayans, Pam Grier and David Scully; Martin O'Donnell will provide the music and Beyonce Knowles will be lending her voice to the song "Yo-ho-ho." It will be rated R. Like we said, very little bit is known about the project.Also found were early drafts of the screenplay with notes intended for Microsoft's eyes only. "You can run, bitch, but I'll have what's owed before this day is done. Or I ain't the pimp my mama raised!"
