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Notch: Minecraft occupies a genderless world, even for that guy
Minecraft mastermind Markus Persson, better known by the sexually ambiguous alias "Notch," has cleared up the matter of gender in Minecraft's boxy world with a blog post. Simply put, there is no gender in the game, even for Steve, the default character. "He" got "his" title when Notch jokingly answered a question regarding the main avatar's name with "Steve?""The human model is intended to represent a Human Being. Not a male Human Being or a female Human Being, but simply a Human Being," Notch writes."The blocky shape gives it a bit of a traditional masculine look, but adding a separate female mesh would just make it worse by having one specific model for female Human Beings and male ones. That would force players to make a decisions about gender in a game where gender doesn't even exist."Notch touched on this subject at GDC, during his fireside chat with SpyParty's Chris Hecker. Making a female character model wouldn't only be strange-looking, as Notch said then, but it would be completely unnecessary in a genderless world. Even the animals are neutral (rather than neutered)."Cows have horns and udders (even if I've later learned that there are some cows where the females do have horns), and the chicken/duck/whatevers have heads that look like roosters, but still lay eggs," Notch writes. "For breeding, any animal can breed with any other animal of the same species."Notch notes that this particular post serves only to provide official clarification on gender questions in Minecraft. Oh, also: "As a fun side fact, it means every character and animal in Minecraft is homosexual because there's only one gender to choose from. Take THAT, homophobes!"
iCEO is a plush Steve Jobs
Throwboy's got a new pillow coming out soon, and as you can see above, it's in the shape of a plush Steve Jobs. I don't know -- some of you might say this is too soon after the late, great CEO's passage last October, but we certainly wouldn't have had a problem celebrating Steve in this way when he was alive, right? I figure that this man is an icon in every sense of the word, even the huggable ones. The iCEO pillow, as it's called, is available for preorder now, and ships in August for $60. It's 15 inches tall, with a 100% cotton turtleneck (of course), and 100% denim jeans (of course). And just in case you're still not sure if Steve would have appreciated this, Throwboy is also donating ten percent of the proceeds from the pillow to the American Cancer Society. Seems like a win all around to me.
Steve Jobs and the Mac team, photographed by Norman Seeff
I really like these photos of Steve Jobs and the early Mac gang, taken by Norman Seeff. You may have seen one of them on the front cover of Time magazine, not to mention on the back cover of Jobs's recent biography. It's great how these photos show just how young and carefree Jobs and company once were, hacking away on computers that they then sold directly to other young and carefree computer users. The people in these photos aren't corporate billionaires or marketing geniuses just yet -- they're just having fun making cool stuff. But at the same time, I do see a little glint in Steve's eye, a realization that by posing with his computer on his lap in front of a fireplace with a beer next to him, he's got the opportunity to be "different" from everyone else out there. These were taken after Bill Gates's hilarious photos, and you get the sense that Jobs already knows history is watching. Great photos for sure. Thanks, Elizabeth!
EVE Evolved: The great wormhole heist, part 2
One of the most common things I hear from people who don't play EVE Online is that they don't like the game itself but they absolutely love the stories that come out of it. There's something inherently brutal and visceral about the stories players act out every day in EVE's colossal sandbox. Tales of high-profile thefts and political intrigue occasionally creep into the media and grab our attention, but stories of that sort are a lot more common than you'd think. Last year, we told one such story of a player's descent into criminality and revenge taken too far. In last week's EVE Evolved, I began to tell the true tale of that same player in one of his biggest heists to date. If you haven't read the first part of this story yet, head back to last week's EVE Evolved before reading on. A matter of time Having discovered an opportunity for theft much greater than expected, Scott recognised that he would need help to pull off a successful heist. With the wormhole corporation's assets within Scott's reach, a sense of urgency began to overtake him. Based on discussions with his new corp members, he knew that the group's wormhole tenancy had just begun and that they were still in the process of clearing the starbase up following a frantic move-in. This explained the secure containers littering space -- a temporary measure to be used until an adequate hangar permission scheme could be created. In this week's conclusion of the story of the great wormhole heist, Scott discovers allies in some unexpected places and finds out first-hand whether there really is no honour amongst thieves.
Survey finds customers confident in Apple without Steve Jobs
If Steve Jobs were to step down as the CEO of Apple, what effect -- if any -- would it have on the likelihood of buying Apple products in the future? Research firms RBC Capital Markets and ChangeWave asked Apple customers this question in a survey conducted between January 31 and February 9. Of the 3,091 respondents, 84% said Steve Jobs departing Apple would have no impact on their buying decisions, and only 7% said they would be less likely to purchase Apple products. The new results are a notable change from a similar survey completed in June 2008. In the 2008 survey, 18% of respondents expressed a lower interest in buying from Apple if Steve Jobs left the company. On January 17, Apple announced Jobs would take his third leave of absence for medical reasons, igniting new concerns among investors and fans about the future of Apple without Jobs at the helm. This past week, Apple shares tumbled about 7% after new worries about the CEO's health began to circulate. Analyst Mike Abramsky suggests this survey shows that Apple may be bigger than its CEO; that Apple isn't just about Jobs anymore. "Consumers have had 3 years to evolve their perception of the Apple brand around its creative new products, cutting edge innovation, iTunes/App Store ecosystem and premium quality positioning -- beyond the buying pull of Apple's iconic CEO," Abramsky said. When Steve Jobs took a medical leave of absence in 2009, customers watched Apple perform successfully with Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook running the company. The company's stock rose 144%, revenue grew by 20%, and Apple shipped 25 million iPhones. This success seems to have boosted customer confidence in Apple. Does Apple lose its bite without Steve Jobs at the helm and become just another technology company? Will you continue to buy Apple products if he leaves? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
The Engadget Show: Steve Wozniak's white iPhone (video)
You may have heard a thing or two about Steve Wozniak's white iPhone from the Engadget Show this past Sunday, and while you should really go and watch the entire amazing interview, we've broken out the iPhone conversation. Enjoy!
Woz gets quizzed on Wait Wait
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is something special. He has an uncanny wit and carefree personality that makes everyone smile. His latest foray into the public spotlight found him as a guest on the NPR program Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! In the show, host Peter Sagal quizzes celebrities, asking them to figure out which statement is real and which one is made up. Woz's topic of apples, the real fruit kind, was aptly chosen. While the three-question quiz on apples was enjoyable, the brief interview before the questionnaire is where Woz really shines. Host Sagal asks Woz about his early history with Steve Jobs and his thoughts on the computer and smartphone revolution. Woz reveals some gems, like the fact that he carries three iPhones - one Black model, one White model, and a third used for tethering and other testing purposes. Woz flashed this white iPhone on CNN last week and now admits with candor that his white model is one of those case hacks obtained illegally (at least from Apple's perspective) from China. The 10-minute audio clip is embedded after the break (apologies for Flash) and is worth a listen to help chase away those Monday blues. Enjoy!
Mr. Minecraft is a god in Super Meat Boy
With players barreling through the PC version of Super Meat Boy, Minecraft's main character ("Steve") has been discovered to be ... more or less omnipotent. You could say he breaks the game ... or you could say he's totally boss. We're going with the latter.
Steve Ballmer feeling pressure at Microsoft for stagnating share price?
It's hard to say that a CEO whose company has grown from $23 billion in revenue to $54 billion during his 10 year tenure isn't doing his job, but The Daily Beast is reporting on a small, vocal (and of course, anonymous) minority within Microsoft that wants Steve Ballmer out on the curb. The main criticism seems to be the share price, which has oddly tracked in inverse with Microsoft's revenue: it's about half of its $48.93 value back in January 2000 when Ballmer took over. With the strong support of his board and an another supposedly positive earnings call coming later today, it's hard to call Steve's position as "shaky" at the company, but with whispers of infighting, a symbolic battle with Apple over market capitalization, and a do-or-die mobile launch coming up, it's clear that he's under a lot of pressure to deliver. Right now any talks of replacement are hearsay and analyst fodder at best, but we'll be watching to see how this rumor develops during this 30th year of Ballmer's career at the company.
Steve Jobs at D8: Foxconn, iPhone prototype, TVs, and more
In case you hadn't heard, Steve Jobs got downright conversational last night at D8, riffing on questions from Walt, Kara, and the attending audience of elites. You can hit up the entire liveblog for a timestamped play by play, or browse through some of the highlights below. Steve Jobs live from D8 Steve Jobs' D8 interview: the video highlights On TV: 'no one wants to buy a box' On Foxconn: 'We're all over this' On lost iPhone 4G prototype: it's an 'amazing' story iPhone OS 'started on a tablet' 'There might be' advantages to two iPhone carriers in US %Gallery-94186% We put some extra scintillating quotes after the break to shield the eyes of your children. Just a note, however: all of these are paraphrased quotes typed live as Steve was speaking, and not to be construed as the verbatim Word of Steve Jobs, though the gist is certainly there.
Steve Jobs' D8 interview: the video highlights (updated)
Sure, you read our liveblog of Steve Jobs' D8 conference -- and believe us, it's heavily quotable -- but don't you want to see and hear the Apple CEO claim HyperCard was huge in its day? Or perhaps you're more interested in his thoughts on Flash, market cap, and the iPad origins -- either way, videos are after the break, with presumably more to come from All Things D. Update: Four new videos have been added! Update 2: Two new videos have been added!
Steve Jobs on TV: 'no one wants to buy a box'
Well isn't that a breath of fresh air. With no apologies given to its long-standing hobby, Apple CEO Steve Jobs provided a pretty honest and thorough assessment of what's wrong with the TV set-top box market. "No one wants to buy a box -- ask TiVo, ask Roku, ask us... ask Google in a few months" (in the spirit of competition, of course). In Jobs' opinion, "the only way that's going to change is if you tear up the [box], give it a new UI, and get it in front of consumers in a way they're going to want it." Frankly, we're pretty happy how quickly and succinctly he was able to respond in a Q &A session, seems like he's been mulling it over -- and given what we heard about Apple TV's future plans, we're not surprised. All the pertinent quotes, care of our liveblog, after the break.
Steve Jobs: 'there might be' advantages to two iPhone carriers in US
At Steve Jobs' conversation with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at D8 this evening, the Apple boss just threw out this weighty little gem when asked whether there'd be advantages to deploying the iPhone on two American carriers: "there might be." Naturally, you can interpret that any way you like, but it's interesting that he failed to say no to the concept of taking the phone beyond its usual AT&T playground. Speaking of AT&T, Jobs says that his company meets with the carrier once per quarter to get briefed on network improvements, and while he notes that they've got the fastest 3G around, he says "I wish they were improving faster" -- while also qualifying that any network receiving the iPhone back in '07 probably would've suffered the same kinds of problems AT&T has. When pressed on whether we'd see the iPhone on another carrier in the near future, Jobs hit them up with the expected "no comment" before turning to other subjects, so make of it what you will. Follow the break for another interesting snippet from the Q&A session at D8 where Steve muses on AT&T's network improvements.
Steve Jobs on Foxconn: 'We're all over this'
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is currently on stage at D8, and Walt and Kara aren't shying away from the hard questions tonight. Right after talking the stolen iPhone prototype, the trio moved on to Foxconn -- the massive factory in China where many, many Apple products are assembled -- and where at least 10 employees have committed suicide over the past few weeks. While Apple recently released a statement avowing its intention to monitor the situation, Steve just spoke about the situation a bit, and he made it pretty clear that Apple's seriously "all over" it. Said Steve: "We are on top of this. We look at everything at these companies. I can tell you a few things that we know. And we are all over this. Foxconn is not a sweatshop. It's a factory -- but my gosh, they have restaurants and movie theaters... but it's a factory. But they've had some suicides and attempted suicides -- and they have 400,000 people there. The rate is under what the US rate is, but it's still troubling." Steve also said that Apple's "got people" over at Foxconn currently trying to figure out what's going on -- we figured as much but it's always good to hear it straight from them.
Steve Jobs on lost iPhone 4G prototype: it's an 'amazing' story
We can't say we expected Jobs to do a ton of talking about that little "lost" iPhone prototype during his interview at D8, but he was of course asked about it, and he did do some talking about it. While he started out with the expected "there's an ongoing investigation" statement, Jobs soon got on a bit of a roll, saying that "this is a story that's amazing" -- that "it's got theft, it's got buying stolen property, it's got extortion, I'm sure there's some sex in there... the whole thing is very colorful." No discussion of the device itself, of course, but we're sure we'll be hearing more about it soon enough. Update: Well, it looks like Jobs couldn't quite let the issue rest there. Later on in the interview, Jobs said that he had gotten advice to just let it slide, that "you shouldn't go after a journalist just because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you" -- but he said he couldn't "change our core values and let it slide," that he'd "rather quit." Check out the complete back and forth after the break.
DIY motion feedback MP3 player gets louder as you jump rope and do stuff (video)
Music helps the weary exerciser work harder and, according to a hacker named Steve, the louder the music the more vigorously you work. So, he grabbed a motion sensor and an DIY MP3 player, stuffed them both into a disused French Vanilla Cafe coffehouse beverage drink container (ooh, la la), then wired the works together to pump out the jams louder when you're really burning those calories -- or to get quieter when you stop for a breather. It's all fearlessly demonstrated in a video after the break featuring Steve, a jump rope, and a little bit of Bono. Make sure you stay through the credits for a deleted scene!
Jobs to dev on app name change: "Not that big of a deal."
I don't know if this was the right thing for Steve Jobs to say, but on the other hand, I do think it's the perfect thing for him to say. The story, as reported by our buddy Daniel Brusilovsky over at Crunchgear, goes like this: A company called The Little App Factory got a letter from Apple, who had a legal issue with one of their apps, formerly named iPodRip. Apple didn't like the fact that "iPod" was clearly in the name, and so despite the fact that the software was meant to transfer songs back and forth specifically from an iPod, Apple wanted the name changed. The company's co-owner, John Devor, sent a very long and well-reasoned letter to Mr. Jobs himself explaining that their only wish was to extend Apple's hardware's capabilities, and that they were all Apple fans, and that they'd used the name for a long time and they were worried that a competitor might steal their customers and Jobs was an inspiration to the guy, who'd just dropped out of school, and could they please get a pass on this one? Jobs' response -- yes, he wrote back personally -- was just three lines: Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal. Steve Sent from my iPhone Kids, that's how you become the kind of guy who runs a brilliant computer company, is seen on the cover of Time multiple times, gets named CEO of the Decade and just generally rocks. I feel for The Little App Factory, I really do, but you gotta believe the Steve. It's not that big of a deal. We'll do our part, though: the app formerly known as iPodRip is now known as iRip, and is available with a free trial period from the developer's site. [via Techmeme]
Steve Jobs back to work at Apple
And he's back, folks. Six months after Steve Jobs took a medical leave from Apple due to health reasons, the company has announced that he's back on the job, working a "few days a week" on the Apple campus and from home the remainder. Of course, we'd been hearing of Steve's continual involvement in "key aspects" of Apple's business for a while now, so this seems like more of a rubber stamp on the status quo than a major change, but now that it's official we're sure the questions from shareholders and other interested parties regarding Steve's health will only grow louder and more insistent -- especially given the news of his liver transplant earlier this year. We'll see how Apple decides to handle the situation when the time comes -- until then, we're just thankful that he's returned and is doing well.
Jobs to miss Apple shareholder meeting this week
Bloomberg is reporting that Steve Jobs will not attend this week's Apple shareholder meeting. That's not a big surprise -- Jobs' health has kept him from attending recent usual events, including Macworld earlier this year. But it is the first time in the over 10 years since he rejoined the company that he won't be appearing at the annual meeting.Additionally, at this week's meeting, as usual, shareholders will vote on whether or not to re-elect Apple's directors to their one-year terms, including Jobs, though nothing is expected to change -- the company has remained strongly in support of Jobs as leader, even if they haven't talked about his health as much as some investors may have liked. COO Tim Cook will likely run most of the planned activities during the meeting.We'll keep an eye on any news that comes out of the closed meeting (streams and transcripts won't be available, but there will be reporters in attendance), and let you know what we hear. As always, we wish Jobs and his company and family the best of health, and hope he is able to feel better soon.[via CNET]
WoW Insider responds to Comedy Central for their response to our post about their post
Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog is feeling froggy -- after we posted about their failed attempt at World of Warcraft humor, they got the original writer of their article, who is apparently an old school D&D gamer, to respond to our allegations that the piece wasn't funny. He calls us WoW players "Lancelot-come-latelies," and says that before we ever rolled our first Night Elf, he was rolling d20s in his friend's parents' basement.Which may be true. But he's wrong about one thing: we WoW players are funny. Just look at our memes, our injokes, and our heroes, from Steve to Leeroy Jenkins. We know funny. Tony DiGerolamo probably hasn't even ever tricked somebody into /gquitting -- he wouldn't know funny if it was an epic drop off of Saurfang himself! And he wants to play the nerd card by claiming he's nerdier than us? Listen, Tony, you may have been hanging out with your friends in basements, but we're hanging out in basements alone!Wait...At any rate, we hope the excellent Indecision 2008 blog has learned something from this experience: leave the Warcraft humor to those who've powerleveled it up to a 375 skill, and stick to the political jokes. Seriously, though, is Lewis Black hiring? Because I've got some jokes about Warlocks that are comedy gold!
