In The Ray Rice Situation, Everyone Must Go
Keith Olbermann at his best. He is one hundred percent correct.
Photo Credit: Einar Gudmann
Volcano 'Tornado' Spotted During Iceland Eruption
Yeah. Apparently this is a thing.
The video above:
A infrared camera from the Nicarnica Aviation's NicAIR II was used to spot the toxic tornado on Sept. 3, 2014. It whirled volcanic gases and ash particles during an ongoing Holuhraun fissure eruption.
Becky Oskin, Senior Writer for LiveScience writes:
The toxic tornadoes were spotted in a poisonous cloud of sulfur dioxide gas spewing from Iceland's Holuhraun lava flow on Sept. 3. One narrow, swirling column stretched 3,300 feet (about 1 kilometer) into the air. A remotely monitored infrared camera caught the dramatic whirlwinds on video.
"We haven't seen anything like this before," said Fred Prata, chief technology officer at Nicarnica Aviation in Kjeller, Norway, the inventor of the infrared camera used for the images. "I was quite surprised to see it."
Nicarnica's infrared camera can track ash clouds from planes, but is now undergoing a ground-based test run in Iceland through the FutureVolc project, an international collaboration to monitor Europe's natural hazards.
Initial Blast Video of Mount Tavurvur Eruption in Papua New Guinea
Update: Phil Plait has an awesome analysis of the blast from the video below that you should read.
The below video happened on August 29th. This was captured at the initial instant the volcano began errupting. I've never seen the initial blast of this type of volcano erupting before.
Pay close attention to:
- The shockwave of the blast
- The massive rocks and soil that were thrown into the air and splashed into the ocean around the volcano
- The fact that these rocks were still airborne and flying before the sound of the blast
The Overcast Song by Jonathan Mann
I had the immense pleasure of seeing Jonathan Mann perform this live for Marco at the (belated) Overcast launch party.
Jonathan made this is song of the day yesterday and wrote the song for Marco to commemorate the launch of Overcast. Here it is from another perspective as well:
1Password's iOS 8 extension already supported by over 100 apps
Joseph Keller, at iMore writes:
AgileBits has announced that they're upcoming iOS 8 extension for 1Password is now supported by over 100 apps. The updates for the apps supporting the extension, as well as 1Password itself, will be available when iOS 8 ships later this year. In the meantime, AgileBits has previewed twenty of the apps that will ship with support for the extension.
From AgileBits:
We can't share the full list of developers yet (we just cracked 100!). But we can show you nearly 20 apps that are already working on integrating 1Password's iOS 8 App Extension for fast, one-tap logging in and even updating your passwords!
Extensions are going to be huge.
Apple Keynote Simulator
For those of you who cannot wait for next week, behold the Keynote Simulator.
iPhone 6 Predictions
This site doesn't get a lot of traffic, so please do not assume I am writing this post because I think that a great number of people are waiting with bated breath to hear what my predictions are. I do this simply because I find it amsuing to publicly pronounce what I think will happen to then later see how well I did post-announcement. I have no sources of my own. All of these predictions are just based off of my reading news & rumor sites and making judgement calls on which are truthful or are bullshit.
Many family members from both my family and my wife's sometimes ask me if I've heard about one rumor or another. They fail to understand the difference between a "leak" from Recode or one from Digitimes and the significance of either. They have no idea of who to trust, because most other technology companies leak like a sieve. These other companies that our family members are used to reading about have poor security which means when you read about a leak from them in the news, it is mostly all true. These same family members don't realize that when it comes to Apple, this isn't the case. I've mostly given up on going out of my way to activley correct them, only bothering to do so with my own Mom or Dad or if someone asks me directly. It is a losing battle otherwise and one that isn't worth my time. "The next iPhone is going to have a 7 inch screen, and SD card slot, and allow you to run Android on it if you want!" Statements such as this used to upset me and I felt compelled to try to correct them of their naivety. Now I just smile and tell them, "We'll see in September!".
It seems that, just like last year, Apple has gotten better about secrecy even if the supply chain leaks have seemingly gotten worse. Unfortunately that is something Apple has little control over when the devices are manufactured by sub-contractors with hundreds of thousands of employees making the devices in factories day after day. Parts will be slipped in pockets. Given enough time, more and more will leak. I think we hit "peak pocket leak" this year.
The video above was only just posted yesterday, but it is only the latest in a steady stream of other videos and pictures of parts, screens, cases, or shells which leave nothing to the imagination as to what the new iPhones will look like. The "style" of the design looks like the new case design the iPad mini went to last year. I like the new look but that isn't what excites me... Here is a breakdown of my predicitions:
Screen Size
2 models: I believe the 4" iPhone 5/5s size will be deprecated in their flagship line. It will be regulated to "last year's model" status or of something like the 5c.
Flashship line devices will have 4.7" or 5.5" screens.
I'm a little skeptical but I think Gruber's post on screen math seems plausible. For more discussion about this listen to the most recent episode of The Talk Show.
Sapphire/glass screen? Skeptical about this. There has been a lot noise about this but I've yet to see anything that has convinved me.
NFC/Payments
- Where there is smoke, there is fire. These leaks are likely because of employees at the various credit card companies that can't keep their mouths shut. Visa, Mastercard, and American Express all onboard. Some sort of NFC powered chip within the phone that allows you to pay at stores with your various cards without having to pull them out of your wallet.
Assumed improvments
- Camera will be better
- A8 processor
- No proof but I will be very disappointed if the new "small" size is not 32GB of storage. 16GB needs to go. It needed to go last year but didn't.
- Double the RAM
Battery life
- Despite the bigger screens needing more power, I think the larger case space within the phones will allow Apple to dramatically increase battery life on both devices. I think this particular point will be a surprise to many.
New Wearable Device
- Announced next week
- Ships in 2015
- Rumors say could be as much as $400. Also say could be multiple devices at multiple price points.
So far those are the definite "leaks". There may be more between now and next Tuesday. If so I'll update this post here if any of them seem credible, otherwise, anything else covered above should either be a surprise or something I was wrong about.