Xbox Takes Over Your Living Room
The Verge reports that Microsoft is putting muscle behind its fight for your living room, via a new upcoming feature that will let the Xbox take over your television and set-top box just like Google TV. It will use an Internet connection, and will include Xbox gaming features. The next Kinect will also be able to sense when a viewer turns their eyes away from the TV, and when there are multiple people watching.
Twitter's Big Problem
Wired's Mat Honan loves Twitter -- to the point that he will sometimes start up the app in the middle of the night to attend what he calls the world's largest, never-ending cocktail party. But while wanting to take part in the greatest global conversation ever is part of our need to be social, Twitter's flawed design makes it all too easy to just give up, sink into the stream, and do it all at the expense of our real social life, and sometimes, sleep.
Movie Monsters!
The Atlantic's tech channel takes a fascinating peek behind the doors of Spectral Motion, a Hollywood effects house that was behind some pretty stellar movie creatures, from Hellboy to X-Men to the upcoming Pacific Rim. Founded by Mike and Mary Elizalde in 1994, the company has produced novelties like miniature zombie heads and even the hairy chest worn by Vinnie in X-Men: First Class.
It's App Time
Now that Google Glass is becoming a reality for consumer use, the apps are moving in. The New York Times reports that venture capitalists are on the lookout for startups that are building apps for the wearable tech. This week, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkis Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz launched "Glass Collective," an investment partnership that will share Google Glass app pitches.
Drop the "S"
Ken Segall, a former marketing exec at Apple, makes a compelling case for the company dropping the "S" from its suite of iPhones -- iPhone 3GS, 4S, and so on. Since the iPad 3 was introduced as the new iPad, is there a good reason for iPhone holding on to its numbered, lettered system. Turns out, yes.
