Hmm, that’s odd. Someone who is going to not see eye to eye with Apple…or Microsoft. That’s right folks. Microsoft made this box, an Xbox, to be more exact, and this little toy has served to make Microsoft cool. And, they tried to ride that cool train to further ventures, like the Zune marketplace where you can stream HD movies straight to your Xbox. So today, Apple unveils Apple TV, a new earth shaking offering from the company, that has a….HDMI PORT!!!!!!!!!! OMG OMG. So now you can use iTunes and stream HD movies to your TV, something that M$ has offered for awhile now.

What’s the difference. O, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that instead of fully integrating the Zune player to Xbox, they left it at a sleezy menu system when they have a beautiful product sitting over by the wayside. Also, instead of having to go buy points and then buy a movie (think of this as having eight hot dogs and six buns), just link up your freaking credit card and move on with your life (nod to iTunes here). So, Microsoft, get a freaking usability expert who knows what they are doing, integrate your tools that you have, innovate and make something better. Apple, make a product that is actually groundbreaking, not just implementing current technology and calling it new (yes, you do it better a year later I will give you that) and stop acting like you are already.

By leveraging the force that is Google and HTML5, the band pieced together an absolutely amazing experience for you and I. So, go check out the video here and prepare to have your mind blown. To say this is the coolest single thing that I have seen development-wise on the internet would not be out of the question. So, do yourself a favor and check it out. Here. Now. The Wilderness Downtown by Arcade Fire. (Watch it in Google Chrome)

I say this because those are the editions of the movies that will be coming to Blu-ray in 2011. The reasoning behind the decision to use the special edition formats of the movies is as follows, according to Mashable citing Lucas himself: The original theatrical editions would cost too much to convert to the high definition format. Much of the needed work was already done for the Special Edition remasters.

Personally, I feel that the originals should have the same attention paid to them, and the doing so would generate far more interest in this Blu-ray release than only the special editions. There are promises of deleted scenes, interviews, documentaries, outtakes and more to sweeten the deal for enthusiasts. Will you be purchasing the Blu-rays when they come out? Seems like a tough call to me personally.

Use the little guys to pledge your allegiance to the Android army on your desk at work or home, or I guess you could carry it around with you but that would be a bit weird. There are a total of 16 different designs currently available for purchase in the shop, including random packs and traditional green and DIY blank for sale individually. Check out the full stock here. Prices range from 6.25 usd for the DIY blank to 112 usd for the entire 16 piece set.

That’s where the website PolitiFact.com comes into play for me. I recently rediscovered this site that I found during the 2008 elections and it is pretty awesome. The best feature of the site in my opinion is The Truth-o-Meter that basically tracks the truth of political statements made by politicians, backing them with some information to support their claims (see the photo). There is also a Truth-o-Meter just for the President which is also very interesting which tracks the promises the President made and how he has followed through on these. Needless to say, this site should be taken with a grain of salt as should any political site, but it seems pretty reliable.

Cheers.

‘The End of History: The name derives from the famous work of philosopher Francis Fukuyama, this is to beer what democracy is to history. Fukuyama defined history as the evolution of the political system and traced this through the ages until we got the Western Democratic paradigm. For Fukuyama this was the end point of man’s political evolution and consequently the end of history. The beer is the last high abv beer we are going to brew, the end point of our research into how far the can push the boundaries of extreme brewing, the end of beer.’

The Scotish brewery has already made a name for itself in the ridiculously strong brew world, with its Tactical Nuclear Penguin coming in at 32% and its Sink the Bismarck! at a stunning %41. You can see and purchase these for yourself right here. As you can see, The End of History is sold out but retailed for £500 and £700 if you wanted the grey squirrel to accompany it.

In the video, the artists are stopped by the police who, when they find out what they are working on actually shield them from traffic to allow them to complete their work. They are removing exhaust dust from the tunnel to spell out “For a Clean Porto Alegre,” a positive message created in a positive and creative way. The police in Porto Alegre helped out the artists, and it would be great if these artists were able to thrive as long as their messages are not offensive to the people who will read them.

The film travels through history and seeks to analyze how creativity and culture has evolved and how the past seeks to control and dictate the way in which art is created in the future. You should really check this piece of work out if you have an interest in music, intellectual property, the creative commons or just culture in general – yes that was a pretty widespread plug, but hey, I liked the film. O, and I am even providing you the means to watch the trailer and the full length feature right here. Yes indeed.

Cheers.

The software cuts out the frequency ranges where the vuvulezas live and it has an adjustable number of harmonics that it can cover so that users of computers with varying speeds can adjust them to reduce latency. Just insert your computer as a part of the audio chain when watching matches and boom you’re done. The folks over at Lifehacker said that they did have to install the free LabView engine from NI to get it to run although it is designed to run as a stand alone program – hey if you’re annoyed by this as much as some people seem to be you’re probably willing to try anything that’s free.

Check out the post here to download the software and see how it works.

Cheers.

The first is shared folders – this makes it easier to share documents instantly with the exact group that you want to. No longer do you have to invite the same group of coworkers to a document or spreadsheet – nice!

Next is the bulk uploader – I think that speaks for itself

Import docx format!

Added themes for forms – this is a very welcome update

A lightweight viewer/editor for editing spreadsheets on select mobile devices and under slow internet conditions – I could have used this today on my phone!

CHAT! Well, now chat has come to Google Docs – what a welcome addition – this was a no brainer and they did it. Thanks.

That’s the main points on those. If that’s not enough for you, then check out the full list of updates here.