#FF00AA

@photo@

Flickr’s Camera Finder [via] is so obvious and so awesome: Flickr leverages all the EXIF data it gathers to let you know what pictures any given camera is capable of making. Including cameraphones.

The opportunity to prove, as Monsieur Lâm just wrote yesterday: “a good photograph is 9/10th photographer.”

 

@games@

Wii sensor bar appears to be just an array of infrared emitters and the Wiimote is only a light-gun that detects where those emitters are. Well, okay, it’s more complex than a light-gun and must be using the gyroscopes to detect orientation — actually, it’s quite impressive that they manage to calibrate their system in order to compute a reliable enough cursor position when the only external data the Wiimote receives is “the TV is somewhere around here, and you’re that far away.” (Distance being determined by how small the sensor bar appears on the Wiimote’s camera.)

It’s kinda disappointing that it’s so low-tech, but at least does explain why the black plastic part on top of the Wiimote is so big. Oh, and it also definitely explains how some lighting conditions could compromise Wii usage (but who places their TV with its back to the sun?).

 

@apple@

In the “I have nothing to say about it but I guess I ought to mention it” department: a malicious .dmg file can crash your Mac.

Question for Apple: How many times must [Safari’s “Open safe files after downloading” preference] be exploited before you remove it from Safari, or at least turn it off by default?

Feels like ActiveX all over again.

 

@apple@

Ad-sponsored MacBook Pro. When I saw the pictures, I couldn’t understand why brands would want to be included on such an ugly, illegible billboard — when she opens her laptop in a café, people won’t see the individual logos, but only the general affront to Jonathan Ive. Turns out the reason it works is the million-dollar-page clone: her website has a big photograph of the MBP with links over each logo.

It makes sense, but I wonder if it couldn’t be interesting for a company to subsidize a whole MacBook by themselves — make a pretty engraving or tattoo around the apple, and give it to someone contractually bound to spend some amount of time in Starbucks cafés. Just like those ad-subsidized Smart cars you can see around Paris, only cheaper and classier.

 

@apple@