David Lidsky's Blog, page 4655

Adobe iPad Publishing Tools Coming Soon

Magazine editors who've been playing around with Wired's iPad app this weekend might like to know that the Adobe software used to create it will soon be available for anyone wanting to develop a fabulous iPad app (memo to GQ digital department: this means you). While Steve may not be a fan of Flash, it's not stopping Adobe from making their software the go-to product for tablet-based publications.

The software, which uses Adobe's InDesign CR5, was created with Wired staff input, and Adobe is...

Top Kill Is Dead. BP Fails to Stop Gushing Oil Well in the Gulf

A makeshift Oil-Man Scarecrow was placed along the road
on the way to Grand Isle, La., complete with respirator, X'ed-out eyes,
and an oily fish in hand. Image by Ryan Marshall for FastCompany.com.

BP's COO Doug Suttles has announced that operation Top Kill, a plan involving the pumping of heavy mud, concrete, and junk into its gushing oil well 5,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico, has failed. The next step, the New York Times reports, is a "lower marine riser package cap," in which...

iFive: iPad, Supercomputers, Facebook, BP, eBooks

We may have had three days off this weekend, but the news doesn't sleep. Here's what's been going on while you've been barbecue-ing your steaks--and we Brits have been sheltering under umbrellas turned inside-out by the biting north wind.

1. Sales of Apple's iPad have reached 2 million. That's a billion bucks, folks. Steve Jobs, who's rumored to be working on the iDeathStar, must be celebrating. Other firms playing catch-up in the tablet market include MSI, Asus, and LG. 

2. As BP kills Top...

Design Crime: World's Snootiest Safari Truck Is Part SUV, Part RV

Is this thing for real? A go-anywhere ride for the modern colonial conqueror.

The Unimog by Mercedes-Benz--the classic go-anywhere
vehicle that debuted after World War II--has been everything from a military
unit, to a farm tractor, to a Funmog, the black-and-chrome discomobile that was
a hit in Japan in the early '90s. It's a hefty piece of engineering to be sure--all-wheel drive, portal-gear axles that ensure ground clearance, and a
relatively badass suspension system. But the latest...

Sustainability Faceoff: Raytheon vs. Lockheed Martin

It's tough to judge the sustainability of defense contractors--after all, they deal in wartime equipment, which isn't exactly friendly to the planet or the people living on it. But two of the biggest contractors, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, actually have a a lot going for them in the sustainability arena. In the new book The HIP Investor, author and investment adviser R. Paul Herman compares the two. We do the same here.

Raytheon relies heavily on weapons to keep its business going--91% of...

Intel and Qualcomm Introduce New Processors, Including Intel's "World's Thinnest" Netbook Platform

The Computex trade show in Taiwan is the venue of choice for new processor announcements from Intel and Qualcomm. Intel's includes a ridiculously thin netbook platform, and Qualcomm's announces the company as the smartphone chipmaker to beat.

Intel announced a few interesting things today, chief among them the bucolically named Oak Trail and Canoe Lake processor lines. Seems like Intel's higher-ups were out at summer camp when thinking of these names. Oak Trail is essentially a...

Google HQ Bans Microsoft Windows In-House After Hacking Scare

The Financial Times reports that according to Google sources, all versions of Microsoft's Windows OS are henceforth banned. Employees will instead be able to choose between Apple's Mac OS and Linux.

Google employees have until now been able to choose their OS of choice, but apparently due to security concerns in the wake of that whole hacking mess, the Google higher-ups have deemed Windows too risky to support. Google declined to comment.

Google competes with Microsoft in several areas, not...

Top Kill is Dead. BP Fails to Stop Gushing Oil Well in the Gulf

BP's COO Doug Suttles has announced that operation Top Kill, a plan involving the pumping of heavy mud, concrete, and junk into its gushing oil well 5,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico, has failed. The next step, the New York Times reports, is a "lower marine riser package cap," in which workers plan to saw off the riser and put a device on top to capture the oil. So far, the leak has resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Experts say anywhere from 504,000 to 4.2 million...

Dennis Hopper's Art in Jeffrey Deitch's First Show at MOCA

Actor and artist Dennis Hopper died of complications related to prostate cancer on Saturday. He was 74. We recently covered his debut at MOCA under new curator Jeffrey Deitch. Here is that report revisited.

Well, newly appointed MOCA curator Jeffrey Deitch didn't take all of our advice for reinvigorating Los Angeles' museum scene, but he did pick a feel-good blockbuster for his first show. Deitch's curatorial debut will feature the work of painter, photographer, and filmmaker Dennis Hopper...

First Look: Digg Version 4

Earlier today, Matt Van Horn of Digg sent around an email with a private YouTube link to publishers and other influential folk Digg wants to show the redesign to. If Digg really wanted this email to remain quiet, which is a big if, it was a huge blunder to send it to a bunch of journalists with no formal embargo. Of course, it was promptly published by TechCrunch and several other publications (and now, us).

[youtube Y9rc-Ou6814:]

So what's new? Most of this stuff was already known--former Digg...