Nuclear Bits

Panic’s CandyBar goes Free, but Unsupported

CandyBar, although simply changing files on disk, has always fallen into a slightly-uncomfortable-for-us grey area of existence. It seems clear to us that there will undoubtedly come a time (soon?) when CandyBar can no longer customize system icons at all.

Since we’re unsure about the long-term future of changing system icons, we’re not comfortable charging money for CandyBar, and we’re also not comfortable simply making it disappear, instead we’re going to make the current CandyBar free — but unsupported.

I have only briefly toyed with CandyBar back in my early Leopard days and it was a pretty solid product, so it’s sad to see it go away like this due to the changes Apple is bringing in to OS X. Well, hopefully it doesn’t completely go away, as Panic says they’re handing over the control of the app to Iconfactory.

[Via Chris]

Pixar Fan Builds Real Life WALL-E Robot

Senna spent the last two years building a life size, working WALL-E that has to be seen to be believed. Since actual materials, decals and parts from WALL-E don’t exist, he was forced to build the entire thing from scratch and the results would likely make everyone from John Lasseter to Andrew Stanton proud.

Watch the video, that thing is amazing.

Watching the Olympics in Super Hi-Vision

John Zubrzycki, over at BBC’s Research & Development Blog, has a fascinating overview of the Super Hi-Vision, a Ultra HD format developed by NHK. He writes:

[…] we were viewing using an Ultra-HD system called Super Hi-Vision (SHV) developed by NHK (The Japanese national broadcaster). SHV has sixteen times as many pixels as HDTV making a picture with 7680 pixels across by 4320 pixels down. It was displayed on an 8-metre wide screen, accompanied by a 22.2 multichannel 3-dimensional sound system. The combined effect was to transport the people in the viewing theatre right into the stadium – telepresence comes of age.

The rest of the post is full of fascination technical insights into how BBC and NHK are making this possible. If you’re interested in experiencing this for yourself, there are a bunch of events you can apply for.

[Via James Thomson]

Nokia launches nail polish to match pink Lumia 900

Yep! That should save Nokia.

Hulu Plus Now Available on Apple TV

The ‘hulu plus’ channel should automatically show up on the Apple TV for you. Existing users can log in right away while new subscribers can get a 1-week free trial by signing in directly with their iTunes account.

Alas, still US-only.

Samsung’s Galaxy S III in “Garnet Red” for AT&T

How do you make an industrial design that’s already bad look worse? Make it available in a ridiculous “Garnet Red” color.

Peter Jackson announces third ‘Hobbit’ film

“It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made,” Jackson wrote. “Recently Fran [Walsh], Phil[lippa Boyens] and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie — and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.’”

Apple’s rumored September 12 event

Yep.

That’s it, the beard has spoken.