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The 404 836: Where it's big, round, and shaped like a spaceship (podcast)

We enjoyed yesterday's show with Joey Kaminski so much that we invited him back to sub for Jeff again today. He weighs in with us on Apple's new spaceship-shaped campus, Chinese prisoners allegedly mining MMO gold, Steve Jobs' freakiest Apple patents, and muffing the ball.

The 404 Digest for Episode 836

Steve Jobs proposes a new Apple campus--shaped like a spaceship. Steve Jobs' freakiest patents. China reportedly forces prisoners to mine MMO gold. Richard Dreyfuss reads the iTunes EULA on tomorrow's Reporters' Roundtable!

Episode 836 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

LG Flatron W2363D review: Glorious or gimmicky lights?

The LG W2363D-PF is a 3D monitor, but apparently that distinction is no longer enough for a monitor to stand out from the pack. These days, 3D everything is quite ubiquitous, backlashes notwithstanding.

So, when you're the 100th monitor with a black chassis or the 30th 3D monitor released in the last three months, it's difficult to stand out from the crowd. Sure, you could throw some oddly placed pastels into your design or go all white as some vendors have, but there's an important detail to remember.

A good design allows a monitor to showcase its … Read more

CSS 2.1 emerges as official Web standard

Much of the Web world has moved on to CSS 3, but today the World Wide Web Consortium has declared the CSS 2.1 standard for Web page formatting to be done.

In W3C standards lingo, CSS 2.1 has reached "recommendation" stage. Phillipe Le Hegaret, leader of the HTML working at the W3C group, announced the milestone on Twitter today.

Browser makers, even longtime laggard Microsoft, have turned much of their attention to CSS 3, which offers glamorous new features such as animating the transition from one page to another, endowing boxes with rounded corners, and if … Read more

W3C officially opens HTML5 to scrutiny

The World Wide Web Consortium has reached an important point in the long journey to standardize HTML5, the next version of the Hypertext Markup Language used to describe Web pages.

HTML5 officially reached "last call" status this week, which means the W3C believes it's got a version of the specification mature enough for organizations to decide whether to express support. But changes still could come: "In practice, last call announcements generate comments that sometimes result in substantive changes to a document," the W3C said in announcing that HTML5 reached last call.

Hypertext Markup Language is … Read more

BenQ markets new affordable HD projectors to 'high-rise' dwellers

BenQ has started shipping two new HD DLP "cinema" projectors, the W1100 and W1200, that it says are ideal for "high-rise" dwellers. We're not exactly sure what makes them ideal for multidwelling (MDU) media rooms, but the projectors, which cost $1,199 and $1,499 respectively, do offer 1,080p resolution, a 12-lens optical system, and built-in dual 10-W speakers with SRS Wow HD sound technology.

The W1100 is a 2,000-lumens (brightness) projector with a 4,500:1 contrast ratio and a full 10-bit color processor. Meanwhile, the step-up W1200 is a 1,800-lumens … Read more

W3C: new members extend Web standards work

The World Wide Web Consortium announced 35 new members, a move it says signals growing interest in HTML and other Web technologies it standardizes.

Among the new members are: China Unicom, Comcast, Facebook, LG Electronics, NEC Corporation, Netflix, SanDisk, Sony, and Zynga.

This "more diverse community at W3C" will help bring Web standards to industries including mobile devices, television, publishing, and advertising, W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe said in a statement. "The immediate impact of new Web standards will result in more innovation, more powerful Web-based products and services, and economic opportunities for businesses and consumers alike." … Read more

W3C to develop peer-to-peer browser standards

The World Wide Web Consortium is to develop standards to enable direct peer-to-peer communications between browsers, without the need to go through centralized servers.

The standards could make it more difficult for repressive government action against Web communications, according to members of the W3C working group assigned to develop the standards. The group aims to define APIs that will let browsers communicate using audio, video, and "supplementary" real-time communications, the W3C said yesterday.

"W3C today launched a new Web Real-Time Communications Working Group to define client-side APIs to enable real-time communications in Web browsers," the W3C … Read more

Acer Iconia W500 Windows tablet (hands-on)

Tablets are big news, but that usually means Apple's iPad, Android tablets, or even the BlackBerry Playbook. Windows, by far the largest operating system on consumer PCs, has been largely left out in the cold.

It's ironic, as Windows tablets have been around for years, in the form of slates and convertible laptops with touch-screen lids that rotate and fold down over the keyboard. To date, none of these has been terribly successful, largely because they failed on both the software and hardware fronts. The Windows OS is simply not designed for fingertip (or even stylus) input, and the CPUs used to power most Windows tablets have been so underpowered as to make these devices mostly useless.

Stepping into the ring following the launch Apple's second-generation iPad is the Acer Iconia W500. Similar to Lenovo's (still MIA U1) Hybrid and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, the 10.1-inch W500 consists of a touch-screen slate and a separate keyboard dock. When combined, the two halves form something close to a traditional laptop. The W500 is $549 with Windows 7 Home Premium, or $619 with Windows 7 Professional. Both versions have 2GB of RAM and a 32GB SSD. Acer also has a dockless Android version, called the A500. … Read more

Instant voice mail and online role-playing: iPhone apps of the week

Some interesting Apple news this week from AppleInsider revolves around Apple's acquisition of the iCloud domain name. Apparently, according to sources, Apple paid Sweden-based company Xcerion an estimated $4.5 million for the domain. It is rumored that the cloud service will be announced this summer at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference here in San Francisco.

There have already been plenty of rumors that Apple's cloud service would enable users to stream music to iOS devices, but according to the article, it may also offer a personalized "locker" where you can keep photos and videos as well. It will be exciting to see how this all pans out at WWDC, and whether people will be more inclined to sign up with iCloud than with MobileMe, which received a somewhat lukewarm response from users.

What kind of things would you like to see offered in an Apple-based cloud service? What would be a reasonable price for such a service? Let us know in the comments.

This week's apps are an instant voice mail messenger and a full-featured MMORPG that closely resembles one of the most popular games of all time.… Read more