It was this that made Harryhausen a Modern Prometheus; this ability to make us care, to breath a real spark of life into his puppets of clay, steel and rabbit fur. Time and again when I rewatch Ray’s films, it’s the small things I notice. The way characters shift their weight from foot to foot if they’ve been standing a while; an absent minded scratch of the thigh; the brief, anticipatory lick of the lips, as the Cyclops prepares his dinner of spit-roasted sailor.

The skeleton battle sequence of Jason and the Argonauts (1963) blew me away the first time I saw it, in the late eighties. Masterful animation artist.

Check the interview here ➝      Past interviews here ➝

Update: The Iron Man 3 article is offline , for now, as @artofthetitle explained in a tweet:

Unfortunately we’ve been asked by @Marvel to put our “Iron Man 3″ article on hold temporarily. Hope to resolve this quickly.

Cool trailer for the 1960’s Jean-Luc Godard film with story by François Truffaut.

Hypocrisy will never go out of style in American journalism or American life. But sitting there and watching the rewrite and sports desk mobilize to surround the sexual wanderings of a sportscaster, I remember making a decision: Enough. This is just sex. This is nothing more than the odd, notable penis or the odd, notable vagina staggering off the marked path and rubbing against the wrong tree. This is just people.

For those who don’t recall, David Simon is the creator of the great tv series ‘The Wire’ and former journalist for the Baltimore Sun. (via John gruber at Daring Fireball)

Great opening title sequence for Shameless (TV series, US version). Simple and extremely effective portrait of the show’s essence. A great example of how moving picture and sound (the song ‘The Luck you got’ by The High Strung is awesome,by the way) can match so perfectly.
Not new but never got to post it before. Superb work by Sarofsky.

Update:
Meanwhile, Showtime network released new Shameless spots (with a fairytale vibe) in antecipation of season 3:
— The Story of Shameless
— Fiona’s Fairytale Ending (Shameless Spot)
— Shamelessly Ever After: Fiona and Jimmy
— Shamelessly Ever After: Lip and Frank

On a side note: the new role for the drug lord character is performed by a portuguese actor whose first steps in amateur theatre I witnessed quite a while ago. Who would’ve thunk it?

Macworld tested the fusion drive (ssd flash drive + hard drive) in one of the new Mac mini models. The result: it’s about as fast as Phil Schiller said in the last Apple special event.

Besides the numbers in Macworld’s article, this video posted by TechfastLunch&Dinner shows what that kind of speed and performance really feels like.

I also recommend reading Ars Technica’s article on the subject with a more detailed analysis on how this “fusion” performance is achieved.

Although a few more months may be required to fully understand this technology’s performance in daily use, this is great news. And, not just for buyers of the fresh new editions of the iMac or Mac mini, as Tumblr user Jollyjinx found out. It seems that one can recreate the Fusion Drive in older Macs (specially on old Mac Pros with additional hard drive bays) and ‘rejuvenate’ those machines quite a bit.

Right now, these results were achieved using terminal commands, but I see how a software developer could create a utility to ease the process for less adventurous users. I would not recommend trying this on your work machine as all of this will become clearer in the coming months. Great promise though.

Like Google Maps, Apple also allows users to submit error reports and correct POI data. Last week, Apple said that “the more people use [Maps], the better it will get.” Reporting errors in information is surely part of how Apple plans to improve the product.

Check the MacRumors ‘how to’ here.

Update:  The video is now available as a Podcast on the iTunes Store. You can get it here in different screen resolutions: Apple Keynotes, Apple Keynotes (HD), Apple Keynotes (1080p).

The long rumored iPhone 5 was officially revealed and has a taller screen size, thinner and lighter design, an A6 processor (twice as fast as the previous A5 chip), better camera for low-light situations, LTE broadband and better FaceTime HD front-facing camera. It will be available in black and white.

There are also new iPod Touch models with a new screen (same size as the iPhone 5), an A5 processor (the current 4th-gen still has the A4), a 5-megapixel camera with flash (ƒ/2.4 aperture and capable to record 1080p movies), Bluetooth 4.0, FaceTime HD camera. It will be available in five different colours and a (Product)RED version.

The iPod nano was completely refreshed. Gone is the versatile clip to hang the nano to clothes. It has a bigger 2.5-inch widescreen Multi-Touch display (240-by-432-pixel resolution at 202 pixels per inch) and bluetooth 4.0 built-in. It will be available in seven different colours and a (Product)RED version.

Also announced: new Lightning connector replaces the old 30-pin dock connector; new EarPods (headphones) come with all announced models; and Lightning to 30-pin Adapters.

On the software side, Apple announced a new iTunes version built from the ground up with a new interface (available in October).

In the U.S. the iPhone 5 starts at $199 (16GB), $299 (32GB), $399 (64GB) with a two year contract.
The iPod Touch 5th-gen costs $299 for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model. The old iPod Touch (4th-gen) is being kept as an entry-level model ($199 for 16GB and $249 for 32GB).
The iPod nano (16GB) will be available at $149.

Apple’s official product pages:
iPhone 5
iPod Touch 5th-gen
iPod nano 7th-gen