Apple gave Mac fanatics their first look at the new $6,000 Mac Pro at the Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in July, and after months of speculation on the desktop computer’s eventual release date, the day to pre-order the infamous cheese grater–lookin’ processor is nigh.

According to TechCrunch, Apple customers received email notifications stating that the Mac Pro will be available to pre-order on Dec. 10, but the emails gave no indication as to when those pre-orders would ship. 

When the Mac Pro was first unveiled, many noticed its uncanny resemblance to a cheese grater. The grater-y holes in the desktop tower are actually vents for its fans, which keep the computer quiet and protect it from overheating. That said, it also looks like it could do some serious damage to a block of Parmesan.  Read more…

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When Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan duct-taped a real banana to the wall of the Galerie Perrotin at Art Basel Miami and listed it for a starting price of $120,000 dollars, it was par for the course in the art world. 

When Georgian artist David Datuna walked up to the banana, removed it from the wall, and ate it in a piece of unexpected performance art titled “Hungry Artist,” that was somewhat under par for the art world, but Datuna’s fruity performance wasn’t nearly as destructive at it seems.

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The free ride is almost over, late-arriving Tesla drivers.

A new update on the auto maker’s website confirms that Tesla data access will divide into two tiers starting on Jan. 1, 2020. It doesn’t affect every customer (more on that below), but many of them will soon need to choose between the free “Standard Connectivity” tier and the $9.99/month “Premium Connectivity” tier.

If all you want from your car’s data access is basic maps and navigation, plus the ability to stream media over Bluetooth, then Standard is the way to go. You’ll still have access to the fancier features (if you want them) whenever your car is connected to Wi-Fi. Read more…

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Does anybody have the Dashboard Confessional song “Vindicated” on hand?

A report from the Wall Street Journal says that Amazon has leased new offices in Manhattan for 1,500 employees. 

The news comes 10 months after Amazon abandoned its plans to build its second headquarters (“HQ2”) in Long Island City, Queens. The company reversed course thanks to protests from residents and local officials who objected to the $3 billion it would receive in tax credits, and the gentrification, raised rents, and commuting mayhem it promised to bring. 

Among those critics was Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who objected to what she saw as a government handout. Some people in turn criticized AOC for denying people jobs, and ostensibly scaring off the tech industry.  Read more…

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A hairbrush is just a hairbrush, except when it represents the person to whom it once belonged.

That realization is the impact of a new collection of photographs now being shown at the Skirball Cultural Center museum in Los Angeles. And while it’s rare to mention Border Patrol in 2019 without also referencing Donald Trump’s regressive immigration policies, this show covers a stretch of time that actually predates the current president’s time in office.

The photos depict everyday objects — toothbrushes, medication, love notes — that U.S. Border Patrol confiscated from migrants and asylum seekers as they attempted to cross into the U.S. from Mexico. They were all photographed by a former janitor who rescued them from the trash. Read more…

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Put it on a postcard.

We can’t guarantee a perfect photo opp from our fixed vantage point of the floating space rock called Earth. Space is vast, and three-dimensional. Things don’t always line up as well as NGC 5468 does in this image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The spiral galaxy that NASA highlighted in a Friday post is situated over 130 million light-years away from the point in space we call home. Our face-on look at NGC 5468 makes it easier to spot the massive explosion created collapsing stars, or supernovae. Read more…

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We all walk and text, but maybe we shouldn’t.

At least, one could reasonably come to that conclusion after checking out a new study from Rutgers University. The study found that head and neck injuries as a result of cell phone use, whether it came from being hit by a phone or distracted walking or driving, steadily rose between 1998 and 2017.

The full study was published in the journal AMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery. Author Boris Paskhover said he was inspired to examine this phenomenon after, among other things, treating a woman who broke her nose by dropping a phone on her face. The most commonly reported injury types in the study were lacerations, contusions, and internal organ injury in the head and neck areas. Read more…

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One of the first high-profile wearables is finally about to kick the bucket, several years after a short rollercoaster ride atop the tech news cycle.

Google recently updated the support page for Google Glass Explorer Edition with information about the product’s final update. The patch will essentially divorce Google Glass from any of Google’s backend services after Feb. 25. Once it’s installed and that date rolls by, Glass users won’t be able to log in at all with their Google accounts on the device.

After that, the old version of Glass will still work as a sort of husk of its former self. It’ll still connect to phones via Bluetooth, support sideloaded apps, and allow photos and videos to be taken with the camera. But mirror apps such as Hangouts, YouTube, and Gmail won’t work anymore, per Google’s support page. Read more…

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Greta is getting impatient. 

On Friday, a reported 500,000-person climate change action protest swelled in the streets of Madrid. The protesters – many of them skipping school as part of the “School Strike for Climate” movement – were there to pressure world leaders attending the COP25 conference to take meaningful action on climate change. 

This wasn’t a kumbaya protest. Thunberg and her fellow youth activists seem frustrated by sluggish and ineffectual efforts of adults, and are not willing to hand out self-congratulation for a renewed wave of protests, either.

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What if one of the random non-playable characters in the big, open Grand Theft Auto-style video game du jour suddenly attained sentience?

That’s the question posed in Free Guy, a Ryan Reynolds action-comedy hitting theaters on July 3, 2020. Reynolds stars as a milquetoast bank teller who realizes one day that his life is an artificial construct and he’s a random background player in some massive online game.

This first trailer highlights some clever humor built around familiar video game tropes. It also seemingly confirms that Taiki Waititi is the movie’s villain. So if you need any further encouragement to check it out, there you go. Read more…

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