Another review coming, most likely on Monday, this time for the very satisfying debut novel from Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl. But for now, miscellaneous tidbits and morsels from around the web. Bon Appétit!
- Any old-school RPG’ers out there? Do you own an iPhone? If so, happy news. SquareEnix just announced that both Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II are in development for the iPhone. No word on release date or cost yet, but I can’t wait!
- Some of you may not be really happy right now. The economy’s in rough shape. You’re probably upside-down on your mortgage, and that ARM is about to start adjusting. If you’re feeling depressed, everyone would certainly understand. So if you’re considering suicide, but think that pills or a pistol just aren’t glamorous enough, how about jumping off a balloon at 120,000 feet?
- Lots of attention right now on mobile computing platforms, especially with the likely announcement from Apple in regards to their iSlate/iPad/iTablet next week. Here’s a fascinating read, focusing on the chairman of Asus, Jonney Shih, in which he discusses their own tablet plans, and some of the devices we may be seeing over the next five years. A wearable computer/watch/phone? Don’t mind if I do.
- I just cracked open the pages of Westerfeld’s Leviathan, and I’ll likely be reading Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker immediately after that, so this is going to be a steampunk-y week or two for me. I actually had a different article I was going to post here, about the recent Sherlock Holmes film and how steampunk it is, but now that I’m re-reading it, I don’t really agree. Well, shoot. Now I’ve got no sweet steampunk to show you. Hmm… Got $1500 to spend? How about this cool keyboard?
- Science fiction in film flourished last year, but 2010 might give 2009 a run for the money. The Speculative Scotsman is posting a massive preview of the sci-fi/fantasy films to look out for over the next 12 months (Part 1 can be found here). In a similar vein, this one might slip under the radar, but playing this year at Sundance, the very first Kenyan sci-fi film: Pumzi. Not coming to a theater near you anytime soon, but probably worth it to write the name down, and check Netflix for the DVD in a year or two.
- Because I am apparently a fanboy, I manage to post something or other about Avatar on a very regular basis, so I’m not going to break that trend now. Here’s an interesting article from a biologist about her observations while watching the film. Nifty. Also cool, this recently released internet video on the making of Avatar. This will probably be a special feature on some edition of the DVD release, but you can watch it now:
