October Surprise: a roundup of the biggest stories from a crazy month – The Verge

Chasing ghosts: the weird science of tracking the dead

2012-10-31T10:20:04-04:00

ghost lead

On a warm night in the winemaking town of Sonoma, California, the slightly moldy smell of eucalyptus trees hangs heavy in the air. Amidst the rustic stone buildings and tidy gravel pathways of the historic Buena Vista Winery, five middle-aged paranormal investigators from the San Francisco Bay Area gather in matching black t-shirts. There have been reports of hauntings here. One of the tasting room employees saw a "guy in a white t-shirt" climb the stairs then vanish. Could it be the ghost of the original owner, an exiled Hungarian Count who was supposedly eaten by alligators? The group, whose name is The Amateur Ghost Hunters: R.I.P., is on …

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iPad mini review

2012-10-30T21:01:00-04:00

Gallery Photo: Hands-on with the iPad mini

The iPad mini has arrived - and so has our review. Just last week, Apple introduced the world to the newest member of its wildly successful tablet line, an adorable, diminutive slate with a 7.9-inch display. It even had an adorable ad to show along with it: an iPad mini joining in with a full-sized iPad to play "Heart and Soul" on the piano.

But to think of the iPad mini as a companion to the 3rd or 4th generation iPad - some kind of secondary player to the bigger version - would probably be a mistake. With a price tag starting at $329 and heading all the way up to $659 (with LTE and 64GB of storage), this isn't really a step down from the …

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During Hurricane Sandy, misinformation and fact-checking clash on Twitter

2012-10-30T17:28:46-04:00

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier FACEBOOK

When Hurricane Sandy drew near the East Coast, Twitter and Instagram came alive with pictures of the storm. One showed ominous clouds gathering over Midtown Manhattan. In another, soldiers guarded Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under a haze of rain. A third showed a massive wave crashing around the Statue of Liberty. They were stunning images, capturing the scale of the disaster as well as its human impact. There was just one problem: none of them were actually pictures of Sandy.

"I was absolutely sure that everybody knew that was a fake. It was on the poster of the film, for goodness' sake."

"I was absolutely sure …

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Disney buys Lucasfilm, plans to release ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ in 2015 (update)

2012-10-30T16:04:37-04:00

Lucas Disney

Star Wars fans, you might want to sit down for this one - The Walt Disney Company just announced its plans to purchase Lucasfilm Ltd from George Lucas, with plans to release Star Wars: Episode 7 sometime during 2015. While there aren't any release dates yet for Episodes 8 and 9, those films will be coming as well - and the studio has even more beyond a new trilogy planned for the future.

The deal is a stock and cash transaction, with Lucas receiving about half of the $4.05 billion value of the deal in cash plus some 40 million stock shares. "It's now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers," Lucas said in a statem …

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Apple’s Scott Forstall’s fatal mistake was not signing iOS 6 Maps apology letter: sources

2012-10-29T21:12:26-04:00

scott forstall

Scott Forstall - the departing Apple executive who'd become the public face of iOS in his role as head of mobile software - may have met his demise when he refused to put his name on the apology letter Apple released several weeks ago, a rare show of contrition from Cupertino when its revamped (and Google-free) Maps product fell short of expectations at the release of iOS 6. The New York Times and CNNMoney are both reporting the story this evening; we've heard similar from sources as well.

Forstall had his enemies inside the executive ranks, sources say

The exact circumstances of Forstall's refusal are unclear, but not entirely unexpected: i …

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Windows Phone 8 review

2012-10-29T14:10:37-04:00

"This is Windows Phone. No, for real this time." That's what I thought when I started hearing about Windows Phone 8 a few months ago. Just like Windows Phone 7, it represents yet another clean break for Microsoft's mobile ambitions - but unlike 7, now it's got the hardware to match.

The truth is a little more complicated: this clean break isn't as nearly as obvious as Windows Phone 7's split from Windows Mobile was back in 2010. A quick glance at Windows Phone 8's home screen, its apps, and its overall aesthetic lead you to believe that it's only a mild evolution of Windows Phone 7.5 - and in many ways, that's true. Much of Redmond's grunt …

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Slow lane: why Google’s new Nexus 4 doesn’t have LTE

2012-10-29T12:38:38-04:00

Nexus 4 back

By Dieter Bohn and Nilay Patel

The Nexus 4 is an impressive smartphone that ticks off every modern spec checkbox you could ask for, save one: LTE. Instead, the Nexus 4 will only come unlocked with HSPA+ radios. It is a disappointing omission, driven by both Google's complex philosophical desire to build open devices as well as the fairly simple economics of building a halo product for a small niche of early adopters.

For Google, Nexus is a flagship brand that represents the best of Android, with Google leading by example to show other hardware manufacturers what Android can be. And though partners build the hardware, Google wants direct co …

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Inside Android’s next wave: Building the Nexus 4, Nexus 10, and Android 4.2

2012-10-29T12:16:38-04:00

google nexus lead

Google's campus in Mountain View is a weird place - a sprawling, flat expanse dotted with angular, gray buildings. And lots of colorful bikes. It feels like an island, a place with its own set of rules, and it's easy to feel out of joint if you don't know the handshake. In some ways it's like a corporate realization of Hakim Bey's Temporary Autonomous Zones… save for, you know, the corporation. It's the kind of place where the uniquely Silicon Valley meshing of childish whimsy and a fervent, quasi-religious work ethic is in full swing. A place where coding ideas and how-tos for relaxation are printed and hung in the men's bathrooms above the …

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Google Now: behind the predictive future of search

2012-10-29T12:13:02-04:00

google now lead

For decades, visions of the future have played with the magical possibilities of computers: they'll know where you are, what you want, and can access all the world's information with a simple voice prompt. That vision hasn't come to pass, yet, but features like Apple's Siri and Google Now offer a keyhole peek into a near future reality where your phone is more "Personal Assistant" than "Bar bet settler." The difference is that the former actually understands what you need while the latter is a blunt search instrument.

Google Now is one more baby step in that direction. Introduced this past June with Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean," it's designed t …

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‘Dudebro II’: the incredible journey from internet joke to very real game

2012-10-25T15:30:02-04:00

Dudebro II

It all started with a forum post. When a member of gaming forum NeoGAF started a new thread claiming to actually enjoy the Nintendo DS game Imagine: Babyz Fashion - a game where players literally play dress-up with babies - it garnered quite a few responses. Some accused him of faking it for attention ("post a picture of the actual cart, I believe you're playing it via flashcard"), while others complained that he was being too vague about what exactly it was that made the game fun. Then someone called him a pedophile. "So, I'm a pedophile because I don't want to play Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight …

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