The Buzz: The Encyclopedia of Life revised and a first-person shooter that teaches you how to code
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Reviving a Classic A favorite gizmo from the seventies is making a comeback—the Polaroid SX-70. Online outfit Photojojo is offering fully functional restored cameras, along with packs of instant PX70 film. The brushed chrome and leather paneled little number that folded flat and popped up for shooting was last produced in 1977. Fans of the first instant SLR have wiped out Photojojo’s stock, but the site promises that more cameras will be available this month. $350. www.photojojo.com. JibJab Launches Kids’ Books The latest outfit to enter the digital publishing game: ecard purveyor JibJab. The popular team that got its start producing animated political parodies has released JibJab Jr. Books, a line of personalized children’s titles for the iPad. The third book released last month is Ocean Commotion, an underwater adventure in which parents can integrate their child’s image. JibJab Jr. Books comes with one free title on the App Store. Additional books are $7.99 each, or $3.99 on a book-a-month plan. When it comes to awe inspiring, technology doesn’t stand a chance beside the sheer breadth of life on earth. That’s evident upon viewing the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), a free online resource that’s been redesigned and vastly expanded to offer 700,000 pages on individual species, up from the 30,000 at EOL’s 2008 launch. A new interface makes it easy for users to find organisms of interest, and to find or upload images, video, or sound. Also new, the educator’s resource: education.eol.org. American Values via Facebook Kids on Twitter and Facebook are doing something else—gaining an appreciation of the right to free speech. A national Knight Foundation study reveals a clear, positive relationship between social media use and appreciation of the First Amendment. Of 12,000 students surveyed, 91 percent of those who use social networking daily to access news and information agree that “people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions.” Look for a guide to social media and the First Amendment December 15. Code is the language that’s shaping our world, so it’s important, especially for students, to become practiced in it (see this month's tech feature “License to Hack”). Enter Code Hero, a video game that teaches you, well, how to make video games. In it ,players tote a Javascript-loaded gun to build structures, blast the enemy, and manipulate their world. Players start out using powerful code without needing to understand it, then slowly master that code to conquer specific challenges according to the game’s creator, Primer Labs. Sign up for the beta at primerlabs.com/codehero. Viewsonic Debuts Seven-Inch Tablets In the ongoing parade of new tablets, Viewsonic has two products in the seven-inch category, one boasting the Android Honeycomb operating system, the other billed as an ereader. Sporting a 1024 X 600 display, the ViewPad 7X ($379) comes with a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 2 MP camera in front, an HDMI-out port, and 8 GB of storage. With Honeycomb’s zoom mode, the 7X can display phone apps without distortion. Geared as an ereader, the value-priced ViewPad 7e ($200) running Android Gingerbread even comes loaded with the Kindle app. But we’ll see how it fares against Amazon new Kindle Fire tablet. You might also like: The Buzz: Steampunked Droid, the Terror on Your iPhone, and more The Buzz: Hot apps from ISTE, a serious game source, and more
Encyclopedia of Life
First-Person Javascript Shooter
