Five weeks after it was confirmed that Ashton Kutcher had been cast to play Steve Jobs in one of the two upcoming biopics chronicling the Apple co-founder’s life, the first photos of the actor in Jobs’ distinctive attire have surfaced.

TMZ posted photos (courtesy of Pacific Coast News) of Kutcher on the set of the film tentatively titled ‘Jobs: Get Inspired.’ Dressed in a black turtleneck and faded jeans. The similarities are remarkable.

The film’s producer Mark Hulme spoke to Neowin about the casting of Kutcher and the theme of the film:

It is also worth noting that Sony is preparing a separate Jobs biopic, based on Walter Isaacson’s bestselling biography of Steve Jobs.

Whilst filming has begun, the movie isn’t expected to hit theatres until the end of the year.

(source: thenextweb)

Serena Williams is a doubt for the French Open after pulling out of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia with a back injury.

Williams, who is on an unbeaten run after winning the Madrid Open last week, had been scheduled to play Roland Garros champion Li Na in the semi-finals in Rome, but confirmed her withdrawal on the morning of the match.

Li will now receive free passage through to the final, where she awaits the winner of the second semi-final between world No. 2 Maria Sharapova and Angelique Kerber.

“Of course I’m happy to reach the final but I don’t like winning like that,” Li said. “I am so sorry for Serena and hope she gets healthy.”

It comes after world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki both pulled out of the event with injury concerns ahead of the second grand slam of the year which begins next Sunday.

(source: espn)

“While most of the updates focus on the slow convergence of iOS with the desktop, one unsung gem is sure to delight those of us who rely on the Internet rather than cable for television: AirPlay for Mac,” Titlow reports. “Just as we already can with our iPads, iPhones and iPods, AirPlay for OS X will allow us to wirelessly mirror the screen of our Macs onto their televisions using Apple TV.”

Titlow reports, “What makes this so exciting for the cord-cutting crowd – and probably somewhat cringeworthy for the network executive crowd – is that there’s far more content available on the desktop Web than there is on iOS or any streaming set-top box.”

Read more in the full article here.

The social network priced its shares at $38 apiece, valuing the company at $104 billion. The average first-day “pop” for a technology company is 32 percent; if Facebook follows that trend, it’ll be worth $137 billion by day’s end. But there’s little about Facebook that’s average, including its public offering. This is the technology’s biggest initial public offering and history’s second-biggest IPO, period, and it will raise about $16 billion. Statistics suggests that the first-day pop—if there is one—will be more modest than average.

Read more in the full article here

Adding to the existing rumor of a four-inch screen on the new iPhone is info obtained by Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge, who says not only will that screen be a larger 4 inches (measured diagonally), but it will have a new aspect ratio, which we would assume would be 16 x 9 — the same shape as typical HDTVs. It’s about time — since its inception, the iPhone screen has been shaped in the old-timey 4 x 3 ratio, the same as ancient standard definition TVs.

As the story goes, the new iPhone is going to be taller than its predecessor, with dimensions of 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm, according to iLounge. Ihat’s 10mm (1/3 inch) taller that the iPhone 4S, and significantly thinner than the iPhone 4S by 2mm. That doesn’t sound like much, but that would be 20% thinner than the current model.

Contrary to reports of a teardrop shape, this report says there’s going to be a flat back, and part of it will be made of metal. Agreeing with other rumors we’ve heard, it will be made of that futuristic material known as LiquidMetal, but won’t cover the entire back. Another believable prediction confirming past reports is the new iPhone’s alleged “Gorilla Glass 2″ front, which will probably be stronger and thinner than today’s iPhones.

Adding credence to other rumors we’ve already heard, Apple will abandon that familiar dock connector gracing every iPhone since its inception, instead opting for smaller, rounded connector that’s less than half its predecessor’s size. That should fit the thinner form factor nicely.

When will we see this new bauble from Apple? If the current rumor mill is correct, it’s going to be available in September or October.

BONUS: What would a LiquidMetal iPhone look like? Artist Antoine Brieux visualizes it for us, via Yanko Design.

(text and image courtesy mashable)

This is the story of a wonderful idea. Something that had never been done before, a moment of change that shaped the Internet we know today. This is the story of Flickr. And how Yahoo bought it and murdered it and screwed itself out of relevance along the way.

Do you remember Flickr’s tag line? It reads “almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.” It was an epic humble brag, a momentously tongue in cheek understatement.

Because until three years ago, of courseFlickr was the best photo sharing service in the world. Nothing else could touch it. If you cared about digital photography, or wanted to share photos with friends, you were on Flickr.

Yet today, that tagline simply sounds like delusional posturing. The photo service that was once poised to take on the the world has now become an afterthought. Want to share photos on the Web? That’s what Facebook is for. Want to look at the pictures your friends are snapping on the go? Fire up Instagram.

Even the notion of Flickr as an archive—as the place where you store all your photos as a backup—is becoming increasingly quaint as Dropbox, Microsoft, Google, Box.net, Amazon, Apple, and a host of others scramble to serve online gigs to our hungry desktops.

The site that once had the best social tools, the most vibrant userbase, and toppest-notch storage is rapidly passing into the irrelevance of abandonment. Its once bustling community now feels like an exurban neighborhood rocked by a housing crisis. Yards gone to seed. Rusting bikes in the front yard. Tattered flags. At address, after address, after address, no one is home.

It is a case study of what can go wrong when a nimble, innovative startup gets gobbled up by a behemoth that doesn’t share its values. What happened to Flickr? The same thing that happened to so many other nimble, innovative startups who sold out for dollars and bandwidth: Yahoo.