All posts tagged: buttons

Where’s the Science in Campaign Buttons?

Where’s the Science in Campaign Buttons?

Published by skeptic

Presidential politics first grabbed my attention in the leadup to the ’92 election due to a high school teacher’s collection of memorabilia. Every day, Mr. Urech passed around a presidential campaign button so we could feel history. Many buttons rhymed, such as I LIKE IKE and ALL THE WAY WITH L.B.J. Other buttons foreshadowed future campaigns such as REAGAN~BUSH IN ’80: LET’S MAKE AMERICAN GREAT AGAIN and ELECT HILLARY’S HUSBAND. None of the buttons, however, emphasized SCIENCE. The last time science and politics intersected on the cover of Skeptical Inquirer, Jeanne Goldberg made the case that America’s earliest presidents—George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson—“were citizen scientists” who delighted “in pursuing scientific topics” (see September/October 2017, p. 36). These presidents, Goldberg argued, “transported the scientific method of testing hypotheses and ideas, peer review, and free speech without fear of retaliation into a governmental context.” The checks and balances of science, it turned out, provided a useful defining foundation for a country based on freedom. Unfortunately, the pro-science views of our earliest leaders gave …

Pushing Buttons: With creative developers shutting everywhere, the future of games looks bleaker and more boring | Games

Pushing Buttons: With creative developers shutting everywhere, the future of games looks bleaker and more boring | Games

Published by skeptic

Last month the games company Take-Two Interactive announced it would reduce its global staff by 5%, laying off 580 people to reduce costs. It was one of many such announcements in 2024, but this case is especially egregious because Take-Two ownsRockstar Games, which publishes Grand Theft Auto, AKA the most successful game in the history of the world, and is definitely not short of profits. Last week, Bloomberg (£) reported on internal documentation showing the likely victims of these cuts: studios Intercept Games in Seattle and Roll7 in London are set to close. Both are part of Private Division, the giant publisher’s indie game label. I spent some time with Intercept’s Kerbal Space Program 2 last year, when they were gearing up to launch. This exceptionally nerdy game about getting tiny green astronauts into space, which hews so closely to the real life physics of space flight that it inspired a generation of engineering students, has had a troubled time. It had been through a studio closure and a change of developer already, and its …

iPhone 16 Dummy Models Showcase Design Changes, New Buttons

iPhone 16 Dummy Models Showcase Design Changes, New Buttons

Published by skeptic

Images comparing purportedly accurate dummy models of the iPhone 16 series have been shared online, providing a closer look at the rumored design of the upcoming devices. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are expected to get larger display sizes this year, according to multiple sources, while the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will be the same size as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. The first images show the difference in size between the iPhone 16 Pro and last year’s iPhone 15 Pro. The iPhone 16 Pro is said to have a 6.3-inch display, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max will have a 6.9-inch display. In contrast, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max have 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays, respectively. Additional images give a better idea of button placement. Apple plans to replace the Mute Switch on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus with the Action button that was previously exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro models. However, the images suggest the Action button will be …

Pushing Buttons: Nintendo is making a new Mario movie – and I have an idea to make it better than the last one | Games

Pushing Buttons: Nintendo is making a new Mario movie – and I have an idea to make it better than the last one | Games

Published by skeptic

With classic oblivious timing, Nintendo chose 10 March – or Mar10 day, as the company likes to style it – to announce that it is working with Illumination Studios on another Mario movie, even though it was the Oscars that day and absolutely nobody was paying attention. Last year’s Mario movie was a smash hit, grossing $1bn and finally ending the long era of the cursed video game film adaptation once and for all, so it’s not surprising that another one is in the works for April 2026. What is surprising is that it’s not necessarily going to be a direct sequel. Co-directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and writer Matthew Fogel will return, but neither Nintendo nor Illumination committed to calling the new film a sequel. In a video broadcast announcing “a new animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros”, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto (that’s Mario’s dad) said: “This time, we’re thinking about broadening Mario’s world further, and it’ll have a bright and fun story.” Despite its runaway popularity, the Mario movie …

Too many screens? Why car safety experts want to bring back buttons

Too many screens? Why car safety experts want to bring back buttons

Published by skeptic

Over the past two decades, iPad-like touch screens in cars have evolved from a niche luxury to a pervasive industry standard. These often sleek, minimalist, in-car control panels offer drivers a plethora of features and customization. However, previous studies suggest these every-day conveniences may come at cost: more distracted drivers. Though regulators have spoken critically of in-car screens in the past, a prominent European safety monitor is going a step further and requiring physical buttons and knobs for certain commonly used driving features if car makers want to receive a top safety score. Starting in 2026, according to The Sunday Times, the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) will only award its top safety rating to new vehicles that use old-fashioned buttons and levers to activate indicators, hazard lights, and other critical driving features. The new requirements could force automakers who use the safety rating as a selling point to reassess the amount of driving features they make accessible only through touch screens. Though these voluntary standards are limited to Europe, a battle over buttons …

Europe Tells Automakers That Buttons and Knobs Are Safer Than Touchscreens

Europe Tells Automakers That Buttons and Knobs Are Safer Than Touchscreens

Published by skeptic

Death to the touchscreen. Lost the Touch European regulators have told automakers to ditch the touchscreens in favor of knobs and buttons if they want to get a better safety rating. As the Times reports, the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) is warning that as of January 2026, automakers will have to include physical controls to achieve a full five-star safety rating. The independent safety body is sending a strong signal, highlighting just how complex center control touchscreens have become and how they may distract drivers, forcing them to look away for extended periods of time. Research has already found that tactile buttons are safer — and much faster to use — while driving. “The overuse of touchscreens is an industry-wide problem, with almost every vehicle-maker moving key controls onto central touchscreens,” Euro NCAP director of strategic development Matthew Avery told the Times, “obliging drivers to take their eyes off the road and raising the risk of distraction crashes.” Dial It Back To achieve a full five-star safety rating, the Euro NCAP will soon …

Anti-migrant, pro-Boris, anti-care worker: the Tories are pushing panic buttons that no longer work | Owen Jones

Anti-migrant, pro-Boris, anti-care worker: the Tories are pushing panic buttons that no longer work | Owen Jones

Published by skeptic

Finally, we have a government prepared to stand up to that under-scrutinised bane of British society: care workers. Our home secretary, James Cleverly, has gleefully announced an order banning overseas care workers from bringing “dependants” to the UK. Some naysayers may question the wisdom here, what with the national shortage of care workers, and with foreign staff in particular subject to gruesome exploitation, with some being paid effectively as little as £5 an hour and charged thousands of pounds in unexpected fees. I hear that, but you can’t put a price on being able to gaze into the eyes of an overworked, underpaid care worker as they tend to your loved one’s needs, knowing vast oceans separate them from their own beloved. Spite, alas, does not pay the bills, and here lies the fatal flaw in the government’s strategy. Last week, the Sunday Telegraph’s editor penned a grief-stricken piece headlined “For the first time in my life, I’m now beginning to think Britain is finished”. Apologies for sounding unsympathetic about someone clearly in a right …

Pushing Buttons: A new Switch? GTA VI? What to expect from Gamescom | Games

Published by Sam

For many years, Gamescom was quietly known within the industry as “that other event” – a reference to the utter dominance E3 once enjoyed in the collective consciousness. Taking place in Cologne, it’s a very different beast to its American counterpart, aimed much more at the public (as Keza reports here), and focusing on hands-on demos, rather than endless press conferences. The proof of that could be found in its opening night livestream on Tuesday, a sprawling jamboree of trailers and gameplay clips produced and presented by Geoff Keighley, a one-time journalist, Game Awards organiser and now apparently the only person allowed to make global game events. What the night showed is that Gamescom is not quite as slickly stage managed as E3. Keighley was interrupted by stage invaders who demanded the release of GTA 6, and there were awkward segments including an interview with cosplayers. Then Zack Snyder was given several minutes to promote his forthcoming movie Rebel Moon, which, to be fair, did look more like a video game than a lot of …

Apple reverses decision to change ‘end call’ button’s placement in iOS 17

Apple reverses decision to change ‘end call’ button’s placement in iOS 17

Published by skeptic

Apple’s iOS 17 update, announced at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June, didn’t usher in many controversial changes. That is, apart from relocating the end-call button to the bottom right-hand side of the call screen gird. However, the Cupertino company has now reversed that decision, shifting the end call button back to the center-bottom — similar to where it was in iOS 16. People probably didn’t like the change in the position of the end call button because they might be used to tap that part of the screen to end a call without looking. Apple previously placed the end call button below the icon grid on the call screen on iOS 16. With the iOS 17 beta version, the company initially updated the call screen UI to accommodate the Contact Posters features. The changes placed the icon grid almost at the bottom of the screen, but moved the end-call button to the bottom right. Placement of the end call button in iOS 16 Image Credits: Screenshot by TechCrunch While that change had been …

Tables and Gems

Tables and Gems

Published by skeptic

held and unheld here in love, having been accused of telling stories, look how violently we fold and tint and follow haze come into branch and spring and gone and breathing armor. come make some garden inside. the scene is everyday let’s see. the situation is fractured arbor. an old dress made new the old way, out of absent extra, starched and pressed in low gravy, come up on not enough again’s invisible veer. plot gets folded, handed, and put away with all our fibrant things of hush and ardor. … we’re always about to hear something. what we hear is something we’re all about to hear recede in plain sight and song in the sense of things, and in the way. wonder what all that wonder’s about? it’s about to withdraw, something ’bout to be withheld. if there’s a secret in what we see, it’s gone. can we go too? let’s go all up in there for the memory, for all work’s intricacy on boo-boo’s birthday, tintless on the underside. sometimes you be looking …