Nothing could be more exciting to fans of legendary horror author H.P. Lovecraft than the discovery of a rare manuscript in a defunct magic shop’s collection.
But it gets better. “The Cancer of Superstition,” written by Lovecraft in 1926, was commissioned by magician Harry Houdini. A Houdini memorabilia collector found the book and is selling it to the public.
Anyone who wants to read the 31 typewritten pages for themselves can buy the work as part of a Houdini lot from Potter & Potter Auctions in Chicago on April 9.
Previously, most Lovecraft and Houdini scholars believed the book might exist only in outline form since the work was suspended soon after Houdini’s death in October of 1926.
The famous magician’s widow, Beatrice, did not want to pursue the completion of the work after his death.
As an unpublished manuscript and a work in progress, “The Cancer of Superstition” is divided into the three sections: “The Genesis of Superstition,” “The Expansion of Superstition” and “The Fallacy of Superstition.”
Houdini shows how to slip out of handcuffs in 1918.
Bettmann/Corbis
“In his investigative account of superstition in ancient and modern culture, Lovecraft explores werewolves and other monsters, worship of the dead, cannibalism, and other ‘barbarian’ practices,” according to Potter & Potter Auctions site. “He concludes, frighteningly, ‘most of us are heathens in the innermost recesses of our hearts.'”
The lot of magic memorabilia — which also includes Houdini’s personal letters, scrapbooks, rare photos, posters, film footage, autographs, handcuffs, keys and lock picks — is set to open at $13,000, with a pre-auction estimate between $25,000 and $40,000.
Download the Houdiniana Catalog to see the items, including the Lovecraft manuscript on page 24, for sale. If you’re in Chicago, you can see the collection April 6-8 at a public exhibit at the auction house’s gallery. Collectors will be able to bid live online April 9 through Liveauctioneers.com and Invaluable.com.
Microsoft’s Surface Mini, a smaller version of the company’s Surface Pro tablet, has once again surfaced. Only this time, Microsoft has done the leaking.
Long-time Microsoft-tracker Paul Thurrott published a tweet on Friday, saying that “there are Surface Mini references all over the Surface Pro 3 User Guide.” CNET subsequently accessed and checked the User Guide and can confirm that the Surface Mini is mentioned several times.
“If you want to do more than take a quick handwritten note, unlock Surface Mini,” one mention states. “When you do, you’ll get the full functionality of OneNote.” Another talks about the Surface Pen’s interaction with “your Surface Mini or Surface Pro 3.”
The Surface Mini, a smaller version of Microsoft’s Surface Pro, has been rumored for months. Last month, Microsoft held a special Surface event where it was expected to unveil both a high-end Surface Pro and a smaller Surface Mini. While the higher-end tablet, the Intel Core-based Surface Pro 3 , was announced at the event, the Surface Mini was a no-show.
The lower end of the tablet market is a key component in Microsoft’s plans for the space. The company has heretofore been offering slates that appeal to those who want a high-end experience, but the lower end, where devices like the iPad Mini and Amazon Kindle Fire HDX live, is crucial for market share and revenue growth.
CNET has contacted Microsoft for comment on the latest revelation. We will update this story when we have more information.
The iPad Air (left) and the Surface Pro 2
Brooke Crothers/CNET
Microsoft and Apple have very different ideas about what a high-end tablet is.
After extensive use of both, I have some thoughts about the their strengths and weaknesses.
But first, some context. Though the year-over-year growth rate for tablets in 2013 was 51.6 percent, this year may be a different story, according to IDC. The market researcher expects the tablet market to grow only 19.4 percent in 2014. And a separate report this week points to a possible peak in iPad sales.
My guess is that the tablet as we know it — primarily a content consumption device (and pretty much invented by Apple) — is pretty much played out and in need of rethinking.
To wit, I can say for the first time that I’m not waiting with bated breath for the next refresh of the iPad. It’s just not that exciting anymore. But I would be very interested in a new take on the tablet from Apple.
So with that in mind, here’s what I think is good and bad about the tablet as represented by the iPad and the Surface. As much as possible, I’ll try to leave it to the reader to decide which approach succeeds.
Note that I’m not going to cover every facet of design and usability (that’s been covered in reviews already), just some salient characteristics that stand out after long-term use.
–Performance: Over the long haul, this becomes more and more important for me. And I think it’s safe to say that the Surface Pro 2 beats the iPad Air pretty handily. The Pro not only feels much faster (it is a full-blown laptop inside, after all), it also benchmarks faster. Check out Geekbench numbers if you need proof.
All that extra memory in the Pro 2 (4GB standard) makes a difference too. Multitasking is fast and fluid. Not so on the iPad. For example, if you have a lot of browser tabs open on the Air, saving work — for applications that I use — can get dicey.
The future: Apple has made it clear that the 64-bit “desktop class” A series processors will continue to get closer to mainstream Intel performance.
–Versatility: For what I do day in and day out, the Surface Pro wins too. The ability to snap on the keyboard/trackpad (replete with an OS that supports a mouse pointer) and immediately be in full laptop productivity mode has become more important after months of use. And the design of the Surface takes this way beyond the third-party keyboard docks for the iPad Air.
Bottom line: If I was going on a trip and had to choose between the Surface Pro 2 and the iPad Air, I would take the Pro 2.
And the future? I vote for increasing versatility. Maybe Apple will take versatility in a different direction (sans keyboard). But, again, something fundamental needs to change to keep the category interesting.
–Physical design: The beauty of the iPad Air isn’t only skin deep. For a svelte chassis it packs a decent amount of processing power. So, if aesthetics are important in the long run, the Air wins. (But the Pro 2 looks pretty attractive too next to my 3.5-pound MacBook Pro Retina. So, it’s not a total wash.)
The future: I like the direction Samsung is going with the Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 . It’s not there yet, but there’s promise.
–Portability: No contest here. The iPad Air is a one-pound wonder. The Surface Pro 2 doubles that to two pounds. At the risk of stating the obvious, that’s important if you need to grab and go most of the time and you do limited productivity work, like tasks in Microsoft Office for iPad , or undemanding photo editing.
Over time, a highly portable design does tend to wear better too. For instance, the original MacBook Air that came out in 2008 can still — six years later — be considered a very thin, lightweight laptop with portability that kills even in 2014.
I would include built-in 3G/4G LTE in portability too (no need for a second hotspot device). It’s available on the iPad Air, not on the Surface Pro 2. That aspect of the Surface Pro bothers me more now than it did at the beginning.
The future: Microsoft has work to do. As in, make it eminently portable like the Surface 2 but with the software compatibility of the Surface Pro (or by having a lot more apps in the Windows Store). And, yes, add 3G/4G, for crying out loud.
–Price: The iPad Air starts at $499, the Surface Pro 2, at $899. No contest here if price is the deciding factor and you don’t need a hybrid.
The future: I have a feeling that high-end tablet pricing will get closer to the Surface Pro. But let’s hope I’m wrong.
I’ll close by saying that I understand that tablets aren’t used in a vacuum. In other words, many, if not most, people have both a laptop and a tablet and use each as they see fit at the moment.
Still, I think the longer you own a tablet, the more versatility and performance becomes important. In that sense, the Surface Pro 2 today may have more legs than the iPad Air. And it may be leaning a bit more toward the future.
That all could change of course, if Apple tries its hand at a new tablet concept. My vote’s for an iPad Pro.
It’s no secret that I think the Pioneer Kuro PDP-LX5090 is the best TV I’ve ever seen. It’s certainly the highest-rated TV we’ve ever reviewed, and although other TVs are starting to get closer in terms of picture quality, it’s still far and away the best on the market. But even the love of your life can annoy you every so often. So has using one day-in, day-out since last September changed my opinion of this incredible TV?
Like your nearest and dearest, living with a product for several months does one thing very well, and that’s highlight any problems between the two of you. Are there any chinks in the 5090’s armour? No. Honestly, no. There’s nothing significant about this TV that’s given me cause for concern. Sure, I’d sleep better at night if it used a little less electricity, but it’s not impractically hungry, by any stretch of the imagination.
Okay, okay, there’s one little thing. The only minor irritation is the idiotic input system. On most TVs, the video inputs are managed from a single button that cycles through its connections. The Pioneer does it slightly differently, in that it maps the inputs to a series of specific buttons on the remote. In theory, that’s much better, because I know which button to push to get the input I want. The problem is the TV has more inputs than buttons. And that means if you plug something into every input, you have to fiddle around in a menu before you can see a picture. It’s worth pointing out that Pioneer changed this system on the KRP range, so if this sounds like it might be a problem for you — if, like us, you have a ludicrous number of devices to hook up to it — go with one of those instead.
Even that doesn’t really bother me on a day-to-day basis. In the early days, my fiancée occasionally moaned about it being rather too large at 50 inches (stop sniggering at the back), but soon got over that when we rearranged the lounge to sit further away. Now I think she secretly loves it nearly as much as I do.
As we pointed out in our initial review, the picture quality of these Kuros is something else. I have both Freeview and freesat at home. Freeview is, for the most part, very watchable on this screen. Despite its massive dimensions, I rarely find myself troubled by MPEG artefacts, unlike on our old LCD screen, where it often appeared that the TV was trying to protect everyone’s identity underneath a mosaic of picture degradation.
Surprisingly, DVDs are a silvery little treat too. I still have much fondness for the ageing format, and it’s fair to say the Pioneer does some of its best work with DVDs. There are even some times when watching a DVD can be such a pleasant experience I forget it’s standard definition. Of course, I’ll take HD every time, but I still have a fair few DVDs, and with my Lovefilm subscription, I make regular use of the Pioneer’s skilful upscaling talents.
It seems fairly redundant to talk about picture quality on HD material. As you can imagine, 1080p video on the Pioneer is enough to make you drool. I’ve had non-techie friends come over to see the big fella in action, and the result has never been anything other than impressed comments and/or excited noises. I can only imagine they go home to their poor old tellies and make annoyed tuts and generally take much less care about securing their Wii controller’s wrist strap.
If you’re intrigued, and haven’t seen them yet, have a look at our reviews of the £2,200 LX5090 and £3,200 LX6090, as well as the media-box equipped, £2,500 KRP-500a. If you want one of these screens and you have the cash, we strongly suggest you get on with it. Pioneer estimates its stock will run out sometime this summer (possibly as soon as September) and people who buy one rarely sell it — preferring instead to part with a limb or child to raise cash if money gets tight.
As someone who’s spoiled rotten by access to the latest and coolest technology on the planet, it’s a genuine thrill for me to get home each night, fire up the 5090 and watch TV. And as someone who could probably find something to moan about in any situation, it’s a testament to Pioneer that it’s created something for which I have nothing but love for.
