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I'm sorry, Dave, but you can now download HAL 9000 onto your iPhone
The year 2001 came and went, and nothing: No monolith, no orbiting Howard Johnson's, no Pan Am flights to the moon. But you can have one thing: your own personal HAL 9000 computer.
Not exactly built at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th of January 1992, the new HAL 9000 app for your iPhone was actually created by Jonathan Mulcahy and is available at the iTunes App Store for 99 cents.
HAL, of course, was the nefarious computer from Stanley Kubrick's classic 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the one that nearly scuttled the mission of the Discovery to Jupiter.
The HAL 9000 app consists of that creepy glowing-red-eye panel. When you touch it, HAL utters several of his deathless phrases. And he still has the greatest enthusiasm for the mission. (Thanks to Venture Beat for the heads-up.)
By Facepalm at 6:58 AM ON 02/10/09
Hurray for copyright infringements.
Will MGM sue the creator? Or Apple for distribution of pirated products? Will the author claim his rights since it was his description on which the app was based on?
And most important, is there anything people will not try to cash-in on? Where is my Max Headroom? The Knight Industries link to my talking car? The McGuyver app using only an iPhone and a piece of yarn to defeat global terrorism? Why am I still unable to dial my Stargate with my Iphone, do these ancient device not have WLAN? Will that rant ever end?
*snap*
By 13th Cylon at 8:04 AM ON 02/10/09
Now I would pay good money for a Max Headroom! Tha-tha-tha-that would be co-co-co-cool.
Also a Cylon eye would be very cool (KIT alternat mode perhaps) Touch it and get an old school "By your command"! I say infringe away!
By Al at 10:50 AM ON 02/10/09
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Let's put the fans back into fanatics! How about the Trek sound effects? Star Wars? Doctor Who!
Okay. I'll sit down now...
By blue at 11:54 AM ON 02/10/09
I'm so downloading this before it gets removed! this will site right next to my cylon detector app. hm, what other sci-fi shows & movies could use an app?
By red at 5:15 PM ON 02/10/09
Hal was the computer from Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2001. Though the phone app may use the same voice as the movie, the whole original concept was from Arthur C. Clarke. Please give credit where credit is due.
By ripleycal at 6:50 PM ON 02/10/09
Actually, the movie came first. Clarke adapted his own screenplay, which was based on his story "The Sentinel," into the novel.
By Roger Workman at 8:35 PM ON 02/10/09
I have an iPhone, but how is this news? "There are thousands of useless iPhone applications. Here is one of them."
By lana at 9:59 PM ON 02/10/09
Oh cool, must get. Thx for pointing it out.
Visit mobile.syfy.com/wire on your mobile device.
lana:
Oh cool, must get. Thx for pointing it out....More »