During that Apple town hall meeting we mentioned earlier this week CEO Steve Jobs reportedly had some choice words regarding Google that left little doubt about how the outspoken executive sees the competition.

That "Don't be evil" slogan Google's known for? "Bullshit" Jobs said, after which he was reportedly rewarded with a big round of applause from the gathered throng of Apple employees.

Also about Google, Jobs said that company "entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them."

Jobs also singled out Adobe, calling the company "lazy" because, in his opinion, "they have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it." Jobs also criticized Flash for being buggy. When a Mac crashes, it's usually because of Flash, he reportedly told the crowd. "The world is moving to HTML5", he said.

Reports that the town hall meeting was adjourned with a gavel that made a loud Bing sound were completely fabricated and made up by me just now. [Wired]

Future comic book heroes may be referred to as Men of Spongy Steel if one researcher's experimental metal makes it out of the lab and into real-world applications.

There's no fancy name attached to this stuff yet, so we'll just call it steel foam for now. Name or no name, its various applications (tested in the lab) still sound incredible:

Rough traffic accident calculations show that by inserting two pieces of her composite metal foam behind the bumper of a car traveling 28 mph, the impact would feel the same to passengers as impact traveling at only 5 mph.

Then there's the smash test, wherein researcher and materials scientist Afsaneh Rabiei takes a piece of steel and a piece of foam steel and smashes them both into a base plate at high speed. After the test, there's a clear indentation in the traditional steel, while the foam shows no damage whatsoever. Energy absorption, and all that.

As the article notes, metal foam isn't exactly a new invention, but these tests show Rabiei's may be the strongest version yet. Already scientists' minds are swimming with applications for this super spongy steel, most notably body armor, artificial limbs, boats and airplanes. [Live Science via Neatorama]

The writing was on the wall as recently as 2 a.m. this morning, and an open letter from Macmillan CEO John Sargent has confirmed everything we suspected: Macmillan books were pulled from Amazon store as part of a strong-arm tactic in the coming eBook price war. [Publishers Marketplace via Boing Boing]

So says Mark Cuban, opining about the potential for children's entertainment and media consumption with the iPad. The man owns a basketball team and was on Dancing with the Stars, people. Technology savant as far as I'm concerned.

Editor's Note: In all honesty I'm actually pretty excited about the iPad (from a software potential perspective), so don't take this light-hearted post to mean I'm making fun of Cuban. He's actually got quite the tech/media background (and HD too), and I happen to agree with him, for now. [MSNBC]

So says Mark Cuban, opining about the potential for children's entertainment and media consumption with the iPad. The man owns a basketball team and was on Dancing with the Stars, people. Technology savant as far as I'm concerned.

Editor's Note: In all honesty I'm actually pretty excited about the iPad (from a software potential perspective), so don't take this light-hearted post to mean I'm making fun of Cuban. He's actually got quite the tech/media background (and HD too), and I happen to agree with him, for now. [MSNBC]

As data visualization has become more popular, bad infographics have started to crop up more and more frequently. Thankfully, we can always rely on Michael Paukner to make very, very good ones. Here he shows the satellites orbiting our planet.

Russia, as you might expect, has a whole lot of satellites that are no longer functioning. China is responsible for a surprisingly large amount of tiny space trash, though I'm not exactly clear on what that is. America, of course, is responsible for the largest amount of space trash.

Seeing how many broken satellites remain in orbit instantly reminded me of the scene in Wall-E in which the Earth of the future is seen enveloped in a layer of orbiting techno-trash. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Michael Paukner has a lot of other awesome stuff, space-related and otherwise, so check out his Flickr if you're interested. [Michael Paukner via We Love Dataviz]

This could very well be the world's first Swiss Army Knife. Bearing a striking resemblance to modern multi-tools, it has at least six distinct functions and originates from the Roman Empire circa 200 A.D.

If our multi-tools today, with their screwdrivers, pliers, and the rest, center on fixing things, this Roman predecessor is more useful for enjoying the pleasures of food. The tool includes a spike which historians think was used to snag snails out of their shells. A hook-like spatula is thought to have helped coax sauce out of the bottle.

Of course, the device also includes a fork, spoon, and knife for mealtime, as well as a toothpick to clean up your grill afterward. Amazingly, all of these tools appear to fold into the handle to keep everything compact, just like Swiss Army Knives and Leatherman multi-tools we use today.

The tool was found in the Mediterranean area nearly twenty years ago, so technically it's not Swiss at all, and it predates the modern Swiss Army Knife, invented in 1897, by nearly 1,800 years.

This very old gadget is currently being exhibited as part of a collection of Greek and Roman artifacts at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. [Daily Mail]

If you're serious about your music and are looking for a portable DAC that will keep your digital audio sounding crystal clear even when you're out and about, the USB-powered DACport might be just the ticket.

Does the mere thought of listening to MP3s makes your ears hurt? But do you still like to enjoy your music on the go? Then the DACport is a combination headphone amp and digital to analog converter to check out.

It natively plays 24-bit/96 kHz, powers over USB, and is fully plug and play compatible. The $500 DACport claims that it will eliminate the cable jitter and background noise that is typical of USB DAC devices.

If you're still with me, you can check out a thorough review at Head-Fi or check out the manufacturer's site for more info. [CEntrance via Technabob]

I took two astronomy classes in college, and one of the few things I retained is that in space stuff just keeps floating. Thus, the Star Wars opening text, though originating galaxies away, will eventually make its way to Earth...

That catastrophic eventuality is the subject of this video, which was was filmed over a couple of hours but ultimately took weeks to complete due to all the post-production and editing. And it shows; the effects are pretty impressive throughout.

Though I guess if you're gonna do a high concept YouTube like the Star Wars text raining down on Earth, it's best to do it right. [Reddit]

If you're a Palm Pre owner who's been craving some old-school distraction, rejoice! You can now play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games on your smartphone.

Game Boy Advance games, like Mario Kart Short Circuit, aren't quite running at full speed yet—about 60% of normal speed with sound or 90% without—but Game Boy and Game Boy Color games work just fine, and, as they say, emulators can't be choosers.

The VisualBoyAdvance for WebOS project only started two weeks ago, so hopefully updates and improvements will be quick to follow. As shown in the video, the emulator can already switch between portrait and landscape and supports custom skinning.

Check out the project's page on Pre Central for information on how to install. [Pre Central via Engadget]