Video

A stellar adventure

Bright, bold, playful and ingenious, action impresario J.J. Abrams' prequel to the classic 1960s TV show (and subsequent film series) "Star Trek" possesses equal amounts of respect and cheek.

The nervy reboot can be summed up as a triumph of casting. From the moment Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana showed up in Abrams' "Star Trek" four years ago, it was clear he had found the right actors to portray Capt. James Kirk, Spock and Uhura in their years as Starfleet rookies. The ensemble of superb young actors inhabit their characters with uncanny ease.

In "Star Trek Into Darkness," the Enterprise crew is back — including ship doctor "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban), chief engineer Scotty (Simon Pegg), Chekov (Anton Yelchin) and Sulu (John Cho). But the casting coup is Benedict Cumberbatch ("Sherlock"), a villain on the cusp of becoming a legendary nemesis. "Star Trek Into Darkness" derives its ballast, and most of its menacing pleasure, from Cumberbatch, who takes tantalizing ownership of a role with near-limitless future prospects for evil mayhem.

The Blu-ray (Paramount, $40-$55; also DVD, $30) contains featurettes, including an inspiring look at the partnership between the film's crew and a veterans organization.

Washington Post

Colin Covert says: The second entry in the revived franchise is a note-perfect blend of escapist fun and thought-provoking commentary, ensemble drama, comic relief, daredevil action and senses-shattering spectacle.

Also out Tuesday

Movies: "Chasing Ice," "Frankenstein's Army," "Love Is All You Need," "Parade's End," "Peeples," "We Steal Secrets."

TV: "Army Wives" (Season 7), "The Big Bang Theory" (Season 6), "Blue Bloods" (Season 3), "Castle" (Season 5), "Chicago Fire" (Season 1), "Homeland "(Season 2), "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" (Season 1), "Phil Spector," "Supernatural" (Season 8).

App

Text editor with power

You have a lot of choices for simple text editors on the iPad, but if you're looking for a text editor with serious power, Editorial ($4.99 via iTunes) is what you're looking for.

At its core, Editorial is a Markdown-based text editor that syncs with Dropbox. But that's just the start. Editorial is incredibly customizable, so you can use it to write and edit just about anything you want.

The kicker is its automation functions. Inside of Editorial is a Python interpreter and more than a dozen libraries that automate images, scripts, HTTP requests and plenty more. Essentially, you can create your own OS X Automator-style workflows inside of Editorial, and it's pretty easy to do with Editorial's Workflows.

Editorial is a seriously powerful tool.

Lifehacker

Web

Bustling Internet

Ever stopped to wonder how many other people might have just liked a post on Facebook, searched for something on Google or tweeted at the same time as you? There's a website that purportedly shows you what that looks like.

One Second on the Internet (onesecond.designly.com) is a website that visually demonstrates just how busy the Internet might be every second.

The site starts by showing that every second a little fewer than 200 votes are cast on Reddit, but as users scroll down, Internet activity becomes far more expansive.

It shows that more than 450 Instagram pictures are shared, more than 825 Tumblr blogs are posted and more than 1,000 Skype calls are made every second. By the time you get to tweets, likes, watched YouTube videos and Google searches, the scrolling can start to feel like an eternity.

But what's the busiest activity of all on the site? E-mail. About 1.67 million e-mails are sent every second, according to the site. It doesn't say how much of that is spam.

Los Angeles Times