tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97932102024-03-13T10:14:25.949-07:00Inside the Mind of a NerdBene legere saecla vincere..."To read well is to conquer the ages"Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.comBlogger909125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-23022053420385947782015-06-11T22:22:00.002-07:002015-06-12T11:26:12.643-07:00SIFF 2015<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Wow, I can't believe I haven't made any posts since last year's <a href="http://www.siff.net/" target="_blank">SIFF</a>! I had a few posts in mind, but obviously they never came to fruition. I guess planning a wedding in between working a full time job takes its toll. My special someone and I still managed to <strike>jam in</strike> find time to watch 14 movies this season from the largest film festival in the nation, so I wanted to give my somewhat arbitrary awards. I tried to keep most of the same awards from last year, but I decided to swap one of them out given the makeup of the films we saw. While I think as a while I enjoyed the slate of films we had last year at SIFF better, when I look back at this year I still thought there were some real gems to be enjoyed.<br />
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<b>Best Documentary</b><br />
Winner: <i>The Birth of </i><span class="st"><i>Saké</i> </span><br />
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<a href="https://vimeo.com/120607742">The Birth of Saké official trailer</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user1735863">erik shirai</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</center>
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This was a clear winner to me because I think it is the most impressive documentary I've ever seen. I honestly can't think of a documentary I've seen before that I enjoyed more. What really grabbed me about this film was that it felt so honest. It felt less like a documentary and more like real life was scripted and adapted into a movie. There's no forced talking heads or awkward flashbacks to terrible quality footage - the director and producer actually spend multiple weeks living at the Tedorigawa brewery just like the normal set of about a dozen employees do for half the year. This gave them unprecedented access into the lives of these men and into their process. The process of making quality <span class="st">saké isn't exactly a secret, but the laborious manual process is so rarely practiced nowadays (compared to using modern machinery) that this movie gives you a glimpse into something not only steeped in tradition but deeply enriched by Japanese culture. I believe this is Erik Shirai's first feature film, which makes it all the more impressive. If you get the chance to watch this movie please do. Though I personally find </span><span class="st">saké to be delicious, I really don't think you have to in order to enjoy this documentary.</span><br />
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<b>Best Eye Candy</b><br />
Winner: <i>Henri Henri</i> <br />
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I can't overlook a film that took the high bar set by <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZG5EYC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004ZG5EYC&linkCode=as2&tag=instheminofan-20&linkId=GVEC4XRI4WIH2RM2">Amélie</a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004ZG5EYC" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /></i> and decided that it was going to produce an equally satisfying film that has a completely different plot. While this movie was made in Quebec, there are clear parallels in some of the overall set of characters and style of the movie compared to <i>Amelie</i>, but other than that it really takes a life of its own. The film follows the somewhat naive Henri, an orphan who is being evicted from the convent he grew up in and has to find his footing in the real world with his only marketable skill being that of a rebulber (i.e. changing light bulbs). With that simple premise, a tale of romance, hopefulness, and a bit of magic takes shape. It's as sweet as it is beautiful with strong visual sense that sticks with you after you leave the theater. While it doesn't create quite as rich as a world as <i>Amelie</i> does (in part due to its modest timeline, in my opinion), it does make effective use of the imagery it's trying to convey. While at times I felt the imagery was a little on the nose, I had to put that aside because so much was right about this movie. It's a feel-good movie that you should really want to see.<br />
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Runner Up: <i>The Birth of </i><span class="st"><i>Saké</i> </span> <br />
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I've already spoken about this film above, but I did just want to add that the cinematography in this film is ridiculous. I cannot fathom how they got such crisp visuals when only Erik Shirai and his producer were at the brewery making the film. They had a great editor, too, but the raw footage had to be high quality to produce such jaw dropping visuals. So many scenes would look good plastered on the wall of my college apartment's bedroom (heck, there are stills I would frame and put on my wall <i>now</i>).<br />
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<b>Most Touching</b><br />
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Winner: <i>Good Ol' Boy</i><br />
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I had a hard time deciding on this one because I had a few movies that I felt could've met this category. I decided to give it to <i>Good Ol' Boy</i> because I loved the breadth of emotions it brought out of me. I think it affected me on a personal level because I somewhat identify with the lead character since I, too, grew up in an immigrant Indian family (although my family isn't Hindu and I wasn't born in India in the 70s). It's not a sad movie necessarily, but I did find it to be very evocative. It's a style of movie that you don't see enough of nowadays - a small town coming of age story. There's plenty of movies targeted at teens/tweens nowadays that capitalize on melodrama culture, but this movie juxtaposes real life problems for children in the 70s along with cultural differences. Even though I wish we could've spent more time with these characters you get quite a bit about them from a pretty concise script and it's just enough to keep you satisfied without overwhelming you with subtext. To top it off, lead actor Roni Akurati
steals the screen as a really endearing Indian boy. I enjoyed this film thoroughly and really hope it gets picked up. Also, SIFF is <a href="http://www.siff.net/cinema/good-ol-boy" target="_blank">showing it this Sunday</a> again for any locals who didn't catch it. <br />
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Runner Up: <i>I'll See You In My Dreams<b> </b> </i><br />
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Blythe Danner, where have you been all my life? What an amazing leading lady for a really cute film. The humorous situation we found ourselves in for this movie was that at least three fourths of the people in the theater were 50 years old or above. That shouldn't indicate that the movie is only for an older crowd - it's actually not cheesy like a lot of films that pander to this audience are. It's very honest and heartfelt. It follows widower Carol Petersen who has become somewhat numb to life in her twilight years and is trying to make sense of it all. It's never preachy, but it has so many scenes with interesting implications that I really appreciated. What I think I found most surprising is that Blythe works as an actress not just as being very talented but still having this air of being sexy. She's not slutty, she's just very human and very endearing in a really fresh way. Her performance is wonderful and really stuck with me. Sam Elliott is also perfect as the love interest and in real life he seems exactly as his character on the big screen (personality-wise), which I thought was kind of fun to see.<br />
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<b>Best Short Film</b><br />
Winner: <i>The World of Tomorrow</i><br />
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Don Hertzfeld, of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuOvqeABHvQ" target="_blank">Rejected</a> fame, has a really strong offering in this short. It's the story of the future self of a young girl going back in time to reveal the girl's long and quirky future as technology advances. It's funny, sweet, and at times a little eerie, but always provocative and interesting. I can't say too much more about it without giving away important details, but I think of it as if <a href="http://www.xkcd.com/" target="_blank">XKCD</a> and sci fi movies got together and had a short film baby. You can actually <a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/worldoftomorrow/123514170" target="_blank">buy this film</a> for a few bucks online, which I recommend doing. It's a worthwhile way to kill 15 minutes and be totally entranced.<br />
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Runner Up: <i>Live Fast Draw Yung</i><br />
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There were so many great shorts this year that picking just one runner up was hard, but I have to give it to this really fun short documentary about Yung Lenox, a 7 year-old with a penchant for doing hand drawn portraits of rappers and their albums. His <a href="https://instagram.com/yunglenox/" target="_blank">Instagram</a> account has generated a cult following and his father's love for him really shines through in this documentary. The kid is really cute and fun, and the short had just the right amount of everything.<br />
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<b> Best Overall</b><br />
Winner: <i>Love & Mercy<b> </b></i><br />
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When I walked out of this movie, I didn't expect that it would be my favorite film of SIFF 2015. As time has progressed though, it has clearly emerged as the film that I've thought about the most. This almost haunting portrayal of the life of Brian Wilson at the peak of his career and probably the lowest point of his life is a very unique experience. I didn't even want to see this movie because I'm so tired of the formulaic big name biopic movies that have been getting churned out every year or two like clockwork. This film has a twist though - Paul Dano portrays Brian Wilson towards the latter part of his time with the Beach Boys (around the time when <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008LA7RM0/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008LA7RM0&linkCode=as2&tag=instheminofan-20&linkId=AZC6WS7VQQFSH4MP">Pet Sounds</a><img src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B008LA7RM0" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> was recorded and released) while John Cusack portrays Brian Wilson in the late 1980s when he is under the care of psychologist Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti) and in a budding relationship with Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks). The movie is so bizarre at times that I wouldn't have believed it was true if I didn't see interviews with Wilson that confirm it. In fact, I probably watched at least half an hour of old footage from Beach Boys performances and interviews because the film got under my skin so much. It's pretty surprising how much the faces on screen mimic their real life counterparts.<br />
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Paul Dano clearly puts it all out there in his portrayal of Wilson. While Cusack's performance may not have been quite as nuanced, I still found it to be an effective dramatization of Wilson's time under Landy. Paul Giamatti as Landy was also a powerhouse in his performance - truly incredible and at times truly frightening. This movie also has made me look at Elizabeth Banks in a whole new light. I'm used to seeing her in comedies and less heavy material, but this movie shows that she's ready for more serious material like this (this isn't her first drama by any means, it's just a good demonstration of her abilities). You don't have to be a Beach Boys fan to enjoy this movie, you just have to be a lover of music and good storytelling and I doubt you'll be disappointed here.</div>
Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-89151374514850300712014-06-22T01:26:00.000-07:002014-06-22T01:26:21.360-07:00SIFF 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It makes me so happy that <a href="http://www.siff.net/" target="_blank">SIFF</a> exists and that they put so much effort into putting on such a great festival every year. This year was no exception and I think had a particularly awesome <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tShVDHqdpUE" target="_blank">promotional video</a> with it. It featured over 140 painstakingly chosen films (and is the longest film festival in the country I believe), and out of that we managed to see 11 feature length films and 3 short film programs. So I thought I'd come up with a few awards of my own (obviously not formal or anything). The films that I'm listing below as winners are literally movies that I still think about today, two weeks after seeing our last film at the festival. They're worthy of your money if you get a chance to see them.<br />
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<b>Best Eye Candy</b><br />
Winner: <i>The Nightingale</i><br />
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We almost didn't even see this one because I just didn't know what it would be like. I was really impressed with it though. It's entirely in Chinese (with a French director at the helm, interestingly enough) and features the incredible backdrop of rural China. It may be the best shot movie you'll see all year. Not only that, but it's a wonderful story. In a nutshell, a little girl spoiled by modern conveniences and has two workaholic parents is babysat by her grandfather. He subsequently takes her on a trip to his home village and the story takes off from there. I won't give away more than that, but I'll just say that it's a really cool journey. It is a bit slow paced at times, but I just loved the characters so much that I decided that I really didn't care that it was moving a little slow. If you've only seen China through CNN or some other form of mass media, this is a must-watch. It makes me really want to plan a vacation to China.</div>
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<b>Best Documentary Film</b></div>
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Winner: <i>The Internet's Own Boy</i><br />
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We saw a few documentaries but this one definitely stuck with me the most. It documents the tragically short life of computer visionary Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and Internet Haktivist who contributed to the movement of blacking out websites to protest SOPA/PIPA. He sadly committed suicide amidst facing prosecution for downloading academic journals illicitly using the MIT network. I love how much the movie focused on his accomplishments though and how little it covered his death. The film maker, Brian Knappenberger, showed great respect for Aaron and his family and I found it to be a really inspiring and moving story overall. If you're worried that you'll be depressed from watching it then don't be - it's really not meant to be a sad film. It is sad at times, but I mostly found it amazing that someone so brilliant existed and left a bevy of lessons behind for the rest of us to learn.<br />
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Runner Up: <i>I Am Big Bird</i></div>
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I was really pleasantly surprised by this film. We decided to see it because of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHYv5K9GGtQ" target="_blank">cute trailer</a> but I figured that a movie about the life of some guy would be boring, even if Caroll Spinney is Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. I was truly surprised at how captivating this movie is. I think what made it really special is all the archival footage that the Spinney family let the directors use. We briefly met Caroll and his wife after the movie and I was so happy that they're the exact people you see in the movie. The directors truly captured the personality of the both of them so well and you'd think that someone who's been Big Bird for so many generations of kids would be crotchety and jaded by now but in fact he was really sweet to all his fans that came out to take photos and get autographs. The movie is definitely a ball of emotion from start to finish eager to take you from tears to laughs within a few minutes (some of the transitions were actually a tad sudden), but if you can stomach a few tears then you're in for a really enjoyable film.<br />
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<b>Most Provocative Film</b></div>
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Winner: <i>Dear White People</i></div>
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I was already pretty jazzed for this movie going into it and it did not disappoint. The thing is, I don't know how to describe it really. They have a teaser for it that I don't really recommend watching because I don't think it does a great job telling you what this movie is really like. It's a satire that superbly addresses the issues surrounding modern-day racism (primarily between white and black people) by giving you several different viewpoints from a great cast of characters. It doesn't give any concrete answers and I kind of like that. I walked out of the theater feeling really enlightened and just curious about how many people I've knowingly offended in recent years. I think it's getting a theatrical release in October, which is very well-deserved and frankly a little surprising given that it's a little incendiary in its town. Still, I think it's a film that a lot of Americans really need to watch.<br />
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Runner Up: <i>Two Raging Grannies</i></div>
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If you just watch <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnnNPxk3vgI" target="_blank">the trailer</a> for this movie you'll understand why it's such a fun movie. It simply chronicles the adventure of two senior citizens trying to get a handle on the complex issue of economic sustainability. It ends up being a double whammy because on one hand you actually do learn quite a bit about popular advice on economics and what the pitfalls of those common conceptions are, and on the other hand you get to watcht he two cutest old ladies you ever seen live their lives. I absolutely adore the fact that despite being so old and having mobility and medical issues that they're so brave and driven. I hope when I'm they're age that I still have that kind of fire in me, and it really made me want to go out and pick up some of their suggested reading material.<br />
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<b>Best Overall Film</b></div>
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Winner: <i>Boyhood</i></div>
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I already wrote a pretty in-depth review <a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2014/06/boyhood.html" target="_blank">here</a> about <i>Boyhood</i><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>so I won't re-hash that. I will say that it won the audience choice award (the Golden Space Needle) for best director for Richard Linklater and best actress for Patricia Arquette. I'm pretty sure it'll come out in theaters, possibly even wide release, so just make sure that you catch it when it does because I really doubt you'll be sorry. For all its imperfections, it's so unique that you'll find it hard to look away.<br />
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Runner Up: <i>Life Feels Good</i></div>
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This was another popular movie at the festival that earned Dawid Ogrodnik best actor. This is a really powerful movie. At times, it can definitely be hard to watch and it's a little long. Still, I love how raw it is. It doesn't sugar coat anything and I don't feel like it exaggerates anything. I feel like it's really telling the story of this boy who's coping with Cerebral Palsy and being treated like he's unintelligent even though he's quite smart, sweet, and funny. It's so important for us to treat people with disabilities like people and understand that they can be an asset to society though most people wouldn't think so at first look. I digress though - it's astounding that Dawid doesn't actually have Cerebral Palsy. Astounding. This movie is worth watching just to see how amazing an actor he is - the amazing story is a bonus.<br />
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<b>Best Short Film</b></div>
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Winner:<b> </b><i>Democracia</i><br />
Every year SIFF does a short film program dedicated to Spanish films and after seeing it last year we had to check out again this year. Sure enough, they were all very entertaining. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAFlDxrmfHw" target="_blank">This one</a> was the most memorable to me though. It's the story of the boss of a small company who feels that things have been going too well among employees and somehow has to die so that there can be a funeral for the employees to commiserate at and bond with one another. It's such a crazy concept that you can't help but be drawn in by this dark comedy. If you somehow find a way to watch it, you'll be happy for it.<br />
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Runner Up: <i>The Missing Scarf</i><br />
It makes me so happy that this short film exists. It's quirky, clever, and wonderfully animated. You can get an idea of its style in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EAVjsQXAkg" target="_blank">teaser trailer</a>. It's follows a squirrel looking for his missing scarf that ends up sharing a series of life lessons that end in an interesting twist. It's narrated by the grand master of Seattle's Pride Parade this year, George Takei. I definitely don't think it would be as entertaining without his spot-on narration. Again, if you can see it, please do. You'll thank me for it.<br />
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And that's it! I'm so glad to live in a city that loves cinema enough to support an organization that puts together such a great event every year and can even maintain a few theaters year round. If you appreciate classic movie theaters, please consider <a href="http://www.siff.net/ways-to-give/save-the-egyptian" target="_blank">helping SIFF</a> re-open the Egyptian this fall.</div>
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Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-57905639928629128742014-06-06T13:17:00.001-07:002014-06-06T13:17:45.350-07:00Boyhood<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I know it's been over a year since my last post, but I was feeling inspired to write up a review of <i>Boyhood</i> since we managed to catch it on Sunday at <a href="http://www.siff.net/festival-2014" target="_blank">SIFF</a> and it's not widely released yet but it's one of the only movies I'll have seen during the Festival that will be available nationwide. We still have three more movies to see before SIFF 2014 is in the books, and maybe I'll follow that up with short reviews of my favorites (we'll have seen 14 of the 140+ films).<br />
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The trailer for <i>Boyhood</i> has a couple of spoilers, but I'll share it in the hopes that it will encourage more people to check out this movie:<br />
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Richard Linklater (of the "Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight" series fame) set out 12 years ago on a daring film project: to create a film that follows the boyhood of a fictional character from age 6 to 18 as he deals with growing up in a family after his biological parents divorce. The catch is that this character is played by the same actor without any special effects trickery - all versions of the boy are portrayed by Ellar Coltrane. It's really less of a movie though than a cinematic experiment. While I do think it has its share of problems in the end, I feel that they're outweighed by the wholly unique experience of watching this movie and partially just inherent in the overall story. This is in stark contrast to another cinematic experiment that hasn't gotten quite as much attention stateside, the Aussie film <i>The Turning</i> based on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JMKTZK/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000JMKTZK&linkCode=as2&tag=instheminofan-20&linkId=AUIHHFCZGEZ5LS3M">the book</a><img alt="" border="0" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000JMKTZK" height="1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> of short stories of the same name that I think almost completely failed to make a cohesive movie out of over a dozen short stories directed by different people. <br />
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<i>Boyhood</i> doesn't follow your typical movie formula. It plays more like a series of vignettes that are trying to explain the formative moments of this boy's life. They are held together by involving the same central characters and overall style (after all, the same director made all of them). They actually dovetail quite well with one another. I thought it would be super obvious from a technological point of view in picture quality that the film was made over 12 years, but it really isn't - you just see the main character (Mason Jr.) and his sister (portrayed by Linklater's real-life daughter, Lorelei) age during the course of the film. It flows surprisingly well. The catch is that it's almost like you're looking through a peephole into this kid's life at very specific times. In fact, it's hard for me to think of a scene without the main character in it. Because it has to span so much time, I feel like there are plotlines that aren't fully explored that I would've loved to have seen more of, except that the movie is already far too long at a whopping 164 minutes.<br />
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I'm digressing a bit though. The point I'd like to get across first and foremost is that this is a really evocative film for probably any guy and probably some women, as well. I feel like girls have a distinctively different set of formative experiences from guys (a <i>Girlhood</i> sequel would be kind of cool), but what's deeply fascinating to me is that I can personally relate to so much of what happens in this movie even though my upbringing was so different from Mason Jr.'s. There's some pop culture nostalgia that comes up, but aside from that there's the nostalgia of things like getting bullied or sibling rivalries or lots of other things I don't want to spoil. It really is something special, in my opinion, and something that has stuck with me ever since I've walked out of the theater almost a week ago.<br />
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If I had to pick one thing in this movie that I wish would've been fixed it would be the relationship between Mason Jr. and his mother (portrayed by the amazing Patricia Arquette). She's very talented in her role and I feel like I don't always understand their relationship and that Mason Jr. doesn't always make sense because of this. It's really hard to explain what I mean without spoilers. I wish that Linklater could've cut some other stuff out of the film to make just a little more room for some of that exposition. The focus is so heavy on the boy that so many of the other characters in the film become throwaway and we don't get to get very deep into his sister, even. You have to kind of just accept that and enjoy the ride that this story is, but it still is something that bothered me even though I recognize it as a tough thing to fix.<br />
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My other issues with the movie are relatively minor. The movie ended with terrible dialogue. <i>Terrible</i> dialogue. I think it was purposely cheesy, but why end a film with cheesy dialogue? There was cheesy dialogue at other times in the film, but I feel like it was forgivable because kids are cheesy by nature when they're growing up. I'm conflicted on how I feel about Ellar Coltrane as an actor. It's tough because his supporting cast is so amazing and he's a newcomer to acting, but it was hard to tell at times if he was following direction on the character or phoning it in - it could've gone either way. His performance was good enough, but I don't think he elevated the film like he could've.<br />
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All-in-all, I would call this a must-see movie. If I had to rate it, I'd probably give it an A-. Yes, it's really long. Yes, it can feel like a dizzying array of content. If you can look past its flaws though, I hope you'll agree that Linklater has a real gem on his hands and I <i>really</i> hope that he gets a wide release for this. It's a very engrossing experience that is put together as sharply as one would expect from someone of Richard Linklater's caliber.</div>
Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-88765147763510863672013-03-22T00:06:00.001-07:002013-03-22T12:32:54.813-07:00The Opportunity to Dance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Most people who see me regularly have heard me talk about this issue, but I'm going to make some use out of my blog and put some of my thoughts into writing. Before I get into the issue at hand though, I want to give a little bit of backstory about my relationship with dancing. I hope that telling my story will make my end point clearer, so just stick with me for a while here.<br />
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I've always loved music. Deeply loved it. I was a bored kid in my earlier years because it was too hot to go outside and play, my brother was much older, and we didn't have cable tv, but the bright side of that is that it gave me time to sit in my room and listen to music. I almost never do that anymore because I'm so busy and music has become a backdrop for other activities, but I loved to sit there and do nothing else other than listen to my cassettes or CDs. As I got older, I looked forward to New Year's Eve with the family because there was always dancing to feed my need for music and I felt free to just freestyle dance. I was a terrible dancer, mind you. I had some rhythm but absolutely no technique. I just didn't care though - it always made me smile and laugh. <br />
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Then came the summer of 2006. I interned in Dallas and had probably the best summer of my life enjoying time with newly found friends in my free time, of which there was a lot. A couple of them were Mexican or Colombian and knew how to dance <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0XOay4obbQ" target="_blank">salsa</a> - culturally, it's just something they grew up on. They taught us basic techniques and I remember struggling endlessly to not look like a robot and to stay on rhythm, but the music always energized me enough to make me want to keep trying. I learned through a student organization back at college more than just the basics and what drew me into salsa, aside from the music, was that there was a structure I could follow to dance correctly. Engineers aren't the most creative of people outside of our fields. I have creativity about me in specific parts of my life, but when I see advanced dancers I know that I'll never be quite at their level. Still, salsa gave me a ray of hope that I could grow my creativity and my love of music all in one!<br />
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Before long, I was actually going to salsa clubs. I hadn't ever been to a dance club I didn't hate because it seemed like clubs were places where desperate people go to try to do dubious things and it was always too noisy and too dark. Salsa clubs were almost the exact opposite - they were places where people went to be themselves, have fun, and be respectful (generally) of others. While I was always self-conscious about my novice abilities, I <i>always</i> felt welcome and was grateful for it. I'll never forget one friend I made who was clearly a way better dancer than me and I didn't understand why she, at her far superior experience level, ever wanted to dance with someone who fumbled around to do more than about 10 different techniques. I found out one day when we danced though - she laughed and said "you're always smiling! I love it!" That made me realize a couple of things. For one thing, I hoped I was smiling too much. For another though, it struck me that different people get different things out of dancing from different people, and that's a big part of what makes it magical<br />
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Once you learn one dance though, you just want to learn more and more - it becomes a slight addiction! From that same organization I picked up merengue, cha cha, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rq3j2jGKec" target="_blank">bachata</a>, all much easier than salsa, granted. However, I lost my social group of fellow dancers when I moved to Seattle and was on hiatus for a couple of years. However, I came across <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soBV5RboKFs" target="_blank">west coast swing</a> at an intro lesson to, ironically, re-kindle my interest in salsa where the teachers also knew west coast swing and started noodling around in it. I pretty quickly swooned for west coast swing because of the variety of contemporary music that worked with it (pretty much <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5AkNqLuVgY&list=PLBGeXo7LbhswI7fCCi5u7WbV2J2muVIGN" target="_blank">anything</a> in 4:4 rhythm with a mellow enough tempo). And just last year I started on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr7dgtBIRho" target="_blank">kizomba</a> after being invited by my salsa instructor to try it out! What's interesting about that is how quickly it's catching on worldwide despite being so new.<br />
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What's so addictive about dancing? If you're not already a dancer (by that I mean someone who goes out and dance on some semi-regular basis), then it's probably not so obvious. It's a combination of a few things though. For one, it's beautiful to be in harmony with another person and with music all at the same time. I feel like whenever there is harmony in nature, there is God, and where there is God there is love - so can't we all use a little more love in life? Secondly, once you learn the ropes in your first dance style - it's much easier to do other stuff. It's like when you start working out regularly - the first couple of weeks suck, but then it's never quite so hard again. Thirdly though, and maybe most importantly, there's the sense of community. Dancing really helped me gain a lot of confidence in myself. There's no distinction among skin color or sex or economic class or age or anything like that in dancing. I've even danced with women well into their 60s and saw them light up on the dance floor like they were 20 years younger. There's few activities out there that brings people together in a positive way like dancing - all around you is smiling (possibly sweaty) people, laughter, and hugs.<br />
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Of course, as a lead it can be hard sometimes to find time to practice on your own enough to stay sharp out there and so sometimes you can get a little bit in your own head as you mess up details a lot and discouraged as I have recently. However, earlier this week, I went dancing west coast swing at <a href="http://www.centuryballroom.com/home/" target="_blank">Century</a> and had an experience that reminded me of why dancing is worth it. A girl asked me to dance to a song that I didn't know and she said "oh, it's a waltz" to which I frantically replied "oh no! I don't know how to waltz!" Her more than welcome response to me was to just do whatever I wanted and make it up as I go because that's what she does. Amazingly enough, it really worked. For those 3-4 minutes, I felt like a real-life dancer. I took all that I had soaked up from dancing west coast swing and salsa and watching others and by roughly matching the beat I just did what came natural. I was on a high all night from it because it's such a rare experience to dance with someone and be on the same page the whole time where even your screw-ups and theirs come out looking superb. As I mentioned earlier with harmony, I think most dancers will remark that there are only certain people they absolutely click with when they're out there - you may have fun with lots of people, but it's a small number that you uniquely mesh with.<br />
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Why did I spend all this time explaining my interest in dancing? Because I believe the opportunity to dance is a right everyone should have. There's an antiquated law that the state of Washington is conveniently interpreting to hinder that opportunity. They've decided to shakedown Century Ballroom for an astronomical amount of back taxes they never before asked for but got negotiated down to $92,000, and while they've fundraised about $63,000 of that, they have until May 1 to come up with the rest. If you at all liked reading this post, I implore you to thank me by <a href="http://www.centuryballroom.com/home/events/opportunity-dance" target="_blank">donating a few bucks to Century</a>. I know there's a lot of great charities out there so maybe it seems silly to donate to a small business, but they help people right here in Seattle and create an opportunity to dance in a really positive way with their affordable classes and affordable social dancing. They've been a Seattle institution for 16 years and have earned our support - so please provide it. They're working on trying to get a bill passed to repeal this tax - it's a silly tax because it's hard to define who it's levied on so it's intrinsically unfair, but it also discourages a good activity. That's like charging a sin tax on fruits and vegetables - it doesn't really make a lot of sense. Please <a href="https://www.votervoice.net/WAARTS/Campaigns/30865/Respond" target="_blank">tell your representatives</a> in the Washington legislature that you support dancing in Seattle and not this crazy tax. And last, but not least, get out there and dance your hearts out. Enjoy life - don't let it slip by.</div>
Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-53578142976202064362012-12-31T13:03:00.002-08:002012-12-31T13:03:23.909-08:00Django Unchained<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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At some point I'd
like to get back to writing about tech, but it has been a bit difficult because
life has simple been busy! I've been loving life though and trying to fit in
dancing and training where I can. In the meantime - look! A post:</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kunta Evolved</span></div>
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I watched the BET
Awards earlier this year and at the end of the show Jamie Foxx and Kerry
Washington came on stage and introduced a montage of clips from <span style="font-style: italic;">Django Unchained</span> and he set it up as what he
wanted to be the most influential piece of Black cinema since <span style="font-style: italic;">Roots.</span> He introduced it as "Kunta
Evolved." I have to admit that I haven't actually seen the highly
acclaimed <span style="font-style: italic;">Roots</span> starring Lavaar Burton,
though its power as a film is undeniable. (I'm putting it on my "movies to
see" list, but I didn't want to delay this review on seeing it.) So does it live up to such hype from Foxx
himself? I think it's going to be near impossible for Tarantino to ever have an
impact on pop culture like <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AQT0Z4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001AQT0Z4" target="_blank">Pulp Fiction</a></i> had, but I think this has got to be as
close as Tarantino could get. </div>
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In case you don't
know what the basic premise is (though in all their video ads and trailers
they've actually done a pretty good job of explaining it), Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is a
bounty hunter who comes across a bounty for three brothers that Django (Jamie
Foxx) has seen and is one of a few people who would be able to identify them.
Hence, he recruits Django to help him with this in exchange for a small
percentage of the bounty, his freedom, and later the opportunity to rescue his
wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). To make things more interesting, in true
Tarantino fashion this film is a homage. It's a devoted dedication to
Blaxploitation films with a nod to Spaghetti Westerns. It's a simple enough plotline
that is painted with dialogue so crazy only Tarantino would have the guts to
put it on the big screen, loads of suspense and emotion, and, of course,
cartoonishly vicious displays of violence wrapped in a revenge story. Revenge
is a common motif in Tarantino films <span style="font-style: italic;">(<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SIP8OI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004SIP8OI" target="_blank">Kill Bill</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AQO3YW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001AQO3YW" target="_blank">Jackie Brown</a></span>, <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002T9H2L0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002T9H2L0" target="_blank">Inglourious Basterds</a></span>)<span style="font-style: italic;">,</span> and I think his take in this film is
actually a little different - but I think expounding out that would be a
spoiler so I won't. As a film, I'd probably compare it most closely to <span style="font-style: italic;">Inglourious Basterds</span>, but with lots more
blood. And I mean a lot.</div>
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The acting in this
film is, as expected, phenomenal. I don't know what Tarantino puts in his
cast's water, but what excites me most about seeing his work is that no
performance leaves anything to be desired. I was a little disappointed that he
didn't throw any no-names in here or washed up actors - they were all actors
that you'd already expect to be talented. Kerry Washington is probably the
least familiar to audiences, and she is radiant. Though this film lacks strong
women due to the time period, I still saw the scenes with her showed inspiring
courage and immense beauty, even when dressed as a slave (to be clear: I'm not
saying she was beautiful because she was a slave, but that it was crazy that
even when she tugged on your heart strings for her deplorable state they could
never fully destroy her beauty). I don't know what to say about Christoph Waltz
that I didn't say in <a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2009/12/inglourious-basterds-on-blu-ray.html" target="_blank">my review of Inglourious Basterds</a> - he's a treat whenever he's on screen. You can't help but love
him as an actor and his character as a person. Even though he kills people for
a living, you still have to root for him. Jamie Foxx is an often underrated
actor, but given the right material he can really do something special - and I
think he does here. As far as the antagonists go, you can't help but love to
hate Sam Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio. I'm sure its hard as a human being to
say some of the stuff they had to say in this film (especially for Samuel L
Jackson), but they were such unique villains. While I did see similarities
between DiCaprio here and Waltz in <span style="font-style: italic;">Inglourious
Basterds</span>, I liked how the movie almost made you forget at times what a
terrible person DiCaprio is. His Southern sensibilities almost hid it away.</div>
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The set pieces and
costumes in the film were really great, not much I can say here. The costumes
really put you in the time period and the set pieces were nice gradients of
muted plains versus elegance. I was a little disappointed that the set pieces
didn't lend themselves to any exceptional cinematography. In past Tarantino
films there are a number of scenes I remember specifically because of the
images they conveyed that were burned into my brain, but I didn't really have
much of that here. </div>
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The soundtrack is
ridiculous - it's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A8V3VVG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00A8V3VVG" target="_blank">a must-buy</a>. I'm actually listening to it right now and, per
normal, it drums up in me memories from the movie. It's got Rick Ross, John
Legend, 2Pac, Ennio Morricone and the standard bevy of quotable quotes from the
movie. I <span style="font-style: italic;">love</span> that there are theme songs
for King and for Django - those are nice touches. Tarantino typically forms his
soundtracks before he starts shooting his films, not the other way around. For
a music-lover like me, this is not lost on me.</div>
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I know this has been
an all-out lovefest, but this is far from my favorite Tarantino film. First of
all, it's just too long. I know he's a really passionate director and he wrote
the script so he's naturally very attached to it, but he needs to get a better
editor. Two hours and forty-five minutes
is just ridiculous. The final act went on for far too long. I'd have to watch
it again to tell you exactly what I think needed to be cut, but I think
Tarantino had too many ideas he was trying to convey here. I really wish he
would've picked a couple and focused on those, and then just given us the rest
as deleted scenes later. I also thought there was also too much violence in
this film. It wasn't hyper-realistic like in a war moving, but it also wasn't
humorously ridiculous violence like in <span style="font-style: italic;">Kill
Bill</span>. At times the violence was definitely a little disturbing. Even
when characters you're rooting for kill people, you may sometimes cringe. It
was so much so that I walked out of this film not really sure how I felt about
it. I only realized how much I liked the film as a whole hours later when I was
recalling it and the scenes that struck me and emotions that were stirred up in
me. It's just not a super easy film to re-watch again and again compare to his
other work.</div>
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So, should you run
out and see it? If you can stomach buckets of blood and being reminded of how
awful slaves were treated, go for it. It's a worthwhile ride to be on even with its flaws. While it may not be Tarantino's best work, it's easily one of the best
(maybe the best) I've seen all year. My letter rating is an A-. </div>
</div>
Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-4212042344334651302012-10-23T08:00:00.000-07:002012-10-23T08:02:03.905-07:00Kindle Paperwhite<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Yeah yeah I know,
I've been bad. I haven't been writing here and you're all heartbroken. By now,
I'm sure you've gotten over it with minimal tears. This blog pops up in my mind
but has just fallen lower in my priority list. I'm writing this post in hopes
that it will energize me into writing posts with some regularity again!</div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Kindle Paperwhite Review</span></div>
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(Disclaimer: I do
work for Amazon but I do not work for the part of the company that produces
hardware or software for the Kindle. I'm sure in some indirect way your
purchase of a Kindle does benefit me, but I only buy into Amazon products that
I like. I'm certainly not being paid to write this review - quite the contrary,
I paid out of pocket for the full price of this device.)</div>
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I bought my first
Kindle a couple of years ago now. It was the Kindle Keyboard (i.e. the third
Kindle release) and I had gotten it because I felt like the Kindle folks had
finally hit their stride (<a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2011/01/kindle-3rd.html">see that review</a>). The color was immediately attractive to me, the form
factor and weight overall was ideal for one handed reading, and the speed was
reasonable enough to where the black flashes on the screen didn't bug me. That
being said, I almost never used the keyboard, navigating the screen on the
directional pad was a chore, and I needed a $60 case in order to read in dim
lighting in an elegant way (the first party lighted leather case). Last winter
I jumped on the Kindle Touch bandwagon (<a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2011/11/kindle-touch.html">see that review</a>) for one primary reason: the infared touch screen.
The idea of not having to use that stupid d-pad was very enticing.
Additionally, there was X-ray (which sideloads Wikipedia content for
characters, places, and terms in books and tells you where in the book they're
mentioned), a greatly improved case (the old case had a serious issue with the
connection to the spine), and a page refresh that didn't require blacking out
the screen each time. Of course, the case was still $60 in order to read in dim
lighting and the smooth leather case attracted scratches like a magnet.
All-in-all, this was an evolutionary step forward that I only took because of
how much more I loved the Kindle than practically any other device I owned.</div>
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Flash forward to two
and a half weeks ago when I got my <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007OZNZG0?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=B007OZNZG0&linkCode=shr&tag=instheminofan-20">Kindle Paperwhite</a>: there's no doubt that
this is superior in nearly every way to every single Kindle ever made and now
is the time to jump on the e-Reader bandwagon if you've been holding out. I'm very
confident that if you enjoy reading or if you're like me and enjoy reading
except when it means squinting for tiny text or lugging around heavy books, you
will not regret getting a Paperwhite. I'll start out talking about the new
features and what I like about it before I get to some of the areas for
improvement.</div>
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With each Kindle,
the team has gotten better at making the onboarding experience as pain-free as
possible. The Paperwhite was no exception. While I do slightly miss the fact
that in the past my Kindle already had my account information on it (could be
that for some unknown reason mine didn't while others did), the onscreen
tutorial as soon as you switch it on is awesome. You're ready to start using
it within a couple of minutes as long as you have connectivity (WiFi or 3G if
you got the 3G model). One key difference on the onboarding experience this
time is that they no longer make you suffer as an existing customer - getting
your content on there is much easier. They've changed the UI to be more like
the Amazon MP3 Player UI (and I think even the Kindle UI on non-Kindles) where
you have "Cloud" section and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a
"Device" section with the major improvement of a drop down for type
of content (Periodical, Book, etc). So now, you just scroll through your cloud
content and tap the stuff you want to transfer over to your device. Since the
Kindle Touch, any personal documents you've transferred to your device through
Amazon is backed up in the cloud up to a reasonably high limit (books you buy
through Amazon are backed up without limit). So I had over 100 items to
transfer over, but because the Paperwhite is a bit zippier than past Kindles I
was able to tap all the items I cared about (probably 3/4 of my library) in
under 5 minutes, and over WiFi it was short work to get them all on there
(notes, bookmarks, and all). What's even better though is that you can now sync
your collections, as well! Once you've downloaded the content, you can sync
that metadata and it'll organize all your content within seconds into their old
collections. Cool, huh?</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LMKpnkaXq0Y/UIXS--qTyTI/AAAAAAAAEaQ/n96Hvnsyb7U/s1600/CameraZOOM-20121022153623643.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LMKpnkaXq0Y/UIXS--qTyTI/AAAAAAAAEaQ/n96Hvnsyb7U/s320/CameraZOOM-20121022153623643.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Way of Indexing Your Content</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Enough gushing about
onboarding, let's move on to the UI. I like it, I like it a lot. Instead of the
boring lists of text approach of the Kindle Touch that carried over from the
pedigree of Kindles lacking a touch interface, there's now more of a cover flow-like interface (see photo to left) that uses the covers of purchased books or the first page of personal
documents sent via "Sent to Kindle" (otherwise just some text in a
box). It fits 6 covers on a page and it totally looks more polished to have
this. You still get X-ray as in Kindles past, so nothing surprising there, and
you still tap 3/4 of the right side of the screen to go forward (or swipe right
to left), 1/4 of left side of screen to go back (or swipe left to right), and
top 1/5th of screen for menu (including the home icon). However, there are three new features that are wonderful. The first is the time left in your chapter or
book. It's actually quite accurate. If you vary the pace you read at or linger
too much on pages caught up in daydreams then maybe it's not so good for you,
but it seems to be adaptive. So if you start reading something slowly and then
speed up a bunch, it will adjust, I've noticed. I'm still not sure if it's per
book or per device, but I do know that information isn't stored in the cloud or
anything - that math is done on the device itself and if you were to wipe the
device it'd go back to defaults. The sacrifice is that you have to hit the menu
area at the top to get to the page number, but if you tap the lower left corner
it cycles between time left in chapter, time left in book, and Kindle
proprietary location. The second main change is the addition of more fonts - I
was taken aback at how cool this is. For certain books certain fonts really pop
- I'm reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003IEJZRY?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=B003IEJZRY&qid=1351004149&sr=8-2" target="_blank"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Princess Bride </span></a>right
now, primarily, and using Futura makes it feel so much more like a real book to
me. As advertised, you can go one font size smaller than before, which I don't
ever use but it's just as sharp as you'd expect even at that size. Oh, and of
course the physical home button is gone. I thought I'd miss this but I
surprisingly enough do not at all. The last major change is in the upper right corner of the navigation screens - you can not only change how you sort but how you filter (collections, novels, periodicals, etc), which is a small detail but very nice to have.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Getting down to the
screen itself, there are some real revolutionary changes here. First of all,
it's capacitive touch. I thought this would never be possible and I could be
totally wrong but I haven't heard of another e-reader pulling this off. The
Kindle Touch IR touch screen was fine but took some getting used to and meant
that objects other than your hands like maybe a piece of cloth from your
blanket falling on the screen would turn pages. Now, much like your smartphone
it requires your finger specifically to turn pages (or a sausage, but if you're
reading with raw meats in your hand then you're an odd duck). Secondly, the
lighting technology is phenomenal. While it's true that you can't see the light
coming out of one side of the device like you can on the latest generation
Nook, you can see around all the edges the slightest hint of the layer of light
under the screen if you turn it at the exact right angle. Plus, at the bottom
you see the tiniest bit of fading under dark conditions. Other than that, it's
stunning. Everyone that I've shown it to has been equally impressed. Even
better: even at its lowest brightness (which you control very easily via the
top menu from any context on the device you're in), it's a good bit whiter than
the Kindle Touch was. You'll notice this in the below photos with my old case
light on versus Paperwhite max lighting and no light on either. For the first
time ever, I really at times felt like I was reading a paper back book in high
definition. In the past the e-ink has always impressed and been super easy on
my eyes, but the grayish brown background always made it feel like an e-reader,
which wasn't a big deal to me. However, it's a very nice touch that you'll
almost immediately appreciate. I like how under well-lit situations, keeping
the light somewhere in the middle just improves the contrast and feels nice on
my eyes, and turning it up to the max it doesn't even seem like it's backlit at
all, just even prettier than before. In darker situations, I can turn it down
to the lower half of the lighting spectrum and read without issue or eye
irritation versus a bright white screen. I've only done this for 20 minute
bouts because reading in the dark a ton isn't great for you, but if your lamp
just isn't that bright, the Paperwhite has got your back. One other thing you
may notice in my photos is the contrast improvement. It's subtle, but it's
there. I couldn't really tell between the Kindle Keyboard and the Kindle Touch,
but I totally can now. Don't get me wrong, it's not a life-changing
improvement, but within an hour or so of reading on my Paperwhite I could feel
in my eyes that something was just different other than the whiter background,
and on super close inspection realized it was the addition of more pixels.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r9i1DA9lWOw/UIW1EA5zuQI/AAAAAAAAEZw/Is9WsxLbdDQ/s1600/CameraZOOM-20121009244006034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-r9i1DA9lWOw/UIW1EA5zuQI/AAAAAAAAEZw/Is9WsxLbdDQ/s640/CameraZOOM-20121009244006034.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paperwhite Max Brightness vs. Kindle Touch with Lighted Case</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tkVMY4VLhN4/UIW1FM2ha-I/AAAAAAAAEZ4/g49RRDinVq8/s1600/CameraZOOM-20121009244329184.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tkVMY4VLhN4/UIW1FM2ha-I/AAAAAAAAEZ4/g49RRDinVq8/s640/CameraZOOM-20121009244329184.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Up Close with Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle Touch (no light added)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Bvm2vj2XB4/UIW1F4iTWJI/AAAAAAAAEaA/fro4Qdg99jU/s1600/CameraZOOM-20121009244829124.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Bvm2vj2XB4/UIW1F4iTWJI/AAAAAAAAEaA/fro4Qdg99jU/s1600/CameraZOOM-20121009244829124.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Bvm2vj2XB4/UIW1F4iTWJI/AAAAAAAAEaA/fro4Qdg99jU/s320/CameraZOOM-20121009244829124.jpg" width="320" /></a>A recurring issue
for me in the past was the case - so how does this one stack up? This is the first
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007R5YFS4?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=B007R5YFS4&linkCode=shr&tag=instheminofan-20">Kindle case</a> where I'd give a five star rating. It's outstanding and a great
value at $40. I loved that they brought back the textured leather - it doesn't
scratch up and it grips so much better in my hands. The magnetic clasp is an
inspired touch. It may have been inspired by Apple, but I'll take it. It's the
perfect balance between the Kindle Keyboard strap and the Kindle Touch
free-balling look. When held in funky positions or dropped it doesn't fly open,
but it takes very little exertion to get it open. The best part for dorks out
there like me is the auto on/off thing. I thought it was just a gimmick when I
heard about it, but having used it for a couple of weeks now I'm just blown
away by how much it enhances my experience. I can literally read a little bit
while waiting on an elevator for a second because it turns on so quickly and I
love that I can shut it without being worried about hitting the physical home
button the Kindle Touch had or even the IR screen itself because I know there
is no physical button and that it'll turn off immediately. I like that the
inside of the front cover has a nice texture to it that looks really polished
and that the side, top, and bottom are a little rubbery to absorb shock better.
Just as before, the Paperwhite fits so snug that you'll never have to worry
about it falling out of the case or getting damaged because of how solid the
shell is. </div>
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</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
So as I alluded to
earlier, I do have a couple of minor gripes. I'm bummed that they did away with
the swipe up and swipe down gestures. Formerly, these gestures let you skip
chapters and I loved it. I'm probably going to write in to the Kindle folks and
beg them to bring back this feature. I don't know why it went away. Speaking of
cut features,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>why can't I toggle WiFi
on/off from the top menu? I have to go to settings now to switch airplane mode
on/off. That makes it harder to conserve battery life because of the added work
so I'll probably sync less often. One other lost feature: text-to-speech. They
cut the speakers and headphone jack out very quietly (coincidentally), so
you'll have to opt for the cheap Kindle model if you're visually impaired,
which probably makes more sense. I'm not a fan of the black color. My favorite
Kindle color is still the graphite from the Kindle Keyboard. It's nice that the
back is more rubbery than the smooth Kindle Touch back, but the bezel being
black means that it retains your hand grease more easily (the screen itself
doesn't seem to, mainly just the bezel). The fact that the home screen has a
bottom row dedicated to recommendations and hot titles is kind of cool, but I
wish it was opt-out. I'd prefer to use the screen real estate for more
collections. Plus, it doesn’t even exclude books I've already bought, which is
disappointing; hopefully that'll get fixed later. Speaking of ads, the
ad-supported device only saves you $20 and requires a swipe-to-unlock (because
of the new case, I'm guessing). I think going ad-supported is silly now because
of this - it was a lot more sensible in past Kindles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One last gripe: the Paperwhite still isn't
lighter. I'm guessing they compromised here in favor of the battery life. With
the case on, it actually does feel a little easier to hold in one hand than the
Kindle Touch, but still not quite as nice as the Kindle Keyboard.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
A couple of last
notes: the jury is still out for me on battery life. It's doing pretty well
overall, but after decent usage for a week and some change the battery is at
maybe 70%. So I don't think it'll hold up to the two months I was promised
(even with WiFi off), but I think it'll easily meet at least the month that my
old Kindle had even with the lighted screen, and I'm perfectly satisfied with
that. It's slightly zippier overall than the Kindle Touch. Page turns are a
little faster and the black screen flashes are so quick that you really barely
even notice them. Web browsing is a little better, too, but still nothing to
write home about.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Ok, I think I've
said enough here - as a whole, I hope I've given you a pretty good idea of what
the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007OZNZG0?ie=UTF8&camp=213733&creative=393177&creativeASIN=B007OZNZG0&linkCode=shr&tag=instheminofan-20">Kindle Paperwhite</a> is like. If you own a Kindle 1 or 2, you need to upgrade
to this. Even if you have the Kindle Keyboard and Kindle Touch, I'd say this is
a nice upgrade but probably more valuable for the Kindle Keyboard users.
Personally, I don't at all regret my upgrade from the Kindle Touch. I really
feel like it was much more sensible than my upgrade from the Kindle Keyboard.
Book lovers unite - you finally have a device truly worthy of your affection.</div>
</div>
Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-35130469805657372582012-05-06T23:59:00.001-07:002012-05-07T09:21:50.156-07:00Avengers, Assemble!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm a little bummed that I haven't had time to blog in a while, but I decide to make some time tonight to at least put up a quick review about a little movie that came out last week called <i>The Avengers</i>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.ifc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/050412-the-avengers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="http://www.ifc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/050412-the-avengers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
In case you've lived in a cave for a while, Marvel had this almost absurd plan that they were going to make individual films about each of the superheroes that are part of the team in the Marvel Universe known as Avengers who assemble in the comic book world when there's a really big threat. They were created in response to DC's Justice League and had a rotating cast of heroes/heroines, but the movie sticks with the most popular ones. The only members to not get their own films were Black Widow and Hawkeye, though they received cameos in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JMSIRC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004JMSIRC">Iron Man</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004JMSIRC" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i> and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0034G4P8A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0034G4P8A">Thor</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0034G4P8A" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i>, respectively. The premise of this film is that Thor's brother, Loki, is trying to enslave humanity with the help of an alien army that enters the planet via a portal created by an extremely powerful cube called the Tesseract. Naturally, the Avengers reluctantly assemble to stop the threat.<br />
<br />
I decided to see the movie at midnight on opening night, which was actually a lot more comfortable than I imagined it'd be, and I was shocked that this movie wasn't awful. Joss Whedon being on board made it seem pretty likely that it'd be a great film, but to take so many larger-than-life characters that bring a lot of backstory baggage from their own movies and put them together just seemed exceedingly difficult. Especially considering that these were the same actors (except for Mark Ruffalo replacing Edward Norton as Bruce Banner) from each superhero's own film - there was no guarantee that they'd work well together. This movie worked on many levels though, and I think the main reason is the fact that this movie didn't take itself too seriously. In modern superhero films, these's a pretty clear dichotomy between films that really strive to exist in a grounded, real world (like <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GZ6QEC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001GZ6QEC">The Dark Knight</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001GZ6QEC" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i> or <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LAIGPU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005LAIGPU">Chronicle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005LAIGPU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i>) and those that fully embrace the comic world without going overboard (like <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AYELVA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000AYELVA">X-Men</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000AYELVA" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i> or <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005JKCH/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00005JKCH">Spider-Man</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00005JKCH" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i>). <i>The Avengers</i> falls in the latter category, and I think we should all be glad for that because it manages to appeal to the comic book fans with lots of subtle, inside jokes while still being accessible to mainstream audiences and building a storyline that everyone can get on board with. It doesn't try to adhere too strictly to the comics aside from the characters themselves, but rather it's a very creative take on what happens when you throw all these different elements together.<br />
<br />
If you're expecting a groundbreaking film here, you're going to be disappointed. At its core, it follows a very standard formula. I don't see anything wrong with that though - it executes on this formula very well with the added benefit that there's no need for a prolonged backstory on the characters. It doesn't bother re-hashing what's happened in previous movies except very briefly giving you just enough so that you can still follow along. Sure, it slightly penalizes the people who haven't see the previous four films, but not nearly enough to keep you from seeing this one. I didn't see <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0034G4P8A/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0034G4P8A">Thor</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0034G4P8A" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i> or <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005IZLPMY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005IZLPMY">Captain America: The First Avenger</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005IZLPMY" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></i> and yet I didn't feel lost at all. In effect, it was refreshing that the movie could move at such a brisk pace keeping the audience really engaged with loads of humor and fight scenarios that geeks normally have to put a lot of brain power into daydreaming about. The humor really is pretty impressive - subtle, dry, and timed very well.<br />
<br />
The acting is as solid as you'd expect. Nick Fury is Sam Jackson, so it makes sense that he'd do the character justice and obviously plays a much bigger role in this film than any of the previous ones. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with Scarlett Johansson - I think the screenplay didn't really give us a clear picture of Black Widow. There were bits and pieces, and it was probably somewhat intentional that she be a bit of a mystique, but I don't think Johansson helped - the character just seemed a bit flat. She's still gorgeous though. The rest of the cast knocks it out of the park, especially Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey, Jr (for the third Tony Stark movie in a row - he's on fire). I didn't think I'd be happy with re-casting Edward Norton because I love him as an actor, but when you see Ruffalo it's clear that he should've been Bruce Banner all along.<br />
<br />
The action sequences are grand and well done - with very minor exceptions that I won't get into so as to not spoil the film at all. The production quality is as top notch as you'd expect, and I was especially impressed by the sound editing. Maybe it was just the theater I was at, but the seats would literally rumble at the appropriate times and more so than any movie I've seen in a while I thought it was quite an immersive experience, despite being in a packed auditorium where every single geeky thing got lots of applause and/or laughter.<br />
<br />
My score for this movie would probably be an A-. I loved it, would highly recommend, and would definitely see it again (it survives the test of me still reminiscing about the movie 3 days later), but there's nothing especially extraordinary about it. It's just a super fun action film that's well worth the ride if you're willing to tolerate being in an entirely geek driven universe and can suspend disbelief on a few things (e.g. there were definitely some anachronisms with Captain America).<br />
<br />
P.S. There are not one but <i>two</i> post-credits bonus scenes. So don't let the janitor kick you out - stay in your seat until you see the second bonus scene. I only saw one, myself, because I didn't know there were two.</div>Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-41093605445329918462012-01-30T23:01:00.000-08:002012-01-30T23:06:52.826-08:00Goodbye Pre, Hello Galaxy (S2)!Yeah, it's been a while. I'm not even going to try to make any excuses, life has just been busy. However, I did get a new phone! So I thought I'd write a little something about that experience.
Anyone who's known me for the past couple of years knows that I've been a pretty unapologetic fan of webOS and the Palm Pre. My cell phone history is shorter than I'm sure most people my age - I went from a non-color Sanyo clamshell, to a color Smasung clamshell, to a slightly better LG clamshell, to a Palm Treo 650 (2007), to a Palm Pre (2009), and finally a <a href="http://wireless.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Epic-Touch-Android/dp/B005LHN47S">Samsung Galaxy S2</a>. For someone who loves technology so much, you'd think I'd be a little more eager with my gadgets, but I'm nothing if not a passionate person, and I act on that passion. So unless you can get me really passionate about your next big thing, I'm too pragmatic to jump ship. Once I got the Pre, I finally felt like I had a phone that matched my lifestyle. It multitasked (much like I do), it had a qwerty keyboard (that I could get up to 40 WPM on), and the UI was simple and elegant. Back then, Android was pretty ugly, Blackberry was starting to decline, and the iPhone was still an unstoppable juggernaut. The tide has really turned now. Palm has gone under, Blackberry has one foot in the grave, the iPhone is as commonplace as a clamshell phone was about 5 years ago, and Android is finally a major player in the race (sorry Microsoft, Windows Phones still haven't gotten much traction despite an excellent redesign). I'd actually posit something pretty, controversial: Android has overtaken the iPhone.
<br/><br/>
Let's pull back a bit though so I can talk a little bit about my decision to leave the Pre and why I chose the Galaxy S2. The funniest thing turned me from a webOS fan to a deserter: HP replaced Google Maps with Bing Maps. It seems pretty minor, right? I had endured Palm being bought out, I endured the lack of developer support, I endured the fact that using the headphone jack would totally hork the phone's audio, I endured having to trade in my phone about 4 times due to hardware issues, and I had endured practically total abandonment from HP, but I was annoyed beyond repair that they'd take an app that I actually liked overall and forced me to use an app that just didn't work as well and I had no choice in the matter. Soon after that, I noticed that my battery life was getting much worse as were speeds in general on my device. I stopped overclocking to deal with battery life, but now it was too slow. I hated to say it, but I was going to have to give up on phones with physical keyboards. Much like a Joss Whedon television show, they've been going extinct. Cut down in their prime (ok, maybe not, but I still liked them).
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I walked into my friendly neighborhood Sprint store (the one on Union seriously is pretty friendly) in November to browse what they had and the only phones that piqued my interest were the Motorola Photon 4G, the iPhone, and the Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch (clearly they were high when they decided on that name). Pretty much all the other phones sucked. There was one Android candybar phone with a keyboard that was ok, but not thrilling. The iPhone was at the bottom of my list for a couple of simple reasons: I really dislike the UI and the keyboard. The Android UI may not have been intuitive at first when I played with it, but I liked what I saw online of Ice Cream Sandwich and I was blown away by the keyboard for the Photon 4G and the Galaxy S2. Swype is the coolest thing since sliced bread. I was aware of it before and thought it was gimmicky, but when I played with it in the store it worked immediately for me - I was shocked how intuitive it was. I could type on par with a physical keyboard, and the phones are big enough that turning it to landscape mode gives you a usable keyboard with two thumbs. I gave an edge to the Galaxy S2 because it was a little thinner and the screen seemed a little prettier than the Photon 4G, and comparing speeds to the iPhone I was sure that the Galaxy S2 was on par. I was hoping to wait a bit longer before jumping ship, but the Pre speeds were really getting to me and I lost my Zune HD at the end of December so I had no mp3 player. In the end, I decided on the Galaxy S2 3 weeks ago because Motorola announced that the Photon 4G <a href="http://www.motorola.com/blog/2011/12/07/motorola-update-on-ice-cream-sandwich/">would not see Ice Cream Sandwich</a> but leaked ROMs confirmed that <a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/2011/12/early-android-4-0-build-for-samsung-galaxy-s2-leaked/">Samsung was working on it</a> for the Galaxy S2.
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So how was the switch from webOS to Android? I have to admit, a little rocky. I was happy as soon as I had the Galaxy S2 in my hot little hands because the screen was so impressive, the phone was running at speeds I didn't realize were possible on phones, and it was so thin that I could keep it in my pocket rather than getting a hip holster. The webOS UI took me maybe 30 minutes to figure out everything for - Android took me a few days to really sort out. The learning curve is pretty steep. As much as I love the Swype keyboard, you do have to learn some of the tricks to be really proficient at it. The stock launcher (even with TouchWiz) is meh - you get a lot more usability out of something like <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.gau.go.launcherex">GO Launcher EX</a>. That was only the tip of the iceberg of tips and tricks to using Android. Whereas webOS just worked right out of the box, Android Gingerbread only worked at a very nominal experience. The synergy that I came to love on webOS wasn't available on Android - I had to hand manage merging duplicate contacts. App backup was all on me to deal with, as well. Most of all, it took me a few days to get used to not multi-tasking. What's funny is that I can operate faster because of the fact that I can context switch even faster on this hardware versus the Pre hardware, especially by holding the home button to get to recently used apps. What I learned through it all was one key thing: Android is really only for people who are tinkerers or technologists. If you want something that just works, you really don't want Android. I've come to really enjoy it and it provides an awesomely customizable experience, but I'm shocked at how many normal people are using it. I'm sure a lot of them aren't happy with it either and that's where the iPhone succeeds.
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People I know who have gone from Android to the iPhone have really hated it and it's because the experience is so curated. There's no swype, there's no <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005WZE2AC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005WZE2AC">JuiceDefender</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005WZE2AC" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" /> (this thing seriously doubles my battery life - it's ridiculous), no <a href="https://market.android.com/details?id=mobi.mgeek.TunnyBrowser&hl=en">Dolphin Browser HD</a>, no widgets, no lock screen customizations, and the list goes on. Meanwhile, Android has pretty much everything on the iPhone, and then some - <a href="http://www.android.com/about/ice-cream-sandwich/">the upcoming version</a> even has more attractive multi-tasking, face recognition unlock, NFC support, and a few other fun things that you previously needed apps for (like panoramic pictures and lock screen customization). I should adjust my statement earlier: Android has overtaken the iPhone in technology. I think the iPhone rightfully should have more market share because it's such a simpler experience. You don't have a fragmented platform where certain things only work on certain phones - there's a few iPhones and it's pretty clear which features are new and not available for older models. It's kind of interesting that we're now pretty much in a two party system when it comes to phones and I think both platforms are great competition for one another - 5 years ago I would've said that cell phones really haven't been going anywhere but now I can say that I think we're really going to continue to see a lot of innovation.
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Personally, I'm glad to be on the Android bandwagon. I've been able to use it for podcasts and music effectively (unlike the Pre), the browser is surprisingly usable, the games are surprisingly engaging, and there's so many fun productivity apps (like depositing checks and HeyTell and many more). I hope to see Samsung (who I think has really been doing the best job of producing high quality phones across all carriers) and Google continue to deliver high quality products continue to raise the bar set by Apple.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-32459712277971770552011-11-30T23:40:00.001-08:002012-05-10T14:47:18.226-07:00Kindle Touch<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Standard disclosure: I work for Amazon but I do not have any non-public, relevant information about the Kindle in any capacity. In fact, I purposely try to avoid learning any such information. I don't have any special insights into product directions, decisions made regarding Kindle devices, etc. This is merely a collection of my thoughts as a technology enthusiast/consumer.</i>
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Sorry it's been so quiet here. I think about this blog regularly, but whenever I come up with a good topic I realize that I have to recuse myself because I don't know if my thoughts on certain subjects would accidentally count as yielding secrets. I've also been a little behind on news so I figure that very untimely commentary wouldn't be valuable. I'm hoping to have more time in the next couple of months though to come up with fresh topics for blog posts on a somewhat regular basis. Anyway, on to the topic at hand...
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<b>Kindle Touch Review</b>
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I'd ideally start off with my backstory about the Kindle and how I thought it was initially a silly idea and all that jazz, but I've already spoken about all that in <a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2011/01/kindle-3rd.html">my review of the Kindle 3</a>. My opinions on the Kindle and e-Ink in general remain the same. I probably read 2, maybe 3 books in all of last year (I'm not counting reference material I flipped through at work). In the past 11 months (since I got my Kindle 3) I've read six novels, half of another novel, four travel books for a vacation, a short book that's really a collection of essays, more than a fourth of the Bible, and a few white papers (not to mention several samples of books I intend to read). It's definitely made a big difference. What I'd like to talk about in this review is my experience with the Kindle Touch compared to the Kindle 3 (I'll refer to it as the Kindle Keyboard to be more consistent with the slightly confusing re-branding).
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I got a Touch because as much as I loved my Kindle Keyboard, I also had a few nagging frustrations with it. Namely, I didn't like using the d-pad. I called this out in my initial review and I stand by it - it's too easy to hit other buttons and takes a while when you use it to navigate around a page for things like looking up words, highlighting, or referencing footnotes, all of which I did regularly. Even navigating a large collection of documents was a bit of a chore. Additionally, it was a bit sluggish when reading some PDFs and could even be unstable if I flipped around too much. Plus, the keyboard wasn't all that easy to use - it just felt awkward. Anyone I know can vouch for my love of physical keyboards - I've been hanging on to my Palm Pre for dear life and may soon have to part with it because I'm getting sick of HP's abandonment of it (but that's a story for another post). Reading on the Kindle Keyboard was still great overall, but I moved to the Kindle Touch in the hopes that it would polish some pieces that I felt needed polish. Did it? Let's explore.
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We'll start with the hardware: it's a very attractive device. I thought the Kindle Keyboard looked nice, but the Kindle Touch makes it look like yesterday's news. I was initially concerned that the silver color would be unattractive because I really liked the graphite of the Kindle Keyboard as it just looked nice and made it harder to retain natural wear and tear, but I actually like the body of the Kindle Touch even better. Not to be vain, but it looks like a more expensive device than it is - it's not gaudy, just polished. The bezel is smooth, slightly metallic (not enough so to weigh it down), and mildly reflective but not shiny enough to produce excessive glare. The back matches the color on the front except for being more rubbery for an easier grip and having a darker silver border. At the bottom of the front you've probably seen what looks like a speaker grill in pictures, which seems silly in a device primarily targeted at reading. Well, it's actually a home button. I actually think it's a neat home button - it's different from most devices in this form factor and it's at the perfect stiffness to press. I know that sounds weird, but I mean that you can rest your thumb on it for while you're reading without accidentally pressing it, but it's not necessarily hard to press when you need to press it - it's just right. At the bottom side there's the standard micro USB port, headphone jack, a very tiny light, and the power button. I don't actually like the new power button. They designed it small to save space, but it's easier to press as opposed to the Kindle Keyboard where you had to slide it and it hid a cleverly placed light. I don't find myself accidentally hitting it much, but it seems quite easy to do so. At the bottom of the back are the speakers - not all cases have holes cut out for these, but I rarely use them myself. There's also two connectors for the leather lighted cases (which are still on backorder *grumble*). Overall, I love the way it feels in my hands - the weight and size are just perfect. It's slightly lighter than the Kindle Keyboard (trivially so) and not really thinner, but I do appreciate that it's shorter since it's no longer supporting a physical keyboard.
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The big question when you start talking about the software is the touch sensitivity. This was my biggest reservation as this is not your standard touchscreen technology. Back in the old days, we started with inductive, or resistive, touchscreens (think back in the days of using a stylus). Pressing down on a screen wasn't elegant, but it worked. The iPhone popularized capacitive touch in consumer electronics and it's become an industry standard ever since. The problem with capacitive touch, as I understand it, is that it requires glass, which sucks if you want to eliminate glare (as any of you with a modern smartphone is well aware). Hence, the Kindle Touch uses infared technology, much like its Barnes and Noble competitor. The screen is sunk in just a tad more than the Kindle Keyboard, and on closer inspection one may notice a really thin line cut into the edges of this framing where the IR field is created. The good news is that this means you don't need human hands or sausages to interact with the screen - you can have gloves on and it'll still work (great news for those of us in colder climates). The bad news is that it's not as reliable as most modern smartphones. It can be a bit temperamental. It's actually much more accurate than I had predicted it'd be, but you do have to be fairly deliberate in what you do. You can't be as liberal as with capacitive touch - even though you don't have to press down on the screen like inductive touch, you do have to make sure you get enough surface area contact to register touches. Also frustrating: there's no feedback that a touch was registered. At times, there's enough lag in specific operations that you may accidentally do something twice and cause yourself frustration. It's not a common issue, but it can happen. I don't know why they couldn't have button presses black out the button to show that it was touched - maybe that'll be in a future update.
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That all being said, I still prefer the touch interface to using the buttons on the Kindle Keyboard, overall. While I never minded previous page and next page much, it's so much more intuitive to tap things than to use the d-pad. And small touches were added to the UI to account for this, which I love. The keyboard is way better than the physical keyboard - while there's a bit of a delay in showing what you typed if you're a touch typist like me who's used to cranking out 80-100 WPM (or 40 WPM on my Pre's physical keyboard), the accuracy is impressive. Nothing fancy like swype on Android or anything, but you really shouldn't need that stuff anyway when you're taking notes or searching. Gestures are really intuitive - page forward and page back are swiping left and right, respectively, and next/previous chapter are swipe up/down, respectively. Looking up words, checking footnotes, and highlighting text is faster and easier before (there was actually random delays sometimes in highlighting with the Kindle Keyboard that I no longer experience on the Touch). Tapping for previous page and next page work great, too, and one handed reading is overall just as easy or perhaps easier than before. Getting to the context menu is easy, too, just tap at the top of the screen. That will also show you what page number you're on in the book, which reminds me of another note: the screen real estate is used a lot smarter. Aside from just where you tap, I feel like the top and bottom of the screen are used more efficiently to maximize space for reading - reminiscent of the experience of using an iPad and having Apple maximize the available screen space. Very smart.
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There are a few other bonuses, too. Pinch to zoom works - it will increase or reduce text size by 1 in normal books and will actually perform zooming in PDFs. This makes reading PDFs much easier. Given the restrictions of e-Ink technology, there's still a delay as before, but I feel like it's still a slight bit faster. Plus, PDFs fit on the screen better now, aside from the improvements with zooming. Unfortunately, you can't change screen orientation, but I'm hoping that enough people are providing feedback on this that they'll fix this oversight (the Kindle org has been good about this in the past with customer feedback). The screen savers are significantly better than the Kindle Keyboard. Not only are they not ugly renderings of famous writers, but they're, dare I say, cool. They actually kind of make you excited to turn on your Kindle because they represent the Kindle brand well in clever ways (like pencils up close or wooden blocks with Kindle letters prominent or ink) and they're super sharp. Unlike with the Kindle Keyboard, I don't see myself getting sick of them. As far as device performance compared to the Kindle Keyboard, it's slightly faster. It's not enough of a difference for them to have marketed it on the product page, but it's noticeable to me. It's not just the fact that you can choose to have it only black out the screen for page loads once every four screens (which, amazingly, doesn't leave artifacts of the previous page like the Kindle Keyboard would), but I feel like boot up/shut down is slightly faster, opening books are faster, definitions lookups are way faster, etc. It's little things that I notice that I'm pleased with with performance, but it's nothing dramatic. The Kindle Store works a lot better on this device - it's just a better interface overall. It makes more sense and it's prettier. I'm really happy with it.
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e8CzwG4sZkc/TtdDdMfTdFI/AAAAAAAAEEQ/G5qkmVk-YZ4/s1600/kindle-touch-x-ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e8CzwG4sZkc/TtdDdMfTdFI/AAAAAAAAEEQ/G5qkmVk-YZ4/s320/kindle-touch-x-ray.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>
The biggest bonus, aside from touch, is X-ray. I <i>love</i> this feature. I can't believe how awesome it is. I have it on a few of my books (including <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JQU1VS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B000JQU1VS">The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000JQU1VS&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, if you want to try it on a free one), and it's coming in quite handy with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NLKT60/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B001NLKT60">The Girl Who Played with Fire</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NLKT60&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, which I'm reading right now. I find myself turning to it quite a bit to recall characters that haven't come up in several chapters or Swedish places/terms I'm not familiar with. It loads excerpts from Wikipedia for terms and short bits from Shelfari for some characters. It also shows you a blueprint of where mentions of the character or term occur in the book and you can easily browse these selections. It's quite fast and quite accurate as far as figuring out what people and terms are relevant. You can show these lists for the current page, chapter, or whole book so it's easy to find what you're looking for. It's not available for all books, but all my purchased novels seem to have it so it's not that uncommon on popular novels.
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I have a couple of quick negatives that haven't fit in any of the categories above. Not all games ("active content") work on the Touch that worked on the Keyboard. If this is a dealbreaker for you, check your games' detail pages to see the "Available on these devices" text that has an arrow you can hover over to list the supported Kindles. I'm hoping that publishers can modify their games to work on the Touch, but I haven't seen official word on this. If someone has an answer on this, please leave a comment because I'm curious. Additionally, when upgrading to a new Kindle you have to download all your items one-by-one and re-create your collections. That's super annoying. Hopefully, the Kindle folks will fix this in the future since they already made a change to back up your personal documents to the cloud just before the announcement of the new Kindles, which makes downloading those to new devices easier, at least. (By the way, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/mn/search?_encoding=UTF8&pf_rd_t=201&tag=instheminofan-20&ie=UTF8&linkCode=ur2&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=1332660922&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&camp=1789&pf_rd_r=1HS202SCM85RMFPTDJDC&creative=390957&rh=n%3A3379886011&pf_rd_i=B004NQY2YM&page=1%23" target="_blank">there's a sale</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=ur2&o=1" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> until Jan 2 where top selling games are $1, several of which are Touch compatible - I'm not big on the Kindle games, but some of them are rather entertaining)
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Alright, I've said enough - time for a verdict. Should you <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005890G8Y/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005890G8Y">get a Kindle Touch</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005890G8Y&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" />? If you don't have a Kindle Keyboard, it's a no-brainer, in my opinion, that you should. If you have an older Kindle, you're due for an upgrade anyhow. If you don't have one, then you should embrace e-Ink. If you're really scared, pick up the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0051QVESA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0051QVESA">cheapest Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0051QVESA&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> and try it out - I really don't think you'll be disappointed. I've played with that one and while I prefer Touch, it's still an improvement over the Kindle Keyboard (though it doesn't have X-ray or speech-to-text). The ads aren't very intrusive and you can easily pay later to turn them off if you hate them so that it'd end up being the price of the ad-free version. If you have a Kindle Keyboard, it's really a judgement call. Are you sick of the d-pad? Do you want one of the new leather cases where the Kindle fits nicely rather than having to fit it into two hooks? Do you want a smaller device? Do you wish reading PDFs was easier? If these things really bother you, like they did for me, go for it. I think for many people, the answer will be no. In fact, I'd recommend for gadgets with annual releases to buy every other iteration. It's the holiday season though so you may consider gifting your Kindle Keyboard (de-registering and wiping is easy) and upgrading to the Touch. I don't at all regret my decision - the more I use it the more I love it. Opinions out there are somewhat mixed, but seem to be leaning positive. Feel free to go to a Staples, Best Buy, etc. and try it out for yourself. I really feel like they kept all the stuff about the Kindle Keyboard that was great (like the ease of use, display, form factor, battery life, etc) and evolved in fixing some of the key misses with the user experience. While I still think there's some touch ups that can be left for future iterations, I'm really happy with the direction that it has moved in.
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<b>Addendum:</b> I spoke to a Kindle rep about my frustrations with regard to active content and I was told that Amazon is actually working with publishers to make their games Touch compatible. You won't need to re-buy your games for the Touch (unless you're using the games on 6 Kindles already), they'll just get fixed to work and you'll be able to download them from your archived items.<br />
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<b>Addendum #2 (5/10/2012):</b> The latest over-the-air software update adds support for text-to-speech, landscape mode, and some other nifty additions like a modal dialog for the table of contents of a book and translation of words to a few different languages.</div>Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-51005143327587386142011-08-27T00:41:00.000-07:002011-08-27T09:33:26.388-07:00The End of an EraI brainstormed several titles for this post and nothing I come up with seems to be substantial enough. I have to admit that when I heard the news a couple of days ago that Steve Jobs was stepping down from being CEO, I got a little emotional. Part of it was the way he worded it:<br />
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<blockquote>"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come."</blockquote><br />
Given his medical complications in recent years, there's something really haunting about those words. What really got to me though was the sudden thought that two of my childhood idols were no longer sitting in the seats of power they once held: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are now both down for the count. Even typing those words scares me a bit - aside from the fact that it makes me feel old, it's really the end of an era. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Steve_Jobs.jpg/220px-Steve_Jobs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="321" width="220" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Steve_Jobs.jpg/220px-Steve_Jobs.jpg" /></a></div>I think my posts make it pretty clear that I'm not a fan of Apple products - I believe that they're high quality, I just don't agree with their some of their key philosophies and I think most Apple products are overpriced. As a person, I don't care much for Steve Jobs either. There are plenty of <a href="http://gdgt.com/discuss/share-your-steve-jobs-stories-frt/">good stories</a> about him but I'm more familiar with the ones where he manages his employees with praise and fear (moreso than sounds healthy). However, as Elle Driver would say, that shouldn't suggest that I don't respect him. His impact on technology is incontrovertible - he really made making technology beautiful stick. When you look at the history of gadgetry, Apple was the first major player to successfully focus on external design just as much as internal design. Even Mac OS was known for being one of the first pieces of a software with a usable GUI. I even first learned how to type in grade school on Apple Macintosh IIs (and fondly remember playing the Oregon Trail - if I was lucky I got to play on the one computer with a CD-ROM drive). A world without the innovations and risks taken by Apple with Steve Jobs at its helm would be a scary place (much like the one depicted in their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8">1984 ad</a>). A lot of moves that Jobs has made over the years have been really ballsy, and while I know a lot of people make that possible past just the CEO, I would not underestimate the importance of a CEO with strong vision.<br />
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With someone like Steve Jobs, you take the good with the bad. His biggest flaw, in my opinion, is his hubris. You don't have to watch <i><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Pirates-Silicon-Valley-Anthony-Michael/dp/B0009NSCS0?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Pirates of the Silicon Valley</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0009NSCS0" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /></i> to observe this (fair warning: that movie is very much a caricature of all its characters). His <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc">2005 Stanford commencement address</a> is pretty famous and definitely an incredible speech, and yet it still reflects that he can really be a jerk sometimes. He lets loose a bit at a few points in his speech and leaves out pivotal details in his speech that paint him out to be a hero in situations that weren't so black and white. He's green lit ads that have held no punches in obviously attacking competitors, a practice that I remember not being so common once upon a time. He runs press events that extol the virtues of perfectly mundane evolutions to existing products. However, it's for all these things that people love Steve Jobs. All these things have made him a fascinating CEO and a generational icon.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://news.soft32.com/wp-content/upload/microsoft/bill-gates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="230" src="http://news.soft32.com/wp-content/upload/microsoft/bill-gates.jpg" /></a></div>The era I'm referring to as ending is not that of Apple - the Board is leaving the company in good hands with Tim Cook, now former COO, at the helm. Plus, Steve Jobs has set things in motion for at least a year or two, so we won't see Cook's direct impact for a while yet. The era I'm referring to also involves Bill Gates. I find it tremendously ironic that Gates is often marred for the antitrust issues with Microsoft and forgotten for his philanthropic efforts whereas Jobs is lauded for his sometimes questionable tactics with Apple and forgotten for his lack of philanthropy. At the end of the day, both men have done some incredible things and basically built personal computing. Gates had just as much vision as Jobs, but he handled it totally differently. He's not the pretty face of a company, he's the understated nerd that turns wheels in the background. Maybe the things he's led at Microsoft aren't as sexy as what Apple has done, but definitely equally important. I mean come on, the man invented bold text! Let's face it, the world would be a very strange place without Office and Windows. Apple would have you believe that Windows is a complete knock off of what they've produced over the years, but the truth is that Windows has made significant innovations, as well. If you need a more recent, obvious example: how about the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kinect-Sensor-Adventures-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA298?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Kinect</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002BSA298" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" />?<br />
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I feel like with Gates and Jobs out of the picture, the model of technology that's worked for decades really is dead. Shrink wrap software has been gradually losing ground to digital distribution and web applications. The most talked about tech companies these days are now Google and Facebook. The world is a very different place. People don't care about the next Windows or the next OS X - they care about the next smartphone they can get. The era that Gates and Jobs eschewed is over, and I feel like we're now fully underway in a whole new phase in the history of technology. Needless to say, I'm excited to be at a company that's a big part of that timeline, as well, but we can never forget our roots. For all the above reasons and more, Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates, I salute you. We'll do our best to take good care of what you started.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-28432199469227108742011-07-28T23:13:00.000-07:002011-07-28T23:13:26.182-07:00Google +I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I promise I've been thinking of the blog! I listfully look at my computer every night before I inevitably crawl into bed because life has been so busy. Today I finally got some time to jot down my thoughts about Google Plus! If you haven't checked it out at all yet, now's as good a time as any to spend a couple of minutes <a href="http://www.google.com/+/demo/">with the demo</a>.<br />
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If you had two scoops of ice cream, let's call the flavors Facebook and Twitter, and you smashed them together but then you decided to share your concoction with that oddball at work you don't like for whatever reason, you'd have Google Plus. It takes the best from both worlds, but then it integrates with other services, even if they are competitors, via our old friend Google Buzz. Google Buzz was a half-baked Twitter-like experience from Google that all but the most devout Google fans were quickly turned off of because of the several issues Google simply didn't think through. What's different between Google and some other tech companies is that a lot of people there tend to think the same over time. I'm not saying they're not smart people, but without natural discord you can't develop the ideas that appeal to a mass audience, and that's what I feel like went wrong with Buzz. With Google Plus, they took a different approach - they started it out as a very limited release (like back with Gmail and Google Voice) and are opening the floodgates over time so that they can iron out the kinks. This strategy, I feel, is working much better for them. It feels like not only did they learn from Google Buzz what people were really looking for, but they managed to fix user concerns very quickly before everyone and their mom started hearing about Google Plus.<br />
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So anyway, you might be wondering - why should you care about Google Plus? You've stuck with Facebook, in spite of Twitter and Google Buzz and whatever else - why jump ship? A friend of mine shared this (on Google Plus, no less), so I'm going to share it with you:<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hC_M6PzXS9g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
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Pretty elegant way of putting it, isn't it? Google should definitely hire those people to help them pimp their products. At first, I totally agreed with what I think is the reaction of most people: why do we need another Facebook? The interface was a pretty big change from Facebook and there wasn't an app for it on my phone. To be honest, I really hated it. I was surprised at how quickly my opinion turned around of it though. The main things I liked is that it's the first social networking site I've seen that has really put privacy at the forefront and it has a clean UI. It's a well known fact in the security world that convenience comes at the cost of security and privacy, so it is an issue that whenever you share anything on Google Plus, you have to choose exactly what circles you want to share it with - but if you keep your list of circles small it's not such a big deal. Granted, it'd be better if there was a circle hierarchy but that's not hard to add in. I say that the UI is clean because, let's face it, Facebook has gotten too busy. It almost hurts my eyes now to go to the PC site - it's just too much. With Google Plus, as weird as it sounds, I just feel like it's a more laid back experience. Maybe it's just because I have less friends on Google Plus, but I'd like to think that Google had something to do with it. <br />
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Before I move on - there are a couple of other things I think Google Plus really got right. I love how you can share with people who aren't on Google Plus by just using their contact profile in your Gmail (i.e. just their e-mail address). I think it's smart that they just rely on e-mail for messages rather than creating a stupid hobbled way to send private messages. Another thing I like, which most people may not like, is that you don't have a wall for people to post on - they can only comment on what you post. This means people can't post immature things on your wall that you have to monitor so that your mom doesn't see them or something - you have full control over what people see (people can re-share what you've said, granted - but that's a risk in real life, too).<br />
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Press-wise, I've seen mixed things. I think the technorati (that's what I like to call the tech journalism celebrities, at least) are skeptical but appreciate the chance to start fresh since their Facebook friends list has really gotten out of control. There's still a few things to complain about though. There have been some stories about people having their Google Accounts <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/jul/28/google-open-letter-google">totally deleted</a> because of the name they're using on Google Plus. It sounds like there's a glitch in Google's algorithm for this, and it really sucks that there's not a good appeals process in place. Google has always had awful customer service, and that doesn't stop here, I'm afraid. ZD Net has a <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/violetblue/four-things-google-plus-could-do-to-fix-google-plus/576">really good editorial</a> about this. Google Plus still <a href="http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles/186299/20110725/google-plus-boasts-of-over-20-million-users-but-businesses-have-nothing-to-do-with-it.htm">isn't ready for businesses</a> to jump in and make their mark. I don't shed a tear for companies like Pepsi or McDonalds, but social networking sites are really great for helping promote local businesses and artists, and I do hope Google Plus makes way for them someday soon. Though they do have 20 million accounts so far, so it's a pretty strong start anyhow.<br />
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So Google Plus has an energized initial user base but also has had a few black eyes from the press - do they have what it takes to become a major player? I think they definitely do. The older I get the more pessimistic I become about technology (I'm not the wide-eyed optimist I was back in my older posts when I was in college), but something rubs be right about Google Plus. Google has had a number of misfires over the past few years, but I think this one just may stick. If anyone can compete with Facebook, it'll be Google Plus. I don't think they'll be able to overtake Facebook like Facebook overtook MySpace or MySpace overtook Friendster simply because Facebook has really hit critical mass now. However, I think Facebook has alienated its users enough over the years that Google Plus can really gain some ground, even if it ends up catering to more of a niche audience like Gmail. I think it's a really smart move for Google and I hope they really invest fully in making it a solid product. It clearly has a lot left that they can do with it (why can people on Picasa but not Google Plus not see the pictures I shared with them?), but I'm definitely impressed that they've managed to innovate so much so far. At the very least, it's nice to see someone rattle Facebook's cage a big, isn't it?<br />
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PS This is my 900th post. Happy 900th to me! :)Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-50928205164722765772011-06-21T00:11:00.000-07:002011-06-21T00:11:37.690-07:00Super 8<b>Super 8 Review</b><br />
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<i>I think putting spoilers in a movie review are stupid - they defeat the point of a review for most readers. So you won't find any here.</i><br />
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J.J. Abrams is a really interesting guy. I think he's one of the more divisive figures in filmmaking and television for a very good reason: he's daring. One of the things that Jeff Bezos is often as quoted as saying and bleeds through into the culture at Amazon is the idea that you shouldn't be afraid to be misunderstood. Abrams clearly has that in his mind because, depending on who you ask, <i>Lost</i>, <i>Alias</i>, and <i>Star Trek</i> are brilliant or awful. He gives everything he does his all and even though his bets don't always pan out (*cough*<i>Cloverfield</i>*cough*) you have to respect his innovative spirit.<br />
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<i>Super 8</i> isn't necessarily the most novel idea in the world, but there's something to be said for taking a genre that's basically been dead for years and using it to tell a really engaging story. The genre isn't disaster movies - God knows we've had way too many of those in the past few years. It's the movies that I recall from when I was little that were probably slightly before my time where it was a mysterious thriller that put flashy special effects in the backseat of a movie you couldn't help but have fun watching. It may not have been up for any Oscars, but you really enjoyed it. I'm afraid of giving examples of this sort of film because I think I risk spoiling the movie, but the point I'm trying to get across is that it's actually great cinema. Even though there are some cheap shots at making you jump in your seat, the thriller aspect takes a backseat to storytelling, suspense, and mystery.<br />
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The plot is a very simple concept: a group of kids (presumably in late middle school or early high school) are making a horror film and get caught in the middle of a huge train accident while shooting one particular scene. Strange things start happening around town right after the accident. On paper, it sounds pretty silly, and the main characters are mostly no-names. However, I could really identify with these kids. Even though they're living in a time years before I was even born, their interactions with each other felt so genuine. There was even a part where they were filming a scene and one of them was being an awful actor and I thought it was really meta how good he was at pretending to be a bad actor. I cringe sometimes to watch movies centered around young kids because they often treat them in an almost cartoonish way and I think this movie gave them some dignity and real character development and I really appreciated that.<br />
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The main drawback the film had was probably the pacing. It felt a little uneven, and I imagine that will turn off some audiences. It's not an action packed two hours - it's a mystery movie at the heart of it. In fact, I almost was disappointed in its cheap shots at the audience with the moments that made you jump in your seat. It wasn't a horror movie so I thought it was odd to have those moments in there.<br />
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All in all though, it's definitely worth seeing. The big reveal is not lame like in most of M Night Shayamalan's movies and they really keep you guessing as to which of the possibilities in your head is the right one. Don't go and see it expecting lots of action and special effects, but go and see it because you appreciate heartfelt filmmaking. It earns an A- rating from me.<br />
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Oh, and sorry about being MIA. Time has flown by and I've been surprisingly busy. I will do my best to get out an original post I've been toying with later this week.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-91213808760880995212011-04-17T23:18:00.000-07:002011-04-17T23:18:01.970-07:00Euro Trip 2011Sorry it's been a while since my last post but I've been busy vacationing! I thought I would blog my favorite photos from the trip since sharing is caring. I picked just 42 of my 400+ snapshots, but I hope you'll enjoy them! By the way, you can click on any picture to enlarge it. I just made them smaller so this page is easier to load.<br />
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<b>Dublin</b><br />
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We began our trip in Dublin, which is a charming little city with very nice people. We were pretty jet lagged on the first day, but we found the strength to drink some beer at the Guiness factory. Here's the ingredient that gives Guiness its trademark color and flavor: malted barley.<br />
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It was hard getting good pictures from the Gravity Bar at the top, which offered 360 degree views of Dublin, but I did my best.<br />
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We were very amused by this T-shirt in the gift shop and were tempted to buy it.<br />
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We were able to draw several parallels between Seattle and Dublin, one of which being the oddities of public transit. It looks like Dubliners are as happy with their public transit as we are.<br />
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I was advised on the plane ride into Dublin by a nice Irish girl to see the Leprechaun Museum. I thought that this clearly must've been a joke, until we found a pamphlet on the ground outside Dublin Castle as well as this sign on the street (which was pointing the wrong way because a guy turned it, dressed as a leprechaun, and decided to make some money off tourists).<br />
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The Liffey!<br />
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<b>London</b><br />
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Next up on our trip was London, and our first night I finally had some proper cod and chips at a true neighborhood pub (we were the only tourists there).<br />
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The street we stayed on was lined with hotels, but was still very pretty.<br />
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We saw the traditional sights (Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc), but those are all pretty pedestrian. How about a really pimp hotel instead? (we didn't go inside, but it looked awesome)<br />
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The British Library didn't allow pictures inside (though it was a really awesome little museum), but the British Museum did and it was pretty incredible. I loved the entrance design.<br />
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Aside from the Rosetta freaking Stone and some really great mummies and stuff, there was plenty of other cool artifacts there.<br />
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Tower of London from the Tube station:<br />
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<b>Brussels</b><br />
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I'd been to Brussels before (more pictures from Belgium from my last trip <a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-8-end-of-short-road-trip.html">here</a>) so I knew there wasn't a ton to do there, but you can't visit Brussels and not get a Belgian Waffle:<br />
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We managed to stay pretty close to the main plaza, which had pretty nice views at night.<br />
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<b>Paris</b><br />
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I've been to Paris before, as well, and I have pictures from that trip posted <a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2008/06/days-20-23-paris-versailles.html">here</a> if you're interested. It was still fun going back there though and I saw several things I hadn't seen before, including this tree that I just thought was really beautiful (at the Tuilleries Garden).<br />
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We followed the Garden up to the Louvre.<br />
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I saw this when we were crossing the Seine and I thought it was really cool because it sounded exactly like the proper Sphinx described in the mythology regarding Oedipus.<br />
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We went to the Hotel des Invalides (a Hotel Napolean built for injured soldiers that's now a war museum) and they had a room of really cool models of various towns and cities and such built for military strategy, including a model of the place you may recognize from <i>The Count of Monte Cristo</i> film.<br />
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Though I have plenty of Eiffel Tower shots, it was too nice of a day out to not take one more from a different side.<br />
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My friends endured my pleas to swing by the Dali Espace in Montmartre and I really enjoyed it - this was my favorite piece that they had on display.<br />
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The last time I was at the Arc de Triomphe, they were doing a ceremony so I couldn't get too close to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but I got closer this time.<br />
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We saw a pretty decent sized orchestra in the subway one afternoon, and they were really talented. Just not something you see every day!<br />
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The last thing we saw in Paris before we left was Notre Dame and it was my first trip to the crypt underneath where they had ruins from Paris that once was, and it was just really neat to see.<br />
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<b>Rome</b><br />
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Rome was the last city on our tour, and you can see many pictures from my last trip there highlighting some the big stuff to see there <a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2008/06/days-10-19-romantic-road-and-italy.html">here</a>. We stayed at a pretty good bed and breakfast right in the heart of the area around Vatican City, which gave us a chance to really live like a Roman, and I really took a shine to this particular piece of grafiti because there are so many funny things about it (not the least of which being that he didn't say 'love').<br />
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This is the organ at Santa Maria del Popolo, and I just thought it was really pretty how it was designed to look like angels are holding it up.<br />
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That church is on one side of the busy Piazza del Popolo, with this being the view from the middle - very symmetrical.<br />
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The Borghese Gardens were another new thing I hadn't ventured out to at all on my last trip, and it's basically a smaller version of Central Park. I was really taken aback by the massive trees they had there.<br />
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This is just a picture I happened to like that I took at St. Peter's Basilica in the piazza. The lamp posts there were very unique.<br />
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We happened to be staying down the street from a great Irish pub (I believe we visited a pub in every city we stayed in) where my friend's Guinness had a child.<br />
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Also at that pub we noticed some pretty young kids there. Here's a picture we tried taking without being too conspicuous.<br />
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I took this picture from our balcony one morning - it was just a very nice, homely neighborhood.<br />
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The most incredible part of our trip was getting a semi-private tour of the Vatican Gardens, which were an incredible preservation of a piece of God's beautiful creation. Nothing terrible extravagant about them, just their natural beauty. By the way, this is the way to go if you want to see the Vatican Museums - you pay a little extra for the tour of the gardens, but you skip the massive line for the Vatican Museums in the process. You just need to go to <a href="http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?action=booking">their website</a> and book at least a month in advance (you can book up to 60 days early).<br />
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The castle-like structure in the back of this shot is basically the Pope's guest house for foreign dignitaries.<br />
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There's nothing super special in this last garden shot, I just like taking pictures of pathways like these. I think it's a place for gardening to tools at the end there.<br />
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This is an unfinished sculpture from the Vatican Museums that I believe was made by Bernini. I just found it very striking - I couldn't tell you why, but something is very beautiful about her.<br />
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We saw this horse outside the Colosseum trying to eat the grass in between the stones in the ground. It was too cute/sad to not take a picture of.<br />
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This in incredible work of art is from the St. Peter-in-chains church (known for having the chains that bound St. Peter in both prisons he was famously held in) - it's Michelangelo's Moses. I'll let you guess why it's called that.<br />
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We paid a visit to the Scala Sancta - the steps Jesus carried the cross up at Pontius Pilate's crib, with 4 spots of trace amounts of Jesus's blood. Really incredible to be there and highly recommended for any Christians.<br />
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<b>Back in Dublin</b><br />
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We ended our trip with one last night in Dublin, followed by probably our tastiest breakfast of the trip - a true Irish breakfast (we had that other mornings in Dublin as well, this one was just better).<br />
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Alright, that's all for now! I'll post many more photos on Facebook for those of you who actually know me in real life. I'm hoping to have another post up here in the next couple of weeks on actual tech news.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-26123973274183114662011-03-22T00:03:00.000-07:002011-03-22T00:03:31.337-07:00We Will Pump YOU Up!<i>Gah - I can't believe it's already been 3 weeks since my last post! The time has been flying way too fast! I'm going on vacation next week so it'll be another 3 weeks until I can post again, but I should be able to put something fun together about my trip. Sorry for the lack of a techie post in a while, but here's something that's still nerdy: a speech I wrote up recently about working out. Enjoy!</i><br />
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Your average gym can be, and usually is, a very strange and intimidating place to a newbie. You've got bulky trainers whipping stringy guys and gals into shape, large men making high pitched grunting noises under unreasonable amounts of weight, and then you've got the vain folks who like seeing their muscles bulge as they lift. I've been working out regularly for over 6 years now but, like a lot of gym rats, my knowledge has been a mish mash of random online articles, locker room talk, and friends. So I did some research into good books on weight lifting and decided to pick up the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Mens-Health-Muscle-Authoritative-Building/dp/1579547699?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Men's Health Book of Muscle</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1579547699" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> by Ian King and I really got a lot out of it. So as Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey as Hanz and Franz on SNL say, I'm here to pump *clap* *clap* you up! In the short time I have with you today I'd like to share the basics about the science of building muscle, proper nutrition, and tips on one's workout regimen.<br />
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As a card-carrying nerd I truly believe in understanding the science behind everything, and it can really go a long way when it comes to weight lifting for your own personal safety. Fun fact: you're born with all the muscle fibers you'll have your whole life - all you can do by working out is make them bigger (or smaller if you decide to stop exercising). Making your muscles bigger will in turn actually make your bones thicker and stronger, since skeletal muscles primarily exist to pull bones. There's two main types of muscle fiber: fast-twitch for maximum strength and slow-twitch for endurance. I found it fascinating that the breakdown of those two types are determined at birth and can never be changed. And did you know that the shape of your muscles is genetically coded? So there's not much you can do about that either. You have to be the best you can be with what you have. The way that you can reach that best is a process called hypertrophy, which is how muscles grow in response to a specific stimulus. In a nutshell, when you start working out your muscles get tighter to become ready for action more easily and then your muscles gradually grow by more protein filaments getting added to your muscle fibers so they can get bigger and generate more force. This only happens if all your motor units, or groups of muscle fibers, available for a specific task are in use, hence the saying "no pain no gain." Of course, our bodies are about efficiency so "use it or lose it" really comes into play given the amount of nutrients our muscles require.<br />
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Growing up, my mom used to always ask me if I eat to live or live to eat, to which I'd invariably respond the latter. Raise your hand if you love food. Obviously, it's fundamentally important to all of us, and I stand firmly opposed to any trendy diet plan, no matter what it promises. Ultimately, the best plan for gaining muscle or trimming fat is to eat several small meals during the day (every 3-4 hours, ideally, starting with as soon as you wake up). As far as what to eat: you should be ingesting one gram of protein for every pound you weigh and, despite popular belief, you need to eat carbohydrates so that you don't starve yourself of the energy your body will otherwise likely break down muscle tissue to extract. Of course, eating the right foods is also important: like sweet potatoes instead of normal potatoes, fresh fruits instead of dried fruits, or fish and lean cuts of meat instead of pork sausage and brisket. As a native Texan, that last one cut into me the hardest. Don't forget to have a snack high in protein and carbohydrates before and immediately after your workouts. I personally like mixing soy milk, egg white protein powder, and various other ingredients for my shakes as an easy, frugal source of these meals. Just remember that taking care of your body doesn't have to mean that you're carrying a burden with you at the dinner table; it's all about moderation and timing with your diet rather than sacrifice.<br />
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Workout regimens are subjects of near-religious fanaticism among gym rats. People swear by what they use because it works best for their body. Empirical evidence can be a powerful motivator, but Ian King has some sound advice for all of us. The book goes into great detail about exercises and his recommended programs, which are different for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters. They're catered toward your workout age, or how long you've been continuously working out for - which is an important concept because moving too fast too soon can lead to injury. Each program is a 4 stage progression that focuses on general conditioning, increased muscle size, strength, and finally maximal strength and power, in that order. Each stage is 6 weeks and you're supposed to take a week off either midway through and/or between stages, which is an important idea that I had never considered. These are called recovery weeks and they are the periods in which your body actually grows, but only if you keep your physical exertion to no more than very light weights or less intense sports. Another piece of very sound advice he offers is that you not do strenuous aerobic exercise, like running or bicycling, on the same days of your strength training or you won't grow effectively due to the so-called interference effect they cause since they do opposite things to your muscles. You'll have to get the book from your <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">favorite online retailer</a> or your <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">favorite eBook reader</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> to read his easy-to-understand charts on the programs prescribed.<br />
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I hope you've learned a little something today about weight training. What I learned from The Book of Muscle were the details of how muscles are composed, what one can and cannot do for one's body's growth, what the proper diet should entail, and the proven best ways to go about structuring one's workout schedule. Feel free to talk to me after the meeting if you have more questions, but I encourage you to do your part to keep Seattle on that hot list of the nation's fittest cities. I know I started because I was a chubby kid in high school who was looking to be slightly less awkward. After all these years though I've found it to be very rewarding and fun, and really look forward to incorporating Ian King's advice into my life. Mr. Toastmaster.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-84701911618515128762011-02-28T23:36:00.000-08:002011-02-28T23:36:40.756-08:002011: The Year of the TabletThis post is kind of two weeks overdue, but life's been busy and it's been hard to find time to finish this post. Better late than never though!<br />
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Do you hear that sound? Listen closer - it's the beating of the drums of war. It's coming! I used to think it was all hype, but it really is brewing. Apple once again has set the stage for a new product category through the iPad, and it's a market that it looks like they don't quite have completely cornered. There's plenty of room for competitors to edge their way in, of which there are three: the Blackberry Playbook, the rabble of Android tablets, and the Palm TouchPad. Surprisingly enough, they're <i>all</i> pretty worthy competitors. <br />
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<a href="http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/pc_guy/114779269_Hello__sleek_iPad__goodbye__bulky_desktop_computer.html">Over 14 million</a> iPads were sold last year, and given that that's all early adopters there's clearly much more under the surface there, so the market has plenty of room for anyone who can differentiate from the iPad and/or beat the hefty price tag. Personally, I have no desire to get a tablet, but when I think about it I can easily see the appeal for everyone else. Every computer breakthrough in the past 30 years has seemed to involve portability - convenience is key to people. Gone are the days of trying to type on a keyboard in a cramped airplane seat - here are the days of Kindles and iPads and iPhones when you're on-the-go. It never ceases to amaze me how much sex appeal matters in gadgetry. While many people are content with what they have, there's a large contingent who will drop what they have in a hot minute for something that's more fun to play with or easier to use even if they don't actually <i>need</i> to upgrade. Back to tablets versus computers though - I'm fairly tech savvy and yet I really only use my home computer for a few things: browsing the web for news and information, e-mail, listening to music, storing pictures, writing speeches, and playing games with friends. When you boil down your computer to a set of items like that and consider that you can get all that and more in a smaller form factor for less money, why wouldn't you want a tablet instead? I mean the hardcore PC games will stay on PCs, but we're seeing pretty compelling stuff on mobile devices now. And granted, typing is much easier on a physical keyboard, but you can accessorize your tablet if you're like me and really hate typing on a touch screen. These are all pretty small arguments compared to the general interest that has grown around tablets and the place they can fill in our lives if we chuck our desktop or laptop computers.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/HP-TouchPad_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="445" width="650" src="http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/HP-TouchPad_2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
Let's start with the little guy: the HP TouchPad. I'm an outspoken fan of webOS and it's only getting better in version 2.0. The TouchPad was announced <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/09/the-hp-touchpad/">earlier this month</a>, but you can see a more recent hands-on video <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/09/hp-touchpad-first-hands-on/">here</a>. It's starting off with a steep disadvantage of not coming out until the summer, but it has a sexy 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor, a 9.7" display, and a front-facing camera. Anything that you had on the Pre is there also (Synergy, the multitasking interface, etc.), minus the gesture area (since you'll be alternating between landscape and portrait orientations a lot). Aside from the front facing camera, what sets it apart from the competition is its tight integration with the Pre 3. Notifications and texts can be shared and I'm sure a lot more. I think this is pretty much the last hurrah for webOS - if this launch fails then it's all over. I think that given how small HP's mindshare is for mobile device owners, the chips are definitely stacked against them. With an inventive marketing campaign and competitive pricing, I think it definitely stands a chance. They also need to really reach out to the developer community and get aggressive about upping the ante on the app store. There's some great stuff out there, but it's a far cry from what Android and the iPad have.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/01/bb-playbook-post-02-top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="399" width="600" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/01/bb-playbook-post-02-top.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/blackberry-playbook-preview/">Blackberry Playbook</a> is set to ship in the next 1-2 months and has gotten a lot of good press. I'd consider a media darling, in fact, because the tech press seems to be really excited about it. The only pricing I've seen so far is under $500 for the 4G model, which is indeed quite competitive (there are a <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/14/rim-playbook-tablet-now-in-delicious-lte-and-hspa-flavors/">few different models</a> with different connectivity options though). It's also pretty beefy under the hood with a dual core 1 GHz ARM processor - lending itself quite well to its marketing as being very much a multitasking computer. They even have demos where they look at pictures, play HD video, and listen to music all at once (although it appears that this is an optional feature as you can configure it to only keep focus on one item at a time if you'd like). Another strength is the extremely high clarity of 170 pixels per inch (even sharper than the iPad). Despite how fast and shiny the PlayBook is though, I think it's going to have serious problems standing up to the competition because Blackberry's brand is not near what it used to be even 3 years ago and the app store is going to be worlds behind every other tablet coming out this year. With competitive pricing and strong incentives to developers, I think they may be in the running, but their uphill battle could be even steeper than HP's. While it's cool that they're trying to be appealing to the enterprise with their <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/31/rim-shows-playbook-living-in-sweet-harmony-with-blackberry-torch/">Torch integration</a>, I don't know if that's going to be enough for them to build significant market share around it. Let's face it, a tablet is usually not for work, it's for play.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/01/android-honeycomb-feature-screen-shot-2011-01-05-at-8.35.37-pm-rm-eng.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="440" width="800" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/01/android-honeycomb-feature-screen-shot-2011-01-05-at-8.35.37-pm-rm-eng.jpg" /></a></div><br />
There's a lot of Android tablets coming out soon so I won't go into hardware details, but Honeycomb is <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/06/googles-android-3-0-honeycomb-for-tablets-a-guided-tour-of-the/">a pretty slick OS</a>. It just oozes the kind of class that we've come to expect from Android over the years. The launcher is in essence what you normally see from Android phones but just scaled up a bit for a tablet (like a GMail widget that keeps up with live e-mail) and with a spoonful of sugar on top as the transitions are cleaner and a way to zoom out and get an eXpose-like view of things (as pictured above). A few more noteworthy items: Google Maps looks a lot more like Google Earth now that you can see 3-D models in it, the browser appears to be just a tablety version of Chrome, and the GMail UI weaves pretty well with what you've come to know and love in your browser. I think the odds that Android tablets won't survive the year are slim to nil. Aside from the momentum Android has and the number of tablets that will be out there this year running Android, it has an extremely competitive app store. The only things holding it back are pricing (the Motorola Xoom is <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/06/best-buy-ad-prices-motorola-xoom-at-800-affirms-february-24th/">$800</a> - I hope others don't follow suit) and the risk of over-saturating the market with selection. <br />
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There's not much I can say about the iPad that you don't already know, except for the fact that there's almost certainly a new iPad coming out this summer that hasn't been announced yet. Hence, the iPad could either strengthen its lead or lose a decent amount of market share to the competition. Regardless of what happens, it'll definitely still be in this game after this year - the question is really whether their majority share of the market will be staggering or just a simple one. They've got excellent market share, an enormous app store, and a leg up on the competition in having had a year head start to iron out the kinks for the 2nd generation. Their biggest downfalls are pricing, weight, the lack of multitasking, and the standard fact that the iPad plays in a somewhat walled garden since the app store is more heavily controlled than any of the others are/will be. Even with all these issues, it's still the iPad. The brand name is the trump card, even in the face of all the cool stuff the other guys have to offer (not to say that the iPad is a bad device by any means, but the competitors are no less slick).<br />
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We have four tablet OSes entering this year and I predict only three will survive, possibly even only two. By "survive" I mean by a reasonableness standard - none of these guys will quickly give up the battle, but anyone who can't get their foothold in this year firmly into the market is done for. I expect for it to be a very interesting year for tablets, and I look forward to watching from the sideline as I clutch my 16.3" Asus laptop in the face of this anti-keyboard revolution.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-90464437310979175072011-01-31T23:51:00.000-08:002011-01-31T23:53:33.909-08:00Kindle the 3rdI'm finally back! I'm hoping that I can end this hiatus now and get back to regular blogging. It'll be a bit of a challenge to get back in the swing of things, but I'm hoping to be able to post at least once every two weeks and maybe I'll be able to ramp up that rate as time goes by.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TUeqNG1JRJI/AAAAAAAADvo/neK3CsX0HRM/s1600/kindle3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TUeqNG1JRJI/AAAAAAAADvo/neK3CsX0HRM/s200/kindle3.jpg" /></a></div>It's been almost a month now since I got the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002Y27P3M?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Kindle 3</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002Y27P3M" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> - my first Kindle ever - which is plenty of time for me to form some pretty solid impressions. I have to confess that when I first found about the Kindle, I thought it wasn't a very good idea, especially since the Sony eReader had crashed and burned already. I thought it was too ahead of its time and it was going to be really hard creating a market for it with people so married to the idea of paper books. When you think about it, more so than any other medium it's the most resistant to change. People are really attached to their books. Of course, Amazon pioneered the idea of ordering books online, so I shouldn't have been surprised that it would be the best candidate to put out an electronic device. So why did I decide to buy something I thought was a dumb idea? Aside from the fact that the price was right (I got the WiFi model, so only $139), it was because of a screaming toddler. On the second leg of my trip back to my hometown for the holidays there was a toddler within 10-20 feet of me that literally screamed whether he was happy, sad, or just chilling out. I'm not exaggerating, I do not know what was wrong with this kid - you'd think his parents were abusing him. I finished the graphic novel I brought for the flight (I was hoping to sleep the whole flight) and the legroom in front of me was not enough to pull out my laptop and indulge in some <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Galactica-Edward-James-Olmos/dp/B0036EH3U2?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Battlestar Cracklactica</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0036EH3U2" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" />, so I closed my eyes and slept for two minute intervals between screams thinking about how much I wish I had room in my carry-on to bring more books. Needless to say, a Kindle was on its merry little way to my parents' place within 24 hours of my arrival.<br />
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I'm pretty amazed at how much I love the Kindle. People told me things like that it was the best thing they've bought in their life and that seeing is believing and all that jazz. I'd heard this sort of talk before when a little device came out called the iPad. I played with an iPad and I still don't believe it's worth $500. It's a <i>very</i> nice toy, but it's heavy and I have no desire to lug it around. The Kindle though is an entirely different story. It's remarkable how light it is. Holding it feels right - like it yearns for the warm touch of your fingers. I don't say this that much when it comes to electronics, but it's a thing of beauty - I'm impressed by how nice it looks and feels. The WiFi one only comes in graphite so your fingerprints don't stay visible for long and it just feels soft and elegant - especially the back which feels like thin silicone. <br />
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The first thing I love about the Kindle is a result of its sexy body: you can hold it in one hand comfortably. I always hated that with paperbacks you have to angle your hand in a special way to hold it with one hand, and even then you need you other hand to turn pages, which isn't convenient if you're standing on a bus or in numerous other situations. The first thing I hate also is related to its body though: the d-pad placement is silly. I hit the "Back" and "Menu" buttons on accident far too frequently when I try navigating up/down on the screen. To be fair, I have nails on my right hand (for playing guitar) so it'd probably be less of a problem if I didn't, but anyone with bigger hands is going to experience that irritation. Additionally, the bottom row of the qwerty keyboard is shifted one key to the left, which is frustrating for a touch typist like me who is used to a normal qwerty on his mobile phone. Aside from that though, the other keys are superb, especially next/previous page, which are wonderfully placed on either side of the device. I think it's really neat that the power button is on a light that appears as if from nowhere and indicates when you turn it on or when it's charging - very cool.<br />
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I have to hand it to the Kindle team, they know how to ship a product. As soon as it was on its way to me, I got an e-mail saying it was registered to me already and I could start buying stuff immediately to download on it when I switch it on. I was already blown away because I'd never had a product shipped to me that was already personalized without my request. When I pulled it out of the box, the screen had instructions on it when I un-boxed it, which I thought were on the screen protector until I followed the directions and the screen changed and I literally gasped because I was so shocked. This was my first experience with the text sharpness on the Kindle 3. The first two generations were cool and all, but this one really takes the cake in terms of contrast and the fact that it's literally sharper than words printed on paper. It's like when the iPhone came out that had a higher resolution than your eyes knew what to do with - the difference is that drastic. I cannot sing enough praises for the display - it makes me want to read more because I don't have to strain my eyes at all and that makes it <i>fun</i> to read again.<br />
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Oh, and it's quite snappy. Turning pages is very responsive, and waking it up from sleep is less than 5 seconds (less than 2 seconds if you left your book open when you put it to sleep and don't need to navigate to it). The overall interface is just logical. It comes with a huge user manual if you ever have questions (on the device, of course - not printed out), but you really only need the first chapter or two (that's not much reading) to get the basics. From there, you can figure it all out. The "Back" button always does what you think it will do. You can start typing text whenever to search or lookup words. There are just numerous examples of good UI design, especially the fact that the screen real estate is never cluttered and organizing your books into collections is super easy. Buying books is also easy - it's easy enough to buy on the device itself, but if you go online and do so then it'll start downloading to your device in literally seconds if you're on the home screen and your wireless is turned on. To conserve battery life, the WiFi/3G is never on when the Kindle is asleep - it's worth it, the battery life is incredible. I only charged it once since I got it, but only to be cautionary for another flight - I don't think I needed to have charged it since my first charge. Some other noteworthy features: taking notes/highlighting/bookmarking is super easy and syncs to the cloud, you can see passages highlighted by a lot of other users, you can share passages on Facebook/Twitter, your last read page syncs to the cloud whenever you turn on wireless, you can change the text size, approved books (by the book publisher) can be read to you, and you can send lots of stuff to your Kindle for free over WiFi (pictures, word docs, PDFs, Mobi). One feature that doesn't work so great is the web browser - it's adequate for things like logging on to WiFi networks with a gateway or browsing news articles, but the screen simply isn't designed for rich web content. A friend said something very true the other day to this point. It was something to the tune of "I already have a laptop and a mobile phone to browse the web, I just want to read books on my Kindle!" That's very true, and the Kindle does that very well.<br />
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I have a couple of side notes before I wrap up here. I got the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Lighted-Leather-Display-Generation/dp/B003DZ167A?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">lighted leather case</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003DZ167A" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> (as pictured up above), and I love it. It's definitely pricey, but I personally felt it was worth it. It looks and feels nice, it keeps the Kindle nice and safe, and that light is a Godsend. I use it at the most random times. It bathes the screen in light perfectly without being distracting to people around you, and it's powered by the Kindle itself. The elastic band is quite sturdy, too. The other side note I have is that I find it fascinating that each technological advancement in media makes us more ADD, and the Kindle is no exception. When TV first started, you watched TV on a set schedule and you could only watch one thing at a time. Now you can watch multiple programs at once through DVRs and whenever you want. With music you could only listen to one record at a time, then cassettes brought about the mix tape breakthrough (for better or worse) and now mp3s have blown out the ceiling with podcasts and playlists and personalized online radio. Again and again, we're getting inundated with options and taking all of them. With the Kindle, I'm literally reading three books at once. I've discovered that I'm not the only person with this affliction. I think it's actually a cool thing though - one book is only good for reading in large chunks, one book I like to take pauses in just to think about it before I move on to the next piece, and one book is a collection of short essays that I can easily read on-the-go. Aside from schoolwork, this was a much rarer occurrence before eBooks, and I find it to be a fascinating advancement.<br />
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I think I've rambled on long enough. The bottom line is that the Kindle is a ridiculously capable e-reader. The idea that all your books are backed up in the cloud and you can still read them no matter how many Kindles or mobile phones you go through (or reset since resetting the Kindle clears its memory out) is a truly powerful concept. Aside from the initial oddity of saying to someone that you're going to plug your book into a wall to charge it, it feels so natural that once you get one in your hot little hands you'll wonder how you lived with that one. I'm not exaggerating - for me it was that drastic of a change. I had a few nit-picks with it, but I'm really happy with my purchase and am still very happy when I curl up to it at night. In fact, I think I'll do that right now.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-5294331118688383902010-11-28T01:06:00.000-08:002010-11-28T01:06:10.325-08:00It's Not Over...Sorry I've been away for so long. I haven't given up on this blog, life has just made having time for it a challenge. It has taken me longer and longer to put together these posts and I think it's time to reboot how I do this blog. I want to try posting on a less regular schedule (i.e. not every Sunday, maybe Wednesday or Thursday or something sometimes) and focus on specific issues . Covering all the news that interests me is just too much and I think not providing a lot of value - I much prefer giving developed commentary on the big things.<br />
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Stay tuned - I want to start posting again very soon. It may start out bi-weekly and improve over time.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-38674278730493202122010-10-03T23:51:00.000-07:002010-10-03T23:51:53.171-07:00Lots of Cell Phones<b>Cell Phone News Galore</b><br />
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Sorry I haven't been around the past couple of weeks - life has been busy! I was out of town on business a couple of weekends ago and had a wedding to go to last weekend. Should be back in action for a while now though!<br />
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I've seen a ridiculous amount of cell phone news in the past couple of weeks, hence the headline. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is because we're nearing the holiday season that so many phones are coming out of the woodwork.<br />
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Verizon has <a href="http://hothardware.com/News/Verizon-Wireless-Now-Offers-Lost-Phone-Tracking-Remote-Kill/">added a feature</a> to its Android devices much in the vein of what Apple gives iPhone users with Mobile Me. If you lose your phone you can have it play a really loud noise (even if its volume is down) or turn on GPS and track. Like many other phones, it also supports remote wipe. Unlike Apple's Mobile Me, this service is free. Gotta love competition!<br />
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HTC has officially unveiled <a href="http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/15/hands-on-htc-desire-hd-tandroid-superphones/">the Desire HD</a>, which was hotly anticipated by some Android fans and looks pretty damn slick. It has a 4.3" screen and an 8MB camera, and the specs are pretty tricked out with a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, and 768 GB of RAM. Plus, it supports microSD. <br />
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When you instead look at the <a href="http://www.intomobile.com/2010/09/14/hands-on-nokia-e7-symbian3-symbian-communicator/">Nokia E7</a>, you can see why Nokia still doesn't have a foothold in America. I feel like their designers are living in 2006 or something. Sure, it has a 4" screen and 8 MP camera, but a phone with an angled slideout keyboard is something you'd see in a movie and seems like it would be cool but practically probably sucks. Also, the software doesn't seem very impressive. If you can't beat Android then why even try? Maybe I'm biased because I've never understood Nokia UIs.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/09/samsung-continuum-itw-03-sm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/09/samsung-continuum-itw-03-sm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
That right there is the <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/30/exclusive-samsung-continuum-for-verizon-has-double-the-displays/">rumored Samsung Continuum phone</a>. What's super fascinating about this phone is that it sports not one, but <i>two</i> OLED screens. Why would a phone need two screens? It's actually rather clever - the bottom one is like a news ticker for updates and notifications you can subscribe to and would show up when you put your hand on the device. Aside from being nifty, it'd save you battery life on checking that kind of stuff without firing up the whole main screen.<br />
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Last, but not least, two mystery <a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/09/27/new.webos.phones.confirmed.in.certifcation/">webOS 2.0 devices</a> are rumored to be getting announced this month. I may be the only person who cares about this, but I still love the webOS software and just need better hardware.<br />
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<b>Internet Explorer 9</b><br />
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Internet Explorer 9 is on the horizon (like every other Microsoft product, they have to put in 3 years of development time), and some of <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-internet-explorer-9-whats-the-fuss-all-about/">the upcoming features</a> truly are noteworthy. Apparently, the integration with Windows 7 will be tighter than in IE 8 including the ability to pin websites to your taskbar. What's really cool though is a performance advisor that tells you how much load time each add-on you have tacks on to your clicks. The other features are improvements from Chrome or Firefox: searching within the address bar, new tabs showing you most frequently viewed sites (color coded though), and a more compact interface. In a lot of ways, it looks like a Chrome clone to me; I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Must be surreal for Google since Internet Explorer is the top dog for browsers.<br />
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<b>Apple TV is Out</b><br />
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The Apple TV is <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Apple-TV-MC572LL-NEWEST-MODEL/dp/B001FA1NK0?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">now available</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B001FA1NK0" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> and PC Mag <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369858,00.asp">put up a review</a> with plenty of footage of the UI. As you would expect, it's slick and simple like the first generation. In fact, just think of the UI as that one with just some added features. I acknowledge that this is a cool device at $99, but it bothers me that it doesn't have a hard disk. It would be so cool (though I know, impossible) if you could rip Blu-rays and DVDs to it so that it'd be like your traveling media hub. I wonder if the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DSM-380-Boxee-Box-by/dp/B0038JE07O?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Boxee Box</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0038JE07O" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> is dead in the water at $200 though it supports 1080p and is more open.<br />
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<b>Digg Traffic Down</b><br />
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Anecdotally, the Digg redesign wasn't very well-received, but now we have metrics that traffic <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/digg_redesign_tanks_traffic_down_26.php">has dropped 26%</a>. Despite popular belief, most of that traffic did not go to Reddit. That's a really significant drop and I think there are a couple of really important lessons to learn here. The first lesson is that they didn't have their biggest users test this out. That was stupid - they would've caught the problems in the redesign immediately. Secondly, they added the functionality of following people without including the old Digg - there was no good reason to do that. The experiment alone would've been valuable and it may have even succeeded comparing the two. Instead, they alienated a very loyal user base. <br />
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Additionally, it sounds like Kevin Rose <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/kevin_rose_at_disrupt.php">may be leaving</a> Digg due to burnout. He said they could've been bought out for $80 million but the board turned it down. Too bad, because they're in a rather precarious position now.<br />
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<b>Galaxy Tab and Blackberry Playbook</b><br />
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In tablet news, Digital Trends got some <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/hands-on-video-with-samsungs-galaxy-tab/">hands on time</a> with the Samsung Galaxy Tab and it looks cool. It's funny that the Desire HD is actually more powerful, but the specs aren't bad. I haven't seen pricing information, but I wonder how it'll fare against the iPad now that a lot of tablet enthusiasts have already picked that up.<br />
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Meanwhile, Blackberry has <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/hands-on-video-with-samsungs-galaxy-tab/">announced the Playbook</a>, a QNX-based tablet to be released next year. They're developing QNX with full support for Javascript, HTML 5, CSS 3, and Adobe Air. I'm going to guess that they're going to push hard on video conferencing and other business-oriented features here, but it may be too little too late depending on how late into next year it's going to come out.<br />
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<b>Quickies</b><br />
<br />
Music download <a href="http://beatcrave.com/2010-09-27/music-download-sales-flat-in-the-us/">sales are flat</a> right now, which doesn't seem all that odd to me. It's a pretty mature industry now, how much should it be growing, especially given that the holidays are just around the corner?<br />
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Netflix is going to <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/09/26/saturday-night-live-netflix/">start streaming</a> a bunch of NBC content, including every season of SNL. Given that SNL used to be so much better than it is now, that's pretty big news.<br />
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Google wants <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/09/30/google-webp/">to replace JPEG</a> with a more efficient format: WebP. If anyone can force a new image standard, it'd probably be Google.<br />
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The Super Mario Brothers anniversary was a couple of weeks, so please <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/09/13/super-mario-bros-25th-anniversary/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+(Mashable)">enjoy this belated bit</a> of anniversary nostalgia. So many memories of being a preteen.<br />
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Have a fantastic week!Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-9101769510454036232010-09-12T23:24:00.000-07:002010-09-12T23:24:39.240-07:00Censorship in the US<b>What do Rackspace and Medal of Honor have in common?</b><br />
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These are big enough stories that you probably do know what they have in common. While this topic is a bit more political than I like to get, they're probably the biggest things to get noticed last week.<br />
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Medal of Honor, which I played at PAX and was quite fun, has been getting <a href="http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/707149/ea-wont-bow-to-pressure-over-taliban-in-medal-of-honor.html">a lot of attention</a> for the ability to play as the Taliban. This is only in multiplayer so it's not like you play a single player campaign trying to bomb an American landmark or something, but has ruffled quite a few feathers. It's been banned from American military bases, in fact. This strikes me as especially ironic because these guys go out and fight to preserve our freedom and for the freedom of others - whether you politically agree with what they've been sent to do or not, they serve their country with honor and believe in this freedom. Yet, they don't get the freedom to play this game. I know you give up some rights when you're on a military base, I totally understand that, but they might as well start outlawing war movies, right? How is that different from a game? An immersive movie can be just as powerful as a video game. Video games are an artform and should not be considered a second class citizen in today's media, it's not fair. I applaud EA for sticking to their guns. You can play as the Axis Powers in World War 2 games and you see things from Hitler's side in the movie <i>Downfall</i>, so why is it so wrong to play a game with the Taliban? It's not my cup of tea, but this clamoring for stores to not sell it is effectively censoring freedom of speech for EA, and it's not right. <br />
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In a totally different arena, <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/rackspace-pulls-plug-koran-burning-church%E2%80%99s-w">Rackspace has denied service</a> to a church that was planning to burn copies for the Koran. At first reaction, I'm totally with you: burning Korans is hateful and terrible. And yet, the right to peacefully assembly is what America is all about. Who is Rackspace to judge this church? I can appreciate the right of a business to refuse service to anyone, but being a service provider as Rackspace is, they're in a unique position. They may not be the only game in town, but they shut off this church's primary voice to the world. Imagine if Wal-marts started refusing service to Catholics because they don't believe in the death penalty. How different is that from this situation? In some places, Wal-mart is the primary source of a lot of random stuff, much like service providers like Rackspace. Their power is larger than that of a lot of companies because of this. <br />
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Maybe I've opened up a can of worms here, but I just believe in freedom of speech. Call me a wide-eyed optimist if you want, but I love this country and stories like this kind of suck.<br />
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<b>G2 and Milestone 2 Announced</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://photos.macnn.com/news/1008/moto_mile2_inline3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="http://photos.macnn.com/news/1008/moto_mile2_inline3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
The cell phone is taking a cue from the movie industry with all these sequels they're coming out with. Motorola's Milestone 2 is a <a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/09/01/gsm.version.of.droid.2.inbound.q4/">slick-looking slider</a> phone that looks to be targeted more towards Europe and will be released there this fall. Of more interest to us is probably the <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368902,00.asp">T-Mobile G2</a>, which is the first HSPA+ (basically, T-Mobile's 4G). Apparently, it has an unusual flip keyboard of sorts. The hardware under the hood sounds pretty similar to the Milestone 2. Aren't there processors other than the Snapdragon?<br />
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In more interesting mobile news, Nokia has <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368902,00.asp">replaced their CEO</a> with a Microsoft exec. I do not know why they think he'll do any better, but I guess anyone else is better with the rut that Nokia has been in. To be honest though, Nokia needs something pretty drastic to get back in the game, at this point they need to take some pretty large risks. To go from having more than half the market cornered to 34% in 4 years is pretty bleak.<br />
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<b>Apple Changes App Store Rules</b><br />
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I don't fully understand this, but Apple has <a href="http://business2press.com/2010/09/09/apple-changes-app-store-rules-to-become-more-open-and-transparent/">decided to lax</a> their app store rules a bit by not restricting the development tools used to create iPhone apps. This has <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368965,00.asp">prompted Adobe</a> to go back to work on Flash for the iPhone. This doesn't mean the browser will display Flash, only that Flash-based applications will start appearing in the app store. There's speculation that the about face was from the antitrust investigation that Adobe is said to have instigated, but the investigation hasn't stopped as a result. I'm really curious to see if this will really create many more <i>quality</i> iPhone apps - Flash just doesn't seem as big of a development tool as it did even 5 years ago, but it's hard to predict where developers will hang their hat. It's a very fast-changing industry.<br />
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<b>The Rest</b><br />
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Alright, I have to work on a speech so it's time to wind down.<br />
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Kevin Rose <a href="http://hewreck.com/video-kevin-rose-talks-about-the-new-digg-v4-on-diggnation-tv/">spoke a bit</a> about the Digg issues on Diggnation and it didn't help their case tremendously because it made their engineers look like they didn't prep well for the v4 upgrade. If Digg were to add a tab to also show the old Digg they'd be doing just fine right now with their users.<br />
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If you're confused between Apple TV and Google TV, <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/apple-tv-vs-google-tv-how-do-they-differ/">this</a> is a pretty good article breaking down how they're conceptually different products altogether. Personally, I pictured what Google TV is purported to be to be where TV was going, but I like the idea of renting shows (especially if there are marathon sales).<br />
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This seems like old news now, but GMail released <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/priority-inbox.html">Priority Inbox</a> to all users last week (not just Google Apps users as the week before) and it's pretty sweet. I've been using it and it's the biggest improvement GMail has had probably since Google Chat.<br />
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Google also released <a href="http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/09/google-scribe.html">Google Scribe</a> to help auto-complete everything.<br />
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This is old but I forgot to cover it last week: Google <a href="http://code.google.com/edu/courses.html">posted resources online</a> to help with teaching computer science. Very cool stuff.<br />
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Have a great week, everyone!Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-50188906817912628742010-09-06T22:50:00.000-07:002010-09-07T13:34:51.958-07:00PAX 2010<b>My PAX 5</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWfLaX4xRI/AAAAAAAADtE/-Ek1QqKzczQ/s1600/IMG_7483.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWfLaX4xRI/AAAAAAAADtE/-Ek1QqKzczQ/s320/IMG_7483.JPG" /></a></div><br />
This was my third year going to PAX and it was a blast, as always, albeit exhausted (I counted having played over 30 games on the show floor). I feel like last year was a little better because there were more games I was pumped to see and less people there, but this year was bigger (the main theater was moved out of the convention center to Benaroya Hall - maybe it'll be the Paramount next year). Anyway, per tradition, I'd like to list out the top 5 games that <i>I</i> saw. I obviously didn't play everything and I'm not a journalist so I just did what I could with the schedule of stuff I wanted to see.<br />
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<b>5. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Infamous-2-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0GX88?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Infamous 2</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002I0GX88" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b> - I was a little surprised how much fun this was to play. It was just a very satisfying experience overall and the controls just seemed to click with me, possibly better than with other people. The demo showed off how the camera does some automatic camera zooms for stylistic fighting, which I could see getting annoying after all, and it showed off a fair bit of rampant destruction of the city at your hands. I didn't really play the original, but I'll have to keep my eye on this.<br />
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<b>4. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Force-Unleashed-Playstation-3/dp/B0030F1DOO?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Star Wars Force Unleashed 2</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0030F1DOO" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b> - My friend doesn't agree with me on this, but I think Lucasarts made an enormous improvement over the original here. The demo of the original was so bad that I didn't even finish it - I just couldn't get force grip to go my way. Ultimately, force grip is very hard to nail down with a normal game controller and may be better for something more like the PS Move controller where you can gesture in 3-D space. Anyway, the demo they had was pretty long and I had a ton of fun tossing around storm troopers and just being a Jedi (or is it Sith?) badass. Give this one a try before you knock it.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWdZrJowuI/AAAAAAAADsk/M3VVVUQ7PaE/s1600/IMG_7435.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWdZrJowuI/AAAAAAAADsk/M3VVVUQ7PaE/s200/IMG_7435.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><br />
<b>3. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Epic-Mickey-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B002I0GEXM?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Epic Mickey</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002I0GEXM" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b> - I think fanfare was low for this one because it's a Disney game rather than a big video game property. Still, I thought it was pretty creative. The graphics weren't that great (better than I expected for the Wii), but the gameplay was something different and I, for one, appreciated that. I don't think Disney games appealing to an older audience are so common that this game is a write-off. The visual style is superb and it brought back so much nostalgia of playing <i>Mickey Mania</i> back in day, even though it has nothing to do with it. Anyway, the game hinges on you using a paint brush to thin out (i.e. remove) pieces of the world or painted in parts that are missing. It lends itself to some great puzzle elements so I'd probably call it an adventure game more than anything else. <br />
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<b>2. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Donkey-Kong-Country-Returns-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B003O65TC6?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Donkey Kong Country Returns</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003O65TC6" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b> - If there's one game that Wii owners need to look forward to, it's this one. I adored this series growing up. I didn't own any of them, but I rented and beat each of them (actually rented from Phar-mor, remember when they existed?). My heart grew three sizes seeing the love they put into bringing this franchise back. It's so great that they preserved the 2-D nature of the game while upgrading the graphics (very well, I might add, despite being on the Wii). The gameplay felt just as cute, clever, and fun as it did growing up, and I definitely see it being a great party game (well, a party for nerds, that is).<br />
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<b>1. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Portal-2-Playstation-3/dp/B003O6E3C8?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Portal 2</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003O6E3C8" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></b> - Even though it wasn't playable, this game looks like it's what we've been patiently waiting for since <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Orange-Box-Pc/dp/B000PS2XES?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Portal</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000PS2XES" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /></i> came out what seems like forever ago. Aside from being more of what we came to know and love, it has co-op (including the ability to hug - chest bump will probably be in Portal 3) and newer guns (actual I think from Tag, which I covered <a href="http://eptiger.blogspot.com/2009/09/pax-2009.html">last year</a>) for painting surfaces to make you faster or bounce around, etc. The only problem was that the puzzles seemed very difficult, but I imagine it'll be back next year since they have over a year to go on it. That'll give them a chance to make it even longer and see people struggle with how difficult the puzzles are (or, hopefully, to make it easier to chew for more gamers).<br />
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I do have a few honorable mentions that didn't make the list:<br />
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<ul><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWdwfeap4I/AAAAAAAADss/hyTsT5ILltk/s1600/IMG_7440.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWdwfeap4I/AAAAAAAADss/hyTsT5ILltk/s200/IMG_7440.JPG" width="200" /></a>
<li><i>Duke Nukem Forever</i> was the biggest news of PAX, by far. That's right, after 10+ years, they really are doing a sequel to the iconic FPS Duke Nukem 3D. It didn't make my list because I didn't wait in the 2-4 hour line to play it. I decided that my priorities lied in other stuff going on during PAX. My friend played it and it convinced him to pre-order it as soon as he can. It's apparently just as fun as it used to be with the humor intact and much longer. This game stands to be pretty huge though, especially judging from the great lengths people went through to play it at PAX. I managed to find some probably illicit videos of it online and it definitely looks awesome, but I can only imagine the outcries against it when it comes out given how crude it is. They should be releasing videos soon for the rest of us to see it - it doesn't seem to be vaporware this time around though. By the way, I think this was the first major game to be announced at PAX, which is a pretty awesome achievement for what started as a tiny indie games expo in Bellevue.</li>
<li><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWeGMFYs9I/AAAAAAAADs0/3wb-ScLq68o/s1600/IMG_7424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWeGMFYs9I/AAAAAAAADs0/3wb-ScLq68o/s200/IMG_7424.JPG" width="200" /></a></div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/LittleBigPlanet-2-Playstation-3/dp/B002I0K780?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"><span id="goog_1878447505"></span><span id="goog_1878447506"></span>LittleBigPlanet 2</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002I0K780" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> was fun, but my playtime with it didn't involve much of the super new stuff, I'm afraid. The level we played was trying to protect these Sackbots and it was very cute. The new costumes were also really neat. I can't say I'm amped for this game since it's nothing revolutionary, but I will be getting it at some point because it's looking very good. </li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Killzone-3-Playstation/dp/B002I0K6DG?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Killzone 3</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002I0K6DG" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> deserves a shout-out because (aside from them giving out the best quality shirts) it was so fun we played it twice. The graphics were some of the best on the show floor. I wasn't sure whether to put it on my list at #5 or not, but ultimately it was just another FPS. It was neat how you chose a class and had abilities based on that class, like cloaking and stuff, and the gameplay modes were cool, but nothing really new. Just a triple A FPS. They did have it in 3-D and with the Move controller, but I played some third person shooter in 3-D and it hurt my head - I didn't bother trying with the Move controller.</li>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWe8dL2USI/AAAAAAAADs8/Gjk67JSGgjI/s1600/IMG_7423.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1PgUrPo238g/TIWe8dL2USI/AAAAAAAADs8/Gjk67JSGgjI/s320/IMG_7423.JPG" /></a></div><li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/NBA-JAM-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B003KZJB2U?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">NBA Jam</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003KZJB2U" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> is back, and playing it very much took me back to middle school where I used to play it all the time when guests my age came over. It's as fun an arcade basketball game as ever, and actually transferred pretty well, visually, to the Wii.</li>
<li>I'm not big on action games, but I thoroughly enjoyed <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-vs-Capcom-Worlds-Playstation-3/dp/B003IEBO9Q?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Marvel vs. Capcom 3</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003IEBO9Q" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />, even if I did get owned. The character models and gameplay are the high quality you'd expect from this series.</li>
<li>Similarly, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mortal-Kombat-Playstation-3/dp/B003O6E1JS?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Mortal Kombat</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003O6E1JS" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> was a return to form. You can see some footage of it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zty1gfzCbmI">here</a> - fatalities are back and bloodier than ever. A couple of them were so disturbing I shudder to describe them - no one under the age of 17 should be in the same room as this game's disc, but it will be a great ride for the rest of us.</li>
<li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-Brotherhood-Playstation-3/dp/B003L8DXOI?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003L8DXOI" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> was playable in multiplayer and, while the graphics didn't impress me, it was fun. I think it would get repetitive after a while because it's just about trying to stay hidden until you find your target and kill them, but it seems like something that would be fun once in a while. You get a new target once you kill yours, but of course you're also someone else's target and have to be on the lookout for anyone suspicious since there are clones of all the players walking around under AI control that are not actually assassins.</li>
<li>I didn't get any time with the Kinetic, but I tried out the Playstation Move a bit and it seemed fun. Not really a game changer, but I noticed better accuracy than with the Wiimote. Supposedly, it's hit or miss and I only played one game with it, but we'll see what happens with it.</li>
</ul><br />
And a few dishonorable mentions, real quick:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>Bethesda really missed with Hunted. It's a medieval take on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Army-Two-Playstation-3/dp/B000RHZ9G6?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Army of Two</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B000RHZ9G6" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" /> with very clumsy controls. Nothing at all was compelling about this game, and it actually froze before we could finish the demo. I was actually glad it froze so I could leave.</li>
<li>I don't know why Sega was showing off Conduit 2. If anything, they should lock it away in a box so no one knows it exists. Aside from being by far the ugliest game I saw all weekend, the controls were really bad and the AI was even worse. Nothing redeemed this Wii FPS, except that you could relax your frustrations by moving three steps to the left to try out Sonic Colors, which is classic Sonic in 3-D and on speed.</li>
</ul><br />
<b>PAX Keynote</b><br />
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Warren Spector, associated with many great classic games including Deus Ex and Wing Commander, gave the keynote this year and it was the best PAX keynote I've seen (I never saw the Wheaton one). Unfortunately, there's not a video online yet with the most poignant part of his speech, but he basically made the claim some considered quite bold that video games are the medium of the century much like books were ages ago and movies were last century. Every new form of media faces resistance before it makes it big, and video games are growing to the point that they're becoming the ultimate multimedia experience. I've always considered them to be that way because of the ridiculous music quality and, often, voice acting nowadays, but the growth of PAX and the revenues of the industry as a whole are proof that it's becoming more and more mainstream. <br />
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He also went into a diatribe, and rightly so, about a case that has reached the Supreme Court on whether video games can be censored by the government (i.e. what games can and can't be sold). It will effectively revoke the right of free speech to video games if the governator wins, and single-handedly bring the industry to its knees. Please <a href="http://www.videogamevoters.org/scotus/why-it-matters">join the fight</a> for rights for video games - it's not fair for the government to tell us what we can and can't create if it doesn't have a net negative effect on society.<br />
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<b>Real Tech News</b><br />
<br />
Ok, so quite a bit of stuff happened last week, and yet I'm out of time here. I had a bigger to do list today than I was hoping for and I already have spent way too much time on this post, so I'm going to quickly touch on what I thought was the biggest stories from last week before I wrap this puppy up.<br />
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Apple had a big <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/01/live-from-apples-fall-2010-event/">press event</a> where the main thing announced was a new Apple TV at a $99 price point and integrated with Netflix and TV show rentals (just $1), as well as YouTube and Flickr. It seems like a device that would've saved Blockbuster if they thought of it two years ago. There's also a new shuffle (with buttons) at $50 for 2 GB, a stupidly small iPod nano with touchscreen starting at $150 for 8 GB, and a new iPod Touch in line with the new iPhone starting at $230. You can drill into these things in more detail <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5627368/all-the-cool-new-stuff-from-apple-today">here</a>, but I personally am impressed by the Apple TV offering and I think it totally stands a fighting chance against Roku (that's the only direct competitor it really has, to be honest). There's also some silly social networking music thing they're trying to do and <a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/09/itunes-10-hands-on-snappier-performance-questionable-ui-choices.ars">a new iTunes</a> with somewhat strange UI choices.<br />
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Palm is working on <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/08/palm-brings-improved-multitasking-and-nodejs-to-webos-2.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss">version 2.0</a> of webOS and the biggest improvements are card grouping (kind of like on Windows 7 task bar does with windows) and a display when docked that passively shows information (I assume stuff like stock tickers and news headlines). Other cool features under-the-hood: outside developers can extend Synergy for better integration with your address book, background services can be written in Javascript (leads to performance improvements over Java and easier to write for many mobile developers versus C), and applications can provide information to make their data searchable from global search. I really hope it's not too little too late because I love webOS from a user experience standpoint.<br />
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Say goodbye to <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/plan-for-nationwide-free-wireless-broadband-finally-shot-down.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss">national broadband</a> - it's just not feasible.<br />
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<a href="http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2010/08/gmail-aims-to-learn-from-you-sort-important-e-mail-to-top.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss">Gmail has launched</a> the coolest feature it has released in a while: <a href="http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/priority-inbox.html">Priority Inbox</a>. It has an algorithm for figuring out what mail is most important to you and bubbling that up to the top above your mailing lists and other junk based on your behaviors and what it knows are sites just selling you stuff, but you can also add in your input to help the algorithm out. I've been using it and have been very impressed - it's really helping me manage my unread items better because you can create subsections within your inbox view and stack them however you want.<br />
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I'll leave you with this awesome video from PAX. If you liked it, please support <a href="http://www.paulandstorm.com/">Paul & Storm</a> (you'll have to click through it to YouTube to play in HD - it won't fit in my layout at that size):<br />
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<iframe class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bJlpyr7zeoA" frameborder="0"></iframe>Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-16305352533314227842010-08-30T00:29:00.000-07:002010-08-30T00:29:57.246-07:00Traitorware From Apple<b>Apple's Odd Patent</b><br />
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It was kind of a slow news week, and when that happens there's always some interesting incendiary anti-Apple article to talk about. I'm going to start out by saying that the EFF <a href="http://blogs.computerworld.com/16822/eff_slams_apple_patent_as_traitorware_jobs_is_spying_on_you">calling a patent</a> Apple filed "traitorware" is going a bit far - after all, it's not even a real product yet. Still, it's an interesting solution to the problem of theft.<br />
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In a nutshell, the patent is to use things like taking a picture, measuring various biometrics, GPS coordinates, voice recognition, whether your phone is jailbroken, and/or keystrokes to determine if you're the one using your device. The article from Computer World focuses a lot on jailbreaking for some reason - Apple can already technically remote wipe your device if they know it's jailbroken - not even they're crazy enough to do something like that though. The real issue is that giving them that level of information about you is scary. Your heart rhythm is pretty private health information - can you trust Apple with something like that? What's even scarier is the prospect of them collecting this information without you knowing about it. Doesn't this all seem to be going a bit far in the name of identifying unauthorized users of your device? Not if you think of it as their device that you're borrowing instead of your device, which may be their mindset.<br />
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The point that I'm trying to make in a somewhat roundabout way is that technology is a wonderful, magical thing, but it's up to us to keep advancements in technology in check. The EFF is just trying to sound the alarm on this issue early. If we don't speak up when scary stuff like this happens, we get on a slippery slope of trading away our privacy for less important advancement in software. Apple has not implemented this yet and it's very possible that they never will, but if they do then how will you react? Will you continue to support them?<br />
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<b>Net Neutrality Worst Case Scenarios</b><br />
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In the wake of all this Verizon/Google net neutrality stuff, <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/27/net-neutrality-worst-case/">Mashable put together</a> a few frightening and (mostly) believable scenarios of a world without net neutrality. It's funny that the first two relate to the progression of TV, which has clearly evolved into a far from a consumer-friendly industry ripe with petty fighting and unreasonable pricing. <br />
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A couple of the situations are on the other side. The government could go power crazy and over-regulate the Internet, but I think that there are too many Internet lobbyists to alow something like that to happen. There is an argument to be made for the fact that the amount of wireless spectrum available is limited, but I don't think that rules out a net neutral WiMax network if built correctly (not an expert in wireless communication though). I know that <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/wireless-net-neutrality-so-bad-verizon-already-agreed-to-it.ars">Verizon disagrees</a>, but I don't understand how constrained capacity means that you can't send bits faster instead of just more bits at once. <br />
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In any case, I think people would have less problems with nominal wireless network management from Verizon if it was more clearly defined as really benefiting the greater good and being abundantly transparent. When you throw in clauses to add tiered services, you lose a lot of points even if there can be some argument made for wireless network management.<br />
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<b>Galaxy S</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/samsung-galaxy-s-lineup-650x256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/samsung-galaxy-s-lineup-650x256.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
That's the line of Samsung Galaxy S phones, and it looks like every major network <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-galaxy-s-phones-compared-spec-showdown/">gets one</a>, though there are tiny differences between them, like 4G on the Sprint one or better battery life on the T-Mobile one. I personally think that the keyboard on the Sprint Captivate model is really cool because most Android phones lack a physical keyboard, but all 4 are probably the sexiest phones Samsung has come out with in a while. What's interesting is that these are much more multimedia focused than other models, which makes sense since Samsung is known for superior video and audio quality. Maybe they'll be able to attract more 3-D games to Android. In any case, they're definitely devices to keep on the radar.<br />
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<b>Netflix for the iPhone</b><br />
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This is one of those things that I think really helps sell iPhones: Netflix has <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/27/netflix-iphone-review/">made an app</a> for streaming some of their movies directly to your iPhone. It's apparently not quite optimized yet, but I think this is a pretty big deal since it's yet another way to consume movies aside from their ideal venue (a move theater). It just goes to show how much that industry is evolving as much as the MPAA has tried to resist it (obviously certain studios do get it for this app to exist at all). Of course, you could have probably also guessed that from Blockbuster's <a href="http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/internet-fail-blockbuster-reportedly-plans-bankruptcy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))">current problems</a>.<br />
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<b>Digg v4</b><br />
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Digg got <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/08/25/new-digg-goes-live/">a face lift</a> last week, and I personally really like it. Public opinion has been mixed, but I think change is always like that on the Internet. I think they've done a really great job trying to innovate in the news aggregation space by taking into account the people that you actually care about. It applies the technology you use to get from useless information from your Facebook feed to information that you should care about: actual news. It's still a little rough around the edges, but I do hope that it works out in the end for Digg.<br />
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<b>Quickies</b><br />
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Just a few one-liners:<br />
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Beware of <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38731070/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/">HDMI cables upselling</a> you on their refresh rate - it's all marketing lies.<br />
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<a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/350918/20_20_Vision">This</a> is a pretty interesting article on what fields of study Computer World thinks will be useful for getting a job in the future.<br />
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For a bit of cell phone nostalgia, you'll appreciate <a href="http://www.gearlog.com/2010/08/youtube_five_best_early_cell_p.php">these old school ads</a>.<br />
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This year was the <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/us-movie-tickets-get-biggest-price-hike-in-history.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss">biggest price hike yet</a> for movie theater tickets, mostly because of 3-D. Ouch. When I was growing up, a movie was just $6!<br />
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Last but not least, the new <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002Y27P3M?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Kindle</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002Y27P3M" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/27/amazon-kindle-review/">is out</a>!<br />
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Have a fantastic week!Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-78629194959433896542010-08-24T00:34:00.000-07:002010-08-24T00:34:31.810-07:00Google and Verizon Sold Out the Internet<b>Net Neutrality Under Fire</b><br />
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I don't know what's more sickening, the proposal I have to talk about here or the fact that it's not likely that enough people are going to care about it to stop it. Google and Verizon have made a <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/09/google-and-verizons-net-neutrality-proposal-explained/">joint policy proposal</a> that dresses itself as supporting net neutrality though it really smacks it in the face. It supports great ideas like transparency, protection of customers' right to send what they want over the wire, granting the FCC power to regulate the broadband access (but not its content), a commitment to using the fee on consumers' phone bills to help build a nationwide broadband network, and non-discrimination of traffic that would hurt competition. However, it only supports these things for wired networks, and given the pervasive nature of mobile Internet access and the hopeful future of 4G, this is a pretty enormous loophole. It's also conceptually silly to divide the Internet into wired and wireless where one of the two becomes a second class citizen. They claim this is because of the way that wireless works, but that's a total cop out. There's also other not-so-exciting provisions including the ability to create a separate network that an ISP can charge extra for if it's different from regular Internet access (whatever the Hell that means) and the power of network management to improve service quality. Network management assumes a lot of trust in companies that have traditionally only screwed their customers. In any case, isn't network management just a back door out of actually improving their networks to not need such management?<br />
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Senator Al Franken has rightly <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/08/sen-franken-and-fcc-blast-verizongoogle-nn-proposal.ars">lambasted the agreement</a> and called out how laughable some of the details are. I think his most potent argument is that it doesn't make sense that the major players in an industry get to write the rules on how they operate. Another really going point he brought up is regarding the future of what can happen if we let these companies do what they want.<br />
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Make no mistake, Google and Verizon have sold us out to ensure <i>their</i> success - they've shown that they don't care what's best for the continuation of innovation on the Internet. They're carving up the rules in a way that favors what's sure to be most profitable in the coming decades while making concessions to simply wired Internet. An Internet that's not neutral puts in danger free competition on the Internet by creating tiers to protect the websites that are already doing well without giving competitors a fighting chance. <a href="https://secure.freepress.net/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=471">Write to your congressmen</a> and tell them that this policy does not make any sense.<br />
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<b>Xbox Live vs. Android Mobile Gaming</b><br />
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Engadget <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/16/xbox-live-launch-titles-for-windows-phone-7-finally-revealed-we/">got the scoop</a> on the set of launch titles for Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7 and it's not a bad list, but definitely nothing to stop the presses for. To be fair, we still haven't seen footage of Halo: Waypoint, Star Wars, or Castlevania, so Microsoft hasn't shown all their cards yet. Supposedly, performance is pretty solid, but I didn't see anything showing off what separates it from the iPhone, Android, or Palm Pre (which has a surprising number of 3-D games). What happened to the Xbox 360 integration that was demoed months ago? <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/08/psp-mockupengadget.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/08/psp-mockupengadget.jpg" width="255" /></a></div><br />
Comparatively, there's <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/11/exclusive-sony-ericsson-to-introduce-android-3-0-gaming-platfor/">very strong rumors</a> of a Sony Ericsson phone that crosses a touchscreen Android phone with a PSP Go sliding controller. Heavy hitter franchises seem to be part of the equation including LittleBigPlanet and God of War. Given that the PSP already integrates with the PS3, if Sony can pull off an Android device that integrates with the PS3 with really strong titles, they could beat Microsoft to the punch and really put together a compelling product for casual gamers and hardcore gamers. <br />
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I don't think video games are something that should be underestimated when it comes to mobile platforms - when you look around in meetings and on buses, you see people playing games on their phones a lot. It's a burgeoning industry and that's why the iPhone got on the bandwagon with partners like EA very early on.<br />
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<b>More Droids</b><br />
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After about a year now, the Droid 2 <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367795,00.asp">is finally here</a>, which is the true successor to the original Motorola Droid phone since it has an improved physical keyboard. It seems to improve upon the Droid, which was already a pretty highly celebrated phone, in every way including the screen and camera.<br />
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Meanwhile, the R2-D2 Droid <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/10/motorola-droid-2-and-r2-d2-edition-finally-official-android/">was announced</a>. It will be available next month only and only online, so it'll be a true collector's edition type of phone. I think this is kind of weird - as cool as it is to have a unique phone, I'd be afraid of buying a phone that there's so few out there for Verizon to care about supporting. Of course, there's enough Star Wars geeks out there that this thing will almost surely sell out.<br />
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<b>Facebook Places</b><br />
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After much talk and speculation, Facebook's <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/18/facebook-places-gowalla/">Places API</a> for geolocation check-ins has been announced and is now available to play with. It's supposed to play nice with Gowalla and Foursquare, but I can't imagine that those two companies don't feel threatened. <a href="http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/foursquare-responds-to-facebook-places-threat-711373?src=rss&attr=all">Foursquare believes</a> that it's a different enough product to co-exist with Facebook Places, but given how much more pervasive Facebook is, it'll be interesting to see what really happens. As silly as it may seem, these services have a lot of potential in that it's something that small businesses can really sink their teeth into, but their profitability is still yet to be fully mined.<br />
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<b>Google TV Struggles</b><br />
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Google TV was announced not too long ago as a product that basically mashed up Chrome, Google, YouTube, and your TV to provide a rich television watching experience. Apparently I was one of only a few who thought this was a compelling concept if done right. So far <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703824304575435791128775412.html?mod=wsj_share_digg">not so good</a> for Google as they struggle to sign on partners. They'd like to have content owners share information to help Google link live television with offerings on these content owners' websites, but traditional media still isn't sold on the profitability of what Google is setting out to provide.<br />
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Maybe Google needs better TPMs - how do you get this far in a product (i.e. as far as telling the public about it) without having dug into the feasibility of support from the people whose support you'd need? It may be that this is ahead of its time, but I think Google may have known it was kind of pie in the sky and that it could take years to really get off the ground - Google is the sort of company with the resources to be in it for the long haul. I really do hope they pursue it - I think getting video on demand to work well in the living room has been a struggle for everyone, including Apple, but each company to try makes a small dent in it.<br />
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<b>The Small Stuff</b><br />
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Just a few quick articles in closing:<br />
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Gizmodo has <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5612630/the-secret-histories-of-those-ing-computer-symbols">an awesome article</a> explaining common symbols, like USB and Bluetooth and other such techie things. They're not at all things you'd guess unless you really knew the inside story.<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=putQn89TQzc&feature=player_embedded">This</a> is an awesome parody trailer of The Social Network substituting Twitter for Facebook. Even though I think The Social Network will be terrible (not even David Fincher can salvage that idea), I have to give props for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq27k6njR40">its trailer</a> being pretty good.<br />
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Speaking of Facebook, Giga Om has <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/08/16/the-early-facebook-employee-exodus/">an interesting piece</a> talking about why so many Facebook employees who have been there from the beginning are leaving now. It's mostly normal stuff when a new company starts to age, I don't think it's particularly telling.<br />
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If you know of any kids who show an interest in computers then please direct them to one of <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/4_tools_for_teaching_kids_to_code.php">these tools</a> to help teach kids the fundamentals of programming. It's like giving a kid lego blocks - they're the tools to build what's in their heads.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-28505463511852511562010-08-17T01:43:00.000-07:002010-08-17T01:43:39.201-07:00Scott Pilgrim vs. the WorldI really was hoping to get to a full post this week, but a number of things have come up that I'm not at liberty to talk about and so I'm at the point now that I'm past the point of exhaustion. Still, I do have some words in my head that I feel are worth giving up sleep to share, so I hope you'll enjoy my review of Scott Pilgrim.<br />
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<b>Best Comic Movie Ever</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.screenjunkies.com/www/sites/default/files/images/2010/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-movie-image-10-600x320-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://cdn.screenjunkies.com/www/sites/default/files/images/2010/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world-movie-image-10-600x320-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It was with very little fanfare that I went to see <i>Scott Pilgrim vs. the World</i> on opening night. The ads were never really appealing to me and I felt like Michael Cera was being typecast so I figured this movie would be a flop. Still, there was enough positive buzz that I agreed to come along when a friend wanted to go and I'm floored at how opposite of a reaction I had to this film. Not only is it probably the biggest surprises of my life as far as movies go (not plot-wise, just in my feelings about it), but it's hands down one of the most fun experiences I've ever had in a movie theater.<br />
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The plot of Scott Pilgrim is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from the trailers: Michael Cera is Scott Pilgrim, who has fallen in love with a very alluring girl who, as it so happens, has 7 evil exes who have banded together to ensure that no one dates her if they can't. You really have to go into the movie accepting that this is the plot because it's not anything deeper than that, and that's a big part of what I love about it. This is one of the few movies I've seen in a long while that understands <i>exactly</i> what it needs to do and really nails it. It focuses on a few things and blows them out of the park. So even though the romance story is never fully fleshed out, it's the first movie I've seen that has felt like a comic book and a video game have come to life, slept together, and produced a child on the big screen. <br />
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I don't know how true it is to the comic book, but that's irrelevant because it stands on its own as something really smart if you can appreciate the references and things it tries to parody. You don't have to be a gamer or a comic book fan to enjoy the film, you're just guaranteed to love it if you are either. I never thought I'd see a movie that got so many things right about video games - everything from nonsensical fights to collecting coins where it doesn't make sense to a ton of subtle things that are just elegantly done. It's either subtle or obviously over-the-top, it never beats a joke to death. I laughed a lot - from even before the movie formally started - but I also saw very few promotional materials.<br />
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Aside from those facets, the music is perfect for the movie. I almost felt like it had as much music as a musical without the baggage that would entail. The cast really contributing to pulling off the music though. I believed in them in their roles, as crazy as the world they lived in ended up being. I believed their passion for their music, and that was a cool feeling. The way they weaved music into the storyline was truly clever.<br />
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I can't leave out how much heart this movie had either. I don't mean gushy have-a-good-cry heart, I just mean that it actually makes you feel good to be a nerd if you're a nerd. It makes you want to go out and jam out on your guitar or play Street Fighter or something - I just felt pumped and enamored with how much the director seemed to love music and video games and comics.<br />
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Unfortunately, I don't think this is a movie everyone will love. I can't imagine anyone hating it because it just makes you feel so good walking out of it, but I can see parts of it being harder to appreciate without being in your 20s or early 30s. It is somewhat of a niche movie, but I wouldn't be ashamed to show it to anyone (assuming they're at least a teenager). I will say that the writing is weak at times. Even though I did identify somewhat with the romance, it was still at times handled a little strangely. I can see people taking issue with the characters, but I actually liked how non-traditional they were. They weren't people you could totally peg down, but in a good way. One minor gripe I had was that the ending was possibly a little more drawn out than it needed to be, but I didn't really mind that much.<br />
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This movie is easily an A+ to me, and I urge you to <i>please</i> go and see it. It's only done like $10 million and I think it'll make it up over the course of its run in theaters and on home video, but I feel bad that the makers may not feel the love from the box office that I felt for this movie. I feel silly having had such a strong positive reaction to a romantic comedy action movie that appeals to the 12-year-old inside of me, but I can't lie: I enjoyed this film and can't wait to get it on Blu-ray.<br />
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<b>Inception</b><br />
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I also saw Inception over the weekend and I know it's been talked about to death, but I just wanted to quickly say that I agree about it being a must-watch. You may want to see it before Scott Pilgrim because it's definitely not as light overall as Scott Pilgrim, but it's an experience on par with <i><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Memento-Widescreen-Two-Disc-Limited-Pearce/dp/B0000640SA?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Memento</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0000640SA" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /></i>. I really didn't think it was as complicated as people said it was - I mean unlike <i><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Donnie-Darko-Directors-Two-Disc-Special/dp/B0006GAOBI?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Donnie Darko</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0006GAOBI" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /></i>, they actually explicitly explained ideas to you. Albeit, often in more words than necessary, but they did. Go see it in theaters because the visuals are truly stunning - not in the way that <i><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Avatar-Two-Disc-Blu-ray-DVD-Combo/dp/B002VPE1B6?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Avatar</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002VPE1B6" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /></i> was, but more just from a creativity standpoint. If you want my score: easily an A.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-41708275885383617692010-08-10T01:06:00.000-07:002010-08-10T01:06:30.625-07:00A Prohibition on Software Patents<b>The Software Patents Situation</b><br />
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<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/07/why-we-need-to-abolish-software-patents/">This article</a> calls for the abolishing patents, but I don't think I fully agree so I'm going to stack them up with those in support of the prohibition of alcohol. As I'm sure we can all agree, Prohibition sucked.<br />
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The US patent system is by no means perfect, but I don't think I agree that companies shouldn't be allowed to protect their products. Just because it's being abused so badly in technology doesn't mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. When it boils down to it, the real problem with patents seems to be patent trolls. Granted, there's also a problem of patents being granted for silly things, but I think patent trolls are really what has created an patent arms race.<br />
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What's wrong with having patents for products you actually create though? Rather than squatting on an idea, I think you have the right to protect a genuinely good idea that you develop a product based on. I don't think you should be allowed to own ideas that never materialized or that you have no vested interest in other than to sue people because that's contrary to the basis of patents.<br />
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<b>Blackberry Torch</b><br />
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A <a href="http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/top-stocks/blog.aspx?post=1788737">survey came out</a> last week showing that less than half of all Blackberry users want to stick with RIM, but I think smartphones are a market where it's hard to predict what brand of phone you're getting next unless you're a month or two (or less) out from the decision.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/08/torch615.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/08/torch615.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Their newest phone is coming out in a <a href="http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-19475-BlackBerry-Examiner%7Ey2010m8d3-BlackBerry-Torch-9800-release-date-confirmed">couple of days</a> and it's a doozy. It's a slider with a full physical keyboard, though a little thinner than typical Blackberry fare. Engadget has <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/04/blackberry-torch-review/">a full review</a>. The OS is a pretty big shift here as it borrows elements from the iPhone, including a mobile browser worthy of the year it's being used in. It seems like the UI is a true evolution of the standard Blackberry OS, but there's nothing it has under the hood that 1ups any other current phone - it just joins the table they're already sitting at. One of the commenters said it best: it would be a great phone if it came out in 2008.<br />
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<b>Wave is Dead</b><br />
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Google finally <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/202602/google_axes_wave.html">killed Wave</a>, the little product that never could. Google went to great lengths to generate buzz for Wave before it came out, so what went wrong? Marketing to nerds is a tricky thing, and if you can't make a compelling case for it then they move on to the next shiny new thing. It's not enough to be a novelty, your product has to serve a definable purpose or set of purposes. I think wave was a great idea that didn't have enough practicality behind it. The curse of a great engineer can be not having the right direction. Still, I think it's cool that Google took the risk anyway. No risk, no reward - that's the story of any great CEO.<br />
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<b>Other Stuff</b><br />
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A page derailed my night, so I have to wrap up early here.<br />
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Amazon launched the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/05/amazon-uk-kindle-ebook-store">Kindle store</a> in the UK.<br />
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Barnes and Noble is <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-gadgeteer/b-n-nookstudy-now-available-along-with-new-used-and-rental-textbooks/3682">trying out</a> new and used textbook purchases as well as rentals.<br />
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Android now has the <a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/08/02/android.said.to.have.34pc.us.market.share/">largest smartphone market share</a> in the US.<br />
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Make sure you keep your Windows machine protected - <a href="http://savedelete.com/best-free-windows7-antivirus-software.html">here's</a> some great free antivirus choices.<br />
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<a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-google-services-limelight/">This</a> is a list of some Google services that don't get much attention despite being pretty nifty.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9793210.post-65484981826999516922010-08-02T00:22:00.000-07:002010-08-02T00:23:01.856-07:00New Kindles<b>Black Graphite is the New White Plastic</b><br />
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The coolest thing to happen last week is probably the one thing I shouldn't talk terribly much about: the new <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reading-Display-Graphite/dp/B002Y27P3M?ie=UTF8&tag=instheminofan-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindles</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=instheminofan-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002Y27P3M" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important; padding: 0px ! important;" width="1" />. I'm just going to go on record that I work no where near anyone on the Kindle team and I have no knowledge of how that business operates or its strategy. Independent of being an Amazonian, I'm finally really excited about the Kindle now. I was definitely very skeptical when it first came out and was concerned when the iPad came out at its competitive price point. Though it's a totally different device, the comparisons are inevitable because of the form factor. Anyone who says reading a book is better on the iPad than the Kindle is definitely an Apple fanboy - it's technologically superior for reading plain text. At $139 for the entry WiFi model, it's finally at a price point fitting of a standalone book reader, and features better battery life (up to a month now), faster page turns, and better contrast ratio than the previous generation. I believe the reason for the switch to black graphite is probably because that makes it easier to read in sunlight, but you can still get it in white for the 3G model at $189.<br />
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I'm really curious now to see how Barnes and Noble will respond. Now that the Kindle has a model at $60 less and also available in-person at Target stores, the Nook is quickly losing what competitive advantage it had. Still, with e-Book sales <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703720504575377472723652734.html?mod=wsj_share_digg">outpacing physical book</a> sales, there's gotta be enough to go around, but how big a piece of the pie will Apple and Barnes and Noble get compared to Amazon?<br />
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<b>Ballmer is an Idiot</b><br />
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Steve Ballmer is really pissing me off nowadays. Ever since he's taken over, he's made many terrible decisions, including killing the Courier. This was the super creative tablet that Microsoft was working on that Ballmer decided to cut. Now he admits that the iPad is <a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/07/29/ballmer.says.ipad.sales.make.microsoft.uneasy/">their number one threat</a> and they need to compete with it. It's frustrating that he had a product that stood a chance against the iPad and threw it away, and now they have little hope of taking on the iPad. Microsoft has gone from being known for innovation to being way behind on market trends. Instead of trying to create another iPad now, why don't they either resurrect the Courier or invest in something totally different? <br />
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<b>Windows Phone 7 and Free Bumpers</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/07/wp7-preview-4-sm-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2010/07/wp7-preview-4-sm-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
A lot of interesting stuff has been going on in cell phones. Ars Technica has a <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/19/windows-phone-7-in-depth-preview/">really good preview</a> of Windows Phone 7 going in great depth into some nice UI touches and little nuggets of their impressions, like the keyboard being on par with the iPhone keyboard. Still, it's clear that there are a lot of question marks to be filled in. How well will the Xbox Live integration work? Will developers give the platform a shot? Given that <a href="http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/07/no_more_excuses_microsofties_everybody_getting_a_windows_phone.html">someone leaked</a> Microsoft's internal announcement to give all employees a Windows Phone 7 device, it's clear that Microsoft is definitely serious about the platform, so we just have to hope that it will all come together in the end.<br />
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I'm a little late on this since I missed last week's post, but Apple finally <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/16/live-from-apples-iphone-4-press-conference/">decided to respond</a> to all the negative coverage of its iPhone antenna woes by giving away the bumpers that pretty much solve the issue. I have to bring up something that Molly Wood and others were predicting at CNet before this event happened: Apple never owned up to a problem and instead spoke at great length about how the problem had been overblown. It's definitely a smart strategy because it makes them look like they've been bullied into having to do this free bumper thing even though it's clear they had to know about the issue to create this case, which they hadn't done for any previous iPhone. In any case, it's great that they're doing the right thing now, but if they're only doing so until September 30 I wonder if they've figured out a hardware fix for the issue so that future batches won't have the issue?<br />
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Google has finally killed <a href="http://mashable.com/2010/07/18/nexus-one-discontinued/">the Nexus One</a>. Google has proved that people don't want a phone they can't play with at a store, even if it is a somewhat compelling product. It will still be sold abroad, but no more for US consumers.<br />
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Ars Technica has a <a href="http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/reviews/2010/07/ars-reviews-the-motorola-droid-x.ars">ridiculously detailed review</a> of the Droid X, and it seems like probably the best phone Motorola has put out in a while. Still, the UI seems to fall short of the Droid Incredible in visual flare. Plus, at a screen size rivaling the Dell Streak you have to wonder if anyone wants something that big in their pocket. There is such a thing as too big for a smartphone.<br />
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<b>WPA2 Hole Discovered</b><br />
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WPA2 has <a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/07/apple-the-new-world-leader-in-software-insecurity.ars">finally been cracked</a> - kinda. It was only a matter of time before a hole was discovered, and it doesn't render the standard useless but does damage it for enterprise use. It turns out that the standard's language allows for an authorized user on the network to send malicious packets to others on the network as well as sniff the packets of others. For most people, this probably isn't such a big deal, but could be worse for business use. The problem with fixing it is that all implementers would have to fix it, and it's unlikely to organize something like that. The next best bet would be a revision to WPA2, but there doesn't appear to be language in the standard to support something like that. It's a rather interesting conundrum.<br />
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Also in security news recently, Apple was deemed the company with the <a href="http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/07/apple-the-new-world-leader-in-software-insecurity.ars">most security vulnerabilities</a> in its software. So much for their claims of having the safest platform. The issues weren't in OS X, but rather in other ancillary products. Still, it helps debunk the claim that you can ignore security just because you have a Mac.<br />
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<b>Funny Videos</b><br />
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I missed this a while back, but the guy who posted his customer service cartoon ranting about iPhone fanboys <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAOtC9QfXac&feature=player_embedded">also posted one</a> sticking it to Android fanboys. It's almost as hilarious.<br />
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In an example of social media marketing gone right, the Old Spice marketing guys decided to create a bunch of videos with Isaiah Mustafa responding to people on Twitter with short videos, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/13/old-spice-guy-makes-hilar_n_644608.html#s113830">including Alyssa Milano</a>. They did a pretty awesome job.<br />
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<b>Final Notes</b><br />
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I'm out of time, but here are a few other stories I found worthwhile.<br />
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Gawker has <a href="http://tv.gawker.com/5593925/the-dumbest-things-said-about-the-internet-and-caught-on-tape">a funny post</a> on the stupidest things caught on video that people said about the Internet, including the infamous Al Gore quote on his greatest invention. You may recognize certain terminology sourced from some of the videos.<br />
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I've seen reports off and on recently about issues with cell phone manufacturers and building screens, and it looks like HTC has had enough issues with AMOLED that they've decided to <a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/07/26/htc.claims.slcd.as.good.or.better.than.amoled/">move to Super LCD</a> for these devices. AMOLED hit the market a few years back and was quite impressive, but apparently still not easy to make.<br />
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If you're wondering what to load on your Android phone, PC Mag <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366244,00.asp">has you covered</a>. Makes me a little envious on a few of those, I have to admit.<br />
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YouTube has increased their upload limit <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367154,00.asp">to 15 minutes</a>, so now you can post longer useless videos.<br />
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If you want to see a real ninja badge, you have to <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/defcon-ninja-badge/">check this out</a>.<br />
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iPhone jailbreaking is <a href="http://www.physorg.com/news199361076.html">now legal</a>!<br />
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Hope everyone has an excellent start to their August.Eltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01892346064741622632noreply@blogger.com1