Do I want one? No. Not at all. Until Apple offers me something at least comprable to competing tablet PCs running Android or Windows 7 Tablet edition, I won’t even consider it.

Unless…

Apple offered Live TV.

I was thinking about this the other day while running errands when I wished I could be watching Butler in the Final Four. How great would it be if you could get something like FLO TV streamed to your iPad or iPhone. Or even better, your cable or Satellite TV offered streaming service for all their channels through a native app. I would probably pay extra each month on my Comcast bill if they offered that.

I know that Sling has an app that let’s you watch live TV from your sling box, but that requires a piece of hardware hooked up to a dedicated cable/sat box. If anyone else wants to watch TV at home while you’re on the road, someone is going to be dissappointed.

Seriously, how could Apple or broadband operators go wrong? A LIVE TV app seems like a killer app to me!

Just a thought.

(Oh yeah, I still don’t like that iPhads don’t have Flash too!)

In response to a question I asked about CES, my friend Erik responded:

@ Jason: I’m actually surprised 3-D has taken so long to go anywhere. The technology has been around forever… and it’s never been very successful. The weird thing is I don’t know why…I think people want to see it utilized well, but it just hasn’t effectively been executed ever in a way that people have taken to it. I remember as a kid thinking it was cool just looking through those cellophane red/blue glasses and seeing figures pop out. And then there was that “Virtual Reality” gaming product that never took off. I think people have been interested, but it’s just poorly executed or too expensive. You would think after decades 3-D would have found its niche by now. Avatar is probably the most successful venture I’ve seen to date… and it’s a movie not a product you would go buy.

First… I totally agree. WTF 3D? Ever since Lawnmower Man, NO, ever since TRON we have been waiting to immerse ourselves in a world better than our own. Now I know there is a big difference between Virtual Reality and 3D, but we aren’t being entertained by either at the moment so what does it matter?

I think the biggest problem with 3D is that content producers don’t know how to utilize it best. I find that when movie producers make a 3D movie, they have to add extra “features” for the 3D crowd just because they are watching it in 3D. It’s exactly like painting a turd gold. The script sucks but “that’s ok because we’re going to add 3D elements and the audience will ooh and ahh, hem and haw! Let’s send Brendan Fraser on a ridiculous mining-cart roller coaster because we have 3D! Let’s randomly throw shit at the camera just because it’s 3D!”

I have yet to see Avatar. I was excited to see it before it was released, and I’m still excited to go see it. I will see it eventually, there’s no rush. I’m waiting for the hype and the larpers to go away, and a babysitter. But I’m really afraid they added stuff just because it’s 3D. However, James Cameron is a half-decent director and I trust he’ll entertain me. If he added “fun things” just for those goofy 3D glasses, I’ll never see another one of his movies again.

I feel 3D is an enhancement, not a primary feature. If you go to a movie just because it’s 3D, you’re going for the wrong reason!

I think the most exciting thing to happen in 3D happened in the 80s: Michael Jackson’s Captain EO at DisneyLand. THAT was SO cool. I was also 10 years old and I still believed in Santa and Leprechauns. And yes, it threw a lot of stuff at the camera, but since it WAS a novelty, it was totally okay. The fact that a lot of producers are still using the same antics 24 years later is annoying.

I think the most exciting thing about 3D in the past year didn’t belong to James Cameron. It belonged to Pixar. The re-release of Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3D is a pretty big bet in the technology. The reason being that Toy Story was never written, produced or designed for 3D in the first place. The fact that they “enhanced” an original movie by re-rendering it with a 3D camera instead of the original 2D is actually very compelling. They took something good, made it better. It wasn’t a case of “so we have this 3D thing we can do…”

Where do I see 3D headed? Well until we can grasp the fact that just because we CAN utilize a Z-axis that it doesn’t mean that every producer needs to throw shit at the camera for “surprise” elements. We, as an audience, need to let producers know that we’re over the whole “Ak! Look out!” effect. Just make a good movie, and we’ll go watch it. I suspect this is what James Cameron has done with Avatar (I’ll find out in the very near future).

On the technology side, we have so many hurdles left to jump: no more 3D-glasses, holographic or multi-layered displays, and improved virtual reality goggles are all foreseeable technologies that we’ll most likely see in our lifetime. True virtual reality environments, the ones you plugin to another world while your body lays there…like Avatar, Tron, Matrix, Minority Report, Total Recall, etc, we may be centuries away.

And for that world, which we are preparing the foundation for right now, I’d like to apologize to my great-great grandkids in advance.

Sara played Bass and I played Guitar. We both play at Hard and sometimes Expert levels, but we decided to just play the darn thing finally because I didn’t have to work today. It was fun, exhausting, and ridiculous all at the same time. I can’t believe game designers think you’ll enjoy playing the same damn thing for 6 hours! Well, ok, we sorta did have fun. Going to bed at 4 in the morning and having young ones wake you up at 7 was less than fun though.

Next: We beat it on Hard. Once that happens we’ll justify purchasing Rock Band 2.

What a waste of my time.

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers story is about an alien virus that is easily communicable and turns the infected into an emotionless, almost mindless, collective. The goal of the infected is to seek out and hunt down those that aren’t infected and, well, infect them. Or give them death. Whichever is easier. They can tell you aren’t part of the collective if you show emotion, if your heartbeats faster, or if you sweat. Show anything more than a stoic look on your face and you are theirs.

I remember seeing the original when I was much younger. Even in this remake, I still love the story line, but man did they miss the mark on this one. Normally I don’t think you can go wrong casting Nicole Kidman for a part, but this may have been one time when she wasn’t the right fit. Or perhaps we could blame the direction. It’s gotta be damn near impossible to film something where you can’t express emotion.

But Joss Whedon came damn close. And he did it for TV.

I haven’t seen many Buffy episodes, but there is one that is so thrilling, so defiantly creepy, that it sticks out in my mind. The episode was “Hush” and I think it is Joss Whedon’s masterpiece. It revolves around a fairytale. And I think it is the best adaptation of a Nightmare being brought to life through the magic of film making.

The Gentlemen come to a town and steal the voices of all who live there. You can’t talk, you can’t cry, you can’t scream. They then hover, yes hover, around town and look for victims and cut out their hearts. No one hears them coming. No one can hear the screams of the victims.

I searched and searched for a good clip of the episode, but unfortunately Hulu doesn’t have this season of Buffy on their service yet (give it time though). In mean time, I found the original trailer for your entertainment. If you have the DVD’s, load up Hush and enjoy!

So where am I going with this? There are several parallels: Classic story vs. fairytale; missing elements that make us human (voice vs. emotion); innocent beings being hunted down like prey; and nightmares.

I think Joss Whedon wins!

BTW, don’t get me started on the whole “I am Legend” vs. Bodysnatchers meme. Which I also think did a MUCH better job than “The Invasion”, and it was pretty much the same movie except staring a dude.

Ok, you got me started… Let’s compare those two movies: Infection rips through society turning humans into more than humans vs. Infection ripping through society turning humans into aliens; a doctor plays the lead in both movies; both try to get to an outpost of immune survivors; both find ways of surviving among the infected; both find cures and start to rebuild society (oops, sorry, that was a spoiler).

In the case of The Invasion vs. I Am Legend, I have to give this win to Will Smith.

For the title match: Sarah Michelle Gellar vs. fresh prince dance-off to “Gettin Jiggy Wit It”.

But it wasn’t my fault. UFOs kept me away from the blog. It’s the truth! Last night at about 11:00 pm I was flipping through the channels to find something that would be good “background noise” while I wrapped my blogs. I came across Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind just as it was starting. I was immediatley enthralled once again by this masterpiece. This film was done so well that it could be released today and it would be just as good. The storytelling, the detailed cinematography, the special effects, the acting, and the directing were all timeless.

I remember watching this when I was 8 or 9. I don’t know if my parents knew I watched it or not. But it was totally fascinating to me. There were some scenes that were so intense that I had nightmares for months after seeing them. This one scene I remember vividly from my childhood:

As an adult I watch this and am very entertained. Just remembering the emotions I went through as a kid gives me that much more satisfaction watching it as an adult. Fright is a powerful emotion, and I love the adrenaline rush, even if it was from 20 years ago!

And yes, Aliens kept me from blogging last night.

Oh, and to all the Android haters out there, the revolution has begun. This isn’t the 1-to-1 war with iPhone that you thought it was. (but I’m still a fan)

But, Nokia was THE shit back then.

They landed a couple of the coolest product placement spots with the 8110 series in the Matrix and the 9000 series (The Communicator!) in the Saint. Send, receive, and view Office files on your phone? No way!

And the Nokia phones people actually could afford had replaceable faceplates! Sweet! I still remember the business plan my professor shot down for producing faceplates with NFL logos on them (when all that was available were 5 solid colors to choose from). Too many licensing hoops made a high barrier to entry. I still think my prof. was lame and missing the point. If only I had gone underground and produced them in China. Someone else did. I’m sure they did ok.

But what happened since then? Nokia phones are still very cool, but somehow they may have jumped the shark. Sure the N-Gage (hardware) was a major flop, but just wait, it will be the New Coke of cell phones. And Motorola stole the market with the Razr. Blackberry became the next all-in-one must have phone for businesfolk. And then… there was Apple.

Oh yes, Apple. The originator of a single phone that swept an entire generation. The iPhone. This is the single best selling phone ever. And probably will be for some time.

Now I could rant and rave about why the iPhone is cool, and why I think Google’s Android platform will eventually be cooler. Or I could talk about how the BlackBerry Storm will pick-up the corporate consumers that Apple seems to have forgotten. But, I’d rather talk about (bet you can’t guess) Nokia is badass and will rule them all (disclaimer for future rebuttals: that statement may be slightly overstated).

Yes it is true that I think if any single company has an opportunity to beat Apple at its own game, it will be Nokia. Since Android is a coalition and really just software, I can’t declare that Google will beat Apple. That’s like saying Windows OS Mobile will beat the iPhone. I do predict more Android-enabled phones will be on the streets than iPhones in 5 years or less. But that is software. Hardware-to-hardware, I think Nokia will give Apple the largest run for their money in phone sales.

Nokia just announced its newest “smart” model today, the N97. IMO it is much cleaner, glossier, and nicer looking than the HTC G1 (the first Android phone on T-Mobile). I need a side-by-side comparison to the iPhone before I decide between those two (I admit, the iPhone is sexy). But looks aside, I think this phone is already a winner. The only way I see this phone NOT competing with Apple is if it doesn’t support 3G. The USTODAY article doesn’t give much info on the phone itself, but does state it will “probably” support AT&T’s high speed data network. I’m going to bet that means 3G.

What about the software? Well, Nokia has had years of refining its Symbian Open Source platform already. That’s right, Android isn’t the only open source game in town. There’s already networks of thousands of developers making applications for the OS, with many different distribution methods for those apps. And as far as an “App Store” is concerned, Nokia has that covered with their Software Market for common apps, and high end (high end for mobile at least) video game store at N-Gage. These aren’t just for the N97 thought, they are for almost-all Symbian operated phones (there are some apps that require features that some older phones don’t have yet, like full keyboards).

The only barrier betwen Nokia and Apple are the carriers. If Nokia can strike a sweet deal with multiple carriers (those relationships already exist), have a worldwide launch in a very small launch window (they are still the largest producer of phones in the world), heavily subsidize the cost of the phone with a signed contract (they’ve done it before), and white label the app store for the carriers… then I do see opportunity to start eating up Apple’s marketshare. However, all Apple has to do is break free from AT&T and start selling the iPhone on other networks and they’ll be back in the game.

So to all the iPhone faithful, the Android hopeful, and the BlackBerry addicts: I say watch out. The game hasn’t been won yet. The next 2-3 years are going to be VERY exciting. Thanks Nokia!

Today there are several services that offer the streaming “personalized” radio similar to Echo. The major players are Pandora, Slacker, and Last.fm. All of which offer personalized radio stations, though none offer the true social component like Echo did. A couple do have “friend” capabilities, but it is very limited what friends can do. However, as far as creating a station around tastes that you like, I think all of these services have evolved tremendously in the past few years.

Another cool feature is that some of these stations will travel with you offline. Pandora offers several ways to make your music portable, via mobile phones (including the iPhone) and stereo add-ons like the Logitech Squeezebox series. Slacker has a cool offline offering too: a proprietary wi-fi enabled player.

I have been a long-time Pandora user, fan and supporter. There have been so many times where the music Pandora offered had matched my mood that it could have created a mashup album. Some of the suggestions are pure genius (although I’ll admit sometimes it can be off). Example of a perfect match: The Beatles “Blackbird” playing on my Modest Mouse station. Another example: Led Zeppelin on my Pearl Jam station. Want another example? Check out my bookmarked songs, you’ll see a few different patterns.

Even though I’m a fan of Pandora, I decided that during the next week or so I’m going to give the other two a valiant test. I’ve used Last.fm a few times. I think I finally understand their UI. Slacker is much easier to use, but I just never got around to creating an account for their free web-based player. I’ve done that now and tomorrow will be the first full day of Slackerdom.

I’ll post my observations on the services, once I feel I’ve observed something.

But it’s all fodder.

Things to talk about. Things to start a conversation. Others are talking about it, so should I? Or should I start my own conversation.

If I was to start a meme, I’d probably have some motive behind it. My mind works like that. It is always looking for ways to gather the data I need to move forward on a project, an idea, or some task that will help my life. But then again, don’t all our minds work this way? I mean I do genuinely care about what others have to say, but I have been finding myself becoming more critical and pausing with a WIIFM moment here and there. But today I have a treat: no motives. Just guilty pleasure.

My meme of choice, should I choose a daily topic would probably be along the lines of trying to disconnect from all this noise. I might want to discuss classic literature even. Well, not Jane Austen type of classic literature. I’m talking cool early-19th century sci-fi shit like Wells and Verne. There’s some guys that were well ahead of their times.

Speaking of Verne, anybody see B. Frasier’s Journey to the Center of the Earth in Uber 3-D? I’m always interested in the classic-to-film translation, and there are many scenes that could be interpreted in pretty cool ways. How bad could B Fraz mess it up? Speaking of Center of the earth, my favorite rendition of the Jules Verne masterpiece would have to be this made-for-TV series. Treat Williams, Jeremy London, and Tushka Bergen! Man that was campy. And awesome. Sadly, I missed this year’s latest attempt at a short-run TV series on USA staring Ricky Schroader. I bet it was campysome too.

Oh IMDB. How you bring me back to fond, fond pre-pubescent Sci-Fi miniseries memories. Earth 2! SeaQuest! Eerie Indiana! Amazing Stories! Man the world was awesome when science didn’t matter.

(500 Bonus points: for using the word pre-pubescent in my post. Twice)

This post is part of My Other 30 Day Challenge, Part Deux

[UPDATE: Blame it on staying up too late, but my mind auto-switching the names of Wells and Verne has been corrected. I knew who I was talking about. But you probably didn't.]

Nice Idea – Click here for funny video clips

If you can’t see the video in your RSS reader you can find it here: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/712008/nice_idea.

BlogRush is to RSS feeds what BannerExchanges were to banners in 5 years ago. I used to run a very large and profitable traffic exchange, and you could almost say that BlogRush is a traffic generator. Basically, you display a widget, like the one I have in the sidebar, that will display recent headlines in the category you select. I wasn’t sure whether to select “business”, “marketing” or “technology” for my blog, so I’m testing it under marketing for now. BlogRush then aggregates headlines from related blogs and uses a formula to select which headlines from other blogs to display on your site. The formula is part relevancy, part recency, and a big part pyramid scheme to determine which ads get displayed where. Let’s not put a wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is definitely a referral based program. The more people you refer, and the more people their referrals refer, the more impressions you earn. BlogRush uses your impression balance to place your most recent blog post title in other blogger’s widgets.

The headline titles under marketing have so far ranged from all out spammy to informative and helpful. I’ve seen pure spam-blogs (or “splogs” if you’re so desperate to use an poorly coigned term) to extremely popular blogs such as John Chow, Problogger and Mashable. The cool thing about BlogRush is that you can filter out URLs that you don’t want displayed on your site, or even go so far as to filter out keywords that you’d rather not include. Problem is that this is a very manual process. If you don’t keep tabs on it, you’ll get overwhelmed badly, just like the early days of comment spam. If BlogRush is truly going to work for the masses, they should pre-filter content using a corporate Akismet account. This will at least reduce the amount of moderation needed by individuals.

As with any new memes, I’m willing to give a try. I don’t have to worry about getting Google bitch-slapped for creating artificial links either. First, this is a javascript widget. Each of those links are found only within the widget and not crawled by any bots visiting my site. Second, if the bots could follow JS (oh the consipiracy!) the blogs are indeed relevant to my site and targetted to my audience. But I’ll stick with the first since it deems most true.

I’ll report back in a week or so to show some of the results of any traffic that BlogRush generated. You have to remember that BlogRush doesn’t deliver hits, they only deliver impressions on other peoples sites. So just because you’re earning massive amounts of impressions, that doesn’t necessarily convert to click thrus to your site. If that’s the case, then I’ll brush this off as a gimmick and try something else. But at the very least, having impressions on some high exposure blogs, such as those mentioned above, equals a free branding opportunity. One would normally have to pay hundreds of dollars to get seen on those sites. To me, this benefit alone is worth trying out BlogRush.

BlogRush.com

One thing that I’ve found out in life is that geeks are most often also hopeless romantics. Coming from personal experience I know that being a social retard AND a hopeless romantic is not equatable function. So, geeks with their over-reactive imaginations can visualize the most incredible scenarios, only to never act on them. However when one geek falls in love with another geek, watch out. Their little self-contained universe of the ability to live out their geek love fantasies will never make sense to outside parties looking in. But to them, the universe never made more perfect sense.

NOTE: My wife is NOT a geek. It works for us, but most often she just gives me :rolleyes: and blank stares at my odd perspective and sense of humor. In fact, most the girls I dated prior to marriage were not geeks. I really only dated two “true” geek girls in my life. One was so much more geekier than I that it was scary/wonderful. The other seemed to be on perfect par with me in every way, except we couldn’t stand each other (“Oh hai. U date mirror?”).

Part of the reason I absolutely am addicted to the comic xkcd is because of the way they so accurately portray geek love. Even though I’m in a half-geek relationship, they still ring true in so many ways. Observe:

(you can click any comic to go to the original (might be easier to read (probably will have less parentheses too))).

And finally, although maybe not geek love related but definitely showing the typical sensitive side of nerds, one of my favorite comics from xkcd:

But not today. Today must have been a first. I knew the event was happening, but I <yawn> really didn’t have much interest. It’s not that I lack excitement about the new iPod products they announced today. In fact, I think the new iPods are looking pretty damn good:

I think my lack of desire to catch the event today comes from the just being tired of Steve Jobs keynotes. He approaches the same way, builds up the same way, reveals the same way, and concludes the same way every time. Obviously he’s mastered a formula and for the most part it works. But really, an event every 2-3 months for the latest Apple products gets kinda old. I’d love if they’d just tie all their events together once, maybe twice, per year and call it iXpo or something creative. I know they have the WWDC going on already, but extending that to the Apple fanboys and consumers who aren’t developers would truly be remarkable. It would be a bi-annual mecca for Apple loyalists everywhere. And the keynotes would include all the latest iMac, iPod, iPhone, iLife, OS X, MacBook, etc releases. Jobs could invite popular bands to play on two other stages for those too stoned to handle a full day’s worth of keynotes and the whole thing could be a giant Applepalooza.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple do some type of universal tradeshow in the near future. They have a lot to offer.

So, my take on the new iPods? Well, for the most part I agree with the fellas over at Gizmodo. It’s a love/hate relationship. Too many too choose from.

• iPod Nano: Love it! Small, concealed, convenient. Perfect for everyday usage.
• iPod Classic: Hate it. Stuck between the Nano and the Touch. Really doesn’t offer much except the 160 gig hard drive. That’s gigantous!
• iPod Touch: Love it! Has all the iPhone stuff minus the phone. WiFi too. Safari yay! And coverflow! Should have been called the iGod. It deserves the kingship title.

In the near future I wouldn’t be surprised if I ended up with a Nano AND a Touch. I’ve been thinking about trying out the Nike + iPod combo for running, and the Nano seems to be perfect for it (since the faceless Shuffle frightens me). And the Touch is more suited for usage in urban dwelling environments. Starbucks, libraries, the lame broadway show your wife dragged you to, etc. Anytime you can play with wifi, it’s worth fingering. (Ha, bet you haven’t heard that one).

Now that the Nano has video and the iPod is touchable, I think Apple can finally move on to other projects.

I predict digital cameras are next.

Yes, it is strangely quiet. And now everyone is just waiting for “the event” to happen.

Who can forget the giant UFO’s in ID4 that hovered over a group of “believers” for quite some time with no real warning of what was to come. The believers all carried signs, drank the kool-aid, had a “waiting” party and wanted their unknown visitors to “choose” them for what they thought was going to be quite the joyride through the galaxy. Then, when the doors of the ship finally opened, one oblivious observer proclaimed “It’s beautiful!”. What was beautiful was the charging glow of the ultimate weapon that would ultimately take the life of the believers as well as half the city they lived in. The irony was the true beauty.

So as we wait for the doors to open, what will be the true beauty? The actual product itself, or the near perfect execution in which Apple marketed this device to its cult-like followers? What will truly happen when those doors open? Will this device really transform the mobile landscape as we know it or will it just be another carrier-limited toy that will only appeal to a small percentage of the actual cellular market?

Yes, I want an iPhone. But I’m going to wait this round out as they figure that people actually do care about MMS, video capture, and faster than dial-up data networks. Instead, I’ll sit at home and watch reports report about the opening of the first Apple Store’s doors. I bet we’ll hear a glorious “Laaaaaa” of an Angel chorus when Steve shows up.

—–

I wouldn’t say I’ve been struggling with the decision of whether or not to grab an Apple iPhone or not when they release it this summer. I want one. There, I said it. I really want an iPhone. Or at least something that is capable of what the iPhone can do. That shouldn’t be too much to ask for should it? Well it looks like many other companies don’t think so, and they are taking the iPhone hype to the bank. To start, lets see what is happening with the current list of approved Apple iPhone accessories.

To be honest, I’m not worried about their being a “lack” of accessories for the iPhone once it is finally released. Any glance at the current iPod economy will tell you that many third-party manufacturers will come running to the iPhone scene once Apple finalizes the “Made for iPhone” program. What is concerning right now is certain manufacturers are already releasing products labeled as iPhone accessories when the iPhone hasn’t even been released yet!

Beyond the accessories, let’s take a look at the actual phone itself. Apple wants to deliver a unique experience. They gave us a nice multi-sensory touch screen, no buttons, and fully integrated internet connectivity. It’s made to be a multi-media device for photos, music, videos, web pages, and even maps. This is the first mainstream device to really try to push the envelop of the current marketplace offerings. And thankfully so.

Since the announcement of the iPhone, other competitors have really stepped up. Some of the phones that have been announced recently are results of years of R&D before the iPhone was even a rumor. Others are efforts that have been realized in the last few months now that Apple has laid their cards on the table.

One phone that is currently a direct competitor to the iPhone is the new Prada phone made by LG. This thing is as sexy as phones can be. It has the touch screen, it has a powerful OS, and it has full media support. It also has two other factors that weigh heavily in its favor: 1) The Prada name and 2) it’s available NOW! Those two things alone are driving a high demand for this phone. The Prada phone is a viable competitor to the Apple iPhone and hopefully we’ll see an increase in the “Prada phone economy” as manufacturers release accessories and developers offer new software and programs (as well as hacks, a critical need these days for a device to become popular). Sadly, the Prada phone is only available through cellular carriers in the UK.

So, if I can’t have the iPhone (yet), and I can’t have the Prada phone (yet), what would I pick? Well, the new Nokia N95 is looking very attractive for the US market. I’m sure I’ll have a hard time keeping my hands off of one if I ever see a unit in a store. Plus you can buy them unlocked direct from the manufacturer, so if I ever do decide to switch to another service provider, my phone can easily come with me.

The year is still young. I’m sure we’ll see other exciting phones and gadgets that will make me look back on this post and wonder what the fuss was about. But in the meantime, I’ll have one iPhone please.