Sometimes You Have To Look Back A Little

Think back to 1990. Imagine if I told you that Apple was still around in 20 years. What if I told you that Apple released a tablet computer that was the size and thickness of a regular pad of paper? You wouldn’t believe it.

If I told you that this computer had 64 GB of storage, let you watch movies, and only required your fingers for input you’d probably laugh. The funny thing is, that it is 2010, the iPad exists and a lot of people are upset that it doesn’t do more!

Greg Knauss has a really nice post called The Days of Miracles and Wonder that describes our discontent with the iPad and Obama among other things.

Sometimes you have to look back a little, to appreciate the world you live in today.

Posted in at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

Radio Canada

Science + Sons is working on a new product called Radio Canada. For listeners of CBC Radio 1 and CBC Radio 2, this is the ultimate radio in a beautifully designed enclosure of maple and aluminum.

I saw a prototype of this radio at the Interior Design Show in Toronto and would love to have one of these radios sitting on my desk. You won’t be able to purchase one until October 2010. Check the Science + Sons website for more details.

Posted in Technology at 4:39 PM | Comments (0)

EW.com’s Massive Recap Of ‘Lost’

Jeff Jensen at EW.com has a massive recap of last night’s Lost season premiere - ‘Lost’ recap: What’s Your Worldview?. Before you read that article, you’ll want to start with Confused by the ‘Lost’ premiere? Never fear! Damon and Carlton explain a few things about the start of Season 6, in which the producers of the show give us a few clues.

Jensen’s column for EW.com is one of the best I’ve read at explaining the most popular show on the planet. Each episode of Lost is rich with obscure references, from Salman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories to philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling. Jensen makes sense of these references and offers some valuable insight to the mysteries of the show.

If you’re one of those people that has an endless appetite for Lost then I suggest you alos check out Totally ‘Lost’.

Posted in Television at 8:38 PM | Comments (0)

50% Off Kinosmith DVDs

The Kinosmith DVD shop is having a 50% off sale for the entire month of February. Just use the promo code WELCOME2010 to receive 50% off of your order.

I saw The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins at Hot Docs last year and it was great. It had a brief theatrical release so if you want to see it again, you can for just $15.

Kinosmith also has L.A. Without A Map, directed by Mika Kaurismäki and starring avid Tennant, Vinessa Shaw, Julie Delpy, Vincent Gallo and Johnny Depp. I haven’t seen this but for $12.50 it is the other movie I would pick up during this sale.

Posted in Movies at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)

Iron Man Sticker For MacBook

How cool is that? An Iron Man sticker for your MacBook. I don’t have a MacBook but if I did you can bet that I’d head over to Etsy and order one of those stickers now!

Posted in Apple at 4:51 PM | Comments (0)

REWORK

37 Signals is at it again and this time they have a highly anticipated book coming out called REWORK. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson have written a collection of essays on what works for their highly successful company.

In what may be a first, REWORK has released a video trailer to promote the book. More trailers will be released leading up to the launch of the book.

The early reviews from Seth Godin, Chris Anderson, Mark Cuban and Jeff Bezos praise the book. I like this quote from William C. Taylor, founder of Fast Company magazine:

The brilliance of REWORK is that it inspires you to rethink everything you thought you knew about strategy, customers, and getting things done.

All of this buzz and the book hasn’t been released to the public yet. I’ll be getting my copy on March 3, 2010 when it gets released on Amazon

Posted in Books at 4:22 PM | Comments (0)

New Judge Dredd Film Won’t Be Dreddful

Sorry, I couldn’t resist a headline like that. There is a new Judge Dredd film coming out and the creator of Dredd says that it won’t be as bad as the original which starred Sylvester Stallone.

Danny Boyle is producing the new film which is reportedly going to be a “high-octane” action film. I didn’t mind the original film but it will be interesting to see what Boyle and his screenwriter from 28 Days Later does with the material.

Posted in Movies at 1:45 PM | Comments (0)

Classics iPhone App Is Free For A Limited Time

For a limited time you can get Classics for the iPhone and iPod Touch, for free. Classics is a collection of public domain books that have been formatted meticulously for the iPhone screen, complete with fancy page flip animations.

The new iBooks app for the iPad looks identical to Classics and functions in the same way. Apple basically copied the app without acknowledging Classics which is pretty ruthless.

Classics’ developers Andrew Kaz and Phill Ryu are giving it away for free in response to iBooks, reasoning that they would like as many people to see it as possible so they are aware that iBooks copied Classics, not the other way around.

Get it today before the price goes back up to $2.99 you cheapskate!

Posted in iPhone at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)

The iPad’s Untapped Potential

Joe Hewit gets it. Michael Pusateri gets it and he’s not an Apple fanboy.

The iPad is a game changer. It’s a version 1 product that is full of untapped potential. The more I overlook the complaints about the iPad the more interesting and exciting this product looks for the entire industry. Lets face it. The graphical user interface hasn’t changed very much in the last 25 years. The iPad is a welcome change.

Posted in Apple at 10:56 PM | Comments (3)

J.J. Abrams’ mystery box

Who isn’t a fan of director J.J. Abrams’ work? I had no idea that he gave a TED Talk in March 2007 called J.J. Abrams’ mystery box. Aside from having one too many Red Bull’s before his talk, I think you’ll find his fascination for mystery to be inspiring.

Posted in Observations at 2:30 PM | Comments (0)

Thoughts On The iPad

I watched Steve Jobs’ keynote presentation of the iPad yesterday and the reaction to the most talked about tablet in the world was underwhelming. When the first iPhone was unveiled the audience went nuts. Yesterday, the audience seemed a little subdued.

Apple didn’t say a word (publicly) about the iPad, leading up to its announcement yesterday. The press created all of the hype surrounding the product launch and raised the expectation of what Apple’s newest product could actually do. Is the iPad a failure? Of course not. I think it is going to evolve over the next couple of years and have a huge impact on the mobile computing industry.

A lot of people are complaining about what the iPad lacks:

• a camera
• multitasking
• HDMI output
• a USB port
• 16:9 ratio screen (it’s 4:3)
• no Flash support

These are all valid concerns but I think people have to remember that the iPad is a first generation product.

The original iPod didn’t have video or an iTunes store. It evolved. The original iPhone didn’t have 3G support, or any Apps, or a replaceable battery. People complained bitterly but as Cruft.com points out, it went on to sell 40 million phones and it evolved into the best smartphone in the industry.

Nothing in the industry comes close to what the iPad can do or what it will probably do in the future. Most of the people complaining about the iPad haven’t used one yet. John Gruber spent 20 minutes using a demo model at yesterday’s event and he was most impressed with the speed of the iPad.

As I watched the keynote demo I was blown away by the gaming demonstration that EA did. Who would have thought that an iPhone would evolve into a major gaming platform 5 years ago? The iPad is incredibly fast and I’m guessing that a lot of kids are going to want one (and a lot of adults).

I have a friend who bought an iPod Touch for his daughter. On a recent visit to his house I noticed that his daughter didn’t spend very much time playing with her iPod. That was because my friend and his wife were playing games on it constantly.

So who is going to buy this thing and what are they going to use it for? It has wide appeal and I can see the entire family using this for surfing the web on the couch, playing games, email, listening to music, reading a book or watching a movie.

Do I need an iPad? Nope. Do I want one? Yup!

At $499 the price is right for a 16 GB model. If Apple added a camera, USB port, HDMI etc. you can bet that it would cost more and people would complain about how expensive it is.

I haven’t mentioned how the iPad will affect the publishing industry with its new iBookstore. At the very least, it will give the Kindle some real competition. Apple has inked deals with major book publishers to sell content.

Missing from yesterday’s presentation was any talk of newspapers and magazines for sale through the iTunes store. One news report mentioned that the New York Times app for iPad might not be necessary because the web browsing on the iPad is so good. I’m not sure if Apple has plans to sell magazines and newspapers but Rome wasn’t built in a day. And did I mention that iPad is version 1.0 product? Stay tuned.

Posted in Apple at 12:41 PM | Comments (0)

Can Apple Rescue The Press?

Last week I commented on the upcoming Apple tablet and wondered how much of an impact it would have on the publishing industry, newspapers in particular. Today, Macworld published a piece on What an Apple tablet would mean for publishing.

People are calling it the end of free. Forget about Chris Anderson’s cover story for Wired last year that describes why “free” is the future of business. There is a growing shift toward paid content and Apple is the one company that could act as a catalyst to pull this off.

I think you’ll see a whole new subscription model in the iTunes store for publishing from some major newspapers and magazines on Wednesday. Stay tuned.

Posted in Apple at 6:27 PM | Comments (0)

Wes Anderson’s Remake of “My Best Friend”

While I’m on the topic of unnecessary American movie remakes, Wes Anderson is moving ahead with a remake of Mon Meilleur Ami (2006). I wrote about the French version of Mon Meilleur Ami (My Best Friend) after I saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival. It’s a great film starring Daniel Auteil (Caché) and Dany Boon (Micmacs).

Wes Anderson’s latest script for the My Best Friend is being called “The Rosenthaler Suite”. George Clooney and Owen Wilson are rumoured to star. Ugh. Hollywood is so obsessed with profits that it continues to mine successful foreign films that it can remake for American audiences.

Why can’t Hollywood let American directors make their own films? There are a lot of great American independent films that are dying to get made. Instead, the accountants that run the studios insist on remakes of foreign films, older films or television shows in their search for a hit.

Remakes seldom work. Consider these flops: Planet of the Apes, The Pink Panther, Psycho, Godzilla or No Reservations (a remake of Mostly Martha).

Posted in Movies at 4:42 PM | Comments (0)

Roger Ebert Tries To Solve They Mysteries of Caché

Roger Ebert recently published “Caché:” A riddle, wrapped in a
mystery, inside an enigma - his theories on the mysteries of Michael Haneke’s film, Caché (2005).

Ebert’s analysis of the film provides a theory of what might have happened, but he admits that he is probably wrong. The discussion that follows in the comments of his blog entry is also really interesting.

I have to wonder if director Michael Haneke really made the Caché as complex as we tend to think it is. Did he every think that we’d be discussing his film 5 years after it was made?

Scorsese To Remake Caché

Why do American directors love to remake great foreign films for American audiences? Martin Scorsese has optioned Caché for an American version that may be released in 2012.

Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997) was remade by Haneke himself in 2007 for American audiences with American actors. The film isn’t nearly as good as his original.

I have to admit that I preferred Scorsese’s version of The Departed to the original but when something is as good as Caché, you just don’t mess with it.

Posted in Movies at 4:07 PM | Comments (0)

Technologizer’s Take On The Apple Tablet

Harry McCracken has published a group prediction titled, “The Apple Tablet: What Will Be, According to You”. It will be interesting to see how accurate the predictions are.

Newspapers For Sale On iTunes?

A couple of things in McCracken’s article caught my eye in terms of newspapers: “Exactly 48.5% of you think Apple will let other publishers sell books, magazines, and newspapers through the tablet” and “payment systems for some magazines and newspapers through iTunes will already be worked out when it goes live.”

Last week the New York Times announced that we would be paying for its newspaper in the future. In May 2009, Rupert Murdoch said that News Corp owned newspapers would begin charging for online access within one year.

iPods and iTunes rescued the music industry. Maybe iTunes and an Apple tablet can do the same for the publishing industry? I don’t think it is a coincidence that news organizations are warning us that we’ll be paying for our news in the future.

Posted in Apple at 3:33 PM | Comments (0)

Avatar in IMAX 3D

I just got back from watching Avatar and my hat is off to James Cameron. The movie and the experience is first rate. He deserves all of the praise that the film is receiving.

I watched it at the Scotiabank IMAX theatre in Toronto. All of the weekend screenings were sold out. I ordered my seats ahead of time (Friday afternoon) and went to the 10:30 PM screening, thinking it wouldn’t be busy.

I got there at 9:30 PM and there was already a line. Hasn’t this film been out for month already? Apparently this IMAX theatre is always sold out and does the best business in Canada for Avatar.

So, the film? It has a little bit of everything for everyone. There’s a love story, war, religion, environmentalism, terrorism, racial divides and the hero is a man in a wheel chair. There are a lot of messages wrapped up into a 3 hour spectacle like nothing you’ve ever seen.

I waited until now to see the film because I wanted to see it in IMAX 3D and I’m glad I did. I don’t think it would have been the same on a smaller screen. The 3D aspect of the film makes the computer generated landscapes and environments incredible. At times you really feel like you are physically in the film. You forget about the weight of the glasses on your ears and buy into the fantasy world on the screen.

Use Your SCENE Card

If you get a chance, watch this film in an IMAX theatre and book your tickets days ahead of time. Lastly, if you have a SCENE card, use it. A regular movie ticket ($10.50) requires 1,000 SCENE points. An IMAX 3D ticket ($17.50) requires just 1,000 SCENE points. That’s almost half price. Not bad.

Posted in Movies at 2:04 AM | Comments (1)

Donate Now

I’m saddened each time I see images of the damage in Haiti from the devastating earthquake. Natural disasters occur all the time but the situation in Haiti feels different.

I knew things weren’t great to begin with in Haiti. Just take a look at these stats:

• 80% live under the poverty line
• 54% live in extremely bad poverty
• average wage is under $2/day

The whole world seems to be holding their breath and hoping that aid can reach those that survived the earthquake. Make a donation now at World Vision Canada or American Red Cross.

Posted in News at 1:17 AM | Comments (0)

Lost In The Air

Lost In The Air: The Jason Reitman Press Tour Simulator from director Jason Reitman. He made this short film while doing press for his movie Up In The Air starring George Clooney.

Posted in Movies at 9:33 AM | Comments (0)

2009 List of Lists

James at Toronto Screen Shots has published his 2009 List of Lists. If you’re looking for some solid recommendations of films or documentaries to see over the next year then take a look. Load up your ZipList and Netflix cues now!

Posted in Movies at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

Nic Cage As Everyone

Nic Cage As Everyone was founded on the belief that everything in life would be better with a little more Nic Cage. I couldn’t agree more. Seriously, some of the Photoshop work on this site will keep you amused for quite some time.

Posted in Humour at 11:47 PM | Comments (1)