Top Tech Weekly Round Up 2

This week we discuss such topics as, Cloverfield becoming reality, whispers in the dark, cult vs cult, strange alliances and power plays, and more non-news than you can shake a stick at.

The end is nigh! CNN is reporting that a large U.S. spy satellite is spinning out of control, and it is a matter of time before it crashes down on the Earth's surface. The moment of impact is estimated to be only a couple months away, but the amount of damage that may be caused is unknown. Information is classified, but it is believed that the satellite may contain hazardous chemicals. Anybody who has seen the movie Cloverfield knows that nothing good can come out of this!

A new controversy is in our midsts, and it has been dubbed The Romney Whisper. During a republican debate that took place late last week, an audible whisper can be heard while candidate Mitt Romney was responding to a question. NBC's Tim Russert asked a question pertaining to whether or not Mitt would do what Ronald Regan did to solidify social security. Immediately following the question, a soft voice can be heard, stating "he raised taxes", thus revealing the question to be a bait. Right on target, Mitt Romney replied "I will not raise taxes". Was somebody feeding Romney the answers? MSNBC claims it was just an open mic in the audience that picked up on the whisper; which makes almost no sense. A very similar incident happened a couple nights later. You be the judge: whisper one, and whisper two.

A new favorite amongst the tech crowd, Virgin Airlines, has managed to earn themselves some more cool points. Along with providing customers with in-flight on-demand movies, live tv, videogames, wifi, and other innovative features, Virgin Airlines has announced a distribution deal with Revision3. Starting in march, programming from Revision3.com will be available on flights all across America. This now gives Virgin Airlines a stronger foothold in the tech savvy business world. This partnership is also important for Revision3, as all of their programming is offered for free, whether it is streaming from their site or downloaded to your hard drive. Sponsorships and advertisements can only bring in so much money.

If there is one group of religious cultivists that you don't want to mess with, it is the Church of Scientology. If there is one group you don't want to mess with even more than them, it is the online hacker community. The Church of Scientology has a history of sending cease and desist letters to whomever may slightly slander them on the internet. They may have taken it one step too far, as they recently forced websites to pull a leaked video of Tom Cruise discussing the religion. Believing this to be a direct violation of freedom of speech, a group of hackers calling themselves the Anonymous, launched a denial of service attack at the Church's website. The Church of Scientology has since moved their site to a more secure host, but the Anonymous claim this is only the beginning. They are looking to build their numbers, and continue the movement. The question is, which group has more power? At the time of this blog post, Anonymous's website, partyvan.info, has been pulled. Their manifesto can still been seen here.

While the nail has long been put in the coffin of the HD DVD format, Microsoft is not making matters any better for the HD DVD camp. Since CES, there have been rumors of Microsoft releasing a Blu Ray add-on for the XBox 360. Microsoft exec, Jeff Bell, seems to confirm this possibility, as he claims they have been in talks with the Blu Ray camp for quite some time. Jeff express his belief that the technology in the XBox 360 can be applied to further enhance the Blu Ray experience, in the same vein of HD DVD. While some naysayers may immediately dismiss this notion on the basis that Sony, Microsoft's competitor in the videogame industry, would profit off of this partnership. However, as Jeff points out, this is no different than Sony selling notebooks with the Windows Operating System installed.

In what seems to be a fierce power play, Amazon has announced that they are ready to take their mp3 store global. The Amazon store already has an advantage over the iTunes Music Store, as every track sold on Amazon is not only DRM free, but is also cheaper than their iTunes equivalents. A global Amazon store will potentially reach more international consumers than iTunes, and the lack of DRM guarantees that it will be welcomed with a warm embrace. One would think that Apple must pull something out of their sleeves in order for them to stay competitive. Things don't seem to be getting better for them, as right before this blog was posted, Amazon purchased Audible.com, whom was the sole distributor of audiobooks through iTunes.

Now for the non-news. Speaking of Apple, the MacBook Air is starting to trickle in to stores and homes. However, don't expect the specially designed Intel chip to stay exclusive for long. Meanwhile, the appleTV update has been delayed for another week or two (dratz!). It is restructuring time for Dell, as they will be abandoning their US stores and kiosks, to allow retailers like Best Buy and Walmart to handle the burden. If you are a PSP owner, don't forget to run a software update so that you can start making Skype calls on your handheld. Lastly, have you purchased your own mimobot yet? How could you resist the cuteness?

T minus 1 day and counting...

Set your DVRs, schedule your Tivos, program your VCRs (I know you're out there), for we are one day away from the return of arguably the greatest drama series ever. That's right, tomorrow marks the season 4 premier of Lost. Last time we seen our favorite castaways, they had just one-upped The Others, and phoned home for rescue. Apparently the supposed saviors on the freighter a few miles off shore, are not all they are cracked up to be. It looks like the Losties may have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Unfortunately, due to the writers strike, we are compromised with an 8 episode season, that apparently ends abruptly. The way I see it, some Lost is better than no Lost. ,Meanwhile, take the opportunity to get caught up on some Lost Mobisodes that have been released during the hiatus. Be sure to check out the 13th, and final episode of the series, that is sure to blow your mind. Thanks to darkufo for the player...

Battle of the Books

VS

It has been only two weeks since Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air at MacWorld '08. Though it has not yet reached our homes, there is much criticism and skepticism surrounding Apple's newest addition to its line of notebooks. While it is undeniable that Apple has produced one of the most elegant and brilliantly engineered technological advancements of our time, it is this very elegance that brings with it, disappointment and disapproval from long time mac supporters. The general consensus amongst the tech crowd, is that mac enthusiasts were hoping for a compact-esque version of the MacBook Pro; one without sacrificing functionality or imposing frustrating limitations. Perhaps, something similar to the 12" PowerBook of yesteryear. Below, is a comparison chart, showcasing the tech specs of both models in question. Click on the chart for a larger view...

As you can see, the 12" PowerBook, released in early 2003, acts as proof that compact-ability can be achieved without sacrifice. While thinness may help a notebook look slick and refined, I would much rather have the ports that are available with the 12" PowerBook. Are we to assume that in five years, the only enhancements we have made in the field of 1.8" hard drive technology, was a 20 GB leap in data capacity? And, despite what Mr. Jobs may believe, a 12" display is not too small. Furthermore, let us, the consumer, decide what is too small and what is not.

The Top Tech Weekly Round Up

The following blog post is intended to be the first of many, in a reoccurring segment where we summarize the top tech stories of the week. This week, we discuss the insecurities of the Xbox 360, the true leader in digital movie content, the awakening of Yahoo and what it means for its employees, the ever opinionated Mark Cuban, the first thoughts on the MacBook Air, and the $1 cup of coffee.

Early in the week, 8bitjoystick.com released an interview with a Microsoft insider, whom contributed to the creation of the Xbox 360. In the interview, the insider reveals that Microsoft's 360 team was under-resourced, under-experienced, and under-staffed. M$ was in such a hurry to beat Sony and the PS3 out the gate, that they ignored recognized design flaws and skimped on quality testing. There are many factors that can contribute to the all elusive Red Rings of Death, and although it will most likely occur early in the products life cycle, it can happen at any time. The failure rate of the console has dropped from around 30% for the earliest iterations, to around 10% for the current design, thanks to smaller and more heat efficient processors. The insider was also kind enough to inform us that the external cooling fans only make matters worse, and that Microsoft is already working on the next generation Xbox. Please Microsoft, don't rush!

PC World ran an article comparing the sales of Blu-Ray and HD DVD, now that Blu-Ray has gained (re: bought) a huge majority of studio exclusivity. Author, Melissa Perenson points out the fact that Blu-Ray has always out-sold HD DVD, almost at a 2-1 ratio, and that only further motivated studios to jump on the Blu-Ray bandwagon. What Melissa failed to mention (though MacDailyNews did for her), was that digital downloads of movies, more specifically those of the iTunes variety, outsold both high definition formats. Despite the near DVD quality of the iTunes movies, Apple sold three times as many movies as HD DVD titles, and one million more than Blu-Ray in two months less. One could only imagine that integer will increase as Apple moves towards movie rentals and takes 2 with the appleTV.

While on the topic of Apple and digital content, it appears that Apple and NBC/Universal are starting to cozy up to one another again. Last Summer, the two corporations had a falling out over Apple's television show distribution model, and their unwillingness to budge in terms of variable pricing. Earlier this week, Financial Times published an interview with Jeff Zucker, chief executive of NBC/Universal. In the interview, Jeff discusses how NBC is getting along quite well during the writers strike, due to viewer fascination with cost-effective reality shows. When asked about their relation with Apple, Jeff responded by stating that they admire Apple, and want to be in business with them; they are "great fan's of Steve Jobs". On the other side of the fence, Business Week posted an interview with Steve Jobs, where the founder of Apple predicts that their stalemate with NBC/Universal "won't last forever", and they'll "put it back together on the TV thing." Apparently both companies realized how much they need each other, as NBC's television shows made up for 40% of all shows sold on the iTunes store. Since departing, NBC has done very poorly on the digital content distribution, as witnessed by the sub par Hulu.com.

Meanwhile, it appears that Yahoo is beginning to see the light and realize that throwing money around aimlessly will not get them ahead of their rival, Google. The New York Times reports that Yahoo is expected to lay-off hundreds of employees in an attempt to bounce back financially and reassess their focus. The total number of employees has not been determined, but Yahoo stated that they plan to invest in some areas while reducing emphasis in others. The timing couldn't be better for the company, as their stocks are reaching new lows, and Google is slipping further ahead. The last time Yahoo had sizable lay-offs was during the dot-com crash of 2001.

Never one to hold his tongue, Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban has posted a blog on Cnet.com, expressing his opinion on the current state and trends of music sales. Mark controversally states that the album is dead and musicians should rethink their distribution model. In today's digital age, consumers are more willing to spend 99 cents a week for 10 weeks, as opposed to $10 at one time. We have become accustomed to the ability of choosing which tracks from an album we would like to purchase. With this philosophy, artists should focus on releasing individual tracks on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, while benefiting from a subscription-like model. Cnet's own Steve Guttenberg pleads with musicians not to follow this path, as it threatens to break the tradition that has helped make music what it is today. Nobody would have dared to buy Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band one track at a time.

It has only been one week after the always eyebrow-raising Macworld, and the first round of reviews of the MacBook Air are starting to creep in. Journalists at the nations top publications were amongst the few who were blessed with early release units. Reviewers consisted of The Wall Street Journal's, Walt Mossberg, USA Today's, Ed Baig, and Newsweek's, Steven Levy. Apple Insider does a good job of summarizing the opinions, which are generally agreed on amongst the reviewers. The MacBook Air is elegant and a pleasure to use. The display is wonderful, and the keyboard is no slouch. However, overall the reviewers were turned off by the MacBook Air's limitations. The lack of external ports requires you to carry around extra hubs and adapters, thus contradicting the goal of portability. The Remote Disc works well, but is still limited enough to where you will need to purchase the additional usb optical drive. The battery life is acceptable, but not near what Apple touted. As fashionable as the MacBook Air may be, Apple seems to have missed the mark this time around. In today's depressing economy, who is willing to invest in this elegance?

Though America's favorite drink may not necessarily be tech related, it does go hand in hand. Starbucks, the company made synonymous with the $4 cup of Joe, is now offering a $1 cup of coffee, as well as free refills of some of its current offering's. The Wall Street Journal reports that the coffee giant is experimenting with this new idea in select locations in the Seattle area. The new low-cost offerings are believed to be a strategic move against McDonalds, whom wants in on Starbuck's market grip. There is always only one clear winner in the battle of corporate giants, the consumer.

Cloverfield Review (spoiler free)

We may be only three weeks into 2008, but the J.J. Abrams Sci-Fi thriller, Cloverfield (Bad Robot/Paramount), is already a nominee for most anticipated movie of the year. The hype began in July 2007, after movie goers witnessed a very subtle and mysterious trailer that was previewed before Transformers. For months, the title of the film was unknown, as the viral advertisements commenced in true J.J. Abrams fashion. Did this unique first person-esque, camcorder style movie live up to its hype?

The level of enjoyment you will get out of this movie depends entirely on what you expect from it. Cloverfield is at best an experience, not an involvement. You, as the movie watcher, are experiencing the horror and hope for survival, that the cast of characters are subjected to. Though it is unquestionable that this thrill ride keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout its entirety, never do you truly feel involved with the characters. Never do you get the opportunity to get to know the cast, thus never giving you an emotional attachment. Perhaps it is most appropriate that this movie begins with a friendly get-together, because you can't help but feel that you were just invited along for the ride. If you are fine with this, and are expecting nothing more than an hour and 24 minute thrill ride, then you will not be disappointed.

Just a note of warning; as mentioned, this movie is filmed mostly in a first person-esque style, achieved through the eye of a camcorder. As you can imagine, the characters do a lot of running around, and that makes for much bouncing and shaking. Do not watch this movie if you suffer from motion sickness! I find that I am not particularly susceptible to the symptoms of motion sickness, however, even I couldn't help but feel a bit queasy through some of the intense scenes. This may also be attributed to the fact that I had nothing but Raisinets and Monster Energy Drink in my system at the time.

Cloverfield may not win 'best movie of the year', but are we really expecting it to? I give it 3 m's out of 4.

The MacWorld 2008 Keynote Report Card

Now that the dust has settled, and the reality distortion field has worn off, let us take the opportunity to look back at Steve Job's MacWorld 2008 Keynote. Follow along as we break down each of the announcements and subject them to the ever rigorous elementary school style grading scale.

#1: Time Capsule

Steve's first objective on stage was to address an issue that has been around since the launch of Leopard. More particularly, the feature known as Time Machine. Before the launch of Leopard, we were promised the ability to utilize the usb port on an Airport Extreme Base Station to make wirelessly syncing our backups easier than ever. For some reason or other, that feature was pulled at the last second. Though there are ways to activate this feature, it involves a little too much hackory for the common man. In comes the product known as Time Capsule, combining an Airport Extreme Base Station, with a server grade hard drive. Weighing in at $299 for 500 GB, or $499 for 1 TB, the Time Capsule comes off as a bargain, as it also packs in 802.11n wireless networking, as well as a three port Gigabit Ethernet router. However, most of us consumers already own a wireless router and a hard drive of some fashion. Why can't we utilize what we already own? Was this feature pulled intentionally, so that Apple could make a quick buck further down the road? Until a patch is available to us, I must believe so.

Awesome product Steve, but don't force me to use it. Grade: B-

#2: The iPhone

Our second announcement comes in the form of a software upgrade for Apple's favorite hand-held, the iPhone. With this upgrade, Apples has blessed iPhone users with some great new additions. The first, comes in the form of a gps-like tracking feature built into Google Maps. Though this feature does not use satellites, our geographical position is determined by the combined usage of cell towers and wifi hotspots. Other features include the ability to customize the home screen(s) by adding web bookmarks and rearranging the icons. Apparently there was high demand for the ability to send sms text messages to multiple recipients; Apple has been kind enough to include this feature with the update. The movie watching experience on the iPhone has now been enhanced by allowing chapter selection, subtitles, as well as multiple language support. For those of you who like to use your iPhone as your personal karaoke machine, song lyrics are now displayed as you listen to your music.

With these new features, it grows apparent that Apple is listening to its customers. With such a high ratio of jailbreakers and unlockers, Apple is taking the time to improve its product and enhance its functionality. What an effective way to have your customers play nice with your product! In my personal experience, I have witnessed quite a few iPhone users unjailbreak their iPhones to experience this new upgrade. Those that did, were treated with a couple of unmentioned additions. Seemingly, if your unlocked iPhone has been previously bricked by Apple, update 1.1.3 will unbrick your iPhone and restore it back to working condition. 1.1.3 also brings with it, the ability to manually manage your media, thus allowing you to drag and drop content to your iPhone.

Bravo Steve, this is what firmware updates should be about. Now, how about some copy and paste? Grade: A


#2.5: The iPod Touch

Thanks Steve; take all the excitement I just expressed over your last announcement and stomp it into the mud. Sure, the iPod Touch gains all of the new functionality of its big brother, the iPhone. However, it also gets to play catch-up... at a price. Originally, the iPod Touch did not ship with the iPhone associated apps, such as, Mail, Stocks, Weather, etc. If we want to add those applications it will cost us $20. What??? Yes, I understand that this charge may be due to an accounting issue (screw you sarbanes-oxely) that also plagued them during the 802.11n upgrades. But Steve, how can you look us in the eye and ask us to pay for these features, when they now come pre-installed on the iPod Touch at no extra charge? Now, we are faced with the dilemma of keeping our device jailbroken, or upgrading and being forced to pay for these apps. I think I will stick with the former.

Thanks Steve, but no thanks. Grade: D


#3: Itunes Movie Rentals

I will admit I am a big advocate of downloadable content, video on demand, IPTV, and whatever else you want to call it. However, I will also admit that I have never purchased a movie from the iTMS. $14.99 for a standard quality movie plagued with DRM is a little too rich for my blood. I can purchase a DVD at Walmart for that price, and have a physical format with special features and the like. The ability to rent movies from the iTMS is a no brainer for Apple, and I am glad they are finally rolling it out. Prices range from 2.99 to 3.99 for standard def, and 3.99 to 4.99 for high def. You can keep the movie for 30 days, but once you start watching the movie, you have 24 hours to finish it. One thing that could have really hurt this announcement was lack of studio support. Fear not, Apple's movie rental system has support from pretty much every major movie studio.

Though it sounds like a great deal, unfortunately there is much detail to be discussed in the fine print. Though high definition movies are available, you can only purchase them on the appleTV. Mediaphiles may be disappointed that the high definition content caps out at 720p. Apples boasted the ability to transfer your movies to your hand-held devices, however this only applies to current generation iPods. Meaning, if you own any iPod over a year old, you are out of luck. Some of us may not want to be hampered by this 24 hour rule. Fortunately (as of now), there is a workaround.

Good improvement, guaranteed to be more successful than previous movie store attempts. A little heavy on the technicalities. Grade: B+

#3.5: appleTV

What was once called a hobby by Steve Jobs is now getting a second lease on life. No longer does the appleTV act as an iTunes extender. No longer do you need to sync or stream movies from your mac or PC. The appleTV can now act as a stand-alone set-top box for your high definition television. Hobbyists can now browse the iTunes store and purchase content from the comfort of their couches. As mentioned, you can now rent high definition movies on the appleTV, however, those movies cannot be synced back to your mac or PC. Photo fanatics can now connect to their .mac or flickr accounts and show off their photo collections. Podcasts can now be watched without having to download or subscribe. Best of all, it is a free upgrade (no accounting issues?) to all current appleTV owners. Expect me to do a full review when the update is rolled out.

Woo hoo, the appleTV is not dead yet! Let's keep the updates and innovations coming. Grade: A

#4: MacBook Air

This announcement perplexes me the most. Is it supposed to be a ultra-portable MacBook? Is it a light-weight MacBook Pro? Though it is incredibly thin, it has a wider footprint than other Apple notebooks. It is too underpowered to be taken serious by power users. What you do get, is the worlds thinnest computer, at a max thickness of 0.76 inches. You also get a 13.3" backlit LED display, full-size backlit keyboard, and a Multi-touch gesture trackpad, a first for Apple. The trackpad allows for iPhone-like touch controls. Expect it to be included in all future Apple notebooks. The display is backlit, so it is great for battery life and excellent for photography buffs. However, with only a 1.6 GHz Intel Core2Duo chip inside, and a max of 2 Gb of RAM, the machine is considerably underpowered. I can understand the push for everything wireless, but only one USB port? An analog only headphone jack? No firewire? The additional USB superdrive is reasonably priced, but is rumored to only work with the MacBook Air. However, the demoed ability to wirelessly borrow another mac or PC's superdrive is pretty cool and promising.

There is no denying that what Apple has unveiled is an engineering masterpiece. It should stand as the influence of many future technological innovations. However, I feel Apple missed the mark with this product. I would have been happy with a sufficiently powered, 12" MacBook Pro with a backlit display. The MacBook Air is too under powered, fragile, and limited for my tastes. Though, if you do decide to purchase one, be sure to pick up the essential hand crafted Manila Envelope Sleeve.


Good concept, but should have stayed just that, a concept. Let's work on improving our already existing line of consumer products. Grade: C-


After all is said and done, MacWorld 2008 has been an somewhat revolutionary, but mostly evolutionary step for Apple. We, as consumers, all left with mixed emotions towards the keynote. Love it or hate it, one thing remains guaranteed; we will be glued to our seats come MacWorld 2009.