Apple Announces the iPad

Yup, the name is awkward. Here's some pics!

Initial reaction? It's a giant iPhone. Even the demo Steve Jobs is doing right now (I'm listening to a live feed from live.twit.tv), makes it sound EXACTLY like a giant iPhone with a higher-res screen. He's using the examples of buying tickets online, browsing the web, sending photos, opening pdfs, pinching and swiping like the iPhone, etc. It even has a microphone, speaker, and connector like the iPhone.

So...this is a fanboy device, probably. Unless there's something that is totally new. Which there's not so far.

EDIT: 12:22 p.m.: More on the name: this thing was doomed to have a stupid name. Apple's naming formula is "i + physical description of object," so they couldn't name it something fancy like the Pavilion or Aspire or any other of those made-up techie-sounding computery words.

Oh well. We'll see what it can do.

EDIT: 12:31 p.m.: Okay, now that Jobs has listed some more specs, it's got a pretty nice chip in it, a 1Ghz Apple A4, which is pretty quick for a iPhon-I mean, iPad. It's also got 10 hours or battery life. Not bad.

EDIT: 12:38 p.m.: Alright, another strike against it. It can run iPhone apps, but only in an iPhone-sized window, or blown up to full screen and pixelated beyond recognition. Fail.

A win, perhaps, is the rather slick-looking eBook app, iBook. (duh.) Might be Kindle's competition.

EDIT: 1:02 p.m.: Yet another strike: no 3G connectivity announced. Meaning, you have to use this while connected to a Wi-Fi network.

EDIT: 1:16 p.m.: Alright, I'll give this one to them. They just announced AT&T-only 3G connectivity. One back to you, Steve.

EDIT: 1:29 p.m.: Price was just announced: $499 starting, 16GB, no 3G. Ouch. Minus one again, Steve. Looks like there's a separate price tier for 3G models. $130 extra for 3G.

EDIT: 1:37 p.m.: They're done, and they announced some accessories including a fancy leather case, a dock with a keyboard that reminds me of a sleeker version of those portable Palm Pilot keyboards. But the lack of any cameras in it whatsoever is definitely a strike against it.

My final reaction? A giant iPhone with a few extra applications. It can run iWork, the Macish-type Microsoft Office looking thing. AND NO MULTITASKING. That alone kills it for most people.

Meh. The thing is, tablet computers' user base is so small anyways, I can't see anyone really needing this unless they already use a tablet. Oh well. I never buy FirstGen gadgets, so we'll see how version 2.0 holds up.

(And just to be clear, I have nothing against Apple. Sure, their stuff is a little overpriced, but it's a good company. I've had the opportunity to use both Macs and PCs on a regular basis, and I simply prefer PCs. If I were a graphic designer or something like that, I would most certainly have a Mac. I have an iPhone now, and that is because I wanted a smartphone, and at the time I bought it, Apple simply made the best smartphone. Now, in a year or so, I'll be looking at other smartphones and will most likely be walking away from Apple, unless the fourth iteration of the iPhone is incredible. It's all a matter of personal preference.)

New York Times Website Uses Strange Puncuation

We all know that the media have an unnatural obsession with Obama that has only recently begun to crumble.

Then I found this on the New York Times' website. Don't know if this is just an accident, but it's worth posting.

Yup, they capitalized "His." As if Obama was indeed, as so many conservative pundits say, the "Chosen One."

Why did you do that, NYTimes?

LOST Vid Countdown (-7)

This song perfectly describes most people watching LOST.

LOST Vid Countdown (-8)

What?

LOST Vid Countdown

Nine days left, Losties! I'm gonna feature a sweet LOST video every day until the big premiere. Today, we have the real-time, 24-style clip-stitching of the crash of Oceanic 815. It's awesome.

Previously, on LOST...

February 2, 2010.

LOST's sixth and final season premieres.

Aww yeah.

In ten days (from now), one of the best shows on TV will (hopefully) blow us all away.

When I started watching LOST in 2008, I had no idea what I was getting into. My roommate, Gavin, kept ranting and raving about how good this show was, and I had only heard of it in 2005. I saw commercials for it, and wondered why Merry from the Lord of the Rings movies had such short hair.

Finally, after having enough of Gavin's incessant "you-have-to-watch-this"es, I watch the pilot with him. Awkwardly. In his bedroom, while sitting on his bed. On his computer monitor.

It was a little weird.

After the incredibly tense opening scene in which Jack runs out of the jungle after being awakened by a random dog to find the horrors of a just-happened plane crash, I was hooked.

Holy crap! I thought. How did all those people survive? Why is the camera lingering on that bald dude's foot? Why are there like 40 main characters?

I knew I was probably going to be addicted. But then this scene happened. Watch from :30 to when it switches to "Day 2." Sorry I couldn't embed it.

That scene hooked me.

That's the smoke monster. Smokey, as some call him, is one of the biggest mysteries on the show. I remember thinking Oh that can't be good. Some gurgling bubbling clanking and whirring thing is running around the jungle.

And that was, as Gavin said, just the beginning.

Here we are, five seasons later. If you haven't watched LOST, I highly recommend you go on Hulu and watch them. You'll have to watch all five seasons, as this is a linear show.

Now, I say linear only in the sense that you must watch the episodes in order to understand them. The storyline itself makes no linear sense.

Yet.

Which brings me to the purpose of this post. I will be reviewing each episode of LOST, every week, hopefully the night of, and posting it here. This is the final season of one of the smartest, most intense and well-written shows ever on TV. It's worth it.

Many have critiqued LOST as being crazy and incomprehensible at times, which happens if you don't watch every episode. That's a lot of content to go through, I know, but it's well worth it.

The show's bigwigs were very smart and decided to call the sixth season the last. They have something to work towards, they have a goal in mind, and boy do they have a lot of loose ends to tie up.

Here's my biggest questions I hope to have answered this final season:

What/who is the smoke monster?

When did Real Locke actually die?

Is Vincent important?

Who is the Man In Black?

What does the Black Rock have to do with this?

How does the island travel in time?

Did Juliet succeed in detonating the nuke? Did that "reset" everything?

Are Ben/Locke/Widmore/MIB/Jacob the good guys or the bad guys?

EDIT (1/24/09 1:56pm): Who/what is Richard Alpert? Did Locke's mom know him?

What exactly does Widmore want with the Island?

Hopefully this spring we'll be able to finally understand and wrap our minds around LOST.

Afterwards, I'll miss it. And the deep-voiced guy who says "Previously, on LOST..." every week. Sniff.

Scott Brown Wins

I haven't been following the Massachusetts Senate race that closely, but after today's result, the Senate could get a lot more interesting.

Republican Scott Brown won the Senate seat minutes ago, formerly held by Democrat Martha Coakley.

This is Massachusetts for crying out loud. They haven't had a Republican Senator in 30-plus years.

While this also eradicates the Senate Democrats' ability to block a Republican filibuster (re: the health care bill), it also illustrates something else interesting.

The Democrats are losing their much-publicized hold. Remember all the joyous celebrating when the Democrats took control of the House and Senate, and then finally, the Presidency? A new era was coming, courtesy of game-"changer" Obama.

Now, the Democrats' hold on government, one that has proven to be quite deaf to the public's outrage over backroom-dealt health care bills and other "We-know-what's-best-so-shut-up" moments, is loosening. It will be interesting to watch how Democrats react to this, and if they treat this as the wake-up call it truly is.

In two words:

Momentum, deferred.

EDIT(9:03 pm central)

I just thought I'd share this screen grab from the charming folks over at huffingtonpost.com. Even the Democrats are using my phrase.

Why I Will NOT See Avatar

When the trailers for Avatar hit a few months ago, I was surprised. It looked sci-fi, it looked unique (we'll get to that later), and had pretty cool effects. But I didn't have a desire to see it. That usually doesn't happen with me and cool explosiony-type movies.

Turns out my first instinct was right.

To be clear, I still haven't seen it. And I hope I never will. Here's why.

1: It has giant smurfs.

I mean, come on James Cameron. At least make the aliens look cool. Giant smurfs? Riding birds and crap? Woohoo.

2: The plot is directly ripped from Pocahontas/Ferngully/Braveheart/The Matrix/Dances With Wolves/Titanic/Several other movies.

I can't even bring myself to see a movie that has "revolutionary effects" if it rips off that many movies without even bothering to make any major plot changes. James Cameron even rips off his own movies.

Exhibit A

3: Its (seemingly) only redeeming quality is the effects.

Granted, I have quite a few SFX-heavy movies in my collection. At least most of those have a plot that engages.

4: Its MacGuffin is ACTUALLY called "unobtanium."

A MacGuffin is a movie device that serves no other purpose but to drive the plot. They were pioneered (and named) by the late great Alfred Hitchcock, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a cheap cop-out of a plot device.

And they kept a script placeholder for the real name. Unobtanium. Wow. I must be wearing a wedding band made out of shinyprettyium. My car's engine block must be milled from a solid piece of stronggreasyium.

Beyond lame.

5: No one is calling it lame.

I swear, reading the media reports of this thing makes Avatar the new Barack Obama. Avatar can do no wrong. It is REVOLUTIONARY, will bring CHANGE to the medium, yada-yada-yada.

6. This is the theme song.

ATTENTION JAMES CAMERON: It is no longer 1994. Songs like this shouldn't even be recorded anymore, much less featured in the end credits.

To sum it up, I understand it's pretty-looking. I understand that seeing it 3D is cool. But Hollywood is so hopped up on trying to promote 3D tech that they seem to have created this film to serve as a showcase of that and the animator's computers. Everyone I know that seen it has had the same opinion more or less.

Me: So was Avatar good?

Smurf-watcher: Oh yeah, it was awesome! It's going to revolutionize the industry. The effects were beautiful!

Me: Was the plot any good?

Smurf-watcher: Oh, no, it sucked. Just a rip-off of Dances with Wolves and those kinds of movies. But the effects were cool!

No plot, no engagement, and giant smurfs. I'll be skipping on Dances with Ferngullian Pocahontases. In The Matrix.

My Desk

Over at the awesome lifehacker blog, they've been featuring workspaces. Usually they're awesome, and usually work is done on them. As I am still unemployed, I have a desk where stuff sits that I would usually use to work, but for now just sits.

Anyways, here's a photo and explanation of the random crap which adorns my desk.

Starting on the left, THE SUNFLOWER PENCIL IS NOT MINE. It is my wife's. We simply consolidated writing utensils into one cup. It's not mine. I swear.

The Pile of Papers is receipts, directions to our new humidifier (yay for ill-sealed apartments), two candles (I don't know what for), and a Windows XP installation disk. Which I should use. I'm going to try to redo our media computer by erasing the hard drive and reinstalling Windows.

Further to the left sits one of my proudest lego creations. That, ladies and gentlemen, is my lego iPhone dock. And yes, I know it's awesome. Moving on.

Behind it, with the glowing green circle, is my external drive. It holds backups of my music, documents, pictures, and random crap I got from my friend Jeremy a few years ago.

The only thing is that I can't for the life of me figure out how to get iTunes to re-acquire the paths to the music on there every time I disconnect the drive. Anyone know how?

On top of the drive is a cool Jayhawk statue my dad gave me. He had it when he was a kid.

And center stage is my lappy. It was actually Amanda's old computer, but she had to buy a fancy-dancy tablet computer for med school, so I got the sweetest hand-me-down ever. It's a great computer. HP Pavilion dv6000, great battery life, video card's surprisingly fast for a laptop, and it has a cool swirly black lid. The headphones in front are my "Amanda is sleeping" or "Amanda is studying" headphones. She's currently studying, and I'm currently listening to the Complete Recordings of The Lord Of The Rings. It's about 35 full tracks of music from each movie. Aww yeah. Behind the lappy is a powered USB port I have my iPhone cable, external drive, and mouse plugged into. It's easier to just unplug the power and hub when I move my computer. The mouse is a Logitech laser mouse, and the exact number of it escapes me. Anyways, it's awesome. And the desk surface is wonky on the laser, so that's the KU Commencement book as my mousepad.

Above the ghettomousepad is a pile of books. The cup is from Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia, Missouri. The best pizza ever.

We'll go top to bottom.

-The Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney was given to us by our new pastor when we became members at Redeemer.

-Praise Habit by David Crowder. I bought this one a while ago, as Crowder is one of my favorite bands, but I have yet to get all the way through it.

-A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick. Got this at the library, and whoa. Never EVER do drugs. Ever. The movie was great, the book will scare your pants off.

-Patriot Games by Tom Clancy. I've got a buttload of Clancy, and I love the movie version of this one. Found it for a quarter at a thrift shop in Minnesota.

-Sheet Music by Kevin Leman. Sex book from my old pastor in Minnesota. As awkward as that sounds.

-The Slumber of Christianity by Ted Dekker. I've read pretty much every single one of Dekker's books, but never this, his only non-fiction. I've read the first chapter, and promises to be a good read.

Next to the pile o' books are my faithful 3M companions, the Post-It dispenser and the Scotch Tape dispenser. I use miles of both each year, but will not be running out anytime soon. Family times in the office supply business pays off (thanks Dad!).

To the far right, you may be able to see my old Olympus point-and-shoot film camera. It's in a little black case, so it's hard to see. My parents gave that to me more than ten years ago, and it's still got a roll of film in it. I have no idea what's on it. That'll be a blog post for later.

The big brownish-gold box below the book pile was what a cool wallet/notebook/stealth pen that I got for Christmas from my in-laws came in. Right now it has a few charging cords and my Bluetooth headset. It's going to be my gadget box.

Lastly comes a bunch of random crap. There's my Maglite that I've had forever, my little pouch I carry headphones in on trips, a coaster for drinks (a book pile works too) chapstick, an old iPod cover, and 3M Command Adhesive poster strips. I have no idea why any of that happens to be on my desk at this moment.

A Little More Awesomeness

Here's something to tide you tens of readers until I post again.

It's as awesome as it sounds.