This is a “ranty” episode (after a long hiatus). I talk of the major mobile platforms out right now and their service offerings and a little in how it shows the difference in philosophy between the companies involved.
Warning, I have no idea what I’m talking about. Merely opinions here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:49 — 16.3MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
5by5, Dan Benjamin’s podcast network, is one of my favorite things on the web. This past weekend Dan recorded a State of the Union for 2012 to announce some new things coming to 5by5. There are some pretty big changes coming, so hold on tight.
For as long as I can remember, two podcasts have topped the list within either Instacast or Podcasts.app. Those two are Hypercritical with John Siracusa and Build and Analyze with Marco Arment. Every week for the past couple of years I’ve spent hours listening to these two show and have enjoyed them very much.
Sadly, both of them are coming to an end quite soon.
Along with the move of The Talk Show, my top three podcasts have ended this year. That is quite saddening because I do tend to get attached to things I get into a habit of doing or listening to. I thank both Marco Arment and John Siracusa for their time and efforts, I have really enjoyed the shows.
However, it sounds like some new shows are right around the corner that I might be quite interested in.
The Crossover, where hosts from different shows get together to talk, sounds like something I will need to subscribe to. Big Week (no link) was announced earlier this year and I’m looking forward to that show as well. News panel shows can be great (and Dan as moderator sounds awesome). It also sounds like The Pipeline is going to be coming back … so an old favorite of mine is going to be coming back!
Finally, a huge thanks to Dan Benjamin for starting and running 5by5. It is a fantastic podcast network and I look forward to the podcasts every week.
I have been able to play with an iPad mini for the past week or so and I have to say, it is a spectacular device.
However, there has been a lot of crazy talk about how this is “the real iPad”. I’m going to link to Harry Marks’s take on all of this because I agree pretty much with everything he wrote. I’m not done, however.
I find the iPad and iPad mini holding very different places in the workflow of different people. For one, most of the people who are declaring this “the real iPad” are using the iPad mini as a secondary device almost exclusively. That’s what happens when bloggers add a device, it doesn’t usually supplant the old one, but is added to the large array of devices that the person already owns.
That’s how they’ve built their lifestyle. That’s what they’ve already done with the laptop, desktop, gaming console(s), handheld gaming console(s), TV, smart phone, microwave, and fridge that they are already owning. They have tailored their life around using multiple devices.
The iPad mini is perfect for that because it fills that void between their 4″ smart phone and their 13″ laptop very well. 8″ is a great size for that.
It also helps that the iPad mini is crazy thin and light. I’m still shocked sometimes by how light it is, yet how rigid at the same time.
Does this mean the iPad mini is “the real iPad”? Heck no.
The iPad, the original one that is still being sold and just received a DOUBLE SPEED BOOST from Apple, is a much different device. The iPad can remove the need for a computer for many people almost completely. My dad has no need for a laptop or desktop … he needs something that allows very few things to take place:
The iPad mini would not work for him as well as the 10″ iPad already does. That last point above can’t be stressed enough either. By eliminating choices, Apple has freed people to just use the iPad without having to worry about doing something bad. Automatic backups to iCloud are a huge plus as well.
I’m not mentioning the Retina display because no one is expecting the iPad mini to stay non-Retina forever.
The iPad mini might very well be “the real iPad” for some people, but the iPad is also “the real iPad” for others. The iPad mini might very well fit what many people wanted from the original iPad, but that doesn’t mean there is no room for a 10″ iPad or that original iPad is somehow “the faux iPad” … it just means that it is different, it fits a different role, and that Apple has a lot of room to improve things on both ends for years to come.
That excites me almost as much as the idea of tablet computing in general.
I’ve primarily been a gamer in a number of categories:
There are benefits to all three of them, and downsides as well. Basically, my console and handheld gaming has been restricted to Nintendo devices while Windows is, obviously, the king of PC gaming.
As I get older, my time becomes more constrained and so I have had to shift my gaming time from the easily segmented three above to something more akin to this:
I’ve ditched the only Windows box in my house and I don’t pull out the Game Boy Micro anymore either, mainly because I carry at least one iOS device with me everywhere I go … adding another seems wasteful.
However, that leaves a HUGE catalog of games that I just do not have access to anymore. It is sad to leave those games behind, but time is tight and decisions need to be made. I still have my Wii sitting in my basement, waiting for the day when I find a cheap TV to hook it up to (and maybe a chair or something downstairs). Will I get a new console soon? Probably not, as I have a catalog of Wii games to work through once people pick up the Wii U, but I will probably stick with Nintendo until they go out of business.
This keeps me from spending too much money on games I will never play on systems I really don’t have a use or a place for. It is interesting to see the shift … but that’s part of the fun of getting older.
I posted my Star Wars Movie Rankings this week, but this post is a little harder to get out. See, Star Trek has eleven movies to Star Wars’s six, and those eleven are not as clear-cut as Star Wars either.
So, I’m just going to go ahead and get started. I have seen all eleven, multiple times, and these rankings are due to charge quite often, especially as more movies are released.
Where else am I going to turn here? It was a mess (and the inspiration for the name I use for my little company … Deck 78), but it is still Trek. This will famously go down as “Shatner’s Trek”, but I don’t know if anyone could have saved this mess of a movie. Just bad.
This was the hardest movie for me to place, mainly because it has some really good scenes (the reveal of the Enterprise still gives me goosebumps). However, it has earned its name as “The Slow Motion Picture” with pacing that is lethargic at best and catatonic at worst. Would have made an excellent episode, but not a good store for a film.
A decent space battle, but overall a disappointment. The cast seemed to be phoning it in even more than Insurrection, but it did have a few redeeming qualities (like Troi and Riker finally getting married, Data, etc.), but the weakest antagonist since Sybok (hello Star Trek V) didn’t help things at all. A bad sendoff for the TNG crew.
Think the death of Data was disappointing? The death of Kirk was criminal. Overall the movie wasn’t terrible, but the death of Kirk in such a … oh, I can’t even go there. It was bad. The guy deserved better!
Riker’s moment finally comes and he doesn’t disappoint (wish we had more Riker in these movies). A decent look at how depraved a bureaucracy can be, it is the second-best TNG movie (which isn’t saying much so far). I like it quite a bit and a more renegade Picard is always fun to hang around with, but overall the storyline is just a little weak.
The end of the first Enterprise is sad. The middle film in what might be considered the only Star Trek Trilogy is a fun look at just the main characters and some extremely good lines from Scotty. Stealing the Enterprise is a great bit of music and mischief and Kirk is at his best when he is playing the pirate, or sorts. The Spock reincarnation is a little hokey, but I’m willing to let it slide. Also … Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon. Yessir.
The final movie of the Star Wars Trilogy is the lightest as well. It involves whales, it has quite a bit of comedy, and you get Kirk and Spock wandering around in 20th century San Francisco. Also, Scotty tries to use a Macintosh … which is good stuff. Still a good watch even today.
Definitely a period movie, filmed as a commentary on the end of the Cold War, it is still great to watch as old enemies dine together and ultimately get together to try and forge ahead into the future as partners. They should have just left the TOS crew alone and had this be their final sendoff instead of making Generations. I’m still upset about it. Also, Sulu and Kirk both giving commands to fire on the Bird-of-Prey … priceless.
The best TNG movie by far and a good movie in its own right. A massive space battle against the Borg and one of my favorite ships makes an appearance (hello there Defiant). A good look at the seduction of power, First Contact, and the hopelessness of the idea of defeat from the enemy you know too well. Just a great movie.
I like it. I like it a lot. The Abrams Star Trek has finally given me hope that there is a future for Trek and that it is bright. It was great to see the crew get back together and have an entirely new playground to work in. The destruction of Vulcan is a huge gamble and we will have to see how it ultimately pans out.
How could it be any other. It’s Kirk vs Khan and … it is amazing. The pacing, the cinematography, the actors, the script, the music … everything is top-notch in this movie. So many little threads can be followed, so much good dialog, and the final battle just tops it all off. Couple that with the death of Spock (a scene that still makes me tear up) and you have the best Star Trek movie by a mile and it will take quite the effort by Abrams and company to top it. Live long, and prosper.
There you have it, my completely biased rankings that will ultimately change as time goes on.