So, And Thus...

New Facebook App for iPhone

According to Bearotic, the new Facebook app is 98% done.

New feature:

1. The “new” News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)Notes
4. Pages
5. Create new photo albums
6. Upload photos to any album
7. Zoom into photos
8. Easier photo tagging
9. Profile Pictures albums
10. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
11. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
12. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
13. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
14. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call  

I hope this update makes it easier to navigate. I love having the application, but the lack of responding directly to notifications made it difficult to keep up a conversation.

Safari 4 - FAST!

Apple introduced Safari 4 on Monday.

Apple - Safari - Introducing Safari 4 - See the web in a whole new way


Some new stuff to go along with the update, but most important is the speed! I told Ein Oso to download it as well. He also noticed a significant speed boost in page rendering. Nice.

So, Miranda Can Sing.

So, the "Love Shack" video was a fake. She really can sing:

I enjoyed how bad she was!

AP - APathetic

Ok. This really pisses me off. How can the AP offer their videos on YouTube (for free!) with the "embed" option turned on (their choice), then turn around and say that they will sue websites/ blogs that use their footage without permission.

AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth: AP is now threatening to sue people who embed AP's YouTube videos that, of course, have their own embed code that AP declined to turn off

AP is publishing their videos on a Web site whose sole purpose is to show those videos for free, and then AP is enabling a feature that permits - nay, a feature whose only purpose is to have you post their videos on your own Web site - and then AP is threatening to sue anyone who does what AP has affirmatively invited you to do.

Of course, AP is now threatening to sue anyone who hyperlinks to an AP story, so this kind of hyper-litigious goofiness is starting to become par for the course.

And then they are going to sue if you link to one of their stories?! Have they become the news Nazis? First it was the Obama graphic image from the election, now this?

Next they are going to sue us for reading their news stories. Geeeeeeezzzzzzz.

Monsters vs. Aliens - 3D

To be honest, I've been unfair to the animation studios out there. I've been putting animated films into two categories: Pixar and non-Pixar.

Though I have enjoyed the Shrek series (mostly just the first one), I haven't found anything else coming close to the Pixar films in terms of an overall package. Either the storyline was bad, the animation was poor or the appeal was for a younger audience.

So when I saw commercials for DreamWorks' new film "Monsters vs. Aliens", I automatically didn't add it to my mental movie list (and I don't see that many movies). Ok, I did chuckle at a few scenes, but then again, it was carb night.

After I read this article (see link below), I reconsidered the film. I'm actually interested to see what this new 3-D technique will look like.

AP News | Culpeper Star-Exponent

The film, in theaters Friday, relies on entirely new technology - much of it developed during production - to lend depth to an epic battle in outer space and drama to the collapse of the Golden Gate bridge as four modern monsters fight to save Earth from alien invasion.

"We can dial in the (3-D) to a degree that was unthinkable even 10 years ago," said the stereoscopic supervisor at DreamWorks, who legally changed his name 12 years ago to Phil Captain 3D McNally (it appears on his driver's license as Captain IIID.)

"What I'm hoping people will see in 'Monsters vs. Aliens' for the first time is stereoscopic filmmaking that feels completely integrated into the flow of the story."

Unlike most 3-D movies, which are conceived and shot in two dimensions and then rendered later, the film was made start to finish in three dimensions, with directors watching daily takes through 3-D glasses.

I doubt that Ein Oso will join me, so I'll find some other friends to accompany me. (Friends who look uglier than me when wearing these fashionless 3-D glasses)

An About Face(book)?

For those of you on Facebook, it's been pretty clear that a lot of people do not like the new layout/ design/ function. A fair share of user updates have been dedicated to the ongoing disappointment of this change. Some "I hate the new Facebook" groups have become overwhelmingly popular.

There may be hope.

Facebook changes coming in response to user complaints | Digital Media - CNET News

Facebook has been deluged with feedback on its new layout, much of it negative but constructive, according to a blog posted Tuesday by Product Director Christopher Cox. Hundreds of thousands of people gave the redesign a thumbs-down in a user poll. And groups like "MEMBERS WANT THE OLD FACEBOOK BACK!" have formed to voice their discontent.

While the social network isn't reverting back to the old page design, they are making a handful of changes to appease some of the outraged masses, according to Cox, who has also worked as director of human resources and software engineer at the company.

Some of the changes already in the works include:

* Live updating: Users will have the ability to turn on auto updating so they don't have to refresh the page to see what's new.

* Photo tags: Facebook will add photos tagged with a person's friends to her stream.

* Applications: Users will have the ability to cut down on the application-related content that's showing up in streams.

* Highlights: This section in the right-hand column will update more frequently and show more content so it'll be more like the old News Feed.

* Requests: Friend requests and event invites will be moved to the top of the right-hand column so they're more prominent.

* Friends lists: Users will be able to create a new list of friends with which to filter their streams.

From the post: "Over time, we'll continue to give you more control over what's in your main stream and how you consume it. We have the eventual goal of building filters that summarize this activity so you can see a more condensed view of what's been going on. We're also thinking about ways of filtering out some of the Wall posts and content directed to specific people to focus more on posts shared with everyone."

No specific timeframe was mentioned for most of the updates, though they did say the photo tag update would happen "in the coming weeks."

It's going to be impossible to please everyone on Facebook. I would say that they need to concentrate on giving the user control on the interface.

New iPod Shuffle

Some snippets from this article:

Apple unveils new iPod shuffle | Player Hardware | Macworld

Apple on Wednesday introduced the next generation iPod shuffle. The shuffle has always been Apple’s smallest iPod, but now it is nearly half the size of the previous model at 1.8 inches tall by 0.3 inches thin.

The new iPod shuffle bumps storage up to 4GB and features VoiceOver, which enables the iPod to speak your song titles, artists, and playlist names. The shuffle can speak 14 languages: including English, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

All of the controls for the Shuffle are located on the earphone chord, allow you to play, pause, adjust volume, switch playlists and hear the name of the song and artist. The iPod can also give you information like battery life.

“The concept for doing this came from the iPhone, specifically the iPhone headset,” said Joswiak. “After we expanded on it in the fall by adding volume control, we looked at it and realized that would work for the shuffle too.”

Joswiak explained that by removing the buttons Apple was able to make the shuffle smaller, without compromising on other features.

“It’s now the smallest music player in the world,” said Joswiak. “Despite being smaller, it actually holds more songs.”

How small are these things going to get?!?!

New iTunes 8 Ready To Go

With the release of the new iPod Shuffle, Apple noted that it required a newer version of iTunes which is not yet available.

iTunes 8.1 "Coming Soon": Speed Boosts, TV/Movie Genius Feature and More - Mac Rumors

Apple's "What's New" page for iTunes highlights a few of the changes coming in the update, including speed boosts for library loading, iTunes Store browsing, and device syncing, expansion of the Genius feature to include movies and TV shows, and a change in the default audio import settings to 256-kbps AAC.

A faster library loading time is a blessing for those of us with a ton of music. I hope this update will make its way to AppleTV as well.

New JVC ProHD + Final Cut Pro = Happy

I wanted a new camera for my Koala Holiday videos, but this one might be a little too much for me. But it would be awesome!

JVC ProHD camcorder records for Final Cut Pro | Macworld

JVC on Wednesday announced the GY-HM700, a new shoulder-supported compact camcorder aimed at video professionals. Pricing was not announced, but the feature list includes native support for Final Cut Pro.
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The GY-HM00 records directly to SDHC memory cards in QuickTime format for Final Cut Pro, and can also record on SxS media compatible with Sony’s XDCAM EX format. JVC said this was done to help speed the post-production workflow, as footage can be ingested in its native format rather than having to be transcoded or rewrapped first.

The camera sports two SDHC-compatible memory card slots, suitable for up to 64GB of on-board storage — enough to record more than six hours of continuous HD footage, according to JVC. The camera automatically switches cards when one fills up (it will revert to the first card slot when the second is full, so you can record for as long as you need, given more SDHC cards).

USB Monitor

I have a dual monitor setup at home. Makes thing a lot easier, especially when you're working with programs that have a bunch of floating toolbars/ menus.

7-inch USB-based MIMO monitors now shipping | Macworld

MIMO Monitors has announced the release of its UM-710 and UM-740 models in the United States. The 7-inch LCD displays cost $129.99 and $199.99 respectively.

Both displays connect to a host Mac or PC using USB 2.0 — using DisplayLink technology — freeing up the device’s monitor port. The 7-inch displays are suitable as secondary or tertiary displays, according to the manufacturer, designed for uses like instant messaging and e-mail, video gaming widgets, stock tickers or even to hold palettes in Photoshop.

Both systems feature 800 x 480 pixel resolution, weigh in at 1.3 lbs, and sport 350 cd/m2 brightness and a contrast ratio of 400:1. They come with detachable stands that enable you to position the displays in either landscape or portrait orientations.

The cool thing about the UM-740 is that the monitor uses touchscreen technology. Drivers for that will cost you extra.