i'm on a plane back from seattle and the movie on the plane is the latest rocky balboa. now unfortunately my wife and i have already seen this movie and i'm now reminded of the horrible nature of it. i'm watching the scene in the beginning where rocky goes to his old bar and meets up again with "little marie" again.
since when did rocky become an *incredible* idiot? when little marie tells him she's sorry for the loss of his wife, his reply: "yeah, woman cancer" -- wtf kind of a dialogue is that -- seriously, does anyone (even people with their heads rocked) talk like that? other terrible lines? "jamaica huh, eurpoean." ugh, i don't even want to waste any more of your time.
don't see this movie.
first of all, what's up with dropping the "i" brand -- no iTV...was there a company that already had that too?
i recently was contemplating something a friend did lately and it made me really look at the apple tv...he's not a dumb guy, so i had to look. i'm unimpressed. not just because i'm a microsoft guy (recall: i have a mac at home as my family's primary computer, my wife and i use ipods, and i want a macbook), but from a practical sense...allow me to just dump my thoughts:
- it's an extension to itunes only. it isn't a standalone unit
- i remember watching the launch -- when steve jobs was trying to get people excited about it...my gut was "huh, no excitement...i've seen this stuff before .. it's called media center."
- the setup scenario -- per ben's comment below this may not be accurate -- i've seen reports and other friends tell me they had to do this step to get the pairing with a machine correct on a secure wireless network, but maybe it's isolated
must be plugged in to a hard-wired connection before it can be configured. oh, and they don't include an ethernet cable -- sounds trivial, but an oversight in my opinion if the first step requires one
- parental controls? -- seem to be lacking
- purchase from apple tv -- nope
- browse library? -- nope, only "top"
- basically it's an extender only -- but i don't think it really is being presented as such
i don't know, clearly i'm not the market for it -- but do people really buy content from itunes they want on their 60-inch tv? they don't even sell quality video on itunes. maybe i'm cynical, but it's kinda of redemption that apple has a crappy v1 product supported by crappy marketing for it. for me, there is no story here.
the *only* think i like what they did -- and in typical apple form they succeed -- is the physical nature of it. media center is in "pc" form except those like vidabox.com. apple tv -- great form factor. i can't help but really think it is just a smashed mini with front row on it.
or at least by a letter online...got an email from Timo Heuer (www.timoheuer.com) -- i wonder if he's my doppleganger as well?
anyhow, Hallo Timo! Willkommen zu meinem blog. Viel Dank!
open source in the design world...i love it. i'm sitting at the microsoft technology summit and joe stagner just mentioned open source web designs...holy crap how did i not know about this.
update: here's another: opendesigns.org -- this one looks more moderated
hey joe (using my best borat impression): high five!