NBC pushes Apple for more money and threatens not to renew. Apple cuts them loose early and spins it their way. Consumers will find it hard to side with NBC on this one.
Quick read in the Guardian. He proclaims that the current comments that increasing online video will bring down the internet are nothing more than scare tactics. I agree. I remember when IPV4 wasn't going to have enough space to support the surge in users, yet no one is using IPV6. The problem was solved with creative partitioning. Skeptics have been saying that the earth's food supply cannot keep up with the populations growth much longer than I've been alive. Yet farming technology has managed to increase the crop yield per acre at a rate that has outpaced population growth. I think people have a tendency to underestimate man's ability for creative problem solving when the need is urgent.
Somehow I fell asleep at the wheel. It looks like this game got released without me noticing. Actually after 5 years or so I had pretty much just written this game off as another Duke Nukem. But then as I was wondering around circuit city there it was on the shelf. Sad, after all these years of waiting I think I lost interest. I'm having too much fun with Bioshock.
It looks like Sony' is transforming the PS3 into a DVR / Media hub with the addition of a TV tuner peripheral. I wouldn't mind something like that for my 360.
The wait is almost over. Bioshock will be released on Aug 21. The reviews are coming in and it seems everyone loves this game. The demo is available on Xbox Live now. You should check it out. It is amazing.
John claims that he'll do more blog posts if I hook up blog publishing from Google Docs. So here it is. This post is published from a Google text editing document. It definitely makes text entry easier, but some of the features like the post title(!), categories and extended entries don't work, requiring us to still do minor editing back in MovableType. Still, the ability to re-edit posts with the rich text features and inline images may well make posting easier. Let's see how this goes. This counts as my post - John and Paul, you guys owe us a brilliant, witty post from Google Docs. Now back to my Pokemans.
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
Ok it's my turn to put on the Crackly tin foil hat and make some random Apple predictions for the upcoming 12 months.
In today's Apple town hall they responded to a question about multi-touch macs with "...we're not sure it makes sense in the Mac. We'll categorize it as a research project for now". Yeah right. One thing I've learned from Steve is that when he says 'no' what he really means is no, not right now. Remember that whole thing about Intel processors or maybe that they wouldn't do a pocketpc (umm, the iPhone is basically a pocket pc phone edition, a very slick and cool version of, but still a pocket pc - get over it). So here we go ...
Apple today announced new iMacs, new specs for the Mini, iWork 2008 and updated features for .mac.
This post is all about our comments. Mine are that the new iMacs look nice (although they need to lose that bottom bezel) - they're looking more and more like the iPhone! The new mac mini configurations look like a great value. This is the first time that I've seen the lowest end $599 model actually have a usable amount of RAM and dual core processor. I don't use iWork and I feel that .mac should be free with the latest OS updates (either that or the latest version of the OS is provided free to current subscribers).
We don't normally post about sports here (as I don't think any of us follows them), but this is an interesting technical article: EXCLUSIVE: Barry Bonds' Home Run Record Tainted by Mechanical Device.
I've never seen Bonds at bat, but I was immediately suspicious after reading the article, and grabbed some pictures of him. Wow - that contraption on his arm sure seems like an unfair advantage. It's like one of those training apparatuses used to straighten your golf swing. How does MLB allow him to wear that? More pictures after the jump.
Continue reading "Mechanical Bonds"...
Seriously, NBC wants the per episode price to go to $4.99 from $1.99. Right.
NBC also figures that not offering their shows on iTunes (like Battlestar Galactica and The Office, both of which I bought through iTunes) will help decrease piracy. What kind of crack are they smoking?
Yeah, it's all just a negotiating ploy before their contract is up. To add insult to injury, Lost and BSG are both only doing half seasons, starting in January! Ahh, that's how the math works - they need to double the price because they're only doing half the episodes. LOL. Greedy bastards - who needs 'em?
Seems there is more going on behind the scenes. ARS is reporting that part of the tiff is that Apple is pushing hard to lower the price of TV shows to .99! The thinking is that it will help drive iPod sales and that the studios would make it up in volume. Wow. I would buy shows at $1 a piece and I'm a cheap bas**** when it comes to DRM'd media. I think a buck is the perfect price point. Go Steve! I also think that $1 is too much to pay per track of music though.
Interesting write up by Ars. I find it amusing that NBC thinks Apple owes them part of the sales of the iPOD. The price of the iPOD would skyrocket if anyone who produced content that could play on it was given a piece of the pie. I doubt that NBC will be very successful with their venture but you never know. I wish they would focus on producing decent shows instead of trying to figure out how to wring more money out of the crappy shows.
Yeah I read that. I think NBC is crazy (well Jeff Zucker at least). How he could think that the iPod's success was due to 'riding on the back of their content' is beyond me. The iPod was successful by riding on the back of the free mp3 file. I doubt a single iPod was sold because of a need to watch a specific NBC show on the go. Why don't they go and try to get a cut of every TV sold? Certainly those devices are riding on their back as well.