In 1986 I went into my local Atari ST store and was furious to find a cheap Othello-type game selling for $30 – which was like 100 bucks in ’86. Why sooo serious?! Well, because in my opinion it was a total rip off. First off it showed no creativity – the graphics were just black and white circles for game pieces. And second, it should have been free out of a magazine (back then you’d just type in the code). It was a total rip off. So I set out to write my own version of the game, and mine looked more like a 3D game table. The rest of that story another time.
To my point, a similar thing has certainly happened to the makers of the iPhone app Bang!Bang! and Boom!BOOM! Shotgun Free (iTunes links). They had what they thought was an original idea. They set out to make it professional, using realistic graphics and hollywood sound effects, and they worked it through the iPhone app approval process. Only to find out that Apple was approving several ‘gun’ apps all around the same time. No proof of this of course, but I suspect that Apple might have held theirs back to time the releases closer together. I believe theirs did hit the store first, but others soon followed, including what can only be described as an extremely cheap knock off called Shotgun Pro. But plagiarism is the best form of compliment, right? And competition is what makes this country great.
But still, the idea that Shotgun Pro had made it to #2 on the Entertainment charts got under their skin a bit. And to be honest it also makes me scratch my head as it is a somewhat un-inspired soundboard app. So to combat it they too set out on a mission, to ‘pop a cap in the arse’ of the competition. Take the jump to read on and see the video…
What is happening to DVD Tuesdays? Twilight was released on Saturday and Bolt was released Sunday on Blu-ray (regular DVD releases Tuesday). I stopped at Best Buy to get a copy and found an array of blue tag specials on Blu-ray titles. Needless to say I ended up spending a little more than I planned on. If you want to add some low priced titles to your collection, head over to Best Buy sometime this week, before the deals are gone…
Ok… Unfortunately I’m old enough to have lived through old Coke vs New Coke vs Classic Coke – which by the way isn’t the same as the old Coke. This might be just a matter of taste too, but I belive the original iPod Shuffle is still the best iPod Shuffle. By now it’s quite obvious that Apple’s business model is to come out with new iPods every few months so that there’s always a new iPod that you’ll want to buy. For most of their other iPod models the new ones generall are better than the old ones. But I still have my original iPod shuffle and it still works great. And while it doesn’t talk to me, it has some features that make it the best..
I’ve been looking forward to Jimmy Fallon taking over the Late Night spot. Last night around 1am I realized that I forgot to TiVo Monday night’s episode which had an interview with Joshua Topolsky from Engagetand a performance by my old friends The Lonely Island Boys. Luckily there’s this new fangled thing called hulu. Tonight, I’m in the middle of watching the eiposde now and so far it’s the funniest one yet.
I’m glad to see Jimmy embracing the tech side so much that he’d interview Joshua. The Apple fanboy in me is also comforted by the mac on his desk.
You can watch the entire episode below (for as long as the link works) or at hulu.com. Full screen it’s almost as good as cable…
UPDATE: After watching I realized that the TiVo description was wrong. Turns out the Lonely Island Boys were not on that episode. For shame. Here’s another clip of them with Jimmy from Feb 11th.
This week I sold my old G5 along with a 23″ Cinema Wide Display, a BlackMagic card, Sonnet Tempo eSata card, and a Sonnet Fusion 500P populated with 5 x 500GB hard drives. It was a complete edit system including lots of fast storage, but as part of my “out with the old – in with the new” theme, it all had to go.
Hindsight certainly is 20/20 and I like to review technology after the fact to reflect on how well it worked. Overall my G5 was a great machine and it was difficult to let it go. But a couple of the components were very hard to let go: the monitor, and the storage… Read the rest of this entry »
For a while I’ve been promising to do a review of a product called Paint On Screen. The idea behind it is that rather than buying an expensive projection screen you get the same results by painting a wall with their special paint. Actually, in some ways you get a better result. I’ve already explained in detail why I don’t believe in “real” home theater screens for front projector systems – and I stand by it. There are many practical reasons why a wall is better than a screen. Mainly because it is larger and more flexible. It is not limited to a set aspect ratio, it costs much less, and in my install it helps deliver a real movie theater experience. My screen is massive.
What I set out to do was to test their $200 product against a $30 Dunn Edwards house paint to see if theirs really is any better. The Paint On Screen products start with a silver base, which make them reflect better. Certainly it’s a more professional way to go. But how well does it work?
Well, the review process got complicated and the result isn’t simple either. Overall I am recommending this product, but it comes with several caveats and some advice. All of which requires some explanation and visual aids to understand. This review has been a grueling month in the making. So grab a red bull and hit the read link for all the gory details…
In 1986 I went into my local Atari ST store and was furious to find a cheap Othello-type game selling for $30 – which was like 100 bucks in ’86. Why sooo serious?! Well, because in my opinion it was a total rip off. First off it showed no creativity – the graphics were just black and white circles for game pieces. And second, it should have been free out of a magazine (back then you’d just type in the code). It was a total rip off. So I set out to write my own version of the game, and mine looked more like a 3D game table. The rest of that story another time.
What is happening to DVD Tuesdays? Twilight was released on Saturday and Bolt was released Sunday on Blu-ray (regular DVD releases Tuesday). I stopped at Best Buy to get a copy and found an array of blue tag specials on Blu-ray titles. Needless to say I ended up spending a little more than I planned on. If you want to add some low priced titles to your collection, head over to Best Buy sometime this week, before the deals are gone…
Ok… Unfortunately I’m old enough to have lived through old Coke vs New Coke vs Classic Coke – which by the way isn’t the same as the old Coke. This might be just a matter of taste too, but I belive the 
Entries (RSS)