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And I hate it that the front door to the house isn't private property.  Daily, people leave fliers and business cards and unsolicited junk on the door!

This week's big news story:  the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that the government can, without a warrant, sneak onto your property, your driveway, and place a GPS tracking device on your car that tracks everywhere you go.  We no longer have a reasonable expectation of privacy for our driveways, which even delivery people can use.

Shockingly, this ruling is actually getting some media coverage.

Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. "1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last," he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell's totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: "Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania."

Source:  Time

Some have pointed out that if you are wealthy, you probably live in a gated community or have gates around your property that would extend your zone of reasonable expectation of privacy.  So only the poor people have less privacy.  But that's OK, isn't it?  I mean, wealthy people don't commit crimes.  Wealthy people don't bilk billions, even trillions out of the unsuspecting.  Enron never happened.  No Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme.  No Wall Street bail out while the captains of capitalism lived off the slaughtered fatted cow.

Besides, privacy died long ago in this country — during the George W. Bush administration, I do believe.  His cronies called it The Patriot Act.  Just the name says "Run!  Don't walk!"  During his administration and the Republican rein of terror, not only were hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras installed all over this nation, but warrantless wiretaps, "enhanced interrogations," and god knows what else were made the order of the day.

And who are we kidding?  I'd bet my last dollar that the US government routinely snags the GPS satellite data from specific cars at will.  There really is no need to place anything on the cars of serious criminals.  That's so last century.  Only puny local police departments have to actually walk onto someone's driveway to plant a GPS under their car.  The big time crooks already have GPS as part of the most fashionable bling package.

The totalitarian state is here.  Is now.  We live it.  The Constitution and Bill of Rights are just window dressing from a time gone by.

Related articles

• Court allows agents to secretly put GPS trackers on cars (cnn.com)
• Warrentless GPS Tracking Of Your Car Is Legal If You're Not Wealthy Enough To Protect It (dvorak.org)
• The Government Can Use GPS to Track Your Moves (time.com)
• The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS (time.com)
• Judge Kozinski Doesn't Track with the Ninth Circuit on GPS and the Fourth AmendmentCalls his fellow judges 'cultural elitists' when it comes to privacy. (abovethelaw.com)

The fact that this can be done, in total, from storyboard (if they had chosen to) all the way to upload to YouTube, on a $299 device, the iPhone 4, that also happens to make phone calls, is astounding. When Apple makes this all possible on an iPhone Touch and the iPad, they will rock the education market! Be sure to watch it in full screen.

I haven't posted much to my blog lately because I have been intensely busy, mostly with traveling, writing, and physical therapy.  And I have made some minuscule effort to avoid the computer as typing at the keyboard seems to train wreck my bad shoulder!

Recently, well, over the past several days, I used my Navigon application on the new iPhone as I traveled.  This application is awesome on its own.  On the iPhone 4, the app looks beyond gorgeous and functions with a level of smooth precision I had not noticed before.  I love it!

I use the app with the TomTom car kit.  I didn't give a second thought to using the car kit with my new phone, just assuming it would work fine.  Wrong!  The iPhone 4 is not as thick as the iPhone 3Gs, and this fact caused some connection issues.  Apparently the car kit needs the extra thickness to snap the phone firmly into the connector.  I even noticed a "rocking lever" that seems to need pressure to deliver electricity to the iPhone 4, which is not thick enough to press the lever.

The iPhone 4 appears to snap into the car kit fine.  But it does not get an electrical charge from the connector.  After some wiggling/pressing, each time I used it, I managed to get the phone to seat itself enough to get the charge.  Having electricity is essential as running a GPS app on the phone would otherwise very quickly deplete the battery.

I also noticed some wonderful updates to the Navigon application since last I used it.  I downloaded the panoramic 3D map information which adds more realistic display information.  And, for those who are not familiar with the Navigon app, I totally love how it implements highway signage information as you approach the signage.  It looks so realistic, just as the signs actually look when you arrive at them.  This feature takes so much guesswork out of navigating complex junctions.

The applications functions fantastically well in the background with the new multitasking iOS4.  And I also completely love the intuitive interface and GUI design.

On my recent trip to the Atlanta metropolitan area, I confess to finding the speed limit warning a bit annoying.  You can set the interval to 5, 10, 15, etc. miles per hour over the speed limit.  The application knows the speed limits and will say "Warning" while displaying an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle at the bottom corner of the speed limit sign indicating the actual speed limit.  In the top center I have the app showing my current, realtime speed.  This is invaluable information when traveling in unfamiliar areas.  But I knew the speed limits in the Atlanta area, had the interval set to 5mph, and the traffic was, as the traffic tends to do in Atlanta, speeding maniacally down the intestates.  So I heard "Warning!" every minute or so as I drove.  With my shoulder, I couldn't reach to adjust the interval while driving.

I'll have to update my TomTom car kit when they make one designed for the new iPhone 4.  But, I highly recommend the Navigon GPS application!

Related articles:

• On the road with the latest Navigon MobileNavigator (tuaw.com)
• Best iPhone Navigation Apps (brighthub.com)

I really don't like Apple's use of the word "magic" in their advertising campaigns.  To me, personally, it's a stupid choice of adjective:  the "Magic Mouse," the "Magic Trackpad," and how "Magical" the iPad is.  I wish they would ditch the "M" word.  It just sounds childish to me.

That said, the new trackpad keyboard accessory is awesome!  Aesthetically, it beautifully accompanies the Apple keyboard.

I do not like a mouse, of any kind.  The "Magic Mouse" was the best mouse I've used, but it constantly had connectivity issues!  I have always preferred to use a trackball.  I don't enjoy moving my hand all over a desktop surface.  In this regard, the "Magic Trackpad' is a dream.

Here are the things I like about it:

• I've yet to come across anything a mouse does that this trackpad will not do.  In fact it does more things than any mouse I've ever used will do.
• I love they way it feels to the touch.
• While it is larger than the trackpad on my MacBook Pro, it still has a small footprint.
• I can easily move my cursor anywhere on my large 27" monitors (2560 x 1600) , from corner to corner.
• I can rotate, pinch and zoom, zoom the screen, page back and forth, bring up the application switcher, scroll, and activate Exposé using the trackpad.  I can also point, click, double click, right click, as well as click and drag so easily with intuitive touches and finger slides.

I find the new trackpad vastly superior to the "Magic Mouse" and even my Kennsington trackball.  In fact, I like it more than any mouse-type device I've ever used.  This baby rocks!

Related articles:

• Magic Trackpad review (engadget.com)
• Apple Magic Trackpad first impressions (boygeniusreport.com)
• Apple Unveils Its Magic Trackpad (shoppingblog.com)
• Apple Magic Trackpad unboxing (unboxing.gearlive.com)
• Apple's Magic Trackpad Signals The End Of The Mouse Era (MG Siegler/TechCrunch) (techmeme.com)

Everyone was excited about getting the new Apple iPhone 4.  But seriously, did these people test this device much at all?

First, the issue with the antenna signal decreasing surfaced right away.  My first call on the iPhone 4 fell victim to this problem when it went from a full strength signal to dropping the call with no signal at all.  Steve Jobs tells the world to stop hold the phone incorrectly —basically, don't hold it in your hand, and spend an extra $30 for Apple's new bumpers.

But I am finding other quirky issues with my new phone.

During calls, my phone appears to become confused as to whether I'm holding it to my ear and talking on the phone or whether I'm just holding it in my hand.  (Oops!  I forgot.  I'm not supposed to hold it in my hand.)  When I'm talking on a call with the phone to my ear, the handset appears on the screen, and my cheek presses the keys making the audible key tones we're all familiar with when dialing.  Then the screen blanks out when I remove the phone from my ear and the screen remains invisible and completely non-responsive no matter what I do from that point on.  I have to do several repeated hard reboots (Home button and Power simultaneously) to kill the phone and get it to work again.

During my first call about this issue to Apple technical support, the lady told me to do a complete backup and restore of the phone to correct the problem. Regrettably I got a phone call in the middle of the resyncing process and the resync didn't complete.  I called Apple back to make sure I wasn't going to lose all of my folders, etc.  This technical support lady asked me two questions about my issue:

1. "Are you using a screen protector?"  No, I'm not.
2. "Is your iPhone in a case?"  Yes, it's in a leather case I used for the iPhone 3Gs.

Oops!  Well, there we have it.  Not only must you hold the iPhone 4 "correctly" when placing a call so the signal strength doesn't drop to zero, you can not place your phone in a case or use a scratch resistant film to protect the front of the phone.  Doing the later apparently upsets the proximity sensor.  Oh, and if you want to hold the phone in your hand when placing a call and avoid having to hold it parallel to the orbit of Pluto the former planet, you have to spend an additional $30 for Apple's new bumper.

I've read in the blogosphere that despite Steve Jobs' claims that the new glass surface on the front and back of the phone is stronger than Iron Man's suit, it scratches rather easily.  I've always worn my previous iPhones (I've had them all.) on my belt in a leather case both to protect them and provide easy and continuous access.  I guess I could tie a string around my belt and around the bumper of my iPhone 4 and hope that doesn't disturb the proximity sensor.

I planned to purchase an iPhone 4 for my mother whose purse abuses every object it contains.  Without the phone being in some full-bodied protective case, it will be destroyed in her purse.  I'm sure she's not the only one that runs a roller derby inside her purse.

Another problem I have experienced was corrected by restoring the phone:  people can once again hear me when I use my Bluetooth Jawbone headset.  I could always hear them just fine.

Years ago Steve Jobs was credited with saying that customers don't know what they want until Apple shows it to them.  For the most part, that may have been true at the dawn of the digital era.  But today's tech-savvy customers do have a rather clearly defined sense of what they want and expect from their high tech devices:  continuous advancement without any regression from formerly attained benchmarks in design, function, and reliability.

I've always been a die-hard Apple fan boy, but Apple needs to start doing a better job of "getting it right" before they have to tell their customers they are "using it wrong."

[Update:  Others appear to have this issue too:  Macworld Article ]

Related articles:

• Updates on iPhone 4 Antenna Problem Articles [Apple] (gizmodo.com)
• Updates On iPhone 4 Antenna Problem Posts (gizmodo.com.au)
• Apple iPhone 4 Hit With Class Action Suit (abcnews.go.com)
• Apple Sued Over iPhone 4 Antenna & Reception Problems (macstories.net)

Apple isn't a victim of their own success.  They are badly managed at the distribution and retail levels — abusing their customers to feed their hype-driven marketing machinery.

It starts with my trying to reserve a phone on the date Apple themselves said everyone could place an order.  Their system, probably AT&T's databases, were overloaded and my first attempt to place an order didn't work.  I received a browser message to try my order again later.  I immediately did.

This time I tried to have the phone delivered to my home address.  The order went through!  I got my phone yesterday.

I then got an email saying my first order had also worked and I should pick up my phone at a specific Apple store.  What?  How weird!  But, OK.  Cool.  I could give that phone to the HU, who planned to get one anyway but hadn't placed an order.

My subsequent attempts to order a phone for my mother all failed repeatedly and said I had to go to the Apple store.  The nearest Apple store to her is about a 6 hour drive.  At her age, she won't be doing that.

Yesterday I and the HU went to the Apple store to be sure I could give my phone to the HU.  We were told that as long as we were both there I could.  Cool.

Today I drove by to check out the line.  Apple advertised that they will have two lines:  one for those customers who pre-ordered their phones and one for those who were just hoping to get one.  One line extends from the Mall entrance all the way off of the mall property and all the way down to the golf course at the Marriott.  Literally thousands of people are standing in this line that is probably a mile or more long!

I asked one of the store employees who was near the mall entrance how long the line was for people who had pre-ordered the phone.  He said, in not too pleasant a tone, that he had no idea.  It was all one line.  The store didn't divide the line up until people got to the door of the store.  What???!!!!  So the people that pre-ordered are having to wait even longer because of the people who didn't pre-order?!  That makes zero sense!

He went on to say that if I wasn't standing in the line (currently in the blazing sun) when the store closed, I would lose my reservation.  (A female employee had just told another customer the exact opposite.  Who go the correct information?!) He said that hundreds of people had spent the night in line.

This is insane.  This is inept management.  This is inexcusable.  Sure, it was fun the first time, but Apple has had 4 tries now to get this process right.

I told him Apple had lost their mind and that they could keep their precious little phone.  I wonder who will get the phone I ordered not realizing that the order had even worked?!

This is pure horse pooh!

Just wait until they all get their shiny new devices only to realize that the marvel of engineering, the new antenna system that is the outer edge of the phone, doesn't work so well when you hold the phone with your hand.  But then, who actually holds the phone in theirs hands when they place a call??????

Related articles:

• iPhone 4 has folks lining up in droves at Apple Stores worldwide (edibleapple.com)
• Apple iPhone 4 Release: Lines Grow As Frenzy Kicks Off (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Hundreds line up to buy new iPhone (washingtontimes.com)
• IPhone 4 sells briskly on first day of sales (cbc.ca)
• IPhone 4 Launch: The Scene From Austin (blogs.wsj.com)
• New iPhone selling briskly as hundreds line up (mysanantonio.com)
• iPhone Lines 2-3 Times Bigger This Year, Stores Are Selling Out (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)

of an iPhone 4!

It arrived at 9:30am at the front door via the stork (FedEx guy).

I unboxed it ceremoniously. It is beautiful, and smart — just like it's father (me, course)!

I turned it on. It asked to be connected to the mother ship. I plugged it into my Macbook Pro. iTunes then displayed my phone number and requested my billing zip code and the last 4 numbers of my social security number. It then said my activation session session had expired. Retry.

After three failed retries, I called Apple support. They told me to reboot my computer. I did. It activated after requiring 3 DNA samples —well, not really, but you are forced to agree to god knows what*. The moment it activated, my call to Apple support on my old iPhone was disconnected.

I then unplugged the new phone from iTunes and replugged it in as directed. iTunes is now installing all of my old iPhone's content onto the new phone.

I must say, and this is really actually very important to me, this is the best product delivery and activation process Apple and AT&T have ever had. I all but went on a safari camping out when I purchased my first iPhone from the Apple store at Lennox Mall. Activating it took hours (almost a whole day)! And each subsequent purchase was fraught with stupendously long lines but better activation times. This one they almost got completely right!

Amazing how long it takes to transfer about 24gb of data to the new phone via USB 2. It's now finished transferring all of my applications and is now working on sending over the video and audio content.

*Apparently iOS 4 users are now sending Apple retina scans, urine samples, blood and stool samples, along with our current location at every breath we take. The mother ship will use this information benevolently, of course. They will ply us with iAds tailored specifically to our personal DNA profile so as to extract as much money from our bank accounts as possible. The power of the tethered device is not to be underestimated!

Oooooooh!  Loooook!!  It's teething already!!

Related articles:

• Preparing for iPhone 4 Launch Day (cbsnews.com)
• Christmas Coming One Day Early? iPhone 4 on 6/23 For Some? (geardiary.com)

I have frequently posted vituperant remarks about AT&T. The company generally is loathsome. Their 3G network service here in Manhattan Beach is horrid. I can barely get a signal at the house. I frequently drop calls. Incoming calls frequently just go straight to voicemail without my phone ever ringing. LAX rarely even gets 3G service, just the horribly slower Edge network.

But I now have something good to say about AT&T, sort of...

I read a tweet about a microcell for AT&T. I googled it to find out what it was. Apparently, if you have bad 3G reception, you can purchase this microcell that, if I understand it correctly, basically offloads your cell phone calls and data to the Internet.

So now I get a full AT&T cell signal in the house, most of which didn't get a signal at all. And now my cell phone calls and my cell phone data access is offloaded to Verizon's FIOS network. Up to 10 people can place calls simultaneously through my MicroCell "tower" here in the house.

It seems to work well, but I haven't had any incoming calls yet. At least AT&T had a good idea of allowing customers in areas with poor service to set up their own mini cell tower in their homes or businesses.

I'm sure you noticed that my Fitbit tweets stopped for a while.  I'm confident of your concern about my exercise level.  Therefore, I update you:

My original Fitbit died.  It would just turn itself off at random times.  Fitbit was good enough to replace it with no questions asked!  So now, I have a new one.  The regular (daily) updates should have started in earnest today.

As busy as today has been, I still only walked 5,423 steps so far.  Sad how indolent I am.

Related articles:

• Liking My New Fitbit (timtyson.us)

Well, despite the fact that I've had a horrible sinus infection/laryngitis this week, I have been wearing my Fitbit ever since I first got it. The results, even with being sick, are interesting.  I've noticed how unbelievably my stats dive when I spend a day working at the computer.  This must change!  And being sick has an interesting impact on stats too:  not exactly what I would have expected.

My best stats have been:

• 11,671 steps on May 18th (before I got sick)
• 2,693 calories burned on May 22 (when I didn't sleep at all that night because I was sick and couldn't breath)
• 5.58 miles walked on May 18 (again, before I got sick)
• 11 minutes of strong activity on May 17th (on the elliptical--but for 45 minutes!!! hello?!)

Because of getting sick, my 7 day averages compared to everyone using a Fitbit aren't that good yet.

• I average in the 30 percentile for steps per week yet...
• at the 61 percentile for activity.
• Distance and very active minutes are still crazy low.

My sleep patterns, as I already knew, are weird:

• I woke up an average of 8 times per night before I got sick.
• My three worst nights, when I couldn't stop coughing and couldn't breath: I woke up 31, 67, and 39 times! (Between that and the pain in my arthritic shoulder, I'm just amazed I didn't die.)

So, to check out my official fitbit page, visit Tim's Fitbit! And, for those who follow me on Twitter, I will start tweeting my stats as of today.

Related articles:

• Liking My New Fitbit (timtyson.us)
• The Fitbit Portends a Scary New World [Shut Up Fitbit] (gawker.com)
• My Sleep Graph (russellbeattie.com)
• Philips Changes Policy on Fitness Monitor (pogue.blogs.nytimes.com)

I received several email responses to my blog post about The Infernal, Never-ending Beep! Most everyone suggested it was the smoke detector battery. I have had to replace several smoke detector batteries in the house, all upstairs, even though they are also wired into the house electrical system. But I actually hadn't even thought of this as being a possible cause of the beep!

I went into the kitchen and searched for the smoke detector. The house has them everywhere except in the kitchen/den area. Great! Where is the most likely place to start a fire? Maybe the gas stove which actually creates fire??

Then this sickening thought occurred to me: What if the smoke detector is up there (on the 11 foot ceiling) but was covered up by the builder when they put up the fake beams. Much to my distress, this scenario made sense because the beep sound is muted! (See picture of the ceiling.  Click to enlarge.)

In a state of horror, I stood on top of a chair near the ceiling, with the top cabinets open (in case the smoke detector was enclosed above them). It took 12 minutes for the next beep.

No. The beeping sound, where ever it was, was definitely below me —over by the iMac on the desk in the corner of the kitchen. Why does it always sound like its over by the iMac??!!

Steve suggested that the sound might be coming from the electrical panel on the back of the house, which, interestingly, is on the outside wall behind the iMac. But electrical panels don't beep.

This morning, my mother sent an email with the subject: "beeping." She says: "try smoke alarm battery or alarm system". But how could it be the alarm system, which has never been activated? None-the-less, after breakfast, I decided to explore Steve's and mom's ideas. I went to the electrical box on the back of the house.

Interesting...

Next to the electric meter is a rather large box built into the wall itself. It was labeled, "Communications." Maybe it was the phone/cable system?

Electric screwdriver in hand, I unscrewed the case. Inside the box are two large plastic systems all sealed closed with numerous flickering lights monitoring the status for the house's fiber optic cable/internet/phone systems and the alarm system. All of the lights were flickering green except for one: the light next to "Replace Battery" on the alarm system!

My über geek mother was right!

I was afraid to try to force the plastic system cover open as it appears rather committed to remaining closed. I was afraid to press any of the buttons for fear the whole of the Manhattan Beach SWAT team might descend on the house if I set off the alarm system and woke the whole neighborhood, not knowing how to turn it off.

So, for a short time anyway, the beep persists. However, once the alarm company comes out to replace the battery, I will no longer suffer the beeping of his hideous heart.

Related articles:

• The Infernal, Never-ending Beep! (timtyson.us)
• The Mystery Beep (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Smoke Alarm Maintenance How To's (eon.businesswire.com)

I really like my Canon 5DmkII DLSR.  I've grown a lot more comfortable with it and am continuously amazed at what it produces.  Nothing astounds me more than the HD video it shoots.

I'm not a person who watches TV.  I've never watched the TV series House.  But this year's season finale of House is notable because it is the first TV episode to be shot entirely using the Canon 5DmkII.  Take a peek at the teaser.  The image quality is stunning.

Related articles:

• House Season Finale Shot Entirely on a Canon 5D Mark II [Photography] (gizmodo.com)
• Watch House? Like gadgets? Tonight's episode was the one shot on a 5D mk II (crunchgear.com)
• Season finale of 'House' filmed with Canon DSLR (macworld.com)
• Canon 5D Mark II used to shoot entire House season finale, director says it's 'the future' (engadget.com)

The Fitbit accurately tracks your calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled and sleep quality. The Fitbit contains a 3D motion sensor like the one found in the Nintendo Wii. The Fitbit tracks your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities.

You can wear the Fitbit on your waist, in your pocket or on undergarments. At night, you can wear the Fitbit clipped to the included wristband in order to track your sleep. Anytime you walk by the included wireless base station, data from your Fitbit is silently uploaded in the background to Fitbit.com

I ordered mine a long time back, several months, and it just arrived. I think it was on backorder when I ordered it. While that was annoying, it was certainly worth the wait. Today I worked at the computer a lot but still managed to:

• walk 9,292 steps
• travel 4.45 miles by foot
• burn 2,278 calories
• sleep 94% of the night (a miracle for me!)

One of the things I really like about the fitbit is that when I used my Octane elliptical today, it accurately tracked that data! (The Nike Plus doesn't.) When I walk near the charging station connected to my computer's USB port, the data automatically syncs to the web site. The site has lots of clean, easy to read and understand data charts. The fitbit even knows when I wake up at night and tracks the quality of my sleep. So cool! It will even automatically send updates using your Twitter account. [I haven't gone there, yet...]

Related articles:

• The Fitbit Portends a Scary New World [Shut Up Fitbit] (gawker.com)
• Consumers Like Medical Toys Too (medgadget.com)

Even I have been growing increasingly wary of Apple becoming another loathsome, all-about-money, screw-the-customer corporation as it has experienced explosive growth and success in the past 10 years.  I've posted about some of these concerns before.  People seem to be increasingly sharing that concern.

It's appropriate that the Apple logo on the iPad is black. The Cupertino, California, company's image is taking on some awfully sinister tones lately.

 

For a company that made its name fighting for the little guy, it's a surprising reversal. In the past, Apple touted itself as the computer company for nonconformists who "Think Different." Now the company is making moves that make it look like the Big Brother it once mocked.

First Apple tightened its iron grip on the already-stringent iPhone developer policy, requiring apps to be made with Apple-approved languages, which disturbed some coders and even children.

A short while later, Apple rejected some high-profile apps based on their editorial content, raising journalists' questions about press freedoms in the App Store.

Then, police kicked down a Gizmodo editor's door to investigate a lost iPhone prototype that Apple had reported as stolen. Even Ellen DeGeneres and Jon Stewart have mocked Apple's heavy-handed moves.

Plenty of us love our shiny iPads, iPods, iPhones and MacBooks — state-of-the-art gadgets with undeniable allure. But it's tough to imagine customers will stay loyal to a company whose image and actions are increasingly nefarious. We want to like the corporation we give money to, don't we?

Here are five things Apple should do to redeem its fast-fading public image."

[Source: 5 Things Apple Must Do to Look Less Evil - ABC News.]

Here's the video of Ellen DeGeneres after getting a call from Apple.

Related articles

• Apple demands public apology for iPhone parody (go.theregister.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres gets a call from Apple (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres apologizes to Apple for iPhone spoof (edibleapple.com)
• Apple Isn't Laughing at Ellen's iPhone Commercial Parody [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres Says "Sorry" To Apple (geardiary.com)

Americans need to stand up and say, "Hell No!  We will not live out SciFi!"

Hollywood claims that, in the future, they will allow you to see movies that are currently in the theater at home on your TV set while the movie is in the theater.

Horse Manure!  Here's what Tim predicts: DVD's as we know them today will go away.  The price of movies will go up.

To see any movie, you will be forced to stream it over the Internet to your TV.  To keep you from ripping a copy of the movie by sending the audio and video feed out of your TV and into a DVR or other recording device, Hollywood will reach into your home, into your TV set, and shut off these outputs.

[Apple has already quietly pulled off shutting off your external computer monitor jack when playing HD content.  Did you know this Apple users???  Go ahead and try it on one of the newer Mac laptops.  Try plugging in a projector to your laptop (with the new MiniDisplay port) and playing an HD movie you purchased from the iTunes Store.  It doesn't work now, does it.  It will only play through the AppleTV or on a specific Apple monitor.  Isn't this just the most clever thing.  Guess what Apple is up to!]

What else will they want to do in 10 years?

Hollywood will soon have the power to remotely disable the analog outputs on your set-top box, under a decision by federal regulators on Friday intended to prevent home recording of new movie releases.

The move by the Federal Communications Commission grants cable and satellite providers the power to block consumers from viewing just-released movies in an analog format through a process known as Selectable Output Control. Hollywood requested SOC powers as a condition of allowing providers for the first time to release movies to their in-home customers while the film is in theaters.

The Motion Picture Association of America said its member studios would not authorize the early movie releases unless it won the ability to deploy Selectable Output Control. The reason: Analog video signals can easily be recorded, while dig"

[Source: FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output Jacks | Threat Level | Wired.com.]

Boys and girls:  This is not a good thing.

Related articles

• Here Is How The FCC Gave The Keys To The Kingdom To Hollywood (lockergnome.com)
• FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output Jacks (wired.com)
• FCC gives Hollywood control over your home theater (arstechnica.com)
• Silicon Alley Insider: OUTRAGE OF THE DAY: FCC Says Hollywood Can Turn Off Parts Of Your Home Theater While You're Watching Movies (businessinsider.com)
• FCC Gives Hollywood The Right To Break Your TV/DVR... Just 'Cause (techdirt.com)

As with any first generation product, the iPad is not without its issues. One issue that I find immensely frustrating: the lack of keyboard shortcuts. I use them. I use them a lot! (Admittedly, most users probably don't.)

To have to take my hand off of Apple's iPad hardware keyboard to reach up and touch something is distracting to the workflow. I could cut a little bit of slack for third party developers, but none at all for Apple. When I want to reply to an email, I want to use [command] + R. When I want to send the email, I want to use [command] + D.

In this WordPress app, using the [tab] key to jump from one field to another crashes the application.

Clearly, lots of work needs to be done on this platform.

This will only be remarkable to me: a proof of concept—use the Canon EOS 5dMkII DSLR to create a filmic look.

I shot this using a 70 - 200mm f2.8L in native 24fps, ISO 100, f2.8, 1/50th, using the Vari-ND to stop the exposure down, shooting at full 1920x1080 HD resolution using the superflat profile. The short little clip was then imported onto my hard drive via ShotPut Pro from my FireWire 800 card reader. I used MPEG Streamclip to transcode the H.264 file using Apple's ProRes 422LT codec and then dropped it into FCP. (I know firsthand that FCP doesn't play well with H.264 files!)

(Unfortunately I had not yet downloaded Canon's free EOS Movie E1 import plugin for FCP which was released today. I'm eager to try it. Interesting post here about that workflow.)

I then did a little color grading in FCP, added titles and a short music clip, and simply exported the file using ProRes 422LT at full size. Then, using MPEG Streamclip to prepare it for the web, I exported the 1920x1080 (137.4MB) file to 720x405 while converting it to an mp4, using the H.264 codec, at 100% quality, with multipass and better downscaling. The exported file is only 5.4MB! Maybe one day I'll compare which delivers a faster QuickTime conversion export: FCP or MPEG Streamclip. (Everyone says it's the latter.)

I'm posting the finished product here. It's very short! The only thing special: it's a first for me, and it worked straight away!

Philip Bloom showed a different cut of this short, Above Skywalker, in the Bonner Theater a couple of weeks ago. It looks magnificent on the large HD screen. I especially like the slider shot during the night time lapse about 30 seconds in (and at 4.20). The macro shots are nice too. Well... The whole thing is. Though I wish the slider shot on the floor of the porch hadn't hit the cutting room floor.

What he didn't tell us was that he shot this in 24p with the new 5dMkII Canon firmware upgrade,released today. The aspect ratio also makes this look really cinematic. I wonder if he used the same plugin he use in his post on How to export and upload 2:35 video to Vimeo.

Be sure to watch this full screen.

Yes, I've ranted about my AppleTVs world without end!  Well, apparently, one of them was just completely messed up:  the hardware was bad.  Naturally, it wasn't under warranty.  (I think Apple only has a 90 day warranty unless you spend the extra money on AppleCare.  I always do for computers but hadn't for the AppleTV.)

So, I bought a new AppleTV.  My god!  The thing actually works!  After having been plagued with sooo many issues for sooo long with the other device, I was fully expecting this one not to function properly either.  But it works well!  And I purchased AppleCare for this one.

The only thing that greatly annoys me with the AppleTV:  the largest hard drive you can get is 160GB.  That's ridiculous.  I frankly don't give a rip what Apple thinks, Tim thinks he should be able to store his entire media library on the AppleTV hard drive and not have to clutter up the home LAN with streaming audio/video!  This would also give me another backup for the media files!

I do love being able to stream nearly 10,000 photos and music on the large flat panel TV downstairs for parties—like the one held here at the house last Saturday night.  (BTW:  Bristol Farms does a great job catering!!)  My photos just look awesome on the big screen, if I say so myself!  :)

I've made myself stop wearing a watch.  My iPhone has a clock on it that auto syncs to the network.  And, as I travel so much, that comes in handy.  My iPhone is always showing the timezone in which I currently am located, unlike my watch which requires a manual change.  I've gotten comfy going without the watch.

But this watch, with tiny lasers to indicate the hour and minute hand, would be enough to make me start wearing one again!

You may have heard that I don’t do iPhone or iPad development at this time. That said, it’d be silly to not keep track of what Apple is up to with the platform they care for most." ...

• Upgrades to software for laptop and desktop machines hadn't all but died in the last several years.
  • Cases in point:  Where is iLife 2010?  (Apple made a big issue of rewriting iLife 2010 from the ground up, but only for the mobile platform!)
  • Where is iWork 2010?  (Apple made a big issue of rewriting iWork 2010 from the ground up, but only for the mobile platform!)
  • What happened to iMovie on the iPad?  Where did it go?
  • When Apple finally came out with an upgrade to Final Cut Studio, the new feature set was anything but substantive.
  • Now there are rumors all over the net that Apple has laid off over 40 people from the Final Cut Studio software team.  This can not be good as it probably indicates Apple is abandoning one of the most powerful production tools it ever developed!
  • How many years have we suffered with Aperture 2?  Finally, Aperture 3 is released, but many users are reporting huge issues with the program's basic operability and stability.
• What of any significant improvements in laptop and desktop hardware?
  • Cases in point:  The "new" iMacs have been plagued with screen problems and shipping was completely halted for a time while the issue has hopefully been corrected.
  • It blows me away that I bought my 2 x 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon computer about 1.5 years ago, and today Apple doesn't even sell a machine as fast as this "old" computer!  The fastest machine on their site is a 2 x 2.93 Quad-Core Intel Xeon computer!  What's with that?!  Their hardware is getting slower?
  • Where's the innovation in hardware?  Apple has been the leader for years!  With many of the new HD DSLR and video cameras sporting HDMI access, why hasn't Apple added this to the hardware line up?  Instead, my computers today have fewer high speed data access ports than they did 2 years ago!
• One company control of my media access?  Increasingly my heart is saying, "Absolutely no!"

Related articles

• Apple's Desktops to Disappear Eventually? (tastyslate.com)
• Is Aperture 3 sucking up memory? (macworld.com)
• Apple Looking to Bring iPhone OS to More Devices (mashable.com)
• Conspicuous by Its Absence (timtyson.us)

How many times have I cursed the Caps Lock key. I've wished I could pluck if from my keyboard more than once.

Well... turns out, you can with a simple keyboard preference change!

Go to System Preferences and select Keyboard. In this window, click on Modifier Keys...

Now click next to "Caps Lock" and select "No Action". Easy!

Something else just dawned on me about today's announced iPad: all that went unannounced. In fact, I'm concerned.

Where is iLife '10? One of the presenters mentioned that iLife had been rewritten from the ground up. OMG!

The last time Apple's software team re-wrote something from the ground up, they gutted it: iMovie!

What features will we lose? Will desktop machines even get an iLife '10?

Any plans for a new model iPhone this summer as seems customary?

I'm hopeful more news will trickle out from the mothership soon.

And I'm sorry, the word "magical" just doesn't work for me.

So the iPhone controlled AR.Drone I blogged about earlier (last week) is real. They were showing it off at the CES last week. Here is a video with Robert Scoble talking about it. He say's he will buy one if it comes in under $500. (Jeeze, I guess I would too.)

The new iType, which will be out mid year, is a full size keyboard and charging station for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Cool. I like.

The company will also offer a 2 octave full size piano keyboard for the devices as well.

I guess I'm still a kid at heart! I'm not sure the Parrot AR.Drone is for real if for no other reason: the WiFi signal strength is a huge limitation. The signal just doesn't go as far as this video gives the impression it goes. And WiFi signals are not that portable. You can't just create a network in an open, empty field. And forget ever using AT&T's "fastest" and smallest 3G network! Even if AT&T opened access for this type of data transfer, their network would choke before this thing ever got off the ground.

But the idea is way cool.

This is a clever idea that would have been cool 15 years ago when I had a Palm PDA. In fact, I wished back in the day that someone made one. Instead, I had to buy one of those tiny fold up keyboards like the one you see at the bottom of this post. I'm not too sure a laser keyboard will be a hit today with glowing touchscreen keyboards becoming so prevalent.

The Virtual Laser Keyboard (VKB) is a revolutionary accessory (The only keyboard that operates in total darkness - see the picture below) for Blackberry, Smartphone, PDA, MAC & Tablet PC. The VKB comes with an elegant leather jacket, making it the perfect business / Christmas gift (and just what you want to take out of your inner suit pocket in front of your amazed business colleagues...:-)

In the size of a Zipo lighter and in an outer spaced 'enterprise' style, it uses a laser beam to generate a full-size perfectly OPERATING laser keyboard that smoothly connects to MAC's, Smart Phones, the new Blackberry (8100,8300,8800),Nokia N95 (Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition) and Any kind of PC and Most of the handheld devices (PDA's, tablet PC's)."

(Via I-Tech's Virtual Keyboard - A laser projected full-sized virtual QWERTY keyboard.)

Photo credit: Katsushi

Normally I print up the holiday newsletter on an inkjet printer. It's a horrid affair as the newsletter is always two-sided. Running an inkjet printed page back through the printer, even after its had a full 24 hours to dry, is always problematic: jams, crooked pages, wrinkled pages, out of ink... Not this year!

I purchased a Xerox Phaser 6180 laser printer with a duplexer. It worked like a charm, printing both sides in a single pass. The only problem: as you can see from the thumbnail of the newsletter on the side, it is graphics intense (complete with a graphic of a coffee stain!), and, as a result, I spent 3 days printing out all of the copies for the mailing. The printer had to think about each newsletter for several minutes before printing it.

So I decided to increase the RAM in the printer, hoping that will improve print speed. The printer comes with 128MB of RAM, and it will hold 1.1GB of RAM. But the 1GB RAM card from Xerox is insanely expensive.

I read in a review of the printer, when I bought it, that a guy had purchased a 1GB 200 pin DDR2 SODIMM 128MX64 PC2-5300 module for $12 instead of spending the $400 Xerox was charging for the RAM upgrade. So, I tried the same thing. For less than $20 (shipping included) I'm up and running with 1.1GB of RAM in the printer.

I really like the printer. It does a very nice job. And, all of the newsletters are now in the mail.

I have blogged in the past about how much I hate the AppleTVs here at the house. Let me add to the tirade.

With the latest upgrades, neither AppleTV (upstairs or downstairs) will play the photos from iPhoto on any computer in the house.

Ready to work out, watch photos, listen to music... Well, No. Of course not. I've spent the last 2 hours on the phone with Apple.

The calls were a nightmare, beginning with wasting 20 minutes talking about AppleCare registration issues--AGAIN! I pay money for this hassle! Finally I said, "Let me give you a different computer's serial number. AppleTV doesn't work with any of them. I don't want to spend my time today trying to troubleshoot your AppleCare registration issues." I got disconnected.

Then, on the second call, the automated answering system that "can understand complete sentences" sent me to the Mail group when I clearly said I was having issues with AppleTV. Obviously it can't understand even short phrases.

Then the girl in the Mail group sent me to the Wireless group. She worked on the issue a while before escalating the issue up to a higher level of troubleshooting.

She then sent me an application via email that uploaded system information for the engineers so they can see what the problem is within 3 or 4 days.

The next time I hear anyone tell me that Apple's hardware "just works" or says, "it's just that easy," I'm going to burst out laughing in his/her face.

AppleTV doesn't work. It rarely has ever worked for me without some time consuming, frustrating issue.

Quite frankly, I hate the AppleTV.

Two hours completely wasted. Apple should put me on payroll for beta testing their AppleTV product!