Information Overload

The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli is a movie about a post-apocalyptic U.S. Eli, played by Denzel Washington, has been walking (for 30 years!) to the West Coast. He ventures into a town run by Gary Oldman's "Carnegie" who's searching for a copy of the Bible because he believes he can use it to reboot civilization. Apparently, almost all copies of one of the world's most populous books have been destroyed in a Fahrenheit 451 orgy. Guess what Eli has with him. Unfortunately, the film falls flat with the exception of some Dan Inosanto hand-to-hand combat scenes, and Jennifer Beals still looking fantastic.

Google Voice For iPhone

Apple may be getting closer to approving a native Google Voice app for the iPhone. In the meantime, Google has produced a web-based version optimized for Mobile Safari. It's a little bit kludgey but works surprisingly well overall considering that it's not a native iPhone app. It's a great way to send free text messages—at least in the US. An SMS to China didn't make it. Dialing 511 doesn't work either since Mobile Safari doesn't recognize it as a valid phone number. Mobile Safari also doesn't have access to the iPhone Address Book contacts. Suppose one could sync with Google Contacts.

Infestation

Infestation is a surprisingly fun horror-slash-comedy film. It stars one of the dudes from The Girl Next Door (Chris Marquette), the hottie from I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer (Brooke Nevin), Ty'Veculus (E. Quincy Sloan), and the guy who is often mistaken for Billy Bob Thorton (Ray Wise). Some town has been overtaken by giant insects, and it's up to the aforementioned survivors to find a way out before they become bug food—or worse. The special effects are pretty decent for a movie without a blockbuster budget. Filming in Bulgaria and being backed by Mel Gibson's production company apparently goes a long way.

The 2010 State of The Union Address

President Obama calling upon Congress to check The Supreme Court's 5–4 ruling in Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission (PDF) was a highlight of a slightly better than expected State of The Union Address. It'll be interesting to see how much further corporations will use their new power to influence politics in America. As an Apple shareholder, the company should back any candidate who will require public schools and libraries—or why not the entire government—to use iPads. :p

Apple iPad

Is April here yet?! (The non-3G, Wi-Fi-only version will be available in March.) At only $100 more than the high-end iPod touch, one can own the base-model Apple iPad for only $500! That's an unexpectedly low price for a mobile device that blows away the iPod touch for people who use it like a tablet, and is also not far away from other vendors' flagship eBook—only—readers.

This blogger pre-ordered the very first iPod the day it was announced, and would have already reserved an iPad if it were possible. There's some concern that its 1.5-pound weight might be a bit too heavy for overhead reading while lying down. Blame the hippies for pressuring Apple to use highly recyclable materials such as aluminum and glass instead of lighter synthetics.

Some people are whining that the iPad does not have a built-in camera. Those people are probably the strange few who think augmented reality on a small slate is a good idea, or the ones who feel they can hold a forward-facing camera steady. Maybe someone will ship a Skype camera and speakerphone dock accessory. Yours truly would rather have real GPS over a built-in camera.

Some other people are complaining that the iPad doesn't support Flash Player, or multitask apps. Both of these problems can be solved via software. Think of the lack of Flash player as a built-in ad-blocking feature. As for multitasking, Apple may get around to it eventually, at least for the iPad. Here's hoping they do a better job than how webOS handles multitasking.

Finally, the people who don't like the 3G options in the US should STFU, and get the iPad sans 3G a whole month earlier. It looks like 3G support in the US will be limited to AT&T since the iPad reportedly doesn't support T-Mobile's 3G band. AT&T is providing truly unlimited data for $30 a month without a contract. It's a good deal compared to 5 GB at $50 a month with a Sprint 2-year contract.

Having waded through an entire section of tablet crap at CES, the mind still boggles that only Apple seems to be able to conjure up "magical" creations like the iPad. Techies may dismiss Apple's impressive feat of software and hardware integration. The real revolution will come if print publishers and their readers are inspired to embrace digital delivery of newspapers, magazines, books, et al.

Welcome to Macintosh

Steve Jobs unveiled the Mac and iPhone in January so it won't be a surprise if he announces the iPad tomorrow too. The surprise will come from the magic—for lack of a better description—that Apple manages to build into their products. Welcome to Macintosh chronicles the history of Apple from its beginning in Steve Wozniak's garage to the iPhone announcement. The film interviews Andy Hertzfeld who seems to believe Jobs is a god to Jim Reekes who is comically less starstruck. Is tomorrow here yet?!

YouTube HTML5 Video Player

Google is finally making YouTube videos available via an HTML5 video player instead of Flash. Safari and Chrome users can enable the move to support standards unencumbered by browser plugins (e.g. Flash Player) by visiting TestTube, the YouTube equivalent of Google Labs.

Pulse

Kristen Bell is the main heartbeat in Pulse, another American remake of a Japanese horror film, Kairo. The problem with Pulse is that there is no technical consistency for the transmission types used by the ghostly invaders. Why not destroy the cell towers when it becomes apparent they can be used without power? Why not wrap cell phones in the red tape that supposedly blocks the supernatural transmission rather than covering all of one's walls with the stuff? Such absurdities take the fright out of the film. Watch The Ring on a rainy day for a now dated, but better scare with consumer electronics.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies is an entertaining yet brief (only 67 minutes) animated film based on Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness' comic book series about the DC duo. It's unfortunate that Warner Bros. didn't fund a longer movie given how much material they have to work with. Batman is given near superhuman powers in order to keep pace with Superman, but this detail is not as bad as another nit with the story. The US has the tech to create a wormhole yet they don't use the wormhole to divert the Kryptonite meteor hurtling at Earth!

Nokia Ovi Maps Navigation Now Free

Not to be outdone by Google, Nokia announced yesterday that Ovi Maps—including turn-by-turn roadtrip navigation—are now free. Now all eyes are on Apple next week to see if Cupertino will announce free car nav for the iPhone, or if they'll continue to let consumers decide from the likes of Navigon, TomTom, et al. (Of course, such an announcement would take a back seat to the tablet.) It's amazing that competition has caused another premium feature, the main staple of companies like Garmin, to be offered as a free pawn in the mobile platform war.