Aim for the Head

Not Palm this time though…

To me, one of the most irritating innovations in recent times has been the blue tooth headset.  I have lost count of the number of times I have thought someone was talking to me only to discover that concealed on the other side of their head wrapped around one ear was their phone.  It is funny, however, when the person in question is an animated talker, you know, one of those people who talk with their hands.  Using a traditional phone at least one hand was occupied holding the phone and the other hand often calmed down, but with both hands free some people get quite into their conversations.

One of the disadvantages of the blue tooth headset was that you still had to have the phone, in your pocket or on your belt or in your bag or something.  Well, LG has solved that by making a phone that is a watch.

I don’t think I would want one.  I’m not so good with watches, they get horribly beat up on my wrist.  In fact, I have to replace my watches fairly regularly because the glass/plastic gets scuffed to the point that you can’t read the time.  But even though I wouldn’t carry one that doesn’t mean I can’t still think it is cool.

Over the years I have owned a number of phones and played with many more.  At the end of the day, Palm’s phones, particularly the Treo line, were the ones I liked the most.  With its mixture of PDA and phone capabilities along with other random things it can do, Palm’s phones were solid.  If you know me, you know I’m not a fan of the iPhone.  Much like I’m not a fan of the iPod or the iMac or iTunes or pretty much anything that comes out of Apple.  When it comes to MP3 players I have enjoyed my Zune very much and want to get a larger one to hold all my music.  And while I have seen a number of very nice applications pop up for the iPhone, none of them yet have made me even consider buying one.

On the other hand, Palm announced their new phone, the Pre, today.  Some of the innovations they’ve come up with on their new webOS make their company name apropos as I felt like putting my face in my palm, like the fact their apps are built using HTML, javascript and other basic web tools.  According to Palm’s blog, the people from Pandora made note that it only took them three days to write up a webOS version of their application as opposed to the months it took them on other platforms.  Flipping through the screenshots of applications looks beautiful, and easy to use, and then to cap it all off there is a slide out full QWERTY keyboard instead of just an on screen one.

And the best part yet, its a Sprint exclusive phone which means that if I decide to get one at some point down the road I don’t have to change providers to do it.

About the only thing that could get me more excited would be for Palm to announce that in addition to phones they’ll also be putting their new webOS on netbook-like devices (and not cancel it this time), because really, the greatest flaw of the netbook is that it is a small laptop, when it would be much better to approach them as a large PDA.

I’m not too big on machinema.  It is usually rather goofy, and the repetitiveness of the animations, since makers are limited to what is available in the game, drive me insane.  Which is why I actually enjoyed ‘The Craft of War: Blind’ by Percula.  Rather than just live inside the game, which -don’t get me wrong- takes talent to craft stories out of, he took all the graphics from the game and then used professional animation software to choreograph and render his work.  So clearly, from the start, this isn’t truly machinema.

A number of people on the various places this video has shown up have complained about the music choice, using words like “utter shit” to describe it.  But I think most of that comes from a disdain for the artist or the song without any consideration to how the music complements the piece.  Given that machinema has used all sorts of music, from classic fantasy style music through to Linkin Park, I don’t think any music choice is really out of place, and in this case it fits perfectly with the style, pacing and attitude of the video.

Percula is, reportedly, out of work, having been laid off.  However, if this is a sample of the usual quality of his work, then I don’t suspect he’ll have any trouble finding another gig.  Although, I might suggest he expand his search to fields outside of gaming.  With his sense of pacing and story, he might find work in Hollywood.

Without further ado… the video:

I’ve been a user of Last.fm for quite a while now.  Originally I would just hit it up occasionally to find a band or song and listen to it and maybe find some new music I’d never heard before.  Then, when the wife and I started having guests over to the house, either for parties or dinners, I put a PC up in the kitchen and dining room area where we could pick an artist and have random selections play in the back ground while we cooked, ate and hung out.

Then something happened.  With the idea that a television show could showcase and promote music through the site (something I still think every TV show should consider), I found myself spending entire work days on Last.fm, winding my way through genres of music.

So, I finally took the plunge and actually signed up for a free account there so I can actually store favorites and all that stuff.  This means, of course, I now have a profile there.  If you happen to also use the site, feel free to add me as a friend, and if you want to, let me know your profile so I can see what you are listening to.

Admit it… I mean, I know I do… most blogs are there for people to hear themselves talk.  But a co-worker of mine had a medical emergency a couple of weeks ago.  He complained of a headache before bed, and later his wife couldn’t wake him up.  After getting rushed to the hospital, the doctors determined he had a bleed in his brain.  They went in, relieved the pressure, found it was not bleeding anymore (it had clotted and stopped on its own), and now he’s doing much better.

During all this, his family was given a profile at CarePages.  This allowed them to notify friends and family and send out an email with a link to the page.  People can log in and see updates (done by the family) on how he is doing.  They can leave messages.  See photos uploaded by the family or patient.  Give virtual gifts and get contact information.  You can even sign up for notifications so that you get contacted every time the family or patient updates the page.

It has actually been quite nice for us, the people on the outside, to be able to get news when its available and not have to wait until the phone chain trickles down to us.  And it has to be pretty nice for the family, knowing they can go to one place, make an update and have it automatically sent out to everyone.  Nice for the patient too, when he or she can read all the well wishes from all the people in their life.

Anyway, its just something that I thought from a pretty good idea and decided to share it.

VideoTrace.

And that’s all I have to say about that.  Except, thanks to Cyanbane for the link.