luminary blur » Apple

Ridiculous Line for IPhone 4

Ben — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 08:33:48 +0000

This was what I was greeted with on June 24 when I attempted to pick up my “reserved” iPhone 4 at Orland Square Mall in Orland Park, IL. The line went from the center of the mall (past the Apple store) almost all the way down one of the spokes to Sears. It was around 11 AM and I stood in line for about 20 minutes, moving up a foot or so. I bailed after that and vowed to come back later.

I didn’t. So my iPhone for is now on order, “shipping by June 14.”

Posted via email from Ben’s posterous

On Modern Family and the iPad

Ben — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:00:16 +0000

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to TV shows is fake products and blacked-out logos. To me, one of the most distracting things about a TV show is logos removed from cars (see “The Middle” or “Human Target”). I know it’s a Chevy (or a Ford or a BMW), so why remove the logo and leave a black bowtie or oval or circle? It really annoys the crap out of me. Or why, when a TV character is searching online, can’t they just use Google? Why is it always a fake search engine? Let’s face it: just about everyone uses Google. Making up something fake for a TV show takes me out of the narrative.

So, when it comes to Modern Family, I think the same reasoning holds true. I can easily believe that Phil is a gadget junkie—it completely fits in with his personality. Yet if the producers had made up an obviously fake gadget, I would have absolutely hated it. That it was an iPad—and that the iPad’s release date was so near—made it believable. If you’re concerned about product placement, get over yourself. It’s called real life. And I like my TV better when it reflects that.ds

More Thoughts on Apple and Patents

Ben — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:02:56 +0000

I keep hearing over and over that patents stifle innovation. That it is the iteration of innovation that creates new innovation. I’m sorry, but I really don’t think that’s true. The mark of true innovation is something that is truly innovative, not some mere iteration of someone else’s idea. Take, for example, the iPad. I would wager that no one would call the device innovative—after all, it’s just a giant iPod touch. But wait, it’s more than that. It’s an iteration of the technology used to make the iPod touch and iPhone. But it is far from innovative.

Innovation happens when someone breaks the mold. It happens when something new is created where there wasn’t something before. The original iPhone was an innovation in this regard. And, to those who hold up Apple’s past “transgressions” as proof that stealing ideas is ok, I also put forward the claim that the original Macintosh was an innovation. Sure, it used bits and pieces of different technologies that were already there. But, it put them together in a wholly new and innovative way.

Compare the story of the Mac’s creation with, say, the HTC phones that supposedly violate Apple’s patents. These devices aren’t taking what the iPhone started and making something new with them—they’re still just phones. I think Apple has every right to demand that HTC actually come up with something innovative rather than the derivative drivel that they’re pushing today.

Oh Apple, what does this mean?

Ben — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:16:24 +0000

I’ve got an Apple TV and two iTunes libraries on my local network. Remote (on my iPhone) connects fine to my main iTunes library but gives this error message when connecting to either the aTV or the secondary library:

Obviously it’s not a router issue since all the devices in question (iMac, MacBook, and aTV) are connected to the same Airport Extreme.

So…what’s the deal?

Posted via email from Ben’s posterous

Wordpress for iPhone…Working Again

Ben — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:35:32 +0000

Apparently there was an update to the Wordpress app for the iPhone today and it finally works with my blog again!!! For some reason the previous version would crash every time I tried to acces this blog. Not any more!

First Post of 2009

Ben — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:05:28 +0000

It’s been ten days and already a lot has happened in 2009. I’m now a graduate graduate student at Lewis University. I finally got all the photos from my October 2008 trip to Colorado onto Flickr (ok, actually that was late last year but still…). My employer has changed and now I work for “National City now a part of PNC”. And I finally upgraded this blog to Wordpress 2.7.

I plan on writing a longer post on my trip – maybe a bit of a narrative – and of course embed slideshows of the photos I took. I have a lot of raw video to go through as well but I’m waiting for iMovie ‘09 to get it all put together. I really want to use some of those cool new map transitions – Indiana Jones style!

What Happened Today

Ben — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:11:53 +0000

This is somehow not a compilation of my various Tweets and Plurks but rather an independent compendium of what happened today.

Finally received my highly anticipated Rode PSA 1 Studio Arm. It doesn’t work. I’m either going to send it back to B&H or deal with Rode. Sending it back requires paying return postage but to me if it’s defective it should be free. Right?
My disappointment over the studio arm is almost tempered by the highly anticipated release of iPhone 2.2 software. Podcast downloads, here I come! Oh and the Google Street View sounds cool too.
Scheduled to podcast a murder mystery dinner on Saturday. I have a long history with such events (as a performer) so it will be interesting to be on the “other side.”

That is all. Well maybe a video too…

Rode PSA 1 – NOT WORKING! from Ben Hinc on Vimeo.

My First Real iPhone Blog Post

Ben — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:28:09 +0000

I’m really more interested in trying this out than anything. When Apple finally announced official 3rd party app support, my initial idea of a “killer app” was mobile blogging software. Now that Wordpress for the iPhone is out, my wish has been realized (I know TypePad was first but I’m a Wordpress guy) and here I am blogging from work. Will this newfound ability increase my output? Doubtful. I’ve vowed to be more prolific too many times to count yet this blog still chugs along at one post a month.

Still, the idea of slowly crafting a post via iPhone throughout the day when a spare moment presents itself is an attractive proposition. Heck, it sure beats wasting time on Twinkle which seems to be slowly morphing into some sort of Web 2.0 dating service (see attached screen grab – “female playmate” – enough said).

And so concludes my first truly mobile post. I hope there will be many more.

Note: After posting originally with Wordpress on my iPhone, I went back in with ecto to center the image (for some reason I hate left-aligned images) and also to add a few links to the body of the post. Despite some minor post-production, I think posting from my iPhone is powerful indeed and will—hopefully—drive me to be more active.

Apple TV: iTunes extension or media server?

Ben — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:55:48 +0000

I listened to Episode 5 of Don Reisinger’s great The Digital Home podcast on the way home from work today. I enjoyed everything that Andy Ihnatko had to say (as I almost always do) and most of what James McQuivey of Forrester Research had to say. That is until he got to talking about the Apple TV.

I’m so sick of hearing about how the Apple TV is a mere extension of the iTunes Store. They say it’s essentially a rental box. A rental box! As if the only reason one would purchase an Apple TV is to rent and/or buy stuff for it. I’m not denying that the device is woefully limited in the formats it supports, mainly H.264 for video and MP3 or AAC for audio (heck, it won’t even play the Audible audiobooks that every other Apple device can play). But it does do more than play media bought from iTunes. In fact, I didn’t purchase my Apple TV to play purchased content at all.

Some of the reasons I bought an Apple TV:

My entire music collection—purchased from iTunes (and Amazon MP3 store), ripped from CD, etc.—is in the iTunes jukebox. Thus, it is on my Apple TV.
I rip every DVD I come across using Handbrake. It has a great preset called Apple TV which creates beautiful H.264 video files. If I want it to be portable, Handbrake also lets me rip DVDs at a lower bitrate suitable for the iPhone. Once the DVD is ripped, it goes in to my iTunes library. See previous bullet.
Podcasts. Audio, video, it doesn’t matter. Podcasts are great on Apple TV, especially the HD ones. Diggnation in HD is awesome!
AirTunes. With the Apple TV 2.0 firmware, I can now stream my library to the Apple TV without touching the Apple TV. Ok, I have to make sure my A/V system is set to the right input, but beyond that everything can be done from my iMac. Very cool.

There you go. Four great reasons to use an Apple TV that don’t necessary involve viewing only rented/purchased content. Take that, James McQuivey.

Home Screen Update

Ben — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:04:24 +0000

Now that I’ve got 1.1.4 jailbroken on my iPhone with not one but two package managers with which to obtain 3rd-party apps, I may not care what Apple announces on Thursday. For now, here’s some shots of my home screens…after the jump.

Home Screen 1 – The Main Screen

Home Screen 2 – The Secondary Screen

Home Screen 3 – Games + ScreenShot

Home Screen 4 – Package Managers + BossPrefs