I love these shorts, the animation, attention to detail and script are all amazing. Very very cool! Vimeo rocks.
Thoughts on OS X Lion
I really like what I’ve seen from OS X Lion so far. The full screen apps are hopefully going to make apps simpler and more straight forward to use. Have all the tools for an app right there in one screen. No more endless menus to wade through, just different panes with toolsets. Resolutions of most monitors, either laptop or desktop, are high enough to make everything you need fit in one fullscreen area. I think it will make app developers look at how to use their available space more efficiently. Another thing I notice is how it looks way more relaxed and less cluttered. No more window frame, no more menu bar at the top. And if you need more space, just flip to the next screen, when done, flip back. I use Google Chrome fullscreen on my MacBook Pro, and it looks so much more stylish, almost independent of which website I’m viewing. In this case, less is truly more.
Same goes for the Mac App Store. I think this is a nice intermediate to streaming apps (still a while away). It greatly lowers the threshold for purchasing applications and installing them. True innovation of the application installation process is finally here. It seems so straight forward now, after having used the App Store on my iPhone for a couple of years. Wonder what will happen to the pricing point of desktop/laptop apps. Will prices go down significantly, because that’s what people are used to from the App Store so far? Or will it be easily accepted that these are a different breed of apps and therefor more expensive?
The new desktop app startup process, Launchpad, is a nice iPhone/iPad app startup and management copy to the desktop. Again, less is more, no more cluttered windowed lists of apps, just an efficient use of available desktop space to present the installed apps. Can’t wait to upgrade to this new version of OS X. And what about that MacBook Air?
Google everywhere – The Google Car
Google controling your TV, your phone, your tablet and now also your car. The news of the Google car isn’t that surprising to me. I’ve been thinking about the idea of a computer driven networked car for a long time. Especially since I’ve been back in the Netherlands, which seems to grind to a halt every day during rush hour. A network of computer driven cars and networked road systems, constantly aware of all traffic would make traffic jams seem so quant. Each car would know where it and all the other cars are going (navigation systems where the first step towards this system), at what speed, and what the traffic up ahead is going to do. Merging, exiting, making turns, passing will all be known way ahead of time by all participating traffic and the network will calculate the best speed and timing of all actions to get you to your destination in the most efficient way, not only for you, but also for all the other networked travelers.
Traffic jams will be a thing of the past, as will most traffic accidents. The benefits are obvious. And with a gradual introduction, even the most staunch American driver might relinquish control over his or her vehicle.
Everything is a remix
As is this post. Looks like a cool project, below is the first part of this four part documentary series about remixing, copying, stealing, knock offs and covers.
Head on over to the website of Kirby Ferguson, a New York-based filmmaker, who’s behind this project. I’m looking forward to the next part.
Tweet like it’s 1999
Man I miss San Francisco. Wish I could be there right now to witness the new internet bubble, Bubble 2.0, burst, or maybe inflate a little more, or maybe it isn’t really a bubble? It sure looks like it though, with the new Twitter coming out (it isn’t out here in the Netherlands yet…). But the press coverage, the video, the “new” features that should have been there in the first place, it’s all so 1999 as far as the hype factor goes. All this for a service that lets you type 140 characters and share it with perfect strangers. I know, it has a large user base, it is, for me at least, a great news reader. But come on, it’s a simple service, maybe a powerful service for some, but nothing earth shattering. I’m glad they are finally coming up with some useful features of their own though…
Longer amazing short found on Vimeo
Time for bed, but before I go, here’s an amazing short. I think this short internet movie (actually long by 2009 standards) is one of those major serious signals of a shift in content creation, sharing, consumption and distribution. The movie industry better watch and learn, or fade away (as should all media bigwigs).
Great little short by a 21 year old Russian
Kids these days… Alexander Vladimirovich Semenov, 21 years old and from Murmansk, Russia created this short with his Canonn 550D, the standard kit lens, a 50mm 1.8 and a Nikon for some shots. And a lot of editing, modeling and animating. Pretty amazing what is possible these days with a basic setup and a lot of time.
Google TV Microsofts Apple TV
Google TV is generating some great embedded CE support with a bunch of CE companies announcing embedding Google TV and android into their TV systems, hot on the heels of the Apple TV announcement of last week. You can see Google taking the role of Microsoft in this case (supplying the “OS” and not worrying about the hardware) and Apple, well, Apple is just Apple, wanting to control the whole aspect, both software and hardware. I wonder if Apple’s attitude will keep it relegated to the “niche high margin Apple cult market”, while Google pulls a Microsoft and takes over the CE market?