The Setting: Currently, you can go to Hulu.com and watch clips and entire episodes of TV shows and some full-length movies. For free. The videos include ads at the beginning and sprinkled throughout, if they're more than just a clip. Apparently, those ads are not generating enough income for Hulu, because they are considering going to a "fee-based business model" starting next year. That means we would have to pay a subscription fee if we want to watch. Based on the comments after this blog posting about it, it appears most people have no intention of continuing to use Hulu if the site starts charging, although some people realize there are always costs involved and they are willing to pay for the conveniece Hulu offers. And some people bring up an interesting point: would you rather watch for free but also have to deal with ads or pay a subscription fee and have no ads? Actually, I'm really not sure if Hulu will still have ads after they start charging. Hmm...Hulu provides the convenience of watching content from various TV stations in one place, but you can typically go to a network's specifc site and watch shows there for free. Well, we'll see next year if viewers are willing to pay for convenience.
The Setting: I won a Flip Video camera at a social learning conference. Woot! I've been eyeing the ads and debating whether to get one, so this is great. Here is the official Flip Video site. The one I won is the Ultra. It includes 4 GB of memory and records up to 120 minutes. It's small (around 4"x2"x1"), very easy to use, and includes a 2-inch display so you can see what you're recording. It claims to allow easy upload of videos to YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace. I've created a few very unexciting videos of my family room and other areas of the house, which I don't think you wanna see. It has an interesting feature where it brightens the view so the video was actually brighter than the room was. Yesterday, I did some video of the halloween festivities at work. When I played the video on my laptop, the quality was actually very good on the larger screen. It didn't pick up voices if someone was speaking in a low voice or was too far away, but it did fine with people who were closer and talking at regular speaking levels. The Flip is very convenient but obviously doesn't have the same features as a more robust video camera. For example, the zoom is only 2X but, hey, whadda ya want? For the cost and convenience, it's very nice. After recording video, just plug the flip out USB arm into your PC. Very easy. Great for someone who just wants to record at a party, while on vacation, whatever event, and upload video without a lot of work involved. I haven't used the editing features yet so I don't how easy they are to use. As I use the camera and learn the features, I'll report back. Maybe I'll even add some music and cool features to my family room video and post it here. Or not.
The Setting: Speaking of digital books, there are many apps available for you to read books on your smart phone. These apps could be really helpful to you if you're stuck somewhere for a long time, traveling, sitting a the DMV, etc. Some of the available apps include Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's reader app, Mobipocket, and Stanza. The good news is that many of the apps are free. The potential bad news is that it could be tiring on the hands to have to continually "turn" the page. Also, some people may not be able to stomach reading off of such a small screen, although some readers will allow you to change text size.
More info about theses apps is available at CNN's Apps of the week page.
The Setting: Barnes and Noble offers a competitor to Amazon's popular Kindle wireless reading device called the Nook.
The Nook costs $260. B&N offers more than one million books, magazines, and newspapers in its eBook store. With the 2GB of memory, the Nook can hold up to 1500 books, and it includes a microSD slot if you want to add more. The Nook does not have a web browser, it connects to the B&N eBook store using a free 3G AT&T connection. It also offers a WiFi radio customers can use at B&N locations and 600 college stores. Barnes and Noble will start shipping the Nook in November. You can view the features of and/or pre-order the Nook on B&N's site.
Here's an article about the Nook that provides more info.
The Setting: Google Wave may already work on the iPhone.
What is Google Wave? A new application from Google that, "..combines the elements of e-mail, chat, Wikis, blogs, and photo sharing sites to create a form of Internet communication called a hosted conversation or a wave."
The Tech Crunch blog provides for anyone interested in setting up Google Wave on their iPhone. Remember, Google Wave is still in beta test.
The Setting: Tweetdeck is a Twitter application that allows you to more easily manage your tweets by separating them into various columns. So you could have columns for your new tweet messages, your mentions, your direct messages. You could also have columns for Facebook and MySpace updates, but that's a different story. Tweetdeck now allows you to easily see your 100 most recent Twitter followers in a separate column called New Followers. From there, you can click someone's name to view their profile and/or click to follow them, if desired. It's very cool and easy. All you have to do is click the New Twitter Column icon in the upper left of your Tweetdeck screen and select New Followers. Oh, you must have v0.31 of Tweetdeck or higher to use this feature.You can download Tweetdeck here.
The Setting: Here are some upcoming movies that I'm looking forward to seeing. Click the movie titles for previews.
Precious Release date: Limited release Nov. 6; wide release Nov. 20, 2009
Director: Lee DanielsStarring: Mo'Nique, Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz
Plot: Precious is a pregnant sixteen-year-old who can neither read nor write. She is emotionally and physically abused by her mother and deals with constant bullying at school. Precious remains hopeful of a better future and when she transfers to an alternative high school, she believes she has found her way. This one will be tough to watch. I did not read the novel Push by Sapphire, which this movie is based on, but I'm assuming (and hoping) there will be a happy ending.
2012Release date: November 13, 2009 Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton
Plot: December 2012 is the timeframe when many cultures and religions say something major will happen to change the world as we know it. We just don't know what the something is. This movie seems to be taking the approach that the world will end then. Yet, there are survivors. Hmm... already inconsistent. But what the hell - great special effects, so I'm there. Also, I really dig their official site: games, iPhone apps - it appeals to my inner geek.
Avatar
Release date: Dec. 18, 2009 (worldwide) Director: James Cameron Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni RibisiPlot: Description from the official site: "On the distant moon Pandora, a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery as he leads a heroic battle to save a cililization." This movie could absolutely suck and I would give it three out of five Slurpees just based on the amazing special effects. That's what I say now, but stay tuned for my review sometime in December.
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