“You knew it was coming, you saw how newspapers and book publishers failed to initiate comprehensive ways to deliver their materials. You saw how laptops and desktop machines tied people down with complicating rather than enhancing their computer work. You believed there were better ways to address the basic functions of modern day communication. You saw how the portability of personal media- music, video, documents and the accessibility of the cloud would merit the coming of a new device, and you felt that someone, somewhere, could deliver the device that would help mediate the bits into tangible media.”

Shut Up- Muse!

I’ve already seen glimmers of this tool: Apple’s Newton, Fuji’s tablet running Windows, HP handheld devices running Java, OLPC XO, Kindle etc. and the iPhone and the subsequent touch devices. Until recently, The groundwork (cloudwork?) was too unpaved for such functionality to really work, and the various pundits surrounding the acceptance of some devices is as as divisive as American politics.
Slowly, Apple has built on its own path toward delivering a solution while others relied on existing and/or third party infrastructure. The iPod and iTunes store, the MobileMe cloud and the iPhone have fomented a new device to drive down this highway of data. My iPhone travels this road and so does my iMac, and I can access the truckstops- my “home cloud” of music, news and video, and my “world cloud” of addresses,email, social media and calendar events- in a variety of ways from a variety of devices not limited by which operating system I’m using.
The other issue is that lots of traditional media: publishers of magazines, newspapers, journals, music and moving image companies have changed, lslipping in their grip on how to deliver media directly to a consumer. It’s a hard thing to replace a book, newspaper or cd and I think the Publishing industry has balked in fear of replacing ink with bits. They aren’t sturdy in the device creating business because we need a device that’s a little larger than a pocket sized screen, can access many types of media, has better “readablity” behavior and has the ability to interact with the content right there in your hands rather than making you scurry to a larger computer or change devices to see enhanced content (I suppose the absence of Flash riles the anti-iPad crowd in its exclusion but that’s sidebar issue).

I need my iPhone, I need my iMac -because I rely on these devices to do certain things with a certain amount of predictable power, function and behavior.
(in my case, my iPhone makes phone calls and keeps a small camera near- My iMac edits images and I use Logic Studio and manage a bunch of other things)

The iPad will only enhance the interaction between these devices and that big old cloud that exists between my home and out there in the world.
I think the appreciation of the iPad will grow over time as more and more people get it: -Folks, Eventually all devices will interact with each other and YOU!
This is a Car that will help you travel down the various access roads to your media rather than a Subway that moves you directly one point to another.
The iPad will bring Books, Newspapers and Journals into the arena of personal media (and the stuff your iPhone does) – slowly but surely. You won’t HAVE to have an iPad but I think you’ll see how useful it is once you start using your iPhone apps on a bigger screen. It doesn’t supplant the stuff you have. It might just help you communicate a bit better than you do now.

One day, you’ll be sitting on the couch, with your phone in your pocket and the laptop in the kitchen and, like Goldilocks, say “this one is TOO SMALL and that one is TOO BIG” and you’ll pick up the iPad and say “This one is JUST RIGHT”.

Other things troubled me this year. A good friend died, a good cat died, the shock of celebrity deaths and the ongoing media circus around that stuff would have us question our fragile existence. Personal issues – wanting to buy my own house, trying to find time to be more artistic, socializing beyond the internet all took a back seat to the daily goings on with life. Steady as she goes, but sometimes the pace isn’t quick enough o r rather the sweet grapes are hard to reach so we grab for the sour ones.

Of course there were plenty of good things too…My work didn’t suffer much. I’m happily married to my best friend, Susan. My daughter, Son-in-law and Grandybaby is a joyful happy and healthy family, my mom turned 80 and the rest of my family are well. When everything dwindles to a perspective that things could be worse – that’s a sarcastic point of view I’d rather not dwell on. Things could be better but they aren’t all that bad compared to some places in the rest of the world.

Somber blog post that this is- I’ll do a 180 here and say that there was an awful lot of great music out there- and i started jamming a little more when i could find the time. The release of Philip deBarge and the Pretty Things was pretty awesome. I am amused and confused by all the animal named bands out there: Grizzly Bear, DeerTick, Deerhunter etc etc…Dylan’s xmas album is a hoot. I listened to Tom Waits, The Black Crowes, Eno, Molly Bancroft, Sam Phillips, Mark Sandman, Peter Haviland, The Pretty Things and Captain Beefheart a lot! I started posting obscure music things-even quicky quirky songs to Reverbnation, Myspace etc and made sure that the 3 Albums I’ve constructed were available at amiestreet (not interested in a record contract folks- but I’d entertain the thought!). I think music is my drug. I started tweeting more and feel that twitter has done a lot for my “instantaneous” thought behavior (you know -when you’d like to say something but you hold your tongue)- i find i like it it a lot but it took me a long time to figure out what it is exactly.

another weird thing is that i cut way down on smoking- from about a pack a day to 4 or 5 cigarettes – maybe all of it can go away next year although that may be one of the hardest things for me to do.

Ok I’ve reminisced enough.
700 words can barely cover the the year that has passed and i’ve really just glossed over the year and not done too much introspection. I’m hoping that 2009 is a stepping stone to a bright and shiny, prosperous, humorous, joyful and loving 2010. For everyone. Without love there can be no peace. So: Love to Everywhere.

• 64-bit application
• New streamlined user interface
• Improved performance
• Pro and Standard versions combined into one
• Supports OpenCL for accelerated video playback
• Intel only; no PowerPC version
• Frameless window
• ColorSync support
• Syncs with iTunes, iPod, iPhone, AppleTV, and more

But you know Windows users had to deal with less consistent Quicktime for windows software so often Vista was a complete waste of time for Windows users with some content- many folks reverting or staying with XP and letting Explorer or RealPlayer deal with stuff. Aside from MS Silverlight.
Silverlight is pretty popular (the 2008 Olympics/NBC last summer used Silverlight as its “premiere showcase” and it will stream the 2010 winter olympics with Silverlight) but Vista could not deal very well with “Apple- centric” files outside of using the QT windows installer.
So FYI Windows 7 has enormously improved support for media playback, and now will play most QuickTime-exported files out of the box.

Here’s what’s new/changed (from Vista):

* MPEG-4
* MPEG-4, QuickTime, 3GPP, and AVCHD file formats
* MPEG-4 Part 2 (SP and ASP)
* H.264 (up to High, all levels)
* AAC, including LC and HE v1 and v2, and multichannel
* “DivX/xvid” AVI
* MPEG-4 part 2 ASP
* MP3 and MS ADPCM
* MPEG-2
* Program and Transport Streams, including HDV
* MPEG-2 up to 1080i/p
* H.264 up to High
* Dolby Digital, PCM, and MP2

Windows 7 will play .mp4, self-contained .mov files that are using MPEG-4 codecs, H.264 interlaced, MPEG-4 Advanced Simple, HE AAC decode, and integrated MPEG-2. And interlace ( 30i gets displayed as 60) It’s also got further improved hardware acceleration, so even Netbooks can generally play back 720p content. Most DirectX10/DXVA 2.0 GPUs will hardware accelerate all codecs.- not quite sure how QT X corresponds here(aside from the performance accelerating kick Snow Leopard is promising) but indeed it makes content a little less dependent on accumulating 3rd party plugins and various degrees of performance issues.
We’ll see if the internet gives cable tv a run for the money (and it should…) once these updates in OSes and bandwidth improves…
Streaming is again coming of age- live broadcasts should be available on your Phones soon (http streaming really simplifies this process) Those of you with iPhones…check out http://iphone.akamai.com/ on your iPhone!
very groovy

Bang for the Buck- that’s what Apple delivers, and the WWDC keynote as the premiere stage for unveiling these much rumored devices and quelling overarching expectations can be an super-geek-salivating experience or a frazzled limpy hack disappointment. On a scale of Ripe to Rotten I give this keynote an Almost Ripe with a worm. Here’s why.

Apple doesn’t know how to deliver the “bad news” effectively. I’m specifically talking about issues with ATT-MMC support (which is on other platforms) and Contract service options (ATT has had a seriously huge contract expansion because of the iPhone). When Scott Forestall popped up the MMC support vendors and then said something like “um err ATT is working on it….” you could hear the air suck right out of the room. Probably why thy the “Balloon Burst” demo failed. I think they should have had a guy from ATT come out and publicly THANK Apple for having this tremendous opportunity of exclusivity.
Some folks might say this is a ridiculous idea but listen- All the iPhone holdouts I know are either waiting for the Verizon iPhone
(people keep asking me about this- and I swear to them it won’t happen with an iPhone- but perhaps with something else) or in
a fervent state of deniability (my Blackberry is better because….of course it’s not- Blackberry is fine, but its not an iPhone either).
ATT has a unique and fantastic product which doesn’t get stranger as it progresses (I’m referring here to the Palm products – anyone care about pen computing anymore?) Apple’s phone is getting better- much better with 3.0 software looming.

I have to say kudos go to Keynote presentation software-courtesy of Demo Demi-God Steve Jobs – Phil, Bertrand, Craig and Scott did well enough- and seeing the developers sweating on stage -kind Demo Gods or not (who hasn’t done a blown demo) all of these folks do better than most under this unbelievable pressure (ever see Steve Ballmer’s youtube’s -that guy exemplifies Windows these days)- but Keynote is an awesome package that all presenters should use.
Still, I wish an iChat or an iPhone call was made to Stave Jobs. I think that would have tipped the keynote over into exuberance land. Or in lieu of that- Wozniak in a pink satin shirt dancing on stage would have been sufficient. I mean – geez- the Two Original Garage Developers that this particular crowd ultimately respects and owes their livelihood to – should be frontmost at this particular Keynote Developer presentation. It would have also distracted from failed demos or the curious lack of luster with ATT’s Apple-centric benefits.

Reports of an Evolutionary process- starting with the Apple I and II in the 1970’s, are contradicted in many phases of the initial emergence of Computers- distinct from other manufactured computers of the same era and distinct from subsequent Apple computers as well. Features such as keyboards, color video chips, a tethered rock (called “a mouse” after another ID object from nature), have differences containing completely separate, and though admittedly similar function,derived from brand new chips- not chips that have evolved due to environmental changes.

These “Intelligent Design” differences can be startling and, for years, attributions to evolution are claimed by many computer specialists with respect to various models and functions in connection to current communication and business devices.
Many theorists state a process where the cycle would start with a particular device and then evidence would trace and identify features in a new device that appear similar and conditional to the original stated device.
A Prime example of this is the iPhone- which some claim evolved from Newton. The Newton had several versions,it was primarily – a Pen computing device- yet evolution does not explain the Newton Emate a Pen device with a keyboard!- similar to the original device yet underpowered, and much larger than the version 2000 series – does evolution devolve? One would the think of iPhone as having acquired some base level of similar funtionalitiy if this “evolution” theory is to be believed
yet all traces of the Newton Operating System now cease to exist. In looking at the codebase of the iPhone, on sees evidence of the FINGERPRINTS of Intelligent Design (the designers have a sense of humor- they call it “Darwin”) as well as a touch interface heretofore not seen on a device and manipulation with a PEN interface.

Abrupt changes in form factor among other devices abound and disprove the evolutionary cycle. This strongly indicates that there is not a process of environmental weaning and tweaking due to communicative functionality. The arrival of the iMac is another stunning example of ID – as it appeared out of nowhere with stark brilliant color casing in contrast to the bland beige predecessor. Whole features were missing (floppy disk) or added (usb and Firewire) haphazardly as well as the confusion that was created by the most obvious distinct missing feature: cable management.
Evolutionary theorists completely disregard the distinct “consciousness” of variable stability with operating systems in either OS 8.6, OS 9, and the radically different OS X. Again, the ID humorists jab the evolutionaries with terms like “Carbon” and “NeXTSteP” as the base operating functionality between these distinct and radically different OSes-proof positive that DESIGNING not EVOLVING construction is evident while the obvious exterior structural changes bolster the ID argument even further.

Subsequent Apple products become obvious “poster Children” for Intelligent Design- The Bubble Imac, turned into an iLamp,( where did the Luxo dna come in to play?), into a White Panel …
a Blue and White tower becomes a Steel-Cheese-grater-like apparatus…?
A Laptop computer loses almost all of it’s ports and some usefulness – again to “de-volution?”
I think not.
This is simply more evidence that someone had to DESIGN the MacBook Air with only ONE usb port, wheres the tenets of true Darwinistic Evolution, amid the proliferation of USB Devices these days, would be that it have several separate USB ports.

One final proof of Apple’s Intelligent Design (which should be taught in Engineering Schools worldwide) is the simple fact that inbetween devices do not exist and new products arrive, often
without a basic evolutionary pedigree (for example Apple TV), suddenly -from seemingly out of nowhere. Speculators- as fervent as UFO abductees, postulate what might pop up from Apple, often wrongly described and with unpredictable delivery dates. This pointedly Created Confusion confound trade websites, computer store owners and technicians profoundly.

Those people that would think computers are a “Naturally” emerging and evolving mechanism need to look specifically at the form and function changes and how evolution does not and cannot explain the functional changes of such devices over such short periods of time. Indeed, it is a job of Intelligent Design from the hand of an Intelligent Being.

President Obama has a long long road ahead of him- fraught with the residue of the past 8 years of insolence and intolerance -not to just to the American people but to the whole world- We’re left with looking for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re left with America turned into vicious aggressors instead of competent defenders. We’re left with worse situations in Congo, Haiti, Gaza, Pakistan and many other places. The Financial/mortgage companies, energy/oil companies, and Automotive industries gouging themselves with their (imaginary) profits- and then laying off thousands of people-destroying pensions, and driving the country into a financial recession. Where-ever there was an opportunity for expoitation GW allowed this- and Obama must try to repair.
That long Long road is one which I feel everyone can walk down. I don’t mind living lighter, although I’ve been living pretty lightly all along- thanks to the last burst bubble of 2001.
Where George Bush has told us we must be the Aggressors, That we must live in fear, That we don’t need the government in our day to day lives unless there’s oil to to be reaped or profits to be made, now we come to a place where we need to get along with the world- set an example for modernization and efficiency-and derive new technology to solve the many riddles of our existence in order that the world be a safer saner place than the one we have known for the last eight years.
Bye Bye George- don’t let the screendoor hit ya on the way out.

1) International service – as provided from ATT via Vodaphone was difficult- hence the ability to post
was quite awful. Tower switching is main culprit, tower switching and wifi seems to battle each other for priority- turning off wifi didn’t help- turning off cell/data services didn’t help either. Anytime
I wanted to post something I had to restart the iPhone. most of the time the post wouldn’t go through-

2) As you can see I have several pictures in one post rather than several posts with comments. This is a problem with the Wordpress iphone app, which -even when i updated it – failed for me from Europe. Though this is the latest and greatest software- it is not so great.

3) Prague, of course, was wonderful and I really wanted to send images with tiny comments all the time. Kind of a drag that it didn’t work right. I suppose I could have automated some of these features or BOUGHT some software to blog better- but …..

4) I think I’ll set up a separate Prague Blogue page and post my images from my other camera there
You should go to Prague- it is beautiful- I suggest maybe the spring when the weather and the flowers play nicely.