Once again Steve Jobs dominates this week’s headlines, this time for revelations in his autobiography of an honest-to-goodness Apple TV. Besides that, it’s been a weird week, with Google maybe mulling buying Yahoo possibly, Microsoft gaining tons of cash off of Android (!) patents and Netflix hemming and hawing and not really knowing what it’s doing.
On the plus side, Todd is playing Arkham Asylum, Chip is reading Ready Player One and Warren has backed off from the flu-laden precipice of death he was wobbling on last week, though a lingering cough still stalks him.
iOS5, iPhone 4S, and Siri are out, and pretty damned impressive. Less impressive is RIM’s three-day outage, or the fact that Google is shutting down Code Searh, their University Research Program, Jaiku, and Buzz.
Bits and pieces besides that, but it’s a bit of a short one. Chip is a little injured and Warren is sick, and Todd is grateful for being neither.
Due to circumstances beyond our control (personal matters, and in Warren’s case a vicious double blow of the flu and bronchitis), we’re unable to release a podcast this week. We’re hoping to be back to our regular schedule next week, and in the meantime, thanks for understanding.
Sad, sad news today as Steve Jobs lost his battle with cancer. To call the man an artist, a businessman or a technologist is to sell him short…he was, without a doubt, a titan. His products, from the Apple II to the Mac to the iPad, iPhone and everything else affected all three of your hosts across much of their lives, and changed both our tools and our culture in ways that have yet to see their full measure. Our conversation can’t hope to do justice to the man’s accomplishments, but we hope to add our thoughts to a swelling tide of grief. The world has lost a great man, and we are all the poorer for it.
I spent my Sunday talking to web series creators attending VCON, Vancouver’s renowned scifi convention. The convention is 36 years old, but like most sci fi types they’re always excited about new ideas like web series, especially since this new medium gives creators a chance to make science fiction and fantasy stories for a new and quite devoted audience. I recorded the panel, which I’ve included in this post, and I also interviewed a few creators on camera, so expect to see some segments going up over the next couple of weeks.
I’m also using this as a sort of testing ground for a new web show idea I’ve been kicking around. I’d like to experiment and come up with my own show dealing with movies, web series, tech, gadgets and other nerdy stuff, so I’ll probably be putting up lots of different bits and pieces before the show coalesces into its final form.
For now, enjoy the panel, and let me know if you want to hear and see more about web series, local and otherwise.
And if you’re interested in the shows that participated on the panel, check out:
Windows 8 bursts onto the scene and only our intrepid squad of tech analysts (by which we mean Warren, Todd and Chip) have the savvy to suss out what really matters with Metro, sandboxing and pissed of developers. The Boston Globe got one hell of an HTML5 redesign, Rogers is told to stop throttling games, and we all discuss what we’d do if we were in charge of RIM and/or Nintendo. One of us would wear a lot of costumes, apparently.
Just something I whipped up in Maya and Premiere to teach myself how to shatter 3d objects. You’ll not the complete disregard on the part of the moon for the laws of physics.
Patent madness this week, and a deep dive by Todd into the machinations and tribulations surrounding high tech and patent law. Here’s a pile of links for you on that subject…
