Monday, October 17, 2005
Study shows that family-friendly movies make more money
I was looking around for some movie information and stumbled across this article. They did a study for 15 years in total and it basically shows that the more family friendly a film is, the more profitable it is.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
New iMac thoughts
The new iMac is pretty intriguing as well. With the built in camera it seems like a great living room system. It could be extremely clean with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse—the only cord would be for power. I must admit I’m sorely tempted and maybe one will show up on the doorstep soon. One can only hope that Apple will push Front Row out the door for use on other systems soon. It could eventually make a slightly more powerful Mac mini (we need more powerful software video decoding or perhaps just a hardware assist) the ultimate home media center.
Thoughts on Apple’s announcements today
I was certainly disappointed at first because I was planning on buying whatever new p0wErMAC they came out with (assuming that it was a significant speed bump over the dual 2.7). I was also considering a laptop upgrade. I guess if Apple wants to help me save some money for awhile that’s fine by me though.
In the end though I think I’m stoked. The groundwork they’re laying is quite promising and the video interface is clean, looks really great and just rules. The disappointing thing is the video quality. I bought a couple of music videos which is certainly something I normally would never do (MTV and the like have been placed in the channels I don’t receive list) just to test the whole thing out. Having done so, I think I would enjoy watching and having some of these videos enough to go ahead and purchase more except for the fact that they’re tiny and they look pretty crappy blown up full screen. Yes, I know it’s for the iPod Video or whatever but I’m *far* more interested in the potential of using it as a home media center. My only hope is that with the groundwork being there that I’ll be able to rip my own stuff and utilize their playback engine and controls.
Also, hopefully the TV shows are higher quality because I am not going to spend money on a 2x2 picture when I can catch it on TiVo in full hi-def glory. On the other hand I’ve theorized in the past that I would prefer to simply subscribe to the shows I like so if they get this right eventually then I could see myself completely dumping DirecTV altogether.
On the quality thing—I can’t tell the difference for the most part with AAC but I can tell a big difference with the video that I’ve seen so far.
Anyway, I like where they’re trying to go at least. Hopefully they’ll get there faster though. I want the equivalent of an iPod for my home theater.
Keeping up to date
I find that I’m tired of sending various thoughts to different friends and email lists so I’ve decided that I need to publish here. That way anyone that’s really interested in things can simply check here. To me, that’s the best use of blogging—I can have all of my friends in an RSS newsreader like NetNewsWire and get a quick look at what’s happening in their lives and what’s on their minds.