The Leap is a small iPod sized USB peripheral that creates a 3D interaction space of 8 cubic feet to precisely interact with and control software on your laptop or desktop computer. It’s like being able to reach into the computer and pull out information as easily as reaching into a cookie jar.
The Leap senses your individual hand and finger movements independently, as well as items like a pen. In fact, it’s 200x more sensitive than existing touch-free products and technologies. It’s the difference between sensing an arm swiping through the air and being able to create a precise digital signature with a fingertip or pen.
I’m highly skeptical of this thing, but it will be earth-shattering if it actually works. Pre-orders have started. It’s only $70.
If Pixar had made The Avengers.
A Battle Between Two Ways Of Filming At The Box Office
The Atlantic:
This summer, Hollywood’s blockbusters are engaging in a high-stakes format war between cutting-edge digital technology and old-fashioned, photochemical film. Digitally photographed thrillers like The Avengers, Prometheus, and The Amazing Spider-Man will be battling it out with equally epic movies shot on film such as The Dark Knight Rises, Men in Black 3, and Battleship. Indeed, no summer in recent memory boasts so much variety in terms of how films are photographed and exhibited.
Yet with studios looking to trim costs on increasingly expensive “tentpole” movies, traditional celluloid film—easily the more expensive of the two formats—may be on its way out as the cinema’s medium of choice. Still, advocates of film continue to make compelling arguments about why theirs is the more enduring medium, even as both sides pull out their biggest guns this summer in an effort to prove definitively the commercial value of their respective formats.
A great look at the state of film going into the summer. A lot of the information comes from a new documentary, called Side By Side, featuring America’s greatest directors. I will definitely be checking it out.
How To Write Good Science Fiction
Jon Spaihts, the screenwriter behind Prometheus:
You keep your stories rooted in the world we know. The more you re-invent, the harder your audience has to work to connect. If your fantastic world has recognizable families, or realistic workplace politics, or a spacefaring army that still dresses, walks, and talks like the army we know… then we have a starting place for that connection. Familiarity is an essential tool – and a great frame for your big re-inventions.
Above all, invest in the universal human experiences: love and heartbreak, ambition and frustration, rivalry and enmity. Loneliness, yearning, wonder.
A fantastic interview about writing sci-fi and storytelling in general.
‘Rise Of The Tech Bandits’
The newest issue of SAY Magazine is a must read for anyone interested in the evolution of tech media.
Android Fragmentation
Casey Johnston for Ars Technica:
The developers logged 3,997 distinct devices, the most popular of which was the Samsung Galaxy S II. This figure was inflated quite a bit by custom ROMs, which overwrite the android.build.MODEL variable and cause those phones to be logged as separate devices. 1,363 types were logged only once, and while some were custom ROMs bucking the numbers, a good few were just massively unpopular devices—for example, the Hungarian 10.1-inch Concorde Tab.
I’ve been saying this for a long time, but Android’s fragmentation is the key reason it can’t touch the iPhone in mind share. I’m not talking about technical market share, because Android shouldn’t be compared to the iPhone in terms of devices sold — Android is an OS on thousands of handsets while the iPhone is a literal phone.
You can’t have dozens and dozens of different Android OS versions across thousands of devices and expect to have any kind of unified experience.
Google And The Story Of Send
Click the above link for a really cool, simple walkthrough of how Gmail works. It’s mostly about Google tooting its own energy efficiency horn, but the graphic art and interactive design of the page is enough to warrant a visit.
The technology we use on a daily basis and take for granted is truly amazing.
Tech Company CEOs Are Idiots
Being wildly successful in tech is about anticipating change, and altering the status quo; being the 14th chief executive of a stodgy old major tech company is about extracting as much value as you can from the success it’s already had. The CEOs of the Time Warners and Sonys and Yahoos and RIMs and even Microsofts of the world are experts only on their respective companies’ existing businesses. They say things that sound stupid to us because they’re not us, and because their goal for tech (to maximize profits at their companies) is not the same as ours (to get more awesome stuff that makes our lives better). They’re not even really talking to us. They’re talking to their boards.
Yes yes yes. Such a great post by BuzzFeed. Steve Jobs was successful because he thought about products like a customer, not a CEO.
Whale Trail And Free-To-Play
My friend Mills from app maker ustwo has an awesome interview up with TouchArcade. I’ve been a longtime fan of Mills and what his studio does. Heck, I’ve even interviewed him before. He’s a great, sincere guy who loves what he does, and it shows.
He’s in charge of one of my favorite games in the App Store, Whale Trail. Due to the game not making enough money, it will soon be going “free-to-play” with in-app purchases and all that jazz. The new game elements sound intriguing, and I hope it works out for Whale Trail and ustwo after the transformation.
Biases aside, I’m not kidding when I say that I have spent countless hours playing Whale Trail on my iPhone and iPad. I’ve even gotten a few of my friends hooked on it because it’s that much fun. I have no clue why it hasn’t seen the success it deserves. Grab it for a cheap $1 in the App Store now. Seriously. It will consume your life.
“not sent from my iPhone”
This is a wonderfully cute “I love you” card for any Apple geek. I’d tell you to grab one now on etsy, but I just bought the last one! ;-)
The CultCast
So I’ve been doing this podcast with several of my co-workers, and it’s been a blast. I’ve been on several episodes so far, and I have more fun each time I’m on. Huge shout-out to Erfon for creating a hit show with thousands and of thousands of listeners around the world in only a couple months. We’ve been featured in iTunes several times, and even been ranked as the #1 tech podcast. It’s truly astonishing, and I’m humbled to be a small part of it.
Anyway, the last episode we recorded this week is now available in iTunes, and it’s my favorite so far. Download it and enjoy. Hopefully you’ll have a chuckle or two.
The New York Times And Its Apple Smear-Fest
In the next installment of The New York Times ‘iEconomy’ series, NYT reporters will take an investigative look behind the questionable cooking ingredients used at Caffe Macs in Cupertino.
But seriously, it’s starting to look like the Times just wants to drag Apple through the mud because it can. Aren’t there bigger fish to fry out there? Why create issues where there are none?
O, right… Apple is the most valuable company on earth. Someone has to pick on the big kid.
