iP3K

I’m speechless… I must regain my composure and tell you how I feel about this device. It’s a blog and I have to state my opinion on things. But that is how I felt when I saw the first shots from Steve Jobs keynote. This device as everything you can expect. It combines a cellphone, an iPod, and a PDA. I’ve never been attracted in any way to the iPhone before, I did follow the news heard a lot of rumors of what it would be. But had I known it would be something like this… I would of started to save money to buy one. First thing you can say it will be darn expensive. But that’s the price for touch screen technology. There is little more I can say about this device. You have to see it for your self. I’ve made a quick slide show, but head out to Apple – iPhone for complete animated version. For Christmas 2007, gather together and buy me one. You can find a ton of additionnal pictures on Technorati. Apple is now Apple Inc. they’re really heading somewhere. Bright and simple future for them.

A few weeks back I talked about Democracy, a application for most your video content needs. It also supported BitTorrent file transfers. In the department of file transfer via Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Azureus is well known for being available on platforms like Linux, Mac and Windows and is open source. The idea behind Zudeo is to add a portal interface to the BitTorrent software. If you click on the advanced tab of the application you get the familiar look from Azureus. The interesting part is not there though; the welcome screen shows your current downloads with their global rating. You also see thumbnails of new “hot” videos. The need of a P2P program wants to step away from the quality you can get from YouTube, flash based videos are usually in pretty low resolution and if you bring them full screen they can be pretty ugly. This program wins all points because it promotes high definition content. Larges files that they are, can be downloaded within a few minutes. Right now, the portal gives access to movie trailers, short films, and various videos at a pretty high definition. The biggest news is that the BBC as signed a deal with Zudeo to have their shows distributed under this new platform. Even if the shows themselves will probably be add suported and might even have a form of DRM it would not matter. We are stepping forward new ways to get digital video content and BitTorrent is starting being recognized as a legal way for content to be share. You can visit LegalTorrents to get loads of legal content. Download Azureus 3 (Zudeo) today to try it out.

When the first trailer was out for TMNT I was really digging it. I mean by that it looked dark and like some slick animation would take place in that 3D environment. Now a new trailer was released and I will express my disappointment. Now it really looks like a Saturday morning cartoon; only with a larger budget. In opposition the teaser had a small joke towards the end but this new trailer puts the lame jokes in front row. Despites the directors efforts I am now TOTALLY turned off by it. If they can bring a new trailer and show a new light they might save the day. But in my case it’s stacked along side “The Ant Bully, The Incredibles and Cars”; movies I’ll see when they come on TV or cheap rental. I think that they should not mimic the cartoon so much. It’s good on TV, but we’re talking a movie! Now it reminds me the live action Ninja Turtles back in the 90′s. They’re heading back to the sewers then.

Related:

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• News via Cinema Fusion

We all know what democracy should be right? Even if some political parties don’t seem to fully follow those guide lines… but earlier this week I discovered that democracy can also be a media player. Now if it were your average player I would not even speak of it since Windows Media Player 11, Winamp 5 and Quicktime 7 are pretty popular and known out there.

What I love about Democracy is it’s emphasis on IPTV, by that I mean you now have program that can easily let you gather different videos to download onto your system. Whether it be a funny video from YouTube or a Vidcast about technology or video games. You can add “channels” using the RSS subscription feed to have Democracy download the new shows automatically as they are released. There is a expiration system that auto-deletes old episodes after a period of time (you can change the default expiry or save the file so it is never deleted). The player supports pretty much all video formats out there and has support for torrent files and can download videos from Flash video service. This means you can have all your personal videos in your library AND download movies from YouTube or Google Video to your hard drive.

The product is pretty strong and still has a way to go before version 1. The two features I feel are missing is the option to reduce to tray and let it run in the background. If you want it to download a show you need have the player open and take space on your desktop. Same would happen if you download a large torrent file. The other thing I’d like is the ability to come back and forth from a video to the different channels. Because each time it interrupts the playback. You can get it at getdemocracy.com and they are at version 0.9.2 it is available for Mac, Linux and Windows.

They’re not serious! They always do it on purpose, bring the hype up just before a big break… What did I do wrong Tim Kring? I love the show and it keeps giving every time. Now that the “Save the Cheerleader” mini-plot is on hold they needed something to bring back the action together. Sylar was caught but is still very dangerous, as always they underestimate the bad guys. This final episode before the Winter break was advertised as the one where one of the heroes “with powers” would die. They did deliver on that but the promo clips were a bit misleading and hopefully did not spoil the fun (I won’t say the answer).

A quick recap of what happens; Peter was arrested because of the Sylar attack but most obviously since it was only his own blood they found on him they could hold him forever. Not until Matt came by along the FBI to do some investigation. It was priceless to see Peter and Matt meet as it is known that Peter can absorb powers of those around him. The show goes on with extra development with “The Haitian”; an un-named character that displayed unusual powers in the past. The final 10 minutes we’re the ones to wait for when we see Peter’s health degrading and slipping into a coma (after effect of multiple powers absorption we’d say). At this precise moment he gets a kind of vision/premonition of what might actually happen concerning the destruction of New York. It’s pretty clear that they could use that as a twist but it was hard to guess they would use that card now. The show loves to bring more questions as it answers some of them… we got to see pretty much everyone in a set of sub-plot but we’ll have to wait until January 22, 2007 before a fresh set of episodes emerge. I really love that show. (Period)Previous post: Heroes

When I go back thinking about the show I can hardly believe how it managed to reach this point. This is one of the best suspense/action/drama show. Of course my love has been lately shared with new comer Heroes but my loyalty towards Prison Break is unbreakable. The show has always been well written and the constant rebounds keep you on the edge of your seat from week to week. Last year, at the same time, I was sure Michael Schofield was breaking out and the show would end. I mean how far can the scope of the name PRISON BREAK go?

They did their job with the advertising saying that the escape just begins. This second season has been just has fun as the first. Unlike last year’s hiatus the fall finale break will resume in January instead of time killer March. This last episode was full of surprise and the finale was pretty un-expected. It opens new doors and the second half of the season will be promising. If you missed it or know nothing of Prison Break you can visit FOX.COM where you can view episodes online.

I guess I never paid attention but this software has been out for some time. It lets you watch TV over the Internet. In other words you stream different stations that are captured by individuals or by the broadcaster themselves. The TVU Player uses P2P technology to spread the bandwidth. The key word to remember is that it’s FREE. If you are living in the United States you probably already get all the main stations over the air, but in Canada or around the world we would have to pay local providers for these channels (FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS). Many take it for granted but when you think that you have access to channels like the Cartoon Network it’s value becomes increased.

Additional interest comes from the fact that foreign language viewers will be pleased to know that there are Asian and French channels available. Paired with many music video channels, Animal Planet and HBO to name a few. Sports fans get their share with a few ESPN and NHL Center Ice (broadcasters here can charge around $150 for it!). Sadly there are a few down sides to this great system, since it relies on P2P to share the data amongst viewers if there are not many people watching a station it will reduce it’s quality and in some cases the picture became unviewable combined with distorted sound. The channels are broadcasted with no alterations, this means you see advertising just like on regular TV. This way the content holder increase their viewers and they stay happy because the advertisement they care so much about is still there. There is no reason to pay monthly fees mostly for a infrastucture and profit to a third party when the Internet could be used as low cost medium (bandwith use mostly on the user side).
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, than what about streaming video? It’s more like a thousand books. Just try it out and tell me what you think of it. If you live in a house of plenty and all the TVs are busy… well you just turned your computer in an aditionnal TV WITHOUT a TV Tuner card. The TVUPlayer 2.2 can be taken from Download.com [here]. Their official website: www.tvunetworks.com

Ordinary people discovering extraordinary abilities. Heroes is a new show presented by NBC that is just what the title says. Strange that I discovered the show only on it’s third week but I’m amazed by how easily I got hook by it. If you like the comic book genre, love super hero story but would like to see them struggle that is the best way; right there.

We’ve had the X-Men, the Superman, the Spiderman, the Batman and the Fantastic Four. It’s hard to point exactly to witch existing comic it would relate but I think they are doing a good job to create a new dimension in which they can play. The series stats off with different people across the globe that start noticing their special abilities, one can fly, one can heal herself (super fast; à la Wolverine). Others can paint the future, read peoples mind and stop time.

Many of those individuals have to struggle with life as any human being should but are slowly alienated by their powers. Destiny seems to draw them together in New York and the murder of a scientist that was trying to prove this evolution theory adds to the drama of the show. You can’t have good guys if you don’t have bad ones; this is why we get a psycho-serial-killer that can move objects with his mind (telekinesis) such as blades, tables, chairs and stake you to a wall. You also need a catastrophic event; such as a vision of the future of New York being destroyed by a nuclear weapon. Finally but not least; there has to be some organization that will take advantage of the Heroes power for their own means and always seem a step ahead.

This is a beautiful settings for those extraordinary characters to live in and try to survive. They must unite to accomplish their destiny and it’s probably to save the world. The show airs Monday nights at 9 PM on both NBC and Global. Don’t you miss it, I sure won’t!

Official Website: www.nbc.com/Heroes/