Dumbland

“Space”, a brief episode of Doctor Who made for Comic Relief. Part 2 is here.

A quick guide on hooking up PlainText on iOS with Scrivener, via Dropbox. Not perfect, but nice.

So on an interview behind the Sunday Times paywall, recording haircut Jon Bon Jovi has claimed that Steve Jobs is “personally responsible for killing the music business.” It seems like an odd choice of words, since what he seems to be pining for is the non-business-related ephemera of the music experience.

It’s not a new complaint, but I still think it’s a stupid one. The transition of music from albums to digital singles happened well before the iTunes Music Store came along in 2003. What Apple and its ilk reminded a clueless music industry of was that customer service matters. These digital download vendors made it easier and more convenient to purchase music legitimately than to bother with the less-than-legitimate services. People responded, and the music business got paid.

This is a bothersome argument because it comes up again and again as old media empires fail to adapt to new realities, and decide to screw their customers instead.

And yeah, some of the phrases I used in this post left me a little ill.

It took me a while to find a relevant article on a site that didn’t make me feel unclean. Gamasutra is okay, or it was when I read it ten years ago. Perhaps I’m thinking of something else. Anyway, Apple have made it a little harder for kids to spend all their parents’ damn money on stupid in-app purchases.

Of course all the things I get via IAP is awesome and valuable. Actually I believe I’ve only bought one thing, and that was the “remove ads” option in PlainText. I’ve just had to restore my iPod and thanks to a small amount of stupidity on my part, the backup was not properly restored. So now my copy of PlainText is showing the IAP option as unpurchased. According to this page here, I can just ‘purchase’ it again and it will be restored for no charge.

When they finally get around to revamping the App Store, I hope they make the experience of re-downloading an item a little less blind. It’s no fun having no idea whether I’m plunking another $6 down on something I’ve already paid for.

Richard Ayoade’s directorial debut. I need to get out to the cinema more often. Of course, I can’t find an Australian release date for this.

A music video gets passed around the Internet, and even I’m not so removed that it doesn’t eventually land in my browser. To be honest, I’m stuck listening to songs 10 to 30 years or older, and my hearing is crap anyway. I struggle to see the difference between Rebecca Black and Justin Bieber. There is a difference however, and it is well explained here.

I’d feel sorry for these kids delusions, except that they’re set for life, and people still seem to take Paris Hilton seriously, so what the hell do I know of other people.

Something something democracy.

I need to keep reminding myself that when it comes to video cameras, “HD” is a ridiculously low threshold. The new model iPad seems to carry the same two cameras that the iPod Touch does, rather than the higher quality units found on the iPhone. I know on the Touch, this seems to limit some apps. Google Googles for instance will not work on the Touch camera. I wonder if this will remain the case. Like the Touch, the iPad’s front-facing camera seems incapable of taking a photo that will natively fill the screen. Interesting.

Other than that, a decent update. A little bit lighter, quite a bit thinner, with the same tapered features of the 4th iPod Touch. Judging my the photos this means the same angled buttons along the side, instead of the flat buttons of the previous model. I’ve found these more difficult to push on the Touch, instead tending to use two fingers to pinch them - one finger on the button, one on the front of the device.

The Smart Cover looks pretty interesting, reminiscent of Amazon’s Kindle case. I’m curious how well the magnets will hold when slipped in and out of a bag however, and whether I’d even be comfortable with something not covering the whole device. It does seem possible however for third-party manufacturers to leave room on the side for the case.

The other new accessory, the HDMI adapter supporting 1080p output, would seem to suggest that the next Apple TV will have no problems handling full HD.

Nothing on iOS 5, but an announcement of iMovie and Garageband for iPad. I think I’ll be sticking to Final Cut on a Mac Pro, but nice to see anyway.

Available to buy on March 25, but in the meantime Apple AU seems to have dropped the price on the existing models.

Some of the movies aren’t exactly ‘classic’, but other than that this little game is what it says on the tin. Being easily bored however, I only got to around 22-10 before I quit.