Author: jezlyn

Thanks to @dburr for letting me know that my blog post about handwriting apps for the iPhone was sort of featured on the latest episode of the AppJudgment podcast!

FastFinga is a great handwriting app for the iPhone, and I’m quite curious to see if they make a native version for the iPad. Lack of palm rejection could be an issue, and I was kind of thinking about how developers of FastFinga, or any other inking app for the iPad could work around the problem. One idea that I can recall off the top of my head was to make the app’s window smaller than the full screen size, and reject any input from outside of the app window, but I’m not even sure if that would work. I’ll gladly accept a token royalty fee if it does, though. Another dorky workaround could be putting a piece of paper on the screen on which your hand could rest while you write. I’ll try anything whenever I am able to test out FastFinga and other handwriting apps on the iPad (anyone up for iPad donations?)… Stay tuned.

I can’t reveal details about the talks we’re deeply involved in. I can say that the working title was “Roger Ebert presents Fill in Words Here,” and that it has now become “Roger Ebert presents At the Movies.” Gene Siskel and I started using that title way back in 1980, when we left PBS for Tribune Broadcasting. I can also say the Thumbs will return.

I can also say that we held video tests with several potential hosts two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and know who we will use. We also know we will have a strong web presence. We will go full-tilt New Media: Television, net streaming, cell phone apps, Facebook, Twitter, iPad, the whole enchilada. The disintegration of the old model creates an opening for us.

Back when Siskel and Ebert had their movie review show At the Movies, I didn’t pay it much attention, because I generally didn’t take many movie critics’ reviews to heart when deciding what to see. Sure, sometimes I was curious about what certain critics, including Roger Ebert, thought about a movie, but their reviews didn’t sway me much. And because sometimes Ebert would hate a movie that I didn’t think was so bad, seemingly not getting the idea behind the movie, I kind of got this “grouchy guy” vibe from him that turned me off. I therefore didn’t really follow the changes that At the Movies went through, though I did know via the news about Gene Siskel’s passing, Richard Roeper becoming the new co-host, and Roger Ebert’s fight against cancer. All that said, I still wasn’t a regular reader or fan of Roger Ebert…until I started following him on Twitter. IIRC, Andy Ihnatko’s frequent tweets to Roger Ebert made me curious about what Ebert posted on Twitter, and I ended up following Ebert that way. Well, once I did, I was treated to a ton of interesting posts, including this one about Ebert’s upcoming movie review show. What grabbed me most was how he said that the new show would be taking full advantage of “new media”, creating a major online presence for the show. I’ve always railed against people in the movie and music industries wanting to hold on to the old way of doing things, shunning technology, digital downloads, the whole shebang. It is awesome that Roger Ebert is one of the people in the movie industry who doesn’t share this luddite attitude. I fully look forward to the new show coming out, and highly recommend that if you aren’t already following Roger Ebert on Twitter (@ebertchicago) that you do so ASAP.

Yes, I am hungry right now, having only eaten a piddly hot dog for lunch and a few smokehouse almonds as a snack. Nonetheless, this recipe sounds completely awesome!

FREAKING. AWESOME. Now I have to finish reading the other volumes I have (I’ve only read the first one all the way through, but I totally loved it!)…

There are smartphones and there are superphones, and the latter category is heating up to a boil. While it sometimes seems that the release of cool new phones slows down to a trickle, this year it’s becoming more of a firehose. It can be trying to keep up with the Next Big Thing in the phone world, so it makes sense to pick out the 5 best superphones to watch.

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Great list. I have been smitten with the HTC EVO, even though I haven’t read that much about it yet. The specs just seem totally awesome! The HTC Desire pictured above sounds cool as well, with the Sense UI layered on top of Android. I wish I could buy 4 of the 5 in the list (I’ll let you guess which one I don’t want).

I’m probably supposed to keep this secret and build everyone’s anticipation to hype this up. Oh well. Maybe I’ll do that for the Instapaper edition for Apple’s next revolutionary computing platform. First: Instapaper is definitely coming to iPad.

**doing a happy dance** Even though I’m not going to have an iPad right on April 3rd (waiting for the 3G version, and even then, will probably have to wait until after first-day availability due to budget constraints), I am eagerly watching all of the news about my favorite iPhone apps getting ported over to the iPad. Read the rest of Marco Arment’s blog post to learn more about Instapaper Pro on the iPad as well as a developer’s approach to releasing an app for the iPad as close to day one as possible.

Thanks, Marco!

In other words, the HTC EVO 4G is an important device not only because of its blockbuster specs (4.3-inch screen, Snapdragon processor, 1GB built-in memory, 512MB RAM, Wi-Fi, 720p video recording and playback, HDMI out to play content on your TV, 8-megapixel camera with flash and a lower resolution front-facing camera for videoconferencing, and ability to Android () 2.1), but also as the first phone to support the next-generation 4G WiMAX network for theoretically blazing fast data speeds.

It can also act as a portable hotspot to connect your other devices to broadband Internet speeds — if you’re familiar with the MiFi device, it’s like that but built into your phone. And it will be available this summer.

Anyone else drooling yet?

You know, I’ve said several times that I never want to go back to Sprint because I had a crappy experience with them a long, long, time ago. However, their recent offerings and very low mobile broadband prices have been sort of tempting me. This newly-announced WiMAX phone from HTC is quite the looker, both in hardware and specs, so who knows… By this summer, if the next-gen iPhone doesn’t have the updates I am wanting, I may finally move away from the iPhone as my smartphone. We’ll see. I’m always changing my mind about these things.

The opening paragraph of the article says it all:

A team of scientists has succeeded in putting an object large enough to be visible to the naked eye into a mixed quantum state of moving and not moving.

Read on for some more amusing reaction from Kottke.

I straight-up loved this movie. It’s a fascinating look at the creative process of a team with strong leadership operating at a very high level. The trailer is pretty misleading in this respect…the main story in the film has little to do with fashion and should be instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever worked with a bunch of people on a project. Others have made the comparison of Anna Wintour with Steve Jobs and it seems apt. At several points in the film, my thoughts drifted to Jobs and Apple; Wintour seems like the same sort of creative leader as Jobs.

Sounds good! I had seen a few mentions online here and there about this movie and I think it’s in my Netflix queue already. Just thought I’d repost this blurb here to get the word out.

Saw this list a day or so ago, but forgot to post a link. Check it out…droolworthy retro gadgets await you.

A) Who knew that Google offered a service for you to upload your own TV ad and buy airtime on major networks from the comfort of the interwebs?

B) This is a weird ad.

Check out the link above, and let me know if you make your own ad to air on late-night TV.

Earlier today I saw a link to a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” (thanks, @bigepaz!) by Pomplamoose, which was pretty awesome in itself. Actually, the timing is kind of funny since I recently watched a bunch of Lady Gaga’s videos, starting with “Telephone”, thanks to my curiosity about MTV supposedly banning the video. But anyway, I checked out Pomplamoose’s other songs, and I wanted to pass along this one. Fun and attitude-y, always a good combo.

If you like what you see, they have a couple albums on iTunes.

I love gear bags almost as much as I love the gear I put in them. Came across this new Thule Crossover Backpack on Uncrate and tried to find more info about it, but it seems pretty new, and looks to be a product exclusive to the online Apple Store for now. Why can’t some bag manufacturers realize that a shot or three of the inner compartments of the bag should be job one? :-/ It looks like a really clean design, but not knowing what the main compartment (not the laptop part) looks like inside makes it difficult for me to decide whether or not this bag is right for me. The price is pretty decent, considering how expensive laptop backpacks can get. Hopefully soon I can see one in person.

I normally use Handbrake for my video encoding needs, but I stumbled across this app and thought I’d pass it along for anyone looking for a Handbrake alternative.