D10 Interview with Tim Cook

Tim Cook is the man deemed fit take over the reins at Apple after the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve himself chose Tim as his successor. When Tim's name appeared in my news streams, like many people, I said... who? This was a name I hadn't heard of but down the line we discover since 1998 he has been there in the background learning and waiting for his time to shine. This is a great look into who Tim his and after watching this I think he is the man to take Apple forward.

In the interview Tim shares his perspective on where Apple is and where the company is going. He also talks about the culture of Apple that Steve started and shares his final day with Steve and tells the story of how Steve left explicit instructions for Tim and the Apple creatives not to ask "What would Steve do", just do what right. This interview was from a cpouple of weeks ago. It's interesting watching this with the hindsight of having watched Apples WWDC keynote from last Monday as some of his answers, or rather none answers illude to some of what was shown their.

If your interested in Apple, innovation or just inspiration into how a business show be run I recommend you check out this small peak into the Apple culture.

Whats D10? D is a conference that happens every year put on by respected AllThingsD.com, a Web site devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media. The 10 part simply means the 10th conference. The conference is noted for it's in depth interview with some of the most influential people in tech some of which are know for the avoidance to speaking publicly in this manner which I think speak to the credit of this event. The most noted interviews at a D conference where a series of interview with Steve Jobs one of which was Steve and Bill gates together, awesome to watch. I'll be sharing more interviews from D10 that i find interesting so watch this space.

What do you think of the interview? Do you think Tim is the right man for the job? Do you think Tim will continue the culture Steve started and drive Apple to great innovation? 

Enjoy

G  

Song Of The Week: Jake Bugg - Country Song

Hello party people. Just here to hit you up with another song of the week. Don't accept immitations some other blogs have decided to pinch this feature and also the very song I was planning to use last week. 

None the less this is were the really good music is at. 

This weeks little gem I by a guy called Jake Bugg for Notingham. The keen ear'd (is that even a thing?) will recongnise this track from an advert playing in the UK for IPA beer. I've look around to hear more from Jake but there doesn't seem to be that much out there but if you head over to JakeBugg.com you can see his stuff and even get some free downloads. I highly recomend you take a look arround he has a very distintive sound. When I searched for the full music video I was once again caught out on my expectation. I expected to see a 30 something guy with a flat cap and beared and what we got was, well, not that he's more like Oasis mixed with Beatles and plenty of Bob Dillan thrown in  there for good measure. 

Everytime this advert comes on the TV the music makes me want to be in the pub depicted in the video of friends and family all getting a long laughing and joking without a care in the world. Basically what life about. 

Hope you like it, let me know what you think bellow

iPad in da house

I've increase my apple family by one, I now own a shiny new white iPad 16gig and surprise surprise I love it… Shocker. I make this statement not to state the obvious but because I expected a lot from this device it has and it delivers, and  them some!

I've been living with this new piece of tech for 3 weeks now and I already use it in most aspects of my personal and working life. This seemingly simple little device opens up new way of doing everything, watching TV, Reading news, Catching up on blogs & magazines, gaming, catching up on email, producing spreadsheet, taking meeting notes the list goes on and on and on. So with that in mind here's my 1st impressions after a short time with my new best friend...

Form factor

The 3rd generation iPad is thin, holding it in my hand it's hard to believe so much can be done with so little. It's a little weighty after holding it for a while but a trade off I'm more than willing to make for the awesome battery life. Better get down to the gym and work on throughs guns!

Battery life

I charge it every night and that's always been plenty to get me through the day which usually involves 2-3hrs of streaming video and 4-5+hrs of web browsing and gaming.

Spec

I went with the 16gig WiFi only model. I chose this model based on cost alone being the cheapest model, big mistake! Being so used to using an always connected iPhone for the last 3 1/2 years has made me come to expect some things from IOS. Case in point, I'm really missing notifications from the apps especially on email. Having to hunt for an available WiFi when I'm out and about, usually at work, is a plain in the ass to say the least. I can tether to my iPhone but it's not an elegant solution having to make the two devices talk to each other every the I just want to check email or sync Evernote, not convenient. 3G is the way forward next time.

As for the hard drive 16 gig does not go far at all! I very quickly filled up my drive space in just one day! I can be an app whore but I was strict with myself and kept it relatively low. Then I added roughly 10 albums and a couple of movies and I was full! none of my podcast were even added not good. I'm finding myself having to manage the storage very closely! When I take it on holiday later this year I'm going to think very carefully what I'm going to put onto it. One thing I should point out is I have photo stream turned on. Because I recently did a shoot using a more powerfull camera my stream is full of hi res image taking up around 4gig of my memory. I love shooting photos and photo stream is awesome for my work flow and so I can't be without but if your a photographer and want to use this in your work then your going to need to go big on the old memory. 

Screen

Retina display, you've heard and read loads about it but let me simply say is georgeous! Photo's look great but I tend to notice it more in websites, text looks sharper along with the images. 

Photography

The camera on the iPad was never a strong contender in previous models but in the 3rd itteration they stuck in the same lens that the 4g iPhone uses. It's not bad, while i'm never going to be doing photo shoots with this thing if i'm stuck in a pinch to snap a photo of something then this will more that do. While I wouldn't be using my iPad for shooting I most defiantly will be using it for editing a sharing. Photo stream makes getting my photo's, especially iPhone photo's, just about effortless and using iPhoto and other apps editing and sharing not only easy but fun too. 

Video

Watching video is awesome amazing retina display is a dream. There a tones of apps to get video onto your iPad I have a whole screen dedicated to them and all without downloading to your iPad it's self taking us valuable space, of course you need a good WiFi connection to make it work. I'll talk more on the various apps and what they do in later posts.

Web Browsing

9 time out of 10 i'll go to my iPad before the macbook or iMac just because the experience is so much better, websites look better on the retina display and browsing using a touch screen UI just seems so natural. Web pages load lightening fast and because it's so portable it's always close to hand. 

Apps

Now this is a blog post all of it's own, no serval blog post all of it's own. Needless to say this is where iPad really shines apps are the gateways to everything, you name it and there really is an app for that! Apps that i've been using on my iPhone for years seem basic compared to there iPad counterparts in both functionality and design. I'll be following section up with more posts very soon. 

Newstand

Newstand is great, its the one stop place for you to subscribe and manage all your favourite magazines. I've been reading some of the various magazines on offer such as Wired, Empire and PC Magazines. All of which take there print editions of there mag and created iPad versions creative interactive version of them. I done think i'l' be buying paper a magazine again. Magazines are available on a subscription bases or there are per item options.

Keyboard

The keyboard is surprisingly easy to type on despite being software and not hardware, most of this post was written on my iPad! It also has a simple dictation function which allows you to speak what you want to type and it converts it to text. It's a little strange to get used to to begin with but once you do it's pretty cool and surprisingly accurate. 

Summary

My new iPad really has changed the way I work and relax I really wouldn't be without it, i'm a little ashamed to say my iphone has been getting neglected. I really can see why sales of this awesome little gadget has greatsales numbers. They can be pricy I know but the good news is that older version can be picked up cheap and cheap, the iPad 2 is pritty much the same and the 3rd gen the main difference being the retina display. I can't recomened this enough, once you've played with one for a day or two you will find yourself wounder how you survived without once for all this time.

This post is just a very small summary of what I found so far. I will be following up with multiple posts about various aspects about iPad and iPhone and other IOS releasted things. If your not into apple you might like to take the blog out of your bookmarks. Just giving you fair warning now

Thanks for Reading and don't go changin'

G

Song of the week - Fun: We are Young

I just love this song! Turn it up loud, sing at the top of your lungs and forget about your trivial problems, we are ALL young! 

G

Great Time Lapse, Birth to 12yrs old in 2mins 45 seconds

Look at this great time lapse of girl from birth to 12yrs old in just a few minutes.

Lotte Time Lapse: Birth to 12 years in 2 min. 45. from Frans Hofmeester on Vimeo.

What a great way to remember your child growing up! This must have taken some serious dedication the farther video'd his daughter EVERY WEEK for 12 years wow. It look like it's the same camera and lens everytime crazy

Trailertastic - Looper

Hey hey party people, I realise my posts are coming think and, well erm... slow. I've been working on a little project i'm really excited to show you guys but don't want to jinx it so i'm going to have to make you wait until it's complete. 

For now I wanted you to see this trailer that came out of nowhere this week and got this guy alone with many very very excited. The movie is call Looper, it's a time travel film, bare with me, where in the not to distant future time travel is invented and is used to assinat people by sending them back in time and having someone else murnder them. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a younger version of Bruce Willis! how cool is that?.. Just watch the trailer you'll be onboard trust me. 

I know right?! sound track, action story and great cast. Can't wait to check this bad boy out!

What do you think? Love or hate time travel films? Answer in the bublydo bellow

Song of the Week - New York by Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol not too long ago release their latest album Fallen Empires and if you are Snow Patrol fan you wont be disappointed. Back in January me and Lotti finial ticked a long awaited item of our bucket list and saw Snow Patrol live during there tour stopping off at the Liverpool Echo area. The band, thankfully, lived up to all my expectations which were very high! The gig will go down as one to remember although i'm certain it will not be the last time we see them live. 

As with most albums there were a few song that instantly caught my attention right from the 1st time of playing it. One of which was a song call 'New York' and a few days ago the official video was launch so here it is. Have a look and see what you think. For me this song is exactly why SP are in my top 3 bands they somehow manage to repeated create haunting and captivating music and lyrics and really feel genuine and original. Hope you like it enjoy...

2 Movies to be very very excited about...

Ok boy's n girls lets easy ourselves back into this blogging business I know I said I have more time but that doesn't mean I'm sitting around all the time twiddling my thumbs. Let start of with a familiar post readers will be used to and talk about films! 

Personally i'm not a huge fan of trailers, I do enjoy watching them and usually they succeed in getting me excited for an upcoming film. However more often than not trailers give away far too much of the story away, ruining the film when you finally see it. I also don't like it when they put scenes into trailers that don't appear in the final cut grrr. So for these reason I try not to judge a film based on trailers, however...

Recently I've seen trailers for two upcoming film that I just can't help but get as excited as teenage girl at a Justin Bieber concert. Incase these have somehow missed you let me catch you up.

Avenger Assemble

Previously named Avengers, for me this one was a no-brainer. In concept Avengers Assemble had my name written all over it and that's where the problem lies! I've had my fingers burnt in the past, case in point do you remember a little film called Super 8 I got excited for what should be an amazing film, it had Sci-Fi, monsters, action, comedy all the things geeks love. In the end was left feeling under delivered. So I've done my best not to be pulled in the huge marvel marketing machine however these trailers are so god dam amazing. Just sit back watch in full screen mode with your speakers on 11!

Marvel Avengers Assemble Superbowl 2012 Official Trailer 

"I have an army", "Well we have a Hulk" BOOM that just happened! and just when you thought you've had all's you need this dropped...

AHHH WTF OMG i'm so excited I just pee'd my pants!  Did you see that? I'm sorry but I lost control and let myself get carried away when a reliable source told me that this is full on action all the way through the film and when you think there's no more they take you on another 20min action fest of witty one liners, crazy stunts and big exposions.

Ok deep breaths, serious question time now, who's your favourite Avenger character, I think they are all great but for me it has to be Iron Man hands down, I loved the concept as a kid and Robert Downey Jr has been a legend in my eyes since Air America he just simply makes the Iron Man role what it is! 

Having said all this about film being a let down on the flip side  I absolutly love it when movies come along that you think should be good, watch it and then leave the cinema thinking that was awesome! For me Attack the Block, Thor and Plannet of the Ape were films that I didn't hold much hope for but was very plesently suprised.

Prometheus

This one has been getting A LOT of buzz, quiet rightly too! The Alien franchise has been a strong one, the first and second being widely regarded as the best of series and the standard to beat for Sci-Fi and especially Sci-Fi thriller/horror. Prometheus is not an Alien movie as such, it's a prequel to the original. Set in the Alien universe, Prometheus answers the question where the famous crashed ship and its piolet know as The Space Jockey, we see in the beginning of Alien, came from along with a lot more judging by the trailer have a look...

Watching this trailer bring back fantastic memory's of watching the films as a kids.  I felt completely in awe of the Alien universe created by Ridley Scott then James Cameron along with the producers and judging by this trailer they not only captured that feeling, look and mood they improved it. Watching Aliens as a kids I loved the marines, Hicks was my favourite he was bad ass with his furtureistic machine guns side by side with his trusy shot gun (Just realised that must be why its my wepon of choise when gaming). There currenlt 4 Alien movies each seem to have a cult following but also divide fans as they are so different, which was your favourite Aliens film? I couldn't get into 3.

Ok, well that turned out to be a bigger post then I planned, but I guess that's what happen when you talk about something you love. Peace out for now, more posts soon(ish) 

Don't go Changin'

G

Back once again like a renegade...

Word up party people it's been too long but guess what... I'm back! 

So how have we all been? Well? I've been a busy bee for some time hence no posts but I missed you guys so here I am along with a new look to the site. What d you think? It's not done yet but I could wait to get it out there. I'm especially proud of the photography section where I can show off some of my photo's. Have a poke arround, more galleries are coming, one on my iPhoneograhy this week. 

Cheers

G

100 Films, 100 Days: Inception

I'm going to come clean here. My 1st time watching Inception I was left a little under whelmed. Upon refection I think this was because I didn't fully understand what the frick was going on. 

The 2nd time round however i'm onboard! Such a complicated and though provoking plot. This films is about a group of people who steal information by entering a persons dreams and extracting the info direct from their mind. One of the key plot drivers is actually the opposite of this it's called Inception, the team are employed to plant an idea into the mind of a soon to be heir of an energy empire. Whist this is going the the main character, Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is dealing with some personal issues which are putting the team's mission at risk. 

Inception is a movie that required some concentration to follow what's going on as you are dragged into this new reality and taught the rules. Believe me when I say it's worth your time because the effort you put in is paid off with gun fights, car chases, zero g fight scenes in a hotel (yup now your curious) and the simple satisfaction of being able to follow one of the most complicated plots since the Matrix 2. I was left wanting more and also left with some questions as i'm sure did most people ensuring that this film will be in peoples minds for years. Hum, have I/we been Incepted? (is that even a word?).

Casting a character are great there some very entertaining dialog between them my favourite being Eames (Tom Hardy) he brings some English charm and wit to a mostly serious cast. Other note worthy cast members include Joseph Gordon-Levitt who had so many great roles (i'm personally looking forward to he upcoming film Premium Rush), Ellen Page aka Juno, Ken Watanabe who play a fantastic role on 'The Last Samurai' and the late great Pete Postlethwaite.

All in all a must see film defiantly deserves to be in the top 100. I did see one or two plot holes and being an action guy I was completely satisfied on that front so i'm giving Inception a 4/5 

7 films down 93 to go in the 100 films 100 days challenge. 

Please feel free to leave me your thoughts on Inception in the comments bellow. 

G