Kindle iPhone App

Kindle iPhone App Page View

It all makes sense now, why would Amazon, who would like to sell more Kindles, allow an app that fully functions as an actual Kindle? Yup, that’s right, you can transfer and read Kindle books on your iPhone or ipod touch, but connecting directly to the Kindle Store to instantly purchase the next best seller…think again. To download books, you need to open your browser on your iPhone or touch and go to Amazon.com like any other schlep downloading a book. Oh, and if you’re a newspaper or periodical reader, forget about it. The app doesn’t support those formats yet.

Ha! And you thought you had it made you thumb-scrolling, App-addicted FOOLISH consumers!

On the other hand, if you simply want to use your iPod/iPhone to read a book you’ve already downloaded and have been reading on your Kindle, the app will remember where you left off and resume at that point. Not bad as a Kindle auxiliary device that can show color, for those of you who read comic books on your Kindle in beautiful shades of gray. Frank Miller rejoice!

Here’s a nice Kindle App review for your ganderization: Comparing Kindle 2 With Kindle’s iPhone App

By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Technology Writer

SEATTLE – Apple Inc. co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs said Wednesday he is taking a medical leave of absence until the end of June — just a week after the cancer survivor tried to assure investors and employees his recent weight loss was simply caused by a treatable hormone deficiency.

Jobs, 53, said in a letter last week that he would remain at Apple’s helm despite the hormone deficiency, and said he had already begun the “relatively simple and straightforward” treatment for the problem. But in an e-mail to employees Wednesday, Jobs backtracked.

“During the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought,” he wrote.

Apple’s chief operating officer, Tim Cook, will take over Jobs’ responsibilities while he is on leave.
After-hours trading on Apple shares was halted. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s stock had sank $2.38, or 2.7 percent, to close at $85.33.

Jobs announced in 2004 that he had undergone successful surgery to treat a very rare form of pancreatic cancer — an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. The cancer is easily cured if diagnosed early. Jobs did not have a deadlier and more common form of pancreatic cancer called adenocarcinoma.

EDITORIAL: One thing money can’t buy is health, and just like our sad losses recently, I hope that Steve truly does recover quickly. We live in a new world where creativity and passion for the future is not as embraced as it used to be. Steve is a great leader who has changed the world time and time again. I want to live in his future with him, and not stagnant like Windows. -David C. Fein

Let’s cut to the chase. Codeweavers made a plea to President Bush to bring down gas prices, never expecting it to actually happen. Well, they bet that if it would happen, they would give away their CrossOver Pro software for free for 24 hours! (Normally $70!)

CrossOver allows you to run windows software without a copy of Windows. While not as versitle and compatible as Boot Camp, VMWare Fusion, or Parallels, it DOES work quite well with many windows titles, and the price is right!

SO… Stop reading, and go here immediately! (Once you get your e-mail be SURE to log on and register your copy before midnight tonight CST!)

For an enjoyable read about this whole deal, click on this link.

As for 2 Live Fool’s hype-free zone… opinion… here you go. CrossOver is way behind in it’s usage and and overall acceptance. This giveaway should enable CodeWeavers to claim usage number at or above the current market leaders VMWare Fusion and Parallels. In general, this is a great opportunity for the company to expand it’s user base, and entice new users to PAY for their ongoing support plans and upgrade fees. This is a generous giveaway for users, and a truly profitable opportunity for CodeWeavers. Bravo!

The Google Android phone was released today. Will it be able to compete with the iPhone? Absolutely! We examine the Android Phone, the new iPhone 3G, the new iPod Touch, and the new nanos.

You’ll love getting the new fools updates on the newest digital revolution releases! You won’t be disappointed!

One Frame of Lowry Digital Images breathtaking restoration of “North by Northwest”.

As per Variety today:

Demos joins Lowry Digital Images
Exec named senior algorithm scientist
By DAVID S. COHEN

Gary Demos has joined Lowry Digital Images. Demos will be a senior algorithm scientist at Lowry, which is an industry leader in digital film restoration and image enhancement.

Demos received the Gordon E. Sawyer Oscar in 2006 and has received scientific & technical awards from the Academy in 1985, 1995 and 1996. Lowry was acquired in April by Indian-owned Reliance Big Entertainment.

(Click here for the original Variety Story Link.)

I’ve written about the amazing work of John Lowry and Lowry Digital Images for years (See this post about the James Bond remasters). John’s company remarkably enhances and restores image quality that has never been visible before. Using computer algorithms, John has been able to pull out image information that was previously invisible to the naked eye, and actually deliver new masters (and now negatives) of classic motion pictures that are SUPERIOR to the original NEGATIVE of the movie. AMAZING.

A number of years ago I produced a documentary entitled “Crossing the Frontier: Making ‘The Last Starfighter’”on the groundbreaking work of Gary Demos and his then company “Digital Productions” as they pioneered the use of computers to replace models in visual effects. The innovations at the time ignited the computer generated imagery (CGI) effects work of today. I’m exceptionally proud of that documentary, and I’ve always been inspired by his pioneering spirit.

Gary invited me to his office years ago, and shortly before the hidef standard was declared, he had brilliant proposals that were fresh and revolutionary. He was also working on remarkable compression technology that actually improved image quality by dropping dirt and noise information from a source instead of image quality. So in essence, his compression would actually reduce the size of the source material while IMPROVING THE QUALITY! I left his office amazed by the possibilities, and remarkably impressed by his passion and talent.

When I heard today that these to pioneers had teamed up, I needed to blog to truly report that this is a special day… a day that I believe is going to change the way we enjoy movies forever. There’s a long list of films that Lowry Digital Images has already processed, and Gary’s innovations have already been influential to the industry as a whole.

(Lowry Digital Images has processed, the Star Wars Original Trilogy, The Indiana Jones Trilogy, All of the James Bond films prior to Casino Royale, North by Northwest, and so many more…)

I’ll be updating and adding to this post over the next few days, so come back and learn more about this amazing union!

This announcement has made my year!

Coming soon…. a blog speculating about why ONLY ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ is the only Indiana Jones film coming to BluRay, and what Lowry Digital Images has to do with this.

(Watch this for some support of what we’ve speculated about Mr. Shatner…)

We dare you. Be a fool!

Bottom line–free is free. Okay, I know some of us guard our precious minutes each day like we’re Warren Buffett and we huff and puff while watching ads that run before our favorite web videos, TV shows or online whatever. I’m certainly one of those people and, yes, it gives me great power to rant and sigh as I sit through the commercials. But in the end, I’ll drive and park seven blocks away to avoid paying a $3 valet tab, AND I’ll sit through commercials if I don’t gotta pay one penny. So after five months of private beta testing Hulu has officially launched and I’ll say it here first, it’s going to kick some major bootie.

Hulu, the online video service developed by the two media titans – News Corp and NBC Universal, has gone live on Wednesday (March 12, 2008), nearly five months after it entered private beta testing.

The joint venture will make its public debut with programming from Time Warner Inc.’s television group, Lions Gate Entertainment and sports groups, including NBA, NHL and NCAA.

“Today Hulu is crossing a milestone in its mission to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium content, when where and how they want it,” said Jason Kilar, chief executive officer of Hulu. “With full-length episodes of current and archived television shows, feature films, sport and news, we believe the Hulu service is a step forward in giving consumers entertainment on their terms.”

This online video service was first announced in March 2007 by NBC Universal and News Corp. executives and the site was launched in beta in October. The company received large amounts of funding, $100 million of which came from Providence Equity Partners.

Hulu, which primarily offered content from its founders, News Corp and NBC Universal, will, at launch, offer full-length episodes of more than 250 TV series from current hits such as “The Simpsons” as well as older shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, along with 100 full-length movies including “The Big Lebowski” and “Mulholland Drive.”

The deal with Warner Bros. Television Group (WBTVG) will bring full episodes of “Babylon 5,” “Welcome Back Kotter” and clips from “Friends.” Hulu will also carry “Requiem for a Dream” and “Killing Zoe” from Lionsgate on its Website.

In addition to existing television and recently added video content, Hulu has also signed video licensing deals with the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.

The nightly highlights and top plays from the NBA and the NHL as well as Web-based programmers like “Prom Queen” and “Onion News Network” will be available on Hulu.com. The site, which was created to bring together the widest selection of premium video with an elegant, easy-to-use interface, will also showcase full-length NCAA men’s basketball tournament games from the past 25 years.

In the past 30 days, during the site’s beta run, more than five million users watched the ad-supported content either on Hulu.com or through its distribution network that includes Hulu’s partner sites (AOL, Comcast’s Fancast.com, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo!) and other Web sites where users have embedded Hulu videos.

“If you make media truly easy and put the user at the center, they will respond,” Kilar said. “That’s what we’re dedicated to.”

Toy Story Series Gets 3D Digital Makeover

Pixar and Disney have just announced that both Toy Story I & II are being re-rendered in actual 3D for re-release in October 2009, as a prelude to March 2010′s release of Toy Story III–also in 3D. But Why would they go through all of the effort re-rendering both I & II when so much is being converted to 3D from an original 2D format. Why? The answer after the break….

For the latest DVD releases of Toy Story I & II, Pixar•Disney raised the technological bar by transferring the film directly from the digital frames instead of going to film, then back into a video transfer. The results were stunning. However, standard DVD has a resolution of 720×486 (with rectangular pixels for those ‘technical’), and that resolution is clearly lower than the master files.

However… Both films were created at 1536 × 922, and are far below the 1900×1080 resolution of 1080p HD (however higher than the 1280×720 of 720p HD), and therefore if they were transferred to 1080p HD, they would look soft and low resolution. (Take a look at the new compilation of Pixar’s shorts recently released on BluRay disc to view some of these lower resolution files on your 1080p quality system.)

It’s my understanding that all of the earlier pixar films were rendered at 1.5k (1526×922); whereas Pixar•Disney’s Cars was their first film to be rendered at 2048×1080; commonly referred to as 2k.

When you consider that the highest resolution of hidef video is 1920×1080, you can clearly see why both Cars and Rattatouie are available in 1080p HD, and none of the previous Pixar•Disney films are as of yet.

So, in order to have nice 1080p HD releases of the previous Pixar•Disney films, it’s going to REQUIRE a re-render of the entire film in a higher resolution to accomodate a new release. Thankfully, a new 3D release will not only impress and satisfy audiences, but will also give the financial support to the motivation to upres these films for HD.

What also excites me about the idea that Pixar•Disney is re-rendering the films, is the fact that rendering/shading technology has improved so dramatically since those films were originally made, and I hope that the original sources can be ‘plugged-into’ the new software and higher and more natural results will be rendered. I’m sure it will be amazing…

Personally, I can’t want for a nice 1080p copy of Monsters Inc. (My bet is that this film will be next for the re-render/3D treatment.)

This is your good friend Sully… signing out.

Yet another reason we Fools have been holding out to get our iPhone (aside from the fact AT&T wireless service sucks in Los Angeles). There’s been plenty of 3G iPhone speculation around the web ever since the iPhone was previewed as a 2G model and Steve Jobs said, at the original iPhone keynote, that a 3G model would come ‘in the future’. Oh, and we ain’t talkin’ about Gigabites for those of us who might be confused at this point. We’re talking about the actual wireless technology (speed/bandwidth) and the difference between a current 2nd Generation (it’s actually at it’s 2.5G stage) and 3rd Generation which will utilize UMTS technology, transmitting roughly up to 2 megabits per second (Mbps) of text, digitized voice, video, and multimedia.

Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported on AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson, publicly saying that a 3G iPhone was due ‘next year’, although he didn’t know when or at what price.

What has been unleashed since is an entirely new wave of 3G iPhone speculation. All we know so far is that Jobs’ only 3G iPhone availability update was when he announced the iPhone would be available in the UK through European telco O2, where he said a 3G iPhone was coming ‘later next year’.

This would seem to indicate a mid-year to second-half availability timeframe for 3G iPhones to be unleashed onto the world, giving Apple enough time to get the necessary FCC authorisations and testing with 3G carriers.

A 3G iPhone would provide users the speed they need to get lightning fast access to the web, email, Google Maps, the iTunes store and any other iPhone app that requires access to the data network.


But as the iPhone is capable of using data at a fast rate of knots, should the user desire it, a huge question looms for consumers – will carriers still offer an ‘unlimited’ data plan for 3G iPhone users, or at the very least will gigabytes of download data be available as an option at generous prices?

Carriers have struggled with the nature of the ‘unlimited’ data package they are providing to iPhone users, with reports that some carriers who are carrying the official iPhone in Europe originally set their download limits quite low, and boosted it once the low ‘unlimited’ limits got some deserved negative publicity.

Data is generally quite expensive when access via a mobile device, so Apple’s ability to get good amounts of data thrown in with the iPhone monthly charges was a brilliant move. Let’s just hope they can still use their enormous leverage when it comes to 3G iPhone data bundling and pricing.

So, which 3G technologies might Apple use, and which one is better?

Another question for Apple is whether or not they’ll use 3.5G HSDPA and HSUPA technology on the new ‘up to’ 7.2Mbps standard, already available on ExpressCard and USB wireless broadband modems, and no doubt soon available built into mobile phones as well.

Real world download speeds for 7.2Mbps capable devices are 550kbps to 3Mbps and faster, while upload speeds are up to 1.9Mbps, with real world upload speeds of up to 1.3Mbps. These speeds are also much faster than EVDO networks, a competing 3G techology, can currently provide.

This new 3.5G standard is faster than the older 3.5G standard that transmitted data at a maximum of 3.6Mbps with real world speeds of 550kbps to 1.5Mbps, and uploaded at speeds of up to 384kbps, and faster still than the now old 3G standard which could download data at speeds of up to 384kbps with real world speeds of around 250kbps.

Still, whether Apple goes for the faster 3.5G technology or not, download speeds will still be blisteringly fast compared with standard 3G and 2.5G EDGE networks.

Most of Apple’s competitors already have 3.5G chipsets at the 3.6Mbps standard built-in, with companies such as Nokia extending battery life on the famously battery hungry N95 with a new firmware update, and extending it even further in the new N95 8GB by including a 30% larger capacity battery.

So, the technology is certainly now there to provide hours of power to today’s most advanced phones, and will undoubtedly improve further over the coming months and years, but with every passing day Apple’s assertion that 3G uses too much power is slowly becoming less true.

Using data on the iPhone when connected to a Wi-Fi network blows away the 2G EDGE experience all iPhone users are putting up with at the moment, so the launch of a true 3G iPhone is highly anticipated, especially by most existing iPhone owners who will likely upgrade in a flash and donate their old iPhone to a grateful family member.

I certainly will be upgrading when the 3G iPhone launches. Let’s just hope it comes sooner, perhaps mid-2008, than later, otherwise the iPhone will be the most advanced smartphone on the planet with the slowest Internet connection. This paradox clearly won’t last forever, but start saving your pennies now, for when the 3G iPhone arrives, you’ll want one!

It’s MAC iCAR, the unsung Apple trademarked hero of the film!

While sharp-eyed individuals may have spotted him in theaters and on DVD during the time-passing montage of the first race in the film, the new Blu-Ray high definition release gives us more information about this witty racer.

Highlighted from his fifteen seconds of fame in the only shot which he appears in the film, MAC iCAR keeps the pace…

Thanks to a new ‘Car Finder Game’ feature of the Blu-Ray disc, we can now learn more about this innovative racer. (However, it doesn’t seem to mention the historical significance to his number… ’84′… gee, I wonder what that’s supposed to signify.)

Also revealed on the new Blu-Ray disc is the iCar’s accessory, the iTrailer! (It’s a nice touch to expand a little on this cute guy’s product line!)

When I first noticed Mr. iCar at the theater I was filled with the backstory hilarity of the situation. Pixar went out of their way to make sure that there is NO product placement in their film, yet we have the iCAR. I really loved the nod, it was the closest nod since the back cover of the magazine at the end of Monsters Inc.; “Scare Different”.

With all of the recent talk about how Apple engineers are developing a new iCar, it’s necessary to appreciate the original ‘MAC’ today!

The iCar – Apple To Team With VW

Is VW Concept Apple’s Mystery Car? – Space Up! Blue Could Be Apple iCar

Get a copy of Disney/Pixar’s amazing new Blu-Ray disc of Cars, or the original widescreen DVD of the film:

]]> http://www.2livefools.com/foolsblog/forget-vw-heres-the-real-apple-icar-call-him-mac/feed/ 1