1) Perspective View: This may be hard to explain, and I’ll add a video of what I’m describing soon if it’s not in the tablet. Essentially, it’s hard to type on a tablet and see the screen on a flattened axis. What I propose here is that when the tablet is placed flat on a surface, the onscreen keyboard stays full size, but the rest of the screen visually tilts in perspective so that looking down on the screen, you see the image as if the screen were recessed into the table before you. Therefore you have the illusion of looking directly into the screen and have it appear in the proper perspective to your seated position. (A graphic will be added soon.)

2) The return of WYSIWYG: The original Mac was breakthrough in the fact that what you saw on the screen was ACTUALLY what you saw on paper, etc. Somewhere down the line we lost this. What needs to return (and on the Mac as well) is when you review ANYTHING in 100%, onscreen rulers should appear, as 1 inch is ACTUALLY 1 inch. There is really no excuse for this not to be the case, and with Apple producing their own screens; it should be a standard, especially IF you use apple screens.

3) Wireless Operation, INCLUDING CHARGING! We’re in the 21st Century People! Why do we have to plug in everything? The tablet should be able to sync, charge, print, communicate, etc., all without one cable connected! EVEN headphones! There really is no technical excuse why this shouldn’t happen now.

4) VideoPhone/Conferencing: We have the technology, and we just need an influential company to push it in to existence. Apple changes the world; let’s have our world closer to the future we all dreamed. VideoPhones should be here now! (As for the tablet, its camera should identify the caller talking, and track them digitally even if the tablet is on a table. Again, we’re all about perspective here. When you place the tablet on a flat surface, the image should change to the perspective to be accurate for the caller. (Graphic soon.)

5) Voice, Voice, Voice, Voice! 2001: a space odyssey featured the HAL-9000, a computer that could communicate with us and us back using a voice interface. That film is ahead of its time, and took place nine years ago! The keyboard was born with the typewriter decades ago, why are we still using it as our primary text input device?

Apple created a video with the help of George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic called ‘Knowledge Navigator’. It was introduced many years ago as the computer of the future. Watch it, and see how it relates to today.

Cheers, and May today deliver one of the greatest breakthroughs in our lives!

David

Apple’s announcements almost ALWAYS occur on a Tuesday; There NEEDS to be a reason that they pushed this announcement to Wednesday, Sept. 9th. The reason is that 9-9-09 is being sold as a major milestone in the history of The Beatles and you can bet Apple will be right there in the middle of the celebration!

The Beatles will be made available on iTunes on Sept. 9th or I’ll eat my hat! (if I had one). (I’ll also go so far as to say that it will premiere Apple’s new digital jewel case concept, and will also include mini-documentaries on each album.)

As loyal readers know, this blog is all about seeing through the hype… well, the way the entertainment industry works, is that the marketers look for one major ‘event’, and then pile on as many ‘sub-events’ as possible so that the ‘buzz’ for one promotes the others. Well my friends, Apple ‘conveniently’ chose September 9th for their major press event about “Rock and Roll”, and the writing is clear… let me spell out what that date means in the world of The Beatles.

1) The Beatles: Rock Band– The remarkably addictive game that is inspiring future musicians everywhere, is coming out with a ‘Beatles’ specific version. To be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. Click for more info on The Beatles: Rock Band

2) The Beatles Remastered- The albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in London. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the catalogue has seen since its original release.

3) The Beatles Stereo Box- Set Includes: -Hard black glossy lift top with magnet clasp -All 13 Studio remasters plus Past Masters -CD’s are packaged in three panel digi-pak with digital mini documentaries. A special box set of all of the newly remastered albums and includes a DVD of all of the mini documentaries.

4) The Beatles Mono Box- Set Includes:-Hard white glossy slip box-CD’s packaged as mini LP replicas (replica artwork, sleeves and gatefolds)-Original Mono versions of 11 albums (12 discs)

Another major sign of this fact, is that Apple and The Beatles would hold back a digital announcement until there truly was something special to announce. It wouldn’t surprise me if Apple was a major player in this Remaster happening to begin with, and now Apple can present The Beatles co-PREMIEREING on iTunes in their new masters. This is no coincidence, it’s calculated genius.

The Beatles have ALWAYS been at the heart of Apple. The company was even named Apple by Steve Jobs after The Beatles own label, Apple Records. For those who remember, Apple has been in court over Apple Computers competing in the music industry, and only recently did Apple finally win (buy?) the trademark “Apple”. (A short while ago Apple announced that they had settled with Apple Records, and was finally changing the name of the company from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.; that was a mighty victory for Apple.)

The 9th of September is going to be huge for The Beatles, and Apple’s announcement will also have a huge ‘positive’ effect as well.

Now, as for the other predictions:

1. I’ve already explained the remarkable influence The Beatles has had on Apple, and Steve Jobs. There is NO WAY that there can be just a U2 iPod without a special edition The Beatles iPod. You can count on it with the complete remastered discs included. Expect custom wallpapers, etc. This will be the ULTIMATE way to get the new Beatles sets, and Apple will sell them hand over fist. Don’t underestimate the power of this announcement.

2. Steve Jobs WILL do the event. Steve loves The Beatles, Apple, and a great show. He wouldn’t miss it for the world!

3. Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney will appear, and will perform together on stage. Hey, if Microsoft can get them to appear for the Rock Band announcement, Apple/Steve will get them to appear and perform at Apple’s Event! Click this link for coverage of the Microsoft event.

4. Apple’s new “Project Cocktail” digital album format will be premiere with The Beatles and will include everything you would get with a physical release. Click for more about “Project Cocktail”.

5. iTunes 9 will be introduced with support for “Project Cocktail” and Legal DVD/BluRay ripping. It’s only illegal to rip a DVD or BluRay if you don’t have the permission from the rights owner. I believe that Apple has obtained the rights from every studio, and will RIP and compress for the iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, etc. versions of movies and television, BUT WITH DRM in place on all. (For the record, Sony has already discussed this possibility to get video content on their PSP.) Also to be announced is that the iPhones and iPod touches will be able to output HD to HD Televisions. (Like the ZuneHD can.)

6. iPhone/iPod Touch 3.1 will be released to support new models.

7. All iPods Nanos and Touches will be refreshed to include cameras, and the iPod Touch will also gain a microphone, and micro-shuffle will have buttons added to the surface of its body. Expect the Touch to have the same video abilities as the iPhone 3GS. The iPod Classic will continue but will gain the largest hard drive available (I do not expect a camera or microphone to be built into that form factor.) The iPod Touch will also drop in price to $199 for a 16GB model, $299 for a 32GB model, and $399 for a 64GB model. (The lower price of a 16GB ZuneHD ($219.99 vs. the current iPod Touch 16GB for $299) guarantees this change to remain competitive.)

8. The last iPhone 3G will disappear for a $99 iPhone 3GS to take it’s place.

9. Wireless sync to your computer, and computer independence through MobileMe computerless Syncing of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Let’s face it, the one thing that keeps ALL adopters from going iPhone is that so many people use phones but don’t have computers. With pressure from the new ZuneHD, Apple will finally offer computerless wireless sync.

10. Wireless Bluetooth stereo headphones. iPhone/iPod Touch 3.0 offered the ability to use Bluetooth headsets, and left it to 3rd parties to create them. Apple wants to have the best of everything, and I’m sure that Bluetooth stereo headphones are just around the corner.

Everything on the list it likely and I’d expect to happen.

One last point… consider Apple’s (Rolling Stones Lyric) statement in the announcement… “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.” It wouldn’t surprise me if JUST The Beatles availability was announced. I’m positive about The Beatles, but the rest we’ll just have to wait and see… soon.

Cheers!

David

(Thank you TheHDRoom.com for the usage of your image.)

Monsters Inc. and A Bug’s Life were rendered for film at 1536×922. HD’s 1080p resolution is 1920×1080. So how can these films be released on BluRay in true, native 1080p resolution? The answer? ONLY if they re-render the films over again at the higher resolution.

A short time ago Pixar and Disney 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. These would have to be re-rendered in higher quality to insure a native 1080p BluRay release as well.

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 (in this case Monsters Inc. and A Bug’s Life), it’s going to REQUIRE a re-render of the entire film in a higher resolution to accomodate a new release.

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 my 1080p BluRay of Monsters Inc. I only hope that they aren’t just transferring the film in it’s original rendered resolution and calling it 1080p. When I find out, I’ll update the story.

“‘Malaria is spread by mosquitoes!”

Unbelievable! In a non-funny attempt to prove that we Americans (the more fortunate?) can get malaria from mosquitos too, Bill Gates chose to release his little friends on an unsuspecting group of technologists at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference in Monterey, California.

Read the original story here…

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!

Cheers!

It’s an amazing waterfall at Canal City Hakata in Fukuoka, Japan (a shopping and entertainment complex).

Watch, be impressed, and enjoy!

I’m truly impressed by this combination of water and technology. It’s amazing, well thought out, and remarkably engineered. Bravo!

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.

Inventor Denny Klein described his invention of Hydrogen Technology as a ‘unique electrolysis process.’ Though this is pretty exciting stuff, it raises several questions:

1. Is the by-product truly just Oxygen, Hydrogen, or a weird combination of both?
2. Will there be a more deadly bi-product like Chloride or Fluoride floating in the air if we use water from our tap?
2. With the right filtration system, can we use anything that has water in it….. urine, 7-UP, beer? (Oh, wait a minute, we take back that last one).

Klein has been around for a few years, but the timing couldn’t be better for him to find himself an eternity of fame, let alone his 15 minutes. Here’s a link to his patent info on the invention and a couple older articles. Go Denny, go!

UPDATED EDITORIAL: There was a period of time when bottled water cost more than gas. Today the average liter of water at a 7-11 costs $1. So a gallon of ‘clean’ water costs $3.79 a gallon… the same price as a gallon of gas in Los Angeles today. Of course at 100 miles on 4 oz. of water, this new system is far more efficient, and if the byproduct is clean oxygen, is it not poetic that this new energy source might actually improve the air over the smog-machines we currently drive? I’d much rather fill up a ten gallon tank with water than with gas any day.

Also, if the 4 oz. per 100 miles figure is correct, than this car would get 3200 miles to one gallon. (Why fill up with more than on gallon?)

Fictional thought: All I can imagine now is how excited the powers would be if they found a nearby planet that had oceans of oil… Some way to get there and harvest that oil could be created…. well… what if another nearby race looked at the Earth’s water supply the same way.??? Or did this already happen in the miniseries ‘V’?