Jerry Bruckheimer. I have nothing against him, he took a ride and made it a successful IP, one that I even enjoy. I do not however feel, that he was a good choice for PoP, The game, while it’s only T(unless you count WW with its M rating) it still too intense for a family oriented Disney movie. If you haven’t played the games then shame on you, you’re 6 years late, and I’m going into details now: In the first hour of SoT everyone but you, Farah, and the Vizier turn to sandmonsters, meaning you must kill many of your comrades, including an emotional battle with your father, in his now zombified state.

That’s a bit intense for your family of 4 going to see this on a Sunday afternoon, don’t you think? I also have doubts about the cast, Jake Gyllenhaal specifically. He’s a bit ethnically challenged for the role. It feels like they might as well have cast Nolan North and gotten it over with, so I could have referred to the whole thing as a mistake, like Spawn the movie. Names, too, Prince has never had a name, they even kept true to that in PoP: 2008, as mediocre as it was they at least got that right. Not only to they give Prince a name they change everyone elses.

That being said, I do see some good in this: Since Jerry Bruckheimer is working on this, there’s basically an unlimited budget, which is extremely noticeable in the trailer, specifically with the slow-down scenes. The firs time I saw the trailer, I thought it was the dark prince emerging, but it’s really just a new take on the time manipulation scenes. The scenery is perfect, Gemma seems a good fit for the Farah-esque character. Jake seems to have the iconic corny comebacks down pretty well, too.

There are two thing in particular I would love to see in this movie: One being the intro/ending. Remember the intro I was talking about? Well it starts off like this: You see the Persian army headed towards the palace, the Prince’s voice chimes in “Most people think that time is like a river, that flows swift and sure in one direction, but I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you, they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am, and why I say this. Sit down, and I will tell you a tale like none you have ever heard” (forgive me if thats a bit off, I’m going from memory). Towards the ending of the game is him sitting with Farah, He tells her of the Vizier and how he plan to betray her country. She wonders how he knows this, so he begins “Most people think that time…” The other scene I want in the movie is the end scene, after he defeats the Vizier, Farah walks in and sees the Vizier really was a traitor. Prince, knowing what all has happened is still in love with Farah, but to her, none of it happened. He leans in and kisses her, and she shoves him away, scorning him. He uses the dagger to go back in time a few seconds before he kissed her. At the end of the scene he is running off, and she asks him for his name, he replies that she can call him “Kakolookiyam.” That was the name of a the hero from stories that Farah’s mother told her when she was little, she had shared this with Prince before he reversed the opening of the hourglass. Those two scenes would just about make the movie for me, I doubt I’ll see either, but I can still hope.

What has really started to sell me on this though is the IGN Rewind of the trailer, where Jordan Mechner actually talks about the movie, scene by scene. His reasoning behind certain questions we all have makes sense, even if it isn’t what we want to hear. He talks about the incorporation of the name, Dastan. It’s Persian for trickster, and it just seems to fit. He explains that in the video game he was nameless you you can further associate yourself with the Prince, but he introduced a name for the movie because when you’re watching it, if Gemma just refers to him as you all the time, it’s going to throw most people off, and even though I’m not “most people”, I not only agree with this, I prefer it. He also talks about the rest of the cast changing, along with the story, He explains that SoT worked very well the way it was, it made for a great third person action adventure platformer, but that doesn’t make the best movie, which is one big reason that most movie-based games suck, they try to follow the story too well, leaving you with a stiff representation of the movie and no new elements to the story. Unfortunately, it works both ways, so trying to copy the game to a T would be dry and washed out. Imagine watching someone playing a game, I for one usually find it entertaining, I can be lazy and experience the game firsthand, along with being able to backseat-game. Now imagine that you’re watching a recoding of someone playing the game, seeing the game played in third person, where it feels like you can manipulate the character, but there’s nothing you can do but watch. That’s not really what I want to go see, no matter how visually impressive it seems to how well written the story is.

On a side note, there is a prequel coming out in April, it’s a graphic novel, and while he didn’t work on any of the interior as far as I’m aware of, Todd McFarlane did the cover to it. I’m genuinely excited for that and that will not change. One funny thing i have noticed about it though is McFarlane left Marvel to create Image, now he’s doing a bit of work for Disney with this GN, who now owns Marvel, just seems a bit humorous to me that he’s doing work for his former employer if you look at it the right way.

Overall, I am hopeful of this movie, even if it doesn’t follow the original story in SoT. There also seems to be elements from the other games as well, such as the temple and the dagger-tail.

And one more thing: Mechner said that Ubisoft was working on something for the movie, hopefully it isn’t a game based on a movie based on a game. I’m personally hoping they’re taking cue from Sony and doing the same thing with the SoT trilogy as Sony has done with God of War and rerelease the games in high def. How great would that be?

Now on to what I planned for this write-up to be, my favorite apps and why I like them. These will be in order that they appear on my phone.

1. Tweetie 2 – I actually just downloaded this today, as I’ve used Twitterfon(now Echofon) since I got my phone. I loved Twitterfon and how simplistic it was, even if it took it’s feel from the original Tweetie. Twitterfon did some things first though, such as landscape, and now it syncs with my desktop app, but after using Tweetie 2 for ten minutes i can say it has a much better feel to it and it is easier to navigate. Things such as swiping downward to refresh just seem natural.

2. BeejiveIM – It’s an IM app with push notification. I have it set up to look exactly like the Messages app so it feels the same when I use it, but it doesn’t use up my text messages. It’s completely customizable down to backgrounds, skins, and the color of the bubbles, theres landscape support. At the same tim its very simple to use, and thats what I like the most about it.

3. Instapaper – This was another reason I used Twitterfon, it had Instapaper support. Around here there is only an EDGE network, presumably because AT&T sucks. I have WiFi at home, work, school, and Heather’s house, so for the most part, it isn’t a problem living without 3G. At times though there are articles that need to be read, damnit. That’s where Instapaper comes in. Say there’s an article I want to read, I can pull up my Instapaper bookmark and go to it, and it will add that page to my Instapaper account. I then open my Instapaper app, refresh it, and it downloads the article in a text only format, and only takes seconds. on top of that, If i’m checking tweets and see a link that seems interesting, I can send it to Instapaper from within Tweetie, and read it later on my phone after I finish checking tweets, or even on my computer on Instapaper.com. It also supports offline viewing, and within the app you can download the images from the pages you send yourself, if you feel the need to. OMG best part I almost forgot! I can tilt my phone away from my and the text scrolls towards the bottom, and towards me and the text scrolls to towards the top, that makes me happy, because at times I don’t feel like doing anything but changing the angle I hold my hand by 5 degrees.

5. Jaadu VNC – It’s a remote desktop App. I can log onto my iMac from anywhere, and do anything I need to with it. Say I’m at school and forgot to bring a paper with my I typed up, I can log onto my computer, zoom into the screen by tapping 3 fingers on the screen, open finder, then click and drag the item into dropbox, then open the file up from a computer at school and print it off. It uses a lot o multi-touch gestures to make it easier to navigate, such as 2 finger scrolling and 3 finger tap to zoom in/out. Aside from loading a disc into the drive or anything else you have to do physically, I can do on my Mac with this app. It supports Windows as well, and is fully encrypted.

6. Google Mobile – Say I want to go bowling. I open Google Mobile and hold it to my ear like I’m on the phone. I then say “Bowling”. It searches for bowling near me and I can get a list of the closest bowling alleys, along with phone numbers, and directions from my current location. I don’t think I need to explain this one any further.

7. Memory Info – It clears my Ram so I don’t have to restart my phone as often. Sadly, this app is no longer available, but there is one that does the same thing from the same company that made this one, but at a higher price of 2.99, whereas I paid .99 for this. The available one is called System Activity Monitor, and it’s available from Recession Apps.

8. Midomi Ultra – It’s a music tagger. for those of you familiar with Shazam it’s very similar, except you can sing to it, hum to it, or even speak/type the lyrics and it will try its best to identify the song while embarrassing you at the same time for singing to your phone. It’s 4.99, but I got it while it was still Midomi, and was free.

9. NewsStand – Google Reader App, its fast, it’s simple, it’s perfect.

10. Tap Tap Revenge 3 – A good rhythm game for the iPhone that actually has some good music as well (Smashing Pumpkins, NIN, Metallica etc.) It’s got in game purchasing, much like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and they add new tracks weekly.

11. Peggle – Need I say more?

12. Good Reader – Large PDF viewer, perfect for the DVDs you can buy from Marvel containing every issue of a specific comic, It will view word documents and excel files as well.

13. Sudoku Grab – I can find a sudoku puzzle online and screenshot it, launch this app and import the picture, it then converts that image into a digital sudoku puzzle. I can also go to a bookstore, pick up a sudoku book, and take a picture of a puzzle and it will do the same thing. If you feel like cheating theres a complete button that solves the puzzle instantly.

Fin.

While Apple does tend to have a slight amount of information leaked, it is usually not 100% accurate. Take the 09 iPod event for instance, There was huge speculation, leaked pictures of cases showing off camera holes in the top centers of the Nanos and Touches, there ended up being no camera in the touch, as that would be competition for it’s own iPhone, and there was a camera in the Nano, in a different spot than the cases had shown. The innovations that come out of Apple are groundbreaking, they deigned batteries for the MBPs with square cells instead of cyllindrical ones, utilizing around 30% more space that was otherwise wasted. The multitouch trackpad was an incredible innovation, and after using Heather’s MBP consistently, I actually prefer it to a mouse.

Google however started as a cute little search engine. They have lately become an advertising and map giant, along with many other services as well. Google adsense has revolutionized online advertising. Since Google is the most popular search engine, they know what you are interested in. If they know what you’re interested in, they know what to try and sell to you. Therefore advertisements are more appealing to you, leading to more clicks, leading to more money for Google, the website you were browing when you clicked it, and potentially, the site you are directed to after clicking it. Google also has Google Maps and Google Earth, two similar services with different purposes. The introduction of streetview was incredible in itself, and still amazes me when I use it, being able to look at your local town square or Seattle’s town square. Documents is an extremely useful service they offer, and it like most Google services, is free as well, as compared to Microsoft Office. Reader and YouTube are things I use daily, as does a lot of the world, and I can’t wait until Wave is out of the invite only stage and I can delete my FaceBook. These aren’t anywhere near all of the services offered by Google, as I’ve only touched base on everything Google has their hand in, but you get an idea of what all they do.

Recently though, Apple’s ties with Google has gotten sour. With the rejection of the Google Voice application, Apple’s recent acquisition of a map company, and Google’s ventures into territory that directly competes with Apple, there seems to be a lot of tension between the two companies that wasn’t there 6 months ago. Apple buying the maps company means that it can use it’s own maps for location tagging in iPhoto, the Maps application on the iPhone, and they can potentially venture into the same territory Google is dominating in with its own maps, though it will likely never be successful as Google’s own maps. The rejection of Google Voice has been met with hostility by consumers moreso than Google, seeing as AT&T tends to have some power over Apple’s own App store. Revently though AT&T announced that it would allow VOIP applications to work on it’s 3G network, so there is a chance that GV could eventually appear on the App Store, though this is too far after the fact I believe, and we probably won’t see GV anytime soon on the iPhone. Another big thing with this is Eric Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s board of directors because of conflicts of interest. Seeing as he is the CEO of Google this makes sense, Google has Chrome as their Safari competiton, along with it sharing the name with their new operating system that is targeted towards netbooks. Android is another big factor, as it directly competes with the iPhone. Schmidt was missing out on more and more meetings because they were about the same types of ventures that Google was starting to dabble in. I found out last week that Arthur Levinson, board member for both Apple and Google, who served as an indepenent member of both boards, has resigned from Google.

Apple seems to have been the more aggressive in ridding itself of Google than vice versa, and while I see the reasoning for this being that they need the FCC off of their back, and the genuine conflict of interests, it saddens me to see two of my favorite companies break their ties like this.

And for the record, I still believe Google will become Skynet, but Apple won’t be a part of it.

Picture Via Tubaloo.

The keyboard is very responsive, has iTunes controls on the side, and oddly enough, an apple universal dock in the top middle. It plugs into the computer with 2 USB cables, one for the keyboard and one for the dock. It isn’t so much gaming oriented as it is media, there are zoom and rotate buttons to one side that you can set to work with a specific image editor. It does not however have Control, Option, and Command labeled properly, they are Control, Start, and Alt, Control being Control, Start being Option, and Alt being Command, which is pretty confusing to get the hang of. You can change these defaults by going to System Preferences>Keyboard>Modifier Keys, I’ve done this to make it more user friendly, but the fact that option and command aren’t printed on the keyboard still messes with me sometimes.

It features another set of keys down each side of the keyboard that are completely programmable, you can make a stream of keystrokes, add delays in intervals of 1/20 of a second/ There are ten of these keys and the keyboard features a profile button that toggles between ten different profiles for these keys, so you can essentially program 100 different commands into the keyboard, which would be most effective across different programs. I used this feature when I played WoW, I put the commands of my spell rotation in it with delays and all, and would effectively hit a key every ten seconds while I was mindlessly grinding, allowing me to multitask/be extremely lazy.

There are 2 USB 1.1 ports on the back side of the keyboard, accompanied by a 3.5mm line out port. I was always confused by this port, seeing as It didn’t play the audio from my computer. I tried going into sound under system preference and using Razer’s own software for the keyboard. Well today I finally figure out what it’s there for, and I’m somewhat confused as to why they would do this.

It relays the audio from an iPod plugged into the dock. It doesn’t work with my phone, but with my classic it works. It works whether the computer is on or not. I can halfway see a reason for this, but I can quickly strike it down with simple logic. If you have the computer on and your iPod plugged into it, why wouldn’t you just listen to your music through iTunes? If your computer is off why would you need to keep your iPod plugged into the keyboard? just plug the iPod into whatever output you would plug into the keyboard. Not only that, it adds white noise, not just a little, but constant crackling and hissing. The line out would have served a much better purpose if I was able to plug my headphones into it and listen to my computer that way, so I wouldn’t have to turn my computer or fumble around aimlessly to find the line out port.

I really do like this keyboard, the keys are quiet and don’t need to be pressed very far, I’m just a little put off by the line out now that I actually know its function, I’d almost prefer having a defective keyboard knowing it was at least designed with a bit more common sense.

Heres a link so a much more in depth review that I think describes it better than I can, plus it has pictures of all the features I’ve mentioned: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Razer/Pro_Type/1.html

Skullcandy.com has a coupon code right now for 50% off your entire order, the code is SKU124LL9021, enter it during checkout, its good until the end of the month. I decided because of this to finally invest in some Full Metal Jackets. They retail for $70, but with the coupon and free shipping, I got them for a few cents under $35.

I went with the red ones, seeing as red is my favorite color, and the color of the Nano I will eventually use them with. I knew I was buying the 11mm version, as the 9mm is discontinued as it seems, but there are two versions of the 11mm. Version A as I will call it from now on, has a white cable, a white carrying case, 3 silicon tips, and an inline volume control. Version B has a clear cable where you can see the aluminum wrapping inside, an extension cable, 3 silicon tips and 2 comply foam tips, and a black cloth drawstring pouch.

I believe there are pros and cons to both versions. Version A has a better carrying case, and the inline volume control. I view the control as almost necessary after using Smokin’ Buds for so long, as it is the closest thing you can get to having a play/pause button on your earphones like the Apple ones, since it keeps your device in your pocket, where it belongs. Version B however has a much more attractive cable as it is less likely to appear dirty (you all know how disgusting the Apple buds look after a couple months) and the braided aluminum is just more attractive than the plain white. The extension cable is great, it makes Version B the same length as Version A, but you have the option to make the cable about a foot and a half long, something invaluable with an armband. The comply foam tips are great as well, they work just like earplugs would, you squish them, insert them into your ear canals, and they expand, providing a more comfortable fit, and better sound isolation, as you can really only hear yourself breathing when you wear them. The foam tips can be bought on skullcandy’s site, and work with all of their buds, such as ink’d, smokin’ buds, and TiTans. The carrying pouch they come with is not my ideal carrying case, I would rather have something ridded, and have taken to using a round metal mints tin instead.

I’m not an expert on sound, I don’t buy $300 headphones, I can’t even adjust the settings on my stereo to make it sound better, and these are probably the nicest headphones I’ve ever used. That being said I really like these earphones. They have 11mm drivers in them, which makes for some heavy bass. They get much louder than is comfortable for me, as with my iPhone I usually listen at somewhere between 4 and 6 out of 16 notches on the volume meter whereas in comparison with the Apple buds, I listen to it between 8 and 12. I haven’t noticed any distortion at high volumes or any buzzing at all, regardless of the volume.

I can’t see these as a good choice for workout earphones, the fact that they have the short cable on them would be ideal for an armband, and makes me curious why the Asym earphones don’t have a short cable with an extension, considering most people who use buds while working out use an armband.

These are my third pair of skullcandy headphones, I own a pair of Smokin’ Buds and Lowriders. These are by far my favorite pair oh headphones I own. While I would prefer having an inline volume control and a nicer carrying pouch, I prefer the version I got, as the pros from it outweigh its cons in comparison.

I was originally going to post pictures of the contents, but my camera takes terrible closeup shots, so opted to not use any that I took.

My first Apple product was a fourth-gen iPod with clickwheel and dock connector, the version before the photo, but with the same appearance. It quickly replaced my minidisc player (I had been loyal to the MD since I had first gotten one, it had the appeal I had wanted, pocket-sized with the ability to hold more than one CD). The iPod was a christmas gift from my parents, my brother and sister both got one as well. I was sold almost instantaneously on it when I plugged it in to my then gateway desktop, and imported my 500+ songs in just a few minutes. The clickwheel was something amazing to me, it was so easy to learn and use, and I still prefer it to the touch interface of the iPod application on my iPhone. I didn’t take the best care of this iPod, I had no case on it, I left it in my car in the heat plugged into the power socket and my top mounting iTrip(remember those?). It eventually got to the point that even though I had conditioned the battery initially, since I kept it plugged in all the time, the battery life was an hour at most.

College was approaching, and I knew I would soon be be in the market for a new computer to take with me. I believe it was myspace that i saw the ad, College students buy a Mac, get a free iPod, they still run this deal at the end of every summer to clear out the current generation ipods to make room for the ones they announce in the september iPod events. Anyway, I started to look online at Macs, I had always been intrigued by them, especially the iMac, since there was a second-gen iMac in my tenth grade english class, as the classroom doubled as the school paper/yearbook room. I wanted a laptop for college, and my parents wanted me to have a desktop, as its less susceptible to theft, so we compromised and got an iMac. It is still my main computer, I got it in August 2006, it was one of the january models, the first run of intel macs, 2.0 ghz 20″. I got a white 30gb iPod Video with it, along with an Agent 18 videoshield case(here’s where I start taking care of my things) I have since upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, and Leopard to Snow Leopard. The following year my iPod was full, partly due to my brother putting massive amounts of music on my itunes, as he synced his ipod with my iMac.

I had asked for Leopard for christmas, and received it, along with an Apple giftcard, since my mom wasn’t sure if she had gotten the right thing. I decided to buy an 80gb Classic with the partial help of the giftcard, had it engraved with my name(boring, I know) and checked out online christmas morning, with free shipping. It arrived the 27th. From China. Engraved. I still have this iPod(in a case, the Griffin elan form) and its primary use now is to supply music for my car, I have a Scion with an iPod compatible radio, straight from the manufacturer, so the iPod sits in my center console, plugged in, giving me music in my car. Just after I got the car I joined a local gym, and decided what better to compliment my classic, than a second-gen shuffle, I lost with within the first month, major fail for me.

I then finally was rid of my contract with Alltel and got an iPhone 3G, I went for the 16gb white, partially because I knew I needed an iPod I could keep a decent amount of music on, because my classic mostly stayed in the car, and partially because I have a white iMac and a white car, and I love the way white looks on electronics(one big disappointment I had with the classic, I went with black because it looked better than silver, but deep down I wanted white). I’m not going to go into detail about the phone here, I use it, I love it, etc.

While I love my phone, there are a few things that I dislike about using it as an iPod. I dislike the organization of media on the iPhone, I’m used to the clickwheel list format that organizes songs in order they appear on the album, I know cover flow does this, but i don’t like that its accelerometer based, I mostly hold my phone in portrait mode when I use it, and landscape when necessary. CF is also slower to navigate than the clickwheel or the portrait iPod mode on the iPhone. Along with these is my number one concern: battery life. I use my phone a lot. If I’m sitting at the computer I use it to check my email o twitter instead of the computer, because I like the format better. It’s easier to navigate, and simpler. 3.1 has been somewhat of a burden, as I, like most other users, have been experiencing shorter battery life, I know this will be fixed in the near future, and its not the biggest concern as far as the battery goes, but it is definitely a factor.

Here is what this was originally meant to be, me talking about the nano, and why I will benefit from it. My apologies for the long story, I felt I needed to set this up, but got a little absorbed in the process. The Nano seems to be everything an iPod should be, easy to navigate, small size, large capacity, attractive, and just plain convenient. I know it won’t hold all of my music, but it will hold more than what of it I listen to. I know it doesn’t have the best camcorder built in, but as I’ve always heard, the best camera is the camera you have with you. Maybe if I had a 3GS I would feel differently about the camcorder, but it’s a really neat addition to an iPod of that size, or a gadget of that type to be honest. The FM radio didn’t seem like an idea worthy of being put in until I heard about the iTunes tagging. It has a clickwheel, and while its small and harder to use than the traditional one found on the Classic, it still beats the iPhone music navigation. I want it in Red, my favorite color, engraved with one of my favorite quotes from my favorite Sith (I’ll post a picture when I eventually get it, I don’t wanna give away the quote until after I have it myself. I recently bought a pair of Red Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket earphones to coincide with the nano, and I will to a write up on my impressions of them later on.

Perfect timing, off to work I go.