Peter Norris

Its been over 24 hours since the Macworld keynote. I’m not going to go over every little detail, because you can find that anywhere you look on the internet. Instead, I’m going to talk about what I find the most important.

To start, iTunes Movie Rentals!!!! I think a lot of people were expecting this to happen. All the major studios are on board, prices are decent and they even have HD movies to rent. But, unfortunately, you can’t buy HD movies. At least you can rent them. But the thing about that is, only on the Apple TV. If you want to rent the movie in HD, you have to do so from your Apple TV, and you can’t transfer it to you computer to watch it there. Apple will be providing a free upgrade to the Apple Tv to support rentals. I think I might get one. But of course, no rentals in Canada yet. As usual, the service starts only in the US but Steve said it would go international by the end of the year. Hopefully Canada will be included in that, and before December.

Speaking of Canada, still no iPhone. Why the wait? Its probably because Rogers is being stubborn. I likely wouldn’t get one anyways, but I still want the option. The iPhone got some nice new updates in the 1.1.3 firmware. And the great thing is, the iPod Touch got those updates (minus the phone specific ones) and even got some of the original iPhone apps like Mail, Notes, Weather, Stocks and and Maps. But for a price. For $20 iPod Touch owners will be able to get the update. I don’t really want to pay $20, but I do want to update, and eventually I’ll be forced to update.

Along with these announcements Apple also released the Macbook Air. Well I don’t really understand the name, I do like the computer. Its thin with a decent design. But there is no ethernet port (but being a laptop I guess you don’t need one), no optical drive (but you can use an external one or wireless access the drive on another computer), and there is even the option of a solid state drive (for $1000 more). I likely won’t get one (I need more speed), but its still nice.

I think it was a decent keynote. Nothing revolutionary, but I really didn’t think there would be. Only like 5 months till WWDC. Maybe I’ll get to go this year.

PS: Oh ya. They also released Time Capsule. But thats nothing important. 

Apple | No Comments »

Its that time of year again. The Macworld keynote is in a little over 2 days. Here are my predictions for this year’s keynote.

•  Apple will release the Subnotebook everyone has been talking about. I don’t have any predictions on specific specs, but there has been lots of supporting evidence lately, so its more than likely going to happen.
• iTunes movie rentals. There has been speculation about this for a while, but lately there has been news of contract negotiations and supporting keywords in the iTunes source code. Hopefully they won’t be in just the US.
• An update to the Apple TV. As Steve Jobs said, the Apple TV was a hobby. And it definitely was a disappointing hobby. Hopefully the Apple TV will see a bigger hard drive, and I’m hoping for the inclusion of a TV tuner and the ability to record and stream TV shows over the internet (kind of a Tivo Slingbox fusion).

Other things I’m hoping for but I feel may not happen.

• iPhone coming to Canada. I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that Ted Rogers (the CEO of Rogers who will carry the iPhone) was heading to Macworld. If he was this would definitely mean the iPhone has landed in the great white north.
• HD movie rentals/purchases.  I think a lot of people would love HD movie rentals/purchases through iTunes. However, I don’t think the bandwidth into the average person’s home could support it just yet.
• Blu-ray drives?

Hopefully I’ll see everything I want. But I doubt it. I know there will be something that surprises me. After all, last year I said there would be no iPhone and look what happened.

Apple | No Comments »

A new semester at university has started. So far, there isn’t very much work. In fact, I don’t think I have any work to do right now. I’ve only had 3 of my 5 classes (the other 2 are tomorrow), and so far there’s nothing too special. Although, I am looking forward to Algorithms and Data Structures course. It looks interesting. As well, my Cisco security course looks like I might actually learn something and get to do some fun things in the lab.

It was my birthday 3 days ago, and now I’m 20. So far, nothing has been different from when I was 19. Hopefully that will change soon.

I have some ideas for the blog that I’m going to work on over the next little while, as well as finding some ways to monetize the blog. I need to find some source of income and the blog looks like a good option.

Until my next post, remember to keep your firewall turned on.

Life, School | No Comments »

On Friday, January 4th 2007, the high definition DVD format war was won. And it was won by Blu-Ray.

On friday Warner Bros announced they would release their movies exclusively on Blu-Ray and Toshiba, the main backer of HD-DVD cut short their CES press event and ran and hid. This announcement leaves just Universal and Paramount as the only studios supporting HD-DVD. With all but two studios supporting Blu-Ray, I’m going to go on record and say: Blu-Ray has won the war.

Because the majority of movies will be released on Blu-Ray, more and more people will start to buy Blu-Ray players, and hold off buying HD format movies from Universal and Paramount. By the end of 2008, one of the two remaining hold-outs will succumb to consumer pressure and switch to Blu-Ray. Once this happens the last studio will be forced to switch, as there will be no market for HD-DVD.

In my 2008 Tech Predictions post I said the format war would be settled by one event, and only 4 days into the year, this event took place. I always felt like Blu-Ray was going to win, right from the start. Blu-Ray is technically superior to HD-DVD and seemed to have an edge on HD-DVD.

The outcome of the war has been decided, however the battle rages on. It’s only a matter of time before HD-DVD waves the white flag, and concedes defeat to Blu-Ray.

Tech Stuff | No Comments »

Today i turn 20. Its an important day. Not only have i been alive for 1/5 of a century, but it also marks a turning point in my life. The last 20 years have been primarily about school, whereas the next 20 will be about my career and starting a life of my own. Sure, I still have two more years of school, but out of 20, thats not many. 

These past 20 years certainly weren’t a waste. I made lots of great friends, most of whom I hope I’m still in contact with 20 years from now, I went to Italy, started university, and so much more.

Over these next 20 years I plan to accomplish many things. Finish school, get a job I don’t mind waking up for, make a life of my own. The list goes on, but nothing (except maybe school), has any certainty to it. But one thing I’m almost certain about is I don’t want to stay in Toronto forever. San Francisco sounds nice.

Rather than looking at this day as just another birthday, I’m going to look at it as an island on a sea of change. Its time to make some changes, take action, and make something of myself. Here’s to another 20 years.

Life | No Comments »

When you delete a file on your computer, it doesn’t actually go anywhere. Its just marked by the OS as free space and then allows it to be written over. This allows data you thought you deleted to be recovered.

With Permanent Eraser that data will be overwritten 35 times, rendering it irretrievable. Definitely an application for the security-conscious mac user to check out. 

Freeware Find, Security | No Comments »

With a new year comes new technology and a new way of doing things. Here are my predictions for technology in 2008. 

1.  Online distribution of digital content will turn mainstream and become a valid way of distribution. Content will branch out from music to movies, TV shows, and books, all through legal channels.
2. HD will continue to grow and become even more popular. HD movie and TV show may even appear.
3. A clear winner in the Blu-ray/HD-DVD war will emerge due to one format suffering a single major blow in their fight to be victorious.
4. User created content will become even more popular and mainstream, as the public tries to find new ways to deal with the writers strike. 

Obviously, these aren’t the only changes in store this year, but I feel these are the main ones and will have the most profound impact. What do you think will happen in 2008?

Tech Stuff | 1 Comment »

A new year, a new start. 2007 was a decent year, but certainly nothing to write home about. There were some things that I wanted to do, but unfortunately didn’t accomplish. Hopefully 2008 will be much better.

I’ve decided to come up with a couple of New Years resolutions and goals. Some of them I will post here, others are more personal that I won’t. 

First, I’m going to try to blog at least every other day. I was really bad at blogging this part year but hopefully this year I can change that around and actually be successful at blogging. Second, I’m going to try to monetize the blog and get a small bit of income out of it. Speaking of income, I also want to start doing a bit of design work and get my name out there. I also want to try to learn PHP and Objective-C so I start coding web apps and Mac apps. Why? Just cause I want to, plus I think it could be good for my career.  

2007 wasn’t  a particularly bad year, but as I already said it wasn’t the best year either. This year I’m going to be more outgoing, and to use a way over-quoted phrase “seize the day.” No more procrastinating and sitting and watching TV when I could be doing work. No more saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

To everybody, good luck next year. Don’t fall into the rut of procrastination. Make 2008 a year to remember, not a year to forget. And remember, don’t be afraid to Think Different. 

Life | No Comments »