I was at a Historical Society meeting the other night and came across this gem. Part of the evening’s activities was a Show and Tell where various members brought some items of antiquity. Marlin Makley brought in this TV.
Look at that screen size!
For the full details including the history of this portable TV head over to the Fenton Historical Society. They should have an article up in a few days covering the details.
The upgrade to 2.5 was a success. It went much smoother than the last upgrade here. While I’m still tweaking things here in the backend, let me share some fun links with you:
Creepy Video Service from Fred and Sharon
Creepy Video Streaming Service FROM YOUR CELL PHONE!!!
Ok, enough creepiness for one day.
Early in February my wife and I picked up shiny new iPod Touches. It was our V-Day/Tax Return/Finally-got-rid-of-that-old-futon-on-craigslist-for-200-bucks gift to each other. Now let me start off by letting you know that I love the device. It’s a fun toy and a decent (basic) PDA. That said however I have one huge UI question for the folks in Cupertino.
Why don’t all apps rotate to landscape mode?
You make this gorgeous widescreen device, in a world where the widescreen format is becoming the defacto standard. I can rotate my music, and Ohhhh and Ahhh over how slick coverflow is. But I can’t for my videos? Ok, so thumbnails of videos aren’t nearly as cool as cover art. I get it. But what about my Photos.
HA! You say. You can rotate photos and flick between them, zooming in with careless ease. Ok. Pick a landscape photo. Tap once to bring up the controls. Tell me, which orientation are those controls in? Why can’t I turn the damn thing sideways flick through a few pics and then go back to selected another Event/Folder without having to flip back to portrait mode?
Or better yet, there’s this great mobile email client on my iPod. Pretty spiffy yes? But I can’t turn the damn thing sideways to take advantage of the larger keypad layout. WTF. I understand each app has a separate purpose but that doesn’t give the developers carte blanch with regards to usability and UI design. Some apps have an alphabetical listing you can jump to by scrolling down the right side of the screen. Other apps do not. Tapping the top of a page in MobileSafari takes you to the top of the page, not so much in Notes & Mail.
Ok, I know now I sound like a total party pooper. You’re never going to look at your iPhone/Touch the same again, right? Right?
The most frustrating thing is I believe Apple will improve the UI over the course of the platforms life, which is great, but you know I’ll be paying for that new interface; not loading a new update via iTunes for free. 🙂
*And for Mac users has been for a few years now. I believe the last Mac sold with a 4:3 ratio monitor was either the iBook or eMac.
My cousin found my Grandfather’s Bible. Apparently my Great Grandfather handed this down to him sometime in the 60’s. It’s rather worn and isn’t very interesting as far as old Bibles go, but it does hold some interesting family information. Apparently my Great Grandfather wrote information in the first few pages about my Grandfather and his siblings. He also writes about his wedding, including my Great Grandmother’s maiden name! Which, until today my father and I never knew.
Please have a look at my Flickr set to see the full size photos.
This evening while I gave my daughter a bath, the following songs were played randomly from my iTunes library.
Jacksonville – Sufjan Stevens
Woman King – Iron & Wine
Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Croquet – Bitch and Animal
Goon Gumpas – Aphex Twin
Gravity Rides Everything – Modest Mouse
Cloud Watch – Lol Hammond
Decatur – Sufjan Stevens
Yes, it began and ended with Sufjan Stevens. And I must say, as we were listening it all seemed to fit the mood quite nicely.