Author: Mike P. Lewis

Avatar Thoughts

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I saw the new James Cameron film Avatar this weekend and loved it.  Loved it. Once again, JC totally delievered.  The movie is quite a spectacle.  It’s not so much the chracters, but the story and the visuals that make this film.  Even if you’re not a sci-fi fan, you need to check this out to see how $250 million bucks should be spent. Or as Ebert says in his review:

“Avatar” is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It’s a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message. It is predestined to launch a cult. It contains such visual detailing that it would reward repeating viewings. It invents a new language, Na’vi, as “Lord of the Rings” did, although mercifully I doubt this one can be spoken by humans, even teenage humans. It creates new movie stars. It is an Event, one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation.

If you haven’t seen the movie, the rest of this post isn’t for you.  If you have, here are some thoughts:

I found the plot to be a mishmash of movies i’ve already seen:

  • So much of the story seem extremely similar to the Kevin Costner film Dances With Wolves.  Not a bad movie to rip off considering it took home 7 Oscars.  But seriously, check this out: a guy from a modern culture sent to live with the natives. He falls in love with the native ordered to teach him their ways and in the process begins to prefer their “primitive” ways to his.  He then switches sides in an epic battle for the natives’ survival.   Of course, Avatar does this battle is a much cooler way and the natives are 12 foot blue people.  But still, it’s much of the same
  • When the machines are stampeding through the forrest and the natives are with bows and arrows and rocks trying to stop them, i couldn’t help but think of the Ewoks scene in Star Wars where the cute and awesome rebels put the kibosh down to destroy the shield.

The look of the film was incredible.  Really amazing.

  • The colors and lighting in this film are a sight to see in the theater and in 3D which is the best 3D experience i’ve ever had.  None of the dimming that typically occurs happens here.
  • I was worried about the Uncanny Valley effect.  This effect states that when a robot or CG person is made more and more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached (the valley) beyond which the response quickly becomes horrible (or a strong repulsion) which is what happened to me with most movies like this (remember Jar Jar or Polar Express).  However, the fact that Cameron was able to make the Na’vi human-like with CG opens the door for truly imaginative films to emerge.  This has NEVER happened before.
  • The last time i saw CG so clear and real was when i saw the Lord Of The Ring films, so i wasn’t surprised to see that Peter Jackson’s New Zealand shop, WETA, was the shop responsible.  Those guys are just getting better and better

If you know James Cameron, you’ll recognize some of the pieces of his past films showing up here.  Some things that stood out for me

  • I remember how obsessed Cameron was with the Harrier jets in “True Lies” and how he made Arnold hang from it for a major sequence.  So I wasn’t surprised when the main plane in this film was a smaller, sleeker Harrier.
  • If you read Wired you’ll know that JC loves going underwater.  He’s built and patented his own submarines so he can go deeper than anyone has ever gone.  Also, you’ll remember Titanic has a big chunk dedicated to the team going through the wreckage. Thus, it was no surprise to see that the land of Pandora looks very much like an underwater environment.  There are Jellyfish floating, sea-like creatures flying in the air, and tropical coral as vegetation.
  • Breathing is a big theme in the movie.  Similar to how the final scenes of “The Abyss” involve the main character running out of liquid air, this film ends in with Sully fighting to breathe.
  • Am I the only one who remembers the big human-like machines in (Cameron-directed) Aliens that Sigourney Weaver used at the very end where the machines mimic your movements but with more power? (see this pic to remember what i’m talking about) Well those things are back in this movie and while they are a bit more nimble, they are exact ripoffs from Aliens.

Anyway, just some thoughts.  What did you think?

Droid vs. iPhone Grudge Match

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Rdroid-vs-iphoneaduchel recently did a post that inspired me to speak up as I’ve been carrying around both an iPhone and a Droid for the past few weeks (since Droid’s launch) and comparing the two.  I’ve set the Droid as my main phone so i’m forced to use it more and get used to it. My main findings are:

– In general the iPhone kicks its ass in usability.  Typing on the droid sucks so much that i find myself not wanting to send texts.  This is especially true in the car. I can text and drive fine with the iPhone but the Droid will cause a crash.

– Having your phone be an iPod is a huge benefit.  This is such a major differentiator for me as i listen to a ton of music and listen to podcast every day while driving.  The media players on the droid are a joke.

– Google Voice is awesome and i really wish it was on the iPhone.  Being able to sync calls and text messages with the web is really useful.  There are other GV competitors but they don’t compare for me

– The voice reception and quality on the Droid is heads and shoulders above ATT.  I can actually get calls at work and inside my home.   I’ve never been an ATT hater but the Droid is making me a Verizon lover.

In general, i think the Droid is pretty great and definitely a competitor to the iPhone but the slickness/enjoyment of the interface and iTunes will keep me on it – at least for the near future.

Another Option for Your Attention

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TranquilThe world is changing. It is getting smaller, faster, smarter and more accessible. What’s crazy is that some people are bitching that all this technology and change is a bad thing. “Nobody reads anymore” i heard someone say the other day. I do believe that habits are changing due to technology. Mobile phones make it easier to tune out conversations and to not memorize phone numbers. The internet rewards and feeds a short attention span. The question i ask myself is “is this a bad thing?” Chuck Klosterman in his latest book has a whole chapter dedicated to explaining why technology is a bad thing (my thoughts). By i believe he’s equating different to harmful. I recently read this blog post by Steven Johnson where he states:

I think of our present situation as somewhat analogous to the mass migration from the country to the city that started several centuries ago in Europe: the bustle and stimulation and diversity of urban life made it harder to enjoy the slower, organic pleasures of rural living. Still those pleasures didn’t disappear. People continue to cherish them in mass numbers to this day.

I believe this wholeheartedly. Urban life totally disrupted the traditional calm of country life. Today there are plenty who prefer the hustle of the city and many others who prefer to keep it calm in the country. I fully appreciate both. However, i have no patience for people who bash city life (ask my sister about how i attacked her when she started ripping NYC).  Large city culture is unique and can be exhilarating, stimulating and inspiring. But it’s existence doesn’t preclude living in the country – just like the internet and technology doesn’t have to render reading and concentrating in large doses obsolete. Don’t fear the change, just recognize it for what it is: another option for your attention.

Playdar leading music innovation

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I saw that playdar_logoFred did a post on Playdar today.  I couldn’t help but comment on it as i am really excited with where it is leading. I’m going to rephrase and expand on my comments here.

Those of you who aren’t familiar with Playdar, let me explain what it is. Playdar is a “Music Content Resolver.” Think a radar for music to play (play+radar = playdar). Now, i’m sure i probably just lost about 50% of my readers there. Those of you who are left, let me explain more in very general terms. Playdar allows a web page or a music service to take a song and then provide a source for that song. If the song is on your local computer it will play that file. If it is on your wife’s computer, it will play from there if it is connected. If it’s no where you specify, it will then look to the internet for the mp3 file. Basically, it will allow you to find any mp3 for any track.

As the co-founder of the music service Qloud I completely understand, respect, and fear the complexity around licensing music. And, any music service that charges users by play (Lala, Launch, etc.) is a challenging consumer experience. Something like Playdar, which allows the user to pay for content he/she doesn’t own and listen from a local (aka legal) location for the rest, could dramatically change the economic model for music services and allow more to experiment.

Even subscription services, which pay the music labels per play would benefit from something like this as many users play the same songs over and over. It might come to a point where once a user plays a track over 70 times the service just gives them the mp3 to download to caps the license fee for that track.

My hope is that many more legal options emerge around Playdar.   The new music services of Spotify and MOG are just Rhapsody with more features and a better interface.  It’s great to see some more innovation. Can’t wait to see what’s ahead

Wikipedia Going Away

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The value of Wikipedia is the contributors to it. As sites become easier and easier to contribute to, wikipedia remains the nerdiest, most cryptic, most confusing site to add content to. I have a degree in Computer Science and i find it incredibly difficult to find a way to add content to it. I’m not saying i didn’t figure it out, but it was nowhere near simple.

500x_wikidrain

For this reason (and possibly others) wikipedia contributors are on the decline. Does this mean it will not be the dominant site it is today in the future? I wouldn’t surprised. I could see sites like Mahalo picking up the slack. What do you think?

Twitter Ads Will be Organic

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Was watching this video today (below) with the Twitter COO.  When asked about the advertising strategy, he says:

You will see an advertising strategy from us in the very near future.  And i think that it will be…um…fascinating and completely non-traditional and people will love it…. The genuis of Google when Google first rolled out ads was that the ads were also the kinds of things that people were looking for.  So we want to do something that is organic and in the flow of the way people already use twitter and not here are the tweets and here are the ads.  So it’ll be very organic.  It’ll be very cool and people will love it when they see it.

This is exactly the right strategy.  I know from experience as does anyone who’s every tried to sell traffic to ad agencies that the banners are not working. The click-throughs and engagements are low.  The IAB unit needs some help and the best way to help is to generate ads organically within the content.  What Twitter’s strategy is, i’m not sure but i did see this video today where Steven Fry suggested that tweeters can sell access to their accounts.  That would be interesting.

Here’s Twitter COO below. The ad discussion is at 17 minute mark

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Google Crushes Its Complements

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Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

Just was reading about Google Maps, specifically their turn-by-turn, and its impact on the maps market.

As many people know, there are 2 main players in the map market: Tele Atlas and NavTeq.  Google licensed both of them for Google Maps for years.  While they licensed, they also sent cars all around the nation gathering their own data.  These two guys, Tele Atlas and NavTeq, were the only game in town.  TomTom, the leading portable GPS device maker, wanted to control their own destiny and agreed to buy Tele Atlas for US$2.7 billion. And Nokia, worried that they would lose access to the coveted map agreed to buy NavTeq for a cool $8.1 billion.

All was good until Google dropped a bomb.  About six weeks ago, they went independent and didn’t rely on either for their map data.  And then about a month ago they announced their own turn-by-turn navigation would be available in the Android OS.  Now anybody from BMW to GM to Samsung can provide turn-by-turn by simply using Google’s OS.

The big losers here are RIM and iPhone. They either have to not allow that access or pay a large royalty.  And Windows Mobile and Symbian are in an even more difficult situation as paying to embed this data could be more than the license fee they get from handset manufacturers.  This all assumes, of course, that users really demand this feature. If they do, Google’s really in the catbird seat. lessthanfree

People will complain that this is incredibly anti-competitive.  That Google is using it’s money making machine to unfairly compete in the map market.  Well, the story is even worse than that.  To get carriers to use Android, Google offers a cut on the search revenue that the phones produce.  So not only is Android free but it’s actually paying providers to use it.  Some people are calling it “less than free.”  Google will go beyond cell phones with this strategy.  Any netbook manufacturer (Dell, Sony, etc.) will get a cut of search revenue by building on Android or Chrome instead of Windows or Linux.  It’s tough to compete with “less than free.”

It makes you think of the world of complements.  Chris Dixon discusses Google and how its complement are the web browser and the OS.  The best thing you can do as a company is drive your complements to become commodities.  Well there’s no better way than driving their prices to be below zero.  Kudos Google,  I’m impressed.