iPad TV

I’ve felt much the same way about where all of this is going. Let’s hope.

lonelysandwich:

Warming up

I won’t lie to you—it took two weeks with my iPad before I knew whether I loved it (or, to be more accurate, why I would inevitably love it). There was this uncomfortableness after the purchase. I’d known for weeks that it was to be a miraculous addition to my life. I’d enumerated why, publicly and obnoxiously. But part of the process of becoming an iPad user is that awkward period where you stare at it, and it stares back at you, you notice its relative heft and your indelible greaseprints across its giant touchscreen and you wonder to yourself just why the hell you’re in each other’s lives. So you put it on your nightstand and sleep on it.


And then it hits. The iPad is for the nightstand. And for the sofa, and for the places between where you stand in line and where you sit at your desk. That’s why every iPad poster and billboard features it on a lap or a knee. They’ve stopped short of showing it on a chest in bed, but that’s where mine gets its most use.

A new thing

My chest is where I first noticed that the iPad would make the most impact on me as a Video device. You see, despite Apple clearly signalling, by orienting its logo in portrait mode, that the iPad is for holding like a book or a piece of paper, it’s meant the most to me turned to landscape mode, where its dimensions replicate the video screen I’ve known my whole life. Turned to landscape, the iPad offers me the most comfort, the most passive participation, the feeling of Home.

The following may be a bit hyperbolic, but follow me: The iPad is the world’s first truly convergent TV/computer. It’s the device that’s been promised us for years, and its time has come, in 2010, within reach of a couple generations raised on TV and one raised on the computer. Yet it is neither a TV that computes nor a computer that shows TV. It is a new thing. The new thing, in fact.

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Friday, June 4, 2010 — 184 notes
gregrutter: thedailywhat: Letter Of Note of the Day: Steve Martin’s hilarious “personal” letter to a fan. [lettersofnote.]

gregrutter:

thedailywhat:

Letter Of Note of the Day: Steve Martin’s hilarious “personal” letter to a fan.

[lettersofnote.]

Selling why

bobulate:

Simon Sinek on selling to people who believe what you believe:

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with anybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.

Here’s the best part:

If you look at a cross-section of the human brain, looking from the top down, what you see is that the human brain is actually broken into three major components … The neocortex is responsible for all of our rational, analytical thought and language; [O]ur limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It’s also responsible for all human behavior, all decision-making, and it has no capacity for language. In other words, when we communicate from the outside in, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information like features and benefits and facts and figures, it just doesn’t drive behavior. When we communicate from the inside out, we’re talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior.

This is where “it just doesn’t feel right” or where “it comes from my heart” actually comes from. The goal is not to have what you have, but to sell to people who believe what you believe. I’m sold.

Beck has put together a group called the Record Club and they have recorded some wonderful, unique interpretations of cover songs. The New Sensation by INXS cover is great.

Beautiful photos by skarpi of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption.

Beautiful photos by skarpi of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption.

Adding an Email to Things from Mail.app by Hot Key

I’m really enjoying the Getting Things Done system (more on that later), but I needed a way to put actionable emails into Things — my to-do list program of choice.

Here is a little AppleScript that I trigger from Mail.app using Mail Act On. Go to Pastie and click download on the top right, then save the file to /Library/Scripts/Mail Scripts/message_to_things.scpt

I then setup a Mail Act On rule as follows:

It took me just a few minutes to make, but it will save me way more time recreating to-dos in Things.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Jacob Ford vs the average guy in the 40 yard dash. Hard to believe it’s this drastic. via Kottke

Everlong by the Foo Fighters

No, they’re not on a boat or rollin’ in a Bentley, but they do have a kick ass hand.

Lady Gaga’s Telephone for reference to my last post.

Much of the pop music from the last decade has been weak and even down right shit. This is one of the last great videos. I’m not sure how many more of them we’ll see, so enjoy it.

As a side game, take a drink every time you see a product placement. Unless of course you need to walk in the next 12 hours.

Chatroulette cover of Lady Gaga’s Telephone.

Via Kottke.

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