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» Cameron’s Avatar ★ ★ ★ ★★

With all the well-deserved success and admiration that Avatar has attracted since it’s release, I can’t think of anything else that hasn’t been said about the film other than it’s the one movie I think we’ve all dreamt about seeing and which has a world we’ve all wished about visiting.

It’s by far James Cameron’s finest pieces of work and although I’ll be one of the many to grab a Blu-Ray copy, seeing it in theatre is an experience you should not miss out on regardless of how big your Hi-Def TV is. Even the 3D-glasses supplied were a considerable upgrade from the tradition paper and plastic ones so I kept them as a souvenir.

The most exhausting part of the movie is trying to make sense of what’s consider “effects” because the technology is so deeply ingrained that I had no idea where the discipline began or ended. It’s just sheer brilliance that has set a new bar in the industry.

One of the criticisms I’ve been reading about the film has to do with it’s plot. While it may come across as simplistic and familiar, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a story that you’ve been acquainted with because the difference will be in that one was well told and that’s the case with Avatar. It doesn’t just grab you visually but emotionally as well.

Zoe Saldana was the complete and absolute star for me. Her interpretation of Neytiri was fantastic, profounding and I’ll go as far to say that her Zoe’s attractiveness was very well translated to her character. Beautiful green eyes, great facial structure and lips but apparently there’s others that think much more highly of her which makes my statement seem less weird.

January 18, 2010 |   Tags: article films review

» The Perfect List

My wife and I are very consistent in managing miscellaneous responsibilities around the house but the one area where we’re both fairly uneven with is the food shopping.

We keep a nice yellow notepad in the kitchen and casually jot down items that we intend on purchasing in due course but when it comes to either of us making that trip to the supermarket, neither of us have the infamous list with us, so we both leave behind items that we each wanted. Needless to say we’re not in sync all the time in that aspect.

I figured the commercials never lie and as the minimalistic and organizational freak that I am, I naturally ventured to find a iPhone App that took the edge off this dilemma but that accomplished it in a very straightforward, simple-list-making, uncluttered interface kinda way.

When I refer to “simple-list-making”, I’m talking about literally elementary stuff. If I’m making a list of responsibilities or items, it should automatically be assumed it’s important to me, hence me making one. I don’t care for apps that offer ability to set priorities, include additional task notes or create sub-tasks because the excessive features just discourages usage.

The task management category in the App Store in itself is a bursting one, so having had the patience to evaluate quite a few promising and lackluster ones, I ultimately grew heavily impressed with Zenbe Lists.

Managing the process

Right off the bat when launching the app, you’re given the option to establish categories for any list you create so for example my initial reaction at the moment was to create a Shopping List and inside that I simply started entering all the food products we needed.

Zenbe List also offers a web-based system accompanied with nifty Ajax effects that’s free to setup, so anything else I thought of along the way while surfing the web, I immediately had access to input more information like there was no tomorrow and it updated right away.

You can also manage multiple lists. In addition to the Shopping List, I created several others that include Blog Ideas, Work Related, Errands and Interesting which is for cool software or gadgets that I have intentions in researching more. Each list is collapsable for easy navigation. You can also drag and drop list items to re-arrange them, mark items as completed, or simply delete them.

Get to the point

Ok, so now you know about the app but how does this solve my initial dilemma you ask? The thing that really makes this a valuable tool is in the ability it has for you to share any list you create and by sharing I don’t mean just for other people to view it but for them to have full access in adding or subtracting task from it.

Naturally the Shopping List I created from my end, I shared it with my wife. She received an email notification about its existence and launched it on her iPhone. So now if one day she suddenly gets an urge to stock up on bacon, all she has to do is input that item into the Shopping List we’re sharing and hit that Sync button in the app so that both our iPhones and the Zebe account on the web are updated.

For what I wanted to accomplish, Zenbe Lists has been an excellent solution and of continual use with one big feature setting it apart from the rest of the apps I tried and that’s its amazing ability to share and sync your task list over the air. So now launching Zenbe List while food shopping has become quite a habitual process for checking on those last minute items my wife may have added.

November 30, 2009 |   Tags: software application review

» Magic Mouse Allure

The main selling point of Apple’s Magic Mouse is that it bares that much admired fruit logo branded on it that we all love, so immediately there’s no question ask or assumptions made about how wonderful the product will perform or look once we’ve gotten our hands on it.

From someone who hasn’t been a fanatic at all of any of Apple’s mouse units, without question this new edition looks remarkable and appears as refine and gracious in its packaging as in its usage. The experience with it feels almost as an extension of the gestures we’re already accustom to on our iPhone, minus the pinch/zoom feature.

View the unboxing of the Magic Mouse

Prior to the Magic Mouse, I used a Logitech device for all my scrolling but all I knew about it was that it was small, portable and got the job done but I could never confidently describe the actual model when someone asked. But why is it that when you suddenly incorporate an Apple product to your exisiting computer setup, you’re thereafter able to fully describe every detail about it including a public shout out a year later celebrating when it was first introduced?

Perhaps because “Apple doesn’t sell functional products; they sell fashionable pieces of functional art” that you in time admire and develop an emotional connection with. Apple wipes the fog that often exist with products that get you from point A to B and makes you more mindful of what it was like using their product rather than just saying you have.

When else would I have ever imagine myself drooling over a mouse much less having a thorough conversation with someone about how functional and seamless the experience with it is? Never. The amount of detail that Apple placed in the Magic Mouse is the same specifics that bring outs how much we can accomplish with a device that appears to offer less.

November 2, 2009 |   Tags: magic mouse apple product review

» Flash of Genius

Throughout history, inventors have rarely had an easygoing life. They’ve seldom had any capitol needed to develop their ideas, few saw their ideas be part of common use in their lifetime and regrettably those who did often had them stolen.

Like many inventors, Robert Kearns was a dreamer.

The other night we watched this fantastic inspiring true story (Flash of Genius) film starring Greg Kinnear about a college professor in Detroit (Robert Kearns) who invented and fought for years against major automaker Ford for infringing upon his intermittent windshield wiper system that you now see in every car in the world.

Back then, car wipers were either on or off; they couldn’t be metered to swipe periodically.

There’s a scene in court where Kearns represents himself and he’s being criticized for not inventing anything because technically all the parts he used to create this system already existed and could be found in any catalog. There is some validity in what was being said against Kearns but his rebuttal is what stood out for me.

His son hands him a book by Charles Dickens (Tale of Two Cities), he reads the first couple of lines and asked the witness if he thinks that Dickens invented any of the words he recited. The witness reluctantly responds “No”.

Kearns says -

“I haven’t checked but I’m pretty sure there’s not a single word in this book that is new and they can all be found in a dictionary. All Dickens did was arrange them into a pattern. He created something new by using words, perhaps the only tools that were available to him just as almost all inventors have had to do in history.”

Kearn’s analogy was nothing different from what he had accomplished. He took basic electrical components, arranged them into a specific pattern and achieved an ambition that every car company in the world was struggling to invent but Kearns was not being given credit for it.

The outcome I’ll leave for you to explore on your own but this scene got me thinking that what we become as individuals or company depends fundamentally not just on our ideas but on our ability to achieve them and execute them amazingly well and they’re rarely found by thinking but by doing.

You don’t have to be part of a major corporation for your ideas to be heard. Any group of passionate, ambitious people could technically put a company out of business with a brilliant idea or strike it rich by selling it to them.

September 27, 2009 |   Tags: inspiration review films

» Inglourious Basterds ★ ★ ★ ★ ½

Last night we saw Quentin Tarantino’s newest creation Inglourious Basterds. The film was outrageous. It completely rewrites history in this incredible freaky vision of how so many wished things had happen in WWII. It’s very difficult to admit that the bloodshed and cruelty against the Nazis was unusually amusing but the cheering and rooting of the audience took away any guiltiness I had.

I loved every single minute of the film. The considerable degree of detail was gorgeous that you couldn’t resist looking pass the acting at times and just admire the pieces that garnished a scene. Even the carefully crafted camera movements was as vital and noticeable. I’m generally not an admirer of subtitles but you get so captivated by the story that you find it remorseful not to follow along, so you’ll get over that.

Some performances were great but one that stood above the rest for me was the most menacing character represented by Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa aka “The Jew Hunter” who I’m sure will pick up a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

The most obvious answers to the question of what makes a great film star is talent and even that sounds somewhat vague because it’s not the only variable to consider. I’m not a cinema critic but from my perspective, the best form to judge a performance is to analyze if the actor convinced you that the part they portrayed was meant for them and absolutely no one else.

Christoph did just that and his stunning ability to wipe out his own identity and exchange it for the one given was remarkable. His acting was very reminiscent of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. It was that good.

Both were highly observant of human behavior with deep understanding of it and could recreate it in front of any audience. You grow to hate them both but still hold respect for their characters because of their dedication to their work regardless of how inhuman it may have been. Stop reading now and getting discouraged by what critics say and go see the movie.

September 3, 2009 |   Tags: films review