A new survey from Google shows that more and more people are opting to use their tablet devices, with most of them being iPads, over traditional media streams like listening to the radio or watching broadcast tv. This is happening just now?! I can’t remember the last time I listened to the radio!

The survey points out that more than half of the people questioned said they use their iPad more than listening to the radio and just about 25% of them use an iPad more than a computer. Finally, a third of these individuals stated they use iPad more than they watch tv. Because the iPad is so versatile, people can now use one device to access the Internet, watch videos, stream movies and tv shows, read newspapers and magazines, listen to music and play games. Of course cable and satellite providers have made honest attempts at keeping you on your television by offering on-demand content, DVR services, music channels, downloadable content, HD content, 3D content, free movies, etc., but without a tv capable of handling some of these things, you’re kind of up a creek.

Apple TV

Since the iPad is an Apple product, I doubt Steve Jobs cares that one of his own products is cannibalizing another market, but I know he figures he might as well have a piece of that pie too. Before he retires, Steve Jobs plans to “revolutionize” the living room. The Apple TV has been an interesting, yet vastly overlooked product since its inception. Originally called iTV (how original), the Apple TV began shipping in 2007 and has seen one major upgrade in 2010. However, nobody is really talking about it.

Is it possible that not everything Apple touches turns to gold? In light of this new survey, one could wonder what the future of Apple TV will be. If you actually take the time to look at the device, it really is pretty cool. You can stream purchases of videos, movies and music right from your iTunes account, access Netflix, NBA tv, YouTube and display slideshows from Flickr photo albums.

However, it would seem that this device is doomed. With the realization that iPads are here to stay, along with other competing products, Steve Jobs is likely to bring the cloud experience to your living room. By connecting all of your devices together, you’ll be able to do anything and everything on just about anything and everything in your home. I can see the commercial now:

• Man is at work with 2 minutes left to go, watching a Netflix movie on his Macbook.
• Man leaves work and continues same movie on iPhone while riding the subway home (I know there’s no cell service on subways, but work with me here!)
• Man walks in the door, turns on tv and continues streaming same movie.
• Man grabs iPad because he has to go to the bathroom and doesn’t want to pause the movie.
• Man’s iPad battery dies, he gets upset and breaks iPad.
• Man gets even more upset, breaks Macbook and tv.
• Wife says she’s leaving because husband is to “connected” to technology.
• Man is sad and lonely because Apple Care won’t cover physical damage.

On a serious note, if anyone makes that script into a YouTube video, I want credit!

My two cents

Of course the above example is a huge exaggeration, but the questions are pretty clear. Do we really need all this stuff? Do we really want everything to be so connected that we become so dependent on them? What I would like to see is a way for consumers to pay much smaller fees for tv service. If Apple plans to cloud up the living room with more on-demand tv choices like those you can get from Hulu, then I hope the cable companies respond by allowing customers to only pay for channels they wish to receive. At the rate all this is going, I’m sure it won’t be much longer before network television simply allows you to subscribe to your favorite shows rather than paying to have the whole channel.

I was listening to Kevin and Bean on KROQ (Los Angeles 106.7) this morning and they were talking to the world’s only blind movie critic. At first, I thought it was a weird joke they were playing, but it wasn’t. This guy really exists and he takes his job seriously.

His website is http://blindsidereviews.com/ and he really critiques movies!

I think this is facinating and it’s great to see someone out there who can actually still give something back to the world despite his disability.

It might also make for an interesting twist on the reviews themselves given that the only ‘seeing’ he can do is with his ears. That’s puts a whole new challenge back in the hands of movie makers out there: bring back the feeling in movies.

I vote to stop with all these visual enhancements and special effects and focus more on story develpment and characters.

I wish all the best to the blind movie critic and hope his career blossoms.

I was just watching the movie Unforgiven last night and I was trying to remember the famous line at the end. I wanted to re-write for someone I was chatting with online, but I couldn’t remember the exact wording, so I searched it and I not only found the line, but also a little insight as to what the inference is:

At the end of the film William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is about to kill Little Bill (Gene Hackman) and Little Bill says “I don’t deserve this.”

William Munny says, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”

Well I don’t mean to crush your spirit or dash your hopes, but when you’re standing at the car dealership or about to buy that huge plasma screen TV because you work hard and deserve it, remember the words of William Munny, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.”

I know you work hard, I do too, but that doesn’t mean I deserve the $300,000 Bentley Continental GT. Sure I want one, sure I’d practically kill for one, but I certainly don’t derserve one.

You see, we can justify almost any purchase, almost any reckless behavior somehow. We always feel we deserve it, or we are entitled, or it’s not hurting anyone. But is it right? Are there better alternatives? When it comes to spending, the alternative is either spending on something else or saving. If you’re already a good saver then whatever purchase you’ve decided to make is probably justified but it isn’t beacause you deserve it, it’s because you’ve planned for it.

The above quote is directly from the website: http://www.richeobscure.com/deserve.html. I found it to be pretty interesting and true.

Although the movie Tombstone (1993) (Buy it on DVD or Blu-ray) has a lot of historical inaccuracies, it is still a great movie. If you haven’t seen it, you really need to check it out. Here’s my favorite scene from the movie. It involves the first meeting of Johnny Ringo and Doc Holliday in the Oriental Saloon.

Holliday: “Ah, you must be Ringo. Look darlin’. Johnny Ringo–the deadlist pistolier there is since Wild Bill, they say. What do you say darlin’? Should I hate him?”

Kate: “You don’t even know him.”

Holliday: “No. That’s true, but I don’t know, there’s just something about him–something around the eyes. I don’t know. Reminds me of…me. No. I’m sure of it. I hate him.”

Earp: “He’s drunk.”

Holliday: “In vino veritas.” (In wine there is truth.)

Ringo: “Age quod agis.” (Watch what you say.)

Holliday: “Credat judaeus apella, non ego.” (Tell it to someone who cares.)

Ringo: “Iuventus stultorum magister.” (Youth is the teacher of fools.)

Holliday: “In pace requiescat.” (Rest in peace.)

White: “Come on boys. We don’t want any trouble in here–not in any language.”

Holliday: “That’s latin darlin’. Evidently, Mr. Ringo is an educated man. Now I really hate him.

At this point, Ringo draws his gun and puts on a show for the bar which draws Doc to do the same, only he decides to mock Ringo by using his tin cup rather than a gun. I’m not sure if this is a portrayal of any actual events, but I do know that it’s a powerful scene where two big characters establish their tone throughout the remainder of the film.

Here’s the video of the scene:

While on this topic, here’s another favorite scene of mine. You can only see this one if you own the Vista Series version of the film (at the link above) which contains scenes not used in the theatrical release. Anyway, the scene I’m speaking of is right after the two Earp brothers are gunned down and Morgan dies on the pool table. Doc is sitting in his room drunk out of his mind and he says the following:

Holliday: “Weave a circle round him thrice and close your eyes with holy dread. For he on honey-dew hath fed and drunk the milk of Paradise.

This line is from a poem written in 1797 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge called Kubla Khan. It’s the last stanza that Doc is reciting here and it’s said that Kubla Khan (Genghis Kahn’s grandson) had some ten thousand horses on his land to convey his power. Only he and those committing miscellaneous acts of valour were allowed to drink their milk thus becoming the milk of Paradise. In Tombstone, Doc is simply saying that if Wyatt is able to obtain a reckoning for his brother’s deaths, he’ll finally be able to enjoy the rest of his life.

Another note of interest is that the poem was supposedly written out of inspiration from an opium-induced dream. It’s likely that Doc Holliday was also under opium influence during this scene.