This is potentially huge. Being able to play any video file on the iPad/iPod/iPhone, not just the Apple approved ones, is a VERY welcome addition I think. Here’s hoping the VLC Media Player for iOS lives up to the expectations (and reputation it has on other platforms). Get it here
Wow, I was cruising the awesome betterlivingthroughdeisgn site, when I jumped on something I’ve put on my wish list, a TralvelTeq TripSound travel suit case when an embedded song all of a sudden started playing.
Music embedded into webpages is sooooo 1996 (my first webpage had a midi piece playing…) , but this song is O for AWESOME. It sounds like it could have been taken out of a series about/from the 60s, like Mad Men (my favorite lately and surprisingly so as it is drama series). The song is made by a Swedish band called Koop and the song is called “Come to Me”. They have made many other good ones I have since found out. Listen on my friends, listen on!
via YouTube – Koop – Come to me (OFFICIAL VIDEO) HQ.
If only this was true, I would cryogenically freeze myself until 2012 to deal with the excitement and anticipation…
via How To Talk To Girls At Parties – No. Fucking. Way..
I am in the lucky position that my job required me to acquire an iPad 3G, so to understand the implications of what such a device might be used for, is useful for etc, I have had the pleasure of using on-and-off for the past couple of weeks (about 3 weeks as of writing this introductionary section, in case you were wondering), and let me come out the bush and state immediately, the experience is nowhere near what I had expected…
A little background is necessary, so you can try to understand where I am coming from. I have had iPhones since I obtained a AT&T iPhone 2G, imported it to Denmark and jailbroke it. I have used all the iPhones since then in one way or another, recently less so as I have had to switch my work phone to a BlackBerry (Curve…*sigh*).
I consume (or would like to consume) a lot of music, videos, casual news reading (RSS feeds via google reader as well as traditional news), mail, picture/video taking, facebook interaction and a little bit of gaming on my mobile devices, while on my laptop I mostly use for blogging, in depth news reading via RSS feeds, photo editing, streaming music to my stereo, downloading TV shows/Movies, trying out new applications and generally “staying current” on all things nerdy.
So what does it all mean in relation to the iPad you ask? Well it means that I definitely had some expectations on what it would be useful for, what and where I could see it bring value to me, and where it “fit” in the realm between a smart phone and a laptop, and the last 3 weeks of usage has surprised me. What follows here is a quick brain dump of what comes to find
VALUE HIGHLIGHTS
The things where I have found the iPad to be of tremendous (and well, “some”) value to me worth highlighting are:
. The browser (on firmware 3.22) is REALLY unstable though, which frustrates me a lot as it often crashes for no apparent reason.THE ISSUES
While the above positive things are probably in line what you would expect to hear, what surprised me what more where and when I didn’t find it useful or downright found it a downgrade from using an iPhone or a laptop.
Overall the issue is related to REQUIRED COMMITMENT. Required commitment is related to how the device is used, and in the context of the iPad, while the device has instant-on capabilities and “simple” applications, I find more often than not that the required commitment from my side to use the device is too big to replace my phone when I am in public, and too weak and restricted to replace my laptop at home.
SUMMING IT ALL UP
How do I sum it all up? Strangely I wouldn’t want to not have the iPad, even though the usage situations are actually very limited for me currently. It’s because WHERE I use it, and where I find it useful, it’s really really useful to me and there is no device that can really replace it. I also suspect that some of the situations where I find it sub par is due to having getting used to a new routine/usage pattern, so it might solve itself going forward.
Overall, the iPad is a great device that I suspect I will be using in increasingly more situations. And boy do I wish that 1. the browser was more stable and the 2. the thing ran Flash or websites stopped using Flash altogether 
.
But most of all, I am surprised that the iPad is more of a souped down laptop than a soup up iPhone/smart phone, and thus it is more likely to end up replacing my laptop than an iPhone – although it is not ready yet. Maybe in a revision or two it can start being that for some people. Therefore you can expect that if you get one, it will replace more of situations where you use a laptop than where you use an iPhone/smart phone
The following is an excerpt from an extremely interesting read (see via link at the bottom of this post) that I invite you to all to read.
To admit the messy slog of chaos, disorder and random chance rules your life, rules the universe itself, is a painful conceit. You commit the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy when you need a pattern to provide meaning, to console you, to lay blame.
You mow your lawn, arrange your silverware, comb your hair. Whenever possible, you oppose the forces of entropy and thwart their relentless derangement.
Your drive to do this is primal. You need order. Order makes it easier to be a person, to navigate this sloppy world.
Pattern recognition leads to food, protects you from harm. You are born looking for clusters where chance events have built up like sand into dunes. You are able to read these words because your ancestors recognized patterns and changed their behavior to better acquire food and avoiding becoming it.
Carl Sagan said in the vastness of space and the immensity of time it was a joy to share a planet and epoch with his wife. Even though he knew fate didn’t put them together, it didn’t take away the wonder he felt when he was with her.
You see patterns everywhere, but some of them are formed by chance and mean nothing. Against the noisy background of probability things are bound to line up from time to time for no reason at all. It’s just how the math works out. Recognizing this is an important part of ignoring coincidences when they don’t matter and realizing what has real meaning for you on this planet, in this epoch.
via The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy « You Are Not So Smart.
It’s so brilliant, I can’t believe it is not even on Wikipedia yet. Computers will take over the world… In case you don’t know what the (Alan) Turing test is, go here
source: Popstrip – The Sergey Spot
ROFL, this is either very nice photo manipulation or the final proof that our parents and grand parents lived in a different time altogether from the time we live in now
The following post is in Danish. Translate by choosing your language to the right=>>>
Min første online supermarked bestilling. Jo jo, selvfølgelig har der været online supermarkeder i mange år, ikke mindst SuperBest (har vist været på markedet siden 2000/2001) og Yellowman,dk (som også tog tøj med til og fra rens – genialt i øvrigt, men ikke leverede i kbh s) og de nyere (større) såsom torvet.dk som lige er købt af Irma. Men valget faldt på nemlig.com fordi de leverer i et 1 times tidsinterval, efter kl 18 (det er ikke realistisk at jeg overhovedet ville bruge, eller overveje at bruge, et online supermarked, hvis de ikke leverede efter kl 18 da jeg ikke er hjemme). du kan endda bestille samme dag som du skal have leveret, der skal blot gå 5 timer efter bestilling (f.eks. kl 13) til levering (f.eks. kl 18)) og prisen for levering var sølle 29kr. Samtidig er priserne yderst konkurrencedygtige (lige over Netto niveau for det meste og under Føtex niveau for resten), sortimentet godt (de havde alt hvad jeg søgte på) og det hele gjorde at jeg tog chancen.
Efter min kone har fået nyt job er tiden blevet mere knap i hverdagene og hvis vi kunne bruge nemlig.com og lignende services (såsom retnemt.dk – som leverer opskrifter og de madvarer som skal til at lave maden) til at sikre vi får mere tid om aftenen er det værd at forfølge, så dette virkede som forholdsvist low-risk, low involvement. Nemlig.com er ejet af intervare.dk som leverer dagligvarer til handicappede, ældre mv., så man jeg forventede de havde en effektiv infrastruktur.
Sortimentet er godt og tilbuddene gode (10 stykker frugt for 10kr f.eks. 1L mælk for under 3.5kr), så jeg fyldte kurven op, også med tunge varer jeg normalt hader at skulle købe såsom danskvand, juice osv. og trykkede bestil med levering dagen efter
Da varer dukkede op blev de båret op af leveringsmanden i 4 flamingokasser så tingene ikke blev sødt og køleskabsvarer var i kuldeisolerede bokse – ligesom det skal være. Alt var der og intet var stødt eller ødelagt. Og da jeg pakkede op var der, ja, tjek selv i ovenstående billede (det er Marabou chokolade i øvrigt). Det er helt klart og helt åbenlyst hvorfor de gør det (første oplevelse skal være positiv så man fortæller det til andre), men det virker og jeg er glad (og fyldt af chokolade). Jeg tror helt sikkert jeg bestiller derfra igen og håber julle og jeg kan komme ind i en rytme hvor vi kan bruge det som et supplement til vores indkøb så vi kan undgå at skulle handle ind så ofte og bruge mere af vores aftener sammen.
Just fell over this on browsing away for “living stylish” tips and tricks. This is truly brilliant and I will be getting, and using (I hope Julie more than me 
), this very shortly! And I can’t believe I am writing this, but it relates to socks. Is there anything more boring?! As it turns out, yes there is, because…
When was the last time you did a wash? (yeah I know it’s been a while for you, I can smell you from here, but bear with me on this one). Remember the most annoying thing? yep, it is:
Up until now, since 2002-4 or so, I have been using socks from 10socks.com (now sold through sumisura.com, whose shirts I wholeheartedly recommend as well, as I did in this post), and they all carry a “matching” number on the bottom of the socks (so 1 and 1 go together etc.). This is, however, inefficient to solve to two issues above, and basially – for socks that are the same (as 10socks are), it doesn’t matter if 1 and 7 go together, because the only difference is the number on the bottom of the socks.
Now, it seems, someone has come up with the solution that ends all searches for other solutions, and it is simple – ingenious really! Simply by using a hobby “button” applicator which you can get in any hobbyist store (the Panduro Hobby store in Denmark would be a good place to start), the socks gets a small button, so that when you take off your socks (except of Wednesday, that’s when it’s business time), you simply button them together and, voila, the issues above are no more! Since the socks are buttoned together, they can easily be hanged over the clothing line without a peg solving issue 1, and because they are buttoned together, issue 2 is solved. You can see the whole idea (and a description of the idea) here (link in Danish).
I am confident this post is among the most important I have ever written and this will save many relationships and marriages. I don’t except any thanks or gratitude – knowing the impact I have on society is thanks enough! (but feel free to leave a comment…)
Brilliant! Rethinking of a classic Danish song. My hat goes of to you, Sirs
from: YouTube – DR2 Backstage: Turboweekend & Ufo Yepha – Be Babelula.