We’re a few days late on this one, we must admit. However, we just searched near and far and couldn’t find a single thing about it anywhere. Hmm. What’s with that? Who cares?! More HD channels! Excitement for all…kinda.

While flipping through the channel guide last night, I realized we now have Lifetime HD, USA HD, CNBC HD and a couple of temporary-looking Olympics HD channels that will probably disappear once the games are over. It’s not much but since we just got a dozen new ones back in May, it’s certainly cool.

Has anyone noticed these? Did anyone even know about it? What gives, ya’ll? What gives?

Just wondering…

The big news is that the much rumored 3G iPhone is coming to AT&T and Apple stores on July 11th. Boasting near, but not quite, wifi speeds that dominate the current speed of the AT&T EDGE network, the 3G iPhone is a force to be reckoned with. Now you can surf the innerwebs from wherever you are and in a relatively timely fashion. That means no more excruciatingly long loading times when you’re trying to look at boobs online check the weather.

While storage on the two models will remain at 8 and 16 gigs, respectively, the newly updated look and feel combined with 3G speed, GPS, longer battery life and significantly lowered pricetag will, as always, make the new Apple product a must-have for most of us tech-nerds.

What’s that you say? Lowered pricetag? That’s right, boyee! You’ll be able to pocket your very own 3G iPhone for just $199 (8GB) or $299 (16GB). Considering the first gen iPhone started off at $599, $199-$299 is a steal.

Already own an iPhone? I’ve got some good news for you too: You’re not entirely SOL. In fact, there are some sweet updates coming your way. You see, early July will also bring about the iPhone 2.0 software release that you can upgrade to for the low, low price of $0.00. The free software upgrade will give you access to Enterprise support and use of the Apple Apps Store. Back in March, Steve Jobs announced the release of the iPhone SDK (System Development Kit, duh) that will allow developers to make custom applications for the iPhone. If you think the iPhone software is cool now, just wait until you can download custom apps and games. I can guarantee you that it’s going to be awesome. Seriously awesome. Granted, us current gen iPhone owners won’t have GPS or access to the 3G network, but the Apps Store will undoubtedly keep you happy with what you’ve got.

The long awaited Enterprise support, in my opinion, will really open up the iPhone market and boost the sales of the iPhone. With the ability to check corporate mail, use VPN and use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, I foresee a whole lot of Fortune 500 companies making the switch. For most companies, the added Enterprise support is a really good thing. However, for RIM and Palm, makers of the Blackberry and Treo cell phones, the new features might prove fatal. Maybe not immediately, but in the long run, they’re gonna really have to step it up to stay afloat.

Oh yeah! The headphone jack is now flush with the phone so you can use any pair of headphones you want without having to use some stupid, crappy adapter. Hooray!

So, if you’ve been itching for an iPhone and think you can wait ’til July 11th, you’ll be able to scratch that itch for a whole lot cheaper… and it’ll feel really, really good.

In addition, the world’s largest retailer will be marking down select blu-ray movies to just $15. You can use the $100 gift certificate to start beefing up your movie collection or spend it on toilet paper and frozen pizza. It’s your call, dude. Either way, you win.

So, if you’re looking to make your move into the world of hi-def movie watching/gaming, which we at the Fayetteville Flyer strongly suggest, but were waiting for a sweet deal to mosie along, your time has come.

Now if we can only get the Steve to buy a PS3 so that he, Burnt Reynolds and I can all play Call of Duty 4 online together, I’ll be set.

*It looks like you can already get a $100 walmart.com gift certificate if you buy the PS3 from walmart’s website.

**Blu-Ray is awesome, FYI.

This got me thinking about other films that have predicted the future and I’ve come to a conclusion:

Filmmakers suck at predicting the future… at least for the most part. However, despite the many, many predictions that have not come to pass and will not, there are some that just might become a reality.

Let’s look at a few examples.

2001: A Space Odyssey – This movie is science fiction at its best. Released in 1968, 2001 revolutionized the sci-fi genre. Stanley Kubrick adapted the novel by the recently deceased sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clark and shaped it into a cinematic masterpiece. Clark and Kubrick predicted a world, still 31 years in the future, where mankind has colonized the moon, take vacations on massive, rotating space stations and regularly travel back and forth on commercial space airliners. Of all the films that predict the future, this one, at the time, was probably the most probable. Considering that the film was made during the ever-important “Space Race,” a time when science was being pushed to it’s limits, the odds of us continuing on towards those predictions, seemed very probable, almost certain. Unfortunately, after we made the first Apollo landing, interest in NASA’s programs dropped significantly and was overtaken by other events, such as the Vietnam war. Now, if we had continued on at the same rate we had in the 60’s, we’d almost certainly have commercial space flight and bases on the moon. But, as it is, 2001 didn’t get it right… unfortunately.

I, Robot – Very, very loosely based on Isaac Asimov’s classic novel, I, Robot makes less audacious predictions that just might come true. Taking place in 2035, the technology presented doesn’t seem too improbable. There’s no floating cars or giant holographic sharks advertising Jaws 19, but there are artificially intelligent robots that function as our very own personal assistants; taking care of menial tasks and other sundry chores we just don’t want to mess with. We’re still 27 years away from the time where this movie takes place, but it seems like some of the predictions made are very realistic and likely. Breakthroughs are being made all the time in the robotics field. In my opinion, artificial intelligence is something that we’ll have, at least on a basic to moderate level, within the next 10-15 years. Some of us are already getting used to having robots help us out around the house. Does the name Roomba ring a bell? In addition to robots, I, Robot presented us with cars that drive themselves. DARPA is already holding a yearly competition that pits un-manned self-driven vehicles against each other in an attempt to navigate a course as quickly and safely as possible. All in all, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see these things within our lifetime… and maybe sooner than we expect.

Terminator 2 – Turns out 3 billion people weren’t killed on August 27, 1997. Also, full-blown killing machines aren’t around… yet.

But in a world where Ah-nold can become the Governor of California, you can’t rule anything out of the realm of possibility.

Blade Runner – As a lot of filmmakers have done, Ridley Scott adapted Philip K. Dick’s story to create the 1982 classic film noir/sci-fi mainstay. In the process, he made a lot of predictions about the future as it will be in 2019. Scott predicted that, at least in Los Angeles, life sucks. Horrible pollution, climate change, human replicants(clones), off-world colonies, urban over-development, flying cars and lots of tunes courtesy of Vangelis are all part of our daily lives. While it’s not looking like the world won’t be as horribly depressing as he envisioned, some of his predictions are fairly, if not wholly accurate. Take the concept of urban over-development. It’s happening now. We see it all over in major cities around the world and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better. Pollution. While I don’t think it’ll reach the point that was predicted in the film, it’s still on the rise and is definitely noticeable when you visit any large city. Now, as far as cloning humans that will work in off-world colonies goes; I’m doubting that one’s going to come to fruition. At least not in the way Scott predicted.

Escape From New York – This movie is ridiculous… and awesome! However, New York wasn’t turned into a massive, prison island in 1988 and, unfortunately, Snake Plissken isn’t real, damnit.

Minority Report – Steven Spielberg made some seriously hardcore predictions in this film. Everything from awesome display technology to psychics that can predict crimes to iris scanning ads and magnetically levitating cars is present in the Tom Cruise sci-fi/action flick. I don’t see such a thing as “Precogs” or future crime sensing psychics coming into existence by 2054, or ever for that matter, but the display technology that we saw in the film will almost certainly become a reality… and much sooner than 2054. With display technology such as Microsoft’s “Surface” and Apple’s iPhone already a reality, holographic 3-D interactive display technology is a few miles down the road, but definitely on it’s way into our homes, cars and offices. Mark my words. The “E-Paper,” or electronic, paper-thin, wirelessly updated newspaper seems to be a technology that we’re also on our way towards. There’s no telling if it will be used by the newspaper industry, but we’re already seeing technology (OLED display and The Kindle) that hints towards “E-Paper” becoming a reality.

While many of the predictions (moon colonization, floating cars, precogs, etc…) didn’t or won’t come true anytime soon, a lot of them have or (I believe) will. We will have A.I. robots in our home, interactive, 3-D display technology will be commonplace and I’m willing to bet that humans will be cloned well within our lifetime. Now as far as the Cubs winning the World Series goes, we’ll just have see how that one pans out.

Note: There are a lot of other films with predictions of the future that I didn’t have time to go into; Gattaca, Mad Max, Soylent Green, Total Recall. What do you think about the predictions made in those movies?

What I can’t remember, however, is the the last time I thought about any of that. Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone say anything about going over on their minutes.

Why is this? After some thought, I have narrowed it down to two possibilities:
1) My friends and I have gotten to a place in life where we don’t talk on the phone very much or
2) Cell phone plans already supply plenty of minutes and they might as well just be called “unlimited”

This morning, AT&T announced a $99.99 unlimited calling plan just hours after Verizon announced something similar. The day that I used to think couldn’t come soon enough is finally here. However, I don’t give two craps about it at all.

Do you?

[ Update: ] T-Mobile joined the club as well

Born August 2002 to Toshiba and NEC, HD DVD spent it’s entire life competing with rival Blu-ray to become the next generation of movie discs.

HD DVD unveiled it’s first official player in March 2006. Some of it’s first titles included The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, and The Phantom of the Opera.

Following a year of disappointing sales, Warner Bros. announced it was abandoning HD DVD. Soon after, Netflix, Best Buy and Wal-mart made similar announcements.

HD DVD is survived by millions of discs and nearly 1 million worthless players including stand-alone units and Xbox 360 add-ons.

[Via Reuters]

The long and short of it points to Mac users being more arrogant, liberal and environmentally conscious than the PC folk. PC users, on the other hand, are “cheapskates,” less satisfied with their computer purchases and buy fewer sneakers and teeth-whitening products than their Mac counterparts. Not sure how sneakers and teeth-whitening products made their way into the picture, but whatever. I guess Mac users like white teeth and an assortment of shoes to choose from in the morning.

I’m not sure just how accurate this data is. I mean, as a PC user, I know that I’m better than all you lame-o Mac users… That statement right there pretty much throws the notion of Mac users being more arrogant than PC fan-boys right out the window.

I’m # 1!

Check out the video and tell us just how right or wrong you think they are.

PS – My next computer will be a Mac.

However, if you’d like to get a DVR from Cox cable, you’ll have to add your name to a waiting list. That’s right, folks. As of now, Cox is knee-deep in a DVR shortage and if you want one, you’d better plan on waiting a week or two before you get it.

It’s not the end of the world, it’s just dumb as hell. It seems as though the one thing you’d rely on Cox for the most is the one thing they just didn’t stock quite enough of. Amazing.

Give it up for Cox, your fairweather friend in the digital age…

They’re going to continue renting the discs they already own until the shelf life expires (usually about a year). After that, it’s Blu-ray only.

If you own an HD DVD player and you missed out on the Best Buy take-back offer last month, don’t worry. We’re sure that $800 box will feel right at home in the top of your closet next to all those CDs.

[Via Engadget]

According to John O’Neill, the director of addictions services at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Texas, many of us suffer from technology addiction. Much like an alcohol or drug addiction, a technology addict prefers their drug of choice (in this case a computer or phone) in lieu of spending time with loved ones.

I laughed this off at first. Then I realized that I’m sitting in front of my computer at home instead of hanging out with my girlfriend… who’s sitting right next to me. Sorry, babe.

Check it out

What is RSS?

RSS is what all your friends are using to keep track of their favorite websites. Why? Because it makes their lives way easier, that’s why. And it can do the same for you.

Instead of ‘bookmarking’ all your favorite sites and checking them one by one to see if anything new is available, RSS does all of that for you which gives you more time to do something way cooler than surfing the web…like maybe karate…or bow hunting.

What does RSS stand for?

Who cares what it stands for? If you really wanted to know, you’d have already gone to Wikipedia and found out for yourself. I’m assuming you just want to know how to use it, right?

How do I use RSS?

First off, you get yourself an RSS Reader. An RSS Reader is the actual program that will go out to all of your favorite sites and see if anything new has been posted. If it finds something new, it will let you know so you don’t have to do all that work yourself.

Don’t freak out! It’s way easier than you think! A quick Google search will bring up a ton of different RSS readers but a quick way to get started would be to use a free service like Google Reader or Bloglines.

Now that you’re set up with a reader, all you have to do is subscribe to some feeds. Feeds are something that your favorite websites already have set up and they’re just sitting there waiting for you to subscribe to them.

Where are these ‘Feeds’?

You can find a feed in one of two places: on the website or in your browser.
On the website: Sometimes websites put little icons (usually orange) on the site that say ‘RSS’ or ‘XML’ or ‘Subscribe’ or something like that. I’m sure you’ve seen them.
In your browser: Lots of browsers can automatically detect a feed and display an icon in the address bar for you to click on if you feel the urge.

Here are some examples:

OK, now what?

Most RSS readers are designed so that all you have to do is click one of those icons I mentioned above and ‘Voila!’ you’re subscribed. Others insist on making you copy the feed location (usually a right-click on the icon) and then paste it into your reader. Both Google Reader and Bloglines have excellent instructions so it should be a breeze. And once you’ve figured it out, subscribing will become second nature.

Wait, does the Fayetteville Flyer have it?

Of course we do. In fact, we have all kinds of feeds. We have an Entries Feed which will send you everything we post and we have a Comments Feed that will send you every single comment that is made on our site. That’s not all, though. You can even click on one of the categories in our navigation bar and from inside there, you can subscribe to specific categories only. Go ahead, give it a shot. You can even test it out on us first before you venture out into the wide world of time-saving technology.

Know of any further reading?

Yup. Here are some great places to learn more about RSS:

• How to Explain RSS the Oprah Way
• Getting Started with RSS
• Beginner’s Guide to RSS
• RSS In Plain English (video)

Backing up your files is something that you either a) do on a regular basis or b) wish you did on a regular basis. Just the thought of losing all of your photos, music or heaven forbid, your entire hardcore digital porn collection, can bring a deep cringe to even the most casual of computer users.

Forunately, Apple has answered our prayers and come up with a new product that not only automatically backs up your data but also serves as your home’s wireless router.

Time Capsule is both a Wi-Fi base station and a gigantic external hard drive in one. Mac OS X Leopard already delivers a seamless backup of your files (via Time Machine) but it can only do so when your computer is plugged into an external hard drive. Time Capsule serves as said drive but there’s no need to connect anything. In fact, as long as you’re in range of the base station (i.e. in your house), your Mac’s files will constantly be backed up in the background as you work. Furthermore, it can also take the place of that lousy wireless router you’re renting from Cox Communications that you always have to turn off and back on when it stops working.

Besides being a great addition to your Mac, Time Capsule also has a USB port for connecting a printer so that all of the computers in your house can print without the need for any cables, PCs included. And since it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Windows XP and Windows Vista users can take advantage as well (just not automatically).

Not too shabby, Apple. Not too shabby.

With Amazon, NetFlix and Microsoft pushing downloadable movies and cable companies offering HD on-demand content, it’s only a matter of time before discs are ditched completely. And now that Apple is in the game, the time frame has just been narrowed even more.

The latest version of iTunes will now provide DVD-quality movie rentals with stereo sound for $3-$4. HD movies are just a dollar more. And the newer, less-expensive Apple TV now allows you to order a movie straight from your living room without the need for a computer at all.

The idea of movie downloads is nothing new but nobody is handling it as well as Apple is claiming to be able to. Netflix has been offering streaming movies for a while but they still haven’t figured out how to make it work on a Mac, something that used to be a given but is completely unacceptable for a service in 2008. Amazon Unbox is making a good case for itself but doesn’t work with iPods and you’ve gotta wait until the entire movie has downloaded to watch it (sometimes hours). Apple’s new service works on both Macs, PCs, iPods (latest), TVs and allows movies to begin just minutes after the order is placed.

All we really want is to be able to quickly and easily watch movies on our screens whether they’re TVs, computers, iPods or all three. Be it Apple, Netflix, Amazon or whoever, somebody is eventually gonna get it right and whether you’re a fan of it or not, it’s plain to see that movie discs are headed in the same direction as the CD collection. It’s just a matter of time.

(For a hands-on review of the iTunes movie rental process, head on over to Engadget.)

Sporting a full sized, 13.3 inch screen with a built in camera and backlit keyboard, the MacBook Air is just 0.16 inches thick. In fact, it’s so thin that it can slide into a manilla envelope with room to spare.

Its trackpad is multi-touch ready which means you can annoy the hell out of your friends with the growingly popular “iPhone pinch-n-zoom” movement that is all the rave these days.

Inside is an iPod-sized 80GB hard drive to save space plus an option for a 64GB upgrade. In other words, it’s got enough space for all your crap. However, even with all the space-saving Apple managed to pull off, as previously suspected, there’s no room for a CD/DVD drive.

You won’t need one, though, because also introduced today were Time Capsule which wirelessly backs up your storage automatically and Remote Disc which wirelessly uses the CD/DVD drive from any other computer, Mac or PC. For those who can’t live without one, however, a $99 external drive is available.

Unfortunately, technology this badass does not come cheap. This dude’s gonna cost you $1799 at the most basic level. But something tells us there are plenty of folks out there who were dying for one of these before they even knew it.

I’ll admit that I was rooting for HDDVD to win, mainly because I personally owned a Toshiba HD-A3 HDDVD. The keyword in that last sentence: Owned. Past tense. After everything went down at CES, I knew we made the wrong choice in going with HDDVD. Luckily, through an “inside source” we found out that, after CES, Best Buy began offering folks with HDDVD players a trade. Bring in your HDDVD player before January 31st and we’ll give you full store credit to use towards a Blu-Ray player, no questions asked. With that offer in hand, we dropped HDDVD for Blu-Ray like a hot, maggot-infested potato. I walked in to Best Buy this weekend with my Toshiba player tucked under my arm and walked out with a shiny, new Playstation 3. It was as easy as that. Now if only they’ll take back my HDDVD’s in exchange for some Blu-Ray discs…

So if you, like me, initially went with HDDVD, now’s your chance to jump ship and cross over to Blu-Ray. Don’t dilly dally, though; Best Buy’s only offering this deal until January 31st.

Oh yeah, one more reason why Blu-Ray’s going to win: Porn. Don’t pretend like that doesn’t excite you, perv.