andrew t elliott: Archive

Apple's Education Event

I submit this having no explicit or implicit knowledge of Apple’s plans for this announcement or future development of either the App platform or the iBooks platform. Education has long been a core component to Apple’s strategy. Creating an intuitive interface not only allows for easy migration from another platform, but allows for young people—who may still be developing...

Jan 12th

iBooks

This is a response to Business Insiders’ Apple’s iBookstore Is Looking Like A Rare Flop: The iBookstore isn’t a failure because Apple hasn’t seriously tried. However, the fact that Steve Jobs was interested in books at all is telling. Apple has made little effort to seriously prioritize iBooks within their ecosystem. iOS devices don’t even ship with iBooks. All...

Oct 10th

480. If a street performer makes you stop walking,...

That is absolutely the rule.

Feb 10th

896 notes

and a happy new year to you too →

lancerubin: As I was getting off the F train just now, I was blind-sided by a casual service change notice on the window with, what essentially amounts to, this information: From January 10 through May 2011, there aren’t going to be any Manhattan-bound trains at this station (which is the station near your apartment that you use every day). Sucker. I re-read it at least 5 times, thinking,...

Jan 3rd

5 notes

Wanna See a Magic Trick?

I’m going to turn myself into … you! That is, if you are logging into Facebook, Google and many other websites over an unsecure wifi connection. A new Firefox extension called Firesheep is causing quite the uproar. It allows a user to collect cookies transmitted over HTTP on an unsecured WiFi network. The user can then use these cookies to log into any of the accounts. It allows a...

Oct 26th

6 tags

Apple.com moves to the Dark Side

Following last Wednesday’s Back-To-The-Mac SteveNote announcing the refreshed MacBook Air lineup, Apple.com went dark — literally. Apple.com — which historically uses a white background — has turned black. Completely black. Visitors were greeted with a full black image, from which faded a hand holding the new 11.6 inch MacBook Air. Shortly, the blackness fades and reveals...

Oct 25th

Sep 24th

4 notes

Sep 17th

Sep 8th

785 notes

6 tags

The iPad (looking back at some silly thing I...

Here’s something I started writing when the iPad was announced: —— The iPad will hurt iPhone. And not the same way that iPhone has hurt iPod sales. The accessibility of this iPhone is part of what has made it such a success. It is instantly recognizable as the ultimate in portable electronics. It is what’s cool and what everyone wants. One of the reasons the iPhone...

Sep 7th

2 notes

I need this alarm clock

Sep 6th

BEIRUT - Nantes →

Beirut performing in a staircase. Fantastic.

Sep 5th

2 notes

10 tags

Apple's Closed App Ecosystem is a Myth.

The simple fact is that Apple has made is so easy to develop and distribute applications via the App Store that it leaves developers wondering how they ever did it before. Here’s how you did it before: From your website, the user can download your application. For a fee, the user can acquire a license key, or license file which they are given instructions how to install. Here’s...

May 5th

Just like everyone else

I’m not giving away an iPad. Good luck!

Apr 7th

Jan 15th

Tablet to be "iPhone on steroids" →

This makes sense in the Apple product model. This is the “iPhone HD”, not that it will be named as such, but in concept it will be to the iPhone what the iPhone is to the iPod Touch. It is the “Pro” device in Apple’s mobile ecology. The timing of a March or April ship date makes sense as well. New features are released to the Slate in April, available exclusively...

Jan 13th

Contra - I wantcha.

(Skip to the bottom and listen to the album while you read this.) I’m very pleased with the new Vampire Weekend album. I’ve been a huge fan since I first discovered their self-titled freshman effort. It’s catchy, fun and I can listen it over and over. If I had it on CD, I would probably have left it in the player for two weeks straight. Instead I can offer play count...

Jan 7th

9 tags

How to sell me on the "iSlate"

DISCLAIMER: I know nothing real about any of this, I’m just a fan and can’t wait to see what’s next. These are my outstanding questions on the iSlate: What problem is this device solving? This is the fundamental issue I have with the tablet computer: it’s a solution for a problem I’m not yet aware of. How do you hold it? - I am most curious about how this gets...

Jan 4th

Big, Gorgeous iTunes Artwork

I have no doubt that this can be automated. I also have no doubt that I won’t be the one to do it. For your edification. Sample: Artwork from The Wire, Season 3: Copy the link. Paste the link into your browser. At this page, either copy the location of the image or view it. You now just need to take the “100x100-75.” out of the image to get a crisp, clean 600x600...

Nov 15th

Theater in a digital download →

But where does the audience live in this, the next iteration of documenting theater? Isn’t this just poor film - and not theater? Hasn’t this road been explored. I can’t help but think of Dogville. Theater is the unique artform that is rebuilt upon every viewing for a specific audience. “It’s a good audience tonight” is an unthinkable utterance from a...

Oct 28th

8 tags

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let me know when you’re done holding the...”

– Conductor of the F Train, at West 4th

Oct 2nd

Sep 18th

Infinite backwards compatibility on a mobile phone →

Article makes a good point: Users will be upset when their device is no longer supported by the software updates. Though I think it’s fair to point out that those who are getting iPhones are mostly the type who get swept up in bigger is better, latest is greatest mentality and those who are not so tech savvy to endeavor in upgrading their phone will do so because switching devices is so...

Aug 19th

Followers

Dear cult member, You can see that I’ve provided you with two new ways to stalk me: LaLa and FourSquare. Just click the links on the right. (RSSers, you’ll need to come visit the site for a moment) I love both of these sites, but I don’t much know anyone there yet. So I’m just playing in the sandboxes alone. So come and join me, it’s awesome in here!

Jul 29th

Why isn't the future here yet?

I wear contacts. And when I go to see a 3D movie, I get the polarized glasses just like everyone else. However, I would like for my optimologist to prescribe me polarized contacts. If you had polarized contacts, you could interact with the world in a completely different way. Every 2D surface could be brought to greater depth. Advertising would be the thing most noticable. This is a very...

Jul 29th

Furr by Blitzen Trapper

Loving this song. Give it a listen. Lyrics provided because they are awesome. Furr - Blitzen Trapper Yeah, when I was only seventeen I could hear the angels whispering So I drove into the woods And wandered aimlessly about Until I heard my mother shouting through the fog It turned out to be the howling of a dog Or a wolf, to be exact The sound sent shivers down my back But I was...

Jul 29th

Twitter

Been tweeting a lot so I just added my feed in here, so if my posts seem quick and dirty — they are.

Jul 24th

#TwitterPseudonym

The two issues that I am most encountering on Twitter are that I want to enter contests, without spamming my friends/followers, and that I have dirty tweets that I’m not tweeting because I don’t want all my followers that are “Professional” to associate that sort of deviancy with me, per se. And that’s the rub: Gotta make a second twitter account to post all the...

Jul 12th

Power Tools

Frank: I think if we use this. 
Me: No way, this one will be just like: 
Frank: Yeah!
 

Jul 12th

Jun 27th

2 tags

Free Energy - Dream City →

Been listening to this one for a couple days. As the referring site says, it’s pretty much amazing.

Jun 24th

More on the Quarter Life Crisis

me: Professor Responsibility says "Pay off debts before making new ones"
Josh: Professor Responsibility is wise.  If not a pain in the ass.
me: Yeah, I try not to listen to him, but sometimes he's REALLY LOUD
Josh: He sounds like some sort of DAD.
me: He is.  It's me as a dad.  Maybe that's what the Quarter Life Crisis is about. Being your own dad and rebelling against yourself.
Josh: You could be right.  I think it's about having had too many expectations that we'd all be rock stars and movie gods by the time we were 24. EN-TITLE-MENT.
me: But I think it's really more about our pre-24 identities striving for rockstarness through inverse actions of our parents.  Then once we become the rent payers, breadwinners, trying to rebel against ourselves, which is in effect rebelling against the rebel.  It all becomes feedback and we're left confused with our ears ringing.
Josh: You've left me with nothing clever to say in response.  I think you're right.

Jun 22nd

Quarter Life Crisis →

It’s not often that I find solace in an article. I surely didn’t find it here. Only company. Via Josh.

Jun 22nd

Das Rascist →

One: I’m at the Pizza Hut. || The Other: I’m at the Taco Bell. || Both (Together): I’m at that combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Really? This thing? Yup. It is a retarded song. I use that word both for it’s cultivation of idiacy and it’s Digital-Underground-Style beats. via Pitchfork

Jun 22nd

“Ladies and Gentlemen: This is not an automated announcement. There are a lot of...”

– A very determined F train conductor. 6:20p 6/17 @2nd Ave.

Jun 17th

Supermarket uses your car's gas to power its... →

(found via Engadget) Okay, so this defintely seems like an interesting idea, but I think it’s starting to get into a strange territory of found energy vs. stealing energy. It’s basically nothing more than salami slicing. Just like Richard Pryor in Superman III, who was stealing fractions of cents off of each bank transaction, so is this grocery store. I’ve seen similar plans...

Jun 17th

1 tag

Super Geek Time →

The software for the new iPhones (not the new iPhone software, mind you) has hit the tubes. I can’t wait to get this thing on my phone. Just one question: If you were Apple, and you hid the 2,1 firmware under a rock called, lets say 061-6582.20090617.LlI87, where would you hide the firmware for the 1,2? I’m pretty sure I have about a billion permutations for changing the...

Jun 16th

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man...”

Jun 16th

Bugs

Little Boy #1: Look how fast that bug is crawling!
Little Boy #2: Where do you think he's going?
Little Boy #1: Maybe he's going to see his girlfriend.
 (Both proceed to spit on him.)

Jun 14th

Jonases

Patron: What's all that screaming outside?
Bartender: Jonas Brothers are playing at the Fillmore.
Patron: That seems like a small venue for them.
Me: They're trying to build their indy cred.
Bartender: Really? Is that even possible?
Me: After doing a 3D concert movie? Probably not.

Jun 12th

Jun 11th

Tweeter

Her: Why is it called a Tweet? Shouldn't it be a Twit?

Me: Maybe, but the past tense of twit is unacceptable.

Jun 9th

Watch

Finally I can give this video a home, and it will actually show at a decent quality! c.2005

May 31st

May 15th

4 tags

Eclipse of the Sun (a play)

I’m in a reading of a new short play based on that painting. I’m one of the headless guys. I’ll be playing it method, obviously. $12 on May 27th, the reading follows Mare Cognitum (more info on the moon at right) The Workshop Theater 312 West 36th Street, 4th Floor between 8th & 9th Avenues New York, NY 10018 Dave McGee on Eclipse: “Not only will you get to hear...

May 8th

May 7th

4 tags

KindleDX →

Does Amazon really know what it’s doing? I’m fairly sure that Bezos jumped the shark with this. Only three months after staging a big press conference touting the second generation Kindle - which was a significantish improvement over the first model, if for nothing else than design and capacity - Amazon announced today that they would be adding a new model to the Kindle family - the DX. DX...

May 6th

Bulls-Celtics is the best Playoffs series since Yankees-Red Sox ‘04. Are you watching?!

Apr 30th

2 tags

Eddie Izzard Live From London - Podcast →

Just downloading this now, but I CAN’T WAIT! Does he do the giraffes thing? I hope so! The “bong-bong” will be my new ringtone…

Apr 30th

Former Pixie fits family into music →

ZOMG ZOMG! My friend Doug opened a music space in Salem Oregon and tonight Frank Black (Yes THAT Frank Black aka Black Francis, former/current front man for the Pixies) is premiering his new band there. Amazing. I have no idea how he got this. And it’s a super cheap show. $5.

Apr 29th