Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Like being there, in reply to HORansome,
There was no technical reason for the first iPad not to have USB or SD or HDMI slots, cameras of a reasonable resolution, etc etc right from the outset.
That’s wrong for two reasons. There may well have been technical reasons for those features being omitted, given that Apple wanted to make a tablet which was as small and slim as they could engineer it to be. Just because the technology is there doesn’t mean you have to put it into a device; you add features based upon what you want the product to do rather than add everything and then try to make it work.
Apparently they user-tested cameras and people didn't like the world looking up their nostrils. I suspect the demand for cameras expressed since -- and the maturing of Facetime -- led them to add them for the iPad 2.
And yeah, the iPad doesn't have a number of things, but I suspect we'd be surprised at the extent to which it's a work in progress. A few developers seem to have worked out ways of using the USB camera adaptor. But it's not meant to be a laptop with all the usual ports, and the design, insofar as it shapes the form factor, is a very big part of the picture.
I find that the people who've bought iPads and been disappointed are people whose production machines are laptops. OTOH, I use mine every day.
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Hard News: Like being there, in reply to Matt Crawford,
I love the idea of streaming concerts and would happily pony up the cash. But the proviso is it’d have to be a quality experience, and I guess the biggest issue is bitrate. I’m not sure that 320p youtube example is something I’d be prepared to pay for, but were it 720p yeah sure.
There's actually quite a lot of 720p video on YouTube these days, and even 480p generally looks pretty good on the TV. I can't recall the specs for the Arcade Fire show, but it was very, very good. I don't really get why YouTube don't do more live streaming -- they have the network for it.
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Hard News: Time to get a grip, in reply to Rich of Observationz,
(Seriously, in the UK, TV/radio news would never employ a politician and even current affairs are a bit wary).
Eh?
Brian Gould had his own talk show. Robert Kilroy-Silk ditto. And the likes of Michael Portillo have regular TV gigs. I'm sure I could make quite a long list if I had time.
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Hard News: Like being there, in reply to LIISA,
It would be an amazing thing if (for example) NZoA could support the continuation of this good work across other outlets.
I’m pretty sure I’m not breaching any confidences in saying that working with other public agencies to deliver media is what we LOVE to do.
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Oops. I think I broke The Listener.
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Russ came up with the name although, from memory, publicaddress.com was taken, but not the slightly less cool .net.
I maintain that .net is more cool.
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Cracker: Sydney-side, in reply to ScottY,
I’m currently in Sydney, and it’s my first time in this city. I like the place, and they seem to know in Australia how to make good use of public spaces. They don’t seem afraid to spend public money on monuments and works of art, which is something my own city (Auckland) has been lousy at.
I travelled to Australia quite a few times as an IT journalist, and their commitment to public spaces was always an inspiration.
I'm not sure I'd want to go as far as living in Brisbane, but the arts precinct across the river from the CBD is amazing. In Melbourne, they took out a road -- a road! -- to make way for a broad pedestrian concourse along the Yarra, from the railway station to the sports complex. I fear we'll never be that good.
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Hard News: Time to get a grip, in reply to GemmaG,
So vitriolic. Such short memories. Judith held Panmure for two terms before shifting to Auckland Central, winning it from Sandra Lee,
To whom the electorate had been surrendered by a feckless Richard Prebble, who promptly fucked off and, quite deliberately, left scorched earth where his LEC had been.
People tend to forget that.
Edit: I should note that was the period of my brief involvement in electorate politics. I let Paul Rose sign me up because I was appalled by what Prebble had done, and I could see that someone needed to help. David Cunliffe, fresh back from the US (where he’d worked on the last Clinton campaign) was also in the picture.
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Hard News: Time to get a grip, in reply to giovanni tiso,
Seriously, though, folks, I understand that a large sector of the media went to lunch on this thing, but if Tizard had been more disciplined and loyal none of this would have happened. She didn’t open her mouth but to hurt her own reputation and the party last week.
If she'd said nothing, she wouldn't have made things worse, true, but the weirdly vindictive approach to her started long before last week. And that Hubbard column was really spiteful, to the extent that it didn't even make sense.
The race to finding excuses for her seems a little odd to be honest.
To be fair, viral hepatitis is a pretty good excuse for low energy, as excuses go.
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Hard News: Time to get a grip, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
Which explains a lot. It’s a very nasty, debilitating disease. And, it can take a very long time to recover from, especially if you’re fond of wine. (I’m not suggesting she’s a lush, by the way, just that alcohol is very hard on a recovering liver.)
I think she has the odd glass now, but she stopped drinking for a long time.