George Lucas talks Indy / Star Wars TV
Check out TV Guide’s 2-part interview with George Lucas on many of his upcoming ventures. Part 1 covers his thoughts on Sean Connery missing in action in the new Indiana Jones film and his appearance in a documentary based on big name directors from the San Francisco area while Part 2 covers both of the upcoming Star Wars television debuts (live-action and the 3D cartoon - The Clone Wars) and his thoughts on the evolving television industry.
Here’s an interesting clip from Part 2 about how Lucas plans to roll out the live-action Star Wars series.
TV Guide: And how are you going to produce this one? Are you going to film a certain number? Are you going to have a deal with a network before you go ahead with filming?
Lucas: No, we’ll do it just the same way that we’re doing the animated series, which is we usually write a whole year first, and then we’ll start shooting, and then we’ll shoot the whole year and then once we’ve got [something to show], we’ll see where we can put it. We’re going to do a hundred of them, too. [It should be] easier [to place] than the animated one because it’s live-action.TV Guide: So you’ll film before you get a commitment? Or how will that work?
Lucas: Well, we’re doing these before we get a commitment, so we’re just doing them on the faith that we’re going to [sell them]. I mean, we’re doing them ourselves, so we can finance them, we don’t need to have a commitment of any kind. We’re simply going to sell them.TV Guide: Will you be looking for a network like an HBO to say, “We’ll take all hundred”?
Lucas: Yeah, but they probably won’t do that. [Laughs] Somebody might, but usually what they’ll do is they’ll take 13 or 26 and then see what happens and they’ll take the next group.... If that group doesn’t work, then we’ll move to another place. Lucasfilm is basically acting as the production company.
TV Guide: Yeah, but usually a network will commission a single pilot off a script or pick.... Well, you know the process.
Lucas: Right — but I have enough confidence that this is good, and I’ll make it really good, so I’m not too worried about that part of it. And if worse comes to worse, I’ll end up with a lot of library product. [Laughs]
I can’t wait!
Old News Is No News
AppleInsider spoke a tad too soon on a response to the iPhone price fiasco based on another Steve Jobs interview prior to his Open Letter (i. e. Blog) to all iPhone owners.
No biggie… Just thought the contradicting headlines were humorous.
Apple Pissed Me Off, Then Gave Me $100
I had almost finished typing up a rant about losing $200 of my barely 2 month old iPhone investment (after Apple announced a $200 decrease in price at yesterday’s event) when I see a nice letter from Steve Jobs assuring me that Apple is still my friend.
To all iPhone customers:
I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale. After reading every one of these emails, I have some observations and conclusions.
First, I am sure that we are making the correct decision to lower the price of the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, and that now is the right time to do it. iPhone is a breakthrough product, and we have the chance to ‘go for it’ this holiday season. iPhone is so far ahead of the competition, and now it will be affordable by even more customers. It benefits both Apple and every iPhone user to get as many new customers as possible in the iPhone ‘tent’. We strongly believe the $399 price will help us do just that this holiday season.
Second, being in technology for 30+ years I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date and misses the new price or the new operating system or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon. The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.
Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.
Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.
We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.
Steve Jobs
Apple CEO
Thanks, Steve.
September 5.
I’m really showing off my Apple Love lately, but I cant help it. Apple continues to win me over with every new product announcement. Tomorrow they will reveal their latest with a special event subtexted ”And The Beat Goes On...” Here are my (completely uninformed) predictions so that if I’m right I can have some minor bragging rights.
Touch iPod
Every is claiming this and I think its time that we finally get a widescreen iPod and the touch screen ala iPhone is the natural control scheme for it. This is going to be the big announcement of tomorrow and should give a nice little jump to Apple stock (AAPL).
Feature Guesses:
- Wi-Fi with mobile iTunes Music Store access for on the fly music purchases and downloads
- Internet Radio and/or streaming music from desktop iTunes available over WiFi
- However, no MobileSafari or other internet uses (no GoogleMaps, no YouTube, etc)
- PIM (Personal Information Management) Software Suite — iCal, Address Book, Notes. Works pretty much like iPhone
- 80gb & 120gb options, full hard-drive (not flash-based) which likely means a slightly thicker form-factor than the iPhone
- Beatles iTunes announcement (finally) but no one really cares… (Why now? The final press release from The Beatles ended with “When the spinning stops—that’ll be the time to worry, not before. Until then, the Beatles are alive and well and the beat goes on, the beat goes on”
- New availability of an iPod pre-loaded wth entire Beatles catalog (the Yellow Submarine)
iPod Nano “Fatty”
There have been a ton of photos of the new iPod Nano that have surfaced on Engadget and such that shows a new shorter iPod Nano. Though it is technically smaller (it looks as though 1/3 of the height has been removed) it just looks “fat” to me. If these photos are accurate (which a lot seems to suggest they are) then this should be the only remaining iPod with a click wheel.
Feature Guesses:
- Complete change to the UI, much more visually appealling
- CoverFlow
- Now supports video
- Full iPod Game support
iPhone
The iPhone is just barely over 2 months old and you can bet Steve Jobs’ has quite a few tricks up his sleeve to unveil for this guy. The release of Leopard (Apple’s new Operating System, to be released Oct/Nov ‘07) will bring some of the big updates to the iPhone but I still think a couple things will be announced here.
Feature Guesses:
- Ringtones available for all iTMS purchased (i.e. DRMed) songs
- Games. Not the same iPod games but seperate games designed specifically for the iPhone’s touch interface
- If WiFi and mobile iTMS happens on the iPod, it should also appear on iPhone. If not, it won’t
- Apple’s first brand new native iPhone app… perhaps iChat?
One More Thing...
I believe this event will have an infamous “one more thing” announcement. What this will be I’m not entirely sure but believe it will be game-changing.
Apple announces their own record label and promoted with several prominent artists - John Mayer, Jay-Z & Beyonce?
Apple announces their own movie studio in association with J.J. Abrams and will begin releasing episodes of a new show available only on iTunes?
Apple announces…
Oh who am I kidding… I have no clue, we’ll find out tomorrow!
Ten Industrial Design Trends You Can’t Ignore
Forbes posts it’s Ten Industrial Design Trends You Can’t Ignore. Kind of a weird “list” as it’s actually not a list but a series of photos outlining the trends with captions.
I find the Focus On The Other 90% item pretty interesting, as a focus shifts from the more flashy/cool/trendy designs commonly seen in the U.S. to the undeveloped 90% of the world such as Africa. Back to the roots of design, simple function for the betterment of life.
And of course, a trend highlighting the iPhone…
Simplexity
Steve McCallion, executive creative director of Portland, Ore.-based industrial design firm Ziba Design, says there’s a trend toward “simplexity,” products that have many functions but are approachable, ergonomically correct and easy to use--like Apple’s iPhone. The baby boomers have also propelled simplexity; as the generation ages, the need for easy-to-use, at-home medical equipment becomes greater. Ami Verhalen, director of industrial design at Madison, Wis.-based Design Concepts, says that in-home health care will be a huge driver for product innovation in the upcoming decade.
On a side note, the Forbes.com “In Pictures” photo browser leaves a lot to be desired.
NBC = Dumb
So today it was revealed the NBC has declined to renew it’s contract with Apple for 2008. This means you will no longer have the convenience of purchasing new Heroes or The Office episodes on iTunes this coming season at the stock price of $1.99 per episode. The crying starts… now.
The reason for the change? According to Apple NBC wanted to raise the price to $4.99 per episode and Apple (rightly) refused to do so. If you’re doing the math that means NBC wants you to pay roughly $120 for a standard 24 episode season. Ho-ly crap. NBC is freakin insane to think anyone would pay so much! That’s 3-4 times the cost of purchasing the physically DVD set when it’s released. Apply that math to music and they’d be asking $6-8 per song.
Ludicrous.
Anyone with a brain knows what this means for the future of NBC watching habits.
While ABC, CBS, FOX and the like happily receive some nice little income off their show purchases from iTunes, NBC heads back to the 90s with zero income and lots of illegal downloading.
NBC’s new motto: Hope you have a good bittorrent client...
Tips and Tricks for New iPhone Users
Just came across this fantastic list of iPhone Power Tips. A decent list, I’m most excited about Tip #14 though I ave yet to try it out for myself.
14. Kill GSM Buzz
If you experience a buzzing sound using an iPhone cassette adapter for your car stereo, such as Monster’s iCarPlay - which claims to be iPhone compatible but doesn’t appear anywhere on Monster’s website, www.monstercable.com - Gizmodo offers a low-tech solution: aluminum foil. Yep, just take a little bit of Reynolds Wrap and wrap it around the cable closest to the iPhone. This eliminates the need to switch to airplane mode - which is a viable solution, but sends incoming calls to voicemail.
If the aluminum-foil-wrap-trick does the job this will solve my number one complaint with the iPhone, incredibly annoying GSM noise which interferes with speakers when attempting to use the iPod function of the iPhone.
One tip that they failed to mention is the period-slide trick. Many have complained about the keyboard requiring 2-3 keystrokes to type a period and think that the period should have been included on the main keyboard. But there is a sweet little workaround. If you place your finger on the .?123 button and, without lifting your finger, slide your finger over the period and then left from the screen, you get the period and are returned to the home screen all in one quick motion. After some practice this becomes a second nature quick tap-slide maneuver. This also works with any other symbol but the period is the easiest and most useful.
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Top 10 iPhone Apps: Real-World
Well, it’s been 2 months since the iPhone release and the development scene has been growing like crazy. I’m too scared to try out any of the hacker stuff but there are a ton of great articles on the daily updates at The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW). The most enticing application of which (for me) is the NES Emulator which I really (really) want to try out as well as just simply being able to add app icons to the front screen. It is truly amazing how quickly all this stuff has come together.
The web app community has really taken off as well, going much further than I thought would be possible so quickly. However, there are still some annoying limitations to these iPhone web apps so I’ve decided to first write up a Top 10 of what is currently available followed by a Top 10 of iPhone apps that I would love to see in the future (though they might not be possible with only the MobileSafari interface).
Top 10 Real-World iPhone Applications
- Google Reader — My number one site visit on my iPhone. Just a good solid RSS reader that’s easily browsed on the iPhone. I love the way the reader app I use on my iPhone is the same as the one I use on my desktop so I never end up reading the same stuff twice. I imagine there is an app out there that better fits the the iPhone look (rather then the non-iPhone-specified Google Reader Mobile page) but I have yet to find one that syncs well for both mobile and desktop use. The tags feature definitely makes browsing through many feeds much easier.
- Battle Fleet — One of my favorite iPhone games, the implementation is so simple yet flawless. The best part about this game is how you hardly even need EDGE to play it. There’s a short initial load and then it is pretty much ready to go… perfect for those times when your EDGE speed just ain’t cuttin it.
- Brick Shooter — Yet another iPhone game that relies very little on my EDGE connection to run past the initial load time (coincidence? I think not). Although the screenshots and description sound very similar to your traditional Bejeweled rip-off, this game truly has a unique flavor that feels very much its own. I find myself playing this game way too freakin often.
- iPhlickr — Great for browsing Flickr photos and pulling up one of your own… almost makes me think I could free up some room by nnot syncing all my photos. Only wish it had your friends list for easily browsing friend photos and had a way to add photos to your photo library. The Interesting Photos Taken Today page is awesome for flipping through and seeing some truly beautiful photos.
- Showtimes — Very nice iPhone implentation, feels like a true Apple app in it’s presentation and simplicity. The short list of info along with a small movie poster icon is invaluable information on the fly when you’re minutes from a movie decision and can’t remember what movie No Reservations is ("oh yah… that chick flick with the chefs… let’s see something else, baby. How about, Bourne Ultimatum?"). That was enough to push it above MoviesApp which has additional benefit of being able to check different dates, but doesn’t have the nice movie summary info.
- Pocket Tweets — I’ve slowly been pulling myself out of twitter as I’m finding it to be a collosal waste of my time and attention span with little payoff in return. If all my IRL friends were twitter, er… -ers then it might be more valuable. But of the many Twitter iPhone apps available I found Pocket Tweets to the prettiest and easiest to use. And now with the latest iPhone firmware update the page never auto-scrolls to the top after a full page load on EDGE (when I’m usually halfway down the list). The biggest problem is that there isn’t a “page 2” for twitter updates, a problem when you like to read all of them and haven’t for a few days.
- CheapMF — This program allows you to look up basically any product and it will give you reader reviews to get you an idea of whether or not something sucks before buying it. I love this program because I am a total impulse shopper and it’s great to know when I’m about to waste my money. Now I only waste money on stuff that gets good reviews.
- GetLeaflets — Technically this is a small collection of apps, all fantastically designed to display beautifully on the iPhone. The implementation is great and it’s worth keeping an eye on for future developments. Honestly, I use it mostly for browsing newsvine, as it seems to be the best news reader for now.
- JiveTalk — Apple forgot to add iChat to the iPhone so if you want to chat you have a couple of decent choices. I’ve seen a lot of buzz about Meebo but I actually much prefer JiveTalk which just seems to work much faster and smoother. It feels almost as smooth as if it were a true app. I don’t do a ton of in-the-road IMing but when I do JiveTalk easily serves what I need.
- iPhone Pepper — When you’re a website stats junkie like I am there is no better way to get your fix on the go than installing the iPhone Pepper and pulling up your website’s Mint on the go.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where I’ll list my Top 10 In-A-Perfect-World Apps, i.e. a wishlist of iPhone Applications that I would love to see but do not exist.
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