Full Screen APPLE TRAILERS on the PC

If any of you PC users are regulars at Apple Trailers (like me) and pissed that you can't see them awesome hi-def trailers in full screen mode (like I am), here's an alternative that's aptly named .....Quicktime Alternative. You are now free from apple's shackles and can enjoy trailers on your media center PC in their full 1080p glory thanks to free-codecs.com.



http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

it will uninstall your QT and re-install the codec and give you access to QT using any media player of your choice. Full screen apple trailers are now a reality on the PC without having to pay for QT pro (take that.. apple!) The coolest feature is when you click on 720p and 1080p apple trailer links, it pops up and gives you many options. You can save it and it will rename to .hdmov and you can play it back using media center.

The site also has a Realplayer alternative (very useful for folks like me that find Real player mildly irritating).

iphone in the flesh

It's been a couple of weeks since the iphone launch. For a couple of months, I had had enough of the iphone. It was everywhere and I couldn't go five minutes on my or PC or TV without the iphone. Even my RSS reader (engadget and gizmodo, actually) was giving me a hard time. I had to subscribe to gizmodo's iphone free RSS for a short while.

It's back to normal in the tech world now. People now acknowledge other issues and life as I knew it before the iphone is almost back. Which brings us to one important thing. I hadn't seen it in flesh.

There's an apple store very close to where I work. In fact, I was having lunch near the store on the day of the launch and all the fools were waiting in line. I was going to watch Harry Potter on Saturday and the store was on the way. I went in and found one that no one was bothering with. The first thing that struck me was the size (It's smaller than I thought it would be.)

Watching the iphone ads is one thing. Seeing it for real, I was floored. I fell in love with the interface. It was a surreal experience browsing the photo galleries and pinching the maps.

However the internet experience was very slow and not that great. I also made a test call and spoke for 2-3 mins. It gets very hot. I don't how many people had tried it at the store, but it was uncomfortably hot and I wanted to end the call at one point to save my ear.

Also, 500-600 is too much for a phone. When I bought the ipod, it was a 5th generation product. I will give this one a pass and wait for a 3G version which will hopefully have a GPS on it.

Mac - Pc

This beats any of the official ads. The video might be a li'l amateurish, but the lyrics are awesome.

At last!!!!

Finally, some justice!! All these years of near misses and frustration!! They gave the best director Oscar to Martin Scorsese and he deserved it!! What a movie! I am so happy. He's given us such wonderful movies. 'Could you double check the envelope??' Brilliant!

Yay!!!

Usually, I am not one to celebrate other people's failings, but Australia and Ferrari have a special place in my heart for such things.

I can't ever remember a time when I have seen the Aussies lose 5 matches in a row (or 7 out of their last 8 matches). Nothing like a whitewash!! I am so happy for NZ. But most of all, I am so happy that this World Cup will not be spent waiting to see what team plays Australia in the finals.

Gates at CES, iPhone etc.

Thanks to microsoft.com, I was able to watch Bill Gates' keynote address at CES. It didn't have a lot about vista that I didn't already know, but the demos were impressive and overall, the demos went without any hitches.

I was a little disappointed to learn about a couple of vista ultimate features. Not that a video desktop background is a bad idea (if you have the firepower), but the ultimate edition needs to offer a lot more for the extra $100 or so it costs.

The RFID & speech recognition driven home projection system was also impressive and a good indicator of things to come, but right now, you need to be a Bill G to be able to own something like that.

I can't wait for the next Xbox to come out (if the rumors are true, there is a 120 GB, built in HD-DVD & HDMI port version in the works). The IPTV could be something great if it works as promised.

The next day at Macworld was fantastic for the apple fanboys club. The iPhone was revealed and despite the fact that I am not a fanboy, I thought: "YUMMY". However, unless I get one for free, I won't be taking the iPhone route. For that matter, I won't be interested in any first generation product. A lot of people have started pointing out it's flaws already (Its not going to be out till June), but Cingular has already started taking orders. I am sure it will be sold out and may even have a wait-list (no dearth of fanboys for apple.)

Here's what will kill it for me:
8 GB max, not expandable - I have a large music collection, Solid state drives have started to come out at 32 GB. Disappointing.

No 3G - Are they kidding? EDGE might be enough for now, and I am not betting on wi-fi being available for free everywhere.

Not an Open system - Possibly no third party software support.

Also, Apple is not the first to announce a touch screen phone. The next LG chocolate will probably have it too (some photos of prototypes were shown and looks impressive too).

And then, there is the brewhaha about the iPhone trademark and how cisco owns the trademark etc. Apple is laughing it off! Cisco is suing. I hope apple loses this one. Why can't they call it the applephone or aphone or the iphod? They've already renamed their itv to apple tv. This seems like a year of complicated relationships with the law for Apple Inc. (No longer Apple Computer Inc. btw).

Mahindra Tractors - Did you know?

Of course, most Indians know Mahindra makes tractors. Do you now that they sell them in the US now? I did not. And I just saw an ad on TV (on the History channel.. weird) for Mahindra tractors. A typical male ad voice claimed that 97% of Mahindra tractor owners are satisfied with it and proudly displayed mahindrausa.com before fading to black. Now that's what I call a multinational! Will this mean the same thing to John Deere etc as Toyota and Honda to Ford, GM and other mediocre american auto companies?