While Laz has been a posting beast, I’ve been sitting back pondering what my first foray into the Brainfarm blogfarm should be about. I’m still not sure but here goes!
Simplicity and Technology
Combining the words simplicity and technology should really be an oxymoron but I think for the advancement of new media for the home it is necessary for these two concepts to live in harmony. Why? Most civilians (mum, dad, uncle Trev, my sister..I could go on) still can’t program a video recorder. For most people it’s like rocket surgery. Are they that difficult to program? I don’t think so, but I’m not a civilian. For me it takes a daring spirit and a sense of adventure and if I want a real sense of success, I don’t even bother with the manual. And I think this is why most people can’t program their VCR – they’re terrified of doing something wrong ie:breaking it etc.
I think most people who advocate Microsoft’s Media Center aren’t civilians. They’re the one who like to tinker, experiment and work on the principle that the more buttons on a remote the better. Of course, I’m generalizing but I think for most part the assumption is correct.
So with the tech media frenzy going on lately about the impending Macworld in San Fransisco on January 9 (again, NOT the civilians!) much has been made of what will be announced. Will there be an iPhone (name now owned by Cisco), a widescreen video iPod, will the iTV be ready for prime time?
Who except Steve Jobs really knows? But if I was to throw my hat into the ring and make a prediction I would say this: if any or all of the these products are announced they will have one thing in common – Simplicity.
The success on bringing new media into the world of civilians depends on it.
There is no answer to the question I am about to pose.
With all the advancements in technology, giving the common person a voice to millions and platforms to express thoughts and feeling through content I guess there has to be a down side, I mean you can’t have ying without yang.
As a television news director for 11 years I can attest to seeing some really awful, tragic and heartbreaking things, but I never saw someone’s life taken from them in a scheduled and sanctioned event.
The end of Saddam’s life being chronicled by a television crew was something that many have said was a unfortunate necessity because of the need for the people to know for certain that the man who terrorised their country was truly gone. The fact that he was taunted and heckled to the very last seconds of his life is sickening but I’m guessing that many many of his victims went through even greater terror at their very last moments. The fact that should I chose to, I can sit in Starbucks and sip on a latte and casually watch a man cease to exist makes me wonder some times where we are headed ?
In the world of convergence, there is no more holy grail than the “box in the home”! According to the experts, if you can get your set top box into people’s homes then you are the gatekeeper to the vast and ever growing mountain of content that is out there. Telcos are trying to do it with set top boxes, companies like Apple are trying with iTV (more on that after Jan 9) and game console builders are thinking that seeing they already have the box hooked up to the tv and it has a DVD attached they already have one foot in the door.To a point they are right but the only people I know running xbox and ps3 don’t care much for tv, that why they bought the game in the first place. So the mass market appeal may have missed the demographic they were after.
I first heard about te Wii listening to TWIT with Leo and the gang and they really let it have it because of the name. Wii, I guess it sounds a little strange at first but so did you-tube or google until we all used the names daily. Anyway as more press got out there and more details became known I became more intrigued about this device, to the point that now “I Want One”!
The only game console I have ever owned was an Atari 2600, I’m the first to admit I’m not that good at games but that’s why the Wii appeals to me. It looks like a lot of fun, and fun you can have with your family. It seems to me that you don’t need fingers of steel and nerves to match to play most of the Wii’s games. If you can swing a tennis raquet or golf club or bowl a bowling ball, hit a baseball or cricket bat, sword-fight, bla bla bla you get the idea, the point is you just pick it up and start having fun and that is what gives it more chance than any of gaining a foothold as a convergent device.
Why do people like Apple products like the iPod, because they are simple. I don’t know how and I don’t care, it just works is most peoples reason for having them, plus they look really cool and their branding is hot. I have seen demos of set top devices that can do every thing but boil an egg ( and that is planed for vers 2.0) the trouble is there is so much on there I cant figure it out, and that’s the danger, “Too hard, don’t use it”.
For anyone working in new-media, to my way of thinking “keep it as simple, elegant and functional as possible and the world will take notice. Once you got’em then innovation is the next step.
I’m off to the shop to get some fun, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Posted by Dr. Hfuhruhurr 
Posted by brainfarm 
Posted by brainfarm 
