#Why I Hate #Hollywood For #Movies!
Hollywood will never get it. They’re so petrified at killing the ‘perceived value’ for their content that they will go to great lengths to discourage you from buying digital content.
As a huge Batman and Toronto Batman (lol) fan, my jaw dropped when I saw the ridiculous pricing for a digital only version of The Dark Knight Rises on Apple Canada’s iTunes Store. This price isn’t set by Apple but the death star called Hollywood.
That’s $24.99 for the Digital HD version of the epic finale to an amazing trilogy.
Now let’s look at deals for physical media from Walmart (Best Buy Canada and Amazon Canada were “roughly” the same).
The Dark Knight Rises 2-DISC BLU-RAY + DVD
The Dark Knight Rises DVD
The Trilogy - Limited Edition Set
The Dark Knight Rises (BLU-RAY)
Am I going to buy a iTunes Digital version (encrypted and limited to 5 Apple iDevices - the limitation doesn’t really bother me) for that price when we all know the physical media offers just a bit more in the value department? Further, I’ve already experienced “iTunes in the Cloud” and I assumed my content was safe but based on a recent incident with Yuma 3:10 (re-make), I discovered that if such content is kept in the cloud, and the movie peeps “re-modify” the movie (whatever that means), I lose the content forever. Can you believe it? Apple’s iTunes was kind enough to explain this and offered me a free rental credit and encouraged me to send feedback to them — obviously, to pool the complaints by their customers for Hollywood.
Why should we bother? Hollywood is fully aware of this. And they don’t listen. So customers are faced with limited, cost-reasonable choices and unfortunately will go out of their way to acquire the content in the manner they desire. As well, it is bothersome that iTunes Canada doesn’t have a full movie catalogue like an old brick-and-mortar Blockbuster - but that isn’t Apple. That’s movie licensing. We will never see a packed catalogue on Netflix or iTunes because of Hollywood’s pathetic money-grabbing windowing system. If I could find the classic George C. Scott “The Changeling” on ITunes, I’d probably pay a bit more for the digital copy rather than try to dig it out of a DVD bargain bin at Walmart and and then clear the dust off the DVD player to see it.
What if I bought the iTunes HD version of #TDKR through iTunes but somehow got the physical version in return? Would this drive sales? My gut instinct says yes. Or why not offer a digital version with the physical media — I read up on something called “Ultraviolet Edition” but I don’t know if that’s the same thing. Anyone know?
Hollywood. Grow some….and stop being so damn greedy.
- Apple iTunes 11 (winsupersite.com)
- My Purchased Digital Movie in #Apple #iTunes is Gone Thanks To Re-Modification! (alexanderbosika.com)
- Apple To Make Hollywood an Offer It Can’t Refuse (cultofmac.com)
- Christopher Nolan Talks about the Ending of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and More (collider.com)
- Honest Trailer for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (collider.com)
- The Dark Knight Rises iPad companion app pictures and hands-on (pocket-lint.com)
- Virgin Media screens The Dark Knight Rises in true Batman style, on top of a tower block (pocket-lint.com)
Remember Remember November 11
I was appalled to hear that some in Toronto took offense over the “Lest We Forget” signs that the Toronto Transit Commission added to buses and streetcars. As a result of their complaints, our Transit Commission opted to remove the signs. What a disgrace.
What is wrong with people today? Must we complain about everything?
It will start with this. Then it will be about the poppy. Then it will be about the ceremonies altogether. We must stop tramping on our ceremonies and traditions.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
RESPECT HISTORY.
We lost MANY MANY lives to tyranny and oppression. Men and women sacrificed THEIR lives so that you can live peacefully…they’ll rest in peace for eternity but your peace was given through great sacrifice. You have no reason to be angry!
SPECIAL NOTE:
An old friend and colleague took great liberty to document the heroic efforts of the World’s Second War and documents the heroism and sacrifice of victim’s from all sides of this great conflict. The ultimate reader for the history buff or those curious to learn more.
I strongly recommend this book.
The largest, most complex and most destructive war humanity has yet fought, the Second World War escapes easy description.
Spirit over Steel is more than just a chronology of the war’s main events, it also weaves hundreds of individual threads into the tapestry of the whole conflict and yet never loses sight of the overall picture.
A useful reference, it still depicts the squalor and brutality and the courage and grace of the entire global conflict.
John Thompson was born into a Canadian Air Force family in 1959, served in the Canadian Army for 13 years, and was a researcher and commentator with the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies and Mackenzie Institute from 1985 to the present.
He currently still sits on the officer’s association of his old regiment and is a member of the Royal Canadian Military Institute.
Lest We Forget
{Video} #Lockitron Ignores #VCs and #Kickstarter
Here’s a company that used social media and a press campaign versus Kickstarter or other crowdfunding sites to acquire the necessary funds for product development.
According to Robertson, Lockitron applied to Kickstarter during a time when the crowdfunding site was fielding a rash of complaints and negative press about funded projects that failed to deliver promised products. The negative response ultimately forced Kickstarter to revise their guidelines so that backers were better protected. ”We applied to Kickstarter on a Wednesday, ‘Kickstarter Is Not a Store‘ landed on Thursday and by Friday we were rejected,” Robertson wrote in a post on TechCrunch today. — Inc.
Hmm, wonder if that would have worked for Tesla. :-) Tesla is coming to Canada at Yorkdale mall.
- The Story Of Lockitron: Crowdfunding Without Kickstarter (techcrunch.com)
- YC-Alum Lockitron Is Back With A New Kit That Allows Smartphones To Control Dumb Deadbolts (techcrunch.com)
- New Lockitron provides keyless entry, messages when someone knocks (digitaltrends.com)
Source: inc.com
[WOW!] #Apple’s Mashup Maps. Holy Aggregated Data!
Disclaimer: I generally agree that Apple made a bad mistake in how they released Maps. They should have allowed Google Maps to exist under iOS6. As well, they should have released their own Maps as a “beta” product.
That said, I have yet to experience any Maps issue that caused a global media sh*tstorm. Maybe I didn’t do enough brute testing but you get my point. Even Consumer Reports did their own tests and found the product to be reasonable. Maybe not good enough, but good.
Anyhow, I used the product on my #3GS over the weekend and noticed a small link to their page acknowledgements. I had no idea how much aggregated data Apple was using in its Maps product!
Have a look at this list:
- Tom Tom
- MultiNet North America
- Statistics Canada (via Tom Tom: Road Network File, 2006 Census Population and Dwelling Count Highlight Tables)
- Canada Post Corporation
- GeoBase
- Department of Natural Resources Canada
- Mulitnet SouthEast Asia
- Base Data - Bakosurtanal
- Macao Special Administration Region Government-Cartography and Cadastre Bureau
- MulitNet Europe
- Denmark, DAV
- MultiNet France
- IGN France
- Georoute / IGN France
- Michelin data
- Northern Ireland Ordinance Survey of Northern Ireland
- Norway: Norwegian Mapping Authority
- Norway: Public Roads Administration
- Map Solutions
- MultiNet Russia
- Roskartographia
- Switzerland: Swisstopo
- Netherlands: Topografische
- Netherlands: Dienst Voor Het Kadaster En De Openbare Registers
- Apeldoorn 2006
- Business Data Listings, Acxiom, 2012
- Map Data, AND
- CoreLogic Inc.
- DigitalGlobe
- Map and Postal Data, DMTI
- Business Listings Data, Factual
- Map Data, Getchee
- Increment P Corp (Japan)
- Intermap
- LeadDog
- Localeze
- Australia: Map Data Services Pty Ltd.
- MDA Information Systems
- Urban Mapping
- Israel: Waze
- Yelp
- Department of Natural Resources Canada
- CGIAR Consortium for Spatial Information
- Flickr Shapefiles Public Dataset, Version 1.0
- GeoNames and Contributors
- GlobeCover, ESA and UCLouvain
- Royal Mail data
- OSDM, Commonwealth of Australia
- OpenStreetMap
- U.S. Census Bureau
- U.S. Department of State
- U.S. Geological Survey
- National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Apple’s new vector Maps work great for offline browsing (edibleapple.com)
- Apple pushes out first improvements to Maps, restores NYC landmarks (theverge.com)
- Consumer Reports: iOS6 Maps “Competent Enough”, iPhone 5 Ranked Top Smartphone (techcrunch.com)
{SECURE KEY} Online Transactions Made Easy?
Signed up for the Secure Key program from BMO Bank of Montreal. At the moment, the sign-in concierge displays three Canadian financial institutions as participants in this program. Pretty weak start, if you ask me. (See here)
Canada Revenue Agency, Canada’s tax arm, claims it will soon allow secure key authentication and login — as early as October 22nd.
At the moment, there’s little in the ecosystem to use this technology. I can’t even find a secure key option for BMO Bank of Montreal’s online banking services.
Reminds me of the old days when the Cue Cat was sent out in the wild, distributed by WIRED magazine, but few (if any) magazines took up the opportunity to add bar codes to their magazines to allow print readers a faster way to get to a specific URL. :-)
I don’t want to suggest “failed venture” but this type of new technology and product introduction requires a big splash — like the big budget advertising that VISA Debit has employed to spread news about their new payments vehicle.
Source: marketwire.com
Apple consistently impresses me with AppleCare. My MacBook Air faced an untimely emergency with energon cubes (eat your heart out autobots!). I called Apple Canada’s AppleCare team and they confirmed I had a half year’s with of warranty.
The photo above highlights a common problem with Apple’s plugs which appear to be the result of my use versus the product itself.
When I walked into the Apple Store @ the Apple Store, it was jammed!
I walked around asking about the exciting new 3GS. The joke didn’t seem to work with the place flooded with humanity and chatter.
Ooops.
When I mentioned my particular warranty situation, the support person said it would be a two hour wait and there were 20 people already in queue. Realizing I only had to replace the power cord, the nice chap told me to sit at a nearby table and get my serial number read. In a span of five minutes, he gave me a new plug and provided a short lesson (warranted but polite) on best way to manage the cord.
Though I admit the cord lesson was helpful, I’ve gone through a series of these power cords and I don’t remember Apple having this issue with returns on my older Macs. Afterall, I have been an Apple customer since 1978 (!) and I know my track record for AppleCare. Generally, peace of mind vs. actually being used.
Either way, thanks to Apple for running a great warranty and service experience. The Apple rep told me to book time next opportunity via Apple’s website or via the app. Kudos for giving me the luxury this time.
It was a zoo and to be fair, we have to work with their process. I actually forgot about the booking protocol and AppleCare never warned me when I called them.
A reminder to all. Book ahead!
THANK YOU #RIM FOR YOUR PATRONAGE. :-)
To my friends in K-W, thank you for your patronage. :-)
You can count on me to buy and promote future #BB10 products. The world is large enough for many ecosystems. Obama still loves you guys for your industrial strength security and many people, including me, love #BBM.
Congrats for making it to the big dictionary with BBM. :-) There are a lot of good people in K-W that have survived some dramatic changes but are motivated by some renewed focus and commitment to deliver compelling new products.
My own barometer tells me that developers are very excited. That is a great thing! To the people focused on games and social (you know who you are!), keep at it. Lots and lots of opportunity there.
If America’s intelligence community can count on Research in Motion, then there is no excuse for existing owners and Canadians and fans worldwide. Hey, while I do admit a price break helps, the Playbook is a top-seller in Canada. And don’t pay attention to the “popular” media. They’re writing content for eyeballs and “spam wars” about which platform is better. You know - “Google stuff”.
You watch and see. Apple will come out with an iPad Mini. We’ll soon learn about the big lie from Jobs about no one requiring anything less than 9.7”. Not true — I went to a Kindle Keyboard because of its portability compared to the bulkier iPad (Gen 1) which is just fine for most settings.
Size DOES matter to the user. Give them what they want. I still only see transit commuters with “small” Kobo’s, Kindle’s, Sony Reader’s and Playbooks. No iPad in sight.
This almost feels like a movie trilogy I like. :-) RISE. DARK KNIGHT. RISE.
— Your friendly neighbourhood CaptainCanuck.com :-)
- RIM’s ‘BBM’ enters Collins English Dictionary (business.financialpost.com)
- RIM presents BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (smartphone.biz-news.com)
- RIM Reveals BB10 Resolution for Touch and Keyboard Devices (gadget.com)
- RIM: Everyone just loves BlackBerry 10 (mobot.net)
- CEO Heins Wants To Restore “Faith” In RIM, Hints At First BlackBerry 10 Phone In January (techcrunch.com)
Source: youtube.com
[PRESS RELEASE]: Seven Canadian Tech Startup Portals Launch.
MobileMonday Toronto Co-Founder Launches Seven Canadian Tech Startup Portals
Alexander Bosika Believes Crowdsourcing Will Help Improve Startup Awareness
TORONTO, ONTARIO — (Marketwire – September 5, 2012)
Attention: Business and Technology Editors
MobileMonday Toronto, Canada’s Leading Mobile Industry Networking Association is home to a vibrant Canadian mobile industry ecosystem and host to a myriad of established and emerging mobile tech startups. For the past six years, the not-for-profit Association has hosted monthly industry events on various topics like Canadian Telecom Innovation, Women in Wireless, Developer Programs (from RIM, Nokia and Windows Mobile), Telecom Industry Summits (with Wind Mobile, Mobilicity, Rogers) Analyst Panels (with Frost Sullivan, IDC Canada), Venture Capital Pitch Summits, Mobile Commerce Panels (with Admeris Mobile Inc.), Mobile Media Programs (with CBC and Transcontinental) and even hosted a Mobile Marketing Awards event with noted leaders like Addictive Mobility.
Since inception, the chapter has grown to accommodate between 250-400 professionals from all cross-sections of the mobile industry and tech startup scene. A key challenge of leading a grassroots-inspired community like MobileMonday Toronto is one of awareness. Alexander Bosika, MobileMonday Toronto Co-Founder, discovered that many tech startups faced real challenges connecting with other stakeholders in the startup ecosystem outside of regular industry events. Early MobileMonday Toronto efforts have helped with key promotion and introduction of startups via the chapter twitter feed @momotoronto. A MobileMonday Toronto LinkedIn Group was also created to bring industry stakeholders together. However, there has never been single, simple visual database to track tech startup communities. As a result, the Co-Founder decided to launch tech startup portals to reduce the information gap.
“The startup tech community is never at a standstill,” stated Alexander Bosika. “Beyond the meetings, it’s been very difficult to discover and connect with early-stage companies for collaboration or business development opportunities. Too often, I’ve seen Canadian tech startups miss at efforts to connect locally and build mutually beneficial opportunities in the same backyard,” Alex added. At a very basic level, our startup communities need a starting point and I believe a very simple portal is a good start. What we need next is a groundswell of community support to crowd source tech startup information for the greater good.”
For portal deployments, Alexander Bosika reached out to www.NickVanVlymen.com, a noted front-end developer and creative web designer with brand and web development contributions to MobileMonday Toronto. Nick added, “I’ve known Alex since the early part of the last decade when I joined his team at a mobile startup. Known for his initiative, drive, and vision, this project was simple to latch onto because of the much needed awareness required for all tech startups – not just mobile companies.”
In all, seven Canadian cities like Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver now have their own tech startup portal with the following URLs:
Startup tech companies and tech industry connectors are greatly encouraged to share current startup community information through each portal to help Canadian talent gain much needed awareness.
About Alexander Bosika
Alexander S. Bosika is currently consults for select mobile and technology firms in need of strategic and execution-focused advice. He is currently engaged with Admeris Mobile, a leading mobile payments platform service provider with a secure, patent-pending OneTouch solution, which enables higher transactional volume through mobile handsets. In the past, he was Associate VP, Product Management for MyScreen Mobile Inc., a mobile ad platform solutions provider with operations in Toronto and Miami.
He has spent over 15+ years in telecom, wireless, Internet management roles developing and marketing innovative products and services.
He has successfully launched several gaming products for Bell Canada and with Bell partners Microsoft/Intel. In a previous wireless startup, he was responsible for marketing, channel and product development and successfully launched WIND Italy’s first i-mode gaming tournament product. He successfully managed license partners and new product launches for CryptoLogic Inc. and was part of a progressive online advertising team, which championed and led early efforts to monetize Internet media properties at one of the leading financial portals, StockHouse.com.
Alex co-founded the Toronto chapter of MobileMonday in November 2005, a global, mobile industry-focused association with the goal of fostering the growth of the wireless industry through the sharing of ideas, best practices and trends. He holds an Honours Arts degree with specialization in Economics and Business at York University and studied at the London School of Economics.
Follow Alexander Bosika on twitter @abosika or visit his technology blog at www.alexanderbosika.com.
About MobileMonday Toronto
MobileMonday Toronto is Canada’s leading mobile industry networking association. Co-founded by Alexander S. Bosika and Jim Brown, the non-profit chapter held its first monthly event in June 2006. MobileMonday is the world’s largest ‘open source network’ for mobile professionals with over 100 chapters globally. Visit the global site www.mobilemonday.net for a complete listing of active chapters worldwide.
MobileMonday Toronto’s co-founders operate with a broad mandate to actively encourage and support Canadian innovation, business development, industry collaboration, and growth of the mobile sector in Toronto and in regions across Canada. Through its meetings, the chapter actively promotes business networking in a casual, friendly and co-operative environment with like-minded mobile professionals.
Follow MobileMonday Toronto on twitter @momotoronto (hashtag #momoto)
[PHOTOS] The Promise :: The Reality :: Our Only Hope?
Ah yes, the joy of a WiMax future. “Enabling” wireless clouds to power the creative process through “connectedness”. Look at those beautiful smiles. Aaah…
WiMax - The Promise
WiFi Today - The Reality
Powered by Canadian telecom providers, your “connectedness” feels crammed like a tiny phone booth. LOL. Yes, I thank Bell and Rogers for partnering with Tim Horton’s, Starbucks, and McDonald’s. It gives us some relief but the QoS is questionable. Hey, it’s a “public” good - well, the taxpayer doesn’t pay in this case.
LTE Wireless Modem - Our Only Hope
Sure, nice speed bump. However, a hit to the personal pocket book. Technology should enable the masses but yes, I get it. Someone, somewhere has to pay for it.
But if we converted connectivity of this nature into a public good offered to everyone, do you think it might accelerate collaboration and entrepreneurship - getting people out of coffee shops and fast food restaurants and into new urban settings for a modern, technological civilization?
What do you think? Crazy? Off base? Nirvana?
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
- Bell brings free Wi-Fi to Tim Hortons in Canada (electronista.com)
- Wi-Fi hotspot extends Clearwire’s WiMax service (reviews.cnet.com)
- Free Wi-Fi now at Tim Hortons (mobilesyrup.com)
MUST-SEE: Plane Lands on Runway Rollercoaster.
As a follower of the Canadian-made “Mayday” documentary series about plane disaster, I have to question the express to need at this particular location given the strange runway. I’ve never seen anything like this.
One quick Wiki-search reveals this is located in the French Alps for a ski resort! Damn thrill-seekers. You have to feel the slopes on the plane, don’t you?! :D
- TV Friday: Mayday (canada.com)
