I am attempting to unify my web presence.  Sound geeky? It is.

That means changing my domain name, email address, twitter user name, etc.  That is no small task.

But you are here at good ‘ole SuperBrian.net. I am sure you are wondering what that means for this blog.  Here it is.

As of today I will no longer be posting here.  If you want to see anything new from me you will find it at www.TheBrianCasey.com.

Go ahead, update all your things that reference this site.  I’ll wait.

…………

Done?  Ok.

I am sure you are wondering what that means for all of your favorite posts that you don’t remember.

Well,  I will be bringing over my favorites to the new site and leaving some behind.  But don’t worry, SuperBrian.net will exist for a while longer.

Once I have brought over the content that I want to I will forward this site to the new one.

So long, SuperBrian.net.  You’ve been great these past 6 years.  But it is time for TheBrianCasey.com to take your place.

Is it odd that I am a little misty-eyed about this?

If you connect with me in other ways here are the changes I am making:

• New Website:  www.TheBrianCasey.com
• New Email: thebriancasey@gmail.com
• New Twitter: @thebriancasey

If only time were such a luxury.  Fortunately, there is a computer game that can fill this need for the perfect plan, if you can out smart your enemy.  Frozen Synapse is a game of planning, replanning, out maneuvering, and hoping you made the right move.

Think of a game of chess in which you and your opponents plan out your moves and then simultaneously take them.  That will give you a good idea of what to expect when you play Frozen Synapse.

You start a game with a small force of men that have different weapons.  Machine guns, shotguns, grenade launchers, and rocket launchers.  Each kind of unit is good at a different kind of combat.  Rocket launchers can take out walls from a distance while shot gunners are great in close quarters.  You get the idea.

As their commander, it is your job to give your forces detailed instructions to carry out.  Aim this way while you walk the other way.  Wait a few seconds before rounding that corner.  Ignore the enemy and just get to the next room.

Once you give your men their instructions you lock them in.  All the while your opponent was giving his men orders as well.  Once both players have locked in their moves the computer simulates the result.

If you are a fan of strategy games, Frozen Synapse is for you.

Let me quickly highlight for you some of the best aspects of this game:

• A long and challenging single player campaign that will take you through all kinds of scenarios.
• A multiplayer mode that can be played against a computer or against human opponents.
• Good for people who don’t have tons of time to invest in front of the computer as you can lock in your moves, walk away, and the game will inform you when you opponent has done the same.
• Intriguing yet simple graphics.
• Price.  Frozen Synapse is only $25 on Steam and comes with two product keys, meaning you split the cost with a friend or just send them one because you are nice.

I have been a planner and strategist in life and in games for as long as I can remember.  Frozen Synapse is a game that satisfies my want for the perfect plan.  Now if they will just release the game on the iPad.  Portable Frozen Synapse?  Yes, please!

Just in case you wanted more, here is a preview of the game.

Then we get the bloopers reel.

VW really hit one out of the park with this commercial.  At least, I liked it.

–Jiddu Krishnamurti

What a profound statement.  It may feel necessary and comfortable to blend in to our culture, but if that culture is sick we become sick the more we blend with it.

The same can be said of this world as a whole.  Being well adjusted in a sinful world is just an evidence of my sin.  And the more I blend with this world the more sin I will embrace.  By all means, live and make a difference in this world, but don’t get to comfortable.  As believers in Christ we should feel displaced, knowing that our home is not here.  We are just passing through.  And we need to bring as many along as we can.

Today, it seems we share a greater volume of information via email, texting, Facebook, Twitter and other social media services but that volume gets lost in the cloud and is rarely looked upon again.  We live in the “now” with very little time for the then.

After hearing those letters I decided I wanted to closer document my life so that I could someday show my kids and their kids what my life was like as well as be able to read it myself as I forget.  My first thought was to keep a physical journal and I still want to do that.  But for now I have found a great option in Momento.

Momento is an iPhone app that lets you record brief thoughts about your days, attach photos to them, and tag people and events for greater searchability later on.  I don’t feel pressured to write profound words.  Just a few words about the day so that I can remember it later.  It helps me document my life in a private way.  And it is always with me because it is on my phone.

Momento can also pull in your Tweets from a day or Facebook status updates (or info from many other services) to give you a greater degree of documentation.  So each day in the app can be made up of a combination of short notes you have written along side tweets, photos, and other things from your day.  This provides a good snapshot of what you experienced to look back on someday.  And it might just make you a little more intentional with your time.

I am really enjoying Momento and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an easy way to keep track of moments in a digital age all wrapped up in a beautiful and simple interface.

via Lifehacker

We all have a choice.  We can move forward or stay in the same place.  We can be a better person tomorrow or the same person that we were yesterday.  How will we use our time?

The same goes for understanding Jesus.  He won’t make a lot of sense unless you have the proper eye wear (or in this case eyes).  Before seeing a blurry, unintelligible Jesus and then proclaiming that He doesn’t make sense or that you don’t believe in Him, ask for the spiritual glasses it takes to see Him clearly.  Because when you, do it makes all the difference.

–Daniel Webster

Inking

I had really hoped I could find a good use for this in a business setting.  Mainly I wanted to use it as a notepad that I could scribble notes on.  It does not work well for this.  This is mostly because it was not designed for it.  There are some work arounds; there are apps that work ok and some styluses.  But it just doesn’t work well.  Not for me.  That isn’t to say it can’t be useful in a business environment. I have read that it can be very well integrated into the business environment. It just didn’t work the way I wanted to.

Productivity

Again, this is something that the device wasn’t necessarily designed for.  But it isn’t a total loss either.  It works pretty well for some light productivity (writing is small amounts) and I am getting pretty good with the on screen keyboard.  I expected this to some degree but I wish it had worked better for content creation.  With a Bluetooth keyboard this could very well change.  I’ll find out.

Those are the only items that fell short for me.  On to the things that met or exceeded my expectations.

Content Consumption

The iPad is the best device I have used to consume content whether that is books, news, email, video, or web browsing.  Hands down.  This feature alone makes the iPad worth buying to me.  I have read multiple books on the iPad with no problems.  I use apps like Flipboard and Pulse to read news.  Email was great but is now even better with iOS 4.2.  The iPad is the best personal video device. I can put movies on it through iTunes or watch via Netflix.  Web browsing is also great on the iPad.  I would much rather pick up the iPad than open up a laptop to browse the web.  If you are looking for a content consuming device the iPad is it.

Games

One of the things I greatly anticipated for the iPad was the games that would come to it.  Angry Birds is great, but more specifically I have been looking forward to the board games that would come to it.  Many have and many more are planned.

Photos

Digital photos are here to stay.  And the iPad is a great way to look at them and share them with others.  Getting a laptop out to show off some pictures can be a real pain but with the iPad it is as easy as picking it up.  Viewing digital photos on the iPad is the best way to enjoy them.

iOS 4.2….Finally

I have already covered most of what comes in iOS4 in my iPhone 4 review.  Multitasking, folders, unified inbox, and many other functionality upgrades are all there.  Finally.  The iPad feels so much more usable with multitasking and fast app switching.  4.2 brings a few new things to the iPad.

AirPrint:  I haven’t used this much yet but you can now print to an AirPrint enabled printer.  I am sure this will be very useful in the future as long as you have a printer that supports it.

AirPlay:  This is another feature I haven’t tried out yet but am excited to do so.  You can put movies, music, and photos that you are viewing on the iPad on your TV.  This will be very useful with the Apple TV.

iOS 4.2 also puts many new tools into the hands of iPad developers.  This may not seem like a big deal but it will mean better apps in the future.  And that is a good thing.

To 3G or not to 3G

A question you will have to answer when buying an iPad is do you get the 3G version or not.  The answer (like so many other answers in life) is: “it depends”.  For me, the answer was no.  Here is why.

1. Cost:  $120 bucks up front is a little steep not to mention the monthly cost if I wanted to use it.  It is true that the monthly charge is “month-to-month (you can turn it on one month and turn it off the next) but I didn’t want the temptation to spend more money.
2. WiFi Availability:  Pretty much any place I want to use the iPad, I have access to WiFi.  I’m not going to pull it out in my car.  I just wouldn’t use it that way.
3. iPhone:  I own an iPhone so I already pay for a data plan.  If I really need access to the web away from the different places I have access to WiFi I will use my phone.

If you think you will be using the iPad a lot in areas not covered by WiFi and you want to spend the extra money, by all means, get the 3G version.  It is just not for me.

Conclusion

I don’t use my laptop anymore.  That should say a lot about the iPad.  All the things I would do on the laptop are easier and better on the iPad.  Email, web browsing, online shopping, reading, games, video.  All of these things shine on the iPad.  I am sure there are people out there that need more than the iPad can offer.  But it is just about perfect for me.  It is my gadget of the year. I am excited to see what the tablet form factor will become.

I will make my plea up front. Can you please sell a physical/ebook combo when a book releases? Please? With sugar on top?!   OK, with that out of the way I will explain what brought me to this place and then why makes complete sense for you to oblige.

I have recently discovered the value and greatness of ebooks. They are very portable. They are searchable. It is easy to mark them up without destroying them. They are accessible to people who can’t read normal books. I could go on. There are many benefits to the ebook format.

However, I am still a huge fan of the printed book. There is something special about holding a book in your hand and turning physical pages. I realize that I probably attach significance to this because this is the way I grew up reading and learning to love it.

So here I am, on the fence between the past and the future. So what do I do if I want the portability of the ebook and the physical experience of a printed book? Answer: I have to purchase both for about the same price. So I end up paying double. I can’t afford that (so I don’t do it).  Therefore, I really need you publishers to get on board with selling a combo of the two for a discounted price. More than one but less than both together.

Is this too much to ask? I don’t think so. And I’ll tell you why. Most other entertainment mediums already do this.

Movies: When a movie comes to video there is now an option to buy the Blu-ray/DVD combo. Some movies even come with a digital copy. It costs a bit more. But it allows me to play it on my Blu-ray player while having the option of watching it at a friends house who many not have Blu-ray.  This is a win for the movie production companies as it encourages adoption of a new format that is probably more profitable for them right now and I spend more money on their product.

Music: I buy music digitally. It makes sense for me since I have an iPod. I can take my music anywhere. But I can also create a CD of that music if I want. So I have access to both formats that music comes in.

Both of these examples put me in charge of how I consume my entertainment. I have options.  They cost me less (than buying each individually) and I spend more.  Not so with books. If I want to experience both I have to buy both. That gets expensive so I can’t do that. This is why I think it would make complete sense for publishers and sellers to offer a combo. If you buy the printed book you can then get the ebook at a discounted amount. This sounds like a good deal to me. Publishers get more money from me, I get more options to read their books. Win-Win.

So, publishers/booksellers, if you could give me that option for Christmas that would be great.

Sincerely,

Your Friend,

Brian (a guy that likes to read)

But is it good?  Big doesn’t matter that much if a book can’t get your attention.  What matters most in any book is whether or not the author can grab and hold a reader’s attention.  Then there is that matter of the payoff at the end.  Is it worth the investment of time you put in to read it?

For me the answer to these questions is a resounding: “Yes!”  It is good and it is most definitely worth the investment of time.  Brandon Sanderson has pulled of an amazing balancing act with The Way of Kings.

I was introduced to the author, Brandon Sanderson, a couple years back by his book Elantris.  At that time all I knew was that he was tapped to finish Robert Jordan’s huge Wheel of Time series.  I was interested to see who this guy was and let me tell you, I am very glad I checked him out.  Since then I have read all his adult fiction (he has a young adult series out there that I will read some day) and I have been throughly impressed by each one of them.  Sanderson has a talent to create very unique and fully thought out worlds.  Each of his books will take you to a different place.  The Way of Kings is no different in its uniqueness.

Welcome to Roshar, a world of extreme storms and landscapes; where men of honor seem few a far between.  The world Sanderson has created is both vast and detailed.  And incredibly foreign.  Stark landscapes are the product of massive storms that sweep the land.  Plants and animals survive inside of shells.  Each detail of the world seems thought out and intentional which makes it feel very real.

The world also comes with a deep history that is wrought with questions.  Who are the Radiants and why did they disappear?  What are the Voidbringers?  Like any Sanderson novel magic plays a pivotal role in the world.  Men fight over magical armor and swords.  Wars are fought to control gems with magical energies inside.  One difference in this book from other Sanderson books is the knowledge you have at the end.  Or don’t have in this case.  We have been introduced to many ideas but I don’t feel that any of them have been fully fleshed out.  There are still many mysteries to be solved and I like that.  Especially considering that we have quite a few books to go.  I am looking forward to finding out much more about the history of Roshar as we go.

Next, say hello to the characters you will be getting to know: Kaladin, Shallan, and Dalinar (there are some others but these are the main three).  Kaladin: the warrior turned slave who trusts none of the ruling class.  Shallan: the scholar with theft on her mind.  Dalinar:  the Highprince who holds to the codes above all else.  There are some wonderful supporting characters as well.

The story begins with murder (by a mysterious and cool character) which launches many questions, some that will be answered and some that won’t.  But that is fine.  The Way of Kings is the first book of a planned ten book series.  That means that we have much to look forward to from this world and these characters.

Is this book for everyone?  A non-reader might not like it.  It is big.  But it is most definitely for people who are willing to read a big book to get a big world, big story, and big payoff.  Don’t let the fact that this is a “fantasy” book get in the way of you reading it.  The best recommendation I can present you with comes from my wife.  She read it with me and she loved it.  That is a big deal.

Simply put, The Way of Kings is for anyone who enjoys reading a good story.

I remember the days (weeks really) leading up to the iPad announcement.  There were enough rumors buzzing around the techsphere that, if you lived there, you might think you were in a bee hive.  What would it be called?  What features would it have?  How much would it cost?  You name it and there was a rumor floating around about it.  As the info-junkie that I am I was up on all the news and excited to see what would be announced.  I watched the announcement via Engadget’s live blog.  And I was a little underwhelmed.

Then all of the commentary started hitting.  “It’s just a big iPod Touch,” was the one that seemed to be repeated most often.  And I agreed.  That is what it looked like.  My original conclusion was, “What can this thing do that I can’t do between my iPhone and laptop?  Nothing.  I’ll wait and see.”  And then the iPad started selling – a lot.

I think that is what got my attention again.  Not just that it had one month of incredible sales – that is to be expected.  But each month after that saw the same trend.  Then a friend of mine bought it and loved it.  Then something called iBooks came to the iPhone which changed my opinion about reading eBooks.  Then I got several opportunities to use my friend’s iPad.  I was hooked and I wanted one.  But I let it lie – until I could save up the money for it.  So I saved.  And then I bought it.  And let me tell you – it is a big iPod Touch.

A Big iPod Touch

Now let me tell you why that is a good thing – even the thing that makes it a wonderful (probably not exactly magical as Apple describes it) device. Take an iPod Touch, blow it up (not literally please), and what do you have?  A large, accessible, touch screen device with a great operating system and a huge battery.  The combination of those things makes the iPad a great device.

The screen real estate on the iPad makes it capable of so much.  Way more than on a phone.  Reading books on it is a great experience.  Typing on it is a breeze (for me, your mileage may vary).  The screen makes reading lots of content a joy, not to mention some of the apps that have come along that are so innovative (more on those in a minute).  The screen size on this thing matters – a whole lot.

The iPad is accessible.  You can see what I mean by that by walking through the process of using a laptop.  For me it was: get it out of the backpack, find a place to sit, open it up, turn it on.  Using a laptop is a commitment.  Once I have it out I am committed to sitting with the screen at an arm’s length while it makes my legs uncomfortably warm (read: sweaty).  When my wife comes over to talk to me I have to disengage from the laptop and set it aside so she knows I am listening.

Not so with the iPad.  Pick it up and it is ready to go, using just my fingers to do the work.  And it doesn’t matter where you are.  Sitting, standing, or laying.  If my wife wants to talk I don’t feel nearly as committed to it as I do a laptop.  It is easier to put down.  This may sound funny if you have never used it but I promise it is true.

The iPad is built on the same operating system as the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Granted, I miss the multitasking that I have on the iPhone now but I am sure that is coming.  Aside from that you have the same ease of use on a larger screen.  And you have the same great ecosystem of apps and developers to draw from.

This brings me to the battery.  It just goes on and on which is key in a mobile device.  Apple says that you can get nine hours out of it – that is a big deal.  And there are reports out there of people doing better than that with their battery.

What I use it for

The best way to describe the way I used my laptop was causal.  I browsed the web, and checked email.  The iPad does these things and more in a smaller package.  I read books on it, consume news and information, take handwritten notes with it, listen to a little music, and play some casual games.  I browse the web, check email, and do some word processing.  I could do most of these things on my laptop, sure.  But normally I didn’t want to get it out so I would do these things on my iPhone.  So now I have the accessibility of the iPhone but with a larger screen and I can do quite a bit more.  I am sure the longer I have it the more useful it will become.

Apps

Here are a few of the apps I use that shine on the iPad:

• ESV Bible +:  The ESV Study Bible.  It includes the study notes and cross referencing of the print version with some additional articles.  You can also take notes in it.  I can see myself using the iPad in church.
• Notarize:  An app that allows you to take handwritten notes using a stylus.  They stylus works pretty well.  You can import PDFs or other documents and mark them up.  This will be a great tool at work.
• Flipboard:  News reader that is just plain awesomeness.  It takes news feeds from Twitter and puts them in a magazine type format for you to flip through.  This is one of the apps that sold me on the iPad.
• Pulse News: Another News reading app.  You can subscribe to twenty-five different websites news feeds and they are delivered to you in nice little presentation.
• Carcassonne:  This is a board game put to the iPad.  I look forward to seeing many other board games come to this form factor.  It plays great.  Oh and this is an iPhone app and it looks great.

It Ain’t All Roses

Like everything else in life it can’t all be great.  Here are the problems I see.

• I am sure the lack of a physical keyboard will turn some people off but you can purchase a physical Bluetooth keyboard but that costs some money.
• I would have liked to see a front facing camera for video chat especially now that Apple has introduced Facetime.  I am sure this will be added soon.
• To get the 3G enabled iPad you have to shell out quite a bit of money and I wasn’t willing to do that.  Many apps lose their functionality without WiFi but I haven’t been in many of those situations yet.
• There is a lack of printing functionality.
• Apple is in control of the app store.  This isn’t a huge issue for me but for some this is huge.
• I would like to see some type of file system put in place so I can take files I have saved in Pages and move them to my Dropbox.
• The iPad cannot stand on its own, meaning that it has to be synced to a computer through iTunes.  We will see how this plays out but I’m not too happy about it.

Conclusion

No device is perfect.  We can all point to things that need to be changed.  But does the iPad deliver usable and innovative features that set it apart?  Most certainly.  I don’t see myself using my laptop very much anymore.  If I want to do some real productivity work (like Excel) I will go back to the laptop or desktop.  Otherwise you will see me with my iPad for all my casual needs.

Another question hangs out there as well.  Will the iPad help usher in the time of the tablet?  I think so.  I am excited to see what other companies can bring to the consumer market but they had better hurry.  Because the tablet for the masses is here in the iPad and it looks like an oversized iPod Touch.  And I think that is a good thing.

I had a discussion with a guy about Christianity and this issue was his main beef.  He had a major problem buying into something that taught that women should be silent and submissive in all things and that men should be domineering, dictatorial leaders.  Here is the thing.  I have a major problem with his description too and I think it is a misconception about the Bible’s teaching on roles in marriage that needs to be addressed.  Both insiders and outsiders hold this misconception and so we must go back to the Bible to see what it says before we define these roles.

Eph. 5:22 – 30

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.  In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

Col. 3:18 -19

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

Husbands

Let me focus on the husbands first as I think that a clearer understanding of their role makes understanding the role of the wives easier.

There is a constant parallel drawn in scripture between the way a husband should lead and the way Christ led.  I don’t think anyone could argue that Christ led with a puffed out chest.  It says in Eph. 5 that husbands should love their wives as Christ love the church and gave himself up.  This is not a selfish kind of leadership.  In fact it is sacrificial love that is evident here.

Here is my summary: a husband should lead in such a way that would best serve his wife. Not selfishly.  Not dictatorially.  Not harshly.  Instead we husbands should be thinking first about our wives.  We should cherish them as we do our own bodies.  We shouldn’t lead in a way that best serves us.  We should lead in a way that serves them, laying ourselves down.

This kind of leadership starts with submission to God.  It is not something a person can call forth from themselves.  If a man is to lead he must learn his proper place before God.  A tough thing to do for sure but none of this will work if you aren’t in submission to God.

Something else, husbands.  If we are to love our wives as we do our own bodies we should listen to them.  They have valuable input to give.  What man puts his hand on a burner, hears his body tell him that he should move it, and then leaves it there as the smoke rises from the skin?  If we are to love them as our own bodies then we need to listen to them to know how to best serve them.

Wives

“Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord.”  The question we must answer if we are to see how this submission looks is how do we submit to the Lord?  Or why do we submit to the Lord?  We submit ourselves to Christ because we trust Him.  We trust our lives to him.  So even when we aren’t completely sure of the outcome of a situation we trust that He has our best interest at heart.  Not necessarily our happiness, but our ultimate well-being.

Let me tell you, that scares the snot out of me.  Knowing that I have to live up to that standard.  So it is not something I take lightly.  At all!  But the scariest part is knowing that I can never succeed perfectly.  I have to trust that Christ will make up for my deficiencies.  Talk about humbling.

My wife’s submission needs to look like trust.  Trust that I am leading her in a way that best serves her. If you are trusting like this there is no reason to look out for number one because you know that someone else is looking out for you.  And fortunately (as I mentioned above) Christ will make up for my mistakes.  So trusting that Christ has your best at heart helps you in trusting your husband.

Wives, how many of you would like a husband you could trust to have your best interests at heart?  If he is leading in a biblical way then you should be able to.  Husbands, are you leading in a way that inspires trust in your wife?

Again, this role starts with submission to God first.  If submission to God is not present first the rest will be difficult if not impossible.  This starts (hopefully) before marriage.

What about a situation where the husband is not leading in a Christ-like manner?  1 Peter 3 tells us that a wife should still submit in hopes that her conduct will be seen by her husband and that this will point him to Christ.  This is not an easy one to swallow in today’s society but it does make sense.  It can be a very humbling thing for someone else to act right even when we are acting wrong.

Here is the kicker, I am human.  I make mistakes.  But if I do my best to approach every opportunity to lead my wife as an opportunity to serve her to the best of my ability the I am on the right track.  Perfect?  Not hardly.  And if my wife knows this about me she can trust that I am trying to lead in a loving way.

Yikes!  This got a bit long.  But it is important.  Comments?

Brian

That brings me to Despicable Me.  In a world without Pixar this would be a really good animated movie.  But we don’t live in that world.  That makes Despicable Me a fun but not great movie.

The story is a simple one that never really struck a deep chord with me.  Evil-bad-guy Gru wants to be the greatest villain in the world but he has some steep and younger competition.  So he enlists (through adoption) some innocent girls to help him in his plan.  But they pull his heartstrings and eventually he becomes good Gru (or loving Gru?).  The only problem is, they never convinced me he was bad Gru to begin with so the story left me with an “eh” felling.  More cute than good.

Where did it succeed?  It was fun to watch.  All of the characters are well voiced.  Steve Carell did an especially good job with Gru.  The little girls (especially the littlest) are very adorable and you feel for them because they are orphans.

Now for the best part of the movie:  The Minions (the little yellow guys).  Their antics were hilarious and they are probably the best “disposable-sidekick-type” characters I have seen.  They don’t really talk.  They just mumble and every now and then an intelligible word pops out like poop or idiot.    They made me laugh throughout.

Despicable Me ends up being a typical animated flick lacking in-depth; something proven to be attainable by Pixar films.  There are a few moments that shined about this movie (Gru, the littlest girl Agnes, and the Minions) but the rest was fun but pretty dull.

Inception delivers one of the most multi-layered cinematic experiences I have seen.  Think Matrix (real layer and matrix layer), but with more layers.  In most movies this translates into an unintelligible mess. But Inception gives each layer its own unique feel which makes it easy to tell which layer you are in and to track with the story.  Did I miss things?  Absolutely.  Which will make subsequent viewing all the more fun.

Let’s talk about the story for a moment (without spoilers).  Inception is, at its root, a heist story.  Build a team of specialists and steal something important (think Sneakers or Oceans 11) but all of that is done in dreams.  But it rises so far above just a heist that the heist seems more of a backdrop to what is going on with our main character, Cobb.  It is the canvas on which we are learning about him.  But that doesn’t mean that the heist story couldn’t stand on its own.

I’m not going to tell you anything else about the story.  I don’t want to ruin it for you.  And I don’t know if I could adequately describe it without taking up many more pages and no one has time for that these days.

The cinematography is beautiful as well.  Writer/director Nolan draws from such an incredibly diverse palate creating unique and vivid scenes.  Memorable.  The special effects are jaw dropping.  There is one action sequence in a hotel that is completely astounding.  It gives us a good look at how the different layers interact with each other and proves how well thought out this movie is.  But that is just one among many times I had to pick my jaw up off the floor, and not just for the visuals.  The ideas behind the movie are just as jaw dropping.

Inception is driven, not by the visuals, but by good, well fleshed out ideas.  This is a sign of a well executed movie.  Some movies have explosions just to distract you from the fact that the story probably doesn’t have many worthwhile ideas.  Inception on the other hand has great ideas that the special effects support.  They make the ideas shine.  That is actually one of the main thrusts of the movie: that ideas are very powerful things.  And Inception proves this to be true.

In the end Inception is an intertwining of many good ideas, each of which that could support a movie on their own, but combined create a movie experience seldom beheld.

So, should you go see it?  (I hope it is obvious by now but I’ll tell you anyway.)  Unabashedly yes!  Any movie that can make the audience give a collective and audible “Oh!” at the end is worth your time and money.  It is my favorite movie of the year thus far and I want to see it again.   Inception is about dreams and I left the theater feeling like I was in one.  Don’t forget your totem.  You will need it afterwards.  (You will get that bit after you see it.)

More than likely if you are reading this and you haven’t seen the movie yet you already know what you need to do:  go see Toy Story 3.   Really.  The only way I would recommend holding off is if you haven’t seen the prior two entries in the series.  But if that is the case, well, just go watch them.  All three of them.

What can I say that you probably don’t already know?  As with all Pixar movies the animation was beautiful.  The acting was superb as usual.  The story was wonderful (Andy is headed off to college.  What will happen to the toys?).  But that is nothing new.  Pixar achieves these things in all of its movies.  So what sets it apart?

It is the scope of the film that sets it apart and makes it not only the best Toy Story but the best Pixar movie to date.  But that greatness is built on the foundation of its predecessors.  The first Toy Story dealt mainly with the toy’s bedroom politics.  The second dealt more with ownership and loyalty.  Both of them were fairly toy centric.  The third installment zooms way out and deals more with who these toys are in respect to the people who own them.  And because of this we get the biggest emotional payoff of the series and a fitting end.

In a word, Toy Story 3 is masterful in its concept and execution.  And well worth the wait.

Are you still reading this?  Go see Toy Story 3!

It is about that time again: time for another iPhone hardware and software refresh.  Amazingly enough I am still with this phone after almost three years.  This is all thanks to Apple’s steady hardware updates and frequent software updates which include new features that keep me interested in the phone and the platform.

First I want to talk about the reasons I use the iPhone over the other options out there.

• The iPhone and its accompanying software are both extremely elegant.  There are very few rough edges anywhere to be seen and I really appreciate that.  Sure, there may be some features that other phones have or had first but in terms of polish I doubt there is anything that comes close.  I am sure that the other options out there are catching up.  That is what happens in a market.  Bring it on.
• Apple is committed to ongoing support of this platform. Before the iPhone it was extremely rare if not impossible to find a phone maker that supported both hardware and software in an ongoing and unified way.  There are several options out there now that do this but I think Apple has done the best job of it.  There has been a major OS update each year alongside a hardware update.
• It does the things I want my phone to do well. Multimedia is well integrated.  My experience with AT&T has been very good.  I don’t have the dropped call or data connectivity issues that others have experienced.  The web browsing experience is great.  I can read a book on the go.  If there is something you want the phone to do that isn’t baked in, there will be an application that will cover your need.  I also really enjoy the multitude and variety of quality games on the iPhone platform.  It is a true multimedia device, not just a phone.

As of right now those are my reasons.  If another platform comes along that fits my needs better then I will switch.

On to the iPhone 4 itself.

First let’s talk about the physical design.  This may sound weird, but the iPhone 4 is the most attractive gadget I have held in my hand.  Everything from the materials it is made from (glass and metal) to the way the buttons work is simply amazing.  The front and back of the phone are made from a hardened glass material that is supposed to be fairly scratch resistant, not scratch proof.  Care and a case will still be needed to keep it from getting beat up.  The edges are a stainless steel material that looks great and doubles as an antenna.  Form and function in one.  Very nice.  The iPhone 4 is noticeably thinner than its predecessors yet it has nice heft to it which makes it feel sturdy.

The internal hardware has received a large upgrade as well.  Apple doubled the memory from the 3GS and iPad up from 256MB to 512MB in the iPhone 4.  This means more things going on at the same time and aids in the HD video capture (more on that in a bit).  The processor has received an upgrade as well to the same processor running the iPad.  In normal OS use I didn’t see a huge increase in speed but it seemed a bit faster.  The new processor really helps out when loading large apps like games.  Apps that might take 5 seconds to load on the 3GS now load almost instantly.  Other tasks like loading up an ebook was noticeably faster as well.  A welcome update.

The most important hardware piece from a user standpoint on a touch screen phone is, without a doubt, the screen.  This is what you will be interacting with for the life of the phone so it had better be good.  The screen on the iPhone 4 is nothing short of amazing.  It continues to wow me with its crisp text and clarity.  Why is it so good?  The resolution of the phone is 960×480 which means that there are enough pixels per inch that you can’t see them.  I don’t think I can stress how big a difference this feature makes in usability.  I have been reading a book via the new iBooks app and have had no trouble reading for an extended time period.  Not only does it look good it is very touch responsive just as all previous iPhone have been.  The screen on the iPhone 4 is incredible.

Another big upgrade to the iPhone 4 is the camera.  It is sporting a 5 mega pixel camera (up from the 3 mega pixel on the 3GS) and it captures great images and not just for a phone.  They are great images period.  Coupled with a flash and a low light sensor the iPhone can now take very competent shots in dimmer areas.  It also has a 5x digital zoom that increases the camera’s flexibility. Along with a better camera comes the ability to shoot smooth HD video (720p).  I got to use this feature quite a bit this last weekend when my 6 month old nephew came into town.  It captures great videos which will turn into great memories.  The camera and video capture both work as advertised with no hiccups.

This brings me to the larger battery in the iPhone 4 which, I have to say, I am quite impressed with.  Under normal use (for me that means internet browsing, book reading, listening to music and podcasts, playing a few games, checking email, and texting) the battery lasted over 33 hours without seeing a charger.  That is a great result considering that my 3GS would have been shot after less than 20.  Very impressive.  To top it off it recharged in less than three and a half hours.

One of the big things that Apple is touting about the iPhone 4 is Facetime, a way to do video calling using the new front facing camera.  Apple has been talking about this feature (video calling) like it is something new.  My response is yes and no.  No, video calling is not something new.  It has been around for a while but hasn’t really caught on.  Yes, in terms of Facetime’s implementation, with a caveat.  There is no signing in to a service.  When you are on a call and want to switch to a video call you click the Facetime button and there you are.  It is smooth and works great.  The caveat is twofold: as of now you must be on WiFi and you must own an iPhone 4 in order to use Facetime, two very limiting factors.  Since Facetime is an open standard other platforms can make use of it and I hope they do.  And I am sure that Facetime won’t always be tied to WiFi.  But for now it is.

There are quite a few new hardware features on the iPhone 4 but those are the biggies for me for now.  The new gyroscope may be well used at a later date but as of now it is pretty useless to me.  I have also noted that the speaker quality is much higher on the iPhone 4 than with previous versions.

Let’s talk about some issues with the phones that have come up recently.

Many people have noted a signal/antenna issue.  If you hold the phone a certain way your bars seem to disappear.  I have been able to replicate this issue but I have also found that call clarity is not affected.  Despite what the signal strength indicator shows I have not had signal problems.  But still, how did this slip through?

There have been quite a few reports popping up about the fragility of the phone.  There have been pictures all over the tech blogs showing broken glass on the front and back of the iPhone 4.  Apple is good at delivering quality products but that doesn’t mean they are unbreakable.  As with any device you should be careful with it or it will break.

Alright, let’s talk about the features in iOS4 that matter to me.

• Folders – Organization of apps on the iPhone has been clunky in the past.  It wasn’t too bad at first but as the App Store grew I ended up with more and more apps.  I think at one point I had eight pages of apps.  That is a pain.  I pared it down to around five or six pages before Folders came along.  Now, with folders, I only have two pages.  I really like this addition.
• Fast App Switching – Switching between apps before wasn’t too bad.  But it was a little clunky.  Now, with a double tap of the home button, you can switch to recently used apps very quickly and easily.  On top of that, as long as the app supports it, the apps are saved when you exit them so that when you switch back to them they come back just the way they were when you left.  I am sure the more I get used to it the more useful it will become.
• Multitasking – Before iOS4 if you were listening to Pandora and wanted to check out something on the internet your music would stop playing because you had to exit the application.  No so anymore.  Most situations when you want to exit an app but have it continue doing something in the background will work.  All this while maintaining battery life.  A great solution tailored to a mobile device.
• Faster Camera – This is a little biggie.  Cameras on phones are notoriously slow.  When you are trying to take a picture of, say, a baby and you are waiting for that perfect moment it will usually pass you by because the camera takes its time.  Not so anymore.  It is very much an instant thing.  I am very happy with this little-big improvement.
• Background Images – To me this is a small thing.  But it is a thing nonetheless.  It is nice to have a picture in the background instead of a black nothing.  That is all.
• Editable iTunes Playlists – This is simply more functionality in an already very functional iPod application.  You can now create new playlists (besides just the “On-the-Go” lists) and edit ones currently resident on your phone.  More options are better in this case.
• Unified Inbox/threaded messages – Email has always been usable on the iPhone but just so.  Now they are adding more functionality in the way of unified inboxes and threaded messages.  You can now have all your mail from multiple email accounts show up in a unified inbox.  Very handy.  Emails that are response to others show up in threads which makes following a conversation through email very easy.  Both very welcome additions.
• Orientation Lock – I check on the news before I go to sleep that means I am laying in bed.  If I happened to roll over on my side the screen would rotate when I didn’t want it to.  Rotation lock fixes that.  It is located on the far left of the fast app switching dock (just a double tap of the home button away).  This has turned out to be very handy and the rotation lock is on most of the time.

These are the main things that will have a great impact on the way I use the phone.  Are there more things they could have added?  Sure thing.  Am I happy with what they did add?  Sure thing.

I have one more thing to talk about.  iBooks.  I am a book reader.  I love the feel of a physical book so knew that transitioning to another medium would be hard for me but it is something that I at least wanted to try.  I have almost completed reading a book on the iPhone 4 and I am impressed.  I do not want to switch completely away from a physical book but I can see the appeal of reading on a device like this.  It is nice to be able to look up a word instantly or to make a note about a particular passage.  Do I want to read on a device like this all the time?  No.  Can I read on it sometimes?  Absolutely.  And I think it will continue to grow on me.

I want to quickly address some of the previous issues I had with the iPhone and its software and let you know if any of these have been fixed.

• Battery life – As mentioned above this has been taken care of in a big way.  Solved
• Multitasking – Again, taken care of.  I think the way the iPhone balances battery life with multitasking is a great way to handle it on a mobile platform.  Solved.
• Adobe Flash – Still non-existent.  I wish the option was there although there have been fewer and fewer times that its omission was felt.  With HTML5 on the rise this will become even less of an issue.  But I still wish the option was there.
• Ability to use the phone as a USB drive – Again, non-existent but I don’t really care if they add this functionality or not now.  I have found a better solution.  Dropbox.  There’s an app for that.  If you don’t know what Dropbox is you really should check it out.  Solved.

Here are some areas that I think still need improving.

• Notifications – This is an area that many people are asking for improvement in.  I don’t have a huge problem with the pop up notifications that exist now, but I do know that it could be better so the system could use a facelift.
• Facetime – I can really see this service being very useful but because of its limitations (iPhone 4 and WIFi only) it just isn’t yet.  Remedy those two things and it could be great.
• Widgets – I would like to be able to look at my phone for quick information like weather.  Right now there is no good way to do this without loading up the app.  Also, the lock screen seems like some seriously wasted real estate.  Widgets on the lock screen would be nice.  Throughout the OS would be nicer still.
• Settings shortcuts – This could go along with widgets.  It would be nice to have quick access to some settings that are buried in menus right now.  How about a screen you can drag some setting widgets to.
• Home Screen options – This has been alleviated somewhat by the new Folders features.  But it would be nice to set whichever screen you want to be your home screen.  For example, if you had 5 pages of apps it would be handy to set the third one as the home screen so that when you clicked the home button it would take you to the middle screen instead of the far left.  Spotlight could also be changed to a swipe up or down from any screen providing much quicker access to searching.
• Data plan caps and additional fees – This involves AT&T more than Apple but since they are in an exclusive relationship this relates.  AT&T has moved to cap data usage.  This will not be a huge issue for most people and will, in fact, save money for most users.  Fortunately I still have my unlimited data plan since I had it before they changed to the capped plans.  But, if I ever want to use the tethering feature (which has an additional fee associated with it) I would have to change to the capped plan.  I don’t like the implications of this.

So there you have it.  My take of iOS4 and iPhone 4.  What do you think?  What do you like about it?  What would you change?