haniblog

Apologies for the lack of updates. I’ve just returned from a 4 day shoot and I’ve been very very VERY busy. There’s a lot I plan to write about… the iPad arrives here next month, things I’ve been doing in Flame, lots of good software, links, and more.

While you’re waiting here’s the ad Apple aired during the Oscars last night.

My first Hayao Miyazaki experience was watching Future Boy Conan, or Adnan wa Lina as it’s known to most Middle Eastern children who grew up in the late 70s. We all watched lots of Arabic-dubbed Japanese animation but Adnan wa Lina was amazingly popular.

Fast forward to 2003 in London and I stumble across Princess Mononoke on DVD. The characters seemed strangely familiar, and then it all clicks… the style, animation and message are all the same as Future Boy Conan! I was hooked and I bought all the Miyazaki DVDs I could get my hands on. My Neighbour Totoro, followed by Porco Rosso, followed by Castle in the Sky, followed by Nausicaa, followed by Kiki’s Delivery Service, followed by Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle.

Two weeks ago I managed to get my hands on Future Boy Conan in the original Japanese with English subtitles and we’re watching it from episode one. For a series that was first broadcast in the late 70s/early 80s in Bahrain, it hasn’t aged at all. It’s still as exciting, enthralling and magical as it was in my formative years.

Oh yes, the next few weekends are going to be fun!

Every so often, an idea is born on the web that is elicits an instant “A-ha!” as soon as you use it. Delicious was one, an online taggable and shareable bookmark repository for the things you find interesting. I followed a link to Readability and I had another one of those lightbulb moments. I won’t try to explain what it does when screengrabs speak louder than words.

An article in the Guardian, before.

The same article in the Guardian, with Readability.

Film School Rejects, before.

Film School Rejects, with Readability.

PC World, before.

PC World, with Readability.

eWeek, before.

eWeek, after.

It only works on articles not main web pages, but when it works it makes reading on the web a pleasure again. Go get the bookmarklet, drag it onto your toolbar and whenever you see a flash-heavy page, cut out the fat.

Update: Can you use Readability on the iPhone? Yes you can!

They’ve done it again, those Tapbots boys. Pastebot the third iPhone app they’ve released, after Weightbot and Convertbot and they’re getting better every time.

Pastebot is a clipboard manager for your iPhone and your Mac. Quite simply, with this app anything you copy, image, text or link can be pasted into Pastebot. Run the app, hold down on the item and it will be put into the iPhone’s clipboard to be pasted anywhere. The magic really happens when you get Pastebot Sync, a free system prefpane on OS X. Once connected with the iPhone when it’s running Pastebot, anything you copy on your Mac will automagically transfer to the app on the iPhone. Copy an image, a block of text (with formatting), html, video or an mp3 file and it pops into a slot in the iPhone.

Now how would this be useful? Here are a few recipes I picked up from different websites. As you can see I copied the recipe image and text and Pastebot did it’s duty and created slots for each item. The really cool thing is if I hold down on any image or text on the app it’s pasted into the current running application on my Mac! This operation is so quick it feels as if I hit ⌘-V on the keyboard.

Click to see the full interface.

As with the previous apps Tapbots conjure up, the interface is magnificent. Guys, you’ve done it again. Pastebot costs a paltry £1.79 in the App Store.

Barely a day after the iPad introduction and everyone and their next-door neighbour’s cousin’s friend’s dog has an opinion on the new device. I think the ratio of the number of people who have actually used one over the people opining are probably 1:20,000,000 or so.

“It’s just a big iPhone!”

“No camera and no flash!”

As everyone who knows me knows I’m an unabashed Apple fanboy and my opinion? I’m very impressed and I think I see the potential, but I am also ambivalent. I’ll wait until I hold one and try it myself. Everyone who was actually at the keynote and tried the iPad is completely won over, from John Gruber to Stephen Fry to Michael Pusateri. Money quote from the latter:

I am a technology professional. For almost 20 years I’ve tested, used, broke, fixed, and played with all kinds of technology from broadcasting to air conditioning to software. I am not easily swayed in these things. But even with all my skepticism, I think the iPad is something different. A new way of computing that will become commonplace.

Of course it’s called iPad! What was I thinking of? No clues yet on pricing or availability in the UK but with current exchange rates it should start at £300. Which makes it a nice birthday present, no?

This feels just like how it was before the iPhone was revealed, doesn’t it? The Tablet will be announced 6.00pm London time and I have to admit that I’m a teensy bit excited. Today’s tablet rumour video looks slick now but how will it appear after the event?

Seriously though, I love how Apple work so incredibly hard to make me a birthday present.

With Apple’s special event happening this Wednesday I thought it would be fun to feature the best Tablet mockups over the next few days. Today’s video rumour is a Tablet running an Ikea app (in Pounds Sterling, no less!). Enjoy!

I’m trying to avoid repetition but sometimes too many good developments happen around the same time so apologies for this. With regards to my recent Boxee post, I discovered an interface update to Plex which brings that software back in front. Get the AeonSlim skin for Plex. Now. It’s stunning.

All the images you see in this post are randomised from a huge set of attractive Backdrops . Enjoy!

Installation instructions: Apologies for not posting proper install notes as it was quite late last night when I posted this. Here’s how to get it going:

1. Download Aeon Slim and the Backdrops.

2. Uncompress the AeonSlim folder. Open a new window and go to your home folder. From there go to Library > Application Support > Plex > skins and move the AeonSlim folder in there.

3. Uncompress the various Movies, Pictures, TV Shows and Music folders downloaded from the Backdrops link and move them all into a folder (I created a Backdrops folder within my Pictures folder and dropped them all in there.)

4. Run Plex. Go to Settings > Appearance > Look and Feel and change the Skin to AeonSlim.

5. Go to Settings > Customise and then Backdrops.

6. Select Movies, press Enter, then the down arrow and navigate to where your Movie backdrops are. Do the same for Music, Picture and TV Shows.

7. There is no step 7! Done! Enjoy Plex!

There’s been a huge volume of speculation on the rumoured Tablet and now it’s all but confirmed. Apple sent out invites to the press for a special event next week and the rumour mill has now changed into the cast of CSI: Apple Invite. Among the names for the new device, the two that seem to have stuck are iSlate and Apple Tablet but a recent comment on Twitter by Cabel Sasser just lit a big lightbulb over my head. My Apple predictions have been ropey, to say the least, but that comment along with the invite design above, seems to fit.

So, Apple Canvas?