us watch_us watch 26/02/2014 18:16 Page 1
eal World Scenario
#1: Sitting in my
living room the
other night, browsing on my
Apple iPad mini, I found a
45-minute documentary on
Vimeo that I wanted to
watch. The iPad mini is
great for reading books and
checking email and just the
right size to always carry
with me … but watching
long-form video, not so
much. But two meters away
sits my man-cave sized
Samsung HDTV.
Fortunately, I have an Apple
TV hooked to the Samsung
HDMI port and wirelessly
connected to the home
network, which in turn is
connected to a 30 megabitper-second broadband
service. I hit the AirDrop
icon on the iPad (it also
works with the latest
iPhones) and a screen with
four numbers pops up on
the flat panel HDTV. I enter
those four numbers on my
iPad and within seconds I
am watching the
documentary on my big
screen TV. Sweet, and a lot
more enjoyable watching a
video in lean back mode.
Real World Scenario #2:
Apple has been trying to
convince us beetle-browed serfs
(customers) that cloud-based
content is a much better idea
than owning physical content
(Amazon and Google preach the
same dogma). I am now a true
believer. Aside from the fact that
my world no longer contains a
trace of CDs, DVDs, magazines,
newspapers or paperbacks, I’ve
figured out how to work the
system a bit. I am ancient
enough to have grown children
that have produced some world
class grandchildren that
consume staggering amounts of
video content and the entire
family enjoys Hollywood
blockbusters, especially if lots of
stuff loudly blows up.
I discovered that all I had to
R
26 EUROMEDIA
Tales from the dark
side of high tech
Larry Gerbrandt releases his inner geek as he takes a trip
through the world of modern devices.
do was send each household an
Apple TV and provide them with
my Apple ID and password.
Voilà, all three households gets
access to all the movies, TV
shows, music and books Apple
has stored for me in the iCloud
(actually they only need to store
one copy that millions share but
I still think of it as ‘my copy’).
I’ve been buying music and
movies from Apple’s iTunes Store
for years, so there is a nice
backlog of content and given that
children seem to enjoy watching
the same movie dozens of times,
spreading a single digital copy
over multiple households is one
of the few true bargains still
available in this recession worn
world. So what are the
downsides? First is living in
constant fear that Apple will
wonder how I can be in three
places at once watching different
movies and shut down my
account. (Actually I think as long
as I don’t violate the five device
rule I am probably OK.) The
second is that I’ve handed the
password to my Apple ID—and
the credit card tied to that
account—to another human
being, no matter how much DNA
we share in common.
Fortunately I get the last laugh. I
could always change the
password and then croak before
letting my heirs know what it
is—an increasingly likely
scenario given my inevitable
descent into decrepitude.
Surreal World Scenario
#3: The annual celebration of
everything tech - the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas is rapidly fading from my
memory. Yes, curved 65-inch
OLED Ultra HD 4K television
screens are marvels of
technology, but given that many
consumers use their current
HDTV sets to watch standard
definition images and that it may
be 10-15 years before 4K content
is widely available, what I want is
a smarter TV set, not a sharper
TV set. Plus, 4K quality is largely
wasted on screens smaller than
65”. I also came away convinced
that the Chinese have now come
up with iPhone protective cases
not only in every colour of the
rainbow but a few that only bees,
which have the capability to see
into the ultraviolet spectrum, can
fully appreciate. However,
tucked away in the Thalmic
booth was the MYO gesturecontrol bracelet. It uses
electromyography to detect tiny
changes in forearm muscles to
control on-screen action (think
Kinect on steroids). I wouldn’t
be surprised to see Apple apply
this kind of technology to add
major ‘wow’ factor - and life
changing functionality - to its
long-rumoured iWatch. Major
cool factor and application
possibilities with this tech.
Scary Future World
Scenario #4: My buddy Chuck
is not only a legendary
Hollywood executive, he wants to
control everything possible with
his iPhone and iPad. The
Larry Gerbrandt
larry@me X]