So what are my two other must-have, non-approved Apps? The first is Skype, which can also be made to work over the 3G network with help of the same 3G Unrestrictor App that used to be necessary to allow Sling to work away from WiFi. The word is that the Skype App will allow calls over 3G “soon”, but when it comes to iPhone App approval, I don’t hold me breath waiting, lest I turn the same blue as Skype’s logo.

My final must-have App is PdaNet, a tethering application which allows your iPhone to act as a 3G modem for Macs and Win PCs, either over WiFi or via USB cable. Sure it’s a bit of a lashup to use, but this little App saved my ass this weekend when my office lost all internet connectivity for a day. It allowed me to finish a memo on time, while keeping up with the latest news from the Winter Olympics.

At any rate, it is one of the better parodies I’ve seen lately.

Hitler Makes a Hitler Parody

HatTip Instapundit.

As Mr. Malik wrote:

“E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This social site is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to ‘is URL ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE!!”

No, wait,  that’s the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch.  I guess I just got confused for a moment.  What Malik really said was “The audience has started to fritter away, moving to better, more current social environments such as Facebook and Twitter. As for the social graph, I wonder if MySpace really had one. I wouldn’t be surprised if more executives, including those from recently acquired startups such as imeem and iLike, left for greener and more viable pastures.”

Frankly, either quote works.  I always considered myself a bit old for MySpace but I was certainly aware of it during its heyday.  I recall musicians posting their songs on it, and also using inappropriate postings as a reason not to hire candidates I did not want to hire anyway.  Then at some point everything shifted to Facebook, and then Twitter.  I was just happy not to have to look at the eye-bleedingly awful MySpace pages any more.   The question is then begged: did NewsCorp kill MySpace, did time and less obnoxious platforms just pass it by, or some combination of the two?

Either way, a bit of a stiff lesson for Murdoch.  Wonder if he’ll learn it?

Holman W. Jenkins Jr. Opines in Today’s WSJ

Jenkins’ main thesis is that Apple has moved away from its focus on great products and instead seeks to dominate the user’s media and technology ecosystem, to the exclusion of all others, especially any companies which have “crossed” Steve Jobs in the past (cough, Adobe, cough).  Jenkins’ money quote reads “But the iPad (an anagram for paid) looks like a good device for consuming the e-books, music and video sold through Apple’s online service. In fact, let’s not mince words: The iPad looks like a device optimized to patronize the iTunes store.”  Of course, a device that was also great for web-surfing would support Flash, but that’s not Apple’s goal.

I tend to agree with this theory, and not just because it supports what I and others were writing at Gizmodo when the iPad first launched: this is not a computing product, it is a media consumption device.  Since then, we’ve seen the Publisher War with Amazon and rumors that the iPad may see an immediate price drop, both of which point to a more hard-core media delivery focus, with less profit from the hardware.

In the past, the vast bulk of Apple’s profits have come from the hardware, with software and iTunes sales providing a little cream on top.  It looks like the iPad may be the first salvo in a battle to change that.  If so, what will the follow-up be?  A revised, actually useful AppleTV to allow you to play all that purchased iTunes content on the big screen?  And who will be next in Apple’s sights?  The CableCos?

Update: Of course, according to iSuppli, Apple will still see a healthy profit on each iPad, unless the predicted price cut is a lot deeper than anyone expects.  HatTip Gizmodo

EVERETT, Wash., Feb. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Boeing (NYSE: BA) 747-8 Freighter successfully took to the sky for the first time today before more than 5,000 employees, customers, suppliers and community leaders. The flight begins a test program for the world’s most efficient freighter.

With 747 Chief Pilot Mark Feuerstein and Capt. Tom Imrich in the flight deck, the newest member of the 747 family took off at 12:39 p.m. local time from Paine Field in Everett and landed at Paine Field at 4:18 p.m.

“It was a real privilege to be at the controls of this great airplane on its first flight, representing the thousands of folks who made today possible,” said Feuerstein. “The airplane performed as expected and handled just like a 747-400.”

Today’s flight was the first of more than 1,600 flight hours in the test program for the newest member of the Boeing freighter family. The airplane followed a route over Western Washington, where it underwent tests for basic handling qualities and engine performance. The airplane reached a cruising altitude of 17,000 feet (5,181 m) and a speed of up to 230 knots, or about 264 miles (426 km) per hour.

Powered by four General Electric GEnx-2B engines, the 747-8 Freighter will transition its testing program to Moses Lake, Wash., and Palmdale, Calif., where the other two test airplanes will join it in the coming month.

“This truly is a great day for The Boeing Company and the 747 program,” said Mo Yahyavi, 747 program general manager and vice president, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “It’s the culmination of the hard work and dedication of our employees, suppliers and customers. While there is still much to do, I am excited to begin the flight-test program, which will demonstrate the capabilities of this airplane.”

The 747-8 Freighter is the new, high-capacity 747 that will give cargo operators the lowest operating costs and best economics of any freighter. The airplane is 250 feet, 2 inches (76.3 m) long, which is 18 feet, 4 inches (5.6 m) longer than the 747-400 Freighter. The stretch provides customers with 16 percent more revenue cargo volume compared with its predecessor. That translates to an additional four main-deck pallets and three lower-hold pallets.

“The 747-8 Freighter continues the leadership of the 747 Freighter families, which carries more than half of the world’s air freight, making it the standard of the air cargo industry,” Yahyavi said.

Boeing launched the airplane on Nov. 14, 2005, with firm orders for 18 747-8 Freighters: 10 from Cargolux of Luxembourg and eight from Nippon Cargo Airlines of Japan. All told, Boeing has secured 108 orders for the 747-8, of which 76 are orders for the new freighter. Cargolux, Nippon Cargo Airlines, AirBridgeCargo Airlines, Atlas Air, Cathay Pacific, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, Emirates SkyCargo, Guggenheim and Korean Air all have ordered the 747-8 Freighter.

Contact:

Tim Bader
747 Communications
+1 206-859-3633
tim.s.bader@boeing.com

Jim Proulx
Boeing Commercial Airplanes Communications
+1 206-850-2102
jim.proulx@boeing.com

Boeing Press Release

Hat Tip Instapundit

RedLetterMedia, the source of the epic 70-minute, 7-part, epic review/teardown/film school teachable moment of The Phantom Menace has published a somewhat less epic review of  Avatar.

Caution for harsh language, harsher sarcasm and uber-harsh political incorrectness.

(Editor’s note:  Start Wars Episode One  review is a RedLetterMedia must see)

Yesterday Canon unveiled the latest entry in its Rebel line of entry-level DSLRs, the Rebel T2i (a/k/a the EOS 550D).   The new T2i features the usual and probably expected spec bumps over its predecessor, the March 2009 Rebel T1i:  effective pixel count increased from 15.1 million to 18.0 million, unexpanded ISO pushed from 3200 to 6400, metering points bumped from 35 to 63, and LCD dot count increased from 920,000 to 1,040,000.   Pixel density has increased from 4.5MP/cm2 to 5.4MP/CM2, support for the new SDXC cards have been added, and the T2i can shoot 1080P video at 30 fps (vice the odd 20 fps of the T1i).

The new LCD screen and the 63-point metering are inherited from Canon’s pricier EOS 7D camera, and a side-by-side comparison of the T2i with its bigger sibling, the 7D and the 5D MkII reveal just how far this new Rebel has come in chasing the big guys on a lot of the specs.  The big guys still have the metal bodies and other build-quality features, but the gap is closing on pixel count and ISO range.  Of course the 5D MkII retains its sizable advantage in pixel density and a full frame sensor.  Additionally, the T2i’s use of the SD cards is a big plus these days, and the release of the SDXC standard has made Compact Flash seem like an anachronism.  I suspect that Canon would like to move all their DSLRs to the smaller card, but they fear the howls of outrage from professionals with big bucks sunk into Compact Flash.  Personally, I’d be willing to take the hit to the wallet to use the smaller cards and gain Eye-Fi compatibility.

On a more interesting note (to me at least) Canon has added explicit support for Eye-Fi cards, which is a smart move considering that the target audience for this camera certainly includes parents of young kids.  I will write more in a future article about the Eye-Fi cards and why they are an absolute must-have for parents with small kids to photograph, no time to process and upload pictures, and grandparents clamoring for more photos of the little darlings.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my first foray into digital camera blogging, and I look forward to expanding and improving my writing on this topic, with help from your feedback of course.  At the end of this month I plan on shooting a few (dozen?) gigabytes of photos at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and will report back on my experiences with the equipment and sports photography in general.

Hat tip to Gizmodo.com,  DPReview.com and Canon Product Page.