2012: Another Great Year in Film
We’re almost halfway through the year already, and we’ve had some great films to enjoy – specifically, The Hunger Games and The Avengers. But 2012 in film is just beginning – the majority of this year’s films “to look out for” lie in the second and third quarters. Here’s a selection of films that I’m personally looking forward to:
The Amazing Spiderman
A “re-boot” of Marvel’s webbed hero, this time with Andrew Garfield (the talented British actor who plated Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network) at the helm.
The Dark Knight Rises
Perhaps the greatest film of 2012? Directed by one of my favourite filmmakers, Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises is the closing of the Dark Knight saga that began with Batman Begins. A considerably darker superhero thriller, this film represents not only a cinematic triumph in creating such a haunting portrayal of the caped crusader, but a deep introspection at the nature of our society.
Men in Black 3
The third in the Men in Black sci-fi-(comedy?) franchise. A “franchise” film, so don’t go expecting some exceptional filmmaking talent, but a fun movie nonetheless.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
The famous American president. As a vampire hunter. ’nuff said. Directed by Tim Burton – after all, who else could pull something like this off?
Brave
Pixar Animation Studios returns with another classic tale that’s sure to bag an Academy Award for Best Animated Picture. Of note: this will be the first Pixar film to cast a female character in the lead (what took them so long?). It’s set in the Scottish highlands, considerably new territory (and new challenges) for this talented team of CGI innovators.
Skyfall
The final James Bond film in the three-part “reboot” of the franchise with Daniel Craig as 007, Skyfall sees Bond question his loyalty to M as secrets of her past surface, and it’s up to the quintessential British spy to save MI6 from an attack seeking to destroy the spy organization – regardless of the cost to himself.
Les Misérables
Starring Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Russel Crowe, it’s the latest adaptation of this classic Victor Hugo novel.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
We return to Middle-Earth in this first of a two-part film adaptation of the classic J.R.R. Tolkien novel The Hobbit. Directed by award-winning Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, the trailer sure looks enticing of this much-anticipated prequel series.
Django Unchained
Leonardo di Caprio, Jamie Fox and Christoph Waltz: directed by the epic mind of Quentin Tarentino in the western-themed film Tarentino always wanted to produce but never managed to previously. Along with Gatsby and Dark Knight Rises, a must-see.
The Great Gatsby
BlackBerry 10: A Schrödinger’s Cat
At the recent BlackBerry World in Orlando, Research in Motion took the wraps off their new platform and, effectively, their redemption attempt. In a world ruled by the iPhone and Android, this once king of the mobile world faltered in its scrambled attempts to take on the might of Apple. Much rests on the outcome of this latest attempt from the struggling Canadian-based phone maker.
They call it BlackBerry 10, and it’s a new operating system that takes on a rather refreshing approach to the smartphone interface. From what I’ve seen in the introductory video below, which uses a device called the BlackBerry Dev Alpha Device to show-off some of the key features of the software (a mock, testing phone that may not actually be the final product to use the BlackBerry 10 OS), I’m impressed. If Research in Motion (developers behind the BlackBerry brand) can pull this off without the glitches that the BlackBerry has become notorious for, then I think we have ourselves a contender for the mighty smartphone throne currently occupied by the guys over a 1 Infinite Loop.
The new OS makes distinct use of swiping gestures, and the “swiping” approach is taken from answering phone calls to operating the actual device. A bold move for BlackBerry comes in the final move away from physical keyboards – something that has become a trademark of the brand. With BlackBerry 10, RIM have designed a rather intuitive “soft” keyboard that has strong predictive text capabilities. It will learn to understand what you’re typing and how you type, and suggest words for you. This was introduced in previous devices, but with the new platform, they’ve obviously strengthened the overall capabilities of the tool and even integrated the swiping gestures here – you simple swipe upwards to select the suggested words to add to your text.
The new camera is an interesting feature: from the moment you open the app, it begins taking a series of shots. You can then go “back in time” to select the correct photo. This eliminates those often annoying photos where someone’s closed their eyes etc.
Here’s another video, from The Verge, detailing a few more features of the new platform:
Below is a gallery of shots from the promotional video so you can see the new interface they’ve designed:
Blackberry 10, for me, is a Schrödinger’s Cat. We don’t really know how effective and successful it’ll be until it is released later this year. In other words, until they release actual devices and people get to use the platform, as far as we’re concerned right now, it’s both “bad and good.” For starters, what’s displayed above is a very early look at the platform, and it’ll be interesting to see what the actual device to run OS 10 will look and function like. What’s good about this platform from the onset, though, is that RIM have been bold enough to deviate from the current “look and feel” of the iPhone-inspired smartphone experience: rounded-corner icons, app-filled home screens, “traditional” gestures… Let’s just hope that they can extend that idea to the rest of the platform, and to the future devices that’ll be running this system.
Bikes, Trains and Busses: The Key to our Future Cities
Sustainability. It’s a word that’s been bandied about by many futurists, urbanists and thinkers. Yet it’s a concept that, for some reason, is seemingly difficult and time-consuming to implement. Granted, transitioning toward a sustainable urban environment is a challenge in infrastructure design, but it must remain a clear focus and a high-priority goal if we are to move our civilisation forward.
The planners of our future will need to stop talking about a “sustainable future”, and rather begin the implementation of it. I think that the biggest impedance comes from political pressure: the unfortunate reality is that it is the politicians that dictate the design of our environments, and the engineers and designers are merely the technicians that carry-out these ideals. If we truly want to progress toward that green light of our imagined future, we’ll need to move beyond political chatter and instigate real, determined thinking that can influence the change needed.
And the road to sustainable cities lies in our transportation grid. A sustainable city is one where there is a careful management of resources; a sensitive attitude toward the natural environment. Carbon is a key factor in this; it’s quite simple – reduction of carbon means a greener urban space. Thus the implementation of bikes, trains and busses through managed systems and programmes is a way that can improve the kinetic scope of cities, and thus lead to a sustainable growth in the urban fabric. It reduces the exponential growth of individual vehicles, streamlines traffic networks and allows for the creation of a more structured, organised city – a future urban space that can promote the thinking and ideas needed in a society that’s increasingly looking forward.
Technologically, by having regulated transportation programmes, there exists the possibility of computerised control that allows a far better managed, integrated transportation system. It means safer, more reliable public vehicles running on regulated schedules, increasing reliance on these systems and thus better adoption of them. Let’s face it: public transport isn’t a very attractive means of getting about. But if we were to design and engineer a system that fully integrates these key components, and make them an integral part of the city, we a sure to be on-track to attaining that “sustainable” future we’re so craving right now.
3 Tips for New Mac Users
I’ve been a Mac user for about three years now. I’ve become quite “integrated” with the Apple ecosystem, and recently, I’ve encountered many new (or prospective) Mac users who’ve had a few questions about their new system.
The Macintosh is certainly a different environment than Windows. Apart from the obvious graphical dissimilarities, there are certain aspects of the Mac that leave many befuddled by it – and thus, for this reason, some might be turned away from what could be a pleasant computing experience. In this post, I aim to provide you, the new or prospective Mac user, with 3 simple tips concerning my computing platform of choice.
1. You Can Run Windows on Your Mac
Most people think that Macs can only run OS X-exclusive software – and nothing else. However, since Apple transitioned to Intel processors, they’ve included a nifty, free tool with every new Mac called BootCamp. Using BootCamp Assistant and a copy of Windows (preferably the latest edition), you can have the best of both worlds, being able to dual-boot your Mac into either OS X, or Windows. Running Windows in the BootCamp environment means you’re effectively running a native version of Microsoft’s operating system on your computer, thus ensuring the full Windows experience. You can use “virtualisation” software such as VMware Fusion or Parallels, and this will allow you to run Windows-native apps side-by-side with your Mac apps, but the downside is that there may be some performance glitches. However, the message here: yes, you can run Windows on a Mac.
2. Microsoft has a version of Office for Mac
Microsoft has two versions of the industry-standard productivity suite we’ve all come to love (and possibly hate). Microsoft Office is the staple diet of the Windows world, but did you know that there’s a version made to run natively for Mac? It’s called Microsoft Office:Mac 2011 (that’s the latest version). So before you go out and get a copy of Windows, install it through BootCamp, and then get a copy of Office 2010 to install in that partition, wait! Rather get the native version of Office made specifically for your Mac. It ensures compatibility with the Windows version of Office, so your projects and assignments can be created safe in the knowledge that they can be read exactly as they were intended to on other systems. And if you don’t want to splurge on a copy of Office:Mac, you can always get Apple’s alternative, iWork. Whilst it hasn’t been updated in a long time (the last version came out in 2009), it is still quite powerful. It includes three apps: Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Whilst Numbers isn’t exactly an Excel killer, Pages allows you to create beautiful documents and Keynote is certainly far superior to PowerPoint. Apple is now selling the iWork suite as separate apps available through the Mac App Store.
3. Safari doesn’t have to be your default browser
Safari is Apple’s own web browser. It’s a great app, and it has some nifty features. However, you don’t have to settle with using Safari as your default browser. In fact, apart from Internet Exploder Explorer (which is, thankfully, only for the Windows OS), you have a wide choice of windows into the WWW: there’s Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. And if you browse the Mac App Store, you’re sure to find even more alternatives that are designed for specific tasks, such as turning your favourite social apps and email systems into apps of their own, complete with their own icons.
The Mac is a great platform in my opinion. And the fact that it’s gaining traction – rapidly – throughout the world is testament to the design and engineering prowess of 1 Infinite Loop in being able to create an integrated system that works effortlessly to allow you to do more.
If you have any other tips for Mac users, be sure to drop them in the comments below.
