U.S. media content is getting stuck at the border

February 6th, 2009  |  Darrell Corriveau

This is a time of unprecedented access to all forms of digital media, so maybe it seems ungrateful to complain about the times when that access is denied. But that’s what I am going to do. The Web offers an embarrassment of riches to help keep us connected, informed and entertained. And the best part is that this content is readily available to everybody with an Internet connection. Except, increasingly, us poor Canadians.

I’ve always noticed some licensing restrictions limiting content originating in the U.S., but lately it seems that roadblocks have been thrown up everywhere I go.

I first went to Hulu, because it’s perfectly reasonable to me that I should be able watch the Turkeys Away episode of WKRP in Cincinnati at 10:00 pm on a Tuesday night in 2009. But guess what? Not a single bit of Hulu’s content is available in Canada (or anywhere else outside the U.S. for that matter). They assure me however that they are working on the issue. They say that making content available worldwide ‘requires clearing the rights for each show or film in each specific geography and will take time’. Probably A LOT of time is my guess.

Next up is Pandora. Pandora, like Last.fm, is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service where users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musically similar. Sounds great – sign me up! Alas, I can’t even get past the deeply, deeply apologetic letter on the homepage. They will notify me via email when the service is activated in my area. I’m not hopeful. Last.fm seems to work well for now, but even they have been in and out of deals with Warner Music and Sony BMG, so you never know how long this will continue.

The intellectual property hurdles that need to be cleared are vast, and this is why Apple’s greatest technological achievement was not the iPod or the iPhone, but the intricate licensing deals they were able to secure with media companies enabling worldwide distribution. Let’s hope others can follow suit soon. After all “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”

Helvetica, a different type of movie

January 16th, 2009  |  Darrell Corriveau

This week I re-watched Helvetica – the 2007 film about typography, graphic design and visual culture. Typographers and designers from around the globe delve into the subject of the world’s most famous typeface. If you haven’t yet seen the movie, I recommend that you do. It speaks to an audience much wider than that of designers. It will sharpen your eye and widen your world.

For me, the second time round was more enjoyable than the first. I found myself entranced by the history of design. The film is chocked-full of inspiring and historically significant visuals. And it led me to look for more. I was not disappointed.

Take a look at the exhibit – 48 posters, by Swiss designer Josef Muller-Brockmann (third link down the left side).

Comparison of the iPhone and the Blackberry by a diehard Mac fan

January 15th, 2009  |  Darrell Corriveau

I have been a long time user of the Blackberry and have been generally happy with the product. Being a long time Mac user as well, I have been interested in the iPhone from afar since its launch. My children both have iPod Touches so I have played with the interface, and some of the Apps, but my blackberry has never really done me wrong so I didn’t have a great urge to make a switch.

Well, early last week my Blackberry died. Half of the keyboard didn’t work, nor did the trackball. Bell store employees informed me that with the backlog of orders for Blackberries it may be quite some time before I got a replacement. I was not happy with this, so I took the opportunity to make the leap and sign up for a new iPhone 3G with Rogers.

Well, it has been almost a week I have had my iPhone, and I have to admit, somewhat sadly being a Mac devotee, that it does not compare at all to the usability of my old blackberry. Sure it is a great little product and has some definite benefits over the blackberry including:

1. Easily syncs with the Mac. This is one major shortfall for RIM. Why they won’t support the Mac better has always confused me.
2. Very slick and consistent in the interface. As is always the case with Mac products, the interface for most Apps have common elements and functions that make them very easy to learn.
3. Browser is awesome. It would be nice to have Flash integration, but aside from that, the experience of web browsing on the iPhone is very close to doing so on a desktop. My Blackberry’s (the 8830 World Edition) browser is little more than a text browser, but as a lot of sites offer “m.” mobile sites it can be surprisingly useful.
4. iTunes integration. I have a flash memory card in my Blackberry that allows me to load media files which is great, but I can’t listen to DRM music that I bought from iTunes, and I have bought a lot lately.
5. WiFi support. I can’t benefit from local Wifi on my Blackberry so I end up getting a lot more usage over the cell network ($).
6. General niftiness. People crowd around to see my iPhone. I am lonely when I use my Blackberry.

Now with all of those points you would think that my preference leans in favour of the almighty iPhone, right? Wrong! And here is the reason…

95% of what I use my mobile device for is text and email messaging.

The iPhone lacks in almost every respect when it comes to those important tasks. Consider the following:

1. Quick scanning. On the iPhone the maximum number of email messages I can see the titles of on the main email screen at one time is 5. Granted they are very legible, but compare that to 9 on the Blackberry. It is very important to me to be able to see new messages quickly.
2. External visual notification. There is no new message external indicator on the iPhone. When I get a new message or notification on my Blackberry, the little red light blinks to tell me, even if I missed the initial notification.
3. Push in action. I may be wrong about this (at least I can’t figure it out yet) but it seems to me that push email on the iPhone is not as immediate as it is on the Blackberry. I send an email to my blackberry and seconds later it vibrates. Not so with my iPhone. Sometimes it does, and other times I get no notification until I open up the mail app and new emails come streaming in. Feel free to correct me if your experience differs from mine. Perhaps you need Mobile Me?
4. Alarm clock effectiveness. In order to use my iPhone as an alarm clock (which I do all the time with my Blackberry) I have to enter into “Airplane Mode” which is within the settings, otherwise the device stays on, and I will get notifications of all events throughout the night. My Blackberry will sleep (no notifications) and awake at the time I set the alarm for, without having to make numerous setting changes every time.
5. Batch marking. On the iPhone you can not mark multiple email messages as read. This is a huge deficiency for me. In order to mark emails as read you have to view every single one individually, and the same goes for deleting them. Not so on the Blackberry. Try doing that for over 300 emails a day that you also get on your desktop.
6. Keyboard usability. Don’t get me started. The usability of the screen keyboard on the iPhone has been discussed by many others. Suffice it to say I can type about twice as fast on my full keyboard Blackberry.

Okay, so here endeth the rant. The short story is that I am going to return my iPhone and stick with my new replacement Blackberry (which showed up two days after Bell told me it would be weeks). Most of the points above (barring the red light indicator) can probably be fixed in later operating system updates for the iPhone, but for now, I’ll regard it as a very cool device and great toy, but not ready for the mass business market. I’m off to pick up an iPod Touch!

Polaroid. Gone in an instant.

December 24th, 2008  |  Darrell Corriveau

This is the last year that Polaroid is producing its famous instant film. It is expected that all remaining worldwide supply will disappear from store shelves sometime in 2009.

For many, Polaroid images are nostalgic artifacts of childhood birthdays and trips to Florida with the family. But for others, Polaroid film – and the process of taking pictures with it – offers something more. They embrace the imperfections and the happy accidents that can occur. With the potential for unreal colour and unpredictable lighting effects, even mundane subjects can magically transform into little works of art. Have a look at these amazing images taken by friend Alison Garnett.

For more Polaroid-related stories and links to contributor collections, please visit the folks at savepolaroid.com.

Mashups making waves, and warning of them too

December 11th, 2008  |  Darrell Corriveau

A trend that is beginning to get serious traction in web site and interactive design is the use of mashups to repurpose publicly available information into interesting and informative new views.

As an example, check out the Havaria Information Service AlertMap, a site that culls information regarding natural disasters and safety alerts from numerous sites around the world and presents them in a singular interface. Want to know if there is an outbreak of the Avian Flu in China, or a Tsunami warning in Japan, or even a terrorist attack in Pakistan? It’s all here.

If you want more to learn more about mash ups, and how they work, check out the article Mashups: The new breed of Web app.

Exactitudes

November 21st, 2008  |  Darrell Corriveau

Exactitudes: a contraction of exact and attitude is an ongoing work by Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek. Equal parts art and scientific survey, it’s an interesting comment on our collective need to express individuality, and conversely, to associate ourselves with tribes of like-minded people.

Condo goals prove too lofty?

September 18th, 2008  |  Darrell Corriveau

British architect Will Alsop received props in a recent review in The New Yorker magazine for his work on the Sharp Center for Design at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. In the article, author Paul Goldberger mentions Alsop’s other completed Toronto project, a sales center for Westside Lofts on Queen St. West right across the street from the Drake Hotel.

The structure is described as “a three-story plywood box whose sides are punctuated by amoeba-shaped windows with frames in green, orange, yellow, white, black, and pink. These walls do double duty as giant billboards, with huge letters advertising lofts at nine hundred and ninety dollars a month.”

It’s too bad then that the playful design of the building obviously wasn’t enough to sell units as quickly as the developer would have liked. Now giant clashing fabric banners touting a sweeter deal than the original aforementioned “nine hundred and ninety dollars a month”, drape both sides of the structure. It’s probably safe to say that Alsop Architects wasn’t consulted on the change of plans and the subsequent defacement.

Brooklyn Beer, in Parkdale

August 13th, 2008  |  Darrell Corriveau

This Brooklyn Brewery neon sign was spotted in the window of the Cadillac Lounge – one of Parkdale’s finest watering holes. This logo along with various beer labels, were designed by Milton Glaser way back in 1987 (a time when hardly anybody was mining period styles for use in contemporary work) and are still used by the brewery today. The script ‘B’ is a reference to the Brooklyn Dodgers before they relocated to Los Angeles. You can actually buy a copy of the neon sign and other swag on the Brooklyn Brewery website.