Avatar

I saw Avatar last night.  Stunning.  Just stunning.

While the spectacle is amazing, the director, James Cameron, knows the secret.  Probably movie people have a better term for it, but I call it the George Lucas rule of special effects.  The rule basically says that just because it was really expensive you should not overweight it's place in the story.  The secret to the spectacle in Avatar is that it's not the focus of the story.

Noah and I went to see it in 3D IMAX at 6:30 last night in Bellevue.  That was sold out till the next day.  3D-regular was sold out until 11p.  2D wasn't available at that theater.  We ended up seeing the 7:20 show in 2D in Redmond (3D was sold out).  In retrospect, I'm glad I saw it first in 2D because now I can see it again in 3D.  This movie must be making tons of $$ because two week later every prime-time screening is selling out at two theaters.  I can't remember the last time I waited in line to see a movie.

I hope there is a "making-of" reel made.  That would also be a must see.

Matilda: Special Edition

Just watched Matilda: Special Edition with the kids streaming from NetFlix.  5-stars.

This is cinematic version of Dahl's Matilda (book, netflix).  Cynthia read this book to the kids when they were younger and it was a huge hit.  The movie version features Danny DeVito as the father, the narrator and the director.

Everyone loved it.  Five Stars!

Blu-Ray vs HD DVD -- I now get it: 2 years later

OK, so I'm dense.  Maybe everyone got this years ago, but it just hit me today.  Why was Microsoft so against Blu-Ray?

At the end of the day, lots of storage is good.  I know Java is the spawn of the devil, but was that the real reason?

It turns out that in the last couple of days I've been looking at Blu-Ray players (Why is it Blu and not Blue?) and I noticed a ethernet jack on the back.  What's that for?  Hey look, they can stream NetFlix and other video?  Some have web browsers in them.

It seems that the center of my digital living room / media center might be a Blu-Ray player which isn't running any Microsoft software at all.  Would Microsoft try to fracture the industry over that...

Kindle Milestone: Amazon Sold More Kindle Books Than Physical Books On Xmas

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-kindle-milestone-amazon-sold-more-ebooks-than-physical-books-on-xmas-2009-12?mobile=1

Liars can figure and figures can lie.

The headline is all over the web, but does it mean anything?  I don't think many people are buying physical books on Christmas day (it might be one of the slowest days of the year), but a lot of people powered up their new Kindle...

The more interesting thing in this article is:

The Kindle's economics are still lousy for Amazon: The company loses money on new releases and makes only a modest amount on older titles, thus losing an estimated $1 per Kindle book.

No idea if this is true.  Sad if it is.  The link in above is to:http://www.tbiresearch.com/e-readers-should-drive-profits-for-both-distributors-and-book-publishers-2009-11

Dan

Netbooks

I just don't get netbooks.

Tiny screen, tiny keyboard.

Underpowered.

Everything looks better.

I get that as a carrier subsidized device there might be something there, but otherwise why not just spend 2X and get something that will last 2-3 years?

They say that netbooks are the growth sector in the PC industry.  But is it real growth or is it just 5-units growing to 10-units?

Even as a school/edu device, I don't think it makes sense.

Barnes and Nobel Nook

I had about 30-minutes to play with a Barnes and Nobel Nook today.

Summary: A step above the Kindle, interesting business model, DOA.

The Nook is a Kindle form factor device. The display might be a little smaller. It has a second color touch sensitive display that you use to control the thing. I thought the touch display was of average or low quality (that is, nothing like an iPhone). From a hardware execution point of view the device is a logical evolution beyond the kindle (like a + 0.5, not a + 1.0 for sure).

The business model is interesting. They have way more books than Kindle and if you visit one of their stores, you can browse anything in the catalog on your device before you buy (I don't know how this works). The especially interesting thing is that you can loan your purchases to other people and they can read the book you bought. It's a one-user-exclusive-license (just like a paperback) except that the license automatically reverts back to you after 14-days. I think this is very cool. As the market fragments it becomes less valuable but they are in a good position with all of their content.

Interestingly the one book I searched for was not available in eBook format.

The Nook is back-ordered until "at least February". This is a colossal screw-up on their part (or it means they only made a hindered or something).

I can't imagine that the Nook won't be eclipsed when Kindle 3.0 happens (I have no info). The real reason it's DOA is because B&N (1) doesn't do hardware (but neither does Amazon) and (2) customers will continue to see that the business model isn't right -- not enough sharing and no community.

This business needs a Netflix/Zune model (all you can eat for cash/mo) with Apple quality hardware.

Dan