The BBC SciFi Phenomenon (or "My Doctor Who Weekend")

So I've really been liking the BBC's SciFi shows the last few years and this weekend was a Doctor Who related weekend. I've never liked Doctor Who until the last few years (I'll lean more towards I disliked it).

Here's my Doctor Who related activities this weekend:

Doctor Who S4E5 The Poison Sky (part 2 to The Sontaran Stratagem) - I was excited that it was on this weekend, but I forgot that it was part two of a two-parter! And it's got Martha Jones in it. Great second part, can't say much without giving anything away, but another very (very) short appearance of Rose. I think we'll see a bit of her (and hear about the Bees until those episodes come up). I was surprised at the mention of Torchwood, but I think Capt. Jack's due for another appearance too (and maybe Sarah Jane).

Being Human

So I saw a pilot (or maybe it was a preview) of a new BBC show called Being Human. It's written by Toby Whithouse who's written episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood and I've been liking those writers (like Stephen Moffet with Jekyll) so I tuned in. It was a fun show, a Vampire and a Werewolf who try to be more human despite their afflictions. And it's really treated that way, more as an affliction or disease and they just want to be "normal".

From the beginning of the episode, I'm not really sure how well they know each other but they decide to rent a flat together. When they ask why it hasn't rented already (it's a good location and good price) they're told that other short-stayed tenants thought there was something creepy about it. Later on they find out it's a ghost (and she's way cuter than Casper) and she's thrilled that someone can see and hear her.

It's a slow moving show, but they definitely have some interesting thoughts on life, the after life and on being human with a bit of humor tossed in. I'll be watching this show for a few more episodes, I liked it...

Here's a short ad / preview of Being Human.

Technorati Tags: Andrea Riseborough, BBC, Being Human, Vampire, Werewolf, Werwolf

TV Roundup!

For much not being on television I've been highly entertained by the tube this week...

AppleTV Take2 - Review

So I just downloaded the AppleTV update called Take 2 (or is it Take2?). I wasn't thrilled with the changes that I saw in the preview because I thought the interface was pretty great. But I'll agree that some changes for the new interface was necessary.

Since you now can shop the whole iTunes store via the AppleTV something to surf around a larger library was necessary. They new sections fill up the cover art at a more than acceptable speed (my cable modem is 6000 down and 384 up) and it flowed pretty nicely. But a lot of the old interface is still around for the sub menus and it they really clash with each other. But I like the shopping on-line option, I'll try it later just so I can see how well it works. I would have purchased last night's Kyle XY episode but it wasn't ready for download yet for some reason...

The amount of movies and music and TV is just a little overwhelming. There's just so many options and you can scroll in so many directions! And all the album art just looks fantastic in large high quality images!!! They need a all you can watch or listen to with the music videos, pay a flat rate and go cRaZy for a few hours.

The podcasts are interesting, You can browse very nicely and you can view/stream but if the site is slow, you're gonna wait a while for that hi-def video. You can select download and it'll be there later for you. It's strange that you can favorite a podcast, not to be confused with subscribing, but you can't actually subscribe; this would be inconvenient if you don't actually have a computer.

The new Flickr photo viewing works great, but I wish there was a way to view the descriptions or titles of the photos. And I wish there was a way to look at thumbnails; for example a person has 500 photos in a folder and there isn't a way to jump around it just goes to slideshow mode. This never bothered me with my photos, but when looking at someone else's it jumped right out at me....

Overall, it's a great update in that it adds some great functionality. The new interface will grow on me (it's not like I wouldn't recommend it to someone). I just feel it's missing some normal Apple consistency in the Human Interface Guidelines area...

I'm still missing a way to build a video playlist (or a video shuffle). I've got hours of video podcasts and I don't have a way to string them together as my own private TV channel. I hadn't heard about it or this release but it just seems like a natural outgrowth of the music playlist and/or shuffle.

The update took a while and had to reboot more than a few times installing all the features but seems like it worked just fine. I expect they'll be a update soon to fix a few minor things, like the TV Genre of "Cops and Robberts".

Technorati Tags: Apple TV, AppleTV, AppleTV Take 2, AppleTV Take2, Take 2, Take2

Did they cancel "How I Met Your Mother"?

At Amazon Unbox they have 4 FREE missing episode of 'How I Met Your Mother'! At least I don't think I've seen them before. You can download these to your Windows based computer or TiVo for free! The 4 missing episodes cover Marshal and Lily's honeymoon...

You can get the Infamous "Robin Sparkles" video too!

UPDATE (Sunday evening): So I finally watched these "episodes". They weren't real episodes, they were just a few minutes long and they were "videos" of they're honeymoon. They're pretty bad too, but then again aren't home movies supposed to be? I'm not sure what kind of promotion they shot these for, but they end with a still frame with an advertisement for the show. It was the fact that these appeared to be "lost" episodes that made me ask if the show was canceled, since these aren't much more than some kind of odd promo/commercial I retract the original question.

Technorati Tags: Amazon Unbox, Free, How I Met Your Mother, Robin Sparkles, TiVo, Unbox

Torchwood: "Meat" by Catherine Tregenna

So this week's episode of Torchwood is called "Meat". It's written by Catherine Tregenna, I bring that up right away because it's a great episode. Low action but lots of story. Rhys is at the scene of an accident and who shows up? Gwen, with the Mystery Machine and the rest of the gang. So this becomes a big part the story-line (this all happens in the first few seconds and in last week's preview, don't worry I won't give anything else away) and I really enjoyed the episode. Lots of great scenes of Cardiff too!

The first thing I did after watching it was to look up Catherine Tregenna and what did I find? A few other great episodes: "Captain Jack Harkness" (when Tosh and Jack get trapped in the 1940's) and "Out of Time" when a plane from the 1950's comes through the rift. As a bonus, she writes "Adam", next week's episode! It looks like she's written two other upcoming Torchwood episodes: Day In The Death Of (episode 8) and "From Out of the Rain" (episode 10) but I only saw that info mentioned at one place on-line (geos) and it didn't mention the "Adam" episode (so maybe an episode title changed?). All the other shows she's written for are other BBC(?) shows that I've never seen (I've only heard of East Enders). She's written some plays and been an actress too.

Then after "Adam", Martha Jones joins up for the next three episodes! I believe she's doing some work for UNIT, but I had assumed she was back finishing up becoming a Doctor...

Technorati Tags: Adam, Catherine Tregenna, Meat, Torchwood

Free Music

RCA gives away one song a day. Sometimes it's new, old, from a soundtrack, rock, alternative, or instrumental. It's different every day.

Here's the thing: At some point in the future when some (hypothetical) legal authority searches my hard drive or MP3 player, how do I prove these songs are mine? In the past, with sampler CDs you had the CD to show ownership. With iTunes, they send you a receipt that shows you own the song even when it's a free download. But with legitimately free MP3s on-line, how can you show that ownership someday if you need to...?

Technorati Tags: download music, free downloads, free MP3s, free music, legal downloads

Apple TV Takes Over The World

My Apple TV has been one of my favorite technology purchases and I never expected that I'd like it that much. Actually, I'd been interested in it but it took a visit to Best Buy, after happy hour, for me to finally commit to the 40 GB version. I took it back a few days later but only because I knew I needed the 160 GB version, bigger is better after all...

Apple TV is pretty much an 'iPod for your television' and iPods are pretty much the standard to beat for portable media players (at least the standard for handheld audio players) so these should be selling much better. I've always been impressed with my Apple TV and had been surprised they hadn't really caught on more than they have. The Apple TV interface is excellent, it's as good as the TiVo (except it doesn't record), you can buy videos (and music) on your computer to load it up, but that is a little inconvenient for some people. You can convert videos for it, but that's not for the average user. I knew it was close to what people want but it wasn't exactly there yet.

A few weeks ago at MacWorld they announced movie rentals for the Apple TV. $2.99 for old movies, $3.99 for new ones and $1 more for HD quality. Plus, you can buy music (and music videos) on-line and view/subscribe to podcasts (for free). They changed the interface, I personally think it's a little more complicated, but since you need to be able to browse an infinite number of music and movies I can understand it (and maybe I'll like it too). This new interface is free to original Apple TV owners and should show up in a few weeks (I keep checking).

I heard all this when they announced it and I've been mulling it around in my head, but I finally just watched that part of the keynote from MacWorld (on my Apple TV, of course) and now I really think this is getting even closer to being the media box for your TV.

Torchwood - Season 2

So the second season of Torchwood has started up. In case you haven't seen it, it's a semi-secret organization with the job of finding (and removing) aliens and acquiring their technology to better protect Earth.

"Torchwood: outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, arming the human race against the future. The twenty-first century is when everything changes. And you gotta be ready. "

Back to Torchwood, the first season was not your normal Sci-Fi show, lots of sexual innuendo, lots of sex implied. I think all of the main characters hooked up with one of the other team members, an alien, someone of the same sex (or all three) at some point in season one (the show was created by Russell T. Davies who created Queer As Folk). Wait, I did say it was SciFi didn't I? There are generally aliens, generally doing bad "take over the world" kinds of things and they usually stop them generally (but not always) saving lives in the process. When I first watched the show I didn't realize it was a Doctor Who spin-off, I actually thought it was some kind of supernatural British cop show, but this was better...

This season season I've read they've pushed it even more and I must say from the first two episodes it seems like it so far. Episode one of the second season there was more kissing than I've ever seen on a SciFi show in my life (maybe all sci-fi shows combined). Episode two is definitely a little edgier and a bit more intense (and violent) than last season, I really had no idea where this episode was going the first fifteen minutes of the show (had I paid attention to the episode title). I can't wait to see where the rest of the season goes...

It's on BBC America on Saturdays at 9 PM and on BBC Two on Wednesdays at 9 PM (GMT).

Technorati Tags: BBC, BBC Two, Doctor Who, eve myles, john barrowman, sci-fi" rel="tag">sci-fi, scifi, Torchwood

Lena Headey plays a mean Sarah Conner

So last summer a copy of the "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" was floating around the 'net and I had a chance to see it. It was awesome, and ever since then, in my head, I've pictured Linda Hamilton playing the Sarah Conner part. But as they've been advertising it, I've realized it's not Linda. I've recently had a chance to re-watch it, and I know when I first saw it I knew it wasn't LInda, but since then I started thinking it was her...

If you haven't seem it it's great. I'm interested to see how they are going to turn the 47 minute pre-pilot into a two night premier. A few minor edits can really ruin a great show (I still can't believe how they ruined the pilot to "The Big Bang Theory" with just a few edits, but I digress...).

Thomas Dekker does an excellent job as John Conner, you've seen him as Zach the flying kid on Heroes.

WARNING - Minor Spoiler below...

And the beautiful, wonderful, kick-ass Summer Glau just gives me chills when she says the famous line "Come with me if you want to live!". It makes me want to go back and watch Firefly and Serenity (as River Tam); you've also seen her on The 4400 as Tess (and on The Unit as Crystal Burns, but I must have stopped watching it before that).

Technorati Tags: Heroes, John Conner, Lena Headey, Sarah Conner, Summer Glau, Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Thomas Dekker

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday today! I'd like a little more snow outside but other than that, it's perfect. Lots of fun gifts and I think Mom liked everything I got her. More on some of the gifts later...

On a side note: One of my favorite things about Christmas (the last few years) is the Doctor Who Christmas Special! This year's episode it titled "Voyage Of The Damned" (Starring Kylie Minogue) and takes place on the Titanic. So I'm hoping I can "tune in" to that tonight!

If you're a Dr. Who fan you might be interested in this odd little Dr. Who 7 minute special, it takes place in the middle of the last 30 seconds of the season finale. Right after Martha walks out the door of the Tardis and right before the Titanic crashes in through the Tardis. A little mishap lets the Doctor meet one of his former selves (the 5th Doctor played by Peter Davison). It was part of a BBC "Children in Need" Special. If you don't watch Dr. Who this clip will not be entertaining at all.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Doctor Who, Dr. Who, Kylie Minogue, Peter Davison, Stephen Moffat, time crash, Time Travel, Titanic, torrent, Voyage Of The Damned

WalletNook.com

On The Big Bang Theory tonight they mentioned "WalletNook.com". So. of course, I tried to go to the site. Here's my question: Why would Warner Borthers purchase WalletNook.com and not create a page there at least to redirect you to The Big Bang Theory page? Or even sell that wallet?

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (DOM-1708796)
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91522 US

Technorati Tags: domain name, The Big Bang Theory, Wallet Nook, Wallet Nook dot com, WalletNook.com

Bionic Woman

I especially liked this week's episode of Bionic Woman and I think it's due to the fact that they totally ignored the "evil Bionic Woman" story-line.

Although, like many of the guys on the show, I was enjoying the English accent too...

Update: I think of the strangest things in the shower, (I need to keep a pad of paper in there because I'm sure a lot of good ideas go down the drain), but something about about Michelle Ryan's English accent popped into my head: She's from the BBC's "Jekyll" (and Hyde), she played his/their assistant/handler, and it turns out that she's from England. That certainly explains the great accent...

Technorati Tags: bionic woman, English Accent, Michelle Ryan

Trailers vs. Previews

I love movie trailers, I could watch them all day at the theatre, at the QuickTime site or on AppleTV. And I like TV previews for shows coming next season.

But I can't stand TV previews for the next week. I'll generally leave the room if other people are watching or skip over them. Occasionally I'll catch them (and occasional they'll excite me) but usually I'll pass. I think it's that they give away too much of the plot of the show and depending on the show, I don't feel like I need to watch it (I guess). I just watched the show, if that's not enough to get me to come back next week the preview probably won't.

Speaking of trailers, have you seen:

Monday Night Television is Evil

So I have some conflicts on Monday nights.

Grey's Anatomy - Season Premiere

So I finally got around to watching it. I know it's been sitting there for days but I just didn't get to it until now. And the bonus is I can probably say anything about the episode without ruining it for anyone since I'm sure everyone else has seen it.

I was highly entertained. I liked them all dealing with their own interns. Lots of action going on (although some parts seemed really slow). Izzie and the deer was silly story-line, but I enjoyed it. Lexie telling George to just suck it up, you just delivered a baby and how cool is that. I'm really liking Lexie's character so far but I'm thinking the 'Meridith is my sister' stuff is going to get old. She reminds me of someone but I've never seen her in anything. Thinking about it, the good story-lines were all George, Izzie and Lexie this episode.

But the one thing that kept bugging me all episode was that we all know, in the long run, George is not going to stay with Callie and how long are they going to drag this out. I just don't see them staying together; I don't know if that means that he'll end up with Izzie, but I don't see them together (they've never been a good plot-line) and I just don't want them dragging the story-line out for the next few seasons. And then there was the that last scene of the show (which I won't mention just in case you haven't seen it yet)...

I gotta say though, the first season was the best season and it'll be hard for them to beat it. The characters were fresh and they didn't need any gimmicks for the show and it was just different somehow. They sure jammed a lot into the 9 episode season! Back then Meridith used to be a whole lot cuter because as time went on you found out just how screwed up she really was (is); so that TV crush has kinda gone bye-bye...

Technorati Tags: Grey's Anatomy, Greys Anatomy

Stargate Atlantis - Season 4 Premire

What a pleasant surprise to notice that the season premiere of Stargate Atlantis was in my now playing list this morning, I didn't ever realize the new season started last night. Since Stargate SG-1 ended last season, Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) will on Atlantis now so we'll get to see her bicker more with Rodney. And the lovely Jewel Staite will be sticking around fro (at least) the whole season as Dr. Jennifer Keller (Jewel most recently played Kaylee on Serenity / Firefly).

Lots of action and effects. It was a non-stop episode and I really enjoyed it. But I'm completely tired of the replicators, it's just time for a new villain, or just a season of StarTrek-type exploration. And I'll miss Daniel Jackson...

Semi-spoiler - I just noticed someone missing from the splash page at http://www.scifi.com/atlantis/, that must not happen for a episode or two yet...

Technorati Tags: Amanda Tapping, Jewel Staite, stargate atlantis

How I Met Your Mother - Season Premiere

So I just kept thinking while watching this episode that the tough girl looked an awful lot like Mandy Moore. Then I saw in the credits that Mandy Moore did one of the songs and thought that was a coincidence. Duh! It really was Mandy Moore on the show.

On a semi-related note, Mandy Moore and Rachael Yamagata are playing in Detroit tomorrow. I'm not really sure what Mandy sings, but I'm sure I'd recognize something, but I really like Rachel. I sure wish that I felt better already...

Technorati Tags: How I Met Your Mother, Mandy Moore, Rachael Yamagata

Big Bang Theory

The first episode of Big Bang Theory is now available for free download from Amazon Unbox. You can put it on your TiVo(!) or on your PC. Supposedly there are other CBS show for free but I can't find them...

This is an awesome show. It's about a few geeks (science dorks) and the cute (but ditzy) girl next door. If you know any geeks you'll love this show. It's by the guy who did Two and a Half Men (and I think Dharma and Greg).

I'm sure this is only free for a limited time....

Technorati Tags: Amazon Unbox, Big Bang Theory, CBS, Unbox

Free NBC Fall Previews

You can see Journeyman, Chuck, Life and Bionic Woman for Free with Amazon UnBox. This means you can download them straight to your TiVo and watch them on the big screen (or you can download them to a PC, but I've never done that) for a limited time. I haven't seen Life yet, but I've seen the other three: Chuck is awesome, Journeyman is excellent, Bionic Woman is luke-warm but I'll give it a chance (and you can see for yourself!).

On a side note, this ties to NBC cutting ties or getting pissed at the iTunes music store (I can't remember why) and are now partnering with Amazon. I have no idea how long this offer might last or if the link will last but this is a permanent (I think) link to Amazon Unbox.

Amazon Unbox is an interesting service, more so for your TiVo than your PC (IMHO). You can rent high-quality movies for about $3.99 each, but each weekend they offer a half-dozen 99 cent ones (some are new and some are old), so keep your eyes open for those. Rentals are on your machine for 30 days but once you start to watch you only have 24 hours to finish (or re-watch it). Personally, I think 24 hours is too short, it needs to be about 36 hours; if I start to watch a movie Sunday afternoon at 4 and don't finish it, I'm probably not going to be home from work in time the next day to finish it. I really think they need to extend the 24 hours (which is starting to be an industry standard) to about 36 hours (48?) or figure out some way to get another $1 out of me so that I can keep it for another day). It's just more consumer friendly, it's not like I've got the media and they need it to rent to another person.

So back to the free previews. It's a very cool marketing idea. But here's my question - why aren't there any ads?!? They could be making money off of this (or at least advertising their fall line-up). They need to explore this so that they can explore this delivery medium and realize that free to the consumer is good. That's the whole model of television, free with commercials. If they gave it away free they could probably even rig it to force you to watch the commercials (or just the first few seconds) so they know they are getting their money's worth. But as always, I hope they figure out a way to target the commercials to me (I don't need tampons or Cialis, I need Apple products and movie previews). Just a thought...

Technorati Tags: bionic woman, Chuck, free, future of television, Journeyman, life, puppy, TiVo

I Love Anne Hathaway

I just finally got around to watching some David Letterman and Conan O"Brian episodes, I grab them if they have a guest I like and coincidentally Anne Hathaway was on the two I picked in the TiVo. She's always fun (she was the one who made The Princess Diaries so fun) and has such an awesome smile in just about everything (movie or interview) that I've seen her in. She's currently in Becoming Jane playing Jane Austin which I think is now on my list that I've seen a few more clips on it. She's also in the new Get Smart film playing Barbara Feldman's role as Agent 99.

I usually think of her as beautiful but she was way more than that on Letterman (the stunning dress probably helped), Dave even asked her where she was going after the show, since she was clearly too much for his show ("It's just for you Dave"). Here's the clip.

Usually on these interviews I never notice the guest drink out of the glass in front of them, but on both Letterman and Conan I noticed drinking out of her mug all the time. I'm not sure why that's sticking with me so much but it really keeps popping back into my head.

I think I'm off to see Becoming Jane this week...

Technorati Tags: Agent 99, Anne Hathaway, Barbara Feldman, Becoming Jane, Conan O, David Letterman, Get Smart, Jane Austin

The Future of Television

So the future of television is certainly changing. The networks haven't completely caught on yet, but they will. In a day when users can download higher quality video than they currently receive, get shows from parts of the world that aren't available and have the advantage of having no ads and are free (please note this means stolen). We can also buy many of these videos from the iTunes store or Amazon UnBox for $1.99 an episode (iTunes has some at 99 cents for an episode and sometimes get that cheap if you subscribe for season). I know "legal" is not what people think when they hear the word BitTorrent, but BitTorrent.com even sells shows legally these days.

If I could subscribe to a lot of the shows I enjoy for 99 cents an episode and have them automatically download to my AppleTV, TiVo, iPod or other device I'd never have anything more than basic cable. I'm sure this goes for a lot of people. Everything needed (except the mentality) to do this currently exists. The networks and producers of these shows need to somehow start embracing this model before it gets even easier for people to get (steal) these shows for free.

Or charge me significantly less and let me trade the produces some statistical information about myself and let them insert in advertising relevant to me. Give me geeky ads, movie and TV show previews that I like, music that I like. Advertise events and concerts that are taking place where I live. I don't need diaper ads, tampons, bad credit information, refinancing, ads for cars that cost $50,000+, ways to give up smoking. With the right information instead of advertising a new bed which I may have just purchased, they can advertise new pillows or new sheets (and mark in their files to start giving me new bed advertisements in another 5 years) that I might actually purchase.

Even better, let me give "them" lots of information about me, which I'll update a few times a month with information about what I've purchased or I'm shopping for (who in my life has a birthday coming up) or where I'm traveling to. And they can actually pay me to watch television! I'm not looking for a lot of money but just something to make it worth giving them info (besides, think of how much you'd save on cable if it was free!). Maybe some hotel discount coupons when I mention a vacation, or a coupon for Best Buy when they know I'm looking for a new video camera.

Technorati Tags: Amazon Unbox, Apple TV, AppleTV, BitTorrent, future of television, TiVo, Unbox, video distribution

AppleTV is Awesome!!!

My AppleTV is awesome! An "iPod for your TV" is a accurate description. I ran the software update (painless!) and it gave me YouTube videos and fixed "enhanced podcasts".

It mirrors one of your computer's iTunes just like an iPod does (and allows you exceptions) and will stream from any other computers running iTunes (platform independent) and I don't think there is a limit. I can't believe how fast it pulls hi-res movie previews from Apple down to the unit, it's very very fast. It's actually much faster than pulling down YouTube videos (many which are low-res).

It really streams full-scren video from other computers really efficiently. Very rarely does it need a moment to catch up. It has no problem with steaming audio. It almost makes no sense to download podcasts, I bet you could stream them live if you had a way to just get the RSS feeds onto the AppleTV.

With "enhanced podcasts" it now properly advances the embedded images to follow along with the audio. The problem is that it just shows them to the side like the album artwork, some images are much larger so it really cheats you by scaling them down. Since you don't use the up/down keys on the remote during this process "up" would be a great way to enlarge the images.

I have the same image size concern when viewing slideshows with the "Ken Burns effect", sometimes I want to view the whole image. Once again this would be another great use for the up button. The down button could be used for viewing filenames, date, time and other info about the images. Actually, this would be a good use for the down button while viewing videos or audio.

A few more features (like on the TiVo) like weather, movie listings and maybe Flickr photo viewing and it'd be even better...

What I don't like is that it only lets you sync with one computer. I'd like to sync music with one, videos with another and podcasts with another (not so sure if I care about the latter).

What I need:
1) A way to automatically convert videos and stick them into iTunes for me (so when I drop/download a file to a folder, it starts processing for me). I could probably do this via Mac or Windows....

2) A way to play other file formats on the AppleTV, such as AVI and DiVX files. I think I can hack it to do that but I'm not sure if I want to take it apart yet.

Technorati Tags: Apple TV, AppleTV, iTunes, Ken Burns, Ken Burns effect, Flickr, TV

Mmmmm.... AppleTV !

So I've been very interested in the AppleTV and never got around to trying it. But I was feeling pretty happy after happy hour yeast and Best Buy has a good return policy so I'm now the proud owner of an AppleTV (40GB). It's very cool. Very easy to install. Very easy to configure. Pure yummy Apple perfection. And there is no way I'm going to return it!

Two user-interface suggestions:
1) They need a better distinction between the computer you sync with and the computers you stream from. This needs to be better in the AppleTV and in iTunes.
2) The top menu item says AppleTV and it looks like it's a title and not a menu item (it actually takes you back to the main menu) and it's confusing. I've read about this but I forgot about it...
3) Put in a DVD player and a video/s-video port. (This doesn't count since it's not an interface issue).
3b) Safari would be cool too! This would just be for .Mac members so it would interface with your bookmarks!

If you think you'd like one of these, then run and go get one, it's way cool.

Technorati Tags: Apple TV, AppleTV, iTunes, TV

I'm really liking (Will) Traveler

After the pilot, the next few episodes of Traveler were a little slow (and complicated) and I didn't really think I'd get into it. But after that I was hooked! It had the chase scenes and the conspiracy and the action but they didn't waste time repeating themselves all the time like so many other shows do. It's like they're Jack Bauer and they've been falsely accused of bombing a museum. On paper the guy who did it doesn't seem to exist so they've got to evade the law and prove that Will exists and that they didn't do it.

This weeks show was packed with twists and turns and ended with a great twist. Unfortunately next week is the season finale, this has got to be the shortest season I've seen, it was only eight episodes. As sad as I am that it's only eight, I prefer that over them stretching the same story out over 15 or 20 episodes. I'm not familiar with the directors/producers but I'll watch more if they make it.

FYI, on a non-related note, the new season of Psych starts Friday on USA.

Technorati Tags: Psych, Traveler, Will Traveler

Yes, I'm talking about Doctor Who again...

So it's the weekend so it's time for me to talk about Doctor Who again. It was part two of the three part season finale. It's a little long to stretch a story but they've been keeping up with the action (in Dr. Who action means lots of running).

But one of the parts I really liked was when they were doing flashbacks to the Time Lord's home world some of the imagery clearly showed

Doctor Who - Blink

As you all know I love time-travel, and while never being a Doctor Who fan this new (started in 2005) series is just brilliant! In case you didn't know, the new Doctor Who is produced (and sometimes written) by Russell T. Davies (Queer as Folk and Torchwood) so it's not your grandpa's sci-fi show (and neither is Torchwood which runs later at night). Steven Moffat wrote this week's episode as well as several other episodes, some older shows (but I'm not sure if they were specials or radio shows), many episodes of Coupling (US and UK) and more.

This week's episode is just full of non-stop action and non-stop paradoxes and is just excellent! It's kinda scary too(!), I think that's what makes it seem so non-stop. This episode barely shows the main characters and instead focuses on a woman from London outside the normal time-line of The Doctor and Martha. As she's piecing things together it's very entertaining since you know it's going to all going to tie up neatly by the end. But one of the best parts is when he's explaining the non-linerarity of time and says "it's like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff" and it makes complete sense to the viewer; it's then you know the writers are doing something right..

The other good line is when Sally's talking about talking pictures of old things (which makes her sad) and her friend asks her "What's good about sad?" and Sally responds with "It's happy for deep people"...

And the extra bonus is that starting next week (for 3 episodes) we have the return of Captain Jack Harkness!

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Heroes - Volume 1

They left you hanging with some new story lines but they completed a story, I really applaud them for that. I'm so sick of the never ending (non) stories.

I was pretty happy with Heroes - Season 1, a tale of life, sacrifice, hope and (of course) saving the world. It's pretty hard to get a good super-hero show to stick on prime-time, so I can deal with the minuses. What I really liked about it was they ended the story and those that did save the world were really heros. I was surprised at all the death the last few episodes, but at least now you don't have to worry too much about those story-lines...

And how about those previews!!!! Harry Potter, THe Fantastic Four, The Silver Surfer and (did you wait until the very end?) the Bionic Woman! And I'm kinda wondering what extras are going to be on the DVD...

So, possible mysteries for the future: (semi-spoliers below, if you haven't watched it, don't read them, although they don't directly give anything away)