Geek Force FiveCast 248: Apple TV 3.0

In which ECC geeks out about the Apple TV 3.0 software update.

Geek Force FiveCast 247: A Home Screen of Their Own

In which ECC geeks out about creating iPhone home screens for his wife and daughters.

Zombie Babes or Tap Tap Metallica?

I’m geeking out over two new games for the iPhone and iPod Touch today, but I can’t decide which I’m geekier for. The first, profiled by Mashable, is Zombie Bikini Babes From Outer Space [iTunes Link], and the second is Tap Tap Metallica, which I discovered through Mashable as well.

Now, money-wise, this is an easy call: There’s a free version of Zombie Babes, and the paid version is just ninety-nine cents, whereas the Metallica app will run me $4.99 and includes a measley ten songs.

Both sound like impossibly dumb games, but sometimes the dumbest games are the most fun. Right? So, which would you choose?

First Photo of the Apple Slate!!!

Does the fabled Apple tablet finally have a name? According to TUAW, a New York Times editor referred to the “impending Apple Slate” in an off-the-record chat. It sounds like an Applesque name to us, and we liked it so much that we decided to mock-up what we think it’ll look like (see above).

TUAW had something else interesting waiting for us in our Google Reader this morning, too. They brought news that Amazon’s Kindle software is coming to the Mac. They tempered this news with a concluding sentence that read, “we can’t forget that if Apple delivers a tablet computer it could put Amazon into direct competition with Apple,” but I’m doubtful Apple would get into the ebook market themselves when they could just partner with Amazon and be done with it. Comics, maybe. But not books. They partner with people—Google for maps, for instance—when they need to, and I see that as the path this time around.

In other Apple news, Apple is apparently going to spend $4 million on Chicago subway station renovations. This comes to us from AppleInsider, who also claim that Jobs & Co. have “earned the right of first refusal to name the public transit stop.”

How long until we have an iCity to go with our iPods, our iMacs, and our iLives?

Comics Coming to iTunes and More

Comic books might be coming to iTunes in time for the fabled Apple Tablet’s release, according to articles from TUAW and MacNN, and this is one development that would get me to pick up an Apple Tablet for sure. If this thing was a big iPod, an “essentials"-type portable computer, and an e-book/e-comics reader all rolled into one—man, that would be something. I understand Cali Lewis’s frustration with the recent offerings from Cupertino, but I think we may all be treated to something massive and awesome come next year. That’s just a hunch. This Apple Tablet is, I think, going to change the game as much as the iPhone did.

In other comics news, Joe Quesada is saying that the Captain America movie is “very unexpected, the kind of movie it is” and that it will set up a future Avengers flick in “a fantastic way.” So, that’s exciting. But, for me, even more exciting than that is watching Jim Lee draw while he shoots the shit with Stan Lee. I’ve embedded that video above, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I’m a sucker for fly-on-the-wall videos of creators doing what they do, and I wish more of my favorites would do stuff like this. There’s a section in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It where he talks about the different social media platforms available to us, and I think a lot of artists and writers could get huge mileage out of things like YouTube and Ustream (as Gary suggests).

Charles Bukowski was a Mac

Here’s something I found interesting as both a writer and a geek. It comes to us from that curator of the awesomest awesome-sauce on the Web, Jason Kottke.

Basically, the deal is that Charles Bukowski (who I’ll admit I know very little about, other than the fact that a Peanuts strip by him would be hilarious) became a Mac user in his old age. At roundabout 70 years old, his wife bought him a Macintosh IIsi, and he apparently loved the thing. “There is something about seeing your words on a screen before you that makes you send the word with a better bite,” he wrote. “I know a computer can’t make a writer but I think it makes a writer better.”

And, apparently, his love of technology didn’t end there.

In a letter to John Martin, his Black Sparrow publisher, Bukowski mentioned the availability of a technology (the Internet) that would allow him to send poems instantly. The speed and ease of new technologies amazed, excited, and inspired him. When he first got a fax machine, Bukowski immediately wrote Martin a fax poem… Bukowski’s open-mindedness in old age is refreshing, when you consider all the aging writers who fall back and rely on the familiar, be it in technologies of writing or actual writing style.

Nifty, says I.

Geek Force FiveCast 242: Magic Mouse

In which ECC geeks out about Apple’s new Magic Mouse, then complains about the lack of a full-sized wireless keyboard.

Geek Force FiveCast 239: In-App Purchase

In which ECC geeks out about Apple’s decision to allow free iPhone and iPod Touch apps to incorporate in-app purchases.

Geek Force FiveCast 234: Connection

In which ECC talks about Home Sharing in iTunes 9 and the connection issues he’s facing while setting the service up.

Apps For Word-Lovers of All Ages

Three new iPhone commercials have made their way onto the U.S. airwaves this week, and my favorite of them is probably Pass, which features lots of book and language-related fun. There’s an app in there that I’d love to use (Classics), one that my wife would love (365 Crosswords), and one that would be super-useful for our three year old (ABC Animals). As far as I’m concerned, there really does seem to be an app for everything. I haven’t poked around app stores from the other major vendors very much, but I sincerely hope that they’re getting the kind of variety and awesomeness that we JesusPhone owners are getting from Apple. The fact that our phones can do these things now—I just think it’s rad.

Thanks to TUAW for linking these up.