70000 People Detective Nitobe

Finally, another drama that’s funny and interesting. 🙂 Viva fansub!

70000 People Detective Nitobe is a story about a girl taking pictures and blogging every single thing she finds. She has more than 70000 followers on her blog. One day, she’s on a bus and found a murdered man. She starts blogging about it, and while the police thought that she’s the suspect, thanks to her taking pictures of the scene and her 70000 followers commenting on her blog, she not only figured out the true culprit, she even prevented them form running away (apparently the taxi driver that the suspects took is a follower of her blog too, LOL) and revealed the true story behind the crime. Note that this is not a serious drama, it’s more like light comedy/detective drama.

So, we have this, and Sunao ni Narenakute, both portraying the use of social networking on the web (blogging, twitter) as useful and fun tools. This is in contrast of American mainstream media entertainment that seems to only portray social networking as a place for sex offenders/terrorists/criminals, that the internet is “bad.” Thank you J-Dorama. 🙂

Now, where would J-Dorama be without Apple:

There you go, a black Macbook prominently displayed to show Apple’s logo. LOL. Sure, none of the cellphones used are iPhones (as Nitobe has to be able to compose her blog without looking, thus phones with a physical keypad is crucial), but voila, Apple is invading J-Dorama. No Kamen Rider yet though, at least in Episode 1. 🙂

 

Ponyo, Kamen Rider W/Decade Movie War 2010 Movies Impressions

I’ll start with Ponyo.
I finally got the chance to watch Ponyo on DVD, an anime by Hayao Miyazaki. Looking at the DVD released by Disney, I see Japanese audio being available, so that’s good. Now, this is Disney, which if you realize, changes a lot of the dialogs in Miyazaki’s movies for the English dub, and even add dialogs not in the original Japanese version. Sure, some of them are subtle, but I think many of the changes make the scenes and characters have different feel and mood than the original. Same thing with Ponyo. When I first watching it, I picked Japanese audio, but the subtitle chosen was for the English dub. I immediately noticed how the subtitle said different things than the audio. I mean one example in one scene, Sousuke says how Ponyo likes ham, and Lisa, Sousuke’s mom said “Just like me” in Japanese, but the English dub said “So she thinks she’s human?” WTF? Another scene, Sousuke said “Yokatta,” but the dub said “It’s my fault.” Again, WTF? Yeah, that’s Disney changing stuff around. More proof that US localization have close to zero respect to the original sources.

Now, switching to the real subtitle for the Japanese audio, it actually is pretty good. I’m biased towards fansub a lot of times because official licensors usually “localize” the subtitle too much, but this one is very good and accurate, other than missing honorifics.

As a movie, Ponyo is the typical cutesy and the innocence of kids. There’s no good guys vs bad guys. All you feel is how cute Sousuke and Ponyo from start to finish. Some say there’s an environmental message. Sure, but it’s not really played out in a significant way (unlike Avatar). The focus remains on how cute the kids are.

So, I’m enjoying the movie. Cute movie, good subtitle, all is great, until the credits roll. Instead of the cutesy Japanese song, I’m listening to the English dub of the song. WTF? I thought I push a button that changed the audio to the English dub. But no, it’s still on the Japanese audio track. Yeah, Disney CUT the Japanese song out, replacing it with the English dub song, coupled with the horrible remix version in the end. WTF? This is a big FAIL! So legally, there’s no way for you to enjoy a complete Japanese Ponyo movie per the original. This is like Disney saying, hey, go pirate the movie instead. Finding Ponyo on bittorrent is not that hard at all, and there are HD uploads too!

Buying Disney’s Ponyo on DVD:
Pros:
-Very good subtitle quality for the Japanese audio
Cons:
-You’re paying for an incomplete movie, with the Japanese song cut out completely
-It costs you money
-The subtitle placement is a bit obnoxious. Too high up and the fonts take quite a bit of screen space.

Downloading Ponyo from Bittorrent:
Pros:
-Cost you nothing
-You get a complete movie. Japanese song intact.
-Subtitle font and placement are ideal, just like most fansub.
Cons:
-The subtitle quality may vary, but still doesn’t stray far from the original dialogue.

Yeah, there you go. You can pay for an incomplete version of the movie, or download a complete one for free. Which one would you choose? Disney, you suck. What’s wrong with the Japanese song? Are you afraid that people will find it to be superior than your lame remix? Ponyo is an awesomely cute movie, but huge FAIL on Disney.

Next is Kamen Rider W/Decade Movie War 2010.
LOL. Yeah, a stark contrast to Ponyo. I literally watched this right after Ponyo. Kamen Rider W/Decade Movie War 2010 is a double movie featuring the latest Kamen Rider W and the conclusion of Kamen Rider Douchebag… I mean Decade.

Anyway, this movie is set up to be the conclusion for Kamen Rider Decade after the cliff-hanger ending on the series, and the movie starts off with Decade kicking SkyRider, Super 1, and Kabuto’s ass. Wait, WTF? Yeah, that’s not how the series ended. In the series, it ended with Decade fighting the original universe’s (sans the original Kuuga) Riders. So, were SkyRider, Super 1, and Kabuto original or alternate versions? It doesn’t make sense, and throughout the movie, it seems that they were alternate versions as Seto Koji (original Kiva) appeared after Decade destroyed all the alternate Riders (so presumably the original Riders were not destroyed by Decade). If you’re not confused enough, none of the teased scenes shown on the last episode of the series (Tsukasa drowning, Natsumi with a machine gun, etc) were actually in the movie itself. LOL.

So, wait, what happened then between the series end and this movie? Who knows. My speculation is that when Decade was fighting with the original Riders, he was probably told again by Seto Koji that in order to revive everybody and restore all the universes, he needs to destroy all those alternate Riders (creation cannot come without destruction), with the consequences of Decade himself cease to exist once everything turned back to normal. And Tsukasa decided to take that risk, and then pretended to be the “bad” guy as the destroyer so Natsumi would hate him and finish him off.

Sounds kinda deep huh, for a franchise targeted towards kids. Alas, this is the weakness of the movie itself as there are too many holes in the plot. How did Tsukasa befriended the Yuriko/Tackle? How did Yuusuke (alternate Kuuga) regained his consciousness after being bitten by Kivala at the end of the series? Oh, and no cameos from the original Riders other than Seto Koji. Yeah, poor fanservice imo, and certainly doesn’t help the Swiss cheese plots and story.

Mid-way through the movie, they switched to W. On W, it gave us a background on the events before the first episode of Kamen Rider W, and a super cool fedora-wearing-Rider called Skull, which is actually Shotaro’s mentor himself. W’s segment in this movie is well done. It offers quite a bit of backstory to W (eg. the origin of Shotaro’s one liner “Count your sins”). I’m liking W more and more, as it doesn’t seem to leave as many holes in their plot/story as previous Kamen Rider series.

The last part of the movie, where W went to the middle of Decade’s battle and teamed up, is obviously just a last attempt for fanservice. Decade separated W into 2 individual form (Cyclone-Cyclone and Joker-Joker), and did a triple Rider kick. Not that satisfying really.

In short, just a so so attempt to finish Decade, but a great backstory for W.

 

Video Comparisons Part 1

If you read my blog in the past, I have a standard def camcorder, the Samsung SC-MX20. I said I like it. Well, no more. It sux! I tried using it during an event where things can get fairly dark, and it failed big time. It just sux, no way around it. Not only that, the recorded video has incorrect aspect ratio and interlaced, adding processing time. Super annoying! Thus, my search for another camcorder, preferably an HD one.

Lurking around, I came by a Sanyo VPC-FH1A. Now, Sanyo is not the first brand I would think of for camcorders. It would be Canon, Sony, or Panasonic. However, camcorders from the later manufactures are expensive. In the meantime, the VPC-FH1A is 1080p capable with a fairly good-sized sensor (even larger than more expensive Sony/Canon models), and I found it for only $330. A lot, if not most, consumer HD camcorder only records 1080i. Yeah, interlaced video, which means your video when viewed on your computer will have lines and jaggies, and it takes a considerable amount of time to de-interlace it. And no, I found out most models, even expensive ones, can only record in 1080i. No option to do 720p. On the other hand, pocket camcorders from Flip/Kodak can record in 720p, but obviously those have small sensors and no optical zoom. The Sanyo VPC-FH1A is a rare breed. It is a standard handheld camcorder form factor, and can record in various resolutions, including 1080p and 720p. It even supports iFrame, an off-standard resolution set by Apple, 960×540 progressive. Personally, I don’t really care for 1080p, all I want is progressive recording, so the iFrame and 720p format suit me perfectly.

Now, you may say what’s the point of iFrame if you have 720p. It’s only a bit higher than standard DVD 480p resolution. Well, try editing a 720p video. I have an iMac with Core 2 Duo processor, and iMovie 09 still choked on scrubbing the 720p movies. In comparison, iFrame videos scrubs very smoothly. Another point is bitrate. The FH1A records 720p video with 9Mbps bitrate, while iFrame has a whooping 24Mbps bitrate! That means less potential of artifacts due to over compression/not enough bitrate. To me, iFrame is an advantage and a great feature.

HD camcorder aside, I also realize I have a lot of gadgets that can actually record video. From a 5G iPod nano, iPhone 3GS, various digicams, and to the Sanyo FH1A. This made me want to do a comparison of videos recorded with those devices, and I did. 🙂
The devices and the video resolutions they record in are:
-iPod nano 5G (640×480, progressive)
-iPhone 3GS (640×480, progressive)
-Panasonic DMC-TZ4 digicam (848×480, progressive)
-Casio EX-FC100 digicam (720p)
-Canon S90 digicam (640×480, progressive)
-Samsung SC-MX20 camcorder (480i)
-Sanyo VPC-FH1A camcorder (1: iFrame 960×540, 2: 720p)
*Note: to enjoy the videos fully, watch them on Youtube in 720p.

Part 1:

Part 1 is focusing on the details on the building during daylight.
-iPod nano 5G: It does okay for a tiny camera in an iPod nano. However, obviously it’s too tiny to capture much light. The video is pretty dark with oversaturated colors.
-iPhone 3GS: The 3GS actually did very well. It seems to adjust the contrast better on dark areas unlike the 5G nano. The resulting video is a lot brighter and captures more details. It is very nice for a phone. In fact, I like the 3GS video better than the one from the Samsung MX20.
-Panasonic TZ4: The main advantage of the TZ4 is that it records the video in widescreen resolution. This gives you the nice impression of more details. The video itself is very sharp, but actually has quite a lot of artifacts, probably due to the limited bandwidth the camera is recording. The artifacts are more pronounced during movements.
-Casio FC100: Oh, welcome to the HD world, or at least 720p. The increased resolution is prominent, allowing you to observe more fine details of the buildings. Good sharp video, but artifacts are aplenty, probably due to over compression and/or lack of bandwidth.
-Canon S90: Ouch, return to the standard def world. The S90 is a great picture taking camera, but video recording is only at VGA resolution. However, you can notice that its sensor can capture more light. The dark areas pretty much lighted up on the S90. Also notice the much wider angle lens compared to any of the other devices. You could see the top of the building with the S90!
-Samsung MX20: Now do you notice how sucky this camcorder is? Not only I have to de-interlace and correct the aspect ratio before hand, but you see that the colors are just bad and inaccurate. Video is fairly dark and doesn’t have much fine details. Oh well, it is cheap, but obviously you can get better video with a digicam.
-Sanyo FH1A iFrame: Very nice and smooth looking video, although it feels a bit soft.
-Sanyo FH1A 720p: Wow! After looking at the 720p video, I feel I cannot go back to anything lower. The details captured is just amazing. I mean I can see lines on the building’s walls that I don’t see on the previous videos. Just amazing!

Well, this is the first part. I’ll continue my commentary more later with the rest of the videos. You can watch all the videos on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/pata2009
Oh, yeah, as much as I hate Google/Youtube, it gives me the best feature for 720p video streaming.

 

Google Voice: My Impression

I’ve been using Google Voice for quite some time now, and it’s time to do my own impression on how I use it.

First of all, Google Voice is NOT a VOIP service like Skype. This seems to be the most common misunderstanding about Google Voice. Unlike Skype, which provides a complete calling service, Google Voice is simply a forwarding service that forwards calls from your Google Voice number to any phone you wish (could be a landline, a cellphone, or even a Skype number). You still have to have a line to get the calls. When you first sign up for Google Voice, Google offers 2 kinds of services. The first one, you will use your existing phone number and simply use GV as an in-between service for voice mails. The second one is the full featured service where you pick a GV number. All the stuff I’m discussing will be about the later.

Now, you’re probably wondering what’s the big deal then. Well, first and foremost, let’s start with one of its feature, SMS, for free! Yes, after logging in to Google Voice website, you can send text messages for free to any cellphones, even international numbers! This is a big plus as US wireless carriers are ripping us off with their outrageous SMS charges (especially international), and the fact that they charge you for receiving SMS (in other countries, receiving SMS is free). Google Voice provides sending and receiving SMS for free. Now, obviously it’s not convenient having to check the website every single time to see if you receive a new SMS. That kinda defeats the point of the expectation of SMS being instant. There are a couple of ways to approach this problem:
1. GV can forward the SMS to your cellphone, so it’s like you’re receiving a regular SMS. The downside is that you will still be charged by your wireless carrier for it. Best to utilize this by signing up for a messaging plan or somekind if you plan to do a lot of texting. The upside is that you can use your own phone’s SMS client instead of having to go to GV site. Now, how do you reply? When you get an SMS from somebody that sent a text to your GV number, your phone will show that it received a text from some random number that is assigned by Google. Simply save that number as that person’s contact, and when you reply to that person using the Google assigned number from your cellphone, the text that that person received will indicate that it’s coming from your GV number, so you can do 2-way texting without having to log-in to GV site. Even better, the number that Google assigned is a US number. This is useful if you have an international contact as now when you send a text to that person, you’ll be sending a local text instead of being charged for an international text rate. Nifty huh? 🙂
2. Forward the SMS to your email. If you have a phone with a data plan and support for push email, you can go around avoiding an SMS charge from your carrier as you receive it as an email. Downside is obviously you have to have a data plan (unless your phone can have wifi access 24/7) and push email, and the fact that you have to go to the GV site to reply back.
Now, I’m basing my experience off my iPhone. Google Android phones supposedly have a native GV client, so the experience is even seamless and you can skip paying money for texting as long as you have a data plan.

Next, let’s talk about the phone forwarding feature. Google Voice is based on Grand Central. Let’s go over some scenarios to illustrate this feature better.
1. Let’s say you have a landline at home, a work phone, and a cellphone. In the past, you would have to give everybody all 3 numbers, and if you change a number, you have to tell everybody the new number. Plus, people have to guess which number they have to dial to reach you. No longer. Just give people your GV number, and you can set GV to ring all your 3 phones when somebody calls. Pretty convenient huh. 🙂 Even better, you can schedule GV to forward the calls to certain numbers at certain times. Whenever you change a phone number, just update it on GV and you don’t have to worry telling people your new number as all they need to know is your GV number.
2. Let’s say you have relatives that is out-of-state, and only have a landline. If that person wants to call you, he/she has to dial long distance and pay $$$ to the greedy long distance provider. No longer. When you sign up for GV, you can pick a number from any state. Pick a GV number that is local to that person. Now everytime that person calls, his/her call will be local, but still being forwarded to you, skipping the greedy long distance providers. Neat! Of course, cellphones eliminate this issue altogether. Furthermore, GV is available for US numbers only, so no way to use the same tactic for international calls. Now, what if you already pick a GV number and want to change it? Google does allow you to pick a new number, but for a fee, so caveat emptor.

So, how about Skype? Skype is a VOIP service that provides free calls from Skype to Skype, and cheap rates for international calls. Despite a different service, a lot of people would associate GV with Skype, so I’m going to point out the advantages of Google Voice. Note that I used to use Skype constantly, mainly to make international calls. The problem with Skype is that you have to use a Skype client, and you have to have internet connectivity. Sure, there are Skype phones that put Skype functionality into a landline phone, but these phones are piss poor (the one I have was a Phillip). Skype is also available on cellphones, but again, usually you’re stuck having to use the client to make/receive calls, and need internet access/data plan. Since Google Voice simply forward calls, it simply uses your existing voice plan/minutes since you’re still making the calls over your phone provider line. Also, you don’t need to have a client software/app running. The only downside, at least on the iPhone, is that I have to use GV site to make calls. This experience should be more seamless on Google Android phones.

As far as international calls, this blurs the line between GV and Skype. Since GV is not a VOIP service, how does international call works? You still use your local minutes, but on top of that, you will be paying Google for the forwarding service to an international number. The rate is as cheap as Skype, so no worries. Oh, and SMS is free with GV, while you have to pay for SMS with Skype.

Another Google Voice feature is free voice mail, and it’s not just a basic voice mail, it’s a souped up voice mail, complete with transcription, for free! This is useful if you have a landline without an answering machine, or a cellphone without a visual voice mail. Google will record and machine-transcribe your voice mails (not perfect and sometime funny, but hey, it’s free), and it will email them to you. Accessing voice mails on the GV website is like accessing emails, no need to wait and play them one by one.

One more feature of GV is call screening. If this feature is enabled, the person calling your GV number has to identify his/herself first, and when your phone rings, you have to option to accept/decline the call. This is a nice feature, but I decided not to use it as it can confuse a lot of people for them being asked by a machine to identify themselves first. But then how about telemarketers? No worries. Google Voice keeps a log of all calls you made/received. You can simply block those numbers on the site. 🙂

There is something to be aware of with GV, something that I found out recently. Once you have a GV account, you will receive 3 invites that you can send for your friends/other people. Well, a Google account is free, so you can just send yourself an invite to a 2nd Google account, and voila, you get another chance to pick a phone number (time to think some fancy phone numbers). So technically, you can endlessly re-inviting yourself and have unlimited GV accounts. Well, seems like Google is cracking down on this, and makes it mandatory for a GV account to be tied to a physical phone line, and you cannot share that line with another GV account. Let me share what happened to me. So I did basically what I described, I invited myself on a second Google account to get another GV account, just to get a phone number with some fun combination of numbers. GV asked me for a physical phone line, so I used my one-and-only physical phone number that was associated with my original GV account. GV simply wanted me to verify the number by calling it and putting a 2 digit combination, and my physical phone number is yanked from my 1st GV account to activate my 2nd account. Well, I thought everything was fine since I can just re-claim that number for my 1st GV account, yanking that number back again. Well, that didn’t work. When I tried to add my number to my 1st GV account, Google said I cannot use that number since it’s been associated with another GV account, and there’s no option to re-claim it. Oh crap. I tried deactivating/deleting that number from my 2nd account, but GV didn’t allow it as it requires a physical phone line to be tied with a GV number. I couldn’t use another GV number, nor a Gizmo number. I started to panic. I don’t want my physical phone number to be stuck with the 2nd account. Oh crap. Finally, I ended up spending $18 for a temporary Skype-in number as a physical phone number, and used that to allow me to re-claim my real number back to the 1st GV account. Phew. So, yeah, be very careful.

So, in short, I love Google Voice. It’s an awesome service, considering that it’s free. The only thing it lacks is a native iPhone app, but considering the current relationship between Apple & Google, I’m afraid it might be a really long wait. 😦

 

Iron Man 2

Just got out from watching Iron Man 2, IMAX lite. In short, pretty good movie, and stay for after-the-credits scene.

*Warning* May contain spoiler.

One thing Iron Man 2 is better than the first one, the action scenes. It’s upped a notch or two for obvious reason, Tony Stark is already Iron Man, while in the first movie, it’s the origin story. The progression of the movie felt a bit rushed though since the studios are trying to push in SHIELD and The Avengers into the movie. Robert Downey Jr’s performance is great, as usual. He just nailed Tony Stark’s character. Now in Iron Man 2, Rhodey is a different dude, Don Cheadle instead of Terrence Howard. For whatever reason, I always felt the character Rhodes in both Iron Man movies to be a bit off, despite him being War Machine in Iron Man 2. There’s no back story, not much characterization, not much story, other than being Tony’s friend, and voila, next thing you know he’s War Machine. I just don’t feel the connection between Rhodes and Stark, and the change in the actor didn’t help.

Samuel L. Jackson has more screen time now as Nick Fury, since SHIELD is obviously taking a significant part of the story. Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts is, well, is fine. They did cut one scene that was in the trailer, where Potts kissed Iron Man’s helm and throwing it overboard with Tony jumping and flying to get it while saying “You complete me.” Yup, that scene was completely gone, which is kinda disappointing as that scene seems to give a better mood to the relationship of Tony and Pepper. Oh well, obviously a DVD extra.

Now, many reviewers online are not too happy with Iron Man 2 having “multiple villains.” Well, to me there’s only one villain, Whiplash (Mickey Rourke). Sure, there’s the obviously corrupt senator (which didn’t seem to get any repercussion in the movie, obviously portraying real life situation), and the “evil” competing company CEO (Hammer), but I don’t count them as villains. In a super hero movie, the villain should be a super hero too, thus Whiplash. I actually like Whiplash’s part in Iron Man 2. He went through pretty much the same turn of events as Tony Stark, starting with a self-made reactor with limited resources, tricking his captor’s resources for his own purpose, and upgrade his weapon to make a comeback. Very focused single villain, unlike Spider Man 3. The climax fight, however, is both refreshing and disappointing. I made my case that I wasn’t too happy with the climax fight in Iron Man 1, where the girl saved the powerless hero. In Iron Man 2, Tony is still fully functional as Iron Man, and saved Pepper, but the fight with Whiplash is very short and not too exciting. Oh well, at least this time Tony used an upgraded reactor for the final fight (I guess it explains why Iron Man’s reactor chest is a triangle instead of a circle. Seeing that in comics and cartoons, I always thought it was just cosmetic), unlike the first movie where he relied on the 1st gen reactor.

Now, let’s talk about the gadgets. Other than Tony’s home computer, in Iron Man 1, Tony used a stupid Verizon LG phone, which magically worked in the middle east (come on, at least use a GSM phone). Iron Man 2 did a better job by giving Tony a small transparent tablet thingy with touch interface. Pretty awesome. Speaking of touch, that’s the main meme in Iron Man 2. They showed Tony doing a search on Black Widow on his table with multi-touch to boot. Then there’s the whole room virtual reality that Tony used to discover a new element. Steve Jobs is right, touch is the next step.

All of those are nice and futuristic, but then there’s a step back. Tony Stark uses Dell XPS. Yeah, Dell. A billionaire uses Dell, while a hacker working at a convenience store (Falcon) has an iMac and a Mac Pro. LOL. Yeah, I’m comparing the techs of Iron Man 2 with Bloody Monday 2. Sure it’s nice seeing the futuristic stuff, but we know those things don’t exist for consumers. It’s more appetizing to see today’s real products. Oh, and don’t even compare the US government vs the Japanese government. In Bloody Monday 2, the Japanese government are all Apple. 🙂 Then there’s a scene of Tony “hacked” the court’s computer using his transparent tablet, but the “hacking” process is just some lame ASCII of his name. They should do it like Bloody Monday 2, where Falcon uses his USB key to boot any PC into Linux, doing command lines. Now that’s more geeky.

As for spoilers, Captain America and Thor. Nuff said. My wish list for the next Iron Man movie? Extremis, which allows Tony to call up the Iron Man suit on command (it will be ultra cool if he yelled “Henshin!” LOL).

Overall, Iron Man 2 is a good action super hero movie. It doesn’t disappoint nor exceed expectations. It’s what it is, a fun movie to begin the summer season.

 

iPod K-Touch

LOL. Yeah, I jailbroke my iPod Touch just to have the awesome K-Touch app.

Now, speaking of jailbreaking, I was on the camp that is super paranoid about jailbreaking, simply because it seems to be too much of a hassle. Well, I found out a super easy way to do it. Just remember to sync/backup your iPod Touch first with iTunes before doing this, just in case. Note that my iPod Touch is the older 2nd gen Touch with firmware 3.1.3, not the latest “2nd gen” 8GB Touch that is beind sold with the 3rd gen iPod Touch. Also, I’m on OS X. There’s an application called spirit. I simply downloaded it, unzip the app, ran it, and the app is simply there waiting for me to connect my iPod Touch. Once I connected my iPod Touch to my Mac, the Jailbreak button was immediately enabled. How to jailbreak? Just press the button. LOL. Couldn’t be easier. No need to do restore and/or other hacking/command line stuff. After that, the iPod Touch will reboot, and you just wait. After it finished rebooting, Cydia appears, and download away. 🙂