The other day I went to Apple's website, as I often do since it is still my default home page, and I saw the ad for their new Mobile Me service. At the time I thought, this looks really cool, but I have to sign up for yet another service? Don't get me wrong, the service seemed like everything I could ever want. After a major computer crash recently I realize the value of having all my contacts and other information in an easily accessible place. I also liked the idea of being able to have the same information available to every device. Still, it wasn't something I wanted to think about right now, so I gave it no more thought.

Tonight I got a surprise. Lo and behold, in my .Mac mailbox was a message. If you're a .Mac user you already know what it said, but if you're not, this kind of thing doesn't happen everyday. Basically, starting in July, all .Mac member accounts will be upgraded to Mobile Me! How cool is that?



Needless to say, I am extremely happy. I plan to do some very serious traveling soon and this is exactly the kind of thing I need. I am planning to add a Macbook pro to my Mac and iPhone arsenal so this announcement couldn't have come at a better time.

Tags: iPhone

This is the reason you should always have your camera around! Earlier today I was standing around near Warner Bros. studios and lo and behold, this huge flatbed truck goes driving by and what do I see on the back of it? Yes. The Mach 5 from the live action Speed Racer film directed by the Wachowski brothers. In that very moment it hit me. I didn't have my iPhone on me.

The one time when I could have quickly snapped a piece of one of the very few cool things about living in Hollywood, and my iPhone was resting on it's charger in my room somewhere. I vow that from this day forth, I will not be found without my iPhone in my pocket, preferably set so that the camera pops up first when I turn it on!

Tags: Pop Culture

I am currently working on the Mangadolls: Holiday Wallpaper Pack, which will soon be available in the manga shop, but that isn't the reason I had to post today. I want to talk about the iPhone itself, and how truly useful a tool it can be if it is kept in mind. For example. I went to get my car washed today and it usually amounts to fifteen minute, or so, wait while they work on it. In the waiting area, I saw a woman with her iPhone out tapping away at the screen. I don't know what she was doing, but it was certainly a way to pass the wait time. I sat down and pulled my iPhone out and, for the first time, really experienced the value of the Edge Network.

In the past, when I would go to that carwash, I usually has my PSP with me. The PSP is web enabled, but it is WIFI only, and the carwash has no WIFI network. While it was cool to sit in my favorite Thai bar, which had WIFI, and blog from my PSP, there would be no such luck at the carwash. Today, though, since I had my iPhone I could check mail, search the web and do all the cool things the iPhone can do. I even found a webapp which happens to be an iPhone tailored Japanese/English dictionary with kanji lookup!

So what does this have to do with the end of Christmas? Well, that's another part of the story while I was out and about today. I was pulling into a plaza to go to the store when I saw three police cars lined up in the parking lot. People were staring, but I generally didn't see anything going on. They weren't after me, so I went inside. I took care of my business and proceeded to leave the store. As I walked out I saw it. Santa was being hauled out of one of the other stores by the cops. Ms. Clause was right behind him. I even heard a girl passing by say, "Why are you arresting Santa?" My iPhone was in my pocket and this would have been a perfect time to take a picture if I had remembered that the iPhone has a camera on it!

This isn't the first time I have come across something amazing and forgotten that I have a camera on me at all times now. The funny thing is, this is something I had always wanted. When digital cameras became popular, I always said I will wait until I have a simple camera, small enough to keep on me at all times. Then I will get one. Now I have one and rarely remember it's there! This is my first cell phone and first digital camera, though, so I guess I should allow some time to get used to it. I just hope it's before the next cool thing happens.

Tags: iPhone

I finished up my tour on the Serenity today with watching the feature film spawned from the Firefly series. I meant to watch it last night, but got some ideas for a character and did some drawing instead. After watching the film, I decided to watch the extra features, even though I saw them when the DVD was new, just to be reminded of some things.

One of the great themes in the Firefly TV series is freedom. It's about not being under the heel of anyone. That's what the Serenity represents to her crew, her captain and, I think, to Joss Whedon, the show's creator as well. This is an idea really brought home in the series episode titled Out of Gas, which shows how the characters and crew came to be together. This idea permeates the extra features on the Serenity feature DVD as well. The movie that defied the system and yet lives. I think there is a spark somewhere in that idea that is very attractive to people. I think there is spark which leads to all things that makes Serenity and the Firefly universe something people can fall in love with.

One of the things Joss Whedon talks about in the extra features, concerning the fans and the San Diego Comic-Con, is that his goal is not to create things people like, but things people love. The scenes from Comic-Con show that he greatly succeeded. This is really what I have always wanted to do. This is what I am hoping to do with iPhone Alchemy. I am hoping it is my freedom.

Imagine taking a boat, that you own, out into the black... no one telling you where to be or what to do. All that open space is yours. You are free, free to come and go as you please, to travel where the win takes you. The internet can open such a door for content creators. You have a whole world out there searching for something new, searching for good content. They are searching for something they can fall in love with. On the net, the creation of that thing is anyone's game. It's not just "the alliance" of media conglomerates and studios and distributors who control what is available in other fields.

This is why I am excited about iPhone Manga and the possibilities here. It's my chance to create and, more fully, create things people love. This is something I have dreamed of for a long time, as far back as when I was on the floor drawing comics through my spiral notebooks for school as a child. I just wanted to create something people loved then too. Now, with iPhone Manga, it may just be that I can not only create it, but the means are there for so many to see it as well. That sounds like freedom to me.

Tags: Manga, TV

Last night I was watching Joss Whedon's epic sci fi series Firefly, finishing up the series for the first time. I has seen a few episodes when it aired and was given no real chance to find an audience, so I knew the characters well enough to truly enjoy the feature film Serenity (which I will be viewing again tonight). Still, I had never before watched the entire series straight through. It was great to see more of these characters in action as, for me, it was like watching new material with the characters I liked from the movie. When something is truly as enjoyable as this, though, you have to ask, "Is that it? Is this all we get?"

According to Publisher's Weekly, that's not the case. "The sci-fi western about a group of rogue space travelers started out in 2002 as a TV series called Firefly, but it was canceled after only 11 episodes. Whedon then managed the impressive task of bringing the property back to life as a feature film called Serenity."

"And he’s not done with it yet. In November Dark Horse is releasing a hardcover collection of the Serenity: Those Left Behind miniseries he co-wrote in 2005, and he’s already got another miniseries in the works for early 2008."

As with Buffy, Whedon's characters and universe can remain alive in the world of comics. In this world he has more control and because it doesn't have the cost constraints of a major TV series or feature film, it can keep going. While there's no word on a mobile content version of the firefly comic, so it may not be coming to an iPhone near you just yet, with the growth of the mobile content market, it's only a matter of time, right?

Tags: Manga, TV