Announcement: Tron Legacy (4-1)

This week it was announced at ComicCon that Disney is releasing a movie called “Tron Legacy”. Some people may not remember the original Tron movie, but it was basically a virtual ride through the pieces and parts of a computer where time is slowed down enough that we can see what’s happening, whereas it would otherwise fly by in an instant due to the speed of electricity.

Tron has created a small cult following among geeks since its release in 1982. Games have been created mimicking the riding style of the light bikes in the movie, which have been ported from Linux to Windows and Mac OS X alike. But the movie itself had a rather fascinating story for the time.

In this story, programs are sentient beings and have only heard rumors of “Users”. Each program that exists within the system have facial features that are similar to the programmer that created them. Users are very much treated like gods in this movie, and the battle between the believers and the non-believers makes many parallels to the many religious battles that occur in reality.

I for one am incredibly excited about this movie coming out in 2010, and I’m sure that many other people will be as well. There will be many more, however, who will view this movie and wonder what the appeal might be. Well, if you haven’t seen the original, and you haven’t spent the last 17 years playing Tron-esque games in your very bored free time, then you’re probably among those who will be underwhelmed. For the rest of us, it’s a bit like a surprise party. People of like mind can once again get together and watch a movie that the rest of the world doesn’t seem to care about, and there will be much rejoicing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron_(film)

Apple Blocks Palm Pre Syncing (Assignment 2-1)

Apple has a controversial philosophy about their public image, and recently, the controversy has become a little stronger. The philosophy that they have is that it’s better to be viewed as the strict grandma as long as they can provide the best cookies for their grandkids. This means that as long as everyone plays by the rules and none of the pesky neighbor kids come over and start touching all of the nice things, grandma is happy; and when grandma is happy, the grandkids are happy too.

In the past, Palm’s Pre (a competitor to Apple’s iPod / iPhone line) has been able to sync via iTunes. This was done with some creative engineering by Palm and without Apple’s blessing. Why is it so important to get Apple’s blessing? Well, in this case it was because Palm had actually designed the Pre to trick iTunes into thinking it was really an Apple product.

The overwhelming majority of responses to this move seem to indicate that people are very upset by this claiming that Apple is more concerned about hardware lock in than customer satisfaction. Some people have even gone so far as to say that they have created a monopoly with the iTunes Music Store. While all of this may have some merit, I tend to see it a different way.

Many of the moves that Apple makes that are viewed by the masses as “lock-in” have a common underlying thread. That goes back to the philosophy I mentioned earlier, but it’s actually bigger than that. Apple is simply not interested in supporting products that it has not control over. What if Apple decides to make a massive change to iTunes that is well tested with all of their iPods and iPhones, but completely destroys the Palm Pre when it’s connected? Will Palm’s customers get angry with Palm or will they see that the smoldering pile of crap that used to be their Pre was rendered so by Apple’s changes? Will Palm try to sue Apple to help offset the cost of having to replace the broken devices? Sure Apple might make some extra money off of the deal, but they lose the absolute freedom that they have by keeping other kids off their lawn.References

Zeman, Eric Apple Kills Palm Pre’s Ability to Sync With iTunes, retrieved July 16, 2009 from http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/07/apple_kills_pal.html

Weekly written analysis (Assignment 1-4)

Gizmodo has a very positive write up on the new iPhone 3GS, and indicates that the new features are interesting, but the "S" for "Speed" is very appropriate. What's interesting about this write up is that it shows how the iPhone has become a very large part of popular culture. So much so, that the author makes the comparison between upgrading from the 3G to the 3GS to upgrading to a faster car; there is no real reason for the upgrade, but it feels good to have the extra boost in performance.

The author never really gets into the religious followings that Apple seems to have with its products, but that is also another indication that they have managed to land themselves in the popular culture spotlight. They have a following of people referred to as "Apple Fanboys" that await every new announcement from Apple with great anticipation. In many ways, Apple Inc, or perhaps more specifically Steve Jobs, can be compared to many rock stars. People have camped outside of their stores waiting to be able to purchase the latest products just like people have camped out waiting for tickets to go on sale for their favorite rock concert.

If the iPhone could play guitar, I wonder how many hits it would have right now.

http://gizmodo.com/5293388/iphone-3gs-review

Popular Culture Blog - Assignment 1-2

Popular culture, to me, is the exact opposite of "cult classics". Instead of a few people following a piece of media religiously, masses of people follow that piece of media, what ever it may be. As an example, there are many musicians that never make it to the status of household name, yet the ones who do make it to that status frequently cite those musicians as major influences.

Mr. Bungle is one of those bands that never made it to the same level of fame as the bands that they influenced. They remained "cult classics", while the bands they influenced rose to a pop culture-level of fame. Korn is one of the bigger bands that has openly cited Mr. Bungle as a heavy influence, and though Korn's popularity has declined over the years, they were still very much on top of the scene in their prime.

This brings up another point about pop culture, that being that there appear to be two different types of pop culture. One type is the "what's popular right now", and the other is "Who do you think of when you think of the great musicians of all time?". Nirvana is one instance of a band that made it to the status of being remembered as a large contributor to music history, while Soundgarden enjoyed a very close level of fame but will not be as recognizable of a name as Nirvana will be through the ages.

So to me, pop culture is quite literally the culture revolving around what's popular for the time and for the ages. When Nirvana was actively on top of the scene, everyone who followed them, and even some who didn't, wore raggedy jeans and flannel shirts. Advertisers quickly saw this and adjusted their ads to make them more relatable to the "popular culture" of the time. Obviously, popular culture affects more than just the entertainment industry. It trickles through and touches a wide variety of areas of culture.

In my opinion, there is a very easy way to identify a pop culture icon....by its icon. There are a few pictures and symbols that when you see them, you can't think of anything but Nirvana. Those artifacts are below: