The Razzies

The first Golden Raspberry award ceremony was held in 1981 to award films released1980, its creator was a copywriter and publicist named John J. B. Wilson.

John J B Wilson founder

He held the event at his home in Los Angeles, It began after the completion of the 53^rd Academy Awards, he invited a few dozen friends and colleagues and created ballots for ‘worst of ‘ categories, and create random award presentations; dressed in a tacky tuxedo, with a cardboard podium, and using a broomstick with a foam ball as a fake microphone.  That night was a success; and being a publicist, he sent out a press release about his event the next day, which got picked up by a few local newspapers. 

The second year the number of people who attended doubled, and exponentially the number at the 3^rd annual Raspberry awards doubled from the last attendance number. Which prompted CNN and two major wire services to cover the event, it was around that time when Wilson realized that holding the event before the Oscars when all the world media was in town and having nothing really to do before hand, that the Golden raspberry awards would have the most press coverage.  As a result, we are celebrating the 34^th Annual Golden Raspberry awards this year.

The Golden Raspberry awards or Razzies are now traditionally held the night before the Oscars, only a very select few stars have ever had the courage, or sense of humor to accept their awards.  The two biggest names to date have been Halle Berry for Catwoman, and Sandra Bullock for All About Steve.  Coincidently, the next night Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for ‘The Blind Side”, a first in anyone’s book.

There are only 10 Categories, to see this year’s nominees click here

Nike Wristband

The Nike Wristband product was introduced a year ago, so this new Fuelband SE is a minor upgrade; this year Nike has added Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity for more continuous, energy-efficiency.  In other words, it enables devices to connect and disconnect and sync automatically in the background, with less strain on the battery. So over the course of a week of solid use and many wireless syncs, You only need to recharge once. Charging via USB only takes a little over an hour.

So here is what it does and what it is - It's a wristband that doubles as a cool watch, counts steps, measures your motion, and your Fuel score and sends that data to an iPhone app, or to your computer. It can be worn in the shower, and has some fun social features that link you with friends who use NikeFuel apps. As a deeper coaching tool or life assistant.  Its like a video game you can compete with fellow teammate or work out with partner(s), at your own time and schedule. Likewise with those you interact with.

A single button operates everything on the FuelBand SE: clicking cycles through Time, Hours Won, Fuel "earned" for the day. You can add Calories (measuring estimated daily calorie burn), Steps (a pedometer), and offers hourly Move motivational reminders by changing settings via the FuelBand iOS app or Nike+ Connect Windows/Mac software and syncing.

I know I keep saying fuel, fuel, and fuel. Ok damn you marketing guy, the four-letter F word refers to a universal points system called NikeFuel that serves as a measurement of activity.

The bad news for people like me; it does not work on androids phones, only iPhone 4S and up, and it cost about $160 after taxes. So if your a sloth like me and need an incentive, it maybe worth checking out.

Biometrics the next level in Security?

According to an article written in December by the wall street journal, about 28% of the worlds’ airports now use biometric technology to search passengers, that’s up 18% in 2008.

As the world moves more to automated airport security, the looming concern is - will airport security personnel become too reliant?  Last year, in London, Gatwick airport experimented with 3000 passengers using a biometric scanner.  To scan the iris of passengers instead of using a boarding pass when they first checked in.  Now entered into the system, cameras can identify the travelers at security checkpoints and gates automatically.   Advocates believe this technology will make boarding passes obsolete.   The concern with the human factor is that screeners will become too dependent, and thus would dull their senses.  An argument was made that scanning the iris will identify you, but checking someone’s identification and noticing a passenger is sweating profusely is something biometrics does not implore. As a curious note - European Airports have embrace the technology much faster than in the United States.

But is biometrics credible?  To answer that  - the leading company behind its development and creation is “Integrated Biometrics”.  Founded in 2002, and headquarters in South Korea & South Carolina, they are the developer and manufacturer of FBI certified fingerprint biometric sensors.  That utilizes a patent called ‘LES’ (Light Emitting Sensor).   The company slogan is LES is more.  With world class Algorithms – meaning the encryption of the technology is virtually impossible to break or hack into.  Its light weight, durable, powerful, with long battery life, and delivers at fast speeds. 

 

In Florida, Both Universal Studios & Walt Disney World uses biometric measurements from fingers of guest to ensure that a ticket is used by the same person from day to day.  In Toronto, the public transit system uses biometrics in their security surveillance. It’s also a method to secure their drivers; select personnel can only access cameras on buses or in stations. Those select few with biometric clearance can retrieve the data on cameras, preventing any outside tampering.

For consumer friendly technology, one needs to look no further than the smartphone. Apple has introduced in its the next generation  a fingerprint scanner.  The iPhone 5S & 5C contains ‘Touch ID” which reads the user’s fingerprints in order to unlock the phone.   The sensor is located on the home button of the iPhone.

IView Systems focuses mainly on facial recognition technology, that technology has been sold to casinos to help keep track of undesirable customer; now that technology has shown it is not 100 % reliable in poor lighting conditions or if there is too much movement.  So security industry are leaning more to fingerprint, DNA, and Iris Scanning methods which have more definitive results. 

On the flip side to that last statement you here gruesome stories of removed fingers, or copying your fingerprint from a glass, so there is always that ambivalent argument to be made, on what is considered foolproof.

PlayStation Now

Debuting at this year’s Consumers Electronic Show was Sony’s PlayStation now.

So what’s special about this unveil?  Well in the simplest terms it’s a service that allows you to stream PlayStation games to your PlayStation devices (plural).   Using Gaikai’s advanced cloud technology you can play games instantly on multiple devices like the PS4, PS3, PlayStation Vita, and soon tablets, smartphones and other Internet devices.  Similar in the way you would stream TV, movies and music. 

Sony promises to play the most updated version of your game in the cloud, and you can log in from anywhere.  

The service is set to be released in full, this coming summer; with gamers having even more reason to rejoice, now that the cloud technology has made PlayStation backwards compatible, so you can play PS3 Games, and PS2 games on the new console.  Now according to Sony’s Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House the slogan is “ introduce the world of PlayStation to a world of non-console owners”.  So playing the PlayStation 3 games on a Tablet and a Vita system was emphasized and was demonstrated at their CES booth.

Ok that was the sales pitch from CES, and its won everyone over, so here are negative points coming out of CES to balance things out.  The cost for the service has not been mentioned, as of yet.  The Launch will only be in North America, PAL territories like Europe have more complicated broadband provisions and connection speeds, it will take a year as best case scenario before a smooth rollout can take place.

 And finally in the real world you can’t lock in consistent Internet speeds, there might be concern there, and how will it affect buying local disc based or digital version. We will find out as we near summer.

New in Television Technology

Coming out of last year Consumers Electronic Show in Las Vegas was the arrival of 4K television sets.  This year it’s about the curved screen; but not just on TV screens, but also on smartphones and projectors.  Sony trail blazed the market for being one of the first companies to aggressively push the 4K’s out there to the consumer within weeks of the 2013 CES.  This year is no different.  Every manufacturer has there own 4K products at the show; Sony is pushing the new 4K Camcorder to the consumer.  Making the quality of High Definition reach a whole new level and putting creative control in the consumer’s hands with software benefits.  It will launch sometime in the spring, the elephant in the room is the cost.  It’s expected to be at $5000 starting costs.

 It was also announced coming out of the electronics show that the Sony 4K Cameras will film the World Cup final in Brazil.  Broadcasters such as Sky Sports are trying to adopt to the new format, but the full turnover is really anybody’s guess.  In addition Sony has struck deals with YouTube, ESPN and photography website 500px, while expanding to offer 140 feature films in 4K through its own video Unlimited download service. The big concern is what about everything else that Sony does not have control in, regarding the traditional HD or SD content that we all have in our homes.  Well, Sony has addressed that too.  Beginning last year the new Bravia TV sets have up-scaling software built in, which makes existing formats look dramatically better too.

The novelty of the curved screen is increased immersion and a pseudo-3D effect.  With a Samsung TV set, just a push of a button and your screen goes from flat to bendy.  Watching a movie like ‘I Am Legend’ you develop a greater sense of depth of field when you view through the cityscapes, in addition,while viewing with the curve screen.  Reflections have been considerably reduced to practically non-existent (anti-reflective surface).

 On the negative side, you’ll witness a strange effect regarding the roundness of the curve if you sit higher or lower relative to the screen.  Also there is an issue if you view off angle, there is optical distortion, the further you are from the so called sweet spot, and finally the curved will cost more than a flat 4K screen.

 However if an increase of curved screens hit the market it will eventually drive the cost of flat screens down so, a little patience may be in order before you run out.

The TV set to look for is Vizio’s $999 4K TV; there will be non-brand 4K sets hitting the market soon, Vizio is offering cutthroat prices to take the sail out of Sony & Samsung this spring.