MetroPulse Stories: Digital Media

Buying a New Television Set Is a Miserable, Dehumanizing Experience

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:08:00 -0000

Here’s what I wanted to do: Get a nice, straightfoward, not-too-expensive HD television set to enjoy Blu-ray movies and video games. Absolutely no problem, right? We live in a digital age of high technology at affordable prices. Picture quality and features have never been better, and there are so many different brands to choose from, how can you go wrong? Well, lots of ways.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi: The Audio Technology That Wowed Your Grandparents Makes a Comeback

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:28:00 -0000

I’ve just discovered the wave of the future: hi-fi stereo. It involves playing pre-recorded music via gigantic metal boxes that send audio signals through cables (actual copper wire!) to two even larger boxes called “speakers,” which emit the sound to your ears without even touching them—no earbuds are involved in the process. Furthermore, these devices are not portable—they don’t slip into your pocket, and they are as heavy as a large child. You have to devote at least a quarter of your living space to properly set them up. And most of them won’t even connect to the Internet.

Microsoft’s Xbox Finally Starts to Realize Its Potential—and It’s Got Little to Do With Games

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:47:00 -0000

Microsoft threw down the gauntlet earlier this month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, naming this as the year that all your devices—from your computer to your tablet to your phone, with the Xbox 360 at the helm—will finally all speak the same language and live together in perfect harmony.

The Stop Online Piracy Act is the Law That America Desperately Needs. Right?

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:43:00 -0000

Say hello to H.R. 3261, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act, a one-two punch of government intrusion and corporate oligarchy that detractors can decry as the harbinger of the end of the World Wide Web from the convenience of their parents’ basements.

Verizon’s iPhone Is a Nail in the Coffin for Our Resident Neo-Luddite

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 18:02:00 -0000

For most of its existence, Verizon was a safe haven from unwanted advances in wireless technology. A rich heartland of pure, reliable network infrastructure largely unspoiled by the rampant hardware growth that plagued other networks, Verizon represented necessity unfettered by frivolousness.

Webb Provides Ideal Testing Ground for iPad's Educational Applications

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:24:00 -0000

Way down deep inside, Jim Manikas is living an IT guy’s dream. As technology director at Webb School, it falls upon him to implement Webb’s ambitious new iPad program, a mandate that all students in grades 4-12 use Apple’s tablet in the classroom.

Mind the Gap on iPhone 4

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:09:00 -0000

By simplifying nearly everything about the smartphone experience while simultaneously opening their product to outside development and locking down that same development into only styles which help unify their vision, Apple positioned themselves via the iPhone as frontrunners in next-gen telecommunications. Say what you like about Apple, but they know how to build a solid, appealing piece of hardware. Or at least they did until the iPhone 4.

A 140-Character Sonnet

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:04:00 -0000

I used to troll dating sites for sport. A combination of boredom, morbid fascination, and frustration at my own inability to effectively communicate online led me to hop from one to another in a halfhearted attempt to find the Rosetta Stone that would allow me to decipher the strange scribbles these members left in their profiles.

Apple Tries to Get in on the News Business with the iPad

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:25:00 -0000

Apple may have nixed the Macworld Expo in favor of its own proprietary PR model, but if the internet’s reaction to the iPad—Apple’s upcoming venture into tablet computing—is any indication, Apple’s love of January unveilings remains intact.

Will Microsoft's Windows 7 Render Your PC Obsolete?

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:08:00 -0000

Operating systems are at their best when they sit down, shut up, and do exactly what the user wants. The truest test of an OS is how quickly the user forgets about it, and Windows 7’s greatest strength may be the ease with which it accomplishes just that.

Oontz Oontz Oontz

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:51:00 -0000

Based upon 1978’s MS-10 analog synth (get the name yet?), XSEED Games’ software adaptation of the classic entry-level KORG hardware marks a significant push forward in console gaming’s largely-ignored side quest to be taken seriously in non-gaming arenas.

Film Society

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:00:00 -0000

As digital cameras and hard drives have gotten progressively cheaper, we’ve become a nation of videographers, not only documenting the daily magic of baby dribble, but also taking our own stabs at the auteur theory with short films, fan extensions of genre films, and full-on features. And Rootclip.com, created by a couple of guys here in Knoxville, takes that digital lifestyle trend to its next step: virtual collaboration on short films, conducted online.

Cyberspace Hero

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:00:00 -0000

Joss Whedon, the talented nerd/writer/TV producer who somehow infiltrated network TV with Buffy the Vampire Slayer a decade ago, has produced his own Web series, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and it’s a humdinger. He’s managed to infuse just the right amount of production values into a humble, goofy project to create something that works best on the Internet.

Short Cuts: Marble City Film Festival

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:00:00 -0000

It’s 7 p.m. at the Bijou Theatre when the doors are flung open by a brace of lissome volunteers, and the avalanche of filmmakers, film-lovers, and the merely film-curious that will form tonight’s audience tumbles into the lobby. Such hubbub is but a dying echo of the chaos that has, for most, been last Saturday’s leitmotif. Perhaps 30 percent of the torsos here are posing the faintly defensive question that serves as both slogan and premise for the Marble City Film Festival: “Could you make a 3-minute movie—in just 10 hours?”

digital_hackery (2008-11)

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:00:00 -0000

digital_hackery (2008-10)

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:00:00 -0000

digital_hackery (2008-09)

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:00:00 -0000

digital_hackery (2008-08)

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 05:00:00 -0000

digital_hackery (2008-07)

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 05:00:00 -0000

digital_hackery (2008-06)

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 05:00:00 -0000