Research Assignment

Movie Trailers in High Definition

2007-11-26T20:00:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia defines high definition (HD) video as a video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, most commonly at display resolutions of 1280x720 (720p) or 1920x1080 (1080i or 1080p). The difference in video quality between standard and high definition is like the difference between night and day. The images in the standard format seem much more pixelated when comparing to high definition video.

The trailers on www.apple.com/trailers demonstrate the difference between SD and HD video. Given that your computer monitor outputs at 720p or 1080p, the trailers are amazing in quality. I watched the trailers for Cloverfield and Beowulf and would definitely see them now since watching the trailers in HD. Showing movie trailers in high definition makes the movie look very appealing compared to watching it on standard definition. In my mind having movie trailers in HD promotes the movie to a level never seen before.

Multimedia review: Youtube and Google Video

2007-11-26T18:44:00.000-08:00

Communication through video over the Internet has exploded in popularity over the last few years. This can be mainly attributed to the creators of YouTube, a website where anyone can post videos of their liking and allow the world to see them. Despite being the door openers of video communication, YouTube has now become a household name. Google rebutted with Google Video which is a knockoff of YouTube, but offers more or less the same features as YouTube. Google, the smart company they are, realized that they would not be able to compete at the level YouTube was as at so they bought them out. Now, Google Video has a search engine that can provide links to YouTube videos and many more providers as well.

Like I said before, YouTube has made itself so successful mainly due to their recognized name in society; they have become a household name. By beating out the competition, YouTube forced Google to buy them out which granted the owners with well over a billion dollars.

In terms of use, I found that they are very similar to operate and that the main difference was in the way each website looks. YouTube looks much more appealing with better design and organization. Google Video seems too blank in design and needs to be more appealing to the eye if it wants to attract more users. On the upside, since Google purchased YouTube, Google contains a larger library of videos from YouTube and other providers. With the trends YouTube has created, there is no doubt in my mind that they will own the video sharing industry for many years to come.

An example of a YouTube video is this one showing Mats Sundin's 6 point night agianst the Florida Panthers.

Podcasting and Audiobooks analysis

2007-11-26T16:31:00.000-08:00

Podcasting as many of you may or may not know is defined as a Web-based audio broadcast via an RSS feed, accessed by subscription over the Internet. During my research of podcasts, I came across some of interest to me. I simply searched the iTunes store for podcasts and did some additional surfing on NHL.com and TSN.ca and came up with some exciting results. You can listen to the podcasts I listened to by going to http://www.nhl.com/podcasts/index.html or http://www.tsn.ca/podcasts/. In terms of enjoyment, I found podcasting to be a great way to keep up to date with all your favourite radio events. One can receive new podcasts if they choose to by subscribing to their podcasts of interest. The fact that podcasts are transferable to ones iPod is a feature that would spark me to use this technology again and again.

When comparing podcasting to other methods of providing information, such as newspapers, magazine, etc, podcasting has an edge on its competitors. With the rise of multimedia devices like the iPod, users are able to subscribe to podcasts they enjoy and listen to them on the go.

When I researched "audiobooks" I found two sites that offer this service. They are www.audible.com and the iTunes store. Personally, I feel the line has been crossed with books now being read to us. I feel that society has gotten caught up with making things easier, but we must not forget the importance of reading. The only benefit I can see with audiobooks in the future is for the blind. The blind would now be able to enjoy the books they could only dream of reading before. An audiobook on iTunes goes for roughly $20 and on audible.com users pay $7.49 for the first 3 months and $14.95 per month afterwards and receive 1 credit towards 1 book. In terms of library and selection, iTunes carries the better of the two, but in terms of price audible.com is the better option.

Google Reader: A strive towards simplicity

2007-10-24T16:11:00.001-07:00

When logging onto Google reader for the first time, listening to the introductory video and taking the tour, I was very intrigued about this new innovative technology. For anyone who is not familiar with Google reader, think of it as working in the same fashion as your email account. When you receive an email, it gets stored in whats called an "Inbox" and can be read at any time. With respect to Google reader, when the user adds there favourite websites to their profile and when these web pages are updated, such as a new article, the user is prompted by a small summary of this update. There are three ways to add a site on your Google reader account. You can either add it by typing in the URL of the desired website into the appropriate space, by subscribing to a pre-packaged feed bundle, or by searching for a feed using keywords.

After using Google reader as the default method of viewing the web for a couple of days, I began to take a liking for this technology. The Internet for some can be a very confusing environment and Google reader proves to be an excellent way to organize the information that people view on a given day and make it a much more simplified experience for everyone involved.

The blogging world

2007-10-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Blogging has taken over the conventional way of communicating thoughts and ideas. Blogging is a way for people to express there private thoughts, to pose a question and response forum, and to communicate with other bloggers from anywhere in the world. So if you are in need of advice on how to deal with that resent breakup with your girlfriend/boyfriend, in need of technical inquiries for that electronic appliance of yours, or just simply curious of any topic that comes to mind, its highly likely to be found in the form of a blog.

Setting up an account on Blogger.com is as easy as the home page says it is. It really only takes a few minutes. On the other hand I recommend that you register your Blogger.com account with a gmail account. For some unknown reason hotmail accounts are not cooperating with Blogger. I registered my account with my hotmail email and encountered issues regarding logging in. On the plus side, I'm a big fan of the automatic saving that saves your blog drafts every minute! It actually came into good use when my power did go out while writing this entry. I was thrilled when I found out that my document was still there!

I poked around the blogging world and researched topics that interested me such as hockey, guitars, and computers and found numerous blogs on these topics. Many varied in detail and content, but the majority of the blogs I went to were very well done.

As part of my research, I took a look around Twitter.com and became familiar with what it is all about. Basically Twitter is a place for users to write blogs via a mobile text message. The website claims this service would suit people with a very busy life style who don't not have access to a PC. Personally, for someone to sit there and text the message via their mobile device, they must have a lot of time on there hands! Facebook has just released Facebook mobile which to me seems much more promising than twitter due to the popularity of Facebook. With this said, I believe Blogger.com has the edge on Twitter.com.

Thanks for reading and hope to hear some comments on what you think.