Angry Robot

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Warpgate

is out now. It’s an iPhone space game, like Escape Velocity (hopefully). UPDATE: only the iPad version appears to be up presently.

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Commercials coming to video on demand

it was bound to happen.

What the Latest CRTC Decisions Mean

Excellent post here at The Legion of Decency with analysis of and commentary on the latest round of CRTC rulings. The key points:

1. Private Broadcasters have the right to charge fees for formerly free-to-air broadcasts on cable and satellite.

2. Private broadcasters have the right to Blackout signals for which they own Canadian rights.

3. “Programs of National Interest” replaces Priority programming and is redefined to comprise only drama and comedy, feature documentaries and Award shows.

4. 30% of network gross income must be spent on Canadian programming (5% on Programs of National Interest).

5. Total Canadian Content on Canadian networks reduced from 60% to 55%.

7. Reduced restrictions on where a network’s Canadian Production spend is exhibited. With as much as 25% movable anywhere within the conglomerate holdings.

8. CMF investment no longer counted as part of broadcaster programming spend.

The rest gets a bit inside baseball unless you’re in the industry or follow it closely, but there’s plenty good there too. Point number two is the one that may cause waves, as Dennis points out, since it favours the broadcasters but requires action by the cable companies:

Canada’s top two cablers aren’t going to make it that easy. They’re set to announce by end of business that they’re pulling all U.S. network feeds from the cable packages in sixty days. This will predictably cause outrage and hate from customers, which the companies will blame entirely on the networks…

This is happening at a time when it is arguably easier for me to bootleg TV shows than watch them in the sanctioned ways. It is laughable. Ha! Well, except for the enormous wasted opportunities and the dire condition of our national culture industry. That is more like cryable. Cry!

The problem with the Canadian TV industry in a nutshell is that all these guys, broadcast networks and cable & satellite companies alike, make their money showing American TV to Canadians. That’s not exactly a valuable service these days. Years ago, the US channels that were reliant on non-exclusive content like movies or syndicated shows realized they had to have some actual exclusive shows to attract viewers and to gain leverage in the New World of post-internet entertainment, where content is suddenly available through a million different avenues. That’s why we got The Sopranos (HBO), Mad Men (AMC), Breaking Bad, etc. etc. The Canadian industry could have learned this lesson long ago and actually started investing in Canadian shows. It would have hurt them financially for a few years, but eventually paid off as they could sell the shows to the US and elsewhere (did you know The Listener is a big hit in Italy?). But no, they do the bare minimum required by their pal CRTC and then defend their relic of a business model by imposing false scarcity in an age of information abundance.

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First iPad reviews hit the web

seems like a popular device.

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Engadget on the new iPhone rumours

to be announced June 22, “iPhone HD”, 960 x 640, front-facing camera, Apple A4 chip, multitasking. (most of that is from Daring Fireball.) 640 ain’t real HD yo.

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Feds Deem Pedestrians, Cyclists and Motorists Equals

Obama’s Transportation Secretary, a Republican, has turned out to be supportive of bikes and pedestrians.

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Michael Buble Being Stalked By A Velociraptor

does what it says on the box.

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The Ultimate Gamer's Guide to Apple's iPad

Well, a list of games that will be available at launch. Besides the ones shown at the announcement keynote, big ones include: Plants vs Zombies, Real Racing, Flight Control, Enigmo, Labyrinth 2, and a pretty sweet looking Pac Man port.

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The Uma Thurman film so bad it made £88 on opening weekend

in the whole of the UK (although it was only on one screen). That means 11 people saw it. It made $80,000 in its US release. Hilarious article.

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How 'Avatar' changed the rules of deliverables

Cameron insisted that there be hundreds of different prints depending on screen size, brightness etc.

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Health reform in America: Signed, sealed, delivered

summary of the major characteristics of the new bill

Charlie Immer

stopthedraft

Some beautiful art here, all candy-glazed gore. (via MeFi)

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McGuinty deals a blow to Toronto by delaying LRT funds

So much for Transit City. I agree with Miller, it’s disgraceful.

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Nintendo to Make 3-D Version of Its DS Handheld

very few details; to be playable at E3

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The war on The Car: An update

“We are no match for the power, armour, and speed of The Car. In direct confrontations between cyclists or pedestrians and The Car, we rarely inflict more than superficial wounds, while our bodies and vehicles are often crushed or incapacitated.”

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Kobo eReader is Kobo's $149 E Ink play for Borders

This will be selling here in Canada through Indigo in May. It’s a much better price for an e-reader.

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Above the Convenience Store: Frank Silva

Bob from Twin Peaks. So awesome looking. He was the set dresser.

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A Letter from David Mamet to the Writers of The Unit

writing advice from a guy who writes in ALL CAPS. (Kidding, I love Mamet. Red Belt is a goddamned slept-on masterpiece.)

Plex's Library of Alexandria

Development of my media center app of choice, Plex, has seemed stagnant of late, with their blog only updated with new plugins for Danish sports channels and the like. But all was not as it seemed. Deep in the dark, there were rumblings. And lo!

At the end, we decided, just like with our plug-in framework, to throw out the existing code and rewrite it from scratch… The ground up rewrite not only results in an extremely powerful library for personal content, but also sets the stage for providing many benefits beyond just the library itself.

Plex’s new Library, Alexandria, is thus teased. Hopefully it won’t be burned down by the Christians and blamed on the Romans, like the real one.