Unlike the notorious 3G launch where I was outside the very same store for nearly 5 hours, this was as smooth as could be. After being well sated with Starbucks, donuts, Honest Tea and Smart Water served up by Apple Store staff, we made it inside the building and into a quick moving queue. First, a business manager found our name in a custom web-based app he was running on a Macbook Pro then directed us to a counter where our two reserved phones met us. The sales rep (Meg – who also sold me my Macbook Pro at the same store) grabbed us our bumper cases. Shockingly, the only cases available. Not even Incase, generally quick to market with cases, is missing. Incase issued a press release today.

On the way out I grabbed my first video using the new iPhone. Unfortunately, I realized only after the fact that if you rotate the phone while recording the aspect ratio does not change.  The experience was great and frankly I was shocked.  It took a couple years for them to figure it out. I think it was better than being at the SoHo store according to this Gizmodo post.

Empty buses before dawn

Ready to go

Apple Store staff working hard

What I was Tweeting during the adventure:

1. iPhone 4. Mission completed. Shocked how smooth the operation was at the 14th at store. No probs with AT&T either. #iphone4 about 8 hours ago via TweetDeck
2. So they won’t transfer everything for you between phones. They upsell you MobileMe. Offer one time contacts only sync. #iphone4 about 8 hours ago via TweetDeck
3. Made it into the store with @nicole_w_miller. http://twitpic.com/1zi7oy We are in the final stretch! #iphone4 about 9 hours ago via TweetDeck
4. Not inside yet. Don’t know if reserving is going to work or not. #iphone4 about 9 hours ago via TweetDeck
5. App pushers are working the line at the Apple Store 14th St. #iphone4 about 10 hours ago via TweetDeck
6. Apple Store worker is moving the herd. Reservations are guaranteed for now. They just brought down Starbucks from up the street. #iphone4 about 10 hours ago via TweetDeck
7. A lot of “experts” in line here. I like just listening to their knowledge. #iphone4 about 10 hours ago via TweetDeck
8. At the Apple Store 14th St. We have reservations so let’s see how this plays out. #iphone4 http://tiny12.tv/M3TAP about 10 hours ago via TweetDeck
9. The city streets at dawn. Few are awake. The pushers and their prey. The nightbreed. And me. I’m off to get a phone. #iphone4 about 11 hours ago via TweetDeck

Just when I thought I wouldn’t have to wait like everyone else–I still might.  Even reserving the new iPhone might not guarantee the availability on the morning of the 24th of this month.

This morning at 5:30am Apple opened the flood gates for pre-ordering the new iPhone4.  Unlike in previous releases of this game-changing product line you could reserve this one for pickup.  The reserving scheme started with the iPad release.  Also at 5:30am.

Needless to say, since it’s now 6:12am, I was up and reserved mine for pickup at my favorite out of the four on the island of Manhattan.  Which by the way is only 23 square miles in size.  And we need four Apple stores.  Well maybe not need in the Merriam-Webster dictionary sense.  But the stores are always packed.

Even hours before, none of the major Mac rumor sites knew any of the details of the pre-order.  What was needed to qualify or what models woud be available. Or that you would need an Apple ID to reserve. Yes, an Apple ID is required to make the reservation.  No money, just an Apple ID, your phone number and the last four digits of your Social Security Number.

Play-by-Play

Started hitting the site at 5:30am and the server was having some response issues.  Process was smooth. There has been some learning over the last three years. Also, I qualify for the $199.00 offer and my plan does not expire in 2010.  A worry I had after Steve Jobs’ Keynote when he mentioned the AT&T plan.

As you can see , the process is well defined.  They could have taken better care of the error page.  Something slight more attractive than Oops!.

In image Three and again in image Six that only the black version is available today. In image Eleven, you can only reserve one iPhone 4 per Apple ID.

Eligibility

I thought I was not going to be eligible because I had just upped my plan to get the 3GS last year and I was not due to expire until 2011.  This past June 8th, Chris Ziegler from Engadet posted:

AT&T’s made it pretty clear how this upgrade sitch is going to go down for existing customers moving to an iPhone 4 on the 24th of the month, but if you want to double-check and make sure you’re good to go (we can’t blame you), there’s an easy way that was briefly mentioned yesterday: dial *639# on your current phone. You’ll be returned a text message from AT&T detailing your situation — either you’ll be told you can get a full upgrade price (meaning $199 / $299 for the 16GB and 32GB, respectively) or you’ll be eligible at some particular date in the future. Not all’s lost in the latter case — you can still pay $200 more for the phone as an “early upgrade,” which is less than the no-commitment price of $599 / $699.

The Catch

Even after my adrenaline rush this morning, there is still no real guarantee that I will have the phone.  If you look at the fine print in image Twelve of the “confirmation” email I received it says, “Pre-authorization does not guarantee iPhone availability at an Apple Retail Store. iPhone is sold on a first-come, first-served basis”.  So in the end, is it really a reservation?

My menagerie at home

Metal Voltron

I wanted to quickly respond to a recent post and 140 characters were not enough.

Ben Malbon at BBH just posted a great article on T-shaped people and the new creative production paradigm and used Voltron as a visual reference.  There have been a few other giant robot mashups since Voltron such as Transformers Constructicons that form Devastator but Voltron is the leader as far as I’m concerned.  And Lion Voltron, not Vehicle Voltron or any other spin-off.

It struck a personal chord with me not only because I personally identify with the T-shape model but also that I’ve been a fan of many of the great robot properties from the 80′s since their original run and long into sydication.  (We’ll keep this with animation only and not get into live-action because this would get long)

When I was a kid I was not able to have the Voltron toy because it was made of metal parts and had spring loaded projectiles.  Remember, this was the era of Kenner’s Boba Fett mail-away action figure that had a spring loaded projectile backpack.  Forcing Kenner to re-tool the line with the projectile attached.  (One of the originals sold at auction for $16,000 in 2003).  I’ve been collecting for as long as I’ve been able to buy my own things.  When I had my collectibles company and was working the circuit my appreciation grew for both products and licensing.  There was a plastic Voltron that was released years later but it lacked the character of the original heavy metal lions.  I finally bought my own metal Voltron off eBay seven years ago.

Voltron is a great reference for the nature of the business right now. The work that’s going on at places like BBH is helping change a business long mired in out-dated practices.  One day the word will spread up to the C-suite and we might see global change in how agencies are structured.  And I don’t think this idea is necessarily restrained to the advertising community but could be adopted across the board to all varieties of client-service companies.

There was a panel at SXSWi 2010, Jack of all Trades or Masters of One? that I covered in my writeup that could serve as a great primer for Ben’s article today.  I’ve included the presentation from SXSWi below and you can read Ben’s article at BBH Labs.

You’ve been able to burn a DVD on your general retail personal computer for at least ten years.  Have you ever wanted to burn a Dual-Layer DVD? Commonly referred to as DVD+R DL (or DVD-R DL). Know what one is?  The later can hold up to 8.5 gigabytes, compared with only 4.7 gigabytes of the other.

It’s the morning of the 21st of December and I’m coming down off an all night DVD burning bender.  16 of them.  Two sets of 8.  Roughly 128 gb. Over 20 hours of family videos transferred from 27 Betamax tapes by my girlfriend, Nicole Miller.  The project is her’s. She conceived and designed. With full menus with animated chapter previews, disc and jewel case artwork. All in a nice red Stockholm CD Box.  I’m handling the digital video technical production and I’ve been sleeping next to my laptop with a timer going off every 20 minutes to feed the burner.

The final product. Scanned labels from the Betamax tapes used for the artwork. Designed by Nicole Miller

I’ve been using Apple’s DVD Studio Pro for about seven years.  Most of my work has been small projects.  Maybe an hour at the most.  After learning last minute about breakpoints and the best fact of all–that a 4.7 gigabyte is not in fact the true size.  While we were all learning about kilobytes (kb) and megabyte (mb) the DVD came along and someone slipped in the gigabyte (gb) reference.  DVD disc sizes are expressed in GB but in fact are measured in decimal billions of bytes (see chart).  Meaning that the DVD you bought that says GB really only holds 4.37 GB (not 4.7).  Really fun when you have already calculated the amount of clips per DVD.  A great 11th hour change.  But I work during the day in a business of 11th hour changes so it’s common practice for me but you might not like it.  Another fun factoid are breakpoints.  The area in the DVD where the player stops playing layer 1 and goes to layer 2.  DVD Studio Pro did not want to build without a breakpoint when I was trying to build so I decided to build all of the DVDs to a hard drive then burn the VIDEO_TS folder.  DVD Studio Pro did not like formatting the DVDs with VIDEO_TS with no breakpoint (breakpoints are not carried over to the hard drive written folder).  Fortunately I had recently picked up Toast 10 Titanium and I not yet used it.  Turned out to be the project saver app.  An amazing user interface and it burned the VIDEO_TS folder with no problem.  What about those pesky breakpoints?  Turns out that they are placed automatically in the data when it is burned by Toast.  DVD Studio Pro gives you the option of automatically and the also placing it in the video.  The idea is so you do not get skips in the video when you jump to the next layer.  I don’t see the need.  Every movie I’ve watched on a DL disc (most of them you have too) may have a slight skip depending on the player.  More like a freeze.  It’s not life changing and often is completely not noticed.  Bad news in this phase of the project is that DVD Studio Pro failed me when it came to the breakpoint issue.  It was not informative or user friendly.

Your Mac's DVD player may not like these.

I was not out of the woods yet as I quickly learned.  Turns out the media I purchased did not like my *NEW* Macbook Pro (MacBookPro5,5 or A1278). All sorts of nasty mean messages with scary words like critical and fault associated with hardware and then a bunch of x’s and zeroes.  Very friendly.

These might be a higher quality.

The media I purchased first was by Memorex.  After wasting ten of them I had another last minute life saving forum moment.  I learned that Verbatim made a better quality product so I left my hungry burner as soon as the closest Best Buy opened.  Fortunately, living in NYC there are a few Best Buys.  Two within a 15 minute walk of each other.  I grabbed the Verbatim’s and also an external drive. The LG GE20.  I was amazed at how cheap DVD burners are now. They even had one Blu-ray burner.  With Toast’s support for Blu-ray it may be a great option for later this year.  The costs per disk is outrageous still.  Verbatim sells a 3-pack for $27.99.

I then split my burn job up between my Macbook and my other machine, a Dual PowerPC G5. Make the minor investment in an external burner.  The joke was that the Memorex’s worked more often in the LG external.

LG External Burner. Faster than the one in the new Macbooks and you can get it for less than $100.00.

My recommendation is that dual-layer DVDs are worth it and that you should consider making the minor investment in an external drive to burn them.  The ones Apple is shipping with their units may be rotten.  Always check the forums related to the projects you are working on.  If it’s digital video (or burning it) or anything new media related the odds are someone in the last five years has experience it and has provided a solution.  When you up against a deadline, Google.  And be fueled on the flight deck in case you have to run to the store.  Good luck!

Tech Used For This Project:

1. Macbook Pro 13″ (MacBookPro5,5 or A1278)
   Intel Core Duo, 2.26 4GB RAM
   Internal Disc Drive: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS23N
   Media That Worked: Verbatim
2. Power Mac (PowerMac7,3)
   Dual 2 Ghz PowerPC G5 3.5GB RAM
   External Disc Drive: LG GE20, HL-DT-ST DVDRWGE20LU11

Micah & Nicholas

I first met Micah Bucey (one of the two geniouses of The Gay Agenda) years ago when we performing Fleet Week in the NYC Fringe Festival (winner best musical).  We went on to perform in Prospect Theater’s The Book of The Dun Cow and then the smash hit run of Fitz & Walloughs Get It In The End.   Now you can see him along with the equally talented Nicholas on piano performing regularly at The Player’s Loft and around the world! (not yet but I am going to help them with that).  Visit their website for more information

Tomorrow night The Gay Agenda will be performing at The Players Loft, 8pm.  Ticket’s at Ovation. View Google Map.

Here at The Concept Farm, a crowd is gathered to watch the innaugruation of the first African American president. History unfolds before our eyes.

Well done but very very safe.  No mention of Disney or Brooks shows.  Why not?  What would NBC have to fear?

Click To Enlarge

Last night I saw All My Sons and I will say, without hesitation that it is one of the best plays I’ve seen.  I’ll preface by saying that I don’t often see straight plays.  Often times my rule-of-thumb is, if it’s not a musical then I don’t bother.  I need numbers, movement AND story.  I was happily proven wrong with August: Osage County and I was proven wrong again last night.

A simple stage.  A box of grass, a tree, pieces of a classic silver metal fence creating a border on a “yard”.  The back wall covered with wood siding with only one shuttered window.  The show opens with the use of cleanly projected text on the back wall.  An element used throughout the show to open the Acts and to provide subtle narrative and direction.  A multimedia touch that I first saw excellently employed by Roust Theatre Company in their Fringe 2007 show, 516.  Other touches include excellent use of subtle almost inaudible audio to set the mood.  Matched with some of the most excellent constant light cues utilizing every stage light that I now of.  The audio and lighting was employed as if it were a filmed drama.  And these actors are no foreigners to being behind a camera.

Though I’m sure the nearly sold out Wednesday crowd was there becuase of the draw of the ever popular Katie Holmes, she does not run the show.  John Lithgow, one of the greats of our era almost steals the show with his effortless work.  Patrick Wilson, is amazing.  But in my humble opinion, Diane Wiest commands this ship.  Diane captures everyone from the start and sets the mood constantly.  It is her and her alone who takes you on the ride.

A touching 3 Act one intermission show that is most definitely a must see.  I’ve never seen a play that has drawn me in this most recent adaption at the Schoenfeld has.  The capitvating performances involved me.  It was engaging. Riveting and affecting.  Extremely well executed.

You have until January 11th to see it.  There is currently a 40% BroadwayOffers discount available at BroadwayBox.com.

By far one of the best things I have seen on YouTube. Judging from the rest of the related clips, this might be real. Food for thought.

Those that know me know that I am not [usually] a fan of straight plays. For me, there needs to be a number after I’ve heard people talking for a minute. From time to time however I like to prove them all wrong and see a play. When a friend is working on it or someone really gives me a strong sell. This time however neither holds true. This time the reviews were absolutely so rediculously over the top that I simple had to see it. This time it was August:Osage County.

Coming to us from the windy city, the town of an eight year tenure of mine, is this Steppenwolf gem. I saw it last night, Friday, January 25th. Clocking in at around three hours in length and filled with twisted dirty in your face no holds barred dialog. The set, designed by Todd Rosenthal, is a magnificent three-story open doll-house back stage with the first floor up-stage where most of the action takes place. This tale of a dysfunctional family will resonate with anyone who has ever had their own dysfunctional family episodes and even those that have not. Read the NYT review and check out augustonbroadway.com for more info and tickets. Limited engagement at the Imperial extended through April 13th.