2012 Reading: “Ready Player One”

If you like video games, this book is for you. If you like science fiction, this book is for you. If you think American culture peaked in the 1980s, and it’s all been downhill since then, this book is for you. 

Ready Player One is the best book I’ve read in years. Sure, I can nitpick the story here or there. Yes, there are times I think the author should have beefed up the suspense a bit more. But this book powers through those incredibly slight flaws to deliver a story that is engrossing, intriguing and, most importantly, immensely fun. 

Read this book. Seriously. Read. This. Book.

Click to purchase: for Amazon Kindle; for Apple iBooks; for Barnes & Noble Nook; for other ereader devices.

2012 Reading: “Then Everything Changed”

Experienced political journalist Jeff Greenfield images different paths our nation might have taken at pivotal inflection points in late 20th Century history: if the assassination attempt against John Kennedy in December 1960 had succeeded, if the assassination of Robert Kennedy had failed in 1968, and if Gerald Ford hadn’t crashed and burned in the presidential debate in 1968. Each fictional history is well-written and engaging, with many quotes and motivations drawn from real history. While engaging, however, this book is probably more appealing to history buffs and political wonks than to everyday readers. 

Click to purchase: for Amazon Kindle; for Apple iBooks; for Barnes & Noble Nook; for other ereader devices.

2012 Films: "The Iron Lady"

Technically released in 2011, this is the first film I’ve seen in 2012.

Who’s In It: Meryl Streep and Alexandra Roach as Margaret Thatcher; Jim Broadbent and Harry Lloyd as Denis Thatcher; Olivia Colman as Carol Thatcher.

Who Made It: Phyllida Lloyd directs from a script by Abi Morgan. Produced by Damian Jones and distributed by The Weinstein Company.

What It’s About: As her mental state deteriorates with age, Margaret Thatcher reminisces about her rise to power and tenure as Prime Minister. 

My Take: This is not the story about Margaret Thatcher that I would have wanted to have seen made. The frame story, set in present day as Thatcher attempts to come to grips with the death of her husband while beginning to suffer the effects of dementia, takes up far too much screen time. What I would have wanted to be the meat of the story, Thatcher’s rise to power in a male-dominated Tory Party and leadership in the waning years of the Cold War, is reduced to a series of flashbacks. However, Meryl Streep rises above the films flaws in a mesmerizing performance. We all expected Streep to carry the film; I simply would have liked her to have had more help.

For More Information: The Iron Lady on Wikipedia.

2012 Reading: "A Storm of Swords"

A Storm of Swords is the third book in G.R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series. Weighing in at nearly 1,200 pages, it is almost as long as the first two books combined. Following the continued fighting in the War of the Five Kings, ASOS dramatically expands the scope of the story and introduces new point of view characters. I’d highly recommend all of the first three books of the series to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre. 

Click to purchase: for Amazon Kindle; for Apple iBooks; for Barnes & Noble Nook.

Tech Predictions for 2012

So, a lot of folks have been posting on the Internet regarding what they expect to see happen in technology this year. Following in that trend, a few predictions of my own: 

Apple Predictions 

• In October, Apple will release an iPhone 4G, perhaps with new styling, using LTE for highspeed networking. The new iPhone will not have a significantly larger display than the current model.
• Coincident with the iPhone 4G, Apple will release iOS 6.0, which will use a new mapping service owned and operated by Apple to provide turn-by-turn GPS directions.
• In the Spring, Apple will unveil a new line of MacBooks Air with 11”, 13” and 15” screens, updated Intel processors, and solid state storage drives ranging from 128 GB to 512 GB.
• Also in the Spring, Apple will unveil a new line of MacBooks Pro featuring 15” and 17” screens.
• Apple will update the Apple TV settop box to support 1080p video. Users will be able to purchase and play Apple TV games using an iPod or iPhone as a controller.
• In the Spring, Apple will unveil the iPad 3, featuring a Retina Display and a quad-core Apple A6 SOC processor.
• Apple will release an updated software suite, iWork ’12, which will include updated, sandboxed versions of Keynote, Pages and Numbers with direct integration with iCloud document storage.

Google Predictions

• Google will continue to integrate Google+ into everything they release, including much deeper links between the service and the Android operating system.
• Motorola will become the flagship Android phone provider as Google stops outsourcing production of its Nexus models to Samsung.
• Google will begin to diverge the Android UI from the iOS UI in an attempt to escape Apple’s growing wave of lawsuits against the copycat operating system.
• Despite user annoyance at the Google+ integration, and legal saber-rattling by governments, Google will not lose significant market share in search.
• Google Chrome will pass Mozilla Firefox to become the second most commonly used browser worldwide.

Microsoft Predictions

• Windows 8 will not ship this year.
• Windows Phone 7 will continue to recieve great reviews but find few buyers. The Nokia Lumia 900 will be one of the best phones released this year, but will struggle.
• Internet Explorer will dip into the low to mid 40s in market share.
• Steve Ballmer will begin the process of annointing an heir apparent, in anticipation of a departure in 2013 or 2014.
• Microsoft Office 365 will grow into a large financial success.
• Microsoft will release Office for iPad, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. 

Other Tech Predictions

• Facebook will surpass the one billion member mark.
• RIM will begin a public effort to sell itself off as the BlackBerry line continues to fade. Few credible suitors will emerge.
• Amazon will release a revised Kindle Fire in early Fall, addressing the major issues present in the current device.
• E-Book sales will continue to grow dramatically, and traditional publishers will find themselves increasingly disintermediated as authors begin publishing directly to the Kindle, Nook and iBooks stores. 
• Barnes & Noble will spin its Nook family off into a separate company, and will also begin reducing the size of its physical stores.
• Nintendo’s Wii U will be the first eighth-generation console to be released. It will not share the same sort of success as its predecessor.