TwinIon

It's certainly eye catching.

I didn't play the more recent Fable games, but I'd be happy if a new one turned out well.

Mission Impossible 1 was pretty good. It wasn't really a superhero film, but still. It seems that Dark Phoenix will come in comfortably below my already non-existent expectations. I'll still probably see it thanks to A-list.

If it comes with a stand, then it's all mostly forgiven. I still think it should include the VESA mount, but in the end the price isn't a huge deal for the monitor or the Mac Pro. I think it's all pretty reasonably priced, given the tech involved. I do wonder how many super high end pro Mac customers Apple has lost since the last Mac Pro got so old, but I imagine those that have been waiting are pretty happy.

I'm interested in getting more details on Stadia and other game streaming services. I don't plan on subscribing anytime soon, but I'm curious to see how these services get structured.

Something else I forgot to mention when it comes to iPad Mutlitasking, is that they really need to make more apps support it. Right now a bunch of the apps that I use don't support multitasking at all, and many that do don't work correctly. Feedly, for example, will allow slide over windows or split screen docking, but when you do that the app hides info from you. It's not like you get the iPhone version, there is content the app is "showing" that you can't see. Even big apps like Gmail don't support multitasking at all, and some apps haven't even been updated to the new aspect ratio of the iPad Pros. The iOS/iPad ecosystem seems like it must be at least as complicated as Android if a dev actually wants to support everything (I'd love to hear from some devs if that's true). More multitasking modes is great, and some things (like the keyboard stuff) must be "free" to devs, but they need find some way to make apps better support these kinds of things if they want the iPad to be a "real computer." As it stands, not only is multitasking on the iPad still undiscoverable and overly complicated, it's horribly inconsistent. It's impossible to look at an app and tell when and how it will work while multitasking, and that's a big pain point.

It's pretty audacious for Apple to sell the $6000 monitor without a stand and without any way to connect a stand. When they said the special stand was $1000, I laughed, but it's an unnecessary upgrade, so whatever. When they said that you had to pay $200 to connect it to a normal stand I thought that was ridiculous, but again, I assumed it would ship with some kind of stand. I realize that this is strictly for Pros and will mostly be paid for by the large companies they work for, but it's still kind of insane nickel and diming to not include any kind of stand or any way to connect a standard mount. I guess they gave Pros so much of what they asked for (and much they didn't), so Apple didn't feel compelled to make anything cheap. The Mac Pro is a pretty slick piece of engineering. I don't need one, and I don't like the look of it, but scrolling through the web page and getting a better look inside, and it's pretty awesome how the CPU and expansion ports are on one side, and the other side has the memory and storage. It's not entirely different from what ASUS is advocating with their Prime Utopia concept. Asus also put some of the connectors on PCIe slots, and made the board double sided, though they wanted to put the graphics and CPU on separate sides.

Apparently the GOP is considering a vote to prevent the tariffs on Mexico. Doing so would require Congress override the southern border national emergency declaration. That would effectively remove the wall funding that Trump secured. I have a very hard time imagining the GOP actually getting the votes together to stop this. It's too direct a challenge to Trump, and with wall funding on the line as well, I can't imagine reaching the critical mass necessary to override the President.

Very cool! Can't wait to see how well this works with RDP apps.

A 25% tariff is insane, but it makes more sense than a ban.

I'm excited for some of the iPadOS updates. Widgets on the homescreen is something that should have been around long ago. Desktop class browsing on iPad has been a real pain point for a while. USB drive support is great, but native SMB is really nice for our company usage. Direct camera uploading to the iPad is something I might actually use. A lot of the multitasking and additional gestures look kinda useful, but also very unintuitive. I doubt a lot of people will use them. When I think about someone like my father using an iPad instead of a laptop, the things that prevent it are never the lack of complicated multitasking gestures. I also really wish they added mouse support. It would really change the potential use cases for the iPad, and with Marzipan/Catalyst, it only makes sense.

I agree. It's entertaining, and solidly stylish, but the humor never quite reached Hitchhiker's Guide. Tennant and Sheen are quite entertaining, which is good since the whole of the series relies on them. One specific gripe my wife and I had was that it really felt like the voice of God really should have been British. I love Frances McDormand, but she felt out of place for this show.

The GT is my favorite car of all time, and with the talent involved, I'll be seeing this for sure. Didn't love the trailer, but it didn't really need to sell me on anything. There was an exotic car dealer in town that I'd visit occasionally in high school that was owned by a guy who really loved cars. They mostly sold new Bentleys, Lambos, and Ferraris, but they'd get in more exciting stuff occasionally. The owner would also put some of his personal collection out periodically, and among them was a race driven GT40. God I loved that thing, before I even knew what its story was. If you're not familiar with the story, and don't mind being a bit spoiled to history, James May did a great recap in Season 1 of The Grand Tour.

I've caught up and I've been listening to the podcast, and this show just keeps taking up more and more headspace. There are just so many extraordinary and terrifying moments. They play it all so straight without unnecessarily emphasizing the melodrama. It's an amazing show.

He has done a lot of that. I wonder what of these kinds of things will change under the next administration / congress. Warren said she'd make sure the President would be subject to federal law. Part of that is appointing an AG that would be willing to press charges, but part of would still require congress to change the law. If Trump's enduring legacy is that previous norms get codified into law, that would be great, but it's hard to imagine any politicians voting to limit their power.

This should apply to FCC commissioners and other such positions as well. I hope this actually happens.

This might even be more stupid than the China tariffs. Does congress really have no power here as long as he says "national security?"

Removing the physical buttons sounds really annoying.

You're probably right, but my scenario was that Star Wars was failing. If in 15 years the movies aren't making a ton of money anymore, maybe a return to the original saga would be a way to boost interest. Ep 9 trailer spoilers

I wonder what this kind of thing looks like for a game like Hearthstone. Is it enough to say you get X% chance of an epic/legendary/golden etc.? I know the way the game actually works is that there is some kind of dynamic odds calculation, or at least a "pity timer" to ensure you get a legendary every 50(?) packs of the same type. I'm guessing a base calculation sufficient, but it'd be interesting if they had to reveal more of the algorithm.

With 99 reviews in, RT is at 42%. It seems that the human element is again worthless, but there are a lot of kaiju battles. I'll be there tonight.

I think it depends entirely on how the new films do. Star Wars has never been as big overseas (~50-55% overseas gross vs ~60-70% for the MCU). If the upcoming trilogies we know about fail, or start doing numbers closer to Solo than Rogue One, I can see them being cut short in favor of trying to make another "mainline" entry. I'm not even sure what the timeline for that is though. I would think at least 10 years barring absolutely catastrophic failure. The flip side is that I can see a new trilogy potentially quite well. Imagine if either new trilogy is able to increase its appeal overseas as that market continues to expand. A Star Wars film with an Endgame like 70% overseas % could be enough to convince Disney they never need to return to the original well. No matter what, if they do try and make a new mainline trilogy, I hope it's not following the Skywalker bloodline.

Aladdin is an indictment of the entire enterprise of remaking animated films in live action, even as individual elements manage to shine through. At its best, we see a charismatic Aladdin make a meaningful connection with a newly empowered Jasmine, or pal around with an authentically Will Smith genie. At its worst, we see a horrific CG Will Smith do a poor impression of the incomparable Robin Williams, or a live action Jafar fail to live up to the menace of his goofy animated counterpart. At almost every turn, when the remake is allowed to be its own creation, not remaking exact shots or comedic beats, it's actually quite good. The production design feels both fantastic and grounded in real cultures, the increased emphasis on Jasmine pays off in raised emotional stakes and in increasing the depth of her character. Even the scenes that are direct remakes that don't exactly mirror the animation have a real life to their own that makes the remake feel like a worthwhile endeavor. Then there are the all too numerous occasions where the film is just a poor imitation of a classic. Comedy that doesn't work without animation, magic that feels too out of place in the flesh. Will Smith is a pretty good genie, and a very poor Robin Williams. Jafar too felt out of place throughout the film. Whether the result of poor acting, casting, or simply being a character that doesn't translate well, the result is that it diminishes the film as a whole. Overall, the film is perfectly competent, and in the absence of its source material it might garner some more heavy praise. It's just too often unable to escape the shadow of its predecessor, even for someone that hasn't seen the original since it was on VHS.

Detective Pikachu is a bizarre place to begin what could very well become a cinematic universe of live action Pokemon films. It feels more like the kind of spin off that a studio makes long after having made the more traditional entries in the series. X-Men started with the standard heroes, then moved on to solo films with Wolverine and Deadpool. Marvel began with the well known characters before splitting off to do smaller films like Ant-Man or largely disconnected films like Guardians. Sony rebooted Spider-man three times before spinning off Venom. This isn't to say that Pikachu is a minor character, but the choice to do a noir-ish detective film rather than something more identifiable as a "traditional" pokemon story, still feels like the spin-off from a long lasting film series. It functions that was as well. The world is given very much in media res, with virtually no explanations or setup. There are pokemon everywhere, and for someone a decade or two removed from their last pokemon game, the simple joy of seeing them in the world was less compelling than it might otherwise be. To the film's credit, the effects for the pokemon are outstanding. As we've seen with the Sonic trailer, translating simple video game characters to live action can be troublesome, but even the most bizarre and non-sensical pokemon are rendered with consistency and care. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the plot. The film traverses some typical noir tropes, and plays out like a rather standard mystery, but the mystery itself lacks motivation or logic. Side characters and villains feel like they're straight out of the cartoon, rather than the meticulously rendered PG Blade Runner world of the film. The one character who does seem to match the gravity of the story they're trying to tell is Justice Smith's Tim. Smith is perhaps the only actor who seems like he knows what film he's in, rather than the film that the mere mention of Pikachu would conjure. Ultimately, for whatever dressing of something more, this is a children's film. For any kid that would get a rush out of seeing a sleeping snorelax, I'm sure Detective Pikachu would be a treat. The rest of us will have to ponder why so much care was put into using this world to tell this particular story. *Spoilers* One last bizarre decision is to end the film in a place where Pikachu can no longer communicate with Tim. It seems like it would horribly complicate any potential sequels, and it completely reverses the entire dynamic of the film and the arcs of the main characters.

Thanks for the rec. I started listening to the podcast, and I appreciate hearing the creator talk about what was accurate and what wasn't, and then also being able to provide reasoning and context to those decisions.