Daily Archives

24 January 2011

BMW does films

Art, Cars, Movies, Technology by
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I love it when BMW goes to the movies.  I’m sure you remember their 2001-2002 films starring Clive Owen – most notably “Star” with Madonna in the backseat of an M5.  Proving what a difference a decade makes, the newest series of BMW videos, “Wherever You Want To Go,” will be focusing on the future of mobility.  From really expensive productions about the BMW lifestyle…to basically the same thing but about green technology and human scale transportation solutions.   Anyway, it should be a lot of fun and the videos will be released all throughout February, beginning on the 1st.

(Autoblog)

Stack of iPods

General Entertainment, Work by
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I have, sitting on my desk right now, a stack of iPod touch devices that I have slipped into Belkin Ergo cases with straps.  I have loaded onto each a copy of iMovie, a custom Media Commons background and an organized set of icons.  These devices are intended to travel to the upcoming TLT Symposium where they will be used as video capture devices that can allow attendees to record their community engagement experiences, edit them quickly and upload directly to our YouTube channel.

But these iPods represent a bit more than just a trinket to be used at a conference.  We are actually exploring how we can replace our fleet of Flip cameras as primary video production devices for each of the Penn State campuses here at the Media Commons.  The benefit is, of course, the flexibility of the iPod touch.  Instead of just shooting video, students could use the same sub-$300 device to edit, upload, research content online, record audio, take still photos, type up notes, etc.  And that’s just with the default apps.  One can imagine field guides, lesson manuals and more preloaded on iPods for specific classes.

Of course, all of this experimentation is leading us towards an even grander goal: iPad (2) as primary device for producing, editing and sharing content for students.  The promise of such a solution is too great to not begin exploring it now.  Being able to grow at the cost (in up front purchases and tech support complexity) of the iOS is so much more appealing than trying to add more Macs to each campus, don’t you think?

(From my iPad blog.)