Gadgets, Gear, and Drones
Cloud Atlas is several stories interleaved together as consequences of actions and events ripple through time and space. It seems to be a mess but like a symphony, everything somehow fell into place imperfectly perfect. And beautiful. Two thumbs up! :P
Rating: 4/5
Got together with Jim, Crissy, and the Fenris boys to watch Zero Dark Thirty last night. Haven’t seen them in a while and I couldn’t recall the names of half of them :P But there we were waiting for everyone to arrive, having dinner, talking about the things we used to talk back then, and of course, watching a movie of common interest.
Make no mistake, Zero Dark Thirty is not an action movie about a SEAL Team assaulting UBL hideout and ending him with extreme prejudice. It is primarily a spy thriller with a sort-of-action segment towards the end. It’s about “Maya”, a female CIA agent, on her single-minded 10-year search for UBL aka the needle in the haystack, her struggles in a male-dominated workplace, brute-force approach (yes, torture), bureaucracy ridden government, unreliable allies, and the culmination of the search with an efficient little raid a little-known city in Pakistan. There’s a lot of social and political commentary somewhere there but I chose to ignore them.
Towards the end, the narrative of the movie sort of weaves in with the narrative of the book No Easy Day. For example, the female CIA operative leading the search and the way the raid unfolds. So having read the book helped me understand and appreciate the events as it unfolded on the big screen. Makes me wonder if Mark Owen/Matt Bissonette is a technical adviser for the movie.
I’m kind of a Kathryn Bigelow fan because of The Hurt Locker and her latest work didn’t hurt. Definitely a good watch whether you’re a spy thriller fan or an mil action fan.
Rating: 4/5
Tired of One Thing? Well here’s something different: Two Things. Over the weekend I watched the 1982 version of The Thing, followed by the 2011 version. That’s not actually accurate, the later movie is actually a prequel. But I started out with the earlier one. It’s on the same vein as Alien but a bit more down-to-Earth, literally. It takes place in a remote Antarctic scientific base where a dog ran into while being chased by what seems to be hunters on a helicopter. Things got a little hairy and the hunters ended up dead and the dog adopted by scientific team. Things got worse from that point when they discover a burned out base, found an alien ship, and the dog turns out to be quite a bit more than a dog. Quite a suspenseful sci-fi thriller.
Rating: 3.5/5
The 2011 version is, as I mentioned, a prequel. Some scientists have discovered an alien ship and a frozen alien somewhere in Antarctica. They took the frozen alien back to their base and, well, things got hairy and worse from that point when they discover the alien isn’t dead and that anyone can turn out to be quite a bit more than what he or she is. In the span of the movie, the mysteries of the first movie was slowly unraveled. But less mysterious doesn’t necessarily mean less suspenseful. Not as original as the umm original but still a suspenseful sci-fi thriller. Plus the effects (and acting) were better.
Rating: 3/5
Grabbed a pair of EarPods yesterday. They were out of stock in quite a few stores but I finally got lucky.
The EarPods come in a case that acts as a cable wrap and is really pretty and, more importantly, functional. The earphones themselves are just as beautiful. It’s got a curvy organic look. Supposedly it was designed for the human ear. They’re not in-ear headphones but they are shaped in such a way as to deliver the sound directly into the ear canal.
The sound is definitely better compared to the old Apple earphones. The sound is not as tinny as before. Definitely there was an improvement in the mid and low range. The bass is definitely not the thumping, at least in the ear, kind of way but I guess they also had to consider voice.
I’m quite pleased with them. Too bad, because now that I have them, there’s one less reason for getting an iPhone 5 :P
Got this from the in-flight duty free shop ($36) because it was more expensive at the airport duty free shop (NT$1400 or around $48). And then I find out that similar travel adapters are just around $20-$30 from Amazon.
Still, it’s not so bad. It’s your normal travel adapter with 4 different types of retractable prongs and as many sockets. It’s a bit chunky (see photo comparing it to standard iPhone charger) and not easily pocketable but with a gadget bag should be no problem. It has a smooth satin finish that looks pretty and resists fingerprints. But it is not scratch-resistant and can easily get marred or rubbed off.
The best thing about it is that it has two USB charging ports. And they’re not just ordinary ports, they are iPad-compatible (1000mA). The USB ports are actually the primary reason why I got this adapter. You’re supposed to be able to fast-charge two iPads but since I have only one, I wasn’t able to verify this. But being able to charge a phone, a tablet, and a laptop at the same time? That’s good enough for me!
Rating: 4/5