New Football Season = New Good Commercials

Every year about this time I remind myself that Preseason NFL football is meaningless. I mean goodness, just last year was the perfect example. The San Francisco 49ers were 4-0 in the Preseason. They would end the Regular Season with one of the worst records in the NFC at 6-10.

“And to my only son Chauncey I bequeath my Direct TV......”

I am not here to bore you to death with sports statistics (though if you stay tuned I will give you some interesting numbers at the end)***. The NFL and its multibillion dollar majesty will bring out the very best advertising that everyone has to offer. You see all the corporate bigwigs know that people watch the NFL, and therefore people watch commercials during the NFL. So I guess Im trying to get everyone excited that the 2011 “OFFICIAL COMMERCIAL SEASON” is just around the corner.

I don’t know about you but I just love commercials! Wait.....let me take that back. I love gooooood commercials - yeah! And i get really stressed out when I see bad commercials. Like just the other day I saw a commercial with an indy car and a base jumper. It made no sense whatsoever! I began to rant about how awful the commercial was, and I couldn’t stop until I had convinced my roommate to agree. Anyways, back to happy thoughts.

With the new “OFFICIAL COMMERCIAL SEASON” just around the corner I thought I would share some of my favs so far this year. I know I will forget a few, but had to compile a 2011 Fav’s list recently to share with a friend. So here is what I’ve got so far.
Please let me know what you think about these, and send some links to your favorites. I do love a good commercial!

FUNNIEST:
DIRECTV - The Will
(featuring Chauncey......hilarious facial expression. I love it.  Chauncey is not the only star of the latest set of Direct TV commercials. There are several "characters" that spin the benefits of using Direct TV - The Whale, The Truth, Russian Guy.  If you get really bored, they are all worth watching. )

 

MOST CREATIVE:
Fox Sports South - BP with Chipper
(I know im a Braves homer, but this is a really good commercial, especially since its a regional one. These regional commercials are usually really bad trust me! I also give kudos, because this was really cheap and easy to put together. Two words that “the network” managers love to hear. Im pretty sure this was done in about 5 minutes at spring training this year. Plus it cleverly show’s Chipper’s favorite hobby to Braves fans)

MOST PROFITABLE:
Burger King - The New Whopper
(Finally a good quality fast food commercial. Im amazed at how many big corporations waste tons of money on bad advertising. Burger King went from slightly humorous “tiny hands” and “creepy King” commercials to HD footage of their Whopper that will make your mouth water. I actually want one right now!)

***Interesting NFL facts for sports nerds:
•2011 Chicago Bears went winless in all 4 games in the Preseason - yet they would finish with one of the best records in the NFC 11-5 (only trailing my beloved Falcons which choked after a 13-3 season, uggghhh!)

•2009 NFL revenue was a wopping $7.6 Billion dollars!

•2010 revenue has not been released yet, but are estimated to be over $8 Billion!

•Of the 32 NFL teams, the Dallas Cowboys are worth the most at $1.65 Billion

•I don’t know if you have heard, but they built a new $1.15 Billion dollar stadium last year.

•The bottom of the list is Oakland ($797 Million), Minnesota, and my beloved Atlanta Falcons. Probably because of their ties to the Georgia Dome.

•According to Reuters, the 2011 Super Bowl commercials will cost around $3 Million dollars for a 30 second spot

Most of this info is from this Forbes.com article
http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/02/nfl-pro-football-business-sportsmoney-football-values-09-values.html

OSX Lion uncaged!

OK, so it looks like i was not able to preview all of the new updates for Lion before it came out. This could be because I procrastinated, the advertised “new features” were becoming less and less exciting to me, or a mixture of the two. haha! That being said, the time of observing the Lion while it is caged is over. The Lion has finally been set free for all (most) Mac users to use. If you are unsure about whether to upgrade or not, here is a checklist of things to consider:

1. ”Lion runs on all Macs with a 64-bit Intel processor — this eliminates the very first MacBook and MacBook Pro machines Apple sold, the very first Intel based iMac, and the first- and second-generation Intel-based Mac minis.”**** - (This was news to me)

2. You must have OSX 7 Snow Leopard to install OSX Lion

• also, if you have done a recent software update you probably already have the “App Store” on your system.  It will be necessary to have this in order to purchase the OSX download 

3. OSX Lion is about a 4GB download from the App Store, so make sure you have a good internet connection or you start the download just before you go on vacation!

4. OSX Lion is a $29.99 purchase from the App Store

• - NOTE!!! - This means you can use your iTunes gift cards to purchase OSX Lion! So you can finally cash in all of those unused Apple gift cards you got for Christmas. Also, for the deal nerds like myself, you can save a few dollars on the purchase price. How? Just google “iTunes gift card sale” and you can probably find a local drugstore, supermarket, or electronics store that is offering a deal on the cards. These places offer the gift cards at a discount just to get you in the door. I usually check www.dealmac.com for a Mac deals. If you can’t seem to find anything, there is always eBay. This will probably only save you a few dollars, but hey, you can make fun of your friends for paying FULL Price! Boooooooo!

If you want some more info, i would suggest reading the link below for a Lion Review by Edward Baig of USA Today. It is rather lengthy, but who am I to bash someone for rambling in an article. After all the news I’ve read, I think best new feature would have to be the “auto-save” that Lion performs in the backround. According to Baig’s article, not all Applications support this feature right now, but it is probably in the near future. While this feature seems very very helpful, I still think I will wait to purchase the update. Personally, I usually wait a few weeks when these updates come out so they can work out all the kinks. This will be less of an issue now than those what had to jump from Tiger to Leopard, but kinks still do exist. In fact, Baig mentioned having some issues with his Wi-Fi with OSX Lion.

**** http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2011-07-20-apple-lion-reviewed_n.htm - “Apple launches Lion, and it roars” - by Edward Baig of USA Today

Everything considered, it’s just another phase of Apple staying ahead of the game. What will you do? Will you make the leap to Lion?

Vic's Peachtree Roadrace T-Shirt Design

In Georgia, there is a staple every Fourth of July in Atlanta called the Peachtree Road Race. It’s a 10K race that has become the largest in the world even with a capped registration of 60,000. There are thousands more workers and spectators that also come each year. This is a huge economic boost for the city and brings in millions and millions of dollars in revenue. The race started in 1970 and its history over the years is very interesting. (Check it out here: http://www.peachtreeroadrace.org/press-center/history ) One of the things that captures the most attention each year is the official Peachtree Road Race T-Shirt. The main sponsor of the race is Atlanta Journal Constitution. Starting in 1995 they began to have a design contest for the shirt that was conducted through the newspaper. There is always a lot of intrigue with this. The design is revealed on raceday, when finishers of the race cross the line and recieve their goodie bags which includes the T Shirt. I have really only kept up with it for the past few years, but it is always interesting. They probably get hundreds of submissions, and then they narrow it down to a few. I know the past few years the AJC has put up a poll on their website to see which design is the most popular. Here is this years winning design - and a link to the 5 finalists: http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/sports/peachtree-road-race/2011-ajcpeachtree-shirts/




Anyway, now to the point of this blog post, hahah! I don’t know about you, but I love to read the comments on websites. There is no better place to find quality quips and one-liners than on these comment boards. For the past few years, it never fails that the days following the race there are tons of negative comments concerning the T Shirt design. I must admit, that I don’t really care for most of the design finalist, or the winning designs, but they are not terrible. Well, just a few days ago, I read a very good comment from someone that was obviously tired of the annual T shirt bashing. They suggested that all the “haters” are just jealous and instead of whining, they should send in their own designs. I thought that was a great idea, in fact I decided that I would work on a Peachtree T Shirt design myself. Below is a picture of what I came up with. It’s probably not “artsy” enough for the judges, but I tend to like things simple and sweet. What do you think? Maybe I will submit it next year. Who knows maybe I could be the one with 60,000 people hatin’ on my T shirt design. hahaha!

3) Multi Touch Gestures

Gestures are nothing new to Apple fans, but this is the first OSX update that is promoting use on the computer. Rubber-band scrolling, page and image zoom, and full-screen swiping are all routine for those who have an iPhone or iPad. Some of the gestures have been available to those who purchased the Magic Mouse or the Magic Trackpad for use with their Mac. But with the OSX Lion update, laptop trackpads will now be gesture happy like the other Apple devices.




If you are not familiar with the different gestures, Apple now has a pictorial on their website (http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/gestures.html) as well as a quick 2 minute video tutorial to show you the gestures in action on a laptop (see top right of gestures page).

Once again, this is Apple being intuitive and making something that we would never have asked for. We would have carried on for the rest of our lives using the mouse to click and scroll! Again, I must say that Apple is promoting this feature and OSX Lion like it’s some kind of life changing update. Most of these updates, we would expect to be on the next OSX release. Well, even though I jest at the advertising, I will still enjoy the simple time saving gestures just like everyone else.

Kodak Zi8 Pocket HD Review

 
A few months ago I was doing some research on the pocket video cameras. My church had an upcoming teen activity that I wanted some good video footage of. I wanted a small video camera that was High Definition, and that would allow me to upload files to YouTube in a short amount of time. I also wanted something rugged enough to withstand the elements of a little mud and water. I was going to be in the middle of the action of some very muddy events.




The more info I read, the more I realized that this would be the perfect tool for my project. They are inexpensive, very mobile, and capture quality HD footage that is easily transferred via USB or SD card. Now, the only problem was finding out which one to buy.

There are several quality pocket video cameras on the market, but all of the reviews I read rated the Flip and Kodak cameras at the top. I was slightly discouraged that the creator of the Flip cameras, CISCO, was going to stop production. Also i found that the Flip camera’s memory was not expandable. I have really gotten used to plugging in SD cards straight to my Mac, instead of using the cumbersome transfer programs that come with the latest gadgets. Kodak had 2 different models that I couldn’t decide between, the Zi8 and the Zx3/Playsport. After reading a ton of reviews, the Zi8 seemed to have a superior picture quality. Many people mentioned their surprise with the HD footage even in low light conditions. I also found that the Zi8 was the only model with an external microphone jack, which ended up being a major selling point since I was planning on doing interviews. On the other hand, the ZX3 camera was literally built for the extreme conditions. It is supposed to be waterproof up to 10ft, and it has a very sturdy shell. I have to share this awesome review i read on the Kodak website, It’s great!

“I lost it {his Kodak Zx3} winching out a car from the median on the highway during a snow storm we had just after Christmas (it was my Xmas present). Well I just found it today, I'd looked for about half a dozen times and they had even mowed that strip of median and it missed blades. Here's what it looked like when I found it and after I cleaned it up. Turned it on and it worked like a champ and the battery still had charge on it after almost two months in the grass, rain, mud and snow."

HaHa! They need to call this guy up and give him a sales bonus, or get him to make a commercial or something.

Ultimately, I settled on the Kodak Zi8 for several reasons: I really liked the external mike feature (though i didn’t end up using it for this project), I was impressed with all the reviews, and I found a refurb. on sale for 65$ - including shipping. I was a little scared about the durability of this model in the mud, but it held up nicely. I included a picture of my cam so you can see the elements it had to face. haha!

One last thing I must mention, just for the electronics geeks like myself, is the frame rate. While most of these camcorders advertise 1080p HD quality, the framerate at these setting is not very good. If you are filming something with quick movements, the motion will be very choppy. I would suggest dropping the settings to 720 HD which will allow you to increase the fps from 30 to 60. I used the 720 HD/ 60 FPS setting in all of the teen activity videos, and it seemed to work well.

Overall I am extremely satisfied with my purchase of the Kodak Zi8, and the versatility of the new pocket video camera. The only specs about these cameras that really holds them back is the framerate and limited zoom. But to me, the price that these are going for easily outweighs these limitations. It will be interesting to see how these pocket cameras progress. I am guessing they will have to provide some really good features to survive, since all the new mobile phones are upgrading their cams to HD. It’s still amazing to me how you can cram quality HD video, in such a small package.

If you want to check out the Kodak Zi8 in action, below are a few links of some of the footage I was able to capture during our teen activity and at a Braves game I went to. Be sure to increase the quality setting on the YouTube player to get the 720 HD picture.




More Action Vids
http://youtu.be/JRprsWHdsZw

http://youtu.be/HdSNRcu5h2Y