1TO10REVIEWS

Disclaimer: We know, love and work with the people from 12seconds.  Impartiality is severely dented, if not discarded outright.

On a scale from 1 to 10, 12seconds has done something really cool.

Today 12seconds.tv has done a few cool things:

1. They’ve re-designed their website - cool new look and feel, with a strong focus on video consumption
2. They’ve concluded their invite-only Alpha phase and opened up in a public Beta where anyone can register and use the site

3. They’ve had their iPhone application approved and launched in the iTunes App Store (for $0.99)

I’m happy for their progress from Alpha to Beta, and I think the re-design looks great.  But I’m most excited about the iPhone app.  You all know (both of you) that I’m an iPhone user, and one of my few frustrations with the device has always been the lack of a video recorder.  Apple steadfastly refuses to release one, and there’s no third-party video recording application available (unless you choose to jailbreak your phone.) This annoys me.

12seconds did not manage to sneak a video recorder through Apple’s QA team.  But they did create about the best possible workaround.  App users will take 3 photos (or choose 3 from their picture library), record twelve seconds of audio, and then post their creation to their 12seconds account (unregistered folks can create an account on the fly, in their phone.)  Somewhere in the cloud, the pics and audio are combined and then spit out as a twelve second video slideshow.  Users can email a link to their video directly from their phone  Each video has it’s own unique URL on 12seconds.tv, and can be emailed, embedded (as HTML) or downloaded onto your hard drive.  Here’s a demo of how the app works:

iphone app for 12seconds.tv from Sol Lipman on Vimeo.

One thing I really like about this app is the story telling aspect.  The series of pictures with audio narration really give you that James Earl Jones feeling of comfort.  Also, if you flub the audio and need to re-record, you can do so as many times as you like.  With traditional video, if you blow it, it’s blown.  The moment has passed.  Here’s one video I recorded with a trial version of the app:

Cold Cuts - Chinese Food Style on 12seconds.tv

The app is a first draft.  It works, and it’s intuitive, but there are some features I’d like to see added, including wanting better flexibility in choosing photos and saving drafts.  But on the whole I think the app is very usable.  There’s just room to improve.

Kudos to the 12seconds team on a great launch and a cool app.  This is the best solution to the video-recording conundrum that Apple’s created that I’ve seen yet.  If I were forced to give the iPhone app a numeric score between 1 and 10, I’d call it an 8

Related Posts:

MG Siegler at VentureBeat

Greg Kumparak at MobileCrunch

Rodney Rumford at Face Reviews

This post is also published on LIVEdigitally.

On a scale of 1 to 10, this video is fu#%$ng awesome.

My buddy Kurt turned me onto this video when I was down in Phoenix for a meeting.  I’ve since watched it 6 times, emailed it to seventeen people, dugg it, and enjoyed it immensely.   The gist of the video is a call between the sales department and the IT department, also known as Sales Guy vs. Web Dude.  The video is called “The Website Is Down” and can be found at the URL of same name.  I’ve embedded the video here for your convenience:

My favorite part of the exchange is when the IT guy manipulates the exchange server to remove an email that he never read, making it appear as though it had never been sent at all.  If you’ve worked with IT people before, that’s their bread and butter (CYA, always.)  :)  But the entire scenario, from the fact that he uses a Mac, to his switching between apps, to the remote desktop, Linux / Windows virtualizations, Skype telephony and playing Halo on work time are all freaking awesome.

Let’s be clear.  If you’re not somewhat techno-geeky, this will probably not be incredibly amusing to you. There are some funny conversations, but a lot of it will seem boring.  However, if you have even the slightest peripheral interest in computers, IT, and the inanity of some human beings, you’ll find a lot of comedic value in this video.   And almost everyone can find some joy in the final minutes when they’re discussing Chip’s desktop.   Josh Weinberg (the director of the video, and the voice of “Web Dude“) did amazing work here, and I think it’s brilliant.  Johntash, a guy in IT, also thought it was awesome.  That makes him awesome.

If I were forced to give this a numeric rating, I’d call it a nine out of ten.  Great work guys - so awesome.

On a scale from 1 to 10, depressing French words are… well, they’re depressing.

Malaise - a general feeling of weakness in the body?  Downer.

Ennui - weakness or discontent due to boredom?  Get over it.  Start a blog.  Buy an Xbox 360.

Je ne sais quoi - a certain… “I don’t know what?”   Shut up.  Figure it out.  Figure out what you’re trying to say, and then say that thing.  Gosh.

And just to put the icing on the cake, here’s a cartoon that is depressing.  But it also made me laugh out loud (I have a sick and twisted sense of humor.  (Oh, and this one us even more effed up.))))

So if you have this persistent feeling of ennui, a malaise of the spirit (if you will), and you feel like your life is lacking, that there’s something missing, a certain feeling of je ne sais quoi… get over it.

If I were forced to give depressing French words that have wormed their way into the English vernacular a numeric rating between one and ten, I would give them a 2.

My Review:5

Warning: SPOILER ALERT

Rick Riordan is an author of both adult and teen-oriented books. He has series targeted at teens that focuses on one boy, Perseus (Percy) Jackson.  Percy is the son of Sally Jackson, a mortal woman, and the son of Poseidon, the Greek God of the Sea from ancient mythology.  In the series, the Greek gods are not myths at all, but a vibrant and lively part of Western Civilization.  Along with Poseidon, Zeus, Athena, Hephaestus and the rest of the crew come a host of monsters and mayhem including (but not limited to) the Minotaur, Medusa, the Furies, prophecies, quests, adventure, sword fighting, revenge and true love.  Sounds like the Princess Bride as described by Peter Falk. 

In any case, I am not here to review the books themselves.  I love them, I think they’re grand.  They fall into a similar genre as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, and Chris Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle, also books I enjoy thoroughly and unequivocally.  I’m a geek boy for sci-fi, fantasy, mythology, and the “weird.”

No, in this review, I am getting specific.  In fact, it would be more accurate to say that I am making a prediction, a prediction about Percy’s mom, Sally Jackson (as you might have guessed from the title of this post).  That prediction is: I think she is a half-blood (half god and half human) herself.  That would, in fact, make Percy 3/4 god, instead of the normal half god, or demigod.  Here’s my thinking:

• Her eyes change color depending on the light
• She can see through mist (something that keeps most mortals from seeing monsters, gods, and the rest of the weirdness)
• In Book 1, The Lightning Thief, Sally isn’t killed when the Minotaur picks her up by the neck, but is captured and spirited away by Hades in a shower of golden light.  Maybe Hades could do that to a mortal, but still…
• I think we need something to make Percy even more special, and that would do it
• plus, it would make an interesting plot twist.  I don’t remember reading any myths about humans who had a god for a grandparent and a parent

I know this post is probably uninteresting to those who haven’t read these books.  Even if you have, maybe this degree of analysis seems like a waste of time.  Don’t care.  I think it’s neat, and I am calling it now.  Maybe in the end I’ll be proven wrong.  But I think Sally Jackson is herself a half-blood.  You heard it here first.  I’ll let you know the results when the series ends.

Oh, and by the way.  The reason I gave this review a 5 has nothing to do with how much I like the books.  I think they’re great.  I gave it a 5 because I’m making a WAG (wild ass guess) and I figure I have a 50/50 chance.  Twisted logic, but if you read this far, you’re probably right there with me. 

My Review: 8

This was too funny to pass up.  I personally try to never do this to other people’s pictures, though I often make funnies in my own pics.  :)  Found the story first as a linkover from the Atlantic.com.  But the real source is the guys at ListOfTheDay They have some really funny posts.

The basic story is about messing with people’s pics, ruining an otherwise awesome photo:

I would check out the rest at LOTD.  And as I said, personally I try not to do that to others’ pics.  Though I am generally goofy in my own:

My Review: 10

OK, so maybe it’s biased to give your friend’s blog a high rating just because they’re your friend. But I don’t really care.  Shaan writes a cool blog, and you should read it. And then go watch the movie he recommended, because it sounds awesome.

Yum.

This get’s a 1 out of 10.

I found it here. Brutal.

My Review: 10

My friend Allison (not my wife) likes to use the phrase “on a scale
of 1 to 10″ in unusual ways.  Rather than finishing the sentence with a
number (like 3 for instance) she’ll say something like: “on a scale of
1 to 10 that’s awesome.”  Or: “on a scale of 1 to 10  this sucks.”

I think it’s brilliant, and on a scale of 1 to 10  she’s fabulous.

My Review: An 8. Or a 2.

I so often feel as though this cartoon embodies my life.

That makes me both happy and depressed. Generally I have to just smile my Jim Halpert smile and shrug my shoulders.

An 8. Or a 2. I still can’t decide.