 |
Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
|
 |
Apple Live Streaming Fail
Apple, in a recent press release, promised me (and everyone else) that if I took the time to be available at 10 am PST (which happens to be 1:00 EST, my time), I could watch Steve Jobs present some new Apple iOS features.
"Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com."
So, I altered my schedule and made sure that I was sitting with a good Internet connection at the scheduled time. I thought it might be fun to watch it on my iPad. I check the link out in advance, and see that there is a picture of a guitar, and a promise that the Live Stream will be available at 10:00 am PST, which is 1:00 pm EST my time. Okay, I'm in the right place.
I get online again around 12:55 EST, and click to the appropriate link. And there is a video stream there! So far so good.
Well, 1:00 rolls around, and no Steve. I assume that they're running a bit late. After all, streaming live video to legions of Apple fans using Apple's industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming is no mean feat, so I wait patiently. As 1:10, 1:15, 1:25 roll by, it becomes clear that I am watching a repeating loop of videos taken in the auditorium.
Curious, I fire up my HTC Evo phone and check sites that I know are liveblogging the presentation.
Imagine my surprise to find that the presentation started on time, and Steve is, by now, a half hour into his presentation!
I'm a little bit perturbed. I can watch recorded Apple presentations at my leisure anytime; they are typically posted by the evening.
Apple, don't waste my time promising a live presentation, and then delivering a taped presentation without even making an effort to tell me that your plan to deliver a live stream has failed and thereby allow me to decide for myself the best use of my time.
So, I suppose Steve (who looks healthier as the months go by, I'm glad to see) probably talked about some magical and revolutionary products and services. However, I can just read about them on one of the sites that were privileged to have an actual as opposed to a merely promised live feed. And so, I guess, can you.
Fail.
Until Apple gets the bugs out of it's industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, I'll just keep reading science-fictional accounts of using cool technology to watch a live image of a person at a distance. In his 1928 novel Crashing Suns, Edmond Hamilton conceives of the telestereo:
Abruptly I was aroused from my musings by the sharp ringing of a bell at my elbow. "The telestereo," I said to Hal Kur. "Take the controls." As he did so I stepped over to the telestereo's glass disk, inset in the room's floor, and touched a switch beside it. Instantly there appeared standing upon the disk, the image of a man in the blue and white robe of the Supreme Council, a lifesize and moving and stereoscopically perfect image, flashed across the void of space to my apparatus by means of etheric vibrations...
(Read more about Edmund Hamilton's telestereo)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 9/1/2010)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.
| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 0 )
Related News Stories -
("
Communication
")
CD, DVD Bit Rot And PKD's Civic Notification Distorter
'...copy two of the original document no longer can be superimposed on copy one.' - Philip K. Dick, 1965.
Zoom Education Idea Is 100 Years Old
'... the frosted glass squares began, one by one, to show the faces and shoulders of a peculiar type of young men.' - Harry Stephen Keeler, 1915.
'A Sign in Space' Gives Practice In Decoding ET Messages
'... it will be easy to form an alphabet which shall enable us to converse with the inhabitants of the moon.' - Jules Verne, 1867.
MyManu Titan 'Screenless Smartphone'
'...the programmed software includes procedures for translating most normal variations of voice, idiom, accent, and other variable modalities into a computer-oriented sim-script.' - Frederik Pohl, 1966.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
|
 |
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
18 Wheels Mutant Centipede Vehicle
'If a centipede were a dinosaur and made of metal to boot...'
Octopus Suckers Inspire Transdermal Patches
'...a capsule which he placed against his wrist.'
Robotic Hands Have More Than One Use
'The crawling, exploring object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Space Weather To Universe Weather
'It radiates outward in a cone which, by the time it has reached our section of space, is many lightyears across.'
That's MOXIE! Terraforming Mars Baby Steps
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock.'
'No, I'm Not A Robot' - Robot
'... with a weird simulation of life, the ten forked ends of each arm commenced a rattling pressing of the buttons.'
Missing Jet Finally Found
Ah, what could have been - still in the future.
Philippines Coast Guard Cuts Chinese Barrier
'Each of the four areas is enclosed by a sonic wall...'
Barista Robot Perfects Latte Swirl With Multi-DOF Wriggle
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
Vendetta 2023 All-Terrain Skateboard Could Use Neal Stephenson's Smartwheels
'If you surf over a bump... If you surf over a pothole...'
Safe Street Rebel Autonomous Vehicle Luddites And Schachner's 1931 Robot-Deranger
'Then the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and they stood an instant transfixed...'
The Electric Balance Bicycle And The Decline Of Western Civilization
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed...'
'Droplet' Battery Microscale Power Pack
'...a power pack the size of a pea.'
ARX-5 Doing Robot Arm Dancing
It's Data's day - at last.
CD, DVD Bit Rot And PKD's Civic Notification Distorter
'...copy two of the original document no longer can be superimposed on copy one.'
Inbiodroid Prometheus 2.0 Telepresence Avatar Robot
My prize robot, tall, dashing would speak and act for me...
More SF in the News Stories
More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories
|
 |