Front Row Cover Flow?

It is often true that the simplest reason for something is often the correct one, but that is not going to stop me from speculating wildly about the reason for the delay in shipping the tv.

Reports are starting to surface that credit card authorizations for pre-orders of the device are starting to be processed. This is normally an indicator that the merchandise in question is close to shipping. It looks like we are not too far from the first un-boxing and disassembly photo-sets being posted online.

There is a disturbing incomplete, unrefined and un-Apple feel to the new full-screen Cover Flow in iTunes and the lack of integration of those features into Front Row. At the same time the interface features demonstrated during the tv unveiling are not found in either.

So I think that the delay in shipping the tv is because the interface is being updated with Cover Flow type features, including better song selection features when sorting by album and nifty little features like scrolling for long song titles and the index letter indicator when scrolling at speed.

I'm hoping that there will be an announcement of updates to Front Row and iTunes co-incident with when the tv starts reaching consumers. After all this is going to be like having an ipod next to your tv, and it should be just as easy to use.

Router rout

Thomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen at Macuser would do well to consult a dictionary before making too much fun about the correct and apparently adorable pronunciation of "router" used by Screencast online host Don McAllister.

Even Webster's, the quintessentially American dictionary, makes the distinction between the woodworking tool (rowter) and the computer device (rooter).

At last glance, the editors and compilers of dictionaries, thesauri and encyclopedia seem to value correctness over popularity. Which brings me to the issue of whether Wikipedia is a reliable source of information or not.

The free-for-all contributor model used by Wikipedia is at the heart of a certain lack of objectivity outside of technical articles. I think that Wikipedia can serve as a useful start when doing online research, but does not yet command the reputation for scholarship enjoyed by the more established players in the field.

So it is no surprize that some colleges are banning Wikipedia as a citation source in tests and essays. However I think that this type of action goes beyond just concerns about the quality of information to be found in Wikipedia, but also towards addressing college students using Wikipedia as their only source of information.

The advent of Web 2.0-type social networking has unfortunately encouraged the triumph of a lowest common denominator approach to quality and a spectacular proliferation of group-think. As a result sites like Digg and You Tube are fast losing their appeal as there is so much chaff to thresh through before getting to the wheat.

It would be cool if

I could get the playlist of tracks I wanted to buy burnt onto a CD with a professionally printed label and package insert and posted to me.

While Cover Flow gives the illusion of the physicality of flipping through a stack of CD's, there is nothing like the real thing. I remember when the most popular way to get your musical fix was on 12" black plastic discs.

With all opinions about how we should get our music, we'd do well not to forget to enjoy our music.

Rob Fleming, Nick Hornby's anti-hero in High Fidelity says:

"Is it so wrong, wanting to be at home with your record collection? It's not like collecting records is like collecting stamps, or beermats, or antique thimbles. There's a whole world in here, a nicer, dirtier, more violent, more peaceful, more colourful, sleazier, more dangerous, more loving world than the world I live in; there is history, and geography, and poetry, and countless other things I should have studied at school, including music."

I couldn't have said it better myself.