Apptitude

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Michael Antonoff  |  Mar 29, 2017  | 
There’s a whole new class of mobile apps that resurrect analog ancestors in digital form. Some real, some imagined.
Michael Antonoff  |  Feb 15, 2017  | 
It’s hard to believe that we once drove to big-box stores unarmed: no smartphone in hand; no Wi-Fi for the taking. A recent trip to The Home Depot reminded me how power in the power tool kingdom has shifted from merchant to shopper.
Michael Antonoff  |  Nov 21, 2016  | 
There are two types of runners: serious and casual. As the latter, I jog weekends outside or on a treadmill to remedy overeating and in pursuit of the elusive runner’s high. A serious runner, on the other hand, is an athlete with charts.
Michael Antonoff  |  Oct 31, 2016  | 
As one place we could count on for quiet contemplation, the bathroom has largely been electronics-free. But serenity has its challenges. Natural reverb was destined to make the bathroom the go-to spot for singing. Ever since the SoundBlaster add-in card legitimized “bathroom” ambience as a musical effect, the porcelain palace has become everyone’s in-home performance space.
Michael Antonoff  |  Sep 28, 2016  | 
With time- and place-shifting now entitlements of our on-demand culture, it’s no surprise that cable companies have been countering cord-cutters by extending the viewing rights of subscribers to their phones and tablets.
Michael Antonoff  |  Aug 29, 2016  | 
Maybe it’s because the broadcast networks crave turning the clock back to when they were dominant that the new season is dominated by series about time travel.
Michael Antonoff  |  Jul 22, 2016  | 
You’d think that a company that started out in 1998, four years before the iPod, selling a dedicated audio player and a small library of spoken-word books would be out of business by now. Yet thanks to the rise of smartphones and a timely acquisition in 2008 by Amazon, Audible has become the leading provider of digital audio books.

Michael Antonoff  |  Jun 15, 2016  | 
Now that we never need to dismount from the barstool to drop quarters in the jukebox, it just seems wrong to call TouchTunes a mobile app. Pushing through a crowd to reach an illuminated cabinet required actual mobility, also called walking. But that was then. Today no one with a smartphone is budging. In the battle of the bulge, beer wins, waistline loses.
Michael Antonoff  |  May 11, 2016  | 
A look at how personal video broadcasting, virtual reality, and other budding technologies haven’t been lost on TV comedy writers.
Michael Antonoff  |  Apr 05, 2016  | 
To cut commercial clutter from a diet rich in streamed entertainment, I agreed to pay Google $9.99 a month for its YouTube Red service across all my devices. Unlike free YouTube, there are no pre-roll commercials to fidget through. The countdown taunting viewers to put their lives on hold until the Skip Ad button appears is nowhere in sight. Intermercials that played between videos or regularly interrupted a full-length movie are gone.
Michael Antonoff  |  Mar 02, 2016  | 
Apps are often referred to as “mobile,” which an Apple TV decidedly is not. Fixed to a big-screen TV, the media receiver (Gen 4) and Apple TV App Store offerings are meant to be enjoyed from the sofa, though there are some games and workouts best deployed off the couch. The store has seven departments: Games, Education, Entertainment, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, News, and Sports. Here are my favorite apps, several of which you’ve probably never heard of.
Michael Antonoff  |  Feb 10, 2016  | 
Have you heard about the sequel to the TV series, Lost? It’s called Found, and the premise is that the island is where all things lost end up: a missing sock, a runaway drone, a lost shaker of salt. Tourists arrive, and the lucky ones are reunited with their stuff.
Michael Antonoff  |  Dec 16, 2015  | 
Back in 2001 when the M.I.T. Media Lab unveiled a demo about social media and TV, it presaged greater things to come. At the bottom of the TV screen, viewers’ live comments appeared for all to see, demonstrating the potential of instant feedback shareable by everyone. My eyes opened wide as I experienced the idea of social media at a time when tweets were still for the birds and Facebook wouldn’t launch for another three years.

Michael Antonoff  |  Dec 14, 2015  | 
Successive Thursday night offerings in December of live musicals to the home were as different as could be: The Wiz featured a big cast and attracted an audience of millions through its broadcast on NBC; Daddy Long Legs was performed by two actors and seen by thousands via the Internet. Yet it was Daddy that made history as the first off-Broadway show streamed live from New York.
Michael Antonoff  |  Oct 28, 2015  | 
Techno-lust rises during the holidays, especially for action cams that take selfie-friendly video to a whole new level. Driving my hormones this season is the V.360º, a wireless camera with companion apps for Android and iOS devices. Though its manufacturer, VSN Mobil, likens the cylindrical cam to a 9-ounce can of Red Bull, the immersible camera captures a 360-degree view—8MP photos and 6480 x 1080 video—without stitching.

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