Apptitude

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ApptitudeAudio Video News
How I Kept 60 Minutes Honest and Killed My Shot at TV Stardom
Michael Antonoff  |  Dec 11, 2018  |  1 comments
It had been a rough 24-hours for Steve Kroft, the 60 Minutes correspondent. His boss had just been fired for sending an eye-popping text to a female reporter at CBS News investigating sexual harassment at the company. In the New York Times the next day, Kroft called the text "threatening and inappropriate. It’s unfortunate, and everything about this situation saddens me.”
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How to Binge on Top Shows for Free
Michael Antonoff  |  May 18, 2018  |  0 comments
Most streaming services offer free trials to first-time subscribers, so it’s possible to feast on a tower of see-food without paying a dime. These trials extend from one week to 30 days, but the onus is on the new subscriber to cancel just before their credit card is charged.
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How TV Comedy Writers Use Tech for Laughs
Michael Antonoff  |  May 11, 2016  |  1 comments
A look at how personal video broadcasting, virtual reality, and other budding technologies haven’t been lost on TV comedy writers.
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Lights Off, Fan On: Automating Home Theater Ambiance
Michael Antonoff  |  Apr 20, 2018  |  0 comments
The snappiest way to adjust the ambiance in my home theater is to touch an icon on my phone to start the ceiling fan a-twirling. Touch another icon, and the fan’s room light turns off. Getting the fan’s speed right may require another tap or two. It should be fast enough to dry TV viewers’ brows but not so fast as to cause paper plates and napkins to fly off the coffee table.
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ApptitudeAudio Video News
Live Theater to the Home Theater
Michael Antonoff  |  Dec 14, 2015  |  1 comments
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.
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Lost Your Remote? The Tile App Can Help
Michael Antonoff  |  Feb 10, 2016  |  0 comments
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.
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NBC in Your Pocket
Michael Antonoff  |  Sep 16, 2015  |  0 comments
With the small screen going mobile, TV networks are chasing viewers. The number of people who subscribe to Comcast’s Internet service surpassed its video subscribers for the first time this year. As the owner of NBC, Comcast is likely hearing, “Philadelphia, we have a problem.”
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Ready, Set, Tap
Michael Antonoff  |  May 07, 2015  |  1 comments
I recently hung the new $14.97 60-watt Cree Connected LED Bulb on the wall above my easy chair so that whenever an idea entered my brain, I’d be able to tap my iPad and make a light bulb go on above my head. (For those unaware, the Cree is a Zigbee- and Wink-compliant light; mate it with a compatible smarthome hub, and you can control it from your phone or tablet.)

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Retro Apps Resurrect Analog Ancestors in Digital Form
Michael Antonoff  |  Mar 29, 2017  |  1 comments
There’s a whole new class of mobile apps that resurrect analog ancestors in digital form. Some real, some imagined.
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Roll Out the Carpet to YouTube Red
Michael Antonoff  |  Apr 05, 2016  |  0 comments
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.
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Running with Apps
Michael Antonoff  |  Nov 21, 2016  |  0 comments
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.
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Shopping with Apps: Who Needs a Salesman?
Michael Antonoff  |  Feb 15, 2017  |  0 comments
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.
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Sleeping with Apps
Michael Antonoff  |  Aug 25, 2017  |  1 comments
With mobile screens dominating your waking hours, app makers have begun targeting the time you spend sleeping. Curious to see what it's all about, I decided to put an app-based smart pillow to the test.
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Streamin’ in the Shower
Michael Antonoff  |  Oct 31, 2016  |  1 comments
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.
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The Apps of My Eye: 7 Apple TV Apps
Michael Antonoff  |  Mar 02, 2016  |  0 comments
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.
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