Sun Jun 28, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

What if the Kindle had been invented first?

From a commenter of Megan McArdle's at The Atlantic:

I was walking through a bohemian part of town and ran across this place called a "bookstore". I thought, "Hmm, that's interesting. I've always gotten my books electronically on my kindle, but this could be an interesting idea." So I stepped inside. What I saw was an unfamiliar way of experiencing books: on hundreds of of sheets of paper, bound up on one side with glue and wrapped in a hard cardboard cover. They even smell a little musty, at least the old ones.

At first I was excited; but then I began to think, well how would I do a text search in such a book? Supposing it was a reference book, or I wanted to find a quote that was particularly memorable? Also, I can resell it if I don't want it, but I can't take notes in the book without ruining its value. Plus, where am I going to keep these books if I buy a whole bunch of them? They're really heavy! And it uses a lot of paper - especially newspapers! What if it's dark and I need a bigger font? What if I'm on the train to work and decide I want to buy the paper version of the Times that day? Can't get it!! Not only that, but they wanted to charge me MORE for these clunky, static, physical, books than the normal electronic price! Honestly, with all these limitations and disadvantages, they should be giving them away for free. I decided I'm never going to pay a single red cent for a paper book until these issues are addressed. No way.

Interesting. Let's take it from the POV of the comics buyer:

"But still, this paper edition does have a few advantages-- I mean, wow, color? I wonder how my Japanese imports would look in full color? And some of the pictures are crisper, the ones that aren't painted-- these paper versions look like someone took all the figures and traced a black line around them, to make them sharper. Neat!

"Oh, a few in paper shouldn't be bad. It's not like I'm going to buy thousands of them and keep them around."

Your thoughts?

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Sat Jun 27, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

"The Last Airbender" teaser trailer available

Air, Water, Earth, Fire.  Four nations tied by destiny when the Fire Nation launches a brutal war against the others. A century has passed with no hope in sight to change the path of this destruction. Caught between combat and courage, Aang (Noah Ringer) discovers he is the lone Avatar with the power to manipulate all four elements. Aang teams with Katara (Nicola Peltz), a Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka (Jackson Rathbone), to restore balance to their war-torn world.

The Last Airbender, a live action version of the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar, is scheduled to be released on July 2, 2010. Take a look:

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Fri Jun 26, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

Weekend TV programming notes

Spike TV will air the 10-part web series Angel of Death, written by Ed Brubaker and starring Zoe Bell,

Ron Moore's Virtuality pilot is on Fox tonight. Refresh my memory: is this sleeping in the timeslot where Terminator: The Sarah Chronicles slept, or is this where Harsh Realm was? Here's the trailer:

Your thoughts? Reviews? What did you think?

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Fri Jun 26, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

Would you take driving directions from Homer Simpson?

If you're willing to take directions from a man who has a crayon stuck in his brain-- well, who are we to say no?

TomTom now has Homer Simpson voicing directions for their GPS systems. Take a listen:

On thee bright side, he knows where the nuclear plants are... and all the good restaurants... and where to buy Duff...

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Fri Jun 26, 2009 — by Mike Raub

The Point Spider-Man Speaks!

June 26th, 2009

He is the voice behind the power - Josh Keaton is the lead on the SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN TV show and now he shares his secrets & success right here, plus a new Doctor Who RPG and will Longbox be the iTunes of online comics?

PRESS THE BUTTON to Get The Point!

And be sure to stay on The Point via , RSS, MyPodcast.Com or Podbean!

Don't forget that you can now enjoy THE POINT 24/7. Updates on all parts of pop culture, special progarmming by some of your favorite personalities and the biggest variety of contemporary music on the net.

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