Angry the Clown

I'm really not convinced we'll see that kind of an iPad. iPad OS needs more improvement though. It didn't get much love last year so I hope they give it some attention in 2021.

That all sounds good to me. What I am really curious to see is if the Apple Silicon era will usher in performance parity between both sizes of MBP. That could tempt me to get a 14", but really I still worry about making my iPad largely redundant if I have another MacBook, so I'm still thinking an iMac or a more powerful Mini would be the way to go for me (just make a mini with 10gig ethernet that matches the best Apple Silicon MBP performance).

Consistency is going to be a problem with ambient for this type of thing I think. It's remarkable how quickly light and colour changes naturally. Obviously high end lighting (Profoto...etc) can offer the promise of "quality of light" consistency, but (much) cheaper Chinese stuff from Godox and others, despite showing some shifts under tests, doesn't seem to be too bad so there would be acceptable lower budget options if you friend wanted to go that route with some large soft boxes...etc. I wonder what kind of focal length lens would be best for this kind of work. A 50 or 75 perhap

That's a really interesting question. My first thought would actually be about lighting because you'd really want to be able to control achieving consistent light and colour.

My Fair Lady (Paramount) is apparently on the way in May according to retail listings. That's great news. It was updated to 4k/DV on iTunes not too long ago but with Paramount you can never tell if that's ever going to lead to a disc or not. I had yet to buy the streaming version but I am eager to see it in 4k as it's a Technicolor/Super Panavision 70 production. The disc should be fantastic.

While I'm not the biggest Ubisoft fan these days, the fact the license seems to be going back into the open allowing various developers to make a pitch for new Star Wars games like it was way back when is great news.

I enjoyed this a great deal. It was the perfect slice of fluff to play over the festive period.The music, from the original stuff, to the licensed stuff, and the remixes and fresh takes of known songs was an absolute delight. I think I've just about acquired as many of the trophies that I feel compelled to get. I really don't like it when multiplayer trophies are part of the core and not separated, at least in instances like this one when there's just so many mp ones to get. I've two more levels to survive without dying on in order to get the Ace 30 levels trophy, but I'm not mass

I'm sad Sony have not pursued mini-LED in any of their 2021 sets. Their older backlight master drive driven Z9D displays were so, SO good that I can't help but wonder how they might have merged that technology with mini-LED had they felt compelled to do so. What little blooming the Z9D sets had back in the day might well have been reduced to near insignificance with Sony's knowhow and mini-LED. I guess we'll have to see if they do anything in 2022, or whether they announce something later in the year (unlikely since they typically have announced Z models later in the year, but the Z9J was amon

Also an overview of Sony's 2021 LED sets:

Respectable OLED updates this year from Sony and Panasonic. Sony are now going to be doing what Panasonic have been doing on their highest end OLED panel where an aluminium plate is used to help cooling while allowing to boost the peak brightness of the panel a little. They don't seem to be going as far as Panasonic have for the past two years in actually customising the panel itself though. The plate will only be on Sony's A90 models, not the A80. Both have new processors this year, and I'm keen to see if Panasonic's new one finally e

Unrelated to politics, I cannot praise Team Deakins (a podcast established last year by cinematographer Roger Deakins and his wife) enough. It's just a goldmine for cinema lovers and has been an utter godsend during the pandemic.

I like Pod Save America a lot. Their core audience is domestic of course but I've personally found that it's really good and engaging for those outside of America trying to understand the workings of the political system over there. 'Oh God, What Now?' and 'The Bunker' are good ones for anyone interested in the chaos of politics happening primarily on this side of the Atlantic. Both centre left leaning like Pod Save America just to put that disclaimer out there (as the actual content of these podcasts are best left out of forum discussion).

Best make that decision soon as Netflix are raising the price of their 4k tier in the UK in February. Looking at my finances for the months ahead I'm actually going to drop thought of renewing Disney+ annually for the time being and just move to subscribing for a random month as and when it suits me like I do with Netflix. Wandavision will have finished before my current subscription ends so I will be able to see that and get a sense of what Star will have to offer in future.

I've said as much in the past, but I suspect a digital Series X would suit me very well. While going for a PS5 with the optical drive absolutely proved to be the right decision for me, my approach to games on the Xbox would be very different since it would primarily serve as a Game Pass system 90% of the time (with anything else being a purchase in one of their generous sales). I always viewed the console as something of a PC substitute. It's quite possible that it's something they'd have ideally liked to have had at launch but opted to defer it so the full focus of part supplies

Disney UK have begun their marketing for the forthcoming addition of Star to Disney+ today. I received email about it too. It's interesting that they're clearly not offering separate (cheaper) subscriptions for people who do not want Star. I'll have about a month left on my D+ subscription to take a look at Star to evaluate whether there's enough there for me to justify renewing annually or not. So far the trailer isn't revealing much that instantly appeals but I'll have to see the full list of what's available once it actually launches.