1. How To Train Your Dragon

This film took me by complete surprise this year. Memorable characters, a heartwarming story, amazing visuals, and an unforgettable score by John Powell all mixed together to make one of the most enjoyable movie experiences I’ve had in years. The film also exploited its flying scenes very well to showcase some absolutely breathtaking 3D visuals (if you saw the film in 3D), and Toothless is easily the most memorable non-speaking animated character in CG movies to come along since Wall-E.

2. Inception

Christopher Nolan never disappoints, and he certainly did not here. Inception is a masterpiece of a film from start to finish. The most significant thing about it, to me, is that it’s an original idea; not a sequel, not a remake, and not based on a book or graphic novel. It was an original idea that was fully realized on screen.

3. True Grit

The Coen brothers prove once again that they are an unstoppable force, and while this film was brilliantly directed by the brothers Coen, it’s their screenplay that stands out the most. Scenes that were mostly dialogue were just as exciting as the scenes with gunfights.

4. The Social Network

Another surprise this year. I think a lot of people were ready to pass this off as a movie capitalizing on the popularity of Facebook. And while I’m sure that was part of it, instead we were treated to a movie with rock-solid writing, directing, a fantastic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and fantastic performances by Justin Timberlake, Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield.

5. Toy Story 3

For the franchise that kickstarted the CGI movie revolution and rocketed Pixar into the spotlight, the third film in the series was pretty much universally praised by everyone. I really enjoyed the way Pixar handled this film, and though I rank it lower than How To Train Your Dragon in my list, it still deserves all that praise. This year’s Oscar for Best Animated Picture will be a tough one for me.

6. Easy A

I wrote this movie off completely at first, and I wish I hadn’t. This film is easily one of the best teen films to come along since the John Hughes era. This is a movie with a huge heart, nearly every character is memorable and even the smaller scenes are packed with really great dialogue. I haven’t laughed as hard at any film this year as I did at some of the more genuine moments in Easy A.

7. TRON: Legacy

This sequel to the 1982 cult-classic was a thrill ride that hit all of the right buttons with me. It was visually spectacular, had incredible sound design, and a score courtesy of one of my favorite artists: Daft Punk. I did not understand the nerd rage that cropped up around this movie. It had everything that I wanted it to have.

8. Despicable Me

This is a fun and zany movie that turns into a very poignant film about being a father. I really found myself enjoying the latter half of the film when it grows a huge heart and starts to become something on it’s own, not just another good vs. evil story.

9. Kick-Ass

I originally didn’t include this movie on the list, but after some thought I put it back in. I really liked Kick-Ass. The story’s a bit predictable, but I really loved the action scenes. The last act of the film is pure comic-book/action movie goodness. The shootout in total darkness that blended muzzle flashes & strobe lights totally blew me away.

10. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

Ok, even I feel that this movie doesn’t deserve to be on my top 10 list. I placed so much hope on this film that it would be amazing and it didn’t deliver. I got excited about the film and read the book series it was based on. What was so disappointing was that the movie took a completely different turn from the books. It wasn’t really ‘based’ on the books at all. It was more ‘inspired by’ them if you ask me. But even though I was disappointed, I couldn’t ignore how beautiful the film was overall. The visuals in this movie still proved to be something incredible to watch and I still enjoyed the film despite being so disappointed by it.

Watch a few seconds of the iPhone 4 Video:

Now, watch the same video as recorded by an HTC EVO 4G:

There is just NO comparison here. The quality of video and audio being captured by EVO 4G is awful, and could be bested by even the oldest Flip camera out there. The bitrate/compression is very low, and it seems like the frame rate is capped at below 25 fps, possibly even 15 fps. That is NOT HD video. The “resolution” may be 1280×720, but that is absolutely not high-definition quality video.

Of course, by comparison iPhone 4′s “HD” capability looks fine, but i’m noticing quite a bit of CMOS “jelly” motion when there’s some side-to-side movement going on in the frame. Not perfect, but it seems to minimize it more than most Flip devices. Another observation is that the iPhone 4 camera seems to handle very well in low-light, which is encouraging.

I’m excited, as I’m sure many others are, about tomorrow’s WWDC keynote. I’ll be watching simply to find out how much money I’m going to be paying to Apple in a few weeks when the next iPhone goes on sale. That’s right. In my mind, I’ve already justified the purchase of the new phone. Yes, I’m perfectly happy with my 3GS. And no, I’m not a totally sold out Apple fanboy. Though, I admit, it would be hard to convince anyone that I’m not.

I’m not just falling back on all of the usual arbitrary reasons people use to justify buying a new Apple product. I’m buying the next iPhone simply because the iPhone, in my opinion is still the best phone and the best platform out there. Using the iPhone over the past 3-4 years has been the best experience I’ve ever had with a phone. I’ve been impressed with Android’s offerings lately, but there is just no device that competes with the iPhone in terms of end-user experience.

As Apple’s iPhone has rocketed to the top of the smartphone world in the last 3-4 years, the company’s image has taken quite a beating. Apple has been accused of being quite evil for the ways in which it closes down and polices the iPhone platform. I honestly don’t think Apple purposefully behaves in a way that hinders developers, nor does it willingly close down the iPhone platform just as a profit motive. I think what Steve Jobs said onstage at the D8 conference last week was the honest truth: that Apple just wants to make the best products it can. And for that mission to be accomplished there’s a certain amount of quality control that has to be in place. Hence, the App Store approval process. Hence the closed platform.

There are numerous ways in which we could split hairs over the current smart phone market, but my honest opinion is still that Android’s open platform is both its best feature, and its greatest flaw. It’s marketable as a great competitor because it’s an open platform, yet, the user experience can be inconsistent and typically falls flat. And rest-assured, whatever Apple announces tomorrow in the way of the next iPhone is likely going to be another leap in quality controlled, fine-tuned user experience that will put the Android platform another year to two behind achieving anything similar.

The first release of iPhone was 2G, closed to developers and without GPS, cut and paste and many other features that have since been incorporated. Neither they, nor I, nor anyone, predicted the “game-changing” effect the phone would so rapidly have as it evolved into a 3G, third-party app rich, compass and GPS enabled market leader.

There are many issues you could have with the iPad. No multitasking, still no Flash. No camera, no GPS. They all fall away the minute you use it. I cannot emphasise enough this point: “Hold your judgment until you’ve spent five minutes with it”. No YouTube film, no promotional video, no keynote address, no list of features can even hint at the extraordinary feeling you get from actually using and interacting with one of these magical objects.

Literally every super-sucessful Apple product was met with harsh criticism at first, which then transformed into high praise as those devices matured in the marketplace. Back in 2001, the iPod was largely dismissed by critics as “too expensive”, “too niche”,Slashdot users even called it lame.

So save your judgment on the iPad until you actually use one, and even then, if you still think it’s lame, at least recognize it for the innovative product it is, and the game-changing product that it will eventually become.

This past weekend I sold an old Panasonic HD camcorder on Amazon Marketplace and the experience prompted me to write this little piece about the benefits of using Amazon Marketplace over eBay.

Auctions vs. Marketplaces

A certain amount of risk comes into play whenever you decide to sell anything online. Due to eBay’s popularity, and lack of moderation, fraud has become a problem on their service.

In December of 2005 I paid $50 to list a laptop on eBay. That auction was taken down twice by fraudulent bidders. Ebay charged me to re-list the laptop twice, and when I decided to close the listing for good eBay wouldn’t refund me my initial $50 listing fee for the laptop. This was the experience that turned me away from eBay forever.

Amazon Marketplace is much different. You register for a seller account, you list your items, you set your price, and your items appear on the Amazon product page for those items under the “Used and New” column. If an Amazon customer prefers your used item and its price compared to Amazon’s price then they’ll buy your item.

With Amazon you get the price you asked for plus $6 added on for shipping and Amazon will subtract a 9% commission on the sale. The amount left over is then deposited into to your checking account. No listing fees, no PayPal commission. Amazon is the middle man. It’s simple, effective, and easy.

Selling my camcorder

This weekend I listed my old Panasonic HD camcorder on Amazon for $350. Within hours someone bought the camera, paid the asking price and Amazon subtracted about $30 for their commission and I was left with about $326 in total earnings from the sale.

If I had sold the camera with eBay I would have spent hours working on the listing page, paid extra for higher visibility; I would’ve had to pay a $10+ listing fee and then PayPal would have subtracted another $10-$20 for their commission if the buyer had used PayPal.

In all, selling my camcorder on Amazon saved me time, effort, money, and possibly undue stress had the listing been taken down by a fraudulent bidder, or if the auction closed at an unsatisfactory price. On Amazon I’m also able to sell items faster. A standard eBay listing has to sit for at least 5 days unless you make it a “Buy It Now” listing.

Closing thoughts…

I think what makes eBay so appealing to people is the risk/reward factor. Everyone thinks that they can put an old baseball card on eBay and watch as people fight over it bidding up and up and up, and the real winner in a bidding war is the item’s seller.

But in my 7+ years of being an eBay user the mythical bidding war never happened on any item I tried to sell. Most eBay users are looking for a great deal on something. Bidding wars are rare unless it is a coveted item. Marketplaces are a friendlier atmosphere where you set your price and if someone comes along and thinks the price is reasonable, they’ll pounce. End of sale.

Take this to heart: now that Apple’s market share has more than doubled in the last five years, the rumors are even more speculative and inaccurate than ever. Folks overlooked the fact that Apple was overdue for a new iLife & iWork suite, and that the Macbook Pro 17″ needed an update to match the current generation of models. Instead it was all high-flying ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be great?’ rumors that weren’t even on Apple’s radar. You gotta love Macworld.