JEFBOT : The semi-autobiographical webcomic and blog of actor, Jeff Schuetze » apple

JEFBOT.263_Book Dealer

shootzee — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:01:20 +0000

When I bought my iPad, I had no intention of buying any e-books whatsoever; I stare at a screen all day, I have a huge collection of “traditional” books, and actually, I like the experience of reading a “real” book. But when I downloaded the iBooks app and saw the Winnie the Pooh book that comes with it, sitting there, all by its lonesome, I knew I had to download more books to fill all that empty shelf space. Plus, I started reading Pooh and liked the experience – the pictures were big, colorful and vivid, the bookmarking feature was nice, the page-turning animation was neat, as was the built-in dictionary and “search” option. I soon started sampling a few free books, like Homer’s The Odyssey, Poe’s Complete Poetical Work and Shakespeare’s Complete Works. Yes: All free, but have since moved on to downloading samples from a large number of books for sale, all just waiting for me to hit the “buy” button once I’ve sampled the 30-70 pages they’ve dangled in front of me. I’m still not sure what book I’m going to read through entirely via the iPad, though. Stephenson’s Snow Crash seemed appropriate, but it wasn’t available in the iBooks store, so naturally, I had to download the Kindle app (which works on the iPad), where I found the book, but then had to download even more books so that it wouldn’t be lonely on the Kindle app’s home screen. *sigh* I shudder to think what will happen if there are books that can only be downloaded via the Nook or Sony eReader.

Are You an Actor? There’s an App for That.

shootzee — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:01:02 +0000

I recently did some design work for an app called Rehearsal, a cool tool that helps actors memorize lines, prepare for auditions, make notes and more – all from an iPhone or iPod Touch! If you’re an actor with one of these devices, I highly recommend you give this app a try (I believe you get a week for free), and I’m not just saying that because I worked on it – it’s actually extremely useful, easy to use and really helps! Now I just need more auditions so I can use it more often. Is there an app for that?

If you’d like to know more, check out these sites:
• Rehearsal Official Site
• Appolicious review
• 148Apps review
•

Judging from the responses I’ve gotten about the app, it sounds like a lot of you would like to know how I got involved, overwhelmingly because many of you are fans of David H. Lawrence XVII, who plays Eric Doyle aka “The Puppet Master” on NBC’s Heroes. Basically, I’ve been following David’s Twitter feed for a while now, and he contacted me through our interaction on that to see if I’d be interested in doing some art for an app he was developing for actors. That was pretty much all he needed to say to get me on board. After that, we started trading emails, with him telling me what he was looking for: a colorful, comic book-themed look for Rehearsal, that would be fun and pleasing for users. I worked up some graphics for the logo, menu and icon, and we iterated from there, trading emails and phone calls while i progressed, and getting the input of the lead app developer, Brian Robbins of Riptide Games, as well. It was a fun, quick process - and pretty amazing just how fast the app would be updated once I sent over a new batch of graphics, so I could see exactly how they’d look on my iPhone. During my contribution to the app, the three of us kept in touch almost exclusively via e-mail and phone – I don’t think any of us ever actually met in person until the launch party earlier this week.

I had a great time contributing in my own small way to this project, and it was a blast working with David and Brian. As you might imagine, David’s an awesome guy, really knowledgeable about tech stuff, and didn’t force me to play Russian Roulette even once*. Subscribe to his Twitter feed and join Team XVII to keep up-to-date on what he’s up to.

So that’s how I became involved with this awesome app: Twitter -> Email -> Phone -> Face-to-Face. Increasingly, this is the way business and connections seem to happen these days. Exciting!

* Inside joke for you Heroes fans.

JEFBOT.182_iFail

shootzee — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:17:14 +0000

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone 3G and feel like I’m living in the future whenever I use it, but having a camera but no video capability is pretty lame. Especially when my previous two cell phones have had video built-in. Now, I know the new 3GS iPhone has this feature but all I can say is it’s about time, and it still doesn’t help me until I decide to buy a new iPhone since it’s a hardware upgrade and not a software upgrade. This also didn’t help when this whole “UFO incident” was happening to me last year. There I was, with one of the most advanced phones on the market, and no way to video the otherworldly scene in front of me. And yes, I tried taking snapshots but the “UFOs” were too far away to show much.

Although I have a Flip Mino HD cam now, I don’t carry it with me all the time, so I swear if I see a UFO, alien, sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster, yeti, chupacabra or Michael Jackson before I upgrade to an iPhone with a video cam, I’m gonna be pissed.

Need Tech Help?

shootzee — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:48:32 +0000

If you live in Los Angeles and need some tech help, I thought I’d pass along the name “Matthew Arevalo” to you. He’s a buddy of mine that specializes in “Providing professional services to the creative community.” He’s a certified Mac guy, but can help you with all your Windows needs too, since he speaks multi-platform.

I can vouch for him as he has graciously hosted this site for the past year and a half with few hiccups, and also helped me procure some equipment I use daily to produce the JEFbot strips you see each week. Plus, he and I have hung out and had sushi and beer together, so you know he’s good people.

See what he has to offer and get his contact info by clicking over to his site at: Hollywood Mac Guru

JEFBOT.129_Chew On This

shootzee — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:36:44 +0000

Is there such a thing as too small when it comes to technology? The first thing I thought of when I saw the new iPod Shuffle was one of my favorite SNL skits where Will Ferrell gets a call on that teeny tiny flip phone. Seriously, how much smaller can Apple make an iPod before it just becomes ridiculous? Would you buy one if it were the size of a dime? A grain of rice? Would you buy an iPhone the size of Will Ferrell’s phone? Yes, I would, too.