On the other hand, I am quite certain that the iPhone and the iPad are game changers—for me and for the world. As a qualified media wizard and innovator, I think there are still a lot of people who don’t yet understand what a majorly disruptive force all of this mobile tech stuff is—creatively, socially and economically.

Created entirely in iPhone

In the spirit of all this, I’d like to offer a couple of  audio-visual “windows” into what is really an emerging new media world. Just in the past week, the following appeared to underscore this trend:

1. A two and a half year old child, appearing in a crowd-sourced video, demonstrates how intuitive the iPad is to use:

2. Twitter celebrates its 5th Birthday with a fun celebrity-infused promotion that extoles us to “follow your interests” and “discover your world” (fun):

3. I find another way to play and have fun creating “art” via an app called Flowpaper (used to create signature below)

So, whether or not my iPhone art catches on and gains any traction (fat chance) beyond my more-than-recreational enjoyment, if you don’t yet “get it” then please trust me: smart phones and smart tablets like the iPhone and iPad are hear to stay. Not only are they profoundly ubiquitous but they are remarkably easy to use (well easier to use than a PC… way!). This new electronic environment… ok, “canvas” promises to change things even more dramatically than the advent of the Web has already done. Really.

It will be a fun ride. Come on along. And, if you are already “on board,” thanks for playing.

Stay tuned. Much, much more to come.

(signature image created with Flowpaper app)

Here are some of the video-related stories that I found to be most of interest and also mentioned in my video report on the Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 edition of TheTVNews.tv… (along with some related stories):

CBS Makes Exclusive TV Program Sales Deal with Internet-Connected TV Platform,
Boxee (via GigaOm) In fact, Boxee made a bunch of announcements. More in this Beet.tv interview

Intel Enters the Movie Distribution Game (Intel blog) This announcement lays the foundation for a bigger event which will be WiDi. This will enable movies streaming to your PC to be player on your HD TV.

MSNBC.com Finding New Audiences for Video News via Mobile (Beet.tv interview) The president of MSNBC Digital Networks has a lot to say about the benefits of distributing their TV cable network’s content via mobile devices. This is perhaps the fastest growing form of video distribution; and, as he says, mobile video is more engaging and reaching new audiences that the cable network frequently misses. (Video clip is embedded below.)

RingGuides’ New Website (new ComBridges design & production) This is a start-up with an innovative interface for accessing the new worlds of streaming video—both TV & online video—with a strong social component for distribution. The ComBridges team crafted this website, including a strong writing contribution, including complete design and production of the website in less than five days!

Stay tuned. The worlds of online video delivery across every type of screen imaginable will, no doubt, continue to grow, evolve and morph faster than most of us can imagine.

Thus, the two-clip salute below to Google and two major new (complex) technologies that are designed to make our lives simpler.

The first is real time search. A hot new trend that’s featured in the #1 spot on the American Express OPEN Forum post, “5 Trends That Will Shape Small Business in 2010.” Don’t look now, but the web has taken on a whole new dimension:

The second video demonstrates something even more powerful, Google Goggles, which searches by objects using your cell phone’s camera rather than text or voice to initiate the search. I like the tweet description that I just read by @faris: “Seriously – no messin’ – Google Goggles is an entirely new paradigm of human computer interaction – ‘hey Internet – what’s that?’ ”

Let’s let Google explain it visually in two minutes:

Yes, I hear that Google Goggles WILL be coming out for the iPhone.

And, come to think of it, Google always did get simple. Just think of their home page.

What do you think? Are these exciting new technologies? Are these videos any good? I’d love to hear your opinion, view and/or feedback.

This integrated offering has me really impressed. Not only is it probably the best iPhone photo editing app that I’ve seen; but, it’s got integrated photo sharing to Twitter and Facebook built in, plus instant uploading to a true iPhone photo community site. Get the picture? (yes, pun intended) In fact, they’ve got the Big Picture. They’ve thought this through and put together what is essentially a mobile photography platform that’s sophisticated, feature rich, supported by great user interface (online and on iPhone). Very well done.

This iPhone app has already made it onto my first page of iPhone apps… a first! In fact, I’m using it to replace Apple’s iPhone Camera app.

As far as I can tell both TheBestCamera website and Mr. Jarvis himself have really “got it going on.” I’ll let him introduce himself via the video below. The app and the site are very much worth checking out, in my humble opinion…

Details are here in this excellent NY Times write-up, “It’s Obama on the iPhone”

Video courtesy of the wonderful geeks at their totally-hysterical super-estore:

I also noticed that the videos of today’s announcement are better than ever. For example, here’s a nice little hightlight reel from the Wall Street Journal:

I also looked at a little of Apple’s streaming Quicktime version of Steve Jobs’ complete presentation, and the quality of that video looks better than ever at http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/0806wdt546x/event/

I also enjoyed and appreciated the excellent live blogging done by the TechCrunch crew. Their live blog posts included videos of key people and commentators pre-event (including a nice scoop that EBay would be announcing an application) as well as great photos during.

Mossberg says that the approach to controlling hardware and software that these companies have taken (or have been allowed to take) “severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world…”

Bottom line, our cellular bandwidth subscription should not tie us to specific hardware and software any more than our internet provider subscription should tie us to a particular kind of computer, operating system or sub-set of applications. Of course, we should pay for bandwidth. It costs money to build networks. But there’s no reason that that should give the providers the right to tie our hands (within reason) regarding how we choose to use that bandwidth (with any kind of device we choose and any kind of software we choose) just like with the web.

Why does the American government keep letting the big companies get away with this stuff?? (rhetorical question)

I think I know what’s going on with this lawsuit. It’s just a hunch, but it rings true at least to me. Bottom line, I think Steve is one step ahead of Cisco.

First, think of all the free publicity Apple and Mr. Steve Jobs are getting as a result of the Cisco lawsuit. Second, remember that Apple’s new AppleTV product was originally named “iTV.” Get it yet? Third, remember that Jobs likes consistency in product names. For example, now and only recently, all the Mac portables are MacBooks.

So my educated guess is that Jobs knew he’d get sued. He anticipated the publicity boost. And, they will change the name of their awesome new product to the ApplePhone! It’s got nice alliteration and they’ll use the same Apple logo-included name treatment that they are using on the AppleTV product.

You heard it here first! Anybody else think this is true?