FaceTime for Mac

As part of Apple's announcement about their new upcoming operating system, OS X 10.7 or Lion, scheduled to launch next summer, the company made an interesting announcement. That FaceTime feature that gives all the iPhone users video calling? It's now available for Mac. One little catch: it's a beta.

Since when did Apple do betas? They prerelease OS builds to developers under God-forsaken NDAs. They let a few developers see prerelease gadgets handcuffed to people. They might even let a few of their employees field-test new equipment in bars. But betas?

This is one of four things. Either Steve Jobs wasn't really on stage announcing a not-yet perfected, "magical", visionary, "revolutionary" new product, he has lost all sense of perfectionism, he had to offer some sort of additional incentive to customers to increase adoption of a flagship feature that's going unused, or the feature's actually doing so well that people were revolting in his inbox wanting to know when this would happen.

Somethings fishy here. Either Apple's having trouble selling a "ground-breaking" feature, or Jobs is compromising his standards to acquiesce a consumer population. As far as I can recall, neither of these things have ever happened. As far as I can recall, Apple's never released a beta, either.

Cultural shift or customer demand?

The Light Meets the Dark Tour

Julie and I had the pleasure this weekend of heading down to Monterey's Golden State Theater for its grand reopening concert featuring Tenth Avenue North, Addison Road, and Matt Maher. We might also have purchased early-bird pre-show meet and greet tickets. And while it was a little rainy and icky outside, what a great event it turned out to be.

Meet and Greet

We got to sit with the band for about half an hour of question and answer time about all sorts of things. Turns out Mike (the lead singer) does some great impersonations, Rueben "The Spaniard", or "The Cute One" to Julie, is still single, and the band has some interesting history, musical influences, and styles. Nothing too deep and exciting, but some great time in a more intimate setting to get to know the people behind the musicians.

Matt Maher

The man has way more energy than his music would indicate. I anticipated a kinda slower set, but he hit homeruns with all the high schoolers in the audience with "Your Grace Is Enough", "Shout of the King", "Alive Again", "Hold Us Together", and "Christ is Risen". They were jumping up and down so hard on a floor built in the twenties that the speakers on stage were threatening to fall over. He actually ended up getting more enthusiasm than...

Addison Road

A local Texas band, it was ironic that all of us had to end up in California for me to actually be able to see them. They hit most of their best songs, with "All That Matters", "This Could Be Our Day", "Change In the Making", "Show Me Life", "This Little Light", "My Story", and "Hope Now", though they didn't sing my personal favorite, "What Do I Know of Holy". Jenny was fashionable as always, the harmonica was a great touch, and they did a few clever things with loops while performing.

Tenth Avenue North

Headlining their first tour, I was pleasantly surprised at what they've picked up about performing, though at certain points their stage presence, lights, and videos threatened to drown out the worship going on. All the classics and much of their new stuff made an appearance, as expected: "Strong Enough to Save", "You Are More", "Healing Begins", "Look at All the Pretty Things", "By Your Side", "Hold My Heart", "Satisfy", "The Truth Is Who You Are", "House of Mirrors", and a brief acoustic section featuring a xylophone, an accordion, and "Oh My Dear". Unfortunately, they didn't add on "Beloved", which has a beautiful acoustic version and which would have fit with the message of the night very well. They did a wonderful rendition of "Times" as a very fitting encore, and then followed up with one more new song for the DVD. Oh, I didn't mention they were filming? Turns out Mike's dad had worked in the Golden State Theater when he was in the Air Force, and coupled with the first concert in years, Tenth Avenue recorded the show for a live DVD. And did I mention we were in the second row? Buy it and I can almost guarantee you'll see us.

Autographs

A shout-out to Addison Road for being such wonderful people. Most of the crowds had thinned by the time we made it to their table, and we spent about 20 minutes talking to Jenny and the guys. She was excited that I stopped by 'cause they could see that I knew all the words from stage and were excited to have at least one fan. Her husband Ryan (lead guitar) is from Weatherford and knew where I live, and they were generally excited to meet someone from back home to swap stories with. Travis actually ended up offering me a CD, but because I have music of theirs that wasn't even on the table, not to mention their latest, Julie went home with it. So props to them for being generous, friendly, and approachable on top of from a great state.

Dreams

In today's issue of Parker's dreams are totally insane*:

1. I returned to my van (after being mugged?) and found that the back door had been pried open with a crowbar so someone could plant explosives designed to kill me (but not steal my iPod).

2. I participated in a Discovery channel show on the world's highest-altitude reindeer farm, in the plains hidden at the top of the Himalayas. They had lots of reindeer, and lots of short stubby windmills for some reason. The scene where they airdropped the mail was particularly interesting.

3. The Kansas City Chiefs catcher made a great play at first base to prevent the Rangers from putting another man on. The leadoff triple off the next pitch bounced off the wall and brought the players on first and second home anyways, leading them to a 6-0 win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the 5th. The fireworks seemed logical than the rest of this.

• I assume they are at least, but I don't normally remember them, much less three in one night.