Apple’s for Adelaide. Better Late Than Never?

A wall of glass greets the faithful to the Adelaide Apple Store

How many years has it been since Apple Inc began setting up their Apple Stores around the world? According to Wikipedia: “On May 19, 2001, Apple opened the first official Apple Retail Stores in Virginia and California. As of November 2012, Apple maintains 394 retail stores in fourteen countries as well as the online Apple Store and iTunes Store.”

To answer my own question then, it has been 12 years since Apple opened their first store. And make that figure 395 retail stores and counting. I mention this because a few weeks ago (May 25, 2013) Apple Inc opened its first Adelaide store in the heart of the city in Rundle Mall. I wish the venture every success, but I can’t help wondering if it may be arriving a little too late. I mean, it is not as if Apple products are impossible to find here. Not when pretty much every telecoms shop, Harvey Norman, JB-HiFi, and Dick Smith store sell Apple products. And let’s not forget every major department store, and a host of other outlets. Oh, and of course, there are the stores that specialize exclusively in Apple products such as Next Byte and others.

And just to show how my timing is off―as usual―the Adelaide Apple store opened less than a month after I traded in my old iPhone 3GS for the latest Galaxy S4. Oh, well. Better late than never, I guess. Good luck Apple. It is good to see you here, at last.

TED on Tuesday: Janine Shepherd: From Paraplegic to Pilot

Australian speakers seem to be few and far between on TED, so I was particularly pleased to watch this talk by the former cross-country skier, Janine Shepherd.

Janine was aiming for an Olympic medal―until she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride through the Blue Mountains (60-90 minutes from Sydney). Shephard’s doctors did not expect her to survive, and when she did, they warned her that she would never walk again. But she not only learned to walk again―she learned to fly.

Janine focused intently for years on healing both her broken body and crushed morale. A turning point came watching small planes flying overhead. She decided: “If I can’t walk, I’ll fly.” While still in a full body cast, Janine was lifted into an aircraft for her first flight. Within a year she had her private pilot’s license. Later, she earned her commercial pilots license and instructor’s rating. Janine recently served on the board of Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and became its youngest­―and only―female director.

Despite being a walking paraplegic, Janine Shepherd is also a pilot and aerobatics instructor, as well as a powerful motivational speaker and author. In this TED talk she shares her inspirational story about the human potential for recovery. Her message: you are not your body, and giving up old dreams can allow new ones to soar.

Today, Janine is the patron of the Australasian Spinal Research Trust and is committed to helping find a cure for spinal cord injury in the near future. In the meantime, she seeks to inspire those coping with physical disability. She is the author of five books, including Never Tell Me Never. And while doctors told her after her accident that she would never have children, she now is a mother of three.

This 19 minute TED talk was first posted in November 2012.

“It [doesn't matter] what you look like, where you come from, or what you do for a living. All that matters is that we continue to fan the flame of humanity by living our lives as the ultimate creative expression of who we really are.” ~ Janine Shepherd

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Janine Shepherd’s Website and Blog…

Armchair Travel: The Beat Of New York

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TIM HAHNE is not only the founder of StereoScreen, but also a multi-talented visual artist who loves to combine style and content with a very unique pictorial language. Tim started his professional career in 1994, and has mainly been working as a director, but also shoots, cuts, writes and composes music.

His film “24 HOURS in 19500 FRAMES” about the 24 Hour Nürburgring car race was an international success in 2010. Following that, the BBC Top Gear program gave him the nickname “Car Telly Guru.” However, today’s Armchair Travel video seems to be the short film that helped propel him into the limelight after it was first posted to Vimeo in January 2010. Since then, The Beat Of New York has become a benchmark for modern editing, mixed with contemporary sound design. Since its début Tim’s Vimeo site has attracted millions of visitors, with this video itself gathering more than 600,000 views.   

About The Beat of New York, Tim writes that Thomas Noesner, the Director of Photography for StereoScreen, was in New York for a Mercedes shoot. Right after the job, he took his camera and strolled through the bustling streets of New York City. Tim adds, “While screening the pictures of a drummer in the tube station, I had the idea of creating a remix of the recorded drum sequence to use it as a soundtrack for the film. That’s when our sound designer Toussaint came into play. We simply composed a track around the drum beat of this guy. Watch and listen to the beat of New York!”

THE BEAT OF NEW YORK from tim hahne on Vimeo.

Want to see more? Last year, Tim co-directed the most watched commercial in U.S. television history―the 2012 Superbowl ad for Cadillac, which you can see here on YouTube. And make sure you visit Tim’s Vimeo page to see more of his excellent work.

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StereoScreen Online… 

StereoScreen on Facebook…

StereoScreen on Vimeo…

Tim Hahne dot Com…