The Digital Divide Among Hollywood Stars

Sure we've heard about the serious concerns of a digital divide between those in rural parts of the country, and those with easy access to broadband internet. But let's take a moment to look at a more superficial but nonetheless interesting digital divide: Hollywood's social (media) butterflies and the digital wallflowers.

Take for example, geek favorite Natalie Portman. Portman's online presence consists solely of the websites for the movies in which she appears. No twitter, no facebook, no youtube channel. Contrast that with Zachary Quinto, Spock from the Star Trek film reboot. Quinto has a facebook page, twitter account, website, and even a youtube channel of short films he and a few old friends produce.

Yes, it can be argued that Natalie Portman doesn't "need" to be online. She's done quite well for herself, and will continue to do so. (That said, she really should consider doing a TDL Profile). Then again, at this point, Quinto doesn't need to do it either, yet he does. He won't be getting a gig he would've otherwise been passed over for because he maintains a twitter feed.

Just as doing interviews in teen magazines, or appearing in entertainment magazines was once a must-do, and simply part of being a celebrity, today, and in the future interacting directly with fans will not only be useful to upstart actors, but a must for those who want to stay in the public eye and land lucrative roles.

Of course, with that said, twitter all-star Ashton Kutcher isn't quite getting the juiciest roles around right now.

Fun New Twitter Account: 3WordAppReviews

Just a quick notice to let you know we've rolled out a fun new feature for those of you on twitter. In addition to our regular twitter account @TDLLive , we've added @3WordAppReviews. Yes, as the name implies, you can now get a simple, fun three-word review of iPhone and iPod Touch apps.  And if it's an app that we've done a full review of here, we'll link to that as well.

So please follow @3WordAppReviews. Thanks!

Wednesday Website of the Week: MyTweet16.com

Oh, Twitter... First we mocked you, then we joined you. Like so many others we sat out your humble early days. But of course some people were there from day one. So if you want to see the first 16 tweets from your favorite twitterer, now you can (Might we suggest @tdllive ). MyTweet16.com shows you the first 16 tweets from the twitter username of your choice.

So take a walk down memory lane, and see tweets that are over a YEAR old! that's ages in internet time.

Coming To A TV Near You: Tweets During Your Favorite Show

Those mad geniuses at Fox have decided it would be a good idea to remind people who are in front of their TVs, that it would be a good idea to be online too/instead. (And they say broadcast television is doomed!) The L.A. Times reports that Fox will place tweets from the actors and producers of Glee and Fringe on the bottom of the screen during repeats of those shows. They're calling them... "Tweet-peats."

One third of the screen will be devoted to to the tweets. Good thing you bought that large screen TV!

Five Little Apple Annoyances

No, we're not talking about the app store approval process, or the high priced RAM options. Today we look at five minor Apple annoyances, most of which could be fixed quickly/easily. In no particular order:

1. The location of the Refresh Button in Safari 4. You have those back and forward navigation buttons, along with the bookmark button etc, all over on the left. Why would you make the decision to move arguably the most-used button, the refresh/reload button to the far right of the address bar? Moving it is one thing, but at least give us an easy way to move it back if we like. I'm pretty sure the old user interface guidelines would suggest against placing one button 3/4 of the screen away from the rest of the similar navigation buttons.

2. Pictures that can't be rotated properly on the iPhone. This one is a little hard to describe, but if it's happened to you, you'll know exactly what we're talking about. If you take a screenshot on your iPhone (press the home button and top button simultaneously) and the content is in a widescreen mode, then the rotation is always 90 degrees off. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to correct the rotation until you get the image to your computer.

3. No Twitter name field in Address Book. We said these were little annoyances, and maybe this could be considered more of a feature request. It would be great to have a twitter field within Address Book. There are people I communicate with far more frequently this way than by cell (annoyance # 3b: the use of "mobile" for the cell number. If mobile is a more popular distinction in some countries, then localize it. I always say "try his cell" not "try his mobile.") and it would make sense to make it easy to integrate this contact info.

4. Notebook heat. This one come from BigGuyD on twitter: "MacBook Pros can burn the hair off your legs and cook eggs at the same time they get so hot." The use of metal materials for laptops notebooks is great, but surely those minds at Cupertino can find a way to keep the heat transfer to skin in check.

5. No Keynote Livestreaming. This one is near and dear to our hearts. Come on, Apple, roll back the clock to 2000 when bandwidth was costly and you DID stream the keynote. Your friends at Akamai can now stream right to the iPhone. You should give them a call. I hear they can stream to tablets too.

Bonus:

90 days of phone support. Recently Laptop Magazine awarded Apple an 'A' for their tech support. The only glaring issue was Apple's last-placed 90 days of free phone support. Extend it to at least 180 days, or even a year. Too expensive you say? Maybe, just maybe this would cut down on the chaos at the Genius Bar. Just a thought.

What do you think? What little Apple annoyances get under your skin? Let us know in the comments.